Maigret Arquero Design Studio 56 Finding a Specialty 24

Karrie Jacobs on Ground Zero 46 Kennedy & Violich’s Soft House 99

THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS

July 2014 www.architectmagazine.com

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 CONTENTS
4
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

FPO
76 THE R+D AWARDS
The jury for our eighth annual R+D Awards celebrate nine innovative projects, products,
and processes that can advance building technology as we know it. GIDEON FINK SHAPIRO

78 One Fold 88 Breaking the Mold

Patkau Architects HouMinn Practice

80 NYC Loop 90 New York City Streetlight

FXFowle Architects Office for Visual Interaction, Thomas
Phifer and Partners, and Werner Sobek
82 Building Bytes
DesignLabWorkshop 92 C-Lith
Area
84 Exo Structural Tower
Do|Su Studio Architecture 94 Timber Tower Research Project
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
86 Afterhouse

→
Archolab 96 Meet this year’s judges

99 SOFT HOUSE ONLINE

This performative four-rowhouse complex in Hamburg, Germany, designed by Kennedy &
Violich Architecture, builds on years of research, including an R+D Award–winning prototype. FRESH
ARCHITECTURE,
EVERY DAY
Want more coverage of
design, products, culture,
technology, and business?
We are so darn productive
that it’s impossible to fit
every word and image into
the monthly print edition
of ARCHITECT. If you like the
magazine, then you’ll find
even more good stuff online
at architectmagazine.com.

LEFT: JAMES DOW/PATKAU ARCHITECTS; RIGHT: MICHAEL MOSER IMAGES

CONTACT US
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your address, ordering
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ON THE COVER
C-Lith installation, designed
This image: One Fold; Right: Soft House by Area, in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Photo by Brian Kelly.
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 07.14
6
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

FRONT
14 NOT YOUR FATHER’S
INSTITUTE
The AIA’s governing structure is changing, and
the result should be a more nimble Institute.

19 FRONT
Peter Zumthor updates his design for LACMA,
The Living debuts at both MoMA PS1 and
Autodesk, we solve a maze with Bjarke Ingels,
saving Paul Rudolph’s legacy, and more …

35 AIARCHITECT
New directions for AIAF, two worlds and two
community health needs, new design/build
resources from the AIA, and designing for health.

22 Bjarke Ingels at the center of the BIG Maze at the National Building Museum.
CENTER
46 LETTER FROM GROUND ZERO
Despite the opening of the 9/11 Museum,
Ground Zero remains a site conflicted in its
ambitions and execution.

52 BEHIND THE CURTAIN

The challenges and rewards for a U.S. firm
targeting a market in the former Soviet Union.

56 WATERSHED DESIGN
MAde Studio is applying its data-driven
approach to Detroit, revealing ways that its
water systems can influence urban design.

60 THE CULT OF KOOLHAAS

As chief curator of the Venice Architecture
Biennale, Rem Koolhaas’s vision was felt more
in the national pavilions than his own shows.

70 IN THE FOLD
SCDA Architects makes origami out of
aluminum mesh at the Singapore National

148 Design Center.

74 MADE OF METTLE
TOP: MATTHEW CARBONE; BOTTOM: FRAN PARENTE

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BACK
112 RISING FROM THE ROCKS
46 A security checkpoint at the World Trade Center site Sedona’s Chapel of the Holy Cross exemplifies
the melding of structure and site.
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 THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS

INSIDE MANAGING EDITOR

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Ned Cramer, Assoc. AIA
ncramer@hanleywood.com
ART DIRECTOR

OUT
Greig O’Brien Robb Ogle
gobrien@hanleywood.com rogle@hanleywood.com

DESIGN COLUMNS AND FEATURES ART

EXECUTIVE EDITOR SENIOR EDITOR SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Katie Gerfen Eric Wills Alice Ashe
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ASSOCIATE EDITOR ONLINE AND RESEARCH GRAPHIC DESIGNER

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ASSOCIATE EDITOR EDITORIAL INTERN COPY

Hallie Busta Chelsea Blahut COPY EDITOR
hbusta@hanleywood.com Dena Levitz

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Aaron Betsky; Blaine Brownell, AIA; Thomas de Monchaux; Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson; John Morris Dixon, FAIA;
Thomas Fisher, Assoc. AIA; Joseph Giovannini; Cathy Lang Ho; Karrie Jacobs; Vernon Mays; Ian Volner; Mimi Zeiger
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
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Want to know what goes on at the New School? Passersby
need only glance at the institution’s new University Center
in Greenwich Village to understand that progressive EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Fredric M. Bell, FAIA; Renee Cheng, AIA; Ned Cramer, Assoc. AIA; Yolande Daniels, Assoc. AIA; Sarah Dunn;
design education happens here. The building by Skidmore, Andrew Freear; George H. Miller, FAIA; Randy Peterson, FAIA; James Timberlake, FAIA
Owings & Merrill expresses the school’s interdisciplinary
approach through a brass-shingled facade crisscrossed by
a series of glass-enclosed stairways that highlight a vivid DESIGN GROUP
tableau of students circulating within. The unique system EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Ron Spink Ned Cramer, Assoc. AIA
encourages collaboration—and a new dialogue between rspink@hanleywood.com 202.736.3431 ncramer@hanleywood.com
campus and community that is sure to be conversation for
decades to come.
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 THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS

NEW HANLEY WOOD MEDIA

PRESIDENT, MEDIA
Dave Colford

TWIST
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT,
EXECUTIVE PROGRAMS AUDIENCE OPERATIONS STRATEGIC MARKETING SERVICES
Joe Maglitta Sarah Welcome Tom Rousseau

CHIEF DESIGN DIRECTOR SENIOR DIRECTOR, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT,

Gillian Berenson MEDIA SERVICES & ACCOUNT STRATEGIC MARKETING SERVICES
COORDINATION & CONSUMER MEDIA
DIRECTOR, USER EXPERIENCE & Mari Skelnik Jennifer Pearce
INTERFACE DESIGN
Aubrey Altmann GENERAL MANAGER, SENIOR DIRECTOR,
DIRECTORY SOLUTIONS PRINT PRODUCTION
GENERAL MANAGER, ONLINE Rizwan Ali Cathy Underwood
Kim Heneghan
EVENT PLANNER
Kristina Reardon

HANLEY WOOD
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Peter Goldstone

VICE CHAIRMAN
Frank Anton
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER PRESIDENT, MEDIA PRESIDENT, DIGITAL
Matthew Flynn Dave Colford Andrew Reid

PRESIDENT, EXHIBITIONS PRESIDENT, METROSTUDY PRESIDENT, MARKETING

Rick McConnell Christopher Veator Jeanne Milbrath

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT,

CORPORATE SALES MARKETING CORPORATE CONTROLLER
Paul Mattioli Sheila Harris Keith Rosenbloom

VICE PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,

GENERAL COUNSEL FINANCIAL PLANNING & ANALYSIS CUSTOMER MARKETING
Michael Bender Ron Kraft & AIA BUSINESS LIAISON
John Crosby
The new ideas that poured into Lower Manhattan’s DIRECTOR OF SALES,
EMERGING ACCOUNTS GROUP
rebuilding resulted in a stronger infrastructure—and some Philip Hernandez
architectural gems. A key piece in the undertaking is Pelli
Clarke Pelli’s new Pavilion at Brookfield Place, a public
space serving the 35,000 commuters who use the PATH
system daily. Because the system’s track network runs 2014 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
underneath, the pavilion’s soaring roof and hanging glass OFFICERS: Helene Combs Dreiling, FAIA, President; Elizabeth Chu Richter, FAIA, First Vice President;
curtain wall could only be supported at two points. Thornton Don Brown, FAIA, Vice President; Susan Chin, FAIA, Vice President; James Easton Rains Jr., FAIA, Vice President;
Thomas V. Vonier, FAIA, Vice President; Richard DeYoung, FAIA, Secretary; John P. Grounds, AIA, Treasurer;
Tomasetti met the challenge with a pair of 54-foot-tall Vicki Long, CAE, CACE Representative to the Executive Committee; Wayne A. Mortensen, AIA, Senior Associate Director;
Robert A. Ivy, FAIA, EVP/Chief Executive Officer.
“basket” columns, each gathering its loads in an expressive
DIRECTORS: David A. Argano, AIA, LEED AP; William J. Bates, AIA; Sho-Ping Chin, FAIA, LEED AP;
weave of lightweight, brightly painted twisting steel tubing Randolph J. Collins, AIA; Westin Conahan, Assoc. AIA; Stuart L. Coppedge, AIA, LEED AP; Robert Cozzarelli, AIA;
that spirals down to plaza level in an ever-tightening array. It Miguel A. Del Rio, AIA; Julia A. Donoho, Esq., AIA, LEED AP; Carl Elefante, FAIA, LEED AP; Stephen Fiskum, FAIA;
Jeffrey E. Flemming, AIA; Linna Jane Frederick, FAIA; Mindy Fullilove, MD; Haley M. Gipe, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP;
is innovative design, with a twist. Daniel S. Hart, FAIA, PE; Michael C. Hoffman, AIA; Steve Jernigan, FAIA, LEED AP B+C; Thad R. Kelly III, AIA,
LEED AP BD+C; Donald I. King, FAIA; Henry A. Kosarzycki, AIA; George Kunihiro, FAIA; Evelyn M. Lee, AIA;
Tina Litteral, Hon. AIA, CAE; Paula J. Loomis, FAIA; Stephen Maher, AIA, LEED AP; Michael F. Malinowski, AIA;
Lanny McIntosh, AIA; James Nader, FAIA; John V. Nyfeler, FAIA, LEED AP; Wendy Ornelas, FAIA;
Burton L. Roslyn, FAIA; Anthony P. Schirripa, FAIA, IIDA; Steven D. Schuster, FAIA; William D. Seider, FAIA;

Structural Steel Bruce W. Sekanick, AIA, OAA; Steven Spurlock, FAIA, LEED AP; Walter D. Street III, AIA;
Martha R. Tarrant, AIA, LEED AP BD+C; Julie D. Taylor, Hon. AIA/LA; Stephen Vogel, FAIA.

Right for any application NATIONAL STAFF

EXECUTIVE TEAM: Robert A. Ivy, FAIA, Chief Executive Officer; Richard James, CPA, Chief Operating Officer;
Kathron Compton, Senior Vice President, Strategic Marketing, Communications & Convention;
Deborah DeBernard, AIA, NCARB, ARCHITECT AIBC, LEED BD+C, Vice President & General Manager, AIA Contract
Documents; Lisa Green, Vice President, Finance & Accounting; Susan McDaid, Hon. AIA, Senior Vice President,
For help achieving the goals of your next project, Member & Component Resources; Ken L. Ross Jr., FAIA, Senior Vice President, Design & Practice; Phil Simon, CAE,
contact the Steel Institute of New York. Vice President, Strategic Communications & Marketing; Jay A. Stephens, Esq., Senior Vice President &
General Counsel; Terri Stewart, CAE, Vice President, Design & Practice Operations/ED, COF.

MANAGEMENT TEAM: Suzanne Bagheri, CPA, Managing Director, Accounting; Marlene Bohn, SPHR, GPHR,
Managing Director, Human Resources; Paula Clements, Hon. TSA, CAE, Managing Director, Component
Collaboration & Resources; Kenneth Cobleigh, Esq., Managing Director & Counsel, Contract Documents Content;
Sandra Coyle, Managing Director, Public Relations & Outreach; Pam Day, Hon. AIA, Corporate Secretary &
Publisher of Metals in Construction Managing Director, Governance Administration; Andrew Goldberg, Assoc. AIA, Managing Director, Government
211 E 43 ST | NY, NY 10017 | 212-697-5553 | www.siny.org Relations & Outreach; Christopher Gribbs, Assoc. AIA, Managing Director, Convention; Maan Hashem, PMP,
CAE, Managing Director, Software & Products Services; Jessyca Henderson, AIA, Managing Director, Policy &
Community Relations; Lisa Hollingshed-Johnson, Managing Director, IWST Operations; Suzanna Wight Kelley, AIA,
Circle no. 272 or http://architect.hotims.com LEED AP, Managing Director, Strategic Alliances & Initiatives; Damon Leverett, AIA, Managing Director, Diversity
& Emerging Professionals Engagement; Philip O’Neal, Managing Director, Information Technology;
Douglas Paul, Managing Director, Practice & Knowledge Resources; Jeffrey Raymond, Managing Director,
New Business Development Technology; Cedric Rush, Managing Director, Member Support;
Jonathan Sullivan, Managing Director, Web Management & Development.
Architect: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects
Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
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 DIALOGUE
14
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

NOT YOUR FATHER’S

INSTITUTE
THE AIA IS REVAMPING ITS BOARD, SHRINKING THE ROSTER FROM ABOUT
50 PEOPLE TO NO MORE THAN 16. AND THAT’S JUST THE BEGINNING.

I’M STILL kind of in shock, but in a good way. According to the official AIA statement,
WITHIN At the AIA Convention in Chicago last month, “the strategic council’s role will be to advise
THREE YEARS, delegates voted overwhelmingly to overhaul (but not bind) the board” on “goals and
the Institute’s national governing structure. objectives,” “public policy,” and “operation
A MAJORITY The vote is majorly significant, and I don’t just plans and budgets.” Moreover, “it can form
OF AIA BOARD say so because I’m the editor of the official AIA committees and ad hoc work groups (subject
MEMBERS publication. The existing, roughly 50-person
board is being reduced to a group of no more
to board approval), and will determine its own
leadership structure.” The council is limited to
COULD BE than 16. As a result, the AIA stands to act much 60 representatives:
UNLICENSED. more nimbly on behalf of the profession.
As with any healthy diet, it will take some 1. From the board, the president, first vice
time for the board to slenderize. The obsolete president/president-elect, secretary,
positions—notably the 35 regional directorships treasurer, and the EVP/CEO, as well as
and four vice presidencies—won’t be filled the immediate past president;
when the current holders’ terms are up, a 2. Approximately 35 representatives selected
process of attrition that the AIA speculates by region for staggered three-year terms
could last as long as three years.“The board and an international region rep with a
showed tremendous leadership. We have more three-year term;
work to do putting the new structure into 3. Associate, student, and CACE reps for
place, but the overwhelming support tells me terms to be determined by the board; and
we have a mandate to move forward,” says AIA 4. Ten at-large reps, chosen by the council to
President Helene Combs Dreiling, FAIA. “This is serve staggered two-year terms.
the new AIA, and I’m so proud to be a member.”
The regions get seats on a new advisory The at-large board directors and at-large
body called the strategic council. The board’s council representatives can be architects,
11-person executive committee will also disband, associates, students, CACE reps, or members of
which is no great loss because the revamped the public. Now read the preceding sentence
board is basically a judicious reworking of it: again, and do the math. If the reduced size of
the board doesn’t strike you as noteworthy, this
1. Four officers elected by the delegates at the should: Within three years, a majority of AIA
annual convention, namely the president board members could be unlicensed.
and first vice president/president-elect, I’m not saying it’s likely from a political
both for one-year terms, and the secretary perspective, but, apparently, it’s possible. And
and treasurer, both for two-year terms; the possibility alone suggests that a tectonic
2. Up to eight at-large directors, three elected shift is occurring at the AIA. Its leaders seem to
by the delegates and three more elected be inviting a new relationship with associate
by the strategic council, all for three-year members, architectural interns, and former
terms, plus as many as two selected by the practitioners who, for too long, have felt like
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

president (subject to board approval) for second-class professional citizens. With so

terms that expire when hers or his does; many of our colleagues questioning the value
3. An associate director with a two- of licensure and the narrow way that the title
year term, a Council of Architectural of “architect” is currently ordained, the AIA is
Component Executives (CACE) director sending them an incredibly positive message
with a one-year term, and a student by making its governance more inclusive.
director; and
ELI KAPLAN

4. The AIA’s Executive Vice President/Chief

Executive Officer (EVP/CEO), who can’t vote.
Circle no. 46 or http://architect.hotims.com
 CONTRIBUTORS
16
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

NATE BERG

NATE BERG is a journalist based in Los Angeles who covers Berg was a finalist for the 2013 Livingston Awards
cities, architecture, design, and technology. He was a staff for Young Journalists for his Next City feature article on
writer at The Atlantic Cities, now called CityLab, and he was HafenCity, a neighborhood being built from scratch in
previously an editor at the urban planning news website Hamburg, Germany. His recent reporting has included
Planetizen. His work has appeared in a wide variety of outlets, driving an electric car (which ran out of batteries) and Read Berg’s Up and
including The New York Times, The Guardian, Wired, and 99% riding an electric bike (which did not), and he has various Running story on how
new architecture firms
Invisible. He is a longtime contributor to ARCHITECT, and has other projects in the works exploring new architecture should establish their
covered business and design extensively for this magazine. and weird infrastructure. markets, on page 28.

