Archinect - News

AIA President Kimberly Dowdell outlines the need for better K-12 outreach to strengthen the architecture profession

2024-05-31T14:43:00-04:00

Reflecting upon her activities during the recently passed Architecture Week in Detroit, AIA President Kimberly Dowdell outlined the need to engage with the key K-12 demographic in order to cultivate and better prepare the next generation of American architects to match the challenges they and the country will face tomorrow.

"If we want to engage the best young talent to help us grow our profession in the future, we must start now. Kindergarten through 12th grade engagement provides a wonderful opportunity to educate and excite students about the amazing field of architecture," Dowdell stated, also relating her experience as a young student in the city public school system.

Outlining her vision for institutional change in a new five-point agenda, Dowdell (also currently a trustee of her alma mater Cornell University) said better youth engagement can be achieved by further connecting the AIA’s K-12 nationwide resources; increasing support for the Architects Foundation’s scholarship pr...

Tizziana Baldenebro will lead the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation as its next executive director

2024-02-29T17:35:00-05:00

The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF)’s search for a new organizational leader has culminated in the appointment of Tizziana Baldenebro as its next executive director following a national search that began this fall.

Baldenebro, who replaces the long-tenured and well-admired Cynthia Phifer Kracauer, has past experience as the director of SPACES, a 45-year-old nonprofit that was founded to encourage community engagement with the arts in northeast Ohio.

Baldenebro was, along with other members of SPACES, most recently a co-curator of last year’s U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale and comes to the position informed by her childhood in Los Angeles and subsequent experiences in cities like Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago.

"We are thrilled to welcome Tizziana to our organization as she takes the helm in guiding us through our next phase of growth and advancement in championing women in architecture, engineering, construction, and related fields," Angelica T. Ba...

University of Virginia's School of Architecture names C.L. Bohannon as its first Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

2022-03-25T16:57:00-04:00

The University of Virginia’s School of Architecture has announced the appointment of C.L. Bohannon, PhD, ALSA, as its first Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (AD JEDI), effective July 25, 2022. He joins the faculty as Associate Professor in the Landscape Architecture Department.

Bohannon is currently an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and the Associate Director in the School of Architecture + Design at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He is also the Director of the Community Engagement Lab and Faculty Principal at the Leadership and Social Change Residential College at Virginia Tech.

Bohannon’s research focuses on the relationship between community engagement and design education. His pedagogy, through the lens of landscape architecture, examines the asymmetrical power relationships and systems that produce social and environmental inequities in marginalized communities, or as he describes it, “uneven geographies,” t...

David Adjaye selected as lead designer for redevelopment of several Old Town buildings in Chicago

2022-01-26T16:38:00-05:00

Neighbors are pushing developers to bring a grocery store to the area as they begin overhauling several Old Town buildings. Developer Fern Hill Company, alongside Moody Church, is transforming five sites on LaSalle Drive, North Avenue and Wells Street, including the former Treasure Island grocery store.

Last September, Fern Hill Company announced that architect David Adjaye would work as the lead designer for the redevelopment in Chicago. He will design buildings owned by Fern Hill and Moody Church, a non-denominational Christian church in the city’s north side. The overhaul will include two nearby gas stations, the Moody Church campus, a parking lot, a Walgreens, and a vacant grocery store space.

A community engagement website launched in November received more than 1,400 comments on how the sites should be redeveloped. One consensus among local residents was the preservation and enhancement of the historical character of Wells Street, a major boulevard with retail, bars, and restaurants that cuts through the area. Another was to make it easier for people to connect to open public spaces.

The next phase of community feedback asks locals to answer questions about each individual property regarding their community benefits and potential for new uses. Additional feedback through in...

Stop Asking the Public What They Want

2021-06-09T14:52:00-04:00

It's no secret that a lot of public engagement is worthless—or worse. It's not just that much of it is lazily designed to check off a box on a list of requirements—though that's true. It's not just that there's a built-in power imbalance, in which public feedback tends to overrepresent groups with a lot of access to and familiarity with the political process—older, wealthier, whiter, and more politically engaged residents. Though that's true too.

Often the public surveys on a public space, new building proposal, town center, shopping area, a local roadway, housing, etc., involve meaningless questions and public input via the neighborhood workshops, hearings, and other means of conjuring up political support for the projects already decided on the developer's and the public agency's agenda.

This article was written by Daniel Herriges dated September 9, 2020, illustrates the often meaningless process with photos of citizens working with cardboard models if they are seasoned design professionals.

Archinect's Virtual Event Guide for the week of June 22-25th

2020-06-22T14:53:00-04:00

Today's featured virtual event happenings, from Archinect's Virtual Event Guide, address issues from resiliency, mass timber, community engagement, residential design, art, public art, urban design, Palm Springs modernism and bamboo.

Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation? Tour? Interview? Happy Hour? Submit it for consideration by clicking here.

Are you an expert in an arena that's especially important right now? Let us know if you would like to work with Archinect to host an online event.

