tamu aias

Sophie Berthelier, a designer at the French architecture firm Berthelier Fichet Triboullet, will kick off the exhibit Dec. 5 with a 3:30 p.m. public lecture on contemporary architecture. - come and see – or read about it at archone first. An excerpt from the archone article:

The exhibition, specifically tailored for international presentation, focuses on architecture in tune with current urban situations, territorial or program-related issues that are relevant throughout the world.

Through a critical mass effect, the 40 projects presented show that “good” architecture is not as rare as it seems, and that if we do not see it, it is because it is not where we expect it, or because it’s simpler, more modest or simply less preoccupied with its durability than we might imagine.

 

  

Monday, November 10th, 5:00 p.m. Geren Auditorium

Hernan Diaz Alonso is the principal and founder of Xefirotarch, a Los Angeles-based design firm working in architecture, products, and digital motion. For the last several years he has been a thesis coordinator and professor in studio design and visual studies at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles. He is also a design studio professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He worked for several years as a senior designer at Eisenman Architects in New York and has lectured around the world.

Hernan Diaz Alonso is hailed as an architect who pushes boundaries and breaks the rules. His recent winning design for the Lexington Courthouse Plaza (though not the design being built)is a close-to-home example of the tension between cutting-edge design and the inertia of the expected.

Alonso, who has also worked with both Enric Miralles and Peter Eisenman, is uniquely primed to contribute to our current cultural discourse. He continues to challenge with each project, such as the Aqua Center in Denmark and the Queens Museum of Art in New York. The PSI competition. etc.

Alonso received his professional degree in architecture in Argentina, his M.Arch at Columbia University.

via archiect (Matthew Arnold and Orhan Ayyüce Senior editor – Archinect) | read full article here

First off this is not the whole article. This is important to your Professional Architectural Development! Go Here to read the whole post

area studied

As it known, the ‘good looking’ road of architecture is not really easy and smooth.

‘Architects,’ and I mean the entire community, students and the teachers, interns, practitioners and licensed architects, have to prove their dedication to architecture throughout their lives. With strictly institutionalized professional codes and ‘fusion models,’ the road is often a long ride, always challenging the dedicated and the committed.

Architecture is one of the most demanding and rigorously pursued professions.

Mathew Arnold, an architect with a Cooper Union education, sent me his research initially named, “The Road To Licensure” and its ongoing results in the form of well designed charts, illustrating an uphill effort, likened to a “Stairway to Architecture.”
It could shed some light on the questions some of you might have or raise newer issues and actions, for institutions and individuals involved, helping the integration of academy and the field, adjusting the scales for the advancement of the people who are, by definition, responsible for thinking of and creating the built environment. … (more on the actual article)

The year 1996 saw the publication of the Boyer Report. Commissioned by the AIA (see the abstract,) AIAS, NCARB, NAAB, and ACSI, The report, entitled Building Community: A New Future for Architecture Education and Practice, called for a reinvigoration of architectural education and a more comprehensive integration of education and practice.

The issuance of the report caused a stir in the architectural community. Practitioners and educators alike acknowledged the cogency and merit of its recommendations, and many of us participated in more than a few roundtable discussions where representatives of the academy and practitioners were united in voicing commitment to their implementation.

Recently, I got to wondering, how are we doing now, twelve years later…

A few diagrams from the article on archinect

architecture school typologies

Applicants, accepted, dropped out, graduated
about the author

The RFI and accompanying charts are available at stairwaytoarchitecture.com
Who is Matthew Arnold?
I maintain a private architecture and design practice in Virginia. I graduated from Cooper Union with a B.Arch in 1982. I’m a licensed architect in most of the mid-Atlantic states. I enjoy the work of Edward Tufte and recommend his books and seminars, in particular the poster of Napolean’s March to Moscow.

I’m currently working on a little book, Drawings that Scream — Architectural Working Drawings in CAD, a primer.

The Texas A&M University Freedom from Terror Memorial, a gift from the College of Architecture’s Classes of ’68 and ’03 designed by Texas A&M graduate architecture students, will be dedicated by Texas A&M President Elsa Murano in a special ceremony slated 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17.

