The West Shore Theatre’s legacy stretches back nearly a century. And it’s been such a privilege to play a part in rejuvenating its potential for the future. The theatre celebrated a full year back in operation this May and it’s had a busy year playing host to live events, shows, and movies—even this year’s AIA Central Pennsylvania Spring Lecture!

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We have often made trips as an office to visit important buildings and see notable art exhibits, and last summer, we visited NYC as an office for the fifth time. Stops included Lafayette College, Kearny Point (CDA emeritus Dave Franknecht’s project), David Zwirner Gallery, Little Island, The Highline, The Shed, The Standard, Susan Rodriguez’s Office, The Frick, and a mass timber home in Brooklyn, among other points of interest.

CDA’s renovation projects at the West Shore Theatre, Zeroday Brewing Company Taproom, CARE Center at Hershey Medical Center, and 260 Boas Street were recognized with AIA Central Pennsylvania Excellence in Design Awards at the King Mansion late last year – CDA has won 16 AIA Design Awards through AIA Central Pennsylvania and AIA Pennsylvania in the last five years! Zeroday founder Theo Armstrong gave the keynote presentation, and Dr. Hayes from Penn State Health was on hand to celebrate the recognition with us.

CDA’s design for a new icon at the heart of Harrisburg’s Strawberry Square has begun construction, and Phase 1 will be completed this summer. The Clock Box Lounge cantilevers in dramatic fashion from the two-story cast-in-place concrete structure that used to be the backdrop for the Chockablock Clock that had fallen into disrepair. Phase 2 reimagines the heavily used stage for live performances.

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Illuminated Integration turned to CDA to design a new office building on a 3.5-acre site that would unite their business, design, and installation operations. We had worked with Illuminated initially at the Forum Auditorium and, most recently, at the West Shore Theatre. The Phase 1 design creates the Trade Shop as well as the initial office and client showroom spaces in a pre-engineered metal building and allows them to build a subsequent office wing as the company grows. We created a big impact using modest materials both in terms of hosting clients and enhancing the way staff interacts.

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Chris has been asked to co-chair the AIA Pennsylvania Committee on Design with Philadelphia’s MGA’s Katie Broh and is leading the state’s design awards program slated for November 16^th. He is organizing a design jury in Milwaukee that will convene in August to deliberate which projects around Pennsylvania are worthy of recognition for design excellence this year.

Susan T Rodriguez, FAIA made a presentation titled “Overlay: Current Work” on November 3rd for the 2022 AIA Central PA Fall Lecture. Susan T Rodriguez Architecture is a decorated 5-year-old firm based in New York City – she was a founding Partner and Design Principal at Ennead Architects (formerly Polshek Partnership and she noted the profound impact Jim Polshek had on her both in terms of empowering and informing her design sensibilities). The work was compelling without fail, which is impressive, particularly given the range of scales and building types. The historic images, design sketches, conceptual diagrams, material collages, and “x-ray” sections thoroughly explained the building designs.

CDA harnesses the power of architecture by tapping into the positive emotional connections generated in great environments. By focusing on the building occupants/users in lieu of a fixed aesthetic agenda, we strive to create architecture everywhere and for everyone. We do this in our studio thru in-depth collaboration and testing ideas on paper, on the computer, and in study models. CDA finds that we still learn a lot by building physical models, and our clients always feel that models bring projects to life in ways digital drawings cannot.

Sincerely,

Chris Dawson, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Principal
Chris Dawson Architect