theartofwhere

on his own design

2012-01-27T15:32:00.002-07:00

Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture in an interview regarding his experience on the recently completed Clyfford Still Museum, and a reflection on his past work.

Q: It sounds like you have a very specific idea of the kind of work you want Allied to accomplish. But what is that exactly?
A: Clyfford Still Museum is a kind of summary of the past decade to me. It has a lot of the ideas that we are now pursuing in other projects but not necessarily in the form or level of sophistication -- it's only a $15 million building. It's a modest building in many ways. It was an end piece and therefore the beginning piece for the next period for us...______________________________________________________

Q: What project you've done has offered the most satisfaction? A: As of right now, Clyfford Still Museum, no question. Q: Because it's a distillation of ideas you've been working on during the past decade? A: Yes, as a benchmark. For me, it's the most complete piece of architecture we've done. And again, it has modest aspirations. It's a simple building with a powerful presence. Our buildings are like that. Our buildings are quiet but the resonance you feel is bigger than a small building.

still museum west elevation [photo by jeremy bitterman]

If you haven't seen it go check out the absolutely brilliant paintings and new museum, open late on Fridays until 8pm--but we would highly recommend a visit during daylight hours.

Clyfford Still Museum: Public Opening

2011-11-18T12:49:00.001-07:00

The new Clyfford Still Museum opened to members of the public for free until noon today [Friday 18th], and we were able to get inside over lunch to see the space and artworks. Overall, a very impressive experience with large galleries flooded with natural light and a feeling like around every turn new discoveries were waiting to be made. We will need multiple visits and take more time to study all the pieces, but they included everything from very large canvases to a showcase of Still's tools and interactive biography displays.

The large featured canvas paintings were incredibly vivid and dynamic explorations of form and color, accommodated in perfectly scaled galleries for either viewing one at a time or in context with other adjacent works. The view corridors through the upper level lobbies seemed as if they were meant to entice the visitor with unique vantage points and glimpses of the art at great distances. Definitely worth a visit!

Still Museum opening soon

2011-11-11T14:06:00.001-07:00

Clyfford Still Museum North Elevation

Photo by Jeremy Bittermann/courtesy Clyfford Still Museum

UPDATED POST ARTICLE:
Museum opening may shed new light on Clyfford Still

To much anticipation, the Clyfford Still Museum is slated to open to the public next Friday November 18th. This will be the first time that many of Still's works will be seen by more than just his family, friends and curators. And the press has lit up with excitement...

TIME magazine has a wonderful summary of how the museum came to be, and a enticing description of the natural light in the gallery spaces.

Architectural Record has a short article on Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture giving his first impressions of the nearly complete Clyfford Still Museum construction. Cloepfil won the commission in a 2006 shortlisted competition entry over DS + R and Ohlson DuBois Architects.

“Wow,” he says. “It’s like seeing it for the first time. It’s done. It’s real. This is probably the first time in my career that a building is more than I imagined. Everything is better than I hoped for...
“Denver, contrary to what some people think, is a prairie town,” Cloepfil says. Pointing to the west, he says, “The mountains are way over there. I wanted this building to be grounded, part of the earth. This is a neighborhood with very aspirational, very bombastic, very extroverted buildings, and this is a very introverted project.” Cloepfil has said that he conceived of the building “as a nearly geologic experience, one that firmly holds both visitor and art in spaces amplified by natural light.”

A recent development in how the museum will continue to live on is yet another impressive chapter in the legacy of Clyfford Still. To help pay for the museum and establish an endowment for the new building's operations, 4 of Still's paintings were sold for more than $114 Million at Sotheby's auction house. Absolutely staggering.

See a video from the Denver Post with a preview glimpse of the new galleries:

See a photo gallery of the art installation preparations here.

Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post

Exterior Concrete Texture, Courtesy Allied Works Architecture

a good reminder

2011-11-04T11:31:00.002-06:00

" A meaningful architectural experience is not simply a series of retinal images. The 'elements' of architecture are not visual units or gestalt; they are encounters, confrontations that interact with memory." - Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin

Door handle at Zumthor's Saint Benedict Chapel

Kent Dining Hall featured on Archdaily

2011-10-13T15:32:00.001-06:00

On Tuesday, our friends at Archdaily featured the recently completed LEED Platinum Kent Denver Dining Hall.

Thanks for the shout out!

barn collectives: contextual invisibility

2011-10-12T13:52:00.001-06:00

we ran across a couple intriguing projects that have strikingly similar ideas--exploring the limits of spatial proximity and formal interactions of the modern vernacular: "barn cluster". one that has travelled its way throughout the blogosphere and was created for Living Architecture by NORD, called the shingle house, has popped up on more than a few of our favorite sites. the distinguishing factor in the shingle house project is that it was technically a "re-furbishment" of a collection of fish shacks near the coast of Kent, England. [renderings & plans by NORD; photos from Dezeen]

ground level plan

upper level plan

before

under construction

entry

elevation

interior

violet wood floor stain mimcs the native wildflower bloom in spring

the second is a relatively new project from brian mackay-lyons--a collection of 3 corrugated galvalume-clad barns dubbed "pugwash point". one volume as main living, another devoted solely to a library, and couple others which could be guest spaces. an article on the residents can be found here. [all photos courtesy macay-lyons sweetapple]

we can't help notice the design intent of these projects could possibly be to "disappear" into the context. the single exterior material treatment for all walls & roofs would tend to lend itself to discreetness, if it weren't for the large window openings. another factor is our familiarity with archetypes [ie-the gabled roof forms, shake shingles or corrugated panels]. Oddly enough it is the details that tell us something is strange...different than the typical, and only then do we sense the modernity of the approach.

but maybe that is what makes them intriguing places to want to be--they are the best of two [or more] of worlds that we desire? one that is rooted in the past & place, and one that is of the present, and perhaps the future. a modern interpretation of the vernacular can easily spawn channels of thinking which reach an extreme point of view--would it even be possible [in this era] to make a building so "contextual" that it becomes invisible? is this approach to design immune to being irrelevant?

incredible to think that the success of this design approach strives for the best balance of two notions, rather than the pursuit of an extreme boundary of a single idea. keep in mind this shouldn't be confused with mediocrity, since it seems the hardest things to do this profession [and life] is achieving balance in which all things are suspended rather than vacuous--in other words: levitating at the horizon of the ideal and the real.

Mid-Century Modern Tour in Wheat Ridge

2011-09-23T09:34:00.000-06:00

In my inbox today [tickets can be purchased here for $15]:

Mid Century Modern Tour in Wheat Ridge

Six mid-century and moderns homes have been selected for tour ticket holders. The tickets will allow for entrance into the homes and the after party at modmood. Maps for the tour can be picked- up the day of the tour at modmood (7700 w. 44th avenue) and one other location which has yet to be determined. You won't want to miss this look back into the history of Wheat Ridge.

While its roots are grounded in an agricultural based heritage, the City of Wheat Ridge possesses another subtle yet quite coveted identity. A western suburb of Denver, Wheat Ridge is rich with some of the most remarkable examples of mid-century modern residential architecture in the entire Front Range region.

Sprinkled throughout Wheat Ridge are little-known pockets and, in some cases, complete neighborhoods of Mid Century Modern design. So, how did Wheat Ridge, with its rather rural and agricultural identity, attract a decidedly modern residential twist?

The physical location of Wheat Ridge lent itself perfectly to an explosion of suburban residential development in the 1950’s. This period of growth happened to be timed perfectly with modern architectural experimentation being developed. The topography and natural environs of the City, including an abundance of breathtaking vistas bordered by open-space and the Clear Creek greenbelt, encouraged - and almost commanded - a modernist approach to the design and development of its residential neighborhoods.

Mid-Century Modern design emphasizes structures with ample windows, open floor-plans and a strong connection to the indoor/outdoor experience. Many Mid-century houses utilized groundbreaking post and beam design that eliminated bulky support walls in favor of walls made of glass. Function was as important as form in MCM design, with an emphasis placed specifically on targeting the needs of the average American family.

Wheat Ridge 2020* has organized Tour Modern Wheat Ridge, which will provide access to some exemplary mid-century, modern and contemporary homes found through-out their city.

Here are images of a couple of the homes on the tour:

comic strip 'city limits' on denver airport expansion

2011-09-22T16:17:00.000-06:00

there is an incredible amount of snark in the comic below, for better or for [much] worse. it is also incredibly sad because deep down, we designers know that the public could see this version [although sarcastic] as a plausible alternative...and very unfortunate because the current architects of record have an unfairly steep uphill battle that may never be cleared of pre-existing stigmas. [they are also some very close friends and colleagues--good luck guys!]

it seems the damage has been done both politically and artistically, and if this is the public's new perception of the project how can any amount of design make it better? it must be like inheriting a huge responsibility with the expectation of guaranteed success, only to get a kick in the groin at the same time. it must be how Tim Cook at Apple feels now that Steve Jobs has stepped down as CEO.

And if you haven't heard of Tim Cook, than you have proved the point...

design onscreen

2011-09-01T11:51:00.005-06:00

this fall, design onscreen will be sponsoring an architecture and design film series: denver 2011 , presenting 9 different films at the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Film Center. receptions will follow at local drinking establishments around town.

the schedule of films is below:

How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?
(2010, Directors Norberto Lopez Amado and Carlos Carcas, 73 minutes)
Thursday September 8, 2011, 7pm at the Denver Art Museum’s Sharp Auditorium
With Deyan Sudjic, Director of the London Design Museum in person
Reception to follow at Chlóe Mezze Lounge | 1445 Market Street | Denver, CO 80202
In partnership with Architecture for Humanity
The film traces the rise of one of the world’s premier architects, Norman Foster and his unending quest to improve the quality of life through design. Portrayed are Foster’s origins and how his dreams and influences inspired the design of emblematic projects such as the largest building in the world Beijing Airport, the Reichstag, the Hearst Building in New York and works such as the tallest bridge ever in Millau France. In the very near future, the majority of mankind will abandon the countryside and live entirely in cities. Foster offers some striking solutions to the problems that this historic event will create.

