Dennis Kowal Architects are awarded first-ever Tesla Innovation Award. “This building was ahead of its time” said competition judge Howard Lewis noting “…the completed office and educational spaces proactively addressed the problems with indoor environments that everyone is now trying to correct.”
The Rutgers Lifelong Learning Center was completed last year and employs multiple strategies to purify the air, separate employees, increase productivity and offer stress relieving opportunities. For example, the extra-wide stair towers are glass enclosed providing plenty of ultraviolet sunlight purification and have fire-rated glass interior walls to entice occupant’s usage over the elevator.
A customized 12’ indoor waterfall purges the air of viruses. The water is negative ionized to attract pollutants including all viruses and insidious particles less than 2.5 microns. Employing a three stage filtration system, unwanted pollutants are stripped out and viruses are killed. Another interior water wall features endlessly rising air bubbles which are a proven stress-relieving strategy.
Dennis Kowal is a featured international speaker on building health and productivity. In 2015, he cautioned the Chinese at the IFMA World Workplace Conference in Shanghai that designers are placing occupants too close together. Prophetically, he showed negative examples from Wuhan, China.
Circadian Lighting, increased natural ventilation and maximum light and views are also featured in this 60,000 square foot, three story building. Executive Director, Richard Novak, said “Frankly, in my 30 years at Rutgers, I have worked with a number of architects on various projects, large and small, but none can compare to Dennis Kowal in this full scope.”
The Tesla Innovation Award is administrated by the National Lighting Bureau and Dennis Kowal Architects are the only architectural firm to receive this award this year.
Public Libraries after COVID will contain more programming spaces, smaller tables without permanent power so they can be moved, and specialty rooms for podcasting, 3D printing and teleconferencing. At Dennis Kowal Architects, our library designs already include these innovations. Identifying needs before they become trends, Dennis Kowal Architects (DKA) designs buildings that can adapt with the community and changing needs.
Trend #1
FLEXIBILITY: Reinventing the Multi-purpose Room
Note the reposition-able tables on casters and the independent power supplies that drop down from the ceiling and recoil back up as necessary. The windows have automated shades that drop down to reduce glare and a second set of black out shades for viewing the digital screen or projection in this multipurpose room. The room is used for art, gaming design, yoga, 3D printing, screenings as well as a host of flexible uses that need power, tables and instant re-configuration.
The President of the Public Library Association (division of ALA) recently explained that libraries need more meeting and conferencing spaces to become community-centric. At Dennis Kowal Architects, our library designs already employ safety and health measures in our meeting rooms and we introduce a variety of meeting spaces which include technology but feature nature.
Trend #2
HEALTHY: Reinventing the Program Room
Plenty of fresh air available on appropriate days where the entire wood and glass Program Room wall opens to an enclosed courtyard created by the back walls of surrounding buildings. Note the teleconferencing cameras on the wall and on the ceiling automatically follow those who are speaking.` High technology is combined with a warm and natural environment.
The New York Public Library and others are addressing social concerns by providing space for social workers who address the needs of vulnerable patrons. After school tutoring, English as a second language classes and even special needs play groups are all part of the DKA library design vocabulary. Today’s public library fulfills an even bigger role as it becomes the hub of a community providing job placement assistance, resume writing assistance, reliable internet service and even publishing services.
Trend #3
SPECIALTY SPACES: Reinventing the Reading Room
At the Handley Regional Library in Winchester, Virginia, Dennis Kowal Architects consolidated the Genealogy & Local History Archives into a climate controlled and protected inner library. Special rooms for working in groups or alone are also available.
But the best part of a local library is just the experience. There is no other public building in a community that serves the needs of all ages. Seniors have their building, grade school is only for children, and families rarely travel together to the local municipal building to pay taxes, but the Library is a building for everyone to come together. Dennis Kowal Architects creates experiences for patrons to enjoy while meeting their needs.
