Projects

James Farm Ecological Park Education Campus, Ocean View DE, 2025

James Farm is a magnificent but tiny public park in Delaware, managed by the Delaware Center for Inland Bays. This project adds a maintenance facility and educational spaces to the campus. The design is arranged around a circular path that creates a central meeting space, but also tells the “story” of what DCIB does in a linear way.

2025 “Excellence in Design” Honor Award, AIA/CBC

Educational Campus

Maintenance Building

Maintenance Building storage fencing

Rolling doors open the main space to the outdoor deck of the Educational Building

Looking past the Educational Building to the Central Platform

Central Platform and Educational Building

The rolling doors of the Education Building open the interior up to the deck, increasing the capacity

The butterfly roof collects water to be stored and used from the rain barrel

The Maintenance Building in use

The Maintenance Building near sundown

The classroom space, to be used for lectures, presentations, demonstrations

The classroom space, to be used for lectures, presentations, demonstrations

Rolling doors open to connect the classroom to the deck

Paddle Sports Storage Building

The maintenance bay in the Maintenance Building

The maintenance bay in the Maintenance Building

Detail of roof overhang

Entrance to Maintenance Building

Detail of typical joint

Detail of typical joint

Plan

View from Maintenance Shed

Aerial layout

Aerial layout

The

Ground view

Alternate scheme

Alternate scheme

Alternate scheme

Alternate scheme

Vernacular precedents

An education and maintenance facility for an ecological preserve

Materials and construction are vernacular, the forms modern

This is a project that shows that architects can make a difference. The rationale for the project is very clearly explained, and neither the building nor the presentation of the building overshadows the mission of the project. Humble architecture at its best. CBC/AIA Design Awards Jury, 2025