Community Day Care & Neighborhood Development Corporation Offices
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The Greater Dwight Neighborhood Development Corporation desired to develop a community daycare center and also space for their corporate offices with a classroom for community use.
The city donated three lots, two narrow midblock lots and a corner lot separated by an apartment building. The surrounding neighborhood is primarily single and two family houses, three stories in height with wood siding, and a few apartment buildings. An exchange of easements, allowed a connection between the midblock lots, utilized for the building, and the corner lot as a play ground and also an off-street drop-off required by the city.
The facility is organized by floor. Infants and toddlers located at grade for required emergency egress, and is divided into three areas, accommodating 8 children each. The second floor houses the preschoolers, also divided into three areas with raised platforms acting as both space separators and storytelling platforms. The Development Corporation offices and adult training classroom are on the third floor.
The community requested that the facility reflect the scale and character of the surrounding urban residential neighborhood, yet be contemporary. The design responds with a three-story solution matching the adjacent structure heights. The street elevation’s bulk is expressed as two components, each at the scale of adjacent individual houses. The project draws from the neighborhood vernacular through its use of Western Red Cedar ship-lap siding, a common neighborhood theme. The Western Red Cedar siding has been instrumental in providing the bridge between the traditional and the contemporary requested by the community.
Building Team / Key Players:
Architect: Thompson/Edwards LLC, Architects; Kermit D. Thompson, AIA, Project Architect; Design Associate: Yale Urban Design Workshop, Alan Plattus, Faculty Director; Michael Schlabs, Designer
Location:
New Haven, Connecticut
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Waap Galts'ap (Community House)
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Culture: For the Tsimshian peoples of the Skeena River valley on Canada’s northwest coast, red-cedar is Simgan; the real tree, tree of life: red-cedar is a living, spiritual source of power. This power is evoked in Waap Galts’ap through structural red-cedar poles, varied-width exterior cedar cladding, carved poles and crests, crest-painted interior walls, and entrance canopies. These red-cedar components render visible northwest coastal Indigenous peoples’ physical, mental, and spiritual interrelationships with the universe. To honor traditions associated with red-cedar, the local Indigenous community blessed the site, procured and prepared the red-cedar, reviewed architectural plans, and carved and painted cedar poles and walls to depict the clan crests: Killerwhale, raven, Eagle, and Wolf. The building design recalls the red-cedar pole-and-beam community dwellings that have been constructed for thousands of years in the region.
Ecology: Western red-cedar is a co-dominant species in the Terrace region and was selectively harvested for Waap Galts’ap from adjacent forests, ensuring that forest structure and health were retained and minimizing transportation distances. The 1 ½ inch thick red-cedar cladding provides superior thermal insulating value.
Technology: The durability, strength, and malleability of red-cedar make it ideal for structure and carvings. Pole-to-beam connections were carefully detailed so the structure could accommodate shrinkage. On featured interior walls, red-cedar cladding provides sound dampening; in seminar areas, cedar battens on plywood provide acoustically superior interior walls and ceilings.
Education: Waap Galts’ap creates a powerful community-based learning environment, re-connecting learning to culture and the land while encouraging students to pursue further learning.
Building Team / Key Players:
Architect, landscape and interior design: Dr. Nancy Mackin, MTA; client: Stephanie Forsyth NWCC; Electrical: Cobalt; Structural: Equilibrium; Mechanical: AME
Location:
Northwest Community College, Terrace, British Columbia Canada
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Crocker Middle School, Technology Center and Band Room
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Located on the northern edge of the Crocker Middle School Campus, the new 12,000sf Technology, Lecture and Band Classroom Building includes a 100-seat lecture hall, computer classrooms, staff offices, a television production classroom, and a band room rehearsal space. The band room is designed to accommodate various sized ensembles from small jazz groups to the full 100 seat symphonic band. Windows are designed and located to take advantage of breezes to help cool the spaces naturally.
The client expressed their desire for an educational facility that reflected their commitment to the arts and sciences, their interest in an integrated curriculum, and a connection to the campus’ past. The building was designed as a sensitive addition to the Crocker Middle School Campus, supporting the existing campus pathways that connect the upper and lower portions of the campus to one another.
Western Red Cedar was chosen for its natural beauty and connection to other campus buildings, as well as its versatility. The Crocker School campus’s oldest buildings are wood-clad, and located in a park-like setting with considerable topography, surrounded by mature redwoods, eucalyptus, pine, and oak trees. Used as cladding, red cedar provides a material connection to the campus that will deepen as it elegantly develops a silver patina. Lapped cedar planks create a rich textured building exterior surface and are randomly staggered to create a “musical” wooden screen at the main stair which leads to the Band/Music Room.
Building Team / Key Players:
Architect: WRNS Studio; Structural Engineer: Bluestone Engineering, Inc.; Mechanical/Plumbing Engineer: Guttmann and Blaevoet; Electrical Engineering: Integrated Design Associates
Location:
Hillsborough, California
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Westchester Reform Temple
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Our master plan design for Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, NY includes a new sanctuary complex, with a new Religious School and Study Center within renovated existing structures on a suburban site. The plan includes extensive re-organization of the site to create a cohesive campus.
TIKKUN OLAM
The guiding conceptual structure of our new sanctuary is based on Tikkun Olam – “repairing the world.” The broken world is represented by a series of seven cedar and plaster bands differing in size and proportion, representing finished and unfinished efforts, all broken by daylight entering through windows and skylights. The seventh band of cedar arching over the ark, and the East Wall that lets in the light of creation, gives us hope of the fullness of Shabbat in repairing the broken world.