Trend #4
THE EXPERIENCE: Reinventing the Library Image
Whether it is the intimacy of the indoor Butterfly Garden where parents can read a story to their children or the loft and expression of “intellectual freedom” evidenced by the barrel vaulted translucent ceiling and spanning arches, a library can lift the spirits and join people together. Dennis Kowal Architects has clients in eleven states and three foreign countries because they think differently and lead the curve.
Buildings are to be experienced and libraries are the perfect canvas to paint a solution. Visit our website at http://www.kowalarchitects.com
The house itself becomes part of a living art experience with tricks of the eye and insider surprises. For example, when seated at the head of the dining room table, the cut-out in the far wall aligns perfectly with a square window view which has been carved into the rotunda wall beyond.
Dennis Kowal Architects uses the strong values of a client to shape the environment. A desired cross-axis plan is unusual for a home and provides a unique opportunity for gallery space. Art and Antiques throughout the home are reminders for the residents of many happy memories while the live orchids bring a touch of well being to the space. Flower placement was designed as art within the home.
The rotunda windows sweep upwards shadowing the grand spiral staircase inside. Climbing the stairs, the window-ports “frame” views to the everglades much like living art displayed on a curved gallery wall.
Dennis Kowal Architects serves clients in eleven states and three foreign countries from kowalarchitects.com
This design by Dennis Kowal Architects features an infinity soaking tub that constantly re-heats and recirculates the bath water so it stays the same temperature while you bathe. The hot water is efficiently supplied by an instantaneous gas-fired water heater that has no holding tank or wasted energy from keeping a tank of water in the ready.
The room was designed around a historic French castle window that was salvaged and imported as the focal point of the room. The original paint and patina of brass bars frame to a view of a private garden and fountain when the casement window is opened. A custom oval window with a bit of double rolled tinted glass is designed to coordinate with the glass in the castle window.
But the best feature is the paperless toilet that washes you with warm water, dries you with a warm air dryer, and a seat that memorizes your bathroom schedule and has the seat heated and ready for you when you wake up! Anything you do three days in a row gets automatically added to the schedule.
Remote controls operate the water jets and toilet dryer. But, yes, it is always nice to have a roll of the soft stuff handy as well as to occasionally open the castle window to reveal the hand-cast brick garden wall and private fountain view.
Dennis Kowal Architects designs fine homes that reflect the occupants personality, taste and interests. Inspiration for this private bathroom garden view came from the Owner’s stay in Antigua, Guatemala. DKA provides project management, complete architecture, and full interior design services from contemporary designs to full historic preservation. While technology is fully embraced (as shown above with the cascading Jacuzzi tub, hidden sound system and remote controlled toilet), it always takes a back seat to comfort and beautiful design.
Dennis Kowal Architects added this “Bistro” wing addition to an 1845 Victorian private residence. Designed for intimate dining and conversation, this home “restaurant” intentionally sits four couples at two tables with panoramic views to terraces and a rolling landscape.
Cast iron column bases, structural iron cord ties and a cast metal fire place are reminiscent of craftsmanship and days long gone while adding stability and comfort to this relaxing environment. While eating out is a wonderful distraction, dining in with a place to showcase gourmet cooking and share fond memories is priceless.
Dennis Kowal Architects creates fine residences and vacation homes which are so engaging … you won’t need to leave home!
This Victorian Farmhouse Kitchen really works. Everything has a place and the views to the Kitchen from the Dining Room only reveal the presentable cabinet displays and not the dirty dishes or stove pans. A Pasta Sink provides a fifth cooking location with direct drain of the boiling hot water. Organized drawer slides have set places for knives and utensils to reduce the clutter and digging to find something in a drawer.
Dennis Kowal Architects designs with service and function in mind while capturing the atmosphere and charm of each residence. Even the range hood is faced in wood with ceramic tile edge to match the custom back splash. And because this Kitchen is both appealing and functional, it is well used.
Nestled in the heart of the Capital City of Hamilton, Vision Bermuda is accessible by the free public transportation and provides screening, training, and support for the vision impaired community.
Vision Bermuda Gets a New Home
The island of Bermuda has one of the highest diabetes rates in the world which can lead to blindness. Dennis Kowal Architects is helping ease the situation working with Vision Bermuda and creating a facility that provides assessments, training, appliances and social networking for the visually impaired for the residents of Bermuda.
