Wannemacher Jensen Architects is Associate Architect with the Michael Maltzan Architecture Team for the new St. Petersburg Pier titled The Lens.
The program consists of a new observation tower as well as the long term master planning of the Cooper’s Point peninsula as a publicly accessible nature preserve. The tower seeks to become one with the landscape while providing views ofTampaBay, Cooper’s Bayou, as well as the preserve area. Through the use of a porous skin cladding, the tower has the ability to provide shade and shadow from the intensity of theFloridasun while creating spaces for birding, relaxation, and education.
This project consists of a renovation and expansion of an existing church to accommodate modern style services. This requires a larger stage, sanctuary, audio, and visual systems. To do this we maintained the existing forms simply pulling one wall away from the building to allow natural light behind the alter and to be a glowing beacon of activity within the community. We then extended the roof life in the opposite direction to accommodate a protected entry and drop off. The final product is one cohesive form.
This project was a temporary light installation at the Gala Corina Art and Design Exhibition. WJArchitects utilizes installations as a means to investigate and experiment with individual conditions without the pressure of program. A simple spatial hypothesis is determined first for the piece and then the experimentation begins without a final pre-conceived outcome defined. We have to resit the urge to design and define walls first to avoid tainting the exploration process. We do not create a space and then illuminate that space. If you have one point of light and introduce one solid plane there is a space defined by shadow. We then trace the shadow edges to define where the next plane will be constructed. The form essentially grows into a system of interconnected planes and light sources. If one moves then the entire system is effected. With each installation our ability to predict outcomes has increased and our our ability to define space with light has increased.
This progression occurs within the same space without any changes in tangible form. The space appears as a volume of light or as a solid plane defined by a frame of light.
Fire stations are very unique building typologies which combine a home and workplace into one building. We worked closely with the fire department to make sure that both functions occurred symbiotically in this LEED Gold, Fire Station #8. Clearstory windows throughout the building provide natural light into the apparatus bay, dayroom, and offices. Seven individual dorm rooms consist of large floor-to-ceiling lockers, lockable under-bed storage, operable windows, and programmable tones for fire and EMS. The firefighters are also provided with a designated training/workout room, individual toilet rooms permitting flexibility in gender usage, gear grid lockers, and lighting programmed and coordinated with radio alarm. The impact rated, glass apparatus bay doors provide light into the space and allow it to be displayed to the community. The final building gives the firemen a very comfortable, maintenance-free environment.
In the age of social media, where a company’s face may be solely relegated to Twitter and Facebook posts, Community Bank strives to bridge the on-line experience with the off-line experience. This new, flagship branch is located along Beach Drive in St. Petersburg, FL and houses five specific zones within the facility. The programmable LED lights splash onto an impeccable white canvas of compound curving forms, reminiscent of Apple products, thus becoming a visual barometer for the company’s brand, mood, social awareness and public relations.
This is a new community center on 42 acres in North Port, Florida complete with a double gymnasium, fitness center, large multi-purpose room, exterior basketball court, playground, walking trail and a multitude of other activity spaces and features. The concept was to bring the outside park setting inside within a mid-century modern architecture vocabulary of large glazed wall areas, organic curved surfaces, natural stone both inside and out, and expansive covered and uncovered exterior program areas.
Christ the King is a new Christian Ministry Center that shares its site with four existing buildings, one of which is a 1960 sanctuary designed by Frank Lloyd Wright protégé, Architect, John Randall McDonald. In respect for this celebrated piece of architecture, the new building compliments yet distinguishes itself through its own triangular folded-plate roof system.
Cassis American Brasserie is a restaurant with a separate retail bakery, designed to resemble traditional brasseries in Paris, offering contemporary American-French cuisine. Located in downtown St. Petersburg, on the ground floor of a newly constructed condominium tower, the restaurant and bakery are located at a visible waterfront intersection, across the street from a waterfront park and municipal marina.
The architectural mission was simply to provide dining guests with a space where they feel comfortable lingering over a delicious well-cooked meal. The bakery is even more casual than the restaurant and also invites guests to linger over specialty coffee, baked breads and pastries, and house-made ice cream. The design of the restaurant evolved from a reaction to the existing space, which was originally a cold, dark shell with no walls, floors, ceilings, electricity or air conditioning. Today, the transformed, warm, open space includes a zinc-top bar, fabricated in France, and a vaulted back bar with wine storage.
Largo Community Center is a senior focused, LEED Platinum community center, providing recreation programs that include an auditorium, art room, game room, and card room. We created a site for the building from a non de script suburban parcel. The original community center was devoid of a single window and no exterior green space. Inside, the patrons would try to mingle in a five foot corridor that doubled as a lobby. Although the environment wasn’t ideal, there was a wonderful display of kinship shared by the patrons and staff which we wanted to design the new building around. We first organized the new building around the patrons. Corridors were eliminated, consolidating all circulation within a large central lobby. This lobby acts as a city square providing the building with a social center. The patrons can now mingle and survey the entire facility together at one time. It is the place to meet and a space to relax between classes. We believe this space will extend the length of participant stay and the number of classes they take.
Mimetic camouflage and disruptive camouflage are two types of cryptic camouflage patterns. Crypsis, via disruptive camouflage and mimetic qualities, is the generative force behind the attempt to capture the ephemeral qualities and memories of organic shadows – as created through foliage and tree canopies. Disruptive camouflage in nature, and most recently in military defense tactics, aims to break up the shape and outline of a body in order to confuse a prey or enemy’s detection and recognition time. Can disruptive camouflage be interpolated in the shadow form via its inverse use?
Roberts Recreation center is the first two-story, inter-generationally focused building in
the city of St. Petersburg. This unique facility masks generational boundaries and provides interactive spaces which heed to youth and adults alike. This park and recreation center has become a prized amenity for this part of the city.
The building’s design sought to illustrate the relationship between the two generational groups through its use of material and spatial interaction. The youth programs use of white plaster is to symbolize the innocence and malleability of younger generations while the adult center programs use Zinc cladding to symbolize the refined nature of the adults. The use of Zinc will also change over time as it oxidizes, becoming a deeper grey. Its value and beauty only increases with time – a metaphor for aging. The one place where the Zinc and plaster join is the lobby; the two materials embrace the space where youth and adults interact.
ZK Dezigns