The interior buildout for Mrs. Dornberg’s Culinary Experience in Highland, Indiana is complete. The owner of the business needed to move into a larger space to continue to grow her business with a more functional layout and a more pleasant experience for her students. The end result is a 2,037 SF space that combines a full commercial teaching kitchen with a curved demonstration island that overlooks seating for 20+ students and a large retail area for the selling of cooking supplies and accessories. The finished space includes high end finishes and video monitors for student viewing of live cooking demonstrations.

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Over the last decade, Vavrek Architects has worked with Luke Oil on the creation of their branded gas station and car washes.  The design evolved over the years with direct input from the client to the current prototype which include masonry/ stone exteriors along with large expanses of glass. The Luke Convenience Store prototype is centered on the idea of creating a professional, friendly shopping environment.  The emphasis is on bringing gas customers into the convenience stores not only with product offerings but also by the creation of an environment that is above and beyond what a customer might expect.

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The Marquette Park Capital Improvements Project is a multi-million dollar renovation/restoration project funded through the Indiana Regional Developmental Authority (RDA) designed to preserve and strengthen the park’s natural features while providing new recreational and educational amenities. Vavrek Architects was retained to provide architectural services for the project. The first phase of the project included two new picnic shelters and parking gatehouses, along with renovations to the existing picnic pavilion and concession building.

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The County Line Orchard Barn is a 30,000 SF facility created to serve as a retail center for County Line Orchard as well as a banquet facility for weddings and other occasions. To enhance the visitor’s experience, the owners sought to create a structure that evoked an authentic farm building. Due to its heavy timber construction, most of the main structure utilizes mortise and tenon joints secured with solid oak pins, very similar to how a piece of furniture might be assembled or a barn might have been built hundreds of years ago. Of course, the main difference is that.

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The new 2,171 square foot Whiting Animal Shelter is a state of the art no kill animal shelter. Designed for ease of maintenance, it contains 13 indoor/ outdoor dog kennels including one quarantine kennel.  The entire kennel is built from concrete block with plastic wall panel dividers.  Dogs are able to rest on radiant heated concrete floors and move back and forth via a pass thru between the outside and inside.  Adjacent to the dog kennels is a fenced-in dog run for exercise and socialization. The facility also contains two areas for cats and an animal prep area that doubles.

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This mixed-use development in Whiting, Indiana for MVP Builders, LLC was designed by Vavrek Architects to fit into the City’s historic downtown while offering modern amenities and views of Lake Michigan. The 33,000 sq. ft., four story, mixed-use building contains 24 high-end apartments and approximately 6,000 sq. ft. of commercial and retail space on the ground floor mostly occupied by a medical center. We were testing the market to provide higher end apartments to create a more vibrant commercial strip and provide a product for a different lifestyle. Each unit has high end materials, 2 baths and 2 bedrooms, attracting.

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Strack & Van Til is a major full-service grocery store chain with some 30 stores serving Northwest Indiana and the Chicago metro area. Vavrek was tasked with renovations essential to rebranding newly acquired stores and updating existing stores. We developed a strong design-build/client relationship with Strack & Van Til, providing personalized service to meet the time frames and attention to detail each project required. Our work reflected the client’s desire to keep their stores fresh, modern and appealing in the most efficient and expedient way possible. The Munster Strack & Van Til store project consisted of the relocation and expansion.

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By 2008, Kraft needed to provide a new employee entrance to their Kedzie Avenue manufacturing facility. The one-million square foot facility had employee entrances scattered haphazardly throughout their facility, which led to security, safety, and control issues that were becoming difficult to manage. Vavrek Architects provided a solution that utilized an underused and underserved bank of offices, and converted the space into a new passageway between the employee entrance and business areas. A new company store was also added, providing a much needed and beneficial service to employees. The end result is an entry that brings the aging facility into.

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Planned for an area along Sibley Street between Hohman and State Line Avenues, the Willow Court Shops were meant to help complete the urban redevelopment of Downtown Hammond started many years prior. The design utilized cutting edge materials and updated retail design principals to create an upscale and modern shopping experience. A variety of materials and forms were utilized to help create a modern version of a traditional downtown retail corridor. However, unlike a traditional retail corridor, the Willow Court Shops also included 98 parking spaces, an open linear urban plaza with landscaped planters and areas for outdoor dining. Its.

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Completed in 2015, the renovations to the Lobby and Lower level of the former Whiting Community Center entailed the conversion and restoration of a 1920’s community center into a state of the art work out facility operated by the YMCA. Originally built with bowling lanes and banquet facilities on the lower level, the facility had endured a series of renovation projects and years of neglect to a point where the locker rooms were closed for a few years in the 1980s. From a technical point of view, the challenge of the project included removing the bowling lanes, lowering a portion.

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