LOCATION: Knoxville, TN
STATUS: In Progress
OVERVIEW: Information coming soon.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
STATUS: Concept Design
OVERVIEW: The project showcases and exhibits the on-going legacy of renowned sculptor Ed Hamilton through the creation of a visitor center with an active working studio. Transforming a late-1800’s brick structure in the historic Phoenix Hill Neighborhood which houses Hamilton’s original studio, the project encompasses a complete renovation and expansion to enhance the visitor experience while expanding opportunities for community engagement, education, and artistic collaboration.

LOCATION: Cincinnati, OH
BUILDING AREA: 24,000 s.f. (existing) / 10,000 s.f. (addition)
CONSTRUCTION BUDGET: *
PROJECT STATUS: Design Development In Progress

OVERVIEW: The Lloyd Library and Museum, an independent research institution, houses over 150,000 volumes, including books, periodicals, manuscripts, and artifacts related to botany, pharmacy, medicine, scientific and natural history, and the visual arts dating back to 1493. The design concept aims to enhance public engagement by framing an authentic experience that highlights and celebrates this extensive collection.

At the urban scale, the library's prominent location at the end of a major boulevard offers an opportunity to become a key visual landmark. The renovation and expansion features a glazed terracotta facade in a celadon hue, paying homage to the region's rich historical pottery traditions while establishing a distinctive presence in the city's long-term development.

On the city block level, the design prioritizes pedestrian engagement by activating the sidewalk with expansive new glazing. These 'display vitrines' strategically reveal the library's resources and activities, enhancing indoor-outdoor connections and transforming the building into a luminous beacon at night. For visitors, the design incorporates abstract motifs inspired by the Lloyd’s collections, utilizing fractal geometries and biophilic elements to foster an engaging and immersive experience, all while adhering to a sustainability ethos that integrates local climate considerations.

LOCATION: San Antonio, TX
SIZE: 18”x18”x18”
CONSTRUCTION COST: Priceless
STATUS: Completed April 2023

OVERVIEW: The project is part of Birdsong Brackenridge, a celebration of San Antonio’s historic Brackenridge Park organized to cultivate awareness for the legacy and future of the park. Inspired and co-sponsored by Grammy Award winning movie music supervisor Randall Poster and his seminal “For the Birds: Birdsong Project” - a collection of compositions that celebrate the music of birds, DPAW was invited as one of ‘ten internationally acclaimed architects to design birdhouses’ for the project.

Designed for hummingbirds (a species that specifically does not use birdhouses), the project is a 3-dimensional tapestry for nesting. Comprised of copper-hued aluminum wire used for training bonsai plants, the structure provides a woven framework of increasing density and complexity. Twisted loops and Y-shaped branching provide the ideal conditions for hummingbirds to construct their nests – a flexible cup-shaped structure that is typically bound together with spiderweb silk. Inspired by the ornamentation found in the iridescence of hummingbird feathers and kimono silk embroidery, the structure is interwoven with a smaller gauge wire that provides added shade and shelter.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: 7,636 s.f.
STATUS: Completed April 2022

OVERVIEW: The project is a new multi-use, open air pavilion located on the grounds of Locust Grove, a 55-acre 18th-century farm site and National Historic Landmark in Louisville, Kentucky. The property operates as a historic interpretive site on the remaining William Croghan estate that consists of a Georgian mansion and outbuildings built by enslaved African Americans, emphasizing the legacy of George Rogers Clark – Revolutionary War Hero and the founder of Louisville – who lived at the property. The site is characterized by a rolling landscape of woods, open fields, and formal plantings.

The design approach takes inspiration from the property’s collection of historic buildings and site features – most notably the predominant material palette of stone and timber. Sited on existing flat topography among a cluster of interpretive buildings and formal gardens, the new pavilion takes advantage of an overlapping system of public amenities and resources, including a shared catering kitchen and service yard from the adjacent visitor center. Access to the pavilion is multi-directional and site-specific, reinforcing a porous threshold from the west (from the vehicular approach) and forming a broad open canopy to the east (from the gardens). Careful positioning of the pavilion minimizes its visual impact in the landscape and maintains important view sheds.

Drawing on a key feature of the Georgian farmhouse, the pavilion form evokes the idea of a large-scale porch. Profiled glulam beams are infilled with decorative secondary framing to create a coffered ceiling that recalls the sinewy texture of the black locust tree bark – a prevalent species growing throughout the grounds and the property’s namesake. Core service functions (storage and restrooms) are contained within limestone-clad volumes that create a visually porous edge to an entry plaza and vehicle drop-off area. Comprised of ordinary limestone sill modules (in smooth and rock-face finishes), a herringbone pattern evokes the patterns and hand laid stonework of the ‘ha-ha’ walls and split-rail fences that organize and define the property.

The project resonates at a range of scales that frame opportunities for discovery and delight – from the scale of the landscape to the scale of the visitor – through the deliberate juxtaposition of simplicity and complexity expressed in the building form and articulation of details. Despite a modest construction budget, the project strives for a high degree of detailing and craft, and embraces an ethos of ‘innovation necessarily equals economy’.

LOCATION: Royal Oak, MI
BUILDING AREA: 3,344 SF (Approximate)
CONSTRUCTION COST: $815,000
PROJECT STATUS: Completed Spring 2022

OVERVIEW: Located on an elevated stepped plaza for a new civic park, the pavilion sits adjacent to an existing public library to create both an entry threshold and a park backdrop. Programmatically, the flexible-use pavilion serves multiple functions, including:

1) providing an iconic park feature that draws on the City’s history, 2) extending public space for the existing public library through a shaded outdoor community room, and 3) providing power/data infrastructure for outdoor performances associated with park programming. Formally, the pavilion celebrates the founding origins of the City of Royal Oak, which began with the discovery of ‘a stately oak tree with a trunk considerably wider than most other oaks’, and later conflated with the English legend of King Charles II taking sanctuary from enemy forces in 1660 under a ‘royal oak tree’.

Drawing on the defining characteristics of an oak leaf - specifically its deeply lobed margins and undulating surfaces - the pavilion is an abstract form that evokes these qualities. Utilizing powder-coated steel for durability and ease of maintenance (in sheet and pipe stock), the project explores the design potential of balancing simplicity with complexity through fabrication, detailing, and installation.

