Today, architects are trading in their architectural styles for an architecture of fashion, one which parallels the seasonal trends and fads of the fashion industry itself. The change from an architecture of style to one of fashion could be a result of the fact that information is exchanged at a rapid pace due to the worldwide acceptance of the internet. This new form of rapid communication and publication has created a situation that renders a design obsolete to the current discourse by the time a building is completely constructed, because the renderings were published ten years earlier on a blog somewhere on the web. What if historians and critics are examining these architectural styles incorrectly? The truth may be that perhaps historians have attempted to identify these movements prior to allowing the context of history to fully unfold, and lack the hindsight required to reflect upon the recent past with an understanding of these movements in relation to larger social and cultural events. To clearly state, sometimes effects in history are critiqued without fully understanding their cause. Architectural critics and historians have struggled to make sense of the apparent infinite styles and movements within contemporary architecture. Until recently it has been difficult to find a common thread linking the aesthetic differences between the many movements of the late 20th century and early 21st. Although the aesthetics of the numerous architectural styles that have emerged since the dot-com boom vary, the one consistent trait that all of these structures share is a recklessness for the apparent limits of architecture, and an increasing emphasis on imageability and form. Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne,  Asymptote and European power firms like UN Studio have benefited from an unprecedented growth of wealth at the scale of the entire world. The same technology that spurred this growth in wealth has also given these and other architects the tools necessary to design and build nearly anything imaginable. Although this condition in recent history is unprecedented in scale, it is not without precedent. These architects are master of ya-ya, and the ya-ya movement is coming to a close, but what will come after this movement, is already here.

Historical Precedence:

The fascination with all things cool by architects of the era of ya-ya is similar to a movement that occurred in architecture prior to another American financial disaster, the Great Depression. Prior to the Great Depression the architectural profession was fragmented in terms of style, it seemed that there was no singular movement in architecture. The aesthetic styles of architecture in the 19th century and early 20th century ranged from Greek Revival to Baroque Revival, to Egyptian Revival, to just about any other historical style you can imagine, however the spirit of the period could be traced back to a singular driving force. The impetus behind the revival of the many styles from the past was the desire of Americans to display their excessive amounts of wealth in reference to the styles associated with the wealthy nations of history. Similar to our recent past, the Great Depression was preempted by the ‘Roaring Twenties.’ The great amounts of wealth generated during the 1920’s was the result of Main Street having easy access to Wall Street (specifically the ability to buy stocks with credit), in conjunction with the fact that America was benefiting from the growth caused by the industrial revolution that takes place when a youthful capitalistic country begins its rise, similar to the growth that we are seeing today in modern China. The overriding theme of the period prior to the Great Depression was not one of ’style’ but a period of Revivalism in which architects and Americans used historical precedents as a means of displaying their wealth. It was not an aesthetic movement, but a spirit of the times. The chief difference between Revivalism and ya-ya is the availability of technology. This availability of technology has shifted the importance society places on architecture and its design. During the period of Revivalism, people were concerned with extravagance in decoration, and today ya-ya is concerned with extravagance in form and image.

It is important to note that transitions in history are generally long and drawn out. History is rarely clear and succinct like the game changing plays in a football game, and like a football game it is difficult to discern the full ramifications of any one event until the game is over. The observations in this article are nothing more than conjectures based on my observations of the current state of architecture compared to past trends in history. Enough time has passed since the Great Depression to fully understand the cultural and social context of the architectural movements that occurred at that point in time in history, and we can finally discuss this condition with some degree of resoluteness. While researching for this article and examining the beginnings of the International Style (a term coined by Alfred Barr, which I prefer over Modern Architecture) it becomes evident that there is a significant overlap between the peak of Revivalism in America and the beginning of the International Style. In fact, many of the modern masterpieces, which are revered by many architects today, were completed prior to the Great Depression. The full embrace of the International Style by the mainstream architectural profession did not occur until the Great Depression came to a close.

In terms of architectural styles it seems that the intellectual leaders of the architectural professions are constantly rivaling the styles of the past, or the master architects that came before them. Modernism discounted Revivalism, Post-Modernism was the antithesis to Modernism, yet while there are movements against movements within the profession of architecture, there are larger socio-economic movements taking place at a much larger scale. The experiment of capitalism in America has been in progress for over two-hundred years and it seems that the cyclical nature of the markets translates into larger cycles in time, socially. There are movements within American culture that place an emphasis on wealth, status, and fame when times are good and the markets are growing. It also appears that after an economic disaster, society rejects the previous social arrogance to display ones wealth and the focus again shifts back to one of value and function. As resources become scarce and as the world becomes ever smaller due to an increase in technology and the global population, people will demand an architecture of Great Value.

The Great Depression marks a point in time in the history of American culture where wealth and style were overcome by function and value. In terms of architecture it marked a transition in which American Revivalism gave way to the International Style. Today we can infer that a similar change is taking place in American culture and in architecture. Again the display of wealth is giving way to function, and in terms of architecture, the period of ya-ya must succeed to an architecture of Great Value. Unlike before this transition is taking place at a rapid rate, and on a global scale.

a period of Ya-Ya:

The period of ya-ya is highlighted with the acceptance of the internet and the birth of the first global economy. The wealth generated by the dot-com boom and computer revolution fueled fifteen years of architectural extravagance, experimentation, and the destruction of limits that many thought could never be broken, see Burj Khalifa in Dubai. A side note for those of you that would like to know what the name given to the tallest building in the world stand for, burj means “tower”, and Khalifa Bin Zayed is the name of the UAE President, but forget the burj for now. The city of Dubai is just one of many examples of such unprecedented limits being broken. Culture and the values of society changed during this period of growth, and displaying one’s wealth became acceptable again, and thus the architecture of the pre-Great Recession responded appropriately. Architecture was cool for the sake of being cool.  Architects everywhere were attempting to build the tallest and coolest buildings in the world. Don’t believe me? Try and find a design posted on DeZeen that focuses on developing a rigorous formal language like Louis I. Kahn, Richard Meier or Michael Graves. Being cool was so important during the era of ya-ya that you could find a career in a new profession focused on cool hunting.

