THREAD

In 2010 Caleb Johnson and local businessman David Flood partnered to form Thread—an organization dedicated to bringing economic growth to Main Street through real estate development. After a year and a half of preparation, our firm began renovations to transform the abandoned brick building at 265 into artist’s studios, live/work lofts, retail space, and CJA’s new architecture studio. Our collaboration with the arts group Engine has opened possibilities to integrate music studios and an art gallery.

LE PARC INTERIM

The local main street advocacy group, the Heart of Biddeford, asked us to design a temporary park to liven up the corner of Route 1 and Main Street until a permanent solution could be found. Built completely with volunteer labor, the park sees plenty of traffic in the summer.

HEART OF BIDDEFORD

Caleb Johnson Architects continues to be active volunteers on the Heart of Biddeford Design Committee and often sponsors and participates in many of the local events. The mission of the Heart of Biddeford is to work in partnership with the City of Biddeford, the business community, property owners, and residents to foster economic development and improve the downtown and also quality of life within its boundaries.

PORTLAND SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS

CJA volunteers by planning events such as architectural tours around New England, the Un-Built Design Awards, and the 10 Minute Architect event—where local architects volunteer their services to the public, discuss project ideas, answer questions, and provide free architectural advice over a cup of coffee. Recently, Caleb Johnson Architects participated in the Drink-N-Crit social. This event was a reference to the frequent and often dreaded architecture school critique where a group of professors and colleagues gather to give constructive criticism on student’s individual projects during the design phase.

CANSTRUCTION

On October 2011, CJA participated in the international design/build competition organized to construct giant sculptures made entirely out of canned food. After the oversized art exhibits are built and judged all of the food used in the structures is donated to a local food pantry.

ENGINE

In 2010, Caleb Johnson and local businessman David Flood partnered to form Thread—an organization dedicated to bringing economic growth to Main Street through real estate development. After a year and a half of preparation, our firm began renovations to transform the abandoned brick building at 265 into artists’ studios, live/ work lofts, retail space, and CJA’s new architecture studio. Our collaboration with the arts group Engine has opened possibilities to integrate music studios and an art gallery.

315 MAIN STREET

With Le Parc Interim’s downtown corner site remaining undeveloped, our office has been working with the Heart of Biddeford to beautify the highly visible corner which acts as a gateway to downtown. We developed the plans for the site which include plantings, a stone dust path, and wood chip surround. CJA helped the Heart of Biddeford plant new pear trees to match the existing ones and install stone benches. Also planned is a sign to direct cars on Route 1 to Biddeford’s business district and a bike part art installation, designed to ‘climb’ up the existing, painted wooden panels.