06 2019

100 Years Later:

$9.95

Does the Bauhaus

architecturalrecord.com

Still Matter?

DESIGN SPIRITUAL PLACES

VA N G UA R D
2 01 9
siness
od Bu
is Go
ign
Des
Good
THE ONLY
LIMIT IS THE
IMAGINATION
What’s your dream ceiling? WoodWorks® Ceiling & Wall Systems with
ACGI Custom capabilities let you dream big. Our expanded expertise
in custom wood design can take ideas from planning to installation
without compromise – in almost any wood species or stain. See
all the ways WoodWorks with ACGI Custom capabilities can turn
your next idea into a reality at armstrongceilings.com/acgiwood
 WOODWORKS ® CUSTOM ACGI BEAMS AND ENCORE ™ ACOUSTICAL PANELS
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, PHILADELPHIA, PA / MGA PARTNERS, PHILADELPHIA, PA
 Capture clarity.

Fit the bill—and the build—with new Acuity™Low-Iron Glass.

Elevate aesthetics for a modest investment, without sacrificing performance. New Acuity™ Glass by Vitro Architectural
Glass (formerly PPG Glass) is an affordable low-iron solution available with Solarban® solar control low-e coatings, offering
vivid views with no green cast. Where conventional clear glass was once a given, pure clarity is now within reach.

Request samples and learn more at vitroglazings.com/acuity

 ª
Low-Iron Glass
 ADVERTORIAL

Secure Wall Mounting System

for Large Glass Panels Now
Seismically Rated
CaptiveHook® - McGrory’s patented, glazier-vetted, and engineer-approved
system - is now AAMA 501.6 compliant.
By Nicole Rollender

THE SCENE: Sun blazing in a 107-degree desert. What looks like a Hollywood
movie set in Fresno, CA, with building façades lining a mock street. “It’s like
walking into a Clint Eastwood Western with that telltale whistle,” says Jim
Gulnick, McGrory Glass’ lead engineer and vice president of operations. “This
‘set’ is where we tested CaptiveHook®, our revolutionary glass-mounting
system, in extreme environmental and weather conditions.”
On that hot day in July 2018, Pat McCormick, who manages projects and
engineered products at McGrory, looked up at 1,200 pounds of glass towering
20 feet above him. Next to him, Gulnick gave a Poseidon-like order, and the
earth shook.
McCormick and Gulnick had trekked from McGrory’s Paulsboro, NJ-based
headquarters to subject half a ton of 9/16-inch thick, mirror-backed, laminated
glass to some of Mother Nature’s worst—a massive earthquake. Would the glass
stay on the wall, unbroken, during the seismic event?
Gulnick and an expert team, which included principal Phil Khalil of
engineering firm Eckersley O’Callaghan & Partners, worked on the seismic
testing project since the conception of CaptiveHook®. “CaptiveHook®’s the
only large-format, glass-mounting system that’s seismic compliant,” Gulnick
says. “This definitely isn’t your father’s Z-clip.”
McGrory had recognized the need for an engineer-approved system.
“Glaziers glued glass to walls using suspectly secured Z-clips, or adhered it
to wood or aluminum honeycomb with screwed clips, leaving the materials
open to humidity changes, chemical incompatibility, or improper adhesion,”
Gulnick says. “We devised a system to keep glass on walls and removed
considerable risk, allowing architects to enjoy true freedom of expression.”

PHOTO: © JIM GULNICK, 2019 | MCGRORY GLASS

While West Coast architects long focused on seismic safety, East Coasters
have learned that earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes can happen
anywhere. “Architects expect testing of exterior elements like façades,
curtain walls, and windows, while wall systems inside these buildings
typically aren’t stability-tested for extreme conditions —or can even meet
those requirements,” Gulnick says. “An interior glass-mounting system like
CaptiveHook® just wasn’t available. It wasn’t seismically prudent to mount
glass on your wall: Compliance wasn’t guaranteed.”

THE BIG SHAKE-UP

Back at the Fresno testing site, a 50-horsepower hydraulic pump swung the glass
back and forth in intervals of mere seconds, not stopping for six minutes. The
incessant movement of the American Architectural Manufacturers Association
(AAMA) test simulated increasingly severe earthquakes. “You don’t know what to
expect—we’re watching the glass move left to right at the bottom, first a half-inch,
then an inch, up to six inches,” Gulnick says. “You’re waiting for that crack.”
Fifteen screws held each 4-foot-by-10-foot, 300-pound glass panel in place, a
setup that took the test crew 15 minutes to install. How could such an efficient
system withstand earth-shaking conditions? “When the test ended, we said, ‘Is
that it?’” Gulnick says. “Everything—glass and mounting system—stayed on the
wall intact. It was amazing.”
After the successful test, CaptiveHook® became the only multi-panel, large-
format, glass wall mounting system to earn the distinction of being rated AAMA
McGrory Project Manager Pat McCormick looks up at 1,200 pounds of glass towering 20
feet above him.
501.6 compliant. “We have a high level of confidence in the performance of
CaptiveHook® as a system that meets all architectural and structural constraints,”
Khalil says. “Achieving a system to accommodate some of the highest seismic loads
and inelastic seismic movements in the world using innovative hidden seismic
restraint mechanisms is unmatched with current glass-cladding systems. The
AAMA certification definitively confirms CaptiveHook®’s performance.”
The single-sourced system allows glaziers to safely and quickly mount
glass panels up to and beyond +85 square feet / +500 pounds. CaptiveHook®
PHOTO: © JEFFREY TOTARO, 2019 | JEFFREYTOTARO.COM
Multi-story CaptiveHook® base build project in Philadelphia, PA, featuring over 50,000 square feet of glass wall cladding.
precisely aligns glass and wall mounts within plus or minus five thousandths-of-
an-inch (+/- 0.005”) tolerance. “CaptiveHook® offers design freedom, and the
security of working with a field-tested, Eckersley O’Callaghan-approved system,”
Gulnick says.
THE BIG NEED
Gulnick posits that you can’t compare existing mounting systems to
CaptiveHook®. “Calling this system a French cleat is like calling a Tesla
a horse,” he quips. “A Z-clip is a non-patentable French cleat, where
CaptiveHook® holds large-format glass in a patented, fully framed, invisible
engineered system that meets all structural requirements, and can be made
seismic compliant.”
Previously, installing glass was laborious, time-consuming and simply
unsafe: Manufacturers shipped glass to glaziers who frequently adhered the
panels to wood offsite, or directly to the wall onsite. Glaziers either had to wait
for materials to cure before transporting to the building site, or hold the glass
in place against the wall with framing until everything was dry.
“Wood swells and shrinks with weather conditions, at different expansion
rates, so glass could work its way off or become misaligned,” Gulnick says.
“The CaptiveHook® system isn’t impacted by changes in the environment, due
to our proprietary combination of in-house fabrication and materials.”
Infinitely modular, CaptiveHook® also facilitates easier maintenance
because glaziers can remove and replace individual panels. “With traditional
mounting systems, there’s little ability to readjust and reinstall glass panels
without removing other panels or parts,” Gulnick says. “Now, you can remove
any piece of glass safely at any time, for any reason, and replace without
disturbing your installation.”
ADVERTORIAL
THE BIRTH OF CAPTIVEHOOK®
When McGrory’s team worked on a Philadelphia building project (think:
500-pound glass panels mounted on 13-story walls), the owner wanted a company
to provide both the glass and a secure mounting system. “If you work with a glass
manufacturer and a glazier using a separate mounting system and something
goes wrong, who’s left holding the bag?” Gulnick says. “The building owner and
architect for choosing the system.”
McGrory aimed to be that single-source provider. “We had worked with metal-
and-rivet systems, but to handle more than 50,000 square feet of glass, we took it up
a few notches,” says Gulnick, who then collaborated with Eckersley O’Callaghan’s
engineering team and the project’s glazier, Eureka Metal & Glass Services, Inc.
“Developing the CaptiveHook® system took place over an extensive period
of iterations between the McGrory fabrication and installation team and our
engineering team, with detailed Finite Element Analysis to verify and optimize
system and component performance,” Khalil says. “Through this continual
refinement, the end result is a deceptively simple system that conceals its advanced
engineering, and solves the conundrum of glass cladding with no visible means of
support, even in high-seismic zones with significant building movement.”
Visit captivehook.com to learn more or email captivehook@mcgrory.com.
open ness •

NOUN
• lack of restrictions; accessibility.
“our hallmark was openness to all comers.”
• lack of secrecy or concealment: frankness.
“committed to openness and transparency.”
• the quality of not being covered.
“the openness of the landscape.”

open • ceilings
open • walls
open • materials

CeilingsPlus.com
®
 Lead Design Firm: HNTB New York Engineering and Architecture PC
Structural Engineer: WSP USA, New York, NY
Photo: Skanska USA

EDITOR IN CHIEF Cathleen McGuigan, mcguiganc@bnpmedia.com

MANAGING EDITOR Beth Broome, broomeb@bnpmedia.com

DEPUTY EDITOR Suzanne Stephens, stephenss@bnpmedia.com

FEATURES EDITOR Josephine Minutillo, minutilloj@bnpmedia.com

SENIOR EDITORS Joann Gonchar, faia, leed ap, goncharj@bnpmedia.com

Linda C. Lentz, lentzl@bnpmedia.com

PRODUCTS EDITOR Kelly Beamon, beamonk@bnpmedia.com

SENIOR DIGITAL/NEWS EDITOR Miriam Sitz, sitzm@bnpmedia.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Alex Klimoski, klimoskia@bnpmedia.com

COPY EDITOR Anna Shapiro

ART DIRECTOR Michael T. Powell, powellm@bnpmedia.com

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Kaylee Webster, websterk@bnpmedia.com

CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR, Peter Coe

PRESENTATION DRAWINGS

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Sarah Amelar, Fred A. Bernstein, Robert Campbell, faia,

Blair Kamin, Jayne Merkel, Clifford A. Pearson,
David Sokol, Michael Sorkin, Sarah Williams Goldhagen

SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL Naomi R. Pollock, faia

CORRESPONDENT
INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS David Cohn, Tracy Metz, Aric Chen, Chris Foges

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Iwan Baan, Roland Halbe

Kosciuszko
à Gogo
The design of urban infrastructure affects city life as
much as the design of its buildings. That’s why replacing
the Kosciuszko Bridge—a notorious pinch point in
traffic between Brooklyn and Queens—was a high priority
for Governor Cuomo. With heavy lifting from HNTB,
WSP USA, and Skanska, a striking cable-stayed span
has risen where the outdated bridge once stood,
ensuring New Yorkers may still have trouble saying its
name, but they never have trouble getting home.
Read more about it in Metals in Construction online.
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD (ISSN: Print 0003-858X Digital 2470-1513) June 2019, Vol. 207 No. 6. Record is published
12 times annually, monthly by BNP Media II, LLC., 2401 W. Big Beaver Rd., Suite 700, Troy, MI 48084-3333.
Telephone: (248) 362-3700, Fax: (248) 362-0317.
ANNUAL RATE FOR PRINT, DIGITAL AND COMBO SUBSCRIPTIONS TO INDIVIDUALS IN THE U.S.A.: Print $72.00, Digital
$18.00 and Print Digital Combo $81.00. Annual rate for subscriptions to individuals in Canada: Print $129.00,
Digital $18.00 and Print Digital Combo $138.00 (includes GST & postage); Annual rate for individuals outside of
U.S.A.: Print $199.00, Digital $18.00 and Print & Digital Combo $208.00. Payable in U.S. funds. All rates are in
USD. Single Copy sales $9.95; Foreign $11.00.
Printed in the U.S.A. Copyright 2019, by BNP Media. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may
not be reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of the publisher. The publisher is not responsible for
product claims and representations.
Periodicals Postage Paid at Troy, MI and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: ARCHITECTURAL RECORD, P.O. Box 16387 North Hollywood, CA
91615.
CANADA POST: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. GST account: 131263923. Send returns (Canada) to
IMEX Global Solutions, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Send old address label along with new address to ARCHITECTURAL RECORD, P.O. Box
16387 North Hollywood, CA 91615.
FOR SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION OR SERVICE, PLEASE CONTACT CUSTOMER SERVICE AT:
Phone: 877-876-8093 Fax: 818-487-4550.
W W W . S I N Y. O R G
EDITORIAL OFFICES: 646/849-7124. 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 6000, New York, NY 10118. WEBSITE:
architecturalrecord.com.

BNP Media Helps People Succeed in 
Business with Superior Information

PRINTED IN USA
 Facade Designer: SHoP Architects
Structural Engineer and Facade Consultant: Thornton Tomasetti

PUBLISHER
Alex Bachrach
bachracha@bnpmedia.com

ADVERTISING SALES
NEW ENGLAND AND PA: Joseph Sosnowski
(610) 278-7829, Fax: (610) 278-0936, sosnowskij@bnpmedia.com
SOUTHEAST, MID-ATLANTIC: Wesley Loon
(859) 414-3795, Fax: (248) 502-9104, loonw@bnpmedia.com
MIDWEST (IA, IL, MN, MO, WI): Bruce Smith
(224) 216-7836, Fax: (248) 786-1390, Smithb@bnpmedia.com
MIDWEST (IN, MI, OH), TX, OK, EASTERN CANADA: Lisa Zurick
(513) 345-8210, Fax: (513) 345-8250, zurickl@bnpmedia.com
WEST, WESTERN CANADA: Bill Madden
(503) 260-9679, Fax: (503) 557-9002, bill@maddenandassociates.net
FL, KS, NE, ND, NY, SD, INTERNATIONAL: Risa Serin
(646) 849-7130, Fax: (248) 786-1393, serinr@bnpmedia.com

WORKFORCE/RECRUITMENT: Diane Soister

(646) 849-7137, Fax: (248) 502-2046, soisterd@bnpmedia.com

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Kristen Carpenter

(248) 786-1222, Fax: (248) 502-2051, carpenterk@bnpmedia.com

CONTINUING EDUCATION
CONTINUING EDUCATION GROUP MANAGER
Brittnie Wilson
wilsonb@bnpmedia.com

CONTINUING EDUCATION PROJECT COORDINATOR

Lisa Stradinger
stradingerl@bnpmedia.com

CUSTOM CONTENT EDITOR

Instant
Samantha Staniszewski
staniszewskis@bnpmedia.com

Replay CORPORATE
CHIEF EXPERIENCE OFFICER
Darrell Dal Pozzo
AUDIENCE MARKETING
AUDIENCE MARKETING PROJECT MANAGER
Cassandra Kerby
HUMAN RESOURCES & INTEGRATED MEDIA SPECIALIST
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR Catherine Neal
With four consecutive Stanley Cup victories in its history,
Rita M. Foumia
the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum is a beloved fixture PRODUCTION DIRECTOR
of Long Island life. When the owner of the 1972 arena decided Vincent M. Miconi
FINANCE DIRECTOR LIST RENTALS
to reward fans with a renovation worthy of its storied past, it Lisa L. Paulus SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER
reimagined the venue with an overcladding that would bring CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kevin Collopy
new life to the facility. With a design by SHoP Architects Michael T. Powell (402) 836-6265,
CLEAR SEAS RESEARCH DIRECTOR Toll Free: 800/223-2194, ext. 684
and Thornton Tomasetti, the new folded-ribbon facade of Beth A. Surowiec kevin.collopy@infogroup.com
composite aluminum fins connects to the original structure CHIEF EVENT OFFICER SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER
Scott Wolters Michael Costantino
with a minimum of intervention, ensuring thoughtful reuse
(402) 836-6266,
of a venue that still has a lot of wins in its future. michael.costantino@infogroup.com
Read more about it in Metals in Construction online.

BNP MEDIA: (248) 244-6400

WEBSITE: architecturalrecord.com. SUBSCRIBER SERVICE: 877/876-8093 (U.S. only); 818/487-2077

(outside the U.S.). Website Registration: 844/652-8994. E-mail: AR@pubservice.com. SINGLE COPY SALES:
www.architecturalrecord.com/scs. If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable,
we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year.
W W W . O M I N Y. O R G INQUIRIES AND SUBMISSIONS: Letters, Beth Broome; Practice, Suzanne Stephens; Books, Suzanne Stephens;
Lighting and Interiors, Linda C. Lentz; Architectural Technology, Joann Gonchar; News, Miriam Sitz.
REPRINTS: architecturalrecord@theygsgroup.com.

BNP Media Helps People Succeed in 
Business with Superior Information

PRINTED IN USA
THE WORLD’S SLIMMEST SIGHTLINES

The Original – occasionally imitated, never equaled. The ¾” profile Vitrocsa sliding glass
wall. Proven and tested since 1992, with over 60,000 units installed in over 60 countries.
Featuring many beautiful innovations that you would only expect from the Original.

Vitrocsa’s Patented Invisible Sill Option

vitrocsaUSA.com info@vitrocsaUSA.com 310.988.4455

 “When we think of sun control and rainwater retention, we’re always searching
for products that complement our palette of exterior materials. The copper-
clad Fabricoil is a natural choice for us. Whether we use it as a 20-foot long
rainwater diverter or a movable panel to cut the harsh sunlight, we’re always
delighted by the results.”
Thomas Clapper Senior Associate, LEED AP, Architect
Walker Warner Architects

Hawaiian Beach House l Walker Warner Architects l Matthew Millman Photography

Artistic Elements • Ceilings • Outdoor Dividers • Shower Dividers • Solar Shading • Wall Coverings • Water Features • Window Treatments

800.999.2645
fabricoil.com
cascadearchitectural.com
06 2019
NEWS
27 LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER OPENS NEW CAMPUS
By Miriam Sitz
104 BOIES SCHILLER FLEXNER, NEW YORK CITY
31 NEW MUSEUM OFFERS UP-CLOSE LOOK AT LADY
LIBERTY By Miriam Sitz
35 FILMS BRING A “BLUEPRINT FOR BETTER” TO AIA
CONFERENCE By Dante A. Ciampaglia
36 OMA-DESIGNED SOTHEBY’S OPENS IN NYC
By Josephine Minutillo
GOOD DESIGN IS GOOD BUSINESS
146 G3 ARQUITECTOS By Alex Klimoski
148 JO JINMAN ARCHITECTS By Sheila Kim
103 INTRODUCTION 150 SPIEGEL AIHARA WORKSHOP By David Sokol
152 POOL LEBER By Mary Pepchinski
SCHILLER PROJECTS By Linda C. Lentz
154 BAREND KOOLHAAS By Josephine Minutillo
106 CENTER FOR ADVANCED & EMERGING 156 MICHAN ARCHITECTURE By Derek De Koff
TECHNOLOGY, OMAHA BNIM By Laura Raskin
158 FRENCH 2D By Miriam Sitz
107 TURNSTYLE, NEW YORK CITY ARCHITECTURE
160 CHYBIK+KRISTOF By Jen Krichels
OUTFIT By Sheila Kim

38 NEW YORK’S BIG BUILDINGS MAY SOON CURB
CARBON EMISSIONS By Ronda Kaysen
40 NEWSMAKER: SARAH WHITING
By Heather Corcoran
DEPARTMENTS
24 EDITOR’S LETTER: HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
DEAR BAUHAUS
47 EXHIBITION: COOPER HEWITT DESIGN TRIENNIAL
By Pilar Viladas
108 BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE, VARIOUS LOCATIONS PROJECTS
BOHLIN CYWINSKI JACKSON By Laura Raskin
164 FRANK GEHRY’S SANTA MONICA HOUSE
110 AOS OFFICE RENOVATION, NEW ORLEANS By Victoria Newhouse
ESKEWDUMEZRIPPLE AND VERGESROME ARCHITECTS
By Sheila Kim
BUILDING TYPE STUDY 1007
111 HUDSON WOODS, NEW YORK LANG ARCHITECTURE SPIRITUAL PLACES
By David Sokol
173 INTRODUCTION
113 NEW LAB AT THE BROOKLYN NAVY YARD, NEW
YORK CITY MARVEL ARCHITECTS By Sheila Kim 174 HIKMA RELIGIOUS-SECULAR COMPLEX, NIGER
ATELIER MASOMI AND STUDIO CHAHAR

51 HOUSE OF THE MONTH: LOS ANGELES BUNGALOW
By Sarah Amelar
57 LANDSCAPE: A NEW PARK IN MILAN BY
INSIDE OUTSIDE By Alex Klimoski
63 GUESS THE ARCHITECT
67 COMMENTARY: A NEW YORK ARCHITECT
RECALLS A DAY WITH MODERNISM’S
SUPERSTARS By Peter Stamberg
80 FIRST LOOK: GATEHALL BY MADA S.P.A.M.
By Clifford A. Pearson
87 CLOSE-UP: SHOP’S INNOVATION LAB FOR THE
BENCHMARK SCHOOL By James S. Russell, FAIA
95 PRODUCTS: 2019 NEOCON PREVIEW
By Kelly Beamon
BOOKS
72 GROPIUS: THE MAN WHO BUILT THE BAUHAUS BY
FIONA MCCARTHY
Reviewed by Caroline Rob Zaleski
75 THREE BOOKS ABOUT WEIMAR, DESSAU, AND
BEYOND Reviewed by Wendy Moonan
76 MORE BOOKS ABOUT THE BAUHAUS AND
MODERNISM Reviewed by Clifford A. Pearson
DOES THE BAUHAUS STILL MATTER? By Kelly Beamon
117 INTRODUCTION 180 ST. MARY’S STUDENT CHAPEL, CALIFORNIA
MARK CAVAGNERO ASSOCIATES By John King
118 ORIGIN STORY By Margret Kentgens-Craig
186 SAYA PARK CHAPEL, SOUTH KOREA
122 THREE HISTORIANS WEIGH IN ON THE BAUHAUS
ÁLVARO SIZA AND CARLOS CASTANHEIRA
Edited by Suzanne Stephens
By David Cohn
126 HEROINES OF MODERNISM
190 BIRKAT ITZJAK SYNAGOGUE, MEXICO CITY
By Suzanne Stephens & Cathleen McGuigan
CHEREM ARQUITECTOS By Beth Broome
130 MODERN DESIGN TODAY By John Ronan
132 AMERICAN ARCHITECTS REFLECT ON THE TECHNOLOGY
BAUHAUS Interviews by Fred A. Bernstein 198 DESIGNS ON DATA SMART TECHNOLOGIES AND NEW
134 BAU MEANS BUILDING By Oliver Wainwright ANALYTICAL TOOLS HELP TO ADDRESS URBAN
CHALLENGES By Katharine Logan
136 CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS By Kara Mavros
237 DATES & EVENTS
DESIGN VANGUARD 2019
244 SNAPSHOT: VUON AO CHUONG (VAC) LIBRARY IN
141 INTRODUCTION
VIETNAM By Alex Klimoski
142 ZOOCO By David Cohn
144 ADAM SOKOL ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE
By Pilar Viladas
See expanded coverage of Projects and Building Type Studies as well as Web-only features at architecturalrecord.com.
THIS PAGE: GATEHALL, CHINA, BY MADA S.P.A.M. PHOTO BY CHAO ZHANG. COVER: BAUHAUS MUSEUM WEIMAR, GERMANY,
BY HEIKE HANADA. PHOTO BY ANDREW ALBERTS.
© 2019 Kawneer Company, Inc.

BUILDING
LEGACIES.
Building on the past to advance the future. Kawneer solutions draw on a long
history of innovation to create next-generation technologies that inspire architects,
contractors and glaziers to create buildings with better performance, protection
and productivity. At Kawneer we are always building. Build your legacy. ARCHITECTURAL SYSTEMS
ENTRANCES + FRAMING
CURTAIN WALLS
WINDOWS

kawneer.com
 LEARN & EARN
Earn all your continuing education credits free online at ce.architecturalrecord.com!*

IN THIS ISSUE

Photo courtesy of Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope

Photo courtesy of Lonseal Flooring

Photo courtesy of Hudson Yards New York/Related Oxford

Image courtesy of Interface

Photo courtesy of Interface

Technology and Trends
Flooring: Affecting the Gaining Urban Space: in Sustainable Tropical Balancing Health and
Environment from Steel Platforms Over Climate, Carbon, and Hardwoods Performance Benefits
the Ground Up Rail Yards Human Health Sponsored by Nova USA Wood through Natural Lighting
Sponsored by Adsil, Lonseal Flooring, Sponsored by The Steel Institute of Sponsored by Interface Products LLC Sponsored by Oldcastle
Thermory USA, and USG New York Credit: 1 AIA LU/HSW; Credit: 1 AIA LU/HSW BuildingEnvelope
Credit: 1 AIA LU/HSW Credit: 1 AIA LU/HSW 1 GBCI CE HOUR Credit: 1 AIA LU/HSW
Page 208 Page 218 Page 220 Page 222 Page 224
Photo courtesy of Armstrong Ceiling and Wall Solutions

Photo courtesy of Global Security Glazing

Photo courtesy of Georgia-Pacific Gypsum

Photo courtesy of Sprung Instant Structures, Inc.

Photo courtesy of LaCantina Doors

Revolutionary, Permanent
Tensioned Membrane
Aluminum Frame New Acoustical Options Understanding How
Supported Structures in Specialty and Seamless Glazing Can Impact Who’s the Culprit in An Open Invitation
Sponsored by Sprung Instant Sponsored by LaCantina Doors
Structures, Inc. Ceiling Systems Safety and Fire Protection WRB-AB Leakage?
Credit: 1 AIA LU/HSW;
Credit: 1 AIA LU/HSW; Sponsored by Armstrong Ceilings Sponsored by National Glass Association Sponsored by Georgia-Pacific Gypsum 1 GBCI CE HOUR;
1 GBCI CE HOUR Credit: 1 AIA LU/HSW Credit: 1 AIA LU/ELECTIVE Credit: 1 AIA LU/HSW 1 IDCEC CEU/HSW

Page 226 Page 228 Page 230 Page 232 Page 234

NEW ONLINE AT CE.ARCHITECTURALRECORD.COM ALSO ONLINE AT

Photo courtesy of Gensler Architects
CE.ARCHITECTURALRECORD.COM
Sustainable Building Design: Improving the
Designing for Fire Protection Designing for Earthquakes
Global Footprint Sponsored by Think Wood and the Sponsored by Think Wood | Content
Sponsored by Armstrong Ceiling and Wall Solutions American Wood Council provided by the American Wood Council
Credit: 1 AIA LU/Elective
Understanding Code-Compliant The New Benefits of Designing
Photo courtesy of Steven Winter Associates Photo: © Iwan Baan Integrated Ceiling Solutions with BIM
Sponsored by Armstrong Commercial Sponsored by GRAPHISOFT®
How To Provide New Service Offerings The Business of Architecture: Expanding Ceiling Solutions
by Working with Consultants Services for the Profession Glass Options for Enhanced
Sponsored by Benjamin Moore & Co. Sponsored by Benjamin Moore & Co. Vapor Control: Considerations for Building Design
Credit: 1 AIA LU/Elective Credit: 1 AIA LU/Elective Designers and Specifiers Sponsored by Pilkington North America
Sponsored by Reef Industries, Inc. – NSG Group
Photo: © Andres Garcia Lachner
Sustainability and the Vacuum-Insulated Glazing for
The Business of Architecture: Oversized Glass: Understanding Textile Industry Historic Restoration
Leading by Example Sponsored by Bentley Mills Inc. Sponsored by Pilkington North America
Process, Specification, and Trends
Sponsored by Benjamin Moore & Co. Sponsored by Guardian Glass Breaking Old Rules for Air-Barrier Glass and Energy
Credit: 1 AIA LU/Elective Credit: 1 AIA LU/HSW Installation Sponsored by Pilkington North America
Sponsored by VaproShield
Photo courtesy of Finegold Architects Photo courtesy of Finegold Architects Metal Rainscreens: Single-Skin
Designing for High Winds Panels for the PER Assembly
Wood Structures: An Impressive Multifamily Housing Design: Three Sponsored by Think Wood Sponsored by Dri-Design
Renewable Resource Approaches for Growing Cities
Sponsored by ThinkWood Sponsored by TAMLYN Designing for Durability
Credit: 1 AIA LU/Elective Credit: 1 AIA LU/Elective Sponsored by Think Wood

To receive credit, you are required to read the entire article and pass the test. Visit ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text and to take the test for free.
*All Architectural Record articles and presentations count toward the annual AIA continuing education requirement. All sponsored exams are available at no charge and are instantly processed, unless otherwise noted.
This course is part of the Business of Architecture academy. This course is part of the Multifamily Housing academy. This course is part of the Sustainability academy. This course is part of the Wood Structures academy.
 UNIQUE.
DISTINCT.
FACADES.

University of Texas - Tyler

Architect: Smithgroup JJR
Location: Tyler, TX

Dri-Design Metal Wall Panels offer virtually limitless possibilities of design within the same fully tested,
easy to install, dry joint system. Additionally, the unique attachment method allows several variations
to be used together, which can produce a truly customized look. The University of Texas in Tyler used
varying depths of Shadow Series panels in combination with a custom wood-look Dri-Design soffi t to
create this beautiful façade.

• No sealants, gaskets or butyl tape means no streaking and no maintenance for owners.
• Not laminated or a composite material, so panels will never delaminate.
• At Dri-Design, we have a strict policy of recycling and creating products that the world can live with. 616.355.2970 // DRI-DESIGN.COM
• Fully tested to exceed ASTM standards and the latest AAMA 508-07.
• Available in a variety of materials and colors.
• Non-combustible and NFPA-285 compliant. Come visit us at the AIA Conference
on Architecture 2019 – June 6 – 7
in Las Vegas – booth # 4129
 Daylighting systems produced with Azon
structural thermal barrier
technologies—the MLP™ or Dual
Cavity—for aluminum windows and
high performance glazing components for
insulating glass, will yield a fenestration
system capable of upholding the highest
efficiency and sustainability standards.
• Polyurethane polymer with superior insulating
properties for the best balance of energy
efficiency and performance
• NEW: MLP™(mechanical lock profile) and dual
cavity designs for fenestration products used in
the most demanding climates and conditions
• High strength for larger spans—industry’s
strongest thermal barrier for aluminum storefront,
curtain wall and windows
• AZO/Tec® technical services with expertise
in window design

Extreme cold temperatures of -100ºC

(-148ºF) will not transfer through an
aluminum frame with a modern pour and
debridge thermal barrier (and neither will
high temperatures in very hot environments)

Learn about the role of

Azon thermal barriers in
1-800-788-5942 | www.azonintl.com energy conservation.
 JUST
AS YOU
IMAGINED
Where texture, warmth and color strike a perfect balance.
A place where you’ve always belonged. Where life’s
richest moments are meant to take place.

eldoradostone.com
20 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019

for the RECORD

Beyond the printed page: highlights from our website, live events, and other happenings.

RECORD ON THE ROAD

Last month in Washington, D.C.
(above), editor-in-chief Cathleen
McGuigan talked about office
design with REX founder Joshua
Ramus (pictured) and others. In
ESPIONAGE UNVEILED

I M AG E S : © N I C L E H O U X , C O U R T E S Y R O G E R S S T I R K H A R B O U R + PA R T N E R S ( T O P, L E F T ) ; A R C H I T E C T U R A L R E C O R D (4)
Boston (right) in late April,
The International Spy Museum by Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + features editor Josephine
Partners opened May 12 in Washington, D.C. Read our story Minutillo (far left in photo)
online about the 140,000-square-foot building. moderated a panel on resilience
with Ellen Watts, Chris Reed, and
Nick Iselin (left to right).

LAND OF
LIBERTY
Senior news and web
editor Miriam Sitz
toured the new
Statue of Liberty
Museum (page 31)
in New York with
FXCollaborative
partner and project
designer Nicolas
Garrison.

VANGUARD REVISITED
Managing editor Beth Broome met with Abraham Cherem (at left, above) and
José Antonio Aguilar (at right) of 2018 Design Vanguard firm Cherem
Arquitectos in their Mexico City office, which overlooks Chapultepec Park.
The practice designed the Birkat Itzjak Synagogue (page 190), also in the
capital.

Follow us on Twitter @ArchRecord Join our group and follow our company page on LinkedIn
Like us on Facebook.com/ArchitecturalRecord Follow us on Instagram @ArchRecordMag
 suspenders®
truss
Multiple U.S. and foreign patents granted and pending.

Suspenders, a delicately scaled modular system of LED luminaires, provides a broad range of architectural lighting
capabilities. Here a dramatically powerful, lightly scaled truss brings the grit of Industrial Modernism into the refinement of
a sophisticated urban setting. New for spring 2019. Explore the possibilities...www.sonnemanawayoflight.com.

Showroom: New York Design Center,

200 Lexington Ave., New York
Good chemistry.

Our superior chemistry delivers stronger stone.

Calcium silicate’s internal chemistry is different from that of
concrete and far superior. A natural reaction chemically binds
the elements into a homogeneous unit – a replication of
how natural stone is created in the earth, delivering the most
durable, strongest manufactured product on the market.

arriscraft.com |
 ALUMINUM TRIM
XtremeInteriorTM by Tamlyn combines
your design and our style to create
a visual statement that not only
meets your needs but enhances
the beauty of your space.

XtremeInteriorTM offers an
extensive line of extruded
aluminum profiles
p with
thousands of design
and color options,
allowing architects and
designers to dramatically
improve their building aesthetics
and create modern architectural lines.

844.365.9462
www.tamlyn.com
24 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
editor’s letter

Happy Birthday,
Dear Bauhaus
The world’s most famous design school had a short
life but long legacy.
Here at record, we wondered how we should celebrate the 100th
birthday of something that actually died at the tender age of 14. That
would be the Bauhaus, of course—a misunderstood institution, born
in 1919, that shifted its focus over the course of its short life each time
the leadership changed, from Walter Gropius to Hannes Meyer to Mies
van der Rohe, who was in charge when the Nazis shut it down for good
in 1933.
The major misperception about the Bauhaus is that it is a style. You
may love the look (more than the comfort) of the Wassily chair, named
by Marcel Breuer for his Bauhaus colleague Wassily Kandinsky, but the
Bauhaus was a school, and it varied more than is recognized from one
particular expression.
Which is not to say that it was not stylish. Just look at the graphics
that came out of the Bauhaus—the posters and books designed by László
Moholy-Nagy and others; the work of Herbert Bayer, who created the
Bauhaus’s sans serif universal font—it all still looks so modern and has
had a lasting impact on advertising and graphic design.
Another misperception: that the Bauhaus started with a full-fledged
architecture program. In fact, it began as an arts-and-crafts school. Its
founder, Gropius, though an architect, wanted to shatter the hierarchy Albers, who emigrated with his wife Anni (she had been a student, then
of the arts and bring everything together under one umbrella—there a teacher at the Bauhaus), and brought his theories about visual percep-
were workshops in cabinetmaking, textiles, metalwork—all dedicated to tion and color first to Black Mountain College and then to Yale, had more
a utopian future with the motto Art into Industry. Only in 1928, after success translating his ideas to this side of the Atlantic.
Gropius left and the school had moved from Weimar to Dessau, was In the pages ahead, a trio of experts—professors Barry Bergdoll,
architecture emphasized, under Meyer, and even more so in Mies’s era. Rosemarie Haag Bletter, and Mary McLeod—debate the impact of the
Mies himself was far less interested in other disciplines. Bauhaus on architecture and design education. And we asked architects
In every way, the Bauhaus was a progressive institution. For one thing, to weigh in on what the Bauhaus has meant to them. John Ronan has
it was open to women as well as men—its first class had 84 females to 79 written a thoughtful essay about the elusiveness of recreating the
males, though Gropius tended to steer women to the more domestic Bauhaus mission, while others offer shorter takes. For almost all the
weaving class. Yet some of them broke the mold—Marianne Brandt was architects we spoke with, the Bauhaus has had some deep meaning—
an artist and industrial designer who studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar, only Robert A.M. Stern proclaims he’s spent his career fighting its
and then ran the metal workshop in Dessau. The school opened up op- influence.
portunities for women in design that had barely existed before. We’ll leave it to a Bauhaus master to have the last word. Asked in 1953
Yet the question remains: why does the Bauhaus still exert such a hold why the school had had an enduring impact, Mies replied: “That the
on our collective imagination? In this issue, we explore some of the Bauhaus was an idea is the cause of the enormous influence it had . . .
reasons, and examine the power of the Bauhaus diaspora, particularly around the world. You cannot do that with organization, you cannot do
the faculty who tried to transport the school's principles to America as that with propaganda. Only an idea spreads so far.”
they fled prewar Germany. Mies, who arrived here in 1938, was the most
influential architecturally—he created the contemporary campus he led
at the Illinois Institute of Technology and designed his greatest buildings
in Chicago and in New York.
Gropius had come to Harvard the year before Mies. While his at- Cathleen McGuigan, Editor in Chief P H O T O G R A P H Y: © M I C H E L A R N AU D

tempts to create a Bauhaus-like environment at the Graduate School of

Design did not take hold, his overall Modernist agenda prevailed. Josef
 SPEC
TACULAR
Trust your next project to the industry’s preferred fire-
rated glazing. Build confidently with our innovative glass,
framing and door systems… along with the respected
support of Technical Glass Products.

© 2019 Technical Glass Products. Technical Glass Products, Fireglass and Fireframes are registered trademarks of Technical Glass Products.
#1 specified fire-rated glass company in North America among architectural specifiers as reported by a national research firm, 2014-2018. fireglass.com | 800.426.0279
 perspective
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
news 27

D A I LY U P D AT E S
architecturalrecord.com/news
twitter.com/archrecord

A ship may be baptized with a bottle of Champagne, but this was baptism by fashion.
—New York Times fashion director Vanessa Friedman, on the May 8 Louis Vuitton fashion show at Eero Saarinen’s renovated TWA Flight Center in New York.

Los Angeles LGBT Center Opens New Campus

BY MIRIAM SITZ

EvEry yEar, June is Pride month, a festive
time for the LGBTQ community and allies. But
this year, June is especially notable: it marks
the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising
in New York—a landmark event in the history
of LGBTQ rights. There’s even further cause for
celebration at the Los Angeles LGBT Center,
which is also turning 50 this year. Located in
the heart of Hollywood, the Center’s $141 mil-
lion new Anita May Rosenstein Campus has
just opened, presenting a striking, dignified
face to the neighborhood.
Designed by New York–based Leong Leong, a
2011 record Design Vanguard winner, and
Killefer Flammang Architects (KFA) in Los
Angeles, the 70,000-square-foot building dra-
matically expands the Center’s capacity to
serve the LGBTQ community. Rendered in
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © I WA N B A A N
From certain angles, cutouts in the frit align to
form circles on the glazing (above). Pride Hall
opens to the main plaza (right).
includes 98 units of affordable senior
housing and 25 supportive apart-
ments for young people.
Both the intergenerational nature
of the Center’s clientele and the
diversity of programs offered to
them informed the design, says
Dominic Leong, principal of the
firm he founded with his brother
Chris Leong in 2009. “We had to
create a campus that negotiates
this idea of cohesion and unity, but
also holds space for differences and
multiplicity.” A series of internal courtyards them access to the program area—and level of
brings daylight to areas deep within the plan privacy—they may desire. “It fits the Center’s

white stucco and located across the street from
an existing Center facility, the new building
includes activity centers for youth and seniors,
an educational and work-training academy for
young people, event space, offices, and 100
beds for temporarily housing homeless youth.
The firms also developed the master plan for
the campus; Phase II, currently under con-
struction and slated for completion in 2020,
while buffering different program spaces
from each other, yet also creating connections
between them.
The main entrance and a flexible event
space called Pride Hall are located just off a
large plaza, which fronts the sidewalk and
connects by elevator to underground parking.
Five other entrances to the facility allow staff
and visitors to enter through a door that gives
mission to have multiple points of entry, so
you feel welcome however you approach,” says
KFA partner Barbara Flammang.
The massing and materials of the steel-
frame building work to engage the project’s
urban context. The building comprises vol-
umes of two to four stories, keeping the senior
and youth centers at a more intimate scale,
while allowing staff offices and the temporary

Visit our online section, architecturalrecord.com/news.

28 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
youth housing to become taller. Because
function generated form, the building has a
unique profile from each side: “There isn’t one
singular, iconic point of view,” says Dominic.
“We thought that was important, because
the Center isn’t about the singular; it’s about
multiplicity.” A frit pattern on the glazed
perspective news
Courtyards break up the building’s mass and infuse
interiors with daylight (left). The campus presents a
distinct face to each side of its corner site (above).
upper stories adds to the lively street presence
(while also reducing solar gain); from certain
perspectives, oblong cutouts in the frit align to
form circles, echoing the Center’s logo.
Creating a space for clients to feel safe, both
physically and emotionally, was paramount
to the Center and the designers, so security
comes primarily in the form of on-site person-
nel, rather than an abundance of cameras or
tightly controlled entrances and exits. “As an
organization, the Center is very
open, and they wanted that to
be maintained in our design,”
says Jesse Ottinger, the lead
designer and project manager of
KFA. “They’re very sensitive to
the youth population and don’t
want them to feel as if they
were under surveillance, be-
cause many people come to the
center after having traumatic
experiences.”
The project is Leong Leong’s
largest building to date. “It
affirmed our belief that
architecture is fundamentally about self-
actualization,” says Dominic. “It’s about how
we relate to ourselves and others, and how we
create spaces that meet our needs as we evolve
as individuals and as a society. Architecture
can nudge us along that path, and this project
was validation of that.”
KFA has operated in Los Angeles for some 40
years and, for their part, says Flammang, “If
we can look back and say we’ve helped make
the people who live here more comfortable,
with access to the things that they need to live
a good life, then we’ve done a good job.” n
 CONSTRAINED.
© 2019 NANA WALL SYSTEMS, INC.

NanaWall® HSW systems’ single track sliding glass walls offer an unlimited number of panels up
to 12 feet tall, creating wider, more sweeping views. Built to withstand weather and commercial use,
our durable systems store remotely in bays or hidden closets, utilizing unused space efficiently.
Take your walls and ideas further at nanawall.com/hsw.
TERRAZZO • TERRAZZO • TERRAZZO • TERRAZZO • TERRAZZO • TERRAZZO • TERRAZZO

An NTMA contractor has the training, skill, and experience to

understand that their job is a part of the big picture–bringing your
job to a successful completion.
National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association
www.NTMA.com
800.323.9736

St.Ambrose Catholic Church, Salt Lake City, UT • Architect: MHTN Architects,Salt Lake City, UT • General Contractor: Culp Construction, Salt Lake City, UT
Owner: Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, UT • Photographer: Barry Martak
 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD MAY 2019
perspective news 31

New Museum Offers Up-Close Look at Lady Liberty

BY MIRIAM SITZ

As of mAy 16, the masses of tourists huddled

on the decks of Statue Cruise boats, yearning
to take photos of New York landmarks, have
another reason to visit Liberty Island—and a
new vantage point for their Lower Manhattan–
skyline selfies.
Two and a half years after breaking ground,
the new Statue of Liberty Museum is now
complete. Conceived by FXCollaborative, with
exhibition design by ESI Design, the 26,000-
square-foot building—which contains perma-
nent and rotating displays of Statue-related
artifacts, a three-room immersive theater, and
Lady Liberty’s original 1886 torch—blends into
the natural landscape of the island while com-
plementing the formal mall setting of the park
that surrounds the neoclassical sculpture. The museum is situated behind the Statue, on Liberty Island (top). Ramps to the building’s main entrance (above), as
well as to the elevator that opens on the roof terrace, make the museum fully accessible.
The new facility enriches the Liberty Island
visitor’s experience, which has been a frustrat- above sea level, allowing for 500-year-flood glass and concrete building looks out at the
ing one for many: with the most popular (and water levels. And building on an island always back of the Statue and the New York skyline
easiest to obtain) ticket, sightseers are only comes with its challenges; shipping materials beyond. The museum’s prismlike form is bi-
able to walk the grounds, not ascend to the meant that “a $1 million dock showed up on sected by a wide stone stair, leading to a
crown nor enter the old museum (which will our budget sheet,” FXCollaborative partner and prowlike viewing platform that sits adjacent to
be converted into offices for the National Park project designer Nicholas Garrison told record. a green roof of native grasses. (Both the stair
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © DAV I D S U N D B E R G / E S T O

Service) in the podium of the statue—activities
for which tickets are limited. Now anyone
with a ferry ticket to the island can take in the
exhibitions and view the original torch, even
if they can’t climb to the top of the statue.
The project’s origins go back to 2012, when
FXCollaborative interviewed with the Statue of
Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation and presented
the initial concept design. The scheme evolved
as new factors came into play over time. For
example, after Hurricane Sandy hit New York,
the architects raised the museum to 19 feet
(He added that the temporary structure has
remained in place longer than expected, as fish
have made it their spawning grounds.)
The New York–based firm also navigated a
lengthy approvals and design process. Though
the site is under federal jurisdiction, the team
conferred with historic-preservation organiza-
tions in New York and New Jersey, as well as
with the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican
Indians and the Delaware Tribe of Indians,
which have heritage sites on the land.
Embedded in a waterfront-facing berm, the
and plaza are made of Stony Creek granite,
also used in the Richard Morris Hunt–designed
statue pedestal.) Unifying the meadow above
and landscape below, a triangular section of
the green roof folds down toward the ground.
Between the berm and the sharply angled
forms, the structure gives the appearance of
pushing up from the earth. “It’s as if a tectonic
shift created the museum,” says Garrison.
Subtle material choices allow the building’s
context and content to shine. Glazing covers
much of the exterior and, given that the site is
32 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
located on a migratory-bird route, the architects
added a subtle dot frit. Precast panels of dark
concrete frame the sides of the edifice, and
a heavy-gauge copper fascia edges the roof.
Garrison hopes the material is slow to acquire a
green patina: “We don’t actually want to com-
pete with her,” he says, nodding to Lady Liberty.
Upon entering the building, visitors first
encounter the standing-room theater, where a
10-minute film about the Statue’s history is
projected on oversize curved screens. The
COMBINE LIGHT
CONTROLLING TRANSLUCENT PANELS
WITH FIXED GLASS OR OPERABLE WINDOWS FOR
A BEAUTIFUL AND FUNCTIONAL DAYLIGHTING SYSTEM
perspective news
rounded insertion is loosely enclosed by undu-
lating walls of cherry slats, meant to improve
acoustics in the museum’s 15,500-square-foot
interior. In the main exhibition space, arti-
facts—including a full-scale copper model of
the statue’s foot—and interactive media sta-
tions illustrate French sculptor Frédéric-
Auguste Bartholdi’s design and fabrication
process, and explore the larger meaning of
“liberty.” With this experience, ESI president
and principal designer Edwin Schlossberg
CONTROL DAYLIGHT
WITH EYE-CATCHING MIXED
GLAZED WALL SYSTEMS
Digital kiosks allow visitors to add their photos and
reflections about liberty to a collage wall (far left). The
original torch is installed in the “Inspiration Gallery” (left).
explains, his firm aimed to make visitors
realize their individual responsibility for
defining and protecting liberty. “There should
be as many definitions of what liberty is as
there are people,” he says.
The museum visit culminates in a bright,
spare gallery with expansive floor-to-ceiling
windows, where Lady Liberty’s original torch—
removed in 1984 due to water damage and
replaced with an exact replica two years later—
stands against a backdrop of the Statue, the
water, and the Lower Manhattan skyline. “We
really fought for this,” says Garrison, explain-
ing that moving the 3,600-pound torch from its
location inside the statue’s pedestal was a sig-
nificant feat of engineering. To him, the effort
was worth it. “She’s in daylight for the first
time in more than 30 years.”
Beyond showcasing tangible objects from
the Statue of Liberty’s history, the $100 million
project offers visitors the opportunity to con-
sider on a new level the meaning of this iconic
symbol, and to engage deeply with their un-
derstanding of one of this country’s founding
concepts. n
SKYLIGHTS / CANOPIES / WALL SYSTEMS
MAJORSKYLIGHTS.COM
888-759-2678
BUILDINGENVELOPESYSTFORMSHADOWLINETEXTURED
E M AIRSPECWRITINGTHERSPACEGESTUREMOTIFINSPIRE
MALCONSULTATIONSCIENATIONCOLORLIGHTSTYLEDE
C E E N G I N E E R I N G M O I S T USIGNFREEDOMAESTHETICS
REINSTALLATIONOPTIONSSCALECREATIVITYFUNCTION
Achieving a high-performance building envelope can
be a complex, time consuming, often risky proposition.
Not so with CENTRIA on your team. That’s because we
take an entirely different approach as expressed in our
four guiding principles. INTEGRATION A building enve-
lope is made from various components that must func-
tion in unison for high-level and longterm performance.
Every element comprising a CENTRIA building enve-
lope is engineered for precision integration in order to
maintain critical air, water, thermal, and vapor controls,
and to enhance aesthetics. SIMPLICITY With CENTRIA,
a complex multi-component wall composed of 5 or 6
major elements - from as many manufacturers and re-
quiring intensive training and skill of numerous trades (This is where you come in.)
to build - is reduced to a single component, from a sin-
gle manufacturer, installed by a single well-trained and
experienced specialist. BUILDING SCIENCE CENTRIA
building envelope systems perform at the industry’s
highest levels in thermal; air, water, and vapor control;
fire resistance; and resiliency categories and come with
an industry-exclusive single-source performance war-
ranty. CREATIVE FREEDOM CENTRIA gives architects
the widest possible latitude in design - in materials,
form, color, and texture - so that virtually any unique
vision can be fully realized. Partner with CENTRIA on
your next project and remove risk, eliminate burdens
of engineering and detailing, achieve single-source re-
sponsibility, secure a building envelope performance
warranty, and experience newfound freedom to focus
on what you love most - designing a remarkable build-
ing for your client and those who will occupy and enjoy

FIND NEW FREEDOM TO CREATE.

Partner with CENTRIA today and find new freedom to

create remarkable buildings of tomorrow.
Visit CENTRIA.com/Freedom
 perspective news

Films Bring a “Blueprint for

Better” to AIA Conference
BY DANTE A. CIAMPAGLIA

This monTh, AIA Conference on

Architecture 2019 attendees
shuffling between keynotes and
workshops would be wise to
budget a few extra minutes be-
tween sessions—to catch a movie.
The Westgate Resort & Casino’s
Pavilion Four will host a 32-film
program, organized by the AIA
and the Architecture & Design
Film Festival (ADFF), called the
Blueprint for Better Film Series,
highlighting architects’ roles in
improving the places where
people live. More than 20 of the
films are no longer than five
minutes, with some starting as
early as 8 a.m., to “accommodate
Designed to Last: Blueprint for a Better Home
more of that conference sched-
(top) will premier at AIA ’19. Also screening is
ule,” says ADFF founder and 2018 AIA Film Challenge winner Past/Presence:
festival director Kyle Bergman. Saving the Spring Garden School (above).
There are four short-film
programs—Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion; Design & Culture; Urbanism &
Housing; and Resilient & Healthy Communities—and a few features. The
series is organized around the AIA’s year-long Blueprint for Better cam-
paign, which encourages architects to collaborate with civic and elected
leaders and, through initiatives like the film series, aims to promote the
perception of design professionals as thought leaders.
That mission is certainly reflected in the films. Premiering at the con-
ference, Designed to Last: Blueprint for a Better Home focuses on how architect
Illya Azaroff is addressing climate change by designing a resilient, sustain-
able house in Queens, New York, for a resident whose home was destroyed
by Hurricane Sandy.
Also screening is Past/Presence: Saving the Spring Garden School, which
details the adaptive reuse of Philadelphia’s Spring Garden School as afford-
able housing for veterans and seniors—after it stood abandoned for nearly
40 years. The documentary won the 2018 AIA Film Challenge, an annual
program that invites architects and filmmakers to submit short videos
about design professionals making a positive impact on their cities.
Another film, Caño Martin Peña: A Blueprint for Better, presents a powerful
record of the work done by architects, including Jonathan Marvel (record,
September 2018), to help a devastated Puerto Rico community recover
from Hurricane Maria. The film, which premiered last year, doubles as a
I M AG E S : C O U R T E S Y A I A F I L M C H A L L E N G E

kind of ad for the AIA’s Blueprint initiative.

And playing at Eclipse Theaters—a few miles away from the main con-
ference sites, in an attempt to engage the broader Las Vegas community—
a feature-length documentary called The Experimental City will dive into
a never-built utopian project planned for the woods of northern Minne-
apolis in the 1960s.
The Blueprint for Better series chronicles how architects and designers
have confronted a host of civic and environmental challenges, while giving
the professionals descending on Las Vegas a taste of the ADFF they might
not get otherwise. “The goal of the AIA Film Challenge is the same as the
goal of the ADFF: to use film to broaden the conversation about architecture
and design,” Bergman tells record. “We align really well in that respect.” n
36 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
perspective news

OMA-Designed Sotheby’s Opens

BY JOSEPHINE MINUTILLO
when sotheby’s unveiled its revamped New
York headquarters last month, the art installa-
tions within the new galleries rivaled any in
the venerated museums—the Met, Met Breuer,
Frick, Guggenheim—within walking distance
of it on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. But the
275-year-old auction house isn’t competing with
those neighboring institutions. “The art market
is changing so rapidly and substantially,” says
Allan Schwartzman, Sotheby’s executive vice
president and chairman of the fine-art division.
“We envision programming well beyond the
historical core of our business.”
Sotheby’s had been considering leaving its
home of nearly 20 years, a 10-story building
that covers an entire city block, for a move to
Midtown. Says Schwartzman, “There were
fundamental limitations to displaying art in,
and moving through, our building,”—a four-
story former factory onto which six stories
found a way to embed col-
umns in walls, or, when
visible, to become a promi-
nent feature of the
architecture.”
“Brands reach out to archi-
tects when they are
rethinking their brand,” says
Shigematsu. “So it’s about
much more than the architec-
ture.” Here, though, in OMA’s
first major gallery space in
the U.S., the architectural In the double-height gallery on the ground floor, original concrete columns are
moves—in some cases drastic, exposed (top). Elsewhere, columns are enclosed within 4½-foot-thick walls (above).
like slicing through floor
slabs to create double-height galleries, in others million project includes 40 new galleries of 20
subtle, such as lining the thresholds into gallery distinct types—from white cube to enfilade,
clusters with custom-stained walnut panels in a octagonal, and L-shaped—that range in size and
nod to Sotheby’s London—offer the auction materials to respond to different sales, exhibi-
house ideal ways to show art and luxury goods tions, and events, and allow the auction house P H O T O G R A P H Y: © B R E T T B E Y E R

were added in a 2001 project by KPF. Sotheby’s
engaged several architects to develop designs
for a new space it had selected, but also to
reimagine its existing building—in order to
convince the board that a move was necessary.
Ironically, the scheme by OMA NY partner
Shohei Shigematsu convinced them otherwise.
“There are columns every 20 feet on the lower
levels,” Schwartzman explains. “But Shohei
in isolation and in broader combination. All
galleries were moved to the lower four levels,
increasing exhibition space from 67,000 to over
90,000 square feet. The new configuration is
more welcoming to the public and eliminates
the bottleneck of traffic to what had been its
premiere exhibition space on the 10th floor,
which will be converted to offices. “There’s no
hierarchy now,” notes Schwartzman. The $55
to easily and frequently change out shows with-
out disrupting other galleries or building
temporary walls. “Flexibility is provided
through diversity,” says Shigematsu.
Adds Schwartzman, “Having these rede-
signed galleries positions us to be able to grow
the business in ways that we don’t even know
about, but that will be needs of the near and
further future.” n
EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO SEE,
NOTHING YOU DON’T

Now your hand dryer, soap dispenser and paper towel dispenser can be hidden.

