Millinocket, Maine

Noted in 2008 by AIA judges as a "huge signpost for a small community," the Millinocket Bath House project is a success for young and old since opening day, and an excellent example of community investment in youth for a better future.

Sustainable in design and construction, a significant portion of building materials were regionally produced and the extensive roof windows reduce the need for electric lighting. 

In a symbolic gesture to the town's original swimming hole, ARCADIA designworks collected colorful, round stones from the adjacent Millinocket stream which were cast into the pool deck's pre-wash basin. The pool and bath house are truly an oasis of small town America's support for modern architecture.

Bath House Contractor: Sullivan & Merrit

Pool Contractor: South Shore Gunite Pool                                          

Civil, Structural and Mechanical Engineering: CES Engineers

Electrical Engineering: D&S Engineering   

Pool Design Consultant: Gary Coccoluto, Architect

Photographs by Caleb Charland

Biddeford, Maine

Sterling Rope is a major U.S. manufacturer of safety rope, cord, and hardware for customers like rock climbers, arborists, firefighters or radio tower technicians. By offering a simulation training space within their factory, companies and organizations arrive on-site for learning and teaching opportunities.

The new training center is the brainchild of Sterling's President and Founder, together with ARCADIA designworks, and Becker Structural Engineers.

ARCADIA's sustainable, reuse approach was used to renovate the windowless, 5,500 square feet maze-like, mezzanine space. Floor plans were scrutinized to take advantage of existing interior walls, while doors, frames, and hardware were each itemized for reuse. Salvaged equipment and material substitutions where appropriate improved project efficiency, and maintained project costs.

To simulate on-the-job demands, users will find two angled walls for rock climbing, a free-standing 30-foot radio tower, and for firefighters specifically, a vertical wall with removable window and door plugs. A key component to the new facility is the center's addition of an adjacent classroom creating an easy transition from formal lecture space to the hands-on equipment.

You can read more about Sterling Rope, here.

Millinocket, Maine

Often the story behind the making of a building is more meaningful than the creativity expressed by its architecture. ARCADIA's principal architect Patric Santerre was recently honored by the library's Board of Directors with the commission to redesign the building, one that he frequented regularly when growing up in Millinocket. Whether coincidence or fate, Patric's first architectural intern position in 1984 was with the architecture firm Wadsworth Boston, the original architects and engineers who designed the library building in 1963.

With tremendous support from the library's new director Matt DeLaney, The Friends of the Library who brought the library back to life after closing, and local community stakeholders, ARCADIA designworks is rethinking the idea of what a library is for a small rural community in the 21st Century. They are breathing new life into its spaces with complimentary modern architecture which celebrates children in a room above ground, and older patrons with a new memorial porch while using locally produced building products and making great efforts to reduce the building's dependence on fossil fuels.

Phase I construction scheduled to be completed by April 2020. While fundraising continues for Phase II including the new north porch addition.

Assistance in rendered images via designer Derek Smythe.

You can read more about the Millinocket Memorial Library, here.

Powder Coating, Crating, and Shipping & Receiving Building.

Sanford, Maine

The Baker Company originally hired ARCADIA to assist in renovating their corporate offices in Sanford, Maine. ARCADIA’s ethnographic survey of key staff and employees shed light into Baker’s office systems and manufacturing processes. Soon after embarking upon the project Baker shifted their scope of work to include a new Powder Coating & Warehouse Facility. By observing the manufacturer's systems and listening and responding to seasoned staff and employees, ARCADIA was able to step back from the original goals and ask if Baker might consider changing priorities from Corporate renovations to improve productivity and profits with the design and construction of a new Shipping and Receiving facility.  

Shifting the initial scope of work from Corporate Offices to Powder Coating/Shipping & Receiving demonstrated a collaborative design process within the Baker/ARCADIA design team, one that improved manufacturing capacity and reduced productivity backlogs. Additionally, the new building was sited to maximize future expansion possibilities. ARCADIA was able to help Baker prioritize the internal systemic barriers to efficiency and growth from a design perspective. By taking a bird’s eye view of the facility at large they created a Master Plan to assist Baker in creating a vision for long term campus-development.

ARCADIA continues to work with the Baker Company on additional building renovations and plans to install a 218kW photovoltaic solar panel system on the new building.

Millinocket, Maine

215 Penobscot Avenue, a brick building that was formerly a clothing store in Millinocket, Maine had been vacant for nearly a decade. When local, and retired PA, Randy Jackson purchased the building, he did so with the intention to give back to the Millinocket community that, as he said, had given so much to him. Jackson chose ARCADIA designworks to assist him in the redesign and development of the building.

The building’s new use includes the 50-seat Boreal Theater in the back, a gourmet deli/bakery in the center, and the Millinocket Memorial Library’s, Katahdin Gear Library in the front. ARCADIA and Jackson were able to transform a previously abandoned space into a fully functioning place for community engagement, bringing new life and economic resources to the town’s main street. The building’s tenants are open for business and the Boreal Theater had its inaugural opening with a jazz band on Saturday, May 28th, 2022.

