The 2024 Best of the Valley Daily News Record competition has opened. We are thrilled to be nominated in three categories this year. If you need some help deciding who to vote for in each of these, here are some pointers.
When considering our gallery as one of the best, please take into consideration some of the criteria by which we judge a gallery. The Arts Council of the Valley is a gallery that has the appropriate lights, hanging systems, and has staff in the facility. It is a professional space that features some of the best artwork we have seen in the valley. The North Wing Gallery at Sage Bird Ciderworks has fresh amazing cider available along with comfortable seating anytime you visit. You not only get art, you get comfort and flavor. Oasis Fine Art and Crafthas every kind of art, from the most amazing artists you will ever meet each and every day in their space. The artists of the work themselves are often there and you can meet them. The Virginia Quilt Museum has beautiful hand-crafted tapestries that tell of the tradition that is still thriving in the valley. The Hotel Madison & Shenandoah Valley Conference Centercan rent you a room if you get tired from viewing their art. They also have a restaurant in the same building. The Frame Factory and Gallery can not only show you art, but they can also frame your art. VMRC Park Gables Gallery has awesome people living in the same building as the gallery, who you can meet and talk to about your art preferences. Our gallery, which we love and are proud of, is alas just a hallway. We do have brilliant artists that hang their work, the lighting is ok but not gallery lighting, we have food and drink on First Fridays from 5pm – 7pm only, and there are no rooms to rent or comfortable chairs to sit in. If we were ranking us in this category, it would not look good for winning. I think in March Madness terms we lose the play in game in this category.
Now when you think of home renovation, there is nothing better than having a solid plan in place before swinging a hammer. We can certainly lay out a plan of action and I think we will do a pretty good job of it. I am sure if you are looking for someone that fits this category with the widest range of services you could say all we do is design so that limits our appeal. However, I am not sure we can compete with the people that actually do the home improvement work like our friends at Sustainable Solutions. So again, in terms of our March Madness rankings, I don’t think we are making it to the final four.
Best Architectural / Interior Design Firm – Vote here
Finally, this is our category. I know we qualify for consideration, and we are up against some other amazing architectural and interior design competition with Moseley Architectsand LDD Blueline. However, also in this category are our friends at Gray Fox Design Works and Mill Cabinet Shop that do amazing and beautiful furniture and cabinets that certainly enhance the interior design of a space. We are also up against Herr & Company that builds beautiful and amazing buildings and homes and Funkhouser Real Estate that can sell an architecturally interesting home. So the competition is tough, but I feel like we can make the final 4 in this category, right?
We are honored to be included in the three categories and always appreciate your support. You can vote daily from March 27 – April 4 in this round to determine the top 5. Voting and promoting all of these local companies is so important to our survival as small, locally owned businesses.
To meet our most primary needs we create shelter. It can be very simple and uninspiring or it can be beautiful and enhance life. It can shelter us from weather or it can be designed to create wonder. When we started our discussions about designing Eastern Mennonite Elementary School we first had to understand the school’s values. This is true of all of our designs. We meet our clients where they are.
It became clear to us that Eastern Mennonite School wanted a design that would create wonder for their students. This included beautiful spaces, connections to the outside, and strategies to create a better understanding of the actual building and systems in it. They wanted students to understand their building and how it acts and performs. We set out to create places where young minds could grow and understand their world throughout the building. We wanted a building that allows for dreaming and investigation. The result is a building that we are tremendously proud of and a design that will allow the exploration of wonder for many generations.
Creating Space for Wonder
We started with an existing building that we wanted to preserve as much as possible. We sculpted spaces within the existing structure that would create opportunities for exploration and learning. The purpose of the design was to do more than just create space, we wanted to inspire the students and faculty using the building. The goal was to combine function and economy with performance and beauty.
Interactive Building Systems
The practical systems in the building became places that young minds could explore. The mechanical room has labels and glass walls so the students can see how the building works.
Empowering through Inclusive Design
We added school colors to the lower handrail so the students did not have to reach up to navigate the stair, empowering those of all heights to feel safe and included as they move through the structure.
Bridge for Connection and Imagination
The bridge connecting two sides of the campus could have been a simple land bridge with culverts underneath, but instead we were able to give them an outdoor learning space. A place for imagination of fishing from above or a troll down below can be fascinating. A space in the shade of a willow tree that is perfect for reading, meditating, and resting. It serves as an entry point to the elementary campus and a signal that wonder is welcome.
The Learning Kitchen
The learning kitchen is a place for creation, dreaming of being a chef, or just preparing a meal for your family based on a recipe learned at school. It is a place where imagination meets taste and wonder can triumph.
Architecture is more than bricks and mortar, concrete floors, and floor joists, it is inspiring and beautiful. It allows for imagination and challenges imagination. It is based on wonder.
