Archinect was excited to announce a competition we're co-hosting with Designer Pages and the LA Film Festival. This competition seeks proposals for the interior design/layout of the VIP Director's Lounge for this year's LA Film Festival. The winner will have their design executed, with a cash prize and an "Industry Badge" pass to the LA Film Festival in June. The winner's designs will also be on display in the director's lounge throughout the festival.

News
The Architect’s Journal reported that Denise Scott Brown has called for her role in Robert Venturi’s 1991 win to be acknowledged retrospectively as a salute to "the notion of joint creativity" and retrospectively acknowledge her role in Robert Venturi’s 1991 Pritzker Prize during an AJ Women in Architecture luncheon in late March. Since, nearly 2,000 advocates have passionately rallied in Brown’s support by signing an online petition created by Harvard’s GSD Woman in Design Group. Among the signatures include architects Zaha Hadid, Farshid Moussavi and Hani Rashid, along with MoMA senior curator of architecture and design Paola Antonelli, architecture photographer Iwan Baan, Rice School of Architecture, Dean Sarah Whiting, and Berkeley College of Environmental Design, Dean Jennifer Wolch.

Agreeing with an earlier commentator Save Western wrote "I second that, the Pritzker is a joke prize. But even still, she deserves the recognition". Provocatively, Quondam noted the connection between Venturi, Scott Brown and John Rauch and wondered "So where is John Rauch in all this? Perhaps the Pritzker feels if Scott Brown gets the award, then Rauch should get the reward as well. But then a third of the prize money would have to be given over to Rauch". To which LITS4FormZ responded "I would think that a letter from Venturi would be enough to get this done...that is if he believes his partner should have her name added. I tend to agree that adding DSB would also have to include John Rauch".

Presumably, in response to LITS4FormZ, Orhan Ayyüce quoted from Robert Venturi’s 1991 Pritzker acceptance speech,

 "And last, you will notice during this loosely chronological description I have used more and more the first person plural, that is, ‘we”—meaning Denise and I. All my experience representing appreciation, support, and learning from, would have been less than half as rich -without my partnership with my fellow artist, Denise Scott Brown".

The LA Time's Christopher Hawthorne pulled no punches in his review of Morphosis' Perot Museum of Nature and Science. Therein he argued "The point is that the complexity announced so loudly on the facade and in the entry sequence of the museum is never revisited elsewhere, to say nothing of being genuinely explored or extended. The sensation will not be new to followers of Mayne's recent work...In each project he's put the architectural focus on the facade of the building and a single dramatic staircase. This skin-and-stair strategy then allows the client to make the rest of the building — every interior office or gallery — conventional at best and banal at worst".

For her part, Donna Sink felt that the "article sounds, as others have said, very whiny, as if Hawthorne was spoiling for a fight and this building - complex, bold, in-your-face physical - is an easy target for that fight". Yet Darkman wasn’t persuaded, "Hawthorne creates a straw man, ‘starchitecture’ which the younger generation is rebelling against...Notice that if a building has a social cause--a library in a disadvantaged community--it is praised, while the art of building itself is seen somewhat as yesterday's trend...Morphosis has done much better in San Francisco and New York, but the picture above is somewhat misleading as to the real experience of the building".

position however, thought it was a great review by Hawthorne "Almost reminds me of the old critics like Ruskin & Sullivan who could eviscerate when warranted.  It should build character.  Dallas is oozing with a type of urban boosterism going on worldwide as cities try to compete globally by accumulating cultural trophy buildings and carefully engineering their brand...I bet Shenzhen's copy will turn out better.  The whole gimmick of 'making the circulation visible' is tired, and looks to be very strangely articulated...And the [AT&T] 'Arts District' gets another toy".

The NYT covered the work of the Freelancers Union, one of the nation’s fastest-growing labor organizations, with more than 200,000 members and based in Brooklyn. While it doesn’t "bargain with employers, it does address what is by far these workers’ No. 1 concern, by providing them with affordable health insurance". Gregory Walker liked what he read but had to ask "so, i think it's a great thing from the insurance side. really...but... what else can they accomplish?..what other kinds of substantive changes would you think this organization could achieve?". b3tadine[sutures] replied "Interesting you should ask Greg. I signed up for membership and from what I can gather, at the moment, you're right, bargaining and all the perks are not, at least from my early take, not on the agenda. However, these numbers, these numbers should scare he bejesus out of people. Imagine the kind of power that could be harnessed, if and when, this group starts to move its weight around".

At least 15 Syrian students were killed last Thursday when mortar bombs landed on the canteen of Damascus University's College of Architecture, state-run media reported.

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates

Rotterdam based Claus en Kaan Architecten have unveiled plans for a crematorium that is to be built in the marshy pastures of Aalst, Oost Vlaanderen, mid-way between Brussels and Gent in Belgium. The structure is shaped by the idea that "Distinct paths for the public, the staff and the expedition are crucial as the three should not cross".

