Portland, Maine: An Old City Becoming New Again
It is hard to believe that it has been 20 years since presenting my Graduate Thesis project at University of Maryland. My thesis was an urban renewal project focused on bringing housing and building mass to help re-define streets and park edges in a part of Portland, Maine, from 295 to the downtown waterfront, cut … Continue reading
Alpharetta City Hall Opens as Centerpiece of New Development
We are pleased to announce and celebrate the grand opening of the new Alpharetta City Hall, at the heart of Alpharetta, Georgia’s new Downtown City Center Master Plan. We would like to congratulate Mayor David Belle Isle, the Alpharetta City Council, and the city of Alpharetta on their new landmark. The traditional design of the … Continue reading
Chance Discoveries in the GPS Age: Nelsonville, Ohio
It happens that the state of Ohio has only one National Forest, and in the midst of that forest, nestled among the hills of the Hocking River Valley, is a small city called Nelsonville. It is seemingly unremarkable – it has a population of just over 5,000 and a technical college, but on a long … Continue reading
Rebuilding The Past: The Controversial Case of Berlin’s Stadtschloss, Part I
This post is the first in a two-part series by DMSAS Intern Architect Julian Murphy. Before joining the firm full time last summer, Julian served as a DMSAS Travel Fellow from the University of Notre Dame. Julian graduated from Notre Dame with an BArch in May 2012. As a part of my DMSAS travel fellowship, … Continue reading
A Square is Born: The Thinking Behind Sundance’s New Plaza
On November 1st, the citizens of Fort Worth will experience the most dramatic change to their downtown since the discovery of oil in 1917. What most of them may never realize is that this event was part of a plan conceived 25 years ago. It is but one of many important milestones that have characterized … Continue reading
Cowtown Renaissance: Creating a Downtown Plan That Gave Texans a Place to Walk
Our post from October 22 gave a brief history of how we came to be involved in three decades of planning and architecture in Fort Worth, TX. This second installation on our work in Fort Worth delves into some of the planning issues we encountered and provides some background on several of the more important … Continue reading
Prof. Peabody’s Improbable History of Planning: How We Began Working in Fort Worth
By those that know of David M. Schwarz Architects, but do not know us well, one question is asked time and again. With the forthcoming opening of the actual “square” in Sundance Square, which also marks the 25th year of our planning efforts in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, it is finally time to definitively answer … Continue reading
Helpful or Hurtful: The Power of ANCs in DC Development
Almost everyone practicing architecture in our city, along with the land use attorneys who represent our clients, know the potential power of the Advisory Neighborhood Committees (ANC’s) in the development process. We normally strive to curry favor and collect Brownie points when ANC’s are concerned. However, a series of recent events strongly suggests that it … Continue reading
Q&A with 2012 DMSAS Fellow Mark Elliott
One of four recipients of the DMSAS Traveling Fellowship in 2012, Mark Elliott, now in his final year at the University of Maryland, spent ten weeks interning at DMSAS and took his fellowship travels in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. Mark returned to DMSAS earlier this month to present his work abroad to the … Continue reading
Parchment 
A Multi-Voiced Monograph
Posted by dmsarchitects on January 19, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Grayson Publishers has just produced our firm’s third monograph – the most unique of the three volumes. David M. Schwarz Architects 2008-2014 presents our recent works in beautiful photographs, just as the first two books did, but this time each project’s narrative exposition is written by a different author. The authors are a varied group, … Continue reading →
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