A New School and Community Center

THE NEXT EARTHBAG CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

MANKHU VILLAGE FARM FOR WOMEN

This spring, TruexCullins architects are collaborating with Edge of Seven and The Mountain Fund to create a new Community Center specifically for women at the Mankhu Village Farm in rural Nepal. The center will be built using earthbag construction and will complement the existing programs at Mankhu Village Farm to offer women a safe and collaborative space for education and health.

Many women at Mankhu Village Farm have been victims of sex trafficking or domestic abuse, and, as a result, have nowhere to go. They possess valuable agricultural skills, but have been deprived of the opportunity to achieve independence from their own labor.

Known as “Her Farm”, this project will help women in these situations heal and develop the skills they need to live independently and support their children. The Community Center project will include 2 buildings: one will contain a classroom and computer lab; and the other will contain a health post and daycare center.

TruexCullins is donating design services for the Mankhu Village Farm. Architect Diantha Korzun and others in our office are supporting Edge of Seven and the team on the ground in Nepal.  For projects in the developing world like this one, architects still play a contributing role, but it is one which is substantially redefined from the western model.  Here, it is less about pure design or individual style, and more about engaging local communities, working within vernacular aesthetics and finding creative solutions to practical problems.

For example, the buildings are designed so they can be easily replicated in other villages, built by local Nepalese people who may not possess construction skills. Local materials are relied upon, which influences the design of everything from the structural connections to the interior finishes.

The building itself is modest by American standards, but what it represents is huge.  We are excited to have the chance to work on such a unique and innovative solution to address a dire need.

The foundation for the adjacent residential building is now under construction:

Interested in supporting this work in Nepal?  You can donate now on our Crowdrise site at www.crowdrise.com/truexcullins-nepal

And stay tuned for more adventures related to our work with Edge of Seven!

The Spirit of Vermont in Norwich

What qualifies as the best examples of excellent new architecture in Vermont? That was the question addressed by Donald Kreis on yesterday’s episode of the popular Commentary Series on Vermont Public Radio.

Kreis is an attorney with Vermont Law School and a regular contributor to VPR.  In this episode, Kreis praises two of this year’s recipients of the AIA VT Excellence in Architecture Design Awards, including the King Arthur Flour campus expansion in Norwich, Vermont.

TruexCullins was pleased to learn recently that the King Arthur Flour project received a Merit Award from the Vermont Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.  The jury was impressed with the arrival sequence and the creation of a communal courtyard that connects the various program elements.  Also noted was the use of materials and forms that are harmonious with the site and effective daylighting strategies.  According to the jury, “This building captures the spirit of Vermont without being too referential.”
 

We owe much credit to ORW Landscape Architects and Planners for working with us to develop this overall site and building experience.

In his Commentary on VPR, Kreis expands on this concept of place-making with a comparison to another New England town anchored by a growing retail empire: Freeport, Maine.  Unlike this and other towns that have succumbed to a mall-ification of outlets and souvenir shops, Norwich has managed to retain its classic Vermont heritage while permitting – in fact, promoting – the growth of companies like King Arthur Flour.

The new building at King Arthur is based on the concept of the classic Vermont monitor barn, but with contemporary and artful detailing.  As Kreis states, “Whenever we fail to turn a piece of Vermont into another Freeport, and build something new and graceful instead, I say it's time to break out the plaques and trophies.”

You can read (or listen to) the full Commentary at vpr.net:

http://www.vpr.net/episode/55299/kreis-aia-vermont/
 

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.

Making Good Towns

This Wednesday, June 20, marks the beginning of the summer lecture series at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School. The series is free and open to the public at the Yestermorrow campus on Route 100 in Waitsfield, VT.

The first speaker for the summer series will be Rolf Kielman, who is presenting a talk on Making Good Towns: From Norway to Switzerland to Vermont.

