Lab Design

The LAB is a contemporary style building designed by Thalassa Curtis formerly of Joeb Moore and Partners of Greenwich CT and completed by Alex Chabla of the same firm and constructed by Prutting and Co. builders of Stamford, CT. Triple glazed curtain walls from Germany and steel fabricated by Dimmick steel are the engineered construction. White oak sustainably sourced from North America has been used throughout the structure. Radiant heat is embedded in poured and polished concrete floors.

The new building sits atop the footprint of the former 1947 house which was carefully dismantled and returned to the market by Joe Derisi of Urban Miners, of Hamden CT in order to be kept out of the landfill. The original Douglass fir construction material has been repurposed as much as possible throughout the building in veneers, shelving, etc.

The construction is Passive House (Passivehaus) design with high energy conservation as an imperative.

The intention for the building is to provide working and domestic spaces on the lower floor for a visiting Creative, and research and viewing spaces in the upper library and central Gallery. Clerestories fill the building with an abundance of natural light on both levels. There is an outdoor sky porch with a large opening to the sky designed for creative respites.

The ultramarine blue panels in the cladding on the western and eastern elevations are designed to add delight. Discretely suspended above the lower level entry is a large stainless steel and red enamel kinetic sculpture by Lin Emery of New Orleans. It is called NOLA.

Vasilka Bukov of Bukov Landscaping, of Banksville, NY arranged and planted around the massive glacial debris, rocks and boulders, unearthed on site during the excavation for the new construction.

James Stevenson (1929-2017) relished pleasing architecture in many forms and riffed on it in his journalistic work in the New York Times, The New Yorker and his children’s books. Serendipitously the ZIG ZAG motif of the roofline was a beloved familiar feature of old bathhouse silhouettes at a summer community on Long Island Sound near Niantic, CT.

James Stevenson Lost and Found Lab
Land Acknowledgement

Lost and Found Lab calls attention to the complex history of the lands on which we work and thrive.  We do this by honoring the territory we occupy and the history of the Indigenous peoples who have called this land home.

Lost and Found Lab is situated on the ancestral homelands of the Munsee Lenape, Mohegan and Schaghticoke people and was once known as Cassacubque, now called, Cos Cob, CT.

Lost and Found Lab is committed to cultivating sustainable, equitable, social, and environmental practices in our day to day operations while celebrating the work of artists we welcome into the Lost and Found Lab community.