Congratulations to Parke MacDowell, AIA, for being selected for the 2021 BSA Earl R. Flansburgh Young Designers Award. Named for Earl R. Flansburgh, FAIA—a distinguished Boston architect who generously supported emerging professionals—the award recognizes design excellence by an architect under 40.
Since joining Payette in 2015, Parke’s unique expertise in computational design and digital fabrication has facilitated our ability to create prototypes of our designs, enhancing our process.
Photo Credit Robert Benson Photography
He established the firm’s FabLab, where we can quickly iterate large-scale project mock-ups that are useful both as internal design tools and as a powerful means of communicating complex design intent to clients and builders. Under Parke’s leadership, fabrication is now key to the personality of our firm.
His commitment to advancing fabrication strategies and inserting this level of research and development within an architectural practice is commendable.
Flansburgh Award Juror
Photo Credit: Warren Jagger Photography
Parke has been an integral part of design teams on a broad range of projects including the award-winning Northeastern University PedX, the Fifth Xiangya Hospital and the Hengqin Innovation Center, where his inquiries into both design and fabrication were implemented on a massive scale with optimal effect.
… an exceptional person with an admiral dedication to design excellence and interdisciplinary practice.
Flansburgh Award Juror
Parke led Payette’s pro bono work for Beyond Walls in Lynn, combining civic activism, management skill and superb design. These inspiring projects—Underpass Lighting, WaSH and FoLD—had a direct effect on Lynn’s citizens and were widely recognized with multiple design awards. Parke has written articles, delivered lectures, organized exhibitions, appeared as a design critic and won individual professional awards. He also co-founded the BSA Learning Community MKR|MGR .
Cape Cod Community College’s Frank and Maureen Wilkens Science and Engineering Center is a net-positive energy building designed to transform the heart of campus.
The project approaches sustainability through a holistic and global approach, implementing a range of moves including passive solar shading overhangs, air-source heat pumps, high performance materials with low embodied carbon and the expansion of the range of thermal comfort and lighting power density. Combined with on-site photovoltaics, the project achieves net-positive energy use.
The project’s thermally modified wood rainscreen façade is a study of the modern expression of vernacular Cape Cod architecture while reducing embodied carbon. Early lifecycle assessments identified the immense carbon savings of wood over fiber cement. The design team did not stop there, furthering reductions by peeling back unnecessary finishes like carpet and ceilings. Together, these decisions enabled a 19% reduction in embodied carbon.
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