A Sneak Preview of the Juniper Lounge

Anticipation is mounting on the west end of Cherry Street.  You may have seen the 200 foot crane towering over the downtown block as the city’s newest hotel takes shape.  Hotel Vermont is set to open in Spring 2013, and we are looking forward to a very grand opening.

This photo, taken earlier this month, shows the progress being made on the exterior envelope.  The hotel, designed by Smith Buckley Architects, occupies a formerly underutilized parcel on Cherry Street, between Macy’s and the Courtyard Marriott.  The hotel will be in an ideal downtown location, halfway between the waterfront and the Church Street marketplace.

Meanwhile, our work on the interior is continuing, with the design of natural materials, custom furnishings and dramatic lighting.

On the main floor, the heart of the hotel will be the Juniper Lounge.

With juices and pastries in the morning, and creative cocktails in the evening, this is a fluid and flexible space that will change accordingly throughout the day.  We recently produced these photorealistic renderings of the bar area, with actual materials and colors.  The bar features a local wood floor and wall finishes of white oak and black slate.  The space looks out to an outdoor terrace with a fire pit and lake views. (Click to enlarge.)

You can see these and more images on the Hotel Vermont Pinterest site.

Celebrating the work of Rolf Kielman

In the early 1970s, Rolf Kielman joined fellow classmate Terry Jacobs and designed a series of cutting-edge houses that utilized an air panel system for the collection of warm air and a rock box for thermal storage. The Sunpower homes, as they were called, adhered to the design principals of reduced size, improved thermal envelopes and effective siting and orientation. Four of these were built around Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

It is now 40 years later, and Rolf’s portfolio of projects has steadily grown to include numerous energy-positive homes, hotels and resorts that are naturally wedded to their environment, and cultural and civic buildings that galvanize communities. His work includes creatively branded workspaces, custom designed furniture and architectural follies. His urban planning projects are instantly recognizable as some of our most notable public spaces.

Please join us on Friday September 21st to celebrate this 40 year span of impressive work by Rolf Kielman. We are hosting a reception from 5 to 8pm with an exhibit of his architecture in our office on Battery Street.

If you stopped by last week during the Art Hop, you were able to catch a sneak preview of the show. Throughout the exhibit, the thoughtful and artful communication of each design is clearly evident, from beautifully drawn sketches and original watercolors to handmade wood models, including some specifically commissioned for this event.

While we may marvel at his craft, anyone who knows Rolf can attest that his “living legacy” reaches beyond just the architectural work he produces. Much of his energy today directly touches people’s lives through his work with local community organizations such as the Committee on Temporary Shelter, the King Street Youth Center, the 52 Kids Foundation, the Howard Center, and many more.

Rolf continues to be a creative designer, inspiring leader and gracious mentor for all of us at TruexCullins. And next Friday we do hope you’ll join us to recognize his talents and celebrate his 40 years (and counting!) of architecture and craft.



 

A Parade on Church Street

Now that you've watched the videos documenting the birth of the Church Street Marketplace, it's time to celebrate it!

On Wednesday August 29th at 2pm, the marketplace will be the location of an event to celebrate its 30th anniversary and to dedicate the 124 foot long Trompe L'oeil mural "Everyone Loves a Parade!"

The mural has been going up on the side of the Banana Republic building, along the alley that connects the Mall block to the Marketplace Parking Garage.

The mural is a hyper-realistic drawing with a colorful cast of characters from Vermont past and present, including Grace Potter, Peter Clavelle, Miro Weinberger… and Bill Truex, the Vermont architect behind the creation of the Church Street marketplace.

You can read more about the 30th anniversary celebration from the press release on the Church Street Marketplace website, and in this article from Seven Days.

Church Street Storytellers

Those of us who live and work in the Burlington area may take for granted the lively commercial and cultural activity of the downtown Church Street Marketplace, the artistic and economic heart of the city. But have you ever wondered just how this pedestrian–only area of 4 city blocks came to be?