Antwerp Central Station
(2010, Director Peter Krüger, 90 minutes)
Saturday September 10, 2011, 2pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex)
Grand Prize Winner at 2011 International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) in Montreal
Post-screening discussion to follow
Continuing Education credit available for AIA members (self-reported credits)
Between past and present, between dream and reality, a mildly ironic and contemplative look at Antwerp’s central station, considered one of the finest examples of railway architecture in Belgium. The Antwerp station embodies the spirit of the Industrial Revolution, which saw railway stations and railroads flourish across Europe, with its architecture that combines glass and metal. In the late nineteenth century, engineer Clément Van Bogaert created the 43-metre high glass dome designed by architect Louis de la Censerie to keep the smoke from the steam locomotives away from travellers. The film presents a kaleidoscopic impression of the station, with an ongoing interplay of its historical, realistic and poetic dimensions.

Bauhaus: Model and Myth

(1998-2009, Directors Niels Bolbrinker and Kerstin Stutterheim, 103 minutes)
Thursday September 15, 2011, 7pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex)
With CU Architecture Professor Taisto Makela in person
Reception to follow at Linger | 2030 W 30th Ave | Denver, CO 80211
and at Lola | 1575 Boulder St | Denver, CO 80211

Founded in Weimar in 1919, the Bauhaus school, which sought to reconcile the arts and crafts and create a new aesthetic that would serve industry, was undeniably the twentieth century’s most important school of art, design and architecture. Considered today as a reference, the Bauhaus is more than just cubic buildings and steel tube chairs. The faculty included leading artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee and Oskar Schlemmer, and architects such as Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe. The film looks at the post-World War I origins of the Bauhaus and its revolutionary influence. It reveals the real story behind its closing and the political collusion among some of its members under Nazi Germany, based on accounts by alumni and archival excerpts that reveal the visions of some of the school’s former teachers.

Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman
(2009, Director Eric Bricker, 83 minutes)
Saturday, September 17, 2011, 2pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex)
Post-screening discussion to follow
Continuing Education credit available for AIA members (self-reported credits)
Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, VISUAL ACOUSTICS celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman, the world’s greatest architectural photographer, whose images brought modern architecture to the American mainstream. Shulman, who passed away in 2009, captured the work of nearly every modern and progressive architect since the 1930s including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Gehry. His images epitomized the singular beauty of Southern California’s modernist movement and brought its iconic structures to the attention of the general public. This unique film is both a testament to the evolution of modern architecture and a joyful portrait of the magnetic, whip-smart gentleman who chronicled it with his unforgettable images.

Desert Utopia: Midcentury Architecture in Palm Springs
(2011, Director Jake Gorst, 58 minutes)
Thursday September 22, 2011, 7pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex)
With architectural historian and author Alan Hess in person
Reception to follow at Mod Livin’ | 5327 E. Colfax Ave | Denver, CO 80220
with “Dessert Utopia” provided by Pastel Bakery
Sponsored by Modern in Denver magazine
This documentary traces the origins and growth of midcentury architecture in the modernist mecca of Palm Springs, California. The city boasts many landmark buildings by such modernist pioneers as Richard Neutra, Albert Frey, E. Stewart Williams, Donald Wexler, William Cody and William Krisel. Jake Gorst’s film brings these unique structures alive and features never-before-seen archival footage of the architects and construction that made Palm Springs a unique gem of design in the desert.

Space Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm
(2010, Directors Laura Harrison and Elizabeth Federici, 78 minutes)
Saturday September 24, 2011, 2pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex)
Post-screening discussion to follow
Continuing Education credit available for AIA members (self-reported credits)
In partnership with Vega Architecture
Most recognized for the iconic Texas land-art piece, Cadillac Ranch, the 1970s art/architecture collective Ant Farm questioned the boundaries of architecture and everything else in the process. This is the first film to delve into the work of these renegade explorers in both architecture and performance art. Radical architects, video pioneers, and mordantly funny cultural commentators, the Ant Farmers created a body of deeply subversive work that presaged today’s cultural landscape..

EAMES: The Architect and the Painter
(2011, Director Jason Cohn & Bill Jersey, 81 minutes)
Thursday September 29, 2011, 7pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex)
Post-screening Q&A with Director Jason Cohn
Reception to follow at Encore | 2550 East Colfax Ave | Denver, CO 80206
Sponsored by ModDenHomes.com
In partnership with Women in Design
Bird’s Nest: Herzog and de Meuron in China
(2008, Directors Christoph Schaub and Michael Schindhelm, 88 minutes)
Saturday October 1, 2011, 2pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex)
Post-screening discussion to follow Continuing Education credit available for AIA members (self-reported credits)
Many events for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games took place in the brand new, 100,000-seat National Stadium. Design plans for this massive structure began in 2003, when Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were selected by the Chinese government to design the new stadium, which because of its curved steel-net walls was soon dubbed by locals as the “bird’s nest.” BIRD’S NEST chronicles this five-year effort, as well as Herzog and de Meuron’s design for a new city district in Jinhua, involving hotels, office and residential buildings. Both projects involved complex and often difficult negotiations and communications between two cultures, two architectural traditions and two political systems. Herzog and de Meuron, the Basle-based architects, find themselves working with China’s largest state construction company, Chinese artist and architect Ai Wei Wei, lawyers, and countless government bureaucrats.

New Beijing: Reinventing a City
(2009, Director Georgia Wallace-Crabbe, 53 minutes)
Saturday October 1, 2011, 7pm at the Denver Art Museum’s Sharp Auditorium
In conjunction with Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design’s Cumulus Conference
With Min Wang, Design Director for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in person
GALA CLOSING EVENT TO FOLLOW in association with RMCAD
Beijing is at the center of a building boom unprecedented in the history of humanity, with contributions by some of the world’s most celebrated architects. French architect Paul Andreu (the new opera house), Australian John Bilmon (the national aquatics center), Ole Scheeren of the Dutch agency OMA (CCTV’s head office) and Rory McGowan of the engineering firm ARUP take viewers on a tour of their achievements. At the same time, photographer and social activist Zhang Jinqi, accompanied by residents from six other Chinese cities, documents old Beijing neighborhoods before their demolition, raising many questions on the country’s future and the preservation of its cultural heritage.

ghost 13 [Recap]: Ideas in Things

2011-08-25T10:46:00.011-06:00

an excellent recap of the ghost 13 symposium: "Ideas in Things", hosted by Brian Mackay-Lyons on his own farm outside lunenburg, nova scotia, can be found here:

Giving Up the Ghost [text by Trevor Boddy, photos by Cherish Rosas for Canadian Architect magazine]

Some featured presenters included in the article are:

Kenneth Frampton [with a fascinating comparison to John Ruskin]

Marlon Blackwell from Arkansas

John & Patricia Patkau

Peter Stutchbury

Tom Kundig

Peter Buchanan [who made reference to Richard Sennett's The Craftsman, which is currently in our reading rotation]

Glenn Murcutt

the ghost village

Day 3: Sun
The debate was energized by Toronto's Barry Sampson, who first declared that too much of the work shown up to that point in Ghost 13 relied on the "aestheticization of nature." Sampson then reacted to a similarly romantic privileging of the hand-drawn and home-made by declaring, "Digitally driven manufacturing can revive craft traditions. It can make complex shapes feasible once again and it can attract young people back to the construction industry who enjoy problem-solving with computers." There was no better illustration of Sampson's point that day than the complex digitally milled stone pieces used at crucial plan junction points in Shim-Sutcliffe Architects' Integral House for musician/mathematician James Stewart. Craft like this as the "finely made" versus craft as solely the "hand-made" brought out impassioned spiels pro and con. Are Tom Kundig's retro-mechanical gizmos (chain-powered moveable windows, hydraulically lifted skylights, cabins on wheels) the triumph of contemporary craft, or imagistic throwaways? Coffee arrived just as the debate devolved into a discussion about whether the computer coding of design software is itself an exemplification of craft at its finest.

the 3 elders: [L to R] glenn murcutt, kenneth frampton, & juhanni pallasmaa

architect brian mackay-lyons addressing the ghost 13 attendees

Giving up the Ghost?
The Ghost Lab and spinoff events like this symposium (to be documented in a book and video) may well prove to be Brian MacKay-Lyons's great legacy. If they are to be that, the backward glances and self-congratulation evident at Upper Kingsburg need to be replaced by wider frames of reference and an architectural gene pool more diverse than the Scotia Brothers...
More architects like Burkino Faso's Francis Kéré (whose contribution was limited to a phone-in due to a sudden family death abroad) would enliven things, and future collaborative constructions might be better located in places like Burkina Faso, rather than further cluttering the magnificent slopes of Upper Kingsburg. Intellectually, the time of the Anglo-American axis of Frampton and friends has passed, but there is a lively new generation writing about landscape, craft, vernacular, and architectural making in all its varied glory. Having indulged his generosity, my challenge to Brian MacKay-Lyons--now that you have had your needed Ghost retrospective--is to mount a reconceived event in a couple of years, packing that barn with the best and brightest. That, or give up the ghost...

Studio 804: KU Center of Design Research [opening]

2011-08-03T13:48:00.004-06:00

After some radio silence on the studio804 blog website, we decided to do some hunting and found that the KU Center for Design research is either completed or very near completion. take a look at some photos below as well as the article covering the open house:

Crimson, Blue and Green All Over

south entrance of the new KU center of design research [photo by richard gwin]

the entrance to the center of design research on open house day [photo by richard gwin]

the interior 'living wall' made up of hundreds of fern plants [photo by nick krug]

a student monitoring the building's energy consumption [photo by nick krug]

the project set its sights on achieving Passivhaus certification, a very stringent performance based building standard imported from germany. it wasn't clear on whether the facility achieved that goal yet, but past projects foreshadow a similar result. along with a green roof, rooftop solar PVs and an interior green wall [hmm...deja vu] the new center will rely on collected rainwater to supply all the toilets in the building, reducing the demand on the lawrence, ks water supply.

the primary goal of the new building is to :

"... transform the space into a showcase of sustainable design and green technology, and provide a location for meetings, conferences and classes."

if anyone has their own images, please send us a link. we'd love to see more about this ambitious project!

