E-base USA in the Blue Ridge Mountains

After successfully removing 1,500 tons of waste from the shores of Antarctica, Robert Swan, OBE, polar explorer, environmental leader and the first person ever to have walked to the North and South poles, stood at the Bellingshausen Russian Base and envisioned an education base that would allow him to share the beauty of this continent with students and leaders around the world.

Since 2003, Robert Swan and the 2041 team have taken over 200 people from 25 nations to Antarctica, on his renowned Inspire Antarctic Expeditions. Each year the visiting teams contributed to the design and construction of what would become the E-Base, Robert Swan’s education base overlooking the cleared beach on King George Island, Antarctica.

The E-Base serves as a symbolic model for educational, environmental and energy issues throughout the world. Its purpose is to inspire a global audience to tackle the issue of climate change, by showing that when we achieve the seemingly impossible in Antarctica, we can all take small, achievable steps in our own backyards.

 On Nov 21, 2011, a second E-Base opened in Pench National Park, India. Similar to the 2041 E-Base in Antarctica, the E-Base in India runs entirely on renewable energy. Serving as an educational and environmental platform for the local community, the E-Base focuses on wildlife conservation; largely, for the tiger.

And now with an extraordinary amount of excitement, Apple Ridge Farm, with enthusiastic support of Akzo-Nobel Corporation and many others, is developing and implementing their vision of the world's third E-base located at their farm in Copper Hill, Virginia.

eBase USA Blue Ridge Take 4 from Eldon Karr on Vimeo.
Inspired by Robert Swan, polar explorer, who established the world's first eBase in Antarctica to serve as a self-powered educational center to balance our energy demands with a commitment to protect our remaining natural environment; this video features a local effort at establishing the world's 3rd eBase in the USA in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

Color Power Study II

...and we look a little deeper into Color Theory 101

The Power of Color

Here's a helpful tool to share:

Courtesy of NowSourcing, Inc

FOCUS: Climactic Modification to an Historic Structure

The addition of a stained glass window influenced by 2012 Wimbledon Tennis Tournament graphics and an Entry Trellis provide a new "Marquee" to a rear apartment at a 1925 era "catalogue home" in Roanoke's historic "old Southwest District.

The Tenth Installment: Completion of Exterior Façade Restoration and Modification

In the previous post, we concluded with an incomplete easternmost façade of the East wing. During this installment, we’ll conclude our second review of the building perimeter.

The East wing will be converted to an entry foyer and stairwell with a living room on the first level and master bedroom on the second level. The existing basement area will serve as a common area for utilities and laundry area for both duplexes. The stairwell will be day-lighted by fixed 15 light sashes.

The basement level entry will be protected by a “craftsman style” shed roof after removal of the exposed exterior stair. Exterior siding on the East Wing will match the existing “faux” cedar shingles previously approved by the ARB.

The Northernmost façade of the building will remain relatively unchanged with the exception of removal of the existing enclosure of mechanical passageways at the intersection of the East Wing and the Main structure.

All sashes on the primary structure will be fully restored to match their original configuration.

Finally, on the Western façade facing on 2nd Street, SW, we proposed to add operable shutters on second level windows on the West facade, representative of the “craftsman style” and finished with colors representative of the period. Other proposed color changes will be reserved following approval by the Roanoke City ARB for architectural exterior modifications.

Important elements of this proposed renovation including color changes and landscaping will be discussed following approval by the Roanoke City Architectural Review Board. These very important design elements are not within the ARB’s purview of authority and will be reserved to a date following their approval.

Our formal scheduled review with the ARB is Thursday, June 14, 2012. To this date the ARB members, based upon the advice of counsel have chosen not to participate in a public dialogue regarding this proposed project until their formally scheduled public hearing.

Important additional submissions to the ARB will include exterior modification details including:
Specific window replacement and addition details;
Proposed exterior carpentry modifications and details, including exterior door and window replacements.

These items will be presented following Roanoke City ARB approval.

