CLB Architects’ design for EMIT Technologies is a finalist in the 8th annual GRAY Awards.
FINALIST
Breakout category: Workspace
Designer: CLB Architects
Project location: Sheridan, Wyoming, United States
Date of completion: October 2022
Photographed by: Nic Lehoux
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SUBMISSION
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Shrouded in a scrim of weathered, perforated steel, EMIT Technologies’ headquarters outside Sheridan, Wyoming, pioneers a new, place-based approach to campus planning. Weaving together cutting-edge technology and a community-focused ethos, the structure is almost entirely self-produced onsite and exemplifies the people and raw materials active in the process. The new campus, at nearly 120,000-square-feet, consolidates the operations of four existing metal fabrication facilities and introduces amenities accessible to over 100 employees as well as the general public. United by their Wyoming heritage, the architect and EMIT collaborated to craft a campus intimately tied to the Rocky Mountain West, which can continue to serve as a social, commercial, and industrial hub for the
greater Sheridan community.
Originally a concrete block Kmart, the campus was reenvisioned into a world-class facility to attract new talent and fold them into an established community of Wyoming locals. With equal attention paid to the large-scale master planning and the finest material details, the existing 80,000-square-foot building was adaptively reused into a synergized and consolidated state-of-the-art fabrication facility.
Designed to encourage moments of interaction, the building acts like a circulatory system drawing different user groups – newly arrived office employees, long-tenured factory staff, and the general public – to filter and intermingle non-hierarchically through shared spaces and entries. The machine floor is accessible by a pivot point from the office headquarters,
which reflects this spatial dichotomy in its interior finishes by playing raw, industrial materials against more elevated, streamlined, and hard-wearing surfaces. Many of the furnishings and details were specially fabricated by EMIT, including workstations, chairs, and ceiling panels and screens made from birch plywood and powder-coated black steel. A scarf-like steel façade, also custom-fabricated and engineered by EMIT, weaves the
structure’s additive exterior into a unified whole. Suspended away from the surface of the building, this laser-perforated scrim forges a transparent yet tactile connection between the campus’s outward appearance and the materials and methods used in the manufacturing within. The structure’s rectilinear massing is gouged by a glazed courtyard, or “lung,” which disseminates light and air into adjacent office and collaboration spaces. On
the front of the structure, the suspended steel facade lifts upward to welcome employees and the general public alike into a generous lobby. Auditorium and flex spaces allow the Sheridan community to utilize the campus for their own classes and events. Employee amenities, including a coffee shop, basketball court and gym, locker rooms, barber shop, and library space provide activated opportunities to cross-pollinate and exchange ideas across the “no collar” workforce. Embodying the pioneering spirit and redefining notions of “campus,” the new headquarters engages more deeply with the people, place, and raw materials that make EMIT’s work possible.
The EMIT headquarters is not an isolated structure, but a catalyst for an expanding network of community-building and environmental renewal. Nestled in what was once the curve of a concrete on-ramp to the neighboring interstate, the adjoining site has been reclaimed as a public park by the city of Sheridan. Lush with trees and carved by a gentle creek and pedestrian paths, the park has also become home to FILTER, the public art installation collaboratively crafted by the architect and EMIT for NYCxDesign Festival in Times Square, which took place in May 2022. Originally supplied and fabricated by EMIT, the ellipsoid of folded steel shards now carves out a piece of Wyoming sky, filtering the fresh nature of the newly reclaimed city park, rather than the cacophonous lights and
energy of midtown Manhattan. This homecoming is the final step in a long journey for the structure, having passed through the hands of craftspeople, designers, contractors, and assembly professionals from British Columbia, to Greeley, Colorado, to New York City. The pavilion’s patina reflects this long process of making as well as the various encounters of the public, drawing a network of community as well as a sense of place.
DESIGN TEAM:
CLB Architects: Eric Logan, Andy Ankeny, Sarah Kennedy, Jeffrey Johnson, Jaye Infanger
COLLABORATORS:
Interior Design: EMIT with CLB Architects
Contractor: AXE Build
Civil Engineer: Nelson Engineering
Structural Engineer: KL&A, Inc.
MEP Engineer: BG Building Works
Geotechnical Engineer: Nelson Engineering
Lighting: Lux Populi
Acoustical Engineer: BG Building Works
Kitchen Consultant: HC Design and Consulting
Theatrical/AV: BG Building Works
Specifications: iBIM
Photographer: Nic Lehoux
DESIGNER PROFILE:
CLB is a cross-disciplinary design firm that pushes the growing edge of contemporary practice. Since its founding in Jackson, Wyoming in 1992, CLB has taken its frontier origins as a guiding ethos, mobilizing a uniquely holistic and place-inspired approach to projects spanning North America. Driven by an innate responsibility to people and place, and a desire to respond authentically to the conditions in which they practice their craft, CLB’s adept team of architecture and interior design professionals work to create environments that elevate, enrich, and inspire.
Filtering landscapes through poetic built forms, CLB brings the occupant into an intimate, reciprocal relationship with their natural surroundings. Each project — from luxury mountainside residences and urban lofts to evocative public spaces and immersive public installations — is conceived holistically, weaving through-lines of inspiration from the smallest furnishings to the largest formal gestures. Through three decades of practice, CLB has honed its own, distinct architectural language, exploring innovative construction methods and materials while maintaining respect for time-honored traditions. In drawing the specificities of the environment into each detail, “Inspired by Place” becomes more than a design philosophy — it frames a way of life.
With each new project, CLB reaffirms its commitment to social sustainability, collaborating with and learning from trusted local craftspeople. In strengthening connections with the community and taking advantage of specialized local knowledge, each project arises as a natural extension of the existing social and environmental connections that span far beyond the site.
CLB’s close-knit, highly collaborative team includes 60 architecture and interior design professionals working between studios in Bozeman, Montana, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Led by partners Eric Logan, Kevin Burke, Andy Ankeny, and Darcey Prichard, the firm’s work has been recognized nationally and internationally over three decades of practice.
The 8th Annual GRAY Awards is sponsored by:
