Yellow Pine

Eventually, if we are lucky, we all grow old. I designed and built this home for my aging father. My dad adopted me when I was two. He was the hardest working, most selfless man I have ever known. His whole life he fantasized about retiring to a cabin in the woods. Unfortunately, health issues cut his career and his dreams short. I had to rescue him, but our budget was tight. To keep him close, I found a prime spot on our family farm.   I had to evict the pigs from their pen! The pen dictated the building size, as I chose not to remove trees to build the house. I minimized the foundation to protect the palms and maintain drainage. The structure was cantilevered beyond the foundation to keep it light in its location and to allow for t... More

Duke University’s new Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center peeks out from the woods near the entrance of the historic neo-Gothic West Campus as a gateway for alumni as well as prospective students. The compound of buildings bolsters alumni relations with new meeting and social spaces, unifies Alumni Association operations, and provides a warm welcome for all campus guests.   The project combined new construction with the historic renovation of Forlines House to surround a large grass courtyard, an opening in the Duke forest to accommodate large gatherings.   Highlighting the Karsh Alumni & Visitors Center is the arresting new 20,200-square-foot events building with striking modern glass and stone walls that hint at Gothi... More

• Working directly with the Owner, Ezra Smith Design provided design support to New England Boatworks and designed all interior spaces.• J. Thompson Marine Carpentry built and installed all interior components.• CaptureRI performed a VIF scan to determine as-built interior geometry, allowing all interior components to be built off site. • All bulkheads, overhead panels and furniture casework was designed in 3d and “templated” directly from laser scan data. Components fit perfectly on first install, saving hundreds of man hours in both templating and fitting. Trade overlap was also greatly reduced, increasing workflow efficiency and allowing a condensed timeframe for the interior install.   Materia... More

Located in Bal Harbour, the St. Regis apartment has sweeping views that comprise the surrounding urban and natural landscape. The floating Islands of Biscayne Bay punctuate this vista in the foreground while the skyline of downtown Miami is at the southern horizon. The apartment’s primary feature, a custom accordion wall, both captures and abstracts this view, creating a blurred boundary between interior and exterior space. Entering the residence, one reads the wall’s subtle grey texture of Venetian plaster. Alternately viewed from the living room, vertical panels of ribbed glass inserted into this same wall reflect and amplify the light and space with views of the bay and sky. Folding into the adjacent hallway, the wall’s... More

This house is located in one of Houston’s last intact, nineteenth-century, working-class neighborhoods—the Near Northside—about one mile north of downtown. While perhaps not conventionally attractive, the Near Northside’s collection of well-used Queen Anne and Folk Victorian worker’s cottages offers lessons on how old buildings can be adapted to new uses and increased density instead of simply being replaced. We took this ethos of economy into consideration for the design of a new house on a lot that had always been vacant and approached it as a prototype for future infill houses in this rapidly gentrifying urban area.   At the front of the house is a detached 500 sf building that serves as our architect... More

Whiting Forest of Dow Gardens is the latest nature-play project designed by Philadelphiabased Metcalfe. Located in Midland, Michigan, the installation opened in October 2018 as an experience-oriented complement to the Dow Gardens complex, the landmark public gardens established in 1899 by Herbert H.   Dow. Comprising a dynamic network of bridges, paths, and tree canopy walkways that are populated with engaging gathering points and interactive features, Metcalfe’s design offers a close-up, four-season experience of the 54-acre forest of native northern pine from a variety of unexpected vantage points. On the journey through the woods, visitors encounter a series of “right-brained” experiences involving a progression... More

This project is a community events center and an associated 1,200 car parking garage in a 65 acre downtown park in Austin, Texas. The result of a lengthy community planning process, the project was undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team that included engineers, market experts, and other consultants working with a deeply involved citizenry using design workshops. Centerbrook designed the events center in a joint venture with Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects and Alan Y. Taniguchi-Architects and Associates, both of Austin.The building's program called for a 70,000 square foot, clear-span space to be used for a broad range of community functions. The program required a number of public meeting spaces, lobbies, some covered outdoor even... More

