2009 AIA Young Architects Award

2009 AIA Young Architects Award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the profession early in their careers. Architects who have been licensed 10 years or fewer, regardless of their age, are eligible.

Following is the list of the winners.

Matthew Bremer, AIA

Nominated by the AIA New York Chapter, Matthew Bremer is a recipient of that chapter’s New Practices Award. In addition, he founded and co-chairs the chapter’s New Practices Committee and sits on the chapter’s Oculus Committee. “Matthew Bremer is a young architect who combines recognized and celebrated talent with a willingness to support the profession and provide mentorship for others,” writes Mark E. Strauss, FAIA, a senior partner at FXFOWLE. Letters of support from Bremer also called out his attention to detail and design talent.

Angela Brooks, AIA

A principal with Pugh + Scarpa and cofounder of the nonprofit Livable Places, Angela Brooks is devoted to creating “long-lasting, enduring, and beautiful spaces for both our residents and the neighborhoods in which we work,” writes Joan Ling, executive director of the Community Corporation of Santa Monica. Brooks has been involved with projects that have received seven national AIA awards and more than 25 other AIA design awards. Those projects include the Colorado Court affordable apartments and the Solar Umbrella home. “I believe Angela has the ability to lead the profession in the direction of a new paradigm: combining design, sustainability, and social concern,” writes David Baker, FAIA.

Matthew Kreilich, AIA

From his studio days at the University of Minnesota, Matthew Kreilich has been recognized as an outstanding, holistic designer. He is also noted for his pro bono work for the Tony Award-winning Theatre de la Jeune Lune, renovating its lobby beautifully on a shoestring budget. Theater Director Steve Richardson writes that working “with an artist both terrifically talented and fiscally responsible” was a great experience for the client. Julie Snow, FAIA—principal at Julie Snow Architects, where Kreilich works—adds that Kreilich has demonstrated his “design voice,” along with his knowledge of construction and how architecture operates in the world.

Haril Pandya, AIA

A superior project manager/designer at CBT, Haril Pandya is also very active in the AIA, being a driving force behind the creation of the Boston Society of Architect’ first Young Professionals Advisory Council. He also has been active in community outreach: Pandya has worked with Habitat for Humanity in Boston, designing an affordable, sustainable prototype and managing its construction, in addition to doing other pro bono work that extends overseas. Working with the Blackstone Group, a large developer, Pandya has overseen more than $100 million in design and construction projects. “He masterfully brings people together, both young and experienced, to form a team to tackle each of our assignments,” writes Richard Bertman, FAIA, and Charles Tseckares, FAIA. Pandya also has used his talents in music and filmmaking to market for CBT and its clients.

Jinhee Park, AIA

Jinhee Park and the firm she co-founded—Single Speed Design—are widely published, including being awarded the first Metropolis Next Generation Prize. “Park is among those few uncommon young architects whose contributions and skills will shape our profession for decades to come,” writes Diane Georgopulos, FAIA, on behalf of the Boston Society of Architects nomination. The firm’s Big Dig House (2006), in Massachusetts, drew particular acclaim from Susan S. Szenasy, Metropolis editor in chief. “Their project, recycling the remnants of Boston’s Big Dig into beautiful housing, so impressed the judges that the proposal, happily, came to represent the high standards we have since then put on our awards program,” Szenasy writes.

Camilo Parra, AIA

Recognized widely in Houston as a designer and builder of upscale and affordable townhouse developments, Camilo Parra also conducts a studio at a design school and volunteers in his community. “One of the unique things about Camilo is that he not only has his own practice, but develops his own projects; last year alone Parra Design Group developed 70 housing units,” points out Brian M. Malarkey, AIA, president of the AIA Houston chapter. Parra is a member of the Houston Minority Business Council and the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. As such, he “serves as an outstanding role model for the students at our historically black university,” adds Ikhlas Sabouni, dean of the Prairie View A&M University School of Architecture.

Tania Salgado, AIA

A design principal with RNL, Tania Salgado has a refined acumen for process and research as precedents to high-quality design. “She has truly excelled in every aspect of professional practice,” writes RNL President Richard L. von Luhrte, FAIA, “from design through client development, practice management, and community service.” In addition to volunteer work with numerous Denver nonprofits, Salgado is an active leader in the AIA at the local and state levels. Currently, she serves as AIA Denver president-elect. Mary Morissette, AIA, the AIA Colorado 2009 President-elect writes: “While Tania has attained a highly impressive list of credentials and accolades in her career, I believe her most influential contributions lie in the future.”

