TDA has designed restaurants for Bueno y Sano since 2003. When a new restaurant was planned for West Springfield,Massachusetts, TDA began with the brand themes it had originally helped to develop.
Blending concrete counters and floors with corrugated metal and walnut tabletops, the restaurants present a crisp modern look with an engaging texture. Hard edges and solid surfaces reflect the pace at which people come and go at these busy eateries.
TDA has working on Firefly on three occasions over 15 years, designing the original concept and then expanding on it as the restaurant grew.
The challenge with this project was to synthesize the energy and excitement of a New York chef with the character of a small rural town – in the winter, the sleepy town finds a cozy, warm and welcoming bar & grill while in the summer the visitors and tourists flock to a stylish gastronomy-focused restaurant.
TDA’s most recent intervention took the previously designed feature bar and doubled its size, reorganizing a dining room to accommodate both the bar and a collection of intimate dining nooks.
The River Valley Coop, a local cooperative market in the Pioneer Valley, first engaged Thomas Douglas Architects to help with renovations to their first store, in Northampton. The renovation was so well received that TDA was later asked to design their new, larger second store in Easthampton.
TDA worked with the River Valley Coop to evaluate several sites before deciding on the eventual location, the site of a former car dealership. Once it was determined that the existing building could not meet the needs of the market, the design process involved deciding on the structural type for the new building, how to locate the new building on the site, and the materials to be used on the exterior of the building.
This complicated project was done in conjunction with consults with expertise in grocery store layout, refrigeration, and mechanical systems – the latter became even more critical as the project was in construction when the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we view public spaces.
The finished market opened in 2021 to great fanfare and support from the Pioneer Valley community.
On Main Street in historic downtown Northampton, Zen Restaurant celebrates innovative Pan-Asian cuisine.
Long striped paper lampshades, tall vertical decorative wood screens, and a small stand of bamboo accentuate the height of the space and make it feel larger than its small footprint. Pink, red, and soft green colors were chosen to reinforce the Asian theme. An existing natural brick wall was exposed to give texture, scale and more color to the space. Douglas fir and birch plywood were used extensively to allude to a natural Asian feel.
The work that we completed on Zen is very symbolic of all our work in that it encompasses both architectural form and artistic interior design. Primarily, the structure of the space must support the diner, the chefs, and the servers. To that end, we designed functional work and dining spaces and selected fixtures, furnishings, colors and details that define this innovative space.
The Thomas Douglas Architects-designed marquee and canopy adorns the façade of Northampton’s 1891 theater and is the centerpiece of Northampton’s cultural scene. This marquee structure is entirely new and replaced a much smaller art deco styled sign.
In the late 19th century, Edward H.R. Lyman, a philanthropist and Northampton native, had a vision for a new venue for culture and theater in his hometown. On May 23, 1891, the 800-seat Academy of Music Theatre opened its doors to the public for the first time. One year later, Lyman deeded the Academy to the City of Northampton, making it the first municipally-owned theatre in the nation.
Located in one of New England's finest parks, the Garden House stands on the site of the former Look Park pool building, a 4,500 square foot nostalgic Northampton landmark built in 1930. The restoration of the building keeps faith with the Mission style architecture of the earlier period.
The interior is a simple but richly detailed design, featuring massive wood trusses, a new large stone fireplace and mahogany paneled walls decorated with handcrafted botanical stencils. The enclosed sun porch offers a panoramic view of some of the park's many attractions, and is accented with wrought iron accessories, mission style wall sconces, and awnings reminiscent of earlier days at the pool building.
The renovation of the Calvin Theater involved eighteen months of planning and construction. Every space and surface of the building was affected. The theater had extensive damage from years of neglect. As architects, we planned every aspect of the renovation from redesigning the loading dock to creating a new concession area to designing the new marquee.
The complete renovation and restoration of the 1924 historic Calvin Theater earned Thomas Douglas Architects a Massachusetts Historic Commission Preservation Award and a Northampton Historic Commission Award.
This restoration involved creating a new stage, seating, lighting and equipment as well as designing a whole new color scheme - all tied to the theater’s historic roots, but still new and fresh. We used elaborate decorative paint and restored and duplicated huge old, plastic moldings. In the end, this Northampton 21,000 square foot landmark with 1,300 seats has evolved from Vaudeville theater to movie house to one of the most popular live music venues in Western Massachusetts.
This neighborhood watering hole features exposed brick, comfortable seating, and the classic atmosphere of your favorite pub. Sitting at the foot of Main Street, we created oversized arched windows that look out on the activity of the town’s active street life. Over-scaled wood pilasters and a coffered decorative ceiling hold the warmth of the custom lighting and traditional oversized mirrors enlarge this classic village pub.
Thomas Douglas Architects was selected by the Mohawk Theater/Downtown Development, Inc. Committee to develop Preliminary Architectural/ Engineering Plans and estimated costs for the renovation of the Mohawk Theater.