The primary design driver that has made the period of ya-ya so damaging to the profession of architecture is that the architectural one-liner was back and in a big way. This is damaging, because young students studying architecture in universities focus on developing clever solutions to architectural problems rather than learning a critical design process that they can use and develop as they grow as an architect. It seems like every week the blogs are flooded with dozens of cool and clever buildings that feature a new architectural one-liner that has not been built before, or even worse, one that has. The one-liner serves a purpose and throughout time there have been many one-liner works of architecture that played an important role in bringing architecture to the mainstream, for instance a series of BEST Products stores were completed by a young firm called SITE (see figure 1.1) in the early 70’s that changed the way many consumers thought about the role of architecture in strip mall design, and the effects of their work can be seen in Las Vegas and even today in Chicago. Although many critics and architects have grouped their works under the title of Post Modernism, I believe that this is an incorrect description of their work. Their work could be seen as the earliest movers in the spirit of ya-ya. Ya-ya is not all about one-liners, although the one-liner is the preferred design tool of the ya-ya designer. I will elaborate after the below photos more upon the ya-ya movement.

Figure 1.1: The Indeterminate Facade Building in Houston Texas is one of a series of  nine  stores designed by SITE for the now deceased BEST stores. It is one of the earliest examples of the architectural one-liner, it brought architecture to the mainstream. The ‘big box’ would never be the same as SITE continued to craft clever one-liners that questioned the new typology for nearly a decade. These BEST products stores by SITE and other architects are the earliest examples of ya-ya. In the future I will examine the BEST product stores and their importance not just those designed by SITE, but proposals from a series of significant architects in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Figure 1.2: Aqua Tower designed by Studio Gang Architects is a newly constructed one-liner and a may serve as a symbol to the end of the one-liner, but only the passage of time will allow us to make such an inference. Although nearly forty years separates the structures designed by SITE and the recently completed Aqua Tower, one cannot help but to sense a commonality it their spirit, the one-liner. These clever solutions are capable of creating unique and memorable architecture, but they lack the rigor in form and function that modern architects obsessed over.

Perhaps the period of ya-ya was a response to the intellectual rigor that became the driving forces behind movements such as the International Style and Post-Modernism. Although the extravagant structures built during the period of ya-ya may have been constructed due to unprecedented global wealth, ya-ya also exemplifies another trend within our new global society. The internet is partly responsible for the changes we are seeing in society, but the information revolution is the key driving force behind the ya-ya movement. The information age has also birthed a new generation of architects, designers, and consumers: Generation Y. This new generation must be constantly stimulated with information. They don’t have time to listen to a whole album, watch an entire movie, or experience architecture. They listen to singles, watch movie trailers and do not want to bother with architecture unless it can be spoon fed to them in the form of an architectural one-liner. Architecture like information, music, fashion and viral videos, must constantly be changing, new, inventive, but most importantly stimulate the brain and body rapidly. Generation Y wants information and they want it fast, they want instant gratification. The image and icons of architecture are evolving at a pace which is faster than architecture can sustain. Even fast-tracked design/build projects are giving way to a new hyper design/build process in which construction begins concurrent with the design process. The distillation of the architectural construction and design process is in fact the major cause of the rapid growth in architectural one-liners. The architectural one-liners are also the result of Generation Y designers whom are not capable of developing architectural concepts in the same meaningful way that Louis Kahn was able to elaborate upon a simple concept like ‘bringing the book from darkness to light’ in his design for Exeter Library, which is unquestionable a masterwork of architecture. They are concerned with image, because that is what they know. Once the image is created they cannot be bothered with developing it, and move on to the next image in the same ADD manner that they consume information on the internet.

This period of ya-ya in architectural history will be remembered not just for its cool architecture, but also as a period in which architects became star-chitects, as critics of the profession attempt to thrust these architectural stars into the forefront, in hopes that they gain the same celebrity status as their Hollywood counterparts. But why identify this period in time as the period of ya-ya? The term yaya according to the French is an expression of arrogance, which best describes the cool buildings and one-liners of this period. The English dictionary defines yah, a homophone  of ya, as ‘used to express derision, defiance, or disgust.’ In the context of this article, the period of ya-ya is an architectural movement which acts to defy the rigor of the modern and post modern movements in architecture. To claim that the period of ya-ya in architecture lacks rigor completely, would be a naive and gross misunderstatement. The rigor of the ya-ya s is one of the one-liner, whimsy, image, and figure, not function and rational. Ya-ya architecture is arrogant and bold. If the one-liner is the chief tool of a ya-ya designer, a great ya-ya designer is a starchitect, and their celebrity leader is Frank Gehry. Gehry’s architecture is more than a one-liner or a simple figure as in the work of SITE and the figure of the Aqua Tower (see figure 1.2 & 1.3).

Figure 1.3: Experience Music Project in Seattle Washington is a ya-ya masterpiece designed by celebrity starchitect Frank Gehry. The forms sculpted by Frank Gehry lack function, their purpose is to create a distinct image, a memorable figure. It is an example of a ya-ya masterpiece and is arrogant in spirit.

