All Wood, All the Time Receives Thermory Design Award
We are pleased to announce that our lakeside Connecticut project “All-Wood, All the Time” has won the Tiny & Private House Category of the Thermory Design Awards! With a cross-laminated structural system and wood fiber-based products making up all of the above-grade insulation, it only made sense to use a wood product for the exterior finish on this project. Our design team chose to incorporate the thermally treated Ash cladding product from Thermory Benchmark for... December, 2022
All Wood, All the Time Receives Honor Award
Double awards this year! Our All Wood, All the Time project was also selected for an AIA Maine Honor Award. This lakefront residence in Connecticut capitalizes on the carbon-sequestering nature of wood to minimize its carbon footprint. With a cross-laminated structural system and wood fiber-based products making up all of the above-grade insulation, this approach to building uses the most sustainable resource we have to its full potential. The single-level design concentrates the living spaces... May, 2022
AIA Maine Honor Award for Davis Center for Human Ecology
We are thrilled to announce the selection of the College of the Atlantic’s Davis Center for Human Ecology as a recipient of an AIA Maine Honor Award for excellence in architecture. We are proud of this collaboration with Susan T Rodriguez Architecture to produce an academic building on the leading edge of building ecology. This approach radically reduces the lifecycle carbon footprint and effectively neutralizes the environmental impact of its construction, while enhancing program and... May, 2022
Part One: Why Sustainability Won’t Be Enough
More than a buzzword, an ideal, or a solution, sustainability is simply a concept of maintaining. It implies stasis, without movement forward or back, in an effort to maintain the status quo. While it has its merits when applied to the challenge of climate change, solely being sustainable in our practices and lifestyle doesn’t move the needle forward, which is an imperative today. We don’t find ourselves at a distance from the effects of global... May, 2022
Matt O’Malia Interviewed in Maine Home + Design and Architecture, Design & Photography
OPAL founder and principal architect Matt O’Malia recently sat for two interviews, with Maine Home + Design magazine and the Architecture, Design & Photography podcast. There was a lot to catch up on. The pandemic of 2020-21 has dramatically shifted our clients’ priorities, the business environment in which we operate, and the ways in which OPAL responds to both. Both conversations reflect Matt’s deep consideration of these matters—starting long before the pandemic—and the opportunities... April, 2021
Forbes Magazine Interviews Matt O’Malia
Forbes Magazine Interviews Matt O’Malia Forbes magazine has published an extensive interview with Matt O’Malia, in which the OPAL founder and executive partner explains how his work at the intersection of building performance and the architectural experience led to his co-founding, with Dr. Joshua Henry, the wood fiber insulation manufacturing company GO Lab. Speaking with Forbes contributor and housing industry author Sheri Koones, Matt describes recognizing years ago the contradiction inherent in reducing buildings’ carbon... December, 2020
Building The Bridge
Construction proceeds briskly on The Bridge, OPAL’s new central building for the Waring School, a private liberal arts middle and high school school in in Beverly, Massachusetts. The structural framing is complete, and work is underway on the building’s electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems. When construction began late last winter, coinciding almost exactly with the onset of the current pandemic, we took none of the above for granted. Despite the additional safety measures required, however,... November, 2020
Decor Maine Features Boxed In(fill)
Decor Maine’s October 2020 issue includes a feature story on Boxed In(fill), a project that marks our firm’s first foray into the vibrant residential market of Portland, Maine. Located in the city’s historic Munjoy Hill neighborhood, the project’s design responds to a challenging program: two living units, plus off-street parking for two cars, on a tight 3,000-square-foot urban lot. Writer Allison Paige does an admirable job of explaining our solution: an inverted layout, with a... November, 2020
Chewonki Girls Camp is Complete
We are pleased to announce the completion of the new Girls Camp at Chewonki, in Wiscasset, Maine. Phase One of a master plan to accommodate Chewonki’s growth over the coming decade, the project accomplishes the long-standing goal of relocating Girls Camp—formerly on a remote site—to the main campus, where it will enjoy equal standing with the parallel Boys Camp program. A collaborative effort by a team of talented partners, the project consists of a wash... November, 2020
OPAL Surpasses AIA Carbon-Reduction Target
The American Institute of Architects has announced that OPAL is one of a small group of firms nationwide that met the current carbon-neutrality goal of its 2030 Commitment program. This recognition represents a milestone for our firm. The 2030 Commitment program, initiated in 2010, sets a stepped sequence of targets for all new buildings, developments, and major renovations, culminating in 100 percent operational carbon neutrality by 2030. Of the 311 firms participating, OPAL was among only... November, 2020
AIA New England Honors Alnoba
The New England chapter of the American Institute of Architects has recognized OPAL’s Alnoba project with an Honor award, the highest designation in its annual design awards program. Located in Kensington, New Hampshire, on the 400-acre campus of the Alnoba retreat center, the project drew praise for incorporating regional vernacular elements, including exposed, reclaimed-timber structural frames, in a design with the distinction of delivering Passive House performance in a large institutional building. Presenting the award... November, 2020
Matt O’Malia Talks Shou Sugi Ban with Maine Homes Magazine
Maine Homes magazine spoke recently with OPAL partner Matt O’Malia about shou sugi ban, the traditional Japanese technique of wood preservation we used on a new-home project in Hope. Shou sugi ban involves carefully charring the wood’s surface and yields a durable, natural finish with a character that is at once subtle and intense. On our Hope project, we opted to treat unfinished siding boards on site—using propane torches and wire brushes—but a growing number of... July, 2020
OPAL’S Western Connecticut Residence in Green Building Advisor
Green Building Advisor (GBA) just posted a deep dive on our soon-to-be-completed project in western Connecticut, and we’re really pleased with the coverage. GBA is a website where a lot of design and construction professionals learn about new technology and building practices, whether they live up to the hype, and how to incorporate them into their own work. Our Connecticut project incorporates several groundbreaking technologies, including a virtually all-wood Passive House building shell—comprised of prefabricated cross-laminated... July, 2020
Groundbreaking at Waring School
OPAL is pleased to report that construction on the new School building for Waring School, in Beverly, MA, has begun. OPAL partners Matt O’Malia and Timothy Lock and project manager Alexandra Pagán traveled to the school’s campus on Feb. 24 to join the Waring community in a groundbreaking ceremony featuring song, remarks by Head of School Timothy Bakland and Beverly Mayor Jaime Campos, and students lifting dirt with some very shiny shovels. Waring is a private,... March, 2020
