Tag Archives: Architecture and Design Network

Architecture & Design Network kicks off 2015/16 lecture series tonight with Alex Gilliam

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Photo by Mark Stehle

Photo by Mark Stehle

Alex Gilliam, long committed to K-12 design education, is scheduled to be the first speaker in  Architecture and Design Network’s 15/16 lecture series, the non-profit’s 12th season of talks by well regarded design professionals. Gilliam, who earned an undergraduate and a graduate degree in architecture, will share his ideas about  the value of hands-on experience and its role in design education. 

Gilliam will speak tonight at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center. A reception at 5:30 will precede the remarks.
As founder of the Public Workshop, an organization that works with young people to encourage their participation in the design or redesign – as the case may be – of facets of their communities, Gilliam refers to himself as the “cheerleader of possibility”. In their roles as  agents of change, his young  charges hone skills that enable them to repurpose abandoned spaces and bring change to places that figure in their everyday lives –  schools, playgrounds, bus stops, parks and more.
 
With the help of their mentor, participants learn to set goals for themselves and develop the competencies needed to make their surrounds more accommodating to their needs and those of others. Each hands-on effort takes place in full public view with the result that students get feedback from friends and neighbors, some of whom are likely to get involved with the project. “Small groups of motivated people attract the interest and support of others”, notes Gilliam. 
 
Since the Workshop’s founding,  Gilliam has worked with the Rural Studio, the Hester Street Collaborative, Cooper Hewitt Museum, the University of Pennsylvania, the National Building Museum, the Chicago Architectural Foundation and numerous other organizations and institutions across the country. 
 
Architecture and Design Network lectures and receptions are free an open to the public. No reservations are needed. For additional information, contact ardenetwork@mac.com.
Supporters of the non-profilt Architecture and Design  Network (ADN) include the Arkansas Arts Center, the Fay Jones School of Architecture, the Central Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and friends in the community.

Legacy of LR architect Ed Cromwell to be discussed tonight

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CromwellTonight the Architecture and Design Network will host a panel discussion on the legacy of longtime Little Rock architect Ed Cromwell.
The panelists are:
  • Charles Penix, Chief Operating Officer, Cromwell Architects and Engineers
  • Bill Worthen, Director, Historic Arkansas Museum
  • Don Evans, architect and associate of the late Ed Cromwell

Chris East is the program’s moderator.  It will take place at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center, following a reception at 5:30pm.

After working at various jobs during the early years of the Depression, Ed Cromwell, who graduated from Princeton in 1931 with a degree in architecture, moved to Little Rock in 1935 to take a position with the  Resettlement Administration. After a year with the agency, he left to devote full time to the practice of architecture, a career which spanned forty-eight years, from 1936 to1984. Cromwell, who remained active in the community after his retirement, died in 2001, leaving a legacy that continues to impact people’s lives.

There would be no Maumelle if it hadn’t been for Cromwell’s vision of a planned community on the 5,000 acres of land owned by Jess P. Odum, an Arkansas businessman and insurance executive. The Capital Hotel might have been taken out by the wrecker’s ball if it hadn’t been for his determination to save the historic structure. An advocate for the city’s riverfront development, he understood its importance long before others did. He championed historic preservation and  chaired the commission of the Arkansas Territorial  Restoration (now the Historic Arkansas Museum). Cromwell Architects and Engineers, the firm he founded, has to its credit the design of many public buildings and facilities throughout the state and beyond.

The three panelists will explore Cromwell’s legacy as a creative architect, a visionary planner and a champion of  historic  preservation. Architecture and Design Network (ADN) lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information, contact ardenetwork@me.com.

ADN’s supporters include the Arkansas Arts Center, the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture, the Central Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and friends in the community.

“Where We Learn Matters” is topic of tonight’s Architecture & Design Network talk given by former LR resident Anisa Baldwin Metzger

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anisaLittle Rock native Anisa Baldwin Metzger will headline an Architecture and Design Network discussion tonight entitled “Where We Learn Matters.”  The program starts at 6pm in the lecture hall at the Arkansas Arts Center. A reception will precede it starting at 5:30.

As School District Sustainability Manager for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), headquartered in Washington, D.C., Anisa Baldwin Metzger, oversees a  national effort that  provides guidance and support for the Council’s state subsidiaries and their sustainability efforts. Here in Arkansas, the state USGBC hosts the Arkansas Green Challenge (AGC), a program that pairs mentors – architects and engineers among them – with students and staff to find ways of greening their schools. Now in its fourth year, the Arkansas AGC has reached  eighty schools and more than forty thousand students, helping them understand the influence of school facilities design on matters relating to learning, health and the environment. 

