Manley Architects at One Year

This month, October of 2008, Manley Architects reaches its first anniversary of significance marking one year since incorporation. We are delighted and proud to be at this first milestone for our young company, and grateful to the wonderful clients we have been so fortunate to serve this past year.

During this year, we’ve seen our share of accomplishments; we’ve been able to meet or beat projected fees to clients on hourly projects and have performed fixed fee work with no un-anticipated additional charges to clients. We have expanded our staff (see May 2008 Blog entry) – a staff addition that is growing into a full time position. Our largest project currently under construction – Columbia Adventist Academy replacement classroom building, a private high school in Southwest Washington State – is on track for +/- 1% project growth. This despite unknowns buried by 104 years of history as a school and tie-ins with aged systems in existing campus buildings (much credit goes to General Contractor Erwin Construction for this). We’ve also had the pleasure of working with clients Educational Opportunities for Children and Families, State Pipe & Supply/Schlecht Construction, Star Olico, Orchard Hills Country Club, collaborative work on other projects with Kevin Cooley Architects of Vancouver and Meng Analysis of Seattle. We are expanding our corporate licensure to include the state of Oregon and, with the necessary NCARB certification in place, are poised to include other states. We have counseled not-for-profit efforts such as Bio Trekker / Sol Trekker and assisted in design consultation and construction of community improvements such as a new monument sign for the Vancouver School for Arts and Academics. It’s been a good first year.

With economic uncertainty the word of the day, Manley Architects is looking ahead to our second year with – as our political leaders are wont to say “cautious optimism”. Manley Architects is well suited to thrive in the current bumpy environment. We are “right sized” for most project owners and offer flexibility in fee structure and a high degree of personal service. Manley Architects is a high value/high quality service oriented alternative that is attractive to both our existing and new clients.

The coming year will be another “building” year for Manley Architects. Among our goals for the coming year will be to better define and sharpen focus on our core mission, to continue to find ways to better serve existing clients and seek to expand our capability to service new clients to our high standard. We plan to formalize our commitment to sustainable design through acquisition of accepted certifications such as LEEDSTM. We will continue creating Blog entries of general interest to our clients with articles planned to cover topics such as Collaboration between Artists and Architects in Public and Private Buildings and a series on Design for Education.

We are fortunate to have worked with and for exceptional clients, general contractors, consultants, friends and associates in the construction industry .We look forward to another excellent year of building on the foundation these associations have provided and discovering one by one the brick and mortar of new associations that will carry us into the future.

Architecture At Large

Nordic Reprieve - New Oslo Opera House
A summer trip to Europe afforded an opportunity to visit Oslo’s new Opera House by hometown Oslo firm, Snohetta. East of Ekeberg hill near Old Oslo, the new Opera House occupies a commanding position at the end of Oslo Fjord’s Bjorvikautstikkeren peninsula. Oslo’s newest public building sits with it’s toes in the gulfstream warmed saltwater, relaxed, but clothed in formal attire – like a barefoot tenor sneaking a few moments to lounge in the sun before a matinee performance.



An assembly of angled planes of white Italian marble tiles, the structure welcomes all comers to wander across it’s sloping walkable stone roof surfaces or into the white sculpted angular lobby.

The building is an exercise in contrasts. Snohetta explains concepts driving the buildings design as following four primary objectives:

• Create contrasts between “front of house” public and performance spaces distinct and separate from “back of house” support functions.
• Contrast non-performance public Lobby / Atrium spaces - the world of reality - against the cloistered performance spaces held within - the world of fiction and fantasy.
• Create a structure that will welcome and draw in diverse visitors beyond traditional opera or ballet followers.
• Craft the building – which Snohetta’s website describes as “…the largest cultural building to be raised in Norway since *Nidarosdomen…” – as a symbol of the role of ballet and opera in modern Norway.

Snohetta introduced these concepts in their design competition entry describing three primary components of the design as the “Wave Wall” – the oak clad wall defining the performance space, the “Factory” – or back of house production spaces, and the “Carpet” – the surfaces of white marble that characterize the buildings exterior.

These concepts are none too subtle as you move around and through the building. The East side – back of house – area of the building is made distinct by its box like shape and choice of cladding. Back of house spaces are wrapped in a distinctively textured metal skin – clearly unlike the public and performance spaces they serve.

A tall hallway separates the two functions, slicing through the buildings interior, expressed on the exterior by a vertical strip window on the North wall and skylit slot on the roof, a gesture lost on the buildings South elevation.



Within the lobby, the curving multi-tiered walks serving the main auditorium are wrapped in vertical oak slatted panels in warm contrast to the crisp white container of the lobby and building exterior. These walkways form a nautilus-like organic shell wrapping the horseshoe shaped classic main opera performance space and defining the heart of the building.

In the auditorium, curving dark stained oak strip panels face the horseshoe shaped seating levels. Overhead, catwalks are concealed above a circular dark oak ceiling cloud with an enormous round convex 17,000 piece glass chandelier at its center. The dark stained oak supports a feeling that you’ve entered into a place where the fantastic might occur.

