Proposed Commons Area
So I got through May and the economy hasn’t killed my fledgling architecture firm (read: I paid the mortgage), so I thought I’d provide an update on all the projects I have going on at the moment.
Propel Braddock Hills Charter High School: So this is a huge (for me) project that I landed in conjunction with my former firm in Pittsburgh back in April after a competition for the project which included Michael Graves’ firm. This project is a 46,000 square foot high school going into an empty big-box retail building in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. The design contract is in place, and the plans have been developed a little further since award of the project. The developer is finalizing the lease and the financing approval prior to letting me loose on the construction documents. Things should start moving soon as construction must be complete before the 2011 fall semester.
The Sterling Building, Trenton, NJ is an old retail building that the developer wants to gut and rehab into a LEED certified green building with a mixed use occupancy. If we get the certification, and get built in time, this project is on track to be the first LEED building in the city of Trenton! Currently out to bid and submitted for permitting, we are all waiting to get started on construction. Read more about the building at the developer’s website http://sterlingtrenton.com.
Proposed Guava and Java
If you are a regular traveler at the Philadelphia Airport, B concourse, you may have noticed that Mrs. Field’s Cookies has been boarded up for a month or so. In it’s place will be a new Guava & Java coffee shop which should open in mid-July. This location, while small, will feature coffee, tea, cold beverages, pastries and hot items too. Currently the walls are up, the floors are starting to go down and the HVAC unit is on it’s way. While you wait, go over to the other two Guava & Java locations – A Concourse and E Concourse.
The two roof raising projects I have going on are each dry again. In Hopewell, NJ a most of a hip roof was removed from a historic home and four new dormers were constructed to increase the usable attic space by 3 fold. The standing seam metal roof is on and the wood shake siding is being installed now. The other roof project is in Lawrenceville, NJ and will add several hundred needed square feet to the second floor, altering three bedrooms and creating a whole new multi-child friendly bathroom for the owner’s three young daughters. This project also has the roof on and the siding being installed. I give it another month and the girls will be picking their paint colors!
Riverside Avenue, Trenton, NJ – This project was brought to my attention a few weeks ago by a client that wants to completely renovate the interior of an abandoned home. Apparently the previous owner got through demo and just began electrical rough in when they were foreclosed on. The new owners are really excited about being able to customize the house for their needs. Now if the bank would only get the closing done….
Another project underway is an outbuilding on a residential property in S. Orange, NJ which will serve as a practice studio for a fairly well know drummer who does a lot of Broadway work. The project has been designed and is in for permitting, the contractor has been chosen and construction should start pretty soon!
For those of you in Trenton, NJ, TDA has artists space for rent at the Studios@219 on East Hanover Street. There are some minor rumblings about some renovation work at that site, but for now, I’ve been hired to document the existing conditions and help update their leasing system. At the rates they charge now for artists, I may open my own sculpture studio just for kicks! (Well, maybe when my kid isn’t so needy – say 2030?)
The new Mt. Zion Trenton
Another Trenton, NJ project in the early stages is the remodel of the new Greater Mount Zion AME Church on Pennington Ave (formerly Our Lady of the Divine Shepard). The congregation currently worships in the rental hall in order to accommodate the crowd, but to expand and renovate the first floor sanctuary, they may lose the second and third floor daycare tenant. The current discussion is to possibly add a level on top of the hall to house classrooms and free up the other half of the site for a brand new sanctuary. This is a long term project that will be done in at least two or three phases over the next several years, so you may not see the conclusion right away!
So there are always a ton of little things in between, but those are the highlights. Should you have a project that needs an architect or a design consultant, feel free to reach out to me at brian at architectblog.org
Tags: Brian V, on the boards, trenton
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