Resourcing

Additionally, Patric of ARCADIA, in conjunction with the Gear Library and the Town of Millinocket’s Public Works Department, is planning to refurbish abandoned bicycles collected by Public Works to make them available for children. For bikes that cannot be reused or parts salvaged, they intend to explore using the bike frames as racks. The bike frame will be repurposed with paint and an anchor system for the installation of new bike racks along the exterior of the Gear Library. Using bicycle frames to create a fun, colorful bike rack will “feed two birds with one seed.” They will have a new purpose and will clean out the bike pile at Public Works.

More about the Millinocket Gear Library

New Food Production Facility - Interior Retrofit & Loading Structure Addition

Hiram, Maine  

ARCADIA designworks completed research, programming and schematic design drawings for a Grandy Oats retrofit of a 10,800 square foot elementary school building built in the 1970's. 

Design included new preparation, production and packaging areas, lobby, administration and break rooms, along with a basic floor plan and elevation drawings for a new 2200 sq.ft. loading bay/cold storage addition. 

Images are from the factory.

Four Story Addition                       

Hanover, New Hampshire

Successful architecture of this four-story college addition reflects working within specific spatial limitations defined by local zoning regulations, life-safety codes and a modest budget.

A central tower constructed primarily of concrete block walls, concrete slab floors, and cementitious siding provides safe-stair exits from all floors, including the uppermost attic space.

The addition's bookend sides are clad in reinforced expanded foam insulation, "EFIS," and contain new, vandal proof bathrooms, ADA compliant bedroom suites, laundry facilities, utility closets, and a top floor student study. 

General Contractor: PC Construction

Structural Engineer: Bradley Structural

Residence Hall Design

Orono, Maine

Prior to founding ARCADIA designworks, Santerre worked as an associate architect for Orcutt Associates. As project architect, Santerre orchestrated the design of the Edith Patch Residence Hall a 200 bed, three-story, building. Working closely with architect John Orcutt on the initial design concept, Santerre continued the building's design and development with assistance from a team of architects and engineers from Harriman Associates.

Since inception, the hall has been sought by students due in part to the comfort of a radiant floor heat and quiet environment achieved through an innovative pinwheel suite plan composed of four bedrooms around a central core - resulting in fewer bedroom walls abutting the louder, communal living space. 

Outside, four building blocks clad in brick and glass step gradually down the sloped site while arcing subtly against the campus woods to the west, and a new quad to the east.

General Contractor: Granger Northern

Millinocket, Maine

Our Katahdin, a volunteer-driven nonprofit organization working to promote community and economic development in the Katahdin region of Maine, engaged the services of ARCADIA designworks to assist with the renovation of an old department store on Main Street in Millinocket.

ARCADIA first documented and produced existing conditions-drawings which were beneficial for both hazardous material-remediation, and visualization for repurposing the building. ARCADIA worked closely with the staff of Our Katahdin, and Liz Trice a co-worker space consultant and owner of Peloton Labs, in the design of a new interior ground level layout.

As seen in the adjacent image, ARCADIA has completed designs for the first phase of work including a new universal access entrance atrium, restrooms and east building facade with new storefront and upper-level windows.

Installation

Orono, Maine

Ideation sketch shows the closure of Beddington Road from vehicular traffic allowing for the installation of a new oval shaped plaza, complimentary of Frederick Law Olmstead's oval around Fogler Library, and bermed for outdoor classes and recreational activities. 

Project included a three-story clock tower with fretted glass clock face and hardscape that cleanly organizes the confluence of numerous student paths formed over time to and from buildings.

Building Use Survey

Westbrook, Maine

UX surveys, employee interviews and shadowing key personnel provided  insights into the complex daily operations of Chadwick Baross.

ARCADIA's observations were compiled into a Building Use Survey followed by schematic floor plans, diagrams, and construction documents. ARCADIA's work resulted in a new product display lobby, parts counter, storage mezzanine, updated locker rooms, kitchen, loading dock, offices, and multimedia conference room.

Structural Engineer: Lincoln - Haney Engineers

Construction Manager: Butterfield Construction

Spa Room Design

Portland, Maine

For Float Harder's new spa, ARCADIA designworks produced floor plans to accommodate two float pods, and two float rooms with built-in float tanks.

Float and isolation tanks are lightless, soundproof chambers in which a person floats on water saturated with 40% plus Epsom salt. Therapeutic by nature, the New England Patriots team has two float tanks for individual players to take deep, relaxing float sessions after practices and games. 

Adjacent image shows a typical ADA accessible float room. 

House Design

Boonsboro, Maryland

Santerre accepted the Zuspan commission while Director of Commercial Development for IDC, an A & E firm in Silver Spring, Maryland. The project called for a small house on a sloped parcel of land in the vicinity of the Appalachian Trail and Washington Monument State Park.

