The resulting neighborhood will replace an abandoned tennis court, leaking swimming pools, and parking lots. In addition, the project will adhere to the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB’s) Green Home Building Guidelines. “There is a certain social value to putting [a green] product on the market,” Clark says. “And you can do it so well with good design.” The homes will start in the $500,000s.
Yet another project, still in the site development stage, showcases the company’s talent in new construction: an 11-acre enclave of seven avant-garde contemporary homes in Town and Country, Mo. Named Amonte, the 5,000- to 6,000-square-foot single-family residences will start at about $2 million. “Nowhere in the Midwest will you find homes like these,” Simon claims. What makes Amonte unique is that the whole development is dedicated to the same level of substantive, contemporary architecture and it is sited on steep terrain, which adds drama. The residences, which otherwise would be considered out of place, become contextual in this community.
“It’s nice to do both [new construction and renovation] and do both well,” Simon says. “We enjoy what we do, and we renovate properties better than anyone else, so it would be hard to give that [work] up. But there’s a sort of ease to new construction even though it has a different set of challenges.”
Adds Clark, “Being responsible about how we recycle buildings has a noble flavor to it that you don’t get with new subdivisions. Existing and new … they aren’t polarized, it’s more a matter of how they work together.”
Inspiring Awards MDB’s partners talk in sunny terms of the city’s pro-development stance and of how neighborhood groups speak on their behalf even when (and at times because) the company is pushing high-density projects. “There is a delicate balance between historical preservation and innovative design,” Clark says. “We offer innovative design incorporated into historic fabric.”
Or, as the company’s mission statement says: “We make inspired architecture happen.”
And, evidently, they do. The company has won numerous national architectural awards for its commercial and its residential projects. One of the awards that the partners treasure is a 2005 win for the annual Landmarks Association Most Enhanced Building awards program.
Carolyn Toft, executive director for the Landmarks Association, applauds MDB’s flair for adaptive reuse. “They transform average buildings into remarkable projects. One year, we had a ‘before’ showing and people came in, their mouths agape, saying, ‘They’re going to do what?!’”