ASI’s exclusive Velare™ Behind the Mirror cabinet, Piatto™ washroom accessories
and Alpaco™ partitions are the most revolutionary solutions in half a century.
Everything you want to see, nothing you don’t. It will change the way you design
restrooms. See how at www.americanspecialties.com/vpa or call 914.476.9000.
38 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
New York’s Big Buildings May Soon Curb Carbon Emissions
BY RONDA KAYSEN
On April 18, the New York City Council
passed an ambitious package of climate-
change bills—legislation that imposes strict
rules on the city’s larger buildings, requiring
them to drastically curb carbon emissions.
The centerpiece of the eight-bill Climate
Mobilization Act is aimed at new and existing
buildings larger than 25,000 square feet; it
requires owners to cut emissions by 40 percent
by 2030, and 80 percent by 2050. Failure to
comply will mean owners face steep fines—
$1 million a year for the largest properties.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who may run for presi-
dent in 2020, is expected to sign the legislation
in the coming weeks and has touted it as a
Green New Deal for New York, one that could
forge a path for other cities to follow.
“This is the first city in the world, that I
know of, that has placed significant carbon
emission caps on this many buildings,” said
John M. Mandyck, chief executive officer of the
Urban Green Council (UGC), a New York City
advocacy group for sustainable buildings. His
comments echo those of Mayor de Blasio, who,
GOT Q’S
ABOUT
CUSTOM
WORK?
CUSTOM-MADE LUNA RACKS
AT THE Q21 BUILDING
S I T E FU R N I S H I NGS
Learn more at: Huntco.com
perspective news
in a late-April interview on MSNBC’s Morning
Joe, called the new rules “the first of any major
city on the Earth to say to building owners,
‘You’ve got to clean up your act, you’ve got to
retrofit, you’ve got to save energy.”
However, other cities have also singled out
building emissions in their climate policies, to
varying degrees. In 2010, Tokyo enacted a
cap-and-trade program for its 1,400 largest
buildings. In a Washington, D.C., climate law
passed in January, the city set energy bench-
marks for its largest buildings, although
specific targets have not been set. And, last
year, California passed a law requiring build-
ings to reduce emissions by 40 percent below
1990 levels by 2030.
New York pledged in its 2016 “Roadmap to
80x50” report to meet the Paris Climate
Agreement targets to reduce emissions by 80
percent by 2050. The Climate Mobilization Act
builds on this and other existing rules, like
the city benchmarking law, which requires
large buildings to measure and report energy
and water consumption.
Some 67 percent of carbon emissions in the
city come from the built environment, and the
Urban Green Council estimates that about 60
percent of New York’s 1 million buildings are
25,000 square feet or larger. The new legisla-
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © M I C H A E L A P P L E T O N / M AYO R A L P H O T O G R A P H Y
tion makes specific, and expensive, demands
on these larger buildings. Mark Chambers, the
director of the mayor’s Office of Sustainability,
estimates the work could cost property owners
a total of $4 billion as buildings replace or
retrofit windows, roofs, and heating and cool-
ing systems.
But the bill does make some exceptions.
Public housing, houses of worship, and apart-
ment buildings with rent-regulated units would
be exempt from the emissions caps, and instead
have to meet softer targets and implement pre-
scriptive fixes like insulating pipes. The Real
Estate Board of New York (REBNY) opposes the
legislation for excluding so many buildings from
the requirements and setting emission stan-
dards that it says could inhibit business growth.
The legislation “does not take a comprehen-
sive, city-wide approach needed to solve this
IMAGE: THOMASTEAL.COM
TWITTER
@HuntcoSupply
INSTAGRAM
@Huntco

complex issue,” REBNY president John H.
Banks said in a statement.
The Climate Mobilization Act includes an
advisory board to recommend policy changes
as the law rolls out. It also allows buildings to
trade carbon credits and encourages building
owners to buy renewable sources of energy, in
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
New York’s Green New Deal at
Hunter’s Point South Park in
Queens on Earth Day 2019.
an effort to shift the city
away from fossil fuels. Other
new rules would require
green roofs or solar panels on
new construction and major
retrofits.
In a speech on Earth Day,
Mayor de Blasio singled out
glass skyscrapers as a major
source of pollution. “We are
going to introduce legislation
to ban the glass-and-steel
skyscrapers that have con-
tributed so much to global
warming,” he said, standing
on the Queens shoreline.
“They have no place in our
city or on our Earth anymore.”
Chambers from the mayor’s office back-
pedaled de Blasio’s comments, however, telling
record, “No one is saying that no one is going
to use glass material anymore. What we’re
saying is we have to be as thoughtful as pos-
sible about our mass and glass ratios.”
39
REBNY’s Banks pushed back against criti-
cism of glass towers in a May 1 op-ed in Real
Estate Weekly, writing, “We must not forget that
a building’s rate of energy use and efficiency is
not dictated by the material found in its fa-
cade—far from it.”
The mayor may be able to implement design
changes through the city’s revised energy code
for new construction, expected by the end of
the year, according to UGC’s Mandyck. “We’re
waiting to see any proposals,” he said in an
e-mail. “So we simply don’t know if it will be
part of the code—and, if so, how—or separate
legislation.”
Chambers also pointed to the energy code
as a way to implement such changes, saying
that the mayor “wants our energy code to be
even stronger.” He added that he would like
to see more buildings employ better glazing
technology to improve envelope efficiency; use
more photovoltaic glass; and consider alternate
materials.
“There is one single archetype that has domi-
nated, and that is solely floor-to-ceiling curtain
wall,” Chambers said. “If we’re going to see
glass, we’re going to see the highest performing
glass, ushering in a new phase where we’re not
designing buildings from the inside out.” n
Visit Renlita at A’19
Booth #6711
RENLITA
Custom Opening Solutions
Custom designed vertically
operable opening systems
renlitausa.com
T: 903-583-7500
40 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
[ NEWSMAKER ]
Sarah Whiting
BY HEATHER CORCORAN
In AprIl, the Harvard Graduate School of
Design (GSD) named Sarah Whiting its incom­
ing dean, making her the first woman to lead
the GSD since its founding in 1936. The post
marks a return to Harvard for Whiting, who
taught at the GSD early in her career, prior to
joining the faculty at Princeton University
School of Architecture and becoming dean of
the Rice School of Architecture in 2010.
Whiting replaces Mohsen Mostafavi, who
stepped down after 11 years (record, Decem­
ber 2018), during which he expanded the GSD’s
programming and student body. Whiting—a
2011 Women in Architecture
award­winner—brings a per­
spective rooted in her own
interdisciplinary journey as an
academic, author, and practic­
ing professional at the helm of
WW Architecture, the firm
she founded with her husband,
Ron Witte, in 1999.
Ahead of her arrival at the
GSD on July 1, record spoke
with Whiting about her plans
for the school and the future
of architecture education.
After almost a decade at
Rice, you take the reins at the
GSD next month. What’s on your mind?
It’s bittersweet to leave Rice, because it’s a
very busy moment. We’ve just announced a
new building annex and almost reached our
fundraising goal. But I’m super excited. The
congratulations that have poured in are both
overwhelming and humbling.
You’ve highlighted Rice’s small size as one
of its strengths. How are you approaching the
much larger GSD, with some 900 students?
Scaling up is exciting. The GSD is a collec­
tion of programs [architecture, landscape
architecture, urban planning and design, etc.]
as opposed to a single school. The key is un­
derstanding how to leverage the size and
optimize those programs. But my goals and
plans are still developing. I was at the school
15 years ago, so I wouldn’t want to assume I
know it well enough now to be able to say,
‘These are the things the school needs.’ I’m
looking forward to figuring out what those
things are.
What issues should the GSD be discussing,
both at Harvard and beyond?
The beautiful thing about architecture is
that it touches so many issues. One of the
things Mohsen did very well was to bring the
perspectivenews
GSD into Harvard’s larger orbit. Design is
affected by and affects climate change, so
from that scale to specific issues like micro­
housing and the sharing economy, which both
have their pluses and minuses—those are the
problems that engage the rest of the univer­
sity in terms of politics, technology, and that
engage different parts of the world.
The U.S. doesn’t value design in the same
way some other cultures do, but the GSD can
help influence that. I think there’s a certain
responsibility to help advance the world that
comes with such a platform.
Representation is a pressing topic within
the field—in academia and in practice—and,
recently, a wave of women has stepped into
leadership at architecture schools. How do you
see your role as a member of this group?
When you mention repre­
sentation, I confess, my first
thought was tools of repre­
senting—drawing, models—
which is an interesting topic. I
don’t automatically think of
my gender. I have a very inter­
disciplinary background that
includes urbanism, history,
and theory. I think I represent
diversity, but maybe intellec­
tual diversity more than
anything else.
Traditionally, architecture
deans are chosen for either
important books they have
written or important buildings they’ve com­
pleted. How do you see your experience fitting
into this tradition?
You mean, what’s my book or what’s my
building? Or what I have in lieu of that. I’m
one of many people in this field who approach
the world through writing and design,
through different scales of architecture and
urbanism, through history and theory, which
I think are two different things, and criticism,
which is yet another.
My firm has designed a table, we’ve de­
signed houses, but we’ve also worked on urban
plans. The same is true in academia—I’ve
taught history, theory focused on a specific
writer, studio. So I’ve benefited from a fluidity
that is actually still hard to get away with.
Decades from now, what do you hope your
legacy at the GSD will be?
I hope it’s a combination of focus—deep
projects—and breadth. It goes back to my own
profile as someone who does a bit of every­
thing—long­term projects and broader, faster,
cross­disciplined projects. If the school can
recognize those two tempos, and the value of
both tempos, that can generate a lot of impor­
tant work. n
noted
Docomomo US Honors Gateway
Arch Museum in St. Louis
On June 19, the preservation­focused nonprofit
will confer the Civic Design Award of Excellence
on the restored museum and grounds (record,
July 2018) at the base of Eero Saarinen’s 1967
landmark. The design team included Cooper
Robertson, James Carpenter Design Associates,
Trivers, and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.
Harvard Announces 2019
Wheelwright Prize Winner
On May 10, the Graduate School of Design named
Polish­born U.S.­based architect Aleksandra
Jaeschke the winner of its seventh annual award
to early­career architects for travel­based research.
The prize comes with a $100,000 grant. Jaeschke
codirected the firm AION in Italy from 2008–13.
Adjaye Associates Wins Art and
Cultural Center Commission in India
David Adjaye’s firm was selected in early May to
design the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art & Cultural
Center in New Delhi. The privately funded
institution will exhibit modern and contemporary
work from India and provide a venue for dance,
music, and educational events.
Brazilian Project Achieves First
LEED Zero Certification
In late April, the 4,700­square­foot headquarters of
Petinelli, an engineering and green­construction
consulting firm in the Brazilian city of Curitiba,
became the first building to certify with LEED
Zero. The standard, unveiled in 2018 as a
complement to LEED, recognizes projects that
achieve net zero carbon, energy, water, and waste.
60
60 59 60 61
57
50
55
52
51 51 51
40
A M J J A S O N D J F M A
2018 2019
INQUIRIES BILLINGS
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © K I L LY
Billings Rebound After March Dip
The Architectural Billings Index showed modest
growth in April, according to the AIA’s latest data,
rising to 50.5 from 47.8 in March. (Scores over 50
indicate an increase in firm billings.) Inquiries
into new work and the value of new design
contracts also rose, to 60.9 and 52.1, respectively.
 DREAM IT. SEE IT. BELIEVE IT.

When you first visualize Lorin’s

Stainless Anodized Aluminum you can
see the rich hues of bronze and grey
and enjoy the deep metallic reflection,
depending on the color you choose.
Lorin’s anodized stainless finish is not
a coating. Coatings just wear away.
Anodizing is an electro- chemical
process that builds an anodic layer
from the aluminum, thus protecting
the aluminum from the elements as
well as everyday use. Lorin’s Anodized
Stainless Collection delivers the
absolutely stunning appearance
that you require with demanding
applications such as consumer goods,
architectural, and transportation.
So come and take a look at Lorin’s
Stainless Anodized Aluminum ...

Polished, powerful, and dynamic.

That’s the beauty of anodized.

REFLECT YOUR VISION.

www.lorin.com | 800.654.1159

LORIN
 HEADING TO VEGAS FOR AIA

Come visit ARCAT at the 2019 Expo on Architecture.

Stamps & Coffee We are sponsoring the AIA show Passport and the
Architectural Products Magazine Hybrid Automobile Sweepstakes. So, stop by for
your stamps and a cup of coffee to keep you going through the day.

Stop by any time to learn how ARCAT.com can save you time and money finding
product information for your projects. Even if you are trying to find another exhibitor,
stop by, ARCAT will help you find them!

ARCAT will be hosting a trio of podcasters at AIA in Las Vegas.

Come see them live! Booth 5735 - June 7th - 12:00pm.
735
H5
OT
BO

“JUST LOOK FOR THE BIG RED A”

It’s like the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue,
but for Western Red Cedar.
Real Cedar’s Cedar Book Volume XII is now available
featuring the supermodels of homes and buildings
designed with one of the world’s most beautiful and
versatile building materials: Western Red Cedar.

DOWNLOAD OR ORDER YOUR FREE CEDAR BOOK TODAY

realcedar.com /cedarbook

Long Beach Residence by Lucid Architecture

Submit your products for recognition!

2019 Record
Products
of the Year
Submit your entries for
Architectural Record’s Products
of the Year Awards, which
salute the best building
materials introduced to the U.S.
market after August 15, 2018.

A panel of architects and

designers will judge the
submissions on the basis of
innovation, usefulness, and
aesthetics. Winners will be
published in the December
2019 issue of RECORD.
Pictured: Window product winner, 2018, Convex Circles
Grande by Nathan Allan Glass Studios

DEADLINE TO ENTER:
SEPTEMBER 6
Enter online:
architecturalrecord.com/call4entries
Pilkington Energy Advantage™

Low-E 4th Surface Technology

Durability is critical for coatings applied to the 4th surface of an
IGU. Pilkington Energy Advantage™ is a proven
durable, pyrolitic coating that is ideal for improving
U-factor when applied to the 4th surface.

1.800.221.0444 buildingproducts.pna@nsg.com www.pilkington.us

 works. beautifully.

The elegance and reliability of Swiss design, built Chicago Tough. Our faucets enhance your restroom design.
They also keep looking good – and operating reliably – through many thousands of uses. Because when you
come right down to it, good design is nothing without great function. chicagofaucets.com
 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
How to Fix a Fragile Planet
The Cooper Hewitt Triennial showcases the transformative
potential of multidisciplinary design.
BY PILAR VILADAS
Can design save the planet? Judging by the
I M AG E S : C O U R T E S Y M A S S D E S I G N G R O U P ( T O P ) ; © T E R R E F O R M O N E ( B O T T O M )
more than 60 projects that are shown in
Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial,
which is on view at the Cooper Hewitt,
National Design Museum through January
20, 2020, there is definite cause for opti-
mism. The exhibition, which was jointly
organized by the Cooper Hewitt and the
Cube design museum in Kerkade, the
Netherlands—and which will be presented
simultaneously at both museums—illus-
trates the ways in which designers are
working with scientists, engineers, and
environmentalists to solve the crises stem-
ming from climate change, environmental
pollution, and other man-made problems.
The Triennial, developed by a team that
includes Caitlin Condell, Andrea Lipps, and
Matilda McQuaid from the Cooper Hewitt,
and Gene Bertrand and Hans Gubbels of
Cube, is organized into seven sections:
Understand, Simulate, Salvage, Facilitate,
Augment, Remediate, and Nurture, each of
perspectiveexhibition 47
which describes specific strategies for work-
ing with nature.
A number of projects propose architec-
tural solutions. In the Rwanda Institute for
Conservation Agriculture, by MASS Design
Group (winners of a 2017 National Design
Award), landscape and architecture help
train young people to be leaders of conserva-
tion agriculture, employing the One Health
concept, which links human, animal, and
environmental health. The Monarch
Sanctuary, a project by Mitchell Joachim and
Vivian Kuan of the nonprofit research group
Terreform ONE, proposes a New York build-
ing with a double-glass facade. Inside the
cavity between its two skins is a 30,000-
square-foot sanctuary—in the form of a
vertical meadow with regulated temperature
and humidity—where threatened butterflies
can breed during their annual migration.
The exhibition includes numerous Among the architectural solutions in the exhibition is a campus
by Mass Design Group for a Rwandan institute that aims to train
examples of materials research. The Bio- agricultural entrepreneurs (top) and a Monarch Sanctuary by
receptive Concrete Panels by London-based Terreform ONE housed within a double-skin facade (above).
 perspectiveexhibition
industrial
evolution

Curiosity Cloud, by mischer’traxler studio, comprises hanging blown-glass bulbs. Each

contains a hand-fabricated insect that starts to fly around as a person approaches.

Marcos Cruz, Richard Beckett, and Javier Ruiz are made of concrete
with a low pH that supports the growth of small plants like moss, with-
out requiring expensive irrigation. Fantasma, a long garment made of
Sonar IL7800 glowing transgenic silk, demonstrates how nature, craft, and engineer-
ing can amplify each other. The piece, a product of Japanese art and
science, was created by the Tokyo design studio AnotherFarm, the
Tsukuba-based National Agricultural and Research Organization, and
the Kyoto-based textile manufacturer Hosoo; the silk has been engi-
neered by injecting silkworm eggs with coral DNA so that it glows. And
the designer Fernando Laposse’s Totomoxtle is a new material made
from the variously (and richly) colored husks of heirloom Mexican corn,
a crop threatened by industrial agriculture in that country. The husks
are pressed onto a paper or textile backing, and cut into small pieces to
create a marquetry that can be used for furniture or interior surfaces,
like the wall panels in the exhibition.
One of the Triennial’s most intriguing combinations of design and
Kone KLP34 bioengineering is the Origami Membrane for 3D Organ Engineering, a
collaboration between the inventor Chuck Hoberman and researchers
at the interdisciplinary Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engi-
neering at Harvard, including Richard Novak, Elizabeth Calamari,
Sauveur Jeanty, and Donald Ingber, the institute’s founding director. An
inflatable foldable-membrane structure filled with hydrogels that con-

P H O T O G R A P H Y: M AT T F LY N N © S M I T H S O N I A N I N S T I T U T I O N
tain organ cells is now being tested on kidney cells, for use outside the
body as a portable dialysis device.
Among the more conceptual projects, the Madrid-based Ensamble
Studio’s Petrified River, which is set in the museum’s garden, is a com-
position in concrete—a “hill” and a “pond,” with a 40-foot “river”
between them—that is a metaphor for what the architects call “the rich
Luma IL793
landscape that Manhattan once was, when it was known as Mannahatta
or ‘island of many hills.’ ” An equally poetic installation is the Austrian
studio mischer’traxler’s Curiosity Cloud, a series of hanging blown-
glass bulbs, each of which contains a hand-fabricated insect that starts
to fly around (thanks to a concealed circuit board and infrared sensor)
when someone approaches it. The 23 species shown (both native and
invasive) are North American, and they reveal, the designers say, “how
fragile, dependent, and important” the coexistence among species is.
These and other projects, and the prodigious amount of creative and
scientific talent on display in the Triennial, offer hope for the future of
delraylighting.com all the earth’s living things. n
Real projects start with
the industry standard
Before construction began, CBT protected
Natixis Investment Managers’ new
headquarters in Boston with AIA contracts.
AIA Contract Documents used: B152-Owner/Architect-Interior and FF&E Design.
Learn more about the Natixis project at aiacontracts.org/ar-natixis

© Robert Benson Photography

 SIGNATURE COLLECTION
ELEVATE COLLECTION

ESSENTIAL COLLECTION

MANY POSSIBILITIES.
ONE MARVIN.
Marvin and Integrity products are now organized into three
collections under one Marvin brand. Easier navigation makes
selecting what you need for any project simple and efficient.
More complementary colors and styles across lines help
bring your vision to life. It’s the same beautiful, high-quality
window and door portfolio, reorganized to help you create
anything you can imagine.

Discover the Marvin difference at marvin.com

©2019 Marvin Lumber and Cedar Co., LLC. All rights reserved.
®Registered trademark of Marvin Lumber and Cedar Co., LLC.
 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
perspectivehouse of the month 51

A NIMBLE ADDITION PLAYS OFF THE CHARACTER AND FORMS OF A MODEST

LOS ANGELES BUNGALOW BY SARAH AMELAR

The front facade

suggests a single
unified composition
and, at the same
time, two separate
volumes: the old and
the new (above). The
open-plan living
spaces (far right)
spill out onto the
rear deck (right).

9
1 ENTRANCE 5 EXISTING Architect KAty bArKAn’s renovation-expansion of a 1940s bungalow in Los
2 DINING/ POOL Angeles is full of nuanced paradox. Like the attention-catching rays of an aster-
8
KITCHEN 6 MASTER isk, the crisp, radiating lines of her addition—its roof ridges and troughs—con-
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © J O S H UA W H I T E P H O T O G R A P H Y

3 LIVING BEDROOM verge mid-facade, where the house’s existing and new sections meet. Yet the
7 BEDROOM
extension is also quiet, almost deferential: a pale-gray monolith that picks up
4 EXISTING
the low-rise cadence of this residential streetscape. “It simultaneously stands
GARAGE/ 8 LOUNGE
SECOND-FLOOR PLAN out and fits in,” says Barkan, who teaches architectural design at UCLA. With
CABANA 9 BATHROOM this inaugural project of her firm, Now Here, she has embraced the language of
Los Angeles’ ubiquitous, modest single-family house, yet deftly subverted it,
9 engaging its material palette and construction methods while nimbly tweaking
6
its familiar forms.
3
5 1 The result is “1/2 House.” Or perhaps it should be called half-and-half house—
or one/two house, since its exterior composition toggles between being one
2
4 volume or two. The original Monopoly-piece bungalow and its side-by-side
addition—both stucco-clad, balloon-frame construction with asphalt-shingled
pitched roofs—merge compatibly, while remaining distinct in color, form, and
0 20 FT.
GROUND-FLOOR PLAN character. Most striking is the new roof’s inversion, with its V-shaped valley,
6 M.
52 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
perspectivehouse of the month
Inside, the house’s new and existing (now gut-
renovated) sections are joined by a gap: a lozenge-
shaped, clerestory-lit area overhead.
instead of a peaking ridge. This geometric
feat—almost imperceptibly sweeping up into
a new second story toward the back—allows
for vertical expansion (plus excellent drain-
age) without disrupting the streetscape’s
scale and gabled rhythms. The new facade
essentially ends in half a gable (inspiring the
name “1/2 House”), gesturing toward the
upswing of the neighboring peak.
The composite facade of the original bun-
galow—now charcoal-colored and pared
down in its details—with its lighter-gray
counterpart has a solidity that makes the
experience of crossing the threshold quite
unexpected. The newly centered front door
opens into a soaring, luminous space: there,
daylit from above, the house’s two parts are
joined by a rift—as if the overlap of two solid
forms resulted in a lozenge-shaped area of
glowing transparency.
“We wanted to draw in the feeling of the
front stoop, where we’ve always hung out
with our neighbors,” says Dev Larks, a nurse
(and Barkan’s sister), who commissioned the
project with her husband, Roosevelt Larks, a
TV-industry grip and voice-over actor. “Our
door is rarely closed. We love to entertain.”
Now the interior space, and breezes,
flow from the entrance, across the open
kitchen and slightly skewed living room, out
through sliding glass doors to the backyard
and swimming pool. (The living room had
to veer off the orthogonal to provide
code-required clearance for the existing
freestanding garage at back, currently used
as a cabana—but that modest bend in plan
gives the rear of the house more privacy.)
The master suite is on the ground floor,
beneath the inverted roof, and, upstairs,
toward the yard, bedrooms for the couple’s
two teenage daughters share a lounge over-
looking the main living areas.
“That view down was important to us,”
says Dev Larks, “even though we expanded
our house from 1,150 to 2,400 square feet,
we wanted to preserve the sense of being
together and connected.”
Since the bungalow’s transformation, she
adds, “people often stop their cars, snap
photos, and shout, ‘I love your house!’ ” It’s
also been a great calling card for Barkan,
bringing in work from the neighborhood
and beyond. n

YEAR YEAR
FINISH LIMITED
WARRANTY WARRANTY

LOUVERS THAT
PERFORM. BEAUTIFULLY.
With a wide variety of styles, sizes and finishes, Ruskin®
louvers and architectural solutions provide an aesthetically
pleasing answer to fresh air intake and exhaust. Backed by
20-year finish and 5-year limited warranties, they’re also
incredibly well-engineered with performance-enhancing
design features you won’t find anywhere else.

From louvers and dampers to air measuring systems,

sunshades and ERVs, Ruskin continues to lead the industry
with innovative air and architectural solutions backed by
Contact your local Ruskin representative, in-depth design and engineering support.
or visit ruskin.com for more information.
Partner with Benjamin Moore.
Spec any Project with Ease.
Visit www.benjaminmoore.com/SpecTools for more information.

©2019 Benjamin Moore & Co. Benjamin Moore, and the triangle “M” symbol are registered
trademarks licensed to Benjamin Moore & Co. 3/19
 GUESS THE ARCHITECT
WIN AN IPAD MINI

PHOTOGRAPHY: © 2CANDLE AT ENGLISH WIKIPEDIA

TAKE A LOOK ON PAGE 63

ENTER @ ARCHITECTURALRECORD.COM/GUESSTHEARCHITECT

Sponsored by:

FOR COMPLETE RULES AND REGULATIONS GO TO ARCHITECTURALRECORD.COM/GUESSTHEARCHITECT

JUDGE Foot traffic creates problems moisture loves to exploit. Nobody knows that more
than you. With DensDeck® Prime Roof Board with EONIC™ Technology, design in

EVERY optimal protection of roof assembly components from crews and maintenance,
the demands of solar installations and the impact of rooftop events. And get your

ROOF customers one step closer to fulfilling their risk mitigation strategy.

BY ITS Properly designed means properly protected.

COVER Build on what you know.

Visit DensDeck.com

©2019 GP Gypsum LLC. DensDeck, EONIC and the Georgia-Pacific logo are trademarks owned by or licensed to GP Gypsum LLC.
 LINE
L I N E Landscape Panels
A new medium with which to delineate
space, provide enclosure, and express
your unique vision.
“Contextual minimalism is about defining
the edges of a project. It’s about creating
a design within the space.”
— Shane Coen
Designed by
Shane Coen | Coen+Partners
Find us at landscapeforms.com or
contact us toll free at 800.430.6205.
 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
perspective landscape
A NEW PUBLIC PARK IN THE HEART OF MILAN RIFFS ON THE TRADITIONAL
BOTANICAL GARDEN BY ALEX KLIMOSKI
from the landscape design for OMA’s CCTV Tower in Beijing and
Qatar National Library in Doha to dynamic textile creations for cul-
tural, educational, and retail interiors around the globe, the work of
Dutch landscape and interior-architecture firm Inside Outside is
notable for a strong graphic quality. This hallmark underlies the
firm’s design for a new public park in Milan that, when viewed from
above, appears as a patchwork of viridescent trapezoids and circles, as
well as bold patterns.
PHOTOGRAPHY © ANDREA CHERCHI
Named the Biblioteca degli Alberi, or “library of trees,” for its rich
horticultural variety, the rectilinear park sits on a formerly derelict
plot of city-owned land in the Giardini di Porta Nuova area at the
intersection of residential, government, and commercial districts
and transit hubs. Inside Outside, along with a multidisciplinary team
that included urban planner Mirko Zardini and Michael Maltzan
Architecture, won the municipal competition for the park in 2003,
but political and financial setbacks delayed its opening until last
October. While the project was on hold, the surrounding area devel-
oped dramatically; nonetheless, more than a decade later, the team
57
The park’s design incorporates a network of pathways that connect pedestrians and
cyclists to multiple areas and surrounding points of interest.
found their original concept still to be relevant. “The idea was always
to connect all the different areas around the park,” says firm founder
Petra Blaisse, “so we drew an efficient web of paths linking the vari-
ous points.”
Besides providing access for pedestrians and cyclists to surrounding
neighborhoods, the walkways intersect at varying angles, forming a
mosaic of irregularly shaped and multitextured fields between. Each
of these individual botanic gardens, as Blaisse refers to them, is plant-
ed with a different composition of flora, from herbs, shrubs, and roses
to bamboo and aquatic plants. Some of the larger open, grassy patches
are suitable for markets and events, while others provide areas for
contemplation, play, or even have mazelike walkways. A series of
ring-shaped stands of uniform trees—or circular forests—are pro-
grammed atop the dominant grid, “scattered like confetti,” says
Blaisse, with each “embodying a sort of pavilion or room that you can
58 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
perspective landscape

Circular formations of trees appear throughout the park,

each composed of a single, different plant species (above),
as are borders between meandering walkways (right).

inhabit and use as a protective space.” Like

the fields, each of the rings is made up of a
different single species.
As with all of Inside Outside’s projects,
activating the built environment with a
range of strategies was the core consideration
of the park’s planning and design. At the
Biblioteca degli Alberi, the firm has over-
lapped layers of program and visual cues to
create a choose-your-own adventure of sorts,
which will become more spatially rich once
the landscaping grows in. The park has not
yet experienced its first summer, but with
areas for children, dogs and their owners,
places to sit, and different conditions for
exploration, it has already been energetically
received. “You can make it as complex or as
simple as you wish,” says Blaisse. “It’s all one
big story.” n
Partner with Benjamin Moore.
Spec any Project with Ease.
Visit www.benjaminmoore.com/SpecTools for more information.

©2019 Benjamin Moore & Co. Benjamin Moore, and the triangle “M” symbol are registered
trademarks licensed to Benjamin Moore & Co. 3/19
Academy of Digital Learning
Focus On: Glass and Glazing
Become an expert on Glass and Glazing through Architectural Record’s
Academy of Digital Learning.

Upon successful completion of the Glass and Glazing Academy, you will earn 9 AIA LU/HSW +
1 AIA LU/Elective and a digital badge that demonstrates your mastery and achievement.

Earn your digital badge and showcase your expertise!

ce.architecturalrecord.com/academies/nga

Brought to you by
 DISCOVER THE SMART
SOLUTION PLUS
877.738.3711
SEVESGLASSBLOCK.COM
INQUIRY@SEVESGLASSBLOCK.COM
 The Park at OWA, Foley, AL
Installing contractor: Reelentless Construction
Architect: STOA Architects
Distributor: Roofers Mart Southeast
Photographer: hortonphotoinc.com
Profiles: Snap-Clad w/striations, PAC-850 soffit, 7/8” corrugated
Colors: Hemlock Green, Cityscape, Terra Cotta, Sierra Tan

Attract Attention
“This park is in a high-wind district, and metal
roofing just tends to hold up better than anything
else. And with metal, you get the look – it’s more
and more popular every day. ”
-Billy Landry, project manager, estimator, Reelentless Construction

Case Study at PAC-CL AD.COM/PARK-OWA

NEW
PHOENIX PAC-CLAD.COM | INFO@PAC-CLAD.COM
PL ANT

WEST COAST IL: 800 PAC CLAD MD: 800 344 1400 TX: 800 441 8661
DELIVERY GA: 800 272 4482 MN: 877 571 2025 AZ: 833 750 1935

See us at A’19 – booth 6416

Proud sponsor of the ARCHITECTUR AL RECORD GUES S THE ARCHITECT

 63

Guess the Architect Contest

ENTER NOW! A monthly contest from the editors of RecoRd asks you to
guess the architect for a building of historical importance.
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © 2 C A N D L E AT E N G L I S H W I K I P E D I A ( T O P ) ; A LT S AC H S E / W I K I M E D I A C O M M O N S ( B O T T O M )

CLUE: A MIXED-USE COMPLEX FEATURING TWO CYLINDRICAL APARTMENT TOWERS

WAS DESIGNED BY AN AMERICAN-BORN ARCHITECT WHO STUDIED AT THE BAUHAUS
IN BERLIN WITH MIES VAN DER ROHE. THE APARTMENTS’ SCAL LOPED BALCONIES
AND WEDGE-SHAPED ROOMS SEEMED ESPECIALLY SURPRISING IN VIEW OF HIS
EARLY TRAINING IN RATIONALIST, RECTILINEAR PLANNING.

The former Schocken department store in Chemnitz, Germany, was designed by Erich
Mendelsohn, a Berlin-based architect known for his Expressionist Eisenstein Tower (1921)
in Potsdam, Germany. The store, one of several Mendelsohn designed for the Schocken
company, maintains its original streamlined aura with a sensitive recent conversion into
the State Museum of Archeology Chemnitz.

By entering, you have a chance to win an iPad mini.

See the complete rules and entry form online at architecturalrecord.com/guessthearchitect.
 IS AN EXCELLENT
CHOICE FOR ANY
GREEN BUILDING
PROJECT

Products certified to Using wood products from responsibly managed

forests is key to any green building project.
SFI are recognized by
Third-party forest certification standards, like the
many leading green Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI), are a proof-
point that wood comes from responsibly managed
building rating programs
forests that have been managed for multiple
around the world like environmental, social and economic values — today
and into the future. Architects and builders are
Leadership in Energy and
turning to products certified to the SFI Standard to
Environmental Design meet their green building needs.

(LEED) and Green Globes. Learn more at sfiprogram.org/greenbuilding.

 the BUILDING ENVELOPE
SIMPLIFIED
Building envelope products and support from one trusted manufacturer

GLASS WALL SPIDER FITTINGS

GRS GLASS RAILING SYSTEM

DRS DOOR RAILS

PROJECT:
8500 Melrose
LOCATION:
West Hollywood, CA
ARCHITECT:
Tighe Architecture
518B_5/19

© Geoff Captain Studios

C.R. LAURENCE CO., INC.

(800) 421-6144 ext. 17780
abd@crlaurence.com | crl-arch.com
Envista ® Roof and Floor Deck
Ceiling Systems
Envista Roof & Floor Decking Ceiling System with Timberlok Wood Grain Finish
can clear span up to 36´, offering all the structural support of a steel roof deck a FA
v ist
En
panel while giving the warm, distinctive appearance of finished wood grain. Four
Timberlok finishes are available: Dark Cherry, Colony Maple, Light Maple, and Pine.
Contact EPIC Metals for more details.

877-696-3742 toll-free epicmetals.com

Spring Fire Department, Station 75 - Spring, Texas

Architect: Brown Reynolds Watford Architects - College Station, TX.
 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
A Day in the Life
A New York architect recalls an extraordinary birthday 45 years ago, when, as a young student, he
met a constellation of Modernism’s stars, all in a single day.
BY PETER STAMBERG
In 1972, on a trip to Europe during my final
year studying architecture at the Rhode Island
School of Design, I met a fascinating woman
who was in the furniture business in Italy,
Maria Simoncini. Maria was brilliant, glamor-
ous, and so bewitching that, the next year, when
I was in graduate school at the Architectural
Association in London, I would periodically
hitchhike to Bologna just to spend time with
her. As I was finishing the AA, I hitchhiked for
one last visit, but, when I got there, Maria had
been called away on business. I was crestfallen—
until her assistant said that Maria’s partner,
Dino Gavina, would see me instead.
My life changed at that moment. I had read
about Gavina and his ability to meld contempo-
rary art and design. He was a legend: his
company had become part of Knoll in 1968,
bringing furniture designed by Breuer, Afra &
Tobia Scarpa, Takahama, Matta, and others.
I spent a glorious five days with the wiry and
energetic Gavina, talking intensely about the
crisis in Modernism (some things never change), chair, with a Saint Bernard called Neil (above). Les Lalanne
and, as I was about to head back to London,
Gavina invited me to travel with him to Paris.
“You won’t need to hitchhike,” he said with a
grin. “I will buy you a ticket on the train.”
We arrived in Paris late at night, and the next
day was gorgeous. It was June 8, 1974, and it was
my 25th birthday. We started to race around St.
Germain des Pres buying gifts—for other people.
I M AG E S : C O U R T E S T Y P E T E R S TA M B E R G ( T O P ) ; K A S M I N G A L L E RY ( B O T T O M )
First, an ancient liquor shop, then an exquisite
old chocolatier. With each purchase, Gavina
would declare, “Per Connie” or “Per Giulietta” or
“Per Teeny” or “Per Claude.” Loaded with
packages, we hurried to the Musée des Arts
Décoratifs, with Dino shouting to me about the
beauty of the Parisian cityscape as we ran.
Waiting for us inside the museum entrance
was none other than my god, Marcel Breuer,
whose designs for the Hanson House (five min-
utes from where I grew up on Long Island), the
Whitney Museum, and the Wassily chair had
inspired me to study design. The optimism they Luxembourg Gardens and down a narrow
expressed was the closest thing to a religion
that I would ever believe in. Gavina’s “per
Connie” gift was for Breuer’s wife. After break-
fast, we walked around the galleries, with
Breuer, Connie, and me speaking English and
the curators translating for Dino. As we were
saying goodbye, Breuer turned to me and said
that if I decided to go back to New York, I should Man Ray, and the MoMA paintings were by her
come work for him.
perspectivecommentary
Portrait of the architect as a young man in his Wassily
(below) with a flock of their sheep sculptures.
But there was no time for me to process this
invitation to the gateway of heaven, because
suddenly Gavina was off, and we were tearing
back across the Pont Royal, toward the
street that was strangely familiar to me. We
stopped in front of a door, Gavina rapped on it,
and I could hear a woman’s heels clicking
toward us. When the door opened, I saw a face
that was familiar too: I had seen both her face
and the streetscape in paintings at MoMA. The
street was Rue Férou, the woman was Juliet
husband, Man Ray.
67
Juliet and Dino embraced, and he gave her
the “per Giulietta” gift as we walked in. The
84-year-old Man Ray struggled to get up from
his chair, but, when he did, he gave Gavina a
big hug. Then Gavina introduced me, but Man
Ray, wary of newcomers, seemed less than
pleased to have a stranger in his house. Yet,
once he learned it was my birthday, Man
paused for a moment, took a copy of his book
Autoportrait from a shelf and inscribed it, “Pour
Peter Stamberg—cordially Man Ray 1974.”
For the next hour or so, I sat in the chair
where Marcel Duchamp sat when he and Man
played chess. Man had customized it for him
by drilling a hole in the wooden arm for an
ashtray for Duchamp’s cigar. The house was
modest, very much an artist’s studio, and, to
me, it was better than any museum. As we
left, he handed me another little book of his,
Analphabet.
Soon it was time for lunch. We headed to
their regular lunch spot, Chez Napoleon on
rue Bonaparte. As I had gained Man’s trust, he
held my arm as we walked down the street. In
the restaurant, Man, as was his custom, sat
with his back to the entrance so no one would
recognize him. Of course, everyone there
knew exactly who was sitting in that seat—
though, just as we started to eat, I looked up to
see David Hockney walking out. When I men-
tioned who had just left, Man laughed and said
he had heard that Hockney had come to Paris
to draw his portrait. Hockney had not seen
Man and, so, the portrait would have to wait.
Back at the house after lunch, Gavina and
Man talked about adapting a Man Ray lamp-
shade for production by Sirrah, a lighting
company Dino was guiding. He and I took the
shade off its armature and opened it up. Dino
held it flat over a sheet of paper while I traced
it. Man then made suggestions, and we drew
sketches of what a base could be. A few days
later, Gavina would take the sketches and the
tracing back to Italy, where they would become
the lamp called La Lune sous le Chapeau.
Dino and I left Juliet and Man around 5 and
sped to the Galerie Paul Facchetti on rue de
Lille. Madame Facchetti greeted us, and we got
into her car and drove to a small town outside
the city. Dino hopped out and tugged a chain
outside a door. A cowbell clanged. He had the
gift “per Teeny”—and he introduced me to Teeny
Duchamp. Duchamp’s widow was born Alexina

Linear Drain Systems
Perfect for curbless showers and
barrier-free bathrooms.
Infinity Drain provides an architectural
aesthetic and limitless possibilities
for your project.
Ideal for residential, hospitality, and
healthcare applications.
Made in the USA
www.infinitydrain.com
perspectivecommentary
Man RayÕs birthday present to the author, with the inscription.
Sattler in Cincinnati, and, aside from her astonishing jewelry and French
wardrobe, she looked every bit the Midwesterner. A friend later told me that
she was never comfortable speaking French, so she was happy to be speaking
American English with me.
I was excited to see that Teeny Duchamp’s house was filled with furni-
ture by two of my other design heroes, Claude and François-Xavier
Lalanne, whose joyous work I had never seen in person. Now I was sur-
rounded by it. Their blue fiberglass hippopotamus bathtub was in one
bedroom. I flipped off my shoes and jumped into it. I was sorry to leave to
visit more friends in the next town—until I learned our next stop would
be the farmhouse of “Les Lalanne.” I had just been sitting in their furni-
ture, and now I was about to have dinner in their house. I remember it as
one of the most astonishing nights of my life, but—after too much food,
way too much wine, and too much to experience on one birthday—I no
longer can recall the conversation. Somehow, Mme. Facchetti got Teeny
back to her house and Dino and me back to Paris. I’m not sure how I got to
sleep, but somehow I did.
Cut to January 2007 and an exhibition of the work of Les Lalanne—
the crocodile bench, the hippopotamus bar, the baboon cabinet—at the
Paul Kasmin Gallery, in Chelsea in Manhat tan. On the last day of the
show, my husband, Paul Aferiat, and I decided to stop in to see it one
more time. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Les Lalanne talking to
Paul Kasmin in the back room. Without thinking, I unhooked a privacy
chain and walked over to Claude and François-Xavier. “Excuse me,” I
said, “you probably won’t remember, but I was a friend of Dino Gavina’s,
and we came to your house for dinner one night a long time ago.”
François-Xavier looked at me, put his hand on my forearm, smiled, and
said, “It was your 25th birthday, a most fantastic night.”
There was something else about that fantastic day and night that I had
forgotten over the years but that I was reminded of some time later, when
the Jewish Museum in New York had a Man Ray exhibition. In a vitrine in
the last gallery was a copy of Autoportrait. “That is the 25th-birthday gift
Man Ray gave me,” I told Paul. He looked at me as if I were delusional. I
grew uneasy—I hadn’t seen the book in years.
I M AG E S : C O U R T E S Y P E T E R S TA M B E R G
When we got home, I tried to remain calm as I strolled casually around
our loft, scanning row upon row of bookshelves: nothing. My heart sank.
Then suddenly, there they both were, tucked unassumingly among other
titles on architecture and design: Analphabet and Autoportrait. I pulled
them down gently and opened the cover of Autoportrait.
Having not seen the light of day in many years, the ink of the inscrip-
tion was as black as the day it was written: “Pour Peter Stamberg—cordially
Man Ray 1974.” n
Peter Stamberg is a New York–based architect whose work ranges from residential
to institutional and hospitality.
Make more room for life.

When you’re ready to take your

open-concept home to the next
level, turn your functional stairs
into wow-factor with the help of
Viewrail FLIGHT floating stairs.
www.viewrail.com Premium Floating Stairs + Railing
THANK YOU FOR JOINING US!
We appreciate your support of this inaugural event and hope you are
bringing new insights, technologies and ideas back to the office.

Special Thanks to Our 2019 Sponsors & Exhibitors!

PLATINUM GOLD

SILVER BRONZE

AEC BUILDTECH IS RETURNING TO ROSEMONT

APRIL 21-23, 2020!

Stay Tuned for More Details Coming Soon!

www.AECBuildTech.com
 GLASS THAT

STANDS OUT

EY Tower
TORONTO, ONTARIO

with SunGuard® AG 50 and

SunGuard® SuperNeutral® 68

© Edvard Mahnic Photography

Making a statement in the Toronto skyline.

See what’s possible™ with Guardian SunGuard®
Advanced Architectural Glass for your next project.
Visit us at AIA: Booth #6907
©2019 Guardian Glass, LLC | GuardianGlass.com/EYTower
perspectivebooks

Master of Fate
Gropius: The Man Who Built the Bauhaus, by Fiona
McCarthy. The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press, 560 pages, $35.

Reviewed by Caroline Rob Zaleski

Well Timed for the Bauhaus centenary, this is the

first biography of Walter Gropius (1883–1969) since
Reginald Isaacs’s Gropius: An Illustrated Biography of
the Creator of the Bauhaus was translated from
German and abbreviated in 1991. Isaacs worked on
his original tome with Gropius and his second
wife, Ise. Now Fiona MacCarthy breaks some new ground, writing in a popu-
lar style but relying heavily on Isaacs’s classic. Her quest is to elaborate on
the personal Gropius while leaving his inventive architecture and celebrated
pedagogy in the background.
McCarthy, who has written biographies of William Morris and Lord Byron
and was a design writer for The Guardian, met Gropius when she was a young
reporter. She had expected he would be formal and stern, and was surprised
by his charm and sexual charisma. The impression influences her portrait
and contrasts with her terse descriptions of Gropius’s architectural practice
and how he ran the Bauhaus like an opera impresario. Before meeting Ise,
Gropius yearned for domesticity, and we can see why after reading bits of
tormenting letters his notorious first wife, Alma Mahler, wrote to him while
he served as a cavalry officer in World War I. The fanciful Alma dismissed
her husband as a dullard and refused to easily share their child, Manon.
Deeply troubled by his painful marriage and suffering battle nightmares,
Gropius started the Bauhaus in Weimar and got a divorce.
The book divides a complicated life into three phases: German, English,
and American. We see the tortured genius behind the “Knight in Armor”
(Ise’s moniker), a shy, self-examining man of enormous self-control. Gropius
administered the Bauhaus while confronting an intensely demanding fac-
ulty, lack of funds, and menacing right-wing government officials. In 1928,
he left his post at the Bauhaus—by then established in Dessau—for Berlin.
In 1934, he and Ise slipped out of Nazi Germany and went to London,
where he became head of design for the architecture firm Isokon, but build-
ing commissions were sparse. In 1937, Harvard’s dean of the Graduate School
of Design, Joseph Hudnut, appointed him chair of architecture, and Gropius
and Ise moved to the U.S. Here, he reignited the Bauhaus flame and de-
signed, with his former student Marcel Breuer, a number of superb New
England houses, including his own in Lincoln, Massachusetts. In 1945,
Gropius agreed to become éminence grise for The Architects Collaborative
(TAC) and helped the young founding partners make it one of the most
prolific architecture firms of the time.
Unfortunately, the American context that McCarthy paints lacks a sense of
place and some truly important people. Where’s Gropius’s great American
friend and promoter, architect Lawrence Kocher? Gropius and Kocher met in
1929, when Kocher was record’s managing editor and soon to be known as
co-designer (with Albert Frey) of the Aluminaire House (1931). Gropius and
Kocher talked of creating a Bauhaus in Long Island and had more interchange
when Kocher later took over Black Mountain College in North Carolina.
More expertly covered by the British author are the London sojourn and
Gropius’s late-in-life travels around the world, in the final chapter, to receive
recognition and honor for his contributions to the Bauhaus and modern
architecture. In spite of omissions, this volume is an engrossing read. n

Caroline Rob Zaleski is the author of Long Island Modernism: 1930–1980,

published by Norton.
 Out of sight.

Bobrick’s privacy partitions eliminate sight lines between

doors and stiles, and above and below panels.

Gap-Free interlocking design. Max. Height doors and panels.

Sight lines between doors and stiles are 4 5/16" floor clearance vs 12", and 72"
an emerging sensitivity in restrooms. Our panel height vs 58". Specify Gap-Free
Gap-Free design is an integrated solution. and Max. Height for double the privacy.

© 2018 BOBRICK WASHROOM EQUIPMENT, INC.

AS HANGING DISPLAY
SYSTEMS
perspectivebooks
From Weimar, Dessau, and Beyond
Reviewed by Wendy Moonan
The Spirit of the Bauhaus, translated from the
French catalogue L’Esprit du Bauhaus, by Ruth
Sharman; edited by Olivier Gabet and Anne Monier.
Thames & Hudson, 188 pages, $50.
This fine new English
translation of the
French catalogue for
the Bauhaus show at
the Musée des Arts
Decoratifs in Paris, in
2016, is a worthy addi-
tion to the scholarship
on the legendary school
as it celebrates its 100th
anniversary.
The tenure of the Bauhaus was famously
short, from 1919 to 1933. This book provides a
definitive retrospective of its accomplish-
ments, with 24 provocative essays by director
Olivier Gabet and six curators of the Musée des
Arts Decoratifs, as well as scholars Jean-Louis
Gaillemin and Nicholas Fox Weber.
The focus is the inner workings of the
school as it morphed under each director—
Walter Gropius (1919–28), Hannes Meyer
(1928–30), and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
(1930–33). The Bauhaus was an evolving, avant-
garde, utopian experiment in Modernism,
whose instructors included Gropius, Mies,
Josef and Anni Albers, Marcel Breuer, Herbert
Bayer, Paul Klee, and Wassily Kandinsky.
Half the essays focus on individual work-
shops, including painting, architecture,
sculpture, ceramics, stained glass, cabinet-
making, metalworking, mural painting,
photography, bookbinding, and theater.
A few essays cite the teachers’ various ideo-
logical roots. In his Bauhaus manifesto,
Gropius urged “architects, painters, and sculp-
tors to return to traditional crafts as a source
of regeneration. Together let us desire, con-
ceive, and create the new structure of the
future.”
Klee and Alma Mahler had a passion for
Theosophy and Rudolf Steiner’s writings.
Kandinsky was interested in astrology, alche-
my, and “the spiritual in art.” Johannes Itten
followed Otoman Zur-Adusht Hanish, founder
of the Mazdaznan faith (which combined
elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and
Tantrism). Some members of the Bauhaus were
Socialist, others Communist.
The book reads as if it were a contempora-
neous account, complete with photos of the
participants, their jubilant activities, and
workshop output. It’s a perfect companion to
Barry Bergdoll and Leah Dickerman’s excel-
lent catalogue for the 2009 MoMA exhibition,
Bauhaus: 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity.
Bauhaus Journal 1926–1931, facsimile edition.
Lars Müller Publishers, 428 pages, $80.
A key primary source for
scholars, this is the first
publication of the Bauhaus
journals in English and in
a font large enough to read
easily, unlike the originals.
From 1926 to 1931, the school
produced 14 issues—really
six-page newspapers—for
some 3,000 subscribers. The
idea was to disseminate the
Bauhaus’s artistic and social ideas with news,
illustrated articles, and photographs of art and
objects produced in the workshops. Each issue had
a different editor and thrust. While László Moholy-
Nagy devoted his to typography, Gropius focused
on product standardization, and Oskar Schlemmer
on his innovative designs for theater.
Publisher Lars Müller and the director of
Berlin’s Bauhaus-Archiv/Museum für Gestal-
tung, Annemarie Jaeggi, have written short
essays on how crucial it was that a small
school reached a wide audience across Europe.
Bauhausbücher 1, 2, 5, and 8. Lars Müller
Publishers, $45; $34 paper.
Müller has also published
handsome facsimiles,
Crush™ Panel ©2011 modularArts, Inc.
without commentary, of Photo by Steve Hall, Hall +Merrick Photography. Designer: Eastlake Studio.
four slim, Bauhaus-
produced volumes from
the 1920s. International
Architecture, edited by
Gropius, is a book of
photos of modern build-
ings, models, and designs by him and his
Modernist contemporaries, including Frank
Lloyd Wright, Mies, Adolf Loos, Bruno Taut,
and Peter Behrens. Moholy-Nagy’s Painting,
Photography, Film is a defense of photography as
an art form, illustrated by manipulated photo-
graphs. Klee’s Pedagogical Sketchbook reproduces
the drawing lessons of his Bauhaus instruction
plan. And in New Design: Neoplasticism, Piet
Mondrian shares his (incomprehensible) theo-
ries on “new painting” and its relationship to
the unconscious, music, architecture, and
dance. n
Mudd™ Panel ©2008 modularArts, Inc.
Wendy Moonan, based in New York, writes on design
and architecture and is the author of New York
Splendor: The City’s Most Memorable Rooms.
Class A
modulararts.com 206.788.4210 made in the USA
76 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
perspectivebooks

The Best of the Rest: the Bauhaus and Modernism

Reviewed by Clifford Pearson

Bauhaus: 1919–1933, by Magdalena The ABC’s of Triangle, Square, Circle: The

Droste. Taschen, 400 pages, $50. Bauhaus and Design Theory, edited by
Produced in collaboration with the Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller. Princeton
Bauhaus-Archiv/Museum für Architectural Press, 72 pages, $30.
Gestaltung in Berlin, which has the A fascinating work of design theory
largest collection Bauhaus documents and graphic design, this new edition
and works, this revised and updated of a book first published in 1991 starts
edition of a 1990 book offers a com- with Wassily Kandinsky’s assertion of
prehensive look at the famous school. a universal correspondence between
The author, who worked at the the three elementary shapes and the
Bauhaus-Archiv and was a professor three primary colors. As the editors
of art history at the Brandenburg explain, “the dynamic triangle is
University of Technology, Cottbus, inherently yellow, the static square is
covers the three iterations of the intrinsically red, and the serene circle
school—in Weimar, Dessau, and is naturally blue.” Lupton, who is a
Berlin—examining the ideas and personalities that drove each one. graphic designer and a curator at the Cooper Hewitt, and Miller, who
More than 500 illustrations show the full range of work produced at the is a graphic designer and partner at Pentagram, explore the Bauhaus
Bauhaus, from weavings and pottery to graphic design and architecture. notion “that two-dimensional design is a language structured by
universal laws of geometry and perception.”
Bauhaus Imaginista: A School in the
World, edited by Marion von Osten and Grant Mid-Century Modern Architecture
Watson. Thames & Hudson, 312 pages, $60. Travel Guide: East Coast USA, by Sam
This large-format book (over 9 by 12 Lubell, with photography by Darren
inches) looks at the Bauhaus’s impact Bradley. Phaidon, 377 pages, $35.
around the globe. Essays by artists, The author, a former record editor,
historians, and cultural theorists— calls this book a Midcentury
such as Beatriz Colomina, Mark Modern road trip from New Hamp-
Wigley, Eduard Kögel, Zvi Efrat, and shire to Florida. The handsome
Magdalena Droste (see above)—chart design, new color photography, and
the dissemination of Bauhaus ideas to informative text make it a pleasant
places as diverse as India, Japan, and journey that includes a number of
Nigeria, and also examine some of the works by Bauhaus alums such as
cultures the Bauhaus drew upon, from Gropius, Breuer, and Mies. The
North Africa, Mexico, and Argentina. book offers a helpful introduction
and then presents more than 250
Giedion and America: Repositioning the History of Modern Architecture, buildings, ranging from the Gropius House in Lincoln,
by Reto Geiser. gta Verlag, 465 pages, $85. Massachusetts, to Breuer’s Stillman House I in Litchfield,
This reevaluation of the work of Sigfried Giedion focuses attention on the Connecticut, and Mies’s One Charles Center in Baltimore. The au-
Swiss art and architecture historian’s stays in the U.S. and his lectures at thor lets you know if each destination is open to the public, charges
Harvard in the late 1930s, when Walter Gropius was chair of the architecture an admission fee, or has a café/restaurant or gift/bookshop. If you’re
department. The lectures preceded a Modernist junkie and are planning trips to Manchester, New
the publication of the landmark Space, Hampshire; Norfolk, Virginia; or Sarasota, Florida, you’ll want to
Time and Architecture: the Growth of a New bring this guide along for the ride.
Tradition, in 1941. Giedion, who was
an active member of the Modernist Bauhaus Goes West: Modern Art and Design
movement as both a scholar and in Britain and America, by Alan Powers.
secretary general of the International Thames and Hudson, 256 pages, $40.
Congresses for Modern Architecture Powers, who teaches architecture and
(CIAM), developed close relationships cultural history in London, traces the
with key intellectuals from a range impact of the Bauhaus diaspora after the
of fields, including media theorist Nazis closed the school in 1933 and key
Marshall McLuhan, writer Lewis figures such as Gropius, Breuer, and
Mumford, architect Josep Lluís Sert, Moholy-Nagy made their way to Britain
and artist László Moholy-Nagy. Geiser and then America. The author examines
paints Giedion as a valuable figure “in the exchange of ideas between continental
between”—continents, professions, and Modernism and progressive design in both
intellectual contexts. the UK and the U.S.
© G.H. BRUCE, LLC
 This event will offer
2.5 AIA LU & 2.5 PDH.

SAVE THE DATE

MEET THE PANELISTS

JUNE 26 | DENVER
Denver Art Museum, Sharp Auditorium | 100 W. 14th Ave Pkwy Jami Mohlenkamp, AIA
Principal, Senior Living Practice Area Lead
Designing for How We Live Now OZ Architecture
As the desire to live in cities persists, so too has the boom in multi-unit housing
development, in Denver and across the country. But with this growth comes the
risk of homogenization as some are priced out. This Record on the Road takes a
look at housing that offers an alternative to the typical market rate model. Exploring
solutions that contribute to the public realm or accommodate populations like
seniors or those in need of supportive services, the symposium will highlight Mike M. Moore
innovative multi-unit solutions that address a range of specific needs. Owner / Design Principal
tres birds workshop

Seating is complimentary for architects, engineers and designers

but is limited. Register today for FREE.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Eric Doner, AIA
Associate
Humphries Poli Architects

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: Joseph Poli, AIA

Principal
Humphries Poli Architects

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Moderator:
• October 17 | HOUSTON
Beth Broome
• October 24 | PHILADELPHIA Managing Editor
• November 21 | LOS ANGELES Architectural Record
Visit us online for more information.

RecordontheRoad.com
 Expect More OUT OF YOUR RESTROOM.
PREVIEW THE NEW
ARTISAN COLLECTION!

Aria Partitions™ provide extreme privacy, many design choices, and

Join us in the Pow Wow Theater
innovative design features that will move your bathroom, dressing
BOOTH #8116.
and changing rooms into the future.
AIA Conference on Architecture,
Download the product kit today at ScrantonProducts.com!
June 6-7, Las Vegas

| WWW.SCRANTONPRODUCTS.COM/MEET-ARIA-PARTITIONS | 1.800.445.5148
80 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
New Wine for an Old Home
A vineyard in the Chinese countryside both incorporates tradition and defies it.
BY CLIFFORD A. PEARSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHAO ZHANG
like the notion of cultivating Cabernet
Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and sauvignon blanc
grapes in China, Qingyun Ma’s design of
GateHall grafts Western concepts onto local
Asian roots. This latest addition to the archi-
tect’s Jade Valley Winery, outside of Xi’an, in
the center of the country, is a hybrid that’s
simultaneously familiar and odd. A multi-
purpose three-story building, which includes
an art gallery as well as dining and guest
rooms, shares a lineage with nearby farm-
houses in its simple rectangular footprint,
poured-concrete frame, and river-stone clad-
ding. But the 21,000-square-foot building has
been warped by foreign influences—so much
FIRST LOOK
so that one facade, which is almost com-
pletely glazed, has a gabled roof, broken by a
fractal-inspired dormer, an elevation with no
true precedent in Chinese or imported archi-
tecture. Even seemingly indigenous elements
become subverted by alien concepts, includ-
ing an entry court with stone walls nearly
20 feet high, defying local tradition in their
dimensions.
Since Ma, principal of MADA s.p.a.m., started
making French-style wines in 2000 in the foot-
hills of the Qinling Mountains, this Chinese-
born architect—who was dean at the University
of Southern California (USC) School of Architec-
ture from 2007 to 2017—has been building his
YIN AND YANG The three-story building borrows the
simple rectangular footprint, concrete frame, and
river-stone cladding of the local vernacular but infuses
them with contemporary elements, such as a glazed
facade and a fractal-inspired dormer (above and opposite).
winery as an experiment in cultural and archi-
tectural cross-fertilization. He started with a
much acclaimed stone-and-bamboo house for
his father and went on to create a series of
structures for making and tasting wine, as well
as mini-hotels in new and renovated buildings.
Ma grew up in the city of Xi’an, but his
parents come from this rural area, so he feels a
connection to it and wants to revive the local
economy with wine-making and tourism. In
 81

Xeruptaq aut et
audici cupta
dollatur? Quibus ma
andest unt latem in
non cor mo beaquat.
dolorumento quias
doluptaes nam etur
maxim eum, velic
tota doloreptat
venia debitiae
coressi ut
doluptatae sum ius.
Ehendi ut modis ut
fugiat. Obita dolor
simus, nos pla
dolorem.
82 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 FIRST LOOK

NEW AGE With spaces for

art, fine dining, sleeping,
and reflection, GateHall
aims to stimulate the
local rural economy with
wine-making and tourism
(this page and opposite).
 83

recent years, newly affluent Chinese from

rapidly growing urban centers have devel-
oped a taste for European-style wines,
while rediscovering the lure of the Chinese
countryside—now seen as a healthy get-
away and a link to an ancient culture in
which scholars, poets, and painters found
inspiration in forests and mountains.
“The goal is to integrate culture, agricul-
ture, and nature,” says Ma. “In China, we
talk about lao jia, or ‘old home,’ which is
the place you come from. I see GateHall
as a ‘home at old home,’ not specifically
for my family but for everyone who has
roots in the countryside. It will be both a
memory of old times and a promise of the
future.”
Called GateHall because it’s at the base
of a gravel road leading uphill to Jade
Valley’s main winery structures, the new
building plays on notions of duality. Not
purely a gate—which is either open or
closed—it’s a place where people can
linger to see art, drink wine, dine, even
spend a night. It’s both private and
public, a threshold and a destination. “In
Chinese, there are the terms men-shi (mar-
ket gate) and men-lei (guest gate), referring
to public and private entries,” says Ma.
“GateHall is both.”
Approaching it from a narrow rural
road, visitors enter through an opening in
the high-walled side yard. On the ground
floor is a reception area with art displayed
in both a double-height gallery and more
intimate, single-height spaces. The top
floor provides generous cooking and eating
areas beneath the gabled roof, while
sleeping quarters for tourists and artists-
in-residence are on the second and
third levels. There’s a wine cellar in the
basement.
Fusing opposites has been part of Ma’s
identity since his undergraduate years at
Tsinghua University, in Beijing, and gradu-
ate studies at the University of Pennsyl-
vania. After working for Kling Lindquist in
Philadelphia and Kohn Pederson Fox in
New York, he returned to China to set up
his own practice, MADA s.p.a.m., before
heading back to the States for his deanship
at USC a few years later. Now he plans to
use Jade Valley as a base for his American
Academy in China, for students from de-
sign schools there and elsewhere. The
larger goal is to transform part of China’s
countryside by bridging it economically
and culturally to cities and to the 21st
century. “Tradition needs to be open to the
future,” says Ma. “We need both to respect
and violate it.” n
 NEW EVENT
REGISTRATION
NOW OPEN!