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FRONT
19

ARCHITECT JULY 2014

LACMA SLIDES
Peter Zumthor, Hon. FAIA, has released new drawings for the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The neighboring Page
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

Museum had protested his initial design as encroaching on the

La Brea Tar Pits. So in response, Zumthor has pulled the building’s
footprint back and dramatically stretched it across Wilshire Boulevard.
Previous design
New design

Tar pits Surface pits Scientific research

potential: Normal
Tar pit Below Scientific research
protection zone grade pits potential: High
20
FRONT
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

A LESS BRUTAL READING

A NEW PAUL RUDOLPH MONOGRAPH OFFERS A FRESH TAKE
ON THE ARCHITECT’S CONCRETE PROJECTS

THERE’S ONE in every group. Fla., to creating concrete

A nonbeliever, that is. Most of campuses in the Northeast.
the people attending a recent One of Rohan’s key insights
Saturday afternoon tour of is his emphasis on Rudolph’s
Paul Rudolph’s Government interest in interiors. From his
Service Center (1971) in Boston first house in Auburn, Ala., in
are already convinced there 1940, Rudolph was intimately
is something to see here. We involved with the art, colors,
listen as Timothy M. Rohan, textiles, and furnishings. This
author of the first complete is something we should have
monograph of Rudolph’s work, known from the architectural
talks about the theatrical, even fragments and orange carpet
therapeutic, components of at his Yale Art & Architecture
the Mental Health Building. Building (1963), but given the
A middle-aged man in a episodic nature of his career,
plaid shirt is having none his later New York residential
of it. His body language projects and his middle-
and increasingly aggressive period concrete works have
mutterings point to just one rarely been considered as a
question: “You like this stuff?” continuum. But Rohan returns
After too many such to this theme and cracks open a
outbursts, he had to be asked discussion yet to be had about
to leave. But I had him in art, color, and ornament in
mind as I read Rohan’s The Brutalism and beyond.
Architecture of Paul Rudolph Rohan keeps Rudolph
(Yale University Press, 2014). in context in a way many
Could such a book—well- monographs forget to do.
argued, well-illustrated, I don’t think of Rudolph’s
well-edited—convince him work as similar to that of
of Rudolph’s worth in a way Edward Durell Stone, Minoru
the tour did not? It’s a timely Yamasaki, and Philip Johnson.
publication, as the architect But, indeed, critic Reyner
has become a central character Banham lumped them Above: Timothy Rohan, an
in present-day discussions together as the “Ballet School,” associate professor of art history
of how, why, and when to its members more interested at the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst, has written the first
preserve Brutalist buildings. in ornament and aesthetics in-depth scholarly assessment of
Rohan’s book offers important than the ethics of the British Rudolph’s work.
context for those works, and incarnation of New Brutalism.
new insight into Rudolph’s Every believer will have
conflicted personality. That favorite Rudolph projects that
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

personality—obsessive, get short shrift. I missed the

aggressive, vulnerable— spectacular Milam residence
took him from early life as (1961) and the Rudolph-does-
a solitary minister’s son in preservation First Church in
Alabama to the Harvard Boston (1968). But it is a sign
Graduate School of Design, of a good monograph that it
MIKE BASHER

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FRONT
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

Q+A: Ingels reaches a dead end.

BJARKE INGELS What’s the basic concept?

The idea here is that when
get out. But it could also be that
it would be totally easy to get
you go through the maze, you it—that you wouldn’t get lost.
enter into a very narrow crack,
almost like a canyon, with very, What made you decide on
very tall walls around you, a these materials?
very tight space, the proportions I think the beauty of the wood
are very vertical. Then as you is that you don’t need to paint
move around, the proportions it, because it already looks nice.
of the space you find yourself And then the atrium has these
in changes. … [When] you warm colors, and somehow
THE FOUNDING WASHINGTON, D.C., has a new arrive at the center, you get the maze, especially when you
funhouse for the summer: a this great reveal. The reward are standing in here, feels like
PARTNER OF DENMARK- roughly 60-foot-square maze for completing the maze is that it was always meant to be. It
BASED BJARKE INGELS designed by Bjarke Ingels you get a complete overview almost has the same texture
GROUP (BIG) CHATS Group (BIG). Located in the of all the walls around you. as the marble—the fake
WITH ARCHITECT INSIDE neoclassical atrium of the city’s marble on the columns. …
National Building Museum, What’s different about But honestly, it was the
HIS NEW MAZE FOR the “BIG Maze” was designed designing a maze? cheapest and simplest
WASHINGTON, D.C.’S
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

geometrically as though an The biggest anxiety was material to work with.

NATIONAL BUILDING inverted cone was subtracted definitely that we couldn’t
MUSEUM. from a cube, producing 18- really predict if it was going Have you gotten lost?
foot walls at the corners that to be difficult enough. … Definitely. Much more than I
slope down toward the center. Of course, we could look at could have hoped for, actually.
MATTHEW CARBONE

At a press preview of the different mazes. We could also

installation, founding partner theoretically make it [so you] “BIG Maze” runs through
Watch a video of our interview with Bjarke Ingels shared his vision spend all of the time getting Sept. 1 at the National Building
Ingels at architectmagazine.com. for the project. SARA JOHNSON in, and then it is very easy to Museum. nbm.org.
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24
FRONT

Jo
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"Positioning is the crux of strategy, because everything falls from a position statement," says Jean Leathers,
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FIRM IS description of who you are as an architectural practice,

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two sentences you should be able to encapsulate the
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TIP 2: For firms without a sense of identity, Leathers

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26
FRONT

Internal Branch Connection

ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

1"Ø steel rod

(4 5⁄16" to 10 ¹³⁄16"
long)

½" steel plate

mortised into each
glulam member

⅜" steel knife

plate welded to
central plate (typ.)

Column Base
1' × 3' glulam timber branch

6"Ø boring (typ.)

1' × 3' 4" glulam

timber trunk

½" steel plate

1" steel plate

Steel beam

DETAIL:
CREDIT VALLEY HOSPITAL
FARROW PARTNERSHIP THE IDEA for the grove of Farrow Partnership Architects. Designed in 2003, the project
ARCHITECTS CREATED AN timber trees flourishing in He made a few sketches and precedes today’s advanced
the atrium of Credit Valley foamcore models for the 11,500- 3D modeling software and
INDOOR FOREST BEFORE
Hospital’s Carlo Fidani Peel square-foot space before fabrication technologies. Early
DIGITAL FABRICATION Regional Cancer Center, in creating a triangular floor plan in the design process, Farrow
CAME OF AGE. Mississauga, Ontario, grew centered on four sprawling and his team began a steady
out of visits by Toronto-based columns comprising Douglas dialogue with manufacturing
architect Tye Farrow, Intl. fir glulam (glue-laminated) and installation partner
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

Learn more about the design Assoc. AIA, to 30 cancer centers members. Timber Systems to detail the
and fabrication of the timber in North America and Europe. The massive engineered complex geometry.
trees in Credit Valley Hospital’s Patients told him they wanted timbers curve 44 feet 6 inches This May, Farrow visited
Peel Regional Cancer Center fewer hotel-like amenities and up to the beams that support the center to see the project 10
atrium at architectmagazine.com. more reasons to feel hopeful. the atrium roof. Like trees, the years after its completion. “It
The Detail series of innovative “We decided to create an structural columns sprout looks as good as it did when
material-assembly solutions
environment that appeared almost seamlessly into glulam it opened,” the architect says.
TOM ARBAN

is proudly supported by
reThink Wood. to be alive and growing,” says branches that further support “Maybe even better, thanks to
Farrow, a senior partner at the roof frame. the patina it has picked up.”
28
FRONT
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

THE HY LIFE
June 27 was a good day for David Benjamin. His Hy-Fi
installation, the latest iteration in the Young Architects
Program, the annual collaboration between the Museum
of Modern Art and MoMA PS1, opened at MoMA PS1’s
courtyard in Long Island City, N.Y. The compostable structure
(shown in these photos) is made of two types of organic
bricks. And to top everything off, Benjamin’s experimental
design studio, The Living, was acquired by Autodesk for an
unnamed sum the same day.
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

NOAH KALINA
62 ND ANNUAL PROGRESSIVE ARCHITECTU
PROGRESSIVE ARCHITECTURE AWARDS 6
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Have an innovative new project underway? DEADLINES FEES
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regulations, visit paawards.com REGISTER AT PAAWARDS.COM

2014 P/A Award Winner Kaohsiung Port Terminal, RUR Architecture

30
FRONT
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

PORTFOLIO:
MECANOO ARCHITECTEN
Office: Delft, the Netherlands
Principals: Francine Houben, Hon. FAIA (founding partner);
Aart Fransen, Paul Ketelaars, Ellen van der Wal, Dick van Gameren,
Francesco Veenstra (partners)
No. of Employees: 120
Founded: 1984
Latest News: In May, Mecanoo won the commission for the University of
Manchester’s new engineering campus in the U.K. More locally, Mecanoo
also won a competition to redesign Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Martin
Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C.
Recent Work: La Llotja Theatre and Conference Centre, Lleida, Spain
(top); Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (right); Dudley
Municipal Center, Boston (below)

Every month we dedicate this space to work that architects have uploaded to
our online Project Gallery. Publish yourself at architectmagazine.com/projects.

TOP: CHRISTIAN RICHTERS; BOTTOM RIGHT: KOUZI ISITA

WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM
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 35

J NOW 37 FEATURE 38 KNOWLEDGE 40 PERSPECTIVE 42

july 2014
photo: vincent ricardel

AIA VOICES
reintroducing architecture | new directions for aiaf

In February, the AIA Foundation (AIAF) appointed Sherry-Lea Bloodworth NGOs, architecture firms, universities, and other organizations. The
Botop as its executive director to revitalize the nonprofit’s public outreach, goal for each studio is to raise important issues surrounding resilience
philanthropy, and advocacy initiatives. Bloodworth Botop, a 2014 White but also to find and implement solutions to strengthen communities.
House Innovation Fellow, joins AIAF from Architecture for Humanity, I’m also excited to announce that the AIAF will launch a national
where she served as senior adviser and director of strategic development. Designing Health initiative that capitalizes on the work undertaken
“The public is everyone,” she says, “and if I can get people to understand by the AIA’s Design+Health team centering on social equity, sensory
how architects impact their individual lives, then it’s a productive day.” environments, access to nature, and other improvement tactics.
But you can’t talk about resilience in the larger sense without
for me, the value of architects and architecture is very talking about stewardship of our historic buildings. In addition
personal. When I worked for Architecture for Humanity, I made a to public outreach and fundraising, the AIAF is the steward of the
commitment to more than 900 people who I evacuated from the Gulf Octagon. The Octagon is the gateway to the AIA and our intention is
Coast after Hurricane Katrina—I told them I’d help them return home. to fortify it—through restoration, through exhibitions, and through
And I couldn’t have kept that promise without architects. public-facing programming. Coming to work each day keeps
Most people know the word “architect,” and some think they me focused on preservation’s importance to this small corner of
design only skyscrapers. Obviously, the explanation is much fuller Washington, D.C., as well as all the corners in this country enriched
than that; a good architect can make our lives better. I believe that, by older buildings. It’s about introducing the elements of stewardship
and I think it’s the core of the AIAF as well, which is committed to to the public—a building’s value, how the building contributed to
educating our communities about the central role of architecture. historic events, how the building continues to contribute to the
One of the projects that the AIAF is focused on right now is a everyday lives of the people who live and work there.
national resilience program, which will have its start in Newark, And, then, hopefully, people begin to see how a continuum of
N.J. It’s part of a partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative, the architecture—old and new—is fundamental to the quality of their
Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities Program, Architecture lives. —As told to William Richards 
for Humanity, and Public Architecture—and it will consist of five
regional studios that will work with local, state, and federal partners, Read Sara Johnson’s Q+A with Bloodworth Botop at bit.ly/1jRGXzp.
 37

AIA NOW 1 Counter Weights. Today 93 million

across the institute Americans struggle with obesity, which
By William Richards the Center for Disease Control qualifies as
a “common, serious, and costly” trend.
Limited access to treatment, poor prevention
2 Outdoorsy. This isn’t the first time we’ve rapidly awareness, and weight bias are only some
urbanized. Industrialization and immigration 150 years of the hurdles that face affected individuals.
ago grew cities, sanitation efforts, and mass transit Evidence-based reformers like the Obesity
systems. It was also the birth of the American parks and Action Coalition hope to reverse these
rec movement. In the spirit of that legacy, the National trends, notably, through design, at
Recreation and Park Association’s 2014 Congress its third annual Your Weight Matters
(Oct. 14–16) focuses on wellness and social equity. National Convention in Orlando
(Sept. 25–28).

july 2014
n Learn more at nrpa.org.
n Learn more at obesityaction.org.

3 Great Lakes Green.

AIA Michigan’s Green
Health Summit centers on
how design can encourage
better individual health
and elevate the quality of
public health. Speakers
include UCLA’s Dr. Richard
Jackson; Municipal Art
Society of New York’s
Margaret Newman,
FAIA; and AIA Design and
Health’s Bill Roschen, FAIA.
“Making the Healthy Choice
the Easy Choice” will be
held in Lansing on Sept. 8.
n Learn more at aiami.com.

