ArchNewsNow

Today’s News - Wednesday, April 1, 2020

● Cramer offers an eloquent tribute to Michael Sorkin: "His departure is not only tragically premature, it is cruelly ironic, in part because the seemingly unstoppable political and economic forces that he railed against for decades are presently colliding with the immovable, microscopic wall of the disease that killed him."

● Grimley, Kubo & Pasnik's tribute to Michael McKinnell, "the heroic architect behind Boston City Hall" who "only got younger as we spoke about his early principles and failures - his lofty ideals were always tempered by his youthful energy and his mischievous sense of humor."

● Wainwright talks to Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan's first female architect and winner of AJ's 2020 Jane Drew Prize, who "looks back on an extraordinary life. She created gilded monuments to corporate excess," but now builds "mud huts for the poor": "I was a starchitect for 36 years. Now I'm atoning."

● A profile of Damaris Melo, a recipient of an AIA 2020 Young Architect Award who co-founded a Minnesota chapter of NOMA, began a design workshop for urban youth, and runs her own firm: "I wanted to be a boss lady - until the day I went to college - I started realizing the power of architecture and the social power, the social agenda that can be carried."

● Birnbaum makes the case for why National Geographic HQ should not demolish a public plaza sporting a 1984 sculpture by Elyn Zimmerman to make way for a pavilion in a proposed redesign + a Q&A with Zimmerman.

● Welton x 2: He looks at how Frederick Fisher Partners created a new structure adjacent to Santa Monica's "beloved 1939 Art Moderne City Hall": "Very gingerly" (while meeting Living Building Challenge standards).

● He talks to "Brazilian-born, New York-bred" photographer Paul Clemence re: what he did "with two weeks to himself in between gigs in Europe - six cities and 10 architectural wonders: Not bad for a fortnight of train travel."

Deadlines:

● Call for entries (deadline looms!): United Nations Global Call-out to Creatives: "help stop the spread of COVID-19 - translate critical public health messages into work that will engage and inform people across different cultures, languages, communities, and platforms."

● Call for entries: Fentress Global Challenge international student design competition to envision an airport of the future; open to graduate and undergraduate students, and recent grads.

● Call for entries: Architect mag's 14th Annual R+D Awards (international) that "celebrate the groundbreaking research, materials, and technologies that are advancing the building industry" (regular submission deadline extended!).

● Call for entries: Interior Scholarship 2019/2020 - The AIT Scholarship by Sto Foundation (students must be enrolled at a European university).

● Call for entries: 2020 AIA National Photography Competition, open to architects registered in the U.S., Assoc. AIA and AIAS student members.

● Call for entries: 2020 Drawing Matter Writing Prize: submit an essay on a drawing, open to anyone between the ages of 18 - 40 (and £1.00 - £5.00 entry fee).

COVID-19 news continues - the last item: resources for teleconferencing backgrounds (some quite amusing):

● Simons, executive director, Mayor's Institute on City Design, re: how architects and designers can put their "skills to use" in responding to COVID-19 by spotting "opportunities that match their existing expertise and relationships where they can pitch in."

● Pearman talks to Architects for Health chair Christopher Shaw re: "how to make emergency Covid-19 wards," and his 18-page "Design note: Covid-19 ward for intubated patients" - it "may not be on everyone's required reading list but it is most definitely required."

● Lam outlines OAQ, OAA, AIBC, and TSA's COVID-19 guides for architects working during the coronavirus crisis.

● Kamin considers how the coronavirus could/will have "a significant impact" on open-plan workplaces that were already being slammed "as noisy, distracting, stress-inducing, and nowhere near the teamwork booster its designers made it out to be" - many building owners and developers have "already have latched onto the concept of office spaces that promote employee wellness."

● Speaking of which: the International WELL Building Institute has "scrapped" its recently updated set of standards to rewrite "recommendations to combat future pandemics in the workplace - now wellness may mean more than just yoga studios and gyms as building amenities."

● Budds delves into how the pandemic is affecting the constructing industry, "which employs over 7 million people nationwide - just how essential should construction be considered?

● One we couldn't resist: Free "backgrounds you can use to disguise your messy remote work rooms - or running children and pets" - while teleconferencing.

