News

The NYT reported that Pedro E. Guerrero, a former art school dropout who showed up in the dusty Arizona driveway of Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939, boldly declared himself a photographer and then spent the next half-century working closely with him, capturing his modernist architecture on film, died on Thursday at his home in Florence, Ariz. w. wynne A.I.A. offered up the following "Pedro has a wonderful book about his photographic work, and I am sadden to hear of his death. Mr. Wright called him ‘Peter’, but the story of his life with FLW is very nice and interesting account of the middle career of Mr. Wright."

Bustler announced that architect Deborah Berke, founder of New York City-based firm Deborah Berke Partners, was selected as the first recipient of UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design (CED) inaugural 2012 Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize. Aaron Willette commented "I had the pleasure of working with Deborah at Ghost 10, and to nobody's surprise she was fantastic. Definitely well-deserved."

A community board voted unanimously against Durst Fenter’s new apartment building on the far West Side last night. Designed by Danish wunderkinds Bjarke Ingels Group (aka BIG), the project has even decided to eschew LEED ratings in its quest for singularity. However the board’s singular concern is affordable housing. position was glad noting "While BIG provided a clever, aesthetically interesting solution, there are bigger issues at play amongst self-determining communities who are learning they have the power and will to strike back against the colonizing forces of 'luxury'."

Young Bjarke Ingels also talked  manifestation, midwifery and shamanism while riding down the Venice canals recently with Kelly Loudenberg.

Chris Teeter responded to some criticism of Bjarke writing "if you've actually practiced architecture for a living you would completely agree with the midwife concept. shamanism, i'd like to here more.  intellectual architectural theory, etc.. has been the death of this profession". Meanwhile, Will Galloway is doing research in Europe and recently went to Orestad in Copenhagen. He argued "The projects are all great, but only the BIG projects are special.  8 was brilliant.  the mountain project also very cool but more than that fantastically livable and better than typical stack of frickin boxes with an elevator.  one liner or not, those places are seriously well thought out".

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
Inspired by the start of Fashion Week theperennialwhole explored the relationship between fashion and architecture by comparing the original Glasgow School of Art by Mackintosh to the new planned addition by Steven Holl. theperennialwhole contended "Undifferentiated, new, hip, clean, sleek, trying to stand out - these are the revered qualities of the present architecture. It has become so woven into our culture that one cannot tell where architecture ends and fashion begins".

Ryan Knock did agree "that when dealing with our precious old cities, and great works of architecture from the past, we need a very sensitive, and not avant-garde and personal buildings.  There needs to be a reference, and referential, attitude". Yet mantaray argued "I fail to see how anyone could claim that a Holl building is nothing more substantial than image.  Perhaps some other contemporary architects, maybe, but Holl?!  How can anyone say this is a well-written piece?  You are all putting substance in the blogger's mouth.  S/he did not say any of this - s/he made no statements of any substance whatsoever.  This is a content-free zone.  All s/he did was point a finger to a picture and say ‘we reject your revolving-door architecture.’  What is revolving-door architecture?"

For his part Steve Swartz dropped by simply to post the following "I read this blog to get my blood going in the morning.  Perennial you gotta get out and experience more actual architecture and step away from the glossies.  And in defense of Herzog & de Meuron (from a non-believer) look at the Casa de Piedra."

Dawn M Trimble started her blog seamless off with a post on intimate spaces, in which she highlights a 100 square foot writing studio in Willamette Valley, Oregon by FLOAT Architectural Research And Design, LLC.

Writing of Chennai amlocke (still on his thirteen-week train expedition across India) described a city "wrought with old English bones. Her skeletons- abashed at times, Zelig-esk, & effete- are filled with program of the most considerable kind, of which, at times concurs with its original intent. By trial and error, it seems architects searched for the proper edifice in which to display Western Exceptionalism".

Reflecting on recent responses to the first advertised job posting his firm has had in four years, Gregory Walker, shared some thoughts on the labor market.

Mr. Walker pointed out "for all of the hype and encouragement we hear about starting your own business, i'm more convinced than ever that, quite bluntly, a vast majority of the people simply don't want to. they just want to be able to plug into a system or company or studio or whatever structure already exists. they simply want the security of a steady paycheck...this is a major issue we're failing collectively to address in any meaningful way. and the fact that we're just letting so much of the knowledge base of the profession just wither away will hurt our overall competitiveness in the future".

Steven Ward shared his own example "i fall into the category you're identifying, gregory. after ten years in a 10p firm i went back to grad school and then spent two years teaching and operating my own office. i hated having my own office! after realizing it, i came to my current office and specifically asked if i could be 'just an architect' - more back of house, working on making buildings, than management."

Schools/Blogs
Although Matthew Messner is in the home stretch of his three year MArch at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois Chicago, he has decided "to stick around for one more year” to get his “Masters of Art and Design Criticism on top of my M.Arch". Matthew also explained he "will most likely be focusing on...The power of animation over other design methods" this semester.

Patrick Beseda posted about a site visit to Point Lobos, CA for his studio at the University of Colorado Denver. He described why he visited the site "Not to see it. Not to look at great views and watch seals play in the cove next to scuba divers. I didn't go to eat great clam chowder and see art and architecture. I went to experience the site."

Discussions
Over at Thread Central Donna Sink, pointed out that the ADA has updated its requirements: 

"The miniature horse is not included in the definition of service animal, which is limited to dogs. However, the new ADA regulations contain a specific provision which covers miniature horses." 

rationalist exclaimed "you have GOT to be freaking kidding me. This is going too far. There are proposal deadlines, and people dying, and all sorts of things going on around here, and now we've got accomodate horses? I'm out. Eff this business"!

A friend of his, is interested in the idea of creating a style of apartment building with the idea of communal living and so larslarson wants to discuss communal living.  dia told him to look at "Intergenerational Housing in Germany. Very common...The trick is finding a developer/builder who understands the ethos, and can get access to funding and organising models...Its more of a tailored or curated facility rather than a utopian ideal."

c asked for impressions of Aecom? Randh believed "You usually don't work for Aecom, you work for a firm owned by Aecom. Its like how Perkins + Will is owned by another group in the middle east. So it can depend from firm to firm." Nicholas Cecchi added "I had an interview in the L.A. studio and it was lovely. I'm not really cut out for corporate offices, so we amiably decided it wasn't for me, but from my experience, they have a good design culture and foster a healthy studio culture, which can be rare in large offices. Note that this was an interview with AECOM, not one of their division or subsidies, so your experience may vary."

Additionally
If you are looking for something to do on Sept. 28 the Dredge Research Collaborative and Columbia University GSAPP's Studio-X NYC will be putting on a conference (DredgeFest NYC) about all things dredge. Then on Sept. 29, they will offer a harbour tour of New York's dredge landscapes, from Manhattan's radically extended shores to Jamaica Bay's artificial islands. You can click here to reserve a place on the boat.