Marlon Blackwell Architects

Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park

Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley

HEART OF THE PARK BUILDINGS AT SHELBY FARMS PARK

Marlon Blackwell Architect + James Corner Field Operations

LOCATION
Memphis, United States

CATEGORY
Installations & Structures, Park

YEAR
2016

AREA
34978 ft²

PHOTOGRAPHS
Timothy Hursley, Justin Fox Burks

MECHANICAL, PLUMBING ENGINEERING
Haltom Engineering

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
Canup Engineering

CITY
Memphis

COUNTRY
United States

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING, ENGINEER OF RECORD
Engineering Consultants, Inc.

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING, CONCEPT DESIGN
Guy Nordenson & Associates

CIVIL ENGINEERING
Pickering Firm Inc.

HEART OF THE PARK
Approximately 200 acres

FURNISHING
Fleming Architects

SHELBY FARMS PARK MASTER PLAN
4,500 acres

INTERIOR DESIGN (RESTAURANT AND CAFÉ)
Semple Brown

Text description provided by architect.

Shelby Farms Park, one of the largest urban parks in the country, has implemented a master plan developed by James Corner Field Operations (JCFO) to revitalize the Park into a unique, 21st-century landmark.

Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley

Located on land that was once a penal farm and carries on an agricultural use today, the transformed Park is simultaneously a city and regional amenity.

The “Heart of the Park,” the centerpiece and social hub of the Park, features an ensemble of new buildings and structures located around the 80 acres Hyde Lake.

Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley

The buildings at Shelby Farms seek to live in between, balancing the local and the universal, introducing one to another and honoring the value of both.

This has long been a role for Memphis, offering a collection of its local culture to the world at large.

Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley

Now Shelby Farms Park offers the opportunity for these tides - the outflow of the local, and the inflow of the universal - to wash across a common landscape.

Intensely specific in their function and articulation but universal in their abstract figuration, each member of this family of silhouettes.

Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley

Drawing upon the local vernacular – porches, dogtrots, agricultural sheds – the buildings establish an ensemble of figures with a shared material palette.

Centrally located, the Visitor Center creates a new iconic image for the reformed landscape. The building acts as the nerve center of the Park, serving as a point of arrival for visitors and featuring welcome center, gift shop, and administrative functions.

Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley

Seemingly more porch than building, the Visitor Center embraces and intensifies the landscape. Elegant and rhythmic from a distance, a generosity is revealed in person, with a material palette born of the intersection between the natural and the industrial.

Local, second-growth cypress walls offer warmth and tactility in the dogtrots that serve as the transition to the striking cleft overlooking the new lake.

In contrast, an elusive skin of aluminum bar grate gently filters sunlight while hinting at the architecture of industrial agriculture and allowing the humid Memphis air to drift in, slowly threshed by large fans hovering overhead.

Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley

A deep porch is provided at the Restaurant and Event Center, a place to watch as the sun sets across the subtle bend of the lake.

Located at the east end of the lake, the Restaurant and Event Center is an economic and social catalyst for the Park.

Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley

Slung low and spreading as it becomes one with the landscape, the stone base provides a permanence that complements the ethereal, protective wing of the roof.

The Event Stage, Boat House, and Lakeside Picnic Pavilions contribute to the Heart of the Park’s active and dynamic landscape. Each pavilion connects to the pathways that weave together the physical and social experience of Shelby Farms Park.

Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Justin Fox Burks
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley

The scale and ambition of the project will likely take a generation to be fully appreciated; however, now even in its infancy, the renewed landscape and augmented offerings enrich the City of Memphis, providing an invaluable resource to a diverse population.


Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Justin Fox Burks
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
© Timothy Hursley


Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
Restaurant + Event Center Section
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
Visitor Center Sections
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
Geothermal System Diagram
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
Heart of the Plan Buildings Plan


Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
Visitor Center Ground Floor Plan
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
Restaurant + Event Center Ground Floor Plan


Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
Master Plan and Site Plan
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
Size Comparison
Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
Axonometries


Heart Of The Park Buildings At Shelby Farms Park
Situation Map

Marlon Blackwell Architects
T +1 479 9739121
Marlon Blackwell Architects
42 E Center St, Fayetteville, AR 72701, United States
James Corner Field Operations, LLC
T +1 212 4331450 F +1 212 4331451
James Corner Field Operations, LLC
4 Bryant Pk Floor 11, New York, NY 10018, United States