This project supports the integration of the Brooklyn Public Library’s resources with those of the Center for Brooklyn History, facilitating the transition from a previously private institution to one that is public. Throughout the first phase of this project, we conducted a planning study identifying challenges, opportunities, long-term goals, and short-term strategies that provide a roadmap to advancing the Center for Brooklyn History. Realizing one of the many strategies outlined in the planning study, the second phase of this project includes a renovation of the public library and gallery spaces that transform the center into a welcoming and accessible destination for the local community.

Improving access to the Center for Brooklyn History, the reconfigured entrance is centralized within the sloped entry plaza, while new outdoor seating fosters community gathering, activating the plaza and adjacent street corner. Unrestricted street-level windows create a stronger visual connection between interior activities and those at the street. New exterior signage identifies the once-private building within its surrounding neighborhood. Custom interior signage and new digital display share information about collections, exhibitions, and the broader network of Brooklyn Public Library locations, enhancing the visibility and presence of the center, revealing activities taking place within, and supporting visitor engagement. A new welcome desk and signage improve wayfinding, and a ramp connecting the main entry to the historic interior, provides easier access to upper-floor collections. Interior enhancements, such as new furniture and a retail area, create an inviting space for reading, studying, working, and exploring exhibitions. The vibrant colors of the lounge furniture echo the historic brick façade, visually linking the interior and exterior.

This project not only preserves the historical significance of the Center for Brooklyn History but also enhances its role as a cultural hub, and our long-term plan provides a guide for growth into the future. By improving accessibility, visibility, and its presence within the community, the Center for Brooklyn History evolved into a dynamic public resource that celebrates Brooklyn’s rich history and provides support for its local community.

This project, in partnership with Mario Gooden Studio, provides expanded space for departmental programming and events, including a renovated theater and production spaces, faculty, and community event spaces for Brown University’s Department of Africana Studies.

Visually connected to the street, the addition provides transparency and connectedness to the surrounding campus, celebrating and conveying the important academic and performance-based work transpiring within. The reoriented building entry with a new terrace and ramp is located along the Walk, a vibrant campus green space frequented by students and local community members. Enhancing the visibility of the department on campus, and improving accessibility from the street, this renovation and addition supports Brown University as it works toward goals of diversity and inclusion, sustainability and wellness, and community.

The design highlights the relationship between the Department of Africana Studies and the Rites and Reason Theater. Throughout the building, the department’s shared wall with the theater features a pattern mirroring that on the facade of the addition, forging connections between the building’s interior and exterior, and highlighting the presence of the theater within the Department.

Along the lobby’s southern wall, the entrance to the theater is framed with a custom perforated panel with an intricate fractal pattern. The fractal, a geometric pattern with inlaid shapes that grow and shrink in scale, references patterns used in West African cultural artifacts such as textiles and architecture. This fractal pattern is recalled throughout the department and is used in the supergraphics on select feature walls on each level of the building.

This new single-family residence includes an artist studio and pool and is situated within a south-facing hill in Dutchess County, New York. The house is surrounded by lush, forested hills and woodlands creating the opportunity for distinct moments that blend landscape with human habitation.

At the core of this project is a commitment to stewardship of the natural environment, with materials and building systems chosen thoughtfully to meet rigorous sustainability goals. The home includes photovoltaic panels for energy generation and a geothermal heating and cooling system that utilizes the stable temperature of the earth’s subsurface to exchange heat. Primary interior finishes include locally sourced wood for both structure and finishes; concrete, stone, and wood floors; and metal kitchen cabinets. Tiered stone walls step up the hill from the pool to the home, and exposed, board-formed concrete retaining walls extend from the landscape to the interior, integrating the unique terrain and topography of the site with interior spaces.

Following the development of a strategic plan for Urban Dove to expand across all NYC boroughs, Marble Fairbanks designed a team charter school in Brooklyn as a renovation to an existing building. Unique to Urban Dove schools, each student is part of a team with their own coach who offers extra curriculum support and sports and fitness instruction. A gymnasium, training rooms, and extra fitness spaces complement traditional classroom learning, and access to outdoor fields is an important criterion for building sites. Various scenarios were developed within the strategic plan including for the school to be part of a new development project, to be the sole tenant in an existing building, or to be a tenant within a larger renovation project.

As part of our long-standing relationship with Urban Dove, we’ve worked on other design projects including the development of a graphic identity for the school that can be easily replicated in new spaces as Urban Dove expands. The recent renovation for their Brooklyn-based school included repurposing an auditorium into a gymnasium, incorporating the custom graphic identity which has been strategically applied in their Bronx school. The Urban Dove model has proved to be highly successful, and we continue to advise as they expand their services.

The Master Plan for Middlebury College Library envisions future projects and establishes prioritized and phased options for realizing these changes within the Davis Family Library and Armstrong Science Library, the two main libraries on Middlebury College’s campus. With the goal of aligning the library’s master plan goals with Middlebury’s strategic plan, we looked at Middlebury’s libraries as a network of related resources throughout campus.

The planning process included a series of focus groups, drop-in sessions, surveys, and campus-wide presentations to understand the current needs and future goals of each of the libraries and to establish a clear framework and shared principles for guiding the work. The master plan provides alternate future paths and multiple conceptual design options for more collaborative study space, expanded knowledge production spaces, and experimental studio and rich media spaces that support emergent pedagogy. These future paths align the libraries with Middlebury’s strategic framework, while also addressing library services, staff spaces, special collections, and stacks. The goal is for the master plan to be a living document, providing phased options for immediate, near-term, and long-term implementation for the libraries to redirect, reconfigure, and reallocate space as the institutional needs evolve.