bradley edwards, architect
Author bradley edwards
Type
Commercial office
building
Completion date 2009
Site footprint 34,744
ft2
Building
Size 13,522
ft2
Location North Little
Rock, Ar.
Contractor T. Alvin
Eanes Building Company Inc.
The Dill building
is a speculative office building with multiple tenants. As
a speculative venture, the budgetary requirements were in
play from the outset and careful attention had to be paid
as to how and where design elements were executed. A few
simple rules were established which helped guide the
project forward: The Entry space would dominate the
movement and transition into lease spaces as well as
service spaces, and the rhythm set up by the fenestration
would dictate the building's DNA. The windows were designed
simply as the absence of a wall so that the windows of the
building were allowed to start at the ground and finish at
the parapet, taking no heed to 2nd floor nor roof. The
walls are simple planes of brick, acting as background to
the visual gymnastics of the windows and giving a reading
of verticality and grandeur to a simple 2-story box. The
colored glass elements become playful foils to the simple
and muted brick planes.