Working with a modest budget, the pavilion is comprised of pre-assembled modular units of rolled steel sheet ribbons and bent steel pipe frames that are combined to conform to the spatial constraints of the elevated plaza. To minimize the number of column bases, the steel pipe frames are aggregated to optimize cantilevered overhangs. Resonating at a range of scales through the complexity of form and careful articulation of details - from the scale of the park landscape to the scale of the visitor – the pavilion enhances a sense of discovery and delight.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: 30,000 s.f. (existing) / 30,000 s.f. (addition) / 1.65-acre (sitework)
CONSTRUCTION COST: $13,800,000
STATUS: Completed March 2017 (October 2016 Soft Opening)

OVERVIEW: The project is the first expansion for the Filson Historical Society on its current site located within ‘Old Louisville’, a historic neighborhood first developed between 1883-1887 in conjunction with the Southern Exposition. Phase I construction involves a new 18,735 s.f. building addition and the renovation of the existing Ferguson Mansion and its adjacent carriage house. Programmatically, the new building will double its archival storage capacity and provide a new oration-quality lecture hall, as well as new flexible-use event spaces that will incorporate changing exhibits.

Over a one-year Schematic Design period, D&PAW worked closely & collaboratively with the client’s board of directors, city approval agencies, and community groups to foster a design dialogue that encouraged city-wide ‘ownership’ of the project.

The new campus master plan and Phase I design proposes a new public mall - a physical green space - that provides a visually porous urban boundary on the corner site, while grounding Phase I building and future expansion efforts.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING (FACADE) AREA: 16,800 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: $1,530,000
(Building façade only)
PROJECT STATUS: Completed September 2020

OVERVIEW: As a visual anchor in Louisville Waterfront Park’s future Phase IV expansion area (currently a vacant post-industrial site), the Rowan Pump Station Building facade reimagines a new infrastructure element as a monumental folly that responds to a range of scales: the riverfront, the city, the future park, the adjacent elevated highway, and the eye-level visitor. Comprised of custom-profiled perforated aluminum and weathering steel panels, the façade design draws inspiration from its location along the Ohio River - abstractly evoking familiar river imagery such as shimmery water surfaces and ripples. During evening hours, integrated programmable LED lighting transforms the façade into a lantern, slowly cycling through a variety of colors and patterns.

Programmatically, the building houses the primary access point into the Waterway Protection Tunnel, an ambitious and monumental infrastructure development highlighted by a 4-mile-long underground tunnel intended to temporarily store the City’s sewer and stormwater overflow until pumped to regional water treatment facilities. At a depth of 225 feet below grade and partially routed below the Ohio River, the tunnel is part of an innovative $1.15 billion infrastructure network of underground storage basins that comply with an EPA commitment to reduce combined sewer overflows by 98% by 2020. The building interior is not accessible to the public.

Sustainable approaches emphasize durability, ease of maintenance and economy, and anticipates the site’s transformation from a post-industrial vacant lot into a highly visible and public setting within the future Waterfront Park Phase IV expansion area. All façade materials are recyclable and utilize modular repetition to minimize construction waste. Energy efficient LED lighting animates the façade.

LOCATION: Crestwood, KY
BUILDING AREA: 36 s.f. (each pavilion)
CONSTRUCTION COST: $2,500 (two pavilions)
COMPLETION DATE: January 2020

OVERVIEW: The project is located within a 60-acre historic botanical garden property originally developed in the early 1940’s by an influential horticulturalist. The property is part of The Garden Conservancy, an organization whose a mission is ‘to preserve, share, and celebrate America’s gardens and diverse gardening traditions for the education and inspiration of the public’. Located within the research and production nurseries area of the property, the project is comprised of two identical pavilion structures that mark entry into evaluation gardens that focus on herbaceous and woody perennials.

The pavilion geometry is inspired by the simple pitched roof silhouettes of nearby garden structures, with the intention of discovery and delight through an element that is both familiar and new. Through movement within existing pedestrian paths, the pavilions engage visitors by appearing as abstracted forms. Utilizing weathering steel as the primary material, the pavilion walls incorporate a custom perforation of the property’s logo, while recalling the dappled light often seen through barn siding. When used with ordinary magnets, the steel walls provide flexible surfaces for posting plant performance data and other garden information. The pavilions incorporate simple construction techniques through off-site prefabrication and on-site erection as one unit.

Working with a modest budget, the project sought to address multiple goals:

• Create a recognizable geometry that sensitively integrates the pavilions with adjacent garden structures.

• Design for economy, durability and ease of maintenance.

• Integrate pedestrian movement and circulation from the various garden paths.

• Incorporate brand identity.

• Allow for future replication at additional gardens.

LOCATION: Rogers, AR
BUILDING AREA: 13,800 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: $5,500,000
COMPLETION DATE: December 2018

OVERVIEW: The project is the first of three pilot projects to be completed under the Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program. Sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation, the Program funds projects developed with “the highest level of design in the development of future public buildings and spaces in Arkansas’ Benton and Washington counties, with a clear understanding of how people use and experience public space in the intersection of life, space and buildings.”

Hailey Building is an adaptive-reuse/restoration expansion to a History Museum campus integrated within the historic downtown district of Rogers, Arkansas. Reinforcing the Museum’s mission to ‘enrich lives through education, experience and exploration’ of the City’s unique heritage, the project celebrates the idea of the ‘city as exhibit’ by capitalizing on relationships between the stylistically diverse collection of downtown buildings, outdoor public spaces and connective pedestrian pathways that engage the community at large. Programmatically, the project houses the Museum’s primary exhibit spaces and administrative offices.

Working with a modest budget, the project salvages the structural framing and shell of the circa-1947 Hailey Building and its more recent circa-2006 addition. Formally, the design strategy envisions the project as two conjoined buildings that are expressed in contrasting but complementary approaches. The Art Deco-inspired façade of the original 1947 Hailey Building, found partially intact within the 2006 façade, was restored through historical photographs. The newer addition, re-clad using the same material palette (brick and metal), is articulated in a deliberately muted strategy that continues the massing composition of the original historic structure. Both building halves are united through their use of architectural embellishment.

Finding opportunities to reuse existing elements for economy, an adjacent loading dock and surface parking lot have been repurposed into flexible outdoor public spaces through new landscaping and pavement graphics.

Internally, the Museum’s spatial organization takes advantage of the existing open web trusses for flexible, column-free exhibit spaces. High gloss walls in vibrant colors serve as interior visual markers.

LOCATION: Prospect, KY
BUILDING AREA: 6,400 s.f.
STATUS: Completed 2025

OVERVIEW: Information coming soon.

LOCATION: Crestwood, KY
BUILDING AREA: 6,000 s.f. (building) & Site Development (varies)
CONSTRUCTION COST: $643,100
STATUS: Completed May 2018

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: Varies
STATUS: Concept Design complete

OVERVIEW: Information coming soon.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY / The Brown Theater
STATUS: October 2018 Performance

LOCATION: Lexington, KY
BUILDING AREA: 12,000 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION BUDGET: $4,000,000 (Building & Site)
STATUS: Schematic Design completed July 2017

OVERVIEW: Schematic Design was completed in July of 2017 for the Dorotha Smith Oatts Visitor expansion, located at The Arboretum: State Botanical Garden of Kentucky.