Autonomous Vehicle Technology Connect is a new one-day conference and tabletop expo focusing on the intersection
of new-mobility technology, architecture, engineering and construction industries. This is a unique opportunity to
collaborate with decision makers in a diverse range of industries to better integrate future planning and development of
transportation and the built environment.

Learn the Latest in autonomous vehicle technology and development, from sensors and connectivity to city planning,
insurance, and regulatory challenges that stem from the unique nature of autonomous vehicles.

Create Solutions collaboratively with top professionals and decision makers. Autonomous Vehicle Technology Connect’s
two concurrent educational tracks will put you in a position to network with some of the best engineering, architecture,
and technology professionals around and collaborate to come up with tomorrow’s solutions today.

Gain an Edge with insights from our talented keynote speakers and other presenters. You won’t want to miss their unique
perspectives that may help you anticipate new developments in this burgeoning industry before your competitors do!

Register by July 18 and SAVE $200

If you’d like to join this groundbreaking new event, visit

www.AutonomousVehicleTech.com/connect to register today!
 WITH VEKTR, ARTISTIC CONTROL IS YOURS
ViviSpectra VEKTR glass and the VEKTR Digital Canvas put artistic control at your fingertips. Simply bring any digital image into the app,
experiment with filters, controls and effects, and create one-of-a-kind glass designs of any size or scale—all in a matter of minutes.
create something extraordinary: www.vektrdigitalcanvas.com
Flawless – Just As You Intended
Keep your envelope design intact from your desk to job site with DensElement® Barrier System. Eliminate WRB-AB
design variability and installation inconsistencies which can degrade your design. By filling microscopic voids
in the glass mat and gypsum core via AquaKor™ Technology, a hydrophobic, monolithic surface is created that
blocks bulk water while retaining vapor permeability. And with cladding versatility, you can design with nearly
any cladding type.
Control? With DensElement® Barrier System it always stays in your hands.
Future Up. Visit DensElement.com

©2019 GP Gypsum LLC. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all trademarks are owned by or licensed to GP Gypsum LLC.
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 CLOSE-UP 87

Learning Tools
SHoP’s Innovation Lab for the Benchmark
School addresses academic challenges
through architectural thinking.
BY JAMES S. RUSSELL, FAIA
88 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 CLOSE-UP

Questions concerning how students learn do not automatically

suggest design solutions, but when the Benchmark School approached
William and Chris Sharples, two of the founding principals of SHoP
Architects, for help in the development of robotics as a teaching tool,
they saw opportunity.
The architects, identical twins and the “SH” in the firm’s name, are
alumni of the independent school, founded in 1970, by Irene W.
Gaskins, to help students who learn differently. In a recent phone
conversation they finished each other’s rapid-fire sentences, such was
their enthusiasm for the school that changed their lives. “We had grad-
uated sixth grade, but our reading comprehension was barely at
third-grade level,” said William. Their parents, aware how challenged
their apparently bright sons were, enrolled them in the then-new insti-
tution. “We were very upset after the first day,” the Sharples said. “Two
weeks later, we were having a ball.”
The two were ultimately diagnosed with dyslexia, which the school
is geared to address, along with such diagnoses as perceptual difficul-
ties and attention-deficit disorders—by first building confidence and
then helping children discover their own ways of learning, an ap-

The Benchmark SchoolÕs metal-clad Innovation Lab is set at an angle between a

stucco-faced performing-arts building and another wing (above). Students see into the lab
through the glass entry. Metal panels (left and previous page) are creased in a descending
pattern to reflect light.

3 1
1 1
A 1 A
SECTION A - A
0 15 FT.
UPPER-LEVEL PLAN 1 LAB SPACE
5 M.
2 CORRIDOR
3 EXISTING
BUILDING
1
2
0 15 FT.
LOWER-LEVEL PLAN
5 M.
proach that has been influential. “We meet the students where they
are, not where their age says they are supposed to be,” explained Betsy
Cunicelli, Benchmark’s director of special projects.
Located in Media, Pennsylvania, 13 miles west of Philadelphia,
Benchmark is a five-building, 23-acre campus serving 185 first- through
eighth-grade students. There’s a heavy focus on reading and math, with
instructors applying a wide range of learning research to support stu-
dents individually in such tasks as time management, persistence,
working collaboratively, and thinking critically.
Many dyslexics use visualization and hands-on experiences to com-
mit concepts to memory. Students who struggle to comprehend a verbal
explanation of something may understand better by assembling it on
their own. This “constructing knowledge through experience,” as
Benchmark puts it, is one way students learn.
Benchmark’s leaders and students visited both SHoP’s Manhattan
office and the firm’s lab in an industrial space in Brooklyn, where they
saw a repurposed auto–assembly line robot and tools for model-mak-
ing, comparing fabrication possibilities, and mocking up assemblies to
assess their constructability and visual impact. The school’s staff was
impressed not only by the students’ excitement over the lab, but by the
iterative problem-solving common in architecture. SHoP and the educa-
tors together concluded that an innovation lab could give students new
opportunities to choose their own approach for addressing open-ended
89
1
0 10 FT.
3 M.
C
B
A
A WOOD SLAT
B METAL CEILING
SUPPORT
C ROOF BEAM
CEILING ASSEMBLY
problems, while collaborating with others to succeed.
The resulting lab is a diminutive 2,200-square-foot glass-and-metal-
clad two-story structure tucked like a hinge into a gap between two
existing buildings. The full-height glass entry wall puts the Innovation
Lab’s activities on display, engaging passing students. The upper level
houses three spaces for middle-school pupils: two open labs separated
by a sliding-glass partition for maximum flexibility, and a small trian-
gular space (for messier projects) wedged between them behind a
glazed wall. A classroom for the youngest children is on the lower level.
With butcher-block lab-style tables, and counters along the walls for
computers, the rooms include sinks, adjustable track lighting, power-
cord outlets that drop down from the ceiling, and whiteboard wall
surfaces.
Bowed wood strips suspended from the ceiling of the upper-level
space demonstrate the assembly processes that students will use on
their own; they were computer-designed and then CNC-milled in
SHoP’s Brooklyn lab. Students learn how the ceiling was made by view-
ing the sequence of fabrication and assembly in a virtual-reality film;
they can then apply a design-and-build process to their own work.
Instructors also show off a similar design-to-fabrication process used
for the exterior metal panels. The creases in the panels vary light re-
flections, designed according to a computer-generated algorithm.
The lab was completed in August 2018 but was fitted out over ensu-
90 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 CLOSE-UP

Gently draping ceiling slats in the upper-level labs were designed on a computer that
directed cutting on a CNC machine, much like the work students visualize on computers
credits
and then make on the lab tables (above). The large windows on both levels look out onto ARCHITECT: SHoP Architects — William SOURCES
extensive wooded grounds. Sharples, Christopher Sharples, John CLADDING: Sobotec (metal panels);
Cerone, Violette de la Selle, Geof Bell, Mike Kawneer (curtain wall); W.R. Meadows
ing months. Pedagogically, it will remain a work in progress, with
Budzinsky, Kendra Ho, Charlie Wynter, (moisture barrier)
Benchmark director of innovation Emma Mattesky, who oversees the
Aaron King, Carter Read, design team GLAZING: Alderfer (glass); Dormakaba
lab, helping instructors discover its possibilities. “We start with what
ARCHITECT OF RECORD: CICADA (frameless partitions)
we’re teaching already and use the lab as an enhancement, and tech-
Architecture/Planning ROOF: Firestone; Drexel Metals
nology as a tool,” said Mattesky. The techniques and materials can run
the gamut from the quotidian to the specialized: spaghetti, glue, and ENGINEERS: Bruce Brooks & Associates DOORS: Assa Abloy; C.R. Lawrence (pulls)
Legos to computers, 3-D printers, and little model robots that can be (m/e/p/fp); Orndorf & Associates INTERIOR FINISHES: CertainTeed
assembled and coded by students to perform tasks like completing (structural) (ceilings); Sherwin-Williams (coatings);
obstacle courses. “We’re thinking about how the lab reflects our teach- CONSULTANTS: Diversified Lighting
Wilsonart (plastic laminate); Johnsonite
(rubber floor)
ing and practice strategies,” she adds. Associates (lighting design); Northstar
FURNITURE: Goebelwood (casework);
“Visual art is lacking in a lot of curriculums and is not part of STEM (owner’s rep)
Enea; Tolix; Artek (seating); Knoll; Global
programs,” said the Sharples. “For a learning-disabled student to say, ‘I GENERAL CONTRACTOR: W.S. Cumby Industrial (tables)
can script [a computer program], I can build, and I can 3-D print’ gives CLIENT: Benchmark School LIGHTING: Finelite; Pinnacle Architectural;
them a big edge. This is what we hungered for back in sixth grade.” n
SIZE: 2,200 square feet Bruckl Con-Tech; U.S. Architectural

James S. Russell, FAIA, who previously directed strategic initiatives at the New York COST: withheld
City Department of Design and Construction, is a journalist and consultant. COMPLETION DATE: September 2018
BRING YOUR
BRILLIANT DESIGN
TO THE LIGHT OF DAY
Innovative, High Performance Daylighting
Solutions Designed to Shine

Kingspan Light + Air is the award-winning

innovator of translucent daylighting technology
for high-performance building envelopes – walls,
skylights and canopies. Our custom solutions are
engineered to enhance and optimize the role that
natural light plays in the design of your buildings.
We leverage our global resources, national reach,
and local expertise to empower your vision with
bold and innovative ideas, the broadest range of
high performance daylighting products, and the
knowledge you need to bring that vision to the
light of day.

Let’s make brilliant things happen. Together.

Contact us at cpi.info@kingspan.com

Be inspired at www.cpidaylighting.com/portfolio
Visit us at AIA Booth #4107
STONHARD FLOORS.
WE ALWAYS PUT OUR BEST FOOT FORWARD.

STONSHIELD HRI in Espresso.

Just one of many standard colors.

SEAMLESS, DURABLE,
STAIN AND SLIP-RESISTANT,
EASY-TO-CLEAN FLOORS.
INSPIRED DESIGNS.

From food and pharmaceutical to healthcare and hospitality,

Stonhard solves floor problems. And, along with long-term solutions,
you also get a commitment on both products and installation from
a nearly century-old company.

stonhard.com | 800.257.7953
© 2019, Stonhard
 Brick is Better

21” Roman in Goldenrod Clear

An ISO 9001 Compliant Quality Management System.

An ISO 14001 Compliant Environmental Management System.

beldenbrick.com The Standard of Comparison Since 1885

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
products neocon preview 95

Pick a Color ArchitectJean

Manufacturers of everything from acoustic materials to upholstery Nouvel, designer of
the Jumper chair
fabric are debuting their brightest innovations at the annual Chicago
trade show this month.
By Kelly Beamon

Jumper
A new line of task chairs by 2008 Pritzker
Prize laureate Jean Nouvel offers a menu of
attractive options for active sitting. Designers
can choose a molded polypropylene or wood
seat in one of two styles, eight sizes, five bases,
and virtually any color. All combinations
encourage movement while resting.
vsamerica.com
96 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
products neocon preview

Radii
To distinguish it from other file cabinets,
Radii, an exuberantly colorful collection from
Allsteel in collaboration with IDA Design,
boasts lots of compact compartments, drawer
dividers, and accessories. In addition to help-
ing personalize storage in today’s virtually
paperless offices, the colorful steel pedestals
are available with optional undercounter
mounting hardware that works with any desk.
allsteeloffice.com

Flip
One of the innovative three-dimensional
shapes in Xorel Artform’s popular line of
acoustic elements, Flip adds squares and
rectangles to panel options. Available
with an NRC of 0.7 or 0.8 and in sizes
16" x 24," 16" x 48", 24" x 48", and 24”
square, Flip also comes with wall, ceiling,
or suspension mounting hardware.
xorelartform.com

Premier Silicone
K2292
Premier is Knoll’s first uphol-
Waffles Wall Tile stery textile made using its
Luxxbox is debuting a new LED-backlit version of its Waffles proprietary SiO medical-grade sili-
Wall Tile, extending the sound-control options of its hybrid cone resin, to withstand abrasive cleaners
acoustic-lighting fixture line. The Discs are available in diam- and resist scuffing and scratching for up to
eter sizes ranging from just over 17" to about 39". Each Disc 200,000 double rubs. It is available in 54"-wide bolts
features an NRC of 0.45+ and the company’s high-quality PET and 33 bleach-cleanable colors.
fabric. knoll.com
luxxbox.com
98 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
products neocon preview

Future Tense
This Suzanne Tick–designed
fabric collection emphasizes
an oversize scale and takes
inspiration from the large
forms of such movements as
Brutalism and Surrealism.
Among the patterns,
Schema (shown) is a
contract-grade, bleach-
cleanable acrylic-and-
polyester blend that is
free of heavy metals and
comes in six colorways.
luumtextiles.com

iD Mixonomi
This line of modular vinyl floor tiles
expands Tarkett’s solutions for durable
flooring that also adds visual interest.
The ID Mixonomi collection is made
with 32% recycled content and is
phthalate-free. Tiles are available in 34
colors and feature seven graphic pat-
terns and three miniature-shape
patterns.
professionals.tarkett.com

Dado
Award-winning industrial designer Alfredo Häberli developed
this contract-grade indoor sofa with forms that break apart for
easy reconfiguration. Users can personalize the arrangement of
lounge chairs, chaise longues, footrests, and center and corner
modules, and combine an unlimited number to suit settings
ranging from health-care waiting rooms and offices to hotel
guest rooms.
andreuworld.com
Inspiration can find you anywhere.
Now it can take you anywhere, too.
What inspires you? What shapes the aesthetics you bring to every design
challenge? What breathes creative life and energy into every project you touch?
No matter what it is that drives your passion or kindles your creativity, you
can achieve it with Sto. Whether it’s stone, tile, glass, brick or anything else
you can imagine, we’ll provide everything your building design concept requires
and support it with a high-performance, fully-engineered wall system.
Creativity Begins. Sto Finishes.®

Get inspired at www.stocorp.com/inspiration3

 SAVE THE DATE
Get notified when registration EXPO: NOVEMBER 20-21
opens this summer CONFERENCE: NOVEMBER 20-22
www.greenbuildexpo.com/notify Georgia World Congress Center | Atlanta, Georgia
 SoftGrid® Family Acoustical Ceiling Systems
Arktura’s SoftGrid® Family of acoustical systems opens up a multitude of scalable, easy-to-implement possibilities
for design and acoustical impact, all while effortlessly accommodating and enhancing new and existing structural,
HVAC, and lighting elements. Choose from a growing library of styles, including three new hexagonal designs,
Flux, Deca, and Orbit. All are constructed from our high-performance Soft Sound® acoustical material, NRC rated
up to 0.9, and available in a wide variety of colors and finishes, including wood-grain textures. Modules offer
simple field trimability and flexible modularity to easily bring dynamic design and noise reduction to any space.

arktura.com/softgrid-family | info@arktura.com Fueling Possibilities¨

“Western Window Systems products fit very well with our
design philosophy. We continue to specify them for their
high-quality hardware and very large allowable glass areas.”

- D’Arcy Jones, Principal, D’Arcy Jones Architecture

western
window systems

westernwindowsystems.com
 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 103

GOOD DESIGN IS GOOD BUSINESS

Record’s 22nd annual program demonstrates how
architecture can benefit a business’s bottom line.

104 Boies Schiller Flexner 110 AOS Office Renovation

Schiller Projects EskewDumezRipple and
106 Center for Advanced & VergesRome Architects
Emerging Technology 111 Hines New York
BNIM LSM
107 Turnstyle 112 Hudson Woods
Architecture Outfit Lang Architecture
108 Blue Bottle Coffee 113 New Lab
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Marvel Architects
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © DAV I D S U N D B E R G / E S T O

BOIES SCHILLER FLEXNER OFFICE AT

55 HUDSON YARDS
BY SCHILLER PROJECTS
104 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
GOOD DESIGN IS GOOD BUSINESS
Boies Schiller Flexner at
55 Hudson Yards
New York City
Schiller Projects
In 2016, when law practice Boies Schiller Flexner
(BSF) decided to relocate its Manhattan office
from traditional, disjointed Midtown quarters to
four contiguous floors in 55 Hudson Yards—a new
skyscraper by KPF that was under construction at
the time—the firm commissioned Schiller Proj­
ects (SP) to invigorate its workplace by reflecting
its increasingly collaborative culture. In response,
the architecture studio launched an 11­week audit
of the existing facility to determine logistical and
spatial needs, and what should change. The result­
ing data enabled the design team to clearly
communicate its strategy to the client and de­
velop a program that would substantially revise
the way it does business.
The initial buildout encompasses three floors
connected by a gracious spiral stair that sparks
chance meetings. SP eliminated the typical
hierarchical law­office layout, says principal
Aaron Schiller and, instead, crafted a visually
open plan on all levels, each with a social hub at
its center: coffee bar and cafeteria, reception
area, and casual seating for work or conversation.
To underpin employee recruitment and reten­
tion, they devised friendly daylit spaces flanking
fluid, gently curved corridors. Support staff and
associates are now clustered along window walls,
with nearby private hubs for reading, phone
calls, and smaller groups. Glass­enclosed partner
offices within the core face these areas, while a
reduced number of glazed conference rooms are
scattered throughout the office—along with
break areas and lounges—instead of being iso­
lated on a dedicated floor.
As the architects reimagined BSF’s workplace,
they convinced the client to adopt a virtual
data­management system. A staff portal was
developed for access to key resources on mobile
phone, computer, or wall display, and the firm’s
document maintenance was digitized to mini­
mize paper use and storage, a move that BSF
predicts will save the company up to $3 million
by 2022. These changes also free employees to
work anywhere in the office.
While BSJ’s Hudson Yards office is 30,000 square
feet smaller than its previous location, the efficient
organization and plan leave significant room for
collaboration and growth, says Schiller. In the
words of one of BSF’s partners, “This has been a
‘bet­the­business’ move for us.” Linda C. Lentz
 105

A spiral stair (opposite, top) links the firm’s three floors. A

lounge near a boardroom (opposite, bottom) overlooks
reception. Halls are flanked by associate work areas
(above), plus glazed partner offices and veiled reading and
phone hubs (right). Small meeting rooms and informal
seating (below) are available throughout.

credits
ARCHITECT: Schiller Projects — COST: $44.3 million
Aaron Schiller, design principal; COMPLETION DATE:
Colin Cleland, project architect; January 2019
Ollie Zlotnicki, strategy lead
ARCHITECT OF RECORD:
SOURCES
Spacesmith — Marc Gordon,
SURFACE MATERIALS:
Will Wong
Armourcoat; Filzfelt; Pionite;
ENGINEERS: Silman
Formica; Dupont; Zonc;
(structural); AMA Engineering Porcelanosa; Shaw Contract;
(m/e/p); TM Technology Partners Bentley; Armstrong
(it/sec)
SHADES: Lutron
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © DAV I D S U N D B E R G / E S T O (4) ; M AT T C A R B O N E ( T O P, L E F T )

GENERAL CONTRACTOR:
Structuretone
CONSULTANTS: Longman
Lindsey (acoustic); Davella
(food service)
CLIENT: Boies Schiller Flexner
STAIR: Caliper Studios
FURNISHINGS: Miller Blaker;
Tuohy; Bernhardt; Haworth;
Vitra; Keilhauer; Arper; Blu Dot;
Muuto; Maharam; De La Espada
LIGHTING: HDLC

SIZE: 108,000 square feet

1 RECEPTION
5 2 CONFERENCE ROOM

3 WORKROOM

4 ASSOCIATE WORK POD

9 9
5 CONFERENCE LOUNGE
10
6 PARTNER OFFICE

7 CALL ROOM

8 READING ROOM
10 11
9 ELEVATOR LOBBY

10 COFFEE BAR/CAFÉ

11 BOARDROOM
0 30 FT.
LEVEL-NINETEEN PLAN LEVEL-TWENTY PLAN LEVEL-TWENTY ONE PLAN 12 LIBRARY
10 M.
106 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
GOOD DESIGN IS GOOD BUSINESS

Since CAET opened in 2017, corporate training at
Center for Advanced &
MCC is up more than 300 percent, generating income
Emerging Technology for the school and employment opportunities for
Omaha students. The building now serves as a national train-
A glazed garage door opens to Innovation
Central (left), the building’s main space. To
its north, a double-height main corridor
(above) serves as a social commons and
connects to the building’s various other

BNIM ing center for EPI-USA, a California-based data-center- facilities.

training organization. Additionally, in the first year of a
new Prototype Design degree, six of 17 enrolled stu-
A NEW BUILDING at the Metropolitan Community dents received job offers after completing only half of credits
College (MCC) in Omaha has become a versatile a two-year program. Designed to be adaptable, the ARCHITECT: BNIM — Kevin Nordmeyer,
research, development, and training resource for LEED Gold building will allow the school to grow and Jeff Shaffer, Dana Sorensen, Rod Kruse,
students and industry. Designed by BNIM, the adapt to suit the spatial and technological needs of Carey Nagle, Tina Wehrman, Sarah Hirsch,
65,000-square-foot Center for Advanced and future students and business partners. Laura Raskin design team
Emerging Technology (CAET) includes a virtual- EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT:
reality lab, 3-D printing, laser cutters, plasma-cutting Holland Basham Architects
technology, and a high-bay space for such endeavors 7
ENGINEERS: Nielsen-Baumert
as prototyping new equipment. (structural); Morrissey Engineers (m/e/p)
1
Central to an MCC 2010 master plan, which priori- 1 2 2
CONSULTANTS: Lamp Rynearson (civil
tized consolidating campus facilities, improving 4
10 11 and landscape); The Sextant Group (av/it)
education delivery, and creating a job pipeline, the 5
2 9 9 14 15
CAET also provides cutting-edge facilities to train 3 GENERAL CONTRACTOR:
12 13
professional teams. The contemporary steel struc- 6 Kiewit Corporation
14
ture, clad with white precast-concrete panels on the 1 CLIENT: Metropolitan Community

P H O T O G R A P H Y: N I C K M E R R I C K © H A L L+ M E R R I C K
east and west, opens onto a two-story high-bay vol- College, Omaha
ume called Innovation Central with glazed garage SIZE: 65,000 square feet
doors. A main corridor on the north, the primary 0 30 FT.
FIRST-FLOOR PLAN COST: $20.4 million
10 M.
circulation spine, is the social hub and connects
COMPLETION DATE: June 2017
Innovation Central to the rest of the program: train-
ing rooms, a data center, multifunction spaces, and 1 ENTRANCE 9 STORAGE

offices. Glass curtain walls provide views and daylight 2 CORRIDOR 10 ELECTRICAL SOURCES
that reaches into interior training rooms, while a 3 INNOVATION CENTRAL 11 DATA ROOM CLADDING: Swiss Pearl; Kawneer; Knight
perforated metal screen on the building’s south el- 4 KITCHEN 12 ELECTRONICS Wall; Enterprise Precast Concrete; Arconic
evation manages solar gain. The architects Architectural Products; VaproShield
5 CUSTODIAL 13 FIT & FINISH
redeveloped an existing urban site for the project, GLAZING: Vitro Architectural Products;
6 LOADING/RECEIVING 14 PROTOTYPING
where they improved stormwater management for Solatube
the area. They also created pedestrian and public- 7 EMERGING LABS 15 DESIGN ROOM DOORS: Schweiss; Steelcraft; VT
transportation connections to the neighborhood. 8 RESTROOM Industries; Kawneer
 107
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
GOOD DESIGN IS GOOD BUSINESS

Turnstyle
New York City
Architecture Outfit
IN NEW YORK, where
real-estate costs are at a
premium, it’s practically
criminal to waste space—
even the subterranean
kind. One underutilized
site was a block-long
passage below street
level that leads from the
Columbus Circle subway
station to West 57th
Street. In 2014, local firm
Architecture Outfit began
working with Oases
Development to devise a
plan for the Metropolitan
Transit Authority to trans-
form it into a flexible
underground food-and-
shopping pedestrian street named screens conceal overhead conduits, pipes,
Turnstyle. and HVAC equipment. Blackened-steel
The business opportunity was huge in a signage adds an urban vibe, as do black
place traversed daily by 80,000 people, so pavers arranged in the same pattern as
the architects maximized the number of Rafael Guastavino’s tile vaults at Grand
tenants—initially 34—giving them room to Central Terminal. Elsewhere on the floor,
breathe. Two rows of small shops flank the additional kiosks sit on islands of light or
corridor, the scale aimed at varying vendor multicolored tiles.
types and minimizing vacancy periods. Still popular nearly three years in, the
Large vendors can remove partitions to 30,000-plus-square-foot Turnstyle has
merge two or three shops. managed to procure rents at market rates
The team visually opened and polished comparable to street-level retail and main-
Colored tile indicates areas where pedestrians and shoppers can the site. Transoms above fixed- or folding- tain 90 percent occupancy since opening.
pause, eat, and chat (above). Overhead, a spine of mirror and glass storefronts create the illusion of a It has also generated more than 600 jobs.
perforated metal screens—laser-cut to reference historic subway- lofty environment despite low beams. The project demonstrates how good de-
tile motifs—conceal m/e/p components. Backlit storefront signage
Mirrored panels and white-painted surfaces sign can engage the public and boost the
(top, right) keeps the design cohesive. Small kiosks at the center are
rented by niche vendors. help distribute light. Perforated metal business of shopkeepers. Sheila Kim

credits
ARCHITECT: Architecture Outfit — Marta Sanders,
Thaddeus Briner, principals; Stephen Nielson,
1 ENTRANCE project manager
2 TURNSTYLE ENGINEER: Buro Happold (m/e/p/fp)

3 SUBWAY TUNNEL CONSULTANTS: Urban Projects Collaborative

4 57TH STREET
(project manager); Lighting Workshop (lighting)
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: ZDG
5 58TH STREET
CLIENT: Oases Development
6 SUBWAY STATION
5 4
1 1
SIZE: 30,000 square feet
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © T Y C O L E

COST: withheld
1
COMPLETION DATE: April 2016

6 2 2
SOURCES
3
STOREFRONT: Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope; Dorma
METAL: Kammetal
LONGITUDINAL SECTION LIGHTING: Apogee; Luraline
108 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
GOOD DESIGN IS GOOD BUSINESS
A 600-square-foot retail nook on California Street in San Francisco’s Financial District
plays with scale and perspective (above). In Old Oakland, BCJ transformed the ground
floor of a former 19th-century hotel into a café (below) with custom furnishings and
modular elements designed to adapt over time. The height of the World Trade Center
space in New York (bottom, right) is modulated with millwork ribs.
Blue Bottle Coffee
Various locations
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
FOUNDED IN 2002, Blue Bottle Coffee has developed a network of
cafés across the United States, Japan, and South Korea—minimalist
oases for urbanites who need a caffeine fix. Initially, there were only a
small number, with different plans and a range of aesthetics. In 2016,
the company was ready to expand its U.S. operations and engaged
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ) to apply a more rigorous approach to
the overall café design, with codified specifications and functional lay-
outs and more predictable schedules and budgets.
“Design has always been a key part of our brand identity, and partly
what we attribute our success to,” says Lukas Bruggemann, Blue
Bottle director of café development. Architects from BCJ’s San
Francisco and Philadelphia offices have maintained this strategy by
creating more than 20 cafés in six metropolitan areas across the
country, keeping pace with the specialty brewer’s growth without
sacrificing its standards.
The new cafés are cheerful, light-filled galleries with transparent
storefronts that put the performance of coffee making on display in
clutter-free spaces. The design emphasizes a common use of humble
materials such as plywood and butcher block, combined with thoughtful
configurations for brewing equipment, food presentation, and merchan-
dise display. With barista input, the architects for each store also
crafted a set of benchmarks early in the design process that standard-
ized certain elements of every café, from bars that open to allow
employees to easily interact with guests to dedicated spaces for sup-
plies needed within arm’s reach, and intimate seating nooks.
Simultaneously, BCJ worked with Blue Bottle to design and tweak
distinct locations that respond to the surrounding architectural con-
straints and customer demands. For example, a café in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn, features room for strollers, in response to the number of
parents in the neighborhood. The space also features a gently curving
wall, with vertical wood slats, that choreographs traffic.
The new cafés have increased efficiency and customer loyalty, says
Bruggemann. Indeed, by inviting guests to be a part of the coffee-
making process, Blue Bottle has improved the experience of both its
customers and staff—without sacrificing the quality of the beverages.
Laura Raskin
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © A DA M R O U S E (O P P O S I T E , T O P A N D B O T T O M L E F T ) ; J E F F R E Y T O TA R O (O P P O S I T E , B O T T O M 109

credits
ARCHITECT: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson — Greg
Mottola, Christopher Orsega, Alex Gregor, Ashley
Hinton, James Kirkpatrick, California design team;
R I G H T A N D T H I S PAG E , B O T T O M ) ; M AT T H E W M I L L M A N ( T O P, L E F T ) ; DA N I E L L E E ( T O P, R I G H T )

Tom Kirk, Ryan Simpson, Sophia Lee, Christopher

Renn, Daniel Lee, Daniel Stanislaw, Nora Chase,
Karolina Kaczmarczyk, Boston and New York
design team
ENGINEERS: California: MHC (m/e/p); Boston and
New York: Silman (structural); WSP (m/e/p)
CONSULTANTS: TJ Hale; Arnold and Egan; Okayama
Works; Digifabshop (millwork)
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Eric F. Anderson;
Alsterlind (San Francisco); Bali Construction
(Oakland); Starloc (Boston); DCR (Williamsburg);
Schimenti (World Trade Center)
CLIENT: Blue Bottle Coffee
SIZE: 600 square feet–2,200 square feet
COST: withheld
COMPLETION DATE: November 2016 — May 2018

SOURCES
SURFACING: Dupont Corian; Daltile
CEILINGS: Armstrong
LIGHTING: Tech Lighting; Delray; Bruck; HE Williams;
Lucifer; Aion; Nuvo; Boca Flasher A lattice of plywood box lanterns in the South Park, San Francisco, café (top, left) displays merchandise and emits a soft
glow in the historic warehouse. In Boston’s Exchange, a 350-square-foot micro-kiosk sits within a vast atrium (top, right).
PAINTS & STAINS: Dunn-Edwards A metal frame wrapped with perforated panels brings natural light to every surface. In Williamsburg, Brooklyn (above),
FURNISHINGS: Vitra; Carl Hansen curving walls choreograph the customer experience.
110 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
GOOD DESIGN IS GOOD BUSINESS

AOS Office Renovation

New Orleans
EskewDumezRipple and
VergesRome Architects
SETTING AN EXAMPLE is often more compelling
than verbally trying to sell an idea, as contract-fur-
niture dealer AOS can attest. When the New Orleans–
based business was renovating and expanding its
offices, it turned to local firms EskewDumezRipple
(EDR) and VergesRome Architects for a design solution
that would enhance employee productivity and in-
crease sales. In response, the architects put the prod-
ucts AOS represents to work rather than on display.
EDR prioritized the employee experience, focusing
on comfort, flexibility, and aesthetic appeal. A light-
hued palette of mainly white and gray replaces the
previous red-and-black color scheme to create a
clean and versatile backdrop. Like many current
workplaces, the office features a variety of zones—
workstations, collaborative areas, private phone
booths, and lounges—to support the range of employ-
ees and activities. The design team anchored each
area with customized, prefabricated millwork and wall
systems by DIRTT—the software-based construction-
Rows of acoustic planning and fabrication service—that sped up the
baffles define building process to a mere six weeks. Instead of a
borders between
workstations and
cacophony of disparate goods, a cohesive collection
certain gathering of products that AOS sells furnishes both workspace
areas such as the and lounge areas to show it in use. (In the workstation
library (above). zone alone there are more than 40 product lines, yet
Conference rooms
of varying sizes
all complement each other.)
allow flexibility, Open since 2017, the 7,000-square-foot office and
whether for a showroom has seen an increase in client traffic
formal meeting or (including showroom tours and events) by more than
an impromptu
collaboration 150 percent, as well as a revenue increase from
(right). approximately $42 million in 2017 to upwards of
$60 million this year. AOS believes that the design of
the space has had the biggest impact, estimating that
90 percent of client tours have resulted in a purchase.
When all is said and done, it’s also indicative of how
design has improved team productivity. Sheila Kim

credits
ARCHITECTS: EskewDumezRipple; VergesRome Architects
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Kent Design + Build
1 RECEPTION
CLIENT: AOS
2 RESOURCE LIBRARY
SIZE: 10,000 square feet
3 SUPPORT
6 COST: $1.46 million
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © N E I L A L E X A N D E R
3 4 WORKSTATIONS
COMPLETION DATE: August 2017
5 CONFERENCE ROOM

6 LOUNGE/ SOURCES
SHOWROOM
1 ENTRANCE: C.R. Laurence
SYSTEMS AND CASEWORK: DIRTT (hardware, acoustical
ceiling, demountable partitions, paneling, raised floor); Newmat
(suspension grid)
0 20 FT. FLOORS AND WALLS: Pratt & Lambert; Benjamin Moore; Knoll;
FLOOR PLAN Designtex; Ceramiche Caesar; Bentley; Shaw; Abet Laminati
6 M.
FURNISHINGS: Knoll; Maharam; Alias; Davis; Coalesse; Nucraft
 111
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
GOOD DESIGN IS GOOD BUSINESS

Hines
New York City
LSM
WHEN THE developer Hines’s New York office
was hired by historic Trinity Church to rede-
velop its properties in Manhattan’s Hudson
Square neighborhood, the real-estate entity
decided to relocate its own base in the city from
Park Avenue to that area south of the West
Village. The design of their new location is an
homage to the community’s history as a home
of printing presses, yet it projects the refine-
ment of the Houston-based company’s brand.
Occupying nearly 12,000 square feet in one of
the 11 Trinity-owned buildings, the new LSM-
designed space doubles as the marketing center
for the entire Hudson Square portfolio—includ-
ing five potential development sites—saving
more than $2 million that would have gone into
an off-site facility.
The architects stripped back the space in the
1930s-era building, unearthing the existing
concrete slab and columns, and maximizing
ceiling height to recall its industrial character.
Drop ceilings in some places control noise and
conceal electric, mechanical, and sprinkler
components. Glazed aluminum-framed parti-
tions delineate various zones, from conference
rooms to amenity areas, while keeping many
sight lines clear to encourage interaction. Near
the center of the floor is what the architects
named the farm table—a counter-high commu-
nal dining surface on trestle legs for staff
breaks and conversation.
As a model for the development’s potential,
Hines’s office has attracted such high-caliber
tenants as Google: last winter, the tech giant
announced a $1 billion campus expansion across
three downtown buildings, two of them in
Trinity’s Hudson Square portfolio. Overall, the
buildings boast a low vacancy-rate total of
0 50 FT.
FLOOR PLAN 2 percent. The design also benefits the com-
15 M.
pany internally: since moving in 2017, employees
are converging and interacting in the communal
1 RECEPTION 4 PANTRY
spaces more than they ever have. “At 499 Park,
2 CONFERENCE 5 TERRACE
no one ever ate lunch together,” says senior
ROOM 6 OPEN OFFICE managing director Tommy Craig. “Now, on a
3 FARM TABLE weekly basis, we will have 20 people sitting
together at the farm table.” Sheila Kim
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © P E T E R A A R O N /O T T O

credits
ARCHITECT: LSM — Debra Lehman Smith, James SIZE: 11,700 square feet
McLeish, Rick Bilski, Gregory Weber, Marc Pelletier COST: withheld
ENGINEERS: Thornton Tomasetti (structural); COMPLETION DATE: June 2017
AKF (m/e/p)
SOURCES
CONSULTANTS: Fisher Marantz Stone (lighting);
Existing concrete structure reflects the neighborhood’s industrial DEMOUNTABLE PARTITIONS: Unifor
roots, while contemporary glass partitions maximize daylight and Cerami (acoustic); Lisa Austin & Associates (art)
CEILING: Snaptex; Armstrong
sightlines (top). The communal farm table (above) is a gathering GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Reidy Contracting Group
spot situated at the center of the floor. A drop ceiling controls FLOORS: Stile Pavimenti Legno; Armstrong; Shaw
noise and conceals lighting and mechanical components. CLIENT: Hines Interests Limited Partnership Contract; CTS Concrete Flooring
112 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
GOOD DESIGN IS GOOD BUSINESS

Hudson Woods
Kerhonkson, New York
LANG Architecture
MANHATTAN-BASED architect Drew Lang has alternated
between design and small development projects, such as reno-
vating and flipping single-family houses, since founding his
studio in 2003. Besides stabilizing his company’s overall rev-
enue, the diversified-business model turns up new opportunities.
Interacting with design clients, Lang sensed both a hunger for
custom weekend homes and a worry that commissioning one
would take too much time. In 2011, when the architect discovered
131 forested acres for sale about two hours north of New York by
car, he realized he could unlock that latent demand with an
alternative to the traditional subdivision.
For his firm’s first multi-residence venture—dubbed Hudson
Woods and launched without brokers, via social media, local
partnerships, and word-of-mouth in 2014—Lang and his team
devised a modern vernacular, designing and building a
2,300-square-foot model house, from which prospective home-
owners could choose between two- or three-bedroom versions
to be constructed on one of 26 lots. The architect/developer
The typical Hudson
Woods residence offered 30 possible upgrades for each house, and sited pur-
(above) features a taut chased units sensitively, in order to meet market desire for a
gable shape that unique property. Hudson Woods’s scale allowed Lang to realize
references the region’s each residence at about half the expense of a one-off.
historic agricultural
buildings; all Hudson Woods’s base pricing increased five times over the
residences are clad in course of 26 sales and three years. The most expensive house—a
cedar. Oak-lined three-bedroom model with multiple upgrades that included out-
interiors face walls of
buildings—sold for $2.5 million toward the end of this period. Lang
windows that provide
a connection to the and his partners’ initial $1.8 million investment covered the land
outdoors (left). The purchase, construction of the model house, Phase 1 infrastructure
kitchen opens to the improvements, and early marketing. Each house thereafter cost
living area, with colors
an average of $885,000 to build; the completed development
and materials that
reflect the nature returned the partners’ equity more than twice over. Lang also
motif (below). draws a line from Hudson Woods to 12 new projects totaling
$350 million in construction-cost value, and—discovering yet
another business to run alongside his studio—he has fielded 200
inquiries to license the project’s design. David Sokol

credits

ARCHITECT: LANG Architecture —
Drew Lang, Jeremy Babel, Matt Hart,
Will Gregory, George Hajjar, Jackson
Hahne, Elisa Finoli, Michael Kolodesh
ENGINEERS: Luke Amey (structural);
Roberto Plumbing & Heating (m/p)
CONSULTANT: Sanderson (brand
and marketing)
CLIENT: LANG Architecture
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © T Y C O L E ( T O P ) ; D E B O R A H D E G R A F F E N R E I D ( 2)
ROOFING: S.A.P. Exteriors
WINDOWS & DOORS:
Bildau & Bussman
HARDWARE: Sun Valley Bronze
PANELING & FLOORING: Allegheny
Mountain Hardwood
TILE: Heath (ceramic); Walker Zanger
(stone)
SURFACING: Trueform Concrete;

SIZE: 100,250 square feet

M. Treixeira Soapstone
WOOD STOVE: Wittus Stoves
COST: $31.3 million
CONTROLS: Nest
COMPLETION DATE: May 2019
LIGHTING: Allied Maker; Workstead
PLUMBING: Kohler; Delta; Duravit;
SOURCES Hansgrohe
CLADDING: Andrew Becker Design
(architectural metal)
PAINTS & STAINS: Benjamin Moore
 113
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © DAV I D S U N B E R G / E S T O ( 2) ; C O U R T E S Y B R O O K LY N N AV Y YA R D A R C H I V E S ( B O T T O M , L E F T )
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
GOOD DESIGN IS GOOD BUSINESS

Historically accurate insulated windows and cladding replace the

existing envelope to bring the building up to date (top and above);
Inside, single-story buildouts—housing studios, meeting rooms,
and a makerspace—flank a central corridor and form a mezzanine.

New Lab at the Brooklyn Navy Yard A variety of spaces—from private offices and benching zones to meet-
ing rooms and breakout lounges—helps foster connections among
New York City member tenants and ensures that there’s an environment well suited to
Marvel Architects accommodate numerous work styles and endeavors, whether to develop
robotics or advance artificial intelligence. Since its opening in 2016, New
ORIGINALLY A machine shop for naval equipment, the Brooklyn Navy Lab has been flourishing, seeing the start-ups and small companies it
Yard Building 128, built in 1899, seemed a symbolic fit for modern-day houses raise upwards of $450 million in capital; some have entered into
fabrication. Encouraged by historic-restoration grants, loans, and tax particularly lucrative deals, such as that of JUMP, a bike-sharing venture
credits from government agencies, developer Macro Sea entered into a whose R&D team called New Lab home from the start, which was ac-
public-private partnership to convert the building into New Lab, a co- quired by UBER for $250 million. Sheila Kim
working community with onsite prototyping facilities for frontier-tech
entrepreneurs. To bring the structure up to date, Macro Sea tapped New credits
York–based Marvel Architects. ARCHITECT: Marvel Architects — Scott COST: withheld
The architects stripped the exterior back to the building’s steel skel- Demel, Eckart Graeve, Zachary Cohen, COMPLETION DATE: July 2016
eton and restored its original historic appearance with insulated metal Elise DeChard, Teo Quintana
panels and windows. Inside, the project team preserved structural relics, INTERIOR AND CONCEPT DESIGN:
SOURCES
such as the existing trusses and gantries, while inserting new elements Macro Sea
that both refer to the building’s past and meet contemporary program- CLADDING: Kingspan
ENGINEERS: Engineering Associates
ming needs. Single-story enclosures, for example, evoke the material ROOF: Metl-Span
(structural); BD Engineering (m/e/p)
stacks and machining stations that once lined the ground floor’s GLASS: Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope
CONSULTANTS: DGA Lighting (lighting
perimeter. But they also contain key spaces—such as studios and the WINDOWS: Graham (metal frames)
design); Higgins Quasebarth (tax credits)
fabrication lab—while forming the base for a mezzanine floor. A new HARDWARE: Dorma; Salto
second level, occupying two sides of the interior, overlooks this GENERAL CONTRACTOR:
LIGHTING: Cree; Northstar; Peerless;
mezzanine and the ground floor, with bridges, supported by the gantries, Yorke Construction
Aculux; Bartco
providing access across the interior. These buildouts increased the CLIENT: New Lab
DOORS: Karp; Juarez Custom Steel
square footage by 32,000, bringing the total area to 84,000 square feet. SIZE: 84,000 square feet Fabrication
Academy of Digital Learning
Focus On: Wood Structures
Become an expert on Wood Structures through Architectural Record’s
Academy of Digital Learning.

Upon successful completion of the Wood Structures Academy, you will earn 7 AIA LU/HSW +
2 AIA LU/Elective and a digital badge that demonstrates your mastery and achievement.

Earn your digital badge and showcase your expertise!

ce.architecturalrecord.com/academies/wood

Brought to you by
greenscreen¨ creates a
framework for vines to flourish

Project: WWII Museum, New Orleans, LA . Architect: Voorsanger Architects PC . Landscape Architect: Olin Partnership . Installer: Manufab Inc. - steel by others

800.450.3494
LED REVEALS

ARCHITECTURAL METALS + ENGINEERED PRODUCT SYSTEMS | 800-237-9773 | www.fryreglet.com

©2019 Don Pearse Photographers, Inc.
 larger Modernist project. We investigate its meaning
DOES THE BAUHAUS STILL MATTER?

followed Gropius, Ludwig

Moholy-Nagy, and others to

discuss the Bauhaus’s history and
and legacy, particularly on architectural practice

Marcel Breuer, László

its distinctive aura, which
school—which had a lasting influence as part of the

Mies van der Rohe,

today. Scholars, architects, and journalists
117

achievements, as well as

the United States.

Record takes a long look into the short-lived
lasted only until 1933. In the following pages,
On April 12, 1919, Walter Gropius founded the
Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany. It
JUNE 2019
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

TS
ET
DG s
hau ,
HO Bau 1926
G the ing, Art/
AI t):
lef uild ern ou,
CR op, us b od pid y;
BY m t ha of M om ac
fro Bau m es P leg 24,
ED ise ew useu org sky s, 19 n;
ckw he n l M Ge ndin piu atio ;
GN (clo of t tiona ntre a Ka r Gro und Welz
SI phy oof Na , Ce Nin lte Fo dy 32,
DE gra the r rlin / ation aris, a, Wa essau , Can 31/19 on;
E oto e e P Jen s D 28 , 19 ati ;
Ph rs on hiv B ial Cr
AG ste rc str
, u , 19 ng nd
ach uha ius ildi Fou , 19 s;
26
IM ma aus-A Indu e r b Ba o p b u u i u s tt
Au rtesy ter Gr ence essa Grop odge ar,
auh r for us D
Ha cou , Wal resid haus alter raig s Wei hlig;
H m
© B ente
C ate us au , W y C au U r”
Est uha /B ing n b uh tian ate
ng Ba own Build ratio ce, Ba Chris z The ation
usi he kn t -
Ho of t r un haus Illus ’s offi Lars e Tan ound
en y e u s l F
ört con aph Ba piu ota ia
s T Med
u-T bal ogr sau ro
ssa he phot Des mG “Da ctive
De on t fro
nts iew era
de av Int
Stu
118 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 DOES THE BAUHAUS STILL MATTER?
Origin Story
The Bauhaus may have been short-lived in Germany, but its reach was long.
BY MARGRET KENTGENS-CRAIG
AT ITS CENTENNIAL, the Bauhaus’s design lega-
cy seems more present than ever, in spite of the
fact that the famous German school of design
lasted merely 14 years and enrolled fewer than
1,400 students. Known for its interdisciplinary
focus, merging arts, crafts, industrial design,
and architecture, its attention to scale went
from a cream pitcher to a city plan. In its short
life, it had three directors and three locations.
Founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar in
1919, it moved to Dessau in 1925. When
Gropius left in 1928, architect Hannes Meyer
took over until 1930. At that point, Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe moved the school to Berlin,
where he led it until political pressure forced
him to close it in 1933.
Now, 100 years after its founding, a new
museum devoted to the Bauhaus has just
opened in Weimar (page 134); another will
open in Dessau this fall, while yet a third is
P H O T O G R A P H Y: I M AG E H U D 3 2 9 8 , C O U R T E S Y H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y A R C H I V E S ( T O P ) ; L O U I S H E L D/ B AU H AU S -A R C H I V B E R L I N ( M I D D L E ) ; T H U R I N G I A N S TAT E O F F I C E F O R H I S T O R I C M O N U M E N T S A N D
A R C H E O L O GY, W E N Z E L- O R F ( B O T T O M ) ; Y VO N N E T E N S C H E R T/ B AU H AU S D E S S AU F O U N DAT I O N O P P O S I T E , T O P A N D B O T T O M R I G H T ) ; B AU H AU S D E S S AU F O U N DAT I O N (O P P O S I T E , B O T T O M L E F T ) ;
planned for Berlin. Over the years, digitization
has made remote collections, archives, and
other documentation readily available, while
early masterpieces such as Ludwig Mies van
der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion (1929), Walter
Gropius’s Dessau Bauhaus Building (1926), and
the Mies Tugendhat House in Brno (1930) have
been restored or reconstructed. New publica-
tions and films are coming out, along with
hundreds of exhibitions. The influence of the
original participants, plus their activities,
ideas, and their successors are being explored
far beyond the Bauhaus birthplace. The media
and social networks are full of the school’s
global impact. But how profound was the
reach of the Bauhaus and its influence, espe-
cially in America?
As early as the 1920s and 1930s, the U.S. and
the Bauhaus formed an extraordinary transat-
lantic relationship when American visitors and
students explored the school in its various
locations, with the arrestingly modern Dessau
Bauhaus Building providing a particularly
major attraction. Bauhaus artists looked to
America for inspiration, and, in turn, audi-
ences began to encounter the work here. In
1924, the art collector Galka Scheyer began
promoting the Bauhaus painters Lyonel
Feininger, Paul Klee, and Wassily Kandinsky,
along with Alexei Jawlenski, under the name
the Blue Four, in galleries in New York and
Northern California.
Then, in 1930, American audiences were
treated to the first Bauhaus exhibition in the
country, Bauhaus Weimar, Dessau. Organized at
Harvard University by recent graduate Lincoln
Kirstein and fellow students of the Harvard
Society of Contemporary Art, the exhibition
traveled to New York and Chicago. Of course,
the Bauhaus became more widely recognized
in 1932 as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s
Modern Architecture: International Exhibition,
When Walter Gropius (middle) founded the Bauhaus in
1919, the school occupied two Art Nouveau buildings that
Henry van de Velde had designed for the Grand Ducal
School for Arts and Crafts in 1904 and 1911 (left).
 119

curated by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell

Hitchcock under the auspices of museum
director Alfred H. Barr Jr. Accompanied by an
exhibition catalogue and a book, it portrayed
Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius and subse-
quent director Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as
the leading protagonists of the European
avant-garde, along with Le Corbusier and J.J.P.
Oud. Influential architecture magazines such
as record, Architectural Forum, and Pencil Points
reinforced the recognition.
The closing of the Bauhaus during the
Third Reich led to the diaspora of the school’s
faculty, many of whom emigrated to the U.S.
and other countries. Both Barr and Johnson
were instrumental in helping to relocate these
designers and artists, since they knew the
school firsthand from their travels to Europe,
beginning in late 1920s when they began
formulating the 1932 exhibition.
Soon after the show, Johnson recommend-
ed that Bauhaus artist Josef Albers be hired by
John Andrew Rice, the founder of Black Moun-
tain College in North Carolina in 1933. At In 1925, the Bauhaus moved from Weimar to Dessau and into a reinforced-concrete complex (top) formed of three
buildings, connected by a bridge and a one-story wing. Designed by Walter Gropius, it included workshops, teaching
Black Mountain, Albers, who had been a stu- spaces, administrative offices, and the photogenic Preller House, with 28 studios and cantilevered balconies (above, left
dent, teacher, and then deputy director of the and right). The school opened in 1926, and, after a recent restoration, is now home to the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.
120 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 DOES THE BAUHAUS STILL MATTER?

P H O T O G R A P H Y (C L O C K W I S E , F R O M T O P L E F T ) : © H E L G O H ; R O L A N D H A L B E ; W I K I M E D I A U S E R DA B B E L J U ; O S L O M U S E U M , C I T Y H I S T O RY C O L L E C T I O N ; (O P P O S I T E , C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P, L E F T ) : Y VO N N E
Mies van der Rohe (above)
became the third director
of the Bauhaus, in 1930. His
spatially rich, materially
refined German Pavilion for
the 1929 World Exposition

T E N S C H E R T/ B AU H AU S D E S S AU F O U N DAT I O N ; H E N D R I K E / W I K I M E D I A ; K L A S S I K S T I F T U N G W E I M A R ; J O S H G R AC I A N O
in Barcelona (top, right)
indicated a strong design
aesthetic. Hannes Meyer
(right) was the Bauhaus’s
second director, from 1928
to 1930. Meyer’s socialist
viewpoint was reflected in
his highly functional
architecture, such as the
ADGB Trade Union School
(far right) in Bernau (1930).

