Archinect - News

SPF:a's new Obama Sports Complex is inaugurated in Los Angeles

2022-06-29T17:24:00-04:00

It’s opening day for SPF:architects’ new Michelle and Barack Obama Sports Complex in Los Angeles’ Baldwin Hills neighborhood. The new development replaces the old 29-acre Rancho Cienega Sports Complex and was developed in conjunction with Buro Happold and Hood Design Studio.

The scheme critically includes what is being labeled as one of the city’s first Net Zero Energy (NZE) buildings — the all-new basketball wing of the larger, 40,000-square-foot facility — and is landscaped in a grid to evince five distinct ecologies: high desert, canyon, coastal, chaparral, and medicinal.

Image © Mike Kelley

Hood’s drought-tolerant landscape design is also said to be inspired by the early-20th-century abstract painters like George Braque and Fernand Leger. The upgraded facility it surrounds is an amalgam of pre-engineered metal buildings (PEMB) deliberately selected to reduce costs and the environmental impacts of materials used in the project, which came together at the start of 2015 thanks to s...

Barack Obama to speak at the 2022 AIA Conference on Architecture

2022-05-31T17:56:00-04:00

Former U.S. President Barack Obama has been announced as the surprise headline speaker on Day 3 of this year’s A’22 Conference in Chicago.

Obama will join for a moderated conversation about a yet-unnamed topic at the close of the conference’s Friday session on June 24th at the McCormick Place Convention Center.

His appearance follows that of his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, who spoke at the A’17 conference about the importance of equity and diversity efforts in the world of professional design. The President’s appearance comes just a few months removed from the groundbreaking of the TWBTA-designed Obama Presidential Center complex in Chicago's Jackson Park which is scheduled to open in 2025 following years of delay.

Obama’s legacy and impacts as it relates to the fields of architecture and urban planning are still being examined by scholars, but he was influential in mandating new stan...

Small Details Matter; Archinect Sessions #101 Discusses the 2017 AIA National Conference

2017-05-08T15:06:00-04:00

In this latest episode of Archinect Sessions, Ken and Donna share their experiences and thoughts on the 2017 AIA National Conference. We discuss the conversation with Michelle Obama and the keynotes by Francis Kéré (awesome), Michael Murphy (political), and Elizabeth Diller (meh). We also address the positive changes displayed by the AIA this year, along with signs of complete lack of evolution by the Institute. Ken and Donna also share their excellent run-in and conversation with Phil Freelon and his wife Nnenna.

Listen to "Small Details Matter":

iTunes: Click here to listen, and click the "Subscribe" button below the logo to automatically download new episodes.
Apple Podcast App (iOS): click here to subscribe
SoundCloud: click here to follow Archinect
RSS: subscribe with any of your favorite podcasting apps via our RSS feed: http://archinect.libsyn.com/rss
Download: this episode

Ken and Donna waiting eagerly for Michelle Obama

The power couple, Phil & Nnenna Freelon

Karen E. Hudson, gran...

Michelle Obama to join the 2017 AIA Conference on Architecture

2017-03-31T12:24:00-04:00

The AIA has announced that a “conversation” with former First Lady Michelle Obama will be held on the first day of the 2017 AIA Conference on Architecture in Orlando. The press release notes the four primary initiatives that Obama engaged with during her time as the First Lady of the United States:

Let’s Move!—an initiative to combat childhood obesity
Joining Forces—a project to support the wellness of service members, veterans and their families
Reach Higher—an endeavor to inspire young people to pursue post-high school education, whether at a four-year university, a community college, or a professional training program
Let Girls Learn—an initiative focusing on helping adolescent girls worldwide attend school

The conversation will be held on Thursday, April 27. Find out more here.