The Ninth Installment: Creating Secondary Entrances with Historic Sensitivity and Dignity

The challenge we as architects and developers face in the 21st century is to recognize value in the existing built environment and utilize that value as a framework for responding to contemporary living requirements. With this concept in mind, “curb appeal” or street identity, becomes an extremely important element of focus while pursuing an adaptive re-use of an existing building structure, historically-significant or not.

In the previous post, we proposed revisions to the existing primary entrance to the building that would complement the historic architectural significance of the building with functionally useful accoutrements in the form of a covered entry and raised bed landscaping to overcome architecturally offensive railings.

We also introduced a proposal to define more “street prominence” to a secondary access way to the rear of the property. An attached pergola provides weather protection for mail retrieval while pronouncing entry in the form of a garden gateway.

THE BACK DOOR
As we traverse a confined access way to the rear of the property,we find an opportunity to liberate space by eliminating an obsolete service entrance.

Upon arriving at the Southeast corner of the existing main structure, we are exposed again to a more open and inviting space, an opportunity to create a sense of arrival.

In this space, at the confluence of the East wing with the main structure, a secondary, yet inviting entrance becomes an important opportunity.
The easternmost façade of the East wing will be further modified in the next post! Stay tuned

The Eighth Installment: In a Historic District, the Most Important Facade

This marks another significant point in our online journey toward seeking an acceptable and beneficial use for the structure located at 1314 2nd St. SW in Roanoke’s “Old Southwest Historic District.” In this post, we will present proposed architectural modifications to the existing structure related to the most publicly dominate facade. past years, we know that it served as a single-family residence and most recently, as a governmentally subsidized “half-way house” for at-risk citizens. Public safety concerns (egress) and contemporary needs (cooling) have inflicted architecturally destructive requirements on the original structure.

The existing entrance from Second St. has been modified in past years to accommodate convenient access by handicapped persons. Historically, as a society, we have focused more attention to physical access needs in the last 30 years. The currently existing solution, while admirable in its functional accommodation, inflicts an awkward, “institutional –looking” element on the curbside entrance. Further, since the old carriage house in the rear has served as a quaint, private residential apartment, the mailbox location for that residence located adjacent the primary entrance to the building imposes inferior value to the public access through the dark, alley-like walkway corridor to the carriage house.

While the carriage house may be sacrificed as a viable residential space, the establishment of an important entrance with “curb-appeal” and presence on Second Street is important to accomplish a successful adaptive re-use of the existing building with a second duplex unit created in the rear half of the primary structure.

In the above proposal we eliminate the steel pipe railing, extend the existing pediment detailing to produce a protective porch entry to the primary entrance and install raised planting beds along the existing concrete ramp. A second “Garden-gate” like entry is introduced on the right side of the building to accommodate one or two mailboxes at a Defined entry to the rear. The architectural detailing carefully reflects the character of the existing side service entry.

COLOR SCHEME

The color scheme is an EXTREMELY important element related to accurate historical reflection upon the architectural character of buildings. While Classical Greek and Roman Architecture have been portrayed as being monochromatic, recent archaeological studies have revealed a dramatic use of color in our historical icons.

As the above photo shows, as recently as 2008, the ARB approved color changes that accepted further deviation from the historical design intent. The second story shingle siding, which appears to have been replaced with a synthetic representation of the original, imposes a dramatic deviation on the original architectural intent. The same is true of the colors of the entry door and the painted stucco on the first level.

Parts of shutter hardware hinges reveal that the widows in the second level full dormer originally included fully functional shutters. The style and colors of these shutters offer a strong historic reflection of the original design of the building.

As a teaser, we might consider how this building might appear with a more earthy color scheme that would include natural colors for stucco, dark-stained colors for shingle siding and moldings, with intense saturated colors for accent details.

While a greatly revised color scheme from what is observed in the 2008 photo, as well as the current scheme, is most desirable; we will reserve a proposal for color scheme changes for later in this project.