Figure Ground Mapping - A Graphic Study of the Built Environment

We came by a love of maps and aerial photography honestly - fascinated by the built environment, scale and the patterns of urban design. Whether gazing out of the window seat on a plane or studying an historic Nolli map, seeing the relationship of buildings and adjacent open spaces in cities and towns provides insight and lessons for our design work. Of particular interest is the ‘Figure Ground Diagram’ which is typically a high-contrast graphic showing built and unbuilt spaces. As Morphocode describes, “A figure-ground diagram is a mapping technique used to illustrate the relationship between built and unbuilt space in cities. Land coverage of buildings is visualized as solid mass (figure), while public spaces formed by streets, parks and plazas are represented as voids (ground). In urban planning, this simple yet powerful graphic tool is used to explore built form patterns and the continuity of open space.” [Read more about the Figure Ground Diagram and its origins at Morphocode’s website here.]

As a way to further study such urban patterns and pay homage to locales where we have lived or are living, RDA architect Judy Dixon created diagrams for Charleston, SC; Blacksburg, VA; and Saluda, NC. Each scale varies and was chosen specifically for that city or town to memorialize the differing urban patterns i.e. a walled city, a college campus and a more rural historic town.

Figure Ground Diagram - Blacksburg, VA [Judy Dixon]

Figure Ground Diagram - Saluda, NC [Judy Dixon]

Bookshelf: Unpacking My Library - Architects and Their Books

We were recently gifted a copy of Jo Steffens’ book “Unpacking My Library: Architect and Their Books” published in 2009 by Yale University Press. A book about architecture books, how perfect. The book is launched with Walter Benjamin’s essay “Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting” then followed by 10 chapters each focused on a notable architect or duo and their collection. In a spectacular show of comprehensiveness, each chapter has an in depth interview with the architects illuminating their relationship with books, varied sources of inspiration plus details about the physical book case design (manufacturer, number of volumes, linear dimensions, materials of the actual shelves) complete with a wide shot in situ and shelf-by-shelf thumbnails. The summary of each chapter is a list of their Top Ten books. Be still our hearts - we fully understand we are a different breed - equally excited about design inspiration, information sources, furniture design and a peek behind the (bookshelf) curtain of the “greats.”

“ This book captures a representative cross-section of these notable libraries, mapping the intellectual and emotional terrain of present-day architects and scholars…Each architect’s collection is unique and informs its owner’s practice in surprising ways. Tod Williams and Billie Tsien’s library, for example, is remarkable for its archaeological and literary aesthetic, while Liz Diller and Ric Scofidio’s library is imbued with a techno-eclectic and pop-cultural sensibility.”

Jo Steffen

In a surprise to no one, we were not invited to be a part of Steffen’s book, none-the-less here is a glimpse of our own collection and current Top Ten architecture books. Happy reading!

Dimensions: 15”(h) x 30”(w) each, 30lf total

Manufacturer: Custom built-in cabinets by Mountain Showcase (design by Rush Dixon Architects)

Materials: Maple painted Sherwin Williams “Iron Ore”

Number of Books: about 375

Photo: Keith Isaacs

OUR CURRENT TOP TEN

Grain Elevators by Lisa Mahar-Keplinger

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

The New Architecture and the Bauhaus by Walter Gropius

Modern Architecture - A Critical History by Kenneth Frampton

Between Silence and Light - Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I. Kahn by John Lobell

The City Shaped - Urban Patterns and Meanings by Spiro Kostof

Rural Studio - Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency by Andrea Oppenheimer Dean and Timothy Hursley

America’s 5 & 10 Cent Stores - The Kress Legacy by Bernice L. Thomas

Aldo Rossi - Architecture 1981 - 1991 edited by Morris Adjmi

New Homes for Today by Paul R. Williams

Dayfield Park Buildings A + B

Dayfield Park is a soon-to-be, modern day office park and commercial destination in the award-winning Nexton Community, in Summerville, SC. The design approach for these two commercial buildings is rooted in strong massing, innovative detailing and creating an inspiring place to work and do business. The development will ultimately include multiple buildings by several local architects (like our friends at Bello Garris) creating a varied interpretation linked by the same departure points: relevant and marketable commercial spaces, innovative yet locally inspired architecture and connecting the buildings with the thoughtful site design focusing on outdoor gathering areas for patrons and workers.

The project was subject to the Nexton community design guidelines which prioritize the following:

• Architecture, land planning and landscape drawn from local and regional traditions but look to the future regarding specific design.

• A commitment to sustainable design focused on protecting what we are here to enjoy and the creation of an overall healthier living environment.

• Architecture - purposeful building designs that incorporate new and innovative building materials, systems, technologies and architectural expressions.

