Comstock's magazine 1117 - November 2017 | Page 74

n DESIGN
Rachel Teagle, the museum’s founding director, admits
she was partial to finding an up-and-coming architect.
She refers to the early days of UC Davis, when the campus
became an experimental catalyst, providing a platform
for some of the West Coast's most prominent pop artists
— Wayne Thiebaud, Robert Arneson and William T. Wi-
ley — to be adventuresome in their work. “They were on
the cusp of becoming famous and UC Davis gave them a
platform on which to be successful,” she says. “And we were
hoping we could provide the same for the architect of the
museum.”
While SO-IL had some museum experience, the Manetti
Shrem was its first design-build project. Since adding the
high-profile museum to its portfolio, SO-IL has won anoth-
er international design competition in France, this time to
revitalize Paris’ historic Place Mazas riverfront site.
Even though the museum project went to an outside
firm, Nola says the university likes to work with local firms,
if they have the required expertise. For example, UC Davis
just hired Sacramento firm DGA to complete lab renova-
tions for three physics researchers. “It’s a pretty specialized
space,” says Nola, of the labs that will house condensed
matter experimentalists. “DGA had good experience with
this project type and the users really liked them.”
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comstocksmag.com | November 2017
Like other large cities with more well-known neighbors,
Sacramento is working to define its culture and identity, and
can often be lumped into the Bay Area because it’s so close.
“The conflict is that Sacramento keeps painting itself as a
second-tier city,” says Cheryl McMurtry, business develop-
ment associate for Arch Nexus. “As such, clients often feel
like they need an expert — and it’s hard to think of some-
body in your own backyard as that expert.”
Sometimes, an unexpected local win can challenge the
trend. When Sacramento-based Vrilakas Groen Architects
won the new B Street Theatre commission, it was a first for
the 10-person shop. B Street's leadership was not deterred by
VGA's lack of theater experience, due to the bevy of mixed-
use and adaptive-reuse projects in the firm's portfolio, .
They reached out to VGA and asked them for a fresh look at
the direction of the project. The original design was done by
a Portland firm, and according to VGA founding principal
Ron Vrilakas, did not embody the essence of Sacramento or
the theater.
“The leadership team wanted a building that was friend-
ly, intimate and approachable,” Vrilakas says, “and as local
architects, they felt we could bring that to the project.” The
firm collaborated with the client’s theater consultant to get
the technical details correct. The $25 million, 48,000-square-