VSBA

Bivalve is an historic fishing village on the bank of the Maurice River in southern New Jersey. The Bayshore Center at Bivalve combines active shipping docks with interpretive, educational, and environmental activities.

For two hundred years, area residents told stories of a Revolutionary War skirmish on the Maurice — which may or may not have occurred. In conjunction with an archaeological examination of the site, and collaborating closely with the Cumberland County Cultural and Heritage Commission, VSBA designed one-of-a-kind signage to envision, interpret, and commemorate this event.

We conceived the “oculus” as a transparent disk illustrating a vision of the 18th century battle. The drawing, by artist Bill Ternay, depicts rebel militia and Loyalist forces clashing in opposing boats. We installed the disk on a pier overlooking the river, precisely positioned so its illustration aligns with the water and opposite shore — showing the skirmish just how and where it could have occurred. Rather than an opaque board, the oculus layers interpretive content over its subject — viewers don’t look at but through the signage — to create a deeper engagement.

Formally, the oculus is a simple but carefully detailed structure. The transparent disk inscribed with interpretive information is protected by a second disk, encased in a metal rim, and mounted on a pole affixed to the wooden dock. We designed the interpretive text to be clearly legible at different times of day and with varying degrees of light. The oculus’s form connotes a magnifying glass, a lens, a lookout, prompting viewers to question, debate, and seek out more information.

We created the oculus as a prototype of transparent information systems that might be applied to other contexts — to stimulate a more engaging approach to interpretation. Our goal was to celebrate ambiguity and the subjectivity of interpretation along with historical scholarship and the spirit of the place.

In illustrating one possible echo of history, we wanted to provoke observers with more questions than answers. Here’s one view, the sign suggests, but what really happened?

The Allentown Art Museum is housed in a former Presbyterian church on a busy downtown block, adjacent to the recently completed Allentown Arts Park.  Built in 1901, the building was significantly expanded in 1937 and 1975.  The museum needed extensive renovation and new space for galleries, visitor amenities, education, and collection storage.  Of particular importance was strengthening the museum’s civic identity and engagement with the community.

VSBA’s 3-story addition, constructed on a narrow site in front of the 1975 wing, presents a new metal and glass façade that connects and contrasts with the original building.  It echoes the palette, civic scale, and rhythm of its columns while providing broad views to and from the Arts Park.  Vertical accents enliven the façade, picking up the color of the brick used in the Baum School of Art and Arts Park across the street.  At night, festive LEDs highlight the metal columns.  The addition enhances the museum’s civic presence while returning prominence to the original neoclassical façade.

The addition’s canted end inflects towards the Baum School of Art and welcomes visitors approaching from the corner.  It overlooks the site of a future sculpture garden and guides visitors arriving from the parking area behind the garden.  Large carved letters announce the institution and give interest to the granite base.

The new main entrance through the portico leads to the lobby, museum shop, and café.  Above is a new sculpture gallery and classroom; below is collection storage.  A 1-story addition to the rear, infilling an existing terrace, contains additional galleries above an expanded loading dock.  The existing 1975 galleries were completely renovated with new finishes, lighting and environmental systems.  Throughout the 1975 building, circulation was clarified and made accessible.

All improvements were achieved for an average cost of $228 per square foot.

Storm King Art Center is a unique outdoor museum — an expansive series of lawns, trails, fields, groves, and woodlands framed by the Hudson Highlands and set with monumental modern sculptures by notable artists.  Each artwork’s context is defined by both immediate and distant landscapes; the ever-changing visitor experience encompasses the seasons and weather, as well as the growing collection.  The Center is a public, non-profit, and educational institution.

In addition to our conceptual planning for the institution, we were asked to design a new visitor map and brochure as a guide to the grounds’ sculptures, facilities, and natural features.  The map reflects conceptual reorganization of Storm King’s precincts, in accord with our planning.

Along with a map of the grounds, our brochure collects in one place different bits of information important to visitors, as well as news about special exhibitions and events at Storm King.  The map’s printed on recycled-content paper that’s’ resistant to rain, helping it to be long-lasting and sustainable.

VSBA was retained to design a new hotel at the edge of a bustling entertainment and commercial neighborhood in Seoul, Korea. The mixed-use project places the hotel lobby and amenities above two levels of retail space and below-grade parking.