4 A Week of Outreach. Obesity

Week (Nov. 2–7, Boston) is a
chance for the American Society for
Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and
the Obesity Society to meet. It’s also
art direction: jelena schulz | illustration: lauren nassef.

a chance to raise awareness about

a disease that affects more than
20 percent of the U.S. population.
Partner symposia, video sessions,
and over 100 learning-track events
will bring together evidence-based
design, cutting-edge research, and
public advocacy.
5 Improvement and Equity. Science contributes to wellness, but public n Learn more at obesityweek.com.
wellness isn’t just science. It’s about hard-fought social, economic,
and design battles undertaken by physicians, legislators, city planners,
and architects. To that end, the American Public Health Association’s
platform is simple: Improve public health and achieve equity in health
status. Its annual meeting and expo (New Orleans, Nov. 15–19) offers
more than 5,000 papers, full- and half-day workshops, and a film
festival to marry quantitative data and qualitative advocacy.
n Learn more at apha.org.
38

Future
Islands
july 2014

two worlds and two community health needs

michael graves, faia, has a distinct interest in upgrading Above: RKTB/Perkins Eastman’s plan for a 200-acre healthcare complex in
the spaces, equipment, and patient experience in the average Abuja, Nigeria. “It’s a weird landscape,” says RKTB principal Carmi Bee, “unlike
healthcare project. “I was paralyzed 10 years ago, and as I went any you’d see in this part of the world.”
from hospital to hospital—eight of them, actually, and four rehab
centers—I realized that it wasn’t exactly Third World but it wasn’t In the United States, the ratio is 1:330. In Third World countries, on
much better,” he told the audience at the ribbon-cutting earlier the other hand, it can be closer to 1:4,000.
this year for his firm’s Shore Orthopaedic Group building, in Somers “As the saying goes, a healthy nation is a wealthy nation,” says
Point, N.J. Graves is well-regarded as an advocate for smart healthcare Dr. Ifeanyi Obiakor, a Nigerian national, U.S.-trained obstetrician
spaces and more ergonomic and intuitive products, having been and gynecologist. The naked ratios are clearly against poorer nations,
named by Healthcare Design magazine as one of the field’s most Obiakor points out, but there is also severe brain drain. Although
influential figures in 2010. The following year, he was featured as a Nigeria’s economy is Africa’s largest, about 40 percent of Nigerian
TEDMED speaker and, in 2013, President Barack Obama appointed physicians practice outside of the country—and many of the best are
Graves to the U.S. Access Board. among the 30,000 (including Obiakor) who live in the U.S.
But what about the Third World that Graves mentioned? Patient It’s not only a matter of treatment, but also a matter of creating a
services, consistent healthcare, and reliably sterile environments human and technological infrastructure in which that treatment can
are greater struggles in Central and South America, India, and many occur: doctors, incentivized to practice in their home countries, with
African nations than they are in the United States. Good design (along access to the tools they need to do their jobs. To that end, Obiakor
with proper practices) could solve a lot of those issues. sees anchor hospitals as nodal keys to improving public health in
Design’s solution is often tempered by macroeconomic challenges Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. In 2005, Obiakor partnered with the Federal
that have to do with fundamental shortages. If you have a lot of ailing Government of Nigeria and enlisted Rothzeid Kaiserman Thomson &
people, you need to have a lot of doctors—one doctor for every 1,000 Bee (RKTB) and Perkins Eastman to design the American Hospital, a
people, at a minimum, according to the World Health Organization. series of treatment centers that establish a healthcare system.
 39
AIAFEATURE

july 2014
In 2013, RKTB/Perkins Eastman completed the first component of when new people are in town.” Still, Bafitis notes, the hospital
the plan, a satellite clinic in downtown Abuja dedicated to reducing project has a great deal of momentum behind it, from the likes of
infant and maternal mortality. The second phase will be a larger General Electric as well as French and Dutch financiers—although
American Specialist Hospital for Women and Children, to be installed nobody is wagering heavily on precise timetables.
in an existing building in Abuja, in late 2015. It seems fair to wonder—as the U.S. medical system is itself
The plan’s third phase, the American Hospital, itself, will come undergoing self-appraisal and restructuring—whether the American
last: a 70-bed, 205,200-square-foot hospital designed by RKTB/ healthcare model is the optimal choice for Nigeria (rather than,
Perkins Eastman near Abuja’s airport. Expected to be completed say, Britain’s, with its universal coverage and deeper cultural ties
in 2017, it will provide fee-for-service specialist care and will to the country). Obiakor observes a distinction between healthcare
concentrate on the four deadliest, non-communicable diseases: financing and healthcare itself in American access and cost barriers,
diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular in spite of advanced American medical technologies.
conditions, and cancer. However, healthcare’s physical footprint is just as important as its
The design follows a radial-symmetrical plan centered around operational details. When an architect in the U.S. like Michael Graves
the southwest side of a working reservoir, with clinical and support treats efficiency and sustainability as equal partners, a new future for
spaces on the central arc and patient rooms on spoke-shaped wings regional or local clinic-based healthcare starts to emerge. Shore Ortho,
radiating to the rear. The 200-acre site, donated by the government, a small rehabilitation clinic located along a strip-mall-and-chain-
is “a weird landscape, to say the least, with a geological formation motel arterial road, may seem like an unlikely client for Graves’s firm,
which is unlike any you’d see in this part of the world,” says RKTB Michael Graves & Associates (MGA), or its sister company, Michael
principal Carmi Bee, FAIA, who cites Alvar Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium Graves Design Group (MGDG). Somers Point is, after all, where the
in Finland as an inspiration for the kind of healing environment he’s 1980s shore band B-movie Eddie and the Cruisers was shot. (Eddie: “We
aiming to create. ain’t great. We’re just some guys from Jersey.”) You get the idea.
Ultimately, the hospital campus will include treatment facilities, But because an increasing number of Americans receive treatment
classroom space for the American-Nigerian University of Medical from small local specialty clinics like Shore Ortho, the design of the
and Environmental Sciences and Research, and a residential area for patient’s experience is central to the success of a medical business.
doctors and family members visiting long-term patients. But the Field “Our goal was to enhance the orthopedic patient experience
of Dreams adage—“If you build it, they will come”—is a little more and include as many evidence-based design elements as possible.
complicated in Nigeria. First, it costs money to build a healthcare You may ask how much evidence-based design can be utilized in a
system, let alone a hospital; and Abuja’s poorest and ailing citizens 10,000-square-foot building outpatient facility,” says MGA project
certainly won’t come if they can’t afford the services. architect James Wisniewski, AIA, who notes that Shore Ortho is
“The hook, if you will, to capturing a wealthier population as the certainly not the first healthcare project to implement evidence-
target demographic for the hospital is to say, ‘Look, our medical staff based design. “MGA approaches every project both aesthetically
is American- or British-trained,’” says Joseph Shein, AIA, a healthcare and empathetically—how the space impacts the individual is just as
design specialist and principal at Perkins Eastman who believes the important as how it looks. During programming, we considered the
first step is to lure back Nigerian doctors trained abroad. Then lure unique populations that would be using the building and how they
the nation’s wealthiest patients—who commonly fly to Europe or the would move within the building. All design decisions were made
Middle East to treat everything from the a cold to cancer. through that lens.”
Reversing the flow of medical tourism should put the hospital in MGA managing principal Karen Nichols, FAIA, says that the MGA
a strong position for the project’s final phase: a dedicated medical team began with what she calls a “patients first” approach. Before
university that Obiakor predicts will turn out 1,000 doctors and floor plans, fenestration, or furniture, says Nichols, “We considered
24,000 allied health personnel each year. But the RKTB/Perkins solutions to relevant issues faced by patients and their caregivers. We
Eastman team has a few challenges to address first. Abuja’s energy took our cues from research for a transport chair we designed, where
grid is unreliable, for one, but Bee’s team is working to find ways for the relevant problems were infection control, tripping and falling
the hospital to generate up to 70 percent of its own power through hazards, the difficult process of getting in and out of a wheelchair,
waste-heat recapture. Photovoltaic arrays will also capture something and back strain for clinicians—whose rate of strain-related injuries is
that seems to be abundant in Nigeria—sunlight. double that of construction workers.”
Another challenge is political instability. “There’ve been three “These were critical design drivers for the design of an outpatient
changes of administration since we started,” says Peter Bafitis, AIA, rehabilitation project where most patients would be in wheelchairs,”
another RKTB principal, “and it’s a whole new ballgame [each time] adds Wisniewski.
40

AIAKNOWLEDGE
To minimize fomites (objects that harbor and transmit germs), bid review
surfaces throughout Shore Ortho are mostly hard and easily cleaned:
vinyl flooring, white Corian, and, where it’s used in high-traffic areas, new aia design/build resources for a
making sure that any carpeting is composed of antimicrobial material new practice landscape.
and segmented into removable tiles.
MGA and MGDG redesigned chairs and over-bed tables for Stryker
Medical to ease patient movements. They also replaced so-called more and more architects are considering design/build as
“groping and hoping” position controls on chairs with specially an opportunity for increasing both design excellence and
designed arms, and tables with handles and levers positioned in profitability. The benefits for an architect to engage in design/
july 2014

more-intuitive places. “Michael has tremendous firsthand insight build include a longer engagement period with the client, greater
and tried out all of the features as they were being developed,” says involvement with the construction phase, and more revenue per
Nichols. “He was like our guinea pig.” project. The downside? Traditional contractor-led design/build
Since studies correlate healing with daylight and natural views, may limit the role of the architect and, in architect-led design/
the Shore Ortho building was designed to maximize the amount build, the financial risks can be substantial.
of light reaching the interior spaces with low transparent internal On June 26, AIA Contract Documents launched the next
partitions, a pergola allowing outdoor physical therapy when generation of design/build agreements that reflect the delivery
seasonable, and rear contemplative gardens for both patients and method’s legacy as well as the current practice landscape. Of
staff. Corridors throughout the complex are at least 5 feet wide, easing course, the previous iteration of design/build contract documents
movement for the wheelchair-bound. Radial floor plans are organized (ending in -2004) will still be available in tandem to the new ones
in what Wisniewski calls “service pods” to help doctors and nurses (ending in -2014) until December 2015.
move quickly from hubs to individual patient areas. The latest edition of AIA’s The Architects Handbook of Professional
Workspace dimensions allow staff to converse outside patients’ Practice, 15th edition (Wiley 2013) includes both time-tested and
earshot, combining compliance to Health Insurance Portability and timely knowledge about design/build. The new Handbook also
Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy regulations with a regard for the provides information about the design/build family of AIA Contract
disturbing effects of overheard information. Administrative areas are Documents. Design/build and other project delivery methods are
clustered at the rear to easily accommodate expansion and growth. described in Chapter 9 of the Handbook, which can be purchased
When Shore Ortho one day decides to add a wing, demolition of separately through the AIA Bookstore
those spaces can proceed inexpensively without disrupting clinical Today the most common method of design/build is contractor-
activities. As environmental performance becomes more important in led design/build (CLDB). As design and construction became
the energy-hungry healthcare sector, notes Wisniewski, and passive- increasingly separate in the 20th century, design/build was
sustainability strategies here achieve LEED-equivalent results without largely relegated to industrial facilities at one end of the scale and
the formal LEED accreditation process and cost. small residential projects on the other. Until the late 1970s, it was
The short take on Shore Ortho is that it’s a handsome and highly considered unethical for AIA members to participate in design/
functional building. But MGA faced tight budget requirements and build due to the erosion of the architect’s role as owner-advocate
these sorts of regional and local healthcare projects represent the and the potential for conflict of interest. As a result of this and
backbone of delivering convenient, comprehensive care to people other factors, design/build methods developed that relied on the
where they live—two facts that, in-and-of-themselves, make Shore constructor to take the primary role, with the architect working
Ortho a candidate to replicate in other communities. —Bill Millard  as a subcontractor.
Although the 2012 AIA Firm Survey reported that less than
5 percent of AIA members are engaging in architect-led design/
build (ALDB), anecdotal evidence shows that it is growing quickly.
Related closely to construction management at risk (CMc), the
architect takes on the primary responsibility for delivering the
design and construction, usually providing a guaranteed maximum
price, hiring subcontractors, and managing the entire process.
Some states will require the establishment of a design/build or
construction management division that is wholly separate from
an architect’s design firm. If you form a design/build entity, AIA
Document A142–2004, Standard Form of Agreement Between
Design-Builder and Contractor, together with its exhibits, can be
used to retain construction services for the project.
Joint ventures can also provide a structure for participating in
design/build. Architects may partner with a contractor to form a
legal entity to construct one project. Joint venture agreements can
be crafted by starting with AIA Document C101–1993, Joint Venture
Agreement for Professional Services. This document provides for
the mutual rights and obligations of two or more parties who,
Above: MGA’s Shore Orthopaedic maximizes the amount of the outside once they have established a joint venture, will enter into a project
brought inside through a series of gestures in the façade that strengthen agreement with the owner. It addresses the issues most commonly
building’s visual identity. encountered in structuring a joint venture.—Rena Klein, FAIA 
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42
AIA PERSPECTIVE
design, an rx for health
july 2014

photo: william stewart

let’s try a quick word association: “architecture” and But the responsibility falls on architects to make that case. We
“health.” For the public, the likely answer would be that buildings like need friends, of course—experts like Lushniak and the physicians and
hospitals and clinics connect the two words. And they’d be half right. policymakers in attendance at the AIA Design and Health Summit.
There have been wonderful advances in patient care, and research We need powerful allies like the Clinton Global Initiative and research
supports the argument that design can promote healing and make the universities, with which the AIA has strong ties. We also need each
work of healthcare providers more efficient. other to continue the conversation that links design and health in our
But—as I said to a group of physicians, policymakers, and everyday lives.
architects at the AIA Design and Health Summit held in Washington, And now we can make a better case about design and health’s
D.C., in April—an effective strategy to rein in the mounting cost relationship than ever before, with the McGraw-Hill Construction
of healthcare is not better treatment when we’re sick (although SmartMarket Report survey, released last month at the 2014 AIA
architects play a major role in promoting the delivery of excellent National Convention in Chicago. The report, which you may
healthcare), it’s to keep us well and out of the hospital in the first download at aia.org/smartmarket, documents the positive economic
place. This is also a role for design—a role that goes beyond bricks and impact of investing in the design and construction of healthier
mortar. It embraces how we shape the places and spaces in which we buildings from the perspective of owners, architects, and human
live. This is precisely what acting U.S. surgeon general Boris Lushniak resources professionals. Such data is driving, and will increasingly
had in mind at the summit when he said, “If you’re an architect, you drive, future investment.
are a public health worker.” The challenge for each of us is not to leave this report on the
Expanding the scope of what architects do opens new lines of shelf, but to use it to inform our work for clients, shape the way
communication in talking about the value of the services we provide. we advocate to policymakers, and reinforce the way we talk about
In far too many discussions (many of which are, if we’re candid, led architecture to the public. The AIA’s role is to support and expand
by us), we focus on a narrow concept of an architectural program. We research that makes an evidence-based argument for design. Our
talk about a project as if it existed in a vacuum—a colorful, sculptural collective role as architects is to use this information to convey how
foreground image floating in an abstract frame with only a hint of our work promotes health and well-being. Architecture has always
context. been about more than bricks and mortar. 
That’s not how design works. Like a stone thrown into a pond,
architecture initiates ever-widening ripples. Architecture influences Helene Combs Dreiling, FAIA
how people move; how they are stimulated by light, sound, and color; 2014 President
their sense of security and mental well-being; and how connected
they feel toward one another. And architecture does all this over the Learn more about the SmartMarket Report produced by McGraw-Hill
course of a lifespan that, ideally, lasts generations. Construction and commissioned by the AIA at aia.org/smartmarket.
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CENTER
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

LETTER FROM GROUND ZERO

DELIRIOUS
WORLD TRADE
DESPITE THE OPENING OF THE SEPT. 11 MUSEUM, GROUND ZERO REMAINS
A SITE CONFLICTED IN ITS AMBITIONS AND EXECUTION.

