Today’s AIA Tennessee Conference speaker highlight features Arthi Krishnamoorthy, partner at the New York-based architecture firm Deborah Berke Partners. Her presentation will focus on the topic of Adaptive Reuse, a topic in which the firm has been actively demonstrating in many of their key projects. Deborah Berke Partners has revived dozens of old buildings for reasons both opportunistic and ideological, seeing this reinvention as inherently optimistic and rich in possibility.
In 2021, Arthi authored a whitepaper on the practice of Adaptive Reuse, making the case to extend the life of existing buildings on an environmental and social basis. She is currently directing a book which delves deeper into the subject of Reuse and the studio’s approach to these transformations; it is due to be published this fall by Monacelli.
Read our Q&A with Arthi Interview by Sophorn Olsen, AIA
21c Museum Hotel Nashville, Photograph by Chris Cooper
Would you give a short summary of what you’ll be speaking about at the AIA TN conference and its importance for architects?
When an adapted building expresses its layers, when the changes to its fabric are made evident, the building starts to convey multiple positions, becoming more open-ended, engaging, and accessible as a result. Reusing also slashes the initial carbon debt incurred by demolishing to construct new, and energy-efficiency improvements through retrofits of aging building stock critically reduces operational carbon emissions. Coupling the environmental case for Adaptive Reuse with the social and experiential resonance these projects offer, the argument for Reuse becomes particularly compelling.
What brought you to Deborah Berke Partners?
I joined Deborah Berke Partners over a decade ago, attracted to the work and culture of the practice. I’ll start with the latter.
Within the office, we make room for each other’s voices and those of our collaborators. The work is better for it. The work is not based on style but is inspired by and rooted in its surroundings. We call this “true-to-place” architecture.
There has been a long-held view that architecture is created by an individual hero, and this is exasperated at times by the fetishism of celebrity. The way the firm has always worked, collaboratively and intentionally, and the work itself attracted me to them. Today, as a leader in the practice, I impart and share that same grounded ethos.
21c Museum Hotel Nashville, Photograph by Chris Cooper
Where are most of your projects located? Is this strategic with the type of work or research you are passionate about?
We do work all over the country. We take time to know a place and design buildings that are mindful of, or more specifically, accentuate the distinct qualities of a place. We designed the 21c Museum Hotel in nearby Nashville that highlights the history of the original Gray & Dudley Hardware Company building while creating a contemporary experience that reflects the vibrancy of the city today. In Indianapolis, we designed a headquarters building for Cummins, a power technology company, that reinforces the city’s main urban corridor and adds a striking landmark to its fabric. Our interest in creating true-to-place architecture is piqued when we get to design buildings in different regions.
You describe design as “a compassionate act”. Would you share a method you use to uncover what the client or community genuinely wants from a project so that you can best deliver solutions through architecture?
We start with an open mind, free of preconception. We start by listening, often to a broad set of voices. We pull out threads that are consistent and those that are inconsistent, reframing them as we go to see which rise to the surface. We are confident leaders, able to guide groups to consensus and to make key discoveries along the way.
Cummins Indy Distribution Headquarters, Photograph by Chris Cooper
What are the biggest challenges and/or biggest rewards when working on civic projects?
The biggest reward of working on civic projects, but translatable to working at any scale really, is the concept of resonance.
The built environment shapes us: by reinforcing our connections to a place, to our place within the continuum of time, or by shifting our perceptions and nudging our behaviors.
Architecture can instigate or deepen these connections and their resonant effects. I find this aspect of the work we do as architects very rewarding.
What other interests outside of design do you have that contribute to your work?
I am a happy home-cook, a lover of markets and museums, an avid gardener, and a bona fide beach bum. I think it’s important to have a broad range of interests, to be culturally engaged and involved in your community. It helps you be a better architect and a better dinner guest!
What is one thing about Chattanooga or East Tennessee that you are interested in or would like to know more about?
I read in the City Journal that “Chattanooga’s rootedness is precisely what makes it so appealing…” I would like to experience that feel and learn how the city foregrounds its continuity with its past.
