Deep Dive: Town of Big Flats

Back in 2000 Teitsch Kent Fay Architects, P.C. began designing a community center for the Town of Big Flats. The Town never had a center for community activities previously and wanted to rectify this gap in their community. Ground broke for the construction of the community center in 2003, and the project was completed the following year. This new center hosts youth programming, senior programming, community gatherings, and more.

As work continued on the community center, the Town of Big Flats decided they were pleased with our work and wanted Teitsch Kent Fay Architects assistance on a new project. This project involved the reconstruction of the Town Hall Building. The goal of this project was to redesign the existing space and to create a new courthouse facility to address an increased community need. A major requirement of the Town Hall was ensuring accessibility for community members. To meet this requirement we utilized interesting architecture designs such as a free floating ornamental stair. One of our favorite aspects of this project is the bespoke ceiling in the court house which accommodates fire safety requirements while being both aesthetically pleasing and incredibly cost effective.

A year before the completion of the Town Hall in 2006, the Town of Big Flats asked us to work on a municipal complex. This project consisted of four buildings: maintenance, department of public works, salt storage, a fueling station, and an equipment storage barn. The goal of this project was to consolidate all of the town's equipment onto one site (the same campus as the Community Center and Town Hall). By doing this the community is saving cost and consolidating services.

The Municipal complex, and ultimately the entire Town of Big Flats project was completed in 2007. Although this project became somewhat of a domino effect, where one project was completed as another began, the ability to create a “campus” setting for all the Town functions was very rewarding. A Design Vocabulary refers to the consistent aesthetic appearance throughout a complex. These projects, completed in the same time frame and with the same architectural firm, allowed the Town of Big Flats to establish their design vocabulary throughout the entire campus.