Tag: Architectural Record

AIA CEO Visits California Members

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Robert Ivy, FAIA, the AIA’s CEO visited California last week and talked to over 200 members about issues facing their practice, gained insights into the future of the profession, and asked for feedback about how the Institute can be more responsive to the needs of its members. He met with a diverse cross-section of California firms in Los Angeles and San Diego and spoke to architecture students at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego. This outreach visit was the first of many Robert is planning in 2012 as a way to get better connected with the membership and discuss how the AIA is helping architects. A few highlights of his visit:

    • He spoke about the economy and indicators for a rebound, citing the March 2012 Architecture Billing Index (ABI), which remained in positive territory for the fifth consecutive month, as billings at architecture firms continue to grow modestly. Architecture firms with a commercial/industrial specialization have reported the strongest gains in revenue in recent months, and business conditions are also improving at firms with a multifamily residential specialization.

 

    • He spoke about the ““Repositioning the Institute” effort – the year-long initiative to better define what architects do in order to build understanding and appreciation of vital roles architects play in society and better communicate the value of design. This initiative was developed out of a broad consensus among members that architects are at a threshold that demands increased awareness of their place in society and a new way to present themselves to the world.

 

    • He spoke about the role of architects as advocates in their local communities, stating that over 2,500 architects nationwide serve as elected leaders. From mayors to local planning commissions to design review boards, the engagement of architects plays an increasingly important role in determining the fate and health of small businesses, ways that homeowners and businesses can save energy, and a host of other issues that directly affect the quality of life for most Americans.

 

    • He spoke about the upcoming National AIA Convention in Washington D.C. and shared his excitement about the Keynote Presentations and special ceremony titled Architects of Healing. The Convention provides an opportunity to honor colleagues who have been involved in the rebuilding and memorials at Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. These architects sought to help our nation when we all needed their unique gifts; this ceremony is the profession’s opportunity to simply say “thank you” to those who represented the best of the values architects hope to convey in service to society. The honorees will share their feelings and observations in a first-person account about how they used their passion and the architect’s skill to inspire hope for a better world. That is the essence of what it means to be an architect.

 

  • Finally, Robert also shared with attendees some of the highlights of his career at Architectural Record and spoke about how his work as an editor shaped his view of architecture. He talked about some of the most significant experiences, including his personal, first hand recollection of 9-11 and of some of the most important relationships in his career, including his work with Fay Jones.

Overall, it was a tremendous experience for all involved, and Californians stand ready to assist the Institute in furthering its efforts to reposition architects and the AIA, as 2012 AIA President Jeffrey Potter, FAIA stated, “to embrace our 21st century purpose.”

 

Architects in Monterey? Here’s Who Is Coming to Dinner

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Sure, we’re an architectural gathering but recently, as we perused the list of those already registered for this year’s design conference, a surfer’s creed that came to mind. “Know before you go”—meaning: get the general surf conditions before you load up the boards and drive to No Cal for the waves.

So what’s the relevancy for three days about design? MDC’s relaxed atmosphere means impromptu conversations with attendees. Interaction that might not happen in the highly scheduled, pressured, or sometimes stratified constraints of a convention.

Who will be there for them? We thought we’d put together a few blogs with sort of a ‘know before you go’ outlook.

THE MEDIA

Amanda Dameron, Executive Editor, Dwell
Low Down from her Dwell bio: “Amanda Dameron has been a design and architecture editor since the early aughts, working and writing for such publications as Dwell, Architectural Digest, Conde Nast Traveler, Los Angeles Magazine and Elle Decor UK. She is the Executive Editor of the magazine, and she is often found on the digital side of things as well.”

Kick off the conversation with: first Dwell Executive Editor to ascend from Digital Content Editor position.

John King, Urban Design Critic, San Francisco Chronicle
Brief Bio: “John King is the San Francisco Chronicle’s Urban Design Critic. He joined the paper in 1992 and has been in his current post since 2001. His work has been honored by groups including the the California Preservation Foundation, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the California chapters of the American Institute of Architects and the American Planning Association. An honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, he was also the recipient in 2006 of the first Gene Burd Award for Urban Journalism by the Urban Communication Foundation.

Quotable: “Some towers loom larger in the psyche than on the skyline.” From “An aqua-green box where Mad Men once lurked.”

