community builders
jACKSON & RYAN ARCHITECTS Design firm creates one-of-a-kind institutional and sacred spaces by sandra guy
a professional eye for detail, a commitment to listening to clients, and a successful 24-year record of state-of-the-art schools, children’s museums, animal shelters, and baseball parks are among the hallmarks of Jackson & Ryan Architects’ unique style. “We see architecture as a problem-solving process,” says Jeffrey Ryan, AIA, who along with Guy Jackson serves as cofounder and principal of the Houston-based firm. “We’re not afraid of having our architectural expression vary quite a bit.” The firm works as a team with the client, starting projects by “listening to clients’ desires with no predetermined style in mind,” Ryan says. “We like to joke that we specialize in things we’ve never done before.” Principals follow each project from start to finish, rather than handing off a project during different phases. Indeed, Jackson & Ryan Architects’ stellar work stems from its attention to detail and its willingness to investigate how it can avoid design and coordination problems associated with certain types of construction. For example, when the firm started designing the Houston SPCA animal shelter, it researched animal shelters nationwide and discovered that all of them had problems disposing of animal waste, ensuring proper ventilation, and reducing stress for the animals. Jackson & Ryan Architects sought out suppliers who offered state-ofthe-art solutions to those problems, and specified materials that do not deteriorate in a shelter’s typically humid environment.
Jackson & Ryan Architects strives to ensure that its designs meet the needs of a wide variety of money-strapped nonprofit organizations that need to carefully allot each donated penny. Two recent projects demonstrate the firm’s solutionsbased philosophy. The first is St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, where former President George H. W. Bush and his former White House Chief of Staff James Baker III are among the congregants. The church’s rector, Rev. Laurence A. Gipson, an architectural historian, was the visionary for a four-year, $37.4 million project comprising a high Gothic-style church, new parking lots, a playground, a parish hall with a commercial kitchen, and other buildings. Gipson chose the aesthetics of a German church as his model for the main parish church, and Jackson & Ryan Architects designed the Gothic structure with clean lines and a multitude of carefully concealed modern conveniences.
The church’s speaker system is hidden among two streamlined columns in the nave, and the air-conditioning system is tucked inside decorative elements of the side walls of the 1,200-capacity church, says John Clements, AIA, a principal with Jackson & Ryan. The nave was designed so that it appears that the height is twice its width while giving congregants unobstructed views of the service, Clements says. Other elements included central-air systems with humidification controls, 180 self-supporting brick arches with complex patterns, corbelling, basket-weave patterns in two colors of brick, and design elements evoking faith tenants such as Eucharistic lights, a stone altar, and a rose window “It can be an educational process to explain to the clients why we recommend using certain materials, for example, in the form of a radiant sun. that may not be the cheapest but have the best lifecycle value,” Ryan says. “The best marketing is to do the “No one had designed or built a church like this in Houston in more than 50 years,” Clements says, creditbest job for the clients we have and to guard our record ing an all-day Saturday team-building session at the of delivering projects successfully within budget.” start of the project that involved the owner, contractor, architect, and others, keeping everyone focused on the The firm’s intent is to lift the spirits of people who visit task of building the church, which was completed in the animal shelters with whimsical designs, such as May 2004. The firm is now working on a new project the appearance of entering a giant doghouse or walking for St. Martin’s that calls for building a new youth hall, through a dog’s body, while adhering to stringent requirements to keep the animals safe and healthy. “They a healing building for outreach purposes, a multipurpose theater for contemporary services, and a pastoral are cheerful buildings that people embrace and come services building that comprises pastors’ offices, music to speak of with pride,” says Martha T. Seng, FAIA, a rooms, and classrooms. principal responsible for shelter design.
at a glance Location: houston, tx Founded: 1986 Employees: 30 Annual revenue: $4.5–5.5 million
american builders quarterly nov/dec 2010
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