Archinect - News

Deborah Berke Partners relaunches as TenBerke to promote ‘ethics-based vision’

2023-04-18T12:27:00-04:00

Deborah Berke Partners has relaunched as TenBerke in a move that the firm says “re-articulates our ethics-based vision for our practice.” The new name, which still retains the surname of founder Deborah Berke, seeks to evoke ideas of multiples and multiplicity, reflecting how the firm sees the broad responsibilities of architects.

“The number ten speaks of multiples and unity, a reflection of the creative collective who form TenBerke,” the firm said in a statement. “The name evokes the Powers of Ten: Our duty as designers to look at the biggest picture and the finest detail. And simply, we like ten because it’s a handy number — a human measure.”

Deborah Berke formed Deborah Berke Partners in 2002 with Maitland Jones and Marc Leff. Since then, the firm has amassed an extensive portfolio of institutional, residential, and commercial work, with recent projects including an adaptive reuse project for Ha...

Deborah Berke Partners unveils completed adaptive reuse project for Harvard Law School

2023-03-07T15:35:00-05:00

A transformational new adaptive reuse project for Harvard Law School’s Lewis International Law Center has been completed recently by Deborah Berke Partners.

Meant to “holistically” meet the demands posed by modern legal education, the project remade the original 1957 Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott design into a “porous, open connector” located at the heart of HLS’ Cambridge campus.

Photo: Chris Cooper, courtesy Deborah Berke Partners

Existing limestone edifices were removed to add an influx of natural light into the structure, which retained 80% of its original concrete foundation, steel-frame structure, and most of its modernist envelope. Terraces were added to the fifth floor and rooftop. A slate of new or repositioned entrances now helps to define the project’s exterior renovations, with the end of enabling greater accessibility to a campus that is now addressed from all sides.

Photo: Chris Cooper, courtesy Deborah Berke Partners

Photo: Chris Cooper, courtesy Deborah Ber...

Deborah Berke Partners designs a new all-electric, hybrid steel and cross-laminated timber residential hall for Brown University

2023-02-20T15:18:00-05:00

In preparation for the Fall 2023 academic term, Brown University shares details of its new Deborah Berke Partners-designed Brook Street Residence Halls.

Located at the southeastern edge of the University’s 143-acre historic urban campus, the 125,00-square-foot development has room for 353 beds interwoven with green spaces that enhances the campus’ connection to nearby existing structures and Providence’s Fox Point neighborhood while providing capabilities for year-round stormwater retention.

Image courtesy of Deborah Berke Partners.

With its brick and terracotta material palette, the new halls are beholden to the older architecture of the campus and of the Federal style-rich city in passing. The split-volume residences come beset with strategic social spaces and a healthy influx of strategic natural light corridors, kitchenettes, and study nooks, especially when compared to other recent student housing proposals across the country of considerable size. This is both an all-electric an...

Deborah Berke Partners and Ballinger to lead new Integrated Life Sciences Building project at Brown University

2022-10-18T11:04:00-04:00

Brown University has announced the selection of Deborah Berke Partners and Ballinger to lead a new Integrated Life Sciences Building project near its Providence, Rhode Island campus.

The new structure will be located near Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School in the city’s Jewelry District and offers a consolidation of labs and other facilities for researchers in public health, bioengineering, and other types of related scientific activity.

“We aim to satisfy the work needs of the initial occupants and the current science but not to be so specific and customized that the space can’t evolve as science — and scientists — change,” Ballinger senior principal Terry Steelman explained.

Related on Archinect: AIA Healthcare Design Awards 2021 winners announced

"These buildings have a long lifespan and accommodate a wide range of occupants, in some cases for the short-term. So much will change over the lifespan of the building," he added. "When we designed Sidney Frank Hall, for example, gene...

Yale School of Architecture Dean Deborah Berke has been awarded the Topaz Medallion

2021-12-10T16:54:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects jointly with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture has today announced Yale School of Architecture Dean Deborah Berke, FAIA as the 2022 recipient of the Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education.

Berke, who has served as Dean at Yale since 2016, was commended for her “engaged approach in every graduate architecture student’s education” in addition to the initiatives that she has spearheaded during her tenure in New Haven, which include the introduction of an undergraduate Urban Studies major, the creation of Yale’s Center for Ecosystems in Architecture as well as the school’s first architectural sciences lab.