Text by Karrie Jacobs The site continues to grow and change as many
Photo by Fran Parente of the components lurch toward completion,
but what I find here isn’t exactly New York. It
A DECADE AGO, about a year after Daniel lacks the energy typical of the city’s best public
Libeskind, AIA, was appointed master planner places. That’s to be expected in a site dominated
of the World Trade Center site, I asked him a by a memorial, but it isn’t well suited to
question: “In 10 years’ time, will this place contemplation either. There are too many
look like New York City?” His charming and visitors, tourists mostly. There are endless rules:
evasive reply: “When the famous portrait of no demonstrations, no rallies, no third-party
Gertrude Stein was painted by Picasso, she vending. No sports. No loitering, littering, or
said to him, ‘It’s a beautiful portrait, but it smoking. No throwing anything into the pools.
doesn’t look like me.’ And he said, ‘But it will.’ ” No animals. But all those injunctions don’t add
Picasso’s iconic portrait, of course, cast up to tranquility. If there is peace to be had on
Stein as a cubist Mona Lisa. And Libeskind, this memorial plaza, I have yet to experience it.
something of a cubist himself, seemed to have Nor is the site exactly Libeskind’s. His
the idea that he was remaking not just the influence quickly waned as his grandest
16 acres nominally under his command, but symbolic gestures encountered the turbulence
New York City itself, dragging the wounded, with which New York City customarily
architecturally recalcitrant metropolis into the confronts newcomers. His Wedge of Light, for
21st century. instance, a plaza that Libeskind claimed would
Today, I’m still trying to answer the same be bathed in sunlight during the morning
question. Every time I’ve visited the National hours each Sept. 11, was revealed as a fiction
September 11 Memorial, since it opened in 2011, by Eli Attia, the architect of the neighboring
I ask myself: What is this place and who is it for? Millenium Hilton. This shouldn’t have been a
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View of 1 World Trade Center from the 57th-floor terrace of Fumihiko Maki’s 4 World Trade Center
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48
CENTER

surprise given that the sun rises in the east and

ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

the World Trade Center (WTC) is located at what

used to be the western edge of Manhattan.
Then Libeskind’s 1,776-foot-tall Freedom
Tower, which was supposed to be an abstract
homage to the Statue of Liberty—robes swirling
and torch held aloft—got whittled into a far
more normative tower, with corners neatly
chamfered by David Childs, FAIA, of Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill (SOM). The tower was further
reined in by the New York Police Department’s
demands for maximum blast protection at street
level. And, finally, developer Douglas Durst
(who bought a stake in the building in 2010) de-
chamfered the corners at the base and rid the
antenna at the top of the tower of its distinctive
sculptural sheathing. And now the former
Freedom Tower looks a lot like something you
might find in any second-tier Asian city.
But more damning, perhaps, than
Libeskind’s poetry being pummeled into prose,
was the fact that a new, rather spectacular
New York began sprouting up elsewhere, most
notably in West Chelsea, where the innovation
spurred by the High Line has begun to merge
with the 26-acre Hudson Yards, a project
that promises to mix high-end office space,
residential towers, and cultural venues to create
a lively new part of Midtown.
The WTC that finally emerged from
behind its security fence this spring is certainly
not the old place—where 1960s ideas about
radically reshaping cities reached some sort of
apotheosis—but it also isn’t the best example
of 21st-century urban design in New York. It is
a development shaped—and restrained—by
too many forces and driven by very powerful
conflicting desires: to commemorate the horrific
thing that happened and to render the evidence
of that cataclysm invisible.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I’m sometimes surprised

by the quality of the architecture on—and
near—the site: The best building is still 7 WTC.
SOM, working closely with glass specialist
James Carpenter, designed the 52-story tower,
clad in a low-iron water white glass, for the
north side of Vesey Street. A replacement for
a clunky 1980s granite-covered building that
fell on Sept. 11, it was built quickly, completed
in late 2005, with no scrutiny from the site’s
“stakeholders” because Consolidated Edison
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

badly needed the power substations that were

at the base of the old 7 WTC. The result is a
sensually pleasing tower that channels Lever
House without imitating it. And the Jenny Holzer
installation behind the reception desk remains
one of the smartest, most eye-catching artworks
I’ve ever seen in an office-building lobby.
While 7 WTC snuck up on me, I watched Aerial view of the World Trade Center site
4 WTC, designed by Fumihiko Maki, Hon. FAIA,
 49

ARCHITECT JULY 2014

The perimeter of one of the memorial fountains

4 WTC as seen from across one of the two memorial fountains Jenny Holzer installation in the lobby of SOM’s 7 WTC

WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

Museum lobby with structure from the old WTC The original slurry wall (at right) within the underground museum
 CENTER

CRUSH™ ©2011 modulararts, Inc.

as it was being built and wrote it off as dull for some connection to what was once there,
work of architecture, cheapened by the intense crowd around the tree and take pictures.
reflectivity of the glass. But suddenly, on
completion, it has emerged as something rather MANY VISITORS to the memorial, myself
different. It’s restrained, in a Japanese way, and among them, used to press their noses to the
not boring at all. Off the white marble lobby is a glass of Snøhetta’s asymmetrical entry pavilion,
trio of elevator corridors, each lined with shiny completed years before the National September 11

designs / made in the USA

brown African anigre wood, each culminating Memorial & Museum opened its doors in May,
in a video installation—wind, trees, sky— to see the remnant of the WTC visible within, a
accompanied by a Philip Glass composition. pair of the complex’s familiar steel tridents. So
From the higher floors, the views south and it was exciting to finally go inside and see the
west are astounding, and from the 57th-floor tridents accompanied with a large photo that
terrace, 1 WTC looks somewhat as its various showed them in context at the base of the Twin
architects imagined—slender and angular— Towers.
rather than the clunky, value-engineered Much has been made of the museum’s
bunker you currently see at street level. And gaffes–appalling products on sale at the gift
the effect of the façade mirroring the sky on a shop (the cheese board!), a capsule history of
sunny day is positively cinematic. Jihad that some Muslims found offensive—but
While I’ve come to admire 4 WTC, my in truth, the museum does what it’s supposed
misgivings about the memorial have only to do, diligently and surprisingly well, with
intensified since its completion. Maybe this a level of detail so conscientious that it’s
is because the one piece of Libeskind’s plan overwhelming. What I realized as I made my
that always resonated with me was his vision way through the multimedia re-creation of
modulararts.com / 206.788.4210 / now with 50

of the slurry wall as heroic object. Originally Sept. 11 is that most events of great historic
built to keep the Hudson River out of the Twin significance are far enough in the past that
Towers’ excavation site, the wall was, after the amount of related ephemera has been
all, the last remaining artifact that conveyed winnowed by time. Not so Sept. 11. It seems
any of the monumental nature of the old WTC. like the museum has every sad missing poster,
Although the towers fell, the slurry wall stood, every victims’ artifact, and countless objects
and prevented the river from inundating Lower like dry cleaner hangers commemorating the
Manhattan. Libeskind’s winning proposal for first responders. There is simply too much.
the site was built around the wall’s symbolic The onslaught, after a while, is numbing.
beauty. His drawings showed a series of towers, Some aspects of the panoramic
stair-stepped in height and arranged around a documentation of that day are genuinely
greensward, sheltered by the top 30 feet of what stunning. There are alcoves where you can sit
could have become New York’s Wailing Wall. down and listen to first-person accounts from
But, of course, a memorial in which you people who were in the towers, with schematic
could see the slurry wall would have to be set diagrams pinpointing their locations. The
below grade, and the site’s nearest residential simple graphics and the fact that you actually
neighbors, the good people of Battery Park City, have to stop and focus on one story at a time
rebelled against the idea: too sad, too much of makes these displays unusually powerful.
an impediment to their ability to cut across the Aside from Snøhetta’s crystalline pavilion,
site on their way to work. (I can’t imagine that the impact of which is undermined by the
the site’s commercial interests warmed to a airport-style security maze you must negotiate
depressed memorial, either.) And so Libeskind’s to get inside, the museum has two defining
most powerful concept evaporated, replaced by architectural gestures. Davis Brody Bond
Michael Arad, AIA’s massive, square fountains. (DBB), the firm that designed the underground
In theory, I like Arad’s idea of commemorating portion of the building, created a series of
the two footprints, but there’s something ramps that lead you downward, 70 feet into
about the execution, particularly the way the the earth, to the spots where the old towers
fountains are framed by heavy ribbons of met bedrock. Access to bedrock is, in fact, one
bronze into which the names of those who died of the highlights of the museum. The bases of
on Sept. 11 have been inscribed, that feels wrong the buildings’ box beams and other elements
to me. The memorial’s aesthetic reads like a of the foundations are treated as if they were
TM rebuke of the deceptive lightness of Minoru archaeological finds, remnants of some lost

CRUSH Yamasaki’s vision.

And it strikes me as almost immoral that,
above ground at the memorial, there is nothing
left of the old WTC except for a single tree, a
civilization—which, arguably, they are.
But DBB’s best architectural moment is
what’s known as the Foundation Hall. It is
a compelling open space, where Libeskind’s
callery pear pulled from the rubble, replanted, 68-foot-tall slurry wall actually fulfils its
and named the Survivor Tree. Visitors, hungry symbolic destiny. At first, you see the wall,
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rough and conspicuously undesigned, from a Hub—which, pretty much, I had. The concourse,
balcony at the end of one of the long ramps. connecting the existing temporary commuter
Then, after you walk further downhill, you rail station with Brookfield Place (formerly
reach the hall itself. I spent a long time sitting the World Financial Center) across West Street
on a bench looking up at this powerful object, from the WTC, is the first bit of Calatrava-
something I wish it was possible to do above designed space to be completed. While it may
ground. In the Foundation Hall, I was get crowded at rush hour (or next year, when
reminded of a meeting I attended years ago 1 WTC fills up with Condé Nast employees), I
where people came to discuss their responses walked through in mid-afternoon and found
to design proposals for the memorial. I it lovely, serene, and slightly spooky. Maybe
remember listening to a man who had lost his because there is something about Calatrava’s
wife in the attacks. He said that what he was modernism that resurrects the feeling of
hoping to find was a design that had the power Yamasaki’s, it allowed me to sense a connection
of a cathedral, a place where “you don’t have to the old WTC that eludes me elsewhere.
to think.” The Transportation Hub is notorious for
Architecturally and emotionally, the cost overruns—its $4 billion budget is double
Foundation Hall is the strongest component the original projection—and it’s weirdly
of the museum. It’s a dramatic space, one that impractical (the mechanical systems are
borders on sacred. It could be the place where housed in the completed floors of the adjacent,
you “don’t have to think,” if only the curators stalled, 3 WTC). It’s had nothing but bad press
had left out the interactive information for years. But for the first time in a long time, I
display that is projected on adjacent walls. I was eagerly anticipating the hub’s full unveiling.
found myself wishing the museum would, With its Stegosaurus spikes and crazy grandeur,
occasionally, pull back on its programming and Calatrava’s station might turn out to be the
give visitors room to simply reflect. transcendent space that the WTC badly needs.
While the architects who designed the
STRANGELY, THOUGH, the most powerful towers dialed down their formalist impulses
experience I had during my recent visits to in deference to the memorial, Calatrava didn’t.
the WTC was not in the expected places. It If anything, he cranked them up. I am starting
wasn’t at the memorial or in the museum, but to think that Calatrava had it right, that the
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if I had walked into one of Santiago Calatrava, of the boldness of the old WTC, that has the
FAIA’s renderings of the WTC Transportation audacity to look like New York. Circle no. 194 or http://architect.hotims.com
52
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ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

BEST PRACTICES

BEHIND THE CURTAIN

AMERICAN FIRMS ARE INCREASINGLY TARGETING MARKETS IN THE
FORMER SOVIET UNION. HERE ARE THE CHALLENGES—AND REWARDS.
Introduction by Alex Hoyt
Illustrations by Peter Arkle

OVER THE PAST CENTURY, Russian architectural the campus for the American University
traditions have subsumed each other like of Central Asia, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan;
matryoshka dolls—the futuristic, Revolution- Dan Kaplan, FAIA, of FXFowle Architects,
inspired ethos of Constructivism, the grim who designed the Qala Alti Hotel Spa on a
and grand monuments of Stalinism, the mountainside in Shabran, Azerbaijan; and Lee
concrete blocks of Brutalism. Now, a quarter Skolnick, FAIA, of Lee H. Skolnick Architecture +
century after the thaw of the Cold War, Design Partnership (LHSA+DP), which designed
foreign architects have started infiltrating the Muzeiko, a children’s museum in Sofia, Bulgaria.
former Eastern Bloc, infusing the region with They discussed the region’s challenges and
sustainable practices and dynamic designs. opportunities, and spoke of a new style of post-
In April, three American architects Soviet design—open, transparent, antithetical
convened at the Trespa Design Centre New York to the region’s often oppressive politics—that
to discuss the phenomenon: Henry Myerberg, might be the architectural equivalent of
FAIA, whose firm, HMA2 Architects, designed Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost.
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 CENTER

HENRY MYERBERG, FAIA

PRINCIPAL AND FOUNDER, HMA2 ARCHITECTS
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ASIA, BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN

The site: Kyrgyzstan is where the former During construction: The language barriers
Soviet Union meets the Silk Road. We’re on the were a challenge. Four languages were
outskirts of Bishkek [the capital], in a valley spoken on site: Russian, Kyrgyz, Turkish, and
1,000 meters above sea level amid these alpine German—a German drilling company built
mountains. It’s a highly seismic area, with strict the geothermal system, the first in the entire
rules about structural design—highly complex region. Everything was made on site. Nothing
building codes that are vestiges of the Soviet era. came from a factory. All the steel was raw—
cleaned, formed, and welded on site. All the
The design concept: We designed our campus ductwork came in rolls of sheet metal. The
to be open and visible, inviting students and steelworkers set up a factory shop in the
faculty to collaborate. The old campus occupied classroom and lived there for six months—it
post-Stalinist office buildings that were was their hotel.
imposing and monumental, but also abuzz
with activity. They weren’t quite big enough, And above all: Be open to what the place
so people had to share space—the hallways tells you. Don’t impose a vision of what the
were grand bazaars. We wanted to preserve that place should be. Architecture is a dialogue,
sense of interactivity. not a soliloquy.