Bauhaus, continued his investigations into the
nature of materials, color, and visual percep-
tion, while teaching his highly influential
foundation course—perhaps today’s most
relevant inheritance from the Bauhaus. His
wife, Anni, expanded on her distinguished
career as a weaver, which she began at the
Bauhaus. Albers eventually left, in 1950, to
teach at Yale University’s School of Art.
In 1937, Walter Gropius came to Harvard
University to assume the chair of the Graduate
School of Design, at the behest of the new
dean, Joseph Hudnut. Mies van der Rohe ar-
rived in Chicago in 1938 with the help of
colleagues and former students, including
Bertrand Goldberg and Michael van Beuren, to
head the Armour Institute. When it merged in
1940 with the Illinois Institute of Technology,
Mies designed the now historic main campus.
Some of the Bauhaus-related efforts in this
country are less well known today. For exam-
ple, in 1937, László Moholy-Nagy established
the New Bauhaus in Chicago. The former
instructor of art, photography, and metalwork
at Weimar and Dessau, from 1923 to 1928, was
invited to the city by the Association of Arts
and Industries. The innovative school, depen-
dent on private funds, had financial problems
and closed in 1938. But in 1939, Moholy-Nagy
opened the School of Design, whose advisors
included Gropius and Hudnut. By 1944, the
school’s name had changed to the Institute of
Design. In 1949, three years after Moholy-Nagy
died, it folded into IIT.
In 1946, Walter Paepcke, chairman of the
Container Corporation of America and patron
of Chicago’s New Bauhaus, enlisted graphic
designer Herbert Bayer to come to Aspen,
Colorado, to help shape the campus of the new
Aspen Institute’s facilities. Previously, in 1935,
Mills College in Oakland, California, offered
Alfred Neumeyer, a Berlin-based art historian,
a position as a professor and director of the
museum, which showcased Bauhaus art.
In the end, none of these initiatives could
match the influence of the two famous
Bauhaus architects, Gropius at Harvard and
Mies at IIT. Once they set foot on American
shores, the Bauhaus reception here was domi-
nated by architecture, as Mies van der Rohe’s
Farnsworth House (1951), Crown Hall at IIT
(1956), and the Seagram Building (1958) show.
Gropius’s own status was helped substantially
by another exhibition mounted at MoMA, in
1938, Bauhaus 1919–1928, covering the exact
years he was director. Mies, the last director of
the Bauhaus, opted out of participating in the
 121

show. Hannes Meyer, the second director, was

ignored. While Mies’s success did not depend
upon his Bauhaus affiliation, Meyer never
achieved recognition in this country, particu­
larly since he moved to the USSR, then Mexico,
and finally Switzerland.
One of the biggest misperceptions of the
Bauhaus is that there was one unified set of
principles. The three directors’ approaches
differed in crucial ways. Gropius’s vision to
meld pragmatic design, quality, and afford­
ability with “beauty” proved to be idealistic.
Hannes Meyer defined architecture as a “collec­
tive, economic, and function­oriented process”
for the benefit of the people, and at the cost of
artistic expression. Mies avoided the challenge
altogether by disregarding affordability—and
the social agenda at the core of the Bauhaus—
in favor of a spiritual and aesthetic understand­
ing of building as art—Baukunst.
In America during WWII and immediately
In 1937, the artist and photographer László Moholy-Nagy, who taught
after, the influence of the Bauhaus’s leading at the Bauhaus, emigrated to Chicago and established the New Bau-
principals was limited. In those years, the haus (above) and logo (top, right). Another Bauhausler, Marcel Breuer,
Bauhaus emigrés were confronted by an anti­ had great popularity in the U.S. with his B-9 nesting tables (right). The
house Gropius designed (with Breuer) for his own family in Lincoln,
German atmosphere as a number of them,
Massachusetts (below), soon became a landmark of Modernism.
including Gropius, came under FBI investiga­
tion. If their language and nationality
projected a sense of “otherness,” so did their
architecture. In traditional New England,
Gropius’s simple “ultra­modern” house in
Lincoln, Massachusetts, which he had built in
1938, didn’t quite fit.
The Bauhaus’s roots were particular to its
own time and place and simply were not
shared with other countries’. Formed in the
aftermath of WWI, the school had sought an
optimistic new beginning in which its artists
were determined to build a better world, with
a basis in the Enlightenment. But by the 1960s,
Modernism everywhere was being questioned.
The Holocaust and the Gulag, WWII, and
Hiroshima had exposed the dark side of tech­
nology and shattered the trust in reason. In rights to Marcel Breuer’s small B­9 side table. If anyone in the corporate world recognized
the 1970s and ’80s, such theoretical approach­ Breuer, contrary to his colleagues, had not the Bauhaus for its potential, it was Steve Jobs,
es such as Postmodernism and Deconstruction passed his artistic ownership on to the Dessau who came to define Apple as a design rather
called into question the Eurocentric idea of a Bauhaus, where he had designed it. By 1999, than a technology company. Jobs hired Ger­
linear and continuous historical evolution, four different companies claimed legal rights. man industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger and
cultural tradition, and philosophy. Still, many One company was Knoll International. A then the British talent Jonathan Ive—both from
maintain today that a pluralistic modernism is number of high­end manufacturers, such as Bauhaus­informed institutions or schools of
an ongoing project. the German wallpaper company Rasch, sell thought—to develop Apple’s design sensibility.
The Bauhaus arguably has received more Bauhaus reproductions successfully or have After 100 years, assessments of the Bauhaus
attention than any other school or artistic developed new “Bauhaus” product lines based may differ as much as the multitude of aspects
movement of the 20th century. The centennial on a history with the Dessau school. of its ever­evolving identity. Yet the school
reminds us that it was, in the first place, a The impact of the Bauhaus is perhaps more showed that interdisciplinary skills and col­
school of design, with profound connections to profoundly evident in its general principles of laboration, with strong philosophical positions
the material world, industry, and a mission to forms and materials true to an object’s nature as well as determination and idealism, led to
solve problems to high aesthetic standards. and function. Bath­fixture manufacturer innovative solutons that still influence theory
But the name “Bauhaus” is often taken out Dornbracht and jewelry­maker Niessing are and practice. n
of its original context, because there is money among those paying homage to the Bauhaus,
in the branding of all things Bauhaus. One and Terence Conran has cited it as a major Margret Kentgens-Craig is the author of The Bauhaus
memorable legal fight broke out over the influence on his furniture chain Habitat. and America: First Contacts, 1919–1936.
122 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 DOES THE BAUHAUS STILL MATTER?
Reality Check
Three historians unpack the myth and essence of the legendary school.
EDITED BY SUZANNE STEPHENS
IN RECOGNITION of the Bauhaus’s 100th anni-
versary, record brought together three scholars
of architectural history to discuss its meaning
and legacy. They are Rosemarie Haag Bletter,
professor emerita of architectural history and
theory at the City University of New York; Mary
McLeod, professor of architecture in the School
of Architecture, Preservation and Planning at
Columbia University; and Barry Bergdoll, the
Meyer Schapiro professor of art history in
the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at
Columbia, and an architecture curator at New
York’s Museum of Modern Art, who co-organized
the exhibition Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for
Rosemarie Haag Bletter Modernity in 2009.
WHAT ACTUALLY WAS THE BAUHAUS?
Barry Bergdoll: In this centennial year,
there’s this huge urge to find the essential
Bauhaus. I don’t believe there is an essential Bau-
haus. In its short existence, it was highly experi-
mental, highly politicized, and continually
shifting in nature, from the Bauhaus that began
in 1919 in Weimar, then moved to Dessau in 1925,
and finally to Berlin in 1930.
Rosemarie Haag Bletter: Not only were there
different directors–Gropius from 1919 until 1928;
Hannes Meyer from 1928 until 1930; and then
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933—
but the Bauhaus was first a state entity, then a
Barry Bergdoll municipal one, and finally a private school, un-
der assault from rising Nazi power. That accounts
for some of the different attitudes.
BB: Another thorny issue is how to untangle
the Bauhaus from other avant-garde initiatives,
some of which were also educational institutions,
while others were not.
RHB: And there’s still confusion about what
the Bauhaus means. It was a school, not a style,
and there were many styles, not just one, in its
14-year history. What gets attention is the mid-
dle, or Dessau, period, with objects, such as
Marcel Breuer’s tubular-steel chairs. Most of the
designs produced at the Bauhaus are interesting
forms, but almost never functional or useful in a
practical sense. I largely blame Gropius, not the
Mary McLeod general public, for the widespread misperception
about form and function. He was a very good
promoter.
BB: When MoMA mounted the 90th-anniver-
sary exhibition Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for
Modernity, exactly 10 years ago, my cocurator,
M A RY M C C L E O D ; © T I L L M A N N F R A N Z E N (O P P O S I T E , T O P ) ; Y VO N N E T E N S C H E R T/C O U R T E S Y B AU H AU S D E S S AU F O U N DAT I O N (O P P O S I T E , B O T T O M )
I M AG E S ( F R O M T O P ) : J O O S T S C H M I D T/ P U B L I C D O M A I N ; C O U R T E S Y R O S E M A R I E H A AG B L E T T E R ; R O B I N H O L L A N D/ M U S E U M O F M O D E R N A R T, N Y;
Leah Dickerman, and I were very strict about
what was included. Everything we showed was
made at the Bauhaus itself.
WHAT ABOUT THE ARCHITECTURE COMPONENT
IN THE BAUHAUS CURRICULUM?
BB: The Bauhaus kept delaying the actual
teaching of architecture, and, in Weimar, the
students took architecture courses in a local
trade school.
RHB: Architecture was not actually taught
within the Bauhaus until the fourth year—and
not all students stayed that long. It was a much
more informal school than we tend to think, not
a traditional academy. They probably got archi-
tectural fundamentals in the workshops, but not
all students may have studied architecture.
Mary McLeod: The architecture associated
with the Bauhaus, such as the school building in
Dessau or the Masters’ Houses nearby, aren’t a
product of the training there per se, but came
out of Gropius’s own office.
RHB: It’s like the Haus am Horn in Weimar,
[designed by Georg Muche, a painter who taught
at the Bauhaus, with construction overseen by
architect Adolf Meyer]. The furnishings and
fittings were executed by students, but it was not
architecture that came out of the Bauhaus.
WHAT ABOUT THE SHIFTING IDENTITIES OF THE
SCHOOL IN TERMS OF ITS ORIENTATION?
BB: In Weimar, there were two moments,
which got blurred in the move to Dessau. This
first phase, 1919 to 1923, was marked by open-
ended invention, and was heralded by a major
exhibition in 1923.
RHB: The second Weimar moment absorbed
other contemporary moments. After the painter,
photographer, and metalworker László Moholy-
Nagy arrived at Weimar in 1923, he, together
with artist Theo van Doesburg, tended to shift
attention toward the other Modernist influences

—Russian Constructivism and Dutch de Stijl.
BB: And then, at Dessau in 1925, there was a
consolidation of influences. Still, the school
managed to associate ideas about avant- garde
art education with the brand name Bauhaus.
When Gropius left Weimar, he insisted on
taking ownership of the Bauhaus name with
him to Dessau. Then he departed in 1928,
along with graphic designer Herbert Bayer and
Marcel Breuer.
The two years of Meyer’s directorship, be-
ginning in 1928, were very productive but
convulsed by political assaults from the Nazis
and the rest of the right wing.
RHB: Gropius had always taken care that
people from the school didn’t speak publicly
about politics because he was worried about
being denied funding; Hannes Meyer wasn’t so
careful. But Meyer did shift the Bauhaus more
to what we think of as a school of architecture.
HOW DOES THE BAUHAUS RELATE TO THE
OVERALL CATEGORY OF MODERNISM?
MM: As we noted, with the arrival of
Moholy-Nagy and van Doesburg in Weimar,
Bauhaus designs began to be influenced by de
Stijl and Constructivism. So there were always
interconnections—and differences. The mod-
ern movement, or, if we use a broader term
like Modernism, embraces the Bauhaus, as well
as many other tendencies.
RHB: Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe
probably had more influence on modern archi-
tecture than the Bauhaus did.
BB: The Bauhaus shared the preoccupation
with new solutions to the pressing problems of
urban housing, a situation intensified by the
First World War, but this was also a focus of
architects from Paris to Moscow. While
The newly restored Haus
am Horn in Weimar (top) ,
is now open to the public. It
was designed by the
Bauhaus painter Georg
Muche, with construction
overseen by architect Adolf
Meyer, for the 1923 school
exhibition. In Dessau,
another restoration (right)
allows visitors to see the
double house (1926) where
Bauhaus masters Paul Klee
and Wassily Kandinsky
lived.
Gropius’s interests in prefabrication connected
with research under way elsewhere, here he
was a pioneer. Yet the most influential hous-
ing models of the period came not from the
Bauhaus, not from its limited production in
Dessau, but from the programs under Bruno
Taut in Berlin or Ernst May in Frankfurt. In
the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition, the housing
was largely from elsewhere, including the
Netherlands.
WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SO MANY
FEMALE STUDENTS AT THE BAUHAUS?
MM: In the first group of students at Wei-
mar, there were more women than men—84
females versus 79 males. At the time of the
school’s opening, Gropius proclaimed that
there “should be no differences between the
beautiful and strong sexes.” But he quickly
retreated from this stance—perhaps out of
political fears—and steered women toward the
weaving workshop. Only a few, such as
Marianne Brandt, managed to escape to the
123
metal one. But it’s important to recognize that
the Bauhaus offered a way for women to enter
design fields and become innovative profes-
sionals instead of enrolling in the traditional
craft schools, which still stressed “feminine,”
or domestic, handicrafts.
RHB: In spite of the fact that Gropius back-
tracked, Marianne Brandt was put in charge of
a workshop, one of the few women. She was
important in training both men and women.
MM: Gunta Stölzl’s textile design was one of
the most commercially successful enterprises,
bringing considerable funds to the school.
BB: There were huge debates, fights, and
lawsuits over ownership. Gropius always had a
notion that somehow the school was going to
produce things and sell them to generate
revenue. Breuer wanted to own his patents on
the furniture, which created unhappiness
between him and Gropius. The Bauhaus was
an incredibly intense place that put into high
relief some of the contradictions of modernity.
Ironically, one of the few moneymakers in
124 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
Marianne Brandt headed the metal workshop (above) in
the Dessau Bauhaus Building, designed by Gropius (1926).
Her sleek objects, from lighting fixtures to teapots, helped
advance the school’s efforts in industrial production.
the school’s product line was Bauhaus
wallpaper, franchised to a manufacturer.
Production continued even under Hannes
Meyer, despite his utilitarian ethos and lack
of interest in it for his work. And we even
find a few Bauhaus wallpapers for sale during
the National Socialist period, after the school
had closed.
WHEN THE BAUHAUS SHUT DOWN, HOW DID
THE DIASPORA OF ITS FACULTY AFFECT U.S.
ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION?
BB: You have a completely different Bau­
haus when the emigrés came to the United
States during the Nazi period, or to the Soviet
Union or to Mexico. So there is a proliferation
of Bauhauses.
RHB: Once Gropius arrived in the U.S., he
became very dogmatic. He was already some­
what dogmatic at the Bauhaus, but more so at
Harvard. It’s especially evident with his rela­
tionship to Joseph Hudnut, the first dean of
the Graduate School of Design, who was help­
ful in bringing Gropius there in 1937 as the
architecture chair. Gropius tried to reestablish
the Bauhaus by introducing a preliminary
course conducted by Naum Gabo and Josef
Albers. But toward the end, there was great
tension between Hudnut and Gropius. Hudnut
began to criticize the International Style, as
he had done earlier when he considered the
Beaux Arts no longer appropriate as an archi­
tectural approach. Harvard had to cut back
DOES THE BAUHAUS STILL MATTER?
funds, and Gropius lost some of his assistants.
He left in 1952.
BB: In the American context, what is the
rightful heir to the Bauhaus? Is it Harvard or
IIT? Is it László Moholy­Nagy’s short­lived New
Bauhaus in Chicago, or Black Mountain
College near Asheville, North Carolina?
RHB: Gropius as a self­promoter was in
evidence with the 1938 exhibition at MoMA.
For that reason, I would not consider his work
at Harvard a real continuation of the Bauhaus.
IIT perhaps came closer, although Mies’s ex­
clusive interest in architecture is not part of
the general perception of the Bauhaus either,
even if he emphasized architecture as its last
director.
MM: The phase of the Bauhaus when
Hannes Meyer was director is closer to how
architecture schools evolved, at least from the
1960s onward–for example, the emphasis on
urban planning, sociology, and programming.
Ironically, one of the
few moneymakers in
the school’s product
line was Bauhaus
wallpaper, franchised
to a manufacturer.
BB: The Bauhaus completely opposed the
university structure in Germany and invent­
ed an entirely new concept of a school. Yet
Bauhaus emigré architects often entered
professional schools inside the university
setting.
WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE BAUHAUS
TRAINING IN THE U.S.?
MM: If American universities taught art or
any crafts, they were usually secondary pur­
suits. Yale was one of the few exceptions: it has
long had a serious graduate program in art,
which existed side by side with the architec­
ture program. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that
Josef Albers, a former Bauhaus student and
teacher, taught for years in Yale’s School of Art.
BB: Another paradox at the Bauhaus was
the incredible presence of painters Paul Klee
and Wassily Kandinsky, who, despite being
powerful avant­garde artists, were not training
students to become painters.
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © VG B I L D - K U N S T B O N N /C O U R T E S Y B AU H AU S -A R C H I V B E R L I N ; M U S E U M O F M O D E R N A R T/ L I C E N S E D BY S C A L A /A R T R E S O U R C E , N Y (O P P O S I T E , T O P L E F T ) ; E S TAT E O F T. L U X F E I N I N G E R / B AU H AU S -
RHB: Josef Albers’s color theory was
disseminated in this country through publi­
cations and teaching at many schools.
A R C H I V B E R L I N (O P P O S I T E , T O P R I G H T ) ; R O L A N D H A L B E (O P P O S I T E , B O T T O M L E F T ) ; T H O M A S G R I E S E L / M U S E U M O F M O D E R N A R T/ L I C E N S E D BY S C A L A /A R T R E S O U R C E , N Y (O P P O S I T E , B O T T O M R I G H T )
MM: But Albers’s role at Yale was perhaps
more important to the art world than to archi­
tecture.
RHB: Also, look at Black Mountain College.
It had people from the Bauhaus, such as
Gropius and Josef and Anni Albers, but also it
had such Americans as Merce Cunningham
and John Cage. It was really an innovative
American school that fostered an interdisci­
plinary approach.
BB: In the preliminary course of the
Bauhaus, the students discussed one another’s
work. At the École des Beaux Arts, the stu­
dents were not present when the work was
criticized—the judgment for awarding a prize
was more private. So this culture at the
Bauhaus, of making everyone look at a
student’s work, and talking about it, was
fantastic.
COULD YOU COMPARE THE BAUHAUS TO THE
CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART, FOUNDED IN
1922 IN BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MICHIGAN, AS
AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ART AND DESIGN
SCHOOL?
RHB: It seems to have been more traditional
in its approach.
MM: Yes, Cranbrook was more of a tradi­
tional craft school, if one in a more progressive
mode. It was never as radical as the Bauhaus.
BB: The fact that the Bauhaus only existed
for 14 years transformed it almost immediately
into a myth. If the Bauhaus had continued for
another 20 years, we don’t know if it would be
so interesting. Cranbrook continues to exist.
MM: When I was an undergraduate at
Brown (Pembroke College) in the late 1960s,
my first art class was informally dubbed “spots
and dots” and was based on Bauhaus art train­
ing. And at Princeton, where I transferred in
1970, the architecture school had a course on
color theory that was definitely influenced by
Bauhaus ideas.
BB: Indeed, the most lasting influence was in
the various interpretations of the “preliminary
course.” It was a total rejection of the inherited
academic notion of learning by copying things
and studying nature and the human body.
IS THE BAUHAUS EMPHASIS ON
INTERDISCIPLINARY WORK AND TEAM
COLLABORATION STILL COMMON IN
SCHOOLS TODAY?
RHB: While environmental and urban
concerns are prevalent in schools, it seems
they are in separate programs within schools
of architecture. You don’t get that total inter­
disciplinarity that the Bauhaus encouraged.
 125

Oddly, the increasing

recognition of the
necessity of collaboration
has happened
simultaneously with the
rise of the star system.
MM: We have team teaching now, with
faculty from different fields, but how deep or
serious is it? At Columbia, a real-estate faculty
member often teaches a design studio with
someone from architecture, and I gather some-
thing similar happens at Yale. We still have
silos within architecture schools—for example,
between planning and architecture. What
we’ve inherited from the Bauhaus notion of
teamwork is the recognition that architectural
practice is a group endeavor. As corporate as
The Architects Collaborative was, it was an
extension of Gropius’s vision of the Bauhaus
and his earlier ideas of teamwork. Although
firms like SOM may not have been directly
influenced by Bauhaus ideas, the notion of
architecture as a collaborative effort is an
important product of the Modern movement.
Oddly, the increasing recognition of the neces-
sity of collaboration (for example, with
consultants) has happened simultaneously
with the rise of the star system. I don’t know
how to put those two things together—that
tension in architecture culture and practice
remains.

WHAT DO YOU FIND MISSING FROM
BAUHAUS PEDAGOGY?
BB: I’m struck that an avant-garde school in
the mid-1920s would not be teaching film.
Admittedly, it would have been very expensive
to have cameras, and the Bauhaus was always
short on cash. The other thing missing is a
focus on landscape. Here they were in Dessau,
with one of the great 18th-century works of
landscape—Wörlitz and its related gardens. Yet
there was no formal training in landscape at
the Bauhaus.
MM: Omitted in today’s received impression
would be its link to contemporary art, which
was taught at the Bauhaus. What’s curious is
how the connection with painting has fallen
by the wayside in architecture schools. At
Columbia, teachers such as Steven Holl remain
deeply interested in the relationship between
The artist and stage designer Oskar Schlemmer painted the Bauhaus Stairway in 1932 (top, left), now hanging in New
York’s MoMA. As inspiration, Schlemmer turned to a photo of Gunta Stölzl and other weavers (top, right) taken by T. Lux
Feininger, which Schlemmer helped stage in 1927. The restored stair is still in use in the Dessau Bauhaus Building (above,
left). The MoMA exhibition of 2009 in NYC (above, right) featured wood furniture from the early years of the school.
art and architecture. But, otherwise, art public as “Bauhaus design.” But the integration
doesn’t seem to be a major concern. Perhaps of all the arts within a collaborative social con-
the worlds of art and architecture have be- text remains the greatest legacy of the Bauhaus.
come too large. BB: Bauhaus style is such a fashion now,
yet, as we’ve said, the Bauhaus opposed the
DOES THE BAUHAUS TODAY EXIST PRIMARILY notion of style. This was a battle they fought
AS A STYLE? continuously, as the success of their products
MM: Modernism as a historical style is on the market depended on the Bauhaus label
thriving today. But I wonder to what extent recognition, yet they pushed back whenever
that revival is mixed with a lack of concern critics spoke of a style. One of the great suc-
with functionalism and social conditions—and cesses of Gropius’s Bauhaus was as a point of
is just about style. intersection of the European avant-gardes in
RHB: The commercialized version of what architecture and design. Today, that success
we now call International Style architecture is leads to a reductionism: calling all diverse
most commonly misunderstood by the general modernisms “Bauhaus.” n
126 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
Bauhaus on My Mind
Three women’s formative learning experiences helped develop their criticism.
Sibyl Moholy-Nagy
BY SUZANNE STEPHENS
SIBYL MOHOLY-NAGY called herself a late
bloomer. No argument there: she was 47 when
she launched her career as an architectural
historian and critic. Her book Moholy-Nagy:
Experiment in Totality, a biography of her hus-
band László, the Hungarian-born artist and
photographer who had been a teacher and
central figure at the Bauhaus, appeared in
1950, four years after his death from leukemia.
It demonstrated her gift for writing,
her strong analytical skills, and
knowledge of design. Shortly before
his death, Sybil began teaching at
the Institute of Design that Moholy-
Nagy, who had fled Berlin, estab-
lished in Chicago. He had come to
Chicago to set up a school, the New
Bauhaus, in 1937, but it only lasted
one year. The second venture, first
called the School of Design, then the
Institute of Design, started up in
1939. But after 1946, Serge Chermay-
eff led it through its merger with the
Illinois Institute of Technology, in
1949. By that time, Sibyl, a German-
born mother of two, had moved to
San Francisco to teach architectural
history at the Schaeffer School of
Design and at the University of
California, Berkeley, before landing
at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1951.
Until 1969, Sibyl taught architectural
history there and had such a strong
reputation that she was a magnet for
attracting students.
At the same time, her writings in
Progressive Architecture and
Architectural Forum, as well as her
subsequent books—Native Genius in
Anonymous Architecture (1957) and
Matrix of Man: An Illustrated History of
Urban Environment (1968)—secured In her 20s, Sibylle Pietzsch, later to be known as Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, performed
her a strong position in the critical on the stage and screen in Germany.
DOES THE BAUHAUS STILL MATTER?
firmament on topics not necessarily in the
main-stream. Native Genius, which emphasized
how attention to site, local materials, and
climate generated a strong vernacular tradi-
tion, sprang forth at a time when machine-
made glass, steel, and concrete architecture
had seized the day. Matrix of Man, which ex-
plored the physical forms of cities (such as
orthogonal, linear, or concentric) from classi-
cal Greece to the present day, argued for the
place-based generation of large-scale commu-
nities, at a time when many planners were
imposing a one-concept-fits-all approach to
city planning and urban renewal.
Sibyl Moholy-Nagy’s intelligence, style,
commitment, and courage made architects
and the general public pay attention to her
words, especially when she freely criticized
the postwar work of her husband’s former
colleagues at the Bauhaus, notably Walter
Gropius and Marcel Breuer.
By the time Sibyl had moved into high criti-
cal gear in the 1960s, it was clear she was
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © C N AC / M N A M / D I S T. R M N - G R A N D PA L A I S /A R T R E S O U R C E , N Y ( T O P ) ; 2 0 1 9 E S TAT E O F L Á S Z L Ó M O H O LY- N AGY/
disenchanted with the postwar architecture of
László’s former cohorts. Even though she had
been married to one of its most talented teach-
ers, she felt no obligation to defend the
A R T I S T S R I G H T S S O C I E T Y, N E W YO R K ( B O T T O M A N D O P P O S I T E , R I G H T ) ; C O U R T E S Y M I T P R E S S (O P P O S I T E , L E F T )
Bauhaus’s influence in the U.S. In 1968,
she wrote, in an article published in Art
in America, “In 1933 Hitler shook the tree
and America picked up the fruit of
German genius. In the best of Satanic
traditions some of this fruit was poi-
soned . . . The lethal harvest was
functionalism and the Johnnies who
spread the apple seed were the Bauhaus
masters, Walter Gropius, Mies van der
Rohe and Marcel Breuer.” This couldn’t
have seemed very charitable to Gropius,
who had written the introduction to
Experiment in Totality, warmly discussing
his collaboration with László—even
though he took credit for having “se-
cured his leadership for the New
Bauhaus in Chicago.”
The true point of Sibyl’s critique,
“Hitler’s Revenge,” however, was to
take apart Marcel Breuer’s overblown
scheme for a tower plopped on top of
Grand Central Terminal. [It] “crushes
the last remnant of the past era of
extroverted design responsibility under
the monstrous load of profit dictator-
ship,” she wrote.
Earlier, in 1965, in the Journal of the
Society of Architectural Historians, Sibyl
had castigated Bauhaus functionalism
in America as pure ideology. She re-
ferred to the residences that Gropius
and Breuer designed in the Northeast,
 127

as “those astonishingly ugly

little houses leading up to
the permanent diner of
[Gropius’s] Harvard Graduate
Center.” Mies didn’t fare well
either. In the same article,
she called his first scheme of
the campus for IIT “painfully
reminiscent of his deadly
fascist designs for the
German Reichsbank . . .”
Sibyl’s daring to criticize
the Bauhaus boys may well
have stemmed from not
having been part of the
school when Moholy was
there. (He taught from 1923 In 1950, Sibyl Moholy-Nagy
to 1928 before going to Berlin published a biography (above) of
her husband László, who had died
to work in stage design and four years earlier. In 1939, Sibyl
film.) Interestingly, Sibyl and László (right) began running
could be nice to others. In a summer design camp in
1962, she wrote in Perspecta: Somonauk, IL, not far from László’s
Institute of Design in Chicago.
the Yale Architectural Journal
that she favored Philip
Johnson’s architectural trajectory over the father, the architect Martin Pietzsch, was head
gridlocked Mies van Rohe’s, and called Johnson of the Dresden Academy. Her first husband,
a “syncretic formalist.” Syncretic, she ex- whom she married in 1929, was Carl Dreyfuss,
plained, is “the designer who absorbs the As she wrote in 1968: a scion of a banking family, who taught sociol-
heritage of his spiritual fathers and coalesces ogy and was an amateur architectural
it into his own synthesis.” She also commend- “In 1933 Hitler shook historian. Later, married to László, she was
ed Paul Rudolph’s architecture for paying more immersed in the broader subject of art and
attention to the local site, as well as for “this
love of visual delight [that] is specifically
the tree and America design. Her diaries do not explicitly explain
why she left school so early to take odd jobs
American.” He had got rid of a “straitjacket of and act on stage and in films before joining
his international training” at Harvard under
picked up the fruit of Tobis Film Berlin as a scriptwriter and editor
Gropius. in her mid-20s. While working at Tobis in 1931,
Her thinking was sophisticated, her knowl- German genius . . . she met László and began helping him on his
edge of history extensive, and her approach to experimental films. They had a daughter,
criticism fearless. some of this fruit was Hattula, in 1933, and by 1935 had married and
But there was one irony. She always felt moved to London, where they had their second
insecure about her educational background. poisoned.” daughter, Claudia.
As she wrote in her diaries in the 1950s (avail- In 1944, Sibyl published a semi-autobio-
able through the Smithsonian’s Archives of graphical novel, Children’s Children, under a
American Art), “I cannot admit to anybody, and then, feeling “a blind rage,” she swung pseudonym, S.D. Peech. If she had written her
not even to my children . . . that I had no around and hit her husband’s face with her own biography, she could have called it “Matrix
schooling whatsoever, that I left school at 16 hand. She woke up crying. “It was the dilem- of a Woman.” The vicissitudes of her career—her
with actually only one year at a lyceum . . . So ma of my married life,” she wrote in the accomplishments and disappointments—pro-
under this (carefully hidden) aspect I have diaries. “There was his open disdain for all my vide a striking portrait of a strong, intelligent
done a creditable job.” However, she added, “I mental capacities when we first met. Later woman whose life was inextricably entwined
also know that I shall not become the great there was the incessant struggle against the with architecture. Unafraid to speak out about
person I was absolutely sure I would.” crushing detail of house making, secretarial the mistakes being made in its name, she kept
She had been bedeviled by anxieties for work [for the school] and childrearing.” alive a critical consciousness much needed
years. Four nights after László died, when Hilde Heynen, whose biography of Sibyl amid the euphoric growth of the postwar era.
Gropius was visiting to discuss the future of Moholy-Nagy will be published the summer,
her husband’s school, Sibyl had a dream: she has suggested that the critic’s affinity to ver- The essays on Sibyl Moholy-Nagy and Catherine Bauer have
was about to start her lecture before an audi- nacular architecture built without formal been adapted from “Voices of Consequence: Four Architec-
tural Critics,” by Suzanne Stephens, published in Women in
ence of all-male students, when “Moholy got schooling in Native Genius may have paralleled American Architecture, edited by Susana Torre, © 1977 by
up beside me . . . and said in a very loud stri- the author’s own autodidactic immersion in Watson-Guptill, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
dent voice that I was not going to give my architectural history and criticism. Used by permission of Watson-Guptill, an imprint of
Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
lecture, that I was not good enough for it.” At Sibyl probably learned the discipline of All rights reserved.
first she was “mortified, hurt” in the dream, architecture through intellectual osmosis. Her
128 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 DOES THE BAUHAUS STILL MATTER?
Catherine Bauer Wurster
BY SUZANNE STEPHENS
AS THE UNITED STATES faces a crisis today of
inadequate affordable and low-income housing,
it is a timely moment to look back at the work
of Catherine Bauer, a leading 20th-century
reformer and activist who helped introduce the
socially minded goals of European architects to
America through her seminal book, Modern
Housing, published in 1934. She helped formu-
late the revolutionary U.S. Housing Act of 1937,
with which the federal government, for the
first time, embraced the concept that housing
the poor was not a private affair; the legislation
created a federal loan and subsidy program to
spur construction of decent low-income hous-
ing. Like the Bauhaus architects and other
European Modernists, Bauer believed that good
design for public housing should be an abiding
concern for the architectural profession.
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1905,
Catherine, along with her younger sister (mu-
seum curator Elizabeth Mock Kassler) went
to Vassar College. Catherine left to study archi-
tecture for a year at Cornell University, but
returned to Vassar to graduate in 1926. After a
sojourn in Paris, she was working in promotion
and publishing in New York when she met Lewis
Mumford. Through him, her interest in archi-
tecture was rekindled. The mentorship by the
married man turned into a romance.
In 1930, Bauer traveled to Europe to inves-
tigate housing projects. “What I saw was so
exciting,” she later recalled. “It transformed me
from an aesthete to a housing reformer.”
Bauer’s winning essay on social housing, for
a Fortune magazine contest sponsored by Edgar
Kaufmann (who later was Frank Lloyd Wright’s
client for Fallingwater), was published in 1931,
and she became an “instant housing expert.”
She assisted Mumford in organizing the hous-
ing section of MoMA’s Modern Architecture:
International Exhibition (1932). When Fortune
commissioned Mumford to write a series of
articles on housing, he turned to Bauer to col-
laborate. Another trip to Europe ensued.
Most of the significant architecture she saw
in Europe was low-income housing, including
Walter Gropius’s Siemenstadt housing (1930) for
Berlin and J.J.P. Oud’s Workers’ Housing at the
Hook of Holland (1926). Learning the principles
of existenz minimum—the goals of decent, safe,
sanitary housing for all that were promulgated
in Europe—had a big impact on her subsequent
work in America. In Modern Housing, she urged
that a functionalist, vernacular design replace
the chaotic and architecturally eclectic housing
being built here. Even the new International
Style was promoted in this country on stylistic
terms, she argued, not for the social and plan-
ning ideas implicit in its forms.
When Modern Housing first appeared in the
midst of the Depression, new-home building
was at a virtual standstill. So Bauer began to
promote housing sponsored by labor unions,
such as the Carl Mackley Houses in
Philadelphia, which was backed by the
American Federation of Hosiery Workers and
built under a Public Works Administration pro-
gram. Bauer was hired by the Labor Housing
Conference to help other unions learn from
this prototype. From there, she worked with
reformers pushing for the landmark Housing
Act of 1937. Under this legislation, the U.S.
Housing Authority was created to channel
loans and subsidies for low-income housing
through local government. Although Bauer
had been the first person to win a Guggenheim
Fellowship in architecture and planning, in
1936, after the Housing Act was passed, she
postponed work on a new book to become the
director of Research and Information for the
new U.S. Housing Authority.
Initially, Bauer advocated slum clearance
and urban renewal to build new low-cost
housing, and endorsed standardized construc-
tion with “superblock” planning. Through
standardization, she argued, costs would be
reduced. Later she modified these positions, as
the pitfalls of the monotonous tower-in-the-
park became all too clear in the 1950s. In her
article “Dreary Deadlock in Public Housing,” for
Architectural Forum in 1957, she noted that public
housing had not won wide support, and that
only a small percentage of eligible
people—the most desperately
poor—were actually applying to
live in such places. Standard-
ization had led to institutional-
ization; those superblocks had
created large, bland buildings,
and a housing project was identi-
fied with the lowest-income
group. As Bauer wrote, “We’ve
embraced too many functional
and collectivist theories and
ignored certain subtleties and
P H O T O G R A P H Y: C O U R T E S Y C AT H E R I N E B AU E R W U R S T E R C O L L E C T I O N , E N V I R O N M E N TA L D E S I G N A R C H I V E S , U C B E R K E L E Y ( T O P ) ; C O L L E C T I O N N A I ( B O T T O M ) ;
A R C H I V E S A N D S P E C I A L C O L L E C T I O N S , VA S S A R C O L L E G E (O P P O S I T E , T O P ) ; A R C H I V E S O F A M E R I C A N A R T, S M I T H S O N I A N I N S T I T U T I O N (O P P O S I T E , B O T T O M )
Catherine Bauer in the 1940s (above); she wrote about
J.J.P. Oud’s Hook of Holland Workers’ Housing (bottom).
aesthetic values and basic social needs.” What
families needed, she concluded, were private
outdoor spaces and differing design treatments.
Bauer had foreseen the danger of urban
renewal as a form of “people removal” from
existing slum neighborhoods. She urged a
balanced clearance and relocation effort so
that residents could stay in the same commu-
nity during the process and be guaranteed
accommodations in new housing. Other pro-
posals of hers included zoning that would
cluster different sizes and types of housing,
and property-tax assessments to encourage the
construction of low-scale community facilities
and shops.
Another idea advocated by Bauer was for
public-housing agencies to work with private
investors to create an agglomerated housing
market. As suburbanization became widespread
following World War II, and cities faced compe-
tition from suburbs for the tax dollar, she urged
that regional land controls, housing policy, and
transportation be unified.
Married in 1940 to architect William Wur-
ster, Bauer moved with him to the Bay Area,
where she began teaching city planning. On
November 21, 1964, she was found on the coast
near Mount Tamalpais, dead of a brain concus-
sion and exposure, apparently having fallen
while on a walk. She was 59.
Bauer never forsook her early ideals for
raising the quality of housing in this country.
Shortly before her death, she observed that the
poor still didn’t have a minimum standard of
housing (nor do they today). And she castigated
modern architects for not continuing their
early experimentation in this social arena,
which held so much promise when she began
her historic role as a reformer.

Aline Saarinen
BY CATHLEEN MCGUIGAN
THOUGH Aline Bernstein Louchheim Saarinen
(1914–72) was an acclaimed journalist in her
day, she slipped into obscurity—only to begin
to emerge as her husband Eero Saarinen’s
architectural star began rising again in recent
years. Yet, well before her marriage to
Saarinen in 1954, she was a cultural force,
writing hundreds of articles for magazines and
as an art critic for The New York Times, where
she was a vigorous defender of modern archi­
tecture, at a time when much of America was
dubious about contemporary design.
Born into a privileged New York family, Aline
was taken on her first grand tour of Europe at
the age of 9. But her deep education in Mod­
ernism really began at Vassar College, where
John McAndrew was her influential teacher.
McAndrew had studied architecture at Harvard
and was part of a circle that included Henry
Russell Hitchcock and Lincoln Kirstein, who
became players in the nascent Museum of
Modern Art. In 1929, McAndrew traveled in
Europe with another member of that tribe,
Philip Johnson, visiting J.J.P. Oud housing and
Brinkman & Van der Vlugt’s Van Nelle Factory.
At the Bauhaus in Dessau, they met Gropius,
though he was no longer running the school.
The Bauhaus and other strands of European
Modernism were embedded in McAndrew’s
thinking when he arrived at Vassar in 1932. He
not only taught the history of art and architec­
ture, he redesigned Vassar’s art library and
gallery, creating the “first modern interior of an
academic building on an American campus,”
according to Mardges Bacon in her book John
Aline Saarinen and the modern Vassar bookshop (top,
right), which she reviewed.
McAndrew’s Modernist Vision. Though Aline had
graduated when those spaces opened in 1937, she
saw a precursor in McAndrew’s clean design of
the Vassar Cooperative Bookshop, which she
reviewed as art editor of the student newspaper,
noting its Mies van der Rohe chairs, chairs
“adapted from Le Corbusier,” and a desk by
Marcel Breuer. Vassar had a strong link to
MoMA—where McAndrew later became curator
of architecture—and Aline likely heard both
Johnson and Hitchcock lecture at the college
about their 1932 International exhibition at the
museum, which she well could have seen herself.
A student of exceptional promise, Aline was
married to Joseph Louchheim within a week of
her graduation in 1935. Yet she didn’t settle for
domesticity but enrolled in the master’s pro­
gram at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York
University, pursuing her degree while raising
two young sons.
Aline worked at Art News, rising to managing
editor, and then was hired away by the Times in
December 1947. In her first Times review, she
argued for the link between modern art and
architecture. “Abstract art still puzzles many
people,” she noted, but Mondrian, for example,
was “a fountainhead of inspiration” for archi­
tects such as Oud and Mies. Later pieces focused
on a Marcel Breuer prototype house at MoMA;
the architecture of factories; and the firm SOM,
about whose work she wrote, “The shadows of
Mies Van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Gropius
fall on the drafting boards.” Her lucid writing
brought her honors, including the International
Award for Best Foreign Criticism at the Venice
Biennale in 1951.
But it was an assignment in January 1953 that
changed her life: she went to Bloomfield Hills,
Michigan, to report on Eero Saarinen for the
Times Magazine. In the wake of the death of his
father, Eliel, Eero was moving their firm in a
new direction. In her piece “Now Saarinen the
Son,” Aline told, in almost Shakespearean
terms, how Eero had emerged from his father’s
long shadow to create an architectural idiom in
which “interlock[ing] form, honest functional
solutions, and structural clarity become an
expression of our way of life.” The article per­
fectly positioned Eero for the wave of success
that awaited him; he couldn’t have written it
better himself—and in a way, he did. Their
meeting had been a coup de foudre—and not
only did Aline commit the journalistic sin of
sleeping with her subject, but she let him vet
the piece in advance.
Aline by then was divorced and, within a
year, Eero had divorced his wife.
She could not write about Eero for the Times
after they married, but, in 1955, Vogue ran her
piece “Four Architects Helping to Change the
Look of America.” The four were Mies, as a kind
129
of godfather figure, plus three younger archi­
tects who were dubbed “Miesian”: Johnson,
Gordon Bunshaft—and Eero. Eero declared Mies
“a great moral force in architecture,” while
Aline described her husband as a “professor”
type who manages to “make a neatly pressed
suit look slept­in within ten minutes”; she also
described their house, without saying she lived
in it. It was awkward, to say the least: Vogue
attached an odd disclaimer saying the editors
chose the four architects, not Mrs. Saarinen.
Aline and Eero were a power couple—both
were extraordinarily ambitious for themselves
and each other. Aline boosted his career
through her East Coast connections, and helped
shape his image through her deft PR skills. Her
own career was in full gear as well, with ar­
ticles for the Times and her 1958 bestselling
book, The Proud Possessors, about great art collec­
tors from J.P. Morgan to Peggy Guggenheim.
All that was shattered in 1961, when
Eero died of a brain tumor at the age of 51.
Devastated, Aline went into overdrive, becom­
ing a kind of Yoko Ono of architecture, work­
ing hard to control his legacy. She played a
hugely significant role, too, in ensuring that
his many unfinished projects were completed.
In 1962, Aline arranged for the Today show
to broadcast from Eero’s TWA terminal when
it opened, and she chatted easily on camera
with the show’s host. She soon launched her
next career, in television—first covering the
arts for Today, and later as a correspondent for
the NBC evening news. In 1971, NBC sent her
to Paris, the first woman to run a network
foreign bureau. But it was a short­lived tri­
umph: she died the next year, of cancer. A
media pioneer, she knew how to communicate
sophisticated ideas about culture to a popular
audience, on television as she had in print.
One critic put it this way: she never made “the
highbrow seem high blown.” n
Cathleen McGuigan is working on a biography of Aline Saarinen.
130 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
The Next Bauhaus
Like the first school, it will probably be generated outside of architecture.
BY JOHN RONAN
THE BAUHAUS is the Keith Richards of design
schools: influential, legendary, and stubborn-
ly refusing to die. The fanfare occasioned by
its 100th anniversary is largely deserved—it’s
still the gold standard among design schools
—but the fact that it was in existence only for
14 years raises the obvious question: Why are
we still talking about the Bauhaus? and a more
elusive one: Why has no design school superseded
its inf luence in the intervening century?
If we’re talking about the school, rather
than the style, we need to acknowledge that
there is no such thing as the Bauhaus. The
school went through several manifestations
during its short existence, so it is only one
Gropius in front of the Miró mural at the Harvard Graduate Center, which he designed with his firm TAC.
DOES THE BAUHAUS STILL MATTER?
thing in the same way a caterpillar and a
butterfly are one thing: the school that Walter
Gropius started in 1919 bears little resem-
blance to the school Mies would disband in
1933. Gropius’s utopian vision of uniting all
the arts under one roof where they could
cross-fertilize was the central idea behind its
founding, reminiscent of composer Richard
Wagner’s earlier efforts to unify all arts via
opera into “the total work of art.” This
Germanic predilection for overarching visions
unfortunately didn’t stop at the arts, which
would later factor into the Bauhaus’s undoing.
It was said that Gropius didn’t know how to
draw. This seemingly insignificant detail is, I
believe, crucial to deciphering the source of
the Bauhaus’s influence, for, had Gropius been
C R E AT I V E P H O T O G R A P H Y/C O U R T E S Y H A R VA R D A R T M U S E U M S A R C H I V E S ( B O T T O M ) ; A R T H U R S I E G E L / L I F E I M AG E S C O L L E C T I O N /G E T T Y I M AG E S (O P P O S I T E )
a virtuoso architect (like Mies), the Bauhaus
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © M U S E U M O F M O D E R N A R T/ L I C E N S E D BY S C A L A /A R T R E S O U R C E , N Y ( T O P ) ; H A N S N A M U T H , 1 9 9 1 , H A N S N A M U T H E S TAT E , C E N T E R F O R
likely would never have been formed. Gropius
was more of an ideas man, the rare individual
who can assemble a diverse collection of
talented people—which included the eccentric
Johannes Itten, who dressed like a monk—to
work together toward a common goal. Gropius
was the orchestra conductor, and this abil-
ity—not his design skills—was his special gift.
Since it’s probably been a hundred years
since someone could get a group of academ-
ics to all pull in the same direction, this, by
itself, should be cause for celebration.
Gropius was the
orchestra conductor,
and this ability–not
his design skills–was
his special gift.
But the school never stood still for too long
(perhaps a secret to its success). After four
years, Gropius abruptly changed course,
adopting a new focus on design for mass
production; “Art into Industry” was the new
motto (the monk would have to go). In this
iteration, the designer would harness indus-
trial technology and create well-designed
mass-produced goods. Hannes Meyer,
Gropius’s successor, took the school in a more
overtly political direction, putting an empha-
sis on “design for the masses” that would
become one of the school’s hallmarks but
also get Meyer in hot water with the local
authorities, who would turn to the apolitical
Mies van der Rohe to reboot the school a
third time.

Mies with the model of his Crown Hall, which became the centerpiece of the IIT campus.
If the Bauhaus owes its origin to Gropius,
it owes its influence in the realm of architec-
ture to Mies. He doubled down on the Bau-
haus’s emphasis on understanding materials,
explaining, “No design is possible until
the materials with which you design are
completely understood,” and, like Josef
Albers—who focused on the limits of visual
perception—stressed objectivity and a search
for “truth” in an extra-moral sense. “Archi-
tecture, in my opinion,” Mies would later say,
“is not a subjective affair. The tendency
should be in an objective direction.” Subjec-
tivity was for painters, not architects,
according to Mies, so he redrew the line
between the arts and architecture that previ-
ous iterations of the Bauhaus had sought so
assiduously to erase. The Bauhaus had be-
come an architecture school.
The school was already famous by the
time it was shut down by the National
Socialists in 1933, enabling its faculty to
emigrate across the globe to disseminate its
teachings—Meyer to the Soviet Union, Albers
to Black Mountain College, and Gropius to
Harvard’s GSD, where he promptly gave away
the library because students shouldn’t be
looking at history books (you’re welcome,
Columbia). Ironically, the Nazis’ attempt to
destroy the Bauhaus only served to amplify
its influence and ensure its legacy. Mies van
der Rohe landed in Chicago at IIT, where his
stripped-down Bauhaus approach found a
welcome home in the no-nonsense Midwest
metropolis. Mies’s objective “solutions” to
the “problem” of building turned out to be a
smash hit with both developers and corpo-
rate America, and were subsequently
reproduced across the American landscape
(but never improved upon), in the same way
the German delicacy Hamburg steak became
the ubiquitous hamburger here. Speaking in
a lecture at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago
in 1953, 20 years after the Bauhaus’s closing,
Mies was asked about the school’s enduring
impact: “The fact that the Bauhaus was an
idea, I think, is the cause of the enormous
influence it had on any progressive school
around the world. You cannot do that with
organization, you cannot do that with propa-
ganda. Only an idea spreads so far.”
And spread it did. Any great idea eventu-
ally becomes a victim of its own success, its
influence eventually so pervasive that it
becomes invisible, and so it is with the
Bauhaus. Architecture, its greatest benefi-
ciary, for the most part, has turned its back
on Bauhaus doctrine and currently preoccu-
pies itself with the kind of subjective
self- expression and vacuous formalism that
Mies and his Bauhaus colleagues abhorred.
But, elsewhere, the principles of the Bauhaus
live on today, hiding in plain sight. For it’s in
the iPhone that art meets technology, and
131
“The fact that the
Bauhaus was an idea
is the cause of the
enormous influence it
had on any progressive
school around the
world. You cannot do
that with organization,
you cannot do that with
propaganda. Only an
idea spreads so far.”
—Mies van der Rohe
the Bauhaus ethos is fully realized—a prod-
uct for the masses that is functional but
beautiful, with clean lines, simplicity, and
sophisticated use of advanced materials. It
embodies the argument that everything can
be improved through design. From the
phone itself to its packaging, advertising,
and the design of the store in which it’s sold,
is it not the “total work of art” that Gropius
(and Wagner) imagined?
Though in existence for a mere 14 years,
no school since has superseded the
Bauhaus’s global impact on architecture
and design. But it’s important to remember
that it didn’t begin as an architecture
school but grew out of an arts-and-crafts
movement and ideas about the relationship
between art and technology. Architecture
wasn’t added as a course of study until 1927.
The Bauhaus evolved into an architecture
school over time, and eventually transcend-
ed the field. It is likely that the next
Bauhaus will emerge from an idea about
technology, and come from somewhere
other than architecture. n
John Ronan is founding principal of John Ronan
Architects in Chicago, an alumnus of Harvard
Graduate School of Design (post-Gropius), and
the John & Jeanne Rowe Endowed Professor in
Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology
(post-Mies).
132 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 DOES THE BAUHAUS STILL MATTER?
Under the Influence
Architects describe the impact of the Bauhaus on their lives and work.
INTERVIEWS BY FRED A. BERNSTEIN
Claire Weisz
Principal in Charge,
WXY Architecture and Urban Design, NYC
In my first year of architecture school at the
University of Toronto in the 1980s, I discovered
Paul Klee’s Pedagogical Sketchbook, based on his
design-theory course at the Bauhaus. I remem-
ber one chapter about line and structure;
Klee’s point was that structure was something
you could draw, not just calculate. The book
taught me how to think about composition
and function together—it erased the somewhat
artificial line between the way artists and
architects think.
But most early works on the Bauhaus
omitted the women, so we didn’t grasp the
full range of ideas, and need to consider the
Bauhaus and its influence anew.
Juergen Riehm
Founding Principal, 1100 Architect, NYC
I was educated in Trier, which is filled with
Roman ruins and thought to be Germany’s
oldest city—not a lot of modern architecture
there. The Bauhaus was taught mainly as part
of architectural history. After graduating, I
traveled to Berlin and visited the Bauhaus
Archive. (Dessau and Weimar, then in East
Germany, were not accessible to me.) Seeing it
all together made a powerful impression. One
of the lessons, which has stayed with me, is
the importance of creating architecture that
will endure over time, rather than a fashion
statement.
Meijin Yoon
Dean, College of Architecture, Art and Planning,
Cornell University
Principal, Höweler + Yoon, Boston
To me, the Bauhaus represents the understand-
ing that architecture is an applied art that
intersects with industry, technology, society,
politics, even communications and media. It’s
significant that so many Bauhaus members
were accomplished in more than one field.
Herbert Bayer’s Diagram of the Field of Vision,
advocating a multidisciplinary approach to
solving problems, couldn’t be more timely.
The Bauhaus was dealing with relatively
straightforward new materials and methods
of industrial production. But today, technol-
ogy has exploded, and we should be looking
to intersections between design and fields
like biology and computation. We need to
take the Bauhaus’s original tree-ring dia-
gram, showing its expansive approach, and
add a few more rings to make it even more
relevant now.
My teachers at Yale,
all former students of
Gropius at Harvard, had
to go through death-
throes of agony to
overcome the Bauhaus.
—Robert A.M. Stern
Helmut Jahn
Design Director/CEO, Jahn, Chicago
I was taught by people from the Bauhaus or
their successors—although, interestingly
enough, when I was in architecture school in
Munich, in the early ’60s, everyone was look-
ing to the American skyscrapers of Mies and
SOM. But, except for Mies, the Bauhaus people
who came to the U.S. never did anything bet-
ter than they’d done at the Bauhaus.
Robert A.M. Stern
Founder and Senior Partner,
Robert A.M. Stern Architects, NYC
Former Dean, Yale School of Architecture
I’m anti-Bauhaus, in that I didn’t jettison his-
torical styles. In fact, I had to figure them out
for myself as a reaction against the nihilism of
the Bauhaus and its heirs at Yale.
The Bauhaus was a wild, completely undis-
ciplined environment. When I was in arch-
itecture school, in the early 1960s, we would sit
around late at night, mulling over the sex lives
of the Bauhausians. Sybil Moholy-Nagy, then
a frequent visitor to Yale, took fabulous swipes
at the Bauhaus and the pretensions of the
“Bauhauslers,” who came to America
and rewrote the story for delicate ears in
Cambridge.
My teachers at Yale, all former students of
Gropius at Harvard, had to go through death-
throes of agony to overcome the Bauhaus.
Among them were Philip Johnson and Paul
Rudolph, who was in many ways Gropius’s best
student. They were interested in the Bauhaus,
but they never accepted its principles.
Whole careers were built on having been or
studied with someone who’d been there. There
were genuine talents at the Bauhaus, but the
architecture that came out of it wasn’t really
very interesting. It was a better place for crafts.
As for me, I had to fundamentally reject
much of what I was taught as gospel in the
early 1960s. The Bauhaus caused me a lot of
architectural soul-searching.
Will Bruder
Principal, Will Bruder Architects, Phoenix
In 1965, I was accepted at IIT, where I was
going to study with Mies. But over the summer,
I got a job in Wisconsin with William Wenzler,
a pioneer in thin-shell concrete. I loved his
work, so I decided to stay and enroll at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee instead of
IIT. My first-year design instructor was Fred
Berman, and it was as if I was at the Bauhaus.
We learned color theory, proportion, scale
through Bauhaus-style exercises—fundamen-
tals that gave everyone equal footing. Those
two semesters changed my life.
Tom Kundig
Principal/Owner, Olson Kundig, Seattle
I grew up under the influence of the Bauhaus.
My parents were Swiss; my father, Moritz
 133

Kundig, was an architect who’d studied at

the ETH, in Zurich. In Spokane, where we
lived, he was part of a group of very good
architects, a number of whom had trained
with Gropius at Harvard and carried his
ideas back with them. In the postwar years,
there was a moment, in many midsized
towns, when there was a lot of uniformly
good Modernist work. I grew up around it.
What I learned over the years, directly from
the Bauhaus, is that the beauty of the build-
ing is in the craft, the tectonics—the making
of the thing.

Deborah Berke
Dean, Yale School of Architecture;
Partner, Deborah Berke Partners, NYC
At RISD, where I studied as an undergradu-
ate, everyone comes together under one
roof, whether you’re going to be an illustra-
tor, a glassblower, a painter, a furniture
maker, or an architect. RISD is not a direct
descendent of the Bauhaus, but there’s a
parallel in the nonhierarchical intermin-
gling of design and making at all scales.
Common to both the Bauhaus, during the
brief period when it functioned as the
Bauhaus, and RISD is that people with all
those different talents study together. I
consider a range in ways of thinking and
making key to being a good architect.

Craig Hodgetts
Design Partner, Mithun | Hodgetts + Fung,
Culver City, California
Before I went to architecture school, I stud-
ied engineering, theater, and art. So I was
very attracted to the Bauhaus’s cross-
disciplinary nature. In 1969, I helped start
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © C H R I S T I N I R R G A N G , 2 0 1 1 , B AU H AU S D E S S AU F O U N DAT I O N ;

the design school at CalArts, which I thought

of as a modern incarnation of the Bauhaus. I
remember doing architecture exercises with
the theater and dance departments. That
lasted about four years, until the administra-
tion changed.
T O B I A S A DA M / W I K I M E D I A C O M M O N S (O P P O S I T E , T O P )

A few years later, Ming Fung and I created

a short-lived design consortium called
Harmonica, which included architects, film-
makers, graphic designers—again, like the
Bauhaus. During that time, I resisted being
called an architect, because I didn’t want to
be pigeonholed.
We still seek cross-disciplinary work, but
the opportunities today are fewer because
the market is so segmented. The Bauhaus
had lots of very, very eccentric people, break-
ing the box in all kinds of ways. I would have
had a blast there. n

These interviews have been edited and condensed

for space.
134 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 DOES THE BAUHAUS STILL MATTER?
Bau Means Building
A new museum in Weimar is the first of a trio of structures honoring the Bauhaus centennial.
BY OLIVER WAINWRIGHT
ONE HUNDRED YEARS after the Bauhaus was
founded, its products have become so ubiqui-
tous that they’ve faded into the background–
or else descended into kitsch. Nothing says
generic corporate lobby like a Mies van der
Rohe Barcelona chair, while Josef Albers’s
colored nesting tables have been replicated to
oblivion. In this centenary year of design-
themed German travel articles and glossy
features on overpriced limited-edition prod-
ucts, it is easy to suffer from Bauhaus fatigue.
But persevere. Because the new Bauhaus
Museum in Weimar has the power to surprise
even the most hardened design geek.
“We wanted to tell the story of the early
years of the Bauhaus, which isn’t so well
known,” says Wolfgang Holler, director of the
Klassik Stiftung Weimar, the city’s foundation
for cultural heritage, which initiated the
$30 million museum. He is standing in the first-
floor exhibition, where the objects around him
range from Expressionist sculptures to folksy
ceramic pots, a far cry from what you might
think of as the stripped-down “Bauhaus style.”
Instead, what emerges is a picture of a wildly
heterogeneous place, where breathing exercises
taught by pseudo-Zoroastrian vegan painters
were conducted side by side with welding class-
es and cosmic-puppetry workshops.
The riotous range of work on show stands in
marked contrast to the neutral, if not bleak,
The new Bauhaus Museum in Weimar is a concrete block
with thin horizontal bands that glow at night like the lines
of a musical score (above). The Dessau museum (below) is
expected to open in September.
container in which it is housed. The result of
an open international competition in 2012, the
design is the first built work of Heike Hanada,
a German architect who studied and taught at
the current Bauhaus University in Weimar.
Her building stands as a blank gray concrete
block on the edge of a new public space, re-
lieved only by thin, indented horizontal strata,
which glow at night like the lines of a musical
score. Its austere, uncompromising form has
provoked a mixed reception. Some locals call it
the bunker. Others have compared it to the
imposing Nazi-era stone tower across the
street, designed to the orders of Hitler himself.
Either way, it exudes the cold, monolithic
presence of a memorial structure—which is
somehow fitting. Weimar’s right-wing politi-
cians did their best to destroy the Bauhaus in
its early days, and the city remains a hotbed of
the conservative forces that finally drove the
P H O T O G R A P H Y: C O U R T E S Y B AU H AU S D E S S AU F O U N DAT I O N ( B O T T O M ) ; © A N D R E W A L B E R T S ( E XC E P T A S N O T E D)
school out to Dessau in 1925.
“We had to make a tough statement to stand
up to the highly political context,” says Hanada.
The museum is located right next to the 1930s
Gauforum, built by the National Socialists to
administer their forced-labor program. With
the country’s far right once again on the rise,
the building’s central square (formerly named
Adolf Hitler Platz) remains fenced off in order
to prevent neo-Nazi gatherings.
Inside the museum, the large, windowless
gallery spaces are kept simple and raw, with
gray terrazzo floors, ribbed concrete ceilings,
and white-painted concrete walls, a minimal
world populated by steel handrails, felt-topped
benches and naked light bulbs. “We tried to be
as poor as possible with the materials,” says
Hanada. The approach has paid off, allowing

Holographic allusions to Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet animate various galleries (above, left and right). In other
exhibition areas, ceramic and metal objects and furniture are displayed (bottom).
the work on show to stand out. There is plenty
of room for the exhibitions to breathe, with
sectional changes where the galleries leap
from single to double and triple height, and
places where windows are punched through so
you can see to the levels above, while narrow
staircases create a dramatic sense of compres-
sion and expansion as you move between the
floors. As you leave, picture windows frame
poignant views out to a memorial tower in the
distance, marking the site of the Buchen-
wald concentration camp, whose gates were
designed by prisoner and former Bauhaus
student Franz Ehrlich.
The Weimar museum is the first of a trio of
new buildings planned for the Bauhaus cen-
tenary, and the only one to be completed on
time. Dessau, where Walter Gropius’s indus-
trial studio complex still stands, is awaiting
the September opening of a big glass hangar
by the young Barcelona practice Addenda
Architects (also the result of an open competi-
tion), planned to house a floating black-box
135
gallery above an open ground floor. Berlin,
where the Bauhaus fled for one final year in
1932, is to receive an extension to its Gropius-
designed archive building, in the form of a
glass tower by local architect Volker Staab,
delayed until 2021.
Weimar is not only the first but, perhaps,
the most important of the three, since it ex-
plains how the school was not a blip out of the
blue but an evolution of what had been brew-
ing in the region since the late 19th century. A
fascinating complementary show at the city’s
revamped Neues Museum nearby helps to
illuminate how the work of figures like Henry
van de Velde, who established Weimar’s School
of Arts and Crafts in 1905, laid the foundations
for what Gropius would develop. Together, the
two museums reveal the Bauhaus period to be
a richer and more complex phenomenon than
you might ever have imagined. n
Oliver Wainwright is The Guardian’s architecture
and design critic. 
136 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
Haus Party
Events celebrating 100 years of the Bauhaus
BY KARA MAVROS
In celebration of the Bauhaus centennial, insti-
tutions across Germany, the U.S., and other
countries are holding conferences, exhibitions,
and related events throughout the year. In
Weimar, visitors can attend the recently reno-
vated Neues Museum, only a short walk from
two Henry van de Velde–designed buildings
that compose today’s Bauhaus University,
Weimar. Other enthusiasts can head to Dessau
to dine at the Kornhaus restaurant, designed by
Carl Fieger (1930), or stay overnight in the
Gropius-designed “Prellerhaus,” part of the
Dessau Bauhaus Building, where students of the
school lived and worked.
Bauhaus Imaginista Exhibition
Indianapolis
Through June 22, 2019
This exhibition at the Tube Factory Artspace
presents the four essential elements of the
Bauhaus: reform pedagogy, the design debate,
material cultures outside the Western world,
and experimental visual practices. More de-
tails at tubefactory.org.
Oskar Schlemmer: The Bauhaus and the
Path to Modernity
Gotha, Germany
Through July 29, 2019
This exhibition at Herzogliches Museum
Gotha focuses on the life and work of Oskar
One of the Van de Velde rooms at Neues Museum Weimar.
DOES THE BAUHAUS STILL MATTER?
Schlemmer, who is recognized for his Triadic
Ballet and contributions as a painter, drafts-
man, graphic artist, sculptor, stage designer,
and muralist. Details at bauhaus100.org.
Bayer & Bauhaus
Aspen, Colorado
Through April 25, 2020
This new exhibition delves into the profound
but often unnoticed influence of Herbert
Bayer’s work on Aspen, Colorado. More infor-
mation at bauhaus100aspen.org,
Van de Velde, Nietzsche, and Modernism
Around 1900
Weimar, Germany
Through April 1, 2024
The new exhibition at the Neues Museum
Weimar, formerly used for temporary exhibi-
tions, opened in April with a presentation of
Art Nouveau architect and designer Henry van
de Velde’s work, including the Nietzche ar-
chive. More at bauhaus100.com.
The Bauhaus and Harvard
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Through July 28, 2019
This exhibition at Harvard presents rarely
seen design objects and photography from the
Busch-Reisinger Museum’s Bauhaus collection.
Information at harvardartmuseums.org.
Bauhaus Beginnings
Los Angeles
June 11–October 13, 2019
This exhibition at the Getty Research Institute
examines the founding principles of the
Bauhaus by featuring over 250 rare prints,
drawings, collages, notebooks, and ephemera
from its early years. More information at
getty.edu.
Bauhaus on Screen
Los Angeles
June 16, 2019 at 4 p.m.
This program at the Getty Center presents 90
minutes of short black-and-white films pro-
Kornhaus restaurant by Carl Fieger, 1930. Dessau, Germany.
duced between 1919 and 1933 by figures at or
associated with the landmark institution.
Learn more at getty.edu.
P H O T O G R A P H Y ( F R O M T O P ) : © C N AC / M N A M / D I S T. R M N - G R A N D PA L A I S /A R T R E S O U R C E , N Y;
Challenging the Bauhaus Today:
A Conversation with Architects
Frankfurt
B AU H AU S D E S S AU F O U N DAT I O N ; T H O M A S M Ü L L E R / K L A S S I K S T I F T U N G W E I M A R
June 18, 2019 at 7 p.m.
A panel discussion at the Center for Critical
Studies in Architecture features architects Jan
de Vylder and Verena von Beckrath, moderated
by Elli Mosayebi. For more information, go to
criticalarchitecture.org.
Opening of Bauhaus Museum Dessau
September 8, 2019
This new museum will display the Bauhaus
Dessau Foundation’s collection in honor of the
centenary of the founding of the Bauhaus and
will also host contemporary events at the
Bauhaus buildings. Learn more details at
bauhaus-dessau.de/en.
ReVIEWING Black Mountain College
Asheville, North Carolina
September 20–22, 2019
The conference at UNC Asheville will focus on
interdisciplinary education, information net-
works, and new media as they relate to the
school. More at blackmountaincollege.org. n
MORE HIGH-IMPACT RESISTANCE

MORE CONFIDENCE BUILT INTO EVERY VT DOOR

When you source a high-impact door from VT, you can be confident that it’s built
to the highest commercial standards. Now available in more styles and finishes
including our new Palladium® Doors giving you even more impact
resistant options. More durable. More beautiful.
There’s more to a VT door.

vtindustries.com
Palladium Door with Removable Edge, Cardinal 0236. © 2019 VT Industries, Inc. All rights reserved.
 This project must
be the window job
of the year, (if not
the century).

HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL, NYC

2019 Lucy G. Moses

Preservation
Award Winner

PROJECT: STARRETT-LEHIGH BUILDING

OWNER: RXR REALTY
ARCHITECT: BODDEWYN GAYNOR ARCHITECTS

HISTORIC REPLICATION WINDOW EXPERTS

With 5,000 openings, the historic window replacement project at the Starrett-
Lehigh Building was one of the largest in New York City history. One of the most
complex, too. To satisfy NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission guidelines,
the windows had to match the original steel window profiles and sightlines
using aluminum, thermally-broken frames while incorporating the original
steel windows’ operable vent design. Graham’s customized SR6700 window
met the challenge. Graham can meet yours too. grahamwindows.com | 800.755.6274
A white roof can lose up to 75% of its reflectivity
from dirt and staining generated during installation.

SCAN HERE TO LEARN

MORE ABOUT APEEL

Peel back the APEEL protective film to reveal

the appeal of your new white TPO roof.
Building owners and specifiers often select white TPO membrane
because of its reflective, energy-saving properties. However, due to
typical foot traffic and construction debris, white TPO can get dirty
and stained during installation. Versico’s revolutionary new APEEL™
Protective Film keeps VersiWeld® TPO clean during the construction BUILDING VALUE
process and eliminates the need for cleaning. The patented APEEL
800.992.7663 | www.versico.com
Protective Film technology improves aesthetics, increases customer
satisfaction, and saves time and labor.
APEEL is a trademark of Carlisle Construction Materials, LLC.
Versico, VersiWeld and the Versico logo are trademarks of Versico. © 2019 Versico.
The frameless insulated sliding doors by Swiss manufacturer Sky-Frame
blend naturally into their surroundings, creating a seamless continuity
between indoors and outdoors and blurring the line between where the
living space ends and the view begins. SKY-FRAME.COM
 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 141

DESIGN RECORD’s annual

honors highlight
VA N G UA R D 10 emerging
practices from
2 01 9 around the globe.

FEATURED FIRMS
ZOOCO
MADRID
ADAM SOKOL ARCHITECTURE
PRACTICE
LOS ANGELES
G3 ARQUITECTOS
QUERÉTARO, MEXICO
JO JINMAN
SEOUL
SPIEGEL AIHARA WORKSHOP
SAN FRANCISCO
POOL LEBER
MUNICH
BAREND KOOLHAAS
AMSTERDAM
MICHAN ARCHITECTURE
MEXICO CITY
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © R O L A N D H A L B E

FRENCH 2D
BOSTON
CHYBIK+KRISTOF
BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC

VERIN ARTS CENTER, SPAIN,

ZOOCO
142 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 DESIGN VANGUARD

VERIN ARTS CENTER The project offers the intimacy of a house and the heterogeneity of a small town. The displacement and delicate turns of a series of volumes—which
house a lobby, galleries, a large theater, and a restaurant—produces a seemingly random plan and appearance, but highly flexible spaces of varying scales.

JHOUSE This project involved building a house inside of

a house. The different levels and heights, all linked by
stairs or short corridors, work as furniture that changes
its use by the spaces it generates.
DE VINOS Y VIANDAS The architects used three materials for this wineshop: wood for the ribs that
reference wine barrels, stone for the floor like that in antique cellars, and a mirrorlike material that creates
reflections throughout the space.

ZO O CO
MADRID
Partners Miguel cresPo, Javier Guzmán, and
Sixto Martín, all 39, are survivors—they founded
Zooco studio in 2009 as Spain’s economy tanked.
Their practice began like many in those days,
with two competition wins for small-town public
projects, but crisis-driven budget cuts canceled
one and reduced the other by half. Now on the
other side of the storm, the three are reemerg-
ing, like the delicate recovering economy itself,
with small- and medium-size private commis-
sions ranging from tiny boutiques to upgrading a
faded resort hotel.
To tackle this varied portfolio, the partners
develop systems of geometric assembly and for-
mal repetition. “We like to use a single element
that responds to many requirements,” explains
Martin. For Nuilea, a natural cosmetics shop in a
I M AG E S : © I M AG E N S U B L I M I N A L ( E XC E P T A S N O T E D) ; O R L A N D O G U T I É R R E Z ( T O P ) ; R O L A N D H A L B E (O P P O S I T E , T O P )
trendy Madrid neighborhood, they designed a
16-inch cubic building block, made of MDF board
and with two open sides, to build a sales counter
and a fabric-covered bench. Blocks along the
walls alternate open and closed faces for display
and storage. Others, with Japanese parchment
over the openings, house lights. “Those blocks
are like a spreading virus,” Martin jokes, “colo-
nizing even the ceiling.”
Similarly, a cloud of Plexiglas boxes containing
point lighting drops from the ceiling of Melguiza,
a Madrid shop specializing in Spanish saffron.
Identical boxes, suspended lower, serve as display
cases. The idea, the architects explain, was to
handle the precious saffron like jewelry while
underscoring its lightness and fragility. In a wine-
shop in Valladolid, the walls and ceiling are lined
with arching ribs of MDF. The effect suggests a
wine cellar or cave, as well as oak casks for aging
wine. And a system of metal tube framing with
infill panels of glass and wood invades a high-
ceilinged residential loft in Madrid, creating a
multilevel maze of spaces for study, lounging, and
storage, organized around the principal rooms
and along an elevated circulation gallery.
In larger works, the repetition of formal
themes becomes looser, adapting to more com-
plex programs. For the Velin Arts Center in
northwest Spain, the architects broke the pro-
gram into individual granite-clad blocks, which
are connected by a free-form interstitial lobby.
The blocks can thus operate independently, and
they bring the project’s scale closer to that of its
residential surroundings.
143
Zooco’s renovation of the
Flamingo Club Hotel in the
Canary Islands includes an addi-
tion containing new public spaces.
“We wanted to take the outdated
eclecticism of the original towards
something with cleaner lines,”
says Guzmán, “a bit more Miami,
more Art Deco.”
The three partners were
schoolmates at the Escuela Técnica
Superior de Arquitectura de
Madrid, the city’s leading architec-
ture school. They started working
together in Madrid, but Guzmán
FOUNDED: 2009
decamped to his native Santander, on Spain’s north-
DESIGN STAFF: 10–12
ern coast, when his daughter was born. Now their
PRINCIPALS: Miguel Crespo
design process sometimes includes remote group
Picot, Javier Guzmán Benito,
chats and construction supervision in which they
Sixto Martín Martínez
digitally exchange images and sketches, resulting
EDUCATION: Picot and Martínez:
in a “storyboard of each project,” Guzmán observes.
B.Arch., ETSAM, 2007; Benito: B.
By this and other means, the three maintain the
Arch., ETSAM, 2008
bonds formed in school as their practice grows in
WORK HISTORY: Picot: Estudio
geographic reach and scale. David Cohn
Entresitio, 2007–09; Benito and
Martínez: Amman, Cánovas y
Maruri, 2008–09
KEY COMPLETED PROJECTS:
M4 House, Madrid, 2018;
Flamingo Club, Tenerife, 2018;
JHouse, Madrid, 2018; De Vinos y
Viandas Wineshop, Valladolid,
2018; Melguiza saffron shop,
Madrid, 2018; Nuilea shop,
Madrid, 2018; Big & Tiny
multipurpose space, Santa
Monica, California; Centro de las
Artes Escénicas de Verín, Orense,
2016 (all in Spain, except as
noted)
KEY CURRENT PROJECTS:
Morning Riders Surf Club, Loredo,
Cantabria; Boutique Hotel,
Málaga; V138 House, Madrid;
Restaurant La Hermosa,
Santander; Restaurant El Camino,
Santander; Hotel Oasis Lanz,
Lanzarote; Hotel Atlantic Garden,
Fuerteventura; 2Houses in
Loredo, Cantabria (all in Spain)
FLAMINGO CLUB In this renovation, the structure is set back zooco.es
from the facade, where curving horizontal bands create a
smooth transition between the contrasting, more orthogonal
north and south elevations over a steep slope.
144 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 DESIGN VANGUARD

A DA M S O KO L
A R C H I T E C T U R E P R AC T I C E
LO S A N G E L E S
An Apt illustration of Adam Sokol’s architectural
philosophy is his Black Diamond House of 2011, in
Buffalo, a respectful but abstracted version of the
pitched-roof houses that surround it. Sokol rotated
the building’s ridgeline to allow a view of a former
psychiatric hospital designed by H.H. Richardson,
now a hotel (record, September 2017). The city’s
“amazing architectural pedigree,” Sokol says, also
includes Sullivan, Wright, and the Saarinens, “and
everyone there knows who these people are.” In
locations ranging from Buffalo to Beijing and Los
Angeles, where Sokol’s main office is, Adam Sokol
Architecture Practice (asap) is designing buildings
and interiors that combine an emphatically modern
folded planes, that was inspired by ancient cliff
dwellings. It raises, Sokol explains, “the issue of
how to occupy the city—how do you inhabit a
mountain?” Other projects in the works include a
pair of temporary, inflatable teahouses, a proposed
museum in China that will be built inside an artifi-
cial hill, and a public market in Buffalo with
vaulted bays inspired by historic models in the
Middle East. Sokol contrasts his interests with the
impermanence of today’s social media and news
cycles, saying, “I look at things that last millennia.”
Pilar Viladas

FOUNDED: 2011
DESIGN STAFF: 5
PRINCIPAL: Adam Sokol
EDUCATION: Yale University,
M.Arch., 2004; Columbia
University, History of
Architecture B.A., 2001
WORK HISTORY: Visiting
assistant professor, University of
Buffalo, 2006–11; Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill, New York,
2004–06
KEY COMPLETED PROJECTS:
Arbeit Software, Buffalo, 2019;
Park Hyatt X-House, Beijing,
2018; Apartment of Perfect
Brightness, Beijing, 2015; The
Emperor Hotel Qianmen, Beijing,
2014; Black Diamond House,
Buffalo, 2011
KEY CURRENT PROJECTS:
Spring Street Hotel, Los Angeles;
Slope Museum, Nanjing, China;
Allen Apartments II, Buffalo;
residential interiors, Los Angeles
& Beijing; traveling exhibition on
tea culture; West Side Bazaar,
Buffalo
asap.pro
I M AG E S : © K . C . K R AT T I ( B O T T O M ) ; J O N AT H A N L E I J O N H U F V U D ( T O P ; O P P O S I T E , T O P 2) ; C O U R T E S Y A S A P (O P P O S I T E , B O T T O M )
aesthetic with historical references and an empha-
sis on architecture’s narrative and experiential
powers.
The Emperor Hotel Qianmen (2013) in Beijing,
asap’s first project in China, takes its inspiration
from the public bath that once occupied the site,
using water as its theme, from the cantilevered
rooftop pool to a glass atrium with a 49-foot “rain-
fall,” to an underground waterfall and pool. “I
wanted people to experience water flowing through
the interior,” Sokol says. In the more recent Park
Hyatt X House, a 2,200-square-foot apartment in
Beijing’s tallest residential tower, asap designed a
business-entertaining space containing a sequence
of eighteen domes, clad variously in materials like
gold, glass mosaic, and velvet, and connected by
arched openings. The apartment, Sokol says, “feels
vast because it has so many spaces. I was excited
about developing a typological language.”
Sokol, 39, established his practice in Buffalo in
2011, having moved there to teach at the University
of Buffalo. He had received a bachelor’s degree in
the history of architecture at Columbia, and a
master’s of architecture at Yale. His favorite teach-
ers included Kenneth Frampton, Barry Bergdoll
(“He has total mastery over significant chunks of
history but can still focus on contemporary work”)
and the late Vincent Scully (“He would talk about
empathy—an interesting way to think about the
world”).
In 2016, Sokol moved his headquarters to Los
Angeles, where asap’s current projects include the
not-yet-under-construction Spring Street Hotel, in BLACK DIAMOND HOUSE An early project for the firm, this
the city’s historic downtown. Sandwiched between 2,000-square-foot house builds on Buffalo’s rich architectural
heritage. Adjustments were made to accommodate
two landmarked buildings, the 28-story structure
programmatic needs, such as angling one wall back 6 degrees
respects the street wall to their shared cornice line to improve daylight, and shifting the ridgeline off center to
(at 150 feet) before morphing into a tower, with capture exterior views.
 145

PARK HYATT X-HOUSE Situated on a high floor of Beijing’s tallest residential building,
the 2,200-square-foot apartment was conceived as a business-entertaining suite
designed around a series of spaces—wine cellar, living room, bar, dining room, study,
THE EMPEROR HOTEL QIANMEN Located on a site in Beijing once
bedroom, and bath—housed in 18 intersecting domes.
occupied by a public bath, the 80,000-square-foot hotel is infused with
water throughout, from the cantilevered rooftop pool and a 49-foot-high
interior “rainfall” down to an underground waterfall and pool.

SPRING STREET HOTEL For this

on-the-boards project in downtown
Los Angeles, asap’s building design
is inspired by rock formations and
land art from the city and the
Southwest, benefiting from the
tension with the existing historic
buildings to create a distinctive
structure in the urban landscape.
146 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD
G3 ARQ U ITEC TOS
Q U E R É TA R O , M E X I C O
FOUNDED: 2011
DESIGN STAFF: 6–8
PRINCIPAL:
Juan Alfonso Garduño Jardón
EDUCATION: Harvard University
Graduate School of Design,
MAUD, 2007; Instituto
Tecnológico y de Estudios
Superiores de Monterrey, B.Arch.,
1997
WORK HISTORY:
G3 Arquitectos (in partnership),
1997–2011; (sole principal) 2011
KEY COMPLETED PROJECTS:
New Cathedral of Querétaro,
2018; El Eco Pavilion, Mexico City,
2015; Casa L, 2015; Casa GG,
2015; Territories of Collective
Empowerment, 2012; Kínder
Álamos, 2011 (all in Querétaro,
Mexico, except as noted)
KEY CURRENT PROJECTS:
Casa Calvarito; Casa Lola,
Guanajuato, Mexico; 5H
mixed-use (all in Querétaro,
Mexico, except as noted)
g3arquitectos.com
CASA GG Sited at the edge of a ravine,
the residence was designed to maximize
views, and to have a strong indoor-
outdoor connection. A twisting circulation
path that culminates at a roof garden
informed the structure’s angular form.
JUNE 2019 DESIGN VANGUARD
“In MexIco, you don’t need anything to practice—a
lawyer could do architecture,” says Juan Alfonso
Garduño Jardón, “which is not great, but good for
young architects.” So good that he, his sister Maria
de los Ángeles Garduño, and classmate Armando
González, established their own firm in 1997, be-
fore any of them had even received degrees in
architecture. For Garduño Jardón, a parallel career
in academia also began around this time, when the
dean of their college asked him to substitute for a
professor who couldn’t make it to class.
As a young man teaching and practicing,
Garduño Jardón, now 45, became increasingly
disillusioned by the work his firm was pursuing.
“We were very ambitious,” he recalls, “but we
weren’t earning money.” An experience with a
housing project in 2003 left him particularly jaded.
“The developer totally ripped us off,” says Garduño
Jardón. That signaled a turning point for the archi-
tect, who applied to the Urban Design program at
the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Given his
experiences at the time, Garduño Jardón decided
against another architecture degree because “I
wanted to learn how I could use the city to benefit
myself—just like any developer.” When he gradu-
ated from the GSD in 2007, however, his approach
to urbanism had shifted: “The responsibility that
citizens, architects, and developers have to contrib-
ute to a better city became a lot clearer,” he says.
After returning to Mexico, Garduño Jardón went
back to the firm with Maria and Armando, and
became dean of his alma mater. The practice, he
admits, was not thriving, and his partners were
keen on following other interests—in 2011, de los
Ángeles Garduño left to pursue her own master’s
P H O T O G R A P H Y: C O U R T E S Y G 3 A R Q U I T E C T O S ( T O P A N D O P P O S I T E , T O P, R I G H T ) ; © YO S H I H I R O KO I TA N I ( B O T T O M ; O P P O S I T E , T O P, L E F T A N D B O T T O M )
degree, while González shipped off to clown school
in Europe. It was then that Garduño Jardón decided
to step down from his deanship and reestablish the
practice as his own—one with a more urban-centric
perspective. He kept the original firm name, G3,
because “the idea of having a solo name never
made me comfortable,” he says.
With this new iteration, Garduño Jardón has
taken on more work in the public realm. In a
design-build project that began as a collaboration
with students, and that was exhibited at the 2016
Venice Architecture Biennale’s Mexican pavilion,
his team proposed a model for territorial
development to empower disadvantaged urban
communities. Currently the firm is working on a
large urban project in Querétaro with housing,
retail, and offices. It’s a typical developer-driven
project, “but we are pushing for an interesting way
to understand this part of the city,” he says.
That’s not to say that G3 doesn’t engage in private
projects—particularly single-family houses—which
help to finance the firm’s interventions in margin-
alized areas. Garduño Jardón sees overlap between
his public work and his residences, which are char-
acterized by their sculptural forms and earthen
tones and textures. Across typologies, he looks to
incorporate “phenomenological spaces,” moments
of peace and introspection. He also adopts an effi-
cient, contextually sensitive approach to materials.
For example, when building in a community with
limited means, Garduño Jardón learned to work
with earth bricks, which he then used for a high-
end residence. For another house, he covered brick
walls in concrete, which proved to be cheaper and
easier to control than poured concrete. “One project
informs the other,” says the architect.
Expanding on that idea, he adds, “We really try
to stretch ourselves to use natural materials in
different yet practical ways,” Garduño Jardón notes.
And while the firm maintains an urban edge,
nothing is off the table. “We like doing every-
thing—schools, labs, places of worship,” says the
architect. “It’s hard for us to say no.” Alex Klimoski
 147

INSIDE-OUT As part of an installation for the New York Architectural

CASA L Located on a site with many restrictions, the concrete monolith is significantly
set back from the street. An introverted scheme integrates gardens and planters. Patios
are carved out of the structure at different heights to admit light and naturally ventilate
the interior.
League, this concrete and wood structure was designed as an
abstract representation of the experience of light and materials in
the home.

ALAMOS
KINDERGARDEN
Situated between urban
and natural areas, the
project creates an
unusually shaped
courtyard, enclosed by
walls of stone excavated
from the site, designed
to spur childrens’
imaginations.
148 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD
J O J I N MAN ARCH ITE C T S
SEOU L
FOUNDED: 2014
DESIGN STAFF: 7
PRINCIPAL: Jo Jinman
EDUCATION: Tsinghua
University, M.Arch., 2010;
Hanyang University, B.Arch.,
2002
WORK HISTORY: OMA, 2009–12;
Iroje Architects, 2002–09
KEY COMPLETED PROJECTS:
K2 Tower, 2018; Naesoop Library,
2018; Overpass Forest, 2018;
NVX, 2018; Riverside Apse,
Gongju, 2017; Layered Terrace
House, Pangyo, 2015; City Wall
visitor pavilion, 2015 (all in Seoul,
except as noted; all in Korea)
KEY CURRENT PROJECTS:
Changshin Quarry viewing
gallery; C-project; rooftop (all in
Seoul)
jo-jinman.com
JUNE 2019 DESIGN VANGUARD
While many architects hope for ideal site
conditions, Seoul-based Jo Jinman, 43, welcomes
challenging ones. “I love site restrictions and lim-
its—they give my work a unique identity,” he says.
Prior to founding his eponymous firm in 2014, he
studied architecture at Seoul’s Hanyang University,
focusing on urban design’s potential to enhance
social infrastructure—a foreshadowing of the archi-
tect’s work to come. He then pursued a graduate
degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing, concur-
rently developing pragmatic skills by establishing
the Beijing outpost for Iroje Architects & Planners,
and eventually he joined the Beijing and Rotterdam
offices of OMA. Unsurprisingly, the latter chal-
lenged him to continuously explore fresh solutions
for each new project—a methodology that closely
mirrors his own design philosophy. Jo’s portfolio of
original, often eccentric concepts exemplifies this.
Indeed, no two projects are alike, due to the
complexity of their sites. Consider Naesoop Public
Library in Seoul, a multilevel structure that Jo built
into a hillside. There, he angled the building to
reference the surrounding hilly terrain, but also to
cleverly form the foundation for outdoor commu-
nity spaces—including a rooftop amphitheater—and
connect users directly to the mountain park above
(previously only accessible via a circuitous route).
The designer’s K2 office tower—which sits on a
small 39-by-46-foot lot in Seoul—is a contorted
rectangular volume, with lower floors set at a
45-degree angle to the street, upper floors set per-
pendicular, and middle floors rotated to create a
transition between the two sections. This composi-
tion gives the building its distinctive “twist,” but
it also enables the project to meet, for instance,
the zoning requirement for a setback to increase
daylight.
On yet another tricky site, a narrow plot adjacent
to Jaemin Stream in Gongju, a client wanted to
build a personal office, multipurpose space, and a
café. Aiming to provide all these while preventing
obstruction of the community’s river walk, Jo de-
vised an offbeat concrete hemisphere that is glazed
on the creek-facing side and shaded with privacy
louvers for the office on the upper portion. By
pulling the café back from the stream and under-
neath the second floor’s cantilever, he carved out a
public seating enclave while maintaining clearance
for the pedestrian path.
Connecting people, city, and nature is a recur-
ring theme for Jo, rendering his other role as a
public architect for the Seoul Metropolitan
Government a perfect fit. In this capacity, he com-
pleted the Overpass Forest, an urban amenity that
reclaims areas under three of the city’s highway
overpasses for public use. In addition to a flexible
indoor space, greenery, and an amphitheater, the
Forest features a dramatic canopy of 5,000 mirrors.
As if he didn’t have enough on his plate, Jo is also
an adjunct professor at his alma mater, Hanyang,
teaching future generations of architects in Korea
to champion originality—and even unpredictability.
Sheila Kim P H O T O G R A P H Y: © K Y U N G S U B S H I N
NXV In this tower in Gangnam, Seoul, the concrete lower
portion contains offices while the cantilevering glazed upper
block contains residential units for two families.
 149

LAYERED TERRACE HOUSE The facade of this residence for an extended

family has a rough materiality on the street side, blending into the chaotic
streetscape (above), while the courtyard facades are entirely clad in an array
of irregularly sized pieces of leftover wood (below).

K2 TOWER The envelope of the twisting office building, located at the intersection of
Seoul’s central business district and a densely populated residential neighborhood,
features cement panels cut into narrow pieces and arranged like louvers, giving it a
lightness that belies its monolithic aspect.

RIVERSIDE APSE A concrete shell in the shape of a

hemisphere, housing a range of programs, opens up
to face a stream along with a walkway, popular with
locals, that has been created through the Ecological
River Development project.
150 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 DESIGN VANGUARD

LOW/RISE HOUSE The traditional forms of the California

ranch house and farm tower were appropriated to create a
new suburban housing type. A flexible layout allows for
various program configurations.

A-TO-Z HOUSE
This addition to a 1930s
vernacular developer
house in Golden Gate
Heights, San Francisco
(right), manipulates
and rescales the
structure’s existing
forms, creating a
second story with
sweeping views of the
hillside (far right).
 151

SPIEGEL AIHARA
WO R K S H O P
SAN FR ANCISCO
In 2006, when Dan Spiegel and Megumi Aihara
were dating, the fellow Harvard GSD students won
a traveling fellowship that allowed them to explore
Paris together. For the research paper required by
the grant, the couple analyzed the conversion of a
19th-century viaduct into the Coulée verte René-
Dumont elevated park. “It was an opportunity to
put together some ideas about how things change
over a long period, sometimes unexpectedly,”
Spiegel says of his and Aihara’s first collaboration.
As cofounders of San Francisco–based studio
Spiegel Aihara Workshop (SAW), the 38-year-olds
create environments that support and even wel-
come diverse outcomes over time.
After Spiegel and Aihara graduated from the GSD client became pregnant with twins; Casper doubled
with degrees, respectively, in architecture and
landscape architecture, Spiegel began devising a
Menlo Park, California, residence for his parents
while Aihara worked full-time for other firms,
pitching in on the 4,500-square-foot house on
nights and weekends. Completed in 2013, the dwell- unexpected perspective may help the designers
ing comprises narrow, daylight-filled vertical and
horizontal elements, which reference northern
California’s historic farm towers and pervasive
ranch houses. The volumes include a flat ground
level and independent upper-floor living suite, so
Mom and Dad may comfortably occupy only a por-
tion of the interior or open up the entire house for
entertaining kids and grandkids; further down the
road, the design will allow them to age
in place with the help of a caretaker
inhabiting the tower apartment.
The partners married that same
year, and Aihara joined SAW full-time
in 2014, when the studio was tapped to
design a 650-square-foot expansion of a
Depression-era house tucked into a
Golden Gate Heights hillside. Since
then, SAW’s growing team—the office
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © B R U C E DA M O N T E
creative exchange among colleagues. A venue cur-
rently on the boards for the Cheyenne River Sioux
Tribe’s annual powwow is not so much a rigid
design but a set of instructions for making pavil-
ions of local rammed earth and straw in several
sizes; community members choose the number of
volumes to construct according to the needs of that
year’s meeting, and the overall grouping will
expand as successive powwows boast greater atten-
dance, so younger workers may practice indigenous
construction techniques.
Even designers who embrace unpredictability
encounter surprises: when the Golden Gate Heights
project was nearing completion in 2016, SAW’s
in size between its first outreach to SAW and de-
FOUNDED: 2011
sign phases, and it is preparing to more than
DESIGN STAFF: 8
double again. In turn, Spiegel and Aihara invest
their own resources in so-called post-concept mod- PRINCIPALS:
Megumi Aihara, Dan Spiegel
els—as-built maquettes that identify spots where an
EDUCATION: Aihara: Harvard
Graduate School of Design, M.LA,
discover fresh avenues of approach. One could draw
2007; Brown University, A.B.
a line from pregnancy to the expandable powwow
Visual Arts, 2002.
scheme or Casper’s interior partitions to a prefabri- Spiegel: Harvard Graduate School
cated-house project currently getting under way in of Design, M.Arch., 2008;
Hawaii. Taken together, these lessons form a wider- Stanford University, B.A. Public
ranging exercise in self-reflection that Aihara Policy, 2003
describes as “learning to accept the future, and to WORK HISTORY: Aihara: Andrea
envision it less specifically.” David Sokol Cochran Landscape Architecture,
2011–14; Michael Van Valkenburgh
Associates, 2005–11.
Spiegel: Peter Rose + Partners,
2008–11; Architecture Research
Office, 2003–04
KEY COMPLETED PROJECTS:
Casper Labs, San Francisco, 2017;
A-to-Z House, San Francisco,
2016; Low/Rise House, Menlo
Park, California, 2013

KEY CURRENT PROJECTS:

now numbers eight—has incorporated
unscripted experiences into its defini-
tion of design excellence in earnest.
For mattress company Casper’s 15,000-
square-foot West Coast laboratory,
completed in 2017, SAW allocated
rooms for functions like foam testing
and package prototyping, but enclosed True&Co Try-On-Truck for women to try on lingerie within public settings. The
them in low prefabricated partitions
with wide thresholds to encourage
Casper Labs Phase II (with ARO),
San Francisco; Kauhikoa Farm
Residence, Haiku, Hawaii; Mobile
Barber Shop (with Mobile Office
Architects), various locations;
Same House, San Francisco
sawinc.com
MOBILE SPACES The architects created an intimate space called The
structure, which travels across the country, has evolved from an alternative
retail experience to a prototype for mobile spaces.
152 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 DESIGN VANGUARD

KULT MUSEUM AND

CULTURAL CENTER
The project sensitively
integrates itself with its
Medieval context in Vreden,
in northern Germany, while
establishing a contemporary
landmark. Two new
structures clad with local
bricks, which gently change
in color, have been added to
four existing ones, shaping a
complex that spans from the
14th century to the present.
Interiors are dominated by
board-formed concrete.

WOHNEN OHNE AUTO Translated as “Living Without a Car,” this cohousing

project was developed in a process of participatory design with a community
of future residents.

HILLSIDE HOUSE This house in Salem, in southern Germany, is a partial refurbishment

of an old farmhouse, on a hillside overlooking a lake. Two new structures, a tower and
a box-shaped volume, interlock with each other, increasing in height at a slope that
echoes the hill’s.
 153

POOL LEBER
MUNICH
Although Munich-bAsed architects Isabella
Leber and Martin Pool had collaborated on residen-
tial projects for seven years, it was only in 2011 that
they decided to open an office together. The ven-
ture soon paid off, and in 2013 they won an open
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © F I L I P G O R Z S K I ( T O P ) ; B R I G I DA G O N Z Á L E Z ( B O T T O M ; O P P O S I T E , T O P 2 A N D B O T T O M , L E F T ) ; S A S C H A K L E T Z S C H (O P P O S I T E , B O T T O M R I G H T )
ment, with a focus on residential work,
continuing in this capacity when her
husband’s career required moves first
to Denmark and then to Munich. Pool,
49, who is British, was raised in Bel-

competition for a museum in the northern German
city of Vreden. Completed in 2017 to much acclaim,
their scheme combines new and existing buildings
along a Medieval city wall to recall a townscape on
the exterior and form a unified interior functioning
as a cultural complex.
Looking back, they feel that starting an office in
Germany was fairly uncomplicated, even when the
market in 2011 was quite competitive. Making such
a move in midcareer had advantages too. Both
partners, who were in their early 40s at the time,
had accumulated a wealth of professional and per-
sonal experience, and easily gained the support of
private and public-sector clients.
After studying in Karlsruhe and London, Leber,
52, a mother of three, soon opted for self-employ-
R11 EXTENSION Two solid-wood stories were added to a
multifamily residential building, creating a vibrant roofscape
with angular overhanging windows and cutout balconies.
gium and educated at the universities
of Cardiff and Sheffield, but meager job
prospects in the UK in the early 1990s
drove him to Berlin and then
Darmstadt, where he concentrated on
housing and infrastructure. Self-
employed starting in the late 1990s, he
relocated to Munich in 2000 to join his
French wife, who works there (they
have two children), and met Leber through mutual
friends.
Their office eschews a signature style, prefer-
ring individual solutions for both new buildings
and adaptive-reuse projects. “Our architecture is
quite varied,” says Pool. “We take our cues from
the situation, what the client wants, and what is in
the program. We don’t start out with a particular
idea about what a building should look like.” The
architects note, however, that their projects—in-
cluding private residences, multifamily housing,
museums, or bicycle and transportation infrastruc-
ture—strive to make connections between new
structures and their contexts, and allow space for
collective interaction, like a communal rooftop
terrace on a housing block in Munich for residents
who contract not to own a car (completed 2017) or a
public courtyard in a former post office complex
being repurposed as a museum in Mittenwald
(completion expected in 2021).
Finally, Pool Leber’s example highlights the
shifting attitudes regarding work, family, and
architecture taking place in Germany. Leber notes
that in previous generations, many German wom-
en architects worked almost exclusively with their
husbands. Referencing other European nations he
knows well—France, the UK, and Belgium—Pool
emphasizes the “open work culture” he encounters
in Germany, noting that, once clients feels the
architect is competent, they are supportive regard-
less of age, experience, or background.
In the end, Pool and Leber’s partnership, forged
in midcareer, shows how a long-term commitment
to architecture by both of them led to a rewarding
collaboration: “It is like writing a book together,”
says Leber. “You have to work on an interpersonal
and a professional level, and have the same spirit
and share trust.” Mary Pepchinski
FOUNDED: 2011
DESIGN STAFF: 5
PRINCIPALS: Isabella Leber,
Martin Pool
EDUCATION: Leber: M.A.,
architecture & urban design, U. of
Karlsruhe, 1998; M.A. architec-
ture, U. of North London, 1996;
B.A., architecture, U. of Karlsruhe,
1990. Pool: M.A., architecture, U.
of Sheffield, 1993; B.A., U. of
Cardiff, 1990
WORK HISTORY: Leber: private
practice, 2001–10; Stölken
Schmidt, 1998; Behnisch, 1994.
Pool: private practice, 2000–10;
Fritsch Ruby Pool, 1998–2000;
Topos, 1997–98
KEY COMPLETED PROJECTS:
Mixed-use building, Rottman-
straße, 2018; three-sided brick
villa, 2018; Kult Museum and
Cultural Center, Vreden, 2017;
Wohnen Ohne Auto, 2017; Hillside
House, Salem, 2015; conversion of
a listed building, Munich, 2011 (all
in Munich, except as noted, and all
in Germany)
KEY CURRENT PROJECTS: art
museum in former post office,
Mittenwald; school conversion into
housing, Hochstetten-Dhaun;
mobility center Oertelplatz,
Munich; Villa in Insulating
Concrete, Munich (all in Germany)
poolleberarch.de
154 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD
B A R E N D KO O L H A A S
A M S T E R DA M
FOUNDED: 2011
DESIGN STAFF: 3
PRINCIPAL: Barend Koolhaas
EDUCATION: Delft University of
Technology, MSc Arch., 1994–
2001; Cooper Union, 1998–99
WORK HISTORY: OMA 2006–08,
2010; IDEO 2005
KEY COMPLETED PROJECTS:
EENWERK & IBO, Amsterdam,
2017; Claudy Jongstra exhibition,
Fries Museum, 2016; House in
Almen, 2014; House in Oude­
mirdum, 2014; Wildflower,
Hoogvliet, 2004 (all in the
Netherlands)
KEY CURRENT PROJECTS:
The New Building, Amersfoort;
renovation of a canal house,
Amsterdam (all in the
Netherlands)
barendkoolhaas.com
JUNE 2019 DESIGN VANGUARD
For Barend Koolhaas, it’s not a family business,
but there’s definitely something in the genes.
His father’s brother, Teun Koolhaas, was a noted
Dutch architect and urban planner. Then, of
course, there’s Rem—one of several cousins in
the profession.
Barend, however, grew up wanting to design
cars. After graduating with an architecture degree
from the Delft University of Technology, he had a
small commission for a project that was part archi-
tecture, part design object. Wildflower, a small,
round construction with a floor plan that opens
and closes like a flower, was a prototype meant to
be sold as an alternative to the unimaginative
school annex buildings found throughout the
Netherlands.
The project, says Barend, 43, fed a “nagging feel-
ing to do industrial design.” Shortly after Wildflower
was completed, he moved to California to work for
global design and consulting firm IDEO. Adds
Barend, “It was a good experience seeing that type of
business, which is very different from architecture.”
Eventually, though, Barend ended up back at the
Rotterdam office of Rem’s OMA, where he had be-
gun working as a summer intern in 1994 when he
was just 18 years old. There, he took on large-scale
urban master-planning projects in the Middle East
and Asia, moving to Hong Kong in 2010 to develop
plans for the West Kowloon Cultural District. But
those projects coincided with the global economic
crisis. “None of the work I did for OMA material-
ized,” says Barend. “Ultimately, I am a builder.
And I wanted to build.”
He opened his own studio in 2011, designing a
series of shoe shops to look like rooms in the
imaginary house of avant-garde Dutch shoe de-
signer Jan Jansen. Within a few months, he had
commissions for a couple of private residences—
one in Curaçao that wasn’t realized, and a
weekend house in Almen, in the Dutch country-
side, built in 2014.
He continues to design at a range of scales, from
exhibitions to textiles, working in collaboration
on two collections for Belgian fashion house
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © KO O S B R E U K E L ( T O P ) ; J E R O E N M U S C H ( B O T T O M A N D O P P O S I T E , B O T T O M 2) ; I WA N B A A N (O P P O S I T E , T O P 2)
Marga Weimans. “It was fun to do,” recalls Barend.
“As architects, we use collage a lot. It was nice to
apply that technique in a real result on fabric.”
In 2017, he completed his most significant
project to date—EENWERK and Irma Boom Office
(IBO) combines renovated workspace for famed
graphic designer Irma Boom, with whom Barend
collaborated at OMA, and new construction for a
gallery for Boom’s partner, Julius Vermeulen. “The
spaces are intertwined and connected on two
levels,” describes Barend. “It’s the architectural
equivalent of their relationship.”
Currently, he is working on The New Building.
It’s not just his latest, but a new type of flexible
building whose parts, and plans, are left open to
accommodate an ever-evolving program. For
now, that includes a large
garage but is dependent on
the developing site and
neighboring programs.
According to Barend, “How
we design buildings, cities,
and cars is all connected.”
Josephine Minutillo
WILDFLOWER The 700-square-
foot prefabricated school annex
contains convex sliding doors that
make it possible to switch between
a classroom and six small work-
spaces for individual tutoring.
 155

EENWERK & IBO Meaning “one work,” EENWERK is an art space that exhibits one work at a time. Its steel, glass, and basalt
shell is built on the footprint of a former car garage, between typical Dutch neo-Renaissance brick houses, one of which houses
the renovated offices of Irma Boom, to which it is internally connected. Although the contrast between the old and the new
building is clear on the outside, from inside it is blurred by the sequence of spaces and the various openings between them.

HOUSE IN ALMEN This 1,075-square-foot house is

designed around a 57-foot-long panoramic window with a
view into the garden and surrounding landscape. The
sharply angled glass wall gives the house its characteristic
triangular floor plan. The wood-clad facades are designed
to resemble the local barns.
156 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 DESIGN VANGUARD

MICHAN ARCHITECTURE
MEXICO CIT Y
Isaac MIchan is fascinated by the uncanny, by
that fine line between the overly familiar and the
eerily unrecognizable. The 34-year-old founder of
Michan Architecture—a Mexico City–based studio
launched in 2010—creates structures that “propose
a new reality for that place,” he says, “but not some-
thing completely new from zero.”
Attempting to describe this professional preoc-
cupation in more tangible terms, Michan aptly
brings up masonry—particularly the red-mud arti-
sanal bricks incorporated into his design for Z53
Social Housing, a project completed in 2012 that
consists of 42 units spread across three towers.
“That whole area of the city is built with brick
walls,” he explains, “but in an extremely standard-
ized way, because everything needs to be cheap.”
surprisingly few hurdles to leap in terms of getting
things built. “Unlike the way it is in the U.S. or
Europe, you can get really hands-on with the con-
struction in Mexico,” he says. “You can test stuff
and see how it works. There’s no middleman. I don’t
need to talk to a contractor. I can speak directly
with the construction guys.”
Without all the red tape, everyone gets to enjoy
the process: “It’s fun,” Michan says, “because we’re
constantly testing ourselves to see how we can
improve the quality of the work.” Derek De Koff

P H O T O G R A P H Y: © YO S H I R O KO I TA N I ; C O U R T E S Y M I C H A N A R C H I T E C T U R E ( T O P, L E F T; O P P O S I T E , T O P L E F T ) ; R A FA E L G A M O
FOUNDED: 2010
Michan upends expectations by carefully arranging
DESIGN STAFF: 3–8
the bricks so that they actively respond to light and

PRINCIPAL: Isaac Michan
EDUCATION: Pratt Institute,
M.S.Arch., 2013; Universidad
Iberoamericana, B.Arch., 2010
WORK HISTORY:
Lab Architecture Studio, 2007
KEY COMPLETED PROJECTS:
ODP 921 Apartments, 2018; Oku,
2018; Luma Café, 2017; AL
Apartment, 2016; Z53 Social
Housing, 2012 (all in Mexico City)
KEY CURRENT PROJECTS:
DL 1310 Apartments (with Young
& Ayata), Mexico City; TL 2816,
Mexico City; DL 5155 Apartments,
Mexico City; Huachinango,
Cancún (all in Mexico)
michanarchitecture.com
(O P P O S I T E , T O P R I G H T ) ; JA I M E N AVA R R O (O P P O S I T E , B O T T O M L E F T ) ; V I C E N T E M U Ñ O S (O P P O S I T E , B O T T O M R I G H T )
shadow. They may even appear to be undulating as
you waltz past the building. You see? Uncanny.
This year, work is nearly complete on DL 1310
Apartments, a collaboration four years in the mak-
ing between Michan Architecture and Brooklyn-
based Young & Ayata (founded by Michael Young
and Kutan Ayata, it was a 2016 record Vanguard
firm). For this cast-in-place concrete, nine-unit
residential building in Mexico City, Michan and
company set their sights on bay windows rather
than brick walls. The rectangular openings are
twisted into the building’s facade so as to appear
subtly jutting at odd trapezoidal angles—a peeping
tom’s fever dream. “The building is concrete, like so
many buildings in Mexico,” Michan says, “and we’re
just playing with the windows, that small detail.”
Michan clearly isn’t an architect interested in
settling for the tried-and-true. In 2010, he graduated
from Universidad Iberoamericana with a bachelor’s
degree in architecture, founding Michan Architec-
ture that same year. He hit the pause button two
years later in order to attend New York’s Pratt
Institute, where he ultimately received his master’s
degree in 2013. “The education in Mexico is a bit
more conservative,” he explains. “It’s focused on
Modernist architecture and practicing architects.
It’s not about pushing the boundaries.”
It sounds as if he found a perfect match for his
sensibilities at Pratt: “I loved it,” he says. “You can
OKU Completed last year, this Japanese restaurant has a
speculate about how things can be.” (This was how he
faceted ceiling. Two of the facets open up as inverted oculi
met Kutan Ayata, who was Michan’s thesis advisor.) over the sushi bar, whose interiors are clad in brass to contrast
Meanwhile, Mexico is the ideal incubator for with the raw finish of the rest of the ceiling. The remaining
Michan’s ongoing architectural experiments, with interiors are oak.
 157

TL 2816 A mixed-use development under construction in the southwest part of Z53 SOCIAL HOUSING The structure at the parking level is reinforced
Mexico City, this project is divided into two towers—one for offices, the other for concrete, transferring the loads to masonry walls, which blur the boundary
housing—that diverge at the ground level, where a new pedestrian street filled between structure and ornament, on the floors above.
with retail space is located.

( ) PAVILION
The temporary pavilion,
part of 2018’s
MEXTRÓPOLI, the
largest architecture
festival in Latin America,
appeared as a simple box
from the outside but
revealed a dynamic
concave arrangement of
bricks on the inside.

LUMA CAFÉ
The subtle space
features exposed-
concrete benches,
graphic terrazzo floors,
traditional textured-
stucco vertical lines on
walls, and a ceiling
element that combines
cabled light bulbs and
large hanging felt
mounds.
158 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 DESIGN VANGUARD

P H O T O G R A P H Y: © J O H N H O R N E R ( T O P ; I N S E T; O P P O S I T E , B O T T O M ) ; C O U R T E S Y F R E N C H 2 D ( B O T T O M , L E F T A N D R I G H T ) ; S T E P H L A R S E N (O P P O S I T E , T O P )
OUTLIER LOFTS French 2D transformed a building in Boston’s Charlestown
neighborhood into a “strange cartoon icon,” says Jenny, by reorienting the
entrance and adding an upper story. Viewed from one side, the three-unit
building has a traditional form; from another, a sawtooth roof (above) presents
as a series of off-kilter gables, reflected in the ceiling of the top story (left).

PLACE/SETTING
Part public installation,
part intimate dinner
party, the sisters
created a “warm but
weird” pavilion for a
series of gatherings on
Boston City Hall Plaza,
aiming to spur dialogue
between scholars,
community organizers,
and others working in
related spheres.

BAY STATE COMMONS For several years, Jenny and Anda have
worked with a group of some 30 households to design a
50,000-square-foot cohousing complex, or “condo commune,”
in Boston. A drawing of the project, rendered in their distinctive
style, depicts a collection of connected gabled structures.

FRENCH 2D
B O S TO N
The in-beTween spaces are where sisters Anda and
Jenny French thrive—between practice and academia,
between two and three dimensions, and between
conventional project types. Their academic and pro-
fessional backgrounds have paved the way for a
housing-focused firm that balances social consider-
ations with formal choices, resulting in high-minded
designs with quirky personalities.
Before coming together in 2012 to launch French
2D, the Boston natives had brief stints at other stu-
dios. “We were looking to gain specific practical
skills to deploy later,” says Anda, 39, the older sibling,
“and trying to find models that might work for us to
stay in conversation across academia and practice,
rather than becoming part of another office’s pedi-
gree.” For inspiration about balancing design and
teaching, they looked to leaders in the field like
Sarah Whiting (page 40), who was Anda’s thesis advi-
sor at Princeton, where she earned her M.Arch.;
Karen Fairbanks at Barnard College, Anda’s under-
graduate alma mater; and Mack Scogin, with whom
Jenny studied at Harvard for her M.Arch.
159
While the sisters occasionally work with interns
or other designers, they are each other’s primary
collaborator. “It’s pretty amazing to have an office
environment that is usually a salon of just the two of
us,” says Jenny, 35, adding that their professional
relationship has deepened and enriched their famil-
ial one, and vice versa. “There’s a kind of emotional
support that one generally has with siblings,” says
Anda, “and when that translates to intellectual and
practical work, it produces, for us at least, a confi-
dence that I don’t know we’d have individually.”
FOUNDED: 2012
The design duo see things the same way—and
DESIGN STAFF: 2–4
that’s not just a figure of speech; both women have
an eye condition that affects their depth perception PRINCIPALS:
Anda French, Jenny French
and shapes how they represent spaces in two and
three dimensions. Much of their work has a “light EDUCATION: Anda: Princeton
School of Architecture, M.Arch.,
strangeness” to it, says Jenny—from their drawings,
2006; Barnard College, B.Arch.,
where collapsed perspectives lend a cartoonish feel,
2002. Jenny: Harvard Graduate
to projects like a graphic screen for Kendall Street School of Design, M.Arch., 2011;
Garage in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “We want to Dartmouth College, B.A., 2006
create consensus that you’re looking at a familiar WORK HISTORY: Anda: Hillier
object, but then twist the form so that it makes you Architecture/RMJM, 2006–08;
look again,” Anda says. William Rawn Associates, 2003.
They apply this mentality, of tweaking the ex- Jenny: Bergmeyer Associates,
pected, to all types and scales of multifamily 2013–14; ShoP Architects, 2009
projects. For a microunit building in Boston, one of KEY COMPLETED PROJECTS:
the studio’s first projects, they worked to ensure that Kendall Square Garage,
the compact size of the 350-square-foot units still Cambridge, MA, 2019; Outlier
supported a “full life” says Anda. This meant adding Lofts, Boston, 2018; 1047
amenities like bike storage, a coffee area, and a Commonwealth Microhousing,
Boston, 2016
library. “It became an exercise in understanding
social relationships,” Anda explains. “We’re inter- KEY CURRENT PROJECTS:
Bay State Commons Cohousing,
ested in how housing can combat larger issues, like
Malden, MA; 500 Main, Boston;
social isolation and polarization.”
“Just Around the Corner Objects”
That train of thought was the perfect segue into a (object prototypes)
cohousing project, currently in the approval process,
french2d.com
in Boston. The 30-unit building will have 5,000
square feet of shared living and dining space for
some 100 occupants across age groups who have
opted to live communally. “One- and two-person
households are on the rise, so we need to redefine
what a household is, and create new networks that
aren’t just for the ‘ideal’ upper middle-class millen-
nial,” says Jenny—just the challenge for an office
that flourishes in reconceiving the familiar.
Miriam Sitz
KENDALL SQUARE GARAGE SCREENS French 2D created a
26,000-square-foot drawing for the facade of a garage in
Cambridge, MA, that plays with depth and shadow. They
made dresses using the same design, at the same scale, to
become “big-scale-figure cartoons” in the photographs.
160 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
C H Y B I K+ K R I S T O F
B RNO, CZECH REPU B LIC
FOUNDED: 2010
DESIGN STAFF: 50+
PRINCIPALS: Ondr̆ej Chybík,
Michal Krištof
EDUCATION: Chybík: ETH Zurich,
Master of Advanced Studies in
Urban Design, 2014; Brno
University of Technology, M.Arch.
and Urban Design, 2011. Krištof:
Brno University of Technology,
M.Arch. and Urban Design, 2011.
WORK HISTORY: Chybík: PPAG
Architects, 2009–10. Krištof:
Bjarke Ingels Group, 2010.
KEY COMPLETED PROJECTS:
Urban Infill, 2018; Pavilion of
Humanity, 2016; Gallery of
Furniture, 2016; Waltrovka master
plan and residential building,
Prague, 2016; Czech pavilion at
Expo 2015, Milan (all in Brno,
Czech Republic, except as noted)
KEY CURRENT PROJECTS:
Lahofer Winery, Znojmo, Czech
Republic; Czech Forestry
Commission headquarters,
Hradec Kralove; airport terminal,
Prague; Spring Dales Public
School, Kashmir, India
chybik-kristof.com
DESIGN VANGUARD
Based in the Czech city of Brno, with offices in
Prague and Bratislava, Chybik+Kristof has grown
quickly since its early days. The 50-person firm was
officially established eight years ago. But its founding
partners, Ondr̆ej Chybík and Michal Krištof, point
out that their origin story, like so many firms’ sto-
ries, began earlier, in 2010: “We just set up the studio
in a bar,” says Chybík. The two met as students while
attending that year’s Venice Biennale and later joined
forces on an architecture competition. “We didn’t
win, but it was nice to hear opinions from a totally
different angle,” says Chybík. The duo did win an-
other competition, for an apartment building next to
the Danube River in Bratislava, Slovakia, which led
them to put aside ideas of joining larger firms to
start their own architecture and urban-design prac-
tice just months after graduating.
Today, the office is taking part in—and setting
standards for—a new era of Czech architecture. “We
really want to show the world what’s happening
here, because it’s not so well known,” says Chybík.
After the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and the fall of
the Iron Curtain in 1991, architecture students were
still being trained in the popular functionalist style
of Czechoslovakia’s interwar era; Chybík and Krištof
see their peers and themselves as the first genera-
tion emerging from almost a century of “white
boxes” to show clients a new approach. They are a
“European generation,” says Krištof, whereas their
teachers were closed off from the influence of other
countries and international media.
One of the firm’s longest-running projects is a
winery in the Moravian countryside outside Znojmo.
Four years ago, after seeing a local newspaper ar-
ticle about Lahofer Winery’s plan to build a new
I M AG E S : © VO J T E C H V E S̆ K R N A ( T O P ) ; L U K A S P E L E C H ( B O T T O M ) ; C H Y B I K+ K R I S T O F (O P P O S I T E , T O P ) ; A L E X S H O O T S B U I L D I N G S (O P P O S I T E , I N S E T A N D B O T T O M , L E F T ) ; L U K A S I L DZ A ( B O T T O M , R I G H T )
facility, Chybík and Krištof made contact and even-
tually landed the commission. “It’s also a feature of
our generation to be very proactive,” says Krištof.
“There are a lot of older, very good architects all
around us, so we cannot just put our names on a
website and wait for the call.”
Located in one of the country’s important wine-
making regions, the facility will function as a
cultural center for the community rather than just
as a private vineyard. For the same client, Chybík
and Krištof are also transforming a 1970s-era brew-
ery into a wine bar in Znojmo.
Entering competitions continues to bring in new
types of work. One recent win resulted in a project
for the Czech Forestry Commission headquarters in
Hradec Králové, where the firm is redesigning the
1950s campus and adding a public pedestrian path
between the new, passively ventilated buildings.
“We love the idea that the employees can sit in
front of their desks and breathe the best air in the
world,” says Krištof.
Broadly, they see “creative improvisation” as the
strength of the practice. To them, that means being
able to nimbly transition between ideas, conversa-
tions, and clients, at all scales. Take two new
projects—one for a terminal at the Prague airport
and another for a school in India’s Kashmir region.
“It’s really thrilling to think in the morning with a
structural engineer about the longest and slimmest
roof made out of steel for the airport, and in the
afternoon to Skype with a construction company in
Kashmir about how to build a rammed-earth wall,”
says Chybík. “That, I think, is our potential as the
most recent generation of European architects.”
Jen Krichels
GALLERY OF FURNITURE
In 2016, the firm transformed
a furniture showroom in Brno,
Czech Republic, rearranging
interior spaces to better
showcase the company’s
products and creating an
exterior shell of chairs made
by the client.
 161

LAHOFER WINERY Responding to the topography of Znojmo, Czech Republic, the

firm placed a public amphitheater on the winery’s sloping roof (above), offering
visitors views of the scenic Moravian countryside. The project, under construction
now (right), will wrap up this year.

URBAN INFILL Situated in the Czech city of Brno, in an area

undergoing rapid revitalization, this building, designed in 2015 and
completed last year, contains retail on the ground floor and
residences on the upper levels. A single neon light on the facade
emphasizes the verticality of the project.
PAVILION OF HUMANITY A skeletal temporary installation in the busy town square of Brno,
Czech Republic, on view during the summer of 2016, documented and commemorated the way
the square and the city have changed and been influenced by cultures new to the locale.
New Cap Styles!
Litestick¨
The Litestick® measures just one inch in
diameter but plenty of power in its 3W LED
BKSSL® solid state system with 11/16” (17mm)
lens opening for dynamic path lighting.

• 3W LED BKSSL® solid state system

• CCT 2.7K, 3K & 4K
• Field serviceable/upgradeable

.com

AlumiNATION!
Miniature
Beacon Path Light TM
Wonderfully rugged, medium scaled path
light incorporating both down lighting and
a top ‘window’ for a beacon guidance effect.
Fixtures made in copper, brass and bronze
are now also available in copper-free
aluminum.

• 7W LED BKSSL® solid state system

• CCT 2.7K, 3K, 4K & Amber
• Field serviceable upgradeable

.com
 Resilient Roofing by Design

Your roof plays a critical role in protecting your building’s occupants, contents, operational infrastructure, and Scan here
structural integrity. Carlisle’s 30-year EPDM roofing systems are designed to deliver decades of dependable protection. to learn how
to build your
Resilient 30-year EPDM roofing systems utilize enhanced components and details, including:
30-year EPDM
• Thicker, more durable EPDM membranes including 75-mil reinforced, 90-mil non-reinforced, roofing system
and 145-mil FleeceBACK®
• Splice tape width and fastening rates are doubled
• Cover boards, coated-glass-faced insulation, and engineered edge metal are required
Engineered to protect against 100-mph winds, 2" hail, unusual snow loads, and intense UV and heat exposure,
Carlisle’s 30-year EPDM roofing systems are built for a sustainable and resilient future.