Kick off the conversation with: a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism.

Clifford Pearson, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Architectural Record
For the record, here’s his bio: Clifford Pearson joined Architectural Record in 1989 after working for publications such as Builder magazine, Metropolis, and Corporate Design & Realty. He is the author of the book Indonesia: Design and Culture (Monacelli, 1998) and the editor of Modern American Houses: Four Decades of Award-Winning Design in Architectural Record (Harry N. Abrams, 1996). He holds a master’s degree in architectural history from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University.

Quotable? Try these opening lines:From “What Was… 2000-2010” “Wretched excess. Sustainability and the rise of LEED. Architecture as spectacle. Architecture for Humanity. Buildings as collectibles and architects as brands..”

Kick off the conversation with:Recent intelligence on the Asian architectural scene.

THE INSTITUTIONS

David Meckel, FAIA, Director of Research and Planning, California College of the Arts
Bio: Director of Research & Planning at California College of the Arts as well as principal of his own design consulting firm. His professional work focuses on campus planning, environmental design, and the design of public spaces. Prior to serving as founding dean of CCA’s architecture program, David co-founded, with Richard Saul Wurman, the Interior Architecture Program at Otis/Parsons in Los Angeles.

David began his career in the office of Charles & Ray Eames, where he designed exhibitions and print graphics. He later spent six years with the Jerde Partnership in Los Angeles, working on all aspects of multiple major urban design projects. While at the Jerde Partnership, he organized and managed the environmental design work for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. From 1987-1997, David collaborated with graphic designer Michael Manwaring through their multidisciplinary design firm, Ei, to create public-realm projects in Rotterdam, Los Angeles, and Taipei.

What’s not in the bio: Self-deprecating humor that’s dryer than a Monterey martini.

Quotable (On the second MDC which was titled “California 101” and featured 101 speakers): “Everybody who was a presenter walked around with a t-shirt on that had a number ‘one’ to ‘one-hundred-and-one’ on it, so you could match it up with the program and talk to them.”

Kick off the conversation with: Where do you start? May we suggest begin with Meckel’s days with Charles & Ray Eames and move forward through all his innovative decades.

Steve Wiesenthal, FAIA, Associate Vice President & University Architect,  University of Chicago
Bio:  Steve Wiesenthal, FAIA, is the Associate Vice President for Facilities Services and University Architect for the University of Chicago. He oversees the planning, design, construction and facilities operations of the 211 acre, 13 million gsf campus during a time of unprecedented rate of growth. Steve initiated and implemented the University’s first campus wide Environmental Sustainability Program.

Steve came to Chicago in 2008 from the University of California San Francisco, where, as the Associate Vice Chancellor and Campus Architect for eight years, he led the design and development of the new 43 acre, 2.6 million gsf Mission Bay research and academic campus. He also managed the ongoing engineering, operations, maintenance and capital program of the 8 million gsf multi-site health sciences campus.

Included in Steve’s private practice experience is six years with the internationally renowned design firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates.

Quotable (Excerpted from the Chicago Maroon): “On a campus with buildings by renowned architects such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright, Wiesenthal said he admires the quadrangle’s neo-gothic aura, and also appreciates the Charles M. Harper Center of the Graduate School of Business (GSB), designed by Rafael Viñoly, and the Gerald Ratner Center, designed by César Pelli.”

Kick off the conversation with: Take your pick? His experience into integrating sustainability programs in institutional settings or life at the firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates.

THE CONCEPT ARCHITECT

Gary S. Hasell, AIA, LEED AP, Executive Director, Concept Architect Principal, Walt Disney Imagineering
BIO: For the last 17 years Gary has been involved with the conceptual planning, architectural design, interior design, construction and opening of Disney’s Asian hotels (3 in Tokyo, 2 in Hong Kong). He is currently focused on the two new hotel projects being planned in conjunction with the proposed Shanghai Disneyland Resort. Prior to his involvement with Imagineering he was involved with master planning, urban design and architecture of large scale recreational, resort & residential communities, new towns and destination resorts on all seven continents (and under the sea).

Quotable: “An American political truism runs that: ‘all politics is local’. A worldwide design and development parallel is that: ‘all construction is local’! As designer, developer and owner/operator, we have found we must heed this in order for our designs to truly succeed over their lifecycle.”