The memorial, located at the corner of Coke and Lubbock streets on the Texas A&M campus, was conceived to honor Aggies who have given their lives in the effort to combat terrorism, as well as those who guard and protect the United States from terrorist attacks.

The monument was designed by Jorge Martinez, David McMillin, Hernan Molina, and Mariano Ortiz while they were graduate architecture students at Texas A&M. Their design was chosen from 27 entries in a 2006 collegewide competition sponsored by college’s classes of ’68 and ’03.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, to do a competition for the Texas A&M campus,” said McMillin. “It was an opportunity to leave something behind on campus that we’re proud of and will be there forever.”

In addition to Murano, other scheduled speakers at the Oct. 17 dedication will be retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Hal Hornburg ’68, and U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Dan Moran ’03.

Hornburg entered the Air Force in 1968 as a graduate from Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance. He retired in 2005 as the commander of the Air Combat Command, headquartered at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, and air component commander for the U.S. Joint Forces Command and U.S. Northern Command.

Hornburg commanded a composite fighter wing during Operation Desert Storm and directed air operations over Bosnia.

While serving in Iraq in October 2006, Moran, the other speaker, was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED), suffering second- and third-degree burns over more than half his body.

While recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Moran and his fellow patients were visited by U.S. Department of Defense secretary Robert Gates, who as Texas A&M University president in 2003 awarded Moran his degree.

“We wanted some sort of remembrance to soldiers and protectors and how it relates to Texas A&M,” said McMillin about the discussions he and his fellow designers had when they were creating the memorial’s design. “We wanted something that was permanent, so we thought of concrete.” The design features a 22-foot concrete wall with a gap close to one side.

“The wall is incomplete, like it’s missing something,” said McMillin. “We wanted to show that part of your police, part of your people dedicated to protecting your freedom have passed away.”

The memorial also features three rows of 12 box-like shapes leading to the wall, which represent people who are involved in the battle against terrorism.

“There’s a horizontal plane that is sunken into the ground with these three (rows), where at one time we had four. We were thinking about a field, and how soldiers might be lined up in regiments, standing at attention, paying respect to something, in this case, paying respect to what this wall is representing,” he said.

“We kept talking, discussing, and developing, and it kept getting closer to what we were thinking about. The field of boxes was then cut down to 12 in a row because of the 12th Man spirit at Texas A&M,” said McMillin. Then the team removed a row of boxes from the design, creating a gap, which they lined up with the gap in the wall.

The designers were also considering what the memorial would look like at night.

“In place of the row of boxes we took away, we added light fixtures. During the daytime it looks sort of off balance, off center, like a missing person formation,” said McMillin. “At night, the lights illuminate where those boxes would have been and it completes the array as a symbol of hope that we can get out of this, and that freedom will emerge. The slot in the wall also has lights that represent the idea of the wall healing itself, giving hope that freedom will prevail.”

“Renaissance MMVIII,” a photographic exhibit featuring the work of Igor Kraguljac, a student in the M.S. Visualization Science program at Texas A&M, opens Oct. 3 in the Wright Gallery, located on the second floor of Building A in the Langford Architecture Center on the Texas A&M campus.

In the exhibit, Kraguljac uses digital photography to explore “chiaroscuro,” an artistic technique developed during the Renaissance, referring to the use of exaggerated light contrasts in order to create the illusion of volume in modeling 3-D objects such as the human body.

“Particular light, good angles, and the right moment are the three most important elements for creating an interesting photograph,” said Kraguljac. “The artwork I am sharing includes images from my thesis research, in which I translate chiaroscuro into the digital photographic medium.”

Carol LaFayette, associate professor of visualization, is Kraguljac’s thesis adviser. His photographs have previously been shown in galleries in the United States and Europe.

Biographical information and selections from the artist’s portfolio can be viewed on his website.

Six former Texas A&M University College of Architecture students who have distinguished themselves as pioneers in their professions and leaders in their respective communities have been selected as recipients of the 2008 College of Architecture Outstanding Alumni Award.

