The owner sought a second-story addition to his flat-roofed, modern house to take advantage of the expansive vistas and to accommodate a guest suite. The new great room “wedge”, a reinterpretation of existing geometries, introduces a double-height volume that creates a formal hierarchy at the core of the house and a spatial connection to the sitting room above. The introduction of a massive masonry core, clad in local stone, roots the otherwise non-vernacular super-structure to the landscape of rocks and retaining walls. Views are framed through architectural elements to create a more dynamic and intimate relationship with the landscape.
Westlook Residence
November 14th, 2009Westlook Studio
November 13th, 2009This new art studio, which takes its geometry from the Westlook Residence “wedge” addition, is intended to be a garden element tucked into the landscape – almost invisible from the street and the main entry. The design was shaped not only by the functional considerations of a working art studio, but also by the preservation of a large tree and the carving of a private outdoor grotto into the sloping site.
Careful light control was imperative to the building’s function as an art studio, and its west façade is mostly opaque; a large northern skylight instead offers a gentle wash of indirect illumination ideal for artists. A custom-built rolling barn door on the southern façade also provides for easily variable light. In all cases, the stark formal geometry imposed by the precedent of the main house is inflected to respond to site and functional considerations. To reinforce the notion of verdant seclusion, the façade facing the main entrance of the house is gently curved and clad in the same stone as the retaining walls, to deflect the casual visitor. Over 80 tons of local stone were used to construct the three walls of the grotto, the curved south façade of the studio and the retaining walls.
The ideas of separation, retreat, and connection to the natural environment were key elements of the design.
Center for Biotechnology & Life Sciences at University of Rhode Island
November 13th, 2009In partnership with Payette Associates.
The Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences is the first building to anchor the new Biotech North District at the University of Rhode Island. This LEED-Gold building embodies all of the University’s aspirations to create world-class, environmentally responsive facilities.
The structure’s sustainable features include a ‘green’ roof that is partially covered in vegetation that filters pollutants and reduces heating and cooling needs; a rain garden and storm water treatment feature with a sophisticated drainage and detention system; daylight harvesting technologies that brighten rooms and warm the floors; and an energy efficient heating and cooling system. One hundred percent of the wood used in construction was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council to have come from forests managed in a sustainable way. About a third of the materials used in the building had been previously recycled. Speaking of recycled, 79 percent of construction waste was recycled. The energy efficiency measures installed in the building save about $135,000 per year in utility costs.
Watertown Free Public Library
November 12th, 2009Architects Shaw & Hunnewell designed the original Watertown Free Public Library in 1884. Located prominently on Main Street in the heart of Watertown, this French Renaissance style structure has undergone several additions and renovations over the years. The most significant expansion occurred in 1956 with a modern brick and glass structure.
The new design by LLB Architects, fully implemented by August 2006 at a cost of $9 million, removed the later additions and restored the historic 6,000 sf red brick and brownstone library. The new 38,000 sf addition connects its main entrances with a two-story corridor/central spine that is washed with natural light from a skylight above, and provides a monumental stair connecting the two levels. The scale and materials of the addition are sensitive to the existing historic buildings. The design also reestablishes the street edge and creates a vibrant new urban green space showcasing the historic library structure.
Photography by Warren Jagger Photography
Mencoff Hall at Brown University
November 12th, 2009In the early 1840’s the Rhode Island Historical Society commissioned James Bucklin to design a library to hold its growing collection. Mencoff Hall, formerly known as the Cabinet Building was the first library of its kind when it was completed in 1844. In 1891, the Society constructed a major addition, including a two-story domed display hall to the north. Over time and multiple additions, the dome was covered, and much of the building’s original spatial hierarchy lost.
LLB Architects was commissioned to return the Cabinet Building to its original elegance while creating a home for the Brown University Population Studies Center. The center’s spirit of collaborative interdependence is reflected in a design centralized around core public spaces, and visually linked through a series of glass walls and open stairways. The monumental doors of the main entrance have been permanently fixed in the open position, creating a clear line of sight from the street, through the building, to the dome ceiling on the opposite side.
The interior core created around the domed seminar room gives the building a stable center and unifies the design. While the uncovered and restored domed space is the center’s main conference room, the program allowed for numerous less formal meeting areas, especially clustered in the Cabinet’s roof. LLB opened this lost space in the building by removing part of the roof and installing a continuous ridge skylight, allowing for exposure of original hand-hewn roof trusses. This new “attic” space, created from an unusable, windowless area, promotes interaction between faculty and students, and gives the impression of an open-air loft. Careful reconstruction and thoughtful space-planning throughout the building resulted in a fully-accessible, code-compliant interior possessing architectural integrity worthy of the original historic structure.