Kent Denver: First LEED Platinum Dining Hall in the USA

2011-07-20T08:34:00.028-06:00

*note: this blog space is typically reserved for my own personal ramblings on architecture, construction & craft, but since this is a uniquely momentous occasion, I am allowing the line to blur a bit.

view from the west terrace [photo by carol mackay]

my employer, Semple Brown Design, P.C. just received word yesterday that a project I worked on [and administered the documentation] has been officially certified with a LEED "Platinum" rating. for those not familiar, that is one of the highest [and coveted] awards to be given to a building for its efforts towards sustainability. granted, LEED has been scrutinized lately for some of its shortcomings, but that being said: no system is perfect. in pursuit of mass awareness towards sustainability, few systems have made the strides that LEED has, and it should be credited for that. we'll save the "lessons learned" for a future post...

the old dining hall [south]

the old dining hall [southwest]

onto the project of discussion--Kent Denver School Dining Hall: Extension & Renovation was borne out of a desperate need for more adequate kitchen and dining space. the existing building had a meager 800 SF to serve over 700 people on a daily basis during 3 separate lunch periods with no more than 2 ovens and a large 4-burner stove [sounds impossible, but true]. not only were the diners cramped for space, the stretched lunch schedule governed the entire academic schedule of the campus. if a campus event required additional time, it was often hamstrung by the lunch scheduling. the old dining hall was becoming a confining entity, not contributing to campus life.

when the decision was made to pursue LEED certification, there were 3 major priorities: salvage as much of the existing building as possible, incorporate the dining hall's cycle of food culture into the campus, and reduce energy consumption. instead of taking away from the campus schedule and the community's infrastructure, it would reverse the trend and give back.

the completed extension & renovation [southwest]

as it turned out, 80% of the existing 1966 brick structure was salvaged to serve as a the re-configured kitchen area-- effectively tripling the functional area and capability of the old kitchen. an additional 12,000 SF was attached to the west side to expand the capacity of students during lunch to 450 [max], reducing the number of lunch periods down to 2. every effort was made to reduce water consumption, resulting in almost 50% water savings over baseline through water efficient landscaping and toilet fixtures. to achieve the Platinum level energy savings, the building envelope and mechanical systems were carefully considered, as well as a supplementary 27KW solar photovoltaic panel rooftop array. the final energy savings from baseline ended up at 42% over baseline, with the PVs contributing to 13% of that savings.

some more facts: exemplary performance was awarded for the installation of recycled and regional materials, with comparative to total materials costs of 33% and 31% respectively. for all the wood products used, 80% came from responsible FSC certified forests. and impressively, a total of 85 % of the construction waste from the entire project was diverted from the landfill, equalling 1,125.5 tons [2,251,000 pounds]. the building is possibly one of more cost effective "green" commercial use structures, coming in at $193 per square foot.

view of the salad bar and "living wall" beyond [photo by carol mackay]

along with the goal of being "green", the menu was completely re-vamped to promote healthier food options by placing a double line salad bar within direct line of sight from the main entry doors. just beyond the salad bar, another visual indication of the project's sustainable aspirations can be seen in a vertical "living wall", which is not host to decorative plants, but also to edible herbs such as basil and rosemary which the cooks use as ingredients on many occasions.

view of the serving lines

the living wall

to me, the most intriguing portion of the project is not the building, but the site features. a 100-count fruit tree orchard was planted to the west of the addition, which allows for outdoor classroom opportunities and the hopes to include the harvested produce into the meals. with the help of the students' beekeeping club, cross pollination of apple, apricot, plum and cherry trees will ensure that the trees have a better chance of yielding fruit in Denver's dry, high plains climate. on the opposite end of the cycle, the campus already practices a rigorous composting program, of which the dining hall is the main contributor and actually reduces what is considered "trash" to only 10% by relative weight ratio.

a bonus of the site was the advantage of spectacular westward views of the Colorado front range and rocky mountains beyond.

westward view [prior to construction]

all in all it was a very enlightening experience for this author, and definitely not easy in the least. time will ultimately reveal to us what approaches were successful and what aspects of the project required more evaluation. we can honestly say that the main goal, while definitely a perk, did not involve ideas of making something iconic or allow bragging rights of a trophy building. alternately, it is meant to be a statement of commitment towards learning about what "sustainability" means to the campus and to the community at large [culturally and economically]. it is by no means the only answer or a perfect answer to questions on the subject, but like any other educational endeavor it hopes to offer the knowledge base when discovering the future of our modern heritage.

sunset on the terrace

postscript--it took all the players: architects, owner, contractor, engineers, & builders to deliver such a work, so congratulations to everyone involved!

___________________________________________________________________

still museum: meet the architect

2011-06-09T15:17:00.005-06:00

in my inbox today:

Client to Architect:

A Conversation between

Dean Sobel and Brad Cloepfil

July 7, 2011, 7pm

Join Brad Cloepfil - the architect of the Clyfford Still Museum - and Director Dean Sobel for a discussion about the project and the new publication, Occupation: Brad Cloepfil, Allied Works Architecture. A reception and book signing at MAD Wine Bar will follow. Books will be available for purchase.

Discussion: Denver Art Museum - Sharp Auditorium

(Hamilton Building - Lower Level)

Parking at the Cultural Center Garage

Reception and Signing: MAD Wine Bar

(1200 Acoma Street - across from Hamilton Building)

Free Event. Cash Bar.

literary excerpt

2011-05-25T15:45:00.007-06:00

House-Schuyler VA [wg clark architects]

an excerpt from WG Clark's essay "Replacement", published in the monograph Clark and Menefee:

"...I cannot convince myself that settlement, even the most thoughtful, the most beautiful, is better than wilderness. Even the [grain] mill is not better than no mill; but the mill is necessary for our existence, and therefore worthwhile. It is an image that keeps returning, proof that the use of the Earth need not be destructive, and that the architecture can be the ameliorative act by which, in thoughtfulness and carefulness, we counter the destructive effect of construction. Nothing else is architecture; all the rest is merely building.
The American landscape is being sacrificed to building. The result is dismal, adding up to nothing satisfactory or even significant except as an accurate self-portrait of our culture and ethical dissolution. This is an observation neither rare nor subtle. The condition is one that we all see and feel daily, one that we abhor yet perpetuate, a senseless spread of profit-motivated building that has none of the good characteristics of settlement, and looks remarkably more like a midway, uprooted and designed to be put up anywhere. The comparison becomes more apt with the realization that most of the things built are unnecessary..."

clyfford still museum progress

2011-05-20T16:11:00.011-06:00

panorama view from the south

it was announced recently that the new allied works designed clyfford still museum will open its doors to the public on November 18th, 2011. the new facility will house over 90% of the artist's career body of work for display, including paintings, prints, sketches, and the only 3 sculptures ever created by still.

the building recently had the concrete forms removed from the massive exterior walls to reveal a highly textured surface of vertically oriented striations. this same texture will supposedly be carried out through the entire structure, even on the interior walls and ceilings at the main level.

view from the northwest

rendered animation of the completed design by allied works architecture

the interior gallery spaces shown in the animation give us a good idea at the sophisticated ceiling scrim that will filter daylight to the upper level galleries. the allied works museum project page has grown exponentially in the past few months, with depictions of gallery sections, program diagrams, renderings, and other construction images.

we will keep watching this development with great interest...

___________________________________

studio 804: Center of Design Research

2011-05-16T15:44:00.011-06:00

historic photo of chamney dairy farm [studio 804]

dan rockhill & his jayhawks in lawrence, ks are quickly making their new design-build project come to life. foregoing the usual modular house as in past years, the new center for design research is a step up in scope, complexity and sustainability goals:

The new Center for Design Research building, located on the historic Chamney Dairy Farm in Lawrence, Kansas, is a response to the emerging culture and support of sustainability at the University of Kansas. In congruence with the center's mission, which is to provide a location for interdisciplinary work between multiple schools, the new building will provide a facility that aids in the education of the university and community on sustainable strategies, material innovation and building efficiency.

The design for the new building implements sustainable strategies to maximize the potential of existing resources, minimize environmental degradation, create an environment that is safe, comfortable and efficient and provide an iconic representation of sustainability for the University of Kansas. Through the implementation and expression of sustainable systems, the building will provide a space for professional collaboration and community education while displaying a wide range of sustainable strategies. In doing so, it will showcase the advances of green building technologies and products, serving as a standard for the future development of the University and CDR.

existing site [studio 804]

studio 804 intend to reach the same ambitious goal as their last couple projects with a passive house certification. this includes an airtight exterior building envelope, super-insulated walls, roof and floor slab as well as a 90% energy savings [from baseline] by harnessing the southern sun for most of the facility's heat. this strategy is aided by triple paned insulated glass and sunshades and/or deep overhangs to avoid overheating in the summer months. natural ventilation is carefully calculated into the design along with an heat exchanging mechanical system to limit the need for pre-conditioned air.

limestone wall mock-up [studio 804]

a handsome rendering gives us a glimpse of the finished facility, complete with living roof, south facing courtyard, large expanses of glass and stacked limestone cladding. follow the gang's weekly construction progress here. we look forward to seeing more of this great work.

exterior rendering [studio 804]

week 12 construction photo [studio 804]

______________________________________________________

event: manifestos on modernism

2011-05-03T13:51:00.004-06:00

[click to enlarge]

ghost lab 13: summer conference

2011-02-25T10:09:00.008-07:00

foregoing the usual design-build workshop this year, brian mackay-lyons plans to replace this year's project with a huge gathering of the minds. a 4-day seminar packed full of lectures, discussions and ideas about architecture & material culture, this year's visit to the ghost laboratory promises to be an extraordinary event. below is the list of guests participating in the "resistance movement" of architecture:

Keynote Speakers

Kenneth Frampton, New York

Juhani Pallasmaa, Finland

Speakers

Deborah Berke, New York

Marlon Blackwell, Arkansas

Wendell Burnette, Arizona

Ted Flato, San Antonio

Andrew Freear, Alabama

Vincent James, Minnesota

Rick Joy, Arizona

Francis Kéré, Berlin and Burkina Faso

Richard Kroeker, Nova Scotia

Tom Kundig, Seattle

Brian MacKay-Lyons, Nova Scotia

Patricia Patkau, Vancouver

Dan Rockhill, Kansas

Brigitte Shim, Toronto

Peter Stutchbury, Sydney

Critics

Peter Buchanan, London

Tom Fisher, Minnesota

Robert McCarter, St. Louis

Moderators

Essy Baniassad, Hong Kong

Robert Ivy, Washigton, D.C.