Michael W. Schellin, AIA

Michael Schellin “is a very talented young practitioner who is positioning himself for leadership both as a firm principal and member of AIA,” writes James W. O’Brien, FAIA, in his nomination. In addition to his committee work with AIA Minnesota, Schellin is his region’s liaison with the national Young Architects Forum. “Mike’s commitment to the profession, as well as his involvement in AIA at the local and national levels, make him a person to watch in the future,” writes Greenway Group Chair James P. Cramer, Hon. AIA.

library and learning centre by zaha hadid architects

Zaha Hadid Architects won the competition of designing a library and learning centre for the University of Economics & Business in Vienna, Austria.

2009 Driehaus Prize

The 2009 winner of the Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture is Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil. Most of El-Wakil's work has been in the Middle East. Early in his career he worked with the legendary Hassan Fathy for five years. During the 1970s and '80s, he completed more than 15 mosques in Saudi Arabia using traditional masonry construction techniques. From 1991 to 2001, El-Wakil maintained an office in Miami, where he taught at the University of Miami. Since 2001, the architect has divided his time among various Middle Eastern capitals.

MAD Tianjin project - Sinosteel International Plaza

Sinosteel International Plaza designed by the young dynamic architectural firm - MAD now is under construction.

zaragoza bridge pavilion

The Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion by Zaha Hadid Architects in Zaragoza, Spain.

The Strata Tower by Asymptote

Strata Tower, a forty-story, luxury residential building designed by New York-based architects Asymptote in Abu Dhabi, UAE.






Principal Architects: Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture
Structural and MEP Engineer: ARUP, New York
Façade Consultant: Front Inc., New York
Building Information Modeling (BIM) Consultant: Gehry Technologies, Los Angeles & New York
Environmental Designers: Atelier Ten, New York & London

2008 Pritzker Prize_Jean Nouvel

Architect Jean Nouvel of Paris, France has been selected as the 2008 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and will receive the bronze medallion and $100,000 grant in a ceremony on June 2, 2008, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Members of the jury that selected Nouvel described his career as one of courageously pursuing new ideas and challenging accepted norms to stretch the boundaries of architecture. They cited his abundant "persistance, imagination, exuberance, and above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation."

Jean Nouvel (born 12 August 1945) is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of Mars 1976 and Syndicat de l'Architecture. He has obtained a number of prestigious distinctions over the course of his career, including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (technically, the prize was awarded for the Institut du Monde Arabe which Nouvel designed), the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2005. A number of museums and architectural centres have presented retrospectives of his work.

Foster 's Abu Dhabi World Trade Center

Architects Foster + Partners have launched their design for Abu Dhabi World Trade Center, part of the Al Raha Beach development in Abu Dhabi.

The design strategy is a highly specific response to the climate and topography of this dramatic coastal site and the building has evolved through a process of sophisticated environmental computer analysis. The resulting scheme provides shade while also admitting light; is cooled by a natural flow of air but is buffered against the strong desert wind; is asymmetrical and sculptural yet is environmentally and functionally coherent.


The Abu Dhabi World Trade Center is a multi-use building that brings together offices, apartments, a hotel and shops to encourage a constant pattern of economic and social activity throughout the day.

The form of the building is rooted in a sustainable environmental strategy that relies on a series of passive controls. To the south, the building is indented to reduce the external area most vulnerable to direct sunlight. The services and circulation cores occupy most of the remaining exposed areas. At ground level, the overhang of the roof creates a shaded walkway that wraps around the building, and the roof is streamlined according to the prevailing winds to encourage cooling air currents around and through the building.

The project is due to start on site this summer.

40 Bond - Herzog and de Meuron

"It should be the art of living"
40 Bond was designed by Herzog and de Meuron. New York is enjoying an architectural boom, with new projects in development from a who’s who of the world’s most notable architects, but none are as eagerly anticipated as 40 Bond Street from Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Basel, Switzerland.









Photo by Iwan Baan

Foster + Partners_The supertall Index of Dubai

A mixed-use skyscraper designed by Foster + Partners currently under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The supertall will be 328 meters (1,076 feet) tall and have 80 floors. Of those 80 floors, the lower 25 will be offices and 47 will be for residential use, including the world's highest apartment for a time when construction ends in 2008.


The tower is oriented in such a way that the eastern and western concrete cores shelter the floors from the harsh, desert sun and the climatic effects of the area.


The south-facing facade will utilize extensive sun shades to lower solar gain. A double height sky lobby will separate the offices and apartments; recreational facilities like a swimming pool, gym, and restaurants will be located on the sky lobby.