Situated on a knoll overlooking The Arboretum: The State Botanical Garden of Kentucky, the Dorotha Smith Oatts Visitor Center Expansion encompasses approximately 12,000 s.f. of new and renovated spaces that function as both a formal threshold to core themed gardens and a public hub to a network of educational walking trails.

Programmatically, the facility houses a reception/ticketing area, a series of flexible multi-use spaces, an exhibit hall, gift shop, administrative offices and ancillary support spaces. Through a collaborative design process, key project features were driven by common priorities identified through a design charrette. These include: entrance clarity & proximity to the existing parking lot, covered outdoor spaces for multi use purposes, flexibility of indoor spaces, controlled access to the themed core gardens, public areas for rest & pause, and engaging the facility to the system of arboretum paths.

The project draws on a series of conceptual design precedents that recall regional building & garden elements (veranda, porch, pergola, trellis), as well as the vocabulary of typical forest elements (copse, leaf canopy, thicket).

Organized by an over-scaled wrap-around veranda, the new center provides a series of flexible-use spaces that can be utilized separately or in combination, allowing for the capability to accommodate multiple functions simultaneously, as well as having the potential to expand activities to covered outdoor spaces. As a primary design feature, this ‘communal porch’ offers panoramic views of the arboretum grounds while also providing a visually porous and welcoming building facade that knits together the various components of the center.

LOCATION: Cincinnati, OH
BUILDING AREA: 6,000 s.f.
STATUS: Invited Competition / Concept design completed July 2017

LOCATION: Lexington, KY
BUILDING AREA: 8,000 s.f. (existing) / 10,000 s.f. (addition)
CONSTRUCTION COST: $3,344,300
STATUS: Completed May 2016

OVERVIEW: The Living Arts & Science Center is an organization that offers educational programs which focus on the integration of art and science. As an example, art classes may introduce children or adults to the process of making natural dyes from plants grown on the property’s gardens. With this emphasis, the project includes a campus expansion plan that is organized around a series of indoor and outdoor learning spaces on multiple floors.

The project scope includes the renovation and contemporary expansion of an historic residence, where the Center is currently housed. In order to transform an underutilized property into a vibrant community asset, a series of green teaching gardens surround the Living Arts and Science Center. These gardens are incorporated with several flexible indoor / outdoor education spaces.

The Living Arts and Science Center responds to a diverse architectural context at the edge of a city center. By incorporating economical and sustainable design strategies, the architecture itself becomes a teaching tool. Through their focus on creative, environmental programs, the day-to-day operations and philosophy of the Living Arts & Science Center are interwoven with the architecture – forming a symbiotic connection between building and occupant.

LOCATION: Lawrenceburg, KY
BUILDING AREA: 9,140 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: $4,000,000 (includes exhibits and site development)
STATUS: Completed November 2013

OVERVIEW: Located on a bluff overlooking the Kentucky River, the Visitor Center is the newest component of recent additions & expansions to the Wild Turkey Bourbon Distillery Complex, one of seven original member distilleries of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. The 9,140 s.f. facility houses interactive exhibits, a gift shop, event venues, a tasting room and administrative offices. In concert with a major re-branding program that caters to both longtime devoted fans and a growing legion of new bourbon enthusiasts, the project employs a design direction that is both familiar and new – bridging tradition & innovation through an immersive environment of contrasts & dualities.

Utilizing a simple barn silhouette (an interpretation of Kentucky tobacco barns common to the area), the building presents a clear & recognizable marker at the scale of the landscape. Clad in a chevron pattern of stained wood plank siding, the simplicity of the barn form is contrasted by the intricacy of the building skin, creating a shifting sense of scale and tactility that is deliberately both simple and complex. Alternating zones of opaque and light-filtering lattice blur the boundaries between inside/out and solid/void. By night, the dark structure transforms into a delicate, glowing lantern of filigree perched above the river.

Internally, the building is organized along a ramped, split-level public promenade that culminates in an elevated tasting room overlooking the Kentucky River (the bourbon’s base water source). In a nod to the nearby bridges spanning the river, a wooden trestle element provides a physical spine from which the various programmatic elements are reached.

LOCATION: Knoxville, TN
BUILDING AREA: 5,000 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: $2,000,000
STATUS: Completed August 2015

OVERVIEW:  The project implements the first phase of a master plan to revitalize and enhance the visitor experience at the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum, a historic 43-acre nursery property located at the outskirts of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee.

Working with a modest budget that includes site development, the 5,000 s.f. Visitor Pavilion repurposes an abandoned concrete block storage building through a flexible-use program that includes a reception area, indoor & outdoor exhibit / event spaces, gift shop and ancillary support spaces. The rectangular building plan is simply organized to consolidate core functions at each end, thereby maximizing a centralized multipurpose area that directly connects to an outdoor terrace.

Taking advantage of site orientation, topography and axial connections to existing garden elements & pathways, the project provides new apertures that create visual and physical thresholds to the property at large – each responding to four unique relationships to the natural grade.

Inspired by the arboretum’s collection of trees and the wooded context, the design strategy overlays a series of modular wall and ceiling elements that recall traditional garden features such as growing trellises and decorative follies. An exterior cladding of custom-folded expanded aluminum mesh panels – drawing on an abstraction of tree bark textures - provides a continually changing surface that transforms the building through natural & artificial light. An interior ‘coffered’ ceiling of bent wood veneer panels is detailed & installed to recall the patterns of the expanded metal mesh panels used on the exterior, while also reflecting the quality of dappled light from the surrounding tree canopies.

Although seemingly visually complex, the primary materials of expanded aluminum mesh and wood veneer panels were chosen for their economy and durability, utilizing simple installation techniques, modular components and local off-site prefabrication with minimal construction waste.

LOCATION: Crestwood, KY
BUILDING AREA: Varies (multiple buildings)
CONSTRUCTION COST: $960,000
STATUS: Completed 2014

OVERVIEW: The Yew Dell Botanical Gardens Horticulture Center is comprised of multiple buildings and outdoor areas, including: the renovation of an existing Potting Shed (for demonstrations, workshops and winterized storage), the preservation of an existing Vehicle Storage Building, a new Greenhouse (for plant propagation and demonstrations), outdoor Event Plazas (for public & private events, workshops and lectures), seasonal Display Planters, and a new trial propagation field with movable growing ‘Hoop Houses’. 

The project weaves together a series of historic work buildings through a new greenhouse & several outdoor zones to provide a collection of demonstration, research and cultivation spaces for horticulture. Rather than a singular iconic building, the design intent emphasizes a ‘fabric’ of structures. 

The primary project goals were: 1) to design a facility that sensitively integrates with the existing historic work buildings, and 2) to demonstrate how both passive & mechanized sustainable strategies can be implemented with an approach that is specific to the site & program.