Xue Hao recently worked on some physical model making while Adulsak (Otto) Chanyakorn proposed a multi-family Housing Design for Post Olympic, Rio De Janeiro.

Christine Pierron started a blog which she is using to develop the idea of a "No Master - ‘Master Degree’". The concept is "for a peer driven study program aiming to capture the benefits gained from an accredited master’s program without the accredited school program". In a later post Christine explore how online innovations such as MOOCs, might point the way forward.

Evan Chakroff announced that thanks to the efforts of a friend, former classmate, and occasional colleague "Zhiguo Chen, I've been published in Chinese! Chen translated my essay ‘Wang Shu: A New Vernacular?" (Originally published on Archinect and mirrored on my website) and worked to get it published in an issue of ‘The Architect’, one of China's top architectural journals, available in shops across the country (and abroad?)".

Schools/Blogs

Farid Rakun continued to document the development of his entry for Degree Show, a self-explanatory piece called ‘How I put a SAAB 9-3 into Cranbrook Art Museum’. In one post he shared "It's like I wake up every morning feeling like a knight who has to disembowel a beasty dragon in order to kill it completely. The studio as my battleground. Weird". For Post 53: Thesis update 10, Farid explained how he has "jacked the car up to its current position with the help of, who else, Kurt, as expected, + took off the wheels, as planned" which sets the stage, "Heavy stuffs are waiting right around the corner, now this is the real intestines of the dragon to disembowel".

Clemson University celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Charles E. Daniel Center for Building, Research and Urban Studies in Genoa, Italy on Monday, March 25. Based in a historic villa in the heart of the city, the Genoa center was the intellectual inspiration of Harlan McClure, professor and dean emeritus of the College of Architecture.

While their professors were away the students in Virginia Tech’s design/buildLAB came up with a final design for their bridge for the Amphitheater site. Last week they presented the design to the community. FRaC provided some criticism "it looks nice and everything but i'm not convinced by the stair-to-ramp junction.  just looking at the model the stair is definitely subservient to the ramp but feels like it's just tacked on...actually, why do you need the stair at all?...sorry if this crit isn't wanted, i just can't help it sometimes!".
                 
Discussions
Due89 is looking for tips from others regarding How the hell do you organize trace paper!? citizen suggested "Trim to a standard size or two...Or don't trim, but fold to those standard sizes” while asocialcelebrity described how at their work, they're a bit anal. "We code the drawing, take a photo of it, print it as an 11"x17" to place in a binder (though now we're going paperless finally!),  and then roll the original trace up in a cardboard tube with the same code number. We can usually fit quite a few in each tube, so it's pretty easy to organize. Extremely tedious... It's been a lifesaver, because clutter drives me insane".

Emily Kemper reflected on a recent Gawker post about the new Gehry Partners, LLP designed, Facebook West headquarters building. In her opinion it was "utterly ridiculous.  Makes me want to sell the few shares of FB stock I have".

Median gripped "Apple, Google and Facebook, all very disappointing in their decision for their new headquarters, the hope would be that they would pursue an architect who was young, innovative and fresh, who would deliver something that would push the progression of the industry. Instead we get three mediocre designs....."

Finally, ryanj started a thread back at the end of March to discuss whether drawing is dead? The thread was inspired by the Spring 2012 symposia held by Yale School of Architecture titled Is Drawing Dead?

ryanj begged forgiveness for the old topic, but wanted to know "Did anyone attend this?"

Steven Ward dropped in to note "i draw by hand more now than i did in the several years prior. go figure". Similarly, gwharton added "Like Steven Ward, I do far more hand drawing now than I did ten years ago. My design process has always involved a lot of sketching, but became more heavily computer-model dominant from 1996 through 2006. Now, I go back and forth from hand sketch to computer model regularly".

curtkram and a number of commentators got into a disagreement regarding differences between hand drawing and computer aided drawing and how the two methods result in fundamental differences in visual-spatial memory processing. curtkram argued "it was suggested that by using a different media a person's brain must work different.  i am saying that is a flawed assumption.  drawing with a pencil is a valid design tool; i am not excluding anyone.  to clarify, i am taking an inclusive view and saying that because you are unfamiliar with a certain set of tools is no reason to assume everyone is unfamiliar with that set of tools.  to assume the world has to work within the limited confines of your personal experience is naive.  don't shun other people or assume they're inferior because they do things different".

ryanj summed up "This discussion seems to hint at how the human-technological interface (in the creative act of design) are tied to the nature of being. Good stuff".         

Additionally
Arielle Assouline-Lichten and some other current Harvard GSD students have started a petition at change.org in support of the idea  that Denise Scott Brown be retroactively acknowledged for her work deserving of a joint Pritzker Prize.