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First timers: Design expertise is extremely Landing the commission: We won it the old
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expertise in designing children’s museums. Renaissance Construction in Istanbul was starting
It’s a particularly American skill—we have a venture in Azerbaijan and brought us in to
over 300 of them. In the former Eastern Bloc, help them in a quasi design/build situation. The
you have to find the right client. Bulgaria is the ultimate client is a local Azeri developer. Since we
poorest country in the EU, and is known to be were working directly with Renaissance’s design
among the most corrupt in terms of business. and construction department, we were insulated
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fireglass.com | 800.426.0279 right local contacts, make sure you have a Largest challenge: It was dialogue with the client,
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architects need the right liaisons. have a high tolerance for ambiguity.
Circle no. 37 or http://architect.hotims.com
Circle no. 294 or http://architect.hotims.com
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NEXT PROGRESSIVES
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

WATERSHED DESIGN
MADE STUDIO IS APPLYING ITS DATA-DRIVEN APPROACH TO DETROIT, REVEALING WAYS THAT THE
REGION’S WATER SYSTEMS CAN INFLUENCE URBAN PLANNING.

Text by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson Maigret, 41, a trained biologist, and

Portrait by Brian Kelly Arquero, 41, who’s licensed in Spain, began a
detailed analysis of the region’s water systems
DETROIT, AMERICA’S POSTER CHILD for the in 2011 through a grant from the Graham
post-industrial shrinking city, may suffer Sustainability Institute at the University of
from a paucity of residents and resources, Michigan. Their award-winning project, Liquid
but it’s a boomtown of urban theory. There Planning Detroit, considered how watershed
is no shortage of clever schemes aimed at data might inform the future planning of the
repopulating vacant houses and vacant land. city, looking at ground cover, stormwater, and
Jen Maigret, AIA, and María Arquero de Alarcón, imperviousness, among other things. Forget
co-founders of Ann Arbor, Mich.–based MAde existing grids and boundaries; the watershed
María Arquero de Alarcón
(left) and Jen Maigret near Studio, have a slightly different perspective: should serve as a lens through which future
the site of their speculative What if you look at Detroit not in isolation, but planning decisions can be made. “This was an
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

project that proposes to as a regional system defined by its watershed? amazing opportunity to work on our analytic
connect Detroit’s Eastern How would that change planning? “We are techniques,” Maigret says. “But the thing we’re
Market to the Dequindre
interested in different scales,” Arquero says. always the most motivated by is how that data
Cut, an abandoned railway
that’s being turned into a “And we are not interested in only focusing on plays out in the built environment, in material,
public greenway. the metropolitan area.” and in habitable, experiential space.”

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Liquid Planning Detroit Rendering

ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

Liquid Planning Detroit Site Plan

Dream Up! Plan

1. Neighborhood access from Oakman Boulevard

2. Perimeter fence
3. Blue track
4. Playful ruled paint pattern
5. Pumpkin and balloon field

2 1

2
3

5
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

4
MADE STUDIO

This page, top: A rendering of the new walkway and water garden that would connect Detroit’s Eastern Market and the Dequindre Cut, an abandoned railroad that’s being turned
into a public greenway. Opposite: A rendering of Playful Horizons, a playground currently being constructed for the First Congregational Church of Battle Creek in Michigan.
 59

By 2013, the firm’s research had Callewaert says people are also impressed playscapes. For MAde’s Playful Horizons

ARCHITECT JULY 2014

culminated in plans for several sites around by the architects’ ability to collaborate with project, which is now under construction for
the city, including a design for an ecological community. “They invest time into individual the First Congregational Church of Battle Creek
and pedestrian infrastructure linking the meetings and to showing their partners the in Michigan, Maigret and Arquero designed a
popular Eastern Market to the Dequindre different possibilities that exist, instead of massive jungle gym for a daycare center out
Cut, an abandoned railway that’s slowly coming in and saying: ‘Here it is! We’re done!’ ” of bright orange bars. Unlike a proscriptive
being turned into a public greenway. In MAde Studio received a second Graham environment with single-minded items (think
June, when Liquid Planning Detroit earned Sustainability Institute grant in 2012 to work of the ubiquity of flip-able, oversized Tic Tac Toe
a 2014 AIA Michigan Design Award in the with the Hope Village Initiative, a project boards, for example), Playful Horizons hopes to
unbuilt category, the jury said that they were supporting an area of Detroit suffering from engage the curiosity and creativity of children
impressed by the “fine-grained analysis that violence, poverty, and a deteriorating housing through more abstract structures. “We really
underlies the urban designs.” stock. As part of the grant, Maigret and Arquero wanted pared-down elements that allow for
designed a playful open space on a vacant and open-ended play,” Maigret says. “This is why we
MAIGRET AND ARQUERO are masters of fenced-off parking lot near the community’s use the word ‘horizons.’ ”
marrying analysis with transformative library. Last fall, the firm tore down the fence Here, a maze of tall and short bright orange
urban architecture. The two met at the and hosted Dream Up!, turning the lot into bars invites children to climb, to hang, to invent.
University of Michigan, where they are both a temporary pumpkin patch and inviting The architects designed the variant sections
assistant professors at the Taubman College residents to discuss making it into a permanent of the jungle gym at different heights to
of Architecture and Urban Planning. Their open space for the community. accommodate toddlers as well as older children,
shared penchant for data mining compelled Now under construction, the Hope Village and engineered the ground underneath to
them to start their firm in 2010. Though open space considers both the ecology of the be soft enough for safe climbing. The whole
their research-heavy approach could keep site and residents’ desires. The space makes structure is meant to look of-a-piece. “We
their design work cloistered in the realm of visible the flow of rainwater through clever wanted the different sections to feel uniform,
academic theory, it is their ability to visualize interactive water surfaces. There are “rooms” so that the younger kids don’t feel relegated to
and communicate complex ideas, and to work defined by trees and sunken gardens, as well as the kid’s table, so to speak, when they climb
with both their students and Detroit residents a jungle gym resembling an abstract sculpture. on the lower-height bars,” Maigret says.
and organizations, that has given their young With Hope Village, MAde Studio employed MAde Studio may champion new
firm so much traction. Four years in and MAde yet another lens through which community planning tools in thinking about Detroit’s
Studio has developed a transdisciplinary rebuilding might happen: play. “Detroit had future, but it certainly doesn’t ignore the city’s
practice working in architecture, landscape a history of linking playgrounds to the way past. History and place play an important role
architecture, urban design, and urban planning. that neighborhoods developed,” Maigret says. in the firm’s design process. In the next five
John Callewaert is the integrated “Today, in a city strapped for cash, Detroit is years, as the studio plans on moving into more
assessment program director for the Graham always looking to do more with less, and projects outside of Michigan, the history and
Sustainability Institute. He remembers how playgrounds are an excellent opportunity to specificity of place—coupled with the rigors
impressed people were when Maigret and look at issues of water, but also to explore of research—will continue to inform its work.
Arquero presented their findings and designs solutions for public space. Playgrounds allow “Our practice engages in places where we can
for the Liquid Planning Detroit project. “There’s us to think about a material process and an dig in deep and understand the history, the
a real depth of analysis behind their work,” he optimistic approach to open space.” people, and why the physical expression of
says. “A lot of people can make a pretty map, In the firm’s projects, you can see the the place is what it is,” Maigret says. “History
but their ability to visualize regional data has influence of pioneers like Aldo van Eyck, the is a tool for helping people to understand that
a level of sophistication that is rare. People Dutch architect who used playground design a place has always undergone change. It’s
are always wowed by their graphics, and the to help rebuild Amsterdam after World War II, never static. It’s in yet another moment
integrity of their process is impressive.” and Isamu Noguchi, who designed sculptural of transformation.”

WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM
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ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

CRITIQUE

THE CULT OF KOOLHAAS

REM KOOLHAAS’S OWN EXHIBITIONS AT THE 14TH INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE
EXHIBITION AT THE VENICE BIENNALE MAY HAVE MISSED THE MARK, BUT HIS INFLUENCE
AS CHIEF CURATOR BROUGHT OUT THE BEST IN THE NATIONAL PAVILIONS.

Text by Ian Volner But what exactly Koolhaas thinks the

next chapter in that story is meant to be was
“REM IS LIKE a great journalist of architecture,” difficult to discern, at least judging from
said Ricardo Bofill Jr., sitting downstairs in his particular contributions to the current
Venice’s Palazzo Bembo on the third day of the Biennale. The Bembo show (organized by the
2014 Architecture Biennale. Two flights up, the independent Global Art Affairs Foundation)
peripheral exhibition “Time Space Existence” was altogether a more comprehensive view of
included a sampling of recent work from contemporary practice than either Koolhaas’s
Bofill’s (and his famous father’s) eponymous technically minded “Elements of Architecture”
office in Barcelona, Spain, alongside a exhibition at the Central Pavilion or his
surprisingly vast array of installations from “Monditalia” show at the Arsenale. In many
firms around the world. The Bofills have ways, the leading man in the Biennale
seen more than their fair share of Biennales— drama appeared to have departed from his
Visitors arrive at the including the seminal 1980 “Strada Novissima” own script.
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

Arsenale in Venice for show, in which the elder designer played an The emerging consensus during the
the 14th International
important role—and for Bofill the Younger, the preview (consensuses during the Biennale
Architecture Exhibition,
curated by Rem Koolhaas. 2014 installment seemed like it could mark having a tendency to fade in and out
Exhibits are housed not yet another key inflection point for the field, somewhat) was that the real action was
only in the Arsenale, a credit to curator Rem Koolhaas, Hon. FAIA, taking place in the national pavilions.
which is the city’s former and his ability to weave history and design Clogging the paths and courtyards of the
shipyards, but also in the
RUY TEIXEIRA

into a compelling narrative—ostensibly Giardini, Prosecco-tippling design fans flocked

national pavilions and
Central Pavilion in the unified by his title,“Fundamentals. “For Rem, to see the opening the Belgian Pavilion (a
nearby Giardini park. it all comes back to telling a story,” Bofill says. spare, cerebral investigation of interior space),
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The Austrian Pavilion’s

ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

exhibition “Plenum.
Places of Power,”
conceived and designed
by Christian Kühn and
Harald Trapp, featured
200 1:500 scale models
of parliament buildings
from around the world.

the Israeli Pavilion (an offbeat examination pavilion buildings, just for what they are,” collaborators investigated built culture in the
of the country’s urbanism using sand-sifting says architect John Denton of Denton Corker home country of the Biennale, using media as
digital fabricators), and the Austrian Pavilion Marshall, an Australian firm tasked with varied as film, dance, and archival material
(wall-mounted models of the national capitol the daunting commission of creating a new to uncover the assorted complexities and
buildings of over 200 countries). For the space for their native country. When it’s contradictions of Italy today. There was much
first time at an Architecture Biennale, the completed later this year, the new Australian to like in the show, not the least of which
chief curator had tasked all of the national Pavilion—a simple, black granite volume was the documents and public programming
pavilions with a single overarching theme: with what Denton describes as a “very of Beatriz Colomina’s “Radical Pedagogies:
“Absorbing Modernity: 1914–2014.” Far from Melbourne” character—will not only be the Action-Reaction-Interaction” installation,
being a limiting agent, this guideline seemed latest addition to the Biennale fairgrounds, as well as the 82 movie clips on display
to inspire many participants to reach further but perhaps the last: Preservationist-minded throughout the space showing how Hollywood
and think deeper. Venetians are staunchly opposed to any has taken on the Italian landscape. But if
It’s surprising, in fact, that the further construction, and only a bureaucratic there was a thesis at work, it was difficult to
Architecture Biennale had to wait till the loophole allowed the Australians to move make out, and the Italian Pavilion just around
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

arrival of Koolhaas for someone to impose forward with this project. the corner covered much the same material
some sense of conceptual order on the unruly In the meantime, “Absorbing Modernity” with greater concision and curatorial flare,
Giardini. As an exhibition environment, did seem to breathe some new and much- especially with its full-scale model of Milan
the rambling walkways and waterways needed life into the faintly funereal exhibition complete with digital projections showing
at Venice’s eastern end remain a curious grounds—a sharp contrast with Koolhaas’s urban networks and planning proposals
place—one part public space, one part artsy own shows, in which the organizing theme over the centuries.
RUY TEIXEIRA

theme park—with the feeling that sometimes was conspicuous in its absence. The Arsenale Koolhaas’s “Elements” only threw the
it is a necropolis populated by unusually show was especially perplexing. In room after thematic center of gravity even further
extravagant tombs. “I like some of the older room of the vast complex, Koolhaas’s assorted off-kilter, with the Central Pavilion given
Circle no. 289 or http://architect.hotims.com
 Where
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concrete and
imagination
meet.

Denver Union Station, Denver, CO

over to a strangely rote presentation of The Koolhaas-curated

building components like elevators, stairs, “Monditalia” exhibition
www.hanoverpavers.com and fireplaces. “It was like an industry expo,”
in the Arsenale is a
collaboration between
800.426.4242 snarked one visitor. architecture and Venice’s
On the other hand, the Biennale’s other biennales, for dance,
Circle no. 298 or http://architect.hotims.com music, theater, and film.
overlords did not err when it came time to
dole out the honorary Lions. Winning the gold
was the Korean Pavilion, which showcased a
riveting series of videos and images exploring
the vexed relationship between North and
South, in particular the quasi-hidden history
of urbanism and building in the autocratic
Hermit Kingdom. And the Chilean Pavilion
walked away with a well-deserved silver: For
a look back at the country’s troubled past, the
organizers carted in a thick concrete wall,
originally built as part of a Soviet-backed
social housing program created by the socialist
Allende government. Production team member
José Hernandez showed where the “o” was still
SERGIO PIRRONE

visible from the signature Salvador Allende

had scrawled on it more than 40 years ago,
and explained the challenges in moving the
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Top: In the Central Pavilion, the Koolhaas-directed “Elements of Architecture” exhibition is the culmination of a
two-year research studio at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The concept is a microscopic look at the history
SERGIO PIRRONE

of some of the most ubiquitous tools in an architect’s kit, but the display left some viewers cold. Bottom: The homey
installation of the Golden Lion–winning Korean Pavilion belies the seriousness of the content. “Crow’s Eye View: The
Korean Peninsula,” curated by Minsuk Cho, Hyungmin Pai, Changmo Ahn, and Jihoi Lee, examines the architecture of
North and South Korea through photos and video, in an effort to imagine the built environment of a unified country.
Circle no. 61 or http://architect.hotims.com
 CENTER

massive hunk from Chile to Italy. “We got a very The Silver Lion for National
nice grant from a marine transport company,” Participation went to
Chile for “Monolith
he said.
Controversies,” which
Only slightly less daunting maritime includes a concrete panel
logistics faced attendees leaving the Biennale from one of the first
on Sunday, as a boat race shut down the prefabricated housing
Grand Canal. The night before, as word of the units donated by the Soviet
Union to Salvador Allende’s
impending closure started making the rounds
government, in 1972.
of a launch party for design journal Clog (their Such units became central
new issue devoted, naturally, to Koolhaas), in the political upheaval
attendees discussed possible alternative routes that ensued in the South
American nation.
to the airport. “We could always swim across
the lagoon,” said one wag. “Yeah,” said another,
“but if we were Rem, we could just walk on it.”
Sarcasm aside, this Biennale did seem
to confirm one of the peculiar aspects of the
Koolhaas Effect in architecture today: The Dutch
dynamo was less important for what he built
himself than for how his ideas forced every other
designer in attendance to react. When this
SERGIO PIRRONE

Biennale is viewed in years to come, however,

its signal lesson may be just this: Do as Koolhaas
says, designers, but perhaps not as he does.
Circle no. 76 or http://architect.hotims.com
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DETAIL
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

IN THE FOLD
FOR SINGAPORE’S NATIONAL DESIGN CENTER, SCDA ARCHITECTS CRAFTED AN ALUMINUM-
MESH SKIN TO BOOST THE LOOK AND PERFORMANCE OF THE EXISTING SPACE.