Zaha Hadid's Nordpark Cable Railway

Nordpark Cable Railway Stations,Inssbruck,Austria..designed by Zaha Hadid.

“The railway reflects the city’s continued commitment to the highest standards of architecture and pushes the boundaries of design and construction technology. These stations are the global benchmark for the use of double-curvature glass in construction.”
Zaha Hadid







“Each station has its own unique context, topography, altitude, and circulation. We studied natural phenomena such as glacial moraines and ice movements - as we wanted each station to use the fluid language of natural ice formations, like a frozen stream on the mountainside.”

AIA 2008 Young Architects Award

AIA announced the ten recipients of the 2008 AIA Young Architects Award.The Young Architects Award will be presented to the recipients at the AIA 2008 National Convention and Design Exposition in Boston in May.
Victoria Beach, AIA
In 1995, Victoria Beach was an essential component to what is now the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s first ethics course, which is now required for all architecture students. In 1998, Beach began her affiliation with the Center for Ethics and the Professions at Harvard, where she became a member of the International Ethics Forum. In 1999, Beach became the first and only architect ever admitted into Fellowship at the Center for Ethics and the Professions. Beach published a 30-page exposé on the treatment of interns as well as having established her own nonprofit organization, Design Foundations, to restore the dignity and productivity of the internship experience through community service. Design Foundations has since donated more than a quarter million dollars worth of design services to underserved communities and was chosen as an example of ethical practice in the upcoming AIA 150th anniversary book: Celebrating the Past, Designing the Future.

David Gamble, AIA, LEED-AP
David Gamble holds a BArch from Kent State University and a MArch in urban design. Gamble has done extensive work abroad as well as having served as a full-time assistant professor at Syracuse University, where he taught design and drawing from 1997 to 2001. At Syracuse, Gamble founded the interdisciplinary Community Design Center (CDC). In 2003, Gamble was awarded the Western European Architecture Foundation’s Gabriel Prize, a grant for the study of architecture and urbanism in Paris. Now a senior associate at Chan Krieger Sieniewicz in Cambridge, Mass, Gamble has led urban design projects throughout the United States. He served as project architect for the award winning General Aviation Facility, recently completed at Boston’s Logan International Airport. In addition, Gamble is currently a part-time design instructor at Northeastern University’s School of Architecture in Boston. He also serves as a member of the board of directors of the newly established Community Design Resource Center-Boston and is an active member of the Boston Society of Architects Urban Design Committee.

Emily A. Grandstaff-Rice, AIA
Emily Grandstaff-Rice, an architect with Cambridge Seven Associates Inc., has shown exceptional leadership in her commitment to design and construction through projects such as the Boston Children’s Museum and Liberty Hotel. Her commitment to education is demonstrated through her volunteer work with children and activities with the AIA Young Architects Forum (YAF), Continuing Education Quality Assurance Panel, and her firm’s AIA/CES program. She is involved in two unique projects within the AIA: the YAF 150 at 150 Project featuring podcasts of Fellows discussing mentoring and their career choices and the CEQAP Knowledge Communities Subject Matter Planning project to integrate AIA knowledge within a curriculum format to allow members to choose better paths for continuing education. She also teaches at the Boston Architectural College. In 2003-2004, she participated in the BSA Young Designers Professional Development Institute, which was awarded, through Grandstaff- Rice’s successful nomination, the 2004 YAF/NAC Emerging Professionals Program of the Year.

Kelly Hayes-McAlonie, AIA, MRAIC, LEED-AP
Kelly Hayes McAlonie an associate vice president with Cannon Design, has dedicated her career to design for education and improving learning environments. Upon graduation from the Technical University of Nova Scotia (now Dalhousie University), Hayes-McAlonie joined Leathers & Associates where she planned and designed more than 100 learning gardens for clients throughout the United States and abroad and co-authored a multidisciplinary architecture curriculum for grade-school children. Hayes-McAlonie joined Cannon Design’s Education practice in 1998 as a planner for pre-K-12 and higher education clients. One of her projects, the Montante Cultural Center, received an AIA Honor Award for Interior Architecture. Hayes-McAlonie also was instrumental in the development of Cannon Design Academy, a professional development program. Hayes-McAlonie has become a champion of the legacy of Louise Bethune, FAIA, the nation’s first woman registered architect, and through Hayes-McAlonie’s efforts, Bethune was inducted into the Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame. She was named as one of Business First of Buffalo, Forty Under 40, and is a member of Leadership Buffalo Class of 2007.