We worked with a local associated architect and client representatives to devise several options, from which two main schemes were selected for greater development.  In both, our overarching goals include:

• sensitively responding to the site’s different contexts, scales, and activities — and enhancing the retail environment within the district
• providing an inviting arrival sequence for guests, from motor lobby to reception desk to individual rooms
• creating facades that are lively and friendly — and using animated LED graphic elements at a range of scales to engage pedestrians and the whole city
• developing efficient plans for room floors while maximizing the number of guest rooms with desirable views
• using site development incentives to maximize floor area ratio while animating pedestrian levels
• creating a public plaza in front of the hotel to engage pedestrians and offer a sense of arrival for guests
• organizing circulation patterns to create valuable interactions between hotel activities and retail activities
• creating a pedestrian gateway and passage from the main road to the entertainment district
• maintaining secure separation between parking, lobby, retail, restaurant, and other public or semi-public spaces and the room floors.

The Cumberland County Cultural and Heritage Commission asked VSBA to conceive a signage system for numerous historical sites and structures, including the 17th century Swedish Granary, the East Point Lighthouse, and the Millville Army Air Field and Museum, as well as houses, churches, and banks.  The Commission produced a series of five-minute interpretive podcasts on the history and significance of each site — which aren’t typically open to the public, or open with limited hours.

To promote the Commission’s program, VSBA was asked to conceive an engaging new signage system.  We devised signs that identify each site and feature prominent QR codes — which, when scanned by a mobile device, links to the related podcast.  The large-scale QR code and place name can be seen by motorists while smaller text addresses pedestrians reading and scanning the sign.  (We carefully tested full-scale mock-ups to ensure that the codes would be scannable at appropriate heights and distances.)  And since the podcasts can be updated independently, interpretive content can evolve while the signs remain current.

The Time Traveler signs are designed to fit multiple contexts, from urban to rural.  While distinctive and prominent, the signs are also deferential to the beautiful sites they interpret.  To reinforce their neutral character, we used as few colors as possible, basic white and light grey backgrounds, and a simple sans serif font.  But we also incorporated discreet trompe l’oeil elements to lend depth and playfulness to the thin signs.

Our signs are built to last and change. They’re constructed of vinyl laminate mounted to aluminum plate.  This method allows content to change without having to replace the sign:  it’s relatively easy to apply a new laminate, so the sign can adapt with new needs and technologies (as QR codes are superseded, for example) — or totally change appearance.

The West Jersey Time Traveler signs offer an excitingly different approach to interpretation — allowing visitors to virtually enter historic buildings even when they’re closed.  The American Association for State and Local History recognized our pioneering approach to interpretation with a Leadership in History Award of Merit.

Storm King Art Center is a unique outdoor museum — an expansive series of lawns, trails, fields, groves, and woodlands framed by the Hudson Highlands and set with monumental modern sculptures by notable artists.  Each artwork’s context is defined by both immediate and distant landscapes; the ever-changing visitor experience encompasses the seasons and weather, as well as the growing collection.  The Center is a public, non-profit, and educational institution.

In the late 2000s, VSBA was retained to help develop a comprehensive picture of the institution’s facilities and plans for future growth.  We studied the interrelation of art, landscape, architecture, circulation, education, outreach, parking, and other systems as they relate to the visitor experience.  Linkages were fundamental concerns.   Our planning mapped existing and problem connections between activities and uses both on the site and with the broader neighborhood.  Our study also encompassed important issues of environmental stewardship and operational and finance concerns.

In 2013 we were then asked to begin a second phase of planning.  Since the initial study, Storm King has increased its acreage of native grasses, acquired new properties, added a new cafe, rerouted its tram service, and expanded its bike rental program.  Our goals are to continue improving visitor experience, promoting identity, creating flexible areas for programs and activities, providing good working environments, and fostering the right conditions for its unique art.

In addition to our planning, we’ve designed a new visitor map and brochure as a guide to the grounds’ sculptures, facilities, and natural features.  The map reflects conceptual reorganization of Storm King’s precincts, in accord with our planning.

VSBA, in collaboration with architects FreemanWhite, Inc., completed a major expansion of the Lehigh Valley Hospital – Muhlenberg.  After conducting master and organizational planning for the Hospital, we embarked on a $42 million renovation of 100,000 square feet and creation of a new 265,000 square feet patient tower and clinical care units.

