on hold
studio house
in design and development
The Falls, Coral Gables, Florida
The Falls is a large open-air retail center in Coral Gables, Florida designed by Mark Gerwing while at Anthony Belluschi Architects in 1994-5. The center is composed of a series of covered walkways on either side of a water garden protecting shoppers from the harsh sun and frequent rainfall.
The overall project consisted of adding approximately 250,000 sf of retail space and designing the outdoor areas in three distinct sections to assist with wayfinding and to provide orientation.
Each section of the center has a different variation-on-a-theme of canopies, overhangs, rails and materials emphasizing the scale of each of the differing circulation and gathering spaces.
Architects: Anthony Belluschi Architects
Project Architect: Mark Gerwing
Lincoln Square renovation, Chicago
Designed to maximize the live/work life of the artisan/craftsman owner, this house renovation combines a number of different traditions to make a unique series of spaces. The owner, an accomplished craftsman of shoji screens and Japanese tonsu chests, wanted a house that could be more flexible as both a home and showroom. Like many renovations, a careful analysis of the existing structure revealed a few curious surprises. The existing second floor was supported on a number of beams that radiated, pinwheel-like, from a hall closet.
By removing almost all of the interior walls of the old house, the space could than be opened up for larger gatherings. A series of shoji screens located along the position of the old interior walls allows each of the previously existing rooms to be reconstituted, or by sliding the screens back shifted to create a completely open space around the former closet. This closet became the center of the house, a place of honor for newly created objects, functioning like a paper lantern lit from a new skylight and glass floor above.
Designed with James Walker, David Leary and Katherine Iverson Builder: by Owner Structural Engineer: John Trankina Photography: Craig Klucina and James Walker
Wicker Park, Chicago townhouse
This is the design for a speculative townhouse designed for a site in the Wicker Park neighborhood in Chicago. The project centers around a large two-story bookcase/fireplace that is wrapped by the stairs accessing the private realm of the bedrooms upstairs.
The brick exterior makes a kind of exoskeleton to house the clients, making a solid refuge in what was a marginal neighborhood. The light and views are largely interior with masonry walls wrapping the house and site.
Designed by Mark Gerwing
Mark Gerwing, Project Architect
unbuilt
Chestnut Street condo, Chicago
Encompassing a large section of the 42nd floor a residential tower immediately off Michigan Avenue, this project consisted of the entire renovation of the 1500 square foot unit. With panoramic views of Lake Michigan to the east, Chicago's North Shore to the north and the far prairie horizon to the west, the existing unit had floor to ceiling windows on three sides with closely spaced concrete columns surrounding the exterior.
The design revealed the views by placing service, kitchen and bathroom functions toward the center and leaving the exterior walls unencumbered. To accommodate an owner who wanted to both live in the sky but also feel grounded in Chicago, a visual connection to the landscape was created. A continuous black inlay runs through all the new cabinetry and column surrounds and corresponds to both the client's eye height and the horizon line of the prairie to the west and the lake to the east.
Within this band lies a reflection of the city - a curving wall of cabinetry that hides and exposes the services of bathing, storage, cooking and cleaning.
Designed with David Leary, Katherine Iverson and Jim Walker Builder: Rick Hendricks Photography: Mark Gerwing