The 2008 honorees — J. Paul Bohn ‘84, Shannon Rankin ‘82, Randy Rehmann ’78, Bryan Trubey ‘83, Joe Verdoorn ‘70, and Mark Wamble ’83 — will be feted Friday, Oct. 3 at the college’s annual Outstanding Alumni Awards Banquet, which begins with a 6:30 p.m. reception at the Miramont Country Club in Bryan, Texas.

“This year the College of Architecture is proud to honor six extraordinary former students who, through their incessant dedication, hard work and devotion to excellence, continue to inspire and fuel the college’s tradition of education, research and service at the highest levels of quality,” said Jorge Vanegas, interim dean of the college.

“Through the generation of new knowledge and innovations, supported by extraordinary talent, abilities, and skills, and fueled by a relentless pursuit of excellence, these former students have advanced their professions and industries, as well as the reputation of the College of Architecture and Texas A&M University. And most importantly, said Vanegas, “they serve as outstanding role models for our current students.”

2008 Outstanding Alumni:

J. Paul Bohn ’84, ‘86
Vice President, Director of Operations
SmithGroup California

J. Paul Bohn ’84, ’86 (BED, MARCH) is vice president and director of operations for SmithGroup California, guiding the daily decisions that further the firm’s mission of design excellence and client satisfaction. In his position since 1999, he manages the firm’s $50 million west coast budget and supervises the daily operations of SmithGroup’s San Francisco and Los Angeles offices.

Bohn is the secretary/treasurer for SmithGroup California’s board of directors and was on the firm’s development board of directors from 1999-2002.

He joined SmithGroup as chief architect in 1991 and was soon promoted to a firm principal, where he shifted into the management and operational side of the practice.

After graduating from Texas A&M, Bohn began his post-college career as a project manager/project architect in 1986, at the Washington, D.C. firm James Bayley Associates.

Bohn managed every aspect of the client relationship, orchestrating projects from concept to completion. He became known in the community through several historic projects, leading public meetings, presentations, negotiations, and hearings with local agencies.

Two years later, Bohn joined Ellerbe Becket, Inc., seeking a broader portfolio and more opportunities to learn. At Ellerbe Becket he expanded his architectural experience from commercial, historical, and retail to include major healthcare projects and interior architecture.

In 1990, Bohn became a licensed architect in Washington D.C., and became even more involved in the local architectural community. He became a government affairs committee member of the D.C. American Institute of Architects in 1991, working as a liaison with fellow chapters to both champion and challenge legislation that would affect the profession.

He is a member of the College of Architecture’s Dean’s Advisory Council and served as chairman of the college’s Professional Leadership Board for several years. He has twice served on National Architectural Accrediting Board visits to the college.

Bohn, his wife Amy, and his sisters Brenda Trifon and Sandra Gray permanently endowed The George and Esther Bohn Architectural Scholarship at Texas A&M University in honor of their parents.

–

Shannon Rankin ’82, ‘86
Principal, Founding Partner
SkB Architects

Shannon Rankin ’82, ’86 (BED, MARCH) is a principal and founding partner at SkB Architects, Inc. in Seattle. Her career has been defined by a commitment to blending architecture and interior design rather than separating the disciplines.

In addition to management responsibilities at SkB, she has assumed many different roles in projects including architectural designer, interior designer, programming specialist, project architect and project manager.

Rankin and two founding partners created SkB Architects in February 1999. The company focuses in several markets: commercial, workplace, hospitality, retail and residential. Key areas of focus influencing the company’s designs are: social and behavioral studies, materiality, sense of place and culture, and blending of interior and exterior architectural disciplines to create unified experiences.

Rankin is widely recognized as an expert in workplace design and strategy. She has engaged clients such as Microsoft, Boeing, Eddie Bauer, Omnicom and Philips in innovative workplace projects that center on key concepts such as learning and knowledge sharing, enhancing productivity, and discovering environmental stimuli that inspire innovation and creativity.

In addition to her work in the corporate sector, she has experience in a wide variety of market sectors such as commercial buildings, retail, hospitality, exhibit design and single family residential.