Ms. Baldwin Metzger, who grew up in Little Rock, received a B.S degree in architecture from Washington University, St Louis and earned an M.Arch from the University of Washington, Seattle. Following the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, she worked in New Orleans, helping schools rebuild in ways that reflected their commitment to USGBC’s  principles of greening.   Drawing on her own experience, she asserts that “the pursuit of environmental sustainability requires that we utilize design thinking to deal with many complex problems our world faces.” In her talk, she will share strategies for working with schools and school districts throughout the country to develop ways of insuring sustainability.
Growing up in Little Rock, Anisa rode to kindergarten on the back of her dad’s bike. She was raised by parents (Jim Metzger and Deborah Baldwin) who made it second nature to try to waste less, and so she understands the importance of raising sustainability natives—children and adults who act to benefit the earth without needing to be asked.
 
The Arkansas chapter of the USGBC is the co-sponsor of Ms. Baldwin Metzger’s talk.  Supporters of Architecture and Design Network (ADN) include the Arkansas Arts Center, the UA Fay Jones School of Architecture, the Central Arkansas Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architecture and friends in the community. 
 
All ADN lectures are free and open to the public

Peter Gluck presents tonight’s Architecture and Design Network lecture

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This evening at 6pm, Peter Gluck, founder and principal of Gluck+ of NYC will speak.  Entitled “What’s Wrong with Us,” the lecture is presented by the Architecture and Design Network.

Gluck +, the innovative architectural firm founded by Peter Gluck, is known for its multi-faceted approach to creating award winning buildings. Responsive to a range and variety of factors – site, cost, time, construction, evolving client needs and attitudes among them – the firm is capable of dealing with a project from conception to completion.

The process, known as Architect Led Design Build (ALDB), requires the architect’s assuming responsibility for all phases of a building’s construction as well as its design. One firm, wielding a hammer as well as a pencil, does it all. in architectural circles, the approach is frequently the exception rather than the rule.

While a student at Yale, where he  earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Gluck encountered the design build culture that subsequently served as the inspiration for ALDB. Architectural luminary Louis Kahn who taught at Yale  during the time Gluck was a student at the School, had an early and significant influence on his approach to architecture, his focus on the important link between design and construction.

Gluck, known for his iconic tree topping Tower House, is  also regarded for his work with moderate income urban housing. In one example, components were prefabricated in Pennsylvania and assembled on site in New York City.

Gluck, who is widely published in architectural journals worldwide, has taught at the Columbia and Yale schools of architecture. Exhibitions of his award-winning work have been held in the United States and Japan. He has curated exhibits for the Museum of Modern Art.

The program will take place in the lecture hall at the Arkansas Arts Center at 6pm.  A reception will start at 5:30 prior to the lecture.

All Architecture and Design Network lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information contact ardenetwork@icloud.com. Supporters of ADN include the Central Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, UA’s Fay Jones School of Architecture, the Arkansas Arts Center and friends in the community.

Debra Berke discusses “Out of the Ordinary” design this evening 

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As the founding partner of the architecture and design firm that bears her name, Deborah Berke oversees a staff of fifty, a skilled team that deals with a diverse portfolio of projects ranging from campus master plans, cultural and arts facilities, university buildings, hotels – Bentonville’s 21c Hotel among them – and custom residences. All projects, large and small, share the Berke imprimatur: a “knowing simplicity”.

An award winning design professional, Berke has been an adjunct professor of Architectural Design at Yale University since 1987. Additionally, she has taught at a number of campuses across the country. In 2005, the Rhode Island School of Design, where she earned a BFA in 1975, awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.

Registered as an architect in a dozen states including Arkansas, Berke will talk about creating buildings that are “inevitable though not predictable”. She will describe the relationship between a designer’s vision, life patterns and place.

Berke’s lecture, which is free and open to the public, is made possible through the collaborative effort of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Architecture and Design Network. For additional information, contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.

Supporters of the Architecture and Design Network include the Arkansas Arts Center, the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture, the Central Arkansas section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and friends in the community.

