Parts House Pavilion

Rooftop Pavilion at night.

Project details

• Project Name: Parts House Pavilion
• Location of Site: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
• Design Team: Johnsen Schmaling Architects
• Project Type: Roof Pavilion
• Client: Joe and Cindy Rewolinski
• Contractor/s: Kotze Construction
• Built-up Area: 150 square meter
• Date of completion: September 2003

Conceptual montage: filtered and framed view of city.

Words from the architect

The client approached us to generate ideas for the 1,500 square foot blacktop roof above his loft in a renovated 1920s warehouse, the Parts House, on Milwaukee's Southside. The program asked for an outdoor living room flexible enough to allow for intimate dinners as well as large social events, a place providing seclusion for sunbathing or, alternately, protection from the sun and western winds, without compromising the stunning views of the city.

Translucent acrylic curtain serves as color filter and frames views.

We designed an open air pavilion of shop-fabricated trellis-like steel members supporting a curtain of sliding steel frames sheathed with polychromatic transparent and translucent plastic. Depending on their arrangement, the panels provide various levels of privacy or exposure, offer shelter, and act as picture frame and color filter: looking outward from the roof, different color combinations shift the views of the city, framing the skyline and changing Milwaukee's somber skies to shades of yellow, red, and blue. At night, with the help of a sophisticated lighting system, the illuminated panels transform into a phantasmagoria of colors and shadows, highly visible from Milwaukee's main freeway artery rushing nearby. The roof pavilion has become a neighborhood beacon, an extraordinary public spectacle and a symbol of urban vitality. It exemplifies how a small-scale urban intervention can have a major impact on its larger-scale environment.

Parts House Pavilion viewed from street.

The curtain of sliding panels allows for an almost unlimited number of spatial and atmospherical settings. The panels can be arranged to screen either the entirety or merely portions of the patio, depending on the desired use, weather, or time of the day, while simultaneously defining a variety of spaces. The polychromatic spectrum of the panels enables the client to utilize the colors appropriate for the occasion. At night, the lit panels provide the right ambiance for a cocktail party. Meanwhile, on a cloudy day, the bright-colored panels may function as a mood enhancer. In addition, the pavilion's trellis panels over portions of the patio offer another level of spatial definition and can be supplemented with retractable canvases for enhanced overhead screening.

Detail view of acrylic panels.

Axonometric.

Inside the pavilion at night.

Detail view.

Credits

• Text and images courtesy of Johnsen Schmaling Architects