The Future City: Urban Resilience and the Power of Data
Monday, June 22, 2020 7:30 PM BST
Our societies are surrounded by an abundance of data in both the online and physical world. Has data the power to help us understand better our communities and complex reality? Can data help us create new tools to manage urban risk and design resilient cities?
Click here to attend and/or register

Time to reconnect with nature: Timber offices of the future
Tuesday, June 23, 2020 | 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM BST...

Valdemar Coutinho Arquitectos completes concrete and wood sports facility in Portugal

2018-09-06T18:08:00-04:00

The Pavilhão do Atlântico sports facility by Valdemar Coutinho Arquitectos was recently completed this year in Viana do Castelo, Portugal. The brutalist gymnasium was built to serve both the local Pedro Barbosa School and community.

Pavilhão do Atlântico by Valdemar Coutinho Arquitectos, located in Viana do Castelo, PT. Image: Joao Morgado.

The firm's design includes a 6997 sq. ft surface to accommodate volleyball and basketball, and includes four adjacent changing room blocks each with a capacity for 15 to 20 individuals.

Pavilhão do Atlântico by Valdemar Coutinho Arquitectos, located in Viana do Castelo, PT. Image: Joao Morgado.

The facility also includes an entrance space with a reception, surveillance area, and a cafeteria.

Pavilhão do Atlântico by Valdemar Couti...

Documentary showcases how architecture students of the University at Buffalo School are shaping the city

2018-07-19T16:11:00-04:00

"How do we bring a city not back to what it was, but what it needs to be in the future?" A new documentary at the Venice Architecture Biennale explores this question, showcasing how students of the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning are learning from and rebuilding the Rust Belt city around them.

Once a thriving American city, since the latter 20th century, Buffalo has seen a sharp population loss and growing inequality stemming from its industrial decline. As Buffalo rebounds, students and faculty of the University are becoming an integral part of this process. Whether it's working with local refugee entrepreneurs or revitalizing local fabrication and industry, students are using the city itself as a laboratory, deeply embedding themselves in the community and the challenges it faces.

Their work is currently being showcased at the Time Space Existence exhibition in Venice, through a new film and an accompanying catalog highlighting sites of faculty and stude...

Diller Scofidio + Renfro present "The Mile-Long Opera" along the High Line this fall

2018-07-09T14:45:00-04:00

Diller Scofidio + Renfro together with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang present The Mile-Long Opera: a biography of 7 o’clock, a 5 night series of performances taking place along the High Line. Featuring 1,000 singers from across NYC, this extensive community engagement initiative will allow audience members to actively participate among choral work throughout the park.

Singers rehearsing for the The Mile-Long Opera. Image: Luis Paez.

Elizabeth Diller explains, “After working on the design of the High Line for over a decade and witnessing the rapid transformation of the surrounding area, I thought a lot about the life cycle of the city—its decay and rebirth—full of opportunities and contradictions."

The performances will take place from October 3-7, 2018. Admission is free, however advanced tickets are required and will be available at milelongopera.com starting September 5.

The latest Social Design Circle honorees for the 2017 Curry Stone Design Prize

2017-02-08T18:24:00-05:00

With so many designers who dedicate their work to tackling society's most pressing problems, it can be tricky to select only one winner for a top social impact award like the Curry Stone Design Prize. So for 2017, the Curry Stone Foundation decided to change things up a bit. Instead of awarding only one winner, they will announce a total of 100 Social Design Practices and/or Individuals as a member of the Social Design Circle, which acknowledges the most socially engaged practices.

Throughout the year, new members of the Social Design Circle will be announced every month in relation to the issue that the Curry Stone Design Prize is addressing for that particular month. For February, the topic is: “Is The Right To Housing Real?”

Here are the latest Social Design Circle members:

Asian Coalition for Housing Rights

Breaking Ground, New York, NY

David Baker Architects, San Francisco, CA

Jonathan Kirschenfeld, New York

L'Oeuf Architects, Montreal

Kraftwerk1, Zurich

Lacaton & Vassal, Paris

Learn more about the honorees on Bustler.

UMSoA to Propel Neighborhood Revitalization with $650,000 from Knight Foundation

2015-04-16T12:56:00-04:00

“The School of Architecture has a long history of helping to reshape and revitalize the South Florida community,” said Rodolphe el-Khoury, dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture. “We are pleased that Knight Foundation has chosen to support this unique project that will have a lasting impact on communities in need of assistance.”

The University of Miami School of Architecture today announced a plan to bring “third places” – community spaces, marketplaces, incubators and training centers – into two underserved Miami neighborhoods with $650,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The Third Place Project will create spaces that provide resources and support to entrepreneurs, creatives and civic leaders in these neighborhoods, as a way to foster their ideas and break down barriers. It will also help transform these neighborhoods and create opportunities for local businesses, by establishing inexpensive spaces for startups and hubs for arts, culture and entertainment. The grant will support Momentum2: The Breakthrough Campaign for the University of Miami.

“A major challenge in the Miami metro area is the disconnect between extraordinarily wealthy neighborhoods and boom areas and long-struggling urban neighborhoods such as Allapatah, Little Haiti and Opa-locka,” said Charles Bohl, associate professor an...