March 3, 2015 – 6:00 pm, preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m. Arkansas Arts Center Lecture Hall

New Dean of UofA Fay Jones School of Architecture to speak tonight

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PeterMacKeithAs part of the monthly Architecture & Design Network architecture lecture, Peter MacKeith will discuss Aalto’s Identities tonight.

Dean MacKeith, an internationally recognized design educator, assumed the deanship of the Fay Jones School of Architecture on July 1, 2014. Before joining the Fayetteville school, McKeith was a professor and associate dean at Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Saint Louis. Prior to his tenure there, he directed the Master of Architecture program at Helsinki University of Technology, now Aalto University.

He will offer an informed perspective on the life and work of Finland’s foremost Twentieth Century architect/designer, Alvar Aalto (1898-1976), an international icon in his own right. Iterations of the furniture, textiles and glassware he designed continue to have a significant presence in American homes and numerous public spaces.

The program will take place tonight at 6pm in the lecture hall of the Arkansas Arts Center. A reception will precede at 5:30.

MacKeith began his tenure at Washington University in 1999 as a faculty member and assistant dean of the School of Architecture. In 2001, he became the associate dean of architecture, and was later named the associate dean of the Sam Fox School in 2006. He also serves as adjunct associate curator of architecture and design at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Before joining the Sam Fox School faculty and administration, MacKeith was the director of the Master of Architecture – International Program at the Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University) in Finland. He previously held faculty appointments in architecture at the University of Virginia, the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, and Yale University.

MacKeith received a bachelor’s degree in English and international relations from the University of Virginia and a master of architecture from Yale University. His architectural teaching has been recognized nationally with two Creative Achievement Awards in architectural education from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (2007-2008, 2013-2014).

MacKeith has worked in architecture and design practices in both the United States and Finland, notably with the renowned Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa. He has written, lectured and published extensively in the United States, Finland, and other Nordic countries on modern and contemporary Finnish and Nordic architecture. His particular emphasis is on the work of Alvar Aalto. In 2012, MacKeith was the curator and designer of “Light Houses: On the Nordic Common Ground,” the exhibition of contemporary Nordic architecture at the Nordic Pavilion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale.

MacKeith is the author and editor of Archipelago, Essays on Architecture(2006), the editor of Encounters: Architectural Essays, volumes 1 and 2 – two selections of essays by Pallasmaa (2005, 2012) – and the author of The Dissolving Corporation: Contemporary Architecture and Corporate Identity in Finland (2005) and The Finland Pavilions: Finland at the Universal Expositions 1900-1992 (1993). He is the outgoing editor of The SOM Journal, a professional review of history and criticism, having overseen numbers 8 (“On Teamwork and Collaboration”) and 9 (“On Leadership and Authorship”). He is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Finland (1990) and research grants from The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts and the Brookings Institution, among others.

In February 2014, MacKeith was recognized by the President of Finland for his contributions to the culture and architecture of Finland with the insignia of Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland.

 

For additional information contact ardenetwork@ icloud.com. Check out ADN on Facebook. Supporters of the Architecture and Design Network (ADN) include the Arkansas Arts Center, the Fay Jones School of Architecture, the Central Arkansas Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and friends in the community.

“Then and Now – The Central High Neighborhood” focus of architecture lecture tonight

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centralentranceThe Architecture and Design Network is hosting a panel presentation on the historic Central High neighborhood this evening at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center.

Panelists are:

  • Rachel Silva, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program
  • Kwendeche, an architect
  • Nancy Rousseau, principal of Central High School
  • Vanessa McKuin, president of the Central High School Neighborhood Assocation

The westward expansion of Little Rock in the mid-1890’s gave rise to the West End, a section of the city which, in time, became known as the Central High School neighborhood. At the time the high school was completed in 1927 it was designated by the American Institute of Architects as “the most beautiful high school in America.”  For its time it was the largest and most expensive high school building in the United States.  Thirty years later its reputation would be changed as it became the site of international media coverage of efforts to fight the integration.

In addition to discussing the history and development of the area, the panel will talk about the future of historic properties in the neighborhood. A trio of neighborhood groups is actively involved in the effort. The three are: Wright Avenue Neighborhood Association, Capitol Hill Neighborhood Association and Central High Neighborhood Association.

The Architecture and Design Network is a non-profit organization. It is supported, in part, by the Arkansas Arts Center, Central Arkansas section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and friends in the community.

A reception will begin at 5:30 prior to the lecture.