LMN Architects has expanded the idea of an inhouse fabrication studio to offer employees, clients, and our community more than just the standard sum of a workshop’s parts. Their new shop, aptly named “The Shop” is part experimental studio, part carpenters dreamscape, and part community space - hosting events during Pioneer Square art walk for neighboring architects, designers, and the general arts attendee. This new concept, “The Shop”, offers up an insider glance into LMN’s community values by creating the opportunity for public participation in everything from ceramic installations, to lectures and launch parties, to collaborative community-driven presentations.
In 2018, LMN leadership included in their business plan the creation of an expanded fabrication studio - larger and more inventive and flexible than a standard shop. It was important that the space allowed for LMN’s desire to be more public facing while also fostering further internal experimentation and problem solving. The Shop was designed around the idea of not just physical flexibility, but also flexibility of material and design, including the ability to host more public happenings and showcases rather than just additional and larger equipment. Because of this, the building bones and location of The Shop was of the utmost importance. It was not until the Winter of 2020 when the opportunity to make this concept a reality presented itself in the form of an old bank building, just across the street from the LMN offices nestled in Pioneer Square. The result is an industrial, concrete space with equipment and computers surrounding a flexible, open-plan middle which has already been converted on various occasions into a party zone, an art exhibition hall, and lecture auditorium.
LMN-ers are encouraged to discuss potential collaborations and events with Hank Butitta, the Fabrication and Shop Manager, and Scott Crawford, Partner at LMN and a founding member of LMN’s Tech Studio. In conversation with both Butitta and Crawford, I was able to gain insight into the intentions behind a space so unique to the architecture firm model. It was important to Crawford and Butitta that the space was not limited to those who work at LMN and that the firm was given the chance to participate in Pioneer Square’s art walk, the oldest in the country, to bring people from outside the traditional architecture community to The Shop and by proxy, to LMN.
Recently, The Shop hosted a lecture for Space.City and The Seattle Department of Design (a cheeky play on city run organizations - even borrowing the Seattle City logo) about the history of the Pioneer Square art walk and a historical showcase of the design elements which have defined it. By incorporating Space.City, a long-standing non-profit, and the newer Seattle Department of Design into The Shop, LMN brought history, design, and the arts into an architectural space full of innovation and future-mindedness.
It was not only this public facing inclusion that sparked the drive to create The Shop, Crawford and Butitta also emphasized the importance of a space such as this for the future of LMN projects and the individual development of those working under the firm's guidance. The Shop allows LMN architects to design (and build) without the constraints or second guessing that can often come when faced with questions of ‘who is going to make it’ or ‘how can this material stand up to such and such’.
The staff are encouraged to participate in the process of fabrication on all levels; at LMN you will not just be rendering, drawing, and designing, but also literally making the thing you are proposing to the client. But the architects and designers of LMN are not the only ones who have access to The Shop’s tools and equipment, Butitta also offers in-house training sessions. These are open to any staff, including those in operations or accounting (as a past architect firm operations admin myself, I find this especially exciting), where they are given a raw block of wood to turn into a cutting board - after completing this task, you are cleared for The Shop. In this way, The Shop is more a child of academia than production - which also explains its ability to withstand a great party..
All of this, the tools, the training, the events during art walk, fosters an atmosphere of hands-on learning, more dynamic materiality, and the ability to troubleshoot independent of subcontractors or outsourcing - which has been pivotal in bringing such projects to life as the Seattle Symphony’s Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center. Much of the same dynamism and material exploration that defines The Shop can be found in the development and results of this project. The acoustic construction of the performance arts venue, located within Benaroya Hall, was custom-designed at LMN. The ceiling is composed of 687 sound-absorbing cells which were also fabricated by LMN Architects. Says Crawford, “We can demonstrate our abilities beyond just the design and planning, we understand how our components function and work. We are then able to achieve our intent without having to compromise because of a need to outsource [the fabrication]. The ability to have our architects build what they design would not be possible for us to do without access to a space such as this”
Looking into the coming summer, you can expect more public events during Pioneer Square art walk and LMN will continue to bring innovation and experimentation to the forefront of their methods. Currently, they are working closely with glass artist Dan Friday to suspend glass art around the walkway of the Seattle Aquarium Ocean Pavilion - stay in touch with LMN through social media and on their website to keep track of upcoming events at The Shop and news about the new Ocean Pavillion.