The Marketplace officially opened in 1981. In conjunction with its 30 year anniversary, the Church Street Marketplace Association recently released a series of 4 documentary videos with interviews of the key people who worked to turn this crazy idea into a reality.

At the center of this group of individuals was Bill Truex, Principal Emeritus of TruexCullins and the architect of the initial marketplace design.

Part 1 takes a look at what initially inspired the founders of the Church Street Marketplace. Bill Truex is joined by Pat Robins, the chair of the Church Street Marketplace Commission, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, former Burlington mayor Peter Clavelle, Ernie Pomerleau of Pomerleau Real Estate, and many others who were instrumental in developing the initial concepts.

Part 2 describes how the idea for closing the street evolved and the early tests that made it happen. The video features Bill Truex and Pat Robins, the chair of the Church Street Marketplace Commission, who talk about the early experiments with closing the street in the 1970s. Some of the first special events that experimented with closing the street to automobiles included arts and crafts festivals. These events were a big success and were instrumental in paving the way for permanently closing the street a few years later.

Part 3 tells the story of the investment and construction. The construction of the pedestrian marketplace was a major disruption to the downtown businesses at the time, but with perseverance and creative thinking, the merchants and customers made the best of a difficult situation. This is the story of a successfully managed project in the middle of perhaps the busiest commercial block in the state!

And the 4th and final video talks about the role of the Church Street marketplace today. 30 years after its initial construction, this is an area that has become an arts and cultural destination, an economic engine for the city (and the state), and an award-winning example of great urban design, one of the 10 Great Public Spaces in America according to the American Planning Association.

 

You can see more photos of the drawings, models and demonstration projects from the 1970s in this blog post we published last year.

Flashback Friday: the Church Street Marketplace

Today we are opening the archives to share some projects from the very early days of TruexCullins.  For this first ‘Flashback Friday’, we dug out some vintage photos from the making of the Church Street Marketplace.

This summer marks the 40-year anniversary of the first demonstration project on Church Street, when, in 1971, the busy street was temporarily closed to traffic to test the feasibility of a new pedestrian core for Burlington’s downtown.  The project was the brainchild of Bill Truex and a small group of Burlington’s civic leaders, and the success of the event led to the active planning and design of the project over the following decade.

Bill developed the first design concept in 1975.  A two-level scheme was considered in 1978, with open courtyards and bridges connecting two levels of outdoor retail space.

As originally conceived, the Church Street Marketplace was to be a four block pedestrian space anchored at the south end by City Hall and City Hall Park and at the north end by an iconic, early 1800’s Unitarian Church. The four blocks were the heart of commercial Burlington, with a diverse array of shops and second floor offices and apartments. The initial phase closed vehicular traffic for only the center two blocks, but the success of the space ultimately resulted in the closing of the north and south blocks as well. Several new parking structures were planned in conjunction with the Marketplace, and the transit loop provided public transportation to the center of Burlington.

Substantial completion of the marketplace occurred in 1981.  Today, 30 years later, the Marketplace continues as the civic and commercial center of Burlington. 

It is not without some irony that today we also celebrate the 41^st annual Earth Day.  While not explicitly an “environmental” project, the Marketplace is in actuality a fine example of environmentally sound design practices.  The space has effectively reinforced the public realm of the city and functions as an extremely active space day and night, throughout the year. Pedestrian traffic and amenities have been established, encouraging citizens, students and visitors to forgo their vehicles and move about on foot and by bicycle. The space is accessible to those in wheelchairs and children are free to roam and play amongst the rocks and seating areas.

In 1997, the National Trust for Historic Preservation granted its Great American Main Street Award to the Church Street Marketplace, and in 2008, the Marketplace was honored by the American Planning Association as one of the 10 Great Public Spaces in America.  Bill Truex’s vision for the project lives on, with its positive impact on the environment of our city.