THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
Friday, November 10, 2006
Section: Style
Page: 1E
RICHARD MASCHAL, Staff Writer

A MODERN GAMBLE

The Watermark's developer believes the time has arrived for its cutting edge design. Will prospective tenants agree?

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The "aha" moment for Charlotte developer Ray "Rip" Farris III came when he spied on a colleague's desk a book featuring a house designed by German architect Werner Sobek.

It had a steel frame and glass walls, transparency and openness. Perched on a hill, it reflected the colors and shapes of the surrounding trees. Farris was excited. Maybe, he thought, we can do something like this.

And he has -- working with his colleagues at Tuscan Development, architects at Perkins + Will in Charlotte, structural engineer Tripp Bulla and Cox & Shepp Construction.

The $7 million, four-story Watermark office building, completed in August, has a steel frame and glass walls. It hovers over Kings Drive near the former Midtown Square, rising above a soon-to-be recovered portion of Little Sugar Creek. With its exoskeleton, transparent glass and slit-window front facade, it is an unapologetic piece of Modern architecture.

Farris took a risk on whether he could lease such a building in a city where the column-and-pediment look of Neoclassicism remains popular. But design styles are changing. There's a growing diversity in Charlotte's built environment as developers seek to serve a younger, hipper market.

"One-third of America is me and one-third of America is my kids and (that) one-third of America is 100 million people," said architect and developer David Furman, who has two Modernist high-rises uptown. "The younger generation is all about looking for a new aesthetic. They've traveled, they're inspired by technology."

EXPANDED AWARENESS
Following a national trend, Modernist buildings have sprouted in Charlotte over the past decade. Some outstanding examples:The solids and voids animating the facade of Johnson & Wales University's main building on West Trade, designed by LS3P of Charlotte. The Westin hotel at College and Stonewall streets, by John Portman & Associates of Atlanta, with its beautifully articulated curtain wall. The elegant arrangement of stone, aluminum and glass covering the Time Warner Cable building off Arrowood Road, done by Duda/Paine Architects of Durham.

These are institutional buildings with a single client willing to pay for a certain look. But Farris' Watermark, facing Greenwood Cliff, is unusual in Charlotte because it's a Modernist spec building. An owner speculates that the project, once built, can find tenants in the marketplace.

Farris' company has space in the recently completed building as has his project partner, First Tryon Securities. But about half of the 33,900-square-foot building still must be filled at $23 a square foot, a cost comparable, Farris says, with new construction in the area. "We think it's fair for this building and this area," said Farris.

What gives him hope is a change in the market that's shown up mostly in urban housing. Projects with Modernist exteriors and loftlike interiors dot uptown and surrounding neighborhoods. Farris is part of the wave. Tuscan's Opt12 at Caldwell and 15th streets has tilted roofs and Central 27 on Central Avenue near the Plaza will have garage-door facades that open to life on the street.

Furman, who has built housing in and around uptown, congratulated Farris for taking a chance when he saw the Watermark. "All of this new housing has pushed Modernism and we're all trying to capitalize on this expanded awareness," he said.

GETTING IT RIGHT
Farris, himself trained as an architect, chose his designers carefully. Perkins + Will, he knew, has a Modernist lineage. Phil Shive, who leads the Charlotte office, once worked with I.M. Pei, known for the Louvre pyramid.

Farris shared the book about Werner Sobek's house and related its transparency with what for him was another inspiration: the Little Sugar Creek Greenway.

Next spring, workers will tear up the concrete culvert covering the creek from Baxter to Morehead streets and begin building walkways and a fountain. Farris wanted his building oriented to that linear park.

The architects -- project manager Jim Merriman and project architect Rick Kazebee -- made several key design decisions.

One was to move the core. Made of the elevator shafts and bathrooms, this bit of structure usually is near or at a building's center. The architects put it at the edge on Greenwood Cliff, surrounding it with a solid facade with a street-friendly front door. By so doing, they created an open glass box projecting toward the creek.

Working with structural engineer Tripp Bulla, they put the steel frame on the outside, dropping the floors and glass walls inside as if in a basket. The single-angle braces become decorative as well as functional. Moreover, this scheme upholds the Modernist tenet of honesty, that a building should express what it is.

Finally, the architects wanted a building rich with textures and shadows, not the bland minimalism often associated with Modernism.

With little room in a "spec" building budget for add-ons, they decided to use everything they could to get some punch.

Just look at the front: Random shades of stucco enliven the facade. The exposed grates of the air exchangers line up decoratively. Two downspouts frame the orange-red front door. The entrance canopy above is made of corrugated metal to give a high-tech feel.

Merriman and Kazebee created a tactile building, one appealing to the touch as well as the eye. Compare it to the Morehead Medical Plaza, part of the Carolinas Medical Center complex nearby. With ribbon windows of dark glass, it has the flat look many associate with Modernism -- and justifiably find wanting.

Perhaps, Kazebee mused, Modernism after years on the outs is getting a second chance. If so, the Watermark points it in a good direction.

INFLUENTIAL BOOK
The book that influenced developer Rip Farris is "The Smart House," by James Grayson Trulove. It's about the R128 house in Stuttgart, Germany, that architect and engineer Werner Sobek designed for his family, completed in 2000. The roof is covered with solar cell panels that provide energy. And it has cabinets with electronic sensors instead of knobs and washbasins with nontouch controls. For a look, go to www.wernersobek.com, click on "skins," "transparency" and "R128."

THE RISE OF MODERNISM
Modern architecture was born and grew with the 20th century. It was fed by new technologies such as the elevator, new building materials such as steel and glass, and a rejection of traditional ornament. Modernism also had a strong social component, its backers believing better design could improve people's lives. The movement's greatest achievement was the skyscraper, the proud towers that mark uptown Charlotte. Under attack in the '70s, Modernism has made a comeback in architecture and design, but this time without the social program.

WHO IS RIP FARRIS?
Rip Farris, 38, who grew up in Charlotte, became an architect because "I love the creative process of design." After getting a degree in fine art and art history at UNC Chapel Hill, he went to the University of Colorado and got a master's degree in architecture.

After about four years with Odell Associates, Farris in 1995 switched to development, the subject of his master's in design studies at Harvard University. "I found you could engage the creative side more directly," he said. "It's the front line."