• Use materials in innovative and unexpected ways.

• Use clean, simple shapes in both massing and details.

• Emphasize the relationship and flow between indoor and outdoor environments.

View of Dayfield Park B from the central gathering space

So what is a modern interpretation of a suburban office park? Today’s workforce wants to be connected to multiple uses, amenities, food + beverage options and outdoor space. Outdoor space can be passive, specific or flexible for all ages, uses and times of day; this also provides the ownership with an amenity to use for special events if desired. The blending of inside and outside is a strategy to allow patrons and workers to feel connected to the outdoor environs. Sidewalks and bike parking are important to offset the needed parking and vehicular pathways. During our research we found this interesting article from the New York TImes “The Suburban Office Park, an Aging Relic, Seeks a Comeback” which speaks to some lessons developers and designers could learn from the past. (The 80s might have been great for some things but not urban planning.)

View of Dayfield Park A from office park interior

The architecture for the buildings cosigns a minimalist approach with materials familiar to the area. Exterior materials include a modified board and batten wall system with varied batten spacing, cypress wood accents for warmth and standing seam metal roof panels for durability on the high slope areas. Angling the walls at the building’s entrances create a dynamic experience and covered areas. Special thanks to our clients for allowing us to be a part of this endeavor and the design team members we collaborated with:

Site Design: Seamon Whiteside

Structural Engineering: ADC Engineering

Mech, Elec, Plumbing Engineering: Charleston Engineering

Branding: Obviouslee

View of Dayfield Park B from the central gathering space

Ode to the Sample Panel

Sample panels are condensed, down-scaled versions of the building under construction showing all of the materials, components and critical details and are often a requirement of the jurisdiction or design review board. While there is an up-front cost associated with them, we feel this is a great investment in the success of the building's execution by front-loading the conversations about sequencing, specifications and quality of craftsmanship. Pictured above is our sample panel for Santee Cooper’s Avian Pavilion at Camp Hall Village courtesy of Choate Construction. Hat tip to our friends ADC Engineering for the collaboration.

Conceptual rendering of the Avian Pavilion.

More about Camp Hall Village:

Santee Cooper’s Camp Hall is a next generation commerce park where “people, nature and productivity connect.” With state-of-the-art manufacturing in a setting of vast natural beauty, the design concept of “Nature and the Machine” permeates the built environment. Like the vehicles and machines produced in Camp Hall, the Architecture is intended to embody precision, sleekness and innovation. With bird protection and awareness as a major focus, the architecture likewise found its inspiration. The building forms are abstract interpretations of the patterns, colors, and figures found in native species. For more about our design work at Camp Hall Village click here.

Judy Dixon Included in CRBJ's 2021 Architects Power List

This year’s statewide Architects Power List curated by the editorial board of the Charleston Regional Business Journal and SC Biz News includes our own Judy Dixon. In their words, “Our editorial team analyzed industry data and considered the individuals who demonstrated vision and action in serving their profession, as well as the professional excellence that commitment provides to our places of work and life.

After graduating from Virginia Tech in 1993 with a Bachelor in Architecture, Judy Dixon started her career a year later as an intern with SMHa, Inc., rising through the ranks to become a principal in the firm. She left the firm to join forces with her husband, first with Rush3 Product Design Studio and in 2014, she officially joined Rush Dixon Architects. Dixon has built a diverse portfolio, with projects that include the Daniel Island Recreation Center, Firefly Distillery and Santee Cooper’s Camp Hall Village. A registered architect in South Carolina, Dixon also is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design accredited professional by the U. S. Green Building Council. Throughout her career, she has served in a variety of leadership roles, including on the board of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce and as chair of Leadership Charleston. She also supports organizations including the ACE Mentors, Turn90, Fresh Future Farm and the Paul R. Williams Student Scholoarship. The latter honors the first licensed African-American member of the American Institute of Architects by supporting African-American architecture students.”

2021 ARCHITECTS POWER LIST HONOREES (in alphabetical order)

Robby Aull, SSOE | Stevens & Wilkinson

Louis P. Batson III, Batson Associates Inc.

Cindy Benjamin, LS3P

Joel Carter, Jumper Carter Sease Architects

Keith M. Clarke, MCA Architecture Inc.

Judy Dixon, Rush Dixon Architects

Douglas E. Fraser, JHS Architecture

Scott Garvin, Garvin Design Group

Myles Glick, Glick Boehm and Associates

Tara B. Hile, SHLTR Architects, Inc.

Scott Johnston, Johnston Design Group

C. Dinos Liollio, Liollio Architecture

Margie Longshore, SMHa, Inc.

