Ellen Cassilly Architect Newsletter • Spring 2016

The Skye-Norris House on the Green Home Tour in May

This house is the last of the three homes we designed at the corner of Kent and Ward in Durham. Best for last? You decide. All three homes have a soft spot in our hearts. Come out the last weekend of April and the first weekend of May to take a look—further details about the Green Home Tour to come!

Details of interior construction at the Skye-Norris House

Outdoor Classroom at Sarah P. Duke Gardens

We could not be happier with how the outdoor classroom for the new Prairie Garden at Sarah P. Duke Gardens has turned out. We are impatiently waiting for the prairie garden to burst forth. It will be a simple, graceful structure to let the prairie itself take the spotlight. Maybe you remember from the last newsletter that the pine trees have been harvested from the site, rough cut to size for the structural members, then dried, graded and used in the new structure!

Love Renovation featured on Modapalooza Modernist House Tour

We enjoyed a great day touring new, classic, and recently-renovated modernist houses around the Triangle, including a house recently renovated by ECA: the 1950 Pickrell House, originally designed by William Sprinkle and Doris Stanley.

The newly renovated Love House, and the original 1950 Pickrell House (pictured bottom right)

Condos in downtown Durham

Some of our favorite types of projects include adaptive reuses of spaces. It is wonderful to breathe new, and modern, life into an old building. Here is a job site photo of a current condo project in downtown Durham, where we are renovating the third floor into three condominiums with a rooftop terrace.

Detail of Construction at Downtown Condo

Meintjes office and guest house

This fabulous curved-roof accessory structure is popping out of the ground along with all of the spring flowers under the steady hand of Riverbank Construction.

Building Bridges at E.K. Powe Elementary School

Ellen got to spend an afternoon with some students at the after school program at E.K. Powe Elementary School. They discussed building bridges, and even got to build some of their own bridges with blocks and blue and purple "noodles," which served as rivers.

Franklin Institute of the Humanities

Our Right to Place: Visions of Durham’s Future
Ellen recently participated on a panel at the Franklin Institute of Humanities, along with Steve Schewel, Mayme Webb-Bledsoe and Nia Wilson, discussing the development of Durham and how we can contribute to a more equitable vision of Durham’s future. See more here.

Structures for Inclusion

The Structures for Inclusion Conference took place on March 19-20th at NCSU. Over the last five years, Ellen has been teaching the NCSU Design/Build Summer Studio and collaborating with her students and the folks at BuildSense to create community structures. Ellen discussed the following pictured projects at the conference.

The Leaf, 2011 Design/Build Summer Studio Project

Benevolence Farm Barn, 2014 Design/Build Summer Studio Project

Best of the Triangle 2016

If you feel so moved, please consider voting for us in IndyWeek's Best of the Triangle 2016. The final ballot will run from April 25th - May 15th. You can find us under the "Best Architect in Durham County" section. As always, we're grateful for your support!

New Faces at ECA 

Over the last few years we have taken part in the architectural internship program at the College of Design at NC State. This year we had Jocelyn Barahona and Nick Hilker as interns. They came two days a week to work in the office and see how the sausage is made. They helped with drafting, sat in on meetings and joined in on job site visits. Nick will be continuing on as our summer intern. We are also happy to welcome Jessina Leonard, who is helping us with everything from image management to social media.

Have a wonderful spring,Ellen, Esther, Keith, Meredith, Jocelyn, Nick and Jessina