The Hospital now features 188 private rooms for critical care, cardiac, and medical/surgical patients; expansion of the Regional Heart Center; an intensive care unit; Diagnostic Care Center; new hospital entrance and lobby; cafeteria; pharmacy; chapel; retail space; and increased visitor and staff parking.

Patient and clinical areas were designed with the patient and family in mind.  An administrative staff member is located to provide personal contact upon arrival at each floor.  Each unit includes a room for family members to stay overnight.  Units are designed to help staff focus on patient care by distributing functions usually located at a central nurse station to staff areas at the entrance to the patient’s room.  Each room provides separate zones for patient, staff, and family.  To improve flexibility and decrease patient relocations, the twelve-bed open-heart unit was designed to provide complete services from post-surgery to discharge.

An iconic 48-foot blue “H” marks the Hospital’s entrance.  It’s integrated into a limestone arcade that welcomes visitors and supports the entrance canopy.  The building’s facade is red brick and limestone on the front and buff brick on the sides and back.  An applied metal grid on the front represents the advanced technological structure and complements the more traditional brickwork.  On the interior, warm finishes, patterns, and colors help to create a comforting atmosphere while providing useful wayfinding.

President and CEO Elliot Sussman writes: “…Yesterday I found a few extra minutes and took a walk through our new hospital.  It is simply amazing!  I love the space, I love the light, I love the details….What a wonderful resource for our community….Thank you for giving us such a splendid building.”

VSBA was asked to suggest ways of improving and enlivening the student-centered spaces on the first level of Bryn Mawr College’s Campus Center.  The College wished to make the spaces more student and visitor-friendly and more emblematic of Bryn Mawr spirit.  VSBA redesigned the Café and Main Lounge, converted an adjacent meeting room to a student rec room, and created more visible connections between spaces.  Throughout, traditional symbols of Bryn Mawr’s past and present express the College’s identity and spirit.  The Main Lounge and Balcony include:

• permanent “banners” adapted and pixilated from early 20th-century College calendars, depicting scenes from Mawr’s enduring traditions —  including the Lantern Walk, May Day, and graduation
• a painted mural of quotes from distinguished alumnae — Katharine Hepburn, Marianne Moore, Ana Maria Lopez — in large, colorful letters over a field of oversized daisies (another Bryn Mawr symbol)
• a humorous, colorful 1909 map of the campus over the fireplace

In the reorganized Café, new menu boards and café identity signs are set against a backdrop of College symbols and memorabilia:

• a mural of an owl, Bryn Mawr’s mascot, overlooks the Café
• a neon sign identifying the Café adds to the character of the room (especially at night) and is visible from across the campus green; a neon lantern — emblematic of the annual “Lantern Night Walk” — is visible from the entrance to the Café and from the parking lot
• memorabilia — including reproductions of College production playbills, sheet music of traditional songs, and historic and contemporary photographs — hangs on the walls.

The campus “rec room” — formerly a meeting room — will be hung with rotating exhibits of student-created, student-selected artwork.  Main circulation spaces include large bulletin boards for student postings and e-mail stations.  A new information desk and informational plasma screen were also installed.

When we designed a new hospital building for the Lehigh Valley Health Network at Muhlenberg, we incorporated a series of large decorative murals in the lobby and public circulation areas.

Subsequently, we were asked to adapt these large-scale murals for two other locations — elsewhere at the Muhlenberg hospital and also for their Mack Boulevard administrative building.

Our murals are composed of a selection of quotes from many sources, which were selected by LVHN employees.  They’re intended as comforting, supporting, inspirational, and humorous.  We used vinyl lettering, which is durable but also economical and easily removable.

VSBA rehabilitated the landmark Guild House, one of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates’ earliest built works, designed nearly 45 years prior as housing for the elderly.

While Guild House was originally built for wheelchair access, we modified five apartments to meet current accessibility requirements and we equipped two units for hearing and visually impaired residents.  On the first floor we located a common accessible laundry room.  New amenities include offices for a social worker and visiting care providers and a Wellness Room with exercise equipment, ping pong and pool tables, a large screen TV, and interactive fitness video games.

Our rehabilitation provided new systems throughout for heating and cooling, automatic sprinklers, fire alarm, and emergency lighting; a new security call system to the manager’s office and front door; a new emergency notification system with ADA compliant pull-cord devices in all units; electrical upgrades such as new digital accessibility wiring and devices for telephone, Internet, and TV access for all apartments; and external cameras.

