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Originally from Texas and after working for years in New York, developer Philip Kafka became intrigued by development and moved to Detroit, where, given the city’s low land values, he started Prince Concepts, whose aim is rehabilitating overlooked land for the benefit of future buyers and the wider neighborhood alike. After developing vacant, former industrial sites in Detroit, Kafka built on his success in the Motor City, expanding his unique development model to other parts of the country, including Texas. Contrary to most development models, the client wanted to give back a significant portion of the site to the community, effectively building a new park along a major greenway, a park with more than 80 trees will bring the PS1200 development to life.
PS1200 embodies the vibrant, eclectic nature of Magnolia Village, a centrally located, mixed-use neighborhood in Ft. Worth, Texas. Slowly brought back to life over the last 30 years, Magnolia Village has a small-town Main Street appeal with a wide range of dining, retail, and other businesses that contribute to a thriving community. Where so many new developments fill their entire site, PS1200 is restrained, turning nearly half of the busy corner site over to public space filled with an array of native tree species. Providing shade throughout the plaza that connects the restaurant, gallery and retail at the ground level, trees fill in the gaps between stone paving. Evocative of the ancient geology of the site, the ground is porous, collecting and returning rainwater to the aquifer.
The deep metal ribs of the structures allow for insulation that exceeds energy code requirements. This, in combination with ample daylight provided by large banks of windows, makes for a highly efficient building envelope that requires very little energy to condition and little need for artificial lighting. The section of the residential units uses a commonsense approach, with expansive glass and views to the east, welcoming in the soft morning light, while the west side has a deeper roof overhang and smaller, punched windows to limit the intense western light. With the ample daylight provided by the window wall facing east, very little lighting is necessary throughout the day, reducing overall energy use.
PS1200 builds upon a successful and sensitive development model, one that truly balances the triple bottom line of the social, economic, and environmental by creating a varied place that is carefully attuned to its scale and climate. With a location that offers access to a walkable neighborhood in Magnolia Village, this development is a unique landscape in a mega-city otherwise dominated by car.
By using an economy of means to create a maximum of meaning, PS1200 is an integrated design that uses humble materials and straightforward solutions to create an inspiring place with abundant daylight and a vibrant landscape. Daring to give over a significant portion of the site to a public plaza, visitors and residents enjoy a continuous connection to their place. This connection happens in a variety of ways, whether provided by a generous canopy outside the restaurant or by the cypress trees in the plaza, or by the contrast of the industrial character of the Quonset panels with the native stone used to pave the plaza.
PS1200 chooses instead to be open, to accommodate the changing nature of the city and its needs, with the entire ground plane given over to an array of possibilities: restaurant, gallery, grab & go, office, retail, etc. With the ability to combine office and retail bays, the design is inherently flexible in a way that is more common to suburban strip malls – a flexibility that urban settings sorely need to thrive.
Philip Kafka said the developers wanted to provide an amenity to Fort Worth in the same way that a museum is a public amenity to the city. “We deliberately underdeveloped the site,” he said, “in order to make public space for the Fort Worth community to live, work, and enjoy the outdoors.”
Since 1990, Marlon Blackwell Architects has designed for its clients award-winning, environmentally responsive projects. Our belief that architecture can happen anywhere, at any scale, at any budget - for anyone - drives us to challenge the conventions and models that often obscure other possibilities. We use an economy of means to deliver a maximum of meaning in places where architecture is often not expected to be found.
As an agile, full-service design firm, we advocate a participatory, collaborative design process between the client, contractors, and architect, where all voices are heard from conceptualization to the realization of each project. In every instance, we strive to express the richness of the places we work and the ideals of the people and institutions we serve.
