Drawing a Bright Future

Architecture firm brings spatial goals to life

By Dimitra Lavrakas

CG Explore Design’s guiding principle, “The best architecture inspires and unites people,” is reflected in the unique buildings it designs.

An award-winning architecture, planning, and interior design firm headquartered in Anchorage, MCG’s projects span Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, California, and Hawaii.

“We’ve built in probably every sector of the state,” says MCG Marketing Director Rob Culbertson.

“We specialize in sustainable design, and we’re the first company in Alaska to sign onto the Red List Free campaign, in which we have pledged not to use red-listed materials as part of our standard practice to protect future generations,” Culbertson says.

Red-listed materials, he explains, are those that contain toxins and carcinogens.

The company also abides by other environmental standards such as the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification, which provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings.

The company designed Machetanz Elementary School in Wasilla in 2010, which was the first LEED-certified school in the state.

“When we were called to design the Mat-Su Central School, they said, ‘We want a school that’s not a school,’” says Culbertson. “Well, it became a school that’s more than a school: part community center, part library, and a learning resource for homeschooled students with programs remote and on-site.”

The school’s classes are flexible, catering to students who are primarily homeschooled. Students might go there to take a math lab or a guitar lesson or to take part in the school’s musical theater camp workshops, so the building’s design needed to meet the needs of students and faculty.

Assistant Principal Nathan Chud says the experience of working with MCG was “incredible.”

“In the negotiations, they listened very well to what we wanted,” he says. “Anytime we did a walk-through with one of the architects, they were professional and prepared. Every time we had a concern about something we wanted to think about, they already had an answer.”

“Our firm uses a super-collaborative model to communicate with the design team and contractors,” says John Weir, principal architect at MCG. “We believe in being good partners throughout the process to reinforce the importance of excellence and deliver for our clients and the community.”

Currently under construction, the school is scheduled to open in the spring. The 45,000-square-foot building is the ninth new school that the MCG has designed over the past decade.

For the largest museum in Alaska, MCG designed a comprehensive expansion to the Anchorage Museum for studying, displaying, and exploring Alaska’s land, peoples, art, and history.

The bright new wing added a much needed 30,000 square feet of gallery space, allowing the museum to dive deep into its collections and bring out more items to display for museum goers.

Additional spaces included a new temporary gallery, patrons lounge, administrative offices, and informal galleries that connect to the recently renovated atrium, also designed by MCG, as well as expansion of the hands-on Imaginarium Discovery Center and an outdoor patio for public programs.

“Museum architecture, when it is successful, embodies its purpose: to allow the works within it to tell their stories,” says Julie Decker, Anchorage Museum director and CEO.

“The Anchorage Museum’s new wing helps tell the story of Alaska and the North. The very materials used in the architecture of the wing reflect a sense of place—in this case, Anchorage, Alaska, a Northern city within a sub-arctic landscape.”

The C Concourse at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport evokes an Alaska experience with touches of old and new. The trappings of modern airport technology are combined with abstracted natural features such as rock outcroppings, glacial walls, meandering pathways, and ethereal lighting evocative of Alaska landscape.

In the forty years the company has fulfilled contracts, Culbertson estimates MCG completes about fifty every year, with the majority coming from the federal government.

“It’s a real strong market sector for us,” he says.

Government contracting has the benefit of giving MCG the opportunity to work on large contracts.

“The C Terminal at Ted Stevens International Airport was the largest, and that was in the $100 million category,” he says.

MCG has a long history designing for aviation clients and is working on several projects currently under construction at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, including the NorthLink South Campus E-Commerce and Express Cargo Terminal with Cornerstone Construction. This terminal will address the urgent need for new cargo infrastructure to support the continued growth of Anchorage.

Weir says the firm’s success lies in its collaboration with contractors, particularly fellow Associated General Contractors, or AGC, of Alaska members.

“AGC represents a keystone in our community, connecting design firms like ours to the contracting industry. We appreciate their dedication to building the future,” says Weir. “One of the aspects of MCG that has been particularly successful is that we are flexible around the craftsmen that are actually building the building. At the end of the day, architects just draw—it’s contractors that make it real, and we respect that.”