DMSAS

USC Upstate Johnson College of Business and Economics

Spartanburg, SC - 2008

Charged with sparking economic redevelopment and reinvigoration in downtown Spartanburg, the 60,000 square foot, three-story George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics building is the University of South Carolina Upstate’s first downtown structure, and sits adjacent to the recently completed David M. Schwarz Architects-designed Chapman Cultural Center, reflecting a harmony with its next-door neighbor.  The College includes a business incubator space for new ventures in addition to technology-enhanced classrooms and faculty offices.  University and city officials see the College as an institution with great potential for the city of Spartanburg and a long-term commitment to higher education in the region.  The project is in the process of obtaining LEED certification.

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Southlake Town Square

Fort Worth, TX - 1996

Located in a fast growing, north central Texas community, Southlake Town Square began in 1996 as a 135-acre, fifteen to twenty year master plan for the City’s new downtown that could accommodate growth and change, yet feel whole at each stage. The master plan was designed to accommodate a total build-out of approximately 2.7 million square feet, including retail, restaurant, office, residential and civic uses.  With the Town Square at the focal point of the plan, the primary project goal was to create a development oriented to the pedestrian that would foster community.  The square is activated with two-story “office over retail” uses lining its edges and through rich programming of evening concerts, weekend festivals, and parades.  The City’s new town hall sits at the head of the square and solidifies its position as the center of Southlake’s civic life.

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Tarrant County Jail

Fort Worth, TX - 2005

The five-level Tarrant County Jail is a much-needed expansion space.  Occupying a full city block and linked by skybridge and tunnel to the existing jail across the street, the new jail will accommodate high security detention units for both male and female inmates, an infirmary and central kitchen, staff areas, and a public visitation facility.  The County wanted a building that would blend into downtown Fort Worth without appearing overly institutional. The design is "Cowtown Deco" well known in Fort Worth.  The building’s overall mass is broken down by end-bays that project forward slightly, subtle changes in the exterior wall planes, and a mix of brick, cast-stone, and granite in varying finishes and colors. The building is targeting LEED Certification.

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Orioles Spring Training Facilities at Ed Smith Stadium

Sarasota, FL - 2009

The Ed Smith Stadium and Buck O'Neil Training Complex at Twin Lakes Park is spring training home to the Baltimore Orioles and a year-round rehabilitation facility.  A new 2-level concourse transforms the existing stadium from 6,500 to 9,000 seats with new luxury suites, specialty concessions, landscaped berms and picnic areas.

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13th & U Streets NW

Washington, DC - 2008

Accommodating an estimated 138 rental apartments, ranging in size from 635 to 1400 square feet, along with street level commercial uses, this new set of residences will further enhance the vibrant U Street corridor. The residential lobby will front onto U Street, flanked on each side by shop-fronts and retail entrances. Resident amenities include a club room, fitness area, and a rooftop pool. Below-grade off-street parking is also provided as well as accommodations for bicyclists. The building’s location takes advantage numerous of public transit options including several bus lines and the U street/Cardozo Metro Station located directly across 13th Street.

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Gaillard Center

Charleston, SC - 2010

Gaillard Center is a 1960’s era, general purpose 2,700-seat auditorium and exhibit hall. DMSAS was commissioned in 2010 to lead the design of a renovation and expansion of the facility. The project scope includes a full renovation of the auditorium, renovation and expansion of the existing exhibit hall into a banquet facility and the construction of an office building that will accommodate several of the City’s departmental offices currently decentralized in rented spaces. The exterior will be radically reworked with new entrance porticos on two sides, the addition of the Municipal Offices, and the Banquet Hall. A galleria promenade running the width of the building between the two entrance porticos will serve as a shared lobby for the performance hall, banquet hall and offices.

