David Basulto

Graduate Architect. Co Founder and Executive Editor of ArchDaily.com. Architecture geek.

AD Interviews: Lawrence Scarpa

Back in June we had the chance to interview in Miami, at the AIA Convention when Pugh + Scarpa Architects received the 2010 AIA Firm Award.

Pugh + Scarpa Architects is known for their ability to consistently design within the top tier of architectural works.  Their success in creating spaces that blend architecture and craft with community involvement capitalizing on in-house talent is one example of why they have been recognized with more than 50 local, state, and national AIA awards, including the 2010 AIA National Firm Award and the 2010 AIA California Firm Award.

The firm has distinguished themselves with place-making architecture providing each of their clients with a building that truly is their own, an organic derived, sustainable, inventive work of art. Pugh + Scarpa Architects design process, whether for public or private use, for rich or for poor, focuses on engaging the user and utilizing common materials in beautiful and extraordinary ways.

Pugh + Scarpa Architects was founded in 1991 by Gwynne Pugh and Lawrence Scarpa, and Angela Brooks became a partner in 2001.  In September partners went in different directions, splitting into two firms: Gwynne Pugh Urban Studio and  Brooks + Scarpa Architects.

Projects previously featured at ArchDaily:

AD Interviews: Hani Rashid, Asymptote Architecture

We visited Asymptote’s new offices in Brooklyn to interview Hani Rashid.

Hani co-founded the firm back in 1989 with Lise Anne Couture, becoming pioneers of the digital revolution. One of their first projects, the NYSE Advanced Trading Floor (2001), explored the relation between virtual and physical worlds starting the debate on the new digital tools in architecture.

Their recent work includes the Yas Marina Hotel (awarded by our readers with the Building of the Year Award 2009, Hotels & Restaurants)  in Abu Dhabi and 166 Perry Street in NY.

Asymptote’s continuing exploration of new forms, building techniques and multi-media has been reflected on several installations and exhibitions, objects, and recent competitions such as the Kaohsiung Port Terminal.

Video: The future of architectural visualization?

Remember Zebra’s holographic sheets we presented you back in February? Well, Zebra Imaging has released new videos that show how this technology can be used for planners/urban designers (as seen on Seattle’s video above), or to get an accurate preview of HVAC.

Price for this sheets? $1,500 for a 12- x 18-inch version to $3,500 for the largest 2- x 3-foot size.

Another video after the break:

ArchDaily on Google Chrome

Our favorite browser is now Google Chrome. It works on every platform here at the office (Mac, Windows, Linux), it’s fast, secure, easy to use, helps you search the web and makes our life easier.

We also developed an extension for Chrome so you can see the latest projects featured at ArchDaily straight on your browser just as you can see on the image above. To install the extension just go to the Google Chrome Extensions link, click the Install button and follow the instructions.

If you want to further customize your Google Chrome, you can try the Michael Graves or Karim Rashid themes designed especially for the browser.

Happy browsing.

Video: Shohei Shigematsu (OMA NY) at U Laval

A great lecture by (partner at OMA, in charge of the NY office) at U Laval in Canada. Shohei talks about architecture in the financial crisis (based on his research of how they have affected architecture in the past, also related to ’s projects in NY), the almost completed Milstein Hall at Cornell and OMA’s winning entry for the MNBAQ extension (skip to 7:00 for the english part).

You can also check our interview with Shohei previously featured at AD.

Office dA coming to an end?

: Nader Tehrani and Monica Ponce de León

Office disputes happen all the time, it’s in our architect’s DNA.

You might have heard about office dA’s ongoing dispute. Sad, as office dA has done such great buildings, such as the awarded Macallan Building, the BanQ restaurant and Helios House, among a long list of projects of which innovation in terms of materials and fabrication are a common thread. I won’t get into much detail, as it’s all covered in the Boston Globe (and Monica Ponce de Leon´s reply on Archinect), and this is not a gossip blog. However, I wanted to share this quote from Nader Tehrani, which highlights the collaboration and fluidity a practice can have:

“Monica and I made presentations to the public that were like Sonny and Cher. When you are able to finish each other’s sentences, there is clearly a collaborative spirit there.”

I recommend you to watch our interview with Nader Tehrani (now head of the architecture department at MIT) to know more about the (soon to disappear?) firm.

The Highline, a new icon

Family Guy, Season 9 Episode 6

On last week’s Family Guy episode the characters go to NY, illustrated by the Highline with the Standard Hotel.

No skyline, no Liberty statue, no Freedom Tower, no Times Squares, no Central Park. The Highline just became an icon. No wonder why many cities are now looking for their own Highline effect.