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Ned Cramer: Sorkin Spoke Truth to Power: Let Michael Sorkin’s unflinching advocacy of the commonweal serve as an inspiration to the architecture profession: He couldn’t have left the stage at a worse time...was distinct among the critics...not only because of his rare wit and clarity of voice, but because of his consistent bravery in speaking truth to power...I don’t have a charming Sorkin story to share, though I did [work] with him on "Spontaneous Interventions" [for] the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale...His departure is not only tragically premature, it is cruelly ironic, in part because the seemingly unstoppable political and economic forces that he railed against for decades are presently colliding with the immovable, microscopic wall of the disease that killed him.- Architect Magazine

Chris Grimley, Michael Kubo & Mark Pasnik: In tribute to Michael McKinnell, the Heroic architect behind Boston City Hall: We first met McKinnell and Gerhard Kallmann in 2007 at the outset of the Heroic project...he was surprisingly open to the idea of his building changing. Far from upholding the original design as a masterwork fixed in time...he felt it needed “younger ideas”...they should be “bold and self-confident"...he only got younger as we spoke candidly about his early principles and failures...Warm and gregarious, fascinating and funny, incisive and generous...lofty ideals were always tempered by his youthful energy and his mischievous sense of humor. -- Kallmann McKinnell & Wood; "Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston"; OverUnder; Stephanie Mallis- The Architect's Newspaper

Wainwright: The barefoot architect: "I was a starchitect for 36 years. Now I'm atoning": She created gilded monuments to corporate excess. But now Yasmeen Lari is building mud huts for the poor. As she wins the Jane Drew prize, Pakistan’s first female architect looks back on an extraordinary life: She is critical of the “universal solutions” offered by aid agencies and...the urbanised mindset imposed on rural communities...80% of the communities [her Heritage Foundation has] worked with have since been raised above the poverty line...“Everything I do is a collaboration, so I shouldn’t be known as the author of my work.”- Guardian (UK)

Architect draws on life experiences to encourage diversity in her field: The AIA awarded Damaris Melo, who also goes by Damaris Hollingsworth, with a 2020 Young Architect Award...She co-founded a Minnesota chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects, began a design workshop for urban youth...and runs Design by Melo...While growing up near São Paulo, Brazil, Melo met an architect at the age of 7...she felt inspired to aspire to be like her. “I wanted to be a boss lady - that’s the only reason...until the day I went to college...I started realizing the power of architecture and the social power, the social agenda that can be carried.” -- NOMA; RSP Architects; DLR Group; Thor Cos.; Mohammed Lawal/LSE Architects; DesignSHOP- Sun Sailor (Minnesota)

Charles A. Birnbaum: National Geographic to Demolish Widely Acclaimed Sculpture MARABAR: ...headquarters comprises buildings by Edward Durell Stone and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)...a publicly accessible plaza [with 1984] work of art...by award-winning American sculptor Elyn Zimmerman...slated to be demolished to accommodate a new pavilion...proposed redesign would destroy [her] sculpture...Although the plans were approved...it is as yet unclear whether the review board was made aware of the sculpture’s presence...or of its significance...We remain hopeful that [her] sculpture will be reviewed thoroughly and that plans for the new pavilion will be altered accordingly + Q&A with Elyn Zimmerman -- Hickok Cole Architects- The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF)

J. Michael Welton: Looking to the Past and Future in Santa Monica: How does a 21st-century architecture firm, asked to create a new structure adjacent to a beloved 1939 Art Moderne City Hall, move forward? Very gingerly. That’s the direction Frederick Fisher Partners took...to study and design a City Services Building next to a bright-white, iconic design by Parkinson & Estep...“And they wanted it to be part of the Living Building Challenge"... -- Joe Coriaty; Matt Kelley; James Corner Field Operations- Architects + Artisans

J. Michael Welton: Paul Clemence Takes the European Grand Tour: Caught with two weeks to himself in between gigs in Europe, Brazilian-born and New York-bred Paul Clemence did what any enterprising architecture photographer would...Two weeks, six cities and 10 architectural wonders: Not bad for a fortnight of train travel. -- ODA; Piet Blom; Rem Koolhaas/OMA; Renzo Piano; Zaha Hadid; Norman Foster; Oscar Niemeyer; Daniel Libeskind- Architects + Artisans

Call for entries (deadline looms!): United Nations Global Call Out To Creatives - help stop the spread of COVID-19 (international): translate critical public health messages, into work that will engage and inform people across different cultures, languages, communities and platforms; deadline: April 9- Talenthouse

Call for entries: Fentress Global Challenge international student design competition to envision an airport of the future; open to graduate and undergraduate students, and recent graduates (within the last four years) with a degree in architecture or engineering; cash prizes; deadline: July 31- Fentress Architects