SEVEN BANDS, SEVEN DAYS
The seven lateral bands of the sanctuary acknowledge that every day of the week is for prayer and learning, while giving special dramatic attention to the seventh band, Shabbat. The seventh band frames the bimah, the ark and connection to the outside world around us. Each band is inscribed with a quotation – in Hebrew and English – about the repeated use of “seven” in Jewish tradition. When the sanctuary and social hall are combined into one sacred space for the holidays, there are twelve bands, recalling the twelve Tribes of Israel.
Building Team / Key Players:
Architect - Rogers Marvel Architects; Contractors - E.W. Howell Co., Inc. & Kane Contracting
Location:
Scarsdale, NY
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GROVE HOUSE
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NEW RESIDENCE, BARN AND AGRICULTURAL BUILDING.
SCULPTURAL, INDIGENOUS FORMS AND RAW, EARTHEN MATERIALS JOINED TOGETHER AROUND A CENTRAL COURTYARD, SHAPED TO INTEGRATE AND FORGE A SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NATURAL LANDSCAPE. THE EXTENDED ARMS – BUILDING WINGS – FORMING THE COURTYARD EMBRACE THE LAND, PROVIDE SHELTER FOR THE OWNERS ON THIS EXPOSED SITE, AND CREATE A DIRECT SPATIAL AND VISUAL INTERPLAY BETWEEN THE RESULTING INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR SPACES. THE EAST AND WEST WING FLOOR LEVELS AND ROOF FORMS ARE STEPPED AND SLOPED TO FOLLOW THE NATURAL CONTOURS OF THE SITE. THE 2 WINGS ARE JOINED BY AN OPEN, TRANSPARENT CENTERPIECE OF RUSTIC, CURVED YELLOW CEDAR FRAMES OF GRADUALLY DIFFERENT HEIGHT AND RADII. THE FRAMES ARE JOINED TOGETHER WITH TONGUE AND GROOVE SMOOTH RED CEDAR CEILING PLANKS, YIELDING A COMPOUND CURVED, VAULTED MAIN LIVING VOLUME ECHOING THE NATURAL FEATURES AND CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THIS RURAL AND NATIVE LANDSCAPE. EXTERIOR MATERIALS INCLUDE RED CEDAR, LOCAL STONE AND BOARD-FORMED CONCRETE AND EARTH-TONED CEMENT PLASTER, AND ARE INTENDED TO FORM A SEAMLESS AND INTEGRATED RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LAND, THE RED CEDAR IS LEFT UNFINISHED SO THAT IT WEATHERS AND RECEDES INTO THE LANDSCAPE OVER TIME AND IS UTILIZED FOR CUSTOM-MILLED CHANNEL SHIPLAP SIDING, FOR 2 X FASCIAS AND TRIM, FOR ALL OVERHANG SOFFITS, CUSTOM VENT GRILLS, SOLID CORE DOORS, AND LATTICE WORK AT EACH END OF THE VAULTED CEILINGS. SPACED RED CEDAR ROUGH SAWN PLANKS ARE ALSO USED TO CONCEAL A WATER TANK NEAR THE ENTRY, TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE MATERIAL’S INHERENT BEAUTY BY CREATING A SCULPTURAL, WEATHERED FORM VISIBLE THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE. RED CEDAR IS FURTHER UTILIZED AS EXTERIOR SIDING FOR THE DETACHED BARN, AND FOR TONGUE AND GROOVE SMOOTH CEILING PLANKS THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE, AS WELL AS CUSTOM MILLED INTERIOR CASEWORK.
Building Team / Key Players:
Brett & Pamela Ettinger-Princ. in Charge, Eric Kaiser-Proj. Arch., Greg Corbett-Proj. Asst., Michael Davisson-Proj. Asst., Mitch Perkins-Struct. Eng., D.D. Ford Constructiion-Gen. Contractor
Location:
Santa Barbara, CA
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Provincetown Private Residence
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Situated on a coastal dune located directly on the waterfront of the Provincetown Harbor, the 3,000 square foot wood-frame residence was designed to evoke the historical memory of the fishing town in which it is located. Elevated 3’ above grade, much like its pier structure precedent, the home allows tidal surges, windblown sand, and natural vegetation to migrate under and around the house without disturbing the natural ebb and flow of these systems. An elevated boardwalk provides access to the beach across the beach grass barrier to the ocean. With the lower floors supported by round 15” wood piers, the structure is connected at the top with a collar tie providing a uniform line around the building. The piers are further stabilized with industrial stainless rod cross bracing. While the second floor’s massing sitting on piers is reminiscent of industrial waterfront storage sheds.
Additional environmentally sensitive aspects include: abundant natural daylight, passive solar gain, natural ventilation and use of sustainable materials including Western Red Cedar siding and trim. The cedar siding and trim was chosen for its year round durability in the harsh shoreline environment as well as its natural beauty. The natural ability for the Red Cedar to weather to lustrous ambers and sienna browns would both integrate the house with its natural surroundings and reflect the beauty of the light off the ocean. Red Cedar provides the added environmental benefit of a favorable Life Cycle Process over vinyl and fiber cement siding.
Building Team / Key Players:
Contractor-Deborah Paine, Inc.; Interior Designer-Robert Pahnke Interiors, Inc.; Structural Consultant-Structura; MEP-JB Wiebl Associates; Lighting Designer-Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Designers
Location:
Provincetown, Massachusetts
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