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A Kind of Resurrection
PHOTO COURTESY JEFF WILSON.
by Canan Yetmen
When San Antonio architect Brian Korte, AIA, looks at a piece of wood, he feels exhilarated. “I’d bottle that scent if I could,” he says, describing the experience of cutting into a slab of mesquite or cherry. Perhaps Korte’s passion is persuasive; he has cultivated the kinds of client relationships that thrive on collaboration and engagement, bringing to life thoroughly modern projects infused with a palpable richness. Ten years into his career, a client asked Korte to design the “coolest office in Denver” for Armstrong Oil and Gas. The project was the reinvention of an industrial building that had also once served as a brothel. Sensing the client’s openness to pushing the parameters of the traditional architectural enterprise, Korte convinced him to integrate the furnishing and fixtures with the design of the reclaimed brick, timber, and steel spaces. “When you have the trust of the client, it makes the creative process easier,” Korte says. The project became a kind of resurrection, a notion taken from mid-century master woodworker George Nakashima, whom Korte regards as a major influence. Nakashima considered reusing materials — be they logs cut from trees or bricks pulled from ageing buildings — to be moral acts of renewal and respect. He also valued integrating designer and producer. This idea fueled Korte over seven months of nights and weekends, as he designed and fabricated 47 pieces of furniture in his San Antonio workshop and then shipped them to Denver on a semitrailer. In the shipments were desks, tables, workstations, and
7/8 2015
Texas Architect 89