Located in the capital city of Hamilton, the design was based on the climate, the client’s needs, the unique architecture of Bermuda, and protection against hurricanes, wind and the salty environment. Phase One will consist of renovations to the existing facility (sans tower). Dennis Kowal Architects are working with the people of Bermuda and the zoning officials to fully capture the needs and regulations affecting this quadrant of this renewal zone. Local Architect Ian Gordon and General Contractor Patrick Caton are currently in the process of demolition work on the site preparing for the start of construction.
Dennis Kowal (center) presents the features of the new facility to the Hamilton Corporation President. Scented herb gardens, outdoor grilling, tot play and learn center and mobilization training obstacles are all part of the site plan.
When the mind connects with some visceral feeling from the
outdoor experience, it excites the brain.
Sending positive messages from
inside a building that stimulate the brain is bio-hacking and believed to be a
powerful counterpoint to both the old vanilla office interior and the new
trendy, but sometimes equally ineffective, splashes of color, unnecessary creature comforts and uncoordinated
sensory blitz. Dennis Kowal Architects designs WELL buildings that intentionally
interact with the human spirit.
An example of a good bio-hack is the bio-entrained concept of a “safe haven”. Wolves love a den and us humans experience
some of that same feeling of safety when
we are contained on three sides, preventing someone from sneaking up behind
us. Much like a childhood memory of lying
in a tent and watching the rain through open flaps, a similar enclosed refuge
inside a building taps into that native and pleasant instinct of a haven.
A three-sided alcove appeals to our memories of caves, dens and protected porches.
The “Safe Haven” creates security and safety, much like
comfort-food brings familiarity at mealtime.
When properly designed, it is almost impossible to not be drawn into this
lair and sit for a meet or just relax for some solo thinking.
The Dennis Kowal Architect’s interiors department created this wood-trimmed alcove to accept almost any furniture arrangement. The same alcove was treated differently in various locations around the building and has proven to be a successful spontaneous collaboration avenue. Some contain work tables, white boards and tete-a-tete seating while other alcoves offer lounging furniture and a place to charge a tablet or cell phone.
We dare you to walk by and not want to “try it out”. Once seated, the next person arrives and ‘voila’,
you have the beginnings of collaboration, discussion or new connections.
Dennis Kowal Architects designs WELL buildings meant to improve productivity and health by resonating with biological systems in a positive way…much like nature. Bio-Hacking is feeding helpful messages, like, “it is the peak of daytime and a good time to work”, to the brain. Circadian lighting is one such hack that mimics the 480 nm blue light wavelength of the bright blue sky and helps the body to set a diurnal rhythm. Office interior lighting that synchronizes with natural light patterns reinforces a schedule through entrainment. By contrast, recent studies from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine have shown working in odd-colored lighting or windowless offices reduces the quality of nighttime sleeping; the equivalent of losing 45 minutes of sleep each night.
Note the evenness of lighting on the workstations. The lighting is designed to increase office productivity during the day and to improve the quality of sleep at night by bio-hacking the brain with resonating color temperatures that simulate natural systems.
This new office design, by Dennis Kowal Architects, incorporates carefully designed light fixtures and lamps that produce even lighting that reaches the worker’s retina at precise minimums. Newly discovered intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (in addition to rods and cones in our eye) respond to certain wavelengths of light and set our body’s bio-rhythms. The light is measured in melanopic lux and reinforces the messages that daylight sends to the body. Wrong wavelengths at the wrong time can trigger melatonin in the body which starts the sleep cycle.
Sending the right messages via lighting improves office productivity, creativity and engagement. The Institute of Medicine reports that as many as 70 million adults in the United States have a chronic sleep or wakefulness disorder. Such disorders and chronic sleep deprivation are associated with increased risk of certain morbidities including diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack, hypertension and stroke.
Dennis Kowal Architects designs buildings that focus on occupant health and well-being. This requires a blend of art and science along with a comprehensive understanding of bio-feedback, architecture and the human systems.
