Last month, the Placework team officially relocated to a new studio in Portsmouth’s West End, trading the snug downtown home we’d occupied for twelve years for a space that better accommodates our vision. Our new studio, housed in a portion of the historic Morley Button Factory, is an inspiration in itself. We chose this space... Read more »
This project demonstrates how preservation can support multiple public goals at once: protecting historic fabric, expanding housing, interpreting underrepresented histories, and preparing existing buildings for a changing climate. Placework is celebrating the opening of the Penhallow-Cousins House at Strawbery Banke Museum. This project brings together preservation, climate adaptation, housing development, and cultural storytelling in one... Read more »
Health and well-being are rooted in place. And because Americans spend over 90% of our days indoors, according to the U.S. E.P.A., the quality of our homes and workplaces has great potential to impact our health. As architects, where do we turn to understand the environmental factors that affect health and how to apply... Read more »
At Placework, volunteering reflects our core values of community, collaboration, and stewardship. Our team actively contributes time and expertise to both professional networks and the communities in which we live and work. Placework provides three paid days of volunteer time annually, encouraging team members to commit to organizations that are meaningful to them as individuals.... Read more »
UNH Student Work Rather than asking students to solve technical challenges, students are challenged to observe, to feel, and to imagine. Partner Brian Murphy has been teaching undergraduate students at the University of New Hampshire and high school students at Philips Exeter Academy’s Exeter Summer program for the past several years. He’s also led... Read more »
These principles are more than just aspirational words; they shape how we design and engage with the world around us. The Placework team has established an explicit set of values that guide everything we do – how we work together, collaborate with clients and consultants, and engage with the wider community. These principles are... Read more »
Strawbery Banke Museum tells stories. Their mission is to promote understanding of people and the value of community through encounters with the history and the ongoing preservation of a New England waterfront neighborhood. Given current and future climate conditions, “ongoing preservation” has become more of a challenge. While the museum presents the history of... Read more »
We’ve been thinking a lot about our values in the last week, and how our commitment to working toward a just community lives in harmony with the natural world. It seems farther away than ever right now, but when we recognize that these models for regenerative community and purposeful work already exist – that they... Read more »
There is a growing movement looking toward a more radical reassessment of the standards. There is a tension between historic buildings and adapting them to serve future needs. As we move forward, climate and weather conditions will differ radically from the times in which our building stock was constructed. Preservation takes on a different... Read more »
Libraries have served society over the millennia, from ancient bastions of knowledge to the free libraries that have supported a democratic society in 20th century America. In our current century libraries serve as community, technology, and social hubs. How will libraries serve us in the future, and how to we plan our buildings to support... Read more »
This is a widget ready area. Add some and they will appear here.