To preserve the defining characteristics of this area of the Gardens, the project approach focuses on a series of restrained design gestures that merge the diversity of existing work buildings and their connective outdoor areas. To avoid introducing a ‘false sense of history’, new elements are clearly differentiated from existing through material choices and detailing. 

Sustainable approaches & systems are dispersed between the various structures, reinforcing the fact that the facility operates as a network of elements. As visible, educational components for the public, certain strategies are specifically adapted to suit the purpose of the center, such as the reinterpretation of the vegetated greenhouse roof as a field of ‘nursery flat’ modules that can be sold or reconfigured seasonally.
 
The 43-acre property - founded in 1942 by horticultural pioneer Theodore Klein - is recognized for its unique collection of themed structures & gardens, and is part of the Garden Conservancy, a national organization dedicated to saving and preserving America’s exceptional gardens.

LOCATION: Guthrie, KY
BUILDING AREA: 6,750 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: $1,200,000
STATUS: Phase 1 & 2 completed June 2014 / Phase 3 Construction Documents in progress

OVERVIEW: The city of Guthrie is a small rural community in southern Kentucky that once played a significant role in the expansion of the country’s transportation network in the early 1900’s through the construction of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad line. After a period of economic decline, the city has recently been the focus of renewal efforts to revive its downtown core. As the first development to be completed within a broader vision plan for the city, the project addresses several overlapping community interests: 1) to structurally stabilize, preserve & rehabilitate two historic brick storefront structures that were in an advanced state of decay and partial collapse, 2) to create a facility to welcome visitors and share the story of Guthrie’s role in the early development of the country’s railroad industry, and 3) to provide a multi-use venue as a place for the community to gather.

With a modest budget funded solely through neighborhood block development grants and federal transportation stimulus funds, the design process was guided by a collaborative team comprised of the entire community, the Kentucky Heritage Council, and state & federal agencies.

The design approach utilizes a simple strategy of three key elements: 1) a new structural steel frame to stabilize the existing buildings, 2) a ‘black box’ zone that consolidates core support functions in order to maximize open flexible spaces, and 3) a new concrete service tower for vertical circulation (to be upfitted in Phase II) that also functions as a structural anchor.

A deliberate visual layering between existing & new elements is used to reveal and amplify the defining characteristics of the original structures through contrast - in particular the original brick & painted plaster surfaces that hint at their former uses. Additionally, the color coding of new elements with a black tint further emphasizes the sense of historical layering.

LOCATION: Denver, CO
BUILDING AREA: Approximately 72,000 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: Withheld at Owner's request
STATUS: Concept Design completed 2015

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
STATUS: Completed April 2016

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: 6,000 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: $250,000
STATUS: Concept Design completed 2014

OVERVIEW: Located within an urban context in downtown Louisville, the Kosair Children’s Hospital Healing Garden is an outdoor interactive garden environment based on an abstraction of Kentucky’s unique geography. Organized into five primary zones - Meadow, Forest, Valley, River, and Cavern - the garden offers a diverse range of fully-accessible spaces that invite exploration & discovery for children of all ages and abilities. Familiar elements of the Appalachian landscape, reinterpreted through both natural and man-made elements, are alluded to through color, scale, texture, and natural light, encouraging visitors to use their imagination and sense of play.

LOCATION: Glasgow, KY
BUILDING AREA: 2,500 s.f. (building) / 40-acres (site development)
CONSTRUCTION COST: $400,000
STATUS: Design Development completed 2015

OVERVIEW: The project entails the property master plan and design of a modest new church for a rural region of southern Kentucky. The site strategy preserves an existing sloping meadow with groves of mature trees. The community of Glasgow is home to an heirloom wildflower seed producer, who will donate meadow planting for the site.

Working with a very modest construction budget, the simple material palette includes corrugated metal, pre-manufactured wood trusses, and reclaimed barn wood. Natural light, honesty of materials, and connections between indoor & outdoor spaces of worship/reflection are the guiding elements of the design approach.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: 3,500 s.f. (existing) / 540 s.f. (addition)
CONSTRUCTION COST: Withheld at Owner's request
STATUS: Completed 2014

OVERVIEW: The project is comprised of the renovation of a circa-1930 Craftsman-style residence, a flexible-use 300 s.f. addition, a new 240 s.f. garage, and selective landscaping.

With a very modest budget of $94/s.f., the design strategy focuses on careful editing of existing building elements in order to establish a more open floor plan that improves connections to natural light and garden views.

The renovation encompasses three levels and a basement, which are unified through a clean white interior color palette that amplifies natural light while providing a neutral background for the client’s colorful art collection.

A large, fully re-designed kitchen opens up to adjacent living spaces through custom cabinetry and a configuration that maintains an intimate scale despite its size.

A new glass-walled addition – used primarily as a quiet meditation space – is envisioned as a connected pavilion surrounded by a lush garden. Over time, new plantings will define a layered arrangement of outdoor thresholds that reinforce privacy.

New expansion components are clearly differentiated from the existing structure through a dark green color scheme and simplicity of detailing, while relating contextually through familiar materials, textures and massing.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: 160 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: $3,300
STATUS: Completed September 2012

OVERVIEW: The project was designed as an installation for PARK(ing) Day, the annual worldwide event that transforms city parking spots into temporary public parks for one day. The installation is required to fit within the footprint of its specific site – a typical 8’x20’ unmetered parking spot in downtown Louisville.

The goals for the project were: 1) to explore the potential of an unorthodox public space with a very limited footprint, 2) to activate an urban sidewalk with an interactive, spatial experience, 3) to create a meaningful public space that relates specifically to the Kentucky region, and 4) to explore the design potential of a single material using conventional construction methods

Drawing inspiration from Kentucky’s bourbon heritage and the bourbon-aging warehouse traditionally called a ‘rickhouse’, the design is a simple 8’ deep x 20’ long x 10’ tall rectangular grid volume comprised of green-painted 2x4 lumber. The structure conceals an interior open void through which visitors can enter and walk through. The cut ends of the 2x4 lumber defining this interior passage are painted a poppy-orange color to visually emphasize the geometry of the hidden void space.

During the PARK(ing) Day event, the structure functioned as a modern-day ‘speakeasy’, alluding to the secretive Prohibition-era establishments which illegally served bootleg liquor. Visitors venturing into the structure could pick up a shot glass stored within the hidden passage and enjoy a complimentary shot of bourbon served within.

