For many of Archinect's readers, September represents the beginning of a new year as the academic season refreshes. To help ease this process, we offered incoming students a few tips throughout the month. September also represented the start of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and Archinect's focus on the windy city.
Chicago was the second city we focused on for our new "Spotlight" series on Archinect, following Detroit in September, and proceeding New York in October. When deciding on a city to focus on each month, we first check if there are any big events happening around the country for that month. The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) was opening in September, so our spotlight on Chi-town was solidified.
In addition to our coverage of CAB, we tried to put a little more attention on news in the Chicago area, including updates on the controversial Obama Library and highlighting some of the amazing Chicago-area firms hiring staff.
In September's Chicago-related feature articles, we profiled the admirable labor practices of HDR's Chicago office; we looked at the fascinating history behind Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; we spoke with the Chicago Architecture Biennial's artistic director Yesomi Umolu; and interviewed Paul Preissner (before he and his collaborator were chosen to design the next US Pavilion for the Venice Biennale).
As students around the world returned (or started) their architecture studies in September, we took the opportunity to offer some tips to help navigate this challenging time:
"Managing back-to-school stress" shared some sage advice on how to deal with the stress often associated with school.
"How to Face a Jury in Architecture School" provided tips on dealing with one of architecture school's most stressful situations–presenting your creative, personal work to a jury of experts, often in front of all of your classmates. In classic Sean Joyner fashion, he used a fascinating historical example of how the legendary musician Charlie Parker learned from a humiliating experience performing with his (at-the-time) superiors to better himself and his abilities.
"NCARB's back to school tips for architecture students" provided some more practical tips on how to start working toward your professional career and licensure, while in school, nicely complementing Sean's advice on dealing with school's emotional challenges.
All of us here at Archinect were very surprised to see how much attention our coverage on high-speed trains received in September. In fact, the article "Texas High-Speed Rail route takes a big step forward" was our most-read article that month! ‾\_(ツ)_/‾
Another very popular article in September was "Construction on high-speed rail line linking Los Angeles and Las Vegas on the horizon." What's the deal? Do you guys want more high-speed train news? Why is this topic so popular???
One high-speed train story that received shockingly little attention in the media and blogosphere was news of a massive fire that ravaged the recently-completed high-speed rail station in Saudi Arabia designed by Foster + Partners and Buro Happold.
In September, we had conversations with two of architecture's respected leaders on our podcast Archinect Sessions. Alejandro Aravena joined us on the show while he was in Washington DC to accept the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. We spoke about his work with communities to address some of architecture's biggest challenges. We made the decision to not talk about his controversial history of unpaid internships, which was immediately called out in the comments. Next time, Alejandro, next time.
Kimberly Dowdell, a principal at HOK in Chicago and the current President of the National Organization of Minority Architects, also joined us on the podcast to discuss her personal path to becoming a leader in an industry that is still mostly dominated by white men. We also spoke with her about this year's NOMA Conference in Brooklyn.
We published a lot of helpful articles for both job-seekers and hiring employers in September to help navigate this time of low unemployment and high demand...
For the job-seekers:
For the employers:
When we say "BIG" we mean significant, not "Bjarke Ingels Group." That said, the latter was in the news with a couple of the most popular project-related stories in September. The radical, twisting "Kistefos Museum", as shown above, captured the interest of many of our readers. News about Robert de Niro commissioning Bjarke Ingels to design $400M ‘vertical village for film’ in Astoria also turned heads.
Zaha Hadid Architects' “starfish”-shaped Beijing Daxing International Airport is inaugurated
A decade in the making, Steven Holl's Queens Library prepares for its grand opening
Sou Fujimoto unveils brick-and-glass tower in Brooklyn
Iconic Buildings: I work at Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáne, Mexico City
Jean Nouvel's new residential tower in Lyon, France: Love it or hate it?
Steven Holl Architects' The REACH at The Kennedy Center makes its public debut
Kengo Kuma-designed Odunpazarı Modern Museum opens in Turkey
Interdisciplinary stage designer Es Devlin fills Pitzhanger with giant mirrored planes
Kanye West's futuristic domes have been demolished
Mies van der Rohe's life has been turned into a graphic novel
With Peter Zumthor's LACMA in the Home Stretch, Is Los Angeles Entering its Post-Rational Phase?
Someone actually asked for the whole song!? Well I gave it a shot from r/SoundsLikeMusic
What if construction site noise could be turned into a dance mix?
Robert de Niro taps Bjarke Ingels to design $400M ‘vertical village for film’ in Astoria
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