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Meals on Wheels and More – Alderman Paccone Bishop Architects

29 de septiembre de 2009 | By: admin
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Meals on Wheels and More - Alderman Paccone Bishop Architects

Project: Meals on Wheels and More
Author: Alderman Paccone Bishop Architects
Project Designer: William Webb
Location: Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
Client: Meals on Wheels and More. Austin, Texas
Builder: RGD Builders. Austin, TX
Structural Design: James Ryan PE
MEP: Verde Engineering
Civil Eng.: Austin Civil Engineering
Kitchen Consultant: Counihan & Associates
Photography: William Webb

Meals on Wheels and More is a nonprofit organization that provides meals to the elderly and the homebound. Meals and Wheels has registered growth in their organization that conduced them to build an expansion to their administration building, as well as added kitchen capacity to provide the community with more meals in the future. The design proposal called for a new building adjacent to the existing. Our design connects both the existing and new building with an exterior corridor creating a new consistent front building elevation.

The new building consists of a two story structure, with parking on ground floor and offices in the first floor. The total new built area is approximately 50,000 square feet.

Meals on Wheels and More - Alderman Paccone Bishop Architects

The building program called for both open office area for supporting staff and private enclosed offices for executives.

The driving concept for the interior of the office space was to provide the maximum amount of natural daylight to all possible spaces, this is reached with a continuous clerestory that spans the length of the building. This premise follows the wellbeing for users that is often sought out on green buildings and sustainable design. This design element complies with the stringent LEED and Green Building standards for construction.

Meals on Wheels and More - Alderman Paccone Bishop Architects

The new building façade wraps around the existing building, creating the illusion of one continuous building. The main elevation of the building is a combined response to program requirements, day lighting, and Austin’s Subchapter E design standards.

The main parameter of design for the entire project was cost control. The client, Meals on Wheels is a nonprofit that requires Federal, State, local funding, as well as donations, so to keep the project within budget the architect decided to use a prefabricated metal building as starting point. The street features have an informal gathering area, with a layout of concrete blocks where people can sit, take a break, have lunch, read a book. We gave them a small private urban park-like setting.

Meals on Wheels and More - Alderman Paccone Bishop Architects