Although the installation was intended to last for only a single day, the local community continued to use the structure over a two-year period for a wide range of uses, including: a play space, a shady lunch spot, a semi-private space to ‘make-out’, a background for fashion photo shoots, a neighborhood marker and a designated meeting place. On several occasions, neighborhood children have used the grid structure to store and exchange toys. The installations has since been dismantled, but it's temporary presence has exposed the importance & impact of community dialogue through a 'non-building' whose use had been appropriated by the neighborhood.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
CONSTRUCTION COST: $2,500,000
STATUS: Concept Design completed 2012

OVERVIEW: DPAW provided preliminary concept design direction for a new athletic center for the West End School in Louisville. Additional project information coming soon.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
STATUS: Competition Winner / Concept Design completed 2012

LOCATION: Crestwood, KY
BUILDING AREA: 3,000 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: $150,000
STATUS: Completed 2010

OVERVIEW: The Yew Dell Botanical Gardens Visitor Center utilizes an existing tobacco barn shell original to the property. Housing a gift shop, visitor reception area, ticket & membership sales, and flexible indoor/outdoor areas for seasonal plant sales, the project design incorporates these various programmatic elements within a simple glass “box” inserted into the original building. A modest material palette of sealed concrete floors, pickled pine siding and insulated tempered glass clearly delineates new construction from existing, while allowing the original barn to be visible within the interior spaces.

The project — which was designed, detailed and constructed within 5 months — was made possible by adhering to a tight construction budget made available through a private donor.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: 40,000 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: $11,000,000
STATUS: Concept Design completed 2011

OVERVIEW: DPAW provided preliminary concept design direction for a new regional library in southwest Louisville. Inspired by Kentucky's water-rich, stratified limestone geography (which is visible on approach to the project site), the design approach and material research explores ideas that impact form, craft and the narrative of building.

LOCATION: Goshen, KY
CONSTRUCTION COST: Withheld at Owner's request
STATUS: Completed 2011

OVERVIEW: The project is a movable tower structure designed specifically for viewing a threadlike earthwork sculpture on a sloping meadow. Located near a private residence on a working farm property called Great Meadows, the project provides an elevated viewing platform with a design approach that deliberately conflates aspects of architecture, furniture, and implement.

Rather than a permanent tower, the design strategy is influenced by a dialogue between the context of the agrarian landscape, the effort of ascending/descending, and the scale & proximity of the earthwork itself. By exploring a range of conceptual precedents pertaining to tower structures, elevated platforms and stair/ladder elements, the project argues for an approach that alludes to the neutrality and ‘invisibility’ of familiar utilitarian elements.

Considerations of craft & detail combine both the custom-made and the ready-made: The wooden handrail profile is shaped specifically to the client’s hand, while common ‘mobile home’ tie-downs are utilized for ground anchors. The wooden components of the structure are connected solely through custom dovetailing & peg joinery; there are no mechanical fasteners.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: 5,729 s.f. (renovation) / 1,367 s.f. (addition)
CONSTRUCTION COST: Withheld at Owner's request
STATUS: Completed 2012

OVERVIEW: The project consists of renovations and additions to a nineteenth-century house in a Landmarked neighborhood. The new program includes: informal family living/dining, formal entertaining spaces, new terrace, terrace, mudroom/cloakroom, his/hers offices, children’s play room, master bedroom suite, and two bedrooms with private baths. The project scope includes new mechanical systems and system-wide smart controls.

This residential addition and renovations for a Victorian home anchoring an Olmstead-designed city annex, integrates diverse (and often conflicting) expectations for the client’s programmatic use, their contemporary aesthetic preferences, and the strict regulations governing exterior changes to houses within the Landmark district.  

In order to rethink strategies & possibilities for satisfying Landmarks criteria, a proactive collaboration with the Landmarks staff was established from the beginning to help look at the project as a cohesive exploration of the required guidelines, establishing an approach that met the intent & spirit of the regulations rather than the commonly adopted check-list approach. 

Within this design context, the project explores:
•    Reinterpreting the Victorian vocabulary through a contemporary framework through massing, scale, proportions, and quality of detailing
•    Preserving the defining characteristics of the original Victorian structure
•    Integration of indoor & outdoor spaces and vistas
•    Clear differentiation between existing & new to avoid a ‘false sense of history’

The defining character of the existing house comes from the eccentric bows, bays, cantilevered projections, and tower appended to the core mass of the house. The seeming incongruity of their individual styles, details and scales is successfully made coherent when used compositionally to break down the scale of the house. In keeping with this Victorian strategy, the newly added program was broken down into individual elements scaled and joined discretely to the house’s main core – proportioned to support the approach, while minimizing changes to the existing floor plan, also facilitated in preserving the elegant Victorian proportions of the interior rooms - an early design priority for the project. 

Like the sun/sleeping porches and conservatories common to Victorian houses, the additions strive for a delicate, supportive role to the original house’s core mass.  Extensive natural light from large expanses of north & east facing glass provide a counterpoint to the more subtle light from the original structure’s individual windows, and are afforded privacy by the 100-year old oaks of a preserved, expansive and lush Olmstead landscape adjoining the property.

LOCATION: Mt. Hope, WV
BUILDING AREA: Varies (multiple buildings)
CONSTRUCTION COST: Withheld at Owner's request
STATUS: Concept Design completed 2011

OVERVIEW: A new high adventure base camp for the Boy Scouts of America focuses on river and mountain adventures in the Appalachian region. Spanning an 11,000-acre site along the New River Gorge, the project scope encompasses various venues for scouting activities. DPAW has been selected to design multiple structures, including the National Pavilion, the Merit Badge Pavilion, and numerous Food/Dining structures.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: 500 s.f. (prototype building) / 11-acres (site development)
CONSTRUCTION COST: $430,000 (building shell & park control systems)
STATUS: Completed 2011

OVERVIEW: Referencing the agrarian & transportation history of the Riverview Park countryside, the concept for the park shelters originates from the familiar imagery of black pitch tobacco barns common throughout the region and river barges frequently visible from the park.

The park shelters are grouped into “barn variations”- establishing a link between various park zones - each becoming specific to the particular use and character of the park landscape through orientation, materials, cladding and geometry.

Durable, off-the-shelf & modular materials, such as Cor-Ten steel panels and stainless-steel planks with vandal-resistant details, provide structures with minimal maintenance needs. The park shelters are designed to shift in their visual presence within the park: by day they are solid elements in the land; by night they transform into semitransparent glowing lanterns.

An initial phase of construction offers dry & wet children’s playgrounds, picnic areas, and a boat ramp. In proximity to the new play areas, this first of several visitor service buildings provides public restrooms, drinking fountains, and mechanical rooms for park-wide utilities that include irrigation & lighting controls.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: 4,200 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: Withheld at Owner's request
STATUS: Completed 2009

OVERVIEW: The project involves the interior renovation of a 4,200 s.f., circa-1970 residence for a young couple with an interest in collecting contemporary art. The clients wanted to transform the character of the existing interior in a way that balanced the ‘neutrality’ of a gallery space with the ‘warmth’ of a home. The project was constructed with a modest budget of $51 per square foot.

Working within the existing footprint of the residence, a ‘reductive’ design approach focused on four inter-related strategies aimed at distilling the interior components for both visual & functional clarity: 1) plan refinements, 2) a monochromatic color palette, 3) a new ‘gallery spine’, and 4) material expression.

