Category Archives: Architect

E023.2 PKN Pittsburgh vol. 25 – Nina Chase

Posted on by Standard Reply

This is the second interview featuring presenters for Pittsburgh’s 25th Pecha Kucha Night. This one features Nina Chase.

Before we get going, check out the Facebook page for PechaKucha Night Pittsburgh for details about the event. For newcomers to the format, the AIGA YouTube Channel has videos of past events.

And subscribe to the podcast on iTunes so you don’t miss the other interviews.

Nina Chase is a transplanted West Virginian, in Pittsburgh by way of Boston, where she was an associate at Sasaki Associates.

01urbanallegheny-4

Image from Sasaki Associates

She’s Senior Project Manager at Riverlife Pittsburgh now, seeing through things like that plan for the Strip District.

web_proj_mw-switchback-updated

Image from Riverlife Pittsburgh

She’s talking about urban prototyping. Think things like Open Streets Pittsburgh [link will play music].

Here’s a picture of the tackle box game we played.

pknv25_duck

And here’s a picture of a least weasel.

mustela_nivalis_-british_wildlife_centre-4

Visit her website, chuckle at the Bruce Springsteen reference, and come see her presentation at PKN on October 6.

S02E05.5 Freddie Croce

Posted on by Standard 1

In case you missed the last episode where I teased this talk with Freddie Croce you can get caught up here.

Freddie lives and works in Garfield at inter*ARCHITECTURE. We each independently had the idea for a logo consisting of 2 letters and a punctuation mark. Great minds, I guess.

I hope to update this page soon with some of the images that Freddie used in his presentation, so check back soon.

Until then, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes (link opens in iTunes)

S02E05 PKN Pittsburgh vol. 19 Presenters

Posted on by Standard 2

Today on the show we have four of the presenters for PechaKucha Night happening this Thursday, October 9: Addy Smith-Reiman, Freddie Croce, Julie Mallis and Nikki Dy-Liacco.

Come out and see these people present. They’ll be joining many others, including Phyllis Kim, who you remember from last time.

PKN vol. 19 takes place on October 9 at 6:20 pm at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Center, 805 Liberty Ave in Downtown Pittsburgh. Admission is $15 and includes, drinks, eats, and entertainment.

To start out the show we have a fun audio tour of the sand casting process. Here are the pictures that accompany that tour.

S02E05_Tour forms

the forms, made of high density foam, sitting inside a flask

a tool for packing sand, and some more flasks

a tool for packing sand, and some more flasks

the resin

the resin

the mixer. you'll be hearing a lot from the mixer

the mixer. you’ll be hearing a lot from the mixer

scrap iron ...

scrap iron …

S02E05_Tour iron2

to be broken down …

... all the way down

… all the way down

… so it can be melted to be poured into the sand casts. Hope you enjoyed the tour.

First we hear from Nikki Dy-Liacco. When she’s not working for DDI, she’s looking at cities through their lamp posts.

See more in her Facebook album.

Julie Mallis’ digital prints can be seen on her website. I like this one a lot …

… but they’re all good. Make sure you check out the moving images, too.

She’s got a million other things going on, too. Like helping run BOOM Concepts (who you can like on Facebook), or her collaboration with DS Kinsel, Magic Organs (getting some press here).

Freddie Croce runs inter*ARCHITECTURE with his wife, Jennifer Lucchino. More on him in the near future.

Addy Smith-Reiman is a Master Gardener working with Rivers of Steel to highlight the plant life at the Carrie Furnace.

She’s with creating the plaques which will be poured on October 25. Details here.

I recently took a tour of the Carrie Furnace, I wrote about it here.

It turns out I had a picture of some plant life creeping in:

S02E05_Carrie FernAce

That’s all for this time. As always, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes (link opens in iTunes)

S02E03 Jen Bee

Posted on by Standard 1

Today I have for you my first full hour with a female designer, Jen Bee.

This interview was recorded prior to the passing of Gary Carlough, co-founder of Edge Studio where my guest today developed her love for restaurant design. He also taught at my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University. He was a force in the Pittsburgh design community and he will be missed.

Lindsay Grauvogel works for ThoughtForm Design, and has her own website. If you all else fails you should just show up at a PKN event, she’s probably presenting.

Her video and blog series will show up right here once it is the future and those things are real.

Speaking of PKN, vol 18 is happening probably right now! If you already missed it, there will be more. Try the facebook page for more details.

Jen and I talked a bit about sexism and feminism in architecture. I’ve assembled a sampling of related readings from around the internet, such as The Onion, Design Observer, and Architecture Record. There’s also another podcast, KCRW’s DnA, that had a good segment, and I also wrote a satirical post for my own blog. That should get you started.

Jen’s first dream job: working for James Cutler at Cutler-Anderson Architects. There are interviews with and books about him to be read, for the curious.

Jen used to drive an ice cream bike like this one:

… except hers had the cooler on the back.

Now she designs things that sell food, but out of buildings, not out of coolers. They’re called restaurants, like Spoon in Penn Circle:

Spoon, selected as one of the top 10 new restaurants in the U.S. in a 2011 publication

… and Blue Line Grille in Uptown:

Blue Line Grille, voted best new bar in Pittsburgh

If you’re like Jen and me and you want to sketch more, use the hashtag #5minutesketch on Twitter and Instagram.

Whoever you are, the AIA needs people like you to help make it work. If you’re an architect or concerned citizen interested in getting involved check out the Young Architect’s Forum or any of the other committees. And of course, you can always email: info@aiapgh.org

If you still haven’t, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes (link opens in iTunes)

S01E07 Todd Dunaway

Posted on by Standard 1

In this episode of the D:i Podcast we talk with Todd Dunaway of GBBN Architects / Edge Studio about growing up in Kentucky, playing the drums, going from small firms to large and healthcare design.

