peter gluck:..."i don't belong to the AIA..."

“I think they’re the problem, not the solution. It’s a group of people who get together to promote themselves; they’re not interested in really looking at the profession and trying to see where its problems are.”

pete just said what 90% of the profession was thinking...

metropolis magazine delivers another fine article on the practice of peter l. gluck & partners, based in nyc.

ajax housing; aspen, co [metropolis]

gluck has a section to rant about everything from archi-babble to young architects lack of building knowledge and the fallacies of academia. but the biggest chunk of the piece focuses on an affordable housing complex located in aspen. colorado dubbed the Little Ajax Affordable Housing. if you're thinking that these are spectacular for affordable housing, that's because they are. affordable housing in aspen is just barely under market price housing in downtown denver. [see previous post].

ajax housing; aspen, co [metropolis]

ajax housing; aspen, co [metropolis]

one of coolest parts of the building process was reducing the bid of the corrugated metal package by $60K, all with just a little ingenuity of creating a custom-made saw for cutting sharp angles. the project was opposed by almost all the neighbors, which caused the project to barely break even once completed after six years. other time and dollar saving factors became apparent when drawings were sent out for bid to subcontractors. only drawings relevant to each trade were distributed amongst the subs. small portions of the project, but eventually adding up to a more efficient process. this kind of lacking adapatability and exposure to real world problems seems to be gluck's major issue witht the architectural profession:

“One of the biggest problems is that architects spend so many years in such a refined, isolated world—one school environment after another,” he says. “They never really get out into the real world.”

and railing again on education:

"...The poor state of architectural education also explains why after paying more than $100,000 for a degree, graduates are forced to apprentice for three years while other people sign off on their work, and are finally charged another $2,000 to get a license that a professional degree should prepare them for in the first place. “That’s the kind of shit the AIA would do,” he says. “The profession is already built on the backs of young architects—if they were really concerned, the last thing they would do would be to punish young people coming into the field.”

gluck not only loves adding more social projects to his list, but still keeps an impressive roster of private projects on the resume. one in particular is a small library for his wife:

"scholar's library"; olive bridge, ny [metropolis]

and the "bar house"[clad entirely in certified IPE]:

bar house; aspen, co [metropolis]

keep on it pete. we luv ya.

link from architechnophilia

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