Christine Macy, Nova Scotia

we'll be anxiously awaiting any coverage of the events--this blogger has decided to decline in order to take exams for that magical piece of paper called an Architect's license.

__________________________________________

lecture at CU Denver

2011-02-22T09:24:00.005-07:00

Craig Curtis, principal architect from the Miller/Hull Partnership will be speaking about his firm's Public Works next Monday evening [6.00 PM Feb. 28th] at the MBA Suite at CU Denver Architecture building.

As an admirer of their work for some time now, this is a much anticipated presentation especially after our visit to the pacific northwest a couple years ago.

Conibear Shellhouse at the University of Washington

See you there.

[props to the schuster for the heads up]

think being an architect is difficult?

2011-02-21T18:19:00.002-07:00

bruce mau tells us to THINK AGAIN:

"...Is it really difficult being an architect in America? It’s difficult to be a female intellectual in Kandahar. It’s difficult to raise a family living on waste products in the garbage dumps of China. It’s difficult to find your way as a child in Malawi, where the infection rate of HIV/AIDS is 17 percent, having already wiped out a generation of mothers and fathers. It’s difficult to overcome drug addiction from the quicksand of poverty and incarceration in America’s overpopulated prisons. These conditions are difficult. Being an architect is not difficult.

So, really, are we going to listen to another gripe about how difficult it is to be an architect today? No, we are not. If you are a student at Harvard, or a practicing architect, you are the privileged 1 percent. That’s right—1 percent. I’m not talking about 1 percent of college graduates, but 1 percent of humanity. Less than 1 percent of the world has experienced the power of higher education..."

definitely a re-loaded perspective...

click HERE for the full article.

the 10 commandments of architecture...

2011-01-21T16:19:00.004-07:00

...according to Jim Childress, FAIA:

1. Thou Shalt Not Compartmentalize: In addition to learning to design, thou should write well, spell correctly, figure out how to get jobs and keep clients happy, take out the trash, make a good cup of Joe, be able to build models, master sustainability as well as the latest technological tools. Do all this and more, EXCEPT ... hire a really good professional to photograph your work. It will pay off in awards and in landing new jobs.

2. Don’t Be Disappointed When a Client Rejects Your Design: It only means another opportunity to design. In architecture there are many solutions to the same question and designing is what you do.

3. Always Exceed Your Client’s Expectations: The corollary is: Establish attainable expectations.

4. Cost Counts: No matter what clients may say, or how deep their pockets, cost is foremost in the minds of all clients great and small. Make sure there is a clear, written understanding of the expected project cost and have a plan in case the budget gets out of whack.

5. Problems are Opportunities: Show them how good you are in a pinch.

6. Bad News Travels Fast: An unhappy client is your worst nightmare. The corollary is: Satisfied clients become good friends and good references.

7. Art First, Mammon Second: Make every project an artistic success, and you will thrive. If your first priority is making money, you will go broke.

8. Go Forth and Collaborate: Architecture is a team sport. Surround yourself with talented and enjoyable people, in the office and outside. Share the credit with colleagues and consultants. Run an open office. The fewer doors the better; and just one coffee pot where the designing herd can gather and ruminate.

9. Listen: Believe it or not, people besides you have good ideas and insights. This applies to clients, staff, builders, consultants, building users, even your spouse. In the end it will be your client’s building, not yours. If you want to be a star, move to Hollywood.

10. Do Right, Have Fun: Clients are spending a lot of money; they expect something special. There also should be some fun in the mix, for your client and for you as well.

If there were an 11th Commandment, it would be: Have a sense of humor.

I imagine that this list is infinitely variable as there are as many architects. what are your own 10?

__________________________________________

it's for the better...

2011-01-13T10:47:00.003-07:00

...some semi-inspiring notes for the start of 2011:

remember-architecture is first and foremost about place & space...the objectification of architecture will come [ca.1990] and go [RIP Oct. 2008], but it is always about shaping the emptiness, defining the void, and making the invisible tangible. -taow, jan. 2011

...and a cautionary tale about a path already travelled:

an excerpt from Witold Rybczynski's recent article regarding the young architect's [and client's] need for adapting to the new economic climate [Slate.com]:

"What will happen to the anti-rationalists in this new, responsible world? It's not easy for an architect to change his spots—just look at the diminished fortunes of Paul Rudolph in the 1970s, or Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in the 1980s. The big names will coast on their reputations, finding commissions in increasingly obscure corners of the world. Turkmenistan, anyone? The losers will be the current generation of young graduates. Trained in the arcane arts of parametric design and generative architecture, they will find themselves facing a world of chastened clients who demand discipline, restraint, and common sense. Big chill, indeed.

tower in a field

2010-12-06T17:34:00.015-07:00

The text of this project is all in Czech, which we are unfortunately not fluent in [yet], but the images say plenty by themselves. What we can gather, it is a "Tower on a Hill" located in a field near the town of Židlochovice, Czech Republic and designed by architect Pavel Jura.Constructed entirely of Acacia lumber and galvanized steel, it seeks no other function other than revel in the surrounding landscape, and as much of that landscape as the eye can possibly see. A crude English description is part of the images captured below, so please excuse the shortcomings of the translation.

"The tower is proposed on a regular plan of thirty acacia wood columns. The circular ground plan corresponds to the topography of the site with an equivalent view in full 360 ° circular profile also provides rigidity to the horizontal wind load."

"Each of the acacia poles is composed of several planks, whose number reduces as the column height decreases. Thinning of the structure corresponds to the reduction of tension in the material, loaded from the most massive pedestal to the crown of the tower - the subtle elements of the balustrade without load. Thinning of the structure follows the winding up of the internal spiral staircase, while climbing the tower with views gradually opening up - from nearly closed base, to open top level."

"The internal staircase procedure confirmed the building's presence - each step is made of planks from a console supporting pole. Dimensional spiral interlocking brackets which strengthen the structure, and defines the internal space above the illuminated free kernel. Spatial stiffness is gathered from the circular cross section (as well as barrels in the cellar at the bottom of the hill), as well as steel hoops, complete with wooden braces between the columns."

"The aim was not looking for a new, or necessarily any other similarly modern architecture - the advertising slogan "Please come - see what you've already seen" remains with variety-show entertainers. It was neither to exhume historical or any other referenced architectural forms - from the final of the building one cannot expect more than the picture of the principles used in the construction."

_________________________________________________

engineering without engines

2010-11-11T09:59:00.004-07:00

“Engineering without engines. We should use contemporary technology and computation capacity to make our buildings independent of machinery. Building services today are essentially mechanical compensations for the fact that buildings are bad for what they are designed for – human life. Therefore we pump air around, illuminate dark spaces with electric lights, and heat and cool the spaces in order to make them livable. The result is boring boxes with big energy bills. If we moved the qualities out of the machine room and back into architecture’s inherent attributes, we’d make more interesting buildings and more sustainable cities.” -- Bjarke Ingels, BIG
[props to the schuster for finding these words of insight]

quote for 2010.Oct.01

2010-10-01T10:59:00.003-06:00

This is a time in which belief is often overwhelmed by exponential change. Even in the most serious architectural circles, intellectual games and superficial dogma can take the place of affirmation, and the mediocrity and deadness of much of our environment continue to spread.

Yet, in all of our surroundings there is great richness and power. Belief in the sensuality of place, the emotive qualities of materials, and the ability to give pleasure and insight, to comfort, and to transport, can produce humane and spirited architecture. It is our belief that exceptional architecture comes from the search for solutions which respond to the particular circumstances inherent in each situation.

Increasingly, we have come to see that, in a sense, circumstances are infinite and that working within any one set of habits is too limiting. We must be alive to the subtleties of place, whether manmade or natural; to the varied nature of humans and their particular activities; to the qualities of their institutions; and to the nature of the means with which we build. With both intellect and intuition, we seek solutions that respond to the web of circumstances at hand.

Over the years the interplay of architects within our practice and our responses to more complex and demanding programs and varied environments have broadened our view of the circumstances that affect our work. We are peeling away the layers of our habits and preconceptions. We require open-mindedness, willingness, gentleness - a soft, yet no-holds-barred approach.