Call for entries: Architect magazine's 14th Annual R+D Awards (international): to celebrate the groundbreaking research, materials, and technologies that are advancing the building industry at every scale; reduced registration fee for full-time students and faculty members; early bird submission deadline (save money!): April 17; regular submission deadline (extended!): May 8- Architect Magazine

Call for entries: Interior Scholarship 2020/2021 - The AIT-Scholarship by Sto-Foundation: up to four students of interior architecture, interior design, etc. enrolled at a European university will receive a monthly grant for one year, totalling 24,000 EUR; deadline: June 19- AIT-Dialog / Sto Foundation / Sto Stiftung (Germany)

Call for entries: 2020 AIA National Photography Competition: open to architects actively registered in the United States, and Associate AIA, and AIAS student members; deadline: May 1- AIA St. Louis

Call for entries: 2020 Drawing Matter Writing Prize: submit an essay on a drawing (can be your own);
open to anyone between the ages of 18 - 40, with or without a background in architecture or design
proceeds from the £1.00 - £5.00 entry tickets will be applied directly to student scholarships for our annual Architectural Drawing Summer School; deadline: June 19- Drawingmatter.org

Trinity Simons: How Architects and Designers Can Respond to COVID-19: How do we put our skills to use in the right context, at the right time? Designers must think about the specific skills they have and map them to the mission at hand...examples...not meant to be comprehensive...demonstrate areas where people, firms, and organizations have spotted specific opportunities that match their existing expertise and relationships where they can pitch in... -- AIA New York State; Illya Azaroff; Lori Coppenrath/DLR Group; MASS Design Group- Common Edge

Hugh Pearman: How to make emergency Covid-19 wards: As BDP rapidly turns London’s ExCel Centre into a hospital for coronavirus patients, he talks to Architects for Health chair Christopher Shaw about the priorities and practicalities of emergency conversions: Shaw has written an 18-page guidance note...aimed at existing hospitals but applicable more widely..."Design note: Covid-19 ward for intubated patients" may not be on everyone’s required reading list but it is most definitely required. -- Medical Architecture- RIBA Journal (UK)

Elsa Lam: OAQ, OAA, AIBC, TSA issue COVID-19 guides for architects: Provincial and territorial architecture associations are issuing guidelines to their members on working during the coronavirus crisis. -- L'Ordre des Architectes du Québec (OAQ); Ontario Association of Architects (OAA); Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC); Toronto Society of Architects (TSA)- Canadian Architect

Blair Kamin: Will the open-plan office make you vulnerable to coronavirus? Or will the virus crisis force offices to become safer? Even before coronavirus struck, critics were slamming...open plan - as noisy, distracting, stress-inducing, and nowhere near the teamwork booster its designers made it out to be...A growing number of building owners and developers...already have latched onto the concept of office spaces that promote employee wellness...More companies can be expected to follow...because existing employees will demand them...How can workers and bosses, as well as building owners and managers, cope? -- Todd Heiser/Gensler; Joanna Frank/Center for Active Design/Fitwel- Chicago Tribune

Coronavirus Means Building Owners, Companies Need To Look At New Health Standards: The International WELL Building Institute...planned to unveil an updated set of standards March 13...In light of the pandemic, the IWBI scrapped its new standards...to rewrite its list of recommendations to combat future pandemics in the workplace...needed to...add requirements to address commercial real estate and business operations during a pandemic...now wellness may mean more than just yoga studios and gyms as building amenities. It may mean having a plan in place for employees to not have to show up to work and still get their jobs done.- Bisnow Atlanta

Diana Budds: How essential is construction during the coronavirus pandemic? “It’s putting a lot of people in really tough positions"...says one general contractor: In construction, time is money, even during a global health crisis...While some of the essential businesses seem uncontroversial - like hospitals and grocery stores - others fall into a gray area. Construction, which employs over 7 million people nationwide, is one of them. While some cities and states are shutting construction down, others are granting exceptions... just how essential should construction be considered?- Curbed

Free Zoom backgrounds you can use to disguise your messy remote work rooms: Express yourselves virtually: Barbara Krasnoff has already told you how you can make use of Zoom’s custom background tool to hide messy backdrops or running children and pets. But if you need some resources on what backgrounds to use as your virtual teleconferencing room, here are a few...plus some of The Verge staff’s favorites.- The Verge

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