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6 ARCHITECT, The Journal of the American Institute of Architects, December 2018

Contents
Volume 107, number 12. December 2018.
On the cover: Residential Architect Design Award winner Shelter Island House
by Christoff:Finio Architecture; photo by Scott Frances/OTTO.

14 An Olmstedian Bluff
18 For All Those Who Served
20 How to Draw People the Architecture Way

Tech + Practice
22 Best Practices: Working with Interns (the Other Kind)
26 Next Progressives: Hannah Design Office
30 Products: The Architects’ Gift Guide For Foodies
32 Opinion: A Call to Pause, Listen, and Learn
34 Architectural Lighting: Catch Up On Controls 71 The 2018 Innovative Detail Projects

38 Residential: Open Architecture

122 The 2018 Residential Architect Design Awards

AIA Architect
59 Re-Evaluating “Community”
61 A Revival in Hawaii
62 Will IPAL Make Licensure Easier or Education Harder?
65 Innovation Isn’t Optional
67 Marrying Form And Function
68 Everything, Everywhere, Everyone

Columns
101 The Political Activism of Henry Muñoz
by Ian Volner
113 Lifting the Veil on Succession
by Eva Hagberg Fisher

Editorial
160 Quitting Is for Winners
by Ned Cramer

Volume 107, number 12. December 2018. architect® (ISSN 1935-7001; USPS 009-880) is published monthly by Hanley Wood, One Thomas Circle, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20005. Copyright 2018 by Hanley Wood. Opinions expressed
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 Legacy.
AND LEADING EDGE.

Transforming John Lautner’s Garcia House

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W H I L E M A I N TA I N I N G T H E I N T E G R I T Y O F

JOHN LAUTNER’S VISION.”

- R O N R A DZ I N E R , FA I A
Architect/Design Principal

N E W YO R K | C H I CAG O | LO S A N G E L E S
Showrooms Opening Winter 2018/19
 Facade Designer: SHoP Architects
Structural Engineer and Facade Consultant: Thornton Tomasetti

The Journal of the American

Institute of Architects

Editor-in-Chief
Ned Cramer, Assoc. AIA
[email protected]
@NedCramer

Managing Editor Art Director

Greig O’Brien Robb Ogle
[email protected] [email protected]

Design Technology and Practice Architectural Lighting

Editor Editor Editor-at-Large
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Features Contributing Editors
Senior Editor Associate Editor Aaron Betsky
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[email protected] [email protected] Thomas de Monchaux
Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson
Editorial Intern Assistant Editor John Morris Dixon, FAIA
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[email protected] Cathy Lang Ho
Design Intern Karrie Jacobs
Taylor M. Crawford Multimedia Edward Keegan, AIA
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 The Journal of the American
Institute of Architects

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Submit your vision for a
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and Hudson Yards. 2018 Board of Directors
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JURY Bruce Sekanick, FAIA, Secretary
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Robert A. Ivy, FAIA, EVP/Chief Executive Officer
AIA Strategic Council: Jaime Sobrino, AIA, Moderator

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14 ARCHITECT, The Journal of the American Institute of Architects, December 2018

An Olmstedian Bluff Courtesy WHy ArCHiteCture

On Oct. 9, Waterfront Toronto announced that Rees Ridge by Culver City, Calif.–based WHY Architecture and Toronto-based Brook
McIlroy had won its competition to turn a parking garage on the city’s Rees Street into an inclusive, sustainable, and resilient public
space. According to WHY, the existing structure “will be transformed into a dynamic vertical garden that offers play, culture, and
nature spread over an elevated landform for residents and visitors to enjoy.” The sloping nature of the new park will not only give
visitors a perch to gaze out at Lake Ontario but will drown out noise from the Gardiner Expressway behind it. —GreiG o’Brien

> For more information and images on WHY and Brook McIlroy’s winning Rees Ridge design, visit bit.ly/ReesRidge.
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18

For All Those Who Served Jeremy Bittermann

On Saturday, Oct. 27, in Columbus, Ohio, while former Secretary of State Colin Powell and others spoke, the new 53,000-square-
foot National Veterans Memorial and Museum hovered nearby. Based on a vision from late Ohio senator and astronaut John Glenn
and designed by New York– and Portland, Ore.–based Allied Works Architecture, three concentric rings of structural concrete
shape the museum and provide a unified location to honor the veterans from all of our country’s conflicts. The museum also
represents a step forward in the reinvigoration of the city’s riverfront. —Sara JOHnSOn

> Read more about the museum’s opening ceremonies at bit.ly/NationalVeteransOpening and see more images at bit.ly/NationalVetsMuseum.
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20

How to Draw People the Architecture Way Courtesy MIt Press

New York–based MOS Architects’ Michael Meredith, AIA, and Hilary Sample, AIA, say that, fundamentally, an architect’s job is to draw
buildings. But in their forthcoming book, An Unfinished Encyclopedia of Scale Figures without Architecture (MIT Press, 2019), Meredith
and Sample also argue that the architect is responsible for drawing, painting, and/or digitally rendering the humans that might occupy
their spaces. “It is impossible to represent architecture without representing the human,” they write. “Even when the human presence
is intentionally left out or is reduced to a faceless set of measurements, it haunts architecture in its absence.” —KAtHArINe KeANe

> Get a more in-depth sneak peek of Meredith and Sample’s book, due out in January, at bit.ly/ScaleFigures.
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22 ARCHITECT, The Journal of the American Institute of Architects, December 2018

Best Practices:
Working with Interns (the Other Kind)

text by Jeff LInk

In 2016, the AIA stopped using the Aaron Forrest, AIA, co-principal at who spent the summer of 2018 interning
word “intern” to describe architecture Providence, R.I.–based Ultramoderne, at dSpace Studio, the opportunity to
school graduates working toward notes that it is easy to be captivated by engage with junior and senior architects
licensure, encouraging the profession a candidate’s portfolio and overlook to develop a new interface for the firm’s
to start using the term in its traditional critical working habits or communication website and to design interior elevations
application—for students working in an styles that might not be a good cultural and millwork details for a suburban
office while pursuing a degree. For firms, fit. To counter this, Forrest recommends Chicago residence left her thoroughly
college interns can create a pipeline of requesting and checking applicant pleased with the experience. “An
talent while they gain the professional references ahead of making any offers. internship program like this … prepares
experiences necessary to advance their “Architects today are really good at you for the technical components of the
careers. Here, architects and a current putting together a portfolio, [but it’s] a profession you don’t get exposed to in
intern offer guidance on how best to limited view of a person and their work,” school,” she says.
make the relationship beneficial. Forrest says. “You have to go out and
find out who they are, how they work, Designate a Mentor
Hire Wisely and Pay Fairly and what they’re good at.” The success of an internship ultimately
Chicago-based dSpace Studio founder relies on a mentor—someone in the
and principal Kevin Toukoumidis, AIA, Facilitate Real-World Experiences office responsible for orienting an
invites students each year from top Interns may be well-versed in intern to the culture and habits of the
university architecture programs to architectural theory and fluent in the firm, providing appropriate guidance
apply for a paid summer internship at latest design software, but they often on projects, and helping them meet
his firm, with wages typically starting lack experience developing detailed
at $18 per hour.
“We’re not looking for someone who
construction documents and in speaking
with clients. To teach and cultivate these
“An internship program like
can just draft, sketch, or 3D model,” skills, Jake Brillhart, AIA, founder of the this … prepares you for the
Toukoumidis says. “We want someone
who can write, ask questions, and give
eponymous Miami-based studio, gives
his interns real-world experiences that
technical components of
us critical input. Someone who has can help them grow professionally and the profession you don’t get
opinions and suggestions for how we
can be better architects.”
gain Architectural Experience Program
credit hours. “One of our recent interns
exposed to in school.”
Through experiences matched to was adept at CNC fabrication and used a —Claire Wagner, M.Arch. student, Rice University
their interests and aptitudes, dSpace laser cutter to prototype furniture for us,”
interns are assigned to roughly 10 small says Brillhart, who is also a professor of assignment goals. At the start of her
projects and two large projects. They architecture at the University of Miami. internship, Wagner was paired with
work independently and also shadow In exchange, Brillhart “let him sidecar on Ethan Werkmeister, a dSpace Studio
the firm’s design staff on a range of an apartment project in Miami Beach, designer who works on residential
tasks that include developing schematic doing interior drawings, meeting clients, design as well as marketing and
designs and renderings and preparing and seeing how it comes together.” information technology. “Right from
written materials for project bids and For Claire Wagner, a Rice University the beginning,” she says. “I felt it was a
design competitions. student pursuing an M.Arch. degree friendly, open atmosphere.”

> For more strategies in developing a robust intern program, visit bit.ly/ARInternDev.
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Rendering ©Hayes Davidson

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26

Next Progressives:
Hannah Design Office

EditEd by KatharinE KEanE

work advances and expands traditional Second favorite project:

building construction techniques by Our project Additive Architectural
implementing new technologies and Elements—A New Robotic Brutalism
Sasa Zivkovic and processes of making and addressing is an exploration of the tectonics
Leslie Lok the subjects of construction, rapid and narratives inherent to horizontal
urbanization, and mass-customized layer concrete 3D printing. It is both a
housing design. theoretical exercise as well as a full-
scale material exploration. Starting from
Origin of firm name: a series of prototypical architectural
Hannah’s work is first and foremost the elements such as doors, windows,
result of a large team effort, which is why columns, walls, floors, and ceilings,
we did not give the firm our personal we developed strategies as to how the
names. We love the palindrome, the layering of concrete, the relentless 3D
broken symmetry, the alter ego potential, drawing of extruded lines of material,
and the sound of Hannah. and the act of corbeling can suggest
Location: new strategies for building.
Ithaca, N.Y. First commission:
A modular dental clinic project in Leh, Special item in your studio space:
Year founded: India, which we designed pro bono from Cornell University Robotic Construction
2013 2014 to 2017. Laboratory’s self-built, large-scale,
open-source, three-axis gantry 3D
Firm leadership: Favorite project: printer called Daedalus, which we use to
Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic Our Corbel-Bacon Cabin, currently fabricate all of our concrete 3D printing
under construction in Ithaca, N.Y., is projects.
Education: an experimental house for two people
Lok: B.A., Wellesley College; M.Arch., situated on a ridgeline with a spectacular Favorite place to get inspired:
MIT; Zivkovic: Vordiplom, University of view of the landscape. We are the clients We have long given up on such romantic
Stuttgart; M.Arch., MIT and contractors, which enables us to notions. Inspiration comes (and goes) at
radically explore new architectural ideas the weirdest times, the strangest places,
Firm size: with the project. and the oddest occasions.
Two to eight The 3D-printed concrete base of
the cabin explores and strategically Design tool of choice:
Mission: manipulates corbeling to create form—a Our hands
Hannah is an experimental practice that process inherent to the printer. The
consequentially and unapologetically base is elevated from the landscape and Best advice you’ve ever received:
investigates, manipulates, narrates, contains a sink, storage seat, patterned Get a good photographer. Unfortunately,
recontextualizes, and breaks the rules floor, and working fireplace. We plan to we don’t always follow this very valuable
of materially informed (and robotically construct a lightweight envelope out of advice because we can’t afford a good
constructed) architectures. Hannah’s irregularly shaped logs. photographer on all projects.

> To learn more about the Hannah Design Office, visit bit.ly/ARHannah.
 MANY THANKS
TO OUR
SPONSORS.

Title & Underwriting Sponsor

Founding Sponsors

Alliance Sponsors

Innovation Alley Sponsors Supporting Sponsors

 28

2
Next Progressives:
Hannah Design Office

2
1

1: Jeremy Bilotti; 2, 4, 5: Courtesy HANNAH; 2 (exterior): yuxiN CHeN

 29

3 4 4

1. Located on the grounds of the

WinSun architectural 3D printing facility in
Suzhou, China, this 3D-printed concrete
guardhouse prototype integrates furniture,
shelving, seating, and even a bed.
2. When completed, the duo’s Corbel-
Bacon vacation cabin will occupy
approximately 9 square meters and sit
atop 3D-printed legs that will “adjust to
the terrain.” 3. Hannah’s RRRolling Stones
3D-printed movable concrete outdoor
seating system won the 2018 Folly/Function
5 competition hosted by the Architectural
League of New York. Twenty-five of the
colorfully painted benches are currently
located at the Socrates Sculpture
Park in Long Island City, Queens, N.Y.
4. As part of their work at Cornell University,
Lok and Zivkovic aim to answer the
3: AlexAndre MecAttAf

question, “What is the architecture of

3D-printed concrete?” with their Additive
Architectural Elements research.
5. Constructed in 2017, the Ladakh dental
clinic is composed of a modular concrete
frame and lightweight honeycomb sandwich
modules that are designed to be easily
installed and perform like disaster relief
pavilions.
30

Products:
The Architects’ Gift Guide For Foodies

text by AydA Ayoubi

Serving Platter, Heath Ceramics ($95)

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Designed and handcrafted in Sausalito, Calif., this minimalist, ceramic platter is “super durable
and makes everything you put on it look tasty,” Iwamoto says. Available in five colors (aqua shown).
Microwave- and dishwasher-safe. heathceramics.com

Pobrecito (Po’ Boy) Burnt Toast, Uno + Ichi ($46)

Recommended by Catherine Johnson, AIA, co-founder and principal,
Design, Bitches, Los Angeles
Wheel-thrown in Los Angeles, this brown clay mug features a hand-
drawn sad face “because most of us look like this before our morning
coffee,” Johnson says. Offered with a hand-glazed blue finish on the
interior and handle. Can hold 10 fluid ounces. uno-ichi.com

Cutting Board Set L, Snow Peak Dampfwerk Pear Brandy, France 44 Modusbox, Modus Studio ($392)
($55.95) ($31.99) Recommended by Chris Baribeau, AIA,
Recommended by Rebecca Rudolph, AIA, Recommended by Julie Snow, FAIA, principal architect, Modus Studio,
co-founder, Design, Bitches, Los Angeles co-founder and design principal, Fayetteville, Ark.
Made of birch wood, this multifunctional Snow Kreilich Architects, Minneapolis This portable, stainless steel grill and fire
case “is perfect for space-minded This German-style brandy is made pit is made for people who want to enjoy
adventurers—compact and functional from hand-selected Bartlett pears in the outdoors in style. “[It] is the perfect
with the attention to detail we admire,” a Minnesota distillery that Snow says outdoor accoutrement,” Baribeau
Rudolph says. Fits a chef’s knife and makes “outstanding spirits to be enjoyed says. Comes in a wooden box with two
doubles as a cutting board. snowpeak.com [with] friends and family.” france44.com handles and a spatula. modusstudio.com

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32

Opinion:
A Call to Pause, Listen, and Learn

text by Monica chadha, aia

comes from research and firsthand Burge to design a home for the Chicago
experience, and if they understand both Torture Justice Center. When we began
the conditions and social structures the conversation, we weren’t trying
already in place. to design space—we were trying to
So how do you pursue an understand needs. I could not have
unconventional design path at a time fathomed or articulated many of the
As architects, we often consider when architecture with a capital “A” is needs and opportunities identified by
ourselves experts ready to answer the foundation of our education? the staff, survivors, and family members:
questions as soon as they arise, We have many examples to draw “It’s a place of healing.” “It’s a constant.”
regardless of how new we are to the from. Early pioneers, like Henry Sanoff, “It’s a place where people call each other
project. But before we present the aia, were defining alternative practice in brothers and sisters.” These wishes,
solution, we need to understand the the late ’60s. The ’90s saw a resurgence in turn, started a dialogue to design a
issues and opportunities at hand. And to with Samuel Mockbee’s Rural Studio place that could realize them.
do that, we must ask the right questions. and Stanley Tigerman, Faia, and Eva Similarly, when we brought together
In undergraduate school, I often Maddox, assoc. aia’s Archeworks, Illinois Institute of Technology students,
felt lost in the fairly rigid Western where I studied and later taught for Chicago entrepreneurs, the Greater
educational system. When I needed several years. The Design Futures Englewood Community Development
to put pen to paper in studio, I didn’t Council and the annual Structures for Corp., and community members for a
understand how I could conceive an Inclusion conference are also valuable charrette that explored possibilities for
entire building in isolation. In reviews, resources. a local business accelerator, we heard a
I couldn’t fully wax poetic about my Over and over, opportunities arise much broader range of needs than we
design concepts without understanding to interact, understand, and create could have anticipated.
the people who would theoretically solutions together. Our challenge—our I encourage emerging designers
inhabit my project. I became more duty—is to take them on with open seeking to make a difference to look
interested in how projects can arise from minds. The answer doesn’t always have beyond the borders of traditional
the input of diverse stakeholders. (Later, to be making architecture, but it should practice and to roles in government,
I would learn these ideas are rooted in involve learning and creating from what teaching, and public service. I ask
participatory design.) is experienced. seasoned professionals in these fields
This desire to understand led me This approach can lead us to become to mentor, train, and support these
to spend a semester at Balkrishna problem seekers and to opportunities ambitions.
Doshi’s Vāstu-Shilpā Foundation, in to create, develop, and collaborate on And, more than ever, we need to
Ahmedabad, India. There, I worked on a what might become our next project. As apply the rules that most of us learned
social housing concept that employed a profession, we should use our skills to on the playground: Listen and respect
incremental development to match the identity opportunities. We should use others. Be kind and thoughtful. Look for
needs of occupants; for example, a room design as a tool to achieve a solution. similarities. Celebrate differences.
used for commerce could convert into In recent years, we have worked
housing for an elderly family member. I closely with several victims of torture
realized that architects can serve clients under the disgraced former Chicago Monica Chadha, AIA, is founder and principal
better if their understanding of a project Police Department commander Jon of Civic Projects, in Chicago.

> > To read more opinion pieces by thought leaders in the design community, visit bit.ly/AROpinion.
34

Architectural Lighting:
Catch Up On Controls

text by elizabeth Donoff

Lighting controls may seem like a Andersen, a lighting designer at Focus

straightforward topic, but in reality, it Lighting in New York. “There is a big
is one of the most complex aspects of difference between a feature or a
lighting design, even when paired with capability that would be great to have
the conventional light sources that and one that you absolutely need. The
prevailed prior to LEDs. Owing to its simplest lighting control system is likely
complexity are the basic protocols of the best for clients.”
how luminaires and system components Keeping the system simple
“talk” to one another, the large number also aids the entire design team in
of system components, and potential defining the scope of work and the
ambiguities in the user interface. specification process. “It’s important
Prior to LEDs’ market dominance, to specify products and systems from Aria Wireless DMX System,
the focus of lighting controls was often manufacturers that will be responsive Acclaim Lighting
on energy savings. Control systems and provide the best service,” says New Designed for solid-state outdoor lighting
mostly involved occupancy sensors to York–based Cline Bettridge Bernstein applications, the Aria Wireless DMX
turn lights off when a space was vacant, Lighting Design (CBBLD) president System provides a wide array of features
and dimming sensors and daylight and principal Francesca Bettridge. in a compact footprint. The transceiver
harvesting to maximize the use of natural “You have to be clear with the client is encased in a die-cast aluminum gray
light during daytime hours. as to who is specifying the system housing, measuring 9.1" by 6.2" by 2.2",
Today, with LEDs’ color-changing and who is commissioning it so that and functions as both the sending and
capabilities and advancements, if troubleshooting is required at some receiving point. It also provides up to
lighting controls have a wider range of point, it’s clear to everyone on the 15 channels at 2.4 GHz. The system
performance commands than simply on project team who is responsible for this consumes 3W of power, runs on 100V to
and off. “You are no longer controlling scope of work,” adds CBBLD principal 240V (or 277V at 50/60Hz), and utilizes
a single filament,” says Lowell Olcott, Stephen Bernstein. an internal wireless radio with both
product manager of controls and The following lighting controls mesh networking and signal routing
networking at Middleton, Wis.–based products provide a snapshot of the latest optimization to ensure seamless DMX
ETC. Occupants in both commercial and offerings on the commercial market that data reception. A 5-dB omnidirectional
residential projects want a greater level help architects and lighting designers antenna allows for transmission up to
of personal control to adjust lighting address a variety of project types and 2,600' for line of sight and up to 300'
to correspond to specific activities at client application needs. between obstructions and walls.
various times of day and night. Aria can also be used to make a
No matter the type and size of a direct connection to fixtures that have
project, a system’s ease of use and built-in receivers, such as Acclaim’s
affordability remain primary concerns Dyna Drum spot and floodlights. IP66-
of designers and clients. “The greatest rated for wet locations, the system works
challenge for designers when it comes within a temperature range of -40 F
to any lighting controls discussion is to 122 F. acclaimlighting.com
managing complexity,” notes Brett

> For more stories on architectural lighting technology and products, visit archlighting.com.
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36

Architectural Lighting: Zūm J-Box Sensor Integration Module, Crestron Electronics

Catch Up On Controls This new component for Crestron’s Zūm commercial lighting system enables
the integration of hard-wired occupancy and daylight sensors. It mounts
directly to a 4"-square J-Box and communicates wirelessly with one or more
Zūm dimmers, switches, and load controllers. It also enables the integration of
ultrasonic and dual-technology sensors, and sensors for hallways, high-bay or
industrial applications, wet locations, and outdoor installations. The module
can be configured to work with motion-detecting sensors for occupancy
or vacancy-only mode. For daylight harvesting, a single open-loop daylight
sensor, photosensor, or photocell can be connected. For network control
purposes, it appears as a native Zūm Mesh wireless device in the room, using
peer-to-peer radio-frequency communication. The device is UL-2043 listed for
installation in an environmental air-handling space. crestron.com

100%

12 pm
IntensIty (lumens)

9 am 3 pm

6 am 6 pm

0%

2700k 6500k 2700k

Color temperature (CCt)

Encelium Edge, Osram SpectraSync, Hubbell Lighting Unison Paradigm 4.0, ETC
This stand-alone wireless management One of the newer control systems ETC’s Unison Paradigm energy
system caters to commercial spaces to address color-tuning technology, management control system supports
up to 10,000 square feet in which a SpectraSync works with control a range of facility lighting and building
simplified, code-compliant, energy- systems from Hubbell or third-party systems integration needs. Incorporating
savings solution would be more suitable manufacturers. Available in three energy management, daylight
than a complex, networked, light different color ranges—dim to warm harvesting, and occupancy sensing,
management system. Designed for (2200K–3000K), tunable white the system works across devices from
spaces with up to 100 nodes, the system (2700K–5000K or 2700K–6500K), and one or more manufacturers. This latest
features individual and zoned scene scheduled white (2700K–6500K), the software release features options for
control and luminaire addressability; software works with standard zero-to- monitoring peak, partial-peak, and
control of an entire circuit of plug 10V dimming protocols as well as DMX off-peak consumption, including
loads (20A) at the receptacle level; and and preset/scheduling through any demand response for individual and
demand response controls for automatic lighting control system. The key feature group channels, or entire spaces when
light-level reduction. The system works of SpectraSync is its single-driver the system receives notification from
with any manufacturer’s zero-to-10V approach that allows occupants to a utility. The software also calculates
dimmable ballast or LED driver, and adjust lighting preferences according energy usage for all equipment loads,
operates with a mesh network using to time of day and activity. When regardless of manufacturer. Version
Zigbee standards. Luminaires and SpectraSync is paired directly with 4.0 provides enhanced support for
control scenes can be reconfigured Hubbell Control Solutions’ NX system, tunable-white and color-changing
using the system’s mobile app. The luminaires can be commissioned luminaires. One Paradigm processor can
system complies with ASHRAE Standard directly out of the box before installation, support up to 62 stations and sensors,
90.1-2016 and California’s Title 24-2016. according to the manufacturer. 18 touchscreens, and 1,024 circuits and
osram.com hubbell.com parameters. etcconnect.com
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linear LED lighting system with an arsenal of design features.

GlowSTX™ is comprised of a miniature die-cast aluminum

housing with a smooth satin white extruded acrylic

lens. Each linear section is only 3/4”

wide by 2 1/4” tall in cross-section

and up to 8’ long in length. The sections

can be connected together to form

any kind of shape or layout imaginable.

The LED channel boasts 5W / 410lm per foot.

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of shapes. Connectors are adjustable to enable anything
from a slight bend in angle up to a 60º return. An optional
Adjustable LED Accent module may be plugged in to any of
the connectors for added design versatility.

lfillumination.com
©2018 LF ILLUMINATION LLC
38

Residential:
Open Architecture

text by Katie gerfen

When asked to envision how we

should live in the future, it can seem Mars Case prototype installed in Beijing at the 2018 House Vision China exhibition.
glib for an architecture firm facing the
realities of climate change to respond:
Anywhere but here. But Beijing-based
Open Architecture’s Mars Case
prototype—which envisions life in
prefabricated micro-units on the Red
Planet—is anything but fatalistic. It’s not
a suggestion that the change on Earth
is irreversible and we need to abandon
ship, but rather an attempt to reckon
with humanity’s current resource use,
and to figure out how to modify it.
Mars Case was designed for the 2018
House Vision China exhibition. Started
in 2013 by Muji art director and Tokyo-
based Hara Design Institute designer
Kenya Hara, the program invites
architects to partner with a manufacturer
to design and build a housing prototype
that embodies their vision for how we
should live in the future. This year’s
iteration, the first in Beijing, featured
prototypes not only from Open, but also
MAD Architects, Hasegawa, and Atelier
Deshaus, among others.
For Open founding partners Li Hu and
Huang Wenjing, aia, the starting point for
the Mars Case design started close to
home. “One thing that interests me and
concerns me at the same time, both in Project Credits
China and globally, is the environmental Project: Mars Case
Client: House Vision China, 2018 Beijing Exhibition
crisis, which also causes a social crisis,”
Design Architect: Open Architecture, Beijing . Li Hu, Huang Wenjing, AIA (principals-in-charge);
Li says. “We’re just too greedy. We Hu Boji (project architect); Qin Mian, Ma Meng, Li Mengru, Wei Wenhan,
Wu Qingshan

consume too much of everything and we Sun Xuezhu (project team)

have expanded our footprint endlessly.” Product Engineering Consultant: Xiaomi Technology Co.
Lighting Consultant: Ruiguang Boying Lighting Laboratory (Hongri Lighting Group)
To look at how to curb that resource use, Size: 130 square feet
Li says, the questions that drove the Cost: Withheld

> To see more photos of Mars Case, visit bit.ly/MarsCase.

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40

Residential: Section A–A1 Floor Plan

Open Architecture

A A1

0 2 4

design of the project were: “How can we just to move ourselves there,” he says.
consume less? How can we be ultimately “It gives you an extreme challenge to
sustainable? How can we live small? How think about how you’re going to live.”
can we rethink everything?” It’s impossible to design a space-
Mars Case is an aluminum cube that ready dwelling with just a few months
clocks in at a tiny 130 square feet—easily lead time and an exhibition budget, so
packed and stacked for transport—that some of the design concepts remain
contains all the creature comforts just that. While the team had tested
of home. The cubic systems module PVDF membrane for the inflatable
contains the services and appliances: a living quarters (the same material
bathroom and shower, cooking facilities, used for inflatable bounce houses) and
and storage among them. Once in place researched other higher-tech materials,
on-site, one side of the cube folds down, the prototype installed in Beijing this fall
deploying a near-spherical inflatable featured a rigid resin skin that mimicked
living module for sleeping, eating, the translucency of the membrane.
and working. And while the design calls for a phase-
Open’s manufacturing partner in changing rigid floor in that module that
Mars Case is Chinese electronics would become a soft sleeping surface at
manufacturer Xiaomi Technology. Li night, such surfaces are still the subject
and Huang sought to partner with the of materials research.
company because its products have a But reducing consumption, both
“minimal style, but with a twist,” Li says. of spaces and resources, makes the
“And they’re all networked.” Discussions prototype something that Open hopes
with Xiaomi for the appliances in Mars to continue to develop for use on this
Case envision a closed-loop system planet, Li says. “Imagine this is back on
where waste from one appliance (heat Earth. Basically, it’s a very high tech, very
from the refrigerator condenser, for compact trailer home,” he says. “It has a
example) fuels another (such as a water huge market in America and can be the
heater) in order to create a self-sufficient most idealistic affordable housing.”
system that itself creates no waste. And Li feels acutely that the time
Using Mars as a conceit for exploring to check humanity’s approach to
how design can help combat climate consumption, and to offer solutions, is
change on Earth started as “a random now. “[Climate change] is a global crisis—
thought” in a meeting with Xiaomi, Li nobody can walk away from this problem,”
says. But it resonated. “It’s an attractive he says. “We all have to do something in
Wu Qingshan

story—Mars is a hot topic. But if you our own capacity to push the boundary.
Top: Systems module, with cooking and bathing areas. push the idea of our climate crisis to an We don’t have lots of time left to make
extreme, that is Mars. There are almost things not cross a threshold that is
Above: Living area, with desk and smart screen. no resources and we have to live small irreversible, and to have disaster happen.”
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42

Residential:
1
Open Architecture

Wu Qingshan

1. The Mars Case prototype, shown above, was installed in a Beijing courtyard filled with red sand to mimic the Martian surface. When approaching the
front door of the systems module, the rounded inflatable module beyond is hidden from view, emphasizing the small footprint. 2. Windows built into the
skin of the inflatable module would allow residents to have access to natural light and survey the landscape.
MEETING CODE
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CONTINUING EDUCATION

ENABLING INNOVATION THROUGH

Presented by:

OFFSITE CONSTRUCTION
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this course the student will be able to:
1. Identify the underlying issues in building and
construction that create the need for innovative new
technology and manufacturing processes, including
complex building codes, a fragmented and cyclical
building process, and a shortage of skilled labor.
2. Compare offsite construction to site-built construction
in a side-by-side demonstration and identify efficiencies
in framing hours, lumber usage, and jobsite waste.
3. Understand how offsite production can boost
construction productivity, while improving quality
and sustainability at the same time, by incorporating
automation and technology.
4. Discover how offsite construction is an entry point for
innovation that simplifies onsite assembly, provides cost
savings, and offers superior performance.

