#012 - Architecture Survey Introduction - How Architects Thinkspeak

Central to an architect's, or any designer's, job is solving complex problems. It's not possible to solve these problems through analytical methods, so Architects have come up with multiple subjective, or intuitive, ways of solving them. One of which is to simply draw on experience. "Well in the past, in a similar situation, this worked. Let's try it again and see what happens."

Where experience fails, architects can fall back on precedence. The work of others in similar situations. Throughout the centuries architects find themselves over and over again going back to certain buildings by certain architects. These architects and these works form a set of building blocks from which each architect can build his or her own design philosophy.

They also form the basis of a sort of short hand architects use when talking to each other. They might say, "It's very Mesian, or Wrightean" or "It's very Bauhaus"

To hopefully help listeners understand what we are talking about when this happens, David Rader and I are going to undertake a special sub-series in which we look at a survey of important architects and works that make up the mental background of most modern architecture practices. It's not an exhaustive survey. It's a bare- essentials for anyone who wants to be relatively fluent in architect-ese.

From time to time David and I will look at a well known building by a well known architect that still has a major space in architecture culture. Where possible we'll look at a building David and/or I have been to in person because no matter how much you study a building, seeing it in person is always surprising. We'll cover the people involved, the Architect and the Client. The reason the building was built and a little about the times in which the building was built. We'll go over some of the distinct, unique, and influential elements of the building or work. and we'll wrap up with why the building is important and give our own critique of the building. There's a lot to be gained by tearing down giants, or at least chipping away at them.

See our initial list below and feel free to suggest buildings and architects we may have missed. Heck, tell us there are some we should cut.
  

Building/Work	Architect/Autor	Year
Parthenon	Iktinos, Kallikrates, Phidias	-447
Ten Books of Architecture	Vitruvius (Marcus Vitruvius Pollio)	0
Foundlings Hospital	Brunelleschi, Filippo	1419
Pazzi Chapel	Brunelleschi, Filippo	1430
Duomo	Brunelleschi, Filippo	1436
On the Art of Building	Alberti, Leon Batista	1452
La Tempietto	Bramante, Donato	1502
Palazzo della Ragioine	Paladio, Andrea	1546
Villa Barbaro	Paladio, Andrea	1560
Villa Rotunda	Paladio, Andrea	1566
Stourhead	Varuious	1719-1764
Royal Saltworks Arc-et-Senans	Ledoux, Claude Nicolas	1778
University of Virginia	Jefferson, Thomas	1825
Panopticon	Bentham, Jeremy	1791
Bibleotheque Ste Genevieve	Viollet-le-Duc, Eugene Emanuel	1845
The Seven Lamps of Architecture	Ruskin, John	1849
Notre-Dame Paris	Labrouste, Henri	1850
Crystal Palace	Paxton, Joseph	1851
Eames Lounge Chair	Eames, Charles and Ray	1956
Entretiens sur l'architecture	Viollet-le-Duc, Eugene Emanuel	1872
Opera Paris	Garnier, Charles	1875
Marshal Field Wholesale Store	Richardson, Henry Hobson	1885
The Wainright Building	Sulivan, Louis; Adler, Dankmar	1891
Reliance Building	Root, John	1895
Paris Metro	Guimard, Hecotr	1900
Unity Temple	Wright, Frank Lloyd	1906
Robbie House	Wright, Frank Lloyd	1909
AEG Turbine Factory	Behrens, Peter	1909
Citta Nuova	Sant'Elia, Antonio	1914
Glass Skyscrpaer	Mies van der Rohe, Ludwieg	1920
Schroder House	Rietveld, Gerrit	1924
Bauhaus	Gropius, Walter	1926
Lenin Institute	Leonidov, Ivan	1927
Towards an Architecture	Le Corbusier	1927
Barcelona Pavilion	Mies van der Rohe, Ludwieg	1929
Villa Savoy	Le Corbusier	1931
Viipuri Library	Aalto, Alvar	1935
Casa Del Fascio	Terrangni, Giuseppe	1936
Falling Water	Wright, Frank Lloyd	1936
Eames House	Eames, Charles and Ray	1949
Farnsworth House	Mies van der Rohe, Ludwieg	1950
Unite d'Habitation	Le Corbusier	1952
Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Ranchamp	Le Corbusier	1955
Seagram Building	Mies van der Rohe, Ludwieg	1958
Guggenheim Musum	Wright, Frank Lloyd	1960
TWA Terminal	Sarrinen, Eero	1962
Fondazione Querini Stampalia	Scarpa, Carlo	1963
Kimble Art Museum	Kahn, Louis	1972
House VI	Eisenman, Peter	1975
The Pompidou Center	Pian, Renzo; Rogers Richard	1977
Delirous New York	Koolhaas, Rem	1978
High Museum of Art	Richard Meier	1983
Menil Collection	Pian, Renzo	1986
Hongkong and Shanghai Bank	Foster, Norman	1986
Pyramid de Musee de Luvre	Pei, I.M.	1989
Buckhead Branch Library	Scogin, Mack; Elam Merrill	1989
Michael C. Carlos Museum	Graves, Michael	1993
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao	Gehry, Frank	1997

#011 - Lennie Mowris - Making is Designing, and Design is Branding, Do it Will.

Nathan Koskovich, AIA, talks with Graphic Designer and Printer Lennie Mowris at her studio and workshop. Lennie's work in letterpress illustrates the power of details in design. How small things, like how ink finds its way on to paper, affect our understanding of an image, and of the brand it represents. For her working in letterpress is not a nostalgic quirky whim, but a means to achieving certain design goals.

Lennie combines more than ten years experience in the natural health industry with a passion for merging tradition and innovation. Through her independent studio, Lenspeace, she specializes in sustainable design and brand strategy for small business, non-profit organizations, artisans and individuals. Her Decatur-based printmaking workshop features two vintage letterpresses and screen printing services for production of custom brand collateral and unique dimensional art. As AIGA Atlanta Affinity Programming Director, she develops educational and collaborative programming focused on The Living Principles for Design, Women's Leadership and Diversity, and Design For Good initiatives.

Pictures

The big printer Lennie uses for large runs of hand printed material.

The smaller printer Lennie uses to test prints and experiment with techniques and designs.

Small printer walk through from Lennie

Links

Lenspeace

#010 - Heather Alhadeff - City Planning Gooooooooooools

Nathan Koskovich, AIA sits down with Heather Alhadeff, City Planner and fellow ADC Board Member, at her apartment in the Castleberry Hill district of Atlanta to talk about city planning and the power of listening as a design skill, and the complexity of graphic design and communication.


Heather is an accomplished transportation planner with an emphasis on land use planning and urban design. Her public and private sector experience has enabled her to work on a range of project types, from traditional highway solutions to site-specific urban infill development. She is frequently involved in developing and implementing plans that support multi-modal options, improved functionality, and spur economic Development.

Her passion lies in resolving complex urban challenges through logical implementation and creating constituent consensus. She is often the liaison between engineers, designers, the real estate community, and the public. She translates technical analysis into meaningful, understandable formats that foster buy-in and accelerate implementation.

As Ian Darke says, it's incredible.

#009 - Patrick Sweeney - Urban Planning and Green Meatballs

Nathan Koskovich, AIA sits down with Patrick Sweeney, a Landscape Architect and Urban Planner who has just completed a stint working for the Atlanta Beltline. Patrick talks extensively about planning strategies and the advantages and greater freedom of well planned communities.

With over 23 years of extensive experience in transit, transportation and land use planning, Patrick Sweeney is a professional urban planner with expertise in making the connection between communities and neighborhoods and their mobility needs. Patrick was a Senior Project Manager for Transit and Transportation at Atlanta BeltLine, Inc., one of the country’s best comprehensive urban redevelopment programs. Patrick was the project manager for the Atlanta BeltLine/Atlanta Streetcar System Plan, the blueprint for advancing the citywide expansion of the Atlanta Streetcar. Patrick was also manager of the Atlanta BeltLine Sustainability Action Plan, a project that will result in an actionable framework for integrating sustainability into all aspects of Atlanta BeltLine’s identity and will improve the function, profitability, and community benefits of ABI’s organization, partnerships, and projects. Formerly a Senior Transit Planner with the Portland Bureau of Transportation, he was in charge of the development of the first modern streetcar system plan for the City of Portland, Oregon. His experience includes 16 years as a consultant working on transportation, land use, urban design and TOD planning projects around the country. Patrick is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, is a LEED Accredited Professional with the US Green Building Council and is a licensed Landscape Architect.

Links

We spend a lot of time talking about Urban Growth Boundaries, a kind of city planing strategy in which a boundary is drawn, within which high density development is allowed, and outside of which only low density development is allowed. 

To learn more about the roots of zoning like this, see David Green's article. 

Congress of New Urbanism

Robert Moses

Jane Jacobs

Pictures

A picture showing Portland's Urban Growth Boundary

Google Earth view of Portland. You can see a pretty clear relationship between the Urban Growth Boundary and the location of urban development and the preservation of agriculture land and undeveloped natural environments.

Detail image of Portland showing the impact of the Urban Growth Boundary

Detail of Portland showing the impact of the Urban Growth Boundary