Marc Marchant, LS3P

Heather Mitchell, Boudreaux

Doug Quackenbush, Quackenbush Architecture

Ron Smith, McMillan Pazdan Smith

Michael W. Spivey, Spivey Architects Inc.

Gable Stubbs, SGA | NarmourWright Design

J. Michael Taylor, DP3 Architects Ltd.

Marc Warren, Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood

Edward T. Zeigler Jr., Craig Gaulden Davis, Inc.

Another Way to Frame a View

We aren’t pack rats at all so to have saved a piece of paper from architecture school from a couple of decades ago, not to mention several moves and home renovations, is noteworthy. (The source is unknown so if anyone has more information, please leave a note in the comments.) The topic of this particular lecture was about framing views; through the telling of two separate stories the concept of restraint was illuminated. In the first story, we learn the concept of not over-saturating a view thus keeping it ‘alive’. In the second story, the view is actually made part of a tea ceremony ritual. Admittedly it is nearly impossible not to leverage beautiful views with large expanses of glass, yet these lessons challenge us to think alternatively about creating moments that somehow bring reverence to experiencing a view. Since the original hand-out is hard to read, the two stories are excerpted below.

“A Buddhist monk lived high in the mountains, in a small stone house. Far, far in the distance was the ocean, visible and beautiful from the mountains. But it was not visible from the monk’s house itself, nor from the approach road to the house. However, in front of the house there stood a courtyard surrounded by a thick stone wall. As one came to the house, one passed through a gate into this court, and then diagonally across the court to the front door of the house. On the far side of the courtyard there was a slit in the wall, narrow and diagonal, cut through the thickness of the wall. As a person walked across the court, at one spot, where their position lined up with the slit in the wall, for an instant, they could see the ocean. And then they were past it once again, and went into the house.

What is it that happens in this courtyard? The view of the distant sea is so restrained that it stays alive forever. Who, that has ever seen that view, can ever forget it? Its power will never fade. Even for the person who lives there, coming past that view day after day for fifty years, it will still be alive.

This is the essence of the problem with any view. It is a beautiful thing. One wants to enjoy it and drink it in every day. But the more open it is, the more obvious, the more it shouts, the sooner it will fade. Gradually it will become part of the building, like the wallpaper; and the intensity of its beauty will no longer be accessible to the people who live there.”

“When the tea room and garden were completed, they invited a few friends to a tea ceremony for the housewarming. Knowing the host’s greatness, the guest naturally expected to find some ingenious design for the garden which would make the best use of the sea, the house being on the slope of a hill. But when they arrived they were amazed to find that a number of large evergreen trees had been planted on the side of the garden, evidently to obstruct the view of the sea. They were at a loss to understand the meaning of this. Later when the time came for the guest to enter the tea room, they proceeded one by one over the stepping stones in the garden to the stone water basin to rinse their mouths and wash their hands, a gesture of symbolic cleansings, physically and mentally, before entering the tea room. Then it was found that when a guest stooped to scoop out a dipperful of water from the water basin, only in that humble posture were they suddenly able to get a glimpse of the shimmering sea in the distance by way of an opening through the trees, thus making them realize the relationship between the dipperful of water in hand and the great ocean beyond, also enabling them to recognize their own position in the universe.”

"Designing for Life"

“The great thing about getting older is living life.” Jon Hamm

Admittedly, the term “Designing for Life” is quite aspirational in terms of residential architecture because it assumes we know every current and future client need at a single moment in time. Rather, we use the term as a way to approach the design of a home while looking ahead to certain or likely scenarios in an effort to provide an inspiring environment to age in place.

Before we put pen to paper we, of course, spend time listening closely to our clients’ goals for their new or renovated home - how they want it to feel and look, budget and metrics such as number of bedrooms and bathrooms, etc. After capturing these programmatic pieces, we push the conversation to help clients think about bigger and perhaps, different aspects. One such conversation we are having more and more is designing and planning to age in place, or at the risk of using another aspirational term, “future proof”. This concept is certainly not new; and while waning mobility may not be a super fun thing to think about, careful design and intentional planning go a long way in adding value, ease and enjoyment in a living space.

Zero step transition from living room to outside courtyard.

To hone our perspective and approach, we recently completed the National Association of Home Builders’ Certified Aging-In-Place Specialist educational series. A welcomed aspect was the varied professional backgrounds represented in the group: product representatives, occupational therapists, builders and designers from all parts of the country offered laser focused reports from each industry. Many of the strategies have been exercised for decades and considered good practice without being labeled as “Aging In Place” and some new strategies were shared such as product offerings - all worth a little air time to keep it front of mind. Some highlights include:

• SLIDING SCALE: There is not one size fits all when it comes to designing to age in place. There are varied needs including clients with out urgent needs, clients with progressive conditions and clients with traumatic needs (short term injury or long term disability). Within each of those categories exists a different comfort level / interest in incorporating design elements. Each situation, client and budget yields a custom solution.