PLAN REFINEMENTS: Minor reconfiguration of existing walls & openings established a subtle re-alignment of interior spaces, while also presenting new axial relationships between rooms and outdoor views. Spatially, the new visual continuity between interior spaces increases the level of diffuse daylight filtering in from multiple directions, affording optimum viewing conditions for art with indirect natural light.

MONOCHROMATIC COLOR PALETTE: A white color palette, utilized to visually unify interior spaces and minimize distracting pre-existing details, presents a neutral backdrop for displaying artwork on a rotating basis. A large expanse of wall surface within the living room area functions as a large-scale canvas for projecting video art. Both natural & artificial lighting are reflected and amplified from the wall surfaces.

GALLERY SPINE: A new ‘gallery spine’ - defined by wood veneer paneling - incorporates a pre-existing bridge element, staircase, and partition wall between kitchen and dining areas. Serving as both a functional & visual datum, it threads through the primary public spaces within the residence and consolidates various infrastructural elements for viewing art, including adjustable lighting, display storage and audio/visual wiring. Incorporating more colorful materials in contrast to the neutrality of the white walls, the ‘gallery spine’ evokes a sense of craft and becomes an artistic building element itself. Hinged panels within a section of the walls allow the kitchen & dining areas to be joined or separated, exposing contrasting materials between the two rooms.

MATERIAL EXPRESSION: Materially, the project employs a restrained approach through rigor in detailing and a deliberate expression of layering. Alluding to the idea of ‘luxury’ as an aspect of inherent material qualities rather than material cost, various project elements (both luxurious & humble) are detailed to emphasize surface characteristics such as texture, pattern, finish, & color.

LOCATION: Goshen, KY
BUILDING AREA: Barn A: 7,540 s.f. / Barn B: 9,160 s.f.
DEVELOPMENT AREA: 85,295 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: $830,000 (includes buildings and site development)
STATUS: Completed January 2009

OVERVIEW:  The Mason Lane Farm Operations Facility is a new complex for farm equipment servicing, refueling & storage, as well as providing seasonal storage for grain & hay. The facility supports a 2,000-acre property utilized for agriculture, recreation, wildlife habitat and conservation purposes. The facility program includes: enclosed storage for farm vehicles & implements, covered (roofed) hay & equipment storage, grain storage, insulated work area & tool storage, farm manager’s office, kitchenette, shower area, recycling area, and vehicle fueling station.

Rooted in the simplicity of regional farm structures & local building traditions, the project employs sustainable strategies that are decidedly ‘low-tech’, favoring conventional construction methods & ordinary materials over specialized systems. In particular, the project implements strategies that take advantage of the cross-synergies between site & building design, focusing on a holistic approach where both components work as a single integrated system. For reasons of both economy and ease of maintenance, the farm complex utilizes simple, passive strategies that are specifically based on an understanding of the regional climate and the nuances of the landscape. Utilizing only these design approaches, the project has achieved a Leadership In Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Silver Level certification.

Consolidating the various programmatic elements into two large barn buildings and a grain silo (in order to minimize building footprints), the majority of the project site is allocated to the circulation & access requirements of large-scale farm equipment. The remainder of the pre-existing cleared area was restored with native planting. Because facility water usage is minimal and site landscaping is limited to native & regionally adapted plants that do not require irrigation, site-wide stormwater strategies focus on returning runoff to replenish local aquifers. Taking advantage of the existing topography, the porous, drive-able gravel surfaces are pitched to channel stormwater into two ‘rain gardens’ planted with native vegetation that provide additional wildlife habitat. In order to minimize maintenance, building roof gutters are eliminated and replaced with ‘site gutters’, a system of drivable, shallow concrete channel swales located & aligned below each roof eave, which directs stormwater to the collection basins. In this manner, the site and buildings work together as a large-scale integrated drainage system. Other than the footprint of the barn buildings, the entire site is pervious.

LOCATION: Westport, KY
BUILDING AREA: 1,390 s.f. (existing) / 672 s.f. (addition)
CONSTRUCTION COST: Withheld at Owner's request
STATUS: Completed 2008

OVERVIEW: The project is situated within a 400-acre farm property in Westport, Kentucky that serves as a country residence for a young couple and their children. On a promontory overlooking a bend in the Ohio River to the north and rolling meadows to the south, the client requested a modest home that would serve as a ‘base camp’ for the family’s outdoor activities. Rather than construct a new structure, the clients were encouraged to preserve & rehabilitate an existing circa-1890 farmhouse that was once slated for demolition. In this manner, the farmhouse could remain as a ‘primary’ building – a historically typical role within the farm landscape – and the property could evolve over time through a series of smaller future buildings that would draw from the rural vernacular & scale of ‘out-buildings’, establishing an organic accretion of structures common to the agrarian model of development. 

The project includes the renovation of the existing 1,390 s.f. farmhouse and a 300 s.f. addition that provides a living area, dining room, eat-in kitchen, master bedroom, children’s bedroom, bathroom, and powder room/mudroom. A new screened porch and sitting veranda offer an additional 372 s.f. of covered outdoor areas. Preserving and ‘distilling’ the character of the original farmhouse was a priority.

Nicknamed ‘The Stout Little House’ by the family, the project is guided by a strategy of economy & restraint that utilizes a humble palette of traditional materials sympathetic to the original farmhouse. Alterations to the small footprint of the existing structure focused on providing natural light & views to interior spaces, while additions offered flexible indoor/outdoor rooms that reinforce connections to the landscape and facilitate a multi-seasonal use of the house. Where possible, existing flat ceilings were removed to volumetrically increase the apparent size of interior rooms. The consistent use of a white color palette in contrast to a darkly stained wood floor visually unifies interior spaces and reflects natural light. Darkly stained wood trim and hand-forged metal hardware provide subtle focal points within an otherwise simple monochromatic color scheme. Wood salvaged from the property was used to craft interior furniture by a local furniture maker.

Integrating the vast scale of the rural countryside with the house, expansive planting drifts of native & regionally-adapted plants - requiring zero irrigation – merge natural and managed landscapes. Selective clearing and editing of existing view corridors & vistas to the river and farmland heighten the sense of layered outdoor rooms.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY - Papa John Cardinal Stadium, Phase II Expansion (University of Louisville)
BUILDING AREA: 330 sf
CONSTRUCTION COST: $14,000
STATUS: Completed 2010

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: 3,000 s.f. (existing) / 485 s.f. (addition)
CONSTRUCTION COST: Withheld at Owner's request
STATUS: Completed 2009

OVERVIEW: The project consists of a small 485 s.f. rear addition & limited renovation to a circa-1930 residence located within a historic preservation district in Louisville, Kentucky. The clients - a young, technology-oriented couple with a growing family - requested improvements that include a kitchen expansion, new multi-purpose family/ media room, guest powder room, office, and flexible indoor/outdoor entertaining areas.