Reviving your Library. “Mommy, please take me to the Library” has been a consistent comment about our renovations of the windowless basement of the Plainfield Public Library. Exposed pipes? No problem, let’s reinvent them into jungle vines. A hole in the floor from an old story pit? No problem, let’s make it a reading pond and put a wooden bridge over it. No room or privacy for the teens? No problem, let’s bring in a fireproof explorer’s tent custom made into the “Young Adult Room”.
The response to the Rainforest
themed design has been amazing. Dennis
Kowal Architects provided both the architectural transformation and the interior
design integrity which makes this stunning transformation possible. Old tables were covered in jungle themed
photos and old stools were reupholstered into “mushroom stools”. The new children’s circulation desk is a
series of cargo boxes and shipping cages (complete with stuffed animals) and
the computers encircle a bamboo wall.
The American Library Association featured this remarkable Dennis
Kowal Architect’s transformation in their magazine as one of the best modest-cost
renovations in America.
NEW LIBRARY TRASHED? Well, not really. When the Library Director walked in on the Holi Hindu Colour Celebration conducted in the newly renovated Hoboken Library, she wondered if the bursts of paint and chalk would ruin the brand new finishes. DENNIS KOWAL ARCHITECTS designed the Library with the latest technology and materials to withstand flooding from the Hudson River but these choices also made for a durable Program Room that could withstand unanticipated uses! Kowal commented “It turns out these resilient materials are as useful for preventing water damage as they are for preventing staining from festival enthusiasm and craft spills.”
The same room after the Holi Festival ready for maker-space use is pictured below. Note the abundant data and power outlets that surround the perimeter and the overhead broadcast cameras and power outlets. Latest library design trends include adaptable spaces that quickly convert from tables and chairs to open plan. The barrel vaults, windows and columns are all original to this historic building which now includes wide-screen cinema projection, video conferencing and multiple lighting scenarios.
(Above) The space being used for child motor skill and creativity development; note the comfortable floor materials and surroundings. The acoustics, lighting and sight lines were all designed by DENNIS KOWAL ARCHITECTS to be perfect for concerts, TV broadcasting, programs and speaker presentations.
Dennis Kowal AIA is a library design specialist and frequent speaker on the topic of library design and trends. The renovations at the Hoboken Library combine wonderful library service with beautifully conceived spaces to achieve a great patron experience, yet providing flexibility to adapt to new and changing services and delivery.
Excitement mounts as New Jersey Libraries prepare to dig themselves into a hole!
Kowal atop a crane observing the hole for a library expansion
A quarter of a billion dollars will be spent on updating New Jersey Public Libraries during the next few years and firms like DENNIS KOWAL ARCHITECTS will be there to help repair, renovate and expand them. During the last grant round, DENNIS KOWAL ARCHITECTS wrote the grant applications for seven libraries and was awarded all of them which resulted in the most combined-library dollars of any grant writer.
DENNIS KOWAL ARCHITECTS are public library design specialists and prepares the need assessment, building program, library design, cost estimates and grant proposals. Seen above is the hole that would become the new Livingston Public Library, one of the busiest libraries in the State.
Library design requires extensive investigation of Community Needs because each locale has its own unique population, library borrowing patterns and special requirements. Focus groups over a period of weeks combined with surveys and interviews are ways to draw out the special requirements and desires of the Community. Children (below) were asked to draw their favorite part of the library. Children wanted a dedicated cinema, large murals on the wall and indoor playground furniture in addition to the books and media.
DENNIS KOWAL ARCHITECTS interviews young library patrons to get design ideas
This 30 foot stained glass and lead dome was restored by Dennis Kowal Architects in concert with the entire building restoration.
The lead and glass dome was in such poor condition, the Owner had installed a plywood ceiling to catch the falling glass and to protect the public. Dennis Kowal Architects (DKA) saved the dome from an uncertain fate with a full historic restoration plan. The dome constructed in 1910 is located at the center of Winchester, Virginia; a city that changed hands 70 times during the Civil War.