Relisten to Archinect's 2016 podcast conversation One-to-One #41 with Deborah Berke

Berke was also lauded for her efforts to diversify the school and for leading an initiative to tackle and investigate the issue of slave labor in the construction supply chain.

Berke speaks about the Yale Building Project. P...

Deborah Berke Partners completes new $19M residence hall for Dickinson College

2018-08-23T18:06:00-04:00

Ahead of the new academic year, Dickinson College has opened a new $19 million residence hall that will house 130 students. The High Street Residence Hall, the Carlisle liberal arts college's first new residence hall since 1973, is part of a $46 million campus investment plan that began in 2012. Officials said demand for on-campus housing exceeded available space, prompting the start of construction on the new residence hall last year.

Deborah Berke Partners' new dormitory for Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA is now open for the upcoming academic school year.

Residence Hall at Dickson College by Deborah Berke Partners, located in Carlisle, PA. © Deborah Berke Partners.

The 40,500 square foot building is currently targeted to be LEED Platinum, making it the first college residence hall in Pennsylvania to achieve this level if approved. The dorm features an upgraded stormwater management system with four rain gardens.

Residence Hall at Dickson College by Deborah Berke Partners, located in Carlisle, PA. © Deborah Berke Partners.

The residence hall was designed with an energy efficient roof, exterior walls, and windows. The facility connects with the colleges' central energy plant to reduce carbon emissions.

Collaborating Firms
Deborah Berke Partners – Architect and Interior Designer
Andropogon – Landscape Architect
Kohler Ronan – MEP Engineer
Steven Winter Associates – LEED/Environmental Consultant
PHT Lighting – Lighting...

Deborah Berke Partners completes luxurious Wardman Tower renovation in Washington D.C.

2018-01-31T15:35:00-05:00

Deborah Berke Partners recently completed the two-year renovation of Washington D.C.'s iconic Wardman Tower. First built in 1928 by developer Harry Wardman and architect Mihran Mesrobian, the 9-story Georgian Revival tower was once home to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Herbert Hoover, and Marlene Dietrich. In 1984, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Photo credit: Wardman Tower.

Aiming to maintain the tower's original luxurious aesthetic, the original window configurations, balconies, and doors were reintroduced. Thousands of square feet of the facade were also renovated with brick, stone, metal, and cast iron.

Front portico. Photo credit: Wardman Tower.

Club Room I entrance + bar. Clubroom. Photo credit: Wardman Tower.

Club Room I. Photo credit: Wardman Tower.

The renovated tower features 32 two- to four-bedroom homes ranging from 2,200-4,600 square feet, and whose interiors were designed by Deborah Berke, Darryl Carter, and Jeff Akseizer. The...

Deborah Berke Partners to receive a 2017 National Design Award from Cooper Hewitt

2017-05-08T15:47:00-04:00

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum recently bestowed a 2017 National Design Award to Deborah Berke Partners in the Interior Design category. The awards competition recognizes designers, patrons, and companies for “excellence, innovation, and enhancement of the quality of life” in ten categories. Firms and individuals are nominated and portfolios are evaluated by a multidisciplinary jury of prominent design leaders, as well as previous winners.

“Our work, especially with old buildings, is quietly resistant to throw away-culture, to junk-space,” Deborah Berke said in a statement. “Call it architecture, interior design, or adaptive reuse. Labels don’t matter. It’s about creating spaces that people love, spaces that dignify contemporary life.”

Partners Deborah Berke, Maitland Jones, and Marc Leff and Senior Principals Stephen Brockman and Caroline Wharton Ewing will accept the award on behalf of the firm during the ceremony on October 19.

...

Deborah Berke-designed stylish, sustainable tower opens in Indianapolis

2017-01-17T17:13:00-05:00

Nine glassed-in, metal-fin bearing stories make up the new Deborah Berke Partners-designed Cummins Indy Tower, which officially opens this month. With its "projections and inflections," the building simultaneously juts and struts through the metropolis, creating a slender and ecologically conscious corporate HQ.

Referring to Cummins' past collaborations with architects like Eero Saarinen and Kevin Roche, Deborah Berke notes that “over the decades, Cummins has demonstrated a commitment to great design that benefits its employees, its customers, and the community. This building carries that legacy forward with an environmentally sustainable design that dignifies the work going on inside while enhancing the urban realm.

The building’s articulated facades and distinctive form serve a purpose—to create a comfortable, light-filled work environment for employees that adds to the vitality on Market Street. Adding some muscle to the great bones of downtown Indianapolis, the park is a public am...