new design

as with most things i'm involved with, there are many iterations. i like this process and get nervous when things move too quickly. i like a lot of time to reflect, absorb, integrate.

the design for the new building has gone through many iterations and i think we're finally at one that's going to stick. the picture shows the concept. the prior design was completely flat and i couldn't get past the overall size of the facade being too big for the street. the scale of the other buildings is smaller, more human. so, the idea developed into keeping some of the stepping, but making it symmetrical and also keeping some of the slope. the major change was pulling out the center, not unlike a good ol' fashioned new england church, giving the front some depth. i also played around with keeping the brick facade on the first floor, but it just has to go.

the design is somewhat traditional, but we're going to implement it in a new way with a rainscreen that will be made probably of wood. this is a kind of floating facade that has been a standard in northern european countries with weather not unlike new england's. the advantage of the system is that the cladding and the weatherproofing are separate and have an airspace between them that lets water drain out should it get behind the cladding (which it almost always does, eventually).