ZCA Article Samples

 ZCA is a Houston-based architecture and interior design firm. They specialize in community architecture, workplace interiors, landlord services, and urban architecture.

article series Introduction sample text

As more and more people crave walkability and a balanced work-life, they're also on the lookout for high-density urban living that caters to their needs. At Ziegler Cooper, we get how important it is to design at an urban scale to create harmony with the local environment and make people happy. That's why we’re sharing the Ziegler Cooper Park Collection with you — a series of urban projects that integrate beautiful buildings with enriching outdoor park spaces to create a cohesive environment in which we can all live, work, and play.

For each project in the collection, we conduct a deep dive into the local market, demographics, and user needs to ensure that our designs fit in with the community. We use placemaking to create opportunities for people to participate in a variety of activities - think public plazas, pocket parks, outdoor restaurants and cafes, ground-level retail, and tree-lined sidewalks. These spaces breathe life into the urban landscape by connecting our buildings with the neighborhoods they serve. Our mixed-use high rise buildings are carefully designed to engage from below and above, providing residents with aerial views of their city life below.

The Park Collection is the perfect answer to the needs of urban dwellers who desire a culturally vibrant lifestyle. We're thrilled to share this collection with you and can't wait to spotlight specific projects in the near future!

Project Feature Article Sample text

Aris Market Square is a sophisticated 32-floor residential tower located in the heart of Houston’s Theater District. The building’s name is derived from the park it overlooks, Market Square, Houston’s oldest urban park. Inside Aris Market Square, you’ll find a wide array of luxury amenities and 274 contemporary apartments ranging in size from 570 to 2,227 square feet, appointed with contemporary European-style kitchens, wood floors, and upscale bathrooms and closets.

We worked closely with the Houston Historical Commission to ensure that the architecture of Aris Market Square blended well with the urban context and engaged it with the surrounding city life. The building’s stone and masonry were thoughtfully selected to harmonize with the aesthetics of the Historic District, like nearby Rice Hotel and Houston National Bank Building. We incorporated richly paved and well-landscaped outdoor spaces to enhance public realm and ground floor retail to invite pedestrians inside.

A unique design feature of Aris Market Square is its secret garden. Seven adjacent parcels of land had to be stitched together to create the site for Aris Market Square. This left an awkward area that was well-suited for a small urban green space. The secret garden’s design takes inspiration from the tree-shaded courtyards in New Orleans’ French Quarter and is open to both residents and the public. In the mornings, you can enjoy a reading a book, while sipping a coffee from the garden’s bar. When the sun sets, it transforms into a full-service cocktail bar — perfect for unwinding with a drink and a friend after a long day.

The building’s central location enables residents to enjoy the best of the city, without ever having to get in a car. It scores is a solid 95 out of 100 for walkability, with plenty of entertainment and dining options just a short jaunt away. Within minutes of walking, you can find yourself enjoying a ball game at Minute Maid Park, catching a local event at Discovery Green, or humming along to a concert at Jones Hall. Going for an afternoon stroll? Wander through the gardens at the nearby Skylawn or mosey over to Buffalo Bayou and watch the bats take flight at dusk. Looking for dinner close by? Aris Market Square is home to Bravery Chef Hall, where you can choose from 5 different curated restaurant concepts, all under one roof!

Aris Market Square offers urban dwellers a compelling environment to conveniently explore the city and to relax in nature. Through placemaking, it attracts residents and non-residents alike and elevates the quality of life of the community. It breathes life into the urban landscape via architecture, which is why we consider Aris Market Square a quintessential project in the Ziegler Cooper Park Collection.

Master Planning Article Sample Text

A master plan is a long-range planning document that maps out the existing and proposed layout of a site. When designing for places of worship, having a master plan in place can help ensure that your resources are used efficiently and that your facility continues to serves the needs of your community as it grows. Architects refer to this invaluable resource to inform design decisions, prioritize phased improvements, help define manageable time frames for development, and more!

Flexibility is a crucial aspect of any master plan. Municipal requirements and the owner’s facility needs can change over time and we need to be able to adjust the master plan to fit those changes. As you might imagine, a long-term plan that is adjustable is much easier to work with than a short-term plan that will have to be revamped completely or might cause more obstacles to future improvements to a campus.

More often than not, we work with sites that already have buildings on them. In fact, many first-phase church buildings are constructed in the center of the site because there was no master planning prior to development. Situations like these present the challenge of designing all future buildings around the initial building. Sometimes, we find ways to repurpose these existing structures to better integrate with the anticipated needs and proposed additions.

When adding buildings to a master plan, we work to ensure that anything built in the future is complementary to the existing structures — that way, both existing and future buildings will feel like a cohesive composition. The additional buildings don’t necessarily have to be identical to the existing one, they can have similar characteristics, as parents and siblings look like they are family. In the end, we want any new additions to look as if they were always meant to be there.

Master plans for churches can include buildings dedicated to worship, education, or to building community. In the past, buildings were meant for members only. Now, churches have found that making their facilities multi-purpose and available to a broader range of people can help them grow their congregation. Examples can include sharing facilities with other churches, making spaces available for local events, opening recreation facilities for use of the surrounding neighborhood, or offering on-site residential spaces or senior centers. This mixed-use approach can help keep costs low, create more opportunity for the greater community to interact with your church, and add flexibility to your master plan.