As the year winds down, we’re grateful for the people and places that shape our work.
From our fireside to yours — here’s to another year of crafting landscapes that feel like HOME: warm, grounded, and alive with light.
TIME, like landscape, shapes everything it touches. Each season redraws the contours — snow softening edges, light shifting tone, memory settling into place. May you find beauty in the slow passage of time this holiday season.
As another year turns, we’re reminded that good design, like good living, is rooted in patience, care, continuity & PLACE.
Happy Holidays and best wishes from Ground Control.
Anthony Timberlands Center Snags Honors from World Architecture Festival
The Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation at the U of A has received two international honors from the World Architecture Festival 2023.
The project has won outright the WAFX award in the Building Technology category and is one of nine projects shortlisted in the Future Projects: Education category.
The World Architecture Festival honors come on the heels of international accolades announced by The Architectural Review this spring, when the Anthony Timberlands Center was named the Overall Winner in the AR Future Projects Awards 2023 and the winner for the Education category.
The Cooper Wins 2022 AIA Philadelphia Design Award
Every year, AIA Philadelphia presents a number of awards recognizing the individuals and firms that create the legacy of excellence in design and toast the future of the architecture profession in Philadelphia. Please join us in congratulating DIGSAU for winning the 2022 AIA Philadelphia Design Award for the firm’s design of The Cooper.
The Cooper is a 92-unit multifamily apartment community on Lower Market Street in Wilmington DE that offers studios, one, and two-bedroom apartment homes with open floor plans and sleek finishes. The property amenities include a rooftop deck overlooking Market Street, a stunning courtyard reminiscent of Scandinavian architecture, and a fitness center with Peloton equipment. The design of The Cooper responds to challenges on the through block site by creating a distinct entry sequence from each street front ultimately leading to a verdant, mid-block courtyard which serves as a shared community space and provides views and daylight to the dwelling units along its perimeter. Passage from Market Street is marked by a historic cast-iron façade salvaged from the building which formerly occupied the site.
Will honored with a Raleigh Medal of Arts
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Will, as part of the Gang of Three, has been honored by the City of Raleigh with a Medal of Arts for the Alluvial Decoder installation. Alluvial Decoder is a site-specific education installation on the City of Raleigh’s greenway trail along the banks of Crabtree Creek that was commissioned by Raleigh Water to raise awareness about the area’s floodplain. The project, which consists of several components including a mural, creative placemaking, and educational markers, is an excellent example of how public art and creative placemaking can educate the community and invite conversation surrounding critical issues.
Penn’s Meeting & Guesthouse Featured on Dezeen
© Chris Cooper Photography / Deborah Berke Partners
The new Meeting and Guesthouse at the University of Pennsylvania welcomes important guests to campus, provides a place for strategic meetings and trustee gatherings, includes touch-down space for visiting dignitaries, and hosts special events. The project transforms a pair of late Victorian townhouses into a 21st century destination that completes a new precinct for visitors to campus, including the adjacent President’s House, the Perry World House, and the Kelly Writers House.
Will was the Associate, Lead Designer & Project Manager for the Meeting & Guesthouse while at OLIN.
The Cooper recognized with AIA Pennsylvania Honor Award
Click the image above to watch to watch the Awared Ceremony Broadcast
Anthony Timberlands Center at the University of Arkansas Breaks Ground
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The Data Science Center (Amy Gutmann Hall) at the University of Pennsylvania Breaks Ground!
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Adohi Hall wins AIA Housing Award
We are delighted to hear that Adohi Hall has recently won a 2021 Housing Award from the American Institute of Architects. Click the image above for more information
Will was the lead designer and associate for Adohi Hall while at OLIN.
Our Collaboration with Deborah Berke Partners and Miller Boskus Lack on the Fine Arts Center at the University of Arkansas featured in The Architect’s Newspaper
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From our families to yours, Happy Holidays from Team Ground Control
Ground Control selected to join the design team for I3R at the University of Arkansas
© HGA & HUFFT
We are delighted to announce that we've been selected to join our friends and collaborators at HGA and HUFFT, to participate in the planning and design of the University of Arkansas’s new Institute for Integrative & Innovative Research.
In a follow-up to his annual State of the University address, Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz describes the vision for the Institute for Integrative & Innovative Research (“I3R”) at length. In simplest terms, the I3R will be a flexible and state-of-the-art facility that empowers multidiscipline research and collaboration. It will introduce the needed high-quality research space for faculty and students, as well as future industry partnerships. The I3R will also primarily be focused on five identified innovation clusters: material science, data science, bioscience and bioengineering research and education in metabolism, food and technology, and integrative systems neuroscience. Uniquely so, the I3R will not be owned or administered by a specific academic unit. Instead, it is a university-wide institute, following a hub and spoke model; the I3R will serve as the center for multiple innovation hubs on campus.
