Maryville Pavilion

Boasting the world’s shortest St. Patrick’s Day parade route (76 feet), Maryville, MO is converting a vehicular alleyway into a vibrant public park and urban amenity. The Maryville Alleyway Transformation project includes a small playground area, native landscaping, welcoming lighting, public art, and an elegantly designed pavilion structure.

Standing proudly in the park, the carefully-considered pavilion structure is designed to provide shade, shelter, and a unique gathering space in the city. The design draws inspiration from the undulating ground plane surrounding it, twisting gently to encourage circulation through and around it so as to maximize visibility to the mural artworks on either of the alley walls. The pavilion makes use of two oversized support volumes on its north side to serve a thickened roof structure floating overhead. The first and smaller volume carries storm water from the roof to a below-grade stormwater system that irrigates the lush landscaping. The second, larger volume, provides a small storage room for park maintenance needs as well as power and controls for the pavilions sculpted light cove ceiling.

The pavilion is conceived as a piece of hard-shell candy with a warm, “gooey” filling; the hardened outside in contrast with a soft, inviting interior. In this way, it isn’t until visitors are closely beneath the dark, corrugated metal clad roof that they are greeted by a warmly lit, wood clad ceiling and side walls. The wood folds sharply like thin paper along the ceiling’s surface to disguise a series of narrow cove uplights and returns to grade to conceal a door to the storage room.

Confluence