2009 - Charles Loomis and Chariss McAfee, principals of Charles Loomis Chariss McAfee Architecture and 2009 recipients of a Collaborative Outstanding Firm Award, look forward to new design challenges.
Charles and Chariss have worked on two projects with the Collaborative, a master plan for the renovation of Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania and a conceptual design for creek stabilization for the Miquon School in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Volunteering with the Collaborative allows them to take on a wider range of projects. “We are attracted by the complexities of the issues and to working with diverse groups of people,” remarks Charles.
They see providing their architecture skills pro bono as a way to support community organizations. “It is helpful to nonprofit groups to have this assistance in the early difficult-to-fund stages of their projects,” says Chariss.
For Miquon School, Charles and Chariss helped develop a master plan to control stormwater in order to mitigate erosion and flooding. Their conceptual design not only controlled water flow, but also brought the water into play in ways that contributed to the school’s curriculum and the students’ understanding of the local ecology. “I see water as another medium to work with, another material to explore,” says Chariss.
The Miquon project presented a complex, yet exciting set of issues and allowed them to apply some of the ideas they investigated through their winning submission to Urban Voids, an international design competition to transform Philadelphia’s vacant lands. Their entry viewed land vacancy and impervious surfaces as opportunities to create new urban watersheds and vital places. Plots of vacant land were re-envisioned as “green filters” for cleaning stormwater run-off. This project led to a current collaboration with a hydrologist from Drexel University for the Philadelphia Water Department to develop green infrastructure for stormwater management in the Point Breeze neighborhood.
In their architectural practice, Charles and Chariss often work with individual clients and communities to understand and address relevant issues. “We like projects that bring together interested, able people to make something and to effectively change a current situation that is not working harmoniously. We often do this through built form, but it can also happen through the establishment of new or modified programs or ways of thinking and being," explains Chariss.
Charles adds, “Design is not just an end product, but a process -- a process of being involved, a process of getting people interested, a process that leads to changes in the physical environment.”
Charles and Chariss have been in practice for over 15 years. They are engaged in their projects from start to finish and work collaboratively with a wide range of clients and professionals.