CONTINUING EDUCATION
AIA CREDIT: 1 LU/HSW
AIA COURSE NUMBER: AR122018-2
Use the learning objectives above to focus
your study as you read this article. To earn
credit and obtain a certificate of completion,
visit http://go.hw.net/AR122018-2 and complete
the quiz for free as you read this article. If you are
new to Hanley Wood University, create a free learner
account; returning users log in as usual.

SYSTEMIC INEFFICIENCIES OF THE agencies, and so on, so building code the building process, but these sub-contractors
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY doesn’t necessarily dictate consistent building aren’t independent of one another. What the
requirements within a region. Code can be a foundation contractor does impacts the framer,
There are seven fundamental reasons why the
patchwork quilt, even at the state level. and what the framer does impacts all the trades
construction industry is plagued with systemic
that follow. Building a home is a choreographed
inefficiencies. First, building codes are Next, consider the role that builders,
dance, often with a builder who isn’t actively
complex. The International Residential Code especially large ones, play in the
overseeing coordination between the trades.
(IRC), International Building Code (IBC), and homebuilding process. Most view their
Also, most construction is custom or semi-
International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) business as a developer does. They buy
custom, so repeatability is lacking.
are all referred to as model building codes that land relatively cheap, build on it to increase
are updated every three years. However, state its value (i.e., a home), then sell high for a Another inefficiency is that the limited use of
or local jurisdictions decide the building code profit. The actual building process is sub- production planning creates delays, change
for their region, are responsible for enforcement contracted to many others, which leads to orders, and cost over-runs. Gantt charts are a
and have ultimate authority. Typically, states the next inefficiency. The building process is standard planning tool, but they aren’t the ‘be
adopt some version of the model code, but fragmented and cyclical, as multiple trades all and end all’ to project management. Many
most states are one to two cycles behind the must coordinate for successful execution. software tools enable rigorous project planning,
latest edition. Even within a state, there are The builder brings in multiple specialized trades, but they aren’t employed very often.
different wind zones, seismic zones, permitting each responsible for their sub-component of

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CONTINUING EDUCATION

What about incentives? You get what you to capital avoidance by construction firms. However, homes are very different than cars,
reward, right? If the contractor maximizes his How will the fixed cost required to amortize a and the comparisons aren’t quite as simple
revenue by seeking change orders or making capital investment be paid while in a bust cycle? when considered with greater granularity.
multiple trips to the jobsite, then that behavior Added to this is the fact that approximately Perhaps the most significant difference is
will prevail. Incentives should be created that 50 percent of construction industry work that homes can’t be built entirely in a factory.
are aligned with productivity. is performed by small firms of less than 50 There’s always a site preparation component.
people that don’t have the scale for significant Another complexity is transporting a product
That brings us to the last point on the shortage
capital expenditures. Labor intensive methods that is orders of magnitude larger than a car
of skilled labor, which has become a primary
of construction are reinforced, and the only over the roadway from the plant to the jobsite
bottleneck for construction productivity.
mechanism for cost reduction is to use less and installing it there. That being said, the
Insufficient skilled labor exists today, and little
trained, cheaper labor. construction industry has much to gain from
is being done to fill the pipeline. The last two
moving more of their assembly and labor to a
generations of Americans (starting with the A CASE HISTORY IN MASS PRODUCTION manufacturing plant.
Baby Boomers) were told to set their sights on
four-year college degrees as a prerequisite to Before Henry Ford cars were built inefficiently,
TRANSFORMATION ENABLERS IN
enter the workforce. Now the infrastructure but beginning in 1908 he revolutionized the CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTIVITY
of vocational training needed to fill the skilled automotive industry with mass production
labor gap is lacking. In the recent past, we’ve of automobiles. Henry Ford was able to We are currently in a construction market that
been reliant on immigrant labor to fill the void, mass produce the Model T because it was a is ripe for radical change. A February 2017
but that spigot is closing. repeatable unit. In all, more than 15 million McKinsey Global Institute study, “Reinventing
Construction: A Guide to Higher Productivity,”
identified a combination of market forces in
play that could enable a transformation in
construction productivity:
• Rising demand and rising requirements
• Labor shortages or rising wages
• Entrants with new, disruptive
business models
• Emerging technologies, materials,
and processes
Rising Demand and Rising Requirements
The first transformation enabler, ‘rising demand
and rising requirements,’ can be looked at
from several different angles. First, residential
construction is still in recovery from the great
housing recession. Most economists believe
Construction productivity has been stagnant for decades, while other industries experience continual improvement. the long-term sustainable build rate in the U.S.
is somewhere around 1.5 to 1.6 million units.
The industry is not able to meet this demand
DECLINE IN CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTIVITY Model Ts were built. The Model T production without the necessary labor to fulfill the build
line had 84 assembly points. Through the mass rate in an already constrained market.
Productivity is a significant “pain point”
assembly line, process production time was
in building and construction compared to Another metric is the numerous changes
reduced from 12.5 hours to 93 minutes, with
other industries. Construction productivity in residential and non-residential model
less overall labor. Through efficiencies of mass
has been stagnant for decades, while other energy codes over the last three decades.
production, the price of the Model T went from
industries experience continual improvement. These changes have resulted in significant
$850 to $280.
The problems that stand in the way are improvements to energy efficiency, but they
structural and generally understood, as The building and construction industry is ripe present challenges to builders and developers.
previously discussed. The chart above shows for disruptive change like Henry Ford brought to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
the progression of U.S. labor productivity the automobile industry. Limiting customization estimates that a structure built to current model
from 1964 to 2012. As you can see, non-farm to some extent will be a critical aspect of this code uses about 50 percent less energy for
business labor productivity steadily climbed 153 disruption, just like it was for Henry Ford. The heating and cooling than it did 30 years ago.
percent over the period while construction labor Model T was offered “in any color as long as it’s
productivity declined -19 percent. black.” We do have some choices with our cars There is an ongoing progression of code
today, but not many. Scalable mass production adoption. Code is not adopted or enforced at a
Another significant issue is the boom and bust national level. Instead, states must first choose
is achievable with repeatable units.
nature of the construction industry that leads

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CONTINUING EDUCATION

to adopt the model code, and then assume workers are increasing at a current rate of consider themselves primarily a technology and
responsibility for enforcement. This results in 5 percent per year, while wages for private manufacturing company seeking to reduce time
a lag between model code development, and sector workers are increasing at a 2.9 clip. With and cost inefficiencies inherent to construction.
the implementation of that code into law. But, reduced future reliance on immigrant labor Repeatable units, global supply chain, and
adoption rate is ongoing for both commercial and shortages of apprenticeship and vocational mass timber are critical to efficient offsite
and residential building code. In 2009 only four training programs, there is no silver bullet to manufacturing. At present, Katerra is mostly
states had adopted the ASHRAE 90.1 - 2007 address these issues. focused on multifamily projects and jobsite just-
model code. Ten years later 44 states have in-time (JIT) supply of structural components,
Entrants with New, Disruptive
adopted the 2007, 2010, or 2013 code. In mass timber, kitchen and bath components,
Business Models
addition, beyond-code programs such as and finish accessories.
Net-Zero and Passive House both have some The third enabler is entrants with new,
The third example of a new business model
momentum in the market. disruptive business models. There are numerous
is the numerous acquisitions of U.S. builders
examples of startups approaching offsite
What building envelope technologies are by Japanese companies with advanced
construction with twists on the business model.
builders and developers going to use that will experience in offsite manufacturing. Japanese
Two high profile companies that have been in
enable them to meet the most challenging homebuilders will account for about 10,000
the press lately are Entekra and Katerra.
energy codes in all climate zones? U.S. homes in 2018. Prefab and modular
Entekra is a company focused on fully buildings are very prevalent in Japan, and
integrating design and engineering with the Sumitomo (acquired Mainvue, Gehan,
offsite and onsite manufacturing process, Bloomfield, Dan Ryan, and Edge), Sekisui
and have even trademarked this approach (acquired Woodside), and Daiwa (acquired
FIOSS™—Fully Integrated Offsite Solution. This Stanley Martin) all have significant experience in
is a successful offsite business model previously this type of home production. At present, they
employed in Ireland, and now being replicated haven’t moved to change the manufacturing
in the United States. Entekra emphasizes the processes of the companies they’ve acquired,
importance of continuity between offsite and but it will be interesting to see over time if they
onsite operations, so there’s not just a handoff begin to import homeland practices into their
of components at the jobsite. U.S. businesses.
The average age of construction workers has increased significantly Katerra is another high profile company that, New technologies, Materials, and Processes
over the past thirty years.and pavers.
according to press releases, has a lot of backing
The fourth enabler encompasses new
from Silicon Valley venture capital. Their
technologies, materials, and processes. First,
Skilled Labor Shortages and Rising Wages stated expertise is taking efficient state-of-
consider technology that allows homeowners
the-art manufacturing, logistics, and sourcing
The second enabler is skilled labor shortage, to enhance their home experience concerning
processes, and applying best practices in those
a massive issue in the United States. The convenience, maintenance, security, and
disciplines to the homebuilding process. They
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics graph above
demonstrates that the average age of
construction workers has increased significantly
over the past thirty years. The average age used
to be in the mid-30s but is now in the low-40s.
Where are the new entrants? According to
an NAHB Housing Market Index survey, more
than 80 percent of single-family builders are
reporting labor availability and cost issues, while
only seven years ago that number was in the
low teens.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment
Protections program believes that this labor
shortage is not a bubble that will pass, but is
instead a long-term issue. The Bureau predicts
that over a ten-year period, between 2014
and 2024, the job category of construction
laborer needs to grow 18 percent, about 2-1/2
times more than all other occupations to meet
demand. Looking at this from another angle,
the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that
annual wages for residential construction One manufacturer has developed technology to create a wall panel that has more components such as insulation and weather barrier
incorporated into a structural wall panel that is built offsite.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CONTINUING EDUCATION

efficiency. Smart homes offer wireless QUIZ

sensor network connectivity from the home
to the internet. Lennar, the number one 1. Which of the following is a systemic inefficiency of the construction industry?
homebuilder in the U.S., partnered with a. Complex building codes b. Fragmented and cyclical building process
Amazon to install Alexa technology in their c. Incentives that aren’t aligned with productivity d. Shortage of skilled labor
model homes to create experience centers e. All of the above
where people can use voice commands to
control appliances and security devices. With 2. True or False: Construction productivity has been rising for decades, while other industries experience growing stagnation.
their “Everything’s Included” package Lennar
plans to install Alexa devices in 35,000 homes 3. True or False: Limiting customization will be a critical aspect of offsite construction, as scalable mass production is
achievable with repeatable units.
this year. Automation is a point of attraction
for homeowners and will change how we 4. True or False: More than 80 percent of single-family builders are reporting labor availability and cost issues, while
interact with our houses in the future. only seven years ago that number was in the low teens.

Next, consider 3D printing and how it could 5. Which type of offsite construction is described as a plug-and-play kit of parts?
create a level of automation at the jobsite a. Components 2D b. Panelization 2D
that isn’t possible today. 3D printing offers c. Modular 3D
the potential for fast onsite building with the
precision of robotic automation. It remains to 6. In the side-by-side comparison of offsite and site-built construction, framing hours in the componentized home
be seen how 3D will change building practices were reduced by ______.
globally or in the U.S., as this technology is a. 22% b. 59%
vastly different from the way we build today. c. 78%

The next two examples are a clear tie-in to 7. Which of the following is an offsite construction advantage?
offsite construction, as they provide shorter a. Eliminating days from of the production cycle b. Less jobsite theft
cycle times and enhanced productivity. c. Minimal jobsite waste and removal d. Less cutting and fitting at the jobsite
Building information modeling (BIM) is e. All of the above
a digital representation of the physical
and functional characteristics of a project 8. A recent survey of the Top 20 homebuilders in the U.S. suggested their panelization rate was at _____ percent
and projected to grow.
plan. 5-D BIM adds scheduling and cost
a. 10 b. 20
to the spatial design capabilities of earlier
c. 30 d. 40
generation 3D BIM. This enabling software
package is a bridging tool that carries all 9. True or False: Significant infrastructure already exists for component and panel manufacturing.
the necessary functionality to connect the
upfront design and engineering phase 10. In Climate Zones 1–5 where a U-value of 0.060 (R-17) is required _______ polyisocyanurate with an integrated
through the finishing activities at the jobsite. weather resistive barrier and _______ structural spray polyurethane foam insulation is used.
a. 1", 1.5" b. 2", 2"
One manufacturer has developed technology to c. 1", 1" d. 1", 2"
create a wall panel that has more components,
such as insulation and weather barrier,
incorporated into a structural wall panel that is
built offsite. This technology is designed for use assembled someplace other than at the jobsite,
in existing panel manufacturing plants that are SPONSOR INFORMATION
then transported to the site for integration
already located throughout the country, taking into a finished structure. Some builders refer to
advantage of existing infrastructure. this as “decentralized construction.” Offsite is
In summary, there are several underlying issues a continuum of practices that broadly fit into
in the building and construction industry that one of three categories: 2D Components, 2D
create a need for innovative new technology Panelization, and 3D Modular. This spectrum
and manufacturing processes. New offsite of technologies involves increasingly greater
manufacturing processes and technologies are content manufactured offsite and therefore
emerging that can enhance productivity and greater efficiency at the jobsite. As an innovation leader in the development of
shorten cycle times. high-performance polyurethane foam, Covestro LLC
enables architects, designers and building owners by

Ä
THE OFFSITE CONSTRUCTION SPECTRUM providing real world solutions for built environment
This article continues on challenges. Covestro LLC develops polyurethane
The term “offsite construction” refers to http://go.hw.net/AR122018-2. insulation solutions that enhance building efficiency,
any process in which some of the building’s Go online to read the rest of the article and preserve structures and meet new energy codes with
elements are designed, fabricated, and complete the corresponding quiz for credit. high performance and sustainability in mind.

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Presented by:

PATHWAY TO RESILIENCE
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this course the student will be able to:
1. Recognize the increased risks from natural hazards and how resilient construction
can support long-term sustainability by addressing life safety and building functionality.
2. Identify approaches to mitigate the effects of natural hazards through both voluntary
and mandatory strategies that include steps such as adopting updated building codes
and high-performance standards, incentivizing disaster resilient construction and
building with robust materials.
3. Underpin a community’s economic vitality and safety through natural hazard
mitigation, and encourage other potential incentives such as zoning benefits,
accelerated permitting, rebates, and loan programs.
4. Demonstrate the importance of incorporating resilient standards in construction
through enhanced building codes, fortified programs, and rating systems.

CONTINUING EDUCATION
AIA CREDIT: 1 LU/HSW
AIA COURSE NUMBER: AR122018-1
Use the learning objectives above to focus your study as you read
this article. To earn credit and obtain a certificate of completion, visit
http://go.hw.net/AR122018-1 and complete the quiz for free as you read
this article. If you are new to Hanley Wood University, create a free learner
account; returning users log in as usual.

By: Lionel Lemay, PE, SE, LEED AP. Executive Vice President, Structures and Sustainability, National Ready Mixed Concrete Association
James Bogdan, LEED AP, QEP. Senior Director, Sustainability Initiatives, National Ready Mixed Concrete Association
Tien Peng, Assoc AIA, LEED AP+, PMP. Vice President, Sustainability, Codes and Standards, National Ready Mixed Concrete Association

INTRODUCTION wildfire season ever. The Tubbs Fire in Northern the likelihood of loss during a natural hazard
California killed more than 40 people and event can provide significant benefits to
For millions of people in the U.S., the
damaged more than 5,600 structures. building owners and communities, including
consequences of natural disasters have become
lower insurance costs, higher property
increasingly real, personal and devastating. Requests for federal disaster aid increased
values, security to residents, maintaining
According to the National Oceanic and tenfold compared to 2016, with 4.7 million
a consistent tax base and minimizing the
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2017 was people registering with the Federal Emergency
cost of disaster response and recovery. This
the costliest year on record for natural disasters in Management Agency (FEMA). These once-rare
article will offer a view on emerging risks and
the U.S., with a price tag of at least $306 billion. events are becoming more common and
opportunities as human and economic losses
costlier according to NOAA. Hurricane Harvey’s
Hurricane Harvey broke a rainfall record for from disasters increase, with the overarching
record flooding in Houston was the city’s third
a single tropical storm with more than 4 feet goal of supporting and advancing resilience
500-year flood event in as many years. Now,
of rain in southeast Texas matching Hurricane in future construction of buildings and critical
with the nation’s attention on rebuilding the
Katrina as the costliest tropical cyclone on infrastructure.
Carolinas after Hurricane Florence and the
record. Puerto Rico is still mired in the longest
Florida Panhandle after Hurricane Michael, it’s WHY ARE DISASTERS COSTING MORE?
blackout in U.S. history after Hurricane Maria,
time to rethink the way we build to meet the
and nearly 3,000 are estimated to have died In the last several decades, the population in the
challenge of the next natural disaster.
in the storm and its aftermath. California United States has increased and migrated toward
encountered the most destructive and largest Disaster mitigation works and is cost effective. the coasts, concentrating along the
Spending time and money up front to reduce

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CONTINUING EDUCATION

CASE STUDY: HURRICANES

The Brickell, Miami, Florida (pictured on page 1)
While The Brickell was being designed, Miami was recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Wilma.
Many high-rise buildings suffered extensive damage and were out of commission for extended periods in
this hurricane-prone area. The developer was willing to increase construction costs to realize long-term
operability of the building. The 35-story, 586,000-square-foot office tower was designed to withstand the
force of large projectiles, wind speeds approaching 300 miles per hour and storm surge. Integrating resilience
was paramount and involved a reinforced concrete structural system that uses post-tensioned one-way slabs
and beams, elevating portions of the ground floor above the floodplain, impact-resistant glazing systems,
and multiple backup generators to maintain business and continuity for tenants. It cost an extra 6 to 8
percent to implement these resiliency strategies which was immediately recouped with more competitive
insurance rates and lower operating expenses that amounted to $1 million in electricity savings. Additionally,
Number of Billion-Dollar Disaster Events by Year. Adapted from NOAA. with global companies concerned with business continuity across many time zones, high-profile tenants
leased space in The Brickell faster than other nearby Class A office space. The Brickell also was awarded LEED
Gold certification.

recovery toward an emphasis on resiliency, that Of course, it’s one thing to describe resilience
is, preventive actions to mitigate the effects of in generalities and another to design a building
natural hazards. to mitigate natural disasters. There is significant
guidance on reducing environmental impacts
WHAT IS RESILIENCE? with green building codes and rating systems
The Urban Land Institute (ULI) defines resilience such as LEED, International Green Construction
as “the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, Code, Green Globes, among others. But the
recover from, and more successfully adapt to guidance for designing a building to adapt to
Cost of Billion-Dollar Disaster Events by Year. Adapted from NOAA. adverse events.” Addressing changes in the and mitigate the effects of natural hazards are
environment, whether the changes are natural now only beginning to take shape.
earthquake-wildfire-prone Pacific coast and the or human-made, requires actions to mitigate
hurricane-prone Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Over STEPS TO DISASTER RESILIENCE
their negative effects and adapt to those
60% of the U.S. population lives within 50 changes. If we identify resiliency, not solely as There are essentially two ways to approach
miles of one of its coasts, including the Great a state of preparedness for disaster (such as disaster mitigation. There are voluntary
Lakes. At the same time, wealth and the value stocking up on food and water and having a programs where communities or building
of possessions have increased substantially. plan in place to search and recover people in owners voluntarily reduce their risk of natural
For example, while California’s Los Angeles distress), but as a desired characteristic of a disaster through enhancements in structures,
County accounts for only 2.5% and Florida’s sustainable society, one that has more control warning systems and education. The second
Miami-Dade County accounts for only 14% of of its basic human needs such as shelter, food, approach is to install mandatory building
their respective state’s land area, they contain water, energy, communications and commerce, requirements such that communities and
30% of their state’s property value. These we can begin to see the relationship between building owners are obligated to design
changes in the concentration of population and resilience and sustainability. buildings and infrastructure to be more disaster
property values are significant contributors to resilient. The following are steps, combining
the increased human and property losses from For a community to be truly resilient, it must
both voluntary and mandatory mitigation
natural hazards. address all human needs to some degree, but
strategies, to achieving disaster resilience:
the very basic of all human needs is shelter.
Disasters result not as much from the destructive This means designing buildings to resist 1. Adopt Updated Building Codes;
agent itself but from the way in which hazards such as flooding, wind, sea level rise or 2. Adopt High-Performance Building Standards;
communities are (or are not) prepared. Disasters wildfires and other hazards. For a building to
happen when natural systems are disrupted by 3. Incentivize Disaster Resilient Construction;
be sustainable, one must consider the potential
human development. In fact, there is no such for future use and re-use and design for long 4. Build with Robust Materials.
thing as a “natural” disaster in the sense that service life with minimal maintenance costs. 1. Adopt Updated Building Codes
losses caused by a hazard event are greatly Otherwise, the environmental, economic and
influenced by the degree to which society societal burden of our built environment could A common misconception is that a new
chooses to mitigate against the hazard. When be overwhelming. A building that requires code-compliant building in the U.S. will be
a disaster occurs, lives, assets, products and frequent repair and maintenance or complete resilient against considerable damage after
crops are lost; livelihoods are cut off; economic replacement after a disaster would result in a major hazard event. This is not always
growth is curtailed or sent into reverse. It is unnecessary cost, from both private and public the case. The building code sets standards
apparent that there needs to be a significant sources, and environmental burdens including that guide the design and construction of
shift in how we address natural disasters, moving energy, waste, and emissions due to disposal, structures for minimum Life Safety, the first
away from the traditional focus on response and repair, and replacement. step towards resilience. However, maintaining
the functionality of structures after a disaster

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CONTINUING EDUCATION

is also important, and building codes do not incorporating resilient building techniques into performance-based USRC Building Rating
address functionality effectively. Sadly, special construction to provide an optimum level of System assigns one to five stars along the
interests have convinced some state legislatures protection against a variety of natural hazards: dimensions of Safety and Damage expressed
to reduce the stringency or limit the adoption of as repair cost and Recovery expressed as time
A. Enhanced Building Codes—Enhanced
the latest building code. to regain basic function. Certified buildings
building codes can be developed and adopted
are expected to perform in a manner that
To date Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and through the building code appendices. The
will preserve the life safety of the occupants,
Delaware still do not have a statewide building appendices are provided in the International
limit damage to repairable levels and allow
code but pass the responsibility to the local Building Code (IBC) and the International
functional recovery within a reasonable time
jurisdictions to adopt the codes themselves. Residential Code (IRC) to offer supplemental
period after a major seismic event.
Florida, the state that faces more hurricanes criteria to the provisions in the main chapters
than any other decided in 2017 to weaken its of the code.
code adoption process. The North Carolina state CASE STUDY: EARTHQUAKES
After damaging windstorms in 2008, the
legislature decided to placate homebuilders and Roseville City Hall Annex, Roseville, California
Georgia Department of Community Affairs
update the building code only once every six Photo credit: John Swain Photography / Clark Pacific
created the Disaster Resilient Building
years instead of every three. Builders claimed
Construction (DRBC) appendices to the IBC and
that weaker code makes it easier and cheaper
IRC, which form the basis for the Georgia State
to build in North Carolina, but new homes
Building Code. The DRBC appendices offer an
were ill-prepared for Hurricane Florence’s high
affordable, flexible, and simplified approach
winds, storm surge, and rainfall. These states
to improving resiliency at the local level. Local
are not alone. Unchecked development remains
jurisdictions can adopt the complete appendices
a priority for powerful lobbyists, creating
to improve building resiliency against flooding
short-term economic gains for some while
and high winds, or they can adopt select
increasing risks for everyone else. As a result,
sections that apply to specific hazards in their
the American public is footing the bail-out bill
geographic area.
to the tune of $90 billion in disaster relief.
Floods are the most frequent hazard resulting
If we are to take people’s vulnerability seriously,
in disaster declarations. For those jurisdictions
we must deploy—and insist on—much greater This four-story, 82,000-square-foot office building
seeking to enhance their local floodplain
emphasis in mandatory code adoption. While houses critical city services such as IT, public
management regulations, a compilation
the design community can provide some of the safety communications and fire administration.
of flood-resistant provisions is provided in Integrated project delivery (IPD) methods were
expertise, their voices are not being effectively
Appendix G of the IBC. Like the Georgia employed to meet a short timetable for occupancy.
considered on the planning and policy level.
DRBC appendices, the provisions contained Utilizing a Precast Hybrid Moment Frame (PHMF)
The missing element is participation among
in Appendix G are not mandatory unless gave the architect flexibility in the design and
practitioners, the development community, and met a tight construction schedule. The concrete
specifically referenced in the adopting
policymakers interested in public safety over structure was erected in just 38 days which
ordinance. The appendix helps minimize the
economic opportunism. provided plenty of time to finish the project in
expenditure of public money in many ways: seven months. Also important for the city was
2. Adopt High-Performance Building flood control projects; the need for rescue and reassurance that during an earthquake critical
Standards relief efforts; prolonged business interruption; operations and services would continue. This
damage to structures; and ultimately, protecting project is the first to be rated and accredited by the
Buildings should not be a burden on their USRC, achieving Platinum level certification. The
human life.
communities. They should have sufficient structural system incorporates a high-performance
functionality after a hazard event and not place B. FORTIFIED Programs—The FORTIFIED for moment-resisting frame that limits design level
excessive demand on community resources such Safer Living and Safer Business are programs drifts to less than 1.25 percent. The system is
as emergency responders including fire, police, of the Insurance Institute for Business and designed to be self-centering after the seismic
event eliminating residual drifts, limiting damage
and hospitals. Communities with disaster- Home Safety (IBHS). The program provides
and providing for reduced recovery time. Other
resilient buildings are more likely to be able to enhanced design criteria relative to code added benefits from an operational perspective
operate schools and businesses after a disaster. minimum and the necessary construction and include lower long-term maintenance costs,
Stronger homes and buildings mean people will inspection oversight to ensure high performing superior sound isolation/exterior noise suppression
have places to live and work after a disaster. structures that are truly disaster resilient. The and approximately 30% less energy consumption
Less disruption for a community means robust IBHS is a not-for-profit applied research and because of the building’s thermal mass.
commerce and consistent tax revenue. communications organization supported by the
insurance industry.
Resilient buildings should consider a higher level
of performance to protect property. Property C. USRC Building Rating System—The D. REDi Rating System—The REDi (Resilience-
protection means the building can withstand US Resiliency Council (USRC) is a national based Earthquake Design Initiative) Rating
impacts and continue to provide its primary organization dedicated to improving the System is a set of specific design performance
functions after a major disruptive event. The sustainability and resiliency of buildings during criteria which aims to minimize building
following are programs and standards aimed at earthquakes and other natural hazards. The damage and promote contingency planning

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CONTINUING EDUCATION

for utility disruption and other threats to QUIZ

functional recovery. The success of the resulting
design in meeting specific monetary loss and 1. True or False: 2017 was the costliest year on record for natural disasters in the U.S.
recovery time is demonstrated by performing a a. True b. False
modified FEMA P-58 loss assessment developed
specifically for REDi. 2. Since 1980, according to NOAA’s chart, the number and cost of billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. each year are trending:
a. Upward b. Downward
E. RELi Standard—The RELi standard is a point- c. Flat
based system recently adopted by the US Green
Building Council (USGBC). It includes many 3. What percentage of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of one of its coasts, including the Great Lakes, where natural
hazards are the highest?
LEED-centric credits along with risk mitigation
a. 20% b. 40%
credits at the building and neighborhood scale.
c. 60% d. 80%
The intent is to provide greater adaptability and
resilience to weather and other natural hazards 4. Every state in the U.S. has adopted a building code.
in the built environment as a compliment to a. True b. False
LEED. USGBC is currently refining RELi to provide
a comprehensive list of resilient design criteria. 5. Which of the following is a program of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety to enhance the resilience
of buildings?
3. Incentivize Disaster Resilient a. RELi b. LEED v4
Construction c. FORTIFIED d. USRC

According to Munich RE, insurance companies

6. Which resilience standard or rating system has been adopted by USGBC?
took a $135 billion hit from natural disasters
a. RELi b. LEED v4
experienced around the globe in 2017. Half of
c. FORTIFIED d. USRC
all losses were in the U.S., and North America
representing 83 percent of all insured losses last 7. The following states have passed legislation requiring insurance companies to offer discounts to homeowners who
year. The three successive Atlantic hurricanes— build to the FORTIFIED standard:
Harvey, Irma, and Maria—cost major U.S. a. California, Oregon, and Washington b. Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina
insurers at least $14.5 billion. This made it the c. New York and New Jersey d. Florida, Louisiana, and Texas
costliest year ever for insurers.
8. The following cities have adopted Fire Districts to restrict combustible construction:
Resilient buildings reduce the risks associated a. Boston and Houston b. San Francisco and Oakland
with property insurance. States can encourage c. Denver and Salt Lake City d. Chicago and New York City
building owners to build resilient structures by
legislating insurance premium reductions to all 9. Which of the following hazards kills more Americans than all other natural hazards combined?
a. Hurricanes b. Floods
policy-holders if they build to specific resilient
c. Fires d. Tornadoes
design criteria. Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi,
and North Carolina have enacted such laws. 10. According to NIBS, the overall benefit-cost ratio for natural hazards such as floods, storm surge, wind, earthquake,
These states now require insurers to lower the and wildfires is:
cost of property insurance for building to the a. 10:1 b. 4:1
IBHS FORTIFIED standard. c. 8:1 d. 2:1

Hazard mitigation increases loan security for

lending institutions and decreases business
interruptions and improved bond ratings for
property owners and communities. Therefore,
other potential incentives should be encouraged:
• Building permit rebates;
Ä This article continues on http://go.hw.net/AR122018-1. Go online to read
the rest of the article and complete the corresponding quiz for credit.