Years of neglect resulted in bird, dust and pollution deposits on the back of the dome rendering the dome a dark, streaked mess.
Scaffolding was erected above to clean, replace, repair and reinforce the high vaulting dome. Over 5,000 individual panes were inspected, identified and restored per instructions specific to each condition. Many of the panes were missing or cracked.
Painstaking restoration under the direction of DKA repaired the cracked glass pieces, re-set the fallen pieces, replaced the missing pieces and fortified the entire structure with new supports and clips.
Apart from physical impact, the glass in a leaded glass installation is relatively long-lasting. It is the deterioration of the skeleton structure that is the most common threat. Here the structure was reinforced before final cleaning of the repaired dome commenced. Federal preservation standards note that in many cases “minor cracks, sagging and oxidation are part of the character of historic leaded glass and require no treatment.” However, in this case, the dome was failing; needing reinforcement, new glass panes and repair to broken panes.
The entire dome was surveyed and treated on a pane by pane basis. Note the replacement glass (in the prior photo) evidenced by the slightly different color which is not noticeable from below.
The Handley Regional Library is considered the finest example of Beaux Arts Architecture in the state of Virginia because it carries the proportions, materials and unique elements like the leaded glass dome and iron and glass floors. Dennis Kowal Architects researched the insignias placed at the four compass points of the dome. Each represents a printers mark. A “printer’s mark” is a symbol used as a trademark by early printers starting in the 15th century. Here the dolphin and anchor are the 16th century trademark of Aldus Pius Manutius, a Venetian publisher who is know as the inventor of the italic typeface.
The final result is a spectacular leaded glass dome with brilliant colors which were highlighted by placing an electric light above the dome. Originally, the dome was only lit by natural light from eight circular windows above; which never quite reached the peak and left an overly dark, colorless center. Kowal reported “Seeing the dome restored and backlit for the first time since it was installed in 1910 was breathtaking. Details which were not apparent because of the dim previous lighting were now fully revealed.
All the Comforts of Home – a new Skilled Nursing Facility
New premium rooms at the Eastern Star Skilled Nursing Facility are designed with a home-like interior. Deep sills for plants and gifts, valances for drapes and blinds, and super-insulated walls for comfort provide a cozy environment for residents.
“We want beautiful new rooms for our patients.” The priorities of this non-profit were clear. Dennis Kowal Architects created a masterplan for expansion, designs for new living areas, and three new wings for occupancy. Many studies were developed until the perfect dimensions, finishes and proportions were found for the bedrooms. Sunlight for health, window seats for views and easy to clean fabrics to soften the walls, all combine to create the beauty and privacy desired.
The next challenge of the project was to meet zoning and building regulations for this site bounded by single family residences. Traffic, utilities, land acquisition and zoning restrictions were all adeptly addressed and the project was built with no variances. DKA also helped with the fund raising presentations, neighborhood relations, and cost estimating to provide a construction ready package for the design-build construction firm.
Renovated rooms, new rooms, and common areas blend into an integrated facilty.
The wings were designed for maximum exposure to views and conformance to the hilltop site. Outdoor plazas, gardens and walking areas flow seamlessly into the one story facility.
DENNIS KOWAL ARCHITECTS is changing the face of Healthcare!
Designing a home is like finding the right music. The tempo, orchestration, lyrics, and mood of your favorite music can lift you up, hang peacefully in the background, bring life to your party or accent a major event. Imagine if your home was like listening to someone else’s playlist over and over. A home design that resonates with the very lifestyle and movements of its occupants becomes a harmonic experience where each improves the other. At Dennis Kowal Architects, we shape the home, land and interior design to complement the way you live.
Traditional
Danish Modern
Historic Preservation
Contemporary
English Cottage
Colonial
Luxury
Carriage House & Landforming
DENNIS KOWAL ARCHITECTS designs homes that fit your lifestyle
(Above) The space being used for child motor skill and creativity development; note the comfortable floor materials and surroundings. The acoustics, lighting and sight lines were all designed by DENNIS KOWAL ARCHITECTS to be perfect for concerts, TV broadcasting, programs and speaker presentations.
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