Books informing several current projects:
Geologics: Geography, Information and Architecture
The Landscape of Contemporary Infrastructure
Team 10: In Search of a Utopia of the Present
Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture
Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes
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MRLD is a proud supporter of “Moveable Type“. MRLD helped fund the project through Kickstarter. Moveable Type is the brainchild of Kyle Durie.
CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU PULL INTO PORTLAND, ME
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Be yourself. Add yourself
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The concept plan for the Rockland Harbor Trail and Park continues to evolve. One portion of the park includes a set of “floating” stairs leading to a cantilevered deck overlooking Lermond Cove. A vertical green wall / scrim introduces plant material in the narrow space without blocking views of the harbor.
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MRLD’S design for an amphitheatre / council ring for Louis Kahn’s seminal First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York has been fully approved and construction begins fall 2010. The design combines the various ministerial needs of the church, Kahn’s ideas regarding architecture - specifically his thoughts on the ideal relationship between architecture and Unitarianism - and the role Jens Jensen’s Council Rings played in his park designs. The result is a dynamic solution that bridges philosophical and physical topographies.
uu-kahn-design-development.pdf
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Westbrook retained MRLD to redesign an existing park and two building facades on Main Street created during a period of urban renewal in the 1970’s. The entire complex is a suburban business park dropped in the center of a dense urban area. Neither the buildings nor the park have the proper form, scale and orientation required for vital urbanism.
The new design includes a glass pavilion at the front of the space, which better defines the streetwall and creates a dynamic contemporary hybrid building supporting four season activities. The facades of the buildings, which face the park (not Main Street), have been redesigned with new glazing, entry ways and signage more typical of street frontage buildings. Behind the glass pavilion is a grove of trees with conversation seating that is a flexible space.
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The Rockland Downtown Revitalization Master Plan has been awarded the 2010 Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association’s “Plan of the Year”. The Master Plan has leveraged over $800,000.00 in grants for downtown improvements. MRLD is currently completing the Rockland Tillson District Master Plan and designing the Rockland Harbor Trail Park.The Town of Standish was awarded the 2010 Greater Portland Council of Government’s ”reCOGnition” award for “Sustainable and Innovative Community Planning”. MRLD has been working with Standish for over three years in the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan by first creating a Master Plan for Standish Corner and then developing the enabling Form-Based Codes. MRLD most recently worked with Standish on a series of grants for extensive public realm improvements.Congratulations to Rockland and Standish and the many dedicated citizens and fellow professionals involved with these outstanding projects.
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Pompeii - 4th Century BC. The ideal 1:2 building height to street width ratio. 0′ Build-to-Line, sidewalk, curb and on-street parking
MRLD was retained by the Town of Kennebunk to demonstrate how Form-Based Codes can be used as a tool to revitalize the Lower Village on Main Street and establish appropriate development patterns in the more rural West Kennebunk. The office developed different scenarios for these areas showing how Form-Based Codes can be a strategic method for creating appropriate and predictable forms, infrastructure efficiencies and distinct development patterns.
Form-Based Codes are a more precise way of creating livable communities and neighborhoods because the “use” of the land is secondary to the quality of the overall built environment. The emphasis on use in traditional zoning has failed to produce places of distinction. Form-Based Codes are a return to the fundamentals of creating human-scaled, mixed-use environments, while allowing for innovations in architecture, transportation and green design.
Form-Based Codes also have the potential of replacing comprehensive plans and land use ordinances by simultaneously implementing standards and policies.There are now several new ways by which communities can establish sustainabile, vibrant and predictable development patterns and buildings including the USGBC LEED for Neighborhood Development program, SmartCode and variations of Form-Based Codes as noted at the Form-Based Codes Institute website.
Use visualizations to help communities develop a place specific Form-Based Code. Example of a gas station on Main Street redeveloped with a building in keeping with the context.
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The City of Belfast has retained MRLD to prepare a master plan for the downtown and waterfront integrating economic development, green infrastructure, pedestrian and vehicular mobility, shore and harbor improvements, open space, streetscapes, light rail, branding / wayfinding and architectural / efficiency guidelines. The project team members include Smart Mobility, Urban Harbors Institute, Scott Simons Architects and Fore Solutions. Belfast is a unique Midcoast community with a great vibe and sense of place. Visit now! It is a regional hub for the arts, organic farming, businesses such as the Colburn’s, the oldest shoe store in the country (with great new inventory) and the restaurant / market / gallery, Chase’s Daily. The City is defined by it’s striking architecture, topography and panoramic views of Penobscot Bay. We are pleased to be taking part in one of the most dynamic urban design opportunities in Maine.