• Property tax reductions; SPONSOR INFORMATION

• Accelerated local permitting and inspection
procedures for resilient properties;
• Zoning benefits, e.g., density or height
bonuses;
• More-favorable developer agreements for
the construction of resilient properties; Build with Strength, a coalition of the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, educates the building and
design communities and policymakers on the benefits of ready mixed concrete, and encourages its use as
• Revolving loan programs. the building material of choice. No other material can replicate concrete’s advantages in terms of strength,
durability, safety, and ease of use.

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HIGH-PERFORMANCE ARCHITECTURAL
COATINGS FOR METAL BUILDINGS Presented by:

AND COMPONENTS
INTRODUCTION
Metal is one of the most widely used materials in architecture. Architects
and designers continue to use metal in creative ways to achieve their
design vision. A virtually unlimited number of aesthetic looks can be
achieved using various metal panels and extruded aluminum profiles.
This course provides an overview of high-performance architectural metal
coatings for exterior building products for building façades and roofs.
There are two primary types of liquid coatings for these metal building
products which are named by their coating method: Coil (pre-paint) and
Extrusion (post-paint). Both options are applied in-factory and provide an
extremely durable finish that retains its performance and aesthetics over
time in exterior elements.

COIL COMPONENTS AND APPLICATIONS

Since inception in the 1930s, coil coatings have been utilized in a variety
of industries ranging from architecture, agriculture, aeronautics, and
myriad of other commercial, governmental, non-profit, and residential
applications. To achieve such versatility in a finished product, there is a
near-equal variety and combination of materials and coatings used.

COIL COATING USES

A wide range of building products and cladding are made from coil
coated metal, including, corrugated, insulated, metal composite, and
shingle-style metal panels as well as roofing applications such as metal
shingle and standing seam. From an aesthetic standpoint, there are
nearly unlimited design options. An extensive color palette is available
Aria Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada including solids, metallics, special effects, and printed patterns. Because

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this course the student will be able to:
1. Explore the differences between coil and extrusion end-use applications, coating
methods, and manufacturing processes.
2. Examine various coating components and their role in the coating system.
3. Identify industry standards relative to the performance requirements of coatings
for metal building components.
4. Understand AAMA specifications for specifying the optimal coating for a metal
building component or project.

CONTINUING EDUCATION
AIA CREDIT: 1 LU
AIA COURSE NUMBER: AR122018-3
Use the learning objectives above to focus your study as you read this article. To earn
credit and obtain a certificate of completion, visit http://go.hw.net/AR122018-3 and
complete the quiz for free as you read this article. If you are new to Hanley Wood
University, create a free learner account; returning users log in as usual.
Coil End-Use: Metal Roofing

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coil coatings are formulated to be highly flexible

and formable, manufacturers can create almost Coil Coating Process
any panel or shape.
Additionally, the premium resins used in
architectural coil coatings are very durable. They
are formulated to protect against harsh UV
rays, temperature fluctuations, humidity, and
other natural elements that can cause coating
degradation. They protect the metal substrate
from corrosion and provide a long lifecycle.
The coil coating industry is subject to
stringent EPA standards, which the pre-paint
process usually exceeds. Because the
manufacturing process for coil coatings is chalk, fade, and corrosion that protects exterior applied to the underside of the metal. While
highly controlled, environmental factors are metal building products for decades. backers are not visible on the final building
minimized and even eliminated. In certain coil product, they are necessary to prevent
coatings facilities, as much as 98% of VOCs COIL COATING PROCESS corrosion. Once the coatings have been applied,
are captured. Abatement equipment burns The coil coating process takes place in large coil the metal is baked at a high temperature,
the VOCs as fuel, saving energy, eliminating coating facilities that are typically the length typically between 400–500 degrees Fahrenheit
pollutants, and utilizing heat back into the of a football field or longer. The coating line is to cure the coating. The coil is then recoiled and
manufacturing process. able to run anywhere from 50 feet per minute shipped to fabricators for forming.
up to 800 feet per minute, making it a highly
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COIL AND EXTRUSION COATINGS
EXTRUSION APPLICATIONS efficient process. The illustration below shows
the various steps in the coating process. Aluminum extrusions can be used in a variety
The two primary methods for coating metal of building products, including curtain wall,
buildings are coil coating, or “pre-paint,” and The coil coating process begins when a roll of bare
skylights, window and door trim, louvers, entry
extrusion coating, or “spray-applied.” Both coil metal substrate such as aluminum, steel, hot dip
canopies, and sunshades. Aluminum profiles are
and extrusion coatings are applied in-factory galvanized (HDG), galvalume or other substrates,
extremely lightweight, durable and recyclable
and cured at high temperatures. In the pre- weighing up to 40,000 pounds, is delivered from
making them an excellent choice for building
paint method, a coil coating is applied to a roll the manufacturer’s rolling mill to a coil coating
applications.
of metal then cut into flat pieces of steel, or facility. The roll of metal substrate is called a
aluminum before it is shaped into a building “coil.” The metal is then fed into a machine
product. For example, a flat coil of metal can where it is uncoiled. In the pre-treatment process,
be coated prior to being formed into products alkaline cleaners, mechanical brushes, and fresh
such as metal roofing or panels. Conversely, water rinses remove surface contaminants and
an extrusion coating is spray-applied to the the mill oils that were previously added to prevent
aluminum extrusions after it has been formed. corrosion during transit and storage. Then a
pretreatment, or "conversion coating" is applied
Both coil and extrusion coating methods offer to the metal to add anti-corrosive properties and
a wide range of aesthetic options, sustainability provide adhesion between the substrate and
benefits and long-lasting durability. The resin coating system.
system in both coating methods provide
protection against UV rays, and resistance to After the pre-treatment process, both sides of
the metal are coated with primer. As well as
providing adhesion for the topcoat, primers
promote corrosion resistance. After the primer,
the color coat, which is often the topcoat is
applied, providing the desired physical appearance
and aesthetics; durability characteristics, including
color and gloss retention; and physical properties,
like hardness and flexibility. As the coated metal is
recoiled and later formed into building products,
the coating must resist cracking or chipping, and
flexibility is crucial.
In conjunction with the topcoat application,
backing coats, also known as backers, are
Uncoated cold rolled steel coil. Extrusion End-Use: Curtain Wall

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To create extruded aluminum profiles, a solid high-speed production of simple shapes. For
Coil Coating System Layers
block of aluminum, or billet, is heated to roughly instance, residential windows and doors have
850 degrees Fahrenheit until soft. The aluminum smaller parts that use this type of application.
is then forced through a die to make the shape
To begin either painting process, extrusion parts
specified for the end product. The profiles are
are loaded on racks for pre-treatment cleaning
then cut, stretched and go through an aging
to ensure coating adhesion. Any remaining
oven before they are ready to be coated.
moisture is dried in the oven. Next, the parts
enter a series of application booths where
spray guns on both sides of the part evenly
apply primer and then topcoat. Similar to coil
coatings, the coated extrusions then go through
the curing process.

COATING SYSTEM LAYERS Extrusion Coating System Layers

Both coil and extrusion coating systems work

to protect the substrate from corrosion and the
harmful effects of weathering. There are several
coating layers that work together to make up
the overall coating system:

Extruded Aluminum Profiles Primers: Primers are applied to properly

pretreated metal and provide both protection
The shaped aluminum is next hung horizontally and adhesion properties, allowing the topcoat
or vertically. The paint line is designed to ensure to properly adhere to the metal substrate. Topcoats: Topcoats are a combination of resin,
the coating is applied to all angles, corners, Backers: Backers are only used for coil coating color pigments, and other ingredients that
or gaps of a product. For example, aluminum systems and they provide protection and gives the coating system the majority of its
extrusion curtain walls, windows and door corrosion resistance for the underside of the performance and aesthetic properties.
frames, skylights, sunshades, and perforated metal that is not visible after construction. These Clear or Effect Coats: Specific coating systems
metal panels are best suited to a horizontal are not applicable to extrusion because all sides may desire an effect coat for added aesthetic
coating application. Vertical manufacturing of the extruded aluminum profile are coated. properties or require a clear coat for additional
paint lines, on the other hand, are designed for
pigment protection.
While many layers make up architectural coatings,
Extrusion Coating Process: Horizontal Paint Line when applied they are thinner than a strand of
hair. Despite being extremely thin, these strong
and durable coatings have been formulated to
stand up to the harshest exterior conditions that
can degrade a building’s color and aesthetic.

COATINGS COMPONENTS1
Most coatings are largely comprised of four
principle ingredients: resin, pigment, solvent,
and additives. The percentage of each
ingredient changes depending on a coating’s
final application and desired color.
Extrusion Coating Process: Vertical Paint Line Resins
Resin is the binder holding the pigment to the
substrate and adds the coatings durability,
weathering resistance and anti-corrosive
properties. It also allows for the curing process
to occur while the paint is drying.
Pigments
Pigments are tiny particles of color that can be
blended to create infinite varieties of color to
suit the aesthetics of any application.
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CONTINUING EDUCATION

Pigments also hide the substrate as well as QUIZ

offer chemical resistance. Organic pigments
made from petroleum compounds offer 1. In which of the following coating methods is the metal painted before it is formed into products and building components?
a natural, bright appearance but can be a. Coil coating b. Extrusion coating
more susceptible to fading and weathering. c. Both of the above d. None of the above
Inorganic, or ceramic pigments, are made of
metal and mixed metal oxides that have high 2. True or False: In certain coil coatings facilities, as much as 98% of VOCs can be captured. Abatement equipment burns the
resistance to color fade. Most high-performance VOCs as fuel, saving energy, eliminating pollutants, and utilizing heat back into the manufacturing process.
a. True b. False
coatings contain a blend of both organic and
inorganic pigmentation. Specialty pigmentation
3. To create extruded aluminum profiles, a solid block of aluminum, or ________, is heated to high temperatures until soft.
including mica and metallic flake, color-shifting
a. Coil b. Backing coats
pigmentation, and other unique options can be
c. Billet d. Resin
used to achieve special effects.
When selecting a color, UV exposure and 4. What are the four main elements to a topcoat?

intended end-use should be taken into a. Pigments, Resins, Additives, Acrylics b. Pigments, Resins, Catalysts, Water

consideration. No matter how well a coating c. Pigments, Resins, Solvents, Additives d. Pigments, Resins, Viscosity modifiers, Alkyds

is made, however, certain colors are more

5. The roll of metal substrate is considered a “________,” not to be confused with spring-like air conditioner coils.
affected by the environment than others,
a. Resin b. Inorganic
especially bright colors like yellows, oranges,
c. Mica d. Coil
and reds.
Solvents 6. True or False: Coating manufacturers are not required to perform rigorous testing on an ongoing basis to ensure the
long-term performance of the coating system to prevent these types of coating failures.
Another key component of coatings is solvents. a. True b. False
Solvents are the vehicle by which the solids
are transported to the substrate, thinning the 7. A resin system with 70% PVDF (polyvinylidene difluoride) could be described as which category?

consistency of the mixture so that it can be a. Superior performance b. High performance

properly applied. During the curing process, c. Standard performance d. Average performance

solvents evaporate while the resin adheres to

8. True or False: While many layers make up architectural coatings, when added together they are thinner than a strand
the substrate. of hair making the coating very fragile.

Additives a. True b. False

Any number of chemicals can be added to the 9. According to the article, one method of testing architectural coating resistance to natural exposure is by maintaining a
coating, usually in small amounts to bring special test fence with panels exposed at a 45-degree angle in an area of the country that has the ideal conditions for weather
testing because of the intense UV exposure, humidity and salt spray conditions. In what area of the United States is this
characteristics to it. Additives can be used for testing performed?
processing pigments within the film for flow and a. Houston, Texas b. Savannah, Georgia
smoothness, regulating the rate of the cure, and c. South Florida d. South Georgia
enhancing the coating’s hardness, gloss, mar
resistance, and other performance attributes. 10. Of the three AAMA specifications for coatings for metal buildings and components which one is the highest performing,
calls for 20-year performance, and is most commonly used on high-rise monumental and high-end residential buildings?
WEATHER TESTING COATINGS FOR METAL a. AAMA 2603 b. AAMA 2604
BUILDING COMPONENTS c. AAMA 2605 d. Both AAMA 2603 and 2604

UV exposure, moisture, humidity, high

temperature, temperature fluctuations, and
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color fade. Chalking is caused by a degradation primary methods of testing are long-term natural
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that can be scrubbed off or mechanically buffed
away. Fade, on the other hand, is caused by a
breakdown of the pigment itself and can cause
the color to lighten over time in most cases.
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http://go.hw.net/AR122018-3. Go online to
read the rest of the article and complete
As one of the leading manufacturers of architectural
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Coating manufacturers must perform rigorous the corresponding quiz for credit.
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AIA Architect
AIAVoices
PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL MANTESE PHOTOGRAPHY

Re-Evaluating I identify first as black, second as a woman, schools—the spaces don’t look like the ones we
and third as a designer—not typically what design professionally. Architecture is still very

“Community”
people think of when you describe an architect. much an exclusive profession, and I want to
I believe—and think most people would work toward breaking down that barrier.
probably agree—that this intersectionality of The lack of consideration for where we are
Architects and designers need to build a being a double minority has a huge influence focusing our design resources makes me wonder
bridge between practice and community. on my identity, my experience, and the way I if we really value our communities. If we’re not
see the world. providing design services to protect the health,
Julia Weatherspoon, assoc. aia, is a Northern Although there is this big push for diversity safety, and well-being of people who need it, are
California native and recent participant in the and inclusion in architecture, the profession we really being good architects and designers?
AIA Design Justice Summit. Weatherspoon is still largely homogeneous and not reflective The onus is on the architect to push the envelope
works as an architectural designer at of the stories and abilities of designers of color in terms of what we can provide in the built
Perkins+Will, a firm she was drawn to for its within the POC [people of color] community. environment to elevate the human experience.
emphasis on diversity, inclusion, and social When we have the skill set and education to We have to take a step back and think about not
responsibility. Passionate about providing understand problems and create meaningful only what the client desires, but also advocate
design services for underrepresented design solutions, you also realize that we need for what communities need, and how we can
populations, she works to connect young to use our expertise to actively serve people in include them in the decision-making process.
designers with their communities in the underrepresented communities. Currently, many young people are
transient Bay Area. There is a polarity in how we move converging on the Bay Area. I believe there is
through spaces professionally versus how we a lack of immersion and connection to local
As told to Kathleen M. O’Donnell move through spaces personally. The people communities by the newcomers because most
I interact with within my family and friends of them aren’t invested in the Bay Area as a
usually are not the same types of people I serve long-term living situation. I haven’t seen much
in a professional setting. When I go home—or of a transplant community that is deeply rooted
volunteer with local community centers and and engaged in local culture. AIA
59
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AIA NOW DECEMBER 2018 AIA Architect

AIANow
By Steve Cimino

A Revival in Hawaii
Presenting the AIA Film Challenge
2018 People’s Choice Award winner.

Every year, the AIA Film Challenge

highlights filmmakers and architects who
team up to tell stories of inspiring and
groundbreaking design. The 2018 People’s
Choice Award winner—as voted on by the
public—was Ka Hale: A Revival, the story
of indigenous architect Francis Palani
Sinenci and his efforts to preserve ancient
Hawaiian cultural practices.
In just 4 minutes and 52 seconds,
filmmaker Marq Morrison and his cast
explain the value of a traditional “hale,” or
house, and the need for future generations
to embrace the old ways of life. Morrison’s
film reminds audiences that even as
the world moves forward, time-honored
methods of building have survived this long
for a reason.
“Before transitioning into film, I studied
architecture in college,” Morrison says.
“This project provided me with the first—
and hopefully not the last—opportunity
to combine my two passions, and I am
honored to be recognized by AIA.”

For more on the AIA Film Challenge, visit

aiafilmchallenge.org.

To view a longer version of the winning

documentary, visit KaHaleRevival.com.
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARQ MORRISON

61
 AIA Architect DECEMBER 2018 AIA FEATURE

AIAFeature

Will IPAL Make

Licensure Easier or
Education Harder?
At nearly two dozen schools, the pipeline just got a lot shorter—but no less rigorous.

By Katherine Flynn

ILLUSTRATION: LAUREN NASSEF

62
AIA FEATURE DECEMBER 2018 AIA Architect

The journey to becoming a full-fledged architect has traditionally

resembled a long, slow marathon, encompassing three substantial
hurdles: education, intern hours (over 3,000 of them), and
rigorous exams. In 2016, the time to licensure for the average
architect was 12.5 years from start to finish, according to the
National Council of Architectural Education Boards (NCARB).
Even without consideration for career detours or for personal or
financial circumstances, the average architecture student can
expect to become licensed somewhere around the age of 32.

In 2015, NCARB introduced a new program people that are changing careers,” says Frank if they weren’t licensed,” Neveu says. “I don’t
called the Integrated Path to Architectural Bosworth, aia, director of CityLab-Orlando’s think the benefit is in the short-term; I think the
Licensure, or IPAL, with the aim of breaking M.Arch. program. “This is a way to engage benefit is really five, 10 years out.” Typically,
the process down into a series of shorter, if them in the profession and get them started in the highest rates of attrition on the path to
undeniably more intense, sprints. The goal a reasonable amount of time.” licensure—especially for women and minority
of IPAL is to give aspiring architects the But IPAL has been met with a degree students—occur during the experiential
opportunity to complete their education and of skepticism from traditionalists. “One learning portion, when a designer is working at
intern hours, and take the exams, in roughly argument was that, ‘We’re going to have a firm to accumulate AXP hours in a variety of
half the time of the more traditional route. to change our curriculum,’ which doesn’t subject areas, as dictated by NCARB.
As of the end of 2017, there were just over actually have to change,” says Marc Neveu,
450 students enrolled in IPAL across 17 head of architecture at Arizona State Students Trapped in a Numbers Game
programs, with more programs expected University. Neveu, former associate dean
to start in the 2018–2019 academic year, of the Architecture School at Woodbury According to the AIA’s most recent firm
according to NCARB. University in Los Angeles, was instrumental in survey report, “The Business of Architecture
IPAL doesn’t eliminate the requirements of implementing the IPAL program at Woodbury 2018,” women and people of color are still
licensure, NCARB and other advocates for the along with his late colleague, dean Norman underrepresented in the architecture field,
program point out, but rather it offers students Millar. “There was a perception that we were but the numbers are improving. Over the past
a way to fulfill some of those requirements going to be teaching to the test, and that was, I decade, the share of women architecture staff
while they’re enrolled in National Architectural think, a false argument.” has increased from 28 percent to 35 percent,
Accrediting Board–approved architecture The possibility of curricular reform aside, and the numbers for minorities have increased
programs. The 21 programs that currently the introduction of IPAL into architecture’s from 22 percent to 27 percent. Among firm
support or are developing ways to support academy points to another kind of reform in architecture staff overall, representation of
IPAL have elected to offer students ways to American education: making the threshold to racial/ethnic minorities is highest among
fulfill Architectural Experience Program (AXP) practice easier to cross. emerging professionals on the path to licensure
hours—time in a firm—and sit for Architect “The interest that I had in the program (38 percent) and non-licensed architecture staff
Registration Examination (ARE) tests. was not necessarily the speed or the time (27 percent). The most significant proportional
For the University of Florida’s CityLab- to licensure,” Neveu says. “Our hopes were gain over the last decade is among emerging
Orlando, which offers graduate degrees in that it would allow students of more diverse professionals on the path to licensure, where
architecture, the potential for licensure with backgrounds to ensure licensure.” A large the share of racial/ethnic minorities increased
the completion of a four-year M.Arch. has been percentage of Woodbury’s student body by 11 percentage points.
a major selling point, especially if a student is consists of first-generation college students, “We think that students that are in the
coming from a different career or discipline. with the demographics of the school closely IPAL program will be able to realize a higher
“If you look at the NCARB statistics, mirroring those of Southern California. earning potential faster, and we think that’s
it would be almost seven years after they “For us, the opportunity is really about important for a variety of reasons,” says
graduated before they would get their people entering into the profession having more Michael Armstrong, CEO of NCARB. “As we’re
registration, and that’s way too long for options—and having more opportunity—than talking in the architecture community about
63
 AIA Architect DECEMBER 2018 AIA FEATURE

AIAFeature
CONTINUED

underrepresented groups, the ability to get holding conversations with them at many more educational backgrounds … and then to have
more quickly to a higher earning potential can points in the curriculum than we used to,” says them being told that they’re going to be
make the difference as to whether you would Nelson. teaching in a program that sounds vocational to
stay in the profession or not.” In a typical IPAL trajectory, both them,” Kelly says.
Bosworth, of CityLab-Orlando, echoes undergraduate and graduate students work Nelson thinks that the trepidation about
this sentiment. “We feel strongly that women part-time at a firm during the school year, full- what IPAL means for the future of architectural
and people of color are underrepresented [in time during the summer, and sometimes take education is unnecessary. “There’s this fear
the profession],” he says. “One of the ways a full calendar year off to accumulate enough that it will be a requirement in architectural
to ensure their acceptance and promotion is AXP hours to be able to take the licensure exam education, which is silly,” says Nelson. “Every
to get them to be registered architects when before they graduate . Michael Germano, aia, school should go to its own strengths.”
they leave school, so that they are not in a who finished his M.Arch. in May as one of The central question about IPAL’s viability
subjugated position.” the first IPAL graduates in the country and is is the same question about licensure’s value. If
now an architect at Cline Design Associates in a license to practice is about achievement, how
What Does the IPAL Experience Raleigh, N.C., says that sharing the experience, does it stack up to other paths of advancement
Look Like? and the exam preparation, with other students within the larger design industry?
who were facing the same challenges was a “The value of the education, I think, is not
For schools where architectural education helpful part of the process for him. only in that it leads to a license, which it can.
was already strongly linked to employment “It was great that we had classmates who The value is in the sense that it can open up
and hands-on experience at firms, the were going through the process at the same opportunities,” Neveu says.
implementation of IPAL has not come as a time, so we all had that study support group,” Other proponents, however, like CityLab-
drastic shift. Karen Nelson, dean of the School he says. “Definitely, not having the exams to Orlando’s Bosworth, see licensure as the best
of Architecture at Boston Architectural College worry about after school is great.” way to ensure that aspiring architects can
(BAC), which instigated IPAL in 2016 as part of advance in their careers. “We made a real effort
its M.Arch. program and incorporated it into the Skeptics Parse Architecture’s Vocation to change the culture of expectation from the
B.Arch. program the next year, says that BAC from its Profession degree to the license,” he says. “So, the anxiety
students have always been required to achieve about completing school as quickly as possible
a certain level of competence in the workplace Advocates of IPAL emphasize that it is meant is now transferred to completing the exam as
while getting their architecture degrees. to be an innovative option for schools, not a quickly as possible. Everyone realizes now, after
“The big change for us is not incorporating pedagogical imperative. “We believe that a a couple of years, that what they’re doing—in
practice into our degree, but rather mixture of classroom experience and field effect, while they’re in school—is exactly what
incorporating this opportunity to take the experience makes for a richer overall learning they’re going to be doing after school if they
exams before one graduates,” she says. All BAC experience—that what you learn in the don’t get licensed.”
students must complete 3,000 hours of work at classroom can support what you’re learning A prospective architecture student has a
a firm before being granted their degree. Each in the field in real time, and vice versa,” range of ways to evaluate the kind of education
student is assigned a “practice faculty” member Armstrong says. that suits them. Resources like ACSA’s Study
to oversee the experience that the student is Despite IPAL’s intentions, however, some Architecture (studyarchitecture.com) offer
gaining, and to coach the student in how to educators wonder how—or if—it will limit quizzes that recommend programs based on
advocate for themselves to get the right kind of the latitude that many architecture students interests and aspirations. Once enrolled, an
experience at their firms. IPAL has necessitated have to explore other disciplines and topics architecture student often has multiple tracks
a more structured and intentional approach to beyond architecture, but in service of a broad and program options within their schools,
that experience. knowledge base. which have evolved over the last decade in
“It’s about getting our students to be more “One of the sentiments articulated response to design/build delivery methods,
mindful of practice and how they need to several years ago by faculty members and the proliferation of BIM (especially at large
propel themselves through AXP, because we’re administrators at an Association of Collegiate firms), and the potential of 3D printing for rapid
Schools of Architecture [ACSA] forum prototyping. Architecture schools have also
focused on NCARB’s proposal to initiate the evolved over the past decade to address vexing
“It was great that we IPAL program was the concern that this is issues like climate change and the affordable
taking a step toward vocational training and housing crisis. If IPAL’s toe-hold on the
had classmates who moving away from the broad aims of liberal professional pipeline is about getting students
education,” says Brian Kelly, aia, an associate to market faster, it could also mean faster
were going through the dean at the University of Maryland’s School design responses—by licensed architects—to
of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. those urgent questions.
process at the same time, “There’s a notion that liberal education is Neveu says that architecture students he
important even in vocations, and there’s more has seen in recent years show an idealism that
so we all had that study and more movement afoot today to do away he finds admirable. “I can definitely tell the
with what are often referred to as ‘frills’ and difference in students, even from 10 years ago,”
support group.” get down to the bare minimum.” he says. “They want to change the world, and
“It’s a hard thing to sell, particularly they think that they can change the world—
—Michael Germano, aia to faculty who come from strong liberal which is pretty wonderful.” AIA
64
 PERSPECTIVE
AIA PRACTICE JUNE 2015 2018
DECEMBER AIA Architect

AIAPractice
Innovation
Isn’t Optional
It’s time for a more radical shift.

PHOTOGRAPHY: BLAINE BROWNELL

Blaine Brownell, aia, is the director of
graduate studies at the University of
Minnesota School of Architecture (as well as
being a contributor to architect). He has
published four editions of Transmaterial: A
Catalog of Materials That Redefine Our Physical
Environment, which emphasizes sustainability.
As such, he has seen a distinct evolution
in how architects engage with and deploy An art installation in Ann Arbor, Mich., featuring recycled plastic bottles. Designed by Brownell, it can also serve as an interior lighting system.
sustainable strategies. But are we moving fast
enough to make the necessary impacts? “We look at the 12 years since the first Transmaterial, ordering a certain product, its environmental
need innovations,” he says, “and we need there is significantly more information out performance will vary. If you’re shipping it
them at ever-shorter intervals.” there and better practices being adopted. across the world, that is different than if it’s
Yet at the same time, countries like the made locally.
How has the materials and sustainability United States are struggling to meet climate We also, at the time of the first
world changed in the years in between targets. Simply put, if we don’t pursue one- Transmaterial book, didn’t have access to the
Transmaterial in 2006 and Transmaterial planet design, we won’t be able to live on one tools to understand the carbon footprint or
Next in 2017? planet. LEED has been great, but it’s time for a life-cycle assessment of these materials that
Over the last 10 years, there has been a great much more radical shift. Maybe the U.S. Green we have now. The materials industry, mainly
deal of development in integrating and Building Council will develop more radical in the product sphere, has become much more
advancing ideas like biomimicry and biodesign, approaches; maybe we will move into the sophisticated in terms of product life cycle. But
and in areas like synthetic biology, genetic regulatory realm versus the incentive realm. there still remain questions like, “How do you
engineering, and bioinformatics. The author I think we’re well past the time for pure carrot- determine a material’s absolute performance?”
Kevin Kelly’s prediction in the 1990s [that] “the based decision-making when it comes to our This is either a holy grail or a black hole,
made and the born would converge” is coming carbon footprint. depending on your point of view; we may never
true. We’re delving deeply into the components At some point we have to either do the be able to fully determine it. But maybe we can
of life itself and—in a way—addressing life as a right thing or fail. Businesses will collapse; develop necessary guidelines of some sort.
design project. communities will collapse. It will come to that. Say you have a single individual living
When it comes to architectural awareness, When you look at architectural practice today, in a 10,000-square-foot house that is made
sustainability has grown a lot. I’m talking even though it’s come very far in terms of with the greenest materials, but it has a
in terms of programs, protocols, and sustainable design, the needle has to move that massive footprint in other ways, relative to one
quantification: “Where are we? How do we much further. individual. Compare that to 10 people living
measure what we’re doing?” Public-interest in a modest, poorly performing house. The
design has found even more of a foothold; It seems to have pervaded our general latter example could be more environmentally
people are questioning the social implications consciousness that a LEED designation responsible. At some point, population and
of what we’re doing, and there’s a greater means a “good” building. But it doesn’t go material flows have to reconcile and be
cognizance of the other 99 percent, so to speak. far enough in a lot of areas, especially with interrelated.
Clearly, there is much more of a social and the serious issues we’re facing as a planet. When I’m creating a book of cool
environmental agenda than there was in 2006. I feel like LEED suffers from generalities that innovative materials, there’s no reference. I
my Transmaterial series suffers from when it have no idea how many people are going to use
How is this knowledge and interest in comes to sustainable practices. What do I mean this material, or in what quantities. It’s purely
sustainability being applied? Is there a by that? I’ll offer up this story. ideas. But in the case of LEED, or whatever
change in how much it’s acted upon versus In 2006 I gave a lecture, and someone in comes after LEED, at some point we will have
how much it’s talked about? the audience followed up with a really great to incorporate notions of footprint. This is
To the extent that architects have become question: “Can the next book incorporate of real interest to me. All kinds of dangerous
more knowledgeable and have developed the a quantifiable symbol for how green each and provocative questions arise as a result,
necessary expertise to act, yes. LEED has been material is? Something like one to five trees.” like material rationing and access. But it’s
of great benefit as a first stage of sustainable A nice idea on paper, but then we entered into a the only way we’ll get to our goal of having a
awareness and practice; many architects have deeper conversation about why that is difficult sustainable planet. AIA
become LEED-accredited or know enough and potentially impossible. For starters,
about sustainable design approaches. If you wherever you are in the world, if you’re Steve Cimino
65
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 AIA DESIGN DECEMBER 2018 AIA Architect

AIADesign
PHOTOGRAPHY: KEVIN HARBER

Marrying Form
When visitors leave one exhibit in the National Gallery of Art East Building, they must return to the atrium before entering
another one, generating a sense of exploration.

