During a recent trip to Miami, I made a quick visit to 1111 Lincoln Road, a development in South Beach’s Lincoln Mall, which I have been following for some time now. At first glance the renderings display a project that is at the very least, an exciting structural display that mimics the symbols of wealth displayed by the celebutantes of South Beach. Upon visiting South Beach and the 1111 Lincoln Road development, it became clear that the design and development are clearly foreign to the surrounding collection of 800 Art Deco structures located in South Beach’s Art Deco Historic District. … continue reading 1111 Lincoln Road by Herzog & de Meuron: Context, What Context?

The New World Symphony designed by Frank Gehry may rank as one of the architects most important works. The New World Symphony located in South Beach is evolutionary in the same way that Gehry’s Santa Monica House or Guggenheim Museum Bilbao are now monuments that mark different periods in the  architect’s career. America’s most famous Canadian architect has crafted a pivotal work that will determine the future creative direction of Gehry and his office. The New World Symphony represents a much more restrained Gehry than we are used to seeing. … continue reading New World Symphony Designed by Frank Gehry: A Transitional Piece?

When going to Miami this weekend I was excited at the prospect of seeing my first Richard Meier building. Meier was one of the first architects that I was introduced to in my architectural education, and have always had an appreciation for his ability to take a consistent formal language and evolve it with the completion of each new project. The project pictured to the left is a rendering of the Beach House in South Beach Miami, Florida. The developers of the project, which there are many, never miss an opportunity to tell you that the project is designed by Richard Meier. … continue reading Beach House Designed by Richard Meier R.I.P.

Remember every year in undergraduate school how it seemed that there was always one kid who gets the bright idea to create a ramping system, which serves as the major vertical circulation system in his design? And do you remember when that one kid is told during a critique that his design does not meet the requirements of the building codes? He is also told that ramp slopes cannot exceed 1:20, and that the maximum run without a 5 feet landing is 30 feet? Do you remember what happens after he stares blankly at his drawing and realizes that his design does not work? In case you forgot, he comes back the next week with a design that he claims fully satisfies the requirements of the building code. … continue reading ADA Ramps Gone Wild: Disney Treehouse Villas

Rape space is a term that I first encountered while in attendance at the University of Cincinnati’s undergraduate architecture program.  The term rape space was spoken by faculty members with the same frequency as other designer-ly words such as form and hierarchy.  If you have not yet guessed, a rape space is a bad thing, and no student ever wants to be credited with creating a rape space or hearing that phrase during a critique.  The exact origin of this term remains unknown to me, and I am unsure if this term has populated the architectural vocabulary of other respected architectural education programs. … continue reading Rape Space #1: Orlando Public Library

DesignIntelligence proves every year that they are the architectural community’s greatest oxymoron with the publication of their highly suspect and highly controversial ranking of accredited undergraduate and graduate architectural programs in the country. If you have had any doubts about the credibility of DesignIntelligence’s yearly ranking of architectural programs, you are really going to love this. I received an email from a friend a couple of days ago regarding the announcement of the new 2009 Design Futures Council Fellows. I did not care at first, because I did not even know what the Design Futures Council was. … continue reading 2009 Design Futures Council Fellows Named

Images of contemporary architecture do not necessarily come to mind when thinking about the architecture of Orlando.  While Orlando is not the architectural capital of the United States, there are actually a great number of buildings in the Orlando area that have been designed by architects of varying styles,  different eras, and degrees of fame. Although great examples of contemporary architecture do exist in Orlando, I did not think that I would find a high design contemporary structure at the mall, but that is exactly what I found shortly after moving to this city.  … continue reading Bloomingdale’s Meet Kevin Kennon Architects

Glass block is a great building material; I believe that if Louis Kahn would have had the opportunity he would have made his arches out of glass block and not bricks. Don’t believe me check out his unbuilt design for the Memorial to Six Million Jewish Martyrs. When is the last time that you asked glass block, what do you want? Has anyone ever?  Glass block is one of those materials that have only had part of its potential exploited.  Before I die, I’ll have to build a glass archway as a tribute to the deceased master architect, but until then let’s look at some glass block details.
… continue reading Glass Block & Water Slides At Bay Lake Tower

Disney World in Orlando, Florida is for many reasons worthy of architectural study. While walking through the parks one can study how the environment has been designed to handle large masses of people and apply these principles to plaza or park designs.  One could also study how the signage has been designed to communicate to anyone regardless of the language they speak, and apply these principles to way-finding design in hospitals.  Or one could simply appreciate the reality of fantasy that Disney has managed to create, which after all is very similar to the reality that we as architects attempt to create every single day. … continue reading © Architecture Copyright Infringement

I was studying for my final ARE this past weekend and the general procedure in our household is that I study in the living room, while watching television with my wife. I have been able to study while watching television for years, seriously, but I found myself unable to focus when I heard the title for a new A&E television series. Keyshawn Johnson: Tackling Design, I shit you not.   Here is the press release from A&E to prove it.  Let’s just ignore the fact that I was watching A&E for a minute and focus on the topic at hand. Keyshawn Johnson has a full on design team armed with a pair of Chuck Taylor’s and a stack of design books ready to tackle design. … continue reading Keyshawn Johnson: Tackling Design