Markor Art Center

Known as the “Furniture Capital of the World”, High Point hosts a semiannual Furniture Market where manufacturers and wholesalers connect to do business that will shape the entire furniture industry nationwide. The majority of the buyer traffic is by foot where “location” and “state-of-the-art facilities” compete to attract the most interest. Having both required a major undertaking for this project owner. A four-story, 142,200-square-foot facility and is home to A.R.T. and Caracole furniture brands. From the outside, the facility is breathtaking with a unique façade that challenges the limits of non-linear architecture featuring 32 twisting panels; each has approximately 29-degrees of twist from bottom to top and is clad with EIFS that won a national award. The west and north elevations have panels with counter-clockwise twisting, and the south and east elevations have panels with clockwise twisting. The converging of these oppositely rotating panels that occur at the southwest corner creates the iconic entry to the Caracole suite where the panels have the appearance of being peeled apart. The unique geometry reveals a 68-foot tall structurally glazed wall that is accented with artistically patterned aluminum screening. Screen sections were precisely cut by a water jet from solid aluminum sheets up to two and a half-inches thick. The A.R.T. suite entry shares the same use of construction materials with different, but just as stunning geometry.

2019 Carolinas AGC Pinnacle Award for Best Building Project

2019 ENR Southeast Best Building Project
(Office/Retail/Mixed-Use Development)