And Function supplied the marble for the West Building were easy feat for Pei, of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners,
reopened to clad the newer addition, making who at that point in his career had already
Forty Years Later, I.M. Pei’s East Building for an aesthetic congruence between the sister designed the John F. Kennedy Presidential
Is Still a Masterpiece structures. Library and Museum in Boston and Dallas
More than anything, the design of City Hall. His structure had to work in unity
There’s no way to anticipate the capaciousness the East Building is about a feeling—an with the John Russell Pope–designed West
of the National Gallery of Art East Building— embodiment of democratic concepts and Building, built between 1937 and 1941, and
the sense of expansion you’ll feel once you Americans’ relationship to their capital city it also had to fit on the irregularly shaped,
take your first steps past the low-ceilinged and government, certainly, but more than that trapezoidal site that had been designated
security checkpoint and into the central atrium. the pure tactile joy of being a place that feels for that purpose in 1937, when the National
Architects have been employing this effect— as though it exists outside of time. “Like all Gallery was established.
leading people from a compressed space into successful buildings designed for public use, Programmatically, the new building had
an expansively open one—for centuries, but in it is truly complete only when thronged with two different functions: a museum for large
the context of the multilevel galleries in I.M. others like us, who, by entering, embark on a traveling exhibitions and events, and a study
Pei’s 1978 jewel box, it feels new. personal voyage of discovery,” writes Richard center/office facility. Pei himself talked about
The East Building may be one of the most B. K. McLanathan in his 1978 book East the building’s intended purpose as a “very
controversial museum buildings in America for Building, National Gallery of Art: A Profile. important center for social and artistic life
its prioritization of form over function. While The East Building houses modern and in Washington”—a tall order if there ever
the atrium’s high ceilings foster a sense of contemporary art, progressing from Picasso was one. Pei envisioned three flexible towers
grandeur, detractors of the museum’s design and Matisse in the early 1900s all the way to located around the central atrium designed
have pointed out that Pei left comparatively contemporary pop art. When visitors enter to permit the exhibition of one large show, or
little space for the actual display of art, and that the atrium, they are greeted by the largest several small shows, with the sense of intimacy
the space he did leave was disjointed and lacked mobile ever crafted by renowned 20th-century of a much smaller museum.
a cohesive flow—a problem that the National American artist Alexander Calder. The The East Building was dedicated on
Gallery addressed during a 2016 renovation. farthest-facing wall is defined by Color Panels June 1, 1978, by President Jimmy Carter and
It’s hard to downplay the East Building’s for a Large Wall, a 1978 work by American Paul Mellon, son of Andrew Mellon, the
visual impact on the National Mall. Its north- artist Ellsworth Kelly. This expansive central philanthropist who founded the National
facing side rises above its surroundings like space feels like a deep breath, a cathedral that Gallery by donating his own art collection.
the prow of a ship, its organizing visual theme absorbs sound and stays hushed no matter how By the time the museum’s original iteration
of triangles echoed and repeated in every many people occupy it at a given time. reached its 25th anniversary, in 1966, most
dimension. The Tennessee quarries that The design of the East Building was no of its original galleries had been filled. In the
67
 AIA Architect JUNE 2015
DECEMBER 2018 AIA DESIGN
AIA PERSPECTIVE

AIADesign AIAPerspective
following year, Mellon’s children, Paul Mellon
and Ailsa Mellon Bruce, offered funds for a
second building to relieve some of the space
constraints. The building’s open, airy design
was heavily influenced by then–National
Gallery of Art director J. Carter Brown’s fear
of the anxiety felt by museum visitors when
confronted with an overabundance of art.

PHOTOGRAPHY: GABRIELA MARKS

Construction started in 1971, and seven
years later the new wing opened to the public.
Calder and Henry Moore, among other
American artists, were commissioned to create
original works. “The East Building inspired
museums around the world to commission
architectural projects that also sometimes
competed with the art they were created to

Everything,
display,” The New York Times noted in its 2002 numbers, are the accelerants propelling
obituary of Brown. today’s humanistic dimensions of

Everywhere,
A major theme throughout the history architecture. Scientists have termed this
of the East Building has been the push and the “Anthropocene era,” meaning that it

Everyone
pull between its form and its function. By is human impact that is defining Earth’s
1990, enough people, including scholars, had current geological era. In addition, most
remarked on the museum’s prioritization of people live in cities today, and by century’s
space over art that—according to University Architecture exists in tension between its end, nearly nine in 10 will. For Earth, it is the
of Chicago art historian Neil Harris—Brown humanistic and tectonic dimensions. This Anthropocene; for people, the urban era.
claimed he’d asked Pei’s firm to make the has always been true, although the pendulum Factors defining current human
exhibition spaces larger and the atrium smaller, swings from era to era. At times, shifting conditions were codified at the Habitat III
and that Pei refused. cultural, social, economic, and environmental summit into principles for global cooperation
As it entered the second decade of the conditions compel architects to fundamentally titled “The New Urban Agenda” and
21st century, however, the National Gallery reconstitute human circumstances. At supported by 17 sustainable development
took steps to address this issue. On Sept. other times, evolving means and methods, goals. For architects, the agenda and its goals
30, 2016, the East Building reopened after a expanding demand, and even the pure joy of define a comprehensive global development
three-year, $69 million expansion financed making push architects to reinvent the “how” framework that considers the well-being of
by federal funding and private donations that of building. Today both forces are pulling at all people.
added 12,250 square feet of new spaces for art, architecture with extraordinary power. Architects frequently opine about not
including a roof terrace specifically designated Hurtling at breakneck speed through an being sufficiently understood, appreciated,
for sculpture and new pathways through unprecedented technological revolution, it and valued. Today, humanistic and tectonic
the building. Pei recommended a former is easy to become engulfed in architecture’s revolutions define a relevance revolution
colleague, Perry Y. Chin, to create the designs tectonic possibilities. We live in the age of for architecture. Nothing less than human
for the expansion. iPhones and apps, and practice in the age of destiny will be shaped by the urban
The permanent collection now begins on BIM and VR. conditions we create over the next generation.
the mezzanine level, which formerly housed Architects are enthralled by the limitless Nothing less than global climate and
special exhibitions, allowing the collection to opportunities of technology. But fascination availability of sufficient resources to sustain
be presented in chronological order. Finally, it with the new and now must not blind us to life will be shaped by architecture’s tectonic
seemed, the museum would become a place the most important, most urgent tectonic transformation.
that prioritized experiencing art from close demand on architecture: arresting climate Architects have been offered relevance
range, rather than from a distance. change. Through the Paris Agreement, our beyond our wildest yearnings. Whether we
The AIA recognized the East Building, generation of architects has received a sought it or not, the world now demands
and Pei’s architectural contributions, with an mandate to create carbon-free buildings, to a fundamental reorientation to both the
Honor Award in 1981 and a Twenty-Five Year retool everything about the way we design, humanistic and tectonic dimensions of
Award in 2004—the latter for passing “the test construct, occupy, operate, maintain, and our craft. If we cannot or will not rise to
of time.” That has to do with timelessness, renew buildings. address these challenges, others will. The
but it also has to do with timeliness in the case The tectonics of architecture are not an 21st-century mandate for architecture is to
of Pei’s addition, which is to say that Pei’s end, but a means. Architecture serves human reshape the world: everything, everywhere,
addition, through its expansion, continues to purposes. Today, those purposes are driving and everyone. These are exciting and
participate in contemporary debates about art, forward into uncharted territory just as challenging times for architects. What will
its display, and its experience. AIA rapidly as the technological revolution. we make of them? AIA
The astounding size of the global
Katherine Flynn population, and the effects of our Carl Elefante, faia, 2018 AIA President
68
)/;LEOH1HRQ

Feelux Lighting, Inc. 3000 Northwoods Parkway Suite 165 Norcross, GA 30071 TEL: 678-668-7005 Fax: 678-668-7006
ZZZIHHOX[OLJKWLQJFRP [email protected]
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Hanley Wood congratulates and thanks Think Wood for

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design leadership, and inspired built solutions.
 71

Special Section: Thanks to the internet, it’s easy to lose

yourself in an infinite scroll of project

2018 Innovative Detail

photographs admiring a form here and an
unexpected move there, without pausing to
register the effort behind their execution.
As more architects specify wood for its
versatility, warmth, and sustainability, the
brain trust of how it can be manipulated
and pushed also grows—for those willing to
learn. On the following pages are 12 details
Intro by Wanda Lau that aim to catch both your eye and your
text by tImothy a. SchuLer curiosity on how they came to be.
nIgeL young/FoSter + PartnerS
72

Kulm Eispavillon Canopy Structure

1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11

Plan Section Section

5 12 13 14 15 16

1. Spruce-and-larch glulam 9. 40mm × 80mm larch furring

edge piece 10. UV-stabilized polyamide spacer
2. Ash glulam column, 11. Waterproofing membrane
9.4" wide (typ.) 12. Spruce-and-larch glulam
3. Ø28mm steel rods (typ.) edge beam
4. Drainage and services duct 13. 4.7"-thick solid glulam panel,
5. Milled ash fitting to conceal bottom surface painted black
joint between columns 14. 50mm × 60mm larch furring
6. Ash glulam end column 15. 30mm × 40mm larch slat soffit
7. Copper flashing 16. Ash glulam beam, from 43"
8. 40mm × 80mm larch slat deep × 9.4" wide to 6.3" deep ×
rainscreen 7.1" wide
 73

Lord Norman Foster, Hon. FAIA, has 2,000-square-foot main pavilion. Though with radii as tight as 23 inches and wood
worked at almost every scale imaginable, conspicuously modern, the pavilions’ laminate as thin as 0.1 inch. “Such parts
from porcelain demitasses to city master prominent use of wood and copper cannot be planned with normal timber
plans. Projects by his London-based flashing recall the materiality of the CAD programs,” says Blumer-Lehmann’s
firm Foster + Partners populates all original club. “There is a great tradition timber construction engineer David
corners of the Earth. And yet, it was a of wooden buildings in St. Moritz,” Foster Riggenbach, project manager for the
commission in the tiny Alpine hamlet says. The pavilions’ primary structure is Kulm Eispavillon.
of St. Moritz, in Switzerland’s Engadin made from ash harvested in Switzerland, Instead, engineers in Blumer-
valley, that held the architect’s personal while the curved edge beam and wood Lehmann’s free forms department
attention for the past few years. slats are made from larch, “a traditional use specialized CAD/CAM sofware to
The project entailed the restoration local wood, which mellows beautifully convert Foster + Partners’ 3D models
and expansion of the Kulm Eispavillon with age,” he adds. into a format ready for manufacturing.
(literally “ice pavilion,” though it is more For both pavilions, a round-edged, The components were then “precisely
of a club geared toward winter sports). cantilevered roof is supported by glulam machined on all sides on a CNC machine
The building is part of the five-star Kulm columns, V-shaped in plan, that splay to achieve a perfect fit for the assembly,”
Hotel, once the heart of this Swiss resort into approximately 25-foot-long, inclined Riggenbach says. Foster + Partners
town where Foster resides part time and glulam beams, recalling both the says such complexity was well worth
has built several projects, including the surrounding mountains and St. Moritz’s the trouble, as it allowed the wood grain
Chesa Futura apartments. Gothic architecture. Each beam tapers and lamination to follow the curve of the
“I have lived in St. Moritz for many in size, beginning at 43 inches deep beam as well as eliminated the risk of
years, so it is very close to my heart,” and 9.4 inches wide where it meets the an end-grain cut being exposed to rain
Foster says. “The old Eispavillon had column to 6.3 inches deep and 7.1 inches and snow.
been abandoned for many decades, wide. A larch wood-slat soffit attaches to Fabrication of the pavilions took
and there was a great opportunity to a 4.7-inch-thick CLT roof panel, which is seven weeks, and their assembly just
revitalize Kulm Park by bringing the topped with a waterproofing membrane less than twice as long. According
building back to life.” and then a larch wood rainscreen on the to the architects, the “extraordinary
Built in 1905, the original two-story, skyward side. precision” of Blumer-Lehmann’s timber
Art Nouveau club has a storied past. Initially, Foster + Partners had engineering made assembly quite
Located on the edge of the 30-acre designed a more straightforward simple. The only challenge was the
park just north of the hotel, it hosted structure, one with beams perpendicular project’s hard deadline: The new venue
the Olympic Winter Games in 1928 and to the pavilion’s back wall. Shortly before was scheduled to host the FIS Alpine
1948. For years, it served as a wintertime procurement, however, the design team World Ski Championships in early
playground for celebrities, including devised the V-shaped pattern, which not February 2017.
Charlie Chaplin and Audrey Hepburn, only reduced the number of columns In spite of the frigid winter weather,
but by the 1980s, the club was no longer (from eight to six in the main pavilion) but the pavilion construction and club
the heart of the local social scene. By also created a visually appealing plane restoration were completed on time,
1988, it was shuttered. with the cantilever listing up. reopening to the public for the first time
In November 2015, Foster + Partners The late change in design required in nearly 30 years.
was hired to revive the structure and add Foster + Partners to work closely with Imbued in the architecture is a
a contemporary outdoor event venue for timber contractor Blumer-Lehmann, celebration of past and present, Foster
use in all seasons. “I was approached by based in Gossau, Switzerland, to says: “This started with a derelict
the owner, who asked for help,” Foster design and test new column–beam structure but went beyond to create a
says. “My suggestion was not just to connections, which consist of concealed new sense of place. I hope that people
nIgel Young/Foster + PArtners

bring it back to its original condition glued steel rods sized to accommodate feel it to be friendly and welcoming, a
as an ice skating center, but to create heavy snow loads. More than 1 foot new extension of the public domain.”
a community focus by adding a small long and 1.1 inch in diameter, each rod
stadium and an enclosure linking an is inserted into drilled openings in the
existing skating facility and restaurant.” structural members, glued, and then
Today, the club has been joined sealed with a timber button.
by a pair of timber pavilions, located Among the more exacting
just north of the Eispavillon. At just components to fabricate was the curved
580 square feet, the south-facing “sun edge beam of the roof eave. The beam
pavilion” resembles a scale model of the comprises double-curved glulam pieces
74

Oslo Skatehall Timber Bowl

Skateboarding has flourished in Norway wouldn’t be designed by architects who ribs sourced from Germany, Austria,
since its 11-year ban—instituted on the don’t really skate,” says Arne Reisegg and Poland. The plywood ribs, which
basis of safety concerns—was lifted in Myklestad, a partner and managing are 2 inches thick and up to 10 inches
1989. Oslo’s skateboarders, however, director at Dark Arkitekter. deep, emerge from the concrete floor as
lacked an indoor venue to use during the Architecturally, the pièce de tree trunks that stand nearly 9 feet tall,
city’s snowy, frigid winters until January résistance is the skatehall’s wooden and then branch out more than 27 feet
2017, when the 25,080-square-foot Oslo bowl, elevated to the mezzanine level to encapsulate the bowl. Circular steel
Skatehall opened. to preserve connectivity and flow on baseplates both anchor the tree ribs to
Designed by Oslo-based Dark the main floor—and to allow skaters to the concrete floor and cap the opening
Arkitekter and Copenhagen, Denmark– move between obstacles without getting of the hollow trunks inside the bowl.
based skate park–design specialists off their boards, says Merete Hoff, the Interstitial lumber cross-members,
Glifberg-Lykke, the building comprises former Dark Arkitekter partner who carefully labeled with a position
two adjacent rectangular volumes, both served as the project architect and now identification number and nailed
clad in aluminum panels perforated with works for the agency that developed between the rib branches, complete
a pattern derived from a Morse code the skatehall. With excavation cost- the lattice wireframe. The ribs tie into
translation of the 1978 law that banned prohibitive, Glifberg-Lykke suggested glulam wood beams that support the
skateboarding. Glazed entrances at lifting the bowl to the second-level remainder of the mezzanine floor, which
the northeast and southwest corners mezzanine, which skaters can access via are supported by steel columns at the
offer porosity and connection between the half-pipe and a metal spiral stair. building perimeter.
the outdoor skate park and the indoors, Nearly 50 feet long, 7 feet deep, and For the bowl’s smooth skating
where more than 10,000 square feet of 27 feet at its widest, the bean-shaped surface, workers cut two layers of
ramps and skate obstacles await. bowl is supported by two tree-like 0.35-inch-thick birch plywood panel
Developed with input from the local columns whose curvilinear branches on-site, laid them inside the bowl,
skate community, the obstacles serve stretch out and cup the bowl. Each and screwed them to the ribs and
all levels of skaters alike. “It was really column comprises a radial array of crossbeams. At the lip of the bowl, they
important … that [the skate elements] CNC-milled spruce-and-birch plywood adhered a granite edge to the wood with
 75

polyurethane glue, creating a smooth All told, the bowl took a three-person
transition between the bowl and its crew from IOU Ramps five weeks
1. 2"-thick spruce-and-birch plywood
surrounding platform. Although the to assemble its approximately 1,100
2. Dimensional lumber cross-members
other wooden skate elements inside structural components, totaling 6,200
3. Nails (typ.)
the venue received a glazed finish, the lineal feet of wood.
4. Circular steel plate (typ. 2)
bowl and its lattice structure were left Since the building’s opening in
5. 0.35"-thick birch plywood (two-ply)
exposed and unfinished as a nod to January 2017, the timber bowl has
surface (not shown)
skaters’ use of found objects and ad hoc become an iconic part of the skatehall’s
environments. brand. “Visually, it’s very beautiful,”
Left: finn StåLe feLberg; right: KuLtur og idrettSbygg

To design the structure, Dark Hoff says. “It has an organic form
Arkitektur and Glifberg-Lykke also that I think appeals to us as people.”
worked with IOU Ramps, a skate Serendipitously, the skatehall has also
ramp builder based in Fürstenzell, become a kid-friendly venue, with its
Germany. With the building modeled open layout, abstracted trees, and
in Autodesk Revit and the skate adjacent café from which parents can
obstacles in SketchUp, the collaboration watch their children.
was remarkably smooth, Hoff says, The skatehall has been embraced
particularly given that the design phase by the skate community as well as by
took just six weeks. The architects several groups that run youth outreach
provided assistance on code compliance programs there. “The most fun part,”
but left most of the technical detailing, Myklestad says, “is that the kids and the
such as the slope and curvature of the people who are using it are happy with it.”
bowl’s walls, to the specialists. “As an
architect, you need to know a little bit
about everything, but you’re not an
expert in the details,” Hoff says.
76

Tashjian Bee Center Truss

2 1 4 3 5

To educate the public about the Written accounts of the farm’s early “We opted to go with thinner
ecological plight of colony collapse owner were also a touchstone. “[H]e members and more of them, at
disorder, which is threatening global bee was a beekeeper and had an orchard somewhat of a premium, because of the
populations, the University of Minnesota as well, so it was really meaningful that loveliness of that rhythm,” says Amel,
(UM) opened the Tashjian Bee and we brought bee education back to that who credits project architect and MSR
Pollinator Discovery Center on the site,” says project manager and MSR associate Chris Wingate with the idea.
bucolic grounds of the UM Landscape associate Eric Amel, AIA. “The frequency of those members made
Arboretum in Chaska, Minn., in 2016. To create a hierarchical relationship it sing.”
Designed by the Minneapolis office of between the new building and the Combined with the suspension
architecture firm MSR, the 7,530-square- existing barn—which Amel notes is cables of the space’s metal light fixtures,
foot exhibition and education space, “actually quite small”—the architects the array of horizontal steel tension rods
complete with outdoor beehives and a divided the former into two distinct and angled wood trusses becomes
honey house, serves as the outreach masses: a single-story entrance and hypnotic. “It also hints that the roof
facility for the university’s Bee Lab, run honey house, where honey extraction itself has two slopes,” Wingate says,
by entomology and apiculture professor takes place, and two double-height adding that the simple trusses’ triangular
Marla Spivak, a MacArthur Fellow. wings, which contain a learning lab and form resulted from “lots of iteration”
The metal-roofed, timber-clad exhibition gallery. and modeling.
building takes its cues from the It is inside this gallery that an eye- Supporting the roof decking, the
39-acre site, a former farmstead catching series of 15 exposed glulam truss’s top chord—a single 3.5-inch-
complete with a red barn and grain trusses draws visitors’ eyes upward. wide, 10.5-inch-deep glulam member—
silo, and from agrarian vernacular The trusses, which each span 30 feet connects to a vertical glulam post of
architecture, characterized by features and collectively run the 60-foot equal dimensions. Finalizing the triangle
such as gabled roofs, exposed timber length of the gallery, resulted from is the bottom chord, a pair of Douglas
structures, and open interiors, says the architects’ desire to expose the fir 2×8s, which attach to the posts 10
MSR founding principal Thomas Meyer, building structure and also imbue a feet from the ground and angle sharply
FAIA, the project’s partner in charge. sense of delicacy. upward, meeting the top chord at the
 77

roof ridge. Wood blocking between the The timber for the project was
double chords refrains buckling, while a fabricated by the Boissevain, Manitoba,
1. 2×8 Douglas fir bottom chord (typ. 2)
steel tension rod threaded through the plant of structural timber supplier
2. 3.5" × 10.5" glulam column
blocking spans the width of the gallery, Western Archrib, and shipped to
3. 3.5" × 10.5" top chord
tying into a steel knife plate that joins the Minnesota, where the trusses were
4. Steel knife plate
vertical truss member and top chord. individually erected by Loeffler
5. Steel tie-rod
The trusses and their supporting Construction & Consulting, in
6. Steel knife plate and connection
glulam posts are spaced every 4 feet. Lakeville, Minn.
These columns embed partially into MSR’s design team recalls the
the wall system, a Ray-Core structural construction phase being relatively
insulated panel finished in the interior simple and straightforward, due in large
with plywood panels. part to the skill of the Loeffler team.
The architects worked hard to “[T]hey saw this as a special opportunity
reduce visual clutter, concealing the fire to celebrate their craft and their skill set,”
suppression system behind the plywood Meyer says.
panels and specifying a radiant heating The architects, too, are proud
and cooling system, thus removing the of the center’s craftsmanship and
need for ductwork. And yet they chose environmental performance. “[I]t is
to expose the majority of the structural a kind of bellwether project for the
connections in another nod to vernacular future of sustainability,” Meyer says.
architecture. “Even the tie-rods, there’s “A lot of buildings in the last generation
a connection in the middle,” Wingate are unnecessarily complex,” but the
RichaRd BRine

says. “It’s one little additional element for near-net-zero-energy bee center “has
that thin, black, horizontal line, which is a kind of modesty. It’s not cheap, but
necessary, but if it’s done beautifully, it the money that’s spent on it is [spent]
can add to the aesthetic of the space.” toward performance.”
FACTS MATTER:
“Effective management of forests offers the opportunity
to reduce future climate change… by capturing and storing
carbon in forest ecosystems and long-term wood products”

USGCRP, 2017: Climate Science Special Report,

Fourth National Climate Assessment, Vol. 1
science2017.globalchange.gov
 Indian Mountain Student Arts and Innovation Center
T3 | Minnesota | Image Credit: Ema Peter Image Credit: © Robert Benson Photography

Increased use of
innovative mass timber
products from sustainably
harvested forests reduces
the environmental
footprint of the built
environment, revitalizes
rural communities and
stimulates job creation
Marin Country Day School | California | Image Credit: Josh Partee © 2010
while improving a
project’s bottom line.

Visit ThinkWood.com
for more information

Federal Center South Building | Washington | Image Credit: Ben Benschneider

80

Canadian National Arts Centre Coffers

Plan Section

1. Douglas fir glulam column

2. Steel Y-shaped knife plate
3. 3.1"-thick × 9.5'-long Douglas fir glulam coffer,
tapering in depth from 4.25' to 3' (typ.)
4. Panel 2 seat onto Panel 1
5. 0.79"-thick × 29.5"-deep steel stabilizing plate
6. 3.9"-wide steel rectangular hollow section
 81

On the 150th anniversary of Canada’s [visual] gap between the coffers,” says architects turned the building inside-
confederation, July 1, 2017, the National Will Loasby, senior project manager at out, a move occurring more frequently
Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa, Ontario, structural engineering firm Fast + Epp, in performing arts venues around the
raised the curtain on the first phase of a in Vancouver, British Columbia. world, Schmitt says. No longer relegated
$110 million renovation and restoration DSA’s choice of wood stemmed to ticket-taking and coat-checking,
project designed by Toronto-based in part from its desire to celebrate lobbies are become extensions of both
Diamond Schmitt Architects (DSA). Canada’s vast forests and to showcase the venue and the street, creating a third
Adding 60,000 square feet of new space, a domestic product—glulam made space in which the two are overlaid.
the project brought the total size of the from Douglas fir trees grown in British Notably, DSA’s expansion and
arts complex to 1.1 million square feet. Columbia. Wood is also a warm, “natural renovation also defers to the NAC’s
Designed by Canadian-Polish material used in a natural state,” historical architecture, using new
architect and theater designer Fred Schmitt says. materials in ways that honor Lebensold’s
Lebensold, the original 1969 building Moreover, the wood ceiling could be original design intent. “We didn’t
was Brutalist in style with repeating prefabricated off-site. The NAC had set demolish anything,” Schmitt says.
hexagonal geometries in both its floor an aggressive 18-month construction “We retained and preserved all of it.”
plan and finishes, such as the lobby schedule to reach completion on Shortly after the NAC reopened,
ceiling’s triangular concrete coffers, the country’s 150th anniversary. Schmitt himself had a chance to observe
tessellated to create a hexagonal pattern. Prefabrication would considerably the space in action, attending a lecture
However, the structure’s windowless expedite construction. on architecture. Afterward, the lobby
concrete façade offered little in terms On the outskirts of Ottawa, timber
of the public realm. “When you’re in the engineering and construction firm
parliamentary precinct … looking back StructureCraft Builders, based
to the city, you see the NAC, except it’s in Abbotsford, British Columbia,
so mute, dark, and windowless that it transformed a warehouse into a
almost looks like [part] of the landscape,” temporary production facility, in part
says DSA principal in charge Don to reduce transportation costs. Once
Schmitt, AIA. workers assembled the triangular coffers
How to update Brutalist architecture off-site, they raised the panels to install
for today’s needs is a question architects lighting and electrical conduit using
are increasingly facing. To preserve the notches cut into the top edges of the
original NAC building but reorient it glulam members, which DSA designed
to its surroundings, DSA wrapped the with Fast + Epp. Triangular acoustic
northwest side of the building with a ceiling panels would conceal the
new multistory lobby, complete with a services from below.
ceiling that draws from the hexagonal The triangular coffers were
forms of the original lobby, but assembled and trucked to the site in
interpreted in wood. long, linear panels of up to 12 coffers, the
Designed in Autodesk Revit by largest of which measured 65 feet and
DSA, the coffers are arranged on a weighed 30,000 pounds. The panels
10-foot equilateral triangle grid, forming alternate the orientation of adjacent transformed into a quasi-street fair,
hexagons that total 20 feet across. triangles 180 degrees so that, when with food stalls manned by some of the
Each triangular coffer comprises three hung, they create a field of hexagons. city’s top chefs and an array of musical
9.5-foot-long, 3.1-inch-thick glulam A Y-shaped steel plate ties the coffers performances, from jazz to a singer-
members, with slightly rounded edges at into the building’s glulam-timber-and- songwriter. When Schmitt finally pulled
their vertices to blur any misalignment. steel structure. himself away to leave, around 11 p.m., he
DoublespAce photogrAphy

Members taper in depth from 4.25 With help from a custom glass was astounded by what he saw: more
feet to 3 feet, from the hexagons’ curtainwall with transparent LED people newly arriving.
centers to their perimeters to create screens that transform the building’s
a sense of undulation. “The coffers façade into what Schmitt calls a “fifth
themselves are not connected to one stage,” the addition’s exposed wood
to another except by small pieces of structure creates a diaphanous layer
blocking, approximately 10 inches between the intimacy of the NAC and
square, maintaining the 150-millimeter the bustle of the city. In a sense, the
82

The R.W. Kern Center Timber Structure 1

1. 5" × 12" glulam rim beam

2. 0.5"-thick steel beam strap and seat
3. 0.25"-thick steel knife plate
4. 5" × 5" glulam post
5. Ø0.5" × 4" bolt with Ø1.4375" washer and 2" countersink (typ.)
 83