Experience the Carlisle Difference | 800-479-6832 | www.carlislesyntec.com

Carlisle and FleeceBACK are trademarks of Carlisle. © 2019 Carlisle.
164 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 PROJECTS

Gehry House | Santa Monica, California | Frank Gehry

Moving On
Frank Gehry, whose unorthodox Santa Monica house helped make his name in the 1970s, has
shifted to a larger glass and timber home he designed with his son, set within a lush garden.
BY VICTORIA NEWHOUSE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY IWAN BAAN

F
rank Gehry’s imposing new house in Santa Monica might seem
to be the polar opposite of the “unfinished” look he sought for
his renovation of a modest 1920s Dutch colonial, also in Santa
Monica, four decades ago. The current residence was designed
in collaboration with his younger son, Sam, who has been
active in the firm since 2008, when Gehry entrusted him with the
creation of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London’s Hyde Park. The
new house bears little resemblance to Gehry’s youthful venture, which
instantly became a landmark of residential design. Yet there are a
surprising number of similarities between the two.
For the renovation, in 1977, Gehry worked with Paul Lubowicki as
his design partner; Lubowicki was then a young man at the beginning
of his career, and the relationship between the two was similar to the
one that Gehry enjoyed with his son in 2010. Sam used as a starting
point the wood framing and large, crisscrossing beams in one of his
dad’s models for the Serpentine. After many years of toying with de-
signs for a new house, it was Sam’s involvement that made Frank and
his wife, Berta, decide to proceed with a move to the prime 0.8-acre

Santa Monica property Gehry had acquired around 2009 as an invest-
ment for their two sons. Sam considered Berta to be the client, and
Gehry admits that “Sam is easier to work with than I am. I did nothing
except plan with Berta how we would use the house.”
Both houses rely on timber (plywood for the older house, Douglas
fir for the new one). Although the two wings of the new residence are
large (10,000 square feet in total), in comparison to the old house
(4,000 square feet), the main wing of the new house is only 1,000
square feet bigger than its predecessor. In fact, the modest dimen-
165
INSIDE/OUT A profusion of lavender under olive
trees animates the entrance terrace.
sions of the family room and the master bedroom are exactly the
same as in the older building.
Just as Gehry had played with unusual materials and forms for the
early renovation, Sam wanted to test his ideas about sustainability for
the new project. The house is heated or cooled primarily by radiant
floors (fed by nine geothermal wells), ventilation, and shading. These
can be supplemented by gravity walls—cavities in the walls that con-
tain vertical pipes for cool or warm water, and an airspace. Solar
panels and solar water heaters cover the guest wings’ roofs. Gehry
166 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 PROJECTS

FLYING FISH Gehry’s famous light fixtures hang in the

dining room (above). In a birds-eye view, the main house
is to the right, while the guest wings, with solar panels,
are to the left (left). The lofty living room is sunk into
the site for a cozy intimacy (opposite).

confesses that they are still fine-tuning the

system: “It was a tricky experiment and is not
yet perfect.”
Oriented to the northeast and northwest of
the entrance foyer, and facing the street, are
the dining room and living room, both domi-
nated by heavy, intertwined timber beams
that contrast dramatically with large expanses
of glass. Gehry marvels at the intricacy of
what he describes as “the beams’ connections
to connections.” Every room enjoys magnifi-
cent views across the garden to the Santa
Monica Canyon, but the two men wanted the
views to vary. Thus the dining room is slightly
elevated, with vistas that stretch to the ocean,
while the living room sinks gently into the site
for a more intimate outlook, toward Pacific
Palisades. Both spaces have 20-foot-high ceil-
ings, and doors that open to the garden.
Accessed by an elevator and stairs, the second
GEHRY HOUSE SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA FRANK GEHRY 167
168 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 PROJECTS

level contains a master suite. Gehry envi-

sioned the interior balconies on this level,
which overlook the ground floor and the
ocean, as sites where musicians could play to
the rooms below.
One specific request was for rooms that
the Gehrys could inhabit at different times
of the day. In contrast to the soaring living
and dining rooms, cozy reading nooks at the
east and west on the two levels catch rays of
the rising and setting sun. A small study
west of the ground-level family room pro-
vides an additional intimate space.
Creating the house was a family affair
beyond having Sam as the design partner
and designer of the furniture: his wife,
Joyce, created all the carpets, and Berta
chose the kitchen’s colorful Granada-tile
floor. Further personalizing the home are
Gehry’s famous fish lamps, which hang
from the dining room ceiling, and numer-
ous artworks, most of which were gifts from
artist friends and from the Gehrys’ older
son, Alejo, a painter.
A 60-foot lap pool separates the North
House from the smaller South House, which
contains two guest rooms and a suite for
longer-term visitors, a changing room, a
gym, and a large concert room (another
request from Frank and Berta). Gehry calls
the patio between the two structures the
“entertainment plaza”; it too has a stunning
view of the ocean. (Landscape architect
Laurie Olin added to the existing sweetgum
trees—a species Gehry favors for its deep red
leaves in autumn—and also chose Chinese
cinnamon trees for their golden blossoms,
while Spanish lavender, California lilac, and
mission olive trees bring a profusion of color
to the front.) The senior Gehry has already
hosted performances in the concert room,
one by members of Daniel Barenboim’s West-
Eastern Divan Orchestra, the second by
musicians from the Colburn School in Los
Angeles, for which the architect is designing
a new building. They hope to have other
musicians—possibly jazz—come and stay at
the pavilion.
The angled, gabled roof, clad in a metal
that glows almost pink at dusk, and the tilted
skylights are unmistakably Gehry. Such
resemblances are not unusual in architect
father-son collaborations. To I.M. Pei and his
two sons, Chien Chung and Li Chung; to Eliel
and Eero Saarinen; to César and Rafael Pelli,
we can now add Frank and Sam Gehry. n

Architectural historian Victoria Newhouse, whose

books have focused on cultural buildings, is cur-
rently preparing one on new public parks
worldwide.
GEHRY HOUSE SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA FRANK GEHRY 169

THAT’S
ENTERTAINMENT
The family room is
modestly scaled (opposite,
top and bottom). Outdoor
spaces include the terrace
(above) and the lawn by
the lap pool, in front of the
guest wings, that Gehry
calls the “entertainment
plaza.”
 Question today
Imagine tomorrow
Create for the future
Contiguous lab design allows
Creation of Comprehensive Cancer for seven additional primary
Center decreases Augusta University’s investigators per floor
costs while improving patient care
© Halkin Mason Photography

Building designed to encourage

collaboration between clinicians
and researchers

Georgia Cancer Center’s M. Bert Storey Research Building at Augusta University

Augusta, GA
WSP services provided: Lab planning, MEP engineering, Security/IT engineering

From innovative cancer research facilities to

future-ready healing environments, WSP is proud to deliver projects
which improve the lives of those in our communities.

Find out what we can do for you.

wsp.com/usa Join our team!

 Come see us at the
AIA Conference on Architecture
June 6-8, Las Vegas
Booth 7416

This Isn’t Wood.

FORTINA Louvers for interior and exterior

applications. Fortina is a remarkable architectural
system that will fool your senses: replicating wood slats
and louvers with aluminum and a hyper-realistic surface
in a multitude of wood species and metal finishes.

Project: Kauppakeskus Plaza, Salo, Finland

Architect: Suunnittelutoimisto Ameriikka Oy
Fortina Louver: THS-5015
Finish: TA-026 White Elm Neo
©2019 B&N Industries, Inc.

FORTINA.BNIND.COM
Experience Perimeter
access control

more. Doors
and door Interior glass
hardware systems

Mobile access Entrance

solutions systems

Access
management Electronic
software locks

BEST SHELTER
Lockdown
solutions

AIA Conference on Architecture | June 6 – 8 | Las Vegas | Booth 7935 | Learning Lounge 7939
Architectural services | Sustainable strategies | Integrated solutions | Design consultation

Our extensive product portfolio affords the architect, designer and developer
creative and operational freedom, while addressing the functional needs of
the institution by merging security with convenience to create a safer and more
welcoming environment.

Experience more. Experience dormakaba.

Call for comprehensive project support, non-proprietary hardware specifications

and schedules for architects and designers at 844-773-2669.

dormakaba.us
 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY 1007 173

SPIRITUAL PLACES
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © J A M E S WA N G

174 Hikma Religious-Secular Complex, Dandaji, Niger

Atelier Masomi and Studio Chahar
180 St. Mary’s Student Chapel, Albany, California
Mark Cavagnero Associates
186 Saya Park Chapel, South Korea
Álvaro Siza and Carlos Castanheira
190 Birkat Itzjak Synagogue, Mexico City
Cherem Arquitectos
HIKMA RELIGIOUS-SECULAR COMPLEX IN NIGER
BY ATELIER MASOMI AND STUDIO CHAHAR
174 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY SPIRITUAL PLACES

Hikma Religious-Secular Complex | Dandaji, Niger | Atelier Masomi and Studio Chahar

Speaking Volumes
In a village in sub-Saharan Africa, two buildings from different eras
celebrate a shared architectural tradition.
BY KELLY BEAMON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES WANG

T
here was a time in Niger when village mosques were
maintained by their communities. The earthen struc-
tures, like one designed in the desert town of Dandaji by
the late Nigerien architect Falké Barmou 20 years ago,
was an honored type, repaired and replastered as needed
in a collective gesture of religious devotion, to withstand
the region’s seasonal downpours.
But times have changed. When the Dandaji mosque began to crum-
ble—its chunky parapets and corner towers eroded by water damage
and neglect—the villagers wanted to tear it down and fund construction
of a modern building with easier maintenance and more room for the
growing population of 3,000, preferably in durable concrete.
That’s when architect Mariam Kamara, founder of Atelier Masomi,
based in Niger’s capital, Niamey, learned of the problem from family
friends (her father had grown up in Dandaji). She successfully advocated
for saving the old mosque by recalling its history. The boxy mud-brick
volume, with its artisanal hand-plastered exterior, was a small replica of
another that Barmou had designed in nearby Yaama, which won the
prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1986. Like that earlier,
larger mosque, Dandaji’s “is an amazing example of a traditional type
of Islamic architecture,” says Kamara, “one which we can’t easily main-
tain anymore because the skills are disappearing.”
But she believed that, with improved building materials and meth-
ods, and a new program as a library (a bonus, since Dandaji also has the
only middle school for miles, used by students from five towns), the
hefty maintenance requirements could be eased, and the building
could once more serve as valuable community space. An area adjacent
to it would be the site of the new mosque, if the clients approved of
pursuing two projects instead of one. Convinced of the existing
mosque’s importance, the villagers agreed.
To handle the larger-than-expected brief, Kamara, who earned her
M.Arch. from the University of Washington, asked another alum of
that program, Yasaman Esmaili, principal of the Tehran- and Boston-
based Studio Chahar, to collaborate with her. Kamara and Esmaili had
met as students while assisting professors, the late Robert Hull (found-
ing principal of Miller Hull) and Elizabeth Golden, on the Gohar

Khatoon Girls’ School in northern Afghanistan (record, January 2016).
As they worked, they bonded over stories about their Muslim upbring-
ings—Esmaili in Iran and Kamara in Niger. Since that time, they’d also
worked together designing a housing project in Niamey.
The 24,140-square-foot rectangular campus they conceived for
Dandaji is defined by a concrete wall that encloses the restored and
repurposed mosque at the north end, the spacious new mosque com-
posed of a set of prayer halls and ablution buildings at the south end,
and a community courtyard in the middle.
Crisp Art Deco–like details and tall, razor-straight walls enclose the
new mosque’s volumes, including the prayer halls. Between them, at
the southernmost end of a long walkway, sits the minaret, formed by
two rectangular prisms, with the narrower one stacked on top, culmi-
nating in a spire. Just north and east of this neat cluster are two smaller
boxes, the stations for ritual washing before prayers.
While its hue echoes the library’s, its bones have a different DNA:
the mosque and its ancillary structures are not built of local clay but
compressed-earth blocks, or CEBs, which feature a mix of soil and other
175
ON THE SURFACE
In a new mosque
(opposite), the
architects used
compressed-earth
block (CEB) to echo
clay architectural
elements of the
building they
converted to a library
(foreground, above).
The roof domes of one
new prayer hall
(foreground, left) are
contemporary ver-
sions of the library’s.
content. This composite material, which Esmaili and Kamara first used
in the Niamey housing development, requires less maintenance than
clay while providing the same thermal benefits.
To encourage daily use of the halls, the architects laid a concrete
path from the library to the mosque’s first point of entry, the ablution
building on the north side. From there, a door featuring steel lattice-
work, used throughout the complex and fabricated by local
craftspeople, leads to an outdoor corridor and the mosque itself. The
larger hall used by men opens onto a hallway across from the smaller
one designated for women. Each room has views into the other when
doors along the corridor separating them are open. Once inside the
halls, the gaze of worshipers is focused upward, following the height of
the concrete columns that support the clean-lined, white-painted con-
crete arches that frame red CEB vaults. The underside of each dome
holds a pendant fixture that twinkles like a star at the center.
The architects’ intention was that nothing on the white-painted
walls would distract from the dramatic ceiling or, during sermons,
from the imam, whose podium is a simple set of steps on the western
176 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY SPIRITUAL PLACES

BUILD, KNEEL, PRAY The new mosque has two prayer

halls, one for men (above) and for women (opposite,
top). These rooms have views of each other across a
walkway (left) when their metal doors are open. What
appear to be clay-brick ceiling vaults (opposite, bottom)
in both halls are actually CEBs.

wall. Under the paint, the wall itself is plas-

tered in a mixture of cement and an iron-rich
soil, laterite, for strength.
The adjacent restoration is another story.
“The projects are two totally different ani-
mals, in terms of materials,” Kamara says.
In fact, the library’s irregularly shaped
walls make it appear as though it were sculpt-
ed from a single slab of clay. Elevations are
punctuated by blue-painted steel shutters and
doors and rows of shallow carved niches,
their edges softened by age. The team enlisted
original architect Barmou’s former assistant
to oversee the restoration of its walls and
roof. In places where walls needed to be re-
built or repaired, the method of construction
was similar to what’s used for cast-in-place
concrete with rebar, but, instead, raw clay
HIKMA RELIGIOUS-SECULAR COMPLEX DANDAJI, NIGER ATELIER MASOMI AND STUDIO CHAHAR 177

was packed and molded by hand around wood dowels. The exte-
rior has a new coating of plaster made of clay, shea butter, sand,
and the nontraditional laterite, which is so durable it should re-
duce the replastering schedule from an annual task to one that
happens every 10 years. The interior walls, too, received a fresh
coat of plaster, but with a slightly different recipe.
To convert the interior into a library, the architects designed
a series of steel-framed insertions: shelves between columns
that double as partitions, and a mezzanine accessed by a short
flight of stairs, which creates a perch for reading and studying
cross-legged on mats under the roof’s multiple domes. Outside
the west-facing entrance, the team built an annex for educa-
tional workshops on subjects ranging from math to literacy to
farm production. Although it is made of CEBs, like the other
new structures, village masons made sure its domed roof, para-
pets, and plasterwork appeared identical to those elements on
the converted mosque, as if the decades-old building and the
addition were built at the same time.
The masons’ skills, says Kamara, ensured a cohesive mix of
modern and traditional. “I knew of these techniques. I had stud-
ied them, but I hadn’t seen them done,” says Kamara, explaining
how some age-old methods were woven together with hers and
Esmaili’s more modern ones, citing the protective plaster for the
exterior walls of both the new mosque and the library.
178 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY SPIRITUAL PLACES

1 MOSQUE
2 LIBRARY
4
3 MEN’S PRAYER HALL

3 4 CORRIDOR
5 5 WOMEN’S PRAYER HALL
A
7
6 MINARET
A
7 ABLUTION BUILDING
8 IMAM’S QUARTERS
6

0 30 FT.
MOSQUE PLAN
10 M.
DESERT-PROOF Clay-and-wood vaults over the
library’s mezzanine (above) provide the same thermal
benefits as CEB vaults in the mosque’s entrances.

Because the architects were receptive to

the mason’s practices, the artisans in turn
showed patience with theirs. “There was a
lot of exchange. We are architects, but we are
not there just to prescribe from our Western
educations,” says Esmaili. Kamara agrees:
“It’s way more interesting to learn from
them,” she says. “That process shows that
4
modernity is not synonymous with a West-
7
ern aesthetic.” ■

0 30 FT.
SECTION A - A
10 M. B credits
ARCHITECT: Atelier COST: $544,300
Masomi — Mariam Kamara, COMPLETION DATE:
principal May 2018
ASSOCIATE ARCHITECT:
2 Studio Chahar — Yasaman SOURCES
Esmaili, principal
PAINT: National Paints
ENGINEERS: URBATEC
LIGHTING: Egelec
(structural); Willi Demo
DOORS & WINDOWS:
Sekangay (electrical)
Atelier de Technologie
GENERAL Métallique
CONTRACTOR: LOCKSETS: Paco
Entreprise Salou Alpha
& Fils
1 CLIENT:
Village of Dandaji, Niger
SIZE: 24,140 square feet
AXONOMETRIC DIAGRAM — LIBRARY
B

0 50 FT.
SITE PLAN
15 M.

2
1

SECTION B-B
HIKMA RELIGIOUS-SECULAR COMPLEX DANDAJI, NIGER ATELIER MASOMI AND STUDIO CHAHAR 179
180 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY SPIRITUAL PLACES

St. Mary’s Student Chapel | Albany, California | Mark Cavagnero Associates

School Crossing
A serene, meditative sanctuary beckons to young people on campus.
BY JOHN KING
 181

M
ark Cavagnero readily admits that his personal
relationship with Catholicism ended after he
attended a parish school as a child in Connec­
ticut. So, when he received a request to interview
for a commission to design a student chapel for a
Catholic high school in the San Francisco Bay
Area, he wasn’t sure he was up to the task.
“My faith had wavered, to say the least,”
Cavagnero recalls. But then he began to think about the intersec­
tion of spirituality and architecture in a broader way—as “idealized
space that could offer empathy, with room for contemplation that
may, or may not, include prayer.”
That impulse is now embodied in a small structure of concrete
and glass at the entrance to St. Mary’s College High School, in
Albany, California. Unapologetically modern yet suffused with
tranquil warmth, it serves as a symbolic portal to the campus, as
well as an open refuge for students seeking inspiration or solitude,
often at conflicted times in their lives.
Unlike other buildings on the 12.5­acre campus, most of which
were built as needed during the past 30 years and have a vague air
of Mission Revival style, the 4,400­square­foot chapel makes a
striking first impression. Just inside the campus’s entry gate, off a
shaded street of single­family homes, a rectangular concrete
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © J O E F L E T C H E R

CONCRETE IDEAS Just inside the campus’s entry gate, the
rectangular “steeple” comes into view (above). The architect used
luminous white Portland cement for exterior and interior walls
(opposite and above, right).
“steeple” rises, its back pitched and its eastward face inset with
glass that is divided into quarters by a thin metal cross. Around
and behind the tower, like rectangular ridges beneath a mountain
peak, the building’s lower sections hold the chapel and a small
sacristy.
The religious imagery is obvious. But the steeple, a great, hol­
lowed­out light shaft, also allows morning sunlight to slice into
the sanctuary, illuminating the altar, where a priest addresses
the pupils, who often gather for brief talks or services before
classes begin. Later in the day, when a student might come on his
182 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY SPIRITUAL PLACES

MATERIAL WEALTH
The pews and slatted
screen, all of white oak,
play against floors of
smooth Alabama
limestone (above). Glass
doors fold wide open to
connect the sanctuary
with the courtyard and its
small reflecting pool (left
and opposite).
 ST. MARY’S STUDENT CHAPEL ALBANY, CALIFORNIA
or her own, the altar fades into the shadows while the chapel is lit
from behind.
“It seemed important to break the room down into different scales,”
explains Cavagnero, who in 2015 won the coveted Maybeck Award from
the AIA California Council. “I was thinking about what it would be like
if I was going through a moment of stress in my life. I’d want a space
where I could think and brood and wonder.”
While the morning light is clean and direct, the afternoon sun—en-
tering through floor-to-ceiling glass panels at the chapel’s southwest
corner—fills the sanctuary with a diffused glow. A clerestory window of
frosted glass, tucked along the north edge of the space, evens out the
illumination without calling attention to itself.
The pews are white oak. So are the slats along the chapel’s southern
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © H E N R I K K A M
wall—positioned not only to direct light toward the front of the chapel,
but also to form a screen that blocks distracting outside views from the
pews. The floor is smooth Alabama limestone. The vertical plane be-
hind the altar is the same stone, but split-face, and the other walls are
of white Portland cement. “The best way to make a space that’s visually
and spiritually quiet,” suggests Cavagnero, “is to use as few elements as
possible, and to keep them under control.”
The architect was less successful, however, in his quest to make the
chapel feel like a sanctuary entirely apart from the hectic commotion
MARK CAVAGNERO ASSOCIATES 183
of a high school with more than 600 students, and other challenging
conditions. Though the site parallels a creek lined with tall redwood
trees—hints of nature that filter into the chapel and its courtyard—it’s
also bordered by a service road. The tower, meanwhile, faces a wide
asphalt roadway and a utility building.
To counter these encroachments, the design moves the chapel en-
trance to the site’s rear, in a small courtyard, reached from the east by
a pathway, flanked by Cavagnero’s building on one side and, on the
other, by a concrete wall that drops from 8 to 4 feet high as it nears the
courtyard. When the three Japanese maples that are part of Andrea
Cochran’s landscape design grow in, the sense of passage should feel
more natural. It’s an imaginative response to a challenging site, but a
self- consciously choreographed one, as well.
Once inside the chapel, though, emotional resonance emerges in the
way clean details are infused with higher purpose. The choice of the
chalky-white Portland cement for the walls—its superlative quality
being an expense that Cavagnero defended from value engineering—
brings a subdued luster to a material that students and staff might
otherwise dismiss as cold and stark. There’s delicacy in the tall cross
within the tower. The light in the chapel, diffused and entering from
all sides, is at once comforting and solemn.
In the past, when religious faith was unquestioned, churches were
184 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY SPIRITUAL PLACES

0 30 FT.
SITE PLAN
10 M.

designed to awe believers with majestic force.

A We live in a different, less doctrinaire age—in
which many people choose to set traditional
religion aside, or to draw on a variety of differ-
6
8 ent philosophies and creeds. This is what St.
Mary’s chapel responds to, glowing with an
2 1 7 offer of sanctuary and solace, whatever form
9
B B
one’s beliefs might take. n
5
3
John King is the urban-design critic of the
San Francisco Chronicle.
4
credits
A
ARCHITECT: Mark Cavagnero Associates — Mark

0 20 FT.
Cavagnero, John Fung, Ellen Leuenberger, Andy Lau,
FLOOR PLAN Mark Jewell
6 M.

CONSULTANTS: CSW|ST2 (civil); Mar Structural Design

(structural); Costa Engineers (m/p); O’Mahony & Myer
(electrical); Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture
(landscape); Charles M. Salter Associates (acoustics);
Archdiocese of Omaha (liturgical)
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Roebbelen Contracting

1
CLIENT: Saint Mary’s College High School
1
5 SIZE: 4,400 square feet
COST: withheld
0 20 FT. 0 20 FT.
SECTION A - A SECTION B - B COMPLETION DATE: September 2018
6 M. 6 M.

SOURCES

1 CHAPEL 6 MECHANICAL LIGHTING: B-K Lighting, BEGA, Volt Lighting Group,

2 MAIN ENTRANCE 7 ALTAR Juno Lighting Group, Amerlux, Philips, Focal Point,
Axis Lighting, Vode, Lumenpulse
3 REFLECTING POOL 8 SACRISTY
DOORS: Minton Door Company, Eggers Industries,
4 GROTTO 9 COURTYARD
NanaWall
5 GARDEN
BUILT-UP ROOFING: Johns Manville
PEWS: New Holland Church Furnishings
 ST. MARY’S STUDENT CHAPEL ALBANY, CALIFORNIA MARK CAVAGNERO ASSOCIATES 185
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © J O E F L E T C H E R

SCREEN PLAY Wood slats shield the interior

from southern light (opposite). Restrained in its
ornamentation, the building has little outward
iconography other than the tower’s thin cross and the
one incised in a wall (above).
186 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY SPIRITUAL PLACES

Saya Park Chapel | South Korea

Álvaro Siza and Carlos Castanheira

High Altar
A hilltop chapel’s geometric forms draw
on the history of sacred buildings.
BY DAVID COHN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DUCCIO MALAGAMBA

W
hen famed Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza, a
Pritzker Prize laureate, now 86, began to design a
small chapel for a remote mountainside in South
Korea, he drew, as he recalls, “on centuries of marvel-
ous church buildings.” His project condenses the basic
elements of those traditions and, in so doing, trans-
forms them with his characteristic quirky grace.
Facing east down a hillside, the white stucco chapel is composed of
three volumes that step up in height. Frontmost is a peculiar pediment,
columnless, with an exaggerated cantilever. Hovering over the entry, the
building reinterprets a Neoclassical portico with a dash of contemporary
structural swagger. The two succeeding volumes make up the sanctuary
itself: rising to a steep triangular peak, the first opens into a taller flat-
roofed space over the altar, much the way a church nave meets the
 187

GREEK TEMPLE REDUX A cantilevered pediment, with no columns, forms the

chapel’s entry canopy (above). The exterior’s crisp, white stucco surfaces give
way to exposed board-formed concrete on the interior (opposite).
188 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY SPIRITUAL PLACES

170.533

172.666

174.153

SITE PLAN 0 300 FT. OUT ON A LIMB Elsewhere in the park, Siza and
100 M. Castanheira’s Art Pavilion has a branching form (above).

crossing. Where the two volumes join, an

off-kilter opening—like a misplaced oculus or
rose window—cuts into a high spandrel. The
aim is to cast a moving spot of daylight across
the altar, with the rays filtering through a thin
6 pane of alabaster rather than glass. With just
these few bold, theatrical moves—the two-stage
5 4
A A
spatial sequence and framing, the penumbra,
and the almost hidden source of light—the
architect seeks to achieve a luminous, spiritual
atmosphere.
The 450-square-foot chapel is one of three
structures Siza designed with a longtime col-
0 10 FT.
laborator, architect Carlos Castanheira, for the
PLAN 75-acre Saya Park, in North Gyeongsang
3 M.
Province. Created by retired businessman
Jaesung Yoo, this ambitious project is open to
the public. Siza and Castanheira’s Art Pavilion
1 CHAPEL
there opened in April, but their Observation
2 ART PAVILION Tower is yet unbuilt. Along the park’s wooded
3 P
LANNED TOWER trails, Yoo has selected special places for con-
4 ENTRANCE templative meditation—a bench in a clearing
or overlooking a view, or near a group of sculp-
5 ALTAR
tures. His other structures on-site include an
6 CROSS
open-air music pavilion beside a mountain
stream. The chapel, built for his wife, who is
Catholic, stands in a far corner of the park,
near a family burial plot marked by two boul-
ders and a pair of ancient trees.
Yoo first came to Siza with the idea of realiz-
ing a project never intended to be built, a
museum commissioned for a Madrid exhibition
in 1992. The architect demurred, suggesting a
SECTION A - A new design, but Yoo insisted. “It was very amus-
SAYA PARK CHAPEL SOUTH KOREA ÁLVARO SIZA AND CARLOS CASTANHEIRA 189

DIVINE LIGHT A high opening, like a misplaced rose

window (right), casts a spot of sunlight—moving over the
course of the day—across the altar. The rays filter
through a thin pane of alabaster, rather than glass (left).

ing,” Siza confides. That scheme, only slightly

altered, is now the Art Pavilion, used for
installations and events. With long, curving,
branchlike wings, it was originally conceived to
feature Picasso’s “Guernica,” the famous (and
unavailable) painting, which Siza has replaced
with his own marble, wood, and Cor-Ten-steel
sculptures and ceramic-tile murals.
Like the Art Pavilion, the chapel is built of
poured concrete, white-stuccoed on the exte-
rior, but with the rough texture left by the
board formwork exposed inside. The altar—a
simple rectangular block—is of Portuguese
marble; and the cross, tabernacle, benches,
and pivoting entry door were all crafted in
Portugal, of Afzelia, an African hardwood that
Siza first used for his Boa Nova Tea House in
1963 (record, February 2015).
The architect has designed several
churches, including Santa Maria in Marco
de Canaveses, Portugal (1996), and a private
chapel for the Quinta Santa Ovidio estate
(record, April 2003), projects that Yoo visited
before this work began. (Some of Siza’s other
recent religious structures include his chapel
in Algarve, Portugal [record, May 2018], and
his Anastasis Church, near Rennes, France
[record, April 2018].) Like much of that earlier
work, the Saya Park chapel plays with arche-
typal forms. Outside, the structure is as
sharply drawn and proportioned as a Renais-
sance tempietto. Inside, without losing this
elemental clarity, its spatial unfolding and raw
concrete seem closer to the Romanesque’s
dark, primitive masonry interiors. Yet for all
the history this work invokes, it is unmistak-
ably of the present, fresh and surprising—the
performance of a master. n

credits
ARCHITECT: Álvaro Siza and Carlos Castanheira, with
Rita Ferreira, Diana Vasconcelos, Luíza Felizardo, Nuno
Rodrigues, Filipa Guedes (project team)
ENGINEER: HDP (structural)
CLIENT: Jaesung Yoo
SIZE: 450 square feet
COST: withheld
COMPLETION DATE: September 2018

SOURCES
CUSTOM CABINETRY AND WOODWORK:
Serafim Pereira Simões Sucessores
STONE ALTAR: Sousa Mármores
LIGHTING: THPG
DOOR BOLT: CBC
190 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY SPIRITUAL PLACES

Birkat Itzjak Synagogue | Mexico City | Cherem Arquitectos

On a Wing and a Prayer

A tight site on a frenetic corner is transformed into a contemplative refuge.
BY BETH BROOME

H
ow do you find spirituality on a
tiny site shoehorned onto a
frenetic, traffic-clogged corner
in the megalopolis of Mexico
City? This was the question that
Cherem Arquitectos had to
ponder when they took on the
commission to build the Birkat Itzjak syna-
gogue in the Lomas del Chamizal neighbor-
hood on the city’s western periphery.
In recent years, this enclave, home to low-
rise residential buildings interspersed with
dry cleaners, convenience stores, and other
small businesses, has undergone a transforma-
tion as developers purchased lots to build
luxury high-rise housing. The burgeoning
population includes an Orthodox Sephardic
Jewish community, named Maguén David,
that, with all the growth, soon found itself in
need of a new space to worship. Because driv-
ing a car is among the activities forbidden on
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © JA I M E N AVA R R O ( L E F T ) ; E N R I Q U E M AC I A S ( R I G H T )
URBAN OASIS A palette of travertine, walnut, and brass lend the sanctuary (left) a quiet dignity. Eyelid-like
louvers shield the south elevation’s array of apertures which, at night, are illuminated with LEDs embedded
beneath the flaps of stone (above).
191
Shabbat, the Sabbath, the group saw value in
this 6,000-square-foot site, which, despite its
awkwardness—atop a hill and hemmed in by
streets on three sides—is within walking dis-
tance of the legions of residential towers. The
funds to build were donated by a single family
within the community.
Inside, as well as out, the building is its own
island. “One of our first thoughts,” says princi-
pal Abraham Cherem, “was that, given the
surroundings, which aren’t that nice, it was not
a place to open views. We needed to make it
introspective, its own shell.” And, adds partner
José Antonio Aguilar, “we had to figure out how
to bring in natural light without having conven-
tional windows.” The steel-frame building,
which is clad in travertine, is a simple rectangle
in form and appears almost as a solid mass. (It
has no sign or iconography, in part to “keep it
quiet,” the architects say, and as a security
measure.) Light enters through an arrangement
192 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY SPIRITUAL PLACES

0 15 FT.
SECTION A - A
5 M.

11 1 ENTRANCE

2 VESTIBULE

3 PARKING

4 MIDRASH (STUDY ROOM)

5 LIBRARY
2
6 LOCKERS

7 RABBI’S OFFICE

8 EVENT ROOM

9 COURTYARD

10 KITCHEN

11 SANCTUARY, WITH MEN’S SEATING

0 15 FT. 0 15 FT. 12 WOMEN’S MEZZANINE SEATING

LEVEL-4 PLAN LEVEL-5 PLAN
5 M. 5 M. 13 WOMEN’S RITUAL BATHS

4
6

A A 8

2
10
1
2

7
9

0 15 FT. 0 15 FT. 0 15 FT.

LEVEL-1 PLAN LEVEL-2 PLAN LEVEL-3 PLAN
5 M. 5 M. 5 M.
 BIRKAT ITZJAK SYNAGOGUE MEXICO CITY CHEREM ARQUITECTOS 193

STREET SMART The steel structure is visible on the

front facade and frames a wall of onyx (right). The main
entry slips into a channel. The onyx carries light inside,
including into the sanctuary (bottom), where the
east-facing wall glows behind the brass ark, which
contains the Torah scrolls.

of small rectangular apertures on the build-

ing’s long southern side, which are shaded by
fixed, eyelid-like louvers made of the same
travertine and hung at 21 degrees. On the
front, east-facing facade, steel structural ribs
rise the height of the building, framing thin
sheets of cloudy white onyx that carry light
into the synagogue on all levels (this strategy
is mimicked at the back, with clear glazing in
place of the stone). Acoustic laminated glass
behind the onyx and elsewhere, and double
layers of drywall sandwiched between the
exterior and interior travertine walls, reduce
noise transmittal.
In addition to the limited square footage,
the site came with a height restriction of
about 70 feet, presenting a challenge for
packing in the all the spaces the institution
desired for its congregation of about 2,000.
The program is stacked neatly into the enve-
lope. Three levels of below-grade parking
accommodate cars on non-Sabbath days,
necessary given the limited space on the
surrounding narrow streets. On top of this,
also below grade, is the midrash, or study
room, a double-height space that can be
viewed (as well as accessed by an open-tread
travertine stair) from the entry vestibule
above, which sits at ground level and is en-
tered from the small side street to the south.
A multifunction room for gatherings and
celebrations, which opens onto a protected,
travertine-enclosed courtyard, sits on top of
that. The next level holds the sanctuary and
men’s seating area of the temple, with the
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © E N R I Q U E M AC I A S ( T O P, B O T T O M , A N D O P P O S I T E )

women’s section above in the mezzanine

flanking the double-height space on three
sides. At the top will be the women’s ritual
baths, which have yet to be completed.
On the Sabbath, when the elevator is off
limits, worshippers use a generous straight
run of stairs off the front, main entry. Rising
along the mostly opaque northern side, it
connects all the floors and is drenched in
light, entering through a strip of clear glass
that extends the full height of the front fa-
cade as well as a skylight running the length
of this slot-like zone. Throughout the interi-
ors, travertine and walnut line the floors,
walls, and ceilings, accented by inflections
of brass. The tight material palette comple-
ments straightforward floor plans and the
understated language of the architecture,
contributing to a contemplative mood for
prayer and the pursuit of wisdom.
194 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY SPIRITUAL PLACES

The east-west axis of the site was serendipi-

tous. Since synagogues must be oriented toward
Jerusalem, the building fit the site nicely, with
the short end of the rectilinear form facing east
and, of course, the rising sun. Situated in this
way, morning light streams through the wall of
onyx, bathing the interiors—most notably the
main sanctuary—with a honey glow. “If the east
were in another position,” notes Cherem, “it
would have complicated the design a lot.”
The team’s instincts for creating an inward-
looking, light-filled space with carefully
selected materials jibed well with the mystical
aura they hoped to achieve. Scale also played
an important role in evoking the sacred, say
the architects (who did the work pro bono),
pointing to the compression of the secondary
and transition spaces relative to the expansive,
more majestic sanctuary and, to a lesser
extent, the midrash. “Here, introspection is
important,” says Cherem, “but so is the feeling
that there is something bigger than you—and
scale can do that.” Other details underscore the
notion. For example, the beamed walnut ceil-
ing in the temple aligns with the vertical steel
structure that holds the onyx, directing the
gaze to the brass ark, the cabinet at the front of
the sanctuary holding the Torah scrolls.
As the honking of horns and squealing of
brakes persists outside against an equally cacoph-
onous visual backdrop, inside the synagogue a
soothing, even quality of light pervades, and all is
silent, making Birkat Itzjak a little oasis for
prayer, study, and community gathering. n

credits
ARCHITECT: Cherem Arquitectos — Abraham Cherem
Cherem, principal; José Antonio Aguilar, partner; David
Cherem, David Junco, Malena Martinez
ASSOCIATE ARCHITECTS:
Abraham Cherem Cassab, Abraham Cherem Dayan
ENGINEER: Aguilar Consultore Ingenieros (structural)
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Vidarq
CLIENT: Maguén David Jewish Community
SIZE: 44,000 square feet (including parking)
COST: $5 million
COMPLETION DATE: July 2017

SOURCES
P H O T O G R A P H Y: © JA I M E N AVA R R O
STONE: Stones Piedras Naturales
STEEL: Bysa
GLASS: Testa
WALNUT: Sergio Lucas
BRASS ARK & BRASS MESH: Atra
FURNISHINGS: AlisMobile, Alexander Anderson,
Pedro Ramirez Vazquez
ALL IN At the back of the building, steel-framed glass panels pivot to connect the events room to a travertine-lined
courtyard, where rituals revolving around the New Moon Festival and Sukkot take place. A shallow stream of water LIGHTING: iGuzzini
animates the west side, and stone for the abutting elevation is rusticated, a nod to the Walls of Jerusalem. ELEVATORS: Mitsubishi
 Bright,
thoughtful
& dynamic.
Just like the kids
it’s built for.

Our singular focus on pK-12 learning

means we know kids. We design
for how they grow, think and move.
It’s all we do, so that schools and
teachers can focus on what they do.

Get a free catalog at

SmithSystem.com.

NeoCon Booth #7-7050

Academy of Digital Learning
Focus On: Sustainability
Become an expert on Sustainability through Architectural Record’s
Academy of Digital Learning.

Upon successful completion of the Sustainability Academy, you will earn 6 AIA LU/HSW +
2 AIA LU/Elective and a digital badge that demonstrates your mastery and achievement.

Earn your digital badge and showcase your expertise!

ce.architecturalrecord.com/academies/sustainability

Brought to you by
 American Muslim Institute | Omaha, NE | Distributor: Steel Ceilings, Inc., Johnstown, OH

CONCEPTION. CONSTRUCTION. COMPLETION.

More than a manufacturer,
our vast product selection comes with industry expertise and technical support.
Above: Linear Ceiling™ in Medium Teak Wood Grain Laminate

Allentown, PA | Mesa, AZ
800.468.1441 | www.atas.com
198 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 CONNECTED CITIES

ciplinary research initiative at the Massachu-

Designs on Data setts Institute of Technology. “Its manifesta-

tions are everywhere. From energy to waste
management, mobility to water distribution,
city planning to citizen engagement, digital
Smart technologies and sophisticated analytical tools are technology is facilitating novel interactions
with urban space.” In New York, sidewalk
helping us understand and address urban challenges. kiosks on former pay phone sites provide
access to public Wi-Fi and city services, while
By Katharine Logan in Moscow, an intelligent transport system
tackles the city’s near-critical congestion.
Despite the buzz around a few hypercon- ogy to boost the quality of life lies in existing Connected water infrastructure in Christ-
nected cities and districts being planned and cities, where most people already live. church, New Zealand, helped prioritize
built as urban utopias from the ground up— “The spaces around us are becoming per- repairs following a major earthquake; air-
such as Portugal’s PlanIT Valley, Toronto’s meated with the Internet of Things, a fusion quality sensors inform Beijing’s regulation of
Quayside district, Qatar’s Lusail, and South of bits and atoms,” says architect Carlo Ratti, construction and traffic; and real-time con-
Korea’s Songdo—the real potential for technol- director of the Senseable City Lab, a multidis- sumption data facilitates distributed energy
 199

information and communications technology

(ICT) to improve a city’s operations and its
citizens’ quality of life. The term lacks consis-
tent usage, even among experts, who
generally don’t like it, preferring alternatives
with more inherent meaning, such as “con-
nected,” “sensing,” or even the neologism
“senseable,” which, says Ratti, implies both
“able to sense” and “sensible.” Whatever they
want to call it, some cities are crafting a more
livable urban fabric, particularly two munici-
palities perennially acknowledged to be
among the world’s most connected, Barcelona
and Singapore. Another showing potential to
use this data this way is Los Angeles. CURRENT STATUS

Barcelona’s development of its technologi-

cal infrastructure stretches back about 30
years, and now encompasses more than 40
programs. One of the most transformative
may be the city’s “superblocks,” an initiative
being instituted in existing neighborhoods in
response to increasingly congested streets and
associated noise and pollution levels.
Not to be confused with the disconnected,
monolithic superblocks that Jane Jacobs effec-
tively discredited, each Barcelona superblock
comprises a three-by-three, nine-block neigh-
borhood of traffic-calmed and shared streets.
Local traffic can enter only along the center
block of each side, drive slowly around that
block, and reemerge on the street from which
it entered, which limits through-traffic to the PHASE 1 SPEED REDUCTION

perimeter. Within the block, the scheme

Barcelona is implementing a superblock initiative that is
freeing up space previously dominated by cars for other
uses (above). Within each nine-block precinct (right), no
through traffic is permitted and speeds are reduced. To
facilitate the transition, speed limits drop in two phases.
initiatives in Copenhagen. Around the world,
to varying degrees, existing municipalities
are retrofitting with new technology in
liberates more than 70 percent of the surface
previously occupied by cars, reducing noise,
improving air quality, and providing much-
needed public space.
The clustering of blocks, exclusion of traf-
fic, and installation of picnic tables, play areas,
and potted trees may seem like an analog
initiative, but it rests on “data-integrated
decision-making,” says Salvador Rueda, direc-
tor of the Agència d’Ecologia Urbana de Bar-
celona (BCN Ecologia) and originator of the
superblock program. Rueda first proposed the
superblock concept in 1987 (even then, noise
and poor air quality were marring city life),
400 meters
but a lack of reliable projections about traffic
impacts stalled it. Now, with contemporary PHASE 2 SPEED REDUCTION
sensing and simulation technologies, says
Rueda, “we can use data to advocate, to plan,
and to verify.” Basic Network: 50 km/h

pursuit of familiar priorities, in combina- For example, increasingly sophisticated

Traffic Direction
tions tailored to each city’s particular monitoring equipment has enabled the
I M AG E S : © B C N E C O L O G I A

circumstances.
But it’s not the technology per se that’s
having the impact. It’s not even the data that
the tech generates. The significance of “smart”
technology comes from how people use the
data to inform decisions about their city.
“Smart city” is a catch-all for the use of
creation of a network of fixed and moving
sensors that connect with ICTs and a cloud-
computing process. These make it possible to
assess a range of air-quality parameters—
particulates, nitrogen dioxide, and other
pollutants—and to generate accurate, real-time
estimates of doses inhaled daily by residents
Local Network: 20 km/h; bicycles
circulate in local network in both
directions
Public Space: 10 km/h; bicycles
circulate in local network in both
directions
200 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
ACOUSTIC COMFORT—WITHOUT SUPERBLOCKS
If realized as envisioned in Barcelona’s mobility plan, the superblocks are projected to reduce traffic and bring about a host of associated benefits, including shortened waits for public
transit, enhanced safety, improved air quality, and noise-pollution reductions (above, left and right), with red indicating zones with high noise levels.
and commuters. Similarly, traffic flow is
measured with sensors (mainly cameras)
positioned in intersections, superblock access
roads, and calmed streets.
Variables analyzed through data-based
simulations and subsequent verifications
(conducted by validating simulation results
with on-street measurements and other local
data) include traffic, public transport, and
cycle routes; beyond mobility, they include
environmental impacts such as air quality,
noise, thermal comfort in public space, green
surface and soil permeability, greenhouse-gas
production, and biodiversity. It even quanti-
fies more nuanced factors, such as social
cohesiveness, which is measured by assessing
diversity of income, culture, and age among
people living in a superblock, as well as the
provision and spatial distribution of social
housing and urban amenities. Using compara-
tive risk assessment and other standard
methodologies, Rueda’s team can estimate
preventable premature mortality, gains in life
expectancy, and economic impacts related to
the superblocks. “A scientific approach based
on data allows decision-makers to understand
what the improvements will be if they imple-
ment the idea,” says Rueda.
To date, five superblocks have been imple-
mented, three are in development, and three
more were announced in April. (Insufficient
community consultation resulted in opposi-
tion to one of the projects, but that subsided
as the benefits—especially the new social
spaces—became clear. Now the superblocks’
popularity is raising concerns about gentrifi-
cation.) The city’s transit system has been
CONNECTED CITIES
ACOUSTIC COMFORT—WITH SUPERBLOCKS
overhauled from radial to orthogonal routes
that coordinate with the superblock grid.
If realized as envisioned in Barcelona’s
Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan 2013–2018,
there will eventually be 503 superblocks
city-wide.
The scheme is projected to achieve a 21
percent reduction in overall traffic, which will
shorten trip times and improve safety, reduce
the wait for public transit to an average of two
minutes, bring air pollution levels citywide
within recommended values (currently over
40 percent of residents live with excessive
pollution), allow for increased social con-
nectivity and green space, and prevent an
estimated 670 pollution-related premature
deaths annually. “The reduction of impacts
and the improvement of the quality of life is
huge,” says Rueda.
Barcelona’s ability to try out an urban-
design concept in limited areas of the city
before rolling it out at full scale is, from
Singapore’s perspective, something of a luxu-
ry. “Singapore is a city-state, and there’s rarely
the room for us to experiment with our
plans,” according to Siau Yong Ng, director of
the Singapore Land Authority’s geospatial
division. So, in a global first, the city is synthe-
sizing all of the 3-D efforts of its various
government agencies, along with vast stores of
associated data from existing geospatial and
other platforms, to create a digital twin of the
entire city.
The $54 million project, scheduled for
phased deployment beginning this year, will
provide a single, authoritative digital platform
for government and private-sector users, as
well as researchers and the public, to better
understand the city and to explore ways to
improve it. Users will be able to pretest con-
cepts and services that range from energy
and food production to mobility, from
development proposals to long-term land-use
planning.
Astonishingly detailed for such an enor-
mous construct, the platform’s semantic 3-D
modeling provides information on terrain
attributes, transportation infrastructure, and
buildings and their geometry and components,
right down to floorplans and materials compo-
sition. Multiple sources of static, dynamic, and
real-time city data, including information
from government agencies, the internet, and
Internet of Things devices, enrich the platform
with demographics, traffic, and weather.
According to a statement from Singapore’s
National Research Foundation (NRF), which led
the development of the model, “the potential
uses of Virtual Singapore in tackling livability
issues are limitless.”
For the city’s designers, planners, and deci-
sion-makers, the platform allows sharing and
reviewing project documentation in context,
and to conduct more meaningful public
consultations. In turn, this enhanced contex-
tualization and collaboration also allow for a
I M AG E S S : © B C N E C O L O G I A
more integrated consideration of how pro-
posed changes will affect the public realm.
For example, planners can simulate the
effect of proposed green roofs on temperature
and light intensity in the surrounding area,
overlay heat and noise maps on existing and
proposed developments, or model a building’s
influence on wind flows in the street. With
 AÕ19 Exhibitor
AIA Conference on Architecture 2019
Architecture Expo, June 6-7, Las Vegas
Booth: 5138

High Performance Doors:

Maximum Energy Efficiency and Security
• Aesthetics, convenience, security.
• Fast, reliable, modern.
• Achieve a higher certification with LEED v4 on your projects.
Contact us to discover which credit categories qualify.

Hörmann High Performance Doors

Contact us ▶1-800-365-3667 / 1-724-385-9150
www.hormann.us ● info2@hormann.us
202 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
Virtual Singapore, a synthesis of the digital models of various government agencies and vast stores of data, can be put
to a wide variety of uses, including producing a visual display of apartment resale values (top), or helping bicycle
commuters map the best route between two points (bottom).
slopes, steps, and curbs modeled, it will be
possible to visualize universally accessible
routes. The platform will also allow users to
filter buildings based on pre-set parameters:
apartment blocks suitable for solar panels
under the country’s Greenprint initiative
could be quickly identified by number of
stories and roof type.
From their own experience with building
information modeling, architects may al-
ready be familiar with many of these
capabilities, but to bring them together in a
project of Virtual Singapore’s scope and scale
CONNECTED CITIES
offers to revolutionize the way cities under-
stand themselves. Concentrating so much
information in one, publicly accessible plat-
form, however, is also raising unprecedented
issues of privacy and security. “This informa-
tion will help our daily lives, but it could also
fall in the wrong hands and create problems
for Singapore,” George Loh, the NRF’s director
of programs, told Reuters. “We need to think
about that. We need to be two or three steps
ahead.”
A newer entrant in the smart-city stakes,
Los Angeles, is also using big data to under-
stand risks and opportunities. Projects that
address two prominent L.A. priorities include
an artificial intelligence-enabled disaster
preparation and management program, and a
mapping-based community-development
initiative.
According to the United States Geological
Survey (USGS), odds are that a magnitude 6.7
earthquake will hit Los Angeles in the next 30
years (with lower, but still considerable, odds
for a quake of greater magnitude). As part of
its efforts to mitigate the impacts of such a
disaster, the L.A. Emergency Management
Department (EMD) is testing a software plat-
form that incorporates data on hundreds of
attributes for three key vectors: the natural
environment (from such sources as topograph-
ical maps, soil surveys, and USGS seismic
sensors); the built environment (building code
and permit documentation, zoning maps,
satellite imagery); and demographics (from the
U.S. Census Bureau). The software combines
these data to run simulations of, say, the thou-
sand most likely earthquakes—or particular
quakes of defined magnitude, depth, and
location—and applies machine learning and
predictive analytics to forecast impacts at the
census-block level. In the event of an actual
disaster, it would provide near real-time infor-
mation on where and what types of damage to
expect and what populations were likely to be
affected.
“Which buildings are going to collapse and
block emergency routes, so we can prioritize
upgrading them? Which major highways in
I M AG E S : © N AT I O N A L R E S E A R C H F O U N DAT I O N S I N G A P O R E , S I N G A P O R E L A N D AU T H O R I T Y,
the supply chain are going to collapse, and
which will survive, so I can designate them as
alternates?” These are some of the questions
Aram Sahakian, EMD’s general manager,
G OV E R N M E N T T E C H N O L O GY AG E N C Y O F S I N G A P O R E , DA S S AU LT S YS T È M E S
hopes the software can help with. He is plan-
ning to run a simulation in a public-private
partnership with several grocery distribution
centers located on the San Andreas Fault.
Since they are a critical part of the city’s infra-
structure, Sahakian wants them up and
running three to four weeks after a major
quake. He’s hoping that the data-based predic-
tions will motivate the companies to start
planning for resilience. “As businesses, it’s in
their interest too,” he says. About a year into
the trial, it’s too early for Sahakian to judge
how useful the software will be, but it’s prom-
ising, he says.
While the EMD uses data to prepare for the
worst, RegenCities, a 2018 American Planning
Association Smart Cities Award–winning re-
search initiative by SOM, aims for the best.
RegenCities draws on an SOM-developed, sys-
tems-based methodology, which the firm calls
“health topography.” It uses geo-referenced
information to analyze a city’s vital signs. A
 THROUGH THICK AND THIN.
Trust Endicott to help you create uninterrupted design.
The same beautiful colors, bold textures and assorted
sizes—available in both face and thin brick—so you
can build spaces that move.

Endicott’s keyback thin brick is manufactured to meet the requirements Endicott Clay Products Company | Endicott Thin Brick & Tile, LLC
of ASTM C1088, Exterior Grade, Type TBX, and the more stringent size
tolerances of +0" -1/16 required for precast applications. 402-729-3315 | endicott.com
204 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
JOB DENSITY
SOM’s Los Angeles research project RegenCities collects data from open-source portals, combining them with census-tract data. Deploying a systems-based methodology to
understand vulnerabilities and opportunities, it analyzes this information across several indicators, including those for public health and socioeconomic standing.
scan of public data from open-source portals
is combined with census-tract data for a
defined area, and categorized according to
five urban systems: built, natural, infrastruc-
ture, socioeconomic, and cultural. The data
are then aggregated, mapped, and cross-
referenced against 10 principles, or traits, of
regenerative cities (such as energy, economy,
and mobility) to reveal areas of abundance
and scarcity. The data sets themselves are not
intended to be conclusive, says Gunnar Hand,
leader of SOM’s city-design practice. Instead,
they help to focus discussion among the
people involved.
Beginning with a health-topography
assessment conducted for South L.A., SOM
partnered with local businesses, nonprofit
organizations and community leaders, and
the Los Angeles mayor’s office to found a
community development initiative called
RemakeLA. Returning to data, this time for
property ownership, RemakeLA identified
and mapped about 5,000 municipally owned
surplus sites (property severed during a road
construction, for example, and left to dete-
riorate into a weedy nuisance). It then
developed an online geohub to open a public
conversation about these sites’ potential for
community-based economic development,
entrepreneurship, and reinvestment.
CONNECTED CITIES
CHRONIC DISEASES
As a result, SOM is now collaborating with
the architecture program at Los Angeles
Trade Technical College, whose students
come predominantly from South Los Ange-
les, to develop a pilot program for one of the
sites. Participants will use the geohub to
identify a parcel suitable for locating an
open architecture studio—a base for commu-
nity-student architectural collaborations. If
approved, the facility will be designed and
built by students in the college’s programs.
One primary goal for the pilot “is to prove to
the mayor’s office that permitting use of
these parcels could be a valuable tool in their
economic-development box—empowering the
public,” says Hand.
Responding to the particular circumstanc-
es and priorities of their home place, these
examples of how cities are using technology
to understand and improve themselves vary
wildly. Yet they share a common theme: the
integration of data to craft a comprehensive
strategy. “We need a holistic approach to
cities,” says Rueda, “because our main subject
is humanity.” n
Katharine Logan is an architectural designer and
writer focusing on design, sustainability, and
well-being.
POVERTY
Continuing Education
To earn one AIA learning unit
(LU), including one hour of
health, safety, and welfare (HSW)
credit, read “Designs on Data,”
review the supplemental material found at
architecturalrecord.com, and complete the
quiz at continuingeducation.bnpmedia.com or
by using the Architectural Record CE Center
app available in the iTunes Store. Upon passing
the test, you will receive a certificate of
completion, and your credit will be automatically
reported to the AIA. Additional information
regarding credit-reporting and continuing-
education requirements can be found at
continuingeducation.bnpmedia.com.
Learning Objectives
1 Explain such terms as smart cities, connected
cities, and senseable cities.
2 Describe how sensing technologies and big
data can be used improve the quality of life and
the health of urban inhabitants.
3 Explain how networked urban infrastructure
can help urban areas resume normal operations
I M AG E S : © S O M
after natural disasters, such as earthquakes.
4 Discuss some of the potential negative
impacts of ubiquitous data-collection devices.
AIA/CES Course #K1906A
AISC at the 2019 AIA Conference on Architecture visit us in
Beyond the Frame: Thermal Bridging Booth
Solutions + Curved Structural Steel #8238
(EX407 | 1.0 LU/HSW/GBCI/RIBA)

Circuit of
the Americas
Observation
Tower &
Austin360
Amphitheater Smarter. Stronger. Steel.
Austin, Texas
2015 IDEAS2 American Institute of Steel Construction
Award Winner 312.670.2400 | www.aisc.org
photo: Ted Parker, Jr.
THE
EXCEPTIONAL
IS IN THE DETAILS

UNIVERSAL PIN CONNECTOR™

The Whitney Museum of American Art
by Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
www.castconnex.com
 EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT 207

CONTINUING EDUCATION

CONTINUING EDUCATION
In this section, you’ll find 10 compelling courses highlighting creative solutions for tomorrow’s buildings brought to you by industry leaders. Read a course, and
then visit our online Continuing Education Center at ce.architecturalrecord.com to take the quiz free of charge to earn credits.

Photo courtesy of Hudson Yards New York/

Photo courtesy of Lonseal Flooring Related Oxford Image courtesy of Interface Photo courtesy of Nova USA Wood Products LLC

p208 p218 p220 p222

Flooring: Affecting the Gaining Urban Space: Steel Climate, Carbon, and Technology and Trends in
Environment from the Ground Up Platforms Over Rail Yards Human Health Sustainable Tropical Hardwoods
Sponsored by Adsil, Lonseal Flooring, Sponsored by The Steel Institute of New York Sponsored by Interface Sponsored by Nova USA Wood Products LLC
Thermory USA, and USG

CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/HSW;

IN PM SU PM ST SI IN PM SU BE PM SU
CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/HSW CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/HSW 1 GBCI CE HOUR CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/HSW

Photo courtesy of Armstrong Ceiling and

Photo courtesy of Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope Photo courtesy of Sprung Instant Structures, Inc. Wall Solutions Photo courtesy of Global Security Glazing

p224 p226 p228 p230

Balancing Health and Revolutionary, Permanent New Acoustical Options Understanding How Glazing
Performance Benefits through Tensioned Membrane in Specialty and Seamless Can Impact Safety and
Natural Lighting Aluminum Frame Ceiling Systems Fire Protection
Sponsored by Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope Supported Structures Sponsored by Armstrong Ceilings Sponsored by National Glass Association
Sponsored by Sprung Instant Structures, Inc.

CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/HSW;

BE PM SU BE PM SU IN PM AC BE IN ST
CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/HSW 1 GBCI CE HOUR CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/HSW CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/ELECTIVE

Photo courtesy of Georgia-Pacific Gypsum Photo courtesy of LaCantina Doors

CATEGORIES
AC ACOUSTICS

BE BUILDING ENVELOPE DESIGN

IN INTERIORS

p232 p234 PM PRODUCTS AND MATERIALS

SI SITE INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN

Who’s the Culprit in An Open Invitation
WRB-AB Leakage? Sponsored by LaCantina Doors
SU SUSTAINABILITY
Sponsored by Georgia-Pacific Gypsum
ST STRUCTURAL

RR RENOVATION AND RESTORATION

CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/HSW;

1 GBCI CE HOUR;
BE PM RR CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/HSW BE PM SU 1 IDCEC CEU/HSW

Courses may qualify for learning hours through most Canadian provincial architectural associations.
208
Manufacturing advances
now make commercial
flooring more appealing,
sustainable, and durable
over the life of the building
in which it is installed.
Flooring: Affecting the Environment from
the Ground Up
The flooring industry is making great strides toward reducing its environmental
impact, both in products and process
Sponsored by Adsil, Lonseal Flooring, Thermory USA, and USG | By Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP
F
looring of one type or another is used in
virtually every building project. Indeed, it
may even be a renovation project unto itself.
How many square feet of flooring is needed? Likely
the same number of square feet as in your building,
plus any outdoor deck or activity areas. With such a
ubiquitous nature and far-reaching implications for
design and construction, it has also been the focus
of intense scrutiny in terms of its impact on both
indoor and outdoor environments. The flooring
industry has responded in recent times by changing
the way it sources materials, updating its manu-
facturing processes, and seeking out and achieving
independent, third-party certifications to meet
green building standards. In that regard, many
now conduct life-cycle assessments (LCAs) on their
products to look at the specifics and impacts from
the “cradle” or material-sourcing phase through
the manufacturing process and then to the “gate”
phase, where it is ready to be shipped to a jobsite.
Others may look at it all the way to the “grave,”
where it is used to the end of its useful service life
and then either recycled or disposed of. Based on
this process, some also have environmental product
declarations (EPDs) available that report the objec-
tive findings of the LCAs.
EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT
In this course, we will review some of the
different types of indoor and outdoor flooring
products and materials that are available for
high-performing commercial floor assemblies.
In the process, we will look at the ways they
each address sustainability and green building
principles that allow design and construction
professionals to create better performing, better
designed, and more sustainable projects.
SUSTAINABLE SELF-LEVELING
UNDERLAYMENTS
Any flooring contractor will readily point out
that all flooring requires a good subfloor to
perform well. Sometimes that is straightforward
to achieve in new construction, sometimes not.
In renovation projects, the quality of the subfloor
may be difficult to determine at best and prob-
lematic at worst. Hence, it is common to use an
underlayment that can provide an appropriate
surface for the flooring and cover over or correct
many deficiencies in the subfloor in the process.
A common choice for an underlayment over
wood and concrete subfloors is a cementitious
self-leveling underlayment (SLU) product. While
cementitious products tend to carry a very high
Photo courtesy of Lonseal Flooring
CONTINUING EDUCATION
1 AIA LU/HSW
Learning Objectives
After reading this article, you should be able to:
1. Identify and recognize the aesthetic
significance of floor surfaces as part of
the overall interior design and project
documentation of a space.
2. Assess the health and safety performance
aspects of floor surfaces as they relate to
durability, slip resistance, and sustainability.
3. Explain the importance of proper subfloor
preparation and installation techniques
to enhance overall flooring and assembly
performance.
4. Determine ways to incorporate the
principles and topics presented into
building design and documentation as
evidenced in project case studies.
To receive AIA credit, you are required to
read the entire article and pass the test. Go to
ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text
and to take the test for free.
AIA COURSE #K1096E
Stunning Colors, Unequalled Durability.
Drift combines the bold look of reclaimed wood with the
reliability of Thermory. The look you want, the stability you
need - break the mold with Drift.
REQUEST YOUR SAMPLE KIT AT THERMORYUSA.COM/DRIFT-AR.

VISIT US AT THE AIA CONFERENCE ON ARCHITECTURE 2019 – BOOTH #4213

210 FLOORING: AFFECTING THE ENVIRONMENT FROM THE GROUND UP EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT

Photos courtesy of USG

carbon footprint, some new SLU products have and processing it for manufacturing. Using FGD
been developed that achieve much more favorable gypsum as a raw material in the self-leveling un-
CONTINUING EDUCATION

sustainability attributes. derlayment product eliminates the need to mine

SLU Overview
SLU products are generally an aqueous mixture
of hydraulic cements (i.e., cured with water),
fillers, polymeric binders, and additives. The
type and amount of cements, chemical additives,
as well as the amount of water in the binder are
used to control the key properties, such as flow,
setting behavior, and compressive strength. The
dry product is mixed with water and applied to a
subfloor to achieve a smooth surface that is either
suitable for use as is or as a substrate for other
flooring materials. SLU products are used in both
interior and exterior applications and are avail-
able both in un-sanded (i.e., sand is added as a
filler at the jobsite) and sanded (i.e., no additional
sand is required at the jobsite) formulations.
There are a range of SLU products that come with
a wide variety of performance attributes to suit
different jobsite requirements, such as compres-
sive strength, self-healing behavior, working time,
setting time, crack resistance, the need for a wear
surface, the presence of feathered edges, tolerance
for high humidity and moisture, freeze-thaw and
salt resistance, etc.
Achieving Sustainability
Traditional SLU products consist of a combina-
tion of portland cement and calcium aluminate
cement (CAC) as binders, sand and limestone
as fillers, and various additives. The sustain-
ability issue with portland cement and calcium
aluminate cement is that they are produced using
energy-intensive processes. As such, they have a
relatively high global warming potential (GWP)
value, which is basically a function of two factors:
formulation (i.e., inherently high GWP values for
cement binders) and transportation (i.e., heavy
weight). An understanding of the contributions
of each of these factors allows for selecting a self-
leveling underlayment that has a reduced GWP.
The following table illustrates the GWP
impacts of these two cements compared to other
options. Note that the values used in the graph
represent approximate cradle-to-gate GWP im-
pacts. They are for illustrative purposes only and
will vary depending on the LCA process followed.
Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) stucco refers to
Installing a self-leveling underlayment (SLU)
helps assure the long-term durability and
performance of the finish flooring. Selecting
an SLU that has sustainable qualities helps with
overall quality of the building.
impact of transporting sand across the country
by truck and instead uses locally derived sand.
This relatively simple difference can result in
a potential GWP savings of approximately 20
percent with no change in the final properties of
the installed product.1
A second means of lowering the GWP impact
is to utilize products produced with FGD gypsum
rather than with natural mined gypsum. FGD
gypsum is derived from flue gas desulfurization
during electricity generation from coal. Since it
is a waste product, it is treated as having no GWP
contribution other than that required to trans-
port it from the power plant to the manufacturer
an equivalent weight of gypsum from the ground.
Finally, at least one manufacturer uses an
innovative, alternate cement formulation instead
of traditional portland cement. This alternative is
geopolymer cements, which are based on the re-
action between fly ash, a waste product of burn-
ing coal for electricity generation, and chemical
activators. As a waste product, fly ash does not
contribute to the GWP of the flooring product.
While this basic chemistry has been around since
the 1970s, it is now being used in place of port-
land cement in self-leveling underlayment prod-
ucts. Using a geopolymer cement-based product
compared to a portland cement-based product
can reduce the overall GWP for a self-leveling
underlayment by as much as 70 percent.2
The demand for SLUs with lower GWP and
product-specific EPDs is being increasingly fueled
by voluntary programs such as LEED v4.1 and
others. Mandatory programs such as California’s
law AB 262 known as the Buy Clean California
Act requires state agencies to consider the embed-
ded carbon emissions of industrial products.3
Preferential treatment is given to products that
demonstrate reduced GWP values compared to a
standard industry GWP value. Similar legislation
is being pursued elsewhere and it is expected that
this trend toward lower GWP products will con-
tinue, with additional building products added to
the list of those targeted for a reduction in GWP.
Image courtesy of USG

FGD gypsum that has been calcined so that it has

setting properties.
The key to minimizing the GWP impact of
any self-leveling underlayment product is to first
inspect the EPD, which should be readily avail-
able from the manufacturers. When scrutinizing
EPD documents for comparisons, be sure that The GWP value for each of the materials shown above represents the amount of greenhouse
gas (i.e., kilogram CO2-eq.) emitted during the cradle-to-gate production of 1 kilogram of that
the results are based on the same functional unit.
SLU ingredient. Using an FGD gypsum-based SLU instead of a traditional SLU that utilizes CAC
Also recognize that one way of lessening impact saves the equivalent of approximately 52 gallons of gas per ton (907 kilograms) of SLU. A value
on GWP is to use an un-sanded SLU product of 10 kilogram CO2-eq. is roughly equivalent to using 1 gallon of gasoline or driving 25 miles by
versus a pre-sanded one since this removes the passenger car.4
 ®

Gray Wolf

Black Lava

Toasted Bagel

Lonstran d Topseal
co n n ecti ng with natu r e

Olive Branch

Oi led teak Span ish ch estnut Colom bian Roast Wi nter Trai l

STRENGTH • PERFORMANCE • TRUST

LONSEAL.COM
212 FLOORING: AFFECTING THE ENVIRONMENT FROM THE GROUND UP
MORE SUSTAINABLE
RESILIENT FLOORING
CONTINUING EDUCATION
A very popular commercial flooring type is
resilient floor coverings, which include sheet
vinyl, vinyl tile, rubber, polymeric, and lino-
leum products. Architects and interior designers
recognize resilient vinyl flooring in particular as
a durable material for high-traffic areas or areas
that need to be kept meticulously clean, such as
health-care settings. Resilient vinyl flooring has
become more favorable over the years in com-
mercial spaces and is being specified in more
settings due to updated design and material
modifications for quality, high-performance,
and more sustainable products. Some of the
features that lead architects and interior design-
ers to vinyl flooring are its ability to “bounce
back” from the weight of objects compressing its
surface; it is also better acoustically and more
comfortable underfoot than some options. In
addition, the durability, ease of maintenance,
and moisture resistance contributes to its
increased demand, particularly by building
owners and managers.
Sustainability Standards
The Resilient Flooring Covering Institute
(RFCI) is the not-for-profit trade association
that has been at the forefront of helping manu-
facturers identify and advance the sustainability
of resilient flooring products. In 2007, RFCI
introduced a draft standard for trial use that
addresses sustainable resilient flooring prod-
ucts in conjunction with NSF International,
a not-for-profit, nongovernmental organiza-
tion focused on public health and safety. The
draft standard, known as American National
Standard for Trial Use – NSF 332 – Sustain-
ability Assessment Standard for Resilient Floor
Coverings, is designed to help manufacturers of
sustainable resilient flooring products demon-
strate their commitment to the principles of
sustainability.
RFCI, in conjunction with resilient flooring
manufacturers, has also facilitated third-party-
certified EPDs for resilient flooring. The EPDs
report the industry average data for five product
types based on LCAs following the flooring
industry’s product category rules (PCR). Using
all of this as a basis, RFCI has also developed
its own FloorScore IAQ Certification program
related to indoor air quality, particularly the
emission level of specific volatile organic com-
pounds (VOCs). For a resilient flooring product
to receive FloorScore IAQ Certification, it must
be independently certified by SCS, an inter-
nationally recognized third-party evaluation,
testing, and certification organization. Certi-
fied products comply with the VOC emissions
testing criteria of the California Specification
01350: California Standard Method for the
Testing and Evaluation of Volatile Organic
Chemical Emissions from Indoor Sources Using
Environmental Chambers, Version 1.2. Under
this method, SCS 1) reviews all VOC emissions
test reports for particular products generated by
independent testing laboratories; 2) determines
whether those test results meet the California
Specification 01350 requirements for listed
VOCs; and 3) conducts periodic manufacturing
plant inspections to review product formulas,
processing, and quality control to ensure the
continuing integrity of the FloorScore seal.
Selection Considerations
When selecting or specifying resilient floor
coverings, there are a number of considerations
and information to look for when comparing
different products.
• First, look at the overall quality of the
products being considered and make sure it
addresses the needs of the building project.
Recognize that all vinyl flooring is not made
the same. There are economically priced
products that consist of a basic and mini-
mum formulation to be considered resilient
but will typically wear out within five years,
thus needing replacement. Conversely, high-
quality vinyl products are formulated to last
up to 10–20 years, thus providing a longer
service life, more durability, and much less
frequent need for replacement.
• Next, see if the potential flooring products
can contribute to LEEDv4/4.1 and have an
EPD for review. Some manufactures use
the Environmental Product Declarations
Option 1, which means they have a quali-
fied industry-wide EPD that is appropriate.
They may also use Sourcing of Raw Materi-
als Option 2, which is a U.S. Green Building
Council (USGBC) recognition of products
ranging from 10–20 percent pre-consumer
(post-industrial) recycled content. Products
that are manufactured in a facility that has
certifications from the International Orga-
nization for Standardization (ISO), includ-
ing ISO 9001: Quality Management Systems
and ISO 14001: Environmental Management
Systems, indicate a greater commitment to
sustainability on the part of the manufac-
turer and should be recognized in the EPD
review process.
• Look for traits that demonstrate the product
is low emitting for VOCs. Products that
can demonstrate contribution toward
LEEDv4/4.1 Low-Emitting Materials credits
and are FloorScore certified are the best ways
to determine this, and those products should
be given preference.
• Determine if there are any other traits that
set a product apart, such as features for
increased infection control through antimi-
crobial formulations—particularly relevant
in health-care and some educational settings.
EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT
Photo courtesy of Lonseal Flooring
Resilient sheet vinyl flooring provides a
smooth, continuous flooring surface without
the seams associated with vinyl tiles.
Similarly, look for adherence to specialty
rating programs, such as the Collaborative
for High-Performance Schools (CHPS) green
building rating program especially designed
for schools.
• Finally, safety is a feature that is relevant for
all commercial flooring products and the
products being considered should have slip
resistance testing available for review.
Overall, performance and appearance need
to go hand in hand when selecting resilient
flooring. Jorge Marquez, president of Lon-
seal, Inc., emphasizes this point, saying, “We
regularly hear the mistakes made when a floor is
simply selected for its looks, which is most often
based on cost and trendy style and overlooking
the importance of durability and performance.”
Too often, the results of a poor selection are that
the original choice needs to be removed and a
new flooring installed—a costly and not very
sustainable outcome.
Tile or Sheet Flooring?
Resilient vinyl flooring comes in two common
forms: continuous sheet flooring on rolls and
cut tiles of various sizes. A common issue with
the tiles is the number of seams between them
creating vulnerable edges where moisture can
penetrate, cause the tile adhesive to loosen, or
damage the subfloor. In that regard, sheet vinyl
flooring is favorable for commercial spaces
because it can usually be installed in just one
or two solid, unbroken pieces. Unlike vinyl
floor tile that comes with interlocking strips,
sheet vinyl flooring uses welded seams, making
it impermeable to water. This can be particu-
larly important in health-care projects or other
places where cleanliness, concerns about mold,
or similar indoor environmental quality issues
need to be addressed.
214 FLOORING: AFFECTING THE ENVIRONMENT FROM THE GROUND UP
Vinyl sheet flooring is also available with a
clear wear layer that acts as a stain-resistant sur-
CONTINUING EDUCATION
face barrier. A factory-applied urethane finish in
particular has been shown to protect the flooring
materials, reduce scuffing, and simplify routine
maintenance. Such finishes are typically applied
as a 30-micron wear layer that extends the life of
the flooring. Finishes like this are one reason that
maintenance cost differs between tile and sheet
vinyl flooring. Tile may often be less costly than
sheet initially, but vinyl tile most often requires
an application of additional finish and periodic
stripping. That introduces cleaners and chemicals
into the indoor environment, whereas sheet vinyl
flooring with a factory-applied finish can readily
be cleaned with environmentally safe cleaners.
Over time, the extensive maintenance required by
vinyl tile can cause its lifetime cost to far exceed
that of vinyl sheet flooring.
One of the other main reasons why archi-
tects choose sheet vinyl flooring is that it can be
printed to look like a vast number of different
materials, such as wood, stone, and cloth. Sheet
vinyl can be printed with lines to mimic the
look of wood planks and still benefit from a
minimal seam application. Of course, there are
many design and color options with both vinyl
tile and vinyl sheet; however, sheet forms do
not force a floor design that repeats smaller pat-
terns. Unlike vinyl tiles, sheet flooring allows for
the creation of very large designs or images, or a
print with a grid pattern to resemble individual
tiles if that is desired.
New products are being introduced in vinyl
sheet flooring all the time as well. Of note are
patterns and colors that are based on inspirations
from nature, or biophilic designs. Biophilia is part
of some green building programs because it ac-
knowledges our human tendency to desire a con-
nection with nature. Many visible building finish
products, such as flooring, have used the findings
of research scientists who have studied the con-
nections between biophilia and human behavioral
patterns. Done well, biophilic design can con-
tribute to restorative responses, such as reducing
stress, improving cognitive function/ creativity,
improving well-being, and healing. The designs
mimic things from nature, such as the bark of a
tree, alluding to a harmonious relationship with
the earth and offering a sense of healing and tran-
quility. It may also give a peaceful, harmonious
effect when connecting with other architectural
details, such as floor moldings. As such, biophilic
flooring designs can be subtle enough to provide
a smooth transition between rooms or interesting
enough to help emphasize a focal point.
Overall, top-of-the-line vinyl sheet flooring
products are viewed as part of a durable, increas-
ingly sustainable solution for all types and styles
of commercial interior design. High-impact
facilities, such as weight rooms and hot yoga stu-
dios, see the performance of this flooring in their
demanding environments. Retail and hospitality
spaces benefit from the products’ multipurpose
use for flooring and even fixtures. Educational
and childcare facilities are good candidates for
these products when they demonstrate the certifi-
cations for safety and indoor environmental
quality. Most other commercial flooring applica-
tions can consider this solution as well.
THERMALLY MODIFIED WOOD DECKING
Projects that incorporate outdoor spaces or
partly enclosed porches, terraces, etc. have some
specific needs for the flooring of those spaces.
Most notably, they need to be able to hold up
against outdoor conditions, not just usage, as
is the case with indoor flooring. In the interest
of finding a sustainable option for this outdoor
flooring, many architects turn to wood decking
of some type. Since wood is a renewable material
and has a favorable carbon footprint, it is a logi-
cal choice, as long as it is raised, harvested, and
managed sustainably.
Wood has been used on building exteriors
for centuries, but it typically requires ongoing
maintenance to keep it from rotting, warping, or
otherwise deteriorating. In recent years, archi-
tects have often turned to tropical wood because
of its natural rot resistance and strength. One of
the more popular such tropical woods is ipé from
South America, specifically because it exhibits
high-strength, long-term durability and rot resis-
tance due to its high density. The problem with
this choice is that it is being cited by international
environmental organizations as becoming non-
sustainable. This is due to over-harvesting and
nonsustainable forest management practices.
A New Option
In the quest for finding other sources of truly
sustainable, rot-resistant, durable wood, a new
option has emerged known as thermally modi-
fied wood. This is a process where a common
species of wood, such as white ash, scots pine,
or spruce, is treated with heat and steam in a
very precise, scientifically controlled manner.
When done properly, thermal modification of
Photo courtesy of Thermory USA (left); Photo courtesy of Thermory USA and JJW Architects/Brahl Fotografi (right)
Thermally modified wood is created from
common, sustainable wood species that are
treated with heat and steam in a very pre-
cise, scientifically controlled manner (above).
Thermally modified wood has been tested and
shown to be a durable, rot-resistant solution
that maintains the beauty and natural appear-
ance of the wood (right).
EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT
wood results in boards that are more durable,
more dimensionally stable and more rot resis-
tant than virtually any other wood product
available. Further, because the basic wood spe-
cies used are readily available, they can be spec-
ified based on requiring responsible sourcing,
sustainable harvesting, and minimizing carbon
footprint throughout the milling and delivery
processes. This can all be documented and
verified by recognized sustainability organiza-
tions, such as the Forest Stewardship Council
(FSC) or others. As such, thermally modified
wood is coming to be seen as a sustainable
alternative to ipé or other tropical woods since
it delivers the same or better performance traits
with demonstrated sustainability.
The process of thermally modifying wood
is focused on enhancing virtually every fiber of
the wood, from the surface all the way through
to the core. Nonetheless, the wood still retains
its natural beauty since the grain is preserved
and the coloration enhanced. While the surface
can be coated with a clear finish if desired, the
thermal modification is intended to allow the
wood to be exposed and weather naturally over
time without degrading. As such, it is delivered
in a natural light-brown color that is the result
of the heat process, not a stain. Over time, that
color lightens to a natural light grey—much the
same way that exposed cedar and teak natu-
rally age in color or metal develops a patina. All
the while, the integrity and the natural beauty
of the wood remains visible and intact.
Performance Test Results
From a performance standpoint, thermally
modified wood that is used for decking and
porch flooring has been tested to show some very
attractive traits. (Note that it is also used as exte-
rior cladding in some cases with similar results.)
First, in terms of durability, thermally modified
white ash has achieved a Class 1 durability rating
(25+ years), while thermally modified scots pine
is rated for 20+ years of rot resistance. More spe-
cifically, testing has been conducted with fungus
spores introduced to thermally modified ash
216 FLOORING: AFFECTING THE ENVIRONMENT FROM THE GROUND UP
samples with the intention of promoting fungal
growth over a period of time. These samples were
CONTINUING EDUCATION
contrasted with control samples to interpolate the
class of rot resistance based on European stan-
dards. The result was that a Class 1 rot resistance
was achieved in thermally modified ash, which
means that, on average, when used for decking or
cladding, it can be expected to last outdoors for at
least 25 years or more with minimal maintenance
or added oils.
Strength testing is important for all wood
products and is the basis for determining span
lengths, impact resistance, etc. In that vein, ther-
mally modified ash was evaluated by calculating
moisture content, weight, and density, and then
subjecting it to a bending device to determine
the tested strength of samples. Based on this,
the impact resistance was calculated to have no
significant change in surface hardness or strength
in comparison to standard kiln-dried ash. Hence,
its strength and surface are extremely suitable for
designs that call for a wood decking surface.
An equally significant trait of any wood used
outdoors is its propensity to soak in mois-
ture, causing internal stresses as it expands or
contracts accordingly. Hence, testing has been
done to determine the moisture content of
thermally modified wood compared to standard
kiln-dried woods in a set of specific conditions
related to temperature and relative humidity.
The resulting measured increase in the moisture
content of thermally modified ash was shown to
be significantly reduced compared to standard
kiln-dried woods.
Additional testing has been done that shows
that thermal modification reduces the formalde-
hyde content of the wood more so than standard
kiln-dried woods. Additionally, the rate of fire
spread and smoke production in thermally modi-
fied ash is such that it achieves a Class B rating
compared to kiln-dried red oak, which results in
a Class C rating. Finally, termite resistance has
been shown to be better in thermally modified
wood, particularly ash, compared to a control
species of southern pine.
Overall, thermally modified wood is proving
itself as a viable, sustainable decking and flooring
solution for outdoor spaces. It has the capacity
to contribute to LEED credits while remaining
versatile, appealing, and very workable. Santosh
A George, ASLA, MLA, and a senior landscape
designer in Irving, Texas, sums it up this way:
“We wanted to use a sustainable product that was
long lasting with minimal maintenance through
the year. Our research said modified wood was
the way to go.” It appears that more design pro-
fessionals are agreeing with him.
When specifying clear coating finishes for flooring, a matte finish can be selected, as shown here,
or a high-gloss finish can be chosen.
FLOORING PROTECTION
An overriding component to sustainability in
buildings is to extend the useful service life of
products and materials as long as possible. Those
that need to be replaced often obviously have a
larger carbon footprint than the same product
that is able to last longer in place. Similarly, prod-
ucts like flooring that require regular cleaning
and maintenance can either require a fair bit of
energy and cleaning products to keep the floor
clean or properties can be incorporated to reduce
maintenance. Toward that end, many facilities
owners are quite pleased when something can be
done to increase longevity, reduce slip and fall
risk, and improve cleanliness and appearance, all
while reducing maintenance efforts and costs.
Clear Protective Coatings
Architects and interior designers can assist in
this process by specifying a clear, protective
sealer or coating over flooring to preserve, pro-
long, and protect the floor. This is particularly
true for designs that use hard-surface flooring,
such as tile, terrazzo, slate, decorative stone,
concrete, or even brick pavers. Such finish coat-
ings are based on clear siloxane formulations
that covalently bond with the floor surface to
produce a strong, thin, high-traction, wearing
finish. They commonly deliver excellent long-
term protection of the original flooring and
wear resistance against foot traffic, both inside
or outside. That means the flooring is protected
from corrosion, abrasive wear, stains, ultraviolet
exposure, and even graffiti or chemicals. In some
EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT
Photo courtesy of Adsil
cases, such coatings may also mitigate micrbial
growth, reducing the growth of mold and
mildew, and eliminating odors—all of which
makes for a healthier indoor environment.
Clear hard-surface finishes contribute
to sustainable designs in other ways beyond
extending the life of the flooring. A clear,
hard-coat surface finish also means reduced
maintenance and cleaning costs, particularly
if grout is present. Grout between tiles can be
problematic since it can absorb dirt and grime,
leading to a condition that can be very dif-
ficult to clean. The coating can cover and seal
the grout, preventing it from harboring dirt or
grime. It can also make it easier to clean since
the need for waxing and buffing the floor can
be eliminated. This not only generates a very
real reduction in the cost of cleaning but also
means that the building is consuming less
cleaning products, thus reducing its environ-
mental footprint during building operations.
When cleaners are used, they can readily be
selected from very effective green cleaning
products instead of relying on harsher chemi-
cal cleaners that may be detrimental to the
interior and exterior environment.
Continues at ce.architecturalrecord.com
Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP, is a
nationally known architect, consultant, continuing
education presenter, and prolific author advancing
building performance through better design.
www.pjaarch.com, www.linkedin.com/in/pjaarch
®
 ADVERTISEMENT 217

PRODUCT REVIEW
Flooring: Affecting the Environment from the Ground Up

Adsil¨ Lonseal Flooring

Photo courtesy of Lonseal, Inc.

Photo courtesy of Adsil¨

MicroGuard® Patented Hard Surface Coatings Lonstrand Topseal

Specify MicroGuard® to preserve, prolong, and protect your hard work Lonstrand Topseal mimics a tree bark, giving a harmonious
and your hard surfaces. Our patented products are among the most du- relationship with the earth and offering a sense of healing and
rable protective coatings available. Proven to extend property life, deliver tranquility. Lonstrand is subtle enough to provide a smooth transi-
high traction, and mitigate microbial growth—all with no maintenance— tion between rooms yet interesting enough to help emphasize a focal
giving you sustainable results with a verifiable ROI. point. Lonstrand is phthalate free and features Lonseal’s exclusive
Topseal formulation.

www.adsil.com
www.lonseal.com

Thermory USA USG

Courtesy of Thermory USA

Photo courtesy of USG

USG DurockTM
Brand EcoCapTM HT
Self-Leveling Topping
USG Durock™ Brand EcoCap™
HT Self-Leveling Topping utilizes
geopolymer cement technology to
provide an eco-friendly leveling
solution for interior and exterior
applications. This extremely low-
carbon-footprint topping is highly
tolerant to moisture, pH, freeze-
Benchmark White Ash Decking thaw cycles, and deicing salts and
can receive floor coverings in as
Benchmark White Ash Decking was designed, thermally modified, little as 4 hours.
and milled with the ideal outdoor experience in mind. Naturally
beautiful with a high level of dimensional stability and more than 25
years of rot resistance, it’s the perfect mix of art and science, making
it the ultimate hardwood decking solution.

www.usgperformanceflooring.com
www.thermoryusa.com
218 EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT
By creating large platforms over rail yards,
urban locales are now tapping into new
CONTINUING EDUCATION
spaces for building, as pictured here at
Manhattan’s Hudson Yards.
Gaining Urban Space: Steel
Platforms Over Rail Yards
Land-strapped cities are starting to erect massive steel
overbuilds on top of rail yards to spur much-needed
urban development
Sponsored by The Steel Institute of New York
A
s urban populations continue to surge,
space-starved cities are seeking creative
solutions to continue developing
the commercial, institutional, and residential
buildings vital to these metropolitan centers.
To meet this growing need, technological ad-
vancements and economic feasibility are merging
to support the amazing notion of constructing
huge platforms over cities’ rail yards and trans-
portation corridors. These several-acre platforms
can then anchor new development in city centers.
A number of cities are already capitalizing
on these ideally located air spaces—on the
heels of New York’s Hudson Yards develop-
ment, Philadelphia’s Schuykill Yards, Paris’
Rive Gauche, and several more sites have
serious proposals and feasibility studies in
the works.
“While developing platforms and in-
frastructure over active rail yards requires
significant engineering and investment, it is
a way to develop land in dense urban areas,”
explains Eli Gottlieb, managing principal,
Thornton Tomasetti, New York. “This can
have multiple advantages, knitting back
urban fabric that is currently cut by the
Photo courtesy of Hudson Yards New York/Related Oxford
CONTINUING EDUCATION
1 AIA LU/HSW
Learning Objectives
After reading this article, you should be able to:
1. List the factors driving urban interest
in developing new real estate on top
of platforms covering rail yards and
transportation corridors.
2. Identify the numerous reasons that make
structural steel the material of choice for
building these platforms.
3. Gather design and installation details about
the columns, girders, trusses, and mega-
transfer trusses that support the platforms.
4. Review various details surrounding New
York’s current Hudson Yards project and the
Sunnyside Yard Feasibility Study.
5. Discuss the complexities and high level
of coordination required by these unique
projects.
To receive AIA credit, you are required to
read the entire article and pass the test. Go to
ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text
and to take the test for free.
AIA COURSE #K1906C

transit infrastructure as well as capturing
large footprints that may not be available on
other sites.”
In a similar vein, Juan Estevez, vice president,
AECOM Tishman, New York, says, “A great ad-
vantage of developing these large areas that have
sat silently in what are now densely populated,
prime locations is that it allows designers to create
a space that is boundless from the usual urban
constraints; to create a new city within a city.”
Consider New York City, for example. Ac-
cording to Chris Jones, senior vice president and
chief planner for New York’s Regional Plan As-
sociation, urban revival has greatly increased the
value of well-positioned property—particularly
near transit hubs and where rail yards tend to be
located—that can be converted to high-density,
mixed-use development. “This mismatch of
supply and demand is making it profitable to
develop even costly and complicated projects.”
While New York’s rail yards were originally
built at the city’s edges, there is now a large
population living around the tracks, as is the
case in many urban areas. As a result, real
estate values are high enough to justify the ex-
pense of decking over, explains Jack Robbins,
AIA, LEED AP, partner, director of urban
design, FXCollaborative, New York.
With extremely limited undeveloped site
locations, these railroad yards represent large
parcels of untapped land.
Photo courtesy of Hudson Yards New York/George Butler
This aerial shot of Hudson Yards shows the massive platforms being constructed on top of
Manhattan’s active rail yards.
The Steel Institute of New York is a not-for-profit association created to advance the interests of the steel construction
industry. The institute sponsors programs to help architects, engineers, developers, and construction managers in the New
York building community develop engineering solutions using structural steel construction. www.siny.org
STEEL ANCHORS PLATFORMS
To technologically enable these mega plat-
forms, experts name structural steel as the
material of choice due to its relatively light-
weight, high-strength, large-spanning abilities
and availability.
“The driving force for material selection for
building around active tracks is to maximize the
load capacity of the structure while minimizing
disruption to the railroad,” explains Estevez.
“Steel is certainly a stronger material and has the
advantage of reducing the area taken up between
tracks to support high-rise buildings above. Steel
further has the advantage of the pieces being
customizable offsite for a perfect fit that can be
set quickly and minimize disruptions.”
A prime example is Hudson Yards, which
will ultimately house more than 17 million
square feet of commercial and residential space,
a public school, and a luxury hotel on top of 30
active Long Island Rail Road train tracks, three
Amtrak subsurface rail tunnels, and fourth
Gateway tunnel. Here, steel columns were the
only solution to meet the hefty column loads—
as high as 51,000 kips service—that had to come
down between the tracks with only 24 inches of
width for clearance.
“By using 65 ksi steel plates laminated to
form the full columns, the loads could be ef-
ficiently carried in the limited dimensions,”
Gottlieb says. Furthermore, “spans range from
EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT 219
35 feet up to 155 feet with the large variety in
spans and the grids that shift to the curve of the
CONTINUING EDUCATION
tracks and switches. Steel was a key material to
provide this flexibility.”
While the concept of decking over has been
around for a long time, technology is now mak-
ing it a reality. For the Hudson Yards project,
laminated steel columns were fabricated from
layers of high-strength steel made from special
steel plates manufactured in Europe.
And advances in construction technique
(e.g., use of heavy crane equipment, special
gantries, etc.) make erection of heavy and long
structural members both possible and economi-
cal on the project, according to Yefim A. Gurev-
ich, senior vice president, building structures,
WSP, New York.
High-strength steels, such as A913 and A992
65 ksi material, were used for the columns
and beams at Hudson Yards. This enabled a
significant reduction in material use and more
critically, a reduction in the pick weights for the
cranes that allowed the project team to fabricate
and set larger elements at larger reaches. “This
maximized the ability to cover the yard quickly
by reducing crane picks and reducing pick com-
plexity,” Gottlieb says.
Robbins points out that today’s structural
modeling programs make these designs much
more efficient, particularly when dealing with ir-
regular column grids and/or modeling with a time
dimension, whether it’s looking at train traffic,
pedestrian movement, or vehicular traffic.
Similarly, advanced BIM tools support a
greater level of detail and coordination. “This
also allows for tighter designs fitting all the
required parts together as well as faster con-
struction, as everyone knows how every piece
will fit together from structure to MEP to final
architectural elements,” Gottlieb says.
Meanwhile, Estevez praises BIM for its abil-
ity to clearly show how every trade and system
interacts with the one another. “For New York
City, our greatest cost is in field labor, so every-
thing we can do to make that work on-site as
safe and efficient as possible is a savings to the
project,” he says.
Furthermore, with platform projects,
decreasing or eliminating disruptions to the
railroad is of utmost importance. “Preplanning
and microplanning of activities associated
with rail outage times in BIM provides crystal
clarity to all parties and greatly decreases risk,”
he adds.
Continues at ce.architecturalrecord.com
220 EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT
CONTINUING EDUCATION
Climate change
due to increasing
levels of carbon
dioxide in the air
is not just about
the impact on
the health of the
planet. There
are real effects
on human health
too.
Climate, Carbon, and Human Health
Buildings can shift from being part of the problem to part of the solution
Sponsored by Interface | By Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP
T
ypically when we think about global
climate change, we don’t think about its
impact on our human health. Rather,
we may associate it with severe weather-related
events, changes in plant and animal life, and
other things that we perceive as separate from
our bodies. However, whether we recognize it
or not, the health of all people is being impacted
by global climate change. In a November 2018
report published by The Lancet medical journal,
scientists and health experts said rising heat
and wilder weather linked to climate change
make it “the biggest global health threat of the
21st century.” They cite climate change impacts,
including heatwaves, storms, floods, and fires,
that are threatening to overwhelm health
systems. This is evidenced by their observation
that hundreds of millions of people have already
been suffering health impacts from climate
change effects over the past two decades.
The recognized solution to this issue is to
go directly to the source, namely, reduce the
amount of carbon dioxide and other air-pol-
luting greenhouse gases (GHG) that are being
released into the atmosphere. Over the past
150 years or so, there has been an observable
increase in these GHGs that has been tracked,
recorded, and linked directly to changes in
climate and temperatures. While transporta-
tion (i.e., cars, planes, etc.) and industry (i.e.,
coal-fired plants) are often pointed to as the
problem, they aren’t the only ones. In fact,
numerous sources, including the not-for-profit
organization Architecture 2030, point to build-
ings as the source of approximately 40 percent
of the annual GHG emissions globally. This is
measured, in almost equal parts, in both the
operations and construction of buildings. The
operational carbon emissions come primarily
from buildings relying on fossil-fuel-based
energy sources to power the day-to-day
functioning of these buildings, such as heating,
cooling, and electric lighting. The construction-
related emissions reflect the energy from fossil
fuels that was required to produce the products
and materials that go into buildings. Hence the
term embodied carbon dioxide refers to the
carbon dioxide emitted during the manufac-
ture, transport, and construction of building
materials, together with end-of-life emissions
from disposal. This includes emissions from the
raw materials used to create a building mate-
rial, from the freight to transport a building
material, and from the energy used in final
manufacturing of a building product.
While some efforts, such as green building
programs, have helped architects account for
and reduce the environmental impact of the
buildings that they design, there is an immedi-
ate need to do more in order to protect public
health, safety, and welfare. In that regard,
this course looks at climate change in light of
CONTINUING EDUCATION
1 AIA LU/HSW
1 GBCI CE HOUR
Learning Objectives
After reading this article, you should be able to:
1. Identify and recognize the direct
relationship between climate change and
human health.
2. Assess the impact that green building
rating systems such as LEED are having on
the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions into the environment.
3. Investigate the organizations and tools
available to assist design and construction
professionals in determining the carbon
footprint of a building.
4. Explore examples of different building and
product types that can be designed and
specified to work toward carbon-neutral or
carbon-negative (storing) buildings.
To receive AIA credit, you are required to
read the entire article and pass the test. Go to
ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text
and to take the test for free.
AIA COURSE #K1906D
GBCI COURSE #0920019188
 EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT 221

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

some of the specific public health concerns,
solution approaches, new tools, and application

CONTINUING EDUCATION
strategies. It will also provide some examples of
products and building projects that are helping
design professionals create carbon-neutral or
even carbon-negative results by reducing and
potentially sequestering carbon dioxide.

THE PROBLEM: CLIMATE CHANGE IS A

PUBLIC HEALTH CONCERN
While climate change and its impacts are a world-
wide issue, the United States government has been
engaged in monitoring, assessing, and advising
on the topic for many years. In particular, the
U.S Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
tion (CDC) have teamed up with the American
Public Health Administration (APHA) to look
specifically at health questions related to climate
change. Together, they have concluded, “Climate
change poses many risks to human health. Some
health impacts of climate change are already being
felt in the United States.”1
These U.S. government agencies acknowl-
edge what scientists around the world have
pointed out: “When we burn fossil fuels such as
coal and gas, we release carbon dioxide, which
builds up in the atmosphere and causes earth’s
temperature to rise, much like a blanket traps
in heat. This extra trapped heat disrupts many
of the interconnected systems in our environ-
ment.” Specifically, they have recognized
four phenomena resulting from the burning
of fossil fuels: 1) increased levels of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere; 2) rising air and
The biggest direct impact on human health
from emissions into the atmosphere is that the
air is less healthy to breathe.
Climate change impacts a wide range of health outcomes. This image from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) illustrates the most significant climate change impacts
(rising temperatures, more extreme weather, rising sea levels, and increasing carbon dioxide
levels), their effect on exposures, and the subsequent health outcomes that can result from these
changes in exposures.
water temperatures; 3) more extreme weather increase in allergens and harmful air pollut-
events around the country; and 4) rising sea ants, exposure to which causes health problems
levels. Further, they have begun to observe for many people. When sensitive individuals
that each of these phenomena not only impacts are simultaneously exposed to allergens and
the environments where people live but also air pollutants, allergic reactions often become
human health. more severe. People with existing pollen aller-
Excerpts of some of the environmental gies may have increased risk for acute respira-
and human health impacts that the CDC and tory effects.
APHA have identified and described include Similarly, more and larger wildfires linked
the following.2 to climate change could also significantly
reduce air quality and affect people’s health in a
Air Pollution variety of ways. Smoke exposure increases acute
The biggest direct human health impact from (or sudden-onset) respiratory illness, respira-
emissions into the atmosphere is that the air is tory and cardiovascular hospitalizations, and
less healthy to breathe. According to the National medical visits for lung illnesses. The frequency
Climate Assessment, climate change will affect of wildfires is expected to increase as drought
human health by increasing ground-level ozone conditions become more prevalent.
and/or particulate matter air pollution in some
locations. Ground-level ozone (a key compo-
nent of smog) is associated with many health Continues at ce.architecturalrecord.com
problems, including diminished lung function,
increased hospital admissions and emergency Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP,
department visits for asthma, and increases in is a nationally known architect, consultant, continu-
premature deaths. ing education presenter, and prolific author advanc-
There are other less-direct impacts too. ing building performance through better design.
Higher air temperatures generally lead to an www.pjaarch.com, www.linkedin.com/in/pjaarch

Interface is a global commercial flooring company with an integrated collection of carpet tiles and resilient flooring, including
luxury vinyl tile (LVT) and nora® rubber flooring. Our modular system helps customers create beautiful interior spaces that
positively impact the people who use them and our planet. www.interface.com
222 EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT
CONTINUING EDUCATION
All images courtesy of Nova USA Wood Products LLC

Tropical hardwoods are increasingly popular for exterior applications due to their highly
attractive appearances, exceptional durability, and certifiable sustainability. Shown here is
batu hardwood creating a sign band facade area that is held in place with resilient rain-
screen clips and finished with polymerized tung oil in black walnut.

Technology and CONTINUING EDUCATION

Trends in Sustainable 1 AIA LU/HSW

Learning Objectives

Tropical Hardwoods After reading this article, you should be able to:
1. Identify the characteristics of sustainable
tropical hardwood options related
to appearance, durability, and other
New products for fastening and finishing systems ensure performance issues.
ease of installation, low maintenance, and beauty 2. Investigate the different tropical
hardwood options available from different
locations around the world.
Sponsored by Nova USA Wood Products LLC 3. Recognize the different sustainability
By Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP, and Stephen A. Getsiv certifications that are applicable to the
selection of tropical hardwood.

T
here is no substitute for the natural beauty
of newly installed tropical hardwood; but
keeping it looking great and achieving the
desired performance over time requires careful
attention to detail. Choosing the best hardwood
species and specifying the appropriate fastening
and finishing systems will ensure an aesthetically
pleasing, low-maintenance and successful design in
terms of installation, performance, and appearance.
Anyone with experience in working with
wood quickly discovers the diversity between
the individual species. Each one has unique
properties which determine the suitability for
different uses. There are many great choices
when it comes to selecting a species of wood
for decking, siding, trim, and finish work.
Hardwoods harvested from tropical locations
around the world have become a popular choice
4. Specify sustainable tropical hardwood,
including the means for installation and
finishing based on best practices.
To receive AIA credit, you are required to
read the entire article and pass the test. Go to
ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text
and to take the test for free.
AIA COURSE #K1906W

because they provide very desirable traits related
to appearance and natural durability, espe-
cially for exterior use on buildings. However,
architects looking to use tropical hardwoods in
buildings often receive conflicting and contra-
dictory information regarding characteristics,
sustainability, and even legality of different
tropical wood species. Once a suitable species is
determined, questions will certainly arise on the
best practices for installation and finishing.
Overall, this course will provide the key
information needed to specify the species, installa-
tion, and finishing of tropical hardwoods to get the
best results possible in conventional or green and
sustainable buildings. The course will introduce
the latest technologies in both fastening and
finishing systems, as well as present a wide variety
of product options available in common species of
tropical hardwoods. Lastly, the course will review
some of the international programs that are used
to successfully determine sustainability.
NATURAL BEAUTY AND DURABILITY:
THE AMAZING DIVERSITY OF
TROPICAL HARDWOODS
Naturally durable tropical hardwoods have
exceptional strength, hardness, and beauty.
There is no comparison in terms of performance
and quality of wood fiber. Producing long
length and relatively defect-free lumber, tropical
hardwood trees grow tall and straight in the
most lush and verdant climates on the planet.
Imported primarily from South America and
Naturally durable tropical hardwood is an ideal choice for decks and outdoor living spaces
because of its strength and ability to hold up against the weather. (Supplier: POCO Building
Supplies, Contractor: Houston Landscapes)
Nova is a direct importer of premium-quality hardwood products with distribution throughout North America. Specializing in flooring, deck-
ing, siding, rough lumber, and industrial products, Nova thrives on creating real wood solutions that include the finest in architectural-grade
wood products, innovative fastening systems for siding and decking, and ExoShield premium exterior wood stain. www.novausawood.com
Stunningly beautiful and incredibly hard, gua-
juvira is also known as Brazilian hickory. This
species of tropical hardwood is typically used
for interior flooring.
Southeastern Asia, these naturally durable tropi-
cal hardwoods have grown in popularity over
the past few decades.
The tropical hardwood market today
includes a wide variety of incredible woods.
Ipe may be the most well-known, but there are
plenty of other sound choices when it comes
to rot-resistant, durable tropical hardwoods.
From South America, cumaru, garapa, mas-
saranduba, tigerwood, and even purpleheart
have been used in exterior applications. From
Southeast Asia, merbau, yellow balau, and red
balau, or batu, are all rot-resistant choices. In
fact, our tropical rain forests have hundreds
of commercially marketable species that are
uniquely beautiful as well as naturally durable.
EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT 223
All of these woods can be used successfully in
exterior applications. The key is to understand
CONTINUING EDUCATION
the potential issues and design accordingly.
Tropical hardwoods first started showing up
on outdoor decks, where they provided a signifi-
cant upgrade in appearance and longevity when
compared to other wood species and composites,
including softwood materials that were finished or
treated with preservatives. These hardwoods soon
caught on for use as exterior siding and rainscreen
cladding. Additionally, these durable hardwoods
started to be used for wood trim, soffits, and
exterior wall panels instead of other more costly
materials. Tropical hardwoods are also being
fabricated into outdoor furniture and structural
timber framing due to their pleasant appearance,
durability, and longevity in outdoor environments.
Tropical hardwoods have similarly been used
for many years as interior flooring. It makes
perfect sense that some of the most beautiful and
hardest woods in the world are sought-after for
interior flooring.
CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS IN DESIGNING
WITH TROPICAL HARDWOODS
Successful designs with tropical hardwoods
require paying close attention to the installa-
tion and finishing details as well as a complete
understanding of the particular species of
hardwoods that are specified in the project.
The most common mode of failure is not
designing to accommodate the natural expan-
sion and contraction of wood due to moisture
exposure and varying humidity levels. This
situation is easily avoidable by specifying the
proper fastening system, ventilation, and even
finishing—which helps prevent moisture from
penetrating the wood unevenly.
The latest technology in hardwood instal-
lations is the use of resilient fastening systems.
Recognizing that in exterior conditions wood
will continue to shrink and swell with humidity
changes over the seasons, at least one company
has produced an attachment system that accom-
modates this natural movement. These resilient
clip systems also help make installation faster
and easier.
Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP,
is the author of more than 200 architectural con-
tinuing education articles. www.pjaarch.com
Stephen A. Getsiv is president of Nova Products
Inc. and managing partner of Nova USA Wood
Products LLC. www.novausawood.com
224 EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT
CONTINUING EDUCATION
Balancing Health and Performance
Benefits through Natural Lighting
Understanding how to specify glazing systems
that balance access to natural light with thermal
performance and building code requirements
Sponsored by Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope® | By Juliet Grable
A
ccess to natural light is critically
important to human health and perfor-
mance; it has been shown to benefit
many building occupants, including employees,
students, and patients in health-care settings.
By using creative design to maximize access to
natural light, architects, designers, and engi-
neers play key roles in impacting the long-term
well-being of building occupants.
Using glass in buildings, whether as part of a
new project or a remodel, is an effective way to
bring natural light into a space. In addition, glass
can reduce energy consumption by reducing the
need for artificial lighting and, in some cases,
cooling required to offset the heat generated
by artificial light. Creative solutions utilizing
systems such as window walls and curtain walls,
interior glass partitions and walls, skylights, and
light shelves can help maximize these benefits.
Proper design, planning, and application can
ensure effective and successful use of glass in
buildings to maximize light while offsetting
thermal heat gain, and ensuring occupant safety
and code compliance.
HEALTH BENEFITS OF NATURAL LIGHT
Window walls, curtain walls, skylights, and interior
glass partitions can all be used to bring natural light
into buildings. In addition, ample glass and glazing
can provide more building occupants with views
of nature and, in some cases, access to fresh air. All
of these— natural light, views of nature, and fresh
air—are elements of biophilic design. Biophilia
refers to the innate human affinity to the natural
world, and biophilic design refers to those elements
that connect people to nature, whether a window
with a view of nature or a dynamic fountain with
trickling water. Increasingly, design professionals
are recognizing the benefits of biophilic design and
incorporating these elements into their projects.
The Claire T. Carney Library redesign
project in Boston leverages curtain
wall with architectural and structural
glass to illuminate the once dimly lit
campus library and transform it into a
sustainable benchmark that now acts as
the campus “living room.”
All photos courtesy of Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope ®
CONTINUING EDUCATION
1 AIA LU/HSW
Learning Objectives
After reading this article, you should be able to:
1. Discuss how access to natural light impacts
human physiology, health, and well-being.
2. Describe the properties of heat-treated,
laminated, and insulating glass, and
provide examples of appropriate
applications for each.
3. Explain how to use U-factors, solar heat gain
coefficient (SHGC), and visual transmittance
(VT) to specify the right glazing system for
an application.
4. Understand how glazing design can be
used to manage building energy use while
controlling unwanted glare.
5. Identify several glazing systems that
bring natural light into a building and
their advantages over other solutions.
To receive AIA credit, you are required to
read the entire article and pass the test. Go to
ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text
and to take the test for free.
AIA COURSE #K1906V

How Light Interacts with the Human Body
Light enables us to perform visual tasks, but it
also affects mood, controls the body’s circadian
system, and catalyzes critical chemical reactions
in the body, such as the production of vitamin D.
Access to natural light helps regulate the
human body’s natural circadian rhythm, which
supports metabolic processes and leads to more
restful sleep. Through the hormone melato-
nin, the circadian system regulates cycles of
wakefulness and sleepiness. The natural human
circadian cycle is close to 24 hours; in fact,
“circadian” means “about a day.” When people
are deprived of exposure to natural cycles of
darkness and light, the production of melatonin
is disrupted, as are the cycles of alertness and
sleepiness, potentially leading to sleep distur-
bances. It is especially important to access suf-
ficient daylight in the morning to synchronize
the body’s “clock” to the earth’s rotation.
Scientists are uncovering more and more links
between adequate sleep and almost every aspect of
health and well-being. Not only is adequate sleep
required to remain alert and perform well, but sleep
affects the body’s ability to fight off infections, can-
cer, and perhaps even Alzheimer’s disease.
High melatonin levels cause drowsiness, while
low levels correlate to a state of alertness. In a nor-
mal, healthy person, daylight or artificial light ac-
tivates the pineal gland and suppresses melatonin.
When daylight or artificial light is inadequate, the
natural suppression of melatonin doesn’t happen;
as a result, the person feels tired and depressed.1
According to researchers, the body responds
more strongly to daylight as a cue than to artificial
lighting. Daylight includes the full spectrum
of wavelengths; by contrast, artificial lighting
includes a limited part of the visible light spectrum
and typically does not include shorter wavelengths.
These shorter wavelengths may be important in
regulating the circadian cycles. Full-spectrum light
may also provide more efficient lighting for vision,
potentially reducing eyestrain.2
The positive impacts of daylighting on build-
ing occupants have been documented and quan-
tified in nearly every building occupancy type.
Retail Sales
Imagine shopping in a lofty, light-filled atrium
compared to a dingy, low-ceilinged building
with fluorescent lighting. Which would you
choose? Not surprisingly, studies have shown
that daylighting can improve retail sales; what
may be surprising is the impact on profits.
In one study, retail giant Wal-Mart built a
prototype for a “green” store. Only half of the
store was lit using daylighting. However, sales
Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope®, a CRH company, is the leading North American supplier of value-added, glazing-focused
products and services specified to close in a structure; provide access, security, and safety to the structure; and finish out
the interior. This includes fabricated glass, architectural hardware, and architectural metal systems. www.obe.com
At the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware, a striking arbor-patterned
curtain wall helps bring ample natural light deep into patient rooms.
per square foot were significantly higher for
departments located in that half. Not only that,
but sales in daylit departments of this new store
were higher than sales in the same department
in other Wal-Mart stores without daylighting.
In a more extensive study, researchers ana-
lyzed 73 California chain stores over two years.
Of these, 49 were lit with artificial lighting.
These 49 stores were retrofitted with skylights
and subsequently saw their sales spike by 40
percent. The profits due to the skylight retrofit
far outweighed the energy savings.3
Terrapin Bright Green estimates that, in
general, skylights statistically increase sales by
$1.55 per square foot in grocery stores, clothing
outlets, and retail chains across the country. It’s
no wonder that successful retailers have “seen
the light” and embraced daylighting design.
Healing Benefits
Health-care settings present particular chal-
lenges: patients experiencing severe pain or men-
tal distress, staff who work long schedules that are
out of sync with the normal human cycles, and
an environment characterized by constant noise,
artificial light, and interruptions.
Daylight can affect patients through the
circadian system, helping reduce depression
and improve sleep patterns. Daylight may also
lessen agitation, ease the perception of pain, and
improve the general well-being of staff.
A seminal study conducted in 1984 by
evidence-based design researcher Roger Ulrich
found that patients recovering from surgery
recovered more quickly if their rooms included
views of green space compared to those whose
rooms faced out onto a wall.4
EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT 225
CONTINUING EDUCATION
In a more recent study, researchers found
that in-patients suffering from bipolar disorder
who had east-facing rooms spent an average
3.67 fewer days in the hospital compared with
similar patients who had west-facing rooms,
and a study of heart-attack patients showed
that female patients who were treated in sunny
rooms left a day earlier than patients in “dull”
rooms. In addition, mortality was higher
among patients staying in the dull rooms.5
Interestingly, exposure to daylight may re-
duce perceived pain. Patients who underwent
elective spinal surgeries recovered in either
the dim side or the bright side of the same
hospital unit. Those staying on the bright
side were exposed to an average of 46 percent
higher sunlight intensity than those on the
dim side. These patients reported less stress
and less pain; they also took 33 percent less
pain medication.5
The Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital
for Children in Delaware illustrates how
daylighting design can be used in a healthcare
setting to benefit patients, staff, and visitors.
The hospital offers patient rooms with large
windows and views of the outdoors, family so-
lariums for gathering, and an outdoor terrace
where patients can enjoy fresh air.
Continues at ce.architecturalrecord.com
Juliet Grable is an independent writer and editor
focused on building science, resilient design, and envi-
ronmental sustainability. She contributes to continuing
education courses and publications through Conflu-
ence Communications. www.confluencec.com
226 EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT
CONTINUING EDUCATION

Photo courtesy of Sprung Instant Structures, Inc.

This membrane manufacturer’s permanent
150,000-square-foot factory and offices
provide breathtaking views of the Rocky
Mountains in an energy-efficient, sustain-
able tensioned membrane aluminum sup-
ported structure.