The Bunk House settles into a ravine along a seasonal stream. Views are oriented both up to the ridge top and down slope to the river. Large overhangs provide cover for an uphill terrace and lower level parking area. The uphill elevation has glass sliders and garage door that opens to patio (with firepit) built into the hillside.Material Used :1. Siding and Roofing: Taylor Metal Products2. Interior Trim: Yellow Pine3. Flooring: OSB (oriented strand board)4. Windows and Doors: Milgard5. Glulams beams and columns: Boise Glulam6. Sinks and Toilets: Kohler7. Faucets: Delta8. Interior walls: AD Plywood More

Located in Amaganset, New York, on an expansive and secluded site, the Wuehrer house is surrounded by nature preserves. The house is accessed by a private gravel path and is nestled in a clearing within Stony Hill Forest. The site is gently sloped, covered almost exclusively with white oaks, a few eastern red cedars, and an occasional pitch pine.   To celebrate this serene location, the design of the house mutes architectural metaphors, avoids overt symbolism, and conceives of a contemplative structure that is simple, discreet, rational, and generously open to the surrounding landscape.   The house is made from a unique, repetitive module. This module is itself dematerialized, reduced down to its outer frame. This subtractive... More

The first phase in a landmark revitalization along the Toronto waterfront is the creation of a public park where a derelict 7.5 acre inaccessible staff parking lot existed for forty years. The central objective was to celebrate the iconography and natural heritage of the larger site while creating a new benchmark park space for the city and framework for the future revitalization. Initiating the process with community public meetings and stakeholder design workshops, the LANDinc led the project team to execute a vision of re-imagining a natural Ontario landscape refuge within the ever-increasing urban landscape. The geologic and vegetative evolution of Ontario provided the initial design inspiration for the waterfront park. Glacially formed... More

Overview 443 Greenwich is a landmarked former book bindery in New York City’s TriBeCa neighborhood, a loft building being transformed by developer MetroLoft and design firm CetraRuddy into one-of-a-kind residences, from the 1882 original by noted architect Charles Coolidge Haight. Spanning the length of an entire city block and 250,000 square feet of interior space, 443 Greenwich's new design celebrates the classic building's architectural history and is filled with 21st-century energy. MetroLoft is behind the project and has brought together a renowned team of designers including the celebrated architecture and interiors firm CetraRuddy and the noted landscape architect HM White for the 4,000-square-foot, landmark-designated interi... More

09 - Feb - 2017 De Rosee Sa have recently completed a striking new community pavilion in Hammersmith. The project, funded by the ‘Friends of Brook Green’, is part of the community group’s drive to regenerate the Green and offer a much-needed public facility and attractive community hub, as well as new tennis courts and an upgraded playground. The impact of this pavilion is more far-reaching than its modest dimensions suggest. Part of an ongoing programme to regenerate the Green, the pavilion provides an important public facility (two accessible WC’s and a store for the public tennis courts) but also introduces something new: a kiosk on the Green. The design proposals have been developed over threeyears of public consultation and e... More

The Bolt Barn is a multi-purpose structure designed to accommodate the owner's variety of interests, hobbies and occupations. The program called for a barn hall, wash rack, tack room, hayloft, tow horse stalls, an apartment and a music studio. The owner also requested covered areas around the barn for vehicles, farm equipment, hay storage and a paddock. The traditional cantilevered barns of Appalachia provided an appropriate model and inspiration for the structure. The barn is placed on the highest elevation of the site. Its position, combined with the large cantilevered roof and arched skylight, creates an open yet sheltered presence on the site. The roof eave along the north side and continuously rises southward, its form recalling the ma... More

HISTORICAL CONTEXT In the second half of the 19th century Portugal saw the return of a large number of emigrants from Brazil. While returning to their northern roots, specially in the Douro and Minho regions, they brought with them sizable fortunes made in trade and industry, born of the economic boom and cultural melting pot of the 19th century Brazil. With them came a culture and cosmopolitanism that was quite unheard of in the Portugal of the eighteen-hundreds. That combination of Brazilian capital and taste sprinkled the cities of northern Portugal with examples of rich, quality architecture, that was singular in its urban context and frequently informed by the best that was being done in both Europe and Brazil. BUILT CONTEXT... More