The Project Design Approach

We believe in the use of an integrated design process to create a new golf course clubhouse or other public facility. This approach forms a highly collaborative team for a series of schematic design sessions, one of which would include a site visit. The purpose of this approach is to quickly come to design solutions that meet your goals as owners. For a golf course the team could include the owner, architect, landscape architect, mechanical engineer, golf pro, banquet manager, corporate meeting expert, construction manager/cost estimator, interior designer and Town code officer.

Chuck Smith has successfully used this design approach recently for the Gell Center, a writer's retreat. Design Works Architecture would set up and moderate the meetings. It is our experience that the best ideas often emerge when the participants of the design sessions cross the usual boundaries of their discipline and aren't limited to their typical narrow view of the project.

In the traditional design approach decisions are made on a hand off model where the last user or product rep. in line may be short changed for their needs. The various designers on the project meet occasionally with good intentions but generally stay focused on a narrow path.

In an integrated design approach, solutions are found that you like and understand, thereby avoiding the need to spend time reviewing multiple design offerings and plan revisions to respond to your questions or objections. We also find opportunities in a collaborative atmosphere. For example, a potential way to efficiently heat and cool the building and the restaurant freezers and coolers is with a geothermal system that utilizes the pond. We get rid of the noise and visuals of condensers outside the building. This scenario would involve the landscape architect, the mechanical engineer and the architect.

click to view our list of public buildings & some additional photos

Additional exterior view

Additional interior view

The Championship Course at Mill Creek Golf Club

Churchville, New York

The two story structure tucks itself into the ridge of the drumlin that bisects the Championship eighteen hole golf course. A drumlin is a mound of glacial till having its long axis in the direction of the glacial striation. The building features timbered covered porches reaching out to the golf course. The base of the building and porch piers are built of rock worn smooth by the grinding action of the receding glaciers. The flooring materials and the landscaping around the building reinforce the feeling of the golf course being integrated with the building. The building flows with the contours at the edge of the drumlin while it overlooks the greens of the ninth and eighteenth holes.

The ground floor level houses a two story timbered entry, the pro shop, golf cart storage for 40 carts, a caddy station, management offices, storage, and bag storage. A wide timbered stair leads guests to a men's and women's locker rooms, a tavern and events room on an upper level. The upper level also contains a kitchen and grill. The tavern features timber framed cathedral ceilings, a handsome wood bar, a gas fireplace, french doors opening onto a dining patio and a sweeping curved window wall facing the eighteenth and ninth greens. The upper level is at grade on the north side to allow access to the grill and bathrooms making the turn.

The building is 5,400 square feet on each of the two levels.

Additional view

More photos at www.hunthollow.com

Hunt Hollow Ski Club

Naples, New York

There's always a place by the fire...

Creating memories has been a mainstay of the Hunt Hollow Ski Club experience for over 40 years. With family oriented activities centered around and within their ski lodge, generations have come to love its ambience, its history and the coziness of the lodge's wood interior and crackling fire. But as the family grew, the need for additional lodge space became more acute. DWA participated in master planning exercises to develop a design to accommodate the Club's remarkable sustained growth.

A south addition is now complete with expanded lodge areas, additional lockers, accessible facilities and consolidated members services area. For arriving members and their guests this winter, a new south facing deck and entry overlooking the slopes will be the greeting to the start of another memorable ski season. Think snow!

Irondequoit Country Club

Pittsford, New York

Design Works Architecture was invited by the building committee of the Irondequoit Country Club in Pittsford to explore giving their clubhouse a new look. As an attempt to work within a $3.5 million budget, we proposed removing additions to the original 1929 Art Deco inspired building while relocating the tavern room to a new timber framed addition to the golf course side of the building. This strategy also moved the kitchen and loading docks to new efficient quarters away from "prime real estate." The total square footage would have been reduced from 32,000 square feet to 23,000 sq. ft. and still allow gatherings of 175 people.

The proposal offered a contemporary timbered building that complimented the Adirondacks feel of the wooded, rolling golf course and offered a fresh image to the Rochester golf community. While supported by the Building Committee, the proposal was declined in favor of renovating the existing building, adding more square footage and changing the building facade to a Mediterranean style.