The R.W. Kern Center at Hampshire uniformly sized beams, Bruner/Cott Bensonwood’s facility outside Walpole,
College in Amherst, Mass., was worked with Montreal-based glulam where it was fabricated to Bruner/Cott’s
designed by Boston firm Bruner/ supplier Nordic Structures, Walpole, specs. Although many of the beams
Cott Architects to be “rooted in its N.H.–based fabricator Bensonwood, are relatively small, some are as large
place,” says principal Jason Jewhurst, and Newton, Mass.–based structural as 41 feet long, 9 inches wide, and 38
AIA. Completed in 2016, the two-story, engineering firm Foley Buhl Roberts & inches deep, with weights creeping up
17,000-square-foot building houses Associates to determine the smallest to 3,700 pounds.
the school’s admissions department, possible size of each member. “We On-site, the novelty of the timber
classroom and gallery space, and a worked out a hierarchy of framing so structure created its own challenges.
coffee bar. As the first new structure that we could increase the overall According to Bensonwood structural
built on campus in more than three efciency of the yield that would need engineer Nate Black, the company had
decades, the Kern Center aimed high, to be produced for the building,” never constructed a floor diaphragm
attaining Living Building status from the Jewhurst says. without sheathing. To attach the deck to
International Living Future Institute. The design team also used the glulam beams, the company used
A good portion of the center’s lightweight, 4-inch oak “car decking” what Black describes as the “largest
construction materials was sourced in for the second floor “so that the nail gun in our arsenal,” which can fire
close proximity to the site: The schist decking could support itself to the 5-inch-long nails.
cladding was quarried 30 miles away extent possible,” Jewhurst says. Beam Among the benefits of the building’s
from Amherst; the glulam timber was members could then be spaced 8 feet apparent structure is that it can be
fabricated 60 miles north in Walpole, on center. easily adapted or, when the time comes,
N.H.; and the café’s small, round tables Equal attention was paid to disassembled. “One of the imperatives
were crafted from two mature pin oaks simplifying connections between of the Living Building Challenge is net-
that were felled on campus. structural members. “We wanted this positive waste,” Forney says. To that end,
“We steered ourselves toward really building to feel like it was of the highest the Kern Center is designed for flexibility,
honest materials,” says Bruner/Cott quality, like fine furniture, and the so that it can be adapted as the school’s
principal Jason Forney, AIA. “So you detailing at those joints is where the needs change—an attribute that was
have this palette of materials that are magic has to happen,” Jewhurst says. In tested when the college abruptly chose
very much true to themselves.” Most the second-floor classroom, for instance, not to relocate the campus bookstore to
prominent of these materials is wood. 5-inch by 12-inch glulam beams neatly the Kern Center. With the building two-
The Kern Center features a half-dozen join an equivalent-sized rim beam and a thirds of the way through construction,
wood species, chosen specifically to 5-inch-square post. A 5-inch-wide steel the architects redesigned the bookstore
cohere within the space: black spruce for base plate is sandwiched between the space as a ground-floor classroom. “We
the glulam; ash and birch for the doors; end of the beam and the face of the rim were able to in-frame interior glass
salvaged red oak for the flooring and beam, with knife plates centered in both systems that are all bolted together that
monumental stair; pine for the ceiling; the posts and beam, secured by just two fit inside the structure without making
and cedar for the exterior. lag screws and two bolts. any edits,” Jewhurst says.
Materials and building systems are Besides the mostly hidden steel Forney attributes the Kern Center’s
left exposed, inspired by the Living plates that attach to the aluminum success to the dedication of the entire
Building Challenge’s (LBC’s) push mullions of the curtainwall system, project team, and in particular, the
for material transparency. Along with the only steel visible is a small seat general contractor Wright Builders,
wood, curtainwall glazing makes up the tab below the roof beam. Jewhurst based in Northampton, Mass. The
building envelope. “It was important that credits Bruner/Cott project architect company’s founder and senior adviser,
the glass felt like a veil that wrapped the Christopher Nielson, AIA, who was “on Jonathan Wright, is a Hampshire College
wood structure. And it was okay that the phone day and night, working alumnus and helped select Bruner/
RobeRt benson PhotogRAPhy

you could see the wood posts behind through how minimal we could make Cott as the project’s architect. “He was
the glass,” Jewhurst says. “It was a good these connections.” deeply committed to the LBC,” Forney
test for us to be minimal about the Although it was fabricated just one says of Wright, who led LBC training
connections.” hour from the site, the timber for the seminars for the subcontractors.
The Kern Center features a mostly glulam was grown in a taiga forest in “Everybody was pulling in the same
column-free glulam structure. The northern Canada, where Nordic’s forest direction,” Jewhurst adds. “And it’s
structure was further complicated team selectively harvests extremely reflected in the result.”
by the architects’ goal to eliminate small-diameter trees. The timber is then
any unnecessary material. Instead of shipped around the world, in this case to
84

1 2 6

Agri Chapel Fractal Forest

4 5

When seeking design inspiration for a ceilings of Gothic cathedrals.

chapel at a resort hotel in Nagasaki, Momoeda first conceived the
1. Steel sleeve for central cedar post
Japan, Momoeda Yu Architecture branching structural system while
2. Steel bolts (typ.) to fasten surrounding
Office (MYAO) looked to the nearby studying at Yokohama National
cedar posts
Ōura Tenshudo, a wooden, Gothic- University in Kanagawa Prefecture.
3. Steel base plate
style Catholic basilica that French The system divides the chapel interior
4. 45-degree rotation between tiers
missionaries built in 1864. The firm’s vertically into three tiers, again similar to
5. Angled cedar beam (typ.)
namesake founder, an alumnus of Kengo Gothic architecture. With each tier, the
6. Ø 0.63" steel tension rod (typ.)
Kuma and Associates, wanted to explore trunk-like pillars multiply in number—
wood construction while also paying first four, then eight, then 16—while
homage to the basilica, the rare tourist shrinking in size by a factor equal to
attraction that is also beloved by locals. the square root of two. At grade, wood
The one-room, 60-seat Agri Chapel is members are 4.7 inches square; at the
almost a cube, approximately 30 feet in next level, 3.5 inches; at the final level,
length, width, and height with expansive 2.3 inches.
floor-to-ceiling windows. Once inside, At each tier, the pillars bundle five
visitors are greeted by an array of stacked cedar posts, which support up to eight
tree-like pillars that rise the height of the angled beams that splay like branches.
chapel, filling the volume. Inspired by These boughs either intersect with those
fractal geometries, the interconnected of the neighboring trees to support the
cedar structure supports the chapel’s next tier of pillars, or terminate in space,
flat roof. With no altar and the interiors tying into the base of the overhead tier
finished in white, the wood structure of trunks via steel tension rods. These
becomes a sculptural centerpiece, latter, truncated beams are critical,
drawing the eye upward and encouraging Momoeda says. “Without these beams,
contemplation, much like the vaulted the building would collapse.”
 85

It’s common for Japanese architects challenging aspects, says Momoeda, Each of these details was fabricated
to make “a lot of models,” Momoeda says, who worked with Jun Sato Structural in plastic by MYAO and shown to local
and he is no exception. He and his team Engineers out of Tokyo. The team contractor Yushin Construction before
built dozens of digital and plastic models, designed a custom gusset plate to which they were built and shipped to the site.
exploring the relationship between each they could attach both the angled beams Momoeda specified cedar because it is
layer of trees and their impact on the and three 0.63-inch-diameter steel readily available, and thus economical,
space. Quickly, they realized that simply tension rods. A centered angled knife and milled outside of Nagasaki. Cedar
doubling the number of trees at each tier plate, matching the depth of the beams, is also common in traditional Japanese
would clutter the chapel by the second connects each beam to the columns via houses, which helped the structure feel
round: The architecture would have no a concealed steel plate. “This detail was familiar. Construction took four months
room to breathe. complicated,” Momoeda says. with a team of four carpenters. The
To solve this problem, the designers The other steel connections were no exterior walls were erected first and then
twisted the trees 45 degrees between less so. Where the angled beams form the pillars built from the bottom up.
tiers, partially embedding several trees the base of an upper pillar—which, again, It’s an understatement to say that
in the middle tier as vertical supports for are rotated 45 degrees between tiers—a the Agri Chapel is a personal project
the exterior walls. That is, the second tier steel base plate anchors a rectangular for Momoeda. “This building is in my
consists of four stand-alone pillars and steel sleeve that supports the five-post hometown,” he says. “My parents and
eight additional half-pillars. These latter trunk as well as six tension rods. Four my family can see it.” The chapel is also
trunks, which carry half the structural posts attach to each face of a central his firm’s first built project. Since its
load of a stand-alone trunk, help support post, which slips inside the sleeve and completion in late 2016, it has captured
Yousuke Harigane

the second set of angled beams that is secured with steel bolts. Where the the attention of the public as well as
supports the top tier of 16 trees, which trunk meets its crowning bough, a steel that of the profession. Architects travel
stand apart from the walls. node with angled knife plates works in from around Japan to Nagasaki to visit
The unique condition of the half- combination with mortise-and-tenon the chapel. “It’s quite far from Tokyo, but
embedded trunk structures in the joints, fitting the maximum eight many people come,” Momoeda says.
middle tier was one of the project’s more branches together like puzzle pieces. “So I’m happy.”
86

Dalston Works Building Envelope

1. CLT floor panel, 4" to 8" thick

1
2. CLT wall panel, 4" to 5.5" thick
3. Vapor barrier (not depicted)
4. Foil-faced rigid insulation, 4.3" thick
5. 3.5"-deep masonry angle attached to
10"-tall by 5.6"-deep steel shoe
6. Brick

2
4
3
5

6
 87

Waugh Thistleton Architects isn’t rather than pumping carbon into would gradually crush the CLT floors,
particularly interested in conjuring the atmosphere to make concrete.” the design team worked with Binderholz
timber skyscrapers or extolling wood’s Copenhagen, Denmark–based structural to cut pockets into the edge of each CLT
expressive qualities. In fact, though engineering firm Ramboll—which, floor deck. The pockets were then filled
the London firm was the forerunner in along with B&K Structures in Derby, with structural grout, into which the wall
modern residential timber towers with England, helped design the timber panels that sandwich each floor panel
the 2009 completion of the nine-story skeleton—estimates that Dalston Works would nest, transferring the vertical
Murray Grove building, its latest timber sequesters 2,866 tons of carbon dioxide load from the upper wall panel to the
project gives little hint that it is the in its 136,000 cubic feet of CLT. one below.
largest cross-laminated timber (CLT) The spruce used in the CLT panels One of CLT’s biggest advantages is
building in the world. was harvested by timber supplier the speed with which it can be erected:
Like Murray Grove, the Binderholz, headquartered in Fügen, Dalston Works was built in 18 months,
155,000-square-foot Dalston Works Austria, with forests, sawmills, and mass opening in summer 2017. Timber
is located in the London borough of timber production facilities throughout construction also makes for a quieter,
Hackney, which instituted a “timber first” Austria, Germany, and Finland. Wall less busy project site, Lomax says. On-
policy for new construction in 2012. The panels range from 4 to 5.5 inches thick site deliveries were reduced by almost
latter project comprises several building while floor slabs range from 4 to nearly 80 percent from a conventional site, and
volumes ranging from five to 10 stories 8 inches thick, with the thicker panels Lomax estimates that Dalston Works
tall that provide 121 units of housing used on lower floors. For residential uses 25 percent less CLT per square foot
along with office, restaurant, and retail units’ interior walls and ceilings, a than Murray Grove due to an increased
space. Except for the building’s concrete layer of plasterboard provides fire understanding of and trust in the
podium, the structure is built entirely protection—a more economical option engineered wood product.
of CLT, from the floors to the walls to than beefing up the CLT—while office If building with CLT has a downside,
the elevator cores. As a result, Dalston walls are exposed wood. On the exterior, it’s the amount of upfront design work
Works weighs just one-fifth of its the CLT is protected by a vapor barrier, required. To prefabricate Dalston
hypothetical concrete counterpart, an a 4.3-inch layer of foil-faced insulation, Works, every cut, every groove, every
important trait given its location atop a and the brick façade. hole needed to be executed accurately.
potential Crossrail 2 station. The bricks are full-sized, not a More often than not, the finesse is
And yet passersby would never know. veneer, Lomax notes, as they tend to be there though sometimes the project
Dalston Works’ exterior is clad in brick more aesthetically pleasing and more team has to be convinced, Lomax says.
without a square inch of wood peeking durable. Hackney building official also At Dalston Works, floor openings for
through. “It’s counterintuitive to clad made it clear that brick veneer was not plumbing were sized nearly 8 inches at
a lightweight building in heavy stuff,” an option. Slight differentiations in the the request of Regal Homes to account
acknowledges project architect Dave brick’s color—depending on whether the for any potential misalignment. “Funny
Lomax, a senior associate at Waugh brick was fired once or twice—denote enough, our pipe went in a dead-straight
Thistleton. But normalizing mass timber changes in program: a darker brown line and then we had these huge holes
construction is a priority for the firm. brick for the office tower and a warmer, in the wood that we had to try to seal
“We don’t think that sustainable buildings redder brick for the residences. The up,” Lomax says. “It actually became a
always have to be made of hay bales brick is attached via stainless steel big task.”
and have a whirligig on top that spins in masonry support angles developed Despite not blatantly announcing
the wind,” he says. “We want to develop specifically for CLT. The 3.5-inch-deep itself as a wood building—or perhaps
beautiful architecture that shows no sign angle attaches to a series of steel precisely because it doesn’t—Dalston
that it’s sustainable.” “shoes,” which are 10 inches tall and 5.6 Works represents another step on
Due to the structure’s light weight, inches deep and are screwed directly to the evolutionary path of tall timber
local developer and general contractor the wood, Lomax says. The availability of construction. It’s an evolution with
Regal Homes was able to increase the such a product is relatively new, he adds. significant implications for the world’s
number of housing units by 25 percent. “It’s not the most exciting bit, but for us to cities, not least because of CLT’s
“In real hard pounds and pence, if you be able to go specify things off-the-shelf promise in supplying urban housing.
Daniel Shearing

have 25 percent more homes to sell, that work with CLT just shows how the “It’s important to us to demonstrate that
that’s going to win the debate for our industry has matured.” all developers of large-scale housing
clients,” Lomax says. “And that means Other details had to be developed should be considering timber,” Lomax
we get our narrative: taking carbon in-house. Worried that the weight of the says, “because there is absolutely no
and locking it away in our buildings, brick, accruing over the building height, reason not to.”
88

Ateliê Wäls Brewery Porte Cochère

1 3 5 6

2
4

Even in the modern industrial park, side, GPA&A created a stair and elevator into models in Trimble SketchUp and
supersized utilitarian structures shaft to take visitors from street level Autodesk AutoCAD. GPA&A worked
can create large, desolate swaths of down two stories to the reception area. with local structural engineering firm
development. On a dead-end street A material palette of concrete, steel, and Misa Engenharia de Estruturas to
in the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, the glass complements the surrounding minimize the canopy’s underlying steel
capital of Minas Gerais in southeast industrial buildings. frame, beveling its edges to create a
Brazil, Ateliê Wäls’ ribbon-like wood The second challenge was to give the thin profile. “The edge of it had to be
porte cochère stands out, beckoning street-level volume curb appeal since quite fine,” Stahl says. “It could not look
passersby to the brewery’s new the elevator shaft essentially has no heavy or otherwise we were going to
restaurant and taproom, both designed façade, says GPA&A project manager lose this effect of something wrapping,
by the local firm Gustavo Penna Oded Stahl. GPA&A conceived of the something flowing.”
Arquiteto & Associados (GPA&A). An undulating steel-and-wood canopy The canopy rises 17 feet above street
addition to the company’s existing curving from the restaurant roof over a level, forming a tunnel that is 38.5 feet
brewing facility, the project—which also sidewalk and vehicular drop-off area, deep and, if it were unrolled and laid
included a wine cellar, shop, and outdoor reaching down to the ground, and then flat on the ground, 104 feet long. Wood
space for food trucks—faced a pair of curling inward to form a long bench. slats clad its inward and outward
unusual challenges. “It’s like somebody opened a huge barrel faces, sandwiching the steel frame, a
First, Ateliê Wäls is carved into a and stretched it over” the entrance, concealed sheet metal roof, and rain
steep hillside, creating a 35-foot grade he says. “By making this canopy, we gutters, which channel water into a
change from street level to the brewery enlarged the presence of the building planted area below the canopy.
entry. To the east, Rua Adelino Testi on the street level.” The steel frame comprises
is level with the facility and provides To design the canopy, the architects 200-millimeter-deep (7.9-inch-deep),
vehicular access to the main warehouse. began with what Stahl calls “3D 40-foot-long wide-flanged beams
To the west, Rua Gabriela de Melo runs dreams”—sketches and detailed welded together to form a grid that ties
16 feet above the roof of the building. For drawings that helped them explore into the elevator core. To create the
the porte cochère, located on the west scale, which they then translated “fine” edge that GPA&A envisioned, the
 89

steel beams running along the canopy’s Stahl says. The construction crew first
longitudinal edges are just 4 inches laid the sheet metal roof and gutters,
1. 4"-wide by 0.75"-thick teak cladding,
deep. The transverse beams taper to then worked from the top down, adding
6.5' to 19.5' long
meet them. Wood slats cap the sides, the wood cladding to the canopy’s
2. Teak cap on edge
concealing the steel structure. outward surface first.
3. 3.9" × 2.3" wide-flanged beam
For durability, GPA&A specified The wood slats fasten invisibly to
4. Metal corbel beam
cumaru, or Brazilian teak, for the the steel structure via small steel knife
5. 7.9" × 4.7" wide-flanged beam with
4-inch-wide, 0.75-inch-thick slats; when plates spaced roughly every 2 feet.
cutouts for drainage
heat-treated to 6 percent humidity, the The connection allowed for a clean
6. Sheet metal roof trough
wood becomes highly insect resistant. appearance devoid of screw holes,
7. Drainage pipe (not shown)
The wood was sourced from the state of but was a challenge for construction
Rondônia, near Brazil’s western border, workers, Stahl says. Each knife plate was
which is also one of the world’s most welded on site, but with the structure
deforested regions; GPA&A ensured just 6 inches deep, there was very little
that the wood carried a Documento room for error, he says. “That was the
de Origem Florestal, or certificate of headache on the site.”
origin, which allows authorities to track Completed in June 2017, the porte
the movement of lumber products cochère has helped showcase how wood
across the country. Local manufacturer can be used in a way that Stahl says is
Gebauer milled the wood into the slats, “very plastic and very precise.” GPA&A
which range in length from 6.5 feet to had never used wood in this fashion
19.5 feet long. before. “The wood here was the king,” he
Daniel Mansur

Pórtico Construções Metálicas in Rio says. “It was the material that spoke.”
Acima, 20 miles south of Belo Horizonte,
prefabricated the steel frame, which
made in situ construction go quickly,
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Origine is the signature

building of a new Quebec
City neighborhood on the
banks of the St. Charles
River intended to be a
showcase of sustainable
development. Land
developers selected by the
city were tasked with offering
eco-responsible solutions.
Photo: Courtesy of EBC Inc.

WOOD: MID-RISE HOUSING THAT

GOES BEYOND CODE
Origine is a 13-story, 92-unit condominium tower now open in Quebec City. This $18.9 million
(U.S.) structure is more than the world’s tallest all-wood residential tower. It also happens to
be one of the region’s most resistive to fire and seismic events.

Origine may hold many firsts for size, safety, Blouin and André Huot, the representative More With Less
speed, composition, and construction for Origine’s mass timber wall and panel
That future-forward vision takes many forms
innovation. Just don’t call this groundbreaking, manufacturer, regard Origine as the latest
in Origine. Take the question of space. The
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for mass timber. mass timber story.
prized vacant parcel on the banks of the St.
View it as the latest entry in a growing line of “This type of building is about the future. Charles River. The site’s sandy soil conditions
engineered wood and hybrid structures now It embraces a green vision. We’re building limited design of a concrete structure to no
in place across North America, says project with materials that will help our children and more than six floors, according to Blouin.
architect Yvan Blouin of Quebec City-based children’s children enjoy a better tomorrow,” Wood’s lighter mass freed designers to proceed
Yvan Blouin Architecte. says architect Blouin. with a considerably larger hybrid structure,
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The project team conducted two years of research and development to demonstrate that Origine’s wood structure would meet sustainability and economic goals, and would be as safe as a concrete and s
teel structure. The research carried out for this innovative building are paving the way for other designers to realize the many benefits of using wood as a building material. Courtesy of Nordic Structures |
Photo: Stephane Groleau

mounting a 12-story mass timber tower on top scale, three-story cross-laminated timber (CLT) For architect Blouin, Origine turns a critical
of a single-story concrete podium. Origine’s stair-and-elevator shaft was exposed to intense page in the story for sustainable affordable
comparative lightness enables higher occupant flames for 2 hours and 12 minutes, reaching housing. “We have to find a way to build
density than otherwise attainable, a win-win for a peak temperature of 2,012 F. The interior of better buildings,” he says. “Wood is the
city leaders and the community. the CLT shaft remained intact, smoke-free, with way to do that.” By all accounts, the
interior sensors recording a temperature rise of world is eagerly watching and learning.
All-Season Constructability just 3 C. The code’s two-hour fire rating was
Construction speed also worked to the easily achieved.
development team’s advantage. Origine was Seismic and acoustic testing was also
Developer: NEB Group
assembled within four months, from December conducted. The engineers’ response to the
Architect: Yvan Blouin Architecte
2016 to April 2017. Blouin says a similarly sized findings are detailed in Quebec’s guide Mass
Code Consultants: Technorm, GHL Consultants
project using typical construction materials Timber Buildings of Up to 12 Storeys, published
Timber Engineering: Nordic Structures
would have taken twice as long. And, yes, by the provincial government. Today “anyone
Mechanical Engineering: Génécor Experts-
assembly was performed through the dead in the province can build up to 12 stories
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of winter, proving out wood’s all-season with wood by following the research and the
Civil Engineering: Groupe Conseil SID Inc.
constructability. approved directives,” Huot says.
Mass Timber Supplier: Nordic Structures
General Contractor: EBC
Fire-Rated Confidence Proven Way Forward Structure Assembly: Les Constructions FGP
Origine meets the code standards expected of Today, Origine stands as a symbol of a way Laboratories: FPInnovations, National Research
any mid-rise residential dwelling. To support forward in mass timber mid-rise applications. Council of Canada
an inclusive process and show national Huot says “over 1,200 officials from Korea,
commitment to tall wood buildings, federal China, Turkey, Japan, Canada, United States,
authorities sponsored comprehensive testing to and South America have toured Origine during
rate mass timber’s fire resistive qualities. A full and after construction.”

Innovative Detail is a monthly presentation in ARCHITECT profiling distinct To learn more about new and innovative wood uses,
building design and modern architecture. It is sponsored by Think Wood. visit: thinkwood.com/architect.
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use in construction.
92

Pendleton West Acoustical Wall System

Plan Section

1. 3.5" × 0.75" white oak slats

2. 1" airspace 8
5
3. 2.25" horizontal wood furring (24" o.c.)
4. 2" fabric-wrapped fiberglass panel
5. 2" vertical furring (22.5" o.c.)
6. Gypsum wallboard
7. Metal stud frame with insulation
8. 2" cavity 9

9. Concrete shear wall

 93

In designing a music rehearsal hall for of the board-formed concrete. “The The testing proved invaluable. The
an addition to Wellesley College’s Neo- making of a concrete building involves designers learned that the assembly,
Gothic Pendleton West arts building, an incredible amount of wood,” Peters configured as it is now built, balanced
in Massachusetts, Philadelphia-based says. “So why not imprint the wood as the absorption of the correct sound
KieranTimberlake was inspired by the evidence of that making?” frequencies as equally well as a layout
wooden sounding box of violins and Although the building’s concrete shell that varied slat widths and spacing.
other instruments. Naturally lit from is mostly exposed, the design team knew “Because of our desire for serenity in
clerestory windows, the double-height the rehearsal hall’s walls would need to the space, we chose the regular wood
space is wrapped almost entirely in a absorb and contain sound. At the same slat dimension and layout over the
custom wood acoustical wall system, time, Peters says, “we were extremely randomized version,” Peters explains.
developed in collaboration with strapped for space. Every inch counted. The testing also revealed that the upper
Cambridge, Mass.–based Acentech. So we didn’t have the luxury of shaping volume of the rehearsal hall needed to
The 1,625-square-foot rehearsal hall that room in a way that would’ve been a reflect more sound; as a result, in that
is the main programmatic element to the little bit more acoustically beneficial.” area, the designers closed the 1-inch
10,000-square-foot jewel-box concrete The acoustical wall system the team gaps between slats with a solid plywood
developed essentially creates a “box backer in the walls, eliminating the need
within a box.” From the outside in, the for the fabric-wrapped acoustical panels.
building’s 10-inch-thick concrete shear Although the panelized wall system
walls support an insulated metal-stud was designed to be prefabricated off-
frame sheathed with gypsum wallboard. site, CDD Custom Millwork, in Norwich,
Afxed to the gypsum wallboard are N.Y., assembled the system in situ using
vertical furring members and 2-inch- parts that workers had prefinished in
thick, fabric-wrapped fiberglass panels, the shop. By completing the system on-
the latter of which attach with aluminum site, Peters says, the carpenters could
panel cleats. The furring members are better align the system with adjacent
crossed with horizontal nailers, spaced conditions, such as doors and windows,
24 inches on center, creating a 2.25- and coordinate with other trades on
inch airspace between 3.5-inch-wide, integrated components, such as airflow
quarter-sawn white oak slats and the plenums and utility enclosures. “At the
sound-absorbing panels. end of the day, it really worked out,” he
The system is tunable, incorporating says. “The stars aligned, and we had
19 bifold panels that increase the very few hiccups.”
addition that connects Pendleton West, absorption of sound when opened. The The project took two years to
built in 1934 and renovated as part of the acoustic wall system also conceals complete, with the renovated Pendleton
project, to Paul Rudolph’s 1958 Jewett utilities, including plenums for the West and the addition opening in
Arts Center via a series of bridges. building’s displacement ventilation spring 2017. While the new building
In such a sylvan and storied setting, system, which helped the rehearsal deftly marries its adjacent buildings,
the architect’s job is that of a doctor’s: space become more zen-like. “We had finding commonalities across 80 years
Primum non nocere. First, do no harm. this incredible desire to create a serene of campus building, Peters is most
“That’s sort of a primary goal,” says space, one that, when everything was in pleased with the activities the arts
KieranTimberlake principal Tim Peters, its place, was more like a chapel than a center now hosts. “It’s been extremely
AIA. “So the work tends to be deferential music practice room,” Peters says. gratifying to see students engage with
in a lot of ways, but it’s not trying to Using hand calculations and 3D the building,” he says. He has seen
match, it’s not trying to mimic.” modeling, KieranTimberlake built a students documenting the architecture
In tone and materiality, the addition prototype of the wall system that it then or mounting small art installations that
takes cues both from Rudolph’s took to Acentech’s ofce for acoustic acknowledge the building’s materiality.
exposed-aggregate concrete columns modeling and experimentation with “How does light filter across a board-
MIchAel MorAn/oTTo

and the natural landscape, using variables such as airspace depth, formed concrete wall? How do certain
concrete and red oak to create a quietly acoustical panel thickness, and wood- textures reveal themselves? Students are
contemporary, high-performance slat width and spacing. Finding the right engaging very literally with those things,”
building. Wood serves as a unifying combination of parameters that would he notes. “And that’s the best thing
element, visible not just in the interiors perform the best acoustically is “a little that could possibly come of it—that the
and curtainwall but also in the contours bit of a dark art,” Peters says. building is actually a pedagogical tool.”
94

The Dox Centre’s Gulliver Shell

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. Transparent ETFE roof

2. Steel frame roof support structure
3. 0.75"-thick wood lamella, 1.85" to 2.5" wide
4. 1" × 3" wood lath (20" o.c.)
5. 4.7"-wide × 3"-deep larch glulam top chord
6. 1.6" × 4.7" × 2" wood web member
7. Threaded rod (typ.)
8. 4.7"-wide × 3"-deep larch glulam bottom chord
 95

A wooden zeppelin looms over the my head”), originally wanted to forgo the connections, including the custom
stark white roofs of the Dox Centre the steel frame but load tests convinced brackets that anchor the steel cable
for Contemporary Art, in Prague, him otherwise. “The wind force above system.
cantilevering more than 50 feet beyond the roofs of the center is very strong,” he The circular timber truss rings arrived
one of the cultural center’s warehouse- says. “Generating enough resistance at the construction site broken down
like buildings. As fantastical as it against horizontal wind forces to stop into three arcs each. First, workers
appears, the 130-foot-long, 30-foot- the structure from pivoting was difficult.” erected the steel framework and then
diameter structure known as Gulliver is Counter to Rajniš’ dismissal of secured the truss rings with steel plates
in fact not an airship, but an elevated software—his staff translates his and high-strength screws. Next, they
event space and pedestrian bridge that drawings into 3D models—Timber constructed the nose and tail of the
incorporates stadium seating and a Design structural engineer Zbyněk airship and craned them into place.
stage for literary events and lectures. Šrůtek embraces digital technology and Finally, they screwed the lamellae into
Gulliver is the brainchild of Dox used Dlubal Software’s RFEM to model the shell and the ETFE diaphragm added
Centre founder and director Leoš the structure’s steel, timber, and ETFE via steel ribs that are also secured with
Válka, who for years harbored a desire elements. He worked with Rajniš to bolts and steel cables.
to “invade” the Dox with a “parasitic” ensure the structural components would Gulliver was completed in late 2016.
structure with “an absurdly fascinating not detract from the “illusion of flight.” For its opening, the Dox Centre brought
organic shape that would contrast with Thus, Gulliver’s two white- in a number of celebrated authors for
the Dox Centre’s existing architecture,” painted steel truss support columns,
he said in a statement. In 2013, Válka rising 65 feet and 54 feet from the
asked Martin Rajniš, co-founder of local concrete foundation, tuck against the
firm Huť Architektury Martin Rajniš neighboring Dox Centre buildings
(HAMR) to design him such a space. “I connected by the zeppelin. To address
didn’t hesitate,” Rajniš says. the high wind load, the designers also
Rajniš sketched what he describes ran a 7-inch-diameter steel tube from
as “a soft space defined by a wooden the front of the airship to the building,
structure made out of unrefined wooden creating a third anchor point.
branch sticks, in utter contrast to the The 30-foot-diameter glulam larch
strict white cubic volumes of the Dox.” wood truss rings, whose top and
He showed his sketches to Válka, who bottom chords are 4.7 inches wide
initially loved them but, 24 hours later, by 3 inches deep, are connected by
had a change of heart. “ ‘This has to be roughly 2-foot-long web members,
different,’ ” Rajniš recalls Válka saying. also 4.7 inches wide. In the longitudinal readings and a discussion, and mounted
“ ‘Let’s draw an airship—but not just any direction, similarly constructed wood an exhibition about the airship’s
airship. Let’s draw one that fulfills all the truss beams stiffen the structure with inception, design, and construction.
dreams of 12-year-old boys!’ ” the help of steel cables, and provide Rajniš and Šrůtek are both proud
Válka drew a long blimp form the base for a shell of 3-inch-wide, that the project was designed,
spanning from one building to the 1-inch-thick curved wood laths spaced fabricated, and built completely within
other, extending over the Dox Centre’s every 20 inches. These laths support the Czech Republic. It showcases the
courtyard and angled slightly, as if the airship’s exterior lamella. To protect country’s talent, Šrůtek says. “Having
about to land. “I was amazed,” Rajniš the unfinished lamella, the architects the opportunity to design and then
says. “Needless to say, when I feel that added a curved roof of transparent, manufacture and build an exceptional
someone else’s idea is great, I gladly join.” mechanically stretched ETFE (ethylene construction where wood is statically
HAMR partnered with Timber tetrafluoroethylene). used to its limit of possibilities, in the
Design, a structural engineering firm Concocting this structural puzzle amazing atmosphere of the gallery, was
in Česká Skalice, Czech Republic, to took two years, Šrůtek says. Timber a very powerful driving force for the
create a freestanding steel structure Design also oversaw Gulliver’s whole project,” he says. “It was a very
that anchors into the ground and is fabrication and construction. “Special beautiful three years of my life.”
AlešŠ JungmAnn

encircled with 14 timber truss rings, CAD systems for steel and timber with For Rajniš, Gulliver is a testament
forming the zeppelin’s skeleton. the possibility of data export to CNC to the power of collaboration. “I work
Rajniš, who draws everything by machines were used,” Šrůtek says. His with the stars and rising stars of the
hand (“I don’t own a computer and team built a full-scale mock-up of one youngest generation,” he says. “I would
never will—all the software I need is in of the circular truss rings to test all of recommend it to anyone.”
96