-- BCJ website

clyfford still museum: the final design [video]

2010-08-25T13:29:00.005-06:00

description from the museum's website:

The Museum is conceived as a solid, a mass of concrete, deriving its presence from the earth—a single construction that is opened up by natural light and that itself becomes the source of light for the art within. The museum structure will exist, simply and elegantly, to make room for the voice of a single artist.
The Still Museum’s final design envisions a two-story 28,500 square foot structure made of highly textured and resurfaced concrete that will modify light on both the exterior and interior of the Museum. The landscaped forecourt will serve both as a place of refuge and repose, transitioning from the urban neighborhood to the experience of viewing Still’s art within the Museum. A cantilevered canopy of concrete will lead visitors into the first-floor lobby, and glass walls will allow visitors to see into the conservation studio and collection storage. An open corridor will include educational materials, and its two-story expanse will provide views from below of the second-floor galleries and views from above into the library and study areas on the first floor. The Museum’s open design embodies the founding principle of the institution, the revealing to the public of this once-private and very personal collection.
A beautifully-crafted wooden staircase will lead visitors to the second floor, which consists of a series of eleven distinct galleries, having varying ceiling heights and proportions designed for the optimal display of the different elements of the Still collections. The galleries, totaling approximately 10,000 square feet, will feature changing exhibits of work from throughout Clyfford Still’s career and will enable visitors to progress chronologically through Still’s works. One of the singular features of the Museum will be its daylight system that includes diffusing skylights and motorized shades situated above a custom-formed, surprisingly delicate concrete tracery ceiling that almost disappears in the scattered light. The intensity of each gallery's light will vary with changes in daylight, and electric lighting will further enhance curatorial flexibility to modify the tonalities in each exhibition space. The Museum is currently expected to open in the fall of 2011.

this will take more study, but our first impression [mostly questions]:

1] The approach is one of the best things going for the design if the wild flower meadow "forecourt" stays intact through the design process. a nice entry to a long expanse of glass, beneath the cantilevered upper level.

2] what is with the monster trees in the "forecourt"? every denver-ite knows that trees in this city take 200 years to get that tall. there is simply no water...maybe they will transplant full grown maples or oaks to the site...

3] Exteriors:

the textured concrete looks promising with the subtle random vertical shadow pattern, but how does this translate to the interior? Also-what is the significance of choosing this method of concrete and its aesthetic? What is the significance to Clyfford Still/Denver/museum-goers? is it just to look "cool" or does it have a deeper meaning to place and culture? and please don't tell me it is to imitate the nearby mountains [libeskind...argh!]. if we want to experience mountain textures and forms, making a 30 minute drive would allow you to experience the real thing.

4] Interiors:

oh we get it now! the random vertical wood panelling references the exterior concrete texture [kind of...sort of...]. the animation doesn't do any favors to the interior experience, but the main level is definitely non-hierarchical in organization [also a theme in adjaye's mcart denver]. the entrance is very un-monumental [no atrium, no grand staircase, etc.] but maybe that is okay. not sure though...the ambiance of the random lighting layout and glowing stairwell is another play of subtlety, but it doesn't make for a public space you want to linger in--more like a interstitial space to grab tickets and be herded through the galleries. libeskind's denver art museum has the great atrium that while even though induces vertigo, at least makes you feel something special about the place spatially.

5] Gallery Ceilings:

not sure what that perforated sunscreen/sunshade is or how it gets manufactured / built, but it looks like it has potential. a bit of a rip-off from renzo piano, but if you are going to plagiarize, do it from the best [which renzo is the master of daylight manipulation]. from the description above, it sounds like GFRC [Glass Fibre Reinforced Concrete] to us.

6] Animation/presentation:

this may be perceived as a minor issue, but does it bother anyone else that there are no shadows or reflections on the floor for the people in the animations? because it is driving us absolutely mad! very distracting and also a little creepy to not have the kind of depth that is created by those little details [pay attention young architecture students]. the autumn setting is very nice and sets a good mood, but we are suckers since autumn is our favorite season in denver.

all in all, we are eagerly awaiting the completion, and one cannot truly judge a work without being inside it, around it, immersed in it... while this critique may be somewhat cynical, it is merely curious and has anxious questions to the incomplete. follow the construction progress on the museum's website here:

Clyfford Still Museum: Construction photos

_____________________________________________________

pech kucha vol. 11

2010-08-24T08:36:00.002-06:00

this wednesday evening [Aug. 25th]:

Pecha Kucha Night is non profit and is now running in 340 cities globally.

A Coruña, Aalen, Aarhus, Adelaide, Aguascalientes, Amersfoort , Amman, Amsterdam, Arnhem, Asheville, Asunción, Athens, Atlanta, Auckland, Austin, Bahia Blanca, Bahrain, Bali, Bandung, Bangalore, Bangkok, Barcelona, Basel, Beaufort SC, Beijing, Beirut, Belfast, Belgrade, Bemidji , Berkeley, Berlin, Bern, Bielefeld, Bilbao, Birmingham, Bogota, Bologna, Bordeaux, Boston, Boulder, Bratislava, Brighton, Brisbane, Bristol, Brno, Brussels, Bucaramanga, Bucharest, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Buffalo, Calgary, Cali, Canberra, Cape Town, Caracas, Cardiff, Catania, Champaign-Urbana, Charleston, Charlotte, Chattanooga, Chennai, Chicago, Christchurch, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Cluj-Napoca, Cologne, Columbia, SC, Columbus, Concepción, Copenhagen, Cordoba, Coventry , Dallas , Damascus , Dar es Salaam, Dawson City, Dayton, Delhi, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Doha, Dortmund, Dresden, Dubai, Dublin, Dunedin, Durban, Edinburgh, Edmonton, Eindhoven, El Paso, Eugene, Ferrol, Florence, Frankfurt, Fresno, Funchal, Gainesville, FL, Gdansk, Genève, Ghent, Ginowan , Gisborne, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Greenville, Groningen, Guadalajara, Guangzhou , Guayaquil, Halifax, Hamamatsu, Hamburg, Hamilton, Helsingborg, Helsinki, Hengelo, Hobart, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Houston, Huancayo, Huddersfield, Hyderabad, Indianapolis, Istanbul, Jacksonville, Jaen, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Kaiserslautern, Kalmar, Kampala, Kansas City, Kaunas, Kingston, Knoxville, TN, Kolding, Kosice, Koszalin, Krakow, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Kuwait City, Kyoto, Lagos, Lake Ridge, Lakeland , Las Palmas GC, Las Vegas , Lausanne, Leeds , Lexington, Lima, Lincoln, NE, Linz, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Lodz, London, Los Angeles, Louisville, Loviisa, Luebeck , Luxembourg, Maastricht, Madrid, Málaga, Mallorca, Malmö, Manchester, Manila, Mar Del Plata, Maribor, Marseille-Provence, Mauritius, Melbourne, Mexico City, Miami, Milan, Milwaukee, Minneapolis St.Paul, Montevideo, Montreal, Morioka, Muenster, Mumbai, Munich, Nagano, Nagoya, Nairobi, Nancy, Naples, Nashville, Nelson, New Haven, New Orleans, New York, Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nishinomiya, Norrköping, Nottingham, Nuremberg, Oaxaca, Okayama, Omaha, Orange County, Orebro, Oslo, Osnabrueck, Ostersund, Ottawa, Oulu, Palmerston North , Panamá, Parana , Paris, Peoria, Perth, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsboro, Pittsburgh, Pontevedra, Pordenone, Portland Maine, Portland Oregon, Porto, Porto Alegre, Portsmouth NH, Poznan , Prague, Providence, Pune, Quebec, Queenstown, Queretaro, Quito, Raglan, Raleigh, Redding , Regensburg, Reykjavik, Riga, Rijeka, Rimini, Rio de Janeiro, Rockland, Maine, Rome, Rosario, Rotterdam, Sacramento, Saint-Etienne, Salisbury, Salt Lake City, Salzburg, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, CA, San Jose, Costa Rica, San Luis Obispo, San Sebastian , Santiago, Sao Paulo, Savannah, Schiedam, Seattle, Semarang, Senigallia, Seoul, Sevilla, Shanghai, Sheffield, Shenzhen , Singapore, Sofia, Sophia Antipolis, Southend-on-Sea, St Louis, St.Petersburg, Stockholm, Stoke-on-Trent, Stuttgart, Sundsvall , Sunshine Coast, Surabaya, Sydney, Tacoma, Taipei, Tallahassee, Tampa Bay, Tampere, Taos , Tel Aviv, Tenerife, The Hague, Thessaloniki, Tijuana, Tokyo, Toledo, Ohio, Toronto, Treviso, Trieste, Tromsø, Turin, Turku, Udine, Umeå, Utrecht, Vaduz, Valencia, Vancouver, Växjö , Venice, Victoria, Vienna, Vilnius, Wagga Wagga, Warsaw, Washington DC, Waterloo, Wellington, Whangarei, Whistler, Whitehorse, Winnipeg, Winter Harbor , Maine, Worcester, Wroclaw, Xalapa, Yerevan, Zagreb, Zaragoza, Zilina, Zürich.

http://www.pecha-kucha.org Find a location and join the conversation.

Pecha Kucha Night is for CONTENT and not profit As always - thank you for your amazing support.

secret ghost garden

2010-08-06T18:05:00.003-06:00

a terrific write-up on brian mackay-lyons ghost village by elena safronsky for hgtv canada:

An Architect's Secret Garden: Shobac Cottages

at the bottom of the article is a more extensive slideshow, and this is only part I. stay tuned for part II.

the tent and the whale's smile

2010-08-02T13:48:00.010-06:00

apologies for such a lag on the draw, but here is calatrava's proposal for adding a south terminal at denver international airport, including rail station/overpass bridge and 500-room hotel.

from the denver post:

video animation of new DIA south terminal [calatrava architects]

Day said the south terminal project includes at least 100,000 square feet of retail and other concession space that — along with the hotel — will generate revenue and help offset the cost of the project.
Calatrava's design calls for the hotel-train station-plaza complex to dominate the view of the terminal from the south, but those traveling to DIA will retain a view of the terminal tent through a low, saddle-like space between the hotel's twin towers.
The south terminal project also includes a commuter-rail bridge over Peña Boulevard just east of the E-470 interchange that will accommodate the $1.2 billion East Corridor train from Union Station to the airport. Train service is expected to start in 2016.

rendering of interior at new south terminal & rail stop [calatrava architects]

And of course the money has yet to be thrown down:

DIA still must determine if it can afford the Calatrava-designed commuter-rail bridge.
The airport has proposed "enhancing" RTD's design for the bridge and paying the difference between the "base price" the Regional Transportation District will budget for the bridge and what it would cost to build it according to Calatrava's design.
RTD recently selected a consortium of private companies to build the East Corridor train under a public-private partnership.
On Aug. 12, RTD and the firms will be able to identify the amount of money they have for the rail bridge after they complete financial terms of the public-private partnership, said RTD spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas.
DIA will have until Jan. 31 to decide whether it can afford to pay the difference between the base price for the bridge and the amount needed to realize Calatrava's design, said Day, DIA's manager. When an early Calatrava design came in around $60 million, airport officials said they could not afford that price.

a glowing, but still somewhat deprecating write up from the Post's Architecture critic:

This bird has beaks too. On both its north and south side, large curved roofs cant outward to create giant covered plazas between the two buildings.
While the main terminal — with its iconic, pointy tents — pushes downward, the expansion appears to lift off like a gravity-defying jumbo jet. It is very much in the space-age school of Eero Saarinen, designer of the landmark TWA terminal at JFK and St. Louis' Gateway Arch, except that like all of Calatrava's designs, it is lighter and brighter, an awing combo of engineering and fine details.
Is it a bit too obvious for an airport building to reference both birds and planes? Perhaps. Architects have made it routine. Still, Calatrava's design feels new, and aside from its overwhelming size, it is a kind neighbor to Denver architect Curt Fentress' 1995 terminal.

now do you see what I mean by "whale's smile"? imagine a giant humpback whale skimming for plankton...