• VISITABILITY: Think not only about the clients’ needs, but their aging parents or friends with disabilities. If a home has even a few steps, visits from some family or acquaintances would prove difficult, cumbersome or impossible. Think about offering welcoming and safe spaces for everyone.

• OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS: For those clients who have progressing or traumatic needs, listen closely to what the healthcare providers are recommending. Often in the group discussions, those of us non-medical folks went over the top in accommodations in contrast to the OT’s approach which was usually simple and exacting to the specific challenge but sought to keep the client as active and independent as possible.

• ADAPTABILITY: Blocking - just do it. Add wood blocking at targeted locations within walls in bathrooms for future grab bars and shower seats. Other examples of adaptable design include stacking closets for future elevator, base cabinets that can be removed to accommodate a wheelchair, structural support in ceiling for future lift, size powder rooms for future showers, etc.

• BUILDING BLOCKS: Zero step entry into the home, correctly sized halls and doors, living and bedroom on ground floor, curbless or “beach entry” into shower, elevator or stacking closets for future elevator for multi-story homes, lever hardware in lieu of knobs, think about mounting heights of outlets and switches.

Beach entry into shower

Our goal as architects is to synthesize the practical and required components into inspired design that meets or exceeds our clients’ goals. Seamlessly incorporating these and other aging in place strategies into the overarching architecture direction is our ultimate plan. This is not to say that every design of ours checks every accessibility or aging-in-place box, rather we introduce the discussion and allow the client to drive the decision making. We can therefore create a built environment that allows our clients to safely enjoy their days in the place they most want to be.

“The great thing about getting older is living life.” Jon Hamm

Paul R. Williams | New Homes for Today

Continuing our study of the noteworthy African-American architect, Paul R. Williams (1894 - 1980), we have been pouring over his book published in 1946, “New Homes for Today.” The book is light on words and heavy on images which is just how us visual learners like it.

We first wrote about Paul R. Williams on the blog in June when we discovered the “Paul R. Williams Student Scholarship” organized by DesignClass. In their words, “Paul Williams kicked off a prolific career by becoming the first licensed African-American member of the American Institute of Architecture in 1923. Throughout his life he designed over 2,000 buildings in California and helped shape Los Angeles into the metropolitan city it is today. In 1957, Williams became the first African-American elected as a Fellow of the AIA. DesignClass honors the legacy of Paul R. Williams with a scholarship for African-American architecture students seeking to foster curious and creative confidence in their communities.” The scholarship provides financial assistance to African American students studying at a NAAB accredited architecture program. [As of last week, they have more qualified students than sponsors, so if you are able to contribute $500 to sponsor an African-American architecture student please contact them here. Our industry desperately needs diversification.]

While Mr. Williams had a wide multi-faceted based in Los Angeles, including the design of public buildings, working for the Navy and designing over 2,000 homes (even that of Frank Sinatra!), this book seems to focus on smaller homes, perhaps for the middle class. His words appear to approach homebuilding and designing with refreshing clarity and practicality:

“Two items for consideration face the homebuilder of today which did not confront the homebuilder of yesterday. One: higher building costs; Two: The necessity of reducing household labor to the minimum. The former can be done by skillful planning, the latter by the intelligent use of present labor-saving devices.”

He goes on discuss the merits of solar orientation, single or multi-story homes, warns against highly individualized designs as they could effect resale value and shares trends on the rumpus room (informal living area for the non-Boomers / Gen Xers reading this.) The structure of the book itself allows just two pages for each house design and includes the description, floor plan and classic-now-vintage perspective renderings. Home names like “The Flamingo” and “The Country Gentlemen” start to paint a picture of each home’s character. Our favorite is the “The Esquire”, a 2 bedroom house totaling 1,260sf with a large living room opening to a side patio and double fireplace - one indoor and one outdoor. We may want to individualize it a touch in the bathroom department, but the plan’s efficiency and architecture’s overarching modernist lines and components are a lesson in what you really need and want in a home.

His advice includes a “Do’s and Don’ts” section:

“DO arrange the rooms so that passage may be made from one part of the house to another without the necessity of going through the living room.

DON’T plan the entrance door to expose all of the living room every time the door is opened.

Antiques can be mixed with modern pieces, but it is a job for the expert rather than the amateur decorator.”

And to the question posed in the book “Can we afford an architect?” he answers “To this question there is only one answer: You cannot afford to build a home without an architect.” I do believe we would get along very well, Mr. Williams.