Working with city preservation guidelines, the project utilizes a material palette & building massing that complements the existing neighborhood while avoiding a ‘false sense of history’. In particular, because the addition is not visible from the street frontage, the design strategy responds to a rear-lot building vocabulary of lean-to’s and semi-attached sheds. Design constraints include a narrow, rectangular property dominated by two large trees, and a neighboring building situated directly on the property line.

In relation to the existing structure, the new program is arranged to define & clarify circulation patterns between indoor & outdoor spaces while preserving the two large existing trees. Natural light & exterior views are emphasized through visual alignments between spaces in both plan and section. While deliberately small in its physical footprint, the new addition reinforces a quality of spaciousness through variations in double-height spaces and consistent connections to outdoor views & adjoining spaces.

Conceptually, the project addition is envisioned as a lantern that allows natural light to filter into interior spaces by day, while becoming an artificial light source in the garden at night. A double-height volume (the ‘lantern’), includes a mezzanine bridge that accommodates a small laptop/study area. During evening events, the lantern doubles as a projection booth for viewing films & video installations in the garden.

An economical exterior material palette includes cement-board lap siding & trim painted in a traditional green/black color common to historic plantation homes in the Kentucky region. While reflecting natural light within interior spaces, a consistent white color palette visually unifies the open plan organization. 

In order to avoid disturbing existing tree root zones, the entire addition is constructed on concrete piers with an elevated wood framing.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
CONSTRUCTION COST: $99,000,000
STATUS: Master Plan completed 2009

OVERVIEW: Riverview Park is envisioned as a new recreational venue for the community of southwest Louisville that celebrates a unique, diverse landscape along the Ohio River. Located at the convergence of several pre-existing man-made site features that include a levee, a railroad line, and a single access road, the new park is organized to re-connect the surrounding community with the river through four distinct landscape characteristics: active, civic, natural, and playful. 

Within this landscape, two components are organized to reinforce an experiential, narrative understanding of the park: 1) interactive nodes and 2) park shelters. Together, these elements offer a framework to engage the river & land through site-specific encounters that reveal or amplify environmental phenomena, including river fluctuations, wetland cycles, riverbank topography, and contrasts between natural & manmade landscapes. Influenced by regional and site-specific precedents, these architectural components of the park present playful elements that are both familiar and new.

SITE ORGANIZATION
Interactive “nodes” and park shelters are dispersed throughout the four distinct environments within the park (active, playful, civic and natural) to reinforce an experiential narrative of the landscape. 

PRELIMINARY DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
The transformative qualities of the landscape (seasonal cycles, river fluctuations, day & night, etc.) are celebrated through interactive journeys and experiences that complement & enhance natural phenomena.

EDGE CROSSING
Traversing through three different landscape environments within the park (woods, clearings, and riverbank), the Edge Crossing provides a unique opportunity for park visitors to engage a river edge that is in constant flux. From a simple park path, the interactive journey transforms into an elevated pedestrian trail that gently rises and falls in relation to the rolling terrain. Tracing a path line that evokes imagery of “skipping stones” or “casting a fishing line”, the ADA-accessible journey navigates through a hilltop clearing, into the treetops, and culminates in a gradual descent to a cantilevered overlook at the river’s edge. Set within a protective concrete base, the movable “gangway” overlook can be folded up during periods of flood, forming a vertical marker in the landscape.

MARSH CROSSING
Within a natural wetland area of the park, the Marsh Crossing is an interactive trail that encourages exploration of a wooded environment with cyclical periods of wet & dry conditions. Hovering just above the wetland floor, two curving elevated paths converge to provide a series of observation areas for plant & wildlife.  Because of their proximity to the existing topography, the raised walkways become a datum to reveal subtle changes in the landscape between wet & dry cycles, and reinforce a connection to the transformative nature of this particular environment.

PARK SHELTERS
[Baseline Barns, Play Area Shelters, Civic Area Shelters, Nature Area Shelters]
Referencing the historically agrarian use of the land, the design concept for the park shelters originates from the familiar imagery of black pitch tobacco barns common throughout the region. Traditionally viewed as “containers” for crop storage, they are the land-based counterparts to the river barge traffic frequently visible from the park. With this aesthetic vocabulary, the park shelters are dispersed throughout the park as playful yet recognizable markers in the landscape.

In order to establish a cohesive link between the various park zones, the park shelters are grouped into building “variants”, each becoming specific to the particular use and character of the park landscape. Beginning with a conceptual “origin” barn that has been fragmented and distributed throughout the various park zones, each shelter offers a unique relationship to the origin barn through orientation, materials, skin patterning and shape. 

Analogous to the transformative qualities of the natural landscape, the park shelters are designed to shift in their visual presence within the park: by day they are solid elements in the land; by night they transform into glowing lanterns.

BASELINE BARN
The Baseline Barn is the originating building from which all the other park shelters are derived. With an overall footprint containing the entire program square footage required for the park, various building components are “subtracted” volumetrically from this base structure and dispersed throughout the landscape. Grounded on physical shift lines that determine areas of mass & void between the primary (origin) building and dispersed outbuildings, the relationships between the separated structures emphasize implied thresholds & connections between park zones. The delineation of building geometries & detailing of material surfaces reinforce a conceptual link between all park structures.

Alluding to the multiple bridges crossing the Ohio River, series of “folded” metal bridges provide playful thresholds into the Play Area & Splash Park.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
STATUS: Research completed 2010

OVERVIEW: DPAW developed concepts, in association with the group 8664, for an alternative urban development direction for Louisville that proposed reconnecting the city to its river. The project was a response to a proposed bi-state transportation project that further disconnected the city from the Ohio River through the widening of existing elevated highways along its waterfront (including a significant area of the city’s award-winning Waterfront Park) and the construction of two new bridges.

DPAW proposed various concept strategies that instead promoted removing & re-routing the existing downtown portion of the highway to make way for a new downtown/river edge park and business expansion. The approach favored connected neighborhoods, pedestrian-friendly streets, and various opportunities to experience the city’s greatest asset - the Ohio River.

The projected cost for this alternative vision amounted to only 53% of the cost for the implemented ‘Bridges Plan’.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
STATUS: Concept Design completed 2005

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
STATUS: Expansion Studies completed 2005

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
CONSTRUCTION COST: Withheld at Owner's request
STATUS: Completed 2009

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
STATUS: Competition / Concept Design completed 2008

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: 4,700 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: $230,000
STATUS: Completed May 2008

OVERVIEW: Working with a modest construction budget, the Urban Barn is a new live/work building located in a downtown neighborhood comprised of a diverse mixture of building types & scales. Positioned mid-block, the project lot sits between clapboard shotgun homes, brick mixed-use storefronts, and an early-century firehouse complex. Fronting the property, the city block is occupied by a steel tank manufacturing facility.