Before founding SkB Architects, Shannon worked in Dallas, Boulder, Denver, and Seattle for several companies including Callison Architecture in Seattle and Gensler in Denver.

Her work has been published in Interior Design, Residential Architect, Metropolitan Home, Sunset Magazine and Trends Magazine as well as numerous local publications.

Rankin is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at Texas A&M University’s College of Architecture, a board member of the Art Corps in Seattle and a guest critic and juror at several universities and colleges.

She lives in Seattle with her husband and business partner, Kyle Gaffney, and their daughter Hannah.

–

Randy Rehmann ‘78
President, CEO
Dynamic Systems, Inc.

Randy Rehmann ’78 (BDCR) and a group of fellow co-workers founded Dynamic Systems, Inc. a day after being laid off by an employer. Since that day 20 years ago, Rehmann has developed Dynamic Systems into a leader in the field of mechanical and system installations in major commercial and private projects.

From a main office in Austin and seven regional offices, he has directed the company’s development of a strong portfolio of work in many industries, including micro-electronics, entertainment, hospitality, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and education.

His achievements include:

• growing his company to $300 million in revenues over a broad spectrum of public and private projects in 25 states, keeping a top quality product as the company’s focus, and recruiting and retaining a strong and loyal employee team;

• volunteer leadership roles for professional organizations and youth mission trips for his church, which gives him deep personal satisfaction, and at the Texas Wildlife Association, where he promotes strong education conservation and outdoor heritage;

• having the chance to instill A&M qualities like honesty, integrity and a strong work ethic in his four children, and seeing them and his four nephews have the opportunity for the Texas A&M educational experience.

He has served on the board of elders of Bethany Lutheran Church since 1988 and its board of directors, including two years as vice president and president.

Rehmann has served as president of the Austin Mechanical Contractors Association and as director, officer and president of the Mechanical Contractors Association of Texas.

He served as an officer and president of Texas A&M’s Construction Industry Advisory Council and currently is a member of the Senior Austin Aggie Leadership Council. He is currently serving a two-year term as president of the Texas Wildlife Association.

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Bryan Trubey ‘83
Design Principal
HKS Inc.

Bryan Trubey ’83 (BED), a shareholder and design principal with HKS, has focused his career on sports and entertainment projects.

In the May 2004 Sports Business Journal, Trubey was named one of the 20 Most Influential People in Sports Facility Design, Architecture and Development. The magazine cited his stellar performance working with such clients as the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Dodgers, Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars.

Other facilities on Trubey’s resume include Lone Star Park, American Airlines Center, US Cellular Field renovations and the MLS Pizza Hut Park complex in Frisco. His international projects include Liverpool FC Stadium, El Territorio Santos Modelo, 2014 FIFA World Cup venues in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, Brazil and cricket stadiums throughout India including Mohali, Dechi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore.

As the firm’s principal with 26 years experience, he actively participates in all phases of the architectural design process, including programming. His primary role occurs in the initial planning stages where he is responsible for setting the design concept and then maintaining design continuity throughout project development. His most notable projects are regarded as the first to effectively integrate the sports environment with entertainment, creating timely, memorable mixed-use destinations.

He is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Texas Society of Architects and the Dallas chapter of the AIA. He annually sponsors Texas A&M University’s School of Architecture Sports & Entertainment Studio instructed by Marcel Erminy.

Among Trubey’s many achievements:

• The new Dallas Cowboys Stadium, which has received international recognition and critical praise from the national architectural press. David Dillon, architecture critic with the Dallas Morning News, said, “It is a highly cinematic and futuristic piece of contemporary architecture.”

• At the unveiling of the Liverpool FC Stadium project, the sporting, national and international press were united in their enthusiastic endorsement of the design, calling it “groundbreaking in terms of stadium design.”

• At the age of 30, his design project, the National Stadium in Hong Kong, received a national AIA design award.

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Joe T. Verdoorn ’70, ‘71
Principal
SEC Planning, LLC

During his 30-year career, Joe Verdoorn ’70, ’71 (BLA, MUP) has expanded the role of the landscape architect in the building/development industry and become a leader in the field of community design for residents older than 55.