P.S.1 2011 shortlist

Photo: Steve and Sara via Flickr
Photo: Steve and Sara via Flickr

Since 2000, the MoMA and the have been running a competition under their Young Architects Program, each year inviting a group of emerging architects to experiment with new shapes and materials, resulting in a summer installation at the . Past winners include WORK ac (P.F.1. Public Farm 1), MOS (Afterparty) and SO-IL (Pole Dance). Architects Newspaper recently announced the short list for the 2011 summer installation, which includes Interboro Partners (NY), FormlessFinder (NY), Matter Architecture Practice (NY) MASS Design Group (Boston) and IJP Corporation Architects (London). Matter Architecture practice was already invited to the 2008 competition, which also happened to MOS back in 2007, then winners in 2009. As usual expect a complete coverage here at ArchDaily, we look forward to see all the projects!

Presentation tips for Architects, Part I

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Our profession is all about presentations. It all started at university in the architecture studio, a whole semester had to be condensed into a 10-minute precise presentation in order to get the crits to understand your project, and it continued into professional life as the main tool to communicate with your co-workers, clients, a jury or with other architects in a lecture.

A good presentation could get your project approved, or quickly dismissed if you don’t plan it right. For example, a presentation to a client compared to a presentation for a group of architects is very different, even if the project you need to communicate is the same.

As I usually have to give at least a couple presentations per month, I have always tried to make them worth and not waste other people’s time. A big help for that has been Garr Reynolds, the “Presentation Zen” from which I haven taken some key points of which I will share with you in order to make a good presentation, adapted to our profession.

Tips for an Architect’s website

REX’s website, voted as one of the Top 10 Architect’s websites by our readers.

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Every day we spend quite some time visiting architect’s websites (maybe even yours!) to be up to date with new and ongoing projects.

It’s a very fun part of our job, especially when websites have a good design and usability. However from time to time we stumble upon websites that are very difficult to browse, or present projects in a way that you can’t even understand them.

You know that we as architects have the ability to design “from a spoon to a city”, and a website should be among those things we can (and should) design, especially when it is one of our most important marketing tools. I’m not saying that you should learn HTML and code your own website, but as we know from our work, an informed client is a good client. Therefore, having a good idea on what your website should offer to its visitors can help you relate with the person you hire to maintain it, the same way we love when a client has a clear idea on how they want their building to be… and not asking for a “green roof” just because they read it in some random magazine.

Below you will find a few tips that can help you on this process. I’m very confident that some of you may already know about some of them, and it’d be great if you could share your comments based on your experience.

AD Interviews: Chad Oppenheim

While in Miami for the 2010 AIA Convention we had the chance to visit Chad Oppenheim, founder of Oppenheim Architecture + Design.

The firm specializes in world class hospitality, residential and mixed-use design, with a focus on sustainability. Some of these works include a villa in Dellis Cay for Mandarin Oriental, Villa Allegra, the COR Tower (featured next in AD), Starwood’s DC 1 Hotel in Washington, the Campus Center, the Enea Headquarters and smaller projects suchas the Simpson Park Hammock Pavilion, among several others. Oppenheim’s designs in the Miami area stand out in a developer-driven market.

In the next few days we are going to feature several of his recent projects so you can have a better idea about the firm. Please find the rest of the interview below:

AD Interviews: Michael Graves

While in Chicago earlier this year I had the chance to interview  an amazing architect: Michael Graves.

has played an influential role in architecture, often credited as moving the profession in America from abstract modernism to post-modernism. His designs communicate a clear point of view reflecting a sense of playfulness with sophistication. The balance of traditional elements (typically through arches, columns, and pediments) and exploration with color convey the lessons of modern architecture while referring to historical details.

Michael Graves’s most notable accomplishment may be in his success as a high profile architect and a household name. He teamed up with companies such as Target, Disney, Phillips Electronics, and Black and Decker developing a wide range of products reaching a larger public. In doing so he has required us to evaluate our design sensibility and responsibility, serving both large-scale design and intricate details such as bathroom fixtures, teapots, and dinnerware.

Michael Graves has served as a Professor of Architecture at Princeton University, founder and principal of Michael Graves & Associates, and has been awarded some of the most prestigious awards including the 2001 Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, and the 2010 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education.

Please find the rest of the interview below, including questions on American Architecture and the obsession of chasing green design:

AD Interviews: SO-IL, Solid Objectives Idenburg Liu

During this summer SO-IL (Solid Objectives Idenburg Liu) took the stage.

First, the Brooklyn based firm won the P.S.1 Competition for this summer with Pole Dance, an interactive performing installation. Then a few weeks after we presented you Flockr, the main pavilion for the Get It Louder festival in Beijing.

We had the chance to meet and interview principals Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu at while Pole Dance was open. The interview went great. I highly recommend that you check out their response to our question regarding their experience starting and running a firm, just during the financial crisis.

The firm is currently involved in interesting projects abroad, which we look forward in featuring here at ArchDaily in the future.

Please find the rest of the interview below:

AD Interviews: Steve Dumez / Eskew+Dumez+Ripple

During the AIA convention in Miami we had the chance to interview Steve Dumez, Design Director at Nola-based firm Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, who received his FAIA during the event.

