TEAM
DENIECE
Bio:
Designer Deniece Duscheone is a leader in the integration of intelligent energy-efficient building systems and the lasting effects of sustainable design. She and partner Christopher Maresca founded S.K.I.N. in 2004 with the intent of developing a design firm committed to innovative and responsible design practices. The acronym S.K.I.N. is an abbreviation for Sustainable Kinetic Integrated Nature and is a description of the philosophy that the firm utilizes in the design process. The studio is well-known for its wide range of projects, its exceptionally high standards, and work that emphasizes the importance of place and explores nature and the integration of materials.
Having attained her Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Professional Accreditation through the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in 2004, Ms. Duscheone has lectured on sustainable design and the integration of luxury. She and Mr. Maresca designed their first energy efficient light in 2004, winning the new product development competition “GreenLight.”
Ms. Duscheone has worked on a wide array of architectural and interior design projects across the United States ranging from the complete master planning and design of hospitality and entertainment facilities to the management and coordination of large-scale construction projects. She completed the interior design and served as project manager on the $52 million renovation of the US Grant Hotel in San Diego, for which she custom-designed furniture, lighting and carpeting. She also was the lead designer of The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, for which she designed a sustainable parking structure with an unprecedented ninety-thousand-square-foot soccer field and softball field on top.
Ms. Duscheone received her Bachelor of Architecture degree from the NewSchool of Architecture and Design. She studied Architecture and Fine Arts abroad in Spain and did extensive research on various cultures that have developed sustainable systems and its affects on the human condition for her thesis “Architecture and the Mind.” She has been a guest juror for the NewSchool of Architecture’s design studio.
Her work has been acknowledged with awards and publications, including the California Construction award for Best Architectural Renovation in 2006 and the Alanzo Award for Best Design, both of them for the US Grant Hotel in San Diego. Ms. Duscheone also has received the Alpha Rho Chi national bronze metal for Architecture and the Allied Arts. She has a strong belief in work that merges art and architecture and has served on the board of the San Diego Art Foundation and has chaired the Art and Lecture series. She has served on the board of the American Institute of Architects (both the California Council and the San Diego chapter), and she is a member of the Association for Women in Architecture (AWA).
Manifesto:
It is in our unmeasurable memories that we experience the embrace of love, breath, light, vision, smells, sounds, touch, and spirit in space and time. It is within the silence of this unmeasurable space that the measurable shall be created in the form of an integrated community. As a creator of such a space, I see myself as merely the conductor of nature’s music: expressing what that very nature wants to be in the memory of its architecture. The sculpting of the measurable space will be an expression of harmony and balance that serves the spirit of all who enter.
The measurable should express recognition of self in its materials causing a melding of all nature and a blending of the soul. These skins shall speak in waves of beauty, light, and joy, as though it were calling to the wounds of nature, wrapping around them a blanket of serenity. Its gardens should be as fragrant as they are colorful, lifting the spirit, causing it to pause, if only for a while to feel the growth of love and healing. These gardens shall sing with the sounds of tranquility and waters healing power. It shall have paths that allow the spirit to journey and take solace in the silence of light. Even in the defined creation of its fragmented spaces natural light will dance in rings washing across its walls and ultimately the eyes and memories of its users. The windows of the measurable shall open up to the sky overhead so that light, view, sounds, and smells, give meaning, become alive, and allow the soul to have a place to experience the unmeasurable.
It is this conductor’s responsibility as a creator to make sure that each vision of nature’s music of memory and space be expressed with the same fluidity as the ebbing and flowing of nature’s very dance. We, who are that nature, must never forget as conductors: that it is not just the actual creation of the measurable that represents life but it is the spaces and memories of the unmeasurable that creates soul blueprint.
-Deniece Duscheone
CHRIS
Bio:
Christopher Maresca received his undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University School of Architecture. He studied Architecture and Fine Arts abroad in Italy and England and received his Master of Architecture at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design, graduating Valedictorian. His formal education culminated with his Master’s design thesis for the South Bay San Diego Regional Alliance entitled “The South Bay San Diego Swim Center with a focus on Energy Efficient Systems and Public Programs”. The design proposal offered this local community group a significant step forward in organizing and realizing their specific goals with tangible materials, for which he recieved the AIA Student Thesis award.
His work has received various awards and publications, including the California Construction award for Best Architectural renovation in 2006 and the Alanzo Award for Best Design on the US Grant Hotel, in San Diego. He is also an accomplished artist and his recent work was published on the book cover “Sycuan Our People. Our Culture. Our History.”
He has worked on projects across the United States ranging from educational, commercial, residential, healthcare, and hospitality. Maresca has enjoyed a broad involvement with projects ranging from the complete master planning and design of hospitality and entertainment facilities to the exploration and utilization of new energy efficient lighting technologies in building illumination and product design. He has received notable recognition for his high-tech lighting desgn on the exterior of the recently renovated US Grant Hotel setting a precedent for the use of exterior LED lighting ona hotel. He along with partner, Deniece Duscheone, are leaders in the integration of intelligent energy efficient building systems and the lasting effects of sustainable design.
He and Duscheone founded S.K.I.N. in 2004 with the intent of developing a design firm committed to innovative and responsible design practices. The acronym S.K.I.N. is an abbreviation for Sustainable Kinetic Integrated Nature and is a description of the philosophy that the firm utilizes in the design process. The studio is well known for its wide range of projects, its exceptionally high standards, and work which emphasizes the importance of place and explores nature and the integration of materials.
Manifesto:
Light enters the canyon revealing the jagged walls that have been formed since the beginning of humankind’s walk on Earth. The light comes from the sky overhead, emanating from a distant source, through the black, then the blue. The light washes across the walls and ultimately the eyes and minds of the inhabitants of the canyon with energy and shadows. The energy represents inspiration, the shadows represent memories.
The people of this planet are the sculptures’ of these canyon walls; and although all forces will affect the final form, we are the ones whose eyes and minds are infused with the energy from the light. With this energy comes knowledge, vision, and direction for the future. It gives us the confidence that is needed in being a creator. The confidence that, no matter what, being a creator is the essence of humankind.
Finally the light falls on the floor of the canyon, which is a wall to the sky. On the floor of the canyon runs a thin stream of water. This stream connects the space that is formed between the walls of the canyon with a vastness that is immeasurable. It is in this idea that we creators must remember that it is not the walls of the canyon that represent life, but the spaces in between.
-Chris Maresca