Text by Shonquis Moreno

SINGAPORE’S NATIONAL Design Center is finally

living up to its name. In the city-state’s cultural
district of Bras Basah Bugis, SCDA Architects
recently restored and converted a group of three
prewar Art Deco buildings and one postwar
modern building that now serves as the home
of the center, which is a promoter and incubator
of the region’s burgeoning design culture.
Once a convent school, the complex has
been adapted to contain lecture rooms and
galleries, offices, classrooms, and basic design
and prototyping facilities. One of the most
poetic displays of complexity spans the breadth
of the formal, 46-foot-by-30-foot chapel, which
SCDA founder Soo K. Chan, Intl. Assoc. AIA,
turned into an auditorium. Above visitors’
heads, a creased aluminum-mesh skin envelops
the chapel’s 29.5-foot-tall ceiling, providing
visual interest that is simultaneously sculptural,
industrial, and abstracted.
The pleated mesh panels fold together like
an origami screen. The triangular surfaces dip
and rise almost 2 feet, framing historical details
such as the restored religious reliefs that ring
the upper walls and former altar, and hiding the
mechanical, electrical, and audiovisual services.
Chan and his team designed the ceiling
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using Trimble SketchUp, Autodesk 3ds Max,

AutoCAD, and other programs. Extensive on-site
discussions and adjustments were required to
ensure the mesh would fit the existing building
like a glove. The screens anchor into a steel
portal frame, which is subsequently bolted
AARON PEACCOK

to concrete ceiling beams. The connectors

Pleated mesh screens by SCDA Architects clad the ceiling of the auditorium, which was formerly a chapel. allow the screens, which are also pinned to
each other, to move as the building settles
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 72
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ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

0 5 10

irregularly on its foundation, as it has since its square hollow sections (SHS), wide-flanged The aluminum mesh
completion in 1929. beams, 50-millimeter-by-50-millimeter angles screens were sized and
cut on-site to ensure
The most challenging aspect of building and powdercoated, expanded aluminum
its grid-based support
the auditorium, which took 18 months, was mesh screens with 40-millimeter-wide-by- framing looked in line with
the need to accommodate the grid-based 10-millimeter-tall hexagonal openings. The the existing space’s non-
framework within walls that were not parallel. screens were custom cut on-site into the parallel sidewalls.
All steel framing had to be carefully assembled trianglular pattern to fit the existing conditions
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on-site to ensure that the support structure of the historical building, and are between
would not appear off-grid. So the team approximately 24 and 95 inches tall, and up to
mounted the framework diagonally to create 24 inches wide.
COURTESY SCDA ARCHITECTS

the illusion that both sides of the room run LED strips affix to the standard steel
parallel—“an illusion that everything aligns,” channels within the framework. Though the
says SCDA designer Darren Yio. designers specified the mesh to allow air to
Local contractor Lai Yew Seng used off- circulate from the mechanical infrastructure at
the-shelf, 100-millimeter-by-100-millimeter the ceiling, Chan says, the finish also boosts the
and 200-millimeter-by-100-millimeter steel auditorium’s acoustics.
Mesh Ceiling Finish

0 4 8

Mesh Connection Detail

Ductwork and housing

Steel angle support

Aluminium mesh screen

with 40mm x 10mm
hexagonal openings

Steel plate with

painted finish

LED strips
(3000K color temperature)

Bolt connections (not drawn)

to support framework
spaced 300mm o.c.

HVAC grille

0 1 2

Circle no. 71 or http://architect.hotims.com

 74
CENTER

PRODUCTS
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

MADE OF METTLE
PRECISION-CUTTING TECHNOLOGIES AND PERFORMANCE FINISHES TAKE THE DESIGN,
DURABILITY, AND LUSTER OF ARCHITECTURAL METALWORK TO NEW HEIGHTS.
Text by Hallie Busta
Photos by Mike Basher

HIGH PROFILE SERIES CEILING SYSTEM, HOK PRODUCT DESIGN AND HUNTER DOUGLAS
In collaboration with Hunter Douglas, HOK senior designer Chris Anderson, AIA, crafted a baffled ceiling system to mask the HVAC and M/E/P systems of
high-performance buildings; it can also be used with chilled beams. The High Profile Series Ceiling System offers extruded aluminum profiles in custom
shapes and materials. Each baffle measures 1.5" wide and 6.35" tall and can span lengths of up to 20'. hokproductdesign.com Circle 100
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ACROPON, VALSPAR PRISMFX, ALCOA ARCHITECTURAL PRODUCTS

Busy commercial spaces such as storefronts are subject to continual foot traffic and cleaning Formulated to respond to the ever-changing levels of daylight, the PrismFX coating
chemicals. So Valspar developed a coating for pretreated aluminum extrusions and panels introduces a dynamic element into an otherwise static construction. For use with the
that can withstand abuse while providing a high-gloss finish. Applied in two coats, one clear company’s Reynobond composite and Reynolux metal panels, the finish changes sun-
and one colored, Acropon meets the American Architectural Manufacturers Association’s exposed surfaces from muted blue, green, or silver hues in the morning to a bolder copper,
2605-13 voluntary specification for organic coatings on aluminum extrusions and panels. violet, or gold palette in the afternoon. The coating is offered in nine colorways and resists
valsparcoilextrusion.com Circle 101 abrasion, humidity, impact, and salt spray. alcoa.com Circle 102
 75

ARCHITECT JULY 2014

HASHTAG, CAMBRIDGE ARCHITECTURAL SILENTMESH, GKD METAL FABRICS
Crimped and crossed lines add visual depth to this rigid, stainless steel architectural mesh. Best known for its architectural façade finishes, GKD Metal Fabrics makes a foray indoors with
Intended for use as interior panels and exterior cladding, the 0.102"-thick Hashtag can Silentmesh. The multilayer ceiling system backs the company’s metal fabric with a sound-
span widths of up to 96". The mesh is 45% open and weighs 1.36 lbs. per square foot. It absorbing underlayment. Available in large-format panels, it can create a monolithic effect
can be bent to conceal attachments and welded to a U-binding frame for mitered corners. via clamped or lay-in mounts. Multiple mesh fabrics, including the Omega 1520 PC (shown),
cambridgearchitectural.com Circle 103 are available in stainless steel and aluminum. gkdmetalfabrics.com Circle 104

WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

FORMAWALL GRAPHIX SERIES, CENTRIA PERFORATED UNA-CLAD DELTA CONCEALED FASTENER PANELS,
The latest addition to Centria’s stock of insulated architectural metal panels combines FIRESTONE BUILDING PRODUCTS
four different reveal patterns in a single-component wall system. Offered in horizontal Firestone is expanding its Delta Series of high-performance cladding with seven
and vertical orientations, the Formawall Graphix Series patterns—horizontal, vertical, perforation styles for each of its 11 concealed-fastener profiles. The perforated panels
diagonal, and running-bond—can be mixed and matched. The panels incorporate are offered in 20-gauge steel and 0.040" aluminum. For interior and exterior use as
the company’s thermal and moisture protection technology. centriaperformance.com a decorative accent. firestonebpco.com Circle 106
Circle 105
 77

ARCHITECT JULY 2014

8TH ANNUAL R+D AWARDS

Intro by Wanda Lau

Text by Gideon Fink Shapiro

WE LIVE IN AN ERA of making. If the proliferation of digital fabrication

labs and 3D-printed goods hasn’t made it obvious, then the following nine
winning projects in this year’s R+D Awards will show how craftsmanship
is evolving and thriving in the computer age.
The entrants’ desire to innovate and captivate an often stoic design
community was not lost on jurors Gerardo Salinas, AIA, Mimi Love, and
Bill Kreysler (see their bios on page 96), who culled the winners from more
than 100 submissions. But exploiting today’s increasingly advanced and
accessible technologies can only go so far without a greater purpose.
The six awards, two citations, and one honorable mention stood
out for their potential to inject architecture with intelligence, upgrade
longstanding manufacturing and construction methods, and overhaul
entire streetscapes and cities. “They weren’t only about making things,”
Love says of the winning projects. “They were also about solving human-
scale problems.”
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See project credits on page 104

78
ARCHITECT JULY 2014

The largest application

that Patkau Architects
envisions for One Fold
thus far is a hillside
pavilion made of three
freestanding units. Beyond
One Fold’s seamless
surface is the inherent
spatial potential it offers,
says John Patkau.

AWARD

JUSTIN FANTL
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ARCHITECT JULY 2014

Patkau architectS createS Shelter from Sheet metal in one elegant move.

Exploring the notion of architecture without joints, Patkau behave like paper. The fold, once made, was “virtually
Architects wanted to create a freestanding structure from impossible” to break, Patkau says. Local steel fabricators
a single sheet of stainless steel. By folding and bending said they couldn’t help, so the architects went into craftsmen
pieces of increasingly large sizes, says John Patkau, AIA, mode. “We had to invent the machine to do it,” Patkau says.
co-founder of the Vancouver, British Columbia–based firm, The firm developed a series of fold-and-bend machines that
“we were able to get remarkably robust structures that were could manipulate progressively larger sheets. Juror Mimi
also quite beautiful in their forms.” Love was impressed that the prototype was “purely the result
The firm began its One Fold experiment by studying the of some ingenuity and a low-tech press made out of wood.”
radically minimal origami work of paper artist Paul Jackson. By version six, Patkau could crinkle a 123-pound, 5-foot-
One move in particular caught the firm’s attention: A sheet by-12-foot sheet of stainless steel—the largest size available
of paper folded once can then be forced to buckle along in Vancouver—into a self-supporting “broken vault”
that crease to create a freestanding object. defined by complex curves. The secret to manipulating
Patkau wanted to attempt the same procedure on large sheets? Combining the steps of folding and bending
steel. It worked well enough on 2-foot-square sheets of into one mechanical motion. “Although it’s not any kind of
galvanized steel, pre-drilled with a hole to create a point of technological breakthrough, it’s a reminder of the role of
weakness, and then bent and folded with a hand-powered craftsmanship in contemporary design and construction,”
device resembling a brake made from wood. juror Bill Kreysler said. “By understanding how these forces
But the team wanted to scale up to a sheet of stainless can be applied, you can create shapes that nobody’s seen
steel large enough to form an architectural enclosure. before.” Juror Gerardo Salinas thought the piece was “very
Unfortunately, larger and thicker sheets of steel do not well executed and very elegant.”

Elevation of Machine 6
Wood jig

Wood base Sheet metal (not shown)

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ARCHITECT JULY 2014

Sound curtain

LED strip

Touchscreen
FXFowle Architects interface
proposes adding several
practical and creative
applications and functions
to the now-underutilized
telephone booth, which
juror Mimi Love called
a “dead piece of street Charging station
furniture.”

AWARD Emergency
mode call
buttons

Piezometric
pressure plates to
harvest energy
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FXFOWLE ARCHITECTS
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ARCHITECT JULY 2014

FXFOWLE ARCHITECTS REINVENTS THE PHONE BOOTH FOR THE 21ST CENTURY.

In the age of cellphones, telephone booths have become The Loop could also host bicycle parking, electric-car
obsolete. Yet during 2012’s Superstorm Sandy, the charging, tables for short meetings, a garden wall, a photo
anachronistic infrastructure was one of the few booth, and even a performance or art space. “I like the
communication systems that remained operational in flexibility of the system,” juror Gerardo Salinas said. “You
Manhattan, thanks to its independent network of can add more things to it—you could put in a swing.” “Any
copper lines. background you want for your selfie,” Kreysler chimed in.
In 2013, New York City held a Reinvent Payphones The Loop would likely tie into the city’s power grid, but
Design Challenge to elicit ideas for a 21st-century phone it would generate and store some of its own power with
booth. FXFowle Architects answered the call with NYC photovoltaic panels and batteries, as well as piezoelectric
Loop, a piece of urban furniture brimming with features. plates embedded in the adjacent pavement that would
Juror Bill Kreysler saw great value in its “practical day-to- convert the kinetic energy of pedestrian footsteps into
day applications.” electricity. In the event of widespread power failure, basic
The proposed NYC Loop comes equipped with a Wi-Fi communications functions and LED light strips would have
hub, touchscreens for maps and weather, a Bluetooth enough on-board power to work.
connection, a cellphone charging station, and a bench for At press time, FXFowle was in discussions with potential
people-watching. The open-air structure has a frequency- partners about participating in the city’s official RFP, which
specific system to mask ambient street noise, creating covers everything from design to fabrication, maintenance,
an oasis of relative quiet beneath its canopy. “We have and operation. Geier says that the firm has also received
investigated using a similar technology in the design of inquiries from municipalities and universities around the
open office plans,” says Guy Geier, FAIA, managing partner world that are intrigued with the NYC Loop’s potential.
at FXFowle. Perhaps the phone booth can be saved after all.

Proposed Applications and Features

Scalable Interactive image projector Performance venue Bench and garden wall
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Photo booth Art space Bicycle parking Electric-car charging station

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ARCHITECT JULY 2014

DESIGNLABWORKSHOP FOUNDER
BRIAN PETERS BRINGS THE SIMPLE BRICK
INTO THE AGE OF DIGITAL MODELING
AND PARAMETRIC SCRIPTING.

Three-dimensional printing has proven useful at model

scale, but what about at building scale? Brian Peters, an
assistant professor at Kent State University and the founder
of DesignLabWorkshop, in Kent, Ohio, is tackling full-scale
printing one clay brick at a time with a desktop 3D printer.
Building Bytes is a project that goes beyond using new tools
to make old products. Instead, it follows the additive logic
of the printing path—rather than the conventional molding
or extrusion process—to make bricks that are otherwise
impractical or impossible to make.
On his conventional fused deposition modeling (FDM)
printer, Peters replaced its plastic extrusion system, or print
head, with an air-pressure nozzle that delivers a homemade
liquid clay mixture stored in reusable plastic cartridges.
Layer by layer, a brick emerges from a linear bead. Each
brick takes about 15 to 20 minutes to print, a day to air dry,
and then 12 hours to fire in a kiln at roughly 2,000 F. To
date, Peters has designed and printed four types of bricks:
honeycomb, interlocking, ribbed, and x-bricks. Like all
craftsmen, he continues to finesse his work to account for
the performance of the material in reality.
The jurors were enthralled by the potential of Building
Bytes’ process though juror Bill Kreysler was initially
skeptical of the project’s innovation since “clay has been
extruded through a die for hundreds of years.” Yet, he said,
the project “does allow for objects that are refreshingly
new, based on an understanding of the material. And that’s
important because the more informed designers are about
material properties, the more they can open doors to
new ideas.”

