We went to Nashville in December when the students had departed for break and captured some interiors shots of this 260,000 SF, 335 bed residential college. The project was also recently showcased in Education Snapshots!

DMSAS was pleased to welcome our 2020 Summer Travel Fellows to a 2-week virtual internship from Jan. 18-29. The pandemic prevented the fellows from joining us as interns last summer, but this was a great way for us to meet each other and introduce the them to the firm. Associates Dean Reineking and Mark Elliott led the group through a fast-paced design exercise which helped the fellows experience our design process at DMSAS. Our principals and other associates gave presentations on various topics, and the fellows were able to get to know several other staff members informally. It was great to have some new faces join our office-wide Zoom happy hour!

The fellows from 2020 were Jemimah Asamoah from the University of Maryland, Patrick Vercio from the University of Notre Dame, Tia Williams from the University of Notre Dame, and Joshua Soares from The Catholic University of America. Although the pandemic changed how they approached their travel and research, we look forward to having them back for presentations of their research in the near future.

A 2018 Congress of New Urbanism Legacy Project focusing on an area in Savannah, GA was recently featured in Traditional Building Magazine. Meeting with community and city representatives, the goal was to reimagine how a large area within Savannah’s Southside could be better planned to address their vision and needs. Our Michael Swartz led the effort. Take a look at the article and learn more about the solutions derived here.

Interior and exterior work continue on The Barrett apartment building and The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chevy Chase condominium building. The condo sales center will open in the near future, replete with a scale model of the entire project. Excavation for The Claude, the final building, has begun, with a completion date in 2022.

We are now looking at completing construction in July of this year and welcoming the first guests in October.

The months in between allow for staff training, and for us to clear the heavy part of the hurricane season. We are sad to miss our spring / summer opening, but this will allow us to be far more comfortable with the quality and completeness of the work. To the left are our most recent renderings of the arrival entry area and the waterfront dining area.

There a huge amount of excitement about this project! All the pieces are coming together. Construction is underway for the 8,000-seat venue, which recently announced an April 2022 opening. An amazing new promotional video has caught the attention of Variety and Billboard in addition to local newspapers, television, and radio outlets.

With the recent removal of scaffolding, construction on the exterior reskin and interiors renovation of the Sundance West Residences (originally designed in 1991) is progressing in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. Exterior work is currently focused at the ground and 2^nd floors, courtyard, lower roofs and sidewalks around the building. With the recent completion of CDs for the public spaces and unit interiors with Architect of Record Page/, we look forward to the next chapter of the 12-story mixed-use building.  

DMSAS was a proud sponsor of the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums' 2021 Building Museums™ Symposium. Even though this year was virtual, we enjoyed interacting with our peers in the various break-out sessions, panel discussions and roundtables. You can learn more about this annual symposium here.

We celebrated our Annual "Twelfth Night" holiday tradition a bit different this year. Treated to a food delivery gift card, we gathered virtually on January 5, enjoying a dinner of our choosing, toasting to a much better 2021.

In recognition of our long relationship with the Cook Children's Medical Center, our project Model for 2020 is the CCMC Main Building. We established the overall design direction for Cook Children’s Medical Center with the completion of its first main hospital building in 1989. Since then, that vision – make Cook a warm, welcoming building set in a sustainable and verdant campus environment – has carried the institution into the 21st century with recognition as one of the nation’s top pediatric care centers. The success of Cook Children’s Medical Center, now the largest independent pediatric medical center in the country, continues to bring with it the need for expansion. Since the original building was completed, we have continued to serve as Master Planner and Design Architect for each of the nine major additions and auxiliary buildings on the main campus.

We sat down with Zara Naser and Andrew Packey, two of our design staff members and here's what we found out!

1) What is a funny story your parents/family can tell about you?

Once in Istanbul, I got soaked wet by the waves of a passing cruise ship in November, and the only place open to get some clothes was a pajama and underwear store. I had to get on the train home in a very funny outfit.

2) Tell us of an enduring memory of your time at Architecture/Design school?

Going to Liberia for the final phase of a design competition. We had to travel through dirt roads to get to the project site, and it took us 36 hours to finish a 200 mile trip. This gave us the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful forests and villages and meet amazing people.

3) To date, what is the one thing you are proudest of, professionally?

Winning the Maryland AIA award in my senior year is one of my proudest moments.

4) What project you have been involved with at DMSAS is the most evocative to you, and why?

Vanderbilt Residential College B Project - I got involved in the project during its Design Development phase, and it was my first time participating in a project of this scale. The architectural style and ornamental details were fascinating to me.

5) What is your dream project, no holds barred?

I like working on historic preservation and adaptive reuse projects. However, a dream project would be to repurpose a historic building into a library, maybe a tea house in its garden.

1)     What is the funniest story your parents/family can tell about you?

2)     Enduring memory of your time at Architecture/Design school?

3)     To date, what is the one thing you are proudest of, professionally?

4)     What project you have been involved with at DMSAS is the most evocative to you, and why?

5)     What is your dream project, no holds barred?

A large public library; though I fear with the digitization of books and the widespread availability of information online, the era of large public libraries is dwindling. Still I am a total bibliophile that loves learning, and the symbolism of libraries as repositories of knowledge is just as powerful to me as the architecture. The grand Beaux-Arts libraries of the late 19^th/early 20^th century have always enthralled me; and designing a library within that tradition would be a dream come true.