Construction has started on our most recent Bryce Resort Addition and Renovation project! This house was facing a similar fate as many homes at Bryce Resort. It was built as a weekend home in 1998 and had been maintained very well, but it had not been updated in 30+ years and our clients wanted to make it their primary residence. So we began to strategize how to achieve the goals of expanding the home on a modest lot with a bit of slope, matching floor levels, and staying on budget. It was a challenge for sure. It’s always nice to have clients familiar with the construction process and willing to be flexible in their goals. We looked at a variety of options and ended up adding space to both sides of the house and renovating most of the interior spaces.
For any renovation project where the design calls for matching existing floor levels and details, it takes care and patience to get things just right. The construction has started and we have been answering questions of the builder along the way. Having a team approach is a key to a successful project.
The bedroom and kitchen space on one side are beginning to take shape. On the other side, foundation walls are starting for the garage with space above for a bedroom. Working on these sloping lots in Bryce takes a lot of attention to waterproofing, water management, and slope.
Inside the existing space, we thought through functionality for aging in place and comfort. We are replacing the very steep stair with something more comfortable while keeping the high ceilings and large windows. We are also maintaining a first-floor bedroom should that ever be needed. However, we are creating a space on the upper floor with dynamic views to enjoy now too.
The new rear deck will do an even better job than the old deck to allow our clients to enjoy the incredible views. The lookout will be perfect for bird watching, and the screened porch will help keep the bugs away.
I cannot wait to update you as this project takes shape and finishes start getting installed.
We’ve discussed the importance of empathy in design in many blog posts, but how do we implement it and practice it? Here are 10 tools for empathetic design that should help to get you started, and each is explored in more detail below. Remember, empathy takes practice and intentional work.
Engage and Observe
Use Humility
Care
Be Transparent
Experience
Questions – Why
Listening
Imagination
Sustainability – Caring for Creation
Universal Design – Equality
1: Engage and Observe
To design good buildings, you must first engage and observe the people you intend to design for without ego. Work hard to understand and experience the feelings of others. Watch for body language, cues, and habits – seeking to get through to what is really driving the desire.
2: Use Humility
Use humility to elevate the value of others above ourselves. Understanding that each of us have limited experiences and therefore shortfalls to achieve good design alone. We as architects can get hung up on the idea that we know design and therefore know the right solution. However, each of us is limited to our own experiences and thus need others to be able to design a better future for all. We have to invite in stakeholders that have different experiences and views to fully understand the design challenge and to create more holistic design solutions.
3: Care
Care about your clients, the community, and the environment deeply.
4: Be Transparent
Be transparent in your thoughts and actions. After all, you are translating dreams.
5: Experience
You will pull from your life experiences, but that is not enough. You have to pull from the users experiences and put yourself in their shoes. You have to know the experience of your community to completely design for your community. This is where being of the community is so important. How do you engage others and get to know them? How do you understand their lived experiences? How do you design with meaning? You do it through understanding experiences.
6: Questions – Why
Pull out their stories, challenges, desires, needs, and wants by asking why, then why, then why.
7: Listening
It takes time and practice to take notes while listening fully, listening to hear, not listening to respond. Active listening is hard for sure. You have to clear your mind and fully engage in the conversation.
8: Imagination
Put yourself in your client’s position and ask yourself questions – use your imagination.
9: Sustainability – Caring for Creation
True sustainability relies on an architecture that not only reduces our impact on the available resources on the planet but also recognizes, grounds, and affirms our need to be vulnerable, mentally healthy, and connected to each other and nature.
“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations” ~ The great law of the Iroquois Confederacy
10: Universal Design – Equality
Design for any ability rather than specific disabilities which invites equal access for all.
Using these 10 tools will lead to a better future – A future that builds community for all.
As architects, our purpose is to shape the built world we live together within and to create a more equitable and just world through design. I believe a key component of designing for a community is to understand that community. You have to be of the community to connect with the community. You have to be open to sharing experiences, knowing that you don’t know every experience, that you can’t see every solution to every problem in a silo of your own experiences, and that you need community, partners, and other viewpoints to design holistic solutions. This requires work to connect with people in a place, hear their stories, understand their point of view, see what has shaped them, and better understand their experiences to expand your ability to design for them.
There is a myth, sometimes widespread, that a person need only do inner work…that a [person] is entirely responsible for [their] own problems; and that to cure [themselves], [they] need only change [themselves]…. The fact is, a person is so formed by [their] surroundings, that [their] state of harmony depends entirely on [their] harmony with [their] surroundings. ~ Christopher Alexander
So why don’t we see empathy being used in design on a regular basis? The challenge to take on empathetic design is change. You have to open up and be vulnerable, hear others fully, and be willing to let go of what you thought was right solely based on your past experiences. I believe we are at a turning point in the world where disharmony sells and many are not focused on helping each other or building a better world. It is time for all of us to lead with empathy, to sell harmony in our communities, and to build a better future together. We need to step forward to make positive change. If we don’t do it, then who will?
For any renovation project where the design calls for matching existing floor levels and details, it takes care and patience to get things just right. The construction has started and we have been answering questions of the builder along the way. Having a team approach is a key to a successful project.
Inside the existing space, we thought through functionality for 
