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  • Our Passion our craft

Whether it is a backstory, telling the story of a specific brand, or giving reason why some obscure iconic piece is where it is, we are passionate about immersing guests in the essence of each project, and finding ways to show how each concept is unique.

Enter-Arc’s favorite aspiration is to flesh out a completely new concept, brainstorming a big idea, creating a prototype, designing a flagship, and helping to envision something above and beyond what anyone would normally have thought of on their own.

There’s something about the way Enter-Arc approaches each project that sets us apart. Not many firms work the way we do. Yet we show over and over that this type of approach is so worth it.

This website is meant as an insight into Enter-Arc’s design process. In fact, Enter-Arc purposefully features its process drawings, sketches, and perspective renderings along with pictures of the completed project to show how our work integrates with the story that develops as the journey unfolds.

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  • Backstories - creating the vibe

As an example, the Shuck’s Restaurant Concept takes an existing operating restaurant in Abbeville, Louisiana and puts it on steroids, introducing a backstory of an old oyster- man’s dream for opening a restaurant with such great recipes that soon there would be Shuck’s Restaurants all over the country. And inside this restaurant, guests would learn more about how oysters are cultivated, and diners would feel the sizzle of the grill as fresh specialties were cooked up. Outside, the kids could play on an old oyster lugger.

For the Cajun Coffee House, the clients had the idea to create a Cajun vibe, and they had it in their minds to have an alligator be the mascot, but Enter-Arc couldn’t understand how that tied into the coffee they sold. So the design team created a backstory that describes the role the alligator played in establishing the shop.

The Runway at Clovis drew upon childhood memories of driving along Highway 99, looking off to the orange stands, and the old crop duster airfields. And as the designers at Enter-Arc fleshed the concept out, they created this compelling story of this forgotten aviator who’s dream it was to start up an airfield, and how this was a recreation of that dream of so long ago. And the result was a runway main drive approach, (movie theater) hanger, (brewery) fuel building, old style, aviator themed buildings, control tower, signage, and a crop duster out on display.

The Wonderland Bakery project was about taking a childhood “Candyland” type of fantasy and blending it with a magical bakery within an enchanted castle, where the host Allison created delicious treats. The outdoor garden featured a board game of adventures, and there was a spe- cial party room for celebrations and a demonstration cooking area the client hoped could be used for filming of a reality show.

Some projects have the potential for featuring real-life history in the design. Enter-Arc fleshed out a way to celebrate the history of Route 66 in the project at Foothill Crossing by creating two murals, depicting the bunion derby — footrace the entire length of the interstate highway when it first opened, and another mural explaining how the number 66 was chosen in the first place.

In Catalina Island, Enter-Arc carefully researched the terminal port where the old steamship docked in order to incorporate history into the new conversion of the buildings into waterfront restaurants. This manifested itself in the murals painted onto tiles, and composition and patterns of the historic Catalina tiles on the facades.

During the design of Louisiana Boardwalk, the Enter-Arc design team was introduced to an entrepreneur who wanted to open a daiquiri bar concept. He showed them a daiquiri bar across the river that had mixing tanks lined up horizontally across at least 60 feet of storefront. All of the flavors lined up were extremely colorful, but it was a tremendously inefficient use of space. So the designers asked, what would happen if they proposed the exact opposite? And so Enter-Arc created this daiquiri bar concept (All Wired Up) that stacks the tanks vertically, reached by exotic baristas on wired hoists.

Another “opposite” opportunity presented itself in the Bridge Street project. Originally, the team was shown a concept whereby there were two main rows of retail facing the pedestrian street and restaurants facing out to the lake. The designers even configured the layout in the imagery of the client’s logo, and envisioned the concept as a prototype that could be replicated throughout the U.S.

And for Louisiana Boardwalk, Enter-Arc designed the project around a story that was used as a guiding inspiration for how the community of buildings on the site were laid out. You see, they were transfixed by the idea that an old submarine was disco- vered in the river that runs along the site. And they thought it was this wonderful sur- prise to find plans depicting an ancient settlement that no one had ever heard of, that had inhabited the site hundreds of years before.

So the designers set out to recreate elements as a tribute to what had transpired before. This mani- fested itself in a generator to power the city, light towers at river’s edge to signal whether or not the city was safe to approach, a (movie theater) city hall at the center of town, a boiler, where goods were manufactured, streets leading directly down to river’s edge, a marina, and even a (carousel) stable. Enter-Arc called these features “moments” , and they were integrated into the project to grand effect.

Our favorite feature is a trolley that runs the length of the project from the grand entry at the parking structure to the Bass Pro located along the river. And an Inclinator had been designed so that guests can have a fun way to visit the water’s edge. We even created a chess set using features & architecture found in the project.

The end result is that Louisiana Boardwalk has established itself as the number one ranked tourist destination in northwest Louisiana with wonderful holiday and festival celebrations throughout each year.

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  • HAND CRAFTED

Yes, we use the computer to maximum advantage. But the core basis of our Architecture starts with good old-fashioned fundamentals.

Listening, starting with what we know, working to scale, research, observations, and gathering the right ingredients of inspiration. These are tasks we accomplish using a time-tested Architectural Craft, passed down to us from generations before.

In our case, this process was well honed before computers came into play.

The craft we are describing is reliant on an overlaying method, sketching by hand, in an ever exploring and refining process to find the BEST way to accomplish the work. The overlay method is not merely sketching, it’s working to scale, integrating the best ingredients, to flesh out a solution that REALLY works.

After, we use technology to optimise the result even further, so that the work can be realized.

This is a highly creative office, that loves developing big hairy audacious ideas. And yet it is all very reliant on traditional Architectural approaches we inherited from the Architecture that preceeded us.

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  • storyboards models and maquettes

Whenever possible, Enter-Arc delves into storyboards, character maquettes, story artwork, and story posters in order to explore how a story can be integrated into a project for an enhanced effect.

Enter-Arc is easily able to work with culturally rich opportunities, so that they can be integrated into the architecture project.

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  • logos and graphics

Logos and branding are an integral part of the projects they create. Oftentimes we will explore the naming, the brand, and the resulting art support as a part of our design explorations.

In the future, you will be seeing lots of unique and innovative designs such as sport facilities, castles, floating resorts, over-water bungalows, island resorts, eco-marinas, futuristic cities and buildings, blimps, air taxi terminals, and plantations. So stay tuned, the best is yet to come.

This website is a testimony to all of the people who have worked at Enter-Arc over the years. You have gone above and beyond in diligent pursuit of the company’s vision toward telling a compelling story and in excellence through design. The result is far beyond what any of us could have done on our own.