It is a question that resonates through the ages. The search for an answer is as old as the hour Plato mused about the dimensions of his Republic and Sir Thomas More envisioned the garden communities of his Utopia.
Gordon Blocker & Associates is often selected by architects and urban planners
to design their market centers because they understand the age-old quest for communities that nourish the human spirit as well as the bottom line.
Gordon Blocker has observed, “First we shape our buildings and communities, thereafter they shape us.” He understands a prospective tenants’ need for buildings and communities that balance work and leisure, private and public space, serenity and passion, architecture with the forms of nature. Through well-constructed media solutions, GB&A recognize and fulfill the need to be a conduit between the gifts and vision of the architect and developer and the expectations of the prospective tenant.
Yogi Had It Right
It was Yogi Berra who said, “Nobody goes there any more, it’s too crowded.” One of the most
profound challenges of the architect and developer is dealing with an ever-increasing abundance of automobiles. It has been said that in Houston, if you see a person walking, it’s someone on his way to his car. GB&A has a unique ability to interpret the developer and urban planner’s commitment to design buildings, communities and neighborhoods for people, not for cars. To weave a portrait of places where PEOPLE live and work, play and pray – places and spaces designed on a human scale.
It is a difficult challenge because market centers, with their displays and audio-visual components, must often be planned and produced long before the building or development is completed.
So how can the finished product be depicted? How can the prospective tenant envision how it would FEEL to be in the space, to walk in the shaded parks, listen to the melody of fountains, enjoy the public art and the private pleasure of observing beauty, both built and natural? How can we demonstrate
the amenities? How can we show how the automobile has been removed from a central position in planning to an important but largely invisible concern? How can we make the architect and developer’s vision real? GB&A is especially well known for its ability to create the appearance
and personality, even the spirit of a project, to an uncanny degree. Using model photography and computer graphics we create a virtual tour of the facility and its environs. Playback systems, projection, special effects theatrical lighting and a musical score create a powerful, personal experience, a leap forward in time, and a sense that the viewer has answered that age-old question – how shall we now live? The answer is – We shall live beautifully.