Grace H. Kim, AIA
Grace Kim is a co-founding principal of Schemata Workshop, an architectural collaborative in Seattle where she authored the book The Survival Guide to Architectural Internship and Career Development. During her early career, she was an active participant in AIA Chicago’s Young Architects Committee and has since been involved nationally on issues related to internship and mentorship. Her participation in the 1999 Summit on Architectural Internship resulted in her appointment to the Collateral Internship Task Force as a representative for Emerging Professionals. In 2006, Kim was appointed as a member-at-large on the inaugural national Board Community Committee, through which she spearheaded an initiative called “Welcome to the Profession”—a program to welcome graduates into the architecture profession. Kim also serves on the AIA Mentorship Task Group, through which she developed unique methods of fostering mentorships. For the past seven years, Kim also has served as a session presenter at Expanding Your Horizons, a conference for junior high and high school girls to foster an interest for professions in the math and science field.

Samuel Lasky, AIA
Samuel Lasky, a senior associate with William Rawn Associates (WRA), Architects Inc., Boston, graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1997. He started work with WRA in January of 1998 and was assigned to help refine and detail the facades of the first building being built as part of Northeastern University’s new West Campus residential precinct. After detailing three of the project’s glass towers, the largest expanse of curtain wall WRA had ever designed, he became the office’s de facto curtain wall expert and had the right experience to serve as project architect for the largest building designed by WRA to date: the 400,000-square-foot W Hotel and Residences under construction in the heart of Boston’s Theater District, where he leads a team of 20 people. He also is working on the College of Computer and Information Science & Residence Hall at Northeastern University, a mixed-use residential and academic building. This project was awarded the Boston Society of Architect’s Harleston Parker Medal for the “most beautiful building in Boston.” Before starting with WRA, Lasky had taught in Harvard’s Career Discovery program and at the Boston Architectural Center, and subsequently taught at the GSD.

Michael J. Meehan, AIA
Michael Meehan, the 2007 chair of the Young Architects Forum (YAF) Advisory Committee, has focused on validating and redefining the mission of the committee. In practice, he is the professional development manager at BWBR Architects in Saint Paul. In 1997, Meehan became co-chair of the AIA Minnesota Intern Development Program Committee. While working with the IDP Committee, Meehan began teaching ARE review seminars for AIA Minnesota. In 2006 Meehan served as co-chair of the YAF and also began his rotation as a member of the AIA/AGC Joint Committee. As YAF chair, Meehan focused on activities that included the YAF 15 Summit (in recognition of the committee’s 15th anniversary) and creation of a 10-year strategic plan. Meehan recently worked with the Hazelden Foundation as project architect and project manager on their new Women’s Recovery Center in Center City, Minn. Architecturally, Meehan’s projects reflect his passion for buildings and clients that contribute to society and the built environment. Meehan sits on the board of directors of a civic group formed in 2006 within his historic neighborhood of Northfield and is also a member of the Northfield Zoning Code Advisory Group.

David Montalba, AIA
David Montalba’s work, often executed in tandem with local builders and artisans, has garnered numerous design awards including several from the AIA Los Angeles. Born in Florence, Italy, and raised in both Switzerland and California, Montalba earned his BArch at SciARC and a MArch at UCLA. He then worked for a number of architects in the LA area, including Frank Gehry and Pugh + Scarpa, before creating Montalba Architects Inc. in 2004. Montalba has been actively involved in local, regional, and international architecture communities as a member of the boards of AIA Los Angeles, Swiss Institute for Architects, Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects and AIA Europe and also as a board member of the Architecture & Design Museum Los Angeles. He currently serves as treasurer of the LA/AIA and serves as a past as co-chair and advisor to the LA/AIA Academic Outreach Committee. He has also been largely responsible for raising nearly $100,000 for student scholarships on behalf of the AIA. For the last several years, David has organized the highly visible LA/AIA annual 2x8 exhibit, bringing together the schools in an annual exhibit of work.

Robert Pasersky, AIA
In February 2006, after closely following news reports of how 10 churches in rural Alabama were destroyed by arson, Robert Pasersky, a native of Atlanta, felt an ineffable need to volunteer his services, pro bono, to help the victims get their places of worship rebuilt. Two took him up on his offer, and, as a framework through which to offer pro-bono design services to both churches, as well as other projects, he established Open House Works. To define its commitment better, his company joined the 1%, a program of Public Architecture through which design professionals pledge a percentage of their time to working pro bono for their community. Pasersky earned his BArch from Tulane University where he received the F.W. Lawrence Memorial Medal for design excellence upon graduation. He earned his MArch from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Pasersky joined Payette in 1999 and was named an associate of the firm in 2002. Pasersky also has taught advanced studio and has served as a thesis advisor at Boston Architectural College since 1998. In 2000, Pasersky earned a certificate of achievement from the Boston Society of Architects Young Designers Professional Development Institute.