Steve is the “design guru” at EDR, overseeing the design of all projects from concept to construction documents, and according to the firm “his hand sketches in the early phases of design are invaluable”.

Steve, along side partners Allen  Eskew (FAIA) and Mark Ripple (AIA, LEED AP) have been focused their efforts in the NOLA area, not only with their buildings, but also taking part on the initiatives  to rebuild NOLA. Steve is also a Past-President of AIA Louisiana and AIA New Orleans.

EDR’s work portfolio includes projects in varies scales, such as the Prospect.1 Welcome Center (AIA Small Project Award 2010)  or 930 Poydras Residential Tower, a 462,000 sqf project. On the videos below we discuss with Steve about their experience working on such different scales.

Other works by previously featured at AD:

… and more coming soon!

Enjoy the rest of the interview:

Video: Rem Koolhaas, Architecture’s Man of the Year

CNN interview mentioned by Karen on her previous article “Is China Architect’s New Dubai?”.

AD Interviews: Philip Enquist, SOM

When I visited Chicago, I had to visit one of the key actors on shaping a city that breaths architecture, from big part of the skyline to the Millenium Park: SOM.

I have visited before, to interview Craig Hartman at the San Francisco office, but Chicago was were it all started back in 1936 with Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings, and John O. Merrill who joined in 1939.

This time I interviewed (FAIA), the partner in charge of urban design and planning. Philip has been involved in development and redevelopment initiatives for college campuses, existing city neighborhoods, new cities, rural districts, downtown commercial centers, port areas and even in a master-plan for the entire nation of Bahrain.

It was amazing to hear from him on different processes that have been shaping the most important cities in the world, such as Beijing’s Central Business District or the master plan for the Millenium Park. But I was also surprised about a project we presented to you earlier, the vision for the Great Lakes area, a project that shows a lot of responsibility  as an architect and an example that we still have a very important role in our society.

After the break, the usual questions a bonus with what’s a good city, and some photos of the office.

AD Interviews: Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang

At the 2009 AIA Convention in San Francisco I had the chance to attend a panel with Jeanne Gang (principal at Studio Gang Architects) who received her FAIA during the event. I was very impressed by her work, specially her proposal for a housing project in India as well as the Aqua Tower, which was under construction at the time. A year after I had the chance to visit Jeanne at her Studio to conduct this interview.

If you don’t know Jeanne, here’s the short bio: She studied at the University of Illinois where she received her Bachelor of Science in Architecture (honors), and then got her Masters degree (distinction) at the Harvard GSD. After working at (where she participated in projects such as the House), Jeanne founded Studio Gang in 1997, where she is now a principal along with Mark Schendel.

Jeanne has taught architecture as an adjunct associate professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology since 1998. She was visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2004, held the Louis I. Kahn professor chair at the Yale School of Architecture in 2005, and was the Princeton University Graduate Design Studio visiting lecturer in the spring of 2007.

The work from Studio Gang is very broad, from private residences to community facilities, from a small pavilion to a 82-story tower, as you can see on our previous features:

But all of them have follow a clear line: careful attention to the materials, and a constant research leading to innovations in terms of sustainability and fabrication.

The firm has been involved in important international competitions, such as the Taipei Pop Center competition, where the firm received 2nd place. An interesting project, with a high level of development.

In the interview we talked about the importance of the Aqua Tower, an honor and a challenge for any Chicago architect, the home of the skyscraper.

Please find the rest of the interview below, with some photos of my visit to Studio Gang, a cool workspace with a very nice garden and common spaces, and some sneak peaks at the Great Wall, Solstice at the Park and Lincoln Park Zoo Pavilions projects which we will soon feature at ArchDaily.

Video: Jardin El Porvenir / Giancarlo Mazzanti by Cristobal Palma

Architecture photographer Cristobal Palma shared with us another of his high quality video productions.

This time he presents us the new Jardin El Porvenir kindergarten in Bogota, Colombia by Giancarlo Mazzanti.

You can see our previous features on Mazzanti’s work, and also other projects photographed by Cristobal Palma.

Soon more info on this project.

Video: Bjarke Ingels at ETSAM: Yes is More

(BIG) conference at ETSAM in Madrid, which took place on Oct 6th.

Video by Jorge from mstrpln blog.

Recent BIG projects featured at AD:

Autodesk AutoCAD for Mac video tutorials

As we told you earlier, Autodesk for Mac is now shipping and you can download a free trial.

After the break you will find more videos to get started on this new version. Happy drafting!

Autodesk AutoCAD for Mac now available

A few months ago we told you that AutoCAD for Mac would be available on October. We just found out that it started shipping today, and you can also download a full 30-day trial. Students can also download a free version.

Anyone already using it? Share your thoughts on the comments section!