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MRLD is pleased to begin work on the design of a critical section of the Rockland Harbor Trail connecting Tillson Avenue with Lermond Cove. Improvements will include LED lighting, gardens, green vertical walls, sitting areas, a footbridge and scrims / slattings for the wastewater treatment facility buildings. The entire project is being carefully coordinated with the full redesign of the wastewater treatment facility - including the use of gray water - and the concept plan MRLD is preparing for the Thorndike Block on Main Street.
Terry Pinto, New Urbanist / Director of the Wastewater Treatment Facility
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We love designing and visiting vibrant places. The same can be said for listening to music at work and checking out our favorite bands at venues such as SPACE. In recent months, the office has held a low key “87 Songs” concert series. We’ve been fortunate to have such great artists as Brown Bird (Providence), Geoff Farina (Chicago), Chris Brokaw (Brooklyn and beyond) and Portland’s own Chriss Sutherland stop by for intimate shows of less than thirty people. Check out their music, buy a CD and catch them live if you can. 87 Songs will pick up again this fall with more of our favorite musicians.
Brown Bird (photo: Mitchell Rasor)
Geoff Farina and Chris Brokaw (photo: Mongiat Farina)
Chriss Sutherland (photo: Scott Sutherland)
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The Preble Street Resource Center Plaza
MRLD is please to be a member of the of Portland Public Market Host Committee in support of the Preble Street Resource Center on May 20th. MRLD in collaboration with James Sterling Architect designed both the Preble Street Resource Center and the Preble Street Teen Center. In describing the Preble Street Resource Center plaza, Maine Home + Design Magazine noted, “landscape architect Mitchell Rasor’s steel benches in the courtyard slant from high to low, offering a welcoming place to gather in the heart of the city for those utilizing the center.”
In addition to winning a 2008 AIA New England Merit Award, the Preble Street Resource Center received a 2006 AIA Maine Design Excellence Award. The jury cited ”its honesty, intelligence, and restraint in transforming a downtown street corner into an outdoor civic space that benefits users of the building and the neighborhood. It is an exceptional urban response to a challenging program using modest means. The project creatively reuses existing structures and incorporates such details as the bright colored lanterns to create a sense of welcome and presence. After their deliberations, the jury visited the site to find it animated by people congregating in the plaza on a late winter afternoon.”
MRLD has designed other social projects including Topsham Crossing, which was honored by the National Association of Homebuilders with an Award of Distinction for Innovation in Workforce Housing and as the Maine Association of Planners Project of the Year. The Lupine Terrace workforce housing neighborhood in Camden was honored as the Maine Association of Planners Project of the Year and as the New England Chapter of the American Association of Planners Project of the Year.
Highwood Square, a 21-unit affordable artist live / work project, designed by MRLD is currently under contruction in New Haven, CT.
Mitchell Rasor, while employed with Orcutt Associates, was the landscape designer for the original Portland Public Market, which was honored with a Congress for the New Urbanism Charter Award.
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Rockland was awarded a $600,000.00 Downtown Revitalization Grant from the Department of Economic and Community Development. MRLD in collaboration with Woodard & Curran, Smart Mobility and Scott Simons Architects completed the 2009 Rockland Downtown Revitalization Plan, which was the basis for the grant application.
rockland-downtown-master-plan.pdf
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Highwood Square, a collaboration with Ben Ledbetter Architect and Graftworks, is on schedule for completion in October. The mixed-use project includes 21 affordable artist live / work units, a gallery, a community room and commercial space. Two of the three buildings are historic structures with contemporary additions (third image below). Highwood Square includes a range of open spaces including a central “folded” common, performance areas, an open stormwater system and private gardens.
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MRLD is collaborating with Woodard & Curran and Smart Mobility on the Tillson Waterfront District Master Plan. The Master Plan includs an ideal build-out, the enabling codes and the the necessary infrastructure to support the community’s vision for the area. The underlying urban design principles for the Master Plan include form-based architecture and blocks, green infrastructure and context sensitive transportation solutions - creating a framework of new streets and buildings that maximize the economic, environmental and civic capacities of the site - allowing the District to absorb growth in a flexible, but responsible manner. In light of the increasing demand to live in walkable / mixed-use communities, the Tillson Waterfront District Master Plan is a model for sustainable urban revitalization in Maine.The City created a Tillson TIF District. The Master Plan provides detailed designs and cost estimates for the build-out in order for the City to strategically invest in the area, leveraging public / private partnerships
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