"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood," the great city builder Daniel H. Burnham famously advised. No offense to Burnham, but little plans in the right hands can be soul-stirring. Even the most modest building, when it is the product of inspired design, can raise the bar for everything that comes after it. And by thinking small, architects and their clients often have more leeway to invest in design nuances and high-quality materials. Tiny, jewel-like projects also help to heal wounds in the urban fabric and create a distinctive sense of place in cities and suburbs alike. "Small size lets you have more control," says Sebastian Schmaling of Johnsen Schmaling Architects, one of the city's most innovative young firms. "We're interested in materiality, in details, in the tactile qualities of a building, all the way down to the last screw head -- the way you experience it at the pedestrian level. And you can't always do that with a tall office building."
Schmaling's practice, which has earned national recognition, has several projects in the pipeline that showcase the advantages of the small-is-beautiful approach. One, planned for S. 76th St. and W. Layton Ave. in Greenfield, is a sculpture garden commissioned by Karl Kopp, the design-conscious owner of adjacent Kopp's Custard. In collaboration with Phoenix artist Janis Leonard, the architects plan to install a 32-foot-square glass cube and other sculptural objects inside a thick grove of winter-hardy bamboo and light the site at night. The idea is to create a lantern-like presence and contemplative buffer along a busy commercial street. The same firm has designed a custom-fabricated glass storefront system that will soon be installed at the former Coffee Trader building on N. Downer Ave. The shifting vertical panes will be held in place by stainless steel tracks, creating what Schmaling calls "an almost immaterial enclosure," absent the usual clutter of framing. There's another east side gem in the works, at N. Farwell Ave. and E. Greenwich Ave.: a glassy box of Miesian simplicity designed by David Lang, a rising star at Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, for a small dental practice.
With its rigorous geometry and shimmering transparency, the street-hugging building would be exactly the kind of place maker that this jumbled entry point to the North Ave. business district cries out for. I hope that neighbors who object to the zoning change it requires will keep their eyes on the prize here: memorable architecture that can enrich the urban experience. Nick Cascarano of Arquitectura, a small firm in Shorewood, has designed what may be the metro area's most stunning gas station, a gateway to Greenfield now under construction at S. 124th St. and W. Layton Ave. With its curvy canopy, glassy tower and crisp, wooden trusses, the BP station puts its off-the-shelf competitors to shame. (Another Cascarano winner, his own minimalist, high-style home in Glendale, is featured on HGTV today at noon.) Scott Kindness of Workshop Architects transformed a tiny space at N. Water St. and E. Humboldt Ave. with a charismatic building that houses Good Life, a Caribbean eatery and bar. In its attention to detail, from the curved roof and tree-branch trusses to the reddish wood trim and glass curtain walls, here is modernism at its most inviting. A bonus: The project incorporates a restored former municipal building next door, showing how preservation and new development can peacefully co-exist. Finally, there's a new Actaea Works spa and salon at 2173 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., designed by Continuum Architects Planners' Dan Beyer. It's an add-on to an older building, and it uses economical materials. But with its upswept roofs, tall windows and south-facing courtyard, the slender newcomer adds an unusually welcoming spot to this rejuvenating area.
The fun part is watching how such thoughtful little projects can become contagious. As Beyer notes, with a nod to Malcolm Gladwell, "While I am not sure that I would go so far as to say that these projects can become the tipping point that makes good, sustainable design a social epidemic (wouldn't that be wonderful?), I do believe that they can and do have a ripple effect that goes beyond the property lines of the site." Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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