Tim Schroeder, AIA
Graduating cum laude from Iowa State University in 1994, Tim Schoeder received the Kocimski Award, the highest award available to graduating architecture students. Schroeder, in 2000 at age 30, became a vice president of Neumann Monson Architects and has led many of the firm's design and sustainability endeavors. An outstanding designer, his work has been honored by the AIA and other organizations and environmental groups at the local, state, and regional level. He created Iowa’s first green roof project, the first LEED-certified school, the first LEED-certified public building and was the recipient of AIA Iowa’s first Sustainability Award. Schroeder also served on the Iowa Architectural Foundation Board and the editorial board for the award-winning Iowa Architect magazine, for which he recently became editor-in-chief. He also serves as a guest lecturer for his alma mater and leads building tours on behalf of the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Architects Council. His recent community-oriented service activities include the Hickory Hill Park prairie restoration, the City of Coralville’s Iowa River Landing wetland restoration and planting, and the Iowa City tornado clean-up.

OMA in Singapore

OMA's first project in Singapore is a 36-storey residential tower for the Far East Organization, Singapore’s largest private development company. The tower was designed by OMA Partner Ole Scheeren.


This year OMA has announced it's second project, a large residential complex containing over 1,000 apartments, in Singapore. It is commissioned by CapitaLand Residential, a leading developer in Asia.

Zaha Hadid design the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan

Zaha Hadid, known for bold, unconventional forms, was selected in a competition for the design of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. The other finalists were Morphosis of Santa Monica, Calif.; Coop Himmelb(l)au of Vienna and Los Angeles; Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects of New York; and Randall Stout Architects of Los Angeles.


The museum, which is expected to open in 2010, will be Ms. Hadid’s first university building and only her second project in the United States, after the 2003 Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati.


The museum will be the new home of the university’s art collection, which is currently housed on campus in the Kresge Art Center. The center, part of the university’s College of Arts and Letters, will continue to hold the art and art history department and provide classroom, studio and exhibition spaces.

Designed to last: Richard Rogers

From Timeonline/Tom Dyckhoff
At 74, Richard Rogers is as busy as ever shaping the future. Slippers are not an option.
And before you ask, no, I’m not going to retire.” You can forgive the preemptive strike. Richard Rogers, Lord Rogers of Riverside to give him the grand title he rarely uses, has fielded a lot of questions about the “r” word lately. The young Turk who gave the world those once futuristic, still shocking buildings with their guts hanging out – Paris’s Pompidou Centre, London’s Lloyd’s Building – nowadays, at 74, looks like nothing more radical than your favourite grandpa, the one with the twinkly eyes and endearingly rambling tales about the war – the war against the Prince of Wales, architectural conservatism and cities gone to the dogs.

He’s reached “that retrospective time of life” – later this month a massive exhibition of his life’s work opens at the Pompidou, marking the building’s 30th birthday – so “they expect you to pop off at any minute”. Rumours mounted after a remarkable year so backed up with plaudits – the Stirling Prize last autumn for his Madrid airport, the Pritzker Prize, and the Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion, for starters – you half-wondered if the juries had got wind of his imminent demise. Final proof? Last year, the name of the firm he established 29 years ago, Richard Rogers Partnership, was changed to Rogers, Stirk, Harbour and Partners, to honour the next generation of young Turks – Ivan Harbour and Graham Stirk – increasingly taking the reins. Slippers and cocoa seemed certain. “Can you imagine?” he breaks out into one of his guffaws, as if the very idea was the most ridiculous thing in the world. “Which it is.” That’ll be a no then. “

I enjoy life too much,” he says. And Rogers really does seem to have a lovely life. His place in history is guaranteed by the Pompidou and Lloyd’s. He still has fulfilling work – more than ever, with Heathrow’s Terminal 5 opening next spring, a City skyscraper, Leadenhall Building, in the offing, and his largest building to date, the Javits Centre in Manhattan, on the drawing board. It’s a buzz of activity in an office which, a few years previously, seemed in hiatus compared with that of his friend and eternal rival, Norman Foster.

His treasured roles as Ken Livingstone’s adviser and Labour peer mean he is still hard-wired into politics, taken seriously. There’s the big artsy family: still on good terms with his first wife Su, five sons all in influential, creative, fulfilling jobs (one, Abe, has designed the exhibition). There’s the lovely office by the Thames in Hammersmith, filled with 180 reverential staff. And, icing on the cake, there’s having the River Café for your staff canteen just by the front door. The cherry on top? Your wife, Ruthie, runs it! Extra portions of chocolate nemesis all round!

