Archinect - News

Syd Mead, visionary futurist illustrator, has passed away

2019-12-30T19:39:00-05:00

Syd Mead, the legendary science fiction illustrator responsible for concocting the retro-futurist conceptual drawings that inspired movies like Blade Runner, Aliens, and Tron and other seminal sci-fi films, has passed away at age 86.

Mead passed away in his Pasadena, California home on December 30, 2019 according The Hollywood Reporter. Mead’s death follows a three year struggle with lymphoma, according to Mead’s spouse, Roger Servick, THR reports.

Mead studied at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena after three years of service in the United States Army, graduating in 1959. Following this period, he designed cars for Ford Motor Company’s Advanced Styling Studio before setting out on his own as a freelance illustrator, a career-altering trajectory that eventually situated him as a conceptual artist for Hollywood-produced films, including Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, Tron, Aliens, Mission to Mars, Mission: Impossible III, Elysium, and Blade Runner 2049, among man...

Reimagining Buildings Of The Past With The Materials Of The Future

2012-11-16T19:57:00-05:00

... we asked a few forward-thinking professionals in the business of buildings. The question went something like this: If we were going to remake a famous building or bridge using the materials we have today or will have in the future, what would we do differently? That's just vague enough to make things interesting. Here's what we got back.

Is Nostalgia Dead? Retro-Futurism, Architecture & Film

2011-07-28T19:18:01-04:00

There is a certain quality about the 60s dream of the future that strikes a chord in everyone's heart. The melancholy and beauty of these dreamlike creations have survived not only in architecture, but also in fashion, product design and - most vividly so - in cinema. It is through cinema that the unique feel of this nostalgic breed of buildings could be experienced with the most powerful effect.

Tom Mallory, of our good friends over at OpenBuildings.com, refuses in an article on Huffpost to say 'goodbye' to retro-futurism and explains why it makes us feel so warm and fuzzy inside.