The period of ya-ya in architecture can be classified as the period of time between the dot-com boom and the Great Recession. If we begin to classify architecture during the period specified above as a response to the economic conditions of our time, rather than specific stylistic trends, then we have to ask ourselves one more question, what next?

an architecture of Great Value:

History has shown that there are certain trends and cycles that occur in economics, society, and even in architecture. There are precedents for our current economic condition, but those precedents lack the scale of a global economic collapse. The historic event that most closely resembles that of the Great Recession is its predecessor the Great Depression, which consumed the 1930s. As stated earlier, the world changed during the Great Depression. Revivalism and its concern for decoration and wealth was abandoned in favor of an International Style that focused on function and its expression. I believe that a similar trend will emerge after the Great Recession. Decoration will be forgotten and function will again rule, but this time architecture must respond in a way that it has not had to in the past. The next movement in architecture must be not be only concerned with function alone, architects will be pushed to provide an architecture of Great Value.

The next significant style to emerge after the Great Recession will be that will deliver Great Value.

First, what is Great Value? Great Value is the response to social and environmental demands of today’s consumers. The “green” movement is one force that has architects examining value. The 21st century more so than any other century is concerned with creating an architecture that is sensitive to the fact that the resources on the Earth are limited, and that we should maximize their use in a manor that yields the greatest value. Another movement that is fueling the need for an architecture of Great Value is the demand from consumers on manufacturers to produce goods that are not only inexpensive but offer value. Greatest value means that architects have to begin to understand their architectural tactics in terms of highest and best use, and not just in terms of dollars. This means that function, sustainability, and social factors must be weighed against monetary considerations.

The first field that began to understand that American culture was shifting from a ya-ya centered society, to one that was focused on Great Value was graphic design, specifically for product packaging. Manufacturers have slowly realized that cheap is actually a good thing, and that their products should look generic. Regardless of what you think about Walmart the company is run be a group of geniuses that understand how to respond to changes in culture and society better than just about anybody else. For years Walmart’s Great Value brand attempted to mimic the style, design and color of name brand products in an attempt to suggest to buyers that their product is just as good as the name brands, but cheaper. Early this year,Walmart completely revamped their Great Value brand, and the only way to describe it is generic, but clever.

Walmart realized that people were concerned with one thing and one thing only after spending nearly two years in the Great Recession, and that is value (see figure 2.1). The design of the Great Value brand is simple and beautiful. The name of the brand Great Value is placed on the packaging in a way that creates an interesting visual play of words, the word ‘great’ is larger than the word ‘value’, but the fact that the product is great, is not nearly as important as the product’s value. The word ‘value’ is bold and blue and is the first thing that you notice walking down the aisles of Walmart, regardless of the product. Checkout Walmart’s website to see what I mean, the page is loaded with value. The background of every product’s package is white, which stands out compared to other products. The white background serves at making the product appear even more generic. White also reflects more light and makes products appear brighter, thus drawing the consumer’s attention compared to other products. The only additional information on the package is the name of the product, a picture of the product, and nutritional facts, but all of these items are composed in a way that does not even come close to competing with the product’s ‘value’.

Figure 2.1: Great Value product branding by Walmart is an example of how society is moving from one that is based on brands, image, and unique identities to one that is concerned with value. The aisles of Walmart now conjure up images of the experiments drawn up by Superstudio proposing a generic order of gridded whiteness that would take over the world.

What does Great Value mean for architecture? Like I said earlier, architecture is slower to respond to changes in culture than other fields, but right now architecture is experiencing a transitional period in which ya-ya is fading and Great Value Architecture is emerging, and may last much longer in time than the period of ya-ya. In fact the Great Value Architecture movement may last for a very long time.

Great Value Architecture has already emerged as a legitimate style and will continue to emerge in stature and popularity as did the International Style. There are two projects that come to mind when thinking about architecture of the Great Value movement. The New Contemporary Museum of Art in New York City by SANAA, and the Wyly Theatre in Dallas Texas by REX. The New Contemporary Museum of Art (see figure 2.2) is graphic in the same sense as the Great Value packaging for the 250 count toothpicks above. The museum features clean lines, simple orthogonal shapes, and functional surfaces. The building’s ornament is a resultant of its function: allowing diffused light into the gallery so that the works of art are not damaged. The building like the Great Value packaging does not compete with the product or the artwork, it functions for it. The building features the artwork of Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone who’s work proclaims “Hell, Yes!”. It is clear that the artwork is the feature here, and the buildings function must not subside to its form or figure. The lobby is identified by planes of glass that identifies the entry and change of function at the ground floor. The building offers value in that every piece, every gesture serves a function.

The Wyly Theatre is similar in aesthetics to the New Contemporary Museum of Art. The key difference in the design of the structures is that the Wyly Theatre offers its users more value than the SANAA designed museum. The Wyly Theatre is a:

575-seat “multi-form” theater with the ability to transform between proscenium, thrust, arena, traverse, studio, and flat floor configurations with only a small crew in a few hours; and to open the performance space to its urban surroundings.

Like many of the structures completed by REX, the Wyly Theatre solves the problem of the theater typology with a solution that offers the greatest value! (see figure 2.3) Rather than designing multiple theaters, one for each type of performance, the architecture is capable of changing functions and responding to the needs of the individual performances. The design is orthogonal and is composed of clean lines like the New Contemporary Museum of Art. The design also makes use of innovative curtain wall technologies that responds to the functional needs of the space that it encloses, but the key difference is the embedded value that the architects have added to the design. The Wyly Theatre is a masterpiece that is instilled with the very spirit of the Great Value movement.