Printing Paths

X-brick
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Ribbed brick Honeycomb brick wall

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ARCHITECT JULY 2014

DesignLabWorkshop
developed each brick
geometry by first scripting
a wall and then subdividing
that wall in Grasshopper
into modules, which became
the bricks. When the wall
profile changes, the shape
of the individual bricks
automatically updates.

AWARD

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BRIAN PETERS
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ARCHITECT JULY 2014

The Exo Structural Tower

was built based on
intuition and physical
mock-ups, but Do|Su
Studio Architecture
hopes to develop digital
data models to optimize
the material thickness,
dimensions, and shape of
each piece in the assembly.

AWARD
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JUSTIN FANTL
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ARCHITECT JULY 2014

Do|Su StuDio Architecture founDer DoriS Sung AimS
to creAte SmArt Architecture thAt cAn Self-ASSemble.

Doris Sung, Assoc. AIA, envisions a future in which ends, are heated to 350 F. At this temperature, the two
architecture is more than just smart—it also responds laminated alloys of nickel, iron, and manganese curl into
intelligently to its environment. A smart building “is not just a C-shape. Meanwhile, 100-inch-long strips of anodized
about having a Nest-type thermostat,” she says. “That’s a aluminum are hung from a 6-foot-by-4-foot elliptical ring,
smart gadget, not smart architecture.” forming a vertical tube.
Over the past seven years, the founder of Do|Su Studio Each of the 336 curled thermobimetal strips are then
Architecture and assistant professor at the University of inserted, via their end tabs, into a predetermined slot in
Southern California has explored the smart potential of the aluminum strips, following a numeric system printed
thermobimetals: laminated sheets of two metals with on each component. Within 30 seconds, the strips cool
different coefficients of thermal expansion. When heated, and straighten out, locking into place and forming a pre-
one side expands faster than the other, causing the tensioned beam, like an archer’s bow. The tower, which
material to curl, a property long exploited by thermostats Sung estimates can bear a load of 1 ton, can only be taken
as well as Sung’s Bloom installation—a 2012 architect apart when reheated to a high temperature.
R+D Honorable Mention recipient—in Los Angeles. “The structure is doing its work in the most efficient
Sung’s latest prototype, Exo Structural Tower, harnesses place—the outer shell,” said juror Bill Kreysler. He was
this curling behavior to achieve fastener-free construction also impressed that the structural components could be
of a lightweight structural shell, or exoskeleton, that assembled with “no welders, no saws, and virtually no
essentially self-assembles. Just one or two people equipped energy.” Juror Gerardo Salinas said, “I like that it can be on
with an oven, a pair of welder’s gloves, and a ladder a building scale, or on an object scale. I wonder if this could
can build the 8-foot-tall Exo tower, Sung says. First, the turn into a real skyscraper.” Indeed, Do|Su envisions Exo as
thermobimetal strips, which are laser-cut with notched just one tier of a multi-tiered tower.

Construction Sequence

heated thermobimetal bows Staggered thermobimetal bow

Aluminum strip Secondary aluminum joint system

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notches align with tabs

on aluminum strips

curved field
system
86
ARCHITECT JULY 2014

A tAsk force recommended thAt the city of detroit demolish

40,000 dilApidAted houses to stAve off continuing blight.
ArcholAb hAs A better And more cost-efficient plAn.

The sight of Detroit’s thousands of neglected residential roof, as well as much of the building envelope, will
lots, spread across hundreds of sparsely occupied blocks, comprise structural insulated panels (SIPs) donated by
has become infamous, thanks to artists and the media. building supplier Insulspan. Hardwood cut-offs and slats
Now imagine these properties brimming with ripening figs, donated by local sawmill Hardwoods of Michigan will
pistachios, mangos, and citrus. In the winter. become an exterior rainscreen and the interior decking,
This is the vision of Afterhouse, a project conceived by while reclaimed corrugated steel siding will clad the
Abigail Murray and Steven Mankouche of the Ann Arbor, end walls.
Mich.–based research and design collaborative Archolab. Archolab strategically twisted the roof 30 degrees off
The process is simple and inexpensive: Repurpose the the local street grid to orient due south. The structure’s
concrete foundation of a derelict house to build a sunken base still fits the original foundation, so it is the walls that
greenhouse that stays warm through solar heat gain and will take on irregular shapes. A similar twist-and-tweak
the insulation of the earth to grow subtropical crops. operation could be performed on future Afterhouses,
Juror Mimi Love noted, “This is a clever and hopeful regardless of each lot’s orientation.
submission, considering the number of neighborhoods in At the front of the building, “where the house meets
Detroit with which nobody knows what to do but turn out the street,” says Mankouche, an associate professor of
the lights and walk away.” architecture at the University of Michigan, the team will
The test site is an abandoned, fire-damaged house in establish a raised open-air planter for summer crops. Like
the Detroit-embedded city of Hamtramck. An insulated a conventional porch, the elevated garden will function as
greenhouse shed will rise out of the existing 25-foot- a welcoming threshold, a protective fence, and a shading
square foundation. The south side of the shed’s gable device. In the winter, the living screen of plants will vanish
roof will comprise transparent, twin-wall polycarbonate just when the greenhouse behind it requires direct sunlight.
panels, supported by trusses built from standard 2x4s, “It’s very low tech, very inexpensive, but very clever,” juror
steel strapping, pipe, and cable. The other half of the Gerardo Salinas said.

Design Concept Ingredients

sip roof (beyond)

hardwood slats double polycarbonate wall

diy truss
planting sip cut-offs polycarbonate
envelope
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scrap sip planter box

existing foundation (below) hardwood slats

N
hardwood slat remnants diy truss
 RYAN LODERMEIER
88
ARCHITECT JULY 2014 WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM
 89

To achieve the desired

ARCHITECT JULY 2014

sound reflection or
absorption across a panel
surface, HouMinn Practice
used a Grasshopper
script to help determine
the wire placement
that would form the
topography of the
VarVac Wall panels.

AwArd

Varied Cable Mold

Houminn Practice creates

one-off Panels witH minimal
Polystyrene sheet waste, energy, and material.

“Custom fabrication allows architects to overcome what

some consider the scourge of repetition in building
components. But it also can be wasteful. For instance,
variable molding, which is used to make one-off
architectural surfaces and finishes, conventionally requires
a mold that is discarded after a single use. Blair Satterfield
cables
and Marc Swackhamer, principals of HouMinn (pronounced
“human”) Practice, located in Minneapolis and Vancouver,
British Columbia, set out to streamline the technique, cut
costs and waste, and still allow for “endless variation,”
Satterfield says. Along the way, something remarkable
happened: They eliminated the need for a mold.
Juror Bill Kreysler was enthralled. “It’s huge,” he said.
“Forty percent of the cost of making a panel is just creating
the shape. Taking that whole issue of cost out of the
equation is a big breakthrough.”
HouMinn’s efforts culminated in the VarVac Wall, an
ornamental, acoustically absorptive wall installed at the
University of Minnesota School of Architecture, where
Swackhamer is an associate professor and director of
the M.Arch. program. The white plastic panels have an
undulating, non-repeating topography of mounds and
bubbles, some of which are sliced to expose the underlying
Plywood frame
green, acoustical fabric.
Each 0.08-inch-thick panel was molded with just
heat and gravity. First, HouMinn stretched wires across
a plywood frame. Then they took a flat polystyrene
sheet, heated it until it was pliable, and laid it across the
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

cables, where it slumped into the voids. The resulting

bubbles could be exaggerated with a heat lamp, while the
rudimentary cable mold could be modified ad infinitum.
“As we actively reduce the mold itself, the material becomes
more of a voice in the conversation,” says Satterfield, an
assistant professor at the University of British Columbia.
Juror Gerardo Salinas saw larger applications for the
firm’s process. “There’s potential to use this technology to
wrap a whole building,” he said. Kreysler added, “Forming
a material builds into that material’s inherent strength.
VarVac wall panel There’s nothing that says you can’t create catenary arches.”
90
ARCHITECT JULY 2014

THE OFFICE FOR VISUAL INTERACTION, THOMAS PHIFER AND PARTNERS,

AND WERNER SOBEK BRING BEAUTY AND EFFICIENCY TO A UBIQUITOUS FIXTURE.

A decade of development and prototyping has gone into prototype. Advances in solid-state technology—particularly
New York City’s quest to replace its high-pressure sodium in miniaturized small package chips—and in fabrication
(HPS) streetlights. Dotting highways across the U.S., these methods have brought down the luminaire’s cost. The
conventional cobra heads consume 250 watts each, which linear array of 80 1.7-watt LEDs, which total 136 watts,
totals to roughly 60 million watts on the streets of New comes in five modules that can be swapped out as easily as
York alone. In 2004, a team made up of architecture an incandescent lamp. This modular system also allows the
firm Thomas Phifer and Partners, lighting design firm streetlights to keep pace with inevitable advances in LEDs.
Office for Visual Interaction (OVI), and engineering firm “It’s important that we don’t lock ourselves into a certain
Werner Sobek, all with offices in New York, won a city- technology,” says OVI principal Enrique Peiniger, Assoc. AIA.
sponsored competition with its New York City Streetlight The design team also streamlined the proportions of
design. It promised to cut energy consumption using LED the streetlight’s 30-foot-tall tapered mast and its arched
technology—still experimental at the time—and to rethink arm, which cantilevers 8 feet and measures 4 inches wide.
the ubiquitous fixture completely. The arm is cast in three pieces—producing a savings in
In 2009, OVI and Werner Sobek completed the manufacturing costs over the earlier iteration—and then
technical, optical, and structural design specifications for bolted and welded together, ground flush, and painted for
a prototype, for which it won an ARCHITECT R+D Award. a seamless appearance.
In 2011, the city installed a series of units in New York’s To improve the luminaire’s light distribution, OVI
Tribeca neighborhood to undergo multiple performance developed multi-lens optics in lieu of the earlier bent metal
tests and reviews by local agencies. Juror Bill Kreysler said, reflectors in order to “spread the light very wide, like a
“The process of bringing a design to production with all the fan,” Peiniger says. Hot spots and dim areas are minimized
rules and regulations, the manufacturing constraints, and across the 125-foot-radius beam spread, and custom-
getting it to come out the other end still a beautiful object molded lenses in each module provide a little overlap in
is really an achievement.” Juror Mimi Love added, “This is case of individual LED failure.
an elegant design for a practical design problem.” Finally, the jurors were captivated by the fixture’s arm,
The final production models, which the city will begin held taut by a pair of cables in a wishbone suspension.
receiving this September and installing in Harlem later “Why can’t all urban furniture look as good?” asked jury
in the year, feature several upgrades from the 2011 member Gerardo Salinas.

Model of Luminaire Arm

Photoelectric cell

LED Modules

LED Driver
Driver access door
Pole top

Isolux Diagram Comparison LED streetlight

footprint (typ.)

0.55 Fc
40'
0.51 Fc HPS cobra head
footprint (typ.)
0.65 Fc
0.76 Fc
20'
0.35 0.50 0.75 1.00 Fc Street
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1.0 1.50 2.0 1.14 Fc

2.50 3.0 Curb
0'
Sidewalk

Building façade
-20'
Note: Values shown in footcandles (Fc). Centerline of the pole is 3' from curb.

0' 20' 40' 60' 80' 100' 120' 140' 160' 180'
 91

ARCHITECT JULY 2014

After a decade in
the making, the NYC
streetlight is scheduled to
be phased in throughout
the city by 2017, according
to a plan announced by
former Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg in 2013.

CITATION

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FRIEDER BLICKLE / LAIF
92
ARCHITECT JULY 2014

AREA EXPLORES THE POTENTIAL OF THE LIGHTWEIGHT, HIGH-STRENGTH MATERIAL.

Carbon fiber has unparalleled strength and lightness, but it fiber researchers have used, Wilcox and Trandafirescu opted
is one of those sexy modern materials whose cost stymies for inexpensive cardboard molds. They derived the molds’
its usefulness in architecture. That cost barrier could begin form, along with that of the C-Lith structure, from a packed
to disappear if architects become strategic in its use. tetrahedral base geometry. A computer script translated
Anca Trandafirescu and her husband Glenn Wilcox— each four-sided tetrahedron into a four-pronged unit, which
both assistant professors of architecture at University of they cut and joined out of cardboard to make the molds.
Michigan and principals of Area in Ann Arbor, Mich.—took Of course, the cardboard molds would ignite in a regular
this approach by developing carbon fiber architectural units kiln, so Area built an elementary oven powered by 18
that can be joined to form structural framing, scaffolding, infrared heat lamps that max out at a relatively cool 260 F.
and lightweight construction. They observe that, by weight, After baking for four hours, the hardened carbon fiber
carbon fiber is 18 percent stronger than aluminum and 14 pieces are soaked in water to remove the molds. Meanwhile,
percent stronger than steel. a parallel set of cardboard pieces are formed into a mock-up
Standing 14 feet tall and 8 feet wide at the base, their tower, or dummy jig. These are then swapped, one by one,
C-Lith prototype is a semi-cylindrical, hollow structure for the carbon fiber components. Glued-on node plates and
composed of 143 interlocking carbon fiber modules that cotter pins connect the components, which can be quickly
vary in shape and size. Each unit measures about 2 feet disassembled and reassembled.
in its longest dimension and weighs about 3.5 ounces. The jurors were pleased by Area’s material exploration
“Lightness has been more of a technical question for but wanted a greater sense of purpose and refinement.
Glenn,” Trandafirescu says, “but for me it is also a question “This opens the possibility of what you can do with carbon
of cheapness.” fiber, but I don’t think it does anything more than be a
To make C-Lith, the designers worked with spools of pre- sculpture right now,” juror Gerardo Salinas said. Juror Bill
preg, or carbon fiber filament pre-impregnated with epoxy Kreysler said, “This technique, which is fundamentally
resin to stay malleable and sticky until baked. However, pre- sound and reliable and potentially economical, could
preg must be wrapped around something to give it form evolve into things that become more complete. And less
prior to curing. In lieu of the metal molds that other carbon [visually] scary.”
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To set the shape of the modules, Area baked the carbon fiber–wrapped molds in an oven at 260 F for four hours.
 93

ARCHITECT JULY 2014

CITATION
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

Area sculpted the

14-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide,
and 31-pound C-Lith
installation from carbon
fiber pre-impregnated
with epoxy resin. The
BRIAN KELLY

structure’s form was

derived from a packed
tetrahedral base geometry.
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ARCHITECT JULY 2014

Embodied Carbon Footprint Comparisons

Construction
Concrete
Steel and rebar
Timber
Total

Standard Materials

Timber Tower

DeWitt Chestnut

0 20 40 60 80
( lb./s.f. )

Sustainable Material Options

(60% cement replacement in concrete; air-dried timber)

Timber Tower

DeWitt Chestnut

( lb./s.f. )

0 20 40 60 80
( lb./s.f. )

Timber Tower vs. DeWitt Chestnut

78% lower carbon emissions

60–75% smaller embodied carbon footprint

6,000 more cubic feet of materials

ROB SALL

55% lighter building weight

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SKIDMORE, OWINGS & MERRILL BELIEVES THAT A HIGH-RISE MADE
OF ENGINEERED WOOD WOULD BE BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.
NOW THEY HAVE TO CONVINCE EVERYONE ELSE.