The 1350 seat main auditorium and 400 seat black box auditorium are supported by ample and well equipped side stage spaces. The main stage surface can be raised, or lowered – lighting support is impressive. Back of house spaces include scene shop and storage spaces, rehearsal studios and offices.

The setting for the Opera House is a formerly neglected area of Oslo’s waterfront. The Opera House and a massive highway improvement project are the first artifacts of an aggressive program of improvements for the area.

Across the water and West from the Bjorvikautstikkeren peninsula at the edge of downtown Olso the Oslo Havnelager, Norway’s first reinforced concrete building (built 1916 through 1920, architect Bredo Berntsen) squares toward the Opera House. To the South and West, construction is underway for tunnels that will carry Oslo’s Highway E18 beneath OsloFjord, re-routing the highway away from Old Oslo and the downtown waterfront (reminiscent of Boston’s troubled “Big Dig” project). Two monolithic concrete towers – ventilation towers for the new tunnel - mark the East tunnel end just off the base of Ekeberg Hill and West of Kongsveien.

An interesting and encouraging aspect of Snohetta’s design process is the incorporation of artists into the development of the design. White marble roof/walk surfaces break down to areas of varied texture. Portions of the roof rise to form benches or linear channels. Design for the carpet of carrera marble form the La Faccciata quarry near Tuscany was a collaboration of Sculptor Kristian Blystad, Visual Artist and Illustrator Kalle Grude (both Norwegian) and Finnish Photographer Jorunn Sannes.

To help set the back of house enclosure apart, Norwegian textile artists Astrid Lovaas and Kirsten Wagle collaborated to design the patterns used on the aluminum wall cladding. These panels show a weave of depressed and raised bumps of various diameter. Danish visual artist Olafur Eliasson created translucent honeycomb-like screens surrounding cloak room and toilet room areas off the main lobby.

The Opera House design meets it’s goals with grace, apparently drawing a surprising number of visitors and selling out performances for the coming season. The project has faced criticism for its $800,000,000 price tag with public concerns over whether it will prove to be a continued burden to the average Norwegian taxpayer. Views of the building from Ekeburg looking down from the East are less than pleasing – from this view the starkly different aesthetic of the production portion of the building detracts from the overall composition which one young Oslo resident I spoke with described as a giant skatepark.

In almost every way the building deserves the widespread praise it has received. Approval, adoration and perhaps even a sense of ownership can be seen in the faces of families playing at the waters edge, picnicking on the marble roof just sneaking a few moments to lounge in the sun before a matinee performance.

NEWS

PLAYTIME!
The recent ribbon cutting for Vancouver’s newest Early Childcare Center marked the end of a successful effort by Southwest Washington’s Educational Opportunities for Children and Families (EOCF) to supplement their ability to provide care for very young children. The project incorporates a modular building onto an existing elementary school site in East Central Vancouver, Washington.

MANLEY ARCHITECTS assisted the owner by providing site design and coordination, agency process interface, and general project management / owner representation.

MANLEY ARCHITECTS takes pride in its service to public and private not-for-profit organizations. We understand the importance of budgeting for not-for-profit capital improvements and grasp the intricacies of fundraising efforts necessary to support such improvement.



ENERGY EFFICIENT DESIGN
This 100 plus year old private high school campus in Battle Ground, Washington; Columbia Adventist Academy, was recently re-fitted with independent high efficiency gas boilers, replacing the antiquated single high-capacity boiler system which served the entire campus.

Fuel savings ranging from 50% to 60% are being reported in the first weeks of operation, This is expected to increase significantly with completion and shake down of the controls systems.

MANLEY ARCHITECTS has provided coordination of the design and agency process interface, and coordination of the work with planned overall campus improvement and classroom building replacement (see “Cause for Celebration” item).

MANLEY ARCHITECTS is committed to providing sustainable and energy efficient design to our clients.



CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION
MANLEY ARCHITECTS is proud of our involvement as architect for the Columbia Adventist Academy as it begins it’s second hundred years with groundbreaking for construction of a replacement classroom building.

The replacement classroom building is a single story structure with a high volume central Forum space which will see use as a campus chapel. The building includes the new school library, replacement administration spaces, and eight classroom teaching spaces.

The project incorporates an extensive natural ventilation system in the classroom wing and library with operable window units tied interactively to the mechanical controls system, a high efficiency boiler heating system, and extensive use of daylighting. Classrooms and library are daylit and high windows bring daylighting to the interior circulation halls.



MANLEY ARCHITECTS STAFF EXPANSION
MANLEY ARCHITECTS announces the addition to it’s staff of Sharon Manley, AIA. Sharon brings to MANLEY ARCHITECTS experience in architectural design and construction administration from her years of practice in the Chicago Il, and Houston Texas areas. Sharon Maintains her affiliation with a New York based firm that provides due-diligence inspecting and reporting on buildings and construction projects nationwide. Her inspections include structures such as Portland’s Bank of America Tower and Chicago’s Hancock Tower and Merchandise Mart.

In addition to holding an Architectural degree and her years of experience as an Illinois registered Architect; Sharon also holds a degree in Interior Design and was a practicing interior designer heading interiors firms in Michigan and Texas. Sharon’s space planning skills and understanding of movement through spaces will bring a fresh perspective to Manley Architect’s planning and design work.