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Crown Farm

Gaithersburg, MD - 2010

Located on one of the last remaining large developable parcels in Montgomery County, Crown Farm will become a world class transit-oriented community of distinct neighborhoods interconnected by parks, woodlands, and walkable streets. Sited on approximately 180 acres, the project consists of over 2,000 residential units of varying types as well as 320,000 square feet of commercial and retail spaces in a variety of densities. David M. Schwarz Architects was commissioned to design the exterior facades of over 89,000 square feet of commercial space that will include a health club and various retail and restaurant tenants.

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2700 Woodley

Washington, DC - 2011

2700 Woodley is a new eight-story high-end rental apartment building adjacent to the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel off Connecticut Avenue. The red brick and limestone facade echoes the historic hotel as well as the grand apartment buildings along Connecticut Avenue. The building employs a symmetry that upon a first glance seems rigid, but at closer look reveals eccentricities reminiscent of many traditional apartment buildings where the interior spaces inform window groupings and their arrangement on the facade. Private outdoor space was considered a necessary luxury, and most units include inset balconies or spacious terraces. An exclusive penthouse level defined by symmetrical pavilions and a colonnade expands the available space for entertaining.

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The Pennsylvania Building

Washington, DC - 2010

The Pennsylvania Building, a Willco Companies development, is undergoing a third generation reincarnation. Originally built in the 1950’s and later redeveloped in the 1980’s by the Willco Companies, the building is being once again re-imagined and repositioned to exceed the high standards set by its high profile address at 1275 Pennsylvania, NW. The Pennsylvania Building flanks the east end of Freedom Plaza and is prominently located along the Presidential Inaugural Parade Route between the US Capitol and the White House.  Renovation plans for the 250,000 SF building include re-skinning the lower three floors of the exterior stone façade, a new metal and glass office entry marquee, improvements to the garage entry ramp, gutting and redesign of the office lobby and entry sequence including a two-story domed volume, and renovation of the typical floor elevator lobbies and restrooms. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2012.

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Sundance Square - The Westbrook

Fort Worth, TX

The Westbrook Building is a 6-story, 94,000 gross square feet multi-use building with ground floor retail and 5 floors of office above.  Influenced by the existing, adjacent and historic buildings, the Houston Street Building steps up at the center of the block, giving the center bay a prominence that is appropriate for an office entry on Houston Street and a celebrated backdrop to the built-in stage on the Plaza, which culminates in a clock tower.  A functional advantage of the stepped building massing is that it provides outdoor terraces for the upper office floors. The building is also broken down into smaller vertical bays to maintain an appropriate pedestrian scale along the sidewalk.  The façade takes inspiration from several of downtown Ft. Worth’s older buildings and will include a rich mix of granite, limestone, brick and decorative aluminum.

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Postcard from Las Vegas: The Smith Center

Vegas casinos have spent so much money and effort on creating miniature versions of the most urban places on earth -Venice, Rome, New York, Paris -yet have completely failed to build a single thing resembling a piece of real city. The Smith Center is exactly that missing element, a glimpse of genuine urbanity. It is not, however, entirely unthemed-it is executed in impeccable Jazz Age art deco. 

David M Schwarz, its architect, argues that deco is the city's default style, the style of the 1930s buildings beneath the neons and of the Hoover Dam. It's interesting that in the wake of the phenomenal success of a film such as The Artist , as pure a pastiche as it is possible to get, no critic has chided the director for using a historicist technique. Yet, in architecture, the merest whiff of a revival creates a murmur. Is that confidence in the absolute rightness of contemporaneity -or is it insecurity?

Either way, the Smith Center is an enjoyably complex work. 

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FBI Building is a Chance for Development Community to be Bold

Fault Lines in Architecture Debate

The partisan thinking that is polarizing American politics in spectacular fashion today isn't the exclusive province of politicians. There a similar partisanship, characterized by a passaionate and scournful debate over architectural style, polarizing the design community, here and around the country. And the contentious discourse is obscuring a true discussion about the merits of the architecture we create today and the kinds of cities, towns and buildings in which we want to live.

A Place in the Sun: The Orioles Dress for Success