Country/City/School?

i suggest finding someone who you think might be one of the next big names.

they're ueually cheaper too.

USA/ Oklahoma State University

yes, we would like to find the next big thing. hopefully someone around here could throw around some names.

go to local oklahoma newspaper sites and see who is being published or talked about. search record, arch mag etc for projects being published in your area - see who the architects are. talk to graduates of OSU, they might have a boss that would be a good find. harass your professors. they might have had previous colleagues or friends that are doing some interesting work. there are tons of proactive ways to find someone that would be a good fit for your school.

i am trying to find someone that is way outside of the realm of our school. the whole point is to bring in someone that can bring in new ideas.

so back to my original question, has anyone experienced a good visiting crit/lecturer?

i am trying to find someone that is way outside of the realm of our school. the whole point is to bring in someone that can bring in new ideas.

so back to my original question, has anyone experienced a good visiting crit/lecturer?

...friends of mine

nice friends
all bartlett grads I assume?

how about non-architects? we can be pretty bad with the naval-gazing at times so broadening the scope of lectures could be an approach that works.

ie. steven johnson write accessible books on emergence and technology in culture. Ants, cities, software. not esoteric and deleuze-y, or even derrida-dian, but architects don't have to resort to the incomprehensible all of the time.

lots of others who think and write on the fringe of design out there. and probably don't get paid as much cuz they ain't starchitects.

I saw Will Bruder lecture ten years ago. He moved me to tears of joy, and he's about doing the work not just talking about it - trying to make the poetic from the pragmatic as he said.

I saw Steve Badanes of Jersey Devil lecture one year ago. He was very entertaining - laugh out loud funny - and caused some heated debate. His lecture was one of the contributing events that led me to quit my corporate job and go out on my own - he's a true believer and very convincing.

Dan Hoffman of Arizona State University gives a very good lecture, and Karl Puljak of Louisiana Tech does too.

we had sambo come to my school...still my favorite lecture of all time...but of course he is out.

get someone who is a prof already. i find that they are interested in helping the students more than just a star arch. we had hermann hertzbeger (sp) from NL and he was just great!
when scheduling people to come i find that when you ask your profs who they know...they always know more people than you would think... and from all over!

i'd agree that it's all about the connections...people are more
likely to show up when they know someone...second, i'd try and
find an architect that's possibly building somewhere near your
school. don't know if there are any major projects in the ok. city
area, but i'd think architects would be more likely to come if they
could combine the trip.

as far as lecturers....the one's i've really enjoyed: merril elam
(who's already in the south and may be willing to travel to you
guys), stan allen, wil mcdonough from uva, ken smith the
landscape architect...entertaining and a chance for you and the
landscrapers to have a joint lecture...ie maybe more moolah to
entice him?

i'd also imagine that younger firms would be more willing to
travel to get a lecture under their belt. firms like lewis tsurumaki
lewis, nArchitects, shop, etc. sorry i'm kind of in a new york
mode right now...

be in the know on what is going on around town, and try to get some history from your professors/local architects.

besides lectures i saw at AIAS forums, pretty much all have been by people who have either been trying to get a project in the area or have some sort of alumni connections. your professors can really be suprising in finding out who they know or where they've worked.

even in idaho i've managed to see predock, bruder, christo and jeanne-claude, caesar pelli, rick joy, and jim jennings.

how about archinect's very own Mason White or Cameron Sinclair?

I saw Glenn Murcutt at UTSA in San Antonio about two years ago, it was a very, very good lecture. He travels and lectures extensively and it may be worth a shot to contact him. It would be well worth it.

Also, you may try talking to some firms in Texas that are doing interesting work. I interned for Overland Partners and also saw a lecture they did at A&M in College Station (also the middle of nowhere), and it was very interesting. I know they are eager to lecture more often and I'm sure they would come to Stillwater. Carlos Jimenez also has come to College Station, and anyone willing to come to College Station probably would visit Stillwater.

Also try Mell Lawrence Architects from Austin, I haven't heard him lecture but he has very good work.

Good luck

moratto....no, only one from the bartlett, another from umich but he is old. the other two only barchs. all four members are connected via undergrad: ball state university.

Just to clarify to keep the discussion focused, I'm assuming moratto means a studio professor, or a guest professor when he says lecturer/crit person, not a one evening presentation. I don't really have any good suggestions, although I did have Steve Badanes as a professor. He's a really nice guy with good ideas, but more along the progressive political lines, not the theory driven starchitect lines. I think all his studios are design-build. That could be a good or bad thing, depending on what you're looking for in a studio.

I'm bumping this thread to re-open this discussion:

who have you seen that has delivered the most entertaining lectures?

who are the most animated professors at your institution, particularly professors of architectural history or contemporary culture?

Syd Mead was a crowd pleaser. And Lo-tek as well. The Michael Rotondi lecture last night was also pretty good. I've seen more than my share of lectures that weren't so good, but I won't mention names here.

yes i saw michael at asu. he was great. also: are you involved in ltu's solar decathlon house this year?

No solar D for me. Too much going on. I wish I could though.

thom mayne was a great lecturer. no idea how he is for crits.

we also had the head designer at Nike as a guest crit once. he had an arch degree from our school. excellent design ideas, different view on design and the value of it, was very supportive but honest. didn't attack, asked questions to get the students to think and offered opinions.

thom mayne was kinda sporadic and all over the place, wheni last saw him speak.

alberto campo baeza: beautiful, beautiful work, only complaint would be a less than sober historian @ columbia...

mathias klotz: not too much drivel, just facts, images, and elegant translations. would love to see more work like that.

oh, and LTL. i love their drawings.

saw Steve Badanes lecture in april '05. very entertaining and motivating, as lb suggested above. he also sat on a jury for an annual community design charrette (24 hours, interdisciplinary)...the GF and I were on the winning team (our 5 member team split the $3500 award, so this is a particularly fond memory.


David Lewis of LTL gave a super intelligent, witty and generally enjoyable lecture this past September at the Emerging Architect's Conference in St. Pete, FL. He hung out for the 3 day conference, and was welcoming to questions or conversation. He was also on a jury for a design charrette (won by archinect member architphil).


Rudy Riciotti was also a fantasticly entertaining lecture. his work is very nice, he speaks with a thick french accent, in poor english, with amazing passion, and no sense of tact. some people found him offensive, but he came across as a passionate, activist, don't take shit from anyone type to me.

replace "witty" with "clever"

You know, I really enjoyed the lecture by Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, Amale was my last semester's studio critic.
www.work.ac

Michael Sorkin was a great lecturer as also was Peter Waldman from UVA.

Just in case ya'll missed it when Bryan posted this in the news section all the GSD lectures are here:

http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/events/webcasts/

maybe a good place to scout?

AP beat me to it, but I would highly recommend David Lewis of ltl architects. As AP said, we had him down to Florida as the keynote speaker for a conference. He was really approachable and willing to talk to and interact with people, and from the little bit of interaction that I had with him regarding my competition entry I think that he would be great as a guest critic.

We also had Craig Dykers of snohetta down for our Annual AIA Gala. He was a great guy, a good lecturer and some interesting work.

However, keep in mind that unless you have some serious connections to a "starchitect" or even an emerging "starchitect", your probably looking at a a few thousand dollars to get them there.