David Burke Architects

DBA on Campus

Dear friends, I hope this email finds you well and prepared for the fall season. It has been an intense summer here at DBA and although we have not had much time to sit back and relax, we have made huge strides with new work and great professional opportunities. Our residential sector is moving forward nicely with our Pine Plains cottage finishing the design phase and moving into construction. Our work at Indian Lake in Putnam Valley continues to grow with our artist's retreat finishing construction in the next few months. Finally, we are lucky to have a new commission on a bucolic site in Garrison, New York. The design of this weekend home will take us right through the winter. We're also excited for the institutional work we're involved in, which is what I’d like to share with you today. Below is an introduction to our work at Vassar College and some commentary about the value of planning and how it can help prepare for the future while improving student and community engagement on campus. But most importantly is our team. We've brought on a senior technical director, Heather Kaan, who has over 20 years experience working in the Hudson Valley and brings both technical knowledge and design expertise that helps us create and execute projects in the Hudson Valley and beyond. Together with Heidi Bernhart, our Operations Director, and our architectural designers, Carol Pacheco and Jeehoon Kim, we can bring strong management skills, technical expertise and, most of all, design prowess to our growing list of exceptional, forward-thinking, and thoughtful clients. I’d like to thank all of the great people who are working hard to support DBA and helping to make this a meaningful place to work. We wish you the best in the coming winter season. Please keep in touch. Sincerely, David, Heather, Carol, Jason, and Heidi.

DBA to Lead Planning Study for Vassar College Library

DBA is pleased to formally announce that it has been retained to provide architectural assessment, programming, and planning services for Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. The work will include assessing, programming, and planning for upgrades to the historic 1905 Thomson Memorial Library and adjacent library buildings.   The Thompson Memorial Library is one of the most recognizable buildings on campus and a critical asset to the fundamental principles of Vassar College. As Vassar continues to develop as a preeminent liberal arts college, the library has a unique opportunity to refocus its purpose and engage academics by keeping four critical tenants in mind: diversity, equity, & inclusion, accessibility, the environment, & health, and wellbeing for all who use the building.

These planning strategies can fundamentally transform key areas of the building by elevating the user experience through improved access, visibility, and use, and will create a functional, coherent, and transformative community space that serves Vassar students well into the 21st century. The planning study aims to provide the college with a thoughtful analysis of existing spaces, a reinterpretation of the existing program, and a practical and creative re-planning of the library’s interior and exterior spaces. The effort will include student engagement, stakeholder, and senior administration workshops to garner support and build consensus for the project. The outcome of the study will result in an informed recommendation for planning solutions to key areas inside the library. It will also include budget estimates for future construction, and improve opportunities for fundraising and financial support.   “We couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with the team at Vassar College on this project and to have the opportunity to reinterpret the way Vassar will use this important asset lo. We are thankful to Vassar for trusting us with this important responsibility,” says David Burke, Principal and Founder of DBA. “Higher Education is a sector in which we feel extremely comfortable. Our team at DBA has spent much of our professional career designing and building structures that serve the needs of students and faculty and that enable enhanced student experiences for growth and flexibility on campuses nationwide. This opportunity at Vassar allows us to continue that important work.”

Building Campus Community by Reinventing Existing Assets

David Burke, AIA Principal, DBA

More and more, institutions are discovering that community building and providing interactive learning environments are becoming key to the success of their students. Older buildings with restrictive, dark meeting spaces and lecture halls are giving way to multi-use spaces which provide flexibility and multi-purpose use. Since it is not always possible to design & construct completely new buildings due to space or budget constraints, and ignore a historically significant, beloved, campus structures, now, more than ever, retrofits or renovations of these older buildings are a cost-effective way to preserve the legacy of the campus and provide the modern infrastructure that students need to succeed.

At Vassar, we are doing just that - planning for the future by finding cost effective ways to re-organize space, improving building infrastructure, and preparing the institution for tomorrow's educational environment so they can compete at the highest level and for the best students. Currently undergoing a wholesale assessment of the building's existing spaces, program, and operational standards, we are faced with several challenges. First, how do you provide a more accessible, inclusive, and equitable library experience that a new, complex generation of college students need to succeed? The

current student body represents a first-generation and a far more culturally-diverse group who are facing an increasingly complicated world than ever before. Second, does the current building provide the latest infrastructure and technology that this new generation will need to access and process the multi-layered information that is available today? Lastly, does it provide a place of comfort and belonging that every college student needs to help reinforce their ability to learn?