Kentucky: home of basketball, fried chicken and bourbon. As opposed to football, barbeque and whiskey. Research!

Neil Peart being Neil Peart:

… and Rush being Rush, because why not:

The UPMC Mercy Emergency Department is used as a point of reference throughout, so if you’re feeling lost have a look. [http://www.gbbn.com/Projects/Healthcare/UPMC~Mercy_Emergency_Department/]

And head on over to the GBBN Architects website to check out the rest of their portfolio [http://www.gbbn.com/]

Season one of the D:i Podcast is nearly over. Make sure you subscribe on iTunes to stay up to date as we close out the season and start off a new one. [link opens in iTunes] [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/d-i-podcast/id658374607?mt=2]

S01E06 Design Pittsburgh 2013 and Louis Fung

Posted on by Standard 1

In a short show, I run down some of the events associated with Design Pittsburgh 2013 and run an interview I did with Louis Fung of Honolulu.

See the schedule of events for Design Pittsburgh 2013 [http://aiapgh.org/aia-programs-events/design-pittsburgh/event-schedule/]

See the entries for the Young Architects Studio Competition [http://aiapgh.org/aia-programs-events/design-pittsburgh/2013-online-exhibit-vote-peoples-choice-award/young-architects-studio-competition/]

Go to the AIA Honolulu website to read more about Louis Fung [http://www.aiahonolulu.org/displayboard.cfm]

S01E05 Mark Dietrick

Posted on by Standard 1

Mark Dietrick sits down with me to talk about Jesuit education, finding his niche in the profession, whether or not automation will phase out architects, and data. Lots of data. Also, I debut a new segment: 3 questions with an architect.

30 St Mary Axe livening up the London skyline

“Blobitecture” being self-explanatory

See the AIA/MBA best practices guides for working with architects and builders. [http://www.mbawpa.org/resources.asp]

Read Mark’s Viewpoint piece on the AIA Pittsburgh website, regarding automation in architecture. [http://aiapgh.org/viewpoint/bypassing-architects-confronting-change-in-the-information-age/]

S01E03 Paul Rosenblatt

Posted on by Standard Reply

This week on the podcast we have Paul Rosenblatt of Springboard Design. In addition to being the principal there, he also writes (curates?) several blogs:

Vinyl Record Architect [http://www.vinylrecordarchitect.com/]
Museum Architect [http://www.museumarchitect.org/]
Open Space Thinking [http://www.openspaceopenthinking.com/]

… and Springboard’s projects are featured this book [http://brettyasko.com/category/books-magazines/14-every-building/]

Floor plan of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye (with the geometry derived from the capabilities of cars)

From the Wikipedia entry for the Hampton Grease Band: “[it] is apocryphally said to have been the second-lowest selling album in Columbia’s history, second only to a Maharishi Mahesh yoga instructional record.

Paul’s picks for feeding your vinyl addiction: Galaxie Electronics and Jerry’s Records.

Waterplay at the Children’s Museum

Bird theater at the National Aviary (with geometry derived from the capabilities of birds)

The Teenie Harris archive at the Carnegie Museum of Art. [http://teenie.cmoa.org/]

The case for saving the American Folk Art Museum …[http://places.designobserver.com/feature/please-save-modernism-and-the-folk-art-museum/37865/]

… and the case for getting rid of it. [http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/saltz/architecture-killed-the-folk-art-museum5-12-11.asp]

S01E02 Dan Rothschild

Posted on by Standard Reply

In this episode of Design: interviewed, I chat with Dan Rothschild of the Rothschild Doyno Collaborative. As always, links are below to people and projects that we bring up.

We talk a lot about his Design Sketchbook process. Here’s a link to some examples of what the sketches in those books look like. [http://rdcollab.com/sketchbook.html]

A book featuring the work of his firm, Urban Alchemy by Dr. Mindy Fullilove comes out in June 2013. Find out more (including how to get a signed copy) here. [http://www.designcenterpgh.org/designallies/special-projects/behind-the-magic-of-urban-alchemy/]

The Almono Plan. [http://rdcollab.com/places_almono.html]

Here are some of the famous “top down” urban design models we brought up:

Le Corbusier’s Radiant City. Pictured is his plan for Paris, another very early and very famous “top-down” plan.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City. Note the personal helicopters shuttling people between the buildings sprawled out over the landscape.

The plan of Washington, D.C., by L’Enfant.

The Dinwiddie Triangle Project. [http://rdcollab.com/process_library_dinwiddie_story.html]

The Avenue Apartments, story-telling through street level plaques. [http://rdcollab.com/places_braddock.html]

The wikipedia page for Rem Koolhaas talks about his interest in “cross-programming”. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rem_Koolhaas]

S01E01 Eric Fisher

Posted on by Standard 2

This very first episode of Design: interviewed features Eric Fisher. He was kind enough to let me into his self-designed home, which is also his office. Click any of the following images to learn more about the projects and people we bring up in the interview.

Eric Fisher’s Residence

The Getty Museum, designed by Richard Meier

The wikipedia page for Richard Meier, “whose rationalist buildings make prominent use of the color white”.

The unbuilt Edgar House

The Irwin Studio

Maya Lin’s website, whose work comes up in the discussion of weaving landscape and architecture. [www.mayalin.com]

The Emerald Art Glass House, which looms large, both physically and metaphorically.

In case you are not familiar with Frank Gehry’s style, here’s a link to a Google image search that should give you some idea. [http://www.google.com/images?q=frank+gehry+architecture]