The scope of work included development of plans for a preferred re-use program that included film, music, lectures, community events and limited stage performances.
From images of the theaters current condition, digitally created photos were developed of the proposed renovation. A complete set of plans and schematic drawings were also prepared for the report.
The Mohawk Theater is a single balcony theater with an original capacity of over 1000 seats. Built as a movie house with a 25 foot wide proscenium, it is not a dramatic theater as there is no significant stage area nor fly gallery. The proposed renovations call for the construction of a new enlarged stage and backstage support spaces. The Mohawk’s art deco interior, with its stencil painted Native American motifs, will be fully restored.
Spoleto restaurant in East Longmeadow Massachusetts is the sixth restaurant for the Northampton restaurateur Claudio Guerra. Thomas Douglas architects has designed three of those eateries and the Longmeadow location is the newest and largest of the group. It is a 4,000 square foot space segmented into four distinct yet open seating areas. It is a large light-filled space with cozy seating areas for lunch and diner.
We designed this restaurant with an open floor plan, central island bar, booths and tables set against decorative tiles, pendant lighting, and decorative painting.
As a part of a downtown-wide restoration project, Thomas Douglas Architects was tapped to design a restoration of this multi screen movie house into a modern performing arts complex. Originally designed as a 1,000-seat vaudeville and single screen movie house, the theater has been cut up into a multitude of small-unadorned spaces. The Thomas Douglas Architects design envisioned a restoration of the decorative theatrical auditorium featuring a painted surround of a colonial Greenfield downtown street scene complete with twinkling starts in the night sky.
The project received full funding from a variety of sources including New Market Tax credits and State and Federal Historic tax credits.
The existing lakefront cottage was small, musty and its foundation piers were toppling beneath the structure. An underground stream running over stone ledge only a few feet beneath grade saturated the ground and the humidity of summer and the freeze/thaw cycle of winter did the rest.
Because it was so close to the lake, the house’s footprint would need to remain roughly the same; any expansion would need to go up rather than out. Together, the owners and TDA determined the most cost effective path to the owners’ goals would be to remove the old damaged house and to build new.
The new house was designed to be light, spacious and able to accommodate the expanding family. The ten foot tall living room with a window wall facing the lake was made even more airy with the carefully designed exposed joists with energy efficient LED lights hidden between them. Where once had stood a cottage with four rooms and a low loft now stands a bright five bedroom house that prioritizes common space, views and connections to the outdoors.
Sustainable features:
Energy Efficiency:
Continuous insulation across walls, roof and foundation with insulative values significantly exceeding code requirements.
Air tight detailing used to prevent energy loss.
All electric heating and cooling through the use of energy efficient minisplits and condensers.
Heating and air conditioning use energy recovery.
Day lighting strategies are used to get natural light deep into the house.
Large windows for cross ventilation throughout the house.
Materials:
.Exterior finishes were made of low maintenance, long life materials.
Interior finishes were chosen for their natural durability, beauty and environmental integrity, locally sourced materials whenever possible.
This Thomas Douglas Architects design is upbeat and modern, to compliment chic Asian fusion cuisine, while still creating a warm cozy ambiance for relaxed dining. This was an unusually long and narrow century-old space and the new design created a division of the space along its length, with two different levels and two distinct seating arrangements. With such a composition, it was possible to give the impression of two separate rooms within a relatively constrained area. By accentuating the length of the space with such design elements as lighting, fabric, mirrors, and graphic panels, we further accentuated the sensation of capaciousness with tight confines. Rich hanging fabric and playful “dumpling” lights dramatize the tall ceilings, and a moveable glass façade allows the vibrant downtown sidewalk activity to energize the space.
This dining hall project was a fast track, design-build venture for Deerfield Academy with Daniel O’Connell’s Sons Construction. There was a fire in the 18,000 square foot dining hall at Deerfield Academy which caused extensive damage to a large section of their dining hall. Deerfield chose to demolish the damaged part of the dining hall and rebuild a larger 2,000 square foot addition that would add seats and extended functionality to one of their most prominent buildings on campus.
Besides the architectural design of the brick façade, the scope of work also included custom historic lighting, rich floor finishes, sophisticated window treatments, casual seating designs and landscaped exterior terraces for the entire dining hall. The project cost was 2.5 million. Thomas Douglas Architects provided architectural, interior design and landscape design services for the interior and exterior of the building.
This house addition almost doubled the size of a stately brick home in Longmeadow Massachusetts. All of the new work was designed to blend seamlessly into the existing 1920’s structure. The kitchen, formerly a small dark space was enlarged with all new fixtures, larger windows, and a large family sized island. There is a built-in bench seat adjacent to the kitchen, which seamlessly opens into a large family room. A new “butlers pantry is hidden next to the kitchen to accommodate a small office and much more storage space. Above this family space is a new master bedroom suite with large new dormers and a finely fitted out bathroom. Below all of the living space is a new 3-car garage.
