Pavilion at Cotillion Park

Project Details

Project Description

AIA 2013 Small Project Awards winner in Category 2 Description: A small project construction, up to $1,500,000.

FROM THE AIA:

Commissioned by the Dallas Parks Department, this new shade structure bridges the gap between two groups of trees at a natural gathering place in the park. The composition of steel components abstracts and mimics the surrounding trees to produce similar dappled shade. The sun’s movement animates the structure, catching direct light, casting shadows and patterns, and creating dynamic figure-ground shapes against the sky. Long concrete benches not only define the outdoor room under the translucent roof, but stretch out beyond to extend the usable area into and under the surrounding shade trees. The program called for a 650 s.f. pavilion that would be immune to vandals and endure 40 years without maintenance. We delivered on budget, a project covering 1,200 s.f. under roof and 2,600 s.f. of additional usable area claimed by benches. With attention to sustainability, we chose durable elemental materials. Over time the raw steel will oxidize and the fly-ash concrete will weather like natural stone. The solid polycarbonate roof blocks the rain and UV rays. Suspended at the center of the pavilion hangs a bright red/orange elliptical mobile/weathervane. The mobile gently rotates to acknowledge any changing wind direction and provides a dynamic heart at this well-used suburban neighborhood park.
Jury Comments: This is such a fantastic way for the public to be able to experience architecture in a park setting. The whimsical pop of red draws the eye and leads to you walk in and experience the space. It plays with light and provides a shading experience. An exquisite filigree steel structure, that is at once shade pavilion and large environmental art piece. It is a highly commendable commission because of its potential impact on the public’s awareness of outdoor art. Its execution poetically recalls nature with an oversized rain scupper, a hovering red oval mobile that looks like a setting sun and the physics of horizontal steel for atmospheric affect. It reminds me of how I felt when I first viewed Olafur Eliasson’s “Weather Project” at the Tate Modern. The restraint in material palette, punctuated with a classic red accent that is fresh in a 'scaled-up-charm' kind of way, makes place in a significant and powerful way. There is an elemental treatment of water that allows this simple structure to remind us of our connection to basic elements - water, earth... The contrast of the light structure overhead with the bounding and seating elements also makes a place that is wonderfully occupiable.
Collaboration Acknowledgements: Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. (Landscape Architects & Planners) -Responsible for sitework as well as renovation of parking lots.
Architectural Engineers Collaborative (Structural Engineer) - heavy collaboration between structural and architectural team throughout process.
Lars Stanley Metalworks, AIA - Mobile consultation and fabrication.

http://www.aia.org/akr/Resources/Documents/AIAB098267