Archimania is a mid-size office with a fun name deeply rooted in its hometown: Memphis, Tennessee. “I came up with the name in college,” Archimania’s cofounder Todd Walker told AN. “I liked Archimania for several reasons. One, because it was authentic, and it sounded creative. Two, it was inclusive. It represented a group and not a person’s name. That, in turn, sets up the firm to continue for years without being defined by a person’s name. “Archi” represented architecture and “mania” was defined as an intense desire or enthusiasm for something. We talk about passion a lot, so this seemed fitting in college and now.”
Since 1995, the studio has been known for its sensitivity to color, light, and materiality; a modernist penchant that both blends in and stands out from Memphis’s industrial urban fabric. Today, designers work on projects small and large: from community centers and urban agriculture farms in Memphis’s underserved neighborhoods to very high-profile art museums, like the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron.
Notably, many “Archimaniacs” like Chloe Lane and Claire Sims are Memphis natives, and the office’s commitment to local projects and talent runs deep. “When I started this firm in 1995, my goal was to improve this city,” Walker told AN. “Memphis needs many things, and we’re committed to helping the city come together, move forward, and progress.”
Frontline Townhomes 2020
Construction started on Frontline Townhomes in 2018, a project Archimania developed with Woodard Properties, one of its many Memphis-based clients. Thirty homes were built on a linear 1.25-acre site between the Mississippi River and Memphis’s South Main Arts District. The 3-story buildings add much-needed density to an area defined by postindustrial sprawl. The first two floors of each building are clad in gray box-rib metal, and the third floor in bright yellow fiber cement board and batten siding, a feature that complements the yellow doors.
The design of each townhome also prioritizes access to the outdoors and a variety of greenspaces. All homes are accessible via a shared pedestrian courtyard: This brings circulation toward the interior of the project, and shields the passage from the street. Residences all also boast their own stoop, a dogwalk, and extensive landscaping. Two lots also remain empty, used to offer semi-private patio spaces and gardens between buildings. A refreshing take on walkable urbanism, the scheme is welcome in the previously underutilized lot adjacent to a railway—now pleasantly human-scaled.
Ed Rice Community Center 2022
Frayser is a historic African American neighborhood north of downtown Memphis. Like many traditionally Black neighborhoods, midcentury development schemes diverted resources elsewhere; thus the area has been marred by chronic disinvestment. Contributing to a contemporary revitalization of the place is a community-forward project in Frayser Park: At the heart of Frayser Park is the Ed Rice Community Center, which Archimania completed in 2022.
The single-story building serves Frayser’s youth and elderly; it hosts a gym, an outdoor classroom, community spaces, a computer lab, exercise equipment, and a communal kitchen. The building is anchored by a courtyard, and nearly every occupiable space has views to the outdoors. The structure, Walker said, can be used to sell produce from another important Archimania project just down the road, the Girls Inc. Youth Farm. “The Ed Rice Community Center is really a continuation of the Youth Farm,” Walker said. “The community center has a greenhouse for girls in the area to use at other times of the year.”
Girls Inc. Youth Farm 2024
Exit the Ed Rice Community Center, take a left on North Watkins Street, another left on Whitney Avenue, go straight for less than a mile, and you’ll arrive at Girls Inc. Youth Farm, a 76-year-old nonprofit that teaches girls from the Frayser community how to grow local crops, cultivate interdependent ecosystems, and develop new skills. Archimania finished a new building for the organization this year that creatively reinterprets the traditional red barn so symbolic of agriculture in America.
On the land surrounding the nonprofit’s new building, neighborhood kids tend crops and allotments, growing produce that they can either take home with them or sell at a farmers market on-site. The organization provides a crucial community staple: “Girls Inc. is an organization that basically nurtures and educates young and mostly urban girls,” Walker said. “It provides after school tutoring and other opportunities for learning about how to provide for themselves as they get older and think about jobs and college. The girls we’ve seen come out of this program have gone on to do amazing things.”
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art 2019–
On any given day inside Archimania’s Memphis office, one may find a handful of Herzog & de Meuron employees at their computers working hard alongside Archimaniacs. The two firms have been working side by side at the Archimania office on a replacement building for Tennessee’s largest and oldest art institution, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
Construction on the project began in July 2023 and doors are expected to reopen in 2026. For Walker, the museum project represents a milestone for both the firm and the city at large: “As with so many of our projects, we really care about drawing people in, and I think the Brooks Art Museum really embodies that,” Walker said. “This world-class museum will be an absolute game-changer for Memphis. It’s going to draw people in from around the U.S. and the world.” By pairing internationally recognized design talent with the local knowledge and grounding of Memphis-based Archimania, the museum promises to be tailored to longtime local supporters, new patrons, international visitors, and cultural tourists alike.