Patch22 Exterior Trusses

4 5 6 7 8

1. 20" × 8" glulam chord

2. Ø10" hole
3. Steel knife plate with two M16 bolts
4. Steel end cap
5. 12" × 8" glulam web member
6. Steel knife plate with two M12 bolts
7. Steel shoe with M16 bolt and eight M10 × 120mm screws
8. Steel knife plate with six M12 bolts
 97

A physical building model whose Cantilevered of the main structure editor of a magazine,” Frantzen says,
floors had yet to be glued down was are enclosed balconies of variable revising plans to meet building codes
the design genesis for the seemingly depths, with glazing to bufer both noise and to maximize functionality—but
casually stacked floor plates of Patch22, and wind. Structurally, the balconies are otherwise remaining hands-of. He adds
a seven-story, mixed-use timber stifened by an exoskeleton of redwood that the famous 1909 drawing by A.B.
structure in Amsterdam by local firm trusses, 8 inches wide and 12 to 20 Walker showing a New York skyscraper
Frantzen et al Architecten. But the inches deep, that tie into the floor beams composed of traditional houses was
concept of pushing the envelope of via steel knife plates and a series of bolts. inspirational: “We wanted to give people
what’s possible through architecture Moisture was among the biggest freedom to design their own villa.”
dates back to 2005, when firm founder challenges when building with Patch22’s adaptability and versatility
Tom Frantzen first began directing the exposed trusses, Frantzen says. have already been tested—by Frantzen
money he spent on design competitions “[T]he Netherlands are almost never himself. After his wife accepted a job in
toward development projects. totally dry,” he says. “We have an ideal Denmark, he downsized their original
Four years later, the city of climate for microorganisms so if you apartment in Patch22, which was half
Amsterdam was soliciting proposals that get water inside your structure, the a floor. “We sold part of our apartment,
prioritized sustainability for a waterfront structure will start to rot immediately.” and we kept the smaller part,” he says.
site in the industrial Buiksloterham Steel caps completely cover the ends of They added division walls, rerouted
district in North Amsterdam. “This is the diagonal web members where they some of the plumbing, and added new
our chance,” thought Frantzen and his connect to the top chord. Where they electrical meters. “Everything was
business partner, Claus Oussoren. connect to the bottom chord, the steel connected, and then we had a new,
And it was. Their concept—a plate is surface mounted to the lower but smaller, home. It even had the
58,000-square-foot, net-zero energy chord, rather than embedded. right house number because we were
building composed of a row of Similarly, where the tops of the smart enough to negotiate with the city
townhouses that culminates in a twisted story volumes jut out, the that we needed extra house numbers in
100-foot-tall tower—was selected, architects needed to shed water from a good order in case the big apartments
scoring an 8.9 out of 10 on the city’s the miniature roof decks. They added were split up.”
sustainability evaluation. Earning points aluminum trim with a ventilated backing More than a decade later, Frantzen’s
were the project’s proposed solar sloped away from the building. The decision to wade into development
panels, graywater recycling system, trim was necessary on just one half of seems to have paid of: He and Oussoren
and a heating system that uses pellet the façade length, since the other half are constructing a second seven-story
stoves fueled by a timber byproduct. But transitioned to become recessed below building of mass timber, concrete, and
for Frantzen, Patch22’s real innovation the floor above it, but Frantzen and his steel, on the plot of land immediately
is its structure, a heavy timber frame team decided to run the trim the full adjacent to Patch22. Frantzen believes
made from glulam and CLT, with hollow length to reinforce the aesthetic of the increasing visibility of timber
concrete-and-steel floors that allow for the disconnected volumes piled atop structures in Amsterdam, led by Patch22,
flexibility in programming. each other. has paved the way for even higher-profile
On its exterior, Patch22’s broad-faced Moisture also dictated the coloring projects such as Haut, a 240-foot-tall
tower is defined by its skewed floor of the building. For Patch22’s more solid tower designed by Team V Architecture,
plates and exposed timber trusses, east and west elevations, the architects based in Amsterdam. “That project is a
which visually reinforce the building’s specified fire-treated Douglas fir that being done by a commercial developer,”
horizontality. Despite appearances, had been pre-weathered. “If you didn’t he says. “And they would have never,
the tower’s primary structure is purely pre-gray the façade, it wouldn’t gray ever dared it without this building being
rectangular, a skeleton of timber evenly,” Frantzen says. “You would get a success.”
columns and beams that join at right black lines.”
angles. The projected corner, or “twist” Construction of Patch22 began in
from floor to floor, is achieved by December 2014 and was completed in
sequentially extending the building’s March 2016. After that, the individual
massive transverse floor beams— commercial and residential interiors
measuring 1.5 feet wide, 2.6 feet deep, were fit out. Frantzen’s firm moved into
Luuk kramer

and approximately 30 feet long—a foot the building and also designed several
further than its neighbor. The reverse of the tower’s 31 units, while consulting
happens on the building’s opposite face, on the remainder. “We assisted all
creating a parallelogram in plan. the buyers but [acted] more like the
98

The Barn’s Soaring Superstructure

1. Purlin topped by Class A untreated 6"×17" cedar shingles (not shown)

2. 2×6 secondary frame (24" o.c.) topped with 0.75" OSB plywood and waterproofing membrane (not shown)
3. 2×6 secondary frame (12" o.c.)
4. Glulam truss with 21" × 8.75" chords
5. Ø0.75" to Ø1.5" steel tie-rods
6. Steel cross-bracing between trusses
7. Cross beams
8. Concrete-filled steel column (typ.)
 99

Dutch designer Jerry van Eyck didn’t anchoring pods, which also act as ovoid- understood it themselves. The firm
set out to create a building. He and shaped enclosures. “When we started also consulted with Seattle-based
his New York–based urban design and designing, that was our intent: to be this structural engineering firm Magnusson
landscape architecture firm !Melk had weird, ambiguous element,” van Eyck Klemencic Associates.
been hired by Sacramento, Calif.–based says. “Is it landscape? Is it architecture? They ultimately realized that, while
Fulcrum Property to help invigorate the Is it installation art? And then afterward, the details themselves might be familiar,
Bridge District. The 178-acre mixed-use it was, ‘Oops, we designed a building!’ ” the number of unique angles could be
development in West Sacramento The trusses, the longest of which overwhelming for local builder Brown
suffered from the perception of being in span 140 feet, are supported by cross- Construction. “It’s not going to be a six-
the “unsavory part of town even when bracing and criss-crossing steel tie-rods page IKEA instruction manual [that the
that reputation was no longer deserved,” that range in diameter from 0.75 inches design team would be creating],”
says Stephen Jaycox, Fulcrum’s chief to 1.5 inches. Glulam truss members are van Eyck remembers thinking, “but more
marketing officer and design director at joined with heavy-duty, gang-nail plates like a 200-page IKEA instruction manual.”
the time. The site, he continues, needed
a “larger, more operatic gesture” to draw
residents across the Sacramento River.
As such, van Eyck proposed creating
a gathering place for all event types: a
shade structure, perhaps, in which “the
river ecology leaps into the organized
geometry of the city and locks fingers
with it,” Jaycox recalls the !Melk founding
principal saying.
The design team ran the material
language of the archetypal structure
of California’s Central Valley agrarian
heritage—the barn—through parametric
design software as if through a translator,
exploring novel forms that could be built
with nominal lumber. Working in Rhino secured by dozens of 3.5-inch-long And yet construction went smoothly.
and the now-retired Autodesk T-Splines timber rivets. Wood Tech Services in Eugene, Ore.,
plug-in, they began with the shape of a Giving the Barn its sleek form is a fabricated the glulam members, made of
sprouting seed in plan and then studied secondary structure made out of 3D Douglas fir and larch woods, and Brown
sun angles to maximize the amount of frames of nominal lumber. Spaced 2 Construction erected the Barn between
shade the structure could provide. After feet on center in proximity to the pods April 2015 and June 2016. Because the
controlling for several factors, including and 1 foot on center near the canopy’s skin plays a structural role, van Eyck
an existing right-of-way that meant apex, the frames provide the armature says, “there were temporary supports
firetrucks had to be able to drive through for 0.75-inch OSB plywood sheathing underneath until the very last shingle
whatever was built, they arrived at the topped with a waterproof membrane was up.”
sinuous, wood-shingle-clad structure and Class A untreated cedar shingles. It’s no secret that the Barn was
now known simply as the Barn. Structurally, the Barn’s skin is as crucial meant to improve public perception of
Only a third of the Barn’s as its cantilevered trusses. “If you leave the neighborhood while also creating a
9,100-square-foot plan is indoor space. one of the elements out, the barn starts revenue stream for Fulcrum. “But it really
The rest is essentially a giant breezeway, deflecting,” van Eyck says. worked,” van Eyck says. “Man, it worked!
an 80-foot-long canopy roughly 30 feet Still, he maintains the structure is The effect was much stronger than I ever
wide that soars 20 feet over a large not overly sophisticated: The secondary could have imagined.”
public plaza. The structure functions members are “all 2x4s and 4x4s,” Even so, Jaycox adds, the Barn
as a double cantilever, according to joined using standard connections, represents much more than an aesthetic
!Melk. A series of intersecting, angled, though “the lengths and the angles of object. “Though it’s sort of satisfying as
Chad davies

and trestle-like glulam trusses, whose the joists vary.” Early on, the design a sculptural thing, it was never designed
top and bottom chords measure 8.75 team made physical models of the just to be something you look at,” he
inches wide and 21 inches deep, extend structure—some 3D-printed, others from says. “It was designed to be something
toward one another from their respective Starbucks stirring sticks—to ensure they you experience.”
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 101

“Yet his architecture

practice is not a
sideshow, something
separate and discrete;
it is, in fact, central to
the kind of change
he’s trying to create.”

The Political Activism of Henry Muñoz by Ian Volner

102

“I’m not an architect,” says Henry Muñoz III, “but I culvert to which it had been confined for most of the
think I am an architect of change.” This is no modest last century, adding lush wetland foliage to its margins
claim, but then Muñoz, the 58-year-old principal and and turning it into a less formal, more contemporary
CEO of the architecture firm Muñoz & Co., is not counterpart to the San Antonio Riverwalk nearby.
given to understatement. Situated not far from where Spanish missionaries first
On a hot day in his hometown of San Antonio, founded the town in 1718, the park has an even more
Muñoz, wearing his signature reflector shades and significant location within the city today. “This is really
a floral shirt, his hair lifted into a slight wave, is the connective tissue between the Mexican-American
touring his studio’s latest project, a rehabilitation of west side and downtown,” says Muñoz: The project will
the long-derelict San Pedro Creek. The initial phase help weave the Latino neighborhood back into the city
opened in May, and already the new public space has as a whole, a crucial objective for Muñoz and his studio.
had a significant impact, at least on one segment of Both are unusual hybrids. The firm was founded in
the population. “The birds,” Muñoz says, pointing to 1927 as Eickenroht & Cocke; by the time Muñoz joined
a jet-black grackle lifting into flight. “They came back it in 1983, the studio, then operating as Jones & Kell,
almost immediately.” had risen to become a regional powerhouse. Today, its
The now-complete half-mile segment of the portfolio includes large-scale public works scattered all
waterway, renamed the San Pedro Creek Culture Park, across Texas, with a strong track record of educational
is the first component of an anticipated three-part projects, public parks, and cultural facilities, all made
project; the next phase has already broken ground possible by its staff of 43 who range from interiors
with completion expected in 2020. Muñoz’s firm has specialists to city planners. As for Muñoz, he has no
attempted to liberate the waterway from the concrete formal training, is not licensed, and came to the firm
primarily in order to help its then-exclusively Anglo
staff forge connections within the Latino community.
“When I first started to work on this,” says Muñoz,
“I didn’t really understand what I was doing.”
Twenty-five years later, he provides input on
nearly every design while also bringing in new
work. Yet his professional profile remains, to say
the least, a singular one. This is because, since 2013,
Muñoz has been the national finance chairman of
the Democratic National Committee. His name
appears on countless fundraising invitations and
mailers soliciting contributions; his 2017 wedding
to partner Kyle Ferrari was officiated by former Vice
President Joe Biden. Since assuming the post, his
work as an advocate has only intensified: He sits on
numerous boards and councils (for the National Parks
Foundation and the Cooper Hewitt National Designs
Museum, among others), and in any given hour may
field a half-dozen phone calls from the likes of DNC
Chairman Tom Perez and actress Eva Longoria. “I
just think this is a time of activism,” Muñoz says. Yet
his architecture practice is not a sideshow, something
separate and discrete; it is, in fact, central to the kind
of change he’s trying to create. This unlikely pairing
is not without its challenges (and its contradictions).
But it does make Muñoz’s firm a fascinating case
study in the architecture of engagement.
Larry Servin

Architecture for the Marginalized

Muñoz’s motives are a product of both nature and
nurture. “The Fox,” as Muñoz’s father was known in
The San Pedro Creek Culture Park in San Antonio political circles, was a major figure in civil-rights and
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104

labor struggles in the state for decades. Upstairs in the swatches of primary colors that recall the decorative
younger Muñoz’s home, an aging picket sign testifies traditions of Texas’ Mexican-American community,
to his father’s influence: The son, then 35, held the sign where storefronts are routinely enlivened with brightly
aloft during a protest—organized by the Fox—that painted murals and eye-popping signage. Likewise,
demanded an increase in the local minimum wage. the 2007 Museo Alameda in San Antonio (a museum
Having such a driven figure as a father did have its of Latino culture, initially a Smithsonian outpost that
drawbacks. From an early age, Muñoz exhibited an is now occupied by Texas A&M University), which
artistic streak; his sister, Emily Bueche, recounts how features a steel exoskeleton clad in a decorative
the Fox reproached the boy for “always wanting to metal lattice—a clear nod to the ornate grillwork that
do everything,” volunteering for every extracurricular decorates older houses throughout Latin America. In
activity rather than focusing his efforts. Undeterred, other instances, the relationship to the local social
Muñoz never relinquished this diffuse intensity, and historical currents is a little less overt, as with Los
becoming an avid collector of art and design (with a Tomates, a border-crossing facility near Brownsville,
special focus on the work of emerging Latino artists) Texas, that boasts a large trellis on the southern side.
even as he pursued his double-pronged professional life. While providing shade to visitors, it also hearkens back
Muñoz first broke onto the political stage in 1992 to the tomato farm that once occupied the site. “A lot
with a three-year term on the Texas Transportation of this is storytelling,” says Muñoz, himself a polished
Commission under then-governor Ann Richards. raconteur who ensures that narratives like these are
Among his proudest accomplishments: a vast always embedded in the office’s work.
expansion of the state’s highway network in the
underserved Latino-majority cities of South Texas. In
Edcouch-Elsa Fine Arts Center
the McAllen area, only a few miles from the border,
Muñoz helped oversee the construction of a massive
new freeway corridor spurring what has become a huge
influx in commercial and residential development.
“That was really the beginning,” says Muñoz, the first
time he understood how the built environment could
bring change to marginalized communities.
In the years since Muñoz returned to the private
sector, his firm (first as Kell Muñoz Wigodsky, then
in its current incarnation since 2013) has developed
a portfolio of projects aimed at the underserved in
Texas, especially the Latino population. Taking a
page from prominent San Antonio artist and Chicano The Evolution of Mestizo Regionalism
theorist Tomas Ybarra-Frausto—a close personal friend The firm’s most recent projects demonstrate how that
whose ideas, Muñoz says, “inform everything we approach, not to mention the interplay between the
do”—Muñoz coined the term “Mestizo Regionalism” detail-oriented staff of designers and their big-picture
to describe his approach. It’s less a stylistic genre than principal, has evolved. “Henry lets us take care of
an abstract sensibility, one that aims to infuse every the way the building works, but there’s always these
project with the richness and energy of America’s underlying ideas of his that carry through,” says Rene
borderlands. As Muñoz puts it, Mestizo Regionalism Lemos, Assoc. AIA.
entails “an expanded view of context as including Lemos joined the firm in 2008 and was on the
culture—not merely buildings but the people.” In team responsible for one of its latest undertakings,
Texas, where Mexicans and Anglos (as well as African- the Billy Earl Dade Middle School (BEDMS) in
Americans, Germans, and the French) have mingled for Dallas. Accommodating more than a thousand
generations, communities are often no less diverse than students in a facility of 213,000 square feet, the
their architecture, and all of Muñoz & Co.’s projects building is a long, oblong block in plan, with a
aim to expand the space of exchange and encounter. glass-encased library to the east and a brick volume
Mestizo Regionalism can take a variety of forms. housing an auditorium and gymnasium to the west.
Chris Cooper

The firm regularly samples the palette and formal Between the two, classrooms occupy the slender
details commonly associated with the art and design length of the structure with protruding oriel windows.
of the Southwest: the 2007 Edcouch-Elsa Fine Arts The design has been such a hit, Lemos says, that
Center in Hidalgo County, Texas, is faced in vibrant “the only problem is everybody wants to use it,”
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106

Billy Earl Dade Middle School in Dallas

with locals seeking to book the building for

community events.
While the technical requirements of the project
required the design expertise of trained practitioners
like Lemos, its cultural character—the values it sought
to communicate—were very much within Muñoz’s
bailiwick. He led an in-depth dialogue with the
school’s predominantly African-American families in
an effort bring their collective experience to bear on
the design. After recognizing the important legacy of
the school’s namesake, a prominent local educator, he
worked with firm interiors specialist Joaquin Abrego to
make the building a testament to Dade’s life and ideals.
Together, they added artistic features that include a
giant portrait of the educator, situated in the main
entryway and composed of hundreds of quotes from its
subject rendered in shades of black and white, as well
as an elaborate sequence of discarded doors (most of

Top: Chris Cooper; BoTTom: Dror BalDinger, Faia

them from demolished buildings in the area) covering
the entryway walls, recalling Dade’s statement that
“education is the door to opportunity.”
A similar artistic and cultural strategy has
come to characterize the office’s nearly two-decade
relationship with the University of Texas Rio Grande
Valley (UTRGV). The university’s campus in Edinburg,
Texas, was originally designed by Houston-based
architect Kenneth Bentsen as a series of courtyards
surrounded by Louis Kahn–inspired monumental
pavilions, their façades given a slight Southwest flavor
with Mission style arches. Muñoz & Co. has designed
a series of new buildings for the school, starting with
the Engineering Building; their latest project, a new
Science Building, opened over the summer. “It’s a The Science Building at UTRGV
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108

Master plan for the border city of Brownsville, Texas

good relationship,” says Geoffrey Edwards, AIA, the San Antonio’s new federal building, a sprawling $117
firm principal who oversaw the project, “and it’s million complex which Muñoz is determined to equip
allowed us to color outside the lines so long as we with a little artistic embellishment. Emerging from a
respect the overall architecture [of the campus].” The meeting with his government clients, Muñoz seemed
new building, a stout brick volume like its neighbors, optimistic that his view would prevail, despite official
harbors a surprise on its courtyard-facing side, with resistance. “They were worrying about the budget,” he
a blue brise-soleil of ribbed vertical strips and round said. “But it’s going to happen.”
dimple-like recesses.
Perhaps the firm’s most significant project at the Marrying Architecture and Activism
campus is the 2005 Education Complex, a three-story Muñoz often expresses frustration at the current
building near the campus’s northeast perimeter that political landscape. “Some people will tell you there’s
also a packs a few symbolic punches into its modest not enough opportunity in this country for all of us,”
frame. Greeting visitors on the northern front is an he says, a reactionary point of view he’s determined
elaborate entryway of decorative metalwork, “an to combat. In 2017, under his leadership, the DNC
abstracted concept of barbed wire,” Muñoz explains. succeeded in raising nearly $66 million, the largest haul
Inspired by the work of a local artist, the door is a in any off-cycle election in almost a decade, most of it
satirical take on the defensive infrastructure of the from grassroots donors making small contributions.
U.S.-Mexico border, here transformed into a symbol In the midterms, much to Muñoz’s delight, the blue
of welcome. Inside, the central elevator shaft features wave also turned out to be something of a Latino wave:
a series of dichos—traditional Mexican proverbs— According to early voting data, Latino participation
etched into the glass, in both English and Spanish; was up 174 percent compared with 2014.
as the elevator ascends, the two languages become Marrying architecture with activism hasn’t always
increasingly intermingled, mirroring the linguistic made for an easy relationship, however. In the case
cross-pollination common to the region. of the Museo Alameda, Muñoz devoted considerable
Back in San Antonio, the office is now ready to networking and fundraising energies before landing
embark on a restoration that’s been a pet project of the commission, only to have the project lose its Courtesy Muñoz & Co.
Muñoz’s for years—the transformation of the long- Smithsonian affiliation in 2012 due to financing
empty Alameda Theater, a stunning 1940s Art Deco/ shortfalls—a failure that many in San Antonio blamed
Moderne structure that was once a hot spot for on Muñoz himself. His tenure at the state Department
Spanish-language cinema, into the new headquarters of Transportation also attracted criticism for his lack
of Texas Public Radio (one of Muñoz’s favorite causes). of fiscal discipline, and in the world of Texas public
The firm will also be breaking ground next spring on works he is known as a hyper-competitive job-getter,
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Of course, that tenacity and ambition often
serve him well. In Brownsville, a border city where
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the heart of downtown, the studio has been at
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into a vibrant mixed-use district. “We went a little

bit over the top,” jokes Steve Tillotson, FAIA, who
led the project. Envisioning a grand esplanade that
would incorporate both the border fence and the
river levee, the team proposed a dense cluster of
buildings recalling a supersized Southwest adobe
city, looming romantically over the riverside. As far-
fetched as the proposal seemed, the rudiments of
the plan are actually moving forward, with a $250
million first phase underway now.
On the afternoon that Muñoz toured San Pedro
Creek Culture Park, he strolled past new signage
that explained the history of the site and its restored
natural life, as well as a waterfall featuring a
perforated steel panel, with star-like LEDs glowing
in the exact pattern of the night sky on the date of
San Antonio’s founding. Huge murals, recalling
the work of Diego Rivera, covered segments of the
retaining walls, recounting the story of the city’s
settlement and its struggles and triumphs through
the centuries. Looking at the images, Muñoz saw a
reflection of his own, decidedly optimistic, outlook.
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“It’s all about movements of people,” said

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Muñoz, looking at the artwork. “And movements

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 113

“To all these rejections,

I have a response ready:
‘Do you think Zaha
Hadid ever thought
it was the right time?’ ”

Lifting the Veil on Succession by Eva Hagberg Fisher

114
1900

1900
At first I think it must be me. Maybe my interview What I’m asking everyone to talk about is their
|

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Born in Estonia

requests aren’t getting through, or if they are, they’re deaths, even if they may seem far away, even if they
ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı

First independent commission: Ahavath Israel Synagogue

too forward, or too personal, or too impersonal, or too may come with sufficient warning. In other words, I’m
acontextual. A friend offers to get me in touch with thinking of the opposite of how Hadid died: suddenly,
Graduates from UPenn

his friend, a MacArthur prize–winning architect, and unexpectedly, at the height of her career. I still get press
’10

’10
I send him a draft of my request. I think things will go releases from Zaha Hadid Architects; the firm announced
better if my email is lyrical and loose. It doesn’t; he shortly after her death that they’d keep going. Patrik
asks me to formalize my inquiry, says this isn’t going Schumacher, her former second-in-command and
to get past the architect’s marketing guy. So I rewrite now the sole partner, says there was a succession plan
’20

’20
Forms loose partnerships with George
Howe, Oskar Stonorov, and Anne Tyng

the request, try to remind whomever’s going to be in place. But who’s really running things behind the
reading it of my credentials, personal and professional. scenes? At what point is the work no longer Hadid’s,
I don’t get a response. I ask my friend if he’s heard the firm no longer an embodiment of her worldview?
l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı

anything, and after a few weeks he hasn’t, so I email Schumacher has a history of writing extraordinarily
’30

’30
the press office myself, and receive a very kind—though contentious articles, saying extraordinarily insensitive
very firm—rejection. I try my old contacts. Rejection. things. As I was putting this story to bed, he filed an
I try a beloved architect/interior designer, part of a application to the high Court in London to remove the

| ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı
four-person New York City–based firm with its hands three other appointed executors named in Hadid’s will,
in pretty much everything: restaurants, bars, ranches essentially leaving him in charge of what is reported
’40

’40
in the Napa Valley, fashion. I ask her for comment, and to be a nearly $90 million estate. Is this what Hadid
ı ı ı ı l ı

she says something like, It’s so nice to hear from you but would have wanted?

Construction starts on Dhaka

it’s just not the right time. And so I press on. I ask my editor if it’s OK to
Hires David Wisdom

I try the friend of a consulting client of mine, a interview some of my behind-the-scenes consulting
ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı |
’50

’50
Mexico City–based architect who spent a week in clients. He agrees, as long as there’s full disclosure.

National Assembly
Vermont with my client, leading a sort of advanced I think, finally, I’ll get someone on the record. But
class for midcareer students, and I hope that my when I ask my contacts to participate, they laugh
Awarded AIA Gold Medal

connection to our mutual friend might get me in nervously, and then they say, “Tell me what everyone
Dies in Penn Station
’60

’60
the door. I get no response. I ask two publicists I’ve else says,” and then when I tell them that so far no one
worked with since my very first byline, 15 years ago, else has said anything, they say, “Hmm, well, keep

ı ı ı
to ask their clients, in particular a husband-and-wife me posted—but it’s just not the right time.” I want to

completed
Salk Institute

ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı
team who recently finished a massive public project scream at them. I want to ask them why they think they
in Long Island City and who I know will recognize can decide what the right time is. As I said to a border
’70

’70
me, who I believe harbor enough goodwill towards agent when I crossed into Canada to care for a sick
ı

me that they’ll respond, and a few days later I get an parent earlier this year: “Death comes for us all.”
l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı

apologetic email response, on their behalf, that it’s not

David Wisdom & Assoc. form Pellechia & Meyers;
David Wisdom opens

by Pellechia & Meyers

Yale Center for British Art completed
quite the right time.

ı | ı ı
’80

’80
I email another architect who I totally bonded
with during a friendly dinner at a magazine event in

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San Francisco, someone who’s on the faculty at my
current educational institution, where I’ve got nine-
’90

’90
tenths of a Ph.D., something that I also hope will give
firm dissolves in 1979

Two project architects

me and my project legitimacy. No response. Still, I

don’t give up. I email the assistant of a famed British Mortal Ambiguity
architect, who I wrote about for an internationally There seem to be three main ways that things can go
respected design magazine, and ask if perhaps his when a prominent architect dies. The practice can
2000

boss might be interested in speaking with me again. fold almost immediately after their death, unable 2000
David Wisdom & Assoc.
building completed by
Dhaka National Assembly

I hear back the morning I’m filing this story, with a to live beyond the founder’s demise, as was the case
ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı |

very gentle no thanks, “given the sensitive nature of with Louis Kahn. Or the practice can morph into
My Architect opens

the subject.”
Nathaniel Kahn’s film

something different, as with Hadid, where we’re mostly

’10

’10

To all these rejections, I have a response ready, left wondering how long the office can ride on its
but I never use it. The response I would use, if I were reputation. Or as with Charles Gwathmey, who died in
a different person, a more aggressive person, would 2009 and whose firm, Gwathmey Siegel, lives on—but
be something like, “Do you think Zaha Hadid ever
’18

’18

not without the widespread belief that this isn’t really

thought it was the right time?” how Charlie would have wanted things.
PROJECTS
FIRM

Lo u i s K a h n
 116

1900

1900
And finally, there are the cases when there’s an

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l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı |
infrastructure or succession plan in place that allows
for a relatively seamless transition, even in the face
of an unexpected passing, as with Eero Saarinen,
who died suddenly, with almost no warning, in 1961

’10

’10
at 51. The TWA Terminal, arguably his most famous
project, wasn’t finished yet (it would open a year later),
and that task was left to his partners, Kevin Roche,
FAIA, and John Dinkeloo; it is the argument of my

’20

’20
Born in Charlotte, N.C.
dissertation that Saarinen’s wife, Aline B. Louchheim
Saarinen, was instrumental in ensuring that his
reputation survived intact and that the work of the
office continued so seamlessly after his death. Consider

’30

’30
also the case of James Polshek, FAIA, who was still very

Helps design influential house for his artist parents on Long Island
much alive in 2010 when Polshek Partnership was

Part of her motivation is,

’40

’40
ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l
™
MUDD

while she’s still alive and

practicing, to shatter the
Graduates high
school, meets
Robert Siegel

myth of the “solo genius,”

’50

’50
by actively promoting
Mudd™ Panel ©2008 modularArts, Inc.
architects at her firm to
ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı

Launches firm

Dakota™ PANEL ©2018 modularArts, Inc.

partnership status, and by
’60

’60
with Siegel

sharing the responsibilities

Siegel forms Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman & Associates Architects with Gene Kaufman

of the firm with her other

ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı
employees.