Blackstone Residence
November 12th, 2009The proposed site for this residential project featured an elongated site on a steep grade, requiring an original approach to design. Turning these difficulties into opportunities, Lerner | Ladds + Bartels took advantage of the lower level by utilizing taller ceilings for family spaces and opening out onto the terraced backyard.
Design work occurred in a very traditional context. A key facet of the architectural solution required the execution of more than a mere replication of the historic style, yet continue to work respectively within the existing context.
Maynard Public Library
November 11th, 2009The new Maynard Public Library was inserted into the shell of the formerly abandoned Roosevelt School, a locally significant and historic three story New England brick school. The 24,000 sf building serves as a spacious new home for the growing library collection.
Due to the severe weather damage and water infiltration of the abandoned school, only the historic facades and entrances were preserved in the renovation.
Lerner | Ladds + Bartels developed a sculptural curtain wall design on each end to allow for light to penetrate through the fire stairs and into the collection areas. The interior was reconstructed with a completely new concrete and steel structure and organized around a central opening and skylight that is occupied on the lower level by a monumental staircase. Each floor is also enhanced with the adaptation of a loggia-like central spine that beckons back to the arched ceiling of the original school’s hallway. The site received a new parking lot and an accessible entrance, as well as a reading garden and seating area.
Whale Rock
November 11th, 2009On a bluff overlooking Naragansett Bay, this guest house was designed as part of a family compound, on a site with little buildable area. The existing elements (owner’s home, historic farmhouse and barn) were all designed and built at different times and in various styles. The owner requested that the new four-bedroom structure be designed in the Adirondack Style. The use of integrated stone walls, clapboard and shingle sidings, wood shingled roofs, and exposed cross-bracing in the great room create a modern interpretation of the traditional Adirondack style, and are incorporated as elements to unify the grouping of buildings. The organizing element of the guest house is a two story great room with continuous 8-foot windows wrapping around the space to take advantage of stellar bay views. With a line of large clerestory windows admitting even more light, the room evokes the feeling of an indoor “veranda.” Surrounding the great room is the entry hall, a combination kitchen/eating area/sitting room, a study, and a 2nd floor balcony servicing four bedroom suites. Guest bedroom suites with bay views, keyhole windows and dormer ceilings adjoin a wide hallway balcony looking back down onto the great room. The open plan design promotes ease of circulation and integration of outdoor spaces as extensions of the house. Outdoor features such as the rooftop lookout and grass terrace help to accommodate large gatherings, and the incorporation of various stone walls anchor the house in its environment, echoing lines of existing old stone walls nearby. The prominent lookout tower also implies another iconic new England image-the lighthouse, a parallel which is magnified at night, with the bay in view.
ZBT Fraternity House at University of Rhode Island
November 11th, 2009ZBT fraternity teamed with LLB to design a new home on the URI campus to take the place of the existing structure that was lost to a fire and only partially rebuilt a decade before. Because the program was ambitious in relation to the size of the site and budget, an efficient and economical design was vital. Each room was planned and sized to not only accommodate the required program but also to mitigate waste of materials. Standard length lumber was used at all possible locations to reduce the amount of waste and labor needed to erect the walls.
The exterior of the building was designed to be contextual with the surrounding neighborhood. LLB drew from the language of traditional New England residential architecture, materials, and detailing to create a façade with a sense of home. Traditional gable end roofs, used at the entrance to the residential side of the fraternity, brought the façade to a human scale.
Careful attention to context and an eye for efficient design helped to define the building, its function, and its structure, while allowing for a renewed sense of home for the students.
Wilton Presbyterian Church
November 10th, 2009For nearly 30 years, Wilton Presbyterian Church held services in a parish hall on a 14-acre site shared with St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church. In the early 2000’s, they sought to build a dedicated sanctuary of their own. The original church complex was built in the early 1970’s. The facility featured two large volumes, St. Matthew’s church and the shared parish hall, knit together by a one-story building containing classrooms, offices, library and conference rooms. The exterior is brick, painted uniformly white. The surrounding area is wooded and primarily residential. The design concept for the new sanctuary is a simple New England church form to fit in with the volumetric character of the existing buildings, while establishing its own identity. Subtle detailing distinguishes the sanctuary while remaining mindful of its kinship with the campus. However, seemingly “simple” design requires sophisticated detailing to succeed. A slot window/skylight runs the length of the gable end wall of the sanctuary. The effect is an ephemeral lightening of the space and a connection to the outdoors important to the congregation. The minimalist detailing, while carefully crafted, is also in keeping with the Presbyterian ethos. The sanctuary addition includes a narthex, coat room, elevator, basement choir room, library, offices, sitting room, sacristy, upper mezzanine, and seating for 350 people.