With nearly 50 years of hindsight poured through the exhibition, his life’s work seems less about architecture than selling this Pollyannaish, liberal lifestyle to a mercenary, puritanical world. Born to creative, professional, left-wing Italian parents who escaped fascist Italy for Britain in 1938, his view of life is distinctly Italian – “Where public life and family are entwined,” he says, “as long as I was sitting at the family table everything was OK. I was very affected when I was 5, in Florence, and I’d look across the street and see this café, and every morning I saw what I assumed was an accountant, who’d come in, they’d put a table on the pavement, they’d give him a phone, and he’d do his job. And I thought that’s what I want to do. Not to be an accountant, of course. But the idea that you could mix in your lifestyle, your work, your city, your quality of friendship.”

His wish came true. There are few architects who live the worlds they espouse quite so wholeheartedly as Rogers. Foster – with whom he started in business in the early 1960s – may now have the thousand-strong design-factory, but Rogers, you suspect, has the nicer life. Rogers’s high-tech, drenched in old-fashioned modernist optimism for this thing called “society”, has soul and colour, Foster’s has rigour, but no passion. Indeed, once you get past the shock value of his eviscerated buildings, Rogers’s architecture isn’t really about looks at all. He despises the word “style”, instead his buildings – and this is what was so radical about Pompidou – are basically big family tables, public spaces in which people come together arguing, sharing, resolving differences, given form by the life inside. His vision for cities, now applied patchily as government policy, is all about public space, generosity, tolerance.

Not everyone has shared the Rogers vision: the architecturally conservative, for instance will never warm to his Heath Robinson buildings. There are those who quite rightly state that his “guts on the outside” aesthetic was never very practical (he hasn’t used it himself in a while).

Last year his support for Palestine nearly cost him the Javits job in New York. “The office constitution states you have to think before taking on work which is antienvironment, military, and so on. But then people say ‘airports?’ In that case, since an architect alone cannot stop airports being built he should make them as good, as environmentally sound as possible. But it’s a difficult excuse to make. All architecture is political. All work involves debate, compromise. You’re always juggling, questioning yourself.” This is what makes him unique in Britain, where architects, eyes on realising their monuments and plumping the bank balances tend, as far as possible, to eschew politics.

Rogers marched for CND in the 1950s, against Bush in the Noughties. When Margaret Thatcher started dismantling the public realm so dear to him, private politics became professional. The crux came while designing “London as it could be”, highlight of the Royal Academy’s 1986 exhibition, Foster Rogers Stirling, which envisaged London as a Thames-side playground – fantastical at the height of the no-such-thing-as-society era. Thereafter, building took a backseat to campaigning for Britain’s “urban renaissance” through the Reith Lectures, new Labour’s Urban Task Force, battling with John Prescott, and, today, Livingstone. He concedes that he is somewhat on his own: “I do sometimes feel like an eternal refugee.”

When he arrived in 1938, “there was only one espresso machine in London”. Now, he thinks, we’re at last starting on the right road towards civilised life and decent coffee for all. . . Pollyanna again? “There are a lot of big ifs: the distribution of wealth is horrific. But overall, what an evolution – life is a lot better, especially for those of us who are more fortunate. For those who are not, life is tough. But what can an architect do for them?” his voice trails off. “I don’t know... ”

Dear Architects, I am sick of your shit

Thanks to a friend who sent me an open letter by Annie Choi.



Here is for the hard of reading.

Once, a long time ago in the days of yore, I had a friend who was studying architecture to become, presumably, an architect.
This friend introduced me to other friends, who were also studying architecture. Then these friends had other friends who were architects - real architects doing real architecture like designing luxury condos that look a lot like glass dildos. And these real architects knew other real architects and now the only people I know are architects. And they all design glass dildos that I will never work or live in and serve only to obstruct my view of New Jersey.

Do not get me wrong, architects. I like you as a person. I think you are nice, smell good most of the time, and I like your glasses. You have crazy hair, and if you are lucky, most of it is on your head. But I do not care about architecture. It is true. This is what I do care about:

* burritos
* hedgehogs
* coffee

As you can see, architecture is not on the list. I believe that architecture falls somewhere between toenail fungus and invasive colonoscopy in the list of things that interest me.

