IMITATIO practice of emulating, adaptating, reworking and enriching a source

A new extension for the Butler Brothers Warehouse

The design for the hotel lobby and amenity deck for 500 South Ervay envisions a form that works to mediate the relationship between the scale of the existing Butler Brothers warehouse building and the streetscape. The use of the two arms of massing in contrast to a tall, relatively flat surface, is a very traditional move, reflecting an architectural style of the period but in a modern form. Through the symbiotic relationship between the existing building and its extension, the architecture celebrates the history of the building and its site while conveying a new sense of direction for south Dallas through the use of relating materials, extension of the structural grid, and similar scaled design moves and symmetry; all of which play a role in a new architectural form aimed at defining the future urban streetscape for years to come.

The heart of the project are the two cantilevered roof elements clad in refinished floor boards from the interior building, representing an inclination as if the roofs were pulled directly from the warehouse’s interior floor plate. To balance the strong gesture of the roofs, a wrap-around wood overhang is introduced on the exterior of the hotel lobby and pool bar to further define points of entry and frame views while providing the necessary shading to respond to the amenity deck’s southeast orientation.

The project is set for completion in late 2014.