I'm not sure what is going to be the first thing to hit the chopping block: the over-emphasized rail bridge or the 500 room hotel?

the article mentions calatrava's sensitivity to the original tent structure, but the above rendering seems to tell a different story...

still museum: final design presentation

2010-07-26T09:36:00.004-06:00

now you must decide between santiago and allied works! brad cloepfil shows off the final design of the clyfford still museum tonight:

Clyfford Still Museum: The Final Design
Brad Cloepfil, Allied Works Architecture

Since the initial schematic design unveiling, the design of the Clyfford Still Museum has advanced in exciting ways. Architect Brad Cloepfil will detail innovative solutions conceived to present Still's artworks, including a state-of-the-art daylighting system and an innovative, highly expressive custom-formed concrete exterior. As part of his lecture, Cloepfil will premier a 2-minute “virtual animation” of the building which will simulate a walk-through of the museum, including the landscaped forecourt.

7pm, Monday, July 26
Denver Art Museum Sharp Auditorium

Please RSVP at info@clyffordstillmuseum.org

Calatrava in Denver

2010-07-23T11:18:00.003-06:00

Another inbox gem:

Renowned Spanish Architect

Santiago Calatrava to Visit Denver

DOCA will host special public presentation

on Calatrava’s unique vision & career July 28

DENVER, CO – JULY 21, 2010 – The evening of July 28, the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs will host a special public presentation on the unique vision and career of renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, to be followed by Q & A. Calatrava will be in town to unveil his design for Denver International Airport’s South Terminal Redevelopment, which will take place the following day July 29. The public presentation on July 28 is free and open to the public. No RSVP is required; however, seating is first-come, first-served.

WHAT: Public presentation on unique vision & career of architect Santiago Calatrava followed by Q & A

WHO: Architect Santiago Calatrava

WHEN: Wednesday, July 28, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Sharp Auditorium, Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14^th Ave. Pkwy.

DOCA’s public presentation on the unique vision and career of Santiago Calatrava is an extraordinary opportunity to learn about the celebrated architect, who was selected for the City’s latest civic venture, DIA’s South Terminal Redevelopment.

Architect, artist and engineer Santiago Calatrava was born on July 28, 1951, in Valencia, Spain.

Calatrava began his formal instruction in drawing and painting at the age of eight. He earned a degree in architecture from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura in Valencia, where he also took a post-graduate course in urbanism. Attracted by the mathematical rigor of certain great works of historic architecture, and feeling that his training in Valencia had given him no clear direction, Calatrava decided to pursue post-graduate studies in civil engineering and enrolled in 1975 at the ETH (Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich. He received his Ph.D. in 1981.

In 1984, Calatrava designed and built the Bach de Roda Bridge in Barcelona. This was the beginning of the bridge projects that established his international reputation. Since then, Calatrava has been commissioned for bridges and buildings across Europe, as well as numerous projects in North and South America.

Calatrava’s first building in the U.S.—the expansion of the Milwaukee Art Museum—was completed in 2001. It was named “Best of 2001” by Time Magazine, “2002 Best Large Structure” by the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois, “2004 Outstanding Structure” by the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering and “2004 Outstanding Project Award” from the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations, Chicago, Illinois. Sundial Bridge in Redding, California, was Calatrava’s first bridge in the U.S., completed in 2004. Recent U.S. commissions include the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York and three bridges over the Trinity River in Dallas, Texas.

Calatrava’s honors and awards are many. They include being named a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (1993) and one of the “Time 100” most influential people by Time Magazine in 2005. He has received 18 honorary doctorates to date, is an Honorary Citizen of Liege and a Permanent Honorary Guest (Ständiger Ehrengast) of the University of Zurich.

Santiago Calatrava has offices in Zurich, Valencia and New York. For more information, visit www.calatrava.com.

The mission of the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs is to advance the arts and culture in the City and County of Denver.

pecha kucha night denver: vol. 10

2010-07-21T08:08:00.003-06:00

In my inbox this morning:

Untitled at the Denver Art Museum presents:

PechaKucha Night Denver volume 10

projected on the side of our own
DENVER ART MUSEUM!

Lanny Martin Plaza @ DAM Hamilton Building
Friday, July 23, 8:20 - 10 pm
Show starts at sun-down
Bring your own chair / pillow / blanket
FREE / $5 donation

* Special Biennial Edition *

PRESENTERS include local ARCHITECTS who helped design & build the DAM and the Plaza (with their presentations projected ON the DAM and IN the Plaza!); DESIGNERS with current letterpress and pop-up shows; Denver's largest CARTOONIST; LANDSCAPE DESIGNERS present their tree installation for the Biennial; an architecture STUDENT opens his sketchbook from Rome; and Buntport THEATER is back to make us laugh so hard we cry.

FEATURING PRESENTATIONS BY:
Maria Cole
Christopher P. Schooler
Rick Griffith
Samuel Schimek
Felix Tannenbaum
DESIGN4
Michael Bucher
Buntport Theater

HUGE THANKS to our SPONSORS!

The Denver Art Museum

Buntport Theater

D&K Printing

Passenger Pigeon

Food available from the Deluxe Street Food Truck "Little Orange Rocket"

After-party at Beauty Bar - 608 E 13th Ave.

RSVP to the facebook event!
Follow us on Twitter!
Full size flier: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pechakuchanightdenver/4807256783/sizes/l/

We hope to see you there!

Thanks,
PechaKucha Night Denver Team

http://www.pkndenver.com
http://www.pecha-kucha.org

________________________________________________________________

glimpses of a ghost

2010-07-19T08:44:00.009-06:00

there are some glimpses of this summer's ghost 12 in an article over at architzer.com. [with photos taken by builder gordon maclean for mls architects]. special thanks to parkinperspective for the heads up!

ghost 12 'boat house' from the northwest

ghost 12 'boat house' from the southeast

the article also features some past ghost projects as well, but his year's "boat house" stayed within the language of last year's minimalist wooden boxes perched towards a view or over a body of water.

see also some good blog documentation by Cherish Rosas at moxie 5.25

photo of brian's sketch for ghost 12 "boat house" [by cherrymoxie4.com]

we will keep our eyes peeled for new images/blog posts, etc. and post the links here.

stay tuned!

summer parties

2010-06-09T15:12:00.004-06:00

In my inbox:

this means that ghost 12 will be completed soon, and taow will be linking to pics of the latest project. if any of you ghosties have photos you'd like to share, leave us a message in the comment thread.

Brian MacKay-Lyons and a model of Ghost Five. (Credit: Mark Buckley)

random stuff

2010-05-12T20:09:00.008-06:00

since we are hard at work trying to push the fifth LEED platinum building in colorado through the permitting process, here are some random readings that have caught our eye:

-typically, peter eisenmann is not on our radar, but this interview of the man had some good sound bites:

Longing for the Impossible

we're not a regular subscriber to the old man's work, but he sure makes some good points.

-dan rockhill illustrates the trials and tribulations of his kansas university design build program:

"this is not your usual tippy-tappy studio...we kick ass here."

last year, the group went for LEED platinum, now they are shooting for the much higher Passive house standard, defined by germany's housing code. here is a rendering of the new studio 804 project:

the slatted wood rain screen will be douglas fir boards, finished with a japanese technique called "shou-sugi-ban":

photo from pursuing a life of wabi

this process consists of blackening the surface of the boards with a propane torch that will make them resistant to rot and insects:

photo from pursuing a life of wabi

the boards are finally washed and dried and coated with penofin oil:

photo from pursuing a life of wabi

check out the current project status here: studio 804.

2010-04-14T11:41:00.000-06:00

LECTURE:

APRIL 14th, 2010

Clyfford Still Museum: The Final Design

Brad Cloepfil, Allied Works Architecture

POSTPONED INDEFINITELY

CHECK BACK FOR FUTURE INFO

pecha kucha night denver: vol. 9

2010-04-09T15:25:00.002-06:00

In my inbox this friday afternoon:

PechaKucha Night Denver volume 9 is coming up on Tuesday, April 13th!

Create Denver Week and AIA Colorado present this edition of PechaKucha Night, an evening of creative chit-chat where local architects, designers, and artists will share 20 images of their work, timed for 20 seconds each.

As usual, PKND volume 9 will feature a mix of creative talent - including some buildings, playgrounds, cake, furniture, end-of-life photographs, and living via thinking. Come to be entertained and informed about the creative talent here in Denver!