Kick off the conversation with: What traits do permafrost and liquefaction have in common?

Check back here to meet other attendees.

 

Inside Archinect, A Precursor to Social Media

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Interview with Archinect’s founder and creative director Paul Petrunia Bernard Tschumi Architects interview with Archinect’s founder and creative director Paul Petrunia

The economy? “I definitely have noticed an improvement in the last few months.”

Why drop in an interview with Archinect’s founder and creative director Paul Petrunia on the MDC blog?

Archinectis, well. . .bustling with architects, designers and firms who drop by the site’s highly trafficked job boards and community forums. The latter have become the net’s sweet-spot for architects Well, on any given day, looking for advice on topics ranging from the most mundane to the most ephemeral. The former recently posted available positions in OMA, Bernard Tschumi Architects and Gensler. So, we wanted to give AIA members an inside look at the site they often use and visit.

Launched in 1997, by Paul Petrunia, a SCI-Arc graduate who’d picked up web development skills as he worked his way through school, Archinect recently expanded conversation capabilities via news and feature briefs. But when we corralled him for this interview about his site the first thing we had to ask him was:

Is the economy improving for architects? And what part of the country was it picking up?
I definitely have noticed an improvement in the last few months. The majority of the work is still in the major urban centers. With Archinect, it’s especially picking up in New York and Los Angeles—probably more so New York.

That doesn’t necessarily represent the entire country because the majority of Archinect’s users are [in those cities]. And, I don’t know if that’s necessarily representative of positive signs for architecture’s growth because in the last couple of years a lot of firms have shut down or merged with larger firms. So, that the fact that firms are hiring doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s more work [in a larger sense].

But we have noticed an uptick in the last few months—for sure.

Print publications such as Architectural Record and The Architect’s Newspaper now have a strong and dynamic digital presence, but you started on the web—was the approach different?
Good question. I started with Archinect with the plan of creating a model for not only publication but interaction. My goal from the beginning was mostly based on creating a platform on which the community could be directly involved and interact with the content. That type of thing would not be possible at all in print.

What did you use to drive that interaction? What content?
There were a number of features that I released back in the beginning that helped elevate traffic. I invited very prominent designers from other industries to create and design splash pages reflecting their ideas of architecture. Those other industries started spreading news of Archinect around. It became viral outside of the architecture world, which was one of my original intentions—to make architecture more open to the masses.

Another thing was the development of the discussion forums that created a lot of interactivity between the users and also with me.

To go beyond the forums, we had a series of online live discussions with prominent members of the architecture [field] and other related design industries. Specific events that would bring people in and [allow] them to interact with designers that they had only read about prior to that.

It was a pioneering time on the web—all of these types of activities were brand new. There weren’t other forums at the time to discuss these issues within a young, progressive-minded architecture community.

What’s interesting is—so much of this was before social media tools became available. You were building a digital community with, well, rocks.
A lot of websites—that do similar [activities] to what Archinect does—rely a lot on the social networking sites for interactivity and community building effect.

“We jumped the gun on some of the services social networking sites offer.”

What the social media sites provide—we do internally. So, we kind of jumped the gun on some of the services social networking sites offer. But, I really had to push to get the word out—myself —back in the beginning, using similar strategies that social networking sites do.

Have you chatted with Jeanne Gang, FAIA? She’s looking forward to speaking at the MDC. You’ll find an exclusive AIACC preview with her here.

Why are so many architects privately giving kudos to Mark Mack for his critique of critics?

Check out the video interview we grabbed with conference chair Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, on the roof of his home, the Solar Umbrella, here.

 

Clifford Pearson on MDC’s Connection with Architectural Record

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“I’m looking not only to see what the big guys are doing but also to discover younger architects who I wasn’t even aware of.” Photo courtesy of Architectural Record

Architectural Record has a long relationship with the Monterey Design Conference. Former Editor-in-Chief Robert Ivy, FAIA, has served as master of ceremonies at the conference several times.

This year, Record’s Deputy Editor-in-Chief Clifford Pearson is a member of the conference committee. Pearson heads the magazine’s annual Design Vanguard issue, so, of course, when we sat down to talk to him, we wanted his inside line on exciting work occurring globally.