Exterior repairs included replacement of worn original aluminum windows with new units — including insulated low-emittance glazing for improved thermal performance — replacement of damaged bricks, and the addition of horizontal control joints at relieving angles.  Exterior paint colors for balconies and air conditioner covers were restored to analogous brick colors.  The iconic “GUILD HOUSE” sign was restored to its original font and color scheme.

When VSBA was commissioned to design the new Children’s Zoo, part of the program called for a special exhibit area to create visitor understanding of and sympathy with the natural world of science.  Traditionally this has been achieved through a teach/learn environment, but in this case the desire was to go beyond the usual constraints and involve visitors on an emotional and physical level.  Thus the most important element in the new Children’s Zoo became the reuse of an architecturally distinguished Victorian building to house a series of innovative, interactive exhibits depicting different animal and plant environments.

We designed a non-traditional exhibit style, an environmental approach that actively immerses visitors in a real physical context.  The design allows many visitors to experience the new context simultaneously, a critical factor in accommodating large crowds on high-attendance days.

In the four-year design and construction process of the Tree House, we have been responsible for initial research and development of each individual environment.  We have also developed innovative uses for artificial materials such as fiberglass, building insulation, rubber and plastic to develop artificial trees, vegetation, animal forms and so forth that will maintain the exhibits’ illusions and that can take constant handling by the public and the physical abuse the exhibits will receive.

The exhibits are intimately associated with the architecture of the building, with structures and contexts placed to complement and be complemented by the building’s many spatial characteristics.  The visitors’ experience of the wonderful old architecture becomes integral to the exhilarating experience of the exhibits themselves.  Thus a Victorian building from a previous era is not only preserved, but put to effective use in an urban zoo of today.

VSBA is working with engineers Pennoni Associates on designs for replacing the Narberth Avenue Bridge in Narberth, PA, a borough just outside Philadelphia. The bridge crosses the Main Line commuter and Amtrak rails, connecting the lively downtown to a residential neighborhood.

We began by mapping areas around the bridge to understand its relationship to uses and activity patterns within the community. We envisioned the bridge both as a connector between the downtown and residential neighborhood and as a gateway between them — as well as an opportunity to enhance the borough’s identity.

From the pedestrian perspective, our design is conceived as masonry wall segments, with openings for views, that provide a sense of continuity with facades of buildings leading up to the span. The walls and openings step and angle in response to the different slopes and sidewalk conditions at each approach to the bridge. The central span is defined by piers surmounted by lights at each quadrant. The necessarily solid central portion of the span features a frieze-like inscription that links the two sides of the bridge. From the outside, the bridge and abutments are concrete with a pattern of reveals providing scale and texture appropriate for distant views — the large “NARBERTH” scaled to be seen from the train station platform.

Since the 1970s, the Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) has been a world-renowned gallery and studio for artists working in all media.

After relocating to an historic building adjacent to the Philadelphia Convention Center and the Reading Terminal Market, FWM retained us to create a permanent storefront display.  But for an arts institution offering ever-changing exhibitions, as well as public events and a museum shop, how could any “permanent” display adequately serve?  Moreover, the FWM also operates several other storefronts along the same block; the institution wanted a display that somehow helped to identify and unite them all.

VSBA’s solution was to create a multimedia installation incorporating state-of-the-art display technology, static signage, colorful lighting, and more.  To enable the most flexibility for changing content, we filled the main museum building’s windows with an array of high-definition digital displays capable of showing video, text, still images, and ornamentation on an huge scale.  The display’s web-based programming interface allows FWM artist-collaborators around the world to design the window.

As a static counterpoint, we framed the displays with Sintra panels depicting Classical Greek columns and pediment — riffing on the historic building’s Corinthian elements.  (A portion of the signage even playfully extends into the main entrance’s doorway — so visitors symbolically pull apart and step through the Classical façade.)

We also incorporated two bright stripes of neon across the top of the window, with bright pink vinyl lettering at top and bottom identifying the institution.  To unite the other storefronts, the Greek order and neon were extended from window to window, while leaving ample space for changing art and merchandise displays.

VSBA has created the new public face of the Fabric Workshop — at once contextual and contemporary — bold, nuanced, and playful.  The new storefront has brought an important new focus and excitement to the Museum.