Focused on providing improved and inclusive access for disabled visitors to the Thompson Memorial Library, we are reinterpreting the entrance experience for all users so that everyone can experience the building in similar ways, not just those for whom it was designed 115 years ago. The Collaborative for Learning, Teaching, and Inquiry will represent Vassar’s singular re-imagination of the traditional liberal arts college learning and teaching center. By bringing students, faculty, and administrators into close conversation through a network of programming, interaction, and cooperation, the Vassar Collaborative uniquely re-imagines learning and teaching as a shared endeavor on a liberal arts campus. The Collaborative will include large gathering, seminar, group study, and breakout spaces uniquely tuned to provide an active academic hub inside the traditional library environment.

The Archives & Special Collections Library is the principal repository of the College’s noteworthy collections of rare books, manuscripts, archival records of Vassar College, and other special materials. It is more than just a physical hold­ing area, though; its core mission is to collect, preserve, and make available these treasures to the students, faculty, alumni and researchers alike. In carrying out this mission, Special Collections is a significant contributor to the teaching, research, and programmatic activity of the College.   Unfortunately, in its current location the basement of the library does not adequately support its mission nor is it accessible or easy to find. As is the case with other areas of the building, the challenge here will be to focus on providing an equitable and accessible library destination in the future while preserving and protecting the legacy of the storied Thompson Memorial Library.

Similarly, the work at Duke University's Brodhead Center for Campus Life, by Grimshaw Architects, Principal-in-Charge, David Burke had similar challenges brought on by design decisions from a similar era. Both buildings, designed and constructed in the early 20th century, suffered from becoming outdated and unresponsive to today’s diverse student body and those that need to use and interact with buildings differently. Although celebrated at the time of construction, the West Campus Union became outdated and difficult to access and navigate by a growing population and changing programmatic use. Cultural changes, class schedules, and an emergence of a new food lifestyle meant the building needed improved access, greater visibility, and a reimagining of how students eat, socialize, and build community.

The hidden, dark, and outdated kitchens located at the center of the building were replaced with a new, open central kitchen where the preparation and serving of the food could be expressed and celebrated. While the historic Great Hall, Cambridge Inn, and East Wing were retained and restored to their original historic glory.

The design celebrated the old while contrasting against a new and improved dining experience. Transparency, connectivity, and craftsmanship are central characteristics of the building’s design, introducing new spatial compositions meant to foster a greater sense of community. The new design focuses on the introduction of lightness and porosity to the structure, inviting students in from all directions and activating sightlines across the university precinct. This new social hub offers a variety of comfortable and dynamic spaces that encourage students, faculty, and alumni to congregate and interact. These student-life spaces include environments for both formal and informal study, meetings, and presentations, as well as larger spaces for rehearsals and performances.

And lastly, our work at The Ritz Theater captures these same ideas of restoration and reinvention to bring a new educational, social, and communal hub to Newburgh, New York. Similarly, we need to open up the building and provide a center of gravity to a disorganized, inaccessible and imposing building. Our work for Safe Harbors of the Hudson focused on uniting the interior of the building with a single location for entrance, exit and vertical circulation, whilst also uniting the community with an open, accessible and inspirational entrance that would enhance social interaction and improve community relations.

By centralizing the building and site around a single new entrance, the new Ritz lobby was born. Our site planning revealed a new central location which everyone could visually interpret and access. It is a “Pavilion in the Park”.  With 14 disconnected levels inside the building, and varying grades outside the building, the new entrance needed to include vertical transportation to all levels. To connect these levels in an efficient and cost-effective way, our internal planning analysis identified a central lobby on the outside of the building, contrary to what is typically imagined.

The new Ritz lobby will provide a new "front door" and the best location for vertical circulation and ADA accessibility, connecting the many different levels for all users in the building. The lobby will be transparent, accessible, and outward focused so that the neighborhood will engage with the theater and the arts. It will activate the park with new program spaces such as food and beverage, new performance areas, and outdoor gathering spaces. It will be a physical and psychological place for community engagement so desperately needed in today’s urban environment.

These particular projects present unique and complex challenges and one of our most rewarding efforts - to solve complex problems, find innovative ways to adapt an existing structure, unlock the potential of their most valuable assets, and to serve the needs of a modern institution.

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David Burke Architects Beacon, NY 12508 [email protected]in

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