But, first we asked him what drove Record’s commitment to the conference.

Pearson: It’s twofold. One is we love the idea of the conference. Bringing together speakers presenting their working and talking about their ideas—that’s a great thing for us as editors of a magazine.

But also, it’s a great way for us to see what’s happening out there. What is really nice [about the conference] is just the range of people.

As an editor, I’m looking not only to see what the big guys are doing but also to discover younger architects I wasn’t even aware of. It’s a great opportunity to do that.

What new work has particularly excited you in this year?
I was in Singapore a few months ago and there’s a generation of forty-something architects who are doing really cool work, some of whom have been educated in the US.

What’s really interesting is, in their part of the world, the architecture is very attuned to the climate. You can live outdoors in Singapore pretty much year-round if you design spaces that provide some shade and some cooling and keep a little bit of moisture out of the air. So, you get this integration of outdoors and indoors that’s wonderful.

There’s an architect named Soo Chan who’s done some really cool stuff. A young firm WOHA that’s done really interesting work. There’s a guy—Kay Ngee Tan who was originally from Malaysia but has lived in Singapore for the last twenty-five, thirty years. He designed the Singapore Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.

It’s always great to go to different parts of the world and see what younger architects are doing but there’s great stuff happening in California. Michael Maltzan is doing interesting work. I’d love to see the house that he did for Michael Ovitz.

Alice Kimm and John Friedman did this parking structure for LAPD that has this really gorgeous curtain wall on it—that’s a building type that’s usually done in a dull way and they said, “We’re going to do something interesting.

How has digital publication impacted Record and what sort of changes publications do you see in the future?
Architectural Record has a very robust website that’s an integral part of everything we do. At every editorial meeting we have now, we think, ‘The magazine is in part a print magazine, in part a web magazine, in part an iPAD/tablet magazine. So every time we talk about a story, we talk how we will do it on each platform.

While a lot of old magazines are disappearing, digital technologies have eliminated almost all barriers to entry, creating the opportunity for almost any 24-year-old-kid, with some brains and a computer to start creating his own publication.

Most of these startups will be crap, but there will be some really interesting publications coming out of this new environment. And hopefully they’ll do different things from what older magazines do. I think having a lot of different voices and different approaches to publishing architecture will only be good for the field.

Register here for this year’s MDC!

 

Clifford Pearson on MDC’s Connection with Architectural Record

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“I’m looking not only to see what the big guys are doing but also to discover younger architects who I wasn’t even aware of.” Photo courtesy of Architectural Record

Architectural Record has a long relationship with the Monterey Design Conference. Former Editor-in-Chief Robert Ivy, FAIA, has served as master of ceremonies at the conference several times.

This year, Record’s Deputy Editor-in-Chief Clifford Pearson is a member of the conference committee. Pearson heads the magazine’s annual Design Vanguard issue, so, of course, when we sat down to talk to him, we wanted his inside line on exciting work occurring globally.

But, first we asked him what drove Record’s commitment to the conference.

Pearson: It’s twofold. One is we love the idea of the conference. Bringing together speakers presenting their working and talking about their ideas—that’s a great thing for us as editors of a magazine.

But also, it’s a great way for us to see what’s happening out there. What is really nice [about the conference] is just the range of people.

As an editor, I’m looking not only to see what the big guys are doing but also to discover younger architects I wasn’t even aware of. It’s a great opportunity to do that.

What new work has particularly excited you in this year?
I was in Singapore a few months ago and there’s a generation of forty-something architects who are doing really cool work, some of whom have been educated in the US.

What’s really interesting is, in their part of the world, the architecture is very attuned to the climate. You can live outdoors in Singapore pretty much year-round if you design spaces that provide some shade and some cooling and keep a little bit of moisture out of the air. So, you get this integration of outdoors and indoors that’s wonderful.

There’s an architect named WOHA that’s done really interesting work. There’s a guy— Kay Ngee Tan who was originally from Malaysia but has lived in Singapore for the last twenty-five, thirty years. He designed the Singapore Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.

It’s always great to go to different parts of the world and see what younger architects are doing but there’s great stuff happening in California. Michael Maltzan is doing interesting work. I’d love to see the house that he did for Michael Ovitz.