We proposed a Center for Architecture and Design containing a public space that is welcoming and accessible in all senses of the word.  "...the purest architecture is that most suited to fundamental human needs,  and to basic human society...architecture has to get back to basics."

Marc-Antoine Laugier, Essai Sur L'Architecture, Paris, 1753

The Center communicates both an idea about Architecture with a capital ‘A’ and also the architecture of everyman within the vocabulary or tectonics of production, the materials, and making of the Center.  Laugier's illustration identifies Architecture's roots in Nature and Craft. Our proposal for the Center incorporates environmentally sensitive materials and crafted ornament in contrast to the shell building, designed by Mies van der Rohe, which relies on ornamental I-beams.

As Gaston Bachelard wrote: “...a building constructed by human hands is thus returned to nature by our dreams.”