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Craig Gaulden Davis

Craig Gaulden Davis

We’re architects and interior designers equipping those who teach, lead, serve, and inspire to transform their communities.

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Ron Geyer David Dixon Dustin Albright Gwinn Harvey Scott Powell Susan Zeigler Stuart Stenger Ed Zeigler Scott Simmons

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Capitol Ceilings

Last week, I was fortunate to spend a few days in Washington D.C.  Aesthetically and structurally unique among American cities, our Baroque-ish capitol offers visitors much to see and appreciate.  As a way of documenting my visit, I thought I'd share photographs of a few of the great ceilings of Washington.

United States Institute of Peace (Moshe Safdie)

Peace

National Portait Gallery

Portrait-gallery

Kogod Courtyard (Norman Foster)

Foster

National Gallery of Art - East Wing Connector (I.M. Pei)

National-gallery-tunnel

National Gallery of Art - East Wing (I.M. Pei, featuring Calder mobile)

Natl-gallery-calder

National Museum of the American Indian (Douglas Cardinal, and later Smithgroup)

Indian

Metro Center Station

Metro

Posted by Dustin Albright

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Porter Memorial Library Earns LEED Gold

Yesterday I presented the Library, Library Board, and County Commissioners with the official LEED Gold plaque from the USGBC.  Porter Memorial Branch Library is Georgia's 2nd Public Library to achieve LEED Gold status and the first Newton County Public Building to achieve any level of Certification.  After almost one year open to the public, Porter still has a brand new feel to it and is being maintained very well.


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Posted by Stuart Stenger

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Second Graders Paint CCES Chapel

Chapel of the Good ShepherdA Thanksgiving card sent out by the Annual Giving Steering Committee of Christ Church Episcopal School features paintings of the CGD-designed Chapel of the Good Shepherd created by second grade students of the school as part of a classroom unit on communities.

Art teacher Marilyn Mullinax is quoted inside the card saying "students learned about shapes and forms in architecture.  They went outside to observe these elements in our chapel, the center of the CCES community, and made sketches.  The drawings were completed with watercolor pencils and washes."

The vibrant work is credited, clockwise from upper left, to students Jack Roberts, Laken Jorgensen, Weston Segura, and Morgan Thompson.

Cces-thanksgiving

Posted by Ron Geyer

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School Rebirth


Spearman Elementary School in Anderson District 1 was originally a black high school when schools were separate, but not equal.  South facing exterior corridors were enclosed to create a greenhouse effect - hot with no air conditioning or ventilation.  In the late eighties, a nice, but trendy (brick pattern) addition was done on the front of the building, but the original structure was inadequate in many ways.  Under Gwinn Harvey's leadership, CGD (1) added a kitchen/cafeteria and converted the existing cafeteria to kindergarten space and added a classroom addition on front of the building.  The project came in under budget so CGD was allowed to (2) replace the original classroom wings.  There was still money left over so CGD (3) renovated the remainder of the existing building.  

The result is a beautiful, functional school that rivals any school.  Kudos to Gwinn and the CGD team.


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Original, south facing corridor that had been glassed in with no conditioning.  There were three such wings on the rear of the school.

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Canopy in front of the new cafeteria.

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New cafeteria with light monitors.  Lunch participation increased dramatically because students want to eat in the new school "restaurant."

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New classroom wing connecting back to cafeteria.

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New finishes in 1980's addition.

Posted by Scott Powell

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Color at CGD

One of the advantages of working in an office that is located in a natural setting can be seen in this image.  Each autumn morning, I drive into our parking area anticipating the yearly burst of color from the maple trees in the cul-de-sac.  Even though it was a little overcast, my arrival today was greeted with full color.

 

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Posted by Ed Zeigler

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Halloween at CGD

In lieu of pumpkin carving, we at CGD decided to employ a time-honored architectural practice this year:  the napkin sketch.  As expected the entries varied greatly in theme and execution.  There was an owl, an Elvis, and even a depiction of Clemson's recent football demise.  That said, the winner struck a chord of familiarity with its thorough, construction-ready documentation. 

(download)

Posted by Dustin Albright

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Conversation with Erin Jones - Director of The Museum and Gallery, Bob Jones University


Craig Gaulden Davis worked with Bob Jones University to renovate the old Coca-Cola Building on the Heritage Green campus for a satellite location of the University's world-renowned Museum and Gallery.  The renovated building houses rotating religious art collections and serves as a venue for social events.  Using historic photographs, CGD designed the exterior renovation of the two-story, circa 1920 building to reveal and restore original architectural detail.  The interior was completely renovated to provide state of the art galleries, interactive displays, a gift shop, and large conference room.  The project was completed in 2008.

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Where can you find one of the most important collections of baroque art in America?  At the Museum & Gallery at Bob Jones University! 
Erin Bell (Jones), Director of the M&G and First Lady of the university, sat down to talk to Alan Cooper, the Publisher of UpstateBizSC.com about this incredible collection of old master paintings and the museum's exciting new expansion into an educational satellite location in downtown Greenville: M&G at Heritage Green.  See the video podcast here:

http://upstatebizsc.com/news/conversations/
 

 

 

 

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Best of Beach-Kitsch

I spent the past week enjoying a vacation with family at Surfside Beach.  It had been 10+ years since my last trip to the Myrtle Beach area and I was pleased to learn that nothing much had changed along Highway 17.  It's the retail strip offering a continuous string of restaurants, bars, and beachwear/tchotchke shops.  It's "beach-kitsch" at its best.  My wife described it well when she asked whether the designers of the mini-golf courses (another common sight along Highway 17) had designed everything else while they were at it.  An astute question.

So, without further ado, I cast my vote for the building which best exemplifies and most-proudly employs the beach-kitsch aesthetic. 

1st Place:  Jaws (a unique beachwear emporium - think of the Wings, Eagles, or Pacific beachwear stores and add in tanks of live sharks)

(download)

Honorable Mention #1:  The Golden Egg (while not as flashy as the winner, there's an undeniable charm in those pilasters and that giant egg)
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Honorable Mention #2:  Crazy Sam's Fireworks (less notable for its architecture than for its inadvisable neighbor)

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Posted by Dustin Albright

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Water-Tight (part 2)

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In my previous post I referenced a string of commentaries which concerned performance and maintenance issues in various high profile buildings. Two of the common subjects were Frank Gehry's Stata Center at MIT and Daniel Libeskind's addition to the Denver Art Museum, both of which I've visited. I am not particularly familiar with the performance problems of either facility and will not comment on them However, I enjoyed my visit in each case and thought I'd follow up with some photos and a few reactions.  

Visit Placemaker for the remainder of this post.

Posted by Dustin Albright

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Water-Tight (part 1)

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I recently stumbled onto the following string of commentaries pertaining to functional risks of cutting-edge architecture.

 

I will not critique the individual links, but they do represent voices of concern that contemporary designers should be familiar with. Striking a balance between innovation and long-proven methods is (and always has been) a critical practice for architects, and I'd argue that a solid understanding of the latter informs and enables the former. This is true for structural and material advances, as well as social and environmental advances. The push for carbon-neutrality in the building industry involves both the newest technologies and traditional passive strategies. Design is necessarily a creative and inventive act. That said, I can still learn a lot from the pitch and overhang of the old mill house roofs in my neighborhood.

NOTE:  As it turns out, I've recently  visited two of the buildings villified by these sources:  Gehry's Stata Building at MIT and Libeskind's Denver Art Museum addition.  Check back as I share some photos and observations from my visits. 

 

Posted by Dustin Albright

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