The 35,000 SF Germantown Innovation Center for the Maryland Department of Economic Development opened in September 2008, and is strategically located on the Germantown campus of Montgomery College. The Center offers 11 wet labs averaging 500 square-feet, two modular clean rooms and 45 offices. Each of the individual suites utilities are metered separately and backup power supports the labs. The center can accommodate 25 to 35 life sciences and technology companies as incubator spaces for start up companies.

Ms. Ferreira designed the incubator facility with a large shared atrium space that occupies the center portion of the building. Accessed from both sides of the building the atrium serves as the main organizing element for the distribution of the various elements of the program. On the south side of the atrium lie the wet labs and clean rooms and on the north side of the atrium lie the IT labs and offices. The central atrium services as a main reception, waiting area, central business office, and shared conference spaces.

The lab areas are designed using module glass wall systems, doors, and lab cabinetry.

Bold colors are used to accent the space. Sustainable concepts were designed into the space from the beginning and were an important part of the overall strategy of the space.

These concepts used include lighting systems and controls that reduced energy consumption, high efficiency HVAC systems, low water use plumbing fixtures, recycled material content, low VOC materials, etc.

Project Credits:

w/ GGA
Lead Designer, Project Architect: Catarina Ferreira, AIA

Ms. Ferreira was the Project Architect on this unusual project. Placed on the roof of a residential high rise in downtown Manhattan, the 50 Murray SkyCourt is an entertainment complex for the use of the buildings residents. Central to the project is a unique floating basketball court occupying former mechanical spaces of the building.

The new amenity spaces occupy former mechanical spaces that were no longer required.

In this technically challenging project, what were once three individual buildings with floor plates at different heights are connected through shared spaces, employing a series of ramps, lifts, and stairs. ADA accessibility is provided at all levels.

The basketball court was built as a ‘floating slab’ on vibration isolators and is 18 stories above street level.

Size: 30,000 sf

Ms. Ferreira was the Project Architect and Team Leader on the tenant fitout for the large financial consulting firm Oliver Wyman.The design of the office space on Park Avenue, the company’s global headquarters, focused on the dissolution of corporate hierarchies and creation of open, collaborative spaces.

Primary views onto Park Avenue are ajacent to open workstation areas, instead of being relegated to private offices. Prime real-estate such as the corners of the floor plate became shared meeting/lounge spaces, instead of offices for the firm leadshirp. The few enclosed offices that were created are shared by two senior employees.

State of the art conference facilities were created to allow for maximum flexibility, through the use of custom designed pivoting walls and custom conference tables that can be grouped in different ways.

A central shared work table for the globe-trotting young consultants was created out of humble 2x4’s glued and bolted together, an element that is an architectural expression of the firm’s youth and ingenuity.

Materials/Fabrication: Ceiling: gypsum wall board,  Floor: existing concrete,  Walls: painted gypsum board over metal studs, aluminum storefront with clear and frosted glazing,  Cabinetry: maple veneer plywood,  Work Surfaces: black laminate,  Tables: maple veneer plywood

Project Credits:

w/ Resolution: 4 Architecture

Project Architect: Catarina Ferreira
Photography: © Paul Warchol

Publications/Awards:

2004/01/01: NY Minimalism

Ms. Ferreira was the Lead Designer on this speculative project for the U Street Corridor in Washington DC, in which a boutique hotel is proposed for a dynamic site across the street from the recently renovated Dunbar Theater.

Site attributes and FAR constraints resulted in a sculptural volume that includes an art gallery and double height lobby on the 1st floor, a two level lounge/restaurant at the corner of the site, a conference center, a spa adjacent to a green courtyard space, and various support spaces. A green roof was also proposed.

In this challenging project Ms. Ferreira was able to maximize site use through the strategic location of various room types, ranging from doubles to pods to make the economics of the project work, while providing a series of public spaces that take full advantage of the public nature of the site and it’s adjacency to public transportation, Howard University, and the historic Howard Theater.