Figure 2.2: New Contemporary Museum of Art in New York City designed by SANAA. The form and use of materials offers the client and city an architecture of Great Value, the artwork is featured on the exterior serving as a signifier to the building’s function.

Figure 2.3: Wyly Theatre in Dallas Texas designed by REX. The diagram overlayed on the above photo explains that to offer the greatest value, the structure is capable of meeting the needs of four different theaters through the careful design of a singular theater. The Wyly Theatre offers the city the greatest value.

A Current State of Transition:

Architecture tends to respond to conditions slightly slower than other creative fields such as art, fashion design, graphic design, and industrial design due to the nature of the architecture. It simply takes time to produce architecture. At a time when many people are struggling just to put food on the table, the construction of buildings in the style of ya-ya is of very poor taste and is culturally unacceptable during this period of change. Whenever a change in style occurs there is state of transition and overlap. The transition from an architecture of ya-ya to one that offers architecture at a Great Value is the now. It is difficult fully understand this state of transition and it is even more difficult to project the future of the profession, but one thing is clear, people will continue to want architecture at a Great Value.

Related Photos

10 Ideas for Rethinking Your Desktop:

The image displayed as your desktop’s background could be used for informational purposes, but let’s not stop there, let’s think about recreating the desktop for architects completely.  Can you imagine the possibilities yet?

What if the image displayed on your computer’s desktop could act like a digital Swiss Army knife? What functions would you want it to serve? Below is a list of ten ways that I believe that the background of your computer’s desktop can be used to enhance your productivity, decrease stress, inspire creativity and communicate valuable information to your employees, every day.

10. Office Directory:

When trying to explain to my wife why this was a great idea, she kept saying, why would you do that when all you have to do is check Outlook? Well, this is faster! Keep your co-workers names and their extensions on your desktop and you’ll never have to fumble through Outlook for their numbers again.

9. Software Shortcuts:

Whether you are learning a new software or trying to expand your knowledge base of shortcuts for software that you are already familiar with, update your background to display the shortcut commands that you are trying to learn. Change it weekly and eventually there will not be a key stroke that you do not know for your favorite software.

8. Project Team Information:

Why stop at your office directory? Working with a lot of consultants? Constantly find yourself fumbling through your Rolodex for the same phone numbers, search no more. Update your desktop to display information related to the project that you are working on.

7. Color:

Color is not just for clowns and clients, use color and tone to divide your desktop visually so that you can keep files organized. Architects should get in the habit of filing documents to their permanent location, but sometimes time does not permit such practices. When you are under the gun, and a deadline is fast approaching, it seems that documents always end up cluttering your digital desktop. Use color to divide your desktop into regions or zones so that you can organize files and shortcuts visually on your desktop, this eliminates visual confusion and prevents files from getting lost. Remember that white pixels require more energy than black pixels, so choose your desktop colors wisely.

6. Change It Every Month:

Combine many of the suggestions in this post into a template background and save it to the network. Have all of the computers in your office mapped to the image. Now you can update the background of all of the office computers monthly, weekly, or daily to communicate important information to your employees. Many large companies have intranets or scripts that display pop-up windows when loading software. This kills computer performance, and annoys me, usually I never read these notices because they clutter my screen, so I close them immediately before reading. Your computer has to load a background image, so why not make it load something functional. Plus this is a cheap efficient way for small offices to communicate information such as detail standards, ADA and building code issues without having an office meeting.

5. ARE Flash Cards:

Studying for the ARE? Scan in some flash cards and turn them into an image that you can display as your desktop’s background. Change it daily and you will be surprised how much information you will absorb during a workday.

4. Display Your Company Logo:

When you bring clients through the office, why not let them know where they are. Branding is something that architects preach about to clients, but rarely practice in their own offices.

3. Design Inspiration:

If you are updating your desktop background image on a frequent basis, as described in idea 6, another idea would be to change the background image to display a current piece of architecture, art or inspirational image which will spur design discussion and help to strengthen the design knowledge and culture in your office.

2. ADA & Building Code Standards:

One of the most difficult things in any small or large office is to communicate to employees the many important ADA and building code standards. Instead of always displaying inspirational images, maybe some days you throw in a diagram of a handicap accessible bathroom stall, and other days you feature a diagram of the open area requirements for building facades. Information displayed on a computer desktop will constantly remind employees that codes and legislation for buildings must be satisfied ,and hopefully they will learn these requirements, thus eliminating change orders and expensive alterations during the construction phase of the project.

1. Improve Professional Culture:

By using the desktop background to do one or all of the above, the professional culture of your office will undoubtedly improve. Don’t stop at these ten ideas, I am sure that there are hundreds of ways to rethink the function of your computer’s desktop background. If you have any ideas or examples of how you or your company have improved the function of the desktop background, please share below. If I think of more ideas, I will add them to this site and the template provided above.

Windows Tip:

If you are using dual monitors and would like to stretch the background image across both monitors, under the position dropdown, select Tile. Otherwise the background will not be stretched across the screen.

