Project Description
Pass by what was once the offices of Work Program Architects in the historic Monticello Arcade, where the design process was once on full display. The Arcade, a graceful connector between City Hall Avenue and Plume Street, was a natural home for WPA. Its large signature windows, both on the exterior and the interior path, reflected the firm’s core values of collaboration, community focus, transparency and process. The contemporary build-out was open, informal, comfortable and adaptable with long work tables, flexible furnishings, a lounge, and a galley kitchen. Windows often were used as wipe-off boards, and process sketches were tacked on multiple surfaces. The street-level location connected the firm to the community, in which it played an active role. Though the space has since changed with a new tenant, the spirit of openness and creativity that defined WPA’s time there remains part of its story.
Work Program Architect’s commitment to the arts began at home, with a small art gallery contiguous with the firm’s office space. From July 2013 to March 2015, Nobile & Amundsen hosted six showcases for artists from around the world working in a variety of media. After March 2015, the gallery continued to exhibit both regional and international artists, with pop-up shows curated by Cindy Mackey and Deborah Marquardt, as well as Lorrie Saunders of Popblossom. In conjunction with the Glass Arts Society conference hosted by The Chrysler Museum in 2017, the WPA Gallery featured an immersive installation of Ben Wright.
The gallery featured a “white cube”-type configuration with a glass storefront along one entire side of the space, museum-quality lighting by ERCO, power and data on the walls and in floor boxes to accommodate multimedia installations, and dedicated heating and cooling. Although the gallery space no longer exists in its original form, it remains an important part of WPA’s story—an expression of the firm’s belief that design and art are integral to community life.
