Eric Baldwin kicked off a new series, Designing Practice. lt kicked off featuring chats with Evelyn Lee (of AIA’s YAF and Practice Innovation Lab) and Lola Sheppard (of Lateral Office) regarding Alternative or Expanded practice models in the 21st century. Plus, Duo Dickinson (architecture critic for the New Haven Register) surveyed the changing professional landscape and saw "A whole lotta doom and gloom...!"

ralph@bfmarch.com countered "With all due respect, lines of code won't keep out the rain or hold up the roof. As a retired but still teaching architecture faculty member and founding, retiring partner in a 12 person practice, I find us busier than ever with our role as interpreter of the building industry for clients unfamiliar with it." Later, Will Galloway chimed in "the profession has indeed moved on. I don't agree that the step away from beauty has been a bad thing...The idea of a master builder as architect is strange...How we are paid is indeed a problem...The problems our profession needs to respond to are well beyond aesthetic anyway."

News

Chinese developer Shenzhen New World Group released plans for a new supertall in Los Angeles designed by DiMarzio | Kato Architecture. jessyrocha pleaded for them to "make it 1,180 ft high plus add a beautiful spire that will be seen miles aways and lights up beautifully nice at night! DTLA really needs this."

Pretty much everyone was a fan of the newly proposed Tel Aviv Arcades by Penda Austria. Erik Evens argued "It appears to be a very rare example of a parametric formalism that actually works beyond the scale of the very large, to result in a humane place.  The apartments look like they'd be great places to live." yet agreed with Miles Jaffe "Not a fan of brick soffits. The bricks look like they want to fall on your head." randomised "Would've loved to see this in cross laminated timber or béton brut, the bricks are a real let down in my opinion".

The first set of preliminary schematic designs for the, OMA/Shohei Shigematsu, $155 million AK360 Campus Development and Expansion project, were revealed. davvid was onboard "the inadequacies of the Bunshaft galleries are well documented...The Buffalo News did an entire article about how the floor plan forces the museum to take garbage out through the same corridor that they load artwork in through...The OMA design encourages traffic through the building and the courtyard, which will add some life to it."

Episode 123 of Archinect Sessions, saw Paul Petrunia in Conversation with Miguel McKelvey, Co-Founder of WeWork. The two first met while studying architecture, together, at the University of Oregon. They spoke about Miguel’s entrepreneurial path, and how architecture has played a critical role in the success of WeWork, starting with his extremely untraditional, yet highly relevant, childhood.

R.I.P. Constance Adams, who applied her architectural skills to various NASA design programs for space habitats, too young at 53.

China Pavilion for Expo Milano 2015 in Milan, Italy by Studio Link-Arc, LLC and Cedar House in Yoshino, Japan by Airbnb Samara with Go Hasegawa, were just two of the latest top ten projects (in no particular order), on the Archinect Pinterest board Wood.

Firms/Work Updates

David C. McFadden wrote about ‘ghosting’ as a result of the strong/tight labor market and laid out the Top 6 changes hiring firms must make to compete for top talent. Apparently an emphasis on Work/Life Balance is also trending.

As for the demand, Quentin could confirm "I graduated in 09 and just LOL at trying to get a job back then. Now I'm bombarded weekly...good times."

On a related note, if you are looking for work; Studio Gang is seeking a BIM Manager to join their Chicago office. They are also looking to hire a model shop manager for their New York office.

Alternatively, SHoP Architects needs an Interactive Visualization Designer. Applicants must have "Experience developing for Oculus, Vive, Hololens, or other room-scale virtual/mixed reality platform."

School/Blogs

Erin Moore, AIA, was named the new Head of the University of Oregon's School of Architecture & Environment.

Discussions/Threads

In response to some of the goings on, at the 2018 AIA Conference, DTElmore offered some criticism Equity can't be solved with a speech... Then asked for others to share "instances where you as a woman or person of color have also been discouraged from being an architect or overlooked?". Predictably some took it as an opportunity to mansplain or call foul. However, others such as Peter Normand opined "People are so cavalier about dismissing other folks claims of discrimination, that is  until it happens to them...We need solutions and we need to put the horrible folks who refuse to evolve on this out of business."

For his part, Marc Miller called attention to a number of trends and expanded on the comment tintt made, ending "thank you to those who testified."

Shaw wanted to know whether "Lebbeus Woods was an Architect “by the standards of NCARB, the Registration Law, and the State Board where he practiced?" Non Sequitur answered with a question of their own "Was Vitruvius an architect by NCARB standards?"

kjdt provided some clarification/nuance about active enforcement by state boards "Self-identification in and of itself isn't a reason for a state board to pounce on anyone. The only occupiable structures he ever worked on were in other countries, and were collaborations with architects.  He didn't advertise architectural services or form an architecture firm...there needs to be a complainant."

Apparently that is a USA thing, as bowling_ball countered, "My province still tries to go after people who are named as architects in the media (ie newspapers etc) even though the designers in question never call themselves architects. It's hilarious to watch them get so upset." Sir Apple Chrissy added further detail "With regard to calling yourself an architect on a website that can be viewed anywhere on planet earth, I posed that very question to the state. They never responded.  I wanted to know when do they decide they have jurisdiction over something that is essentially international beyond state and national lines - the internet."

Finally, Sir Apple Chrissy put out a call for Archinectors to post their "damn illegal napkin sketching...you're not licensed but on a napkin you design a fucking architecture." Erik Evens and threadkilla had some great examples. AlinaF had a late entry for what developed into "A beautiful thread. I did a sketch of Villa Savoye a while back, but then used the napkin to blow my nose. Looks much better now IMO but still wouldn't post it on the forum."

Additionally

If you haven’t already you should take the time to read the list of 250 things Michael Sorkin believes an architect should know. Originally published in 'What Goes Up', London: Verso, 2018. h/t @Leo Hollis