Perhaps if you didn’t talk about it so much, I would be more interested. When you point to a glass cylinder and say proudly, hey my office designed that, I giggle and say it looks like a bong. You turn your head in disgust and shame. You think, obviously she does not understand. What does she know? She is just a writer. She is no architect. She respects vowels, not glass cocks. And then you say now I am designing a lifestyle center, and I ask what is that, and you say it is a place that offers goods and services and retail opportunities and I say you mean like a mall and you say no. It is a lifestyle center. I say it sounds like a mall. I am from the Valley, bitch. I know malls.

Architects, I will not lie, you confuse me. You work sixty, eighty hours a week and yet you are always poor. Why aren’t you buying me a drink? Where is your bounty of riches? Maybe you spent it on merlot. Maybe you spent it on hookers and blow. I cannot be sure. It is a mystery. I will leave that to the scientists to figure out.

Architects love to discuss how much sleep they have gotten. One will say how he was at the studio until five in the morning, only to return again two hours later. Then another will say, oh that is nothing. I haven’t slept in a week. And then another will say, guess what, I have never slept ever. My dear architects, the measure of how hard you’ve worked and how much you’ve accomplished is not related to the number of hours you have not slept. Have you heard of Rem Koolhaas? He is a famous architect. I know this because you tell me he is a famous architect. I hear that Rem Koolhaas is always sleeping. He is, I presume, sleeping right now. And I hear he gets shit done. And I also hear that in a stunning move, he is making a building that looks not like a glass cock, but like a concrete vagina. When you sleep more, you get vagina. You can all take a lesson from Rem Koolhaas.

Life is hard for me, please understand. Architects are an important part of my existence. They call me at eleven at night and say they just got off work, am I hungry? Listen, it is practically midnight. I ate hours ago. So long ago that, in fact, I am hungry again. So yes, I will go. Then I will go and there will be other architects talking about AutoCAD shortcuts and something about electric panels and can you believe that is all I did today, what a drag. I look around the table at the poor, tired, and hungry, and think to myself, I have but only one bullet left in the gun. Who will I choose?

I have a friend who is a doctor. He gives me drugs. I enjoy them. I have a friend who is a lawyer. He helped me sue my landlord. My architect friends have given me nothing. No drugs, no medical advice, and they don’t know how to spell subpoena. One architect friend figured out that my apartment was one hundred and eighty seven square feet. That was nice. Thanks for that.

I suppose one could ask what someone like me brings to architects like yourselves. I bring cheer. I yell at architects when they start talking about architecture. I force them to discuss far more interesting topics, like turkey eggs. Why do we eat chicken eggs, but not turkey eggs? They are bigger. And people really like turkey. See? I am not afraid to ask the tough questions.

So, dear architects, I will stick around, for only a little while. I hope that one day some of you will become doctors and lawyers or will figure out my taxes. And we will laugh at the days when you spent the entire evening talking about some European you’ve never met who designed a building you will never see because you are too busy working on something that will never get built. But even if that day doesn’t arrive, give me a call anyway, I am free.

Yours truly,
Annie Choi

Richard Meier shows his collection of models

Architectural models are often shoved into back rooms or even relegated to the scrap heap, given that architects don’t necessarily want to show off their rough drafts.

But, like outtakes from a classic film or early versions of a great novel, the models can be more interesting to students and architecture fans than the final product, since they offer a window onto the creative process. In an age of computer renderings, they also give a vivid sense of how a building looks and feels.

So at age 72, the architect Richard Meier has decided to invite the outside world in, giving visitors a chance to sample an array of models from projects spanning his 40-year career. Stored in a bare-bones 3,600-square-foot studio in Long Island City, Queens, the collection ranges from Mr. Meier’s residential houses of the 1960’s to early versions of his J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 1997.

It’s not an elegant space: the lighting is not particularly striking, and the floor is scratched from moving the models this way and that. But Mr. Meier is eager to welcome visitors.

“I realized I should really have people in because it just sits here,” the architect said in a recent interview at the studio. “To have all this and have no one see it is kind of crazy.”

The space, which can be seen by appointment only on Fridays, by no means contains the entirety of Mr. Meier’s work; much of it is still kept at his 10th Avenue office in the West 30s in Manhattan. But there is a substantial sampling — about 300 models. “You see I don’t throw a lot away,” he said.

While Mr. Meier has gained broad attention for projects like the 2003 Jubilee Church on the outskirts of Rome, with its soaring white concrete sails, or his recent boxy glass condominiums along the Hudson River in Manhattan, he is perhaps most closely associated with his sprawling hilltop complex for the Getty in the Santa Monica Mountains.

And it is the Getty that dominates Mr. Meier’s Long Island City studio. Until 1996, the models were kept in Los Angeles, but when the museum needed the space, Mr. Meier had them shipped to a warehouse in Queens. “I didn’t want them to get destroyed,” he said. “There is too much work here to discard them.”