Exemplar:

Talk is cheap, so let’s look at an example that I am currently using on my desktop. I admit that the desktop background that I designed does need some work, and as I revise it, I will update the files on this site, but it makes use of many of the above concepts that I have spoken about. The backgrounds pictured below are divided into two workspaces. The left zone is used to create graphic zones for organizing files, so that I know where certain files are on my desktop. The left side of the image also contains a small area for adding various building code information, so that I can slowly learn different code requirements. The right side contains two directories, one for the projects that I am working on, and one for my office. The directory is complemented by images of whatever project has my fancy for the week. I came up with an all black version and a black and white version pictured below (click on the links to view at half-size):

Desktop 1:
The thinking behind the white and black design is that one monitor is subdued and the other is the working monitor, allowing architects to focus on the primary screen.

Desktop 2:
The bright white background of Desktop 1, seemed a bit too bright for my use, so I attempted to tone the brightness down with a black background this time around. After completing this option, I reverted back to the white, and decided that more tweaks should be made to the design.

Related Photos

History: Do, or Do Not

The original de Young Museum opened in 1895 as a result of the construction that took place in preparation for the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894, now called Golden Gate Park (see photo gallery below for photo of the original de Young Museum). The original de Young Museum aged poorly and over the years the structure slowly fell apart. Finally in 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake severely damaged the building, and plans were made to construct a replacement structure. In 1999 a competition was held for the design of the replacement museum, among the finalist teams were architects Tadao Ando, Cesar Pelli, Antoine Predock, Rafael Viñoly, and Herzog & de Meuron whom were selected as the winners of the competition. From the very beginning the design for the new museum was the subject of controversy and criticism. Its appearance was accused by its critics as being a “huge shed,” an “Internet start-up company,” an “aircraft carrier,” a “Howard Johnson’s of the future,” “atrocious” and “ugly,” but it would not be until construction for the Herzog & de Meuron designed de Young Museum was completed on October 15th 2005 that its critics would be silenced.

The de Young Museum and Golden Gate Park have a unique history, but unlike Renzo Piano’s design for the California Academy of Sciences building, which is sited across from the de Young Museum on the other side of the park, the Swiss architects decided to take a fresh new approach and relieved their selves of such historic constraints. The only similarities between the previous museum and the new one is that they share the same site. It is important to note this, because by ignoring the past and starting fresh, the new design for the de Young Museum becomes timeless. Timeless in that its presence suggest that it has always been and will always be. Entablatures, colonnades and pitched roofs have been omitted, suggesting that the structure is without influence from history and may in fact be a relic from prehistory. Herzog & de Meuron chose to ignore the history of the site in search of something greater, and they found it.

The de Young Museum is not as polished as a Zaha Hadid or Frank Gehry design, it is also not as flamboyant. The museum is a ruin by design, and is intentionally clumsy and graceful at the same time. The de Young Museum is a deceptively complex building. Deceptive, because at first glance the structure appears as a simple monolithic form. Like the stepped pyramids of Central America and the pagan temples of antiquity the de Young Museum consists of variable readings: From afar the form is simple, monumental and timeless, but as one approaches the structure the building’s ornamentation begins to reveal itself as the delicate details become apparent only when close to the structure. The structure is beautifully detailed and few exterior conditions are left unresolved. The de Young Museum is devoid of any kind of historic or contemporary style, and until one enters the interiors, it seems that Herzog & de Meuron have come very close to creating a building with the same kind of timelessness as a Louis I. Kahn building or a rare modern masterpiece.

Image 1: The simple forms rest upon the ground as if an extension of the landscape, suggesting that the de Young Museum has always been.

Photo Tour: Take a tour of the de Young Museum by viewing the photo gallery below:

[Show as slideshow]

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Materiality, Texture and Pattern:

The copper rainscreen that sheaths the building is the result of an experimentation in using the technology of our time, to create an effect that is reminiscent of the craftsmanship and sensitivity to detail from the past. The mantra of Herzog & de Meuron is to focus on using common materials in an uncommon way. There is no finer example of this than the de Young Museum. Regardless of whether you ‘like’ the design or not, there are few structures in the world that come close to such an orchestration of a singular material in the design of a building’s skin. The skin of the building is impressive because of the technique used by Herzog & de Meuron and their ability to come up with a unique language for a singular material, which is not only beautiful, but resolves nearly all of the museum’s needs.

It is impossible to discuss the texture of the facades of the de Young Museum without talking about pattern, the two are beautifully merged together creating a surface that appears to be disintegrating right before our very eyes. Although the structure appears to be disintegrating, the concept behind the design of the exterior was to create a skin with many layers that would manipulate light similar to natural occurrences in nature. The idea for the texture and patterning of the copper skin came from Jacques Herzog on a site visit he took pictures in Golden Gate Park of the effect of sunlight filtering through the leafy trees of the park. This effect is successfully realized in the built structure, and is evident when viewing the building from virtually any vantage point.

The construction of the building is nothing short of a construction marvel. A computerized engineering system enabled the 7,602 panels that make up the skin to be individually cut, punched and embossed. A total of 950,000 pounds of copper was used, making it the largest copper-clad building in the world, which presents many environmental problems left unaddressed by the designers, which is discussed below. Another problem with the design of the copper structure is that the canopy that was meant to cover the outdoor cafe, leaks copper dust and tainted copper runoff onto patron’s food and cafe furniture. A permanent temporary structure has been placed under the canopy, and serves as a blemish on the structure’s exterior, see photo gallery.

Diagramming de Young:

Although the structure appears simplistic, one begins to understand that the simple moves that are executed in the design are embedded with information that may not be apparent at first glance. The structure can be reduced to two primary elements, vertical and horizontal. The horizontal responds to the order of the park and the gridded system that remains dominant from 1894, which is represented in Diagram 1 by cooler colors. The vertical rises out of the order of the past, but responds to the larger order of the city grid, represented by warmer colors, because the 144 ft tower connects the museum to the larger context of the city. The simple architectural tactic of twisting the tower to align the two orders is an example of the amount of skill used by Herzog & de Meuron in the building’s finite ornamentation. The twist aligns the tower’s upper floors with the San Francisco street grid, visually locking the design into the distant skyline. The courtyards serve both to bring the park into the museum and to assist with wayfinding.

