Unique Architecture

My family and I recently took a weekend trip to Louisville, KY. We had a nice time seeing the sights and exploring what the city had to offer. As we were walking around downtown, a very unique building (at least it used to be a building) caught my eye. In the picture, you can see that they kept the façade of this old historic building on West Main St., but tore down the rest of the building. They actually made a city park out of what used to be the building. There are playgrounds and sports fields where the building once was. I have never seen this done before and it really caught my eye. Whoever designed this was able to keep the old historic charm of the adjacent buildings, while creating an outdoor gathering space for the general public.

This got me thinking about “Unique Architecture” and how it can be used on all kinds of projects. For instance there may be a local municipality that has deemed a specific building or area as historic and one way to work with that local governing body would be to think outside the box and keep a façade in place, while removing the rest of the building. We often come upon clients that want a unique architectural feature in their building, such as a comic book store wanting their building to mimic a famous landmark in a Marvel comic series, or an owner that loves New York City and wants his building to take on the look of the New York skyline. There are endless options when it comes to unique elements in architecture.   

If you’re in the market for something unique or something that stands out from the rest, give us a call, we’d love to help you bring your unique architectural vision to life.

How do you draw a phone?

I'm reminded of a story about my kids from several years ago, when they were still pretty young. As we often did at home in the evenings, we were doing crafts at the kitchen table. My daughter, three years old at the time, said “how do you draw a phone”?  As my mind started to think about how to draw a base unit with the key pad, curly cord and a handset, her six year old brother said “I will show you”. I was thinking that he is very talented and he can likely draw the phone I had envisioned in my mind. He grabbed the piece of paper, drew a rectangle, another rectangle inside the first, a circle at the bottom (back when iPhone still had the home button) and a small line on the top. My daughter looked at it and said “ok, but where are the apps?”  My next thought was “wow” how things have changed from generation to generation. Technology has given us the opportunity to perceive things differently today than we would have been able to just a few short years ago.

The idea of technology giving us tools to help communicate ideas or solutions more effectively has never been more prevalent in Engineering & Architecture than in the use of 3-D modeling. In the old days we would use 2-D blue prints to indicate solutions to our client’s requirements. Sometimes the client was able to visualize those solutions from the 2-D blueprints and sometimes not so much. Today with the aid of 3D software we are able to give the client a better visual perspective of the solutions to meet the needs of their project. 3-D modeling of the project allows our clients the opportunity to See It- Then Decide. So what can they see?

• How people and space interact within the facility.

• How the scale (feel) and materials (look) of the facility interact with people.

• Where conflicts occur between building systems or facility flow.

Contact us about how we can use our 3-D modeling tools to deliver a project you can see before you decide to build.

Small Changes, Big Results

We have a client that we’ve done many projects with over the years. They develop and build rental duplex apartments. Normally they stick to a uniform traditional design (nothing like the ultra-modern picture that I chose here!), both with regard to floor plans and the exterior “look” of the duplexes. It has been a successful model for them over the years as these buildings are meant to be money making investments. The investment is sound and they keep them rented on a monthly basis, which is the name of the game.

We recently started working with this client on a new investment project in southern Indiana. The premise is the same as always - duplex investment rental apartments. However, the old way of building the same thing has gotten a bit stale, so they have asked us to change a few things this time. They did not have any specific ideas related to the changes, they just knew they wanted a fresh look on both the exterior façade as well as some interior layouts. 

PDMi took on the challenge and we came up with multiple different exterior designs that would give a more updated look while still being cost effective. We also looked at the interior layouts and changed little things to help the flow inside each apartment. In the end, the results of a few minor changes such as mixing up exterior colors, slight changes to roof lines, added façade details and alternative kitchen layouts will give this set of new duplex apartments its own identity.   

This is a prime example of a few small tweaks that can make a big difference. These changes will make the new duplex apartments more desirable to potential tenants and thus more successful in the long run.  Give us a call so that we can help make your next project more successful in the long run as well.