April 2016
HOLT Architects moves into new Net-Zero Office at 619 West State Street
Whether North, South, East or West, HOLT Architects is Committed to the Ithaca Community – and has been for over 50 years!
Being an integral member of the local community since 1963, HOLT Architects has worked on over 100 Community, Healthcare and Higher Education design projects throughout Tompkins County – and the latest project is their own!
Celebrating with a ribbon cutting just days ago, HOLT has spent the last six months designing and building a new net-zero office on the West side of town. And with their move now complete, the firm has now held office in all quadrants of Ithaca since their initial beginnings: North, South, East and West.
With each office space came a new chapter in HOLT Architects’ history. Sitting with HOLT’s “éminence grise” David Taube, he recalls his early days in practice – “Being an architect in the ‘60s and ‘70s in Ithaca meant witnessing the loss of many great buildings. However, we weren’t around just for the destruction, but fortunately also for the revitalization – The Ithaca Commons, Ithaca City School District, and Tompkins County Hospital to name a few.”
Ithaca’s building continued to evolve according to Graham Gillespie, HOLT President and 35-year architect with the firm.
“The ‘70s and early ‘80s in Ithaca saw some dispersal of population and business from the downtown; The Commons build was one reaction to stemming that. By time the late 1990’s and new millennium rolled around the trend was being reversed and people wanted back in, coinciding with and partially driven by the broader sustainability movement.”
HOLT Architects was proud to be a part of that movement – designing higher density and sustainable, mixed-use buildings such as the Gateway Center and Gateway Commons, Seneca Way, Breckenridge Place, Stone Quarry Apartments and the now under-construction 210 Hancock, which have all contributed in different ways to the energy of downtown Ithaca.
And what do the architects at HOLT think is next for Ithaca? From Gillespie’s perspective, “More people have become interested in new urban living and want to reside in walkable communities, close to where they work and play. We believe it won’t just be a downtown renaissance that we see, but a well-planned extension of the urban core that helps to accommodate the population shift back into the City. We’re already seeing plans in the works.”
HOLT Architects is an award-winning architecture, planning and interior design firm, employing 31 professionals and providing socially and environmentally responsible architecture to community, business, healthcare and higher education clientele.