Williams Street Studio

Project Details

Project Description

This mixed-use project is located in a redeveloping downtown neighborhood of Chattanooga called the Southside District. The owners are an Ingushi painter from the former Soviet Union, and his wife, a painter from Chattanooga who studied at the Repin Institute in Russia.

The owners wrote a design brief which we followed to the letter in designing their mixed-use project that combines a painting gallery, an open air courtyard in the center of the property, a residence and visiting artists quarters above the gallery accessed by an open air stair in the courtyard, and a painting studio with a continuous north facing skylight.

The painting studio was the project’s first phase. One of the artists works on very large canvasses; consequently the studio is a tall, broad space with ten foot tall doors. The program brief suggested modern structures arranged around a courtyard. The end result is richly informed by the skills and experiences of the participants; one of the artists laid all the stonework, and the craftsman who built the project.

The buildings are structured to bear substantially on their interior steel frames owing to the question of the structural integrity or the future use of the adjoining buildings. The studio and residence are framed in exposed timber. The gallery and visiting artists residence are simple spaces in painted drywall. Color informs each space. The exterior is clad in zinc and local stones. The windows are fiberglass clad wood out of the catalogue.