Vermont's varied terrain is similar to that of Norway and Switzerland. Sloped landscapes; deep, watery cuts between hilly regions; the form of our farmsteads; these terrain characteristics have contributed to the shape of towns and villages in these regions. This lecture explores how the land has formed the architecture of buildings and public spaces and how architects and planners can advance the art of making good towns.

This Wednesday's lecture begins at 7pm. To see the entire 2012 lecture series schedule, go to: http://www.yestermorrow.org/about-us/stay-connected/lectureseries/

Or for more info, call 802-496-5545.

Designer Snapshot on New England Home

Today TruexCullins was featured on the New England Home Design Blog, the official blog of New England Home magazine.

Under the title “Designer Snapshot: No Boundaries”, the editors at New England Home chose three of our residential projects as examples of interior spaces that celebrate their natural surroundings and blur the boundaries between inside and out.

Read more about these three projects on today’s NE Home blog, then see the full article on the Shelburne home that was published in the magazine last year.

Restaurant Week Part 5: Norma’s

If you’ve been following us this week you know that we’re on a restaurant kick, with a new culinary design project posted each day. With summer right around the corner, we can’t think of a better way to enjoy a meal than sitting poolside with the Vermont mountain landscape opening around you. So today we are closing out our own Restaurant Week by coming back to Vermont and the Topnotch Resort in Stowe.

Norma’s is the signature restaurant of this four-diamond resort near the top of the Mountain Road. Opening in 2006, the restaurant serves up casual alfresco dining at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The restaurant pavilion maintains a low profile, with a sweeping roofline and radial plan that allows for maximum views. TruexCullins collaborated with Belle Maison Interiors on this project, which has a contemporary interior and natural earth tones. An open kitchen opens onto the dining room.

The entire west wall of the restaurant is lined with a broad bank of mahogany-framed sliding glass doors that open onto a pair of sparkling pools. Outdoor tables provide more seating on the stone-paved terrace. And on a warm summer evening, the firepit on the patio becomes the source for a refined roast-your-own S’mores experience sure to please the whole family.

To view the menu and make a reservation, visit Norma’s Restaurant online at topnotchresort.com/dining-normas.php.

Jericho Fieldhouse

On Thursday night we attended the 2011 AIA VT Design Awards ceremony and were pleased to receive a Merit Award for one of our new residential projects.  This is a home in Jericho that sits on the edge of a small meadow.

The house is a three-part composition of garage, studio and home placed about a parterre garden and edged to the south by a garden wall and linear orchard. In the tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright, the house is a grid-formed composition striving to generate economy from the beautiful elegance of formed geometry. The structures utilize modest exterior materials to shape a traditional but elemental form in the landscape.

We worked with H. Keith Wagner Partnership on the site plan and landscape design.  The photos below are by Jim Westphalen.

12th Annual Roland Batten Lecture: Line, Form, & Texture

On Wednesday, October 26th, please join us for the 12th Annual Roland Batten Memorial Lecture on Architecture and Design.  Landscape architect H. Keith Wagner will present “Line, Form & Texture”, a brief survey of recent works by H. Keith Wagner Partnership.

The presented projects will show recent examples of the firm’s design approach and collaborative strategies working with architects, engineers, artists and, other design professionals.

HKWP was founded on the belief that landscape architecture is the intersection of art, nature and mankind. They approach landscape architecture as an applied art form and work to craft landscape spaces for live, work and play. Their design combines an artistic approach to material and detailing, regional sensitivity and a refined, almost minimal contemporary aesthetic.

The firm’s reputation comes from designing innovative and sensitive environments in a wide variety of campus, corporate, residential, resort and urban design projects. Geographically, these projects range from New England, New York, Pennsylvania and the Eastern seaboard.

The Roland Batten Lecture series was created in memory of our friend and colleague architect Roland Batten. This event is sponsored by the Roland Batten Memorial Fund, TruexCullins Architecture & Interior Design, and the University of Vermont's Visiting Artists, Art Critics and Art Historians Lecture Series.

The lecture is on Wednesday, October 26th at 6pm at 301 Williams Hall on the University of Vermont campus.  The event is free and open to the public.