Faye Dunaway Museum opens

apartment for
Designs
’70

’70
Wins AIA Firm Award

rebranded as Ennead Architects, a move that shifted

’80

’80
Guggenheim
the firm’s identity away from Polshek himself and

Addition to
towards a more collaborative one that will persevere,
with or without its founder.
So why was no one willing to talk me about their

Controversial Astor
Place condos built
’90

’90
succession plans? I called Jed Brubaker, an assistant
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modulararts.com | [email protected] | 206.788.4210

professor of information science at the University

ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı
of Colorado Boulder who conducts death studies
research, to see if he could offer any insight. I expected
him to say that it was about death denial, but he has
2000

2000
Dies of cancer

a more nuanced take that helps explain that repeated

renovation completed
Yale Art + Architecture

modulararts ¨ mantra that it’s just not the right time. “There’s a
difference between ‘my mortality comes later,’ versus
ı ı

‘my mortality doesn’t come now,’ ” he told me. “If

’10

’10

mortality came later, then you’d plan for it.” But if it

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| ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı |

doesn’t come now, and all we have is ambiguity, well,

that would explain the resistance I’ve met. “What I
Hoboken
W Hotel
opens

encounter is not so much a denial but an uncertainty in

’18

’18
™
DAKOTA

the face of ambiguity,” he said.

PROJECTS
FIRM

C h a r l e s G wat h m e y

Class A
 117

1900
1900

He’s quick to clarify that he hasn’t studied my

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Born in Finalnd

particular question—why professionals might be

unwilling to discuss their impending deaths and what
their firms should do after they die—and that he’s just
offering a hypothesis. “It’s not a fear of dying,” he said.

’10
’10

“I see people as uncertain about how to make choices.”

ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l

He tracks the cultural approach to death in the

Starts working with his father, Launches own firm, Eero Saarinen
Eliel, at Saarinen, Swansen, & Associates with Kevin Roche

Western world through three stages: a family approach,

common in the Victorian era, where the bodies of

YOU CALL ME RAIN

’20
’20

the deceased were visited before being buried; the

Takes first place in Gateway Arch competition

and Associates

medicalized approach, common in the first two-thirds

of the 20th century, where people often died alone,
in hospital rooms; and the current approach, where

’30
’30

“people are living in the presence of death” thanks

Kresge Auditorium at M.I.T. breaks ground University opens

to diseases like cancer and AIDS, which can create a
seemingly endless in-between stage. My friend who has
cancer calls it “the gray area.” I call it life.
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Which brings me to the reason why I wanted to do

’40
’40

this story. It’s not because of a particular devotion to

Hadid’s memory, or a worry that what will happen to
Gwathmey will happen to my practicing friends. When
I was 30, a cyst in my brain ruptured, hemorrhaging

’50
’50

ı ı | ı
blood and protein and disturbing the hypothalamic-
ı ı

pituitary axis. My doctors were concerned the cyst was

Marries Aline Bernstein Louchheim
John Dinkeloo joins ES&A

a malignant tumor. I had an operation to rule that out, ı ı l ı

Ingalls Rink at Yale
l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı

and I almost died because of a complication. Eight

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’60
’60

months after that, I had heart surgery for a congenital—

and potentially fatal—condition. A few years after that,
I got incredibly and mysteriously sick. I remain a well-
scanned, extremely medically supervised person. If an
MRI suddenly revealed something life-threatening, I
’70
’70

post-Saarinen commission, opens

Oakland Museum of California, first

would be sad, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Ever since

my brain hemorrhage, I’ve felt like I’ve been a little
HYDROTECH CALLS
founded to finish existing ES&A projects
Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates

closer to the thin veil. I live in the presence of death,

and I don’t want to live here alone.

ME OPPORTUNITY
’80
’80

Shattering the Myth of the Solo Genius

ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı
Roche wins Pritzker Prize

Daniel Libeskind, FAIA, and Deborah Berke, FAIA, seem

to share my openness. They are the only two architects
’90
’90

I contacted who agreed to speak on the record for this

story, and both are starting to put succession plans in
ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı
Rink at Yale
renovate Ingalls
Roche and Dinkeloo

place. I asked Berke why she was willing to ponder the

ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı

end of her own career so calmly and forthrightly. Part

of her motivation came from observing what happened
2000
2000

AIA Gold Medal

Roche wins

to the firms of a few architects she knew well and

respected, and who died without a plan. Part of her
project, Capital Crossing,

motivation is personal: Her husband, a surgeon, has

been retaking his board certification every few years.
Last Roche Dinkeloo

’10
’10

will be completed
plans to close
announces
Roche Dinkeloo

The most recent test, he realized, would be his last

one; soon, he will be considered too old to perform
complex surgeries. And while design clients might be
’18
’18

more enthusiastic about having a 95-year-old architect

ı |

than a 95-year-old surgeon, his own calm acceptance

PROJECTS
FIRM

EERO SAARINEN
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 119
1900

1900
of entering the next stage of his life prompted Berke to
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ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı |
think about the end, whenever and however it comes,
of her own career.

Serves as dean of Columbia GSAPP, adding the words “planning” and “preservation” to the school’s title
More importantly, part of her motivation is,
while she’s still alive and practicing, to shatter the
’10

’10
myth of the “solo genius,” by actively promoting
Born in Akron, Ohio

architects at her firm to partnership status, and by

sharing the responsibilities of the firm with her other
employees. Berke said her office is in the middle

ORDINARY ROOFS
’20

’20
of a restructuring, and at press time she wasn’t

Collaborates with Philippe Starck on Hudson Hotel in NYC, ushering in a still-vibrant era of “design hotels”
prepared to offer a clear outline, but assured me a
plan is in active formation. “It’s much more about
inclusivity, generosity, acknowledgement of the kind WASTE ME
’30

’30
of atmosphere I want to have in my office,” she told
ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı

me. In other words, the change is driven less by

death, and more by wanting to codify and celebrate
Earns master’s degree in

the collective nature of her practice. I asked her if

architecture from Yale

she thinks about her legacy, and she said that she has
’40

’40
one more project type she’d like to do: “I’d like to do
a contemplative structure,” she said—something like
a Quaker meeting house, or a nondenominational
chapel. It’s a small ambition given the scope and scale
’50

’50
of her other work, but a powerful one.
I’m delicate when I speak with Berke. I try to
Stewart Polshek

couch my questions by saying things like, “I know this

Forms James
ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı
Architect

might be a sensitive topic.” We’ve known each other

’60

’60

for almost 15 years, and she knows some of what I’ve

been through medically, so there’s a sense of low-key
Polshek and Associates
Firm renamed James Stewart Firm renamed James

kinship, a type of mutual understanding. But it’s

nothing compared to the spiritual level that Daniel
Libeskind was willing to ascend to, within seconds of
’70

’70

picking up the phone.

ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı

HYDROTECH ROOFS
“Living is the practice of dying!” he told me, a
breath into our conversation. “What makes human
beings human is that they are finite, and that they are

LEVERAGE MY
’80

’80

reborn again.” So what does that mean for museums

William J Clinton Presidential Library opens
ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı

or cultural institutions being designed by Studio

Stewart Polshek

Daniel Libeskind, should Libeskind himself embark

POTENTIAL
and Partners

on his next incarnation? “I always thought of my

’90

’90

studio as an atelier and artistic practice,” he said.

“There is a sense of continuity,” much of which is
Partnership
Polshek
Firm renamed

developed by his three partners who have worked with

him for decades. He chose the word “studio,” he told
me, because he didn’t want it to feel like an office, or
2000

2000
ı | ı ı ı ı

anything corporate. Corporations require succession

ı ı l ı ı ı ı

plans. A studio can be freewheeling, can go with the

“design counsel”
Retires, assumes title

flow in the presence of death. “Families don’t end

ı ı ı ı
Firm renamed Ennead

when the patriarch or matriarch dies,” he said. They

Newseum opens
’10

’10
| ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı

just have to redefine themselves.

ı ı ı ı l ı ı

I asked him what would happen if—and of course

I compel myself to say “god forbid”—he’s struck by
lightning tomorrow (as much as I live in the presence
’18

’18
ı | Gold Medal

of death, I still rely on euphemisms). “The partners are

Wins AIA FIRM

PROJECTS

JAMES POLSHEK
 The NEW
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 121
1900

1900
a sort of trinity,” he said. And it’s that trinity that gives
| ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı

ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı |
him confidence that the studio would carry on—that
it isn’t up to just one person to, essentially, replace
him. He didn’t get into the specifics, but it seems clear
he trusts them to make the kinds of decisions that HELPING YOU
’10

’10
HARNESS THE
would reflect his ethos. I asked if he worries about
death, or what might happen to the studio. “Death is
not just something negative,” he replied. “There’s an
excitement about it.” He has a hybrid view, he said:
POWER OF RAIN ª
’20

’20
“A fear of life and a fear of death.”
I thank him for participating so openly. “I think
people who don’t think about it, who just fly by
expediently, you can see that in the work,” he said. “If
Born in Baghdad, Iraq
’30

’30
you don’t think of yourself that you’re moving towards
death then you’re moving nowhere.” Of course, on the THE GARDEN ROOF ®

one hand, he would be arguing for a death-sensitive ASSEMBLY

Wins competition for the Hong Kong Peak Club

and death-embracing approach, given that it’s his. I
recall in architecture school marveling at the idea that
’40

’40
designers were being given a responsibility to produce INTRODUCED OVER
forms and space that would last far beyond their own
lifetimes. It was an imagined responsibility that often 20 YEARS AGO,
produced—at least for me—a certain paralysis, that
PROVIDING:
’50

’50
made me design projects where everything changed,
ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı

Architecture Association
Graduates from

all the time. Why this wall and not another? Why this
site and not the other? How could I choose a material stormwater management solutions
in the face of the eternal? reduce
’60

’60

So I became a writer, which is even more retain

ephemeral. This article will be on desks or coffee tables
delay
for a month, and then ... gone. A version of it will die.
And then, so will I. So will everyone I tried to talk to, extended roof longevity
Firm has 36 active projects in 21 countries when Hadid dies
Vitra Fire Station completed
Opens architecture

and everyone I did talk to. Will their silence have kept
’70

’70
office in London

them safe? Or will their openness? Maybe we’re all too additional usable space
Patrik Schumacher joins firm

focused on legacy—at least some of us anyway. What

full assembly warranty
if we realized that we’re all in this together, and we’re
all headed to the same place, and legacy won’t matter
ı ı
’80

’80

there? All we have is this moment, and in this moment

ı ı ı ı l ı ı

we can care for our colleagues and let them know we’re Learn more today at
ı ı | ı ı ı ı l ı

thinking about what will happen to them after we’re hydrotechusa.com /power-of-rain
hydrotechusa.com/power-of-rain
gone. And maybe it’s the right time for that.
ı | ı ı ı ı l ı ı ı ı | ı ı ı
’90

’90
Zaha Hadid Design launched
Wins Pritzker Prize

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Residential Architect
Design
Awards
Jury
Stella Betts, Assoc. AIA, partner, LevenBetts
Dirk Denison, FAIA, founder, Dirk Denison Architects
Rosalyne Shieh, AIA, principal, Schaum/Shieh
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edited by Katie GerFen

project deScriptionS by edward KeeGan, aia,
and clay riSen

Each year, the Residential Architect Design Awards celebrates the best in
housing design. But this year’s jury, which included Stella Betts, Dirk Denison,
and Rosalyne Shieh, evaluated the nearly 600 entries with an eye not to where
we have been, but rather where we should be going. The 20 winners that you
will see in the following pages reflect the jury’s emphasis on doing more with
less (be it space or resources), focus on sustainability (by reusing existing
Scott FranceS/otto

building stock or pursuing new technologies), and resolve that everyone

deserves thoughtful, elegant, and well-designed housing (whatever their
economic status). Whether it’s a micro-unit that can grow vegetables for its
residents, a rethinking of the Los Angeles ranch house, or the transformation
of a local eyesore into a luminous destination, these winners show that
architects can innovate to make better housing for a new era of living.
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Paul Vu
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Shelter Island House Shelter Island, N.Y. Christoff:Finio Architecture Custom Home / Less Than 3,000 Square Feet
AwArd New York–based Christoff:Finio Architecture designed this house to accommodate a young family on Shelter Island,
N.Y., off the east end of Long Island. The designers chose to break up the program for the 2,864-square-foot residence into
←← three discrete rectangular volumes. These wood-clad forms are set in what the designer’s call a “loose, seemingly casual
relationship” to one another, and tied together by inflected roof and floor planes. The covered outdoor spaces that result
increase the apparent size of the house while flowing seamlessly with the interior. ¶ The length of the house roughly follows
the eastern edge of the property, helping to shield the site from adjacent residential development. This position allows the
living spaces to open to the bulk of the property—an open field enclosed by woods on the west side. The public areas are in the
central volume, with three bedrooms to the north, and a pool house/guest room to the south. The three volumes and open-
air circulation spaces enclose a small planted courtyard. ¶ Inspired by the nearby tree line, the architects rendered the house
entirely in wood: exposed Douglas fir framing provides the structure, shiplap Western red cedar clads the exterior, oak floors
run throughout the primary interior spaces, and ipe decking lines the exterior patios. All the wood is untreated to compel its
uneven weathering, which will provide an ever-changing patina over time. A preview of the eventual effect is provided by the
interior cladding in the kitchen and laundry rooms, which was salvaged from a shed demolished on the site. The Shelter Island
House might better be dubbed the Wood House for its evocative exploration of the material within a simultaneously rigorous,
yet informal, framework. —E.K.
“There’s a solidity and a porosity that is carried through the project not only in the way the spaces are used, but also in terms of
the materials and the atmosphere. There are inversions that are happening all the time.” —Rosalyne Shieh

Mariposa1038 Los Angeles Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects Multifamily Housing AwArd Mariposa is Spanish for “butterfly,”
which is a good name for this surprisingly curvy apartment complex designed by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA),
for a site in the Koreatown neighborhood south of downtown Los Angeles. It’s one of the densest residential areas in the
← country and desperately in need of affordable housing. But that need also presents a conundrum: How do you maximize
residential space without crowding out public space? ¶ LOHA’s solution is decidedly straightforward, yet elegant. The 32-unit,
68,000-square-foot building is square in parti, but LOHA bowed the four façades inward to create a buffer space between
the exterior and the apartment block itself. On the ground floor, the space in front of the street-facing elevation is filled in
with concrete planters; up above, folded-metal hoods extrude from the façades, framing windows and balconies. ¶ The
façades are covered in white stucco, but the metal hoods alternate in color between black and white, giving the building a
depth and character that changes as the sun and shadows move during the day. The effect is a bold edifice that gives back to
the public sphere. ¶ Inside, the subtle curves of the exterior are echoed in a central, oblong courtyard, whose sinuous form
outlines the procession of breezeways and stairs leading four flights up to the roof, where LOHA installed garden planters
and outdoor seating to take advantage of the stunning views north toward the downtown Los Angeles skyline. At ground
level, the courtyard features a large planter that acts as a rainwater catchment and is bounded by built-in wooden benches. In
a challenging brief, LOHA created a building that plays a dual role, improving the public, street-level experience in a dense
neighborhood while creating a sense of private serenity for residents. —C.R.
“I think it’s fun, it’s modest, and it’s a very Los Angeles vernacular. I also think the landscape on the roof looks great embedded
in the project.” —Dirk Denison

East Lawrence Sustainable House Lawrence, Kan. Studio 804 Custom Home / Less Than 3,000 Square Feet
AwArd The East Lawrence Sustainable House pairs a 1,500-square-foot three-bedroom structure with a 500-square-foot
accessory unit. Located on the site of a former scrapyard in East Lawrence, Kan., the double lot is at the east end of a
→ nine-parcel subdivision where it takes advantage of a forested edge to the east and an 400-year-old bur oak tree on the
property. ¶ Designed by Dan Rockwell and the University of Kansas’ design/build program Studio 804, the 12-foot-tall
pavilions are positioned a few feet above grade to protect them from the surrounding flood plain. With their cantilevered
edges, the simple rectangular volumes seem to float above the midwestern landscape. Both structures are 21 feet wide, with
the main house 73 feet long and its sibling forming a perfect square. Glass is used on all the façades, with an opaque interior
surface shielding the more private areas within the house. Living spaces face west, with views of the adjacent Brook Creek
Park and the ancient bur oak. ¶ Finishes are restrained and minimal. Concrete floors offer easy-to-maintain surfaces while
providing thermal mass for heating the home. Floor-to-ceiling window coverings, lighting, and thermostat are controlled via
smart home technology. Rooftop solar panels provide much of the house’s energy needs, while the extensive use of repurposed
materials—a hallmark of Studio 804’s approach—help the home to achieve LEED Platinum. ¶ The adaptable nature of
the house is exemplified by the accessory structure, which can be utilized in a variety of ways—as a guest house, studio, or
office. The property line along the north and west is defined by a low wall formed by welded metal grating filled with recycled
crushed concrete. The driveway is similarly composed of crushed concrete to provide a permeable surface for drainage. Despite
the site’s recent industrial use, it is within easy walking distance of downtown. —E.K.
“The whole project is consistent, and the modesty of space—the idea that this is what you need to live—is worth looking at. The
LEED Platinum rating in an all-glass house shows that it’s doing a number of things well.” —Dirk Denison

> To see more pictures of the winning projects, visit bit.ly/2018RADA.

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Corey Gaffer
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Midcentury Modern Revived Quogue, N.Y. Austin Patterson Disston Architects Restoration/Preservation
Honorable Mention Charged with saving an early 1960s Abraham Geller–designed house atop a sand dune in Quogue, N.Y.,
Southport, Conn.–based Austin Patterson Disston Architects had a few things working in its favor: First, the firm’s client
← had purchased the two-story, 3,830-square-foot house from the estate of the original owner, who had made minimal revisions
over the previous half-century. Second, the client acquired many of its original furnishings and appointments with the
purchase. ¶ Geller worked for a number of early modernists including William Lescaze, Walter Gropius, and Marcel Breuer—
with the influence of each appearing in the house. The original design is memorable for its central butterfly roof expressed in
a classic midcentury double diamond motif on each end, bracketed by simple boxes clad in diagonal wood siding. A ground-
floor cabana (renovated into guest rooms) is built into the sand dune. The residence’s primary living spaces—including five
bedrooms—are located on the upper level. ¶ Despite the intact condition of the house and its contents, a half-century of wear
and tear necessitated considerable renovation and reconstruction. The house needed to be jacked up to make it plumb and
level, with shoring and structural reinforcement necessary throughout. The dramatic exterior entry ramp on the front façade
was reversed to improve circulation, and minor interior modifications included combining the kitchen and sitting room into
a single space facing the water view. ¶ The tall-ceilinged living room with clerestory windows under the butterfly roof retains
its original large painting by abstract expressionist Norman Bluhm. Custom-made furniture and lamps, vases, and books were
part of the client’s purchase, and incorporated into the renovation. Geller’s crisp geometric volumes again float above their
Long Island landscape, preserving a particular moment of American design exuberance. —E.K.
“I was really taken with the original building and plan, and everything looks very well restored outside and in—even to its
detriment at times. It’s a wild and very interesting project.” —Rosalyne Shieh

Olympia Place Amherst, Mass. Holst Architecture Student Housing award Olympia Place is a privately developed
student housing project in Amherst, Mass., designed by Portland, Ore.–based Holst Architecture. The 99,426-square-foot
complex provides 232 beds in 73 apartments adjacent to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst campus. The plan follows
← the lines of a traditional New England courtyard dormitory plan, but skews the placement of the outermost arms to match the
irregularly shaped property lines and develop more dynamic outdoor spaces. The two courtyards—one public, one private—
provide distinct gathering areas, with the private space stressing quiet through its birch trees and ferns. ¶ The four- and
five-story-tall gabled forms also reference the region’s traditional academic architecture, but are rendered in sleek contemporary
materials: The parallel walls are clad in the same standing-seam metal as the roof, and only the ends of the gables using the
more typical brick masonry. The standing-seam ribs and the narrow slot windows on the elevations emphasize the project’s
overall vertical massing. The simple white and red palette reflects older regional architecture while not precisely mimicking
historic forms. ¶ The entry features a double-height common space that offers residents multiple fireplaces, study rooms,
breakout areas, a lounge, and a fitness center—all readily accessible from the staffed front desk and offering views to exterior
courtyards to the west and east. Most apartments are relatively large—three- and four-bedroom units with access to multiple
exposures for natural light and ventilation are the norm. Circulation varies between single- and double-loaded corridors,
with many units comprising entire floors of wings. Olympia Place meets LEED for Homes Midrise Gold standards, and its
construction and building systems reduce energy consumption by almost 40 percent. —E.K.
“It has a very residential feel, and in the context of Amherst, which is the quintessential college town, the gesture to the gabled
roof is clever. I think the plan is exceptional—it looks like it would create a great sense of community.” —Dirk Denison

Peabody, Burridge Gardens, St. John’s Hill London Hawkins\Brown Affordable Housing award
Peabody, Burridge Gardens comprises the first phase in the reinvention of the 1930s Peabody St. John’s Hill housing estate, in
the Battersea area of southwest London. Designed by the Los Angeles– and London-based firm Hawkins\Brown, the initial
→ three structures provide 154 mixed-income units, and the master plan will eventually see 599 units, plus retail and commercial
Top: Tria Giovan; BoTTom: ChrisTian phillips

space. ¶ In the past, the development was defined by identical utilitarian apartment blocks enclosed by a surrounding wall.
Hawkins\Brown dispenses with the wall and sheathes each new building in its own distinctive architectural identity, with
brick of varying hues and textures. Two attached linear structures—of six and seven stories, respectively—abut adjacent
rail lines. A pedestrian avenue that will extend through subsequent phases separates them from a six-story structure with a
central courtyard. ¶ The architects referenced Edwardian neighbors with similar shades of brick and contrasting window
surrounds. Three-story maisonettes at the base of the courtyard block, which face the historic structures, receive a more finely
grained, rusticated articulation that implies a shared design vocabulary. Ground-level units have front and rear gardens as well,
tying them to the typology of the older townhouses. The architectural language is starker and more modern along the new
pedestrian avenue and in the interior courtyards. Communal entrances are easily identifiable via brightly glazed bricks. ¶ The
designers collaborated with a sculptor to create distinctive masonry reliefs on the façades that recall the site’s history. Fences,
railings, and gratings provide a level of ornament not generally associated with social housing. Peabody, Burridge Gardens
will continue to grow and evolve as the rest of the master plan gets built out, but its early design success provides a compelling
template for a rejuvenated community. —E.K.
“It has to do with the quality—I can imagine someone feeling like they could make a wonderful home there.” —Dirk Denison

> To see more pictures of the winning projects, visit bit.ly/2018RADA.

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Jack HobHouse
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Before ↑
Before →

Top: Tara Wujcik; BoTTom lefT: courTesy Brooks + scarpa; BoTTom righT: Blair Douglas
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JC BuCk
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Courtyards at Rossmore and Weldon Los Angeles Brooks + Scarpa Outbuilding Honorable Mention
The existing service courts of historic 1920s buildings on Los Angeles’ skid row are not where one would expect architectural
invention. But Los Angeles–based Brooks + Scarpa have brought just that to three such extraordinarily tight spaces, by
←← rejuvenating the courtyards at the Rossmore Hotel and the Weldon Hotel apartment buildings. ¶ Two courtyards at the
Weldon are bounded by the building’s five-story mass and adjacent two-story buildings. In both the 8-foot by 60-foot west
courtyard and the 21-foot by 16-foot south courtyard, concrete pavers have replaced ordinary cement slabs and ill-conceived
round pavers that previously dotted the ground. The perimeters are now lined with white gravel, and the same light-colored
palette covers every surface of the renovated space. Poured-in-place concrete seats and tables provide durable and inviting
places to sit and linger. Custom-designed white-painted steel pot holders on the white-painted CMU walls hold ordinary clay
pots for planting. These pots can be left in the courtyards or taken by the residents to their apartments. ¶ At the Rossmore,
Brooks + Scarpa contended with a more generously proportioned service court, with a mature tree at its center. The architects
deployed the same concrete pavers, white gravel, and white paint as at the Wheldon, adding a slatted screen and built-in bench
to replace the motley fence that had previously enclosed the space. Additional rolling wooden benches can be moved along
steel-angle tracks, allowing residents to sit separately or together as they choose. ¶ Prior to Brooks + Scarpa’s renovations,
these poorly lit courtyards, with their dark-toned materials, held little attraction for the residents. They seemed to function
more as dumpsters than as shared amenities. Today, however, they are vibrant tenant social spaces—with architectural
creativity on a budget proving the value of design in even the most constricted of locations. —E.K.
“They really made something out of nothing. It’s so minimal, but I love it for the spirit of taking a disused alleyway and turning
it into something wonderful.” —Stella Betts

900 Penn Denver Davis Urban Renovation / Adaptive Reuse award For years, 900 Penn, a seven-story apartment in the
Governor’s Park neighborhood south of downtown Denver, sat neglected and half-occupied. Faced in red brick with a Howard
Johnson–esque mansard roof, it was both a local icon and, increasingly, a local eyesore. ¶ Its prospects changed when it was
← bought by a Denver software entrepreneur, Nadine Lange, who saw an opportunity to build a luxury address in a rapidly
gentrifying part of the city. Rather than demolish the tower, she decided to renovate and reconfigure the 24,000-square-foot
building, installing a single 3,000-square-foot residence on each floor, plus a ground-floor guest suite. ¶ To spearhead the
renovation, she hired Davis Urban, a local firm known for its restrained Modernism. Founded in 2011, the firm and its founding
principal, Matt Davis, AIA, have quickly made a name for themselves designing bespoke infill residences around Denver, as
well as finding creative ways to repurpose overlooked relics from the city’s industrial past for commercial and residential
clients. ¶ Davis’ solution for 900 Penn was to strip off the brick and pull back the façade to create space for expansive
decks—two per floor—and to accommodate floor-to-ceiling sliding windows along much of the exterior. An added roof terrace
includes an open fireplace and a trellis-covered dining area. Two service cores—one centered on an elevator shaft and the other
around an emergency stair—are clad in gray brick. ¶ The result is a mid-rise tower that bears only the slightest resemblance to
its previous self: sleek and simplified where before it was fussy, light and light-filled where it was dark and brooding. In its new
form, 900 Penn is still a neighborhood icon, but it is no longer an eyesore. —C.R.
“I was really attracted to the kind of renovation that happened here—it’s a phenomenal transformation, and it makes such a
powerful case for the possibilities of reusing buildings.” —Rosalyne Shieh

Harvey House Palm Springs, Calif. Marmol Radziner Restoration/Preservation Honorable Mention The Harvey House
was built in 1969 for actor Laurence Harvey by Southern California modernists Buff & Hensman. Los Angeles–based Marmol
Radziner was called upon to restore and update the classic 5,500-square-foot midcentury desert house in Palm Springs, Calif.,
→ with a brief to add modern conveniences and eliminate formal and visual barriers from the original design. ¶ The house is
configured on three sides around an exterior courtyard, with extensive outdoor spaces—it comprises a great room, kitchen,
master suite, guest suite, massage room, sauna, outdoor bar area, and pool, with a tennis court adjacent to the complex. Buff
& Henson were known for their skillful deployment of exposed post-and-beam construction and the Harvey House was no
exception; Marmol Radziner chose to enhance the outline of the frame with new brown-black trim that contrasts with the
original white. ¶ Through thoughtful and strategic planning, the architects opened the space, increased glazing, and added
skylights to maximize natural light and amplify many of the original designer’s formal and spatial concepts. For example,
a wall between the original dining room and den was removed to create a new great room along the eastern edge of the
courtyard, and the architects fabricated a new metal screen to provide formal separation between the kitchen and dining room,
while maintaining a clear visual connection between the two spaces. The architects installed new gleaming white terrazzo
flooring that extends throughout interior and exterior space, providing a virtually seamless transition that reflects how the new
owners use the home as a weekend destination and winter getaway. —E.K.
RogeR Davies

“It’s really clean California Modernism, and they haven’t competed with the original architecture at all—they’ve let the
structure and spaces be the project.” —Dirk Denison

> To see more pictures of the winning projects, visit bit.ly/2018RADA.