An unused former liquor warehouse building that backed up on the tracks just down the hill from Main Street, the Abercrombie Building’s front on Bank Row defined the industrial edge of town. Over time, the spreading downtown came to encompass the property and TDA was hired to help convert the building into offices.
The owner was pursuing National Trust Historic Preservation Tax Credits for the building. Accordingly, TDA focused on highlighting the existing wood structural timbers and brick in the interiors.
The tenant, the District Attorney, had very specific requirements, which TDA addressed through an iterative process of research, design and review, finalizing layout plans that kept working groups together and preserved necessary adjacencies.
Sound separating walls and ceilings were inserted into the building in the most discreet manner possible to preserve the feel of the original structure. As a warehouse, the building had fewer windows than would be needed for professional offices, so TDA continued existing window patterns and styles, adding windows that increased the natural daylighting in the building and provided views to its occupants.
Northampton’s 1903 First Baptist Church is a current project under construction. The 15,000 square foot former church is being converted to a modern performing arts and banquet facility. Extensive structural and mechanical renovations were necessary to modernize the building and prevent further collapse of the structure.
There will be a theater space, meeting rooms, three full bars, a banquet facility and a full commercial restaurant kitchen. The building will be fully accessible with a new elevator. All interior surfaces are removed and a new decorative plaster and wood interior will be built. The central theater space has a large 3-tier dome that is being rebuilt and restored. There will also be a large outdoor terrace accessible from the interior. All aspects of the project are designed by Thomas Douglas Architects.
Fantasy, wild colors, oversized sculptures, day of the dead inspired art, and massive light fixtures characterize this Mexican inspired restaurant. In the location of a former upscale fusion restaurant at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA, this renovation turned formality into fun and quiet into exuberance. It is an big cousin to the Mama Iguana’s in Northampton designed by Thomas Douglas Architects.
This is another Thomas Douglas Architects designed space by Claudio Guerra for his Spoleto family of restaurants.
Created for an artist and a printer, this 2,500 square foot home in the countryside of Whately was designed in the image of an industrial loft. Structured around the concept of big, open spaces, the home is accented with wood and metal exposed in beams, holding goods in shelving and tying it all together with trim, railings and fixtures.
The house, featured in the Boston Globe Magazine, maintains a traditional exterior, but the use of space, light and details set it apart. Notables are the wire mesh kitchen cabinets, the doors that qualify as works of art and the flow through the space that keeps it open, but never cold.
The Conway House sits back from the road close to downtown Northampton, protected from traffic and surrounded by trees. This new construction was built to provide apartments for non-traditional Smith College students, some with families. The three story, 13,000 square foot building has ten two bedroom apartments, one of which is fully accessible, and several common areas for laundry, storage and socializing.
The building is super-insulated and has large insulated triple-glazed windows that allow for plentiful daylighting but limit energy loss. Interior finishes were chosen for their natural durability, beauty and environmental integrity - natural resilient flooring, Green Seal certified carpets and low VOC paints, adhesives, and composite materials. Additionally, the building used an energy recovery ventilator to conserve energy as the fan ventilates the house.
Sustainable Features:
Energy Efficiency:
Very high insulation values – R-48 & R-56 Walls, R-70 ceiling (attic)
Very high performance windows – all fiberglass construction, triple pane glass (R-7)
Air tight detailing used extensively (Note: the building was “blower door tested” by Energy Star technicians reaching a level of tightness 3 times lower than minimum)
Constant volume ventilation with energy recovery has been installed to maintain a fresh air supply. (This system continuously exhausts air from the bathrooms while fresh air is supplied to the corridors. Heat & moisture energy is recovered with equipment installed in the attic).
Air conditioners, refrigerators and dishwashers are Energy Star rated.
All lighting is compact fluorescent with a very low Watt to lumen ratio. The lamps were provided by the Energy Star program.
Digital controls in each room control the heating system.
Heating is provided by two, wall mounted gas fired boilers located in the lower level mechanical room. (They are modulating boilers, digitally controlled, that will produce heat based on outside air temperature and domestic hot water demand)
Materials:
Wall insulation is made of expanded polystyrene. (The same material disposable coffee cups are made of).
Attic insulation is blown cellulose treated with boric acid.
All paints used are low VOC (volatile organic compound) or no VOC.
Marmoleum floors were installed in kitchens, baths and corridors (no vinyl’s used) Marmoleum is made from primarily natural raw materials; linseed oil, rosins, and wood flour, calendered (pressed) onto a natural jute backing.
Rubber base was used in the kitchen and bathroom not vinyl.
Carpeting is made of nylon, constructed and installed using very low VOC glues.
A few other notes:
The ceilings were raised higher than most residential buildings to accommodate a third sash. With taller windows, natural light can penetrate deeper into the rooms. Mini blinds were installed for best control of natural light and privacy.
The buildings heating system is designed to accommodate the addition of solar thermal panels in the future.
Our goal is to create positive change - change for our clients businesses, brands and homes - and change for our society and generations to come.
