Green Depot interactive store in Brooklyn.

The Green Depot store in Brooklyn was recently featured on GreenSource magazine's video section. Colin Brice of Mapos gives a tour of many innovations created to educate consumers about how the products sold there function and impact or improve the environment. Of particular interest is the light booth where customers can compare different low energy lighting options and how light temperature effects materials samples. Also, in the flooring area different products were installed underfoot to approximate real use situations.

3form Materials

Sometimes it's the perfect material that inspires and pulls together a design. When Venture Architecture was commissioned recently to design an intimate and interactive space, our stash of 3form samples was pulled out of storage. They evoke a feeling at once both old and new: somewhere between a fly caught in amber and a futuristic evening dress. 

The 3form website showcases some surprising applications including exterior cladding, library shelves, and even healthcare interiors.  

Harding & Shelton offices under construction.

The details are coming together in the corporate offices for a 30-year-old oil and gas company currently under construction in Oklahoma City. The offices are in an adaptive, mixed-use building in a historic district featuring great canal and downtown views. One of the many challenges of this project was preserving the character of the original building while providing the client with an impressive modern and functional space. In this video Venture Architecture partner Melissa Goldstein showcases some of the innovations our firm developed for the space.

Venture selected as architect for Aegis Business Services

Venture Architecture is excited to design a new space for Aegis Business Services as they relocate to the Dry Creek Corporate Center. We are working closely with the CEO and COO to fine tune the design. It must balance the needs of both their executive staff as well as their professional teams who have helped grow the business into a success story.

Architecture firms building more inclusive names

An article yesterday in the New York Times announced a name change for the 50-year-old firm Polshek Partnership to Ennead, which means a group of nine deities in Egyptian mythology. The article noted that the trend in architecture is to move away from names credited to the principals of a firm and toward a collective representation of all the ideas that go into designing a building. At Venture Architecture, where the best idea wins and each of us feels compelled to make the work we do great, we applaud this movement. We know that smart design is often a nexus of many elements.

Building Skin: First impression and functional beauty

In recent years, several existing Denver buildings in tight infill spaces have been given new exterior skins. One project of note designed by Gensler is the Pura Vida Spa building in Cherry Creek which formerly housed the Tattered Cover in a nondescript stucco low rise. Many architects around the country are exploring options "outside the (building) box" in both existing and new construction. The Gehry Partners' Beekman Tower recently profiled in Architectural Record and located in Lower Manhattan is a standard skyscraper shape made amazing with curving steel curtain walls. Jean Nouvel's 100 Eleventh Avenue, also in Manhattan, used tilted fixed and operable windows for their hybrid curtain wall that seems to shimmer on the skyline. Far from being simply eccentric, these buildings are attractive, highly functional and, as with the second skin on this remodeled home featured on the GreenSource website, can provide passive energy saving features.

Xcel Energy offers rebates on LED lighting

Recently Xcel Energy announced rebates for businesses looking to install LED, or light emitting diode, lighting for both retrofit and new construction applications. There is a separate program for small businesses. According to Xcel, up to 44% of a business utility bill is allocated to lighting and with an LED bulb using up to 3% of the energy of a standard incandescent and lasting about 66 times longer, the savings could be substantial. The rebate applications are very long and only certain manufacturers and models will qualify; however, this program seems like a great step forward in greater acceptance of more efficient lighting.