Diagram 1: The order of the plan for the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 and the order of the city are resolved by the simple twisting of the tower, which ornaments this connection. There is something poetic about the major move of the structure connecting the park to the city. The red lines correspond to the overall city grid of San Francisco, and the blue lines respond to the regulating lines of the park. From afar the tower appears to be conforming to the city, and when viewing  the museum  up close it appears to conform to the park, yet when park patrons look at the tower the influence of the city is present whether they know it or not.

Diagram 2: There are three primary circulation routes that connect one side of the park to the other. All of these paths terminate into the de Young Museum, but what is interesting is that the de Young Museum aligns with the outer edge of the eastern axis, while the terminating paths appear at first glance to be random. The positioning of the museum becomes clearer in Diagram 4.

Diagram 3: The fissures that are highlighted in red, are used to denote entry points into the museum. The fissures breakup the southwestern and northeastern facades into a tripartite arrangement, and where the masses are separated nature is allowed to flow into the building, and at other times create large than life terrarreums. The museum reads as if a solid mass that is being eroded away, and at others it reads as if three solid masses that flow in and out of eachother. Regardless of the reading, the ordering lines that shape the mass do not flow into the site, and in plan the structure appears rigid and confined. If the building were allowed to flow into the site, the same way nature is permitted to flow into the structure, the building would appear more harmonious with the site.

Diagram 4: The ordering system that controls the location of the building is highly sophisticated. The order of the city at the macro level is the key controlling factor in the twisted position of the observation tower, as depicted in Diagram 1. The tower itself is controlled by multiple complex relationships on the site, which are not apparent at first glance, see Diagram 2. Rather than forcing the building to accept the order of the existing plaza, Herzog & de Meuron manipulate the the existing order with a very creative solution. The three primary routes of circulation that connect one side of the park to the other, are denied, the designer of the park places an emphasis on the perpendicular axis with the placement of three circular courts. Herzog & de Meuron use the circular courts as points of reference. The centroid of the tower is triangulated by transposing a line parallel to the city grid and one parallel to the park grid on the two subordinate circular courts. The intersection of these two transposed lines is the centroid of the tower, again the tower connects the city to the park. The regulating line parallel to the city grid, becomes the main axis of the museum. The procession along this axis takes a visitor into the interior yet exterior entry court, then through the main entry doors, where patrons are greated by the ticketing counter, and are then given the option to buy a ticket and view the musuem or bipass the ticketing counter and head directly to the heart of the tower.

There is yet another regulating line that controls the placement of the structure, and that is the transposed line that is projected outward from the central circular court. When traveling along this route toward the de Young Museum there is a point at which the regulating lines intersect, which happens to be where the entry pad is located and along the sidewalk that flanks the street.

Diagram 5: The copper roof is highly visible from the de Young Museum’s observation tower. Herzog & de Meuron wisely chose to design the roof in a way that is consistant with the rest of the museum. The seams of the copper roof create an interesting pattern, which evokes images of a terrain or a topographic survey,the lines suggest that the building emerged from the site. Unfortunately these roof contours do not engage the site, and end at the limits of the building. A series of horizontal lines continue in the front yard of the museum, but these lines do not engage the structure and are not as active as the lines that pattern the roof.

Diagram 6:The fissures that divide up the mass create courtyards, over-sized terrariums and also mark the entry points into the structure, but where these fissures end and the masses rejoin, Herzog & de Meuron have chosen to detail the same condition differently in each case.

This clever manipulation of reference points and regulating lines continues throughout the structure, and if permitted more time I would love to analyze the structure further producing even more diagrams, but I am afraid I that must come at a later date or I’ll never finish this article. Although the design is beautiful, that is only the first part of the article. The rest of the article deals with the sustainable issues associated with using copper in architectural design, specifically at the de Young Museum, where the quantity of copper used is unprecedented.

The Copper Killer:

If Renzo Piano’s Academy of Sciences building is one of the most sustainable structures in San Francisco, then the de Young Museum by Herzog & de Meuron is one of the most anti-sustainable buildings in San Francisco. Ironically the two structures sit directly across from each other. What makes a building anti-sustainable? Anti-sustainable buildings are structures which are poisoning the environment, not in the same way that many treehuggers argue that all modern buildings do, but anti-sustainable structures are super polluters that are far more dangerous than their sustainable counterparts are good.

The most beautiful feature of the de Young Museum is its copper skin, is also its most deadly. Copper runoff is a significant problem in cities like Palo Alto and San Francisco. Palo Alto has completed a significant amount of research on the topic of copper runoff, and this research will be used as a basis for determining the amount of copper runoff created by the de Young Museum. Since Palo Alto is only 30 miles away from San Francisco, it should be sufficient in illustrating the magnitude of the problem caused by Herzog & de Meuron’s design for the de Young Museum.

Copper runoff is such a severe problem in Palo Alto that an in January of 2003, Palo Alto issued an Ordinance that Prohibits Copper Roofing Materials. Below are two of the most interesting facts found in the document:

The amount of copper released per year from copper roofs in the RWQCP (Regional Water Quality Control Plant) service area is estimated to be greater than the annual industrial copper discharges to the RWQCP.

