Deanna Heil and Chantelle Noble share more than wide open office space in Over the Rhine. The co-founders of
City Studios Architecture bring an appreciation for happy and healthy communities to their work. The success of their projects, whether historic preservation or new developments, results from the pair's sympatico sensibilities.
Light streams into the top floor of their East 14th Street space, where wood beams, exposed brick and ductwork and orange accents warm the cubicle-free, 2,500-square-foot space. As the business' name implies, the architects run their firm a lot like a communal architecture studio. Nine employees spread their work across two tables each. Bikes lean against walls; a modern open kitchen includes a rack of different flavored coffees from which to choose. A foosball table sits in the back of the space, next to a table for impromptu meetings, though Heil and Noble admit that there's not a lot of time for recreation these days.
As they work on a growing slate of residential and commercial projects, including OTR's major
Mercer Commons development, their one and only office rule illustrates the spirit and the method behind every project: No headphones allowed.
Maintaining a headphone-free space makes clear and regular communication—and a lot of listening—a matter of course at City Studios. Every employee can change roles and take up a table-mate's task at a moment's notice, giving them all flexibility and a sense of shared purpose.
The desire to work flexibly, and to use their urban architecture expertise in hand-picked projects to help transform communities, propelled the birth of City Studios four years ago. Both Heil and Noble, who met while working at another downtown firm, are raising young families from Northern Kentucky homes they renovated in conjunction with their architect spouses. They aren't afraid of the non-glamorous work of scouring dirty old buildings, slogging through dust and past dead animals en route to more acceptable living spaces.
"We work a lot, but we definitely have flexibility here," says Noble, 44, who lives in Fort Thomas. It helps that the duo worked together for years untangling historic renovation red-tape, from zoning to tax credits to sustainable building materials. "We both want the same kind of projects."
Their kind of projects, mixing old and new buildings, affordable and market-rate housing, and creating homes and business spaces conducive to both personal quality of life and community building, are complicated processes. "All of our projects are in neighborhoods that are struggling," Noble says. City Studios' first project,
Villas of the Valley in Lincoln Heights, is a prime example.
Mired for years in economic troubles and plagued by deteriorating structures and neighborhood crime, the World War II-era Valley Homes' makeover has been nothing short of extreme. Cheerful red, yellow, green and orange single-story homes built for seniors now occupy the space where dilapidated grey duplexes stood for decades as the $12 million project's second phase continues.
Listening to the neighbors, and understanding what they wanted, helped inform City Studio's design for the Villas. Residents returned to their new, brightly colored homes late last year to find bigger windows, more spacious rooms, patios and porches. "It looked lived in instantly," Noble says.
Future stages of the Lincoln Heights project include a new community garden and a community center with space for meetings, child-care and potluck dinners. "It's really happy now," says Heil, 45, of Newport.
Heil and Noble approach every project, whether for low-income residents, market-rate housing or upscale businesses, with the same goals. "We just want nice spaces with lots of light," Heil says.
So, in 2009, when the two began collaborating with a Cleveland firm on master planning and design for the $45-million Mercer Commons development in Over-the-Rhine, they were well-prepared for the complexities, if not the controversy, that ensued.
In the two blocks that stretch from Vine to Walnut, the Mercer Commons plan includes 25 buildings, six of which are new construction.
"We're excited about it," says Heil, who notes that the materials used for Mercer's low-income and market rate residential spaces will be identical. The same wood floors, the same hard surface countertops, the same design directive: open, friendly, communal. The only differences will be in financing.
City Studios approached everything from feasibility studies to building codes and zoning research with their broad base of experience at adaptive reuse, new construction and historic redevelopment. Noble and Heil view Mercer Commons as an opportunity for them not just for them to show their skills, but also to fill a glaring gap by providing more housing options and parking facilities in the neighborhood where they chose to work and build their business.
Filling that gap, in the current Mercer Commons plan, includes demolishing two buildings in the national historic registered neighborhood and also creating new modernized buildings to round out and update the streetscape of the neighborhood. As developers face off against preservationists, Heil and Noble realize the irony of their situations: two historic preservationists, who have themselves restored older homes and who are all about community-building, working on a development that includes tearing down pieces of Cincinnati history.
Heil explains that the balancing act between responsible restoration and new construction hinges on two important perspectives. "It's about the person living in Mercer Commons, but it's really bigger than that," she says. "It's the whole community."
One sticking point is that proposed new construction on the two-block site incorporates very modern design alongside the historic architectural landscape. Heil and Noble understand the concerns, but agree that it's impossible to authentically recreate 18th century buildings in the 21st century. Rather than propose lesser copies, why not make the new spaces uniquely 21st century?
Heil admits that designing communities and heading head-first into the controversies of responsible city-building wasn't a conscious business strategy at City Studios. Still, they have become part of the firm's specialties and strengths. "We love it and we want to continue to do it," she says. "There's a lot of work still to do in Cincinnati and Over-the-Rhine."
All photos by Scott Beseler