PechaKucha Night Denver volume 9
Tuesday, April 13
doors 7:30 / event 8:20
@ Flower Garage
1430 Delgany St. / Denver (across from the MCA)
free/donation - rsvp suggested

RSVP! Save yourself a seat: http://bit.ly/CDWRegistration

Featuring (but not limited to) presentations by:

Amir Alrubaiy, Matt Shea, Ken Renaud / architecture
Meg Rapp / ATELIER-xs
Jeanne Connolly / Vintage Renewal furniture
Ian Coyle / Thinking for a Living
Lucia De Giovanni / "My Life" photography, with music by John Common
Cate Townley / Learning Landscapes

Create Denver Week: http://www.denvergov.org/CreateDenver
AIA Colorado Architecture Month: http://www.coloradoarchitecturemonth.org

Thanks! We hope to see you there!

PechaKucha Night Denver

www.pkndenver.com

PechaKucha Night Global: http://www.pecha-kucha.org
PKN Denver: www.pkndenver.com

twitter: http://twitter.com/PechaKucha_DEN

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116825507657&ref=ts

flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pechakuchanightdenver/sets/

a secular retreat

2010-03-12T14:43:00.009-07:00

all imagery from living architecture blog

as many [or not so many] readers know, we here at taow are big, slobbering fans of peter zumthor and whatever is released from his office into the wild blue yonder. we just recently noticed the update over at the living architecture blog regarding 'a secular retreat' that the zumthor is currently working on. at first glance the concept model images seem crude and elementary, but rough texture and the hand made quality of the presentation is not only a trademark of PZ's craftsman background, but maybe that is the entire point of the project...

after all the chosen title 'secular' brings to mind some intriguing concepts [and meaningful interpretations] for a house:

Not specifically religious.

(Christianity) Not bound by the vows of a monastic order.

Temporal; something that is worldly or otherwise not based on something timeless.

Happening from age to age.

Long-term.

(astrophysics) Of or pertaining to long-term non-periodic irregularities, especially in planetary motion.

(atomic physics) Unperturbed over time.

[all definitions from Wiktionary]

but we must say that the suspense is killing us--what is the material palette? where is the site? is it this place mentioned in the photo caption called chivelstone, great britain? how many obscure places do we have to travel to see zumthor's projects? ; ]

in the between time, this vague and brief description will have to suffice for now:

Peter Zumthor is frequently described as the greatest architect at work in the world today, and has recently been awarded the internationally prestigious Pritzker Prize. He is famous for his baths at Vals in Switzerland, as well as for his Bruder Chapel outside Cologne in Germany and his Kolumba Museum in Cologne itself. He is a master of craftsmanship, and an expert in the use of natural materials, which gives his buildings an eternal quality. For Living Architecture, Zumthor is designing his first project in the UK – a hill-top retreat, to which people will be able to go for periods of sustained work and reflection.

model view 1 - dining room

model view 2 - kitchen & dining room

model view 3 - corridor

Peter Zumthor discussing structural concepts with structural engineer

Jane Wernick for the 'chivelstone' secular retreat

[a glimpse into the plan hidden in the background?]

Stay tuned...

be sure to check out the other houses on the blog...

we are particularly interested in the shingle house and the in-between house.

___________________________________________________________________

Clyfford Still Museum: The Final Design

2010-03-09T15:48:00.004-07:00

In my inbox Tuesday afternoon:

Clyfford Still Museum: The Final Design

Brad Cloepfil, Allied Works Architecture

Since the schematic design unveiling, the museum design has advanced in exciting ways. Cloepfil will detail innovative solutions conceived to present Still's artworks.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010; 6pm
Denver Art Museum - Sharp Auditorium

[All images courtesy of Allied Works Architecture & Clyfford Still Museum]

___________________________________________

biennial of the americas

2010-03-08T11:15:00.008-07:00

The curator for the Biennial of the Americas, Paola Santoscoy, checks the progress of remodeling in the McNichols Building in Civic Center last week. Santoscoy was hired in January. ( Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post )

the denver post does an article on the curator of the upcoming biennial of the americas, which will take place in denver starting July 2010 and last until August:

The Biennial of the Americas is a month-long cultural celebration of innovation, imagination and the artistic achievement of the Western Hemisphere, hosted by the city of Denver.

the main exhibition will be hosted in the old McNicols building in civic center park, and is currently under a stealthy renovation.

the museum of contemporary art, denver botanical gardens, museo de las americas and denver museum of nature and science will all be hosting sites for a multitude of gallery events, symposiums, roundtable discussions and lectures on the topics of art, architecture, design, innovative technologies, poverty, energy, climate change, material culture, and community cohesiveness by 35 participating countries from the western hemisphere.

if it sounds monumentally epic in scope to anyone else then i suppose it probably is--so why aren't we hearing more about it?

there once existed a website called 'ingoodwetrust', highlighting bruce mau as the chief curator of the biennial 2010, but evidently it no longer exists.

we will be watching closely for the upcoming opening event.

_______________________________________________________________

ghost 12

2010-02-23T12:19:00.008-07:00

Ghost Architectural Research lab is the research facility of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects. It is an education initiative designed to promote the transfer of architectural knowledge through direct experience-project based learning taught in the master-builder tradition--with emphasis on issues of landscape, material culture & community.

The Ghost Lab provides a 2-week summer design/build internship [1-week design, 1-week build] for architects, engineers, builders, professors & students. The program takes place on the coast of Nova Scotia, atop the stone ruins of a nearly 400 year old village on Brian's farm. Projects are seen as didactic instruments to interpret cultural ecology and build on both the research experience of the firm, and the building traditions of the area.

This past year's collaboration [2009] resulted in the re-use of an historical, octagonal barn. This year's ghost will be a 'boathouse' at the edge of the sea.

This year's guest architect will be acclaimed Australian architect Peter Stutchbury [peterstutchbury.com] from Sydney. Peter is a professor at the Univ. of Newcastle, and a teacher at Glenn Mercutt's renowned international master-class. The guest critic is respected architect, Ingerid Helsing Almaas, editor-in-chief of Arkitektur N, from Oslo, Norway.

Ghost 12 will run from June 5th to 19th, 2010, and the applications for admission are due on March 31st, 2010.

Please see the MLS site for more info on ghost and to download the application.

Pecha Kucha for Haiti

2010-02-17T08:31:00.003-07:00

In my inbox this morning:

PechaKucha Night Denver Vol. 8 is this Saturday, February 20th, at the Museum of Contemporary Art!

PechaKucha for Haiti
On Saturday February 20th, PechaKucha events will be held all around the world, including Denver, as a fundraiser for Architecture for Humanity to rebuild in Haiti. All the PechaKucha Night cities will be connected by a 24-hour PechaKucha presentation WAVE that will gradually move westward city by city, circumnavigating the globe.

2-4 pm: watch the live stream of the PechaKucha WAVE as it makes its way west towards Denver.

4-6 pm: presentations by Denver architects and designers on the theme of "rebuild."

20 images x 20 seconds, 200 cities, 2,000 presentations, 200,000 people.

Rebuilding a nation 20 seconds at a time.

Saturday, February 20th

MCA Denver / 1485 Delgany Street

Viewing Party 2-4 pm

Denver Event 4-6 pm

Museum admission: 5 cents

Event: please donate $5 / $10 / $20

All donations go to Architecture for Humanity

Cash bar

The global press release follows below.

Please forward this on to your friends and colleagues in the Denver area, and we hope to see you there!

Thanks,

PechaKucha Night Denver team

20x20@pkndenver.com

www.pkndenver.com

the third and the seventh

2010-01-11T08:11:00.021-07:00

after a much longer break from taow than anticipated, here is a post, we believe, worthy of starting out 2010. linked to this amazingly beautiful film via our [big] little brother, the third and the seventh, by spanish filmmaker Alex Roman.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

the description of the film is simply this:

a full CG piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already built spaces.
sometimes in an abstract way. sometimes surreal.

watch the video again...in full screen. did you say this is completely CGI? as in no real life footage?? evidently there are a few bits of real time footage in here: sky backgrounds, pigeons flying, the wandering photographer character, time-lapse plants and the airplane flying overhead. but they are a very small fraction of the work that has been put into the final product.

usually, taow are champions of the real, the textural, the sensual nature of experiencing life. but this is something else. this is a visual feast of gluttony on poetic images. but how does that explain why are we are so drawn to it then?

maybe it is the hyper-reality rendering style, or maybe it is the exceptional pieces of architecture that were chosen to be rendered: kahn's exeter library, mies' barcelona pavilion, calatrava's milwaukee art museum, ando's chikatsu-asuka historical museum, among many others. or maybe it is the touch of sur-reality near the end, or maybe it is the chance that this could be real, or we desperately want it to be real...

the soundtrack helps immensely, and some of you will recognize part of the score from the film GATTACA [also a favorite]. alex has also posted some screen capture videos of creating the exeter library 3d model and you can see it here:

Exeter Shot -- Making Of from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

where this film seems to succeed the most is through its completely immersible quality. the successive combinations of various view compositions and scene transitions mimic the way your eye travels through out a space. more random, sporadic--first a close-up detail view follows a wide angle shot of the entire space, which then changes depth of field focus. this is more accurate to the way humans experience space, not by a single tracking "fly-through" around or inside a building.

maybe if this is how all architects could present all their work...there would be a larger emphasis on quality of craft and construction.

good wishes for 2010.

props to devin for the killer link!

*UPDATE: we were pointed to an interview with Alex Roman [aka Jorge Seva] on his animation project here.

