Climate change is teaching designers to expand their horizons—or at least it should

Oct. 26, 2021 Ι Architect’s Newspaper  A lot can happen in the space between a book’s title and subtitle, as A Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation: Uniting Design, Economics, and Policy (Island Press, 2021) demonstrates. Here, in a reversal from the norm, the subtitle assumes the more evocative bent by elevating design to the same status… Continue reading Climate change is teaching designers to expand their horizons—or at least it should

Virgil Abloh’s MCA Exhibition Reveals the Power—and Limits—of Design Disruption

Metropolis Magazine Ι July 15, 2019 Architecture is an attractive medium for the trendsetter-turned-multidisciplinary designer and artist Virgil Abloh. Because buildings are often the face of the establishment, they are ripe targets for subversion—Abloh’s calling card. So it’s no surprise that bits of buildings are strewn throughout Figures of Speech, Abloh’s first solo museum exhibition now… Continue reading Virgil Abloh’s MCA Exhibition Reveals the Power—and Limits—of Design Disruption

‘The Whole World a Bauhaus’ Reveals a Movement’s Fault Lines

The Atlantic’s CityLab Ι March 13, 2019 The centenary exhibition “The Whole World a Bauhaus” is touring the globe, and is now making its only U.S. stop, through April 20, at the Elmhurst Art Museum in the western suburbs of Chicago. (The Elmhurst has earned its stripes, boasting a house on its campus designed by… Continue reading ‘The Whole World a Bauhaus’ Reveals a Movement’s Fault Lines

The Bauhaus in the Age of Frictionless Design

The Atlantic’s CityLab Ι March 14, 2019  The Institute of Design at Chicago’s Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) may be the most direct offspring of the Bauhaus, which was the most influential design school in the world. Founded by former Bauhaus faculty member László Moholy-Nagy in 1937, and later absorbed into IIT (whose architecture school was… Continue reading The Bauhaus in the Age of Frictionless Design

Why Architecture is Important

ACSA Ι Jan. 14, 2019 If you ever wondered why architecture is important—look up and around. You are likely surrounded by it right now. Architecture’s grasp—that is, buildings and the designed environment—ends only in extreme conditions (the bottom of the ocean, the atmosphere, and a few dwindling spots on terrestrial earth.) Unique among creative and… Continue reading Why Architecture is Important

After Rahm, What Comes Next for the Obama Library?

September 25, 2018 Ι The Atlantic’s CityLab Public safety, the city’s pension load, and public schools were the major issues haunting Rahm Emanuel’s assumed re-election bid earlier this month, all of which were upended by his surprise announcement that he wouldn’t throw his hat into the ring for a third term. Given the power that… Continue reading After Rahm, What Comes Next for the Obama Library?

Incorporating Drone Imagery into Design Workflows

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Architect Magazine Ι August 2018  The use of drones to survey project sites is becoming more common among builders and engineers. For architects, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer a distinct vantage point from which they can study and document sites for research and marketing opportunities. Below, practitioners and operators discuss strategies for incorporating UAVs into design… Continue reading Incorporating Drone Imagery into Design Workflows

New Views into an Unheralded Element of Mies

scan made from original HB 8x10 BW negative

Architectural Record Ι June 25, 2018  A new exhibit at the Elmhurst Art Museum in Illinois explores a little-studied corner of Mies van der Rohe’s career: his brief fascination with pre-fabrication.  The show, curated by Columbia University’s Barry Bergdoll, is physically and thematically anchored by Mies’ McCormick House, which was built in 1952 as a prototype… Continue reading New Views into an Unheralded Element of Mies

Mott MacDonald Has Tunnel Vision for the Chesapeake Bay Thimble Shoal Project

Redshift Ι Jan. 4, 2018 In early 2019, a tunnel-boring machine the length of a football field will begin chewing through the earth below the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. At a rate of 60 feet per day, according to the Virginian-Pilot, it will carve a 42-foot-wide, mile-long path 105 feet below sea level at its deepest.… Continue reading Mott MacDonald Has Tunnel Vision for the Chesapeake Bay Thimble Shoal Project

Office Visit: Craighton Berman

Doggerel Ι June 29, 2017  For Microsoft, illustrator and industrial designer Craighton Berman created a primer on artificial intelligence. Over a few dozen pages, his breezy little booklet used talking dogs and clunky retro-robots to explain the basics of a technology that’s fueled sci-fi dystopias and utopian TED talks alike. It was a zine in the… Continue reading Office Visit: Craighton Berman