The Getty remains perhaps Mr. Meier’s most ambitious project, with six separate buildings, plazas, an underground parking garage and a tram station on a challengingly steep 110-acre site. Landscaped gardens integrate the structures into the topography.

Immense models of the Getty are on view at the studio — the largest is 18 feet long and 11 feet wide, on wheels and with detachable pieces. “You can get into it more by being able to pull it away and really see into the spaces,” Mr. Meier said. “We had to take the skylight out to get it in here.”

Mounted on the wall is another large model that reflects how the structures were organized along a natural ridge in the hilltop. “You can see the way in which we cut into the earth, as well as building on top of the earth,” Mr. Meier said.

Perhaps most striking is a large-scale gallery mock-up that Mr. Meier had constructed so that people could step inside to experience it — how the sun slanted through the skylight, for example, and whether that natural light landed softly enough on reproduced paintings from the Getty’s collection, pinned to the walls. “We would wheel this into the parking lot and sit in it with curators,” Mr. Meier said.

Over all, the project took 13 years to complete, from 1984 to 1997. When the Getty Center finally opened, Herbert Muschamp, writing in The New York Times, called it “a stupendous new castle of classical beauty.” Some 30,000 people normally visit each week.

Smaller Meier study models focus on specific aspects of the Getty — different versions of skylights, trellises, land contours. You can see how he experimented with the Getty’s auditorium, playing with the seating arrangements and the shape of the ceiling. Shelves hold miniature versions of Mr. Meier’s boxy, modern furniture designs for the Getty — single chairs, double chairs, triple benches.

Among the other buildings represented are Mr. Meier’s first model of the Smith House (1967), a Connecticut residence overlooking Long Island Sound whose private areas are organized on three levels behind an opaque facade with windows. His Hoffman House in East Hampton, N.Y., completed the same year, is a three-dimensional abstraction of interlocking geometries.

And there is his Royal Dutch Paper Mills headquarters in Hilversum, the Netherlands, from 1992, featuring an interior street illuminated by natural light that enters through each side of a winglike roof.

There are also the projects that never got built. Mr. Meier offers glimpses of a 1981 headquarters for Renault outside Paris, and a “Memorial Square” he designed for the former World Trade Center site in Manhattan in collaboration with Eisenman Architects, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates and Steven Holl Architects. Mr. Meier said he was still fond of the design for the square, defined on the east and north with geometric gridlike buildings made of glass, and referred to it as “a lost opportunity.”

On the studio floor are Mr. Meier’s quirky, hulking sculptures, fashioned from the detritus of various architecture projects. Assemble the castoffs, Mr. Meier said, and “it becomes something else.”

But he hasn’t been making them lately. “I have no more room,” he said.

Jean Nouvel to Build Paris Symphony Hall

by Alex Ulam
The French architect's design for the state-of-the-art symphony hall is an "exercise in disharmony"

Paris is one of the world’s cultural capitals, but a key offering is missing from its menu: a state-of-the-art symphony hall. That’s about to change. Earlier this month Jean Nouvel was selected as the winner of an international competition to design the Philharmonie de Paris, a music complex that will be the future home of the Orchestre de Paris.

Slated to open in 2012, the new complex will be located in the Parc de la Villette. In addition to providing a contemporary performance space, the Philharmonie de Paris will be the city’s first full-fledged professional music facility with offices, a library, and space for exhibitions. At its heart is Nouvel’s 2,400-seat concert hall, whose design is an exercise in disharmony. Its aluminum-clad exterior resembles a mass of crumpled metal slabs, while its interior contains bulging, sinuous shapes. The hall features a “vineyard-style” seating arrangement similar to that of Walt Disney Hall, in Los Angeles, where the audience is arrayed on raised terraces surrounding an orchestra platform.

Nouvel’s design was selected from a field of six finalists that included Francis Soler, Christian de Portzamparc, Zaha Hadid, Coop Himme(l)bau, and MRDV. The first phase of the competition drew 98 entries. Interestingly, architects who submitted designs were precluded from participating in the city’s other major architectural competition to design a two-acre superstructure that will be located at the entrance to the enormous underground Les Halles mall and transit center.

“Many of the international architects who wanted to be part of the Les Halles project, were chosen for the (Philharmonie de Paris) competition,” a spokesperson for Paris’s mayor explains. “Because the two of them are quite difficult projects, we had the idea that they wouldn’t have the time necessary to work on both of them at the same time.”

Provided by Architectural Record—The Resource for Architecture and Architects

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