________________________________________________

happy holidays

2009-12-14T10:39:00.003-07:00

bitterly cold morning [-10 degrees F]

frost screen texture #1

frost screen texture #2

on books

2009-11-11T08:35:00.009-07:00

in my inbox today:

[click to enlarge]

despite closing their doors for good in chicago, prairie avenue bookshop is holding an auction for items in their rare architectural book collection. we are somewhat of an architectural book collector ourselves, and even though the prices on these books may be way out of reach the list list is still intriguing to peruse. some selections include works by edward lutyens, charles garnier, walter gropius & frank lloyd wright. browse through the entire catalogue here. the prairie avenue lot starts on page 37.

but the auction is a bittersweet event--a reminder that one of the most influential and well known architectural book stores will unfortunately join the ranks of many other institutions that have been affected by not only the down turning economy, but also the shift towards the internet being the chosen method of buying goods. this will not turn into a rant, but is meant to be merely a lament for the experience that browsing, selecting and reading books offers to our cultural existence. consumerism aside [overindulged expenditure], a society's values can be measured by the quality of their creations--our built environment included. architect david chipperfield said it best recently when asked about the state of british architectural values [which could also be said about the usa]:

“Simple,” he says. “Britain gets the architecture it deserves. We don’t value architecture, we don’t take it seriously, we don’t want to pay for it and the architect isn’t trusted... We are a country that values money and individualism. Architecture becomes glorified property development, not valued culture. Ten storeys? Try for 20. Squeeze in more bedrooms. That’s British architecture." - via architectureweek.com

this attitude could be applied to many different aspects of our culture [including books]: expediency over thoughtfulness, convenience over tactile experience. given our nomadic way of life, this not surprising. some will also argue that reading a book on your iPhone saves trees from being made into books. to us, this sounds more like tunnel vision. trees are a renewable resource and can be replaced if handled responsibly [it's not about the delivery, it's all about the approach]. the physicality and weight of a good book can offer new emotional, physical & intellectual connections to our environment and society. it is a [semi] permanent snapshot of our society's discoveries and interests, whether it be the twilight series or research on stem cells.

of course there are many degrees of value, and we are not promoting the death of digital book reading in any way. we just want to keep the choice of "the book" alive...

------------------------------------------------------

clyfford still museum: trimmed but still a 'go'

2009-11-04T11:34:00.011-07:00

from today's denver post article.

After a recession-induced delay of about nine months, groundbreaking for the $29 million Clyfford Still Museum has been set for Dec. 14.

Museum leaders decided not to move ahead with the building's construction until they had raised $25 million — a little more than 85 percent of the funded project's total design and construction budget.

The museum's design, by Portland, Ore., architect Brad Cloepfil, has undergone minor modifications since it was unveiled in March 2008 (it has dropped from 31,500 square feet to 30,000), but its low-lying, rectilinear look remains essentially unchanged.

hallow's eve; old man winter visits early

2009-11-04T08:38:00.003-07:00

a warm halloween

1 day before it looked like this...

hints of winter; table complete

2009-10-23T15:58:00.003-06:00

prairie avenue bookshop closes in chicago

2009-10-15T14:08:00.010-06:00

Some sad news today, as this was one of our own favorite architectural bookstores:

We have closed the doors of THE PRAIRIE AVENUE BOOKSHOP after a glorious era in the history of architecture. The Bookshop is a proud accomplishment and made many other things possible.

We published a magazine on a seminal movement, THE PRAIRIE SCHOOL REVIEW, which defined a period in Midwestern architectural history, published books on Sullivan, Wright and Griffin, wrote a Student Guide leveling the playing field for students in Idaho, wrote a history of the 19C leap of Chicago to the forefront of world architecture, and opened this mecca ("the best architectural bookshop in the world", LONDON FINANCIAL TIMES) for architects from all over the world. All this while Bill was planning and supervising the restoration of Wright's Dana House and Sullivan's Cedar Rapids Bank, among others. The master plan for the Robie House with Getty funding was also part of the mix with too many others to list.

Granted we rode a revival in preservation and historical studies, and a publishing revolution as well: facsimile printing and President Johnson's junior college program in the 60's, the duotone and color technology by the Italians and Japanese in the 60's and 70's, instantaneous ordering by fax and then by the web, the photolithography process for printing THE PRAIRIE SCHOOL REVIEW in the 60's, and self publishing on the computer, all while several new movements in design came to the fore. Why, a couple of my Prairie Avenue Bookshop catalogs with contemporary architectural bibliography were even offered online in England for 15 pounds.

Then of course came the debacle of Amazon and its destruction of 1000's of independent bookstores and the Senate Committee disallowing sales tax on the internet sales which punished brick and mortar businesses, ours included, (which in turn hikes your state's budget shortfalls and local real estate taxes). The unnoticed present and future destruction of publishers is in progress. And critical editing in general will disappear as foretold in the Graham Foundation's seminar several years ago. In Chicago, Cook County's 10.25% sales tax was the final nail in the coffin.

But that's another story.

Bill's book THE CHICAGO ARCHITECTURAL CLUB, Prelude to the Modern, chronicles the change in architectural historiography itself: a club, letters, drawings, blueprints, magazines documenting ideas and design, as opposed to the 20C telephone, e-mail in lieu of letters, the death of magazines, and CAD--the death of drawing. Such a book will not be written on 20C architecture. No one writes or keeps that kind of record today. Alas!! Artistic works such as Sullivan's A SYSTEM OF ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENT and Wright's WASMUTH PORTFOLIO will not be produced. We donated a "carload" of documentation from THE PRAIRIE SCHOOL REVIEW and later nineteen boxes of research (including too many drafts) for the CAC book to the Art Institute of Chicago, which in turn has skipped nearly all of the 20C of Chicago architecture and cuts Jack Brown's Ryerson /Burnham Library budget first in every financial crisis. Should records we donated be catalogued, at least historians in the future can see how it was done.

But--it's been a great ride. We enjoyed talking for 48 years to visiting architects, architectural historians, architectural critics, students and architectural buffs. We will miss you all, and especially our incredibly loyal staff, particularly Beth, Karl and Emily, known to all of you, who stayed with us to the end.

Now it's time to retire. Marilyn's two new knees and Bill's ubiquitous cane spell the end of exciting professional lives. Bill will be finishing his new book on Dwight Perkins--the man he considers the third in the triumvirate of turn-of-the-century architects, Sullivan, Wright and Perkins--and Marilyn is delving into literary criticism again.

Thank you for your conversations and support.

Marilyn & Bill Hasbrouck

Prairie Avenue Bookshop

Pecha Kucha Night Denver: Volume VII

2009-10-12T09:10:00.005-06:00

In my box this morning:

Tuesday, October 20, will be Denver's 7th volume of PechaKucha Night!

Ten local architects, designers and artists will share their creative projects, each showing 20 images timed for 20 seconds each. Volume 7 includes a line-up of incredible presenters with diverse topics; from alley houses to robots, cocktails to dive bars, come to be entertained and inspired by the creative talent in our city. More information about the event is on our website: www.pkndenver.com

PKND7 | 10/20 at 20:20

Buntport Theater

717 Lipan Street, Denver, CO

Doors open at 8, show starts at 8:20

FREE or a suggested $5 donation

Reserve yourself a seat! Chairs are limited; floor and standing room is available the day of the show.

We'll start leaking the presenter line-up on twitter this week: www.twitter.com/PechaKucha_DEN

We hope that you can come! Please forward this email and the attached flier to family, friends, and colleagues. If you have any questions let us know.

Your hosts,

PechaKucha Night Denver team

+ Buntport Theater

+ Art Directors Club of Denver

PechaKucha FAQ:

What is PechaKucha Night? check out the PKN global website: www.pecha-kucha.org

What's it doing in Denver? www.pkndenver.com

Who has presented in the past? we name-drop for each volume here: www.pkndenver.com

What about online social networking? totally: flickr / twitter / facebook

Can I reserve a seat? yes, otherwise floor and standing room is available. www.buntport.com/reservations

PechaKucha Night was conceived by Klein Dytham architecture as a place for architects, designers and artists to share their creative work easily, informally, and succinctly. Each presenter shows 20 images of their work timed for 20 seconds each, adding up to 6 minutes and 40 seconds of fame before the next person takes the stage. The phenomenon of PechaKucha, which is Japanese for the sound of conversation, has spread virally to 246 cities around the world since its inception in Tokyo in 2003.

_____________________________________________________________

Rodinný dům - ateliér [Family house Kojetin]

2009-10-08T10:33:00.016-06:00

Family House Kojetin - photo by: Studio TOAST

stumbling onto this czech architecture newsletter site...

archiweb.cz

...has been one of the best sources of architectural reference that we have found in years. granted most of the site is in the czech language, but that is besides the point and nothing a little free translation can't take care of...

modern intervention shares a common roof - photo by: Studio TOAST

this particular project immediately caught our attention, due to it's unique site and existing conditions. after breaking some language barriers, we can gather that this residence is located near the eastern border of the czech republic, about 35 kilometers from slovakia. the pre-existing conditions included working around the ruins of an old sandstone barn, first erected in 1862 perched at the top of a rolling hill.

building site context - photo by: Studio TOAST

ruins of a sandstone barn from 1862 - photo by: Studio TOAST

KAMIL MRVA ARCHITECTS were responsible for delicately inserting a modern box within the confines of the barn ruins. the description notes the main design elements were a summer sitting porch, light framed roof, and floor to ceiling glass to allow for the uninterrupted view of the countryside.

archaic exterior shell; modern interior amenities - photo by: Studio TOAST

new interior space - photo by: Studio TOAST

exterior stone walls anchor the interior spaces - photo by: Studio TOAST

experiencing the sun deck - photo by: Studio TOAST

in order to retain the character and function of the existing stone pillars, they were given shape and capped with a concrete lintel, and served as structural bearing points for the new shed roof. once a protective shell now becomes an irregular colonnade which helps frame views and ambiguously define the out door terrace.

a well laid plan--drawing by: kamil mrva architects

exterior elevations--drawing by: kamil mrva architects

like a rural interpretation of the defunct downtown warehouse transformed into lofts [re: lodo denver], this obsolete building program has been given new life.

_________________________________________________

build llc: the modern list

2009-10-05T16:46:00.003-06:00

a recent blog post called "the modern list: colorado" from some guys we really admire [build llc] has gotten our attention after their somewhat whirlwind tour of this great state.

on behalf of everyone here, let me say to the BUILD BLOG guys we were happy to have you!

2009-10-01T14:10:00.001-06:00

at the top of Independence pass at sunset

golden aspens