An incremental increase of 1000 square feet of copper roofing can lead to, by itself, a copper concentration in a creek during an average rainfall that equals the chronic toxicity criteria established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The above ordinance references a document entitled Architectural Uses of Copper: An Evaluation of Storm Water Pollution Loads and BMPs. This document discusses the results of a study that examines the impact of copper on stormwater pollution. The study was completed by the City of Palo Alto’s Regional Water Quality Control Plant. In this study it is found that approximately .1 grams of copper is released per year, per square foot of copper roofing in the Palo Alto area, which I reverse engineered from the examples in Exhibit 13 of the Architectural Uses of Copper document. Exhibit 14 of the Architectural Uses of Copper document also estimates that approximately 298 lbs of copper are released from roofs, gutters, and downspouts in the Palo Alto RWQCP service area each year.

.1 grams of copper runoff per year, per square foot of copper does not sound like a large amount of copper, but wait until you see how much copper Herzog & de Meuron actually used. Copper is used everywhere by Herzog & de Meuron, covering a roof area of around 139,930 sf, this number is significantly less than the façade which is composed of approximately 193,750 sf of copper. That is a total of 333,680 sf of copper! Why is this number so important? Copper runoff is a function of rainfall and surface area of copper. Using the data from Exhibit 13 this equates to 33, 368 grams of copper runoff per year or 73.5 lbs of copper runoff per year! The de Young Museum accounts for 25% of the copper pollution of all of Palo Alto, which is a truly frightening statistic. The above numbers for roof and façade copper coverage were taken from the de Young Museum project profile on the TECU website. Currently there is no system in place to remove copper from the runoff before it is discharged into the environment.

Copper and the Environment:

Water runoff from copper surfaces should not be a deterrent from using copper in your designs, and there are a number of strategies outlined in the document entitled Architectural Uses of Copper, but what remains unknown is the ability of vegetation to permanently capture copper from runoff over time. It is well documented that other harmful metals like lead remain in the soils that absorbs its runoff for many years. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) warns that structures with exterior surfaces that were sealed with lead paint have contaminated the adjacent soils and that the only way to correct the problem is through remediation. The same is also true of soils that contain high concentrations of copper. Ingesting large quantities of copper can have serious health problems. One of the best websites that I have found on the internet that outlines the effects and issues associated with copper toxicity in drinking water is found in an outline for a course at Guilford College. Another valuable document distributed by the EPA is the Lead and Copper Rule: A Quick Reference Guide, which outlines health complications caused by copper exposure and serves as a quick reference for exposure levels that can be harmful.

Location & Contact Information:

If you ever find yourself in the San Francisco area, this is a must see structure. Don’t forget to check the website for Free Museum Days.

Golden Gate Park
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118
Telephone: (415) 750-3600

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One of the most difficult things about the architectural licensing process is that the road to becoming an architect is fragmented. There are multiple entities involved, private and public organizations that define the process, and often the multiple parties have no idea what the other is doing. There is no single guide on the internet that gives a clear path for one to follow to become an architect, until now. An Intern’s Guide to Becoming an Architect is a feature that will describe in detail the path to becoming an architect. The series will focus on every topic from how to begin the process, tips for studying for the ARE, and what to do after earning your license. It’s still important to have your photo taken next to your designs, but the process of becoming an architect involves more than image.

When Can I Start the Process of Becoming an Architect?

Step 1: Many interns think that the first step to becoming a licensed architect involves earning a degree from a (National Architectural Accrediting Board) NAAB accredited architecture program, but this is not true. The first step towards becoming a licensed architect begins when you are accepted into a NAAB accredited architecture program. For those of you that do not know, NAAB exist to regulate the programs that universities across the United States operate. Many students learn about NAAB while in school, but there are some students who are unaware of NAAB accreditation and its importance in becoming an architect. Unfortunately for those students, they are unaware of this requirement, because they are attending a school that is not NAAB accredited. Those students are not told about NAAB, because the institutions running unaccredited programs do not want to advertise the fact that they are not accredited. The NAAB website is a very useful tool for prospective students who are considering applying to an architecture program. The NAAB website contains a complete listing of NAAB accredited programs in architecture, as well as other useful information.

Although many students make the first step toward licensure, for most it is their only step. Life, school, work and other interests prevent many interns from becoming architects, but the truth is that obtaining licensure can be easy with a little guidance, even for the busiest of interns. Many interns wait until after they graduate from a NAAB accredited architecture program, before they start the licensure process, but the truth is you can begin this process before you graduate.

The second step to becoming a licensed architect begins with starting the Intern Development Program (IDP). In order to begin IDP without an accredited professional degree, you must meet one of the requirements set forth by NCARB on their site:

• Three years in an NAAB-accredited professional degree program;

• The third year of a four-year pre-professional degree program in architecture accepted for direct entry into a two-year NAAB-accredited professional master’s degree program;

• One year in NAAB-accredited professional master’s degree program following receipt of a non-professional degree;

• Ninety-six semester credit hours as evaluated in accordance with the NCARB Education Standard, of which no more than 60 hours can be in the general education category; or

• A number of years equivalent to the periods set out in 1., 2., or 3. above, in a CACB-accredited professional degree program, or in a Canadian university professional degree program certified by CACB.