Deborah Berke Partners and Ground Control to lead the design and restoration of the Fine Arts Center at the University of Arkansas along with Miller Boskus Lack
We’re excited to announce that we have been selected, along with our friends and collaborators at Deborah Berke Partners and Miller Boskus Lack Architects, to lead the design and restoration of the Fine Arts Center at the University of Arkansas. The building was design by Edward Durrell Stone and the landscape by Christopher Tunnard.
Buccini/Pollin Group break ground on The Cooper
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Adohi Hall opens at the University of Arkansas
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The Adohi Residential Hall Community transforms what was a 5-acre parking lot into a vibrant new residence and outdoor living space for students and visitors to enjoy. The University of Arkansas selected OLIN, in collaboration with Leers Weinzapfel, Mackey Mitchell & Modus Studio, to transform this new part of the campus into a destination for student residential life. The site design integrates the new residential dorms into steep terrain while untangling access to a series of disconnected buildings, service areas, and the arena. The project utilizes the natural topography of the site to separate service areas from pedestrian gathering spaces which allows mechanical and utilities to be hidden out of view. The design provides a cohesive landscape typology that links the dorms to the central campus and emulates the landscape ecology of the native Ozark Plateau of Northwest Arkansas.
The site design intricately weaves sinuous pathways between existing stands of mature oak trees to provide much needed shade for the new residents to enjoy warmer months outdoors. Undulating landforms, rock outcroppings and drifts of native planting extend the vernacular of the Oak Ridge Trail down into the project area, creating comfortable places for people. Stormwater infiltration is carefully integrated into the grading and captures runoff from paved areas and buildings.
The design for new residential community provides a cascading series of outdoor spaces that provide students and visitors with different opportunities to engage and gather. Stepped seating areas allow for community events in the Central Plaza while more intimate spaces encourage thoughtful study outdoors. The site design incorporates outdoor WiFi and strategically placed power sources for convenient studying opportunities.
Will was the Lead Designer, Associate and Project Manager for Adohi Hall while at OLIN.
Tech Plaza Programming kicks off at Arkansas Tech
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This week we kicked off programming for the new Student Union + Recreation Center, and Tech Plaza at Arkansas Tech with a series of workshops where we listened and learned from students, educators, and staff about their ideas and vision for this transformational project with our friends SmithGroup and Miller Boskus Lack
Ground Control selected to craft site design and nature play at IDEAS Children’s Center
We are thrilled to announce our selection to collaborate with YK Development Group & Gray Organschi Architecture on IDEAS Children’s Center, a new immersive learning environment that places emphasis on engaging with nature.
Farmer’s Coop Adaptive Reuse Project moves forward in Fayetteville, AR
Illustrative Plan
We are excited to announce that Farmer’s Coop Adaptive Reuse Project, a collaborations with Specialized Real Estate Group and Modus Studio, is pushing forward. Click the illustrative plan above to read more - stay tuned!
Planting continues at Whitemarsh Valley
Areas that were planned, designed and planted this spring are coming to life at Whitemarsh Valley Golf and Country Club. During the Golf & Grounds Master Planning process, we identified a need for an improved sense of arrival and areas that could improve textural quality throughout the property. ‘No mow’ areas plantied with fine fescue and little bluestem reduce the need for irrigation and mowing while creating a breathtaking backdrop to the course throughout the year.
Steep lawns embankments and washed out cart paths at the Hole 10 Green were replaced with drifts of fine fescue that slow down rainwater and prevent erosion.
Entry plantings provide a sense of arrival and create seasonal interest, including a hedge of winterberry to brighten up the winter months. Native stone boulders harvested from the property provide a backdrop to the planting and hold back grade. Lawn areas beyond will be transformed into meadows of fine fescue this fall.
Adding plantings beds to either side of the entry drive reinforces a sense of arrival and frame the view over the Hole 10 tees and beyond.
Ground Control selected to join the Walton Family Foundation Design Excellence Program
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We are delighted to announce that Ground Control has been selected to join the Walton Family Foundation Design Excellence Program! We believe in the Foundation’s guiding principles: a commitment to strengthening public life; elevating standards of sustainability and resilience; celebrating local cultures and place; and building regional capacity. We look forward to continuing to create ecologically intelligent and socially purposeful spaces throughout Northwest Arkansas!