For this project, the studio was tasked with a challenging and unusual mixed-use building for Deep Ellum in Dallas, TX. The project has two, very dissimilar, uses; first and foremost, the space needs to serve as a community center and workshop for the surrounding neighborhood; secondly, the space needs to serve as an archive and gallery for the works of Donald Judd, the late sculptor who is responsible for the revival of Marfa, TX.
A unique and specific use was hard enough to design for, but the site also added a lot of challenge to the design, as it sits in a very odd, specific spot within Deep Ellum. The site is a small, triangular lot, sits snugly between two major highways and adjacent to a train lot. It also sits within a highly industrial part of Deep Ellum, removed from the gentrifying, cultural district that sits many blocks north of the site. Surrounding the site are pre-fab metal buildings, many of which are small, industrial businesses. Additionally, this part of Dallas has an exceptionally high rate of crime, due to many factors which are irrelevant to the design.
Rather than design something completely bespoke to be fitted to the site, I instead chose to utilize the surrounding industrial vernacular for the design of my project. For nearly all of the project, Butler pre-fab metal building systems were used. Choosing to go with a pre-fab system for a community center and sculptural archive may seem like an odd choice, but I felt it was an important choice for a few reasons.
Pragmatically, pre-fab metal is very cheap and efficient system, which is important considering the very poor, crime-apt neighborhood in which the project sits. While a corten steel or mass timber building would make for a nice building, I chose instead to respect the surrounding industrial vernacular; choosing to elevate the cheap and easy vernacular as much as I could through intentional design choices. This not only allows for the project to integrate into the fabric of the surrounding site, but it also, in itself, a tribute to Donald Judd’s philosophy. For those unfamiliar with the artist, Judd was a sculptor that fabricated much of his work by designing drawings and commissioning craftsmen to fabricate them. His works were highly industrial, precise, and they were fabricated, opposed to being sculpted. Judd’s own architecture, which came at the end of his career, often utilized existing buildings and systems, including pre-fab systems, and so I felt it fitting to do the same for a building that would house his works.
