DesRosiers Architects, an award-winning architectural firm located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan has specialized in custom residential, institutional, and commercial design for five decades, working with clients to tailor solutions that fit their personality, lifestyle, and brand. Founded and led by third-generation architect, Louis DesRosiers, AIA, president, the firm has built upon a rich legacy in traditional and contemporary design, supported by a team of registered architects, technical draftspersons, and designers. Its residential architecture portfolio is one that reflects a pursuit to create a physical statement through a harmony of art and structure, inviting the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape into the home, whether dynamic mountain range or compelling freshwater…
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Rhythm and scale
Built at the intersection of W. Fulton Street and N. Halsted Street, 800 Fulton Market is an intentional composition of materiality, form, and function, where architectural expression is informed by the grit, the resilience, and the innovation of an industrial past and vibrant future. Its three-story podium, from which the 19-story, mixed-use office building rises, is inspired by the rhythm and scale of its neighborhood, blurring temporal and physical lines of the historic and existing low-rise streetscape to higher-density commercial districts nearby. The offset core and series of landscaped terraces, triangular in form, are set back from its ground-level footprint, softening its presence at the Fulton Market District Gateway and…
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New space to thrive
Ghafari Associates LLC, a global architecture and engineering firm, announced Nov. 3, 2022 it will hold an official grand opening of its new space in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. The private event is a celebration of the newly renovated 8,500-square-foot office space overlooking Rosa Parks Circle in downtown Grand Rapids, featuring design inspiration from the firm’s recent hospitality projects. Tom Tooley, AIA, executive vice president of Ghafari Associates in Grand Rapids, noted creating a functional and inspirational environment for staff to work collaboratively in the space and between offices was one of the main goals of the project. “The incorporated advanced technology to work across offices…
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Work culture designed
For more than 30 years, Farmington Hills, Michigan-based design firm Davis & Davis has been transforming interior spaces with a foundational belief in the compelling and persuasive power of design. Since its founding by Michelle Davis and Howard Davis in 1990, the firm has refined its portfolio and design process by engaging clients in their own design programming, taking care to emphasize the unique narratives of each client, no matter their industrial identity. “This results in innovative space planning, optimized function, and an enhanced team experience that gives employees a sense of ownership and autonomy, while also supporting collaboration, innovation, and productivity,” said Michelle Davis, principal and design director of…
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The boardwalk connection
“I look at design as a creation of how humans interpret the natural world. I think there is this connection between the natural world and the built environment, and it is up to us—those in the design field—to interpret what that is, and to create our own values on how we intersect the natural world and the built environment,” said Ernest C. Wong, PLA, FASLA, APA, founding principal and president of site design group, ltd. “I think the general public takes design for granted. They go to places—the parks we design—and say ‘oh, it was just here.’ Nobody really thinks about the effort it takes to design this space. They…
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Designed for flight
In 1986, WACO Aircraft Corporation’s first WACO YMF Classic biplane rolled off the assembly line complete with two open cockpits, stacked wings, radial engine, and handcrafted design in faithful homage to a golden age of flight. Based on the design of the popular 1930s biplane and crafted using techniques from the 1920s and 1930s, WACO Aircraft Corporation’s WACO YMF Classic was not a rebuild or a build kit of the vintage aircraft, but rather a modern production with the latest avionics under the original WACO-type certificate, certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA. WACO Aircraft Corporation, which was founded in 1983 in Lansing before relocating to Battle Creek, Michigan,…
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The Dayton’s Project
Buildings patinaed by time often resonate with a collective memory embedded deep within the bones of its architectural structure. Iconic places and landmark destinations have a way of allowing moments of the past to collide with the present and potentially into the future in the minds of those who have traversed its spaces. It can serve as a tool or vehicle in which stories can exist across generations, anchoring its place in the built landscape and at times the cultural and social history of a community. In Minneapolis, a 120-year-old historic structure located at 700 Nicollet Avenue that served for decades as an integral part of the downtown retail and…
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Eclectic flavor
In Downtown Detroit, a city known for its community of designers, industrialists, creatives, and culinary artists, this adaptive reuse of a 1940s-designed Art Deco Streamline Moderne building near Woodward Avenue along Parker’s Alley is a thoughtful curation of the old and the new. Realized by a collaborative design, build, and creative team led by the award-winning firm of McIntosh Poris Associates Inc. in Birmingham, Michigan for clients Holly McClain and Shawn McClain, renowned restauranteurs and hospitality leaders, Olin Bar & Kitchen breathes rich, eclectic life and depth throughout its roughly 3,900-square-foot main level. It is a concept where buried architectural origin, and the seasonal, flavorful ingredients inherent to both Michigan…
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Design Within Reach
Design Within Reach Inc., a furniture and furnishings resource and manufacturer, announced on April 15, 2022 its first Michigan location with the opening of a new studio in Grand Rapids, Michigan. While its first brick-and-mortar presence in the state, the roughly 4,440-square-foot space is now the brand’s 35th location within a national footprint. Design Within Reach is a source of modern design solutions for residential and retail customers through retail studios in North America. The company was originally founded in 1998 by Rob Forbes, after he gained an appreciation for clean, simple designs for the home while living in London. Upon moving to the United States, he realized that those…
