Of Time and Place / A Municipal Government Facility in Edenton, NC

Abstract

Through the design of a municipal complex for Chowan County, North Carolina, the intention is to examine what it means to design with a sense of place that is an extension of the region's past. Regionalism has been trivialized to be as simplistic as the practice of attaching community-accepted stylistic embellishment to any new building. This is unfortunately done without historic examination of place. All too often the desire is for a historic connection through iconographic application. This usually results in a farce that mocks and devalues the past and present. This is an honest examination of past building and community nuances for translation and inclusion in the development of a new municipal complex, to be built using contemporary construction methods.