en.Wedoany.com Reported - A 6,500-square-foot timber building designed by EskewDumezRipple has opened in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, serving as a "civic portal," flexible community space, and orientation center for the campus of the Burden Museum & Gardens and the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens.
The building features locally sourced cypress wood and polished concrete floors, with dark corrugated panels wrapping the exterior and lighter wood facing the covered outdoor spaces to create contrast.
Deep overhangs, shaded porches, and cross-ventilation help naturally cool the building, architecturally connecting it to the vernacular "dogtrot buildings" of the Rural Life Museum and the Steele Burden Memorial Orangerie on the site.
The layout revolves around a central foyer, flanked by a gift shop and flexible spaces suitable for lectures, banquets, and other events.
The landscape design, completed by CARBO in collaboration with Suzanne Turner Associates, draws on Louisiana's ecological and cultural systems. Roof runoff is directed into rain gardens and visible stormwater features, while permeable gravel parking lots and native plantings connect the site to the regional hydrology.
The building's east facade features a sculptural roof drain that channels rainwater into a teaching pool.
Mark Hash, principal of EskewDumezRipple, stated that the project aims to create a place deeply connected to the land and its history, rooted in the environment, and shaped by sustainability and durability. "It respects the past while remaining open to the future."