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UCSB San Joaquin Student Housing Santa Barbara, Calif. Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects Student Housing
AwArd Los Angeles–based Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects has designed two clusters of buildings—one set of three and another
of four—on the northern edge of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) campus. The project provides 50 student
←← housing units within 95,000-square-feet of new construction. The architects blew open UCSB’s typical housing model—
outward-looking blocks with lifeless interior courts—by exposing the circulation on the interior side of each new building
to the open air. Lined with minimal steel columns and simple industrial cable mesh, these outdoor walkways link the blocks
into unified clusters, creating lively and active spaces that help establish community among the student population. Exposed
stairs share the same formal vocabulary to further contrast the buildings and their circulation spaces. ¶ Organized around the
activated courtyards, outward-facing student rooms are conceived as regularized, economically stacked units with a subdued
architectural expression—providing a quiet exterior edge that contrasts with the active interior walkways. Solid perimeter
façades are clad in corrugated metal panels with punched windows, and L-shaped sunshading devices shield exposed
openings from the Southern California sunlight. ¶ Reading rooms, gathering spaces, and dining facilities were conceived
as social hubs and are distributed throughout the blocks. These public spaces feature floor-to-ceiling glazing and their open
expression relates to the exposed frame walkways and stairs, establishing a clear formal relationship between public spaces
and public circulation. Most are located on the second and third floors, helping to activate the external corridors as they draw
students. ¶ The design uses passive strategies that leverage Santa Barbara’s ideal coastal climate for sustainability, as well as
creating a pleasant series of protected outdoor places with natural plantings on the UCSB campus. —E.K.
“If I were living in this building as a student, I would feel like I was living in an apartment, which is kind of a cool feeling. And
I like the plan—how the massing allows you to move through this project and to the rest of campus.” —Rosalyne Shieh

Palm 4 Manhattan Beach, Calif. RAS-A Multifamily Housing AwArd Manhattan Beach is among the most desirable
neighborhoods in Los Angeles—and, at a median home price of more than $2.8 million, one of the most expensive. The
developers behind Palm 4, a four-unit apartment building about a mile and a half from the ocean, wanted to create an
← inexpensive alternative aimed at younger families starting out in the neighborhood, while also demonstrating the efficiencies
gained through environmentally friendly strategies. ¶ The 8,008-square-foot building, designed by local design/build
firm RAS-A Studio, is square in plan, with each unit occupying about a quarter of the structure (each apartment also gets
a parking spot beneath the building). Every unit has its own front door to the outside, and has a slightly different layout
from its neighbors—thanks to light wells, private terraces, and other features that the developers tasked the architects with
inserting into the building. The light wells extend upward, above the roofline, where they are clad in a fluted polycarbonate
skin that both allows light in and, at night, glows warmly from the interior lighting. ¶ Those features are carefully placed to
take advantage of coastal breezes and act as thermal chimneys, ventilating hot air upward and out of the apartments while
drawing in fresh cool air via windows below. The building combines environmental and economical friendliness with its white
roof—which reduces cooling needs and therefore energy usage—and a stormwater basin, which provides water for some of
the tenants’ needs. The exterior is surfaced in low-maintenance, dark epoxy stucco interspersed with raked white plaster, both
of which lend definition to the building’s volume. ¶ The project replaces an older duplex on the site, and yet it doesn’t feel
crowded—proof that good design can make even a tightest Los Angeles block feel spacious and private. —C.R.
“The integration with the landscape and the siting of this project is great. The interior is so modest, but also really sweet. It’s a
very simple but nicely detailed solution.” —Stella Betts

Sombreada Hasta Real County, Texas Rhotenberry Wellen Architects Outbuilding AwArd Dubbed Sombreada
Hasta, or “shaded-up,” this simple 2,400-square-foot pair of pavilions designed by Midland, Texas–based Rhotenberry
Wellen Architects on a ranch in Real County, Texas, refers to traditional gathering spaces for cattlemen in the region. Built
→ between two existing agrarian buildings, the larger and taller of the two structures sits within an existing homestead plot
wall. Its grid of 16 self-weathering steel columns supports a steal beam system and corrugated roof of the same material. A
shipping container beneath the canopy serves as a simple bunkhouse, with storage, a sleeping area, toilet, and lavatory within
its enclosure. An outdoor bathing facility sits at the north end of the structure and extends beyond the sheltering canopy’s
western edge—with a water counterweight device that raises and lowers privacy panels. ¶ An oculus cut into the very center of
the main pavilion’s roof casts wide shadows across the flagstone paving and the shipping container, marking the progression
of the day. Cross-bracing cables reinforce the importance of the central void. A circular firepit sits immediately below the
round roof opening, allowing the theme of warmth and light to continue through the evening, drawing users to the middle
of the composition when the structure’s function shifts from cooling to warming. ¶ The smaller pavilion is composed of a
trellis made of the same self-weathering steel as its sibling, and shelters the space between an existing bunkhouse and the
Chang Kyun Kim

main pavilion. Slightly skewed from the geometry of the larger structure, it features a barbecue pit. ¶ While offering shaded
protection from the elements, Sombreada Hasta offers generous views of the surrounding landscape of prairie grass and oak
trees. It draws on a regional vernacular of simple utilitarian structures, seeming simultaneously primitive and modern. —E.K.
“I think the informality and adaptability of this project are pretty fantastic. These aren’t fancy pants details, but they are very
well executed, and there’s a complete elegance to a lot of aspects of this pavilion.” —Stella Betts

> To see more pictures of the winning projects, visit bit.ly/2018RADA.

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Ecological Living Module New York Gray Organschi Architecture and Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture
Custom Home / Less Than 3,000 Square Feet AwArd New Haven, Conn.–based Gray Organschi Architecture and the Yale
Center for Ecosystems in Architecture designed the Ecological Living Module (ELM) for temporary installation at the United
←← Nations headquarters in New York during the summer of 2018. The demonstration house embodies strategies for residential
construction that meet the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, can accommodate up to four people, and operates
completely off-grid. ¶ Incorporating systems for on-site energy, water, air, and waste management, the 230-square-foot
prefabricated unit makes use of vapor-open construction assemblies for floor, walls, and roof. The main level incorporates
a small but well-appointed kitchen, bathroom, and living space under the dramatically sloped roof, which rises from a
sunshaded glass door at its south end to a height of 16 feet at its north. ¶ All required energy is produced by a combination
of traditional photovoltaic panels on the roof and an integrated concentrating solar façade from HeliOptix, which contains
small solar cells in the air gap of a double-glazed façade that both generates energy and serves as sunshades to limit heat gain
and reduce overall energy needs. Eighty percent of rainwater is captured, stored, and filtered for potable use. All graywater
is retained to provide irrigation for a microfarming wall, which if deployed on both long elevations could provide up to 65
percent of the fruit and vegetable servings recommended per family each year. An indoor air-purifying plant wall, located in a
narrow double-height space above the kitchen and adjacent to the loft sleeping space, promotes good cross ventilation and is
predicted to remove 99 percent of small particulate air pollutants from the ELM’s environment. ¶ While intended specifically
as a solution for housing around the globe, the designers note that the module is adaptable for commercial and retail uses as
well. They predict that the ELM can be produced for $50,000 per unit when put into large-scale production. —E.K.
“It takes a conceptual idea and then carries it all the way through. It’s fantastic and fun, but also thoughtful and demonstrates
a lot of ideas. I would live there.” —Rosalyne Shieh

The Street Mathura, India Sanjay Puri Architects Student Housing AwArd The Street, designed by Mumbai, India–based
Sanjay Puri Architects, is a 211,000-square-foot, 800-unit student housing complex on the campus of GLA University in
Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India. The designers took advantage of a wedge-shaped site between repetitive blocks to create a
← complex of radially aligned four-story-tall structures informed by the more organic organization and expression of traditional
Indian cities. ¶ The architects create what they call a “discernable identity” for the project by marking each student room
with a distinctive angular bay window that faces north to capture daylight (and heat) in the winter months and limit heat
gain for the remaining eight months of the year, when the average area temperature is above 30 C (86 F). Louvers in each
window provide sunshading while permitting natural ventilation, which is enhanced by openings at the corridor for each room.
Overall natural air circulation is further encouraged by openings at regular intervals in each block, where the form shifts in
plan. These irregular parts of the floor plan are filled with breakout spaces that provide natural light into the double-loaded
corridors. ¶ Double-height, 20-foot-tall cafeterias, game rooms, and gymnasiums are located at the end of the buildings,
where they open directly onto the campus’s larger outdoor spaces. Canted rooflines reprise the bay windows at a more public
scale, marking these indoor gathering spaces while also sheltering monumental outdoor stairs from the elements. Bright colors
differentiate the blocks, the painted surfaces being located on the exterior of the volumes housing public amenities, and on the
inside of individual bay windows, casting color into the students’ rooms. —E.K.
“I think it’s really adventuresome and has a great energy for student life.” —Dirk Denison

The Bohn House Austin, Texas Dick Clark + Associates Restoration/Preservation AwArd The 1938 Henry Bohn House
in Austin, Texas, was designed by architect Roy L. Thomas with inspiration from the film Lost Horizon that had been released
the previous year. Through its episodic composition, the Art Moderne residence emulates the fictional Shangri-La depicted
→ in the movie. Recently, a family of five retained local firm Dick Clark + Associates to almost double the size of the house (to
6,479 square feet) and make it suitable for a more modern lifestyle, while retaining most of the original structure and its most
memorable details. ¶ Many of Thomas’ spaces, including the entry hall, living room, and semi-circular solarium dining room
on the main level were restored. The kitchen, however, was fully updated with substantial alterations that make it both more
suited to modern living and open to the backyard. The new construction includes a garage, mudroom, and guest bedroom on
the first floor, as well as three new bedrooms and associated service areas on the second level. ¶ The most striking addition
is so convincing that it seems original: a curved parapet with paired porthole windows atop the original entryway. It reasserts
the front door’s hierarchical dominance, which the much-expanded massing could easily have obscured. Steel windows in the
original house—a key feature of its classic modern pedigree—were faithfully restored, and in order to maintain the high level
of authenticity (in both material and proportion), the addition’s steel windows were sourced from a contemporaneous home in
the neighborhood that was being demolished. ¶ Inside, the house’s most enduring feature is also its most explicit reference to
the mythical descriptions of Shangri-La—a circular mahogany door between kitchen and living room. The architects restored
DINESH MEHTA

the feature (which slides upwards), including the original operation switch. The new Bohn House continues to be an Austin
architectural icon, proving the possible compatibility of thoughtful design with historic fabric. —E.K.
“It’s beautifully done and very consistent in its considering of context, yet it brings a fresh take on the Art Deco. It continues the
spirit of the original architecture through to the addition.” —Dirk Denison

> To see more pictures of the winning projects, visit bit.ly/2018RADA.

 144

Paul Bardagjy
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Ground-Floor Plan

Bruce Damonte

0 50 100
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Ground-Floor Plan
Mariko reed/oTTo

0 30 60
148

Hunters View Housing Phase 2 San Francisco Paulett Taggart Architects and David Baker Architects
Affordable Housing AwArd Hunters View Housing Phase 2 comprises seven new buildings on three blocks overlooking
San Francisco Bay. It’s part of a larger master plan for a mixed-income community designed to replace a series of temporary
←← barracks built in the 1940s that had been used well past their intended lifetime as substandard public housing. Designed by
local firms Paulett Taggart Architects and David Baker Architects, the 246,086 square feet of construction in this second of
three phases includes 178 units, plus substantial community amenities and services. ¶ The serrated façade of the five-story-tall
Block 10 building responds dramatically to its site at a 90-degree bend in Fairfax Avenue on the highest point in the entire
Hunters View development. Colorful glazed panels clad the building’s saw-toothed bays and reflect the building’s role as a
vibrant neighborhood hub. ¶ Slightly below Block 10, on a flat part of the site, two five-story apartment buildings frame
Fairfax Avenue on Blocks 7 and 11. On the north and south ends of these blocks, the topography drops off and one- to four-
bedroom townhomes organized around landscaped central courtyards step down the hill. A diversity of scale and texture was
created by dividing the design authorship of different structures between the two joint-venture architecture firms. ¶ Phasing
the project avoided displacement by allowing on-site relocation during construction. More than 60 percent of existing
residents moved into the new development, compared to a 15 percent typical retention in similar projects. Area crime has
declined and school attendance rates are up by 30 percent. The resulting community’s design reflects its needs and desires in
an engaging set of evocative architectural forms. —E.K.
“I like how it’s broken down so that it reads as a series of buildings—a series of neighbors. For San Francisco, that’s very
contextual.” —Dirk Denison

Five88 San Francisco David Baker Architects Affordable Housing AwArd Five88 was designed by San Francisco–based David
Baker Architects for the city’s Mission Bay neighborhood. The 230,422-square-foot transit-oriented development is located
along Mission Bay Commons Park, which separates the University of California, San Francisco campus from a residential area
← to the north. The building’s southwest corner acts as a gateway to the neighborhood and is clad in perforated self-weathering
steel. The building’s other façades are primarily clad in cement plaster, accented with cedar, except at the northwest corner,
where there is a five-story tower clad in white standing-seam aluminum. ¶ The building’s courtyard plan comprises two
C-shaped sections—the western half with four stories of apartments atop 10,000 square feet of retail and parking on the
ground level, the eastern half with four stories of apartments sitting on grade. Resident entrances are via outdoor lobbies at
either the north or south end of the block, at the seam between the two sections. Lobbies lead directly to a central landscaped
courtyard, which is split between two levels. The lower is landscaped with drought-tolerant plantings; the upper is adjacent to
laundry, fitness room, and resident lounge, plus a community pavilion and an outdoor play area paved in bright blue “Smurf
turf.” ¶ The building’s 200 units include just three layouts—one one-bedroom and two two-bedroom—which effectively
cut complexity and construction costs. Another economical design move was the use of conventional Type V, wood-frame
construction, with the exception of the single-story concrete parking garage that serves as a podium for the western half of
the structure. Five88 is the largest affordable housing building built in San Francisco in the last decade. A portion of the
apartments are prioritized for local school and healthcare workers. —E.K.
“I really love the public spaces—they feel like neighborhood gathering spaces, and there’s is a dignity to them. This really doesn’t
look like affordable housing to me, to be honest.” —Stella Betts

Michigan Lake House Leelanau County, Mich. Desai Chia Architecture Custom Home / More Than 3,000 Square Feet
AwArd Michigan’s northern coastline is dotted with stunning lake houses, and a 4,800-square-foot weekend home designed
by New York–based Desai Chia Architecture and located outside Traverse City, fits right in. Clad in blackened wood planks, it
→ features a dramatic 20-foot cantilevered roof that creates a covered terrace complete with a fireplace, looking out over a bluff
toward Lake Michigan. ¶ The home arises from two sources of inspiration. As part of their research, the architects, Arjun
Desai, AIA, and Katherine Chia, FAIA, traveled to Japan, where they became entranced with traditional Japanese design. In
particular, they focused on the use of lightly charred wood as exterior cladding—a technique known as shou sugi ban—which
prevents rot, deters pests, and lends the building a severe but natural look. ¶ At the same time, they took note of local
vernacular design along Lake Michigan, especially in the fishing villages that sit in between the luxury weekend getaways.
Those close-knit communities informed the house’s massing, which is made up of three loosely grouped volumes—containing
the living and kitchen spaces, the master suite, and the guest rooms, respectively—all linked by a breezeway that doubles as the
dining area. ¶ After carefully studying the site’s prevailing winds and light, Desai Chia oriented the home to take advantage of
cooling breezes. The firm also salvaged wood from pest-ravaged ash trees in the nearby forests, which it had milled for use in
the interior floors and cabinetry—and even a coffee table and the master bed frame. ¶ While the butterfly roof is dramatic, it is
practical as well. The elevated lakeside location is prone to erosion, especially during the heavy storms that occasionally buffet
Paul Warchol

this part of Michigan. The roof’s shape, which directs water into custom scuppers, funnels water away from the foundation and
into a gravel bed and cistern for later use. The result is a home as striking in its design as it is in its functionality. —C.R.
“It’s just very strong—not only in its gesture, but also in its detailing. It seems like a very open space, but there is a welcoming
warmth to it.” —Dirk Denison

> To see more pictures of the winning projects, visit bit.ly/2018RADA.

149
150

Floor Plan—Before Floor Plan—After

0 5 10
 151

Rear Window House Culver City, Calif. Edward Ogosta Architecture Renovation/Adaptive Reuse AwArd Tucked into
a residential neighborhood in Culver City, Calif., this 70-year-old, one-story bungalow offers a trim, updated façade on the
street front, but few clues to the compact gem of an extension that owner and architect Edward Ogosta, AIA, added to the
← back. ¶ Needing more space for his growing family, Ogosta added a library, master bath, and master bedroom while retaining
the sanctity of the small backyard. ¶ The 450-square-foot addition extends from one side of the house, creating an L-shaped
plan that frames a small patio between the rear façade and an existing, freestanding garage. Floor-to-ceiling windows along
the length of the addition and a covered back porch, attached to the original house, look out onto the patio, making it an
outdoor room. ¶ Another picture window, at the back of the extension—the “rear window” that gives the house its name—
looks out from the master bedroom onto a small green yard that is bracketed on two sides by tall shrubs. The window frame,
made of aluminum-clad plate steel, cantilevers over a small pool, giving the scene a quiet, private serenity. ¶ Ogosta was
intent on making sure the extension fit within the neighborhood vernacular, even as he modernized and slimmed down the
original structure. He clad the entire extension in asphalt roofing shingles, which appear on most of the roofs in the area,
and he gave the extension’s mono-pitched roof a 3:12 slope—the same as on the existing roof and in line with other nearby
homes. ¶ Ogosta kept the original home largely intact, making minor alterations to the existing floor plan to accommodate
flow to the new spaces, adding skylights, and recovering the floors with bleached oak, which together give the home a cleaner,
brighter, and more modern look. —E.K.
“I love the way it deals with renovating the very typical ranch house: This could easily be a brand new house that is ground-up,
and it really does make a case for reusing an existing structure.” —Stella Betts

Optima DCHGlobal Whale Bay Mataka Station, New Zealand Optima DCHGlobal Custom Home / More Than
3,000 Square Feet AwArd Whale Bay, an inlet off the much larger Bay of Islands in far northern New Zealand, is one of
the country’s natural treasures. Surrounded by scrub-covered bluffs, it is prized as much for its stunning views as it is for
→ its unparalleled world-class sport fishing. ¶ It was no easy task, then, for Optima DCHGlobal, based in Scottsdale, Ariz.,
to design and build a 5,000-square-foot, four-bedroom home—with an additional 2,100 square feet of decks—that took
full advantage of its surroundings while infringing as little as possible on them. ¶ The house sits lightly on the land, with
cantilevered floors and roofs, and it is made of recycled Cor-Ten steel, which stands up well to the region’s occasional cyclones
and blends in with its surroundings. The firm, led by architect/entrepreneur David Hovey Jr., FAIA, centered the design on a
proprietary structural system based on a three-dimensional grid, which it prefabricated in Arizona and then shipped to New
Zealand in 11 shipping containers—like an Erector Set, according to the designers. The grid features a 7-foot-square horizontal
module and a 1-foot-3-inch vertical module, as well as a 21-foot-square structural bay, which includes all the beams, columns,
and other elements needed to plug in the modules on-site. The floor and ceiling horizontal modules are constructed from nine
press-formed panels, which are bolted together in a three-by-three square. Windows, plumbing, wiring, ductwork, and stairs
were all designed to conform to the grid, and to be assembled on-site. ¶ The Whale Bay house is the third house designed by
Optima DCHGlobal to feature this structural system, which the firm touts as a prototype for a low-impact, precision system
for design and construction. The fact that the components were designed and fabricated almost 7,000 miles away from the site,
with zero on-site errors, certainly bodes well for future projects. —C.R.
“It really started with a delivery system—how can we make the fabrication of architecture more efficient?—and then made
something beautiful out of it.” —Dirk Denison
Steve King

> To see more pictures of the winning projects, visit bit.ly/2018RADA.

 152

Patrick reynolds
153
154

Project Credits

Page 125 partner); Iain Cochran (partner); Page 143 Amanda Loper, AIA (principals,
Project: Shelter Island House, Shelter Kenneth Gow (associate); Petr Kalab Project: Ecological Living Module, David Baker Architects); Sally Roth,
Island, N.Y. (associate director); Katie Tonkinson, New York/site-variable AIA (technical director, David Baker
Client: Withheld Phil Catcheside (partners); Michelle Client/Owner: United Nations Architects); Julie De Jesus (associate,
Architect: Christoff:Finio Architecture, Tomlinson, Richard Coskie (architects) Environment Programme; United interiors lead, David Baker Architects)
New York . Taryn Christoff, Martin Nations Human Settlements
Finio, FAIA, (partners-in-charge); Caleb Page 134 Programme Page 148
Linville, AIA (project lead) Architect: Gray Organschi Architecture, Project: Five88, San Francisco
Project: Central 1_Rossmore and
New Haven, Conn. . Lisa Gray, FAIA, Client/Owner: Related California
Central 1_Weldon, Los Angeles
Page 125 Alan Organschi, (principals); Parker Architect/Interior Designer: David
Client: Skid Row Housing Trust
Project: Mariposa1038, Los Angeles Lee (senior associate); Andrew Ruff, Baker Architects, San Francisco
Architect: Brooks+Scarpa, Los Angeles
Client: Mana Hale . Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA (lead designer); Assoc. AIA (research coordinator); Dan and Oakland, Calif. . David Baker,
Architect: Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, Kazer (fabrication specialist); Brittany FAIA (principal); Caroline Souza, AIA,
Angela Brooks, FAIA (principal-in-
Los Angeles . Lorcan O’Herlihy, FAIA Olivari, Andrew Padron, Larry Beddall, Billy Forrest, AIA, Julie de Jesus, AIA
charge, project architect); Emily
(principal-in-charge); Nick Hopson, AIA Elaina Berkowitz, Nathaniel Elmer, (associates); Kevin Wilcock, AIA
Hodgdon, Diane Thepkhounphithack,
(project director), Alex Anamos, AIA, Kelley Johnson, Joshua Kuhr, Seth Associate Architect: G7A, San
Eleftheria Stavridi, Arthur Vartanyan,
Dana Lydon, Assoc. AIA, Donnie Lauderdale, Yanbo Li, Jackson Lindsay, Francisco . Irving Gonzales (principal)
Assoc. AIA, Fui Srivikorn, Micaela
Schmidt, Jessica Colangelo, Jennie August Organschi, Oscar Scott, Ben
Danko, Iliya Muzychuck, Jennifer
Matusova (project team) Smith, Arghavan Taheri, Aslan Taheri, Page 148
Doublet, Yang Li, Yimin Wu (project
Joe Weisbord, Jack Wolfe (project
design team) Project: Michigan Lake House,
team); Yale Center for Ecosystems
Page 125 Leelanau County, Mich.
in Architecture, New Haven, Conn. .
Project: East Lawrence Sustainable Client: Michael and Barbara Collins
Page 134 Anna Dyson (director); Hind Wildman
House, Lawrence, Kan. Design Architect: Desai Chia
Project: 900 Penn, Denver (director of communications and
Client: Studio 804 Architecture, New York . Arjun Desai,
Client: Nadine Lange research development); Nick Novelli AIA, Katherine Chia, FAIA (founding
Designer: Studio 804, University Architect: David Urban, Denver . Matt (director of research and engineering);
of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan. . Dan principals)
Davis, AIA, Chris Jahn, AIA Naomi Keena, Mohamed Aly-Etman Architect of Record: Environment
Rockhill (JL Constant distinguished Interior Designer: Griffith Interior (postdoctoral associates); Kipp
professor); Danielle Latza, Hanu Anand Architects, Traverse City, Mich. .
Design Bradford, Mandi Pretorius, Phoebe Ray Kendra, AIA (principal)
Madireddy, Alexa Kaczor, Elayna Mankiewicz, Marshall James,
Svigos, Will Ehrman, Austin Bosecker, Christopher Preusch, Paulo Pinheiro,
Ian Mutschelknaus, Will Siegel, Joe Page 134 Page 151
Sheldon McLeod, George Graham,
Schafer-Glick, Ben LaRue, Kevin Project: Harvey House, Palm Springs, Project: Rear Window House, Culver
Adam Katzman, Kunhee Chang, Martin
Purdom, Erik Erdman, Wes Seaba, Zach Calif. City, Calif.
Man, Abena Bonna, Emma Crow-
Lundgren, Eric Pincus, Linda Cotter, Client: Rea Laccone Client: Ed and Kate Ogosta, and
Willard, Valantyn Koziak (project team)
Mark Romanoff (M.Arch. students) Architect: Marmol Radziner, Los daughter Audrey
Angeles . Leo Marmol, FAIA, Ron Architect/Interior Designer: Edward
Radziner, FAIA, Robert Tsurimoto Page 143 Ogosta Architecture, Los Angeles .
Page 129 Kirsten, AIA (associate, studio director) Project: The Street, Mathura, Uttar Ed Ogosta, AIA (principal)
Project: Midcentury Modern Revived, Pradesh, India
Quogue, N.Y. Client: Ganeshi Lal Agrawal University
Page 139 Page 151
Client: Withheld Architect: Sanjay Puri Architects,
Project: UCSB San Joaquin Student
Architect: Austin Patterson Disston Mumbai, India . Sanjay Puri (principal Project: Optima DCHGlobal Whale Bay
Architects, Southport, Conn., and Housing, Santa Barbara, Calif. Location: Mataka Station, Whale Bay,
architect); Ishveen Bhasin (senior
Quogue, N.Y. . Stuart Disston, AIA Client: University of California, Santa project architect) New Zealand
(partner-in-charge); Josh Rosensweig Barbara Client: Whale Bay
(project manager) Architect: Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, Architect: Optima DCHGlobal,
Page 143
Interior Designer: Giovanni Foroni Los Angeles . Lorcan O’Herlihy, FAIA Scottsdale, Ariz. . David Hovey Jr., AIA
(principal-in-charge), Donnie Schmidt Project: The Bohn House, Austin, Texas
LoFaro (president)
(project director), Damian Possidente Client: Bill and Misty Reid
(project manager), Noelle White Architect: Dick Clark + Associates,
Page 129 Austin, Texas . Kevin Gallaugher, AIA,
Project: Olympia Place, Amherst, Mass. Kim Power, AIA, Kristopher White
Page 139 (project team)
Client: Archipelago Investments
Design Architect: Holst Architecture, Project: Palm 4, Manhattan Beach, Interior Designer: Elizabeth Stanley
Portland, Ore. . Kim Wilson, AIA, Dave Calif. Design; Lauren Allyn Interiors
Otte, AIA, John Holmes, AIA (partners); Client: Minaret Development Partners .
Drew Hastings, Heather Flegel, Lauren Jeff Bowers, Bryan Murphy
Page 148
Sanchez (design staff); Mark Schmidt Design/Build Firm: RAS-A Studio,
Project: Hunters View Housing Phase 2
(associate); Lee Shradar (senior Redondo Beach, Calif. . Robert Sweet
(Blocks 7, 10 & 11), San Francisco
associate) (principal-in-charge); Paul Miller, AIA,
Client: HV Partners 2
Architect of Record: DiMella Shaffer, Charles Chambers (project team)
Architect: Paulett Taggart Architects
Boston and David Baker Architects, a joint
Page 139 venture, San Francisco . Paulett
Page 129 Project: Sombreada Hasta, Real Taggart, FAIA, (principal and founder,
Project: Peabody, Burridge Gardens, County, Texas Paulett Taggart Architects); Roselie
St. John’s Hill, London Client: Withheld Enriquez Ledda, AIA (senior associate,
Client: Peabody Architect: Rhotenberry Wellen Paulett Taggart Architects); David
Architect: Hawkins\Brown, Los Angeles Architects, Midland, Texas . Mark Friedlaender, AIA (associate, Paulett
and London . Russell Brown (founding Wellen, FAIA, Cale Lancaster, AIA Taggart Architects); Daniel Simons, AIA,

> For full project credits, including general contractors, engineers, and consultants, please visit the individual project pages at bit.ly/2018RADA.
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160 ARCHITECT, The Journal of the American Institute of Architects, December 2018

Editorial:
Quitting Is for Winners

Should we rebuild? That sad question is being voiced Alas, some individuals and institutions will prove
far too often in far too many places in the U.S.: New difficult to persuade. Remember the outrage when
York and New Jersey, the Gulf Coast, South Florida, officials suggested abandoning economically blighted
North and South Carolina, Colorado, and now, yet neighborhoods in Detroit and hurricane-ravaged wards
again, Northern and Southern California. Of one in New Orleans? Human responses to the actuarial
small town, Grayson, Ky., The New York Times reports, table’s blunt math are not always driven by logic.
“residents have applied for loans to recover from nine Instinct and culture tell us to defend our territory in
severe storms in the last 16 years.” the face of terrible odds. Nobody likes a quitter.
The answer usually lies with the insurance market. Can humanity adapt? In Kim Stanley Robinson’s
Increasingly, the answer will be “No.” hopeful 2017 novel New York 2140, the streets lie 50 feet
Insurer Aon named 2017 the “costliest year on under water but the city marches on, like a fantastic,
record for weather disasters,” with $344 billion in latter-day Venice. Paolo Bacigalupi’s 2015 thriller, The
economic damage overall and a $132 billion direct Water Knife, is more pessimistic, drought having all
hit to the insurance industry. Not surprisingly, then, but consumed the Colorado River, the Southwestern
owners of vulnerable real estate are seeing premiums states battling over the remaining trickle, and refugees
rise. What follows could be worse: At the World desperately wandering the desert.
Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this January, If we fail to curb carbon emissions, science
the CEO of French insurer AXA, Thomas Buberl, fiction will prove to have been prescient, as millions
warned that as global temperatures increase and deliberate whether to stay and fight, or to flee from
weather grows more extreme, underwriters will redline floods, wildfires, drought, hurricanes, and all the other
high-risk areas. disastrous effects of a warming planet. Obviously,
“If you go much further to 2020, 2030, we can architects, clients, and governments must adopt resilient
clearly say that at a scenario between 3 and 4 degrees and sustainable design, wholesale, and without delay.
[Celsius], it’s not insurable anymore,” Buberl said, as But we also need to consider retreat, a dispassionate
reported by Bloomberg. “Your basement shop in New and proactive withdrawal to safer sites. Why build, or
York, your basement shop in Mumbai will at this point rebuild, where nature won’t tolerate our presence?
not be insurable.”
In 2016, four actuarial professional associations
launched the Actuaries Climate Index, which monitors
climate-related risk by region in the U.S. and Canada.
Backdated to 1960, the index shows a frighteningly
steady increase of risk over time. In one sense, the data
could present an opportunity: As William McDonough,
FAIA, observed on a panel at Hanley Wood’s Hive
housing conference this spring, the best lever to
Stephen VoSS

move developers toward resilient and sustainable

design is money. So when underwriters shy away from
troublesome locations and building methods, one can @NedCramer
reasonably expect that developers will too.
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type fits all. That’s why only ASI offers the most comprehensive
collection of toilet partitions available anywhere. Welcome to
choice—welcome to the new ASI. For more information,
call 708-442-6800, or visit asi-accuratepartitions.com