Saturday, April 10, 2004
Annette Phillips
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The Kingston-Whig Standard
A German-led design team has privately unveiled an architectural concept for lower Brock Street that calls for the demolition of some familiar buildings and the construction of an ultra-modern building in the middle of a historic city block.
World-renowned architects Behnisch; Behnisch & Partner have been hired by downtown heritage developer Kim Donovan to design a mixed-use building for a vacant property on
Clarence Street.
This week, Stefan Behnisch and Martin Werminghausen of the Stuttgart, Germany, office, along with Thomas Auer of Transsolar Climate Engineering ad local architects Shoalts and Zaback, presented tiny cardboard models that show several building possibilities for combining avant-garde Behnisch designs with the downtown's conservative heritage buildings. "We are really excited about this because it is innovative and we've been trying to do bring something new and fresh to the downtown for quite some time," Donovan told The Whig Standard.
Behnisch and Kincore Holdings, Donovan's firm, have similar philosophies when it comes to balancing the social, economic and environmental impacts of development. The German firm had previously been hired by Kincore to design a biotech building near the airport. Donovan said the Behnisch firm was ideal to help him combine the heritage buildings downtown with modern architecture.
"It will take some sensitivity to marry the bookends- the heritage in the block with the new building through the middle of the block," Donovan said. "We certainly want to get their inspiration downtown."
The Behnisch look incorporated a layered and stacked facade with unusual and unpredictable angles. Behnisch places an emphasis on both green space and energy efficiency and the company strives to make each building a place of comfort for its users.
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A Bold New Vision For This Downtown Block |
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