SCOTTSDALE, AZ – Park/A/Strip, a submission from a design team at Shepley Bulfinch, will be one of 25 entries on exhibit later this year at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) as part of “Flip a Strip”, a national architectural design competition.

“Flip a Strip”, which was organized by SMoCA, was intended to inspire creative, new visions for the renovation of small-scale strip shopping plazas. Participants were challenged to re-think and re-design one of three typical strip-mall sites in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area.

Park/A/Strip establishes a civic identity for a Phoenix strip mall. By transforming the roof and ground plane with a concrete slab, space is created for a community “living ...[more]

In a provocative blog post on beauty in architecture, 2012 Summer Design Fellow Amrita Raja commented upon the reluctance of many contemporary architects to discuss the role of beauty, relying instead on more purely rational justifications such as performance. It reminded me of the 2009 NY Times article about Douglas Bowman who very publicly left his position as Google’s top visual designer because, in his words, “at Google design lived or died by data.”

Amrita’s post also reminded me of the scene in the documentary film Helvetica, where Michael Place from UK-based design firm Build talks candidly about how, for him, design is primarily ...[more]

NEW YORK, NY – The stellar year for merzproject, a studio of Shepley Bulfinch, continued on December 3, when it was named one of the winners of Interior Design Magazine’s Best of 2009 in a celebration at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

At the event, merzproject was presented with a Merit Award in the “Showroom” category for the 12,000 s.f. B/S/H Gallery and Training Center in Scottsdale, Arizona. The facility provides seminar space, class rooms and a training center for one of the world’s largest appliance manufacturers, as well as serving as a ...[more]

CHICAGO, IL – Boole Library, the postgraduate research facility at University College Cork, Ireland, has received a 2008 International Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.

Built on the site of an ancient settlement the Library’s red sandstone exterior is a contemporary continuation of the settlement’s stone wall, while copper cladding and glass complete the façade. The design also responds to several massive specimen trees from the Victorian botanical garden that once occupied the site. The expanses of glass facing north offer views into the University’s Victorian quad, to the ...[more]

Shepley Bulfinch is pleased to welcome seminal design leader Scott Slarsky, who has joined the firm as a director.

In announcing the appointment, president Carole Wedge said, “Scott is an exciting new design voice for Shepley Bulfinch, with passion, vision, and a deep understanding of how design can provide clarity of purpose and mission during times of institutional growth and change.”

Scott cites Spanish modernism as a particular influence on his work, drawing from formative years spent in Madrid working with Rafael Moneo and Juan Navarro Baldeweg.  As a co-founder of designLAB, Scott and his ...[more]

Shepley Bulfinch’s design of the Anderson University Center at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota has won a Facilities Design Award from the Association of College Unions International (ACUI), it was announced at ACUI’s annual conference last week.

“This award honors more than the design of the Anderson Center,” said Shepley Bulfinch project designer Luke Voiland. “It recognizes the value of a design and planning process that brought everyone to the table.”

Since it opened last fall, the Carol Young Anderson and Dennis L. Anderson Center has become the heart of ...[more]

The transformation of a former Amherst College fraternity house near the main campus into a 44-bed residence hall is now underway, with plans to open in the 2013-2014 academic year.

The 21,000 square foot renovation and expansion of Seligman House, which was built in 1921, preserves the character of the original building and adds a three-story wing that complements it aesthetically. The wood rafters of the original structure are preserved, as are the hewn beams of the living room, along with its wood-burning fireplace.  A patio is nestled in the new ...[more]