The mixed-use project includes a ground floor office, two second floor residences, a guest suite, and an outdoor courtyard garden. For economy, the building utilizes common pole barn construction with pressure-treated wood framing arranged on a standard 12’ column grid & prefinished, corrugated metal siding. To fit the various programmatic components within the simple building volume, the design employs a strategy of shifting the floor framing in height in order to interlock these spaces volumetrically without increasing framing spans.

In an effort to relate contextually to the disparate building scales of the neighborhood, the building exterior is subtly modulated to offer a range of spatial experiences that transition between indoor & outdoor, residential & civic, and public & private conditions. Spatial inflections to the building skin the east & west facades frame monumental entry shutters that offer a more formal presence to the neighborhood. Pedestrian-scaled elements along the sidewalk, such as an elongated bench and an interpretation of the traditional storefront window, reinforce and encourage interaction with the community. In an area quickly burgeoning with shops, restaurants, artist studios & galleries, the building becomes a participant in an active “gallery crawl” tradition during evening hours, where the filigree detail of the entry shutters impart a lantern-like glow to the street.

Preferring common materials & finishes for economy, the design employs a consistent use of off-the-shelf elements to achieve a “custom” look. Circular fluorescent light tubes mounted to standard porcelain sockets simulate cherry blossom patterns, and are a nod to the flowering trees in the courtyard alee. Within the north interior wall of the office area, white painted vertical stripes in matte & high-gloss finishes allude to the natural light often found filtering through traditional barn plank siding.

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
STATUS: Concept Design completed 2006

LOCATION: Louisville, KY
BUILDING AREA: 62,420 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: $2,200,00
STATUS: Completed August 2007

OVERVIEW: United Mail, Inc. is a mail services company that specializes in the custom processing of high-volume bulk mail and shipping-related data processing & letterpress. Located in an industrial park area south of Louisville, the 62,420 s.f. project involved the renovation & expansion of the company’s administrative headquarters and processing plant facility, all originally housed within a circa-1960’s kit-of-parts warehouse building.

In relation to the client’s request to maximize administrative & plant production spaces allowable within the existing property, numerous challenges & constraints were addressed in the design strategy, including: 1) resolving complex semi-truck & employee vehicle circulation patterns within an irregularly-shaped lot, 2) working within a tight construction budget target of $68/s.f. and 3) developing a design strategy that enabled a construction process that did not shut down the facility nor interrupt non-stop, overlapping work shifts. While the facility is comprised of two distinct functions that must be programmatically separated for security purposes (administration & processing plant), the project is grounded in the client’s desire to provide an energizing work environment that conceptually unified both work groups.

Working with limited site clearances, the new facility layout is organized around a simple production circulation loop beginning with a ‘Receiving’ area for raw materials and ending with a ‘Shipping’ area for the delivery of processed mail. Loading dock circulation for semi-truck traffic, which presented the greatest spatial constraint, was improved through the use of three-point turning patterns and determined the remaining available areas for building expansion.

Utilizing a pre-manufactured metal building system for economy, new building additions are designed with straightforward single-slope roofs & simple spans. The new administration area expansion, which wraps a portion of the existing building, presents a new façade and public entry. Within the building, core office spaces & administrative areas are consolidated into two primary groupings in order to maximize the amount of flexible area for plant processing.

Proximity to exterior views, natural light & full-spectrum artificial lighting enhances work productivity & comfort. Vibrant color palettes define transition zones & communal areas, and function as a color-coded system of orientation within the vast facility.

Inspired by the bulk materials & production activities observed throughout the existing facility (stacking, sorting, bundling, and color coding), the project celebrates a limited construction budget through the use of common industrial materials & off-the-shelf components reinterpreted through playful detailing.

LOCATION: Goshen, KY
BUILDING AREA: 5,200 s.f.
CONSTRUCTION COST: Withheld at Owner's request
STATUS: Completed 2008

OVERVIEW: Project information coming soon.

LOCATION: Crestwood, KY
BUILDING AREA: 3,500 s.f. (existing) / 3,000 s.f. (addition)
CONSTRUCTION COST: $740,000
STATUS: Completed October 2007

OVERVIEW: The project is the first component of a multi-phase program to facilitate public use and enjoyment of Yew Dell Botanical Gardens, the arboretum & themed gardens founded in 1940 by horticultural pioneer Theodore Klein.

The facility provides a collection of flexible activity spaces through the rehabilitation of a historic bank barn and the construction of a new pavilion. The simplicity of regional farm structures, specifically the Kentucky tradition of black pitch coloration on tobacco barns and fence rails, provided the point of departure for the project.

Low-tech (and economical) passive sustinable strategies are incorporated into the new facility. Roof overhangs and building orientation modulate seasonal heating & cooling. All major surrounding trees are preserved and provide shade during summer months. To avoid existing tree root zones and minimally impact water runoff, the pavilion hovers over the sloping ground plane on wood piers. The glass connector bridge between the barn & pavilion is detailed to allow the passage of cooling summer breezes. New construction utilizes dimensional lumber (in lieu of heavy timber) to promote the use of young-growth wood.

LOCATION: Hendersonville, NC
STATUS: Competition / Concept Design Completed 2005

LOCATION: Coney Island, NY
STATUS: Competition / Concept Design completed 2005

OVERVIEW: The project uses as its point of departure the recreational history of Coney Island and its proclivity to spectacle. Marked by a layered condition of both natural & artificial elements, the existing oceanfront context is an incongruous environment that merges both uncommon & everyday experiences.

Within this arena, the new pavilion seeks to reinvigorate the nature of public space by framing possibilities for an open-ended matrix of social encounters - a proposition of "spectacle" as an impromptu mixture of disparate activities & events.  As a horizontal counterpoint to the existing Parachute Jump, the project expands on the traditional role of the pavilion as object/folly by operating as a continuum within the larger network of landscapes, simultaneously connecting, revealing and amplifying the existing context.

RE-THINKING PROGRAM - The pavilion is a framework supporting a use & activity matrix based on four core programmatic components:  restaurant, multi-use exhibit/event space, store, and office.  By distilling the base program into its primary components, or 'genetic strands', and bundling them to interlock in plan & section, new programmatic possibilities arise through adjacencies between pavilion elements and the immediate site.  As a catalyst encouraging invention of activity & use, the pavilion's 'expanded' program elevates the familiar & the commonplace.

RE-THINKING FORM - The richness of programmatic possibilities is reinforced by a visual transparency & layered spatial density that fluctuates with activity & use.  A primary building vocabulary of laminated glass and teak planking is detailed to evoke familiar nautical and beachfront elements.

LOCATION: Charlotte, NC
STATUS: Schematic Design completed 2003