Challenged to design a house with a modest budget, the floor plan drives the design with a simple geometry of two rotated rectangles. Resulting dynamic interior spaces reflect a modern lifestyle in a rural setting that includes exterior walls with views in all cardinal and inter-cardinal directions.

Summer Residence Home Design

Eastport, Maine

Affectionately nicknamed The Playhouse by the home's owners, this 1,000 square foot, two bedroom design with generous indoor & outdoor spaces achieves stunning ocean views off the coast of Eastport, Maine.

By placing the majority of living space on the second level, the design is ideal for beachfront property, a setback property or mountain locations.

The physical footprint is greatly minimized by the T form structure in which the central portion of the house is built on a traditional concrete foundation and the T-wings are supported by wood-post and concrete grade beams. 

This design can be built on-site, or factory manufactured, and delivered for installation using green, sustainable materials and systems.

General Contractor: Newcomb Construction, Eastport, Maine

All-season Addition

Shag Pond, Maine

With a sensitivity to the original early 20th Century lakeside cottage and shoreline zoning restrictions, ARCADIA designworks strategized a compact all-season addition containing an eat-in kitchen, central stairway to a new mechanical basement space, and a second level bedroom suite.  

Carved massing between original cottage and addition serves to emphasize the new entrance, mirror volumes, and create a transition for the wrap around front porch. 

Cabin Design

North Twin Lake, Maine

The Aldo Island Cabin's simplicity of form and function draws on architectures most fundamental assets. The cabin's wood frame, joist, studs, and rafters were first constructed on the mainland, then deconstructed and shipped to the island.

Tools, fasteners and all cabin materials were carried up a winding spruce needle laden path to a natural clearing surrounded by 80-foot hemlock, spruce, and white birch. This scene became the backstory to the design-build architectural experience.  

Exiting the woods through which one walks to access the property, first impressions of the cabin are of awe. The home fits naturally into its surroundings, and from the inside a stacked corner window-wall makes one feel like they are actually outside.

Structurally, the mono-sloped roof arises from a 12' entrance to a 16' peak, immediately expanding the inhabitants experience beyond the modest kitchen to an expansive living area. Canvas sail cloth is cleverly stapled and battened to the underside of the loft joist serving as a clean, white galley kitchen ceiling.

In all seasons, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring, Aldo Island Cabin is an exceptional place for experiencing the isolated nature of Maine woods.

Residential Home Design

Freeport, Maine

The Creighton home is a modern two-story house with an expansive loft, designed and constructed for an avid sailor with simple lifestyle needs. The specialized workshop spaces for example, offer ample room for maintaining an ocean sailboat, and an angled stairway leads from the ground level workshop and garage, to the living level and upper sleeping loft where the floor serves as a platform for sewing sails. This use of space is key to the formal architecture of the home's interior. Additionally, the spacious and high ceiling kitchen, dining and living rooms are excellent for entertaining guests, but the bed and bathroom suite is neatly closed off for privacy.

The house is primarily contained under a mono-sloped roof with a slight pitch back-canopy on the south side covering the first and second level entrances. The house is highly insulated, fuel efficient and obtains supplemental hot water through rooftop solar thermal panels.

Construction Manager: Owner

Framing Contractor: Rainbow Construction

Interior Finishes: Owner Self-performed

Structural Engineer: Bradley Engineering

Photographs: Caleb Charland

Mixed Use Redevlopment

Portland, Maine

ARCADIA designworks produced site study diagrams for a residential and commercial, mixed-use, redevelopment in the heart of Portland, Maine's Old Port and India Street neighborhoods. 

The Newbury Street Redevelopment concept designs depict a four-story residential community configured with a ground level garage, plus utility and mechanical spaces. Each residence unit on the upper levels include a kitchen, dining and living room spaces, plus multiple bedrooms. A master bedroom or home-office studio is provided an exterior balcony covered with a cantilevered roof.

ARCADIA's concept elevations show second-level glass and slab structures intersecting the majority of the buildings. The concepts offer opportunities to incorporate commercial offices, and retail and community spaces upon construction.

The building's roof deck is landscaped with engaging and energy saving roof gardens of grass, bushes, and trees, and hardscaped with communal walking paths and light wells to levels below.

New Industrial Park, Master Plan

Millinocket, Maine

ARCADIA designworks produced a digital, three-dimensional model and master plan to demonstrate how a closed, 100-year-old paper mill in northern Maine could be transformed into a new, state of the art, research/manufacturing, and commercial complex.

In surveying the forty seven vacant industrial buildings, ARCADIA and the client aimed to preserve the newer, pre existing structures, earmarking each for commercial reuse or demolition. As a result, the master plan identifies and which pre existing buildings are structurally safe for inhabitants within the new complex.

Hupper Library Plaza Design                           

Hebron, Maine

ARCADIA's plaza design for Hebron Academy forms a half circle space outside the ground level floor of the Academy's pre existing library building. Such a space is used for communal eating, and graduation ceremonies.

ARCADIA incorporated new hardscape paths that enable the students and faculty proper access to all buildings.