Once the above requirements are met, it is time to enroll in the IDP program. The IDP process is one of the few things that NCARB has slowly perfected over the years. When I began the process many years ago, NCARB required the submittal of paper forms, which meant that it took a long time for NCARB to process paperwork, and often required many phone calls to correct clerical errors, which were caused by NCARB employees having to manually enter the data from the forms into the computer. One time I submitted a 123 Form, and when I checked my NCARB account online it said that I had successfully reported my time for the year 2030 instead of 2003. The new electronic process will hopefully eliminate some headaches for new interns attempting to achieve licensure. Today you can easily create an IDP account online, but there is still a lot that you need to know before you can complete the process of enrolling online and completing your second step toward becoming a licensed architect.

Why Start My NCARB Record Now?

A lot of interns wait to create an NCARB record and to start IDP, but I strongly encourage students and interns to begin the process as soon as they can, because the paperwork and processing times can take months and sometimes years. There are many reasons to complete each step toward licensure as soon as possible. The first reason that comes to mind is money. The sooner you get licensed the more likely you are to get promoted and make more money. I didn’t say you would get rich, but more is more, right? The second reason to get licensed is that it makes you more marketable and  attractive towards prospective employers. The third reason to get licensed as soon as possible is that as you grow older you have less and less time, and more and more responsibility. Studying for the AREs while raising a newborn is no way to live life, unfortunately there will never be a time in your life when you have more time and less responsibility. The last reason to get your license as soon as you can is that for many it is the only road block left to conquer to start your own firm. There are other things like money and clients, but don’t wait until you have a client to get your license. By starting the IDP process while in school you can earn a number of training units that will shave months if not years off of the time it will take for you to complete the IDP program. I will discuss training units and the IDP process in the next lesson.

Following the IDP Paper Trail

Step 2: No doubt you stopped reading this article, and clicked on the link above to begin the process of creating an NCARB record. Congratulations! You have made your second step on the path to licensure and your first step on the IDP Paper Trail, but IDP isn’t a sprint, and cannot be completed in a single day. The IDP Paper Trail is a marathon that you will run for the next two to four years. What you can do today is initiate your NCARB record and complete the online application form. I highly encourage new NCARB applicants to only pay $100.00 and not the full $285.00 application fee, because there is no incentive to pay the complete application fee. Why pay the full $285.00 if you might drop out of school or change careers? Visit NCARB’s website for a breakdown of the NCARB fee structure. I strongly believe that NCARB should waive the application fee completely, for students. If they did this, I bet that they would see an increase in membership applications, licensure and an increase in long term membership fees.

Click on the below pictures for a preview of the online application process, complete with commentary.

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Step 3: The third step on the path to licensure is to submit a request to your school to transfer a copy of your transcript to NCARB. There is no way available on the NCARB website to complete this step electronically, and is the first time that you may have to follow up your submittal of paperwork with a phone call. The form needed can be found on NCARB’s website, but since other webmasters change hyperlinks around constantly, for some unknown reason, I am hosting a copy of the Form 122 Education Form on my site for your convenience. Most universities have an online form that allows you to request a transcript transfer, and this can be used in substitution of Form 122, just make sure that the transcript is sent to:

NCARB

1801 K Street, NW, Suite 700K

Washington, DC 20006-1305

It is a good idea to become familiar with the process of transferring your academic transcripts, because you will have to do this multiple times in your life. When filling out the online transcript request form you will notice that there is a section for special notes or instructions regarding the transcript transfer. Note your name and IDP number in the special notes or instructions field to ensure that NCARB can find you in their database. This will speed the process up and allow you to request the transfer at your convenience. Also remember to follow up the transfer of your academic transcript after a couple of weeks to make sure that NCARB received the transcript and processed it appropriately. They will not call if they have problems. For instance my legal name is James Robert William Cornetet, which was noted in my NCARB file as James Robert William, apparently the person typing in my name thought that they could simply eliminate my last name. It took six months for me to convince NCARB that James Robert William was me, even though the SSN was the same. If I had never called them on the phone, the issue would never have been fixed, and I still would be wondering what is going on with my application? So save yourself some trouble and time, and fill in the special notes/instructions field and call NCARB if your transcript does not appear as processed on your online NCARB record.

TIP #1

Call, call, call. A lot of interns submit paperwork and forget about it, thinking that the systems that are in place actually work and never have any bugs. The problem with that mentality is that the people pushing the paperwork don’t care if you get licensed or not, only you do, and maybe your mom. So if you are on a fast track to becoming a licensed architect, I suggest that you create a folder that contains copies of all of your paperwork and create a list of contacts related to the various processes of licensure. If you submit for an IDP record and it takes a few weeks for it to process, call them! If your transcript isn’t showing up as received by NCARB and it has been two months, call NCARB and your college. You have to follow up on your paperwork or you could add months or years onto this already lengthy process. This is one of the most valuable tips I can offer to young interns.

In Conclusion

This concludes the first lesson of the Intern’s Guide to Becoming an Architect. The above steps can be completed in an afternoon and is by far the easiest part of the whole process, but must be completed before you can begin your journey on the IDP Paper Trail.

In the next lesson I will examine the pros and cons of  e-EVR (electronic Experience Verification Reporting) system developed by NCARB and how to use it. The lesson will aslo discuss IDP training units and how to make the most of your experience as an intern. Future lessons will examine establishing records with the state boards of architecture in your state, as well as developing resources for the Architectural Registration Exam, and analyzing each ARE in detail to give you the best chance at passing the exams on your first try, and finally what you must do after passing all of the exams to maintain your license.’

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Reason #1:

It seems to me that NCARB needs to improve certain quality control measures to ensure that the correct information is being given to candidates. I have mentioned the following on the ARE forum before, but it is worth noting again, because it will help to build an argument that illustrates NCARB’s incompetence and a trend for publishing material with