May 12th 2010 08:44 am PREBLE STREET RESOURCE CENTER BENEFIT
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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