Archinect - News

Photographer Janna Ireland is on the hunt to capture Paul R. Williams' built legacy in L.A.

2018-10-01T19:40:00-04:00

For nearly two years, [Janna Ireland has] searched out buildings to photograph — mansions and housing projects, churches and banks designed by the Angeleno architect who died in 1980. [...] “I’m interested in stories about black people, and I’m interested in stories about Los Angeles. There’s an intersection there,” says Ireland, who grew up in Philadelphia.

Mimi Zeiger profiles artist/photographer Janna Ireland, who has spent the last two years photographing the buildings of Paul R. Williams as a way to preserve his architectural legacy.

“It has all of this psychological depth ... [Ireland's photos] don’t simply document the architectural quality of the building but capture the thought that went into making it,” Barbara Bestor says in the article in describing Ireland's work. Last December, the Julius Shulman Institute presented Ireland's photography in the exhibition, “There is Only One Paul R Williams: A Portrait by Janna Ireland”.

Richard Rogers on the Centre Pompidou: "I would never dream of doing it now"

2017-08-29T14:08:00-04:00

Where we would be without the energetic (if usually misinformed) enthusiasm of youth? Apparently, without the Centre Pompidou as we know it. In this comprehensive and enjoyable profile in The Guardian, Richard Rogers reflects on his early days as an architect after he and his freshly-made friend Renzo Piano had won a competition in Paris for the now famous cultural center.

Image: Bruno via Flickr

As the article relates, "Having won it, they had no idea what it was that he was taking on. 'Young architects are immensely naive,' [Rogers] says. 'I would never dream of doing it now. We had a great client, but the press gave us hell. In seven years, there were only two positive articles. I don’t know how we got to the end.'"

Bjarke Ingels gets the Rolling Stone treatment

2016-09-14T13:20:00-04:00

At 41, Bjarke Ingels could be fairly described as architect-famous, meaning people outside of his profession might be able to finger one of the buildings he's designed, but not the man himself. In person, he exudes a boyish charisma that one minute suggests a Silicon Valley wunderkind and the next a president of a frat house. [...] His most distinctive features are his eyes, which are such dark pools you can practically see your own twin reflections in them.

What architecture means to Zena Howard, project leader of the National Museum of African American History and Culture

2016-04-14T19:14:00-04:00

"And to me, as an African American, just realizing that this has actually come to be, that there's an actual National Museum for African American History and Culture on the Mall of Washington, D.C., and this museum should have happened years and years ago, but the realization that finally in America we're at a place where we can accept it ... It's one of the most prominent sites on the Mall. It's not somewhere tucked away.

Architect Zena Howard talks about what first drew her to architecture, the National Museum for African American History and Culture on which she worked as Senior Project Manager, and her outlook on the status of women in architecture.

Susan Surface, the "humble pioneer" for socially responsible design

2015-12-28T12:49:00-05:00

"'Are you going to do beautiful architecture or do-gooder architecture?' I want to do neither and both." [...] "It's not like you're going to design some single product that revolutionizes the way people shape the world around them," Surface said. "You have to change fundamentally how your organization is structured, how your resources are allocated, stop thinking of yourself as a gatekeeper. It's about redistributing how power and decision making and resources are divided between people."

Prompted by her work with Design in Public in Seattle, this profile of Susan Surface dips into her professional and personal background to designing like she gives a damn, covering the diversity of ways she seeks to question the power structures that perpetuate socially irresponsible or discriminatory designs.

Susan joined us on episode #42 of Archinect Sessions, where we address issues of gender inclusive design in public restrooms.