With every project, he strives to educate clients to landscape architects’ multi-disciplinary expertise. To that end, he champions the landscape architect’s role as project manager, directing the efforts of consultant team members whose expertise are vital to a project’s success. Additionally, he has been a proponent of sustainable design techniques throughout his career, educating clients, consultant team members and associates to the benefits of working with the land.

He has also pursued his passion for active adult community design as lead planner for all 55+ communities built by Del Webb Corporation, an adult and family community developer.

During his involvement with Del Webb, he realized a new paradigm was needed to plan communities that appealed to this unique market. He began researching the demographics and psychographics of the active adult market to understand the expectations and motivations of these exacting consumers. From this, he created an active adult community model that has become an industry standard.

This research influenced the design, construction, and administration of numerous active adult communities and expanded the knowledge base of the profession. Due to his efforts and experience, he is recognized as an expert in the planning and design of active adult communities.

Verdoorn has trained countless young landscape architects, beginning with his years on the faculty of Texas Tech University. As proprietor of his own firm, Richardson Verdoorn, and now as a principal at SEC Planning, he takes a personal interest in mentoring staff. His hands-on approach allows these individuals to grow in their knowledge and experience of landscape architecture.

His achievements include:

• his selection as lead planner for all new communities by Del Webb Corporation after a national search effort in 1979;

• a distinguished career at firms including Carter & Burgess, Myrick-Newman-Dahlberg & Partners, a 20-year career as a founding partner of Richardson Verdoorn and a founding principal at SEC Planning, LLC;

• teaching or mentoring more than 12 professional landscape architects who have gone on to establish their own planning/design firms.

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Mark Wamble ’83
Principal
Interloop — Architecture

Mark Wamble ’83 (BED) is a principal of Interloop — Architecture, an architecture and design firm in Houston. In addition to his professional practice, Wamble pursues academic research as the Cullinan Professor at the Rice School of Architecture.

His research and design work includes Symonds 1 and Symonds 2, a pair of advanced interactive learning environments built for Rice University, Klip House, a service-based housing platform developed for mass production, Forty-Eight Foot House, a private residence in Houston, Plug-On, the first in a series of residential product prototypes, Polara 7, a suite of custom designed and fabricated furniture pieces, Julia’s, a Latin bistro and bar, 1AB Stim, a site specific interactive installation for the First Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam, E-X-I-T, a custom exit light for The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, and Tending(Blue), a new building designed to house an art work by the artist James Turrell, commissioned by the Nasher Foundation in Dallas.

His writings and design work have appeared in publications including the Wall Street Journal, ID Magazine, Perspecta 34 and 38, Arch +, Architectural Record, Architecture Magazine, Slow Space and 16 Houses.

In 2001, Interloop — Architecture was commissioned by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Genoa, Italy, to be an associate architect for The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. Also in 2001 he organized and designed an exhibit of Interloop — Architecture’s work for the Aluminum in Contemporary Architecture exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Wamble has lectured at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, the University of Michigan, the University of Texas, University of California-Los Angeles, Ohio State University, The Nasher Sculpture Center, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Wamble has taught at the Rice School of Architecture since 1990 and has been a visiting instructor at the University of Michigan, Harvard University, and Columbia University. His teaching experience includes graduate studios with a focus on working and living environments, architectural product and systems design, and advanced fabrication technologies.

While earning his Master of Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, Wamble worked as a project designer with Eisenman Architects in New York and was on the design team for the Wexner Center for the Visual Arts at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

After receiving his master’s from Harvard in 1988, Wamble developed a line of textiles for Knoll International, became project architect for the Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, was project architect on three office buildings in Tokyo, and, with his team, designed the winning scheme for the Rebstockpark competition in Frankfort, Germany.

Wamble was a design principal at Bricker + Cannady Architects in Houston beginning in 1997, continuing to produce research projects and exhibitions with longtime collaborator Dawn Finley. While at BCA, Mark was design principal for the renovation of Jones Plaza in downtown Houston, which won an American Institute of Architects award in 1999.