In a world where reinforced concrete and steel-framed growing, takes significantly less energy to manufacture
buildings dominate in commercial construction, a timber than concrete or steel, and it can be responsibly harvested
tower may sound like an architectural oddity. But to and replenished. To underscore the point, Johnson
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), it represents a new type modeled and estimated that the hypothetical timber
of high-rise that has a 60 to 75 percent smaller embodied tower would be 55 percent lighter and emit 78 percent
carbon footprint than conventional structures. The Timber less carbon than a comparable 42-story, conventionally
Tower Research Project, spearheaded by associate and constructed tower modeled after Chicago’s Dewitt Chestnut
engineer Benton Johnson, lays out a preliminary structural Apartments, also designed by SOM. Now called the Plaza
design of a hypothetical 42-story tower built of mass timber on Dewitt, the concrete-tube structure was a benchmark of
columns and panels alongside reinforced concrete wall efficient construction at its 1965 completion.
joints, spandrel beams, and link beams. “It’s an engineering Juror Mimi Love said the Timber Tower Research
tour de force,” juror Bill Kreysler said. “With wood, you can Project was a “strong proposal based on sustainable
select shapes that are optimized for the structure.” performance.” But, like the other jurors, she felt that the
Johnson contends that manufactured timber products submission needed to address the crucial issue of fire
such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glued laminated safety and building codes. Jonson acknowledges that he
timber (glulam) are roughly as strong as reinforced is no fire engineer, but he believes that a timber tower
concrete, provided that the timber is loaded correctly and could be designed to be sufficiently fire resistant. When
used in conjunction with concrete or steel joints. “Wood exposed to fire, timber, unlike wood, chars on its surface
is strongest when it’s loaded in compression, parallel to and forms an insulating layer around the core material,
the grain,” he says. retaining some structural integrity. In other words, he says,
The payoff is that timber is a more sustainable building the timber structure wouldn’t even need an applied coat
material than the alternatives. It absorbs carbon while of fireproofing.

Floor System Model

Reinforced concrete Solid 8"-thick Built-up timber

spandrel beam floor panels columns

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SOM associate and

engineer Benton Johnson
estimates that a 42-story
timber tower would be 55
percent lighter and emit
78 percent less carbon
than its concrete-tube
constructed counterpart. Solid timber shear walls Reinforced linear concrete beams
96
ARCHITECT MONTH 2014

GERARDO SALINAS BILL KREYSLER MIMI LOVE

Gerardo Salinas, AIA, is a partner at Mexico City– In 1982, Bill Kreysler left his job as an execu- Mimi Love is a principal at Utile, in Boston. Her
based Rojkind Arquitectos, a firm that delves into tive at a sailboat manufacturer and established work reflects the breadth of the studio’s design/
the relationship among materials, structure, and the building-focused Kreysler & Associates in build and urban-planning portfolio. Love is cur-
geography. His projects include the National Film American Canyon, Calif. The digital fabrication rently managing the construction of the Boston
Archive and Film Institute of Mexico, for which studio specializes in the manufacture of ar- Conservatory Studio Building. She also over-
he carved a multi-use public space out of a dense chitectural components, such as façade panels, saw the design and construction of the Boston
urban landscape, and the Liverpool Department from fiber-reinforced polymers and composites. Harbor Islands Pavilion, with its sculptural,
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

Store expansion (covered in ARCHITECT’s June The company’s projects include the sail-like cast-in-place canopies; the project garnered ac-
issue), whose perforated honeycombed façade acoustical panels that line Ennead Architects’ colades such as a 2011 Honor Award for Design
interacts with Mexico City’s streetscape. Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University. Excellence from the Boston Society of Architects.
Salinas previously worked at Anderson Kreysler has lectured at Stanford; the Before joining Utile, Love was an associate
Mason Dale Architects in Denver, and Ellerbe University of California, San Diego; and the U.S. at Machado and Silvetti Associates, where she
Becket (now an AECOM company) in Washington, Military Academy at West Point. He is a founding led the design for the renovation of the Getty
ELI MEIR KAPLAN

D.C. In 2008, he was named Young Architect of member and president of the Digital Fabrication Villa in Pacific Palisades, Calif. A member of
the Year by the AIA Denver chapter. He has an Network, in San Francisco. He holds degrees in his- the Boston Preservation Alliance, Love holds a
M.Arch. from the University of Maryland. tory and English from San Diego State University. B.Arch. from the University of Texas at Austin.
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RESIDENTIAL
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ARCHITECT JULY 2014

SOFT HOUSE
THIS COMPLEX OF FOUR PERFORMATIVE ROW HOUSES IN HAMBURG, GERMANY, DESIGNED BY KENNEDY &
VIOLICH ARCHITECTURE, BUILDS ON YEARS OF RESEARCH, INCLUDING AN R+D AWARD–WINNING PROTOTYPE.
 101

ARCHITECT JULY 2014

Photovoltaic Ribbon Positioning

Opening page: The garden

behind the four Soft House
units is meant to be shared
by residents. Top: Flexible
photovoltaics are mounted
on textile ribbons that form
a canopy over terraces on
the second floor. Left: The
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6:00 8:00 10:00 12:00 ribbons are attached to

marine winches at the base
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14:00 16:00 18:00 STORM

104 Project Credits

One Fold, PAGE 78 Project Team Kate Daughdrill, Andy Malone, Jono Sturt, Project Team Megha Chandrasekhar, Troy Hillman,
ARCHITECT JULY 2014

Project One Fold Jamin Townsley, Travis Williams, Edward Sachs, Joseph Secil Taskoparan, Rebecca Braun, Ryan Mason,

Design Firm and Drawings Patkau Architects, Danelko, Daniel Sebaldt, Chance Heath, Matthew Sam Seeger, Peter Choi, Chris Pine, John Larmour

Vancouver, British Columbia Schulte, Assoc. AIA, Joshua Bard, Andrew Thompson Funding University of Michigan, Taubman College of
Consultants Mary Darr; Douglas Kelbaugh, Assoc. AIA Architecture and Urban Planning Research Through
Project Team John Patkau, AIA, and Patricia Patkau,
(professor, University of Michigan) Making grant
Hon. FAIA; with Tyler Brown, James Eidse, Tom Schroeder,
Funding Private donations through Hatchfund.org; U.S.
Luke Stern, and Pete Wenger
Client Patkau Architects (machines 1 to 6, application
Economic Development Administration; Michigan State Timber Tower Research
2 Landscape Shelters); Comme des Garçons (applica-
University; University of Michigan, Taubman College of Project, PAGE 94
Architecture and Urban Planning; University of Michi- Project Timber Tower Research Project
tion 1 Comme des Garçons module); Andrew Gruft and
gan Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program Design Firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Claudia Beck (application 3 Garden Naum)
Special Thanks Insulspan, Hardwoods of Michigan Primary Investigator Benton Johnson
Project Team Richard Tomlinson, FAIA, William Baker,
NYC Loop, PAGE 80
Project NYC Loop
Breaking the Mold, PAGE 88 David Horos, Joshua Schultz, Kevin Rodenkirch, AIA,
Project Breaking the Mold: Variable Vacuum Forming Andrés Montaña, AIA, and My-Nga Lam, AIA
Design Firm FXFowle, New York
Design Firm HouMinn Practice, Vancouver, British Client and Funding Softwood Lumber Board
Project Adviser Guy Geier, FAIA (managing partner)
Columbia—Blair Satterfield, Marc Swackhamer (principals) Special Thanks Anthony Forest Products; American
Project Team Luis Bustamante, AIA, Christina Galati,
Primary Investigators Blair Satterfield, assistant Wood Council; FPInnovations; Idaho Forest Group;
Assoc. AIA, Emily Alli, Jack Coble, June Kim, Haley Cohen,
professor, University of British Columbia (UBC); Structurlam Products; Shen Milsom & Wilke; University
Seiji Watanabe, Brandon Massey, Karen Bookatz,
Marc Swackhamer, associate professor, University of of Queensland; WoodWorks; and Dr. Nick Isyumov
Mark Bearak
Minnesota (UMN)
Fabricator SOFTlab, SCRA Applied R&D
Student Research Assistants Ashley Eusebio (UBC), Soft House, PAGE 99
Special Thanks Andrew Maier; Annette Miller; Sylvia
Philip Bussey, David Horner, Abigail Merlis, Assoc. AIA, Project Soft House
Smith, FAIA; Kazuhiro Adachi; Miwa Fukui; Shaun Modi;
Meggen Skilling (UMN) Client Internationale Bauausstellung IBA Hamburg
Columbia University Laboratory for Applied Building
Fabricator Dave Hultman (Hex mold) (City of Hamburg)
Science
Client University of Minnesota Design Firm Kennedy & Violich Architecture, Boston
Photography Ryan Lodermeier Design Team Sheila Kennedy, AIA, and Frano Violich,
Building Bytes, PAGE 82 Special Thanks Renée Cheng, AIA, professor and associ- FAIA (principals); Veit Kugel (senior associate); Kyle Alt-
Project Building Bytes
ate dean of research at UMN College of Design’s School man, Jeremy Burke, Stephen Clipp, Iman Fayyad, Patricia
Design Firm DesignLabWorkshop, Kent, Ohio
of Architecture for support and advocacy Gruits, Katherine Heinrich, Heather Micka-Smith, Chris
Primary Investigator/Project Team Brian Peters Popa, Shevy Rockcastle, Phillip Seaton, Alex Shelly,
Client Speculative Research New York City Streetlight, PAGE 90 Nyima Smith, Sean Tang, Diana Tomova, Sasa Zivkovic
Fabricator DesignLabWorkshop Project New York City Streetlight Project Developer IBA Hamburg (IBA); Patrizia
Design Firm Office for Visual Interaction, New York Projektentwicklung (Soft House)
Exo Structural Tower, PAGE 84 Architect Thomas Phifer and Partners, New York Site Supervision Architects 360grad+ architekten
Project Exo Structural Tower Lighting Designer Office for Visual Interaction Landscape Architects G2 Landschaft
Design Firm Do|Su Studio Architecture, Structural Engineer Werner Sobek Structural Engineer Knippers Helbig
Rolling Hills, Calif. Electrical Engineer Bodak-Cameron Engineering Climate Planning Steinbeis Forschungsinstitut für
Primary Investigator Doris Sung, Assoc. AIA Client New York City Dept. of Design and Construction Solare und Zukunftsfähige Thermische Energiesysteme
Project Team Hannah Woo, Dylan Wood (DDC) and New York City Dept. of Transportation HVAC and Mechanical Engineer BuroHappold
Consultants Arup Engineering—Roel Schierbeek, Fabricator Eaton’s Cooper Lighting Soft House Manufacturing Consortium Global Solar
Gregory Nielsen (structural engineers) Special Thanks Michael R. Bloomberg (mayor, New York); Energy; Svensson Global; Philips Color Kinetics
Client MCA Santa Barbara Patricia Harris (first deputy mayor, New York); David headquarters; Philips Research Eindhoven; Automatic
Fabricators Neal Feay Co.; Engineered Materials Burney, FAIA (commissioner of the NYC DDC); Jackie Devices Co.; L-Tronics; Holzbau Merkle; Textil Bau
Solutions Snyder (executive director of the NYC Public Design
Funding MCA Santa Barbara; Neal Feay Co.; and Commission); Amanda Burden (director of NYC Dept. of
University of Southern California School of Architecture City Planning). Titles held at time of project inception.
Special Thanks Miki Garcia and Alex Rasmussen
C-Lith, PAGE 92
Afterhouse, PAGE 86 Project C-Lith
Project Afterhouse Design Firm and Fabricator Area, Ann Arbor, Mich. For more images and information,
Architect Abigail Murray and Steven Mankouche Primary Investigators Glenn Wilcox, Anca Trandafirescu visit architectmagazine.com
WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM

Volume 103, number 7. July 2014. ARCHITECT® (ISSN 0746-0554; USPS 009-880) is published monthly by Hanley Wood, One Thomas Circle, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20005. Copyright 2014 by Hanley Wood.
Opinions expressed are those of the authors or persons quoted and not necessarily those of the American Institute of Architects. Reproduction in whole or in part prohibited without written authorization. All
rights reserved. Printed in the USA.
Periodicals postage paid at Washington, DC, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARCHITECT P.O. Box 3494, Northbrook, IL 60065.

Canada Post Registration #40612608/G.S.T. number R-120931738. Canadian return address: Pitney Bowes Inc., P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.

DISCLOSURE ARCHITECT® will occasionally write about companies in which its parent organization, Hanley Wood, has an investment interest. When it does, the magazine will fully disclose that relationship.
PRIVACY OF MAILING LIST Sometimes we share our subscriber mailing list with reputable companies we think you’ll find interesting. However, if you do not wish to be included, please call us at 888.269.8410.
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Advertiser Page Circle Website Phone 309
111
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*issue mailed in regional editions Publisher not liable for errors or omissions
 BACK
112
PRODUCTS
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE JULY 2014

CITATION PAST PROGRESSIVES

RISING FROM THE ROCKS

1954 P/A Awards Jury
Victor Gruen
George Howe
Eero Saarinen
Fred N. Severud
THE CHAPEL OF THE HOLY CROSS, SPECTACULARLY SET ON A CLIFF ABOVE
SEDONA, ARIZ., EXEMPLIFIES THE MELDING OF STRUCTURE AND SITE.
Text by John Morris Dixon, FAIA

THE JURORS FOR the very first P/A Awards pro- area. Her chosen designer for such a project had
gram shared a 1950s era urge to move past the In- been Lloyd Wright—son of Frank Lloyd Wright
ternational Style’s universally applicable design and architect of the 1951 Wayfarers Chapel in
concepts toward an architecture more closely Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. When he declined,
related to place. They praised the Chapel of the she turned to Anshen + Allen of San Francisco
Holy Cross as “more location than architecture, (acquired by Stantec in 2010), which clearly rose
which is as it should be.” And they endorsed to the challenge.
the use of the “symbolic cross” as an “important Completed in 1957, the chapel remains un-
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structural element,” which could have seemed a altered and has required only routine mainte-
coarse gesture in a less-sensitive design. nance. Rising from a cleft between two mounds
The chapel’s site is undeniably unique. And of red rock, it continues to attract a steady
its program was hardly ordinary, the product of stream of the faithful, as well as admiring tour-
a decades-long effort by the donor, Marguerite ists. From its austere interior, an expanse of the
CAROL M. HIGHSMITH

Brunswig Staude, to create a Roman Catholic area’s awe-inspiring landscape can be seen be-
devotional chapel. After considering sites in yond the commanding cross. While the building
California and Hungary, she spotted this desert represents the aspirations of its time, it is, in a
setting during a flight over the Sedona, Ariz., larger sense, timeless.
...and you shall find.
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