Revolutionary, Permanent CONTINUING EDUCATION

Tensioned Membrane 1 AIA LU/HSW

1 GBCI CE HOUR

Aluminum Frame Learning Objectives

After reading this article, you should be able to:

Supported Structures
1. Describe the architect’s role in managing
the installation of rapidly constructed
tensioned membrane aluminum frame
supported structures.
2. List performance standards, including
Unique tensioned membrane aluminum frame supported improved daylight, acoustic, and fire-safety
structures are a permanent solution for architects seeking rapid, measures, engineered into these high-
performance buildings to enhance the
cost-effective construction, sustainability, and energy efficiency physical environment and provide emotional
and social well-being to occupants.
Sponsored by Sprung Instant Structures, Inc. | By Celeste Allen Novak, FAIA, LEED AP 3. Identify strict code-compliance regulations
for these buildings that benefit the physical
environment through increased energy

F
ast tracking, value engineering, sus-
tainability, and integrative design are
driving the delivery of most 21st century
buildings. These initiatives are supported and
encouraged by architects and owners racing
toward ever-tightening project-delivery sched-
ules, budgets, and energy-efficient mandates.
Design teams often confront owners with a
“devil’s bargain.” There is too often a trade-off
between two of three choices: cost, schedule or
quality. Design and technological advances in
tensioned membrane aluminum frame sup-
ported structures may provide an alternative
for owners and architects who want it all. From
TESLA to Harvard, offices to churches, hockey
rinks to homeless shelters, clients are choosing to
fast-forward into the 21st century with sustainable
buildings that deliver on cost, quality, and sched-
ule without sacrificing permanence and beauty.
A high-performance tensioned membrane
aluminum frame supported structure is
eco-friendly, and components exceed build-
ing codes and some of the most stringent green
rating system criteria. These structures provide
the same functionality of a traditional build-
ing type at a much lower cost and much faster
efficiency and recyclability.
4. Discuss project management and design
of these buildings from predesign to post-
occupant evaluations that allow for a wide
range of configurations, including multistory
interiors, various surface colors, and
massing alternatives.
To receive AIA credit, you are required to
read the entire article and pass the test. Go to
ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text
and to take the test for free.
AIA COURSE #K1906B
GBCI COURSE #0920019187

This membrane manufacturer’s permanent headquarters makes employees feel as though
they’re working in a large botanical conservatory with high-end atmospheric and environmental
controls. Translucent daylight panels allow for reflected light throughout the building without
the use of electricity.
construction time. They maximize the use of
natural daylighting and can be constructed to
obtain high acoustic ratings. To meet sus-
tainable goals, frames can be specified to be
constructed with recycled aluminum as well
as with formaldehyde-free insulation. The
tensioned membrane exterior, which is also
the interior surface of the building, provides
a high-performance insulated airtight barrier
for protection in any climate. The interior
membrane is the interior wall surface requir-
ing no additional drywall, plaster, painting, or
resurfacing, as it is part of a complete building
package. As with many new models for build-
ing financing, these buildings can be leased. In
fact, many manufacturing companies start by
leasing these structures to assist with cash flow
and end up purchasing them at a later date.
Many design professionals are not aware
of this new building type, particularly as a
permanent building system rather than a
temporary alternative. According to Sprung
Structures Vice President Jim Avery, “One
of the most common misconceptions is that
Sprung Instant Structures, Inc. located in Salt Lake City is a member of the Sprung Group of Companies in business since 1887. Our
durable, precision-engineered structures are the solution of choice for a broad range of industries needing a fast, reliable, and cost-
effective building solution. www.sprung.com
Photo courtesy of Sprung Instant Structures, Inc.
tensioned membrane aluminum frame sup-
ported structures are tents and only considered
as a temporary construction solution. Quality
starts with the intelligent design of these build-
ings. Considering the rapid construction time,
superior energy efficiency, long-term flexibil-
ity, and lower overall costs, tensioned mem-
brane aluminum frame supported structures
perform as well or better than other traditional
building types.”
The following guidelines and case studies
will provide more detail as to how to select
tensioned membrane aluminum frame sup-
ported structures as a permanent solution to
complex programming requirements. From
visioning and programming to post-occu-
pancy, design professionals are finding these
structures an unconventional solution for new
21st century problems.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
According to the American Institute of Archi-
tects (AIA), project management is vital for the
success of every project. As with any project the,
EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT 227
selection of a pre-engineered building such
as a tensioned membrane aluminum frame
CONTINUING EDUCATION
supported structure requires careful planning.
The architect articulates client goals, creates
a vision, and analyzes planning and code
requirements before developing construction
documents. Any successful project begins
by listening and developing strong commu-
nications between all members of the team.
A tensioned membrane aluminum frame
supported structure is engineered from the
baseplate forward, which means incorporating
the manufacturer as a key team player.
This building type is similar to that of a
modular construction system. According to
the AIA, “An increasing number of build-
ing projects across several markets are using
modular construction, the process by which
components of a building are prefabricated
off-site in a controlled setting and then
shipped to the project site and assembled.
This approach allows projects to capture the
efficiencies gained by integrating the pro-
cesses and technologies of design, manufac-
turing, and construction—without having
to compromise on aesthetic intent. Accord-
ing to research conducted by McGraw-Hill
Construction, when implemented effectively,
this approach has been shown to result in a
higher-quality building, delivered in a shorter
time frame, with more predictable costs and
fewer environmental impacts—for example,
through reduced material use and waste.”1
Aesthetically, design modifications can
include changes in shape, color, building
orientation, entry components, daylight
strategies, and interiors. All of these are
driven by the architect’s vision. Early discus-
sions with municipal planners will pave the
way for those communities unfamiliar with
the permanence of these structures. One of
the key differences in the project delivery of
these structures is how quickly they can be
assembled. The rapid construction of a revo-
lutionary manufacturing plant in 19 days is
a demonstration of how quickly a building
can be raised. Coordination of the building
envelope with machinery, equipment, and
even elaborate interiors is key to successful
project delivery.
Continues at ce.architecturalrecord.com
Celeste Allen Novak, FAIA, LEED AP, is a
Michigan architect, author, and advocate for
sustainability and universal design.
www.linkedin.com/in/celestenovak
228 EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT

All photos courtesy of Armstrong Ceiling and Wall Solutions

CONTINUING EDUCATION

Providing both quality design and acous-

tical performance is possible in many
different building interiors due to new
products and innovations that are now
commercially available.

New Acoustical Options CONTINUING EDUCATION

in Specialty and Seamless 1 AIA LU/HSW

Learning Objectives
After reading this article, you should be able to:
Ceiling Systems 1. Identify and recognize the basic principles
of acoustics as they relate to the design of
interior architectural spaces.
Designing for acoustics no longer means sacrificing aesthetics 2. Investigate the design potential and
innovative opportunities of different types
Sponsored by Armstrong Ceilings | By Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP of acoustical ceilings that also offer quality
design solutions.

M
any architects and specifiers mistaken-
ly believe that when choosing specialty
ceilings to achieve a particular design
vision, they must sacrifice good acoustical perfor-
mance for aesthetics or sustainability. In fact, that
is no longer the case since there are new products
that offer excellent acoustical performance as well
as extensive design options and sustainability.
This is welcome news since poor architectural
acoustics can be annoying or distracting such
that they can impede concentration, compre-
hension, confidentiality, healing, or learning.
By contrast, strong acoustical design can reduce
unwanted noise and create useful, inspiring, and
helpful interior spaces. This course will provide
an awareness of some current options available
to combine design excellence with good acoustics
while helping to create better, more effective, and
more sustainable building projects.
ACOUSTICS FUNDAMENTALS OVERVIEW
Acoustics is the scientific study of sound in all
its forms, and architectural acoustics is specifi-
cally related to the interactions of sound both
within and between architectural spaces. Profes-
sionals, specialists, and scientists have studied
3. Assess the acoustical performance of
different types of ceiling systems and their
applicability to different building type
settings.
4. Explore successful applications of the
principles and concepts presented through
the use of case study examples of building
projects.
To receive AIA credit, you are required to
read the entire article and pass the test. Go to
ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text
and to take the test for free.
AIA COURSE #K1096G
 EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT 229

sound in terms of its generation, transmission

through space and objects, and reception by

CONTINUING EDUCATION
ACOUSTICAL TERMS AND DEFINITIONS people. In all cases, sound radiates outward
• Sound absorption: The amount of sound energy absorbed from the source, of which there are many,
upon striking a particular surface. The more sound both inside and outside of buildings. Sound is
energy that is absorbed, the less that is reflected back as typically characterized by its loudness and fre-
reverberation or a possible echo. (See Images 1a and 1b.) quency content, such that loudness is measured
• Noise reduction coefficient (NRC): A measure for rating in decibels (dB) and frequency is measured in
the overall sound absorption of a material when used in an Hertz (Hz).
enclosed architectural space where sound is reflected at The sound as heard within a space will be a
many angles of incidence. An NRC of 0.00 indicates perfect combination of direct sound from the sources
reflection, while an NRC of 1.00 indicates perfect absorption. 1a and sound reflected off the various surfaces
Generally, a ceiling system with an NRC less than 0.50 is within the space. Highly reflective surfaces
considered low performance, and an NRC greater than will redirect sound without significant changes
0.70 is high performance. NRC is important in any space except for direction. In large, very ‘hard’ rooms,
where reverberation time and noise levels are an issue. It is those reflections can result in long delay times
measured according to ASTM C423 and is generally used
for arrival at the listener, causing echoes. On the
in the Americas; European countries may use the weighted
other hand, highly sound-absorptive surfaces
sound-absorption coefficient W. (See Image 2.)
will diminish the reflected sound waves and
• Sabin: A measure of total sound absorption provided by
reduce reverberation and echoes. Based on these
a unit absorber, such as a baffle, blade, cloud, or canopy,
1b different interactions between sound and spaces
when installed within an architectural space. Sabin per unit
(i.e., room size and shape and the acoustic treat-
is preferred to characterize the absorption provided by an
ments within or between spaces), people can
individual space absorber in open offices, retail spaces,
experience different levels of speech intelligibil-
exposed structure areas, or corridors/lobbies. Absorption
ity, speech privacy, or unwanted sound intru-
in Sabin is measured according to ASTM C423. The number
sion. Hence, good acoustical design for a given
of Sabin per unit is approximately equal to the total surface
space is a matter of finding the right combina-
area of the unit (in square feet) that is exposed to sound,
tion of sound absorption and sound attenuation
multiplied by the absorption coefficient of the material.
(blocking) using several well-developed tools to
(See Image 3.)
• Reverberation: The persistence of sound in an enclosed
balance the acoustic characteristics within that
2 space. (See sidebar.)
space representative of multiple reflections off hard surfaces,
which can give a feeling of spaciousness, warmth, and
While the science-based study of architectural
envelopment. Higher levels are generally good for music
acoustics has developed to a rather sophisticated
performance spaces, but not so good for speech intelligibility. level, the good news is that acoustical materials
The level of the reverberant sound within a room is and products have also advanced based on that
dependent on both the volume of the room and the amount science. Since the product manufacturers provide
of sound absorption within the room, such that small hard- all of the needed testing and report the results,
surfaced rooms sound louder than large well-treated rooms. architects, interior designers, and acoustical con-
• Reverberation time (RT): RT is the measure of the sultants can now make better informed, more ho-
persistence of sound within a room and is measured as the 3
listic decisions about many of the materials and
time in seconds for the sound level to decay by 60 dBs. Long products used within a space. This is particularly
reverberation can impair speech intelligibility since it creates true when it comes to ceilings, which are a sig-
garbled-sounding words and poor verbal communication. nificant surface in the acoustical characteristics
Instructional spaces, such as classrooms, are best with short of virtually all spaces. Selecting those materials
RTs—less than 0.6 second to ensure clarity and high speech based on the needs of different types of spaces
intelligibility. Auditoriums, theaters, and other musical spaces is also important and has similarly been studied
will typically benefit from longer RTs, typically greater than and investigated. A brief overview of some of
1.2 seconds. In schools, RT limitations are required according the more common architectural building types
to ANSI S12.60. where acoustics is a particular concern follows.
• Ceiling attenuation class (CAC): A measure for rating the 4
performance of a ceiling system as a barrier to airborne Continues at ce.architecturalrecord.com
sound transmission through a common plenum between adjacent closed spaces, such as offices. A
ceiling system with a CAC less than 25 is considered low performance, whereas one with a CAC of Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEEDAP, is a
35 or higher is high performance. CAC is important between closed spaces and from closed rooms nationally known architect, consultant, continuing
to adjacent spaces such as corridors and closed offices, conference rooms, health-care exam rooms, education presenter, and prolific author advancing
doctors’ offices, etc. CAC is measured according to ASTM E1414. (See Image 4.) building performance through better design.
www.pjaarch.com, www.linkedin.com/in/pjaarch

Armstrong World Industries is a global leader in the design and manufacture of innovative commercial ceiling, suspension, and wall
systems. For offices, health-care facilities, classrooms, airports, and hospitality settings, Armstrong offers interior solutions that help to
enhance comfort, reduce noise, improve building efficiency, and create effective and beautiful spaces. www.armstrongceilings.com
230 EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT
CONTINUING EDUCATION
Security glazing on an elementary school
in Pennsylvania provides added security
for occupants while allowing sunlight
to penetrate the building, creating a
positive environment for students.
Understanding How Glazing
Can Impact Safety and
Fire Protection
Specifying the right glass to protect schools, churches,
and public buildings
Sponsored by National Glass Association | By Jessica Jarrard
W
hen specifying glass, architects and
designers must consider many factors,
including safety, security, energy effi-
ciency, thermal protection, and daylighting. Over
the past 20 years, safety in schools has increas-
ingly become a concern due to the increase of gun
violence and active shooter situations in schools,
churches, government buildings, and public places.
These situations have caused an increase
in funding for new school buildings and
renovations on existing buildings which,
in turn, has driven demand for protective
glazing. Dodge Data and Analytics reports
that the education sector is expected to grow
3 percent in 2019, while the rest of nonresi-
dential construction will remain f lat. School
districts and officials are increasingly asking
architects to develop design solutions to bet-
ter protect students in the event of threats,
from fires to intruders or active shooters.
Photo courtesy of Global Security Glazing
CONTINUING EDUCATION
1 AIA LU/ELECTIVE
Learning Objectives
After reading this article, you should be able to:
1. Summarize the qualities of protective glazing
and how they pertain to occupant security.
2. Discuss the range of protective glazing
products and the corresponding levels of
protection that each can provide.
3. List factors to consider when specifying
security glazing and glazing systems
in schools, churches, government
buildings, and public spaces.
4. Understand how codes and standards help
specifiers choose the right products.
5. Review key fire-rated glass and glazing
requirements, considerations, and
market trends.
To receive AIA credit, you are required to
read the entire article and pass the test. Go to
ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text
and to take the test for free.
AIA COURSE #K1906H

This is what Rob Botman, general manager,
Glassopolis, calls the “second wave of school
security glazing” that is happening right now.
“The first wave was to increase security by
filling existing openings with thick, heavy
laminated glass assemblies. Unfortunately, the
cost of these glazing solutions can be prohibi-
tive. Now that architects have had time to
digest the new school security objectives, they
are coming up with better building designs
that don’t require extreme sole-source glazing.
Instead of putting expensive glass everywhere,
they are being more selective in where they
apply the glazing.” For the glass industry, the
call for safer schools translates to requests for
forced-entry-resistant products in addition
to the already code-required fire-protection
solutions. Designers also want these solutions
while still meeting stringent energy codes
and maximizing daylighting and views, as
daylighting can improve student morale and
performance in the classroom.
Oftentimes, projects will include various
types of materials such as high-performance
security glazing in areas most vulnerable to
intrusion and then contain fire-rated glazing
throughout the rest of the building. Specifiers
must consider how fire-rated glass and other
protective glazing can work together to provide
added fire safety for occupants.
Fire has been a danger to buildings for
centuries, and modern codes and standards
have adequately accommodated for the threat.
Designing safer schools and public buildings
is an evolving concern and, due to the nature
of the evolution of active shooter and intruder
situations, requires additional education and
specification assistance. Security glazing and
fire-rated solutions are applicable for any project
application. “It’s not just schools—it’s churches,
government buildings, offices, etc.,” says Urmilla
Sowell, technical and advocacy director, National
Glass Association. Quality products and protec-
tive glazing provide many benefits to buildings,
with glass installations both inside and outside.
WHAT IS PROTECTIVE GLAZING?
Protective glazing is an added protection that
can be specified for glass products to help
provide protection for occupants against both
intruders and fires. While no glass is indestructi-
ble, protective glazing provides added protection
and durability that can allow occupants extra
time to get to safety in the event of an intruder
or fire while also providing extended protection
while law enforcement and emergency respond-
ers rush to the scene.
The National Glass Association (NGA) is the largest trade association serving the architectural glass and metals industry. A technical
and educational resource, NGA envisions a future in which glass is the material of choice to enhance spaces where people live, play,
learn, and work. www.glass.org
There are a variety of considerations for
determining protective glazing applications in
education facilities that, in many cases, involve
multi-performance products. Hurricane-
impact glazing, for example, may have contrib-
uted to the lives saved at Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The
building features code-required impact glaz-
ing at all levels. Investigators say the shooter
appears to have attempted to shoot through a
third-floor window, firing 16 rounds into the
glass. The laminated impact-resistant glass,
however, did not give him a clear opening.
There are many factors to consider when
evaluating protective glazing in schools, such as
the threat, time, weak link, budget, safe zones,
alternate points of entry, interior openings, and
fire protections.
Threat
Many school districts are looking to add
forced-entry resistance to their school build-
ings, according to glass industry sources. “As
these school shootings have become more
prevalent, we started hearing demand for
bullet-resistant doors and glass,” says Kenny
Webb, director of integrated solutions and
marketing communications, Assa Abloy. How-
ever, traditional bullet-resistant solutions offer
a level of protection beyond what is needed for
forced-entry resistance. The goal for forced-
entry resistance glazing is to “deter or delay
access, giving time for first responders to
arrive,” Webb says.
Time
While glass can be made more durable, even
the strongest glass has the potential to break.
As discussed, the primary goal is to specify
glass that can stand up to a threat long enough
for first responders to arrive. The amount
of time required will vary depending on the
location of the entry point, meaning where it
is in the building, and also where the build-
ing is geographically located. If the building is
located in an urban area across the street from
a police station, the need to withstand impact
is less critical than a similar glass entry point
in a rural area that is 15 minutes away from the
nearest police station.
Weak Link
When considering the protective properties of a
glazing system, look first for the weak link. Glass
will often be the weakest link in a system until
some type of safety glazing is employed. Once
the glass is taken care of, look to the locks and
EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT 231
hardware. When possible, specify multipoint
locking at entry points and points of weakness.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
Architects can also employ reinforced doors
and frames to harden the system further.
Budget
While security is a high priority for many
people, the added protections provided
by glazing solutions can be cost prohibi-
tive when applied to all-glass entry points
in a building. Schools often face budget
restraints, therefore assessing the risk and
picking a cost-effective solution can be a
challenge. To accommodate for this, key
discussions about balancing performance
demand and budget should happen early
in the project specification process. Fortu-
nately, the glass industry offers a wide range
of security solutions that can help accom-
modate the project budget. When specify-
ing glass for these types of projects, let your
supplier know your budget and concerns so it
can help determine the best solutions for the
project. Specifiers can choose from various
products ranging from simple laminated
glass to materials that are fully resistant to
ballistics. The question is: How much protec-
tion is needed and for how long?
Safe Zones
Suppliers recommend that architects con-
sider using a range of protection levels for
different areas of the building. For example,
certain secure zones will require higher levels
of protection. If a school or business can’t
provide security glazing in all places, perhaps
they can provide it in the “secure zones.” A
secure zone is a room or area where a large
number of occupants can safely and securely
congregate. An example would be the cafeteria
or the gymnasium. These areas could include
higher-rated protections such as bullet-resis-
tant glass or additional security glazing not
present in other parts of the building.
Key points of entry such as the front door
should also be a focus. In schools, banks, or
medical facilities, pass through windows and
bullet-resistant products can provide extra secu-
rity for occupants stationed at the entryway.
Continues at ce.architecturalrecord.com
Jessica Jarrard is an independent writer and
editor focusing on health, science, and technology.
She contributes to continuing education courses
and publications through Confluence Communi-
cations. www.confluencec.com
232 EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT
Exterior sheathing over conventional framed
wall construction in commercial buildings needs
to include a proven water-resistive barrier
(WRB) and an air barrier (AB).
Who’s the Culprit in
WRB-AB Leakage?
Overcoming issues with integrated sheathing
Sponsored by Georgia-Pacific Gypsum | By Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP
E
xtreme weather events can stress wall
assemblies, causing water to enter the
building envelope. Fasteners attached
through sheathing are a point of vulnerability
requiring specific attention in order to avoid
leaks and compromising building integrity. With
some minor exceptions, the standardized test
methods for water-resistive barriers (WRBs) and
air barriers (ABs) do not consider the range of
adhesive and mechanical cladding attachments.
These standardized methods also do not include
simulations of extreme wind and rain on the
cladding attachment penetrations. In this course,
we will examine parameters and outcomes of
water penetration testing, specifically on clad-
ding attachments using ASTM E331 methodol-
ogy. The intent of this testing is to determine
the ability to resist liquid water penetration
of multiple attachment clips in three different
WRB-AB configurations under varying condi-
tions. The WRB-AB configurations include thin-
and thick-mil fluid-applied barriers over glass mat
gypsum sheathing and an integrated sheathing
system, which integrates the WRB-AB into the
fiberglass mat and core. Testing simulated extreme
water and wind that pushed the tested WRB-ABs
to the point of failure. The results demonstrate
how the tested WRB-ABs performed with the
main source of leakage occurring at the fasten-
ers. Based on this information, best practices for
addressing cladding attachment penetrations are
offered under different scenarios and with specific
climate and construction risk factors considered.
THE ISSUES
Determining the relevant issues is the logical
starting point when investigating any con-
struction assembly, such as exterior walls in
All images courtesy of Georgia-Pacific Gypsum
CONTINUING EDUCATION
1 AIA LU/HSW
Learning Objectives
After reading this article, you should be able to:
1. Explore how fasteners attached to sheathing
become a point of vulnerability during
extreme weather events, which can stress
wall assemblies and cause water to enter the
building envelope.
2. Review the differences between standard test
methods and the extreme conditions that
were introduced by RDH Building Science in
order to test several fastener options.
3. Understand the differences between thin-
and thick-mil fluid-applied barriers versus
integrated WRB-AB sheathing solutions. Know
which option performed best when exposed
to high-wind and heavy-rain simulations.
4. Discover best practices for cladding
attachment options, depending on
factors such as climate, building form, and
architectural complexity, among others.
To receive AIA credit, you are required to
read the entire article and pass the test. Go to
ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text
and to take the test for free.
AIA COURSE #K1906F

commercial buildings, which are the focus
here. Specifically, we will look at known issues
such as how to assure that WRBs and ABs
remain continuous across changes in the con-
struction. We will also address the importance
of drying capability in a wall since it is reason-
able to expect that water may penetrate in some
form at some point in the life of the building.
The remaining issue is focused on the variabil-
ity of some common construction techniques
that are used in exterior wall construction,
including the impact of attaching cladding
over a continuous WRB-AB. All of these are
discussed further in the following sections.
Continuous Barriers
Framed exterior walls, using wood or metal
studs, headers, etc., commonly use exterior
sheathing secured to that framing to serve as
the base or substrate for additional materials
to be applied over it. Because of the need to be
durable, consistent, resistant to fire, and easy
to install, fiberglass mat-faced gypsum board
has become one of the most popular choices for
this type of sheathing on commercial buildings.
Building and energy codes require that both a
WRB and AB be present, and common practice
today frequently sees these systems installed
on the exterior face of the sheathing once it is
in place. The WRB is to protect the rest of the
construction and may also serve as a drainage
plane to allow moisture or bulk water to drain
away. The air barrier is to prevent uncontrolled
air movement. Uncontrolled air movement
can result in unnecessary energy consumption
and also carry water vapor and/or pollutants
through the wall assembly, which may have
Liquid-applied barriers can be rolled or sprayed over exterior sheathing to create a continuous
WRB-AB.
Dens® Solutions are industry-trusted, high-performing fiberglass mat gypsum panels suitable for your wall, roof, ceiling, and floor projects.
Dens Solutions carry the mark of our valued heritage in Gold®, our patented color, as a visible standard bearer of our position as the first
manufacturer to create a fiberglass mat board, and as a relentless innovator of strong and moisture-resistant products for more than 30 years.
Dens Solutions answer building challenges with ingenuity. www.buildgp.com
deleterious effects on the wall assembly and the
building occupants.
Architects have choices in the ways that both
the WRB and AB can be provided. We will look
at four of the most common ones for commercial
construction: liquid membranes that are rolled
or sprayed onto the sheathing, self-adhered sheet
membranes, foam plastic insulation, and inte-
grated sheathing, which incorporates the WRB
and AB directly into a sheathing product.
Liquid membranes: Continuous membranes
that are liquid based are often used to provide
either a WRB, an AB, or, in some cases, one liquid
will provide both. They are installed at the job
site either by spraying or rolling by hand, and to
be effective, they must cover the gypsum board
sheathing completely. The liquid nature of these
membranes often makes them appealing because
they can readily cover any irregular shapes or
surfaces in the wall construction. However,
since they are hand-applied, the quality of the
installation is directly subject to the skills of the
applicator. They also need the proper equipment,
whether they are rolled on or sprayed on so that
their application is uniform and consistent. It is
important to note that each such product is tested
for its effectiveness based on its final membrane
thickness. Hence, some products need a measur-
ably thicker and consistent application than oth-
ers to achieve a full WRB-AB performance level.
At first glance, it is easy to assume that roll-on
and spray-on liquid barriers are good choices
because they cover over the entire surface, includ-
ing all joints, seams, corners, and penetrations,
and conform directly to any irregular surface. This
creates a fairly uniform membrane as a result, with
the continuity of the barriers being achieved by the
EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT 233
liquid nature of the product that forms itself to the
substrate. However, it is not necessarily the easiest
CONTINUING EDUCATION
to install given that weather conditions can hamper
the timing and quality of its installation. It will also
require some drying or curing time before anything
else can be done, and the liquid membrane material
used needs to be compatible with the substrate.
Self-adhered membranes: A different choice
for WRB-AB systems can be found in self-adhered
sheet membranes. Since these have been common
for some time in the roofing and waterproof-
ing industries, it is not surprising that there are
similar products in use for providing barriers in
wall assemblies too. In the case of this barrier type,
a protective paper coating may be peeled off the
sticky side of the membrane, which allows it to
then be directly adhered to the sheathing. As you
might expect, this type of product works best on
smooth, flat, continuous surfaces. Skillful attention
is needed to cut and fit the self-adhered membranes
to places like building corners, discontinuous
edges, openings for windows and doors, etc. It
should be noted, too, that there are different types
of self-adhered membranes made from different
materials. This is important to be aware of since
self-adhered membranes are commonly certified
and used as WRBs, but they may or may not be
certified as an air barrier as well. If that is the case,
then a separate AB material will be needed. It is also
important to note that the large number of seams
along the edges of the strips of the membrane make
it more of a challenge since continuity needs to be
achieved along all of those edges and seams.
Foam plastic insulation: Certain foam plastic
insulation, particularly if it is closed-cell rigid
boards, may qualify as a WRB or an AB. This
might be convenient since it is commonly installed
over the face of exterior sheathing to act as a ther-
mal barrier of continuous insulation on the outside
of the building. However, keep in mind that just
because it is present in the wall assembly doesn’t
mean it has been tested and certified as either a
WRB or an AB. In some cases, the material itself
may be fine, but without a proven means to address
the edges and perimeter of the individual rigid
insulation boards, it does not qualify as a continu-
ous assembly. In such cases, a separate WRB and
AB are still needed.
Continues at ce.architecturalrecord.com
Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP, is a
nationally known architect, consultant, continuing
education presenter, and prolific author advancing
building performance through better design.
www.pjaarch.com, www.linkedin.com/in/pjaarch
234 EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT

Selecting multi-slide glass doors

creates a seamless transition
CONTINUING EDUCATION

between indoor and outdoor

living spaces.

Photo courtesy of LaCantina Doors

An Open Invitation CONTINUING EDUCATION

Multi-slide glass doors revolutionize open design by 1 AIA LU/HSW

creating a focal point and bringing the benefits of the 1 GBCI CE HOUR
outdoors in
1 IDCEC CEU/HSW

Sponsored by LaCantina Doors | By Amanda Voss, MPP Learning Objectives

After reading this article, you should be able to:
1. Discuss the design flexibility and

W
e wanted clients to be able to
seamlessly move outside and make
the connection with what they are
visually taking in,” says Fogelstrom Design-
Build Principal Designer Brett Fogelstrom in
reference to a recently completed project
in Oregon.
Creating a connection between indoors
and outdoors is a design goal for both com-
mercial and residential buildings. While
glass offers a visual channel to connect to
the outside, too often the actual physical
transition to exterior environments is abrupt
or dissonant.
Modern design means not only em-
bracing a structure’s surrounding natural
environment, but it also upholds the benefits
of bringing the outdoors in by capturing
daylight, bolstering indoor air quality, and
improving the overall health of occupants.
New product offerings using multiple
sliding door panels, or multi-slide doors, that
stack or store in wall pockets now make it
possible to fully connect indoor and outdoor
spaces without interruptions. When open,
multi-slide doors allow indoor spaces to ex-
tend outward, creating an outdoor living ex-
perience with all the benefits of fresh air and
daylight. When closed, attention to details
and performance characteristics assure that
multi-slide doors provide the needed protec-
tion from weather and climatic conditions.
Continues at ce.architecturalrecord.com
Amanda Voss, MPP, is an author, editor, and
policy analyst. Writing for multiple publications,
she also serves as the managing editor for
Energy Design Update.
performance characteristics allowing multi-
slide doors to create a direct connection to
the outdoors.
2. Identify and specify high-performance
multi-slide glass doors for a project, and
understand how these doors are affected by
national standards.
3. Explain how the characteristics of multi-
slide doors contribute to meeting energy,
sustainability, and performance goals.
4. Recognize specifications and standards
of multi-slide doors and how these attributes
can be selected to fit specific project goals.
To receive AIA credit, you are required to
read the entire article and pass the test. Go
to ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete
text and to take the test for free.
AIA COURSE #K1812D
GBCI COURSE #0920018022
IDCEC COURSE #CC-107980-1000

LaCantina Doors is a leader in designing and manufacturing products that create large, open spaces. Offering the most
innovative and comprehensive range of folding, sliding, and swing systems available, the company utilizes the same signature
narrow stile and rail profile across its product line for a complete and perfectly matching door package. Designed and made in
California, LaCantina Doors has contributed to award-winning projects ranging from residential and educational to commercial,
retail, and resorts and is a preferred choice when it comes to products that open spaces. Backed by an industry-leading warranty,
the company’s products are available across the United States and internationally. www.lacantinadoors.com
 235
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHTS Advertisement

DOORS, WINDOWS EQUIPMENT

LIFT-STRAP BIFOLD DOORS AND ONE-PIECE DESIGNER SOAP DESPENSERS
HYDRAULIC DESIGNER DOORS $$ | GREEN | NEW
WR
Bobrick Washroom Equipment, Inc.
Schweiss Doors, Moving Walls Available in five finishes with matching faucets avail-
Schweiss Doors manufactures unique custom able, Bobrick’s durable Designer Series Soap Dis-
designer doors, one-piece hydraulic doors and pensers dispense bulk soap for significant savings.
patented lift-strap opening/closing bifold doors. Product Application
Product Application: • Ideal for upscale and prestige environments
• Moving doors and walls • Appropriate for renovation and new construction
• You think it, we build it • Finishes reflect design continuity with other ac-
• Custom designed storefronts and more… cessories and fixtures
Performance Data: Performance Data
• Faster, safer operation
• Adjustable time-out durations, sensor range,
• Zero lost headroom
• Superior design that keeps working! LEED flow-rate options

www.schweissdoors.com https://bit.ly/2Uktbif
507.426.8273 | schweiss@bifold.com 818.503.1642 | Nilofar Yagana | nyagana@bobrick. Booth: #6728 AIA Expo

INTERIOR FINISHES, FURNISHINGS INTERIOR FINISHES, FURNISHINGS

21 CHAIR BY LANDSCAPE FORMS COORDINATED SURFACES
$$ | NEW WR | GREEN

Landscape Forms WILSONART

Designed for anywhere and anyone, the stackable 21
chair’s roomy seat pan and subtly curved back and
seat slats invite you to settle in and relax. The chair
comes with or without arms.
Product Application:
• 21-inch-wide seat creates comfortable surface for a
variety of postures
• Stackable up to four high
• Customizable color combinations available
www.landscapeforms.com
800.430.6205 | info@landscapeforms.com
Specify matching decorative surfaces, with all the ben-
efits of the Wilsonart distribution network. Wilsonart®
Coordinated Surfaces combines HPL, Edgeband and
TFL Panels into one convenient, best-matched bundle.
Product Application:
• Designed for interior use only. Common design ele-
ments are decorative wall panels, cabinetry, drawers,
furniture, fixtures and shelving.
Performance Data:
• Best industry match of design and texture
• Design continuity made possible with matching
HPL, Edgeband and TFL
• Offered in 200+ Wilsonart ® Laminate designs and
9 finishes
wilsonart.com/cs
Booth: 1617 ASLA 800.433.3222 | smartline@wilsonart.com

MECHANICAL SYSTEMS, HVAC, PLUMBING MATERIALS

3O° ADA ENVIRO SERIES SINKS FIRE-RESISTIVE ALUMINUM FRAMES
$$ | GREEN | NEW $$$

Just Manufacturing Technical Glass Products

The 30° ADA Enviro Series heavy duty commercial grade lav- Fireframes® Aluminum Series incorporates precision
atory systems have been designed for aesthetics and function- engineering to create narrow profiles and crisp
ality. Available in single, dual, tri and quad station versions. sightlines, providing an attractive alternative to
Product Application: traditional hollow metal frames.
• Ideal for heavy-use public lavatory applications including
Product Application:
academic, office buildings, restaurants or any public
• KMK Place, St. John’s, NL, Canada
bathroom environment.
• Tulsa Central Library, Tulsa, OK
• Includes 16 gauge stainless steel enclosure
Performance Data: Performance Data:
• Produced of 16 gauge type 304 stainless steel. • Barrier to radiant heat, with fire ratings up
• Polished to a satin blended No. 4 finish. to 2 hours
• Complete hands free hygienic packages, includes sensor • Patented system is UL classified and labeled
faucet and soap dispenser
www.justmfg.com/ada-enviro-series-sinks fireglass.com
847.678.5150 | specifierservices@justmfg.com 800.426.0279 | sales@fireglass.com

ROOFING, SIDING, THERMAL & MOISTURE PROTECTION ROOFING, SIDING, THERMAL & MOISTURE PROTECTION
METAL RAINSCREEN WALL PANELS ROOF AND WALL TILES
$$ | GREEN
CENTRIA
Petersen Aluminum
Create elegant and lasting exteriors with CENTRIA
Style-Rib and SDP175 rainscreen wall cladding. Avail- PAC Precision Series Tiles offer a dynamic,
able in the widest array of colors and natural specialty
costeffective, attractive cladding solution for roofs
finishes, CENTRIA rainscreen panels feature bold ribs
and walls. These stamped tiles are available in four
or standing seams producing a unique wall aesthetic.
profiles: flat, cupped, diamond and TS.
Product Application:
• Westin Hotel, Jackson MS Product Application
• ESG Architects • Village School
• Style-Rib & SDP 175 in Dark Bronze, Mocha, and Rust • Diamond Tile
Performance Data: Performance Data
• 36” panel width • 30-year non-prorated finish warranty
• Up to 40’ length
• Smooth or embossed surfaces • 43 colors on steel, 36 on aluminum
• Horizontal or vertical installation • 12 colors (LIC stainless), Zalmag® coated steel
• May be insulated for thermal performance
PAC-CLAD.com
www.centria.com
800.722.2523 | Rob Heselbarth Booth: 6416 AIA Expo
236
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHTS Advertisement
ROOFING, SIDING, THERMAL & MOISTURE PROTECTION SPECIALTY PRODUCTS
TAMLYNWRAP 1.5 WEATHER RESISTANT BARRIER EME720: WIND-DRIVEN RAIN STATIONARY LOUVER
$$

TAMLYN Ruskin
This innovative weather resistant barrier The Ruskin® model EME720 7-inch horizontal louver
eliminates excess moisture and mitigates the offers a continuous-blade architectural appear-
damaging effects of mold and rot. ance while reducing cost with economical, inactive
• Exceeds all existing codes for drainage. sections.
• Drains 2x faster than other “drainable” Product Application
house-wraps • Perfect for stadiums, arenas, convention centers
Performance Data • Hurricane-prone areas
• < 0.02 L/s/m2 @ 75pa • Areas where limited rain penetration is desired
• Permeance: 19 Performance Data
• 96% Drainage Efficiency • AMCA 500-L certified wind-driven rain performance
• Machine Direction: 50lb. +

www.tamlyn.com Ruskin.com
1.800.334.1676 816.761.7476 | ruskin@ruskin.com

SPECIALTY PRODUCTS
ROOF HATCH GRAB BAR SYSTEMS
$ Roof Hatch Grab Bars with/without cage make Product Application:
transitioning in/out of hatch easier & safer. The • Fits new or existing roof hatches
LadderPort OSHA compliant system includes grab bars that • Customers include CVS Drugs, Kroger & All Affiliates,
are always available for use. Both models are ad- Wendys, 7-Eleven, Bob’s Discount Furniture,
justable to fit most roof hatches 24-48”. No moving Sheetz Convenience Stores schools, government
parts to fail. No openings for critters to nest. Made buildings & many, many more
of metal, powder coated & interior rust inhibited Performance Data:
LadderPort Roof Hatch Grab Bars are durable & • Increase worker safety
long-lasting. All installation hardware is included • Meets OSHA requirements avoiding costly OSHA
for easy installation. Will not crush insulation. fines
Optional adjustable self closing gate available on • Reduces falls & injuries
Caged model. US Patent 8,099,910 B1 • Decrease workers comp claims to save money

Caged Roof Hatch Grab Bars w/ www.ladderport.com

Optional Self Closing Gate 800.770.8851 | michele@ladderport.com

THERE’S MORE TO EXPLORE AT…

architecturalrecord.com

VIDEOS WEBINARS CONTINUING PRODUCTS WEB EXCLUSIVE

EDUCATION CONTENT
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019 237
dates&events

New and Upcoming
Exhibitions
Museum Mile Festival
New York City
June 11, 2019
The event allows attendees to visit seven of
the city’s cultural institutions free, from
6 p.m. until 9 p.m. including the Metropol­
itan Museum of Art; Neue Galerie New York;
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Cooper
Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; the
Jewish Museum; Museum of the City of New
York; and El Museo del Barrio. Learn more
at museummilefestival.org.
Design With Nature Now
Philadelphia
June 21–September 15, 2019
The legacy of environmental planner
and landscape architect Ian L. McHarg is
explored by showing the efforts of indi­
viduals and collectives to mitigate the
effects of climate change through ecologi­
cal design. For more information, visit
mcharg.upenn.edu.
Second Home Serpentine Pavilion
Los Angeles
June 28–November 24, 2019
Second Home and the Natural History Museums
of Los Angeles County are bringing SelgasCano’s
2015 installation to Los Angeles. A pavilion will
be at the La Brea Tar Pits with public programs
and events focusing on the intersection of art,
design, science, and nature. More information at
pavilion.secondhome.io.
Ongoing Exhibitions
The Value of Good Design
New York City
Through June 15, 2019
This exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art
features design objects from domestic life,
beginning with MoMA’s Good Design initiatives
in the 1930’s and going to the present day, to
explore what constitutes good design for a
21st­century audience. See moma.org.
Hugh Kaptur: Organic Desert Architecture
Palm Springs, California
Through June 17, 2019
Exploring the visionary designer’s body of
work, this exhibit places him in the context of
his Desert Modern peers through archival
drawings, models, sketches, slides, period
photographs, and ephemera. At the Palm
Springs Art Museum. Visit psmuseum.org.
Beyond the Structure
Madrid
Through June 20, 2019
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) presents
this exhibition in conjunction with COAM
Architecture Foundation. It focuses on the
integration of SOM’s structural­engineering
practice with architectural design, but also
features panel discussions, workshops, and
guided tours scheduled throughout the exhibi­
tion’s run. Visit som.com for more details.
About Face: Stonewall, Revolt and
New Queer Art
Chicago
Through July 20, 2019
On the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall
Rebellion, this exhibition at Wrightwood 659
features almost 500 works of photography,
painting, sculpture, film, and performance art
that seek to reframe the traditional views

ROOF DEC
K
wa l l
under sl
GRIFFOLYN®
DIVISION OF REEF INDUSTRIES, INC.
ab
C r aw l s p
ace

CONTROL MOISTURE
IN THE BUILDING ENVELOPE
WITH GRIFFOLYN® VAPOR PROTECTION SYSTEMS

• HIGH STRENGTH SCRIM prevents punctures

• LOW PERMEABILITY controls moisture damage
• ASTM E-1745, Class A, B, C products
• FIRE RETARDANT products to meet code requirements
• ANTIMICROBIAL inhibit growth of fungi and mildew
• STOCK ROLLS ARE AVAILABLE for immediate shipment

griffolyn.com ¥ 1.800.231.6074
238 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
about the uprising, along with sexuality and
gender identity. More at wrightwood659.org.
Matter and Place
Jakarta, Indonesia
Through July 21, 2019
This exhibition at Museum MACAN’s Sculp­
ture Garden examines ideas surrounding
identity, politics, economy, and culture that
are connected to specific locations and geo­
graphical regions. It features installations by
Indonesian, Malaysian, Vietnamese, and Amer­
ican artists on architecture and materiality.
Details at museummacan.org.
Secret Cities: The Architecture and
Planning of the Manhattan Project
Washington, D.C.
Through July 28, 2019
The exhibition delves into the innovative
design and construction of three cities born
out of the Manhattan Project, tracing their
precedents in the Bauhaus and other early­
modern schools of architectural thought. The
show looks at daily life within those cities and
how it was shaped by their physical form. At
the National Building Museum. Visit nbm.org.
dates&events
The Bauhaus and Harvard
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Through July 28, 2019
In conjunction with the 100th anniversary of
the founding of the Bauhaus, this exhibition at
Harvard presents rarely seen student exer­
cises, iconic design objects, photography,
textiles, typography, paintings, and archival
materials, including works by 74 artists from
the Busch­Reisinger Museum’s Bauhaus collec­
tion. Learn more at harvardartmuseums.org.
David Adjaye: Making Memory
London
Through August 4, 2019
This exhibition at the Design Museum features
seven projects selected by Sir David Adjaye,
displayed with full­scale installations, films,
architectural models, and artifacts that influ­
enced the creative process. Visitors will also
receive a first look at the proposed Coretta Scott
King and Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in
Boston. More at designmuseum.org.
Kabbalah: The Art of Jewish Mysticism
Amsterdam
Through August 25, 2019
This temporary exhibit showcases the many
sides of Kabbalah with displays of ancient texts
alongside work by modern and contemporary
artists, at Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quar­
ter. Visit jck.nl/en for more details.
Serious Play: Design in Midcentury
America
Denver
Through August 25, 2019
The exhibition at the Denver Art Museum
features the ways architects and designers
used the concept of playfulness in postwar
American design as a catalyst for creativity in
the American home, children’s toys, and
corporate identities. Co­organized by the Mil­
waukee Art Museum, the collection includes
over 200 works in various media. See more at
denverartmuseum.org.
Rites of Spring
East Hampton, New York
Through October 5, 2019
The LongHouse Reserve is displaying this art
collection for its 28th season. The outdoor
museum features sculptures and furniture by
artists including Wendell Castle, Young Jae
Lee, Will Ryman, and Joseph Walsh. Details at
longhouse.org.

EMPLOYMENT

Staff Architect Level II

Oppenheim Architecture + Design, LLP is seeking a Staff
Architect Level II for its Miami, Florida location. The qualified
applicant will have a master’s degree in architecture.

Send resumes to Ximena Gonzalez at:

245 NE 37th St., Suite 102, Miami, FL 33137
Or via email to: ximena@oppenoffice.com
Please Reference Job #10949719

Reserve Space Now

in the Next Architectural Record Issue
Job Opportunities, Consulting Services, Official Proposals, Legal
Notices Recruiting Services, Business Opportunities, Books,
Professional Studies and more…
To obtain Classified Advertising information please contact:
Diane Soister at Tel: 646-849-7137
Email: soisterd@bnpmedia.com
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
Vienna Biennale for Change:
Brave New Virtues
Vienna
Through October 6, 2019
This third Vienna biennale will explore what
an economically just, socially fair, and ecologi-
cally sustainable future could be. Artists,
designers, and architects from all continents
will focus on visions for achieving this. Learn
more at viennabiennale.org.
Our Happy Life: Architecture and Well-
Being in the Age of Emotional Capitalism
Montreal
Through October 8, 2019
Focused on the decade following the 2008
economic crash, Our Happy Life investigates
today’s “cult of happiness” and its many con-
tradictions, questioning how the happiness
agenda influences the design of our built
environment. See more at cca.qc.ca.
Prisoner of Love
Chicago
Through October 27, 2019
The exhibition, which examines human expe-
rience by attempting to capture the intensities
of love, fear, and grief, features artist Arthur
dates&events
Jafa’s Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death, a
film that explores the African-American expe-
rience in the 20th and 21st centuries. The work
is set to the gospel-infused song “Ultralight
Beam” by rapper Kanye West. At the Museum
The facade
of Contemporary Art Chicago. For more, see
mcachicago.org.
system that simply
outperforms.
In Frederic Church’s Ombra: Architecture
in Conversation with Nature Introducing Ceramitex®,
Hudson, New York a revolutionary facade system by
Through November 3, 2019 Elemex®. Our sintered ceramic panels
Showcasing multimedia design concepts and are graffiti-proof and stand the test
installations, this exhibition at the Sharp of time. Engineered on , our
Family Gallery by guest curator Barry Bergdoll
proprietary integrated attachment
combines hand-drawn sketches, painted ren-
technology, Ceramitex® promises
derings, three-dimensional models, and
lasting beauty and value for less
animations examining the relationship of
architecture and landscape at Olana. See more than you might expect.
at olana.org.
Written by Water
Luxembourg
Through November 24, 2019
This immersive exhibition at the Luxembourg
Pavilion by Portuguese artist Marco Gondinho
examines the relationships that mankind has
with the sea. See luxembourgpavilion.lu.

VAUGHAN CIVIC CENTRE RESOURCE LIBRARY

Ageless. Durable.
Revolutionary.

Code Lightweight Graffiti Scratch Mitered

Compliant Proof Resistant Corners

Watch our durability video

and see how the Ceramitex® system stands
up against a chainsaw at ceramitex.com.

1-844-435-3639

530 Admiral Dr.

London, Ontario N5V 0B2
info@elemex.com
 dates&events
HOOPS
Washington, D.C.
Through January 5, 2020
This exhibition presents photographer Bill
Bamberger’s images of private and community
basketball courts around the United States and
abroad, taking viewers from the deserts of Ari-
zona and Mexico to the playgrounds of South
Africa. At the National Building Museum. Visit
nbm.org.
Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial
New York
Through January 20, 2020
Over 60 projects will be featured in this exhi-
bition demonstrating how designers are
collaborating on inventive solutions to the
environmental and social challenges confront-
ing humanity. For more information, visit
cooperhewitt.org.
Van de Velde, Nietzsche and Modernism
Around 1900
Weimar, Germany
Through April 1, 2024
This new, permanent exhibition is centered
around Nietzsche as philosopher and cult
figure, and features Weimar Art School expo-
nents and work by the architect Henry Van de
Velde. Learn more at bauhaus100.com.
Lectures, Conferences,
and Symposia
Atlanta Design Festival
Atlanta
June 1–9, 2019
The week-plus event will include a series of
architecture tours, showroom presentations,
talks, and installations around the city, put-
ting its growing design industry in the
spotlight. See atlantadesignfestival.net.
AIA Conference on Architecture
Las Vegas
June 6–8, 2019
The American Institute of Architects’ annual
conference event will have the theme
Blueprint for a Better Future; at the Las Vegas
Convention Center. For more information, go
for commercial buildings to conferenceonarchitecture.com.
of distinction,
The Housing System
where aesthetics and
New York City
advanced performance are June 10, 2019 at 4 p.m.
critical considerations. This final event of the series by the
Architectural League of New York will be a
discussion between Rosanne Haggerty and
stcloudwindow.com Donald Berwick on land use, design, finance,
occupancy, and management practices that
800.383.9311
could allow New Yorkers to achieve adequate
housing for all. The free event is open to the
public and will be held at Scholastic’s Big Red
Auditorium. More at archleague.org.
NeoCon
Chicago
June 10–12, 2019
This is the 51st year of the annual commercial
design event that showcases thousands of new
interiors products and hosts 100 CEU seminars
in addition to keynote programming. For more
information, visit neocon.com.
LA Design Festival
Los Angeles
June 20–23, 2019
The ninth year of LA Design Festival includes
public design installations, tours, confabs, and
international exhibitions reflective of the
city’s diversity and talent. For more informa-
tion, see ladesignfestival.org.
Record on the Road Denver
Denver
June 26, 2019
architectural record will present an eve-
ning symposium at the Denver Art Museum
moderated by managing editor Beth Broome,
followed by a cocktail reception. For more, see
architecturalrecord.com.
Seattle Design Festival
Seattle
August 16–25, 2019
The Design in Public program gathers over
30,000 designers, community members, and
civic leaders to explore how we design for this
year’s theme, which is Balance. The event
celebrates all the ways that design makes life
better for Seattle. For more information see
designinpublic.org.
Competitions
Buildings of Excellence Competition
Deadline: June 4, 2019
New York State governor Andrew Cuomo
launched this competition to accelerate the
design, development, construction, and opera-
tion of very low- or zero carbon–emitting
buildings. New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority is seeking
proposals for projects that reduce energy
consumption and per capita carbon emissions.
Winners are eligible to receive up to $1 million
in direct funding. More at nyserda.ny.gov.
Dedalo Minosse International Prize
Deadline: June 7, 2019
The 11th edition of this international prize
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
honors the client’s role in the design process
along with the architect’s. Any private or
public client, its architects, building firms, the
companies supplying the works and materials,
or anyone else involved in the building process
is entitled to enter the competition. Works
must have been completed in the 2018 calen-
dar year. Visit dedalominosse.org/eng.
The Met’s 150th Anniversary Design
Competition
Deadline: June 13, 2019
In honor of the New York Metropolitan
Museum’s 150th anniversary, a cash prize of
$1,000 is being offered for designs for products
for the Met Store; realizations of winning
entries will be launched in April 2020. Enter a
JPG or PNG of an original design in any me-
dium. For more details visit metmuseum.org.
Hyde Park Music Pavilion
Deadline: June 14, 2019
This competition for students of architecture
and young architects requests proposals for a
space in London’s Hyde Park to provide infor-
mation about past and future concerts there
as well as host concerts and visitors. More at
arquideas.net.
HOUSING
DENSITY
TENEMENTS TO TOWERS
39 Battery Pl, New York | Wed - Sun, 12 – 6 pm
dates&events
2019 Architect Studio Prize
Deadline: June 21, 2019
The prize recognizes thoughtful, innovative,
and ethical studio courses at accredited archi-
tecture schools around the world. A jury of
design professionals will judge each studio
course according to its initial brief, research,
process, and resulting student work. Winners
may receive up to $25,000 in prize money. Read
more submission details at studioprize.com
Lunawood Urban Challenge
Deadline: June 24, 2019
All architecture students, architects, and
creative professionals are invited to develop
and submit ideas to lower the carbon footprint
of buildings and increase healthy living expe-
riences by using the renewable wood material
Lunawood Thermowood. Visit lunawood.com.
Zero Threshold Design Competition
Deadline: June 28, 2019
The competition, inspired by (dis)ABLED
Beauty at the Kent State University Museum in
2016–17, is open to individuals or teams of
students and professionals working toward
building a barrier-free future. Winning entries
will receive a cash prize and be featured in an
| skyscraper.org
241
exhibition and publication. More details at
zerothreshold.org.
The People’s Notre-Dame Cathedral Design
Competition
Deadline: June 30, 2019
After the roof and spire of the iconic building
were burned on April 15, this competition to
redesign the people’s cathedral was launched.
Every approved submission will be open to
public voting, and the winner will receive a
$1,000 cash prize. Submissions must include
an aerial, street-level, and unique-experience
image, along with a short description. Compe-
tition details at goarchitect.co.
Barbara Cappochin Biennial International
Architecture Prize
Deadline: June 30, 2019
Organized by the Barbara Cappochin Foun-
dation, the prize focuses on the central role that
architecture plays in the evolution of landscape
through urban peripheries, the use of bio-archi-
tecture, energy efficiency, and sustainable urban
development. A jury, including a representative
of the National Council of Architects, Planners,
Landscapers, and Conservationists of Italy, will
choose the winner. More info at en.bcbiennial.info.
242 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
Tulum Plastic School: Art, Wellness,
Environment
Deadline: July 3, 2019
This built-project competition, presented by
Archstorming, aims to design an art school
made from recycled plastics in Tulum, Mexico.
Winners will be chosen by a jury and will see
their proposals built, and also receive a cash
prize. More information at archstorming.com.
The Complete City: Imagined
Deadline: July 22, 2019
Since 2017, the Portland Society for Architec-
ture has been using blank maps of Portland,
Maine, as tools to collect comments and ideas
about and for the city. Publicly sourced sub-
missions will serve as inspiration for what
Portland can become in the future. The win-
ning entries will be chosen by a design jury
and will receive cash prizes. For details visit
thecompletecity.com.
Vectorworks Design Scholarship
Deadline: August 29, 2019
Undergraduates and graduate students are
eligible to submit their best design work for
dates&events
the chance to win up to $10,000 from the signs: one targeting specific healthy behaviors
Vectorworks Design Scholarship or the and one that envisions broad, systemic change.
Richard Diehl Design Award. For more infor- For more, visit centerhxd.com.
mation visit vectorworks.net.
2019 Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest
Architectural Review Emerging Architects Deadline: September 6, 2019
Awards Licensed architects or related professionals
Deadline: August 30, 2019 who practice in the United States are eligible
For the 20th year, the AREA Awards will re- to enter this annual architectural-drawing
ward excellence in an emerging architect’s competition, for which two Grand Prize–win-
overall body of work rather than a single ners will be chosen. The winning sketches and
completed building. To be eligible for submis- runners-up will be published in the November
sion, all practice founders must be under the 2019 issue of architectural record and
age of 45 as of December 5, 2019. For more, see online. For more, see architecturalrecord.com.
emergingarchitecture.architectural-review.com.
E-mail information two months in advance to
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation areditor@bnpmedia.com.
Challenge
Deadline: August 31, 2019
The theme is Building Health into Everyday
Life. In the near future, technology might be
used to enhance health as part of our daily
routines. Entries should include ideas that will
be feasible in five to 10 years and will change
the built environment to a healthier default.
There will be two categories of winning de-

Find these and many more available Lunch & Learn presentations at

ce.architecturalrecord.com/ee

New & Affordable Surface Options for Housing Window Code Fundamentals
1 AIA LU/HSW; 1 IDCEC CEU 1 AIA LU/HSW
PRESENTED BY: FORMICA PRESENTED BY: ANDERSEN CORPORATION

Managing Heat and Light with Exterior Making Transitions: Keeping Air and Water
Shading Systems Barriers Continuous
1 AIA LU/HSW; 1 GBCI CE HOUR 1 AIA LU/HSW
PRESENTED BY: DRAPER, INC. PRESENTED BY: GEORGIA-PACIFIC

Building the Ideal Rainscreen: Advantages of Aluminum Coil Anodizing for Architectural Design
Extruded Concrete Panels 1 AIA LU/HSW
1 AIA LU/HSW PRESENTED BY: LORIN INDUSTRIES INC.
PRESENTED BY: RIEDER NORTH AMERICA
 243

Advertisers Index
Advertiser Page Advertiser Page Advertiser Page

Adsil® 215 DORMA 172 Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope® 53, 224, 225

AISC 205 Doug Mockett & Company, Inc. 72 Oppenheim Architecture + Design, LLP 238

Alpolic Materials/Mitsubishi Plastics Dri-Design 17 Ornamental Metal Institute of New York 10

Composites America, Inc. 9
Eldorado Stone 19 Petersen Aluminum 62
American Institute of Architects 49
Endicott Clay Products 203 Pilkington North America 45
ARCAT 42
Epic Metals 66 Raydoor 239
Architectural Record -
2019 Record Products Of The Year 44 Exterior Wall Systems 239 Reef Industries 237

Architectural Record - AEC BuildTech 70 Forms & Surfaces 85 Renlita 39

Architectural Record - AVT Connect 84 Fry Reglet 116 RH Tamlyn & Sons 23

Architectural Record - G.H. BRUCE, LLC 77 Ruskin Company 52

CE Academy Armstrong 196
Georgia Pacific 55, 86, 232, 233 SAFTIFIRST 91
Architectural Record - CE Academy NGA 60
Goldbrecht 11, 97 Scranton Products 79
Architectural Record -
CE Academy ThinkWood 114 Graham Architectural 138 Seves Glass Block 61

Architectural Record - Greenscreen 115 Simonswerk 35

Education Exchange 242
Guardian Glass 71 Sky-Frame 140
Architectural Record - Greenbuild 100
Heather & Little Ltd. 238 Skyscraper Museum, The 241
Architectural Record -
Record On The Road Denver 78 Hormann High Performance Doors 201 Smith System CVR 4, 195

Arktura 101 Huntco Supply 38 Sonneman 21

Armstrong World Industries CVR 2, 1, 228, 229 Infinity Drain 68 Sprung Instant Structures 226, 227

Arriscraft 22 Invisible Structures 241 St. Cloud Window 240

AS Hanging Systems 74 Kawneer Company 14, 15 Steel Institute of New York 8, 218, 219

ASI Group 37 Kingspan Light+Air | CPI Daylighting 92 STO Corporation 99

ATAS International 197 LaCantina Doors 234 Stonhard 93

Azon 18 Landscape Forms 56 Sustainable Forestry Initiative INC. 64

B+N Industries, INC. 171 Lonseal 211 Technical Glass Products 26

Belden Brick Company, The 94 Lorin Industries 41 Thermory USA 209

Benjamin Moore & Co. 59 Lumion CVR 3 U.S. Green Building Council 34

B-K Lighting 162 Major Industries 32 USG Corporation 213

Bobrick Washroom Equipment 73 Marvin Windows & Doors 50 Versico Roofing Systems 139

C.R. Laurence Co., INC. 65 McGrory Glass 4, 5 Viewrail 69

Carlisle Syntec 163 modular Arts 75 Vitro Architectural Glass

(Formerly PPG Glass) 2, 3
Cascade Coil 12 Musson Rubber Company 28
VT Industries 137
CAST CONNEX 206 NanaWall 29
Western Red Cedar Lumber Association 43
Ceilings Plus 6, 7 Nathan Allan Glass Studios 237
Western Window Systems 102
CENTRIA 33 National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association 30
WSP USA 170
Chicago Faucet Company 46 National Glass Association 230, 231

CL-TALON® 25 Nora Systems 220, 221

Delray Lighting, Inc. 48 NOVA USA Wood Products 222, 223

Publisher is not responsible for errors and omissions in advertiser index. R Regional AD
244 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE 2019
snapshot PROJECT
LOCATION
VƯỜN AO CHUỒNG (VAC) LIBRARY
HANOI, VIETNAM
ARCHITECT FARMING ARCHITECTS

P H O T O G R A P H Y: C O U R T E S Y FA R M I N G A R C H I T E C T S

in vietnam, you don’t need to travel to the countryside to experience the nation’s agrarian roots.
In the dense capital of Hanoi, the self-sufficient Vườn Ao Chuồng (VAC) farming system, which
incorporates hydroponics, aquaponics, and animal husbandry, is still an integral part of many
households. To create a flexible prototype that could be implemented in various urban settings,
local firm Farming Architects has devised a modular wood-lattice frame with an adjacent pond.
Home to roosters, koi, plants, and even books, the model also provides a place for children to
learn and play. Alex Klimoski
 Beautiful Renders
Within Reach

Lumion is speedy, stress-free 3D rendering software.

Render beautiful images and videos in minutes
rather than hours.
Come visit us at the AIA’19 conference, booth #9122
Try Lumion for free at Lumion.com
 Furniture that
makes the grade.
13 grades to be exact.

Our singular focus on pK-12 learning means we know kids. We design for how they grow,
think and move. It’s all we do, so that schools and teachers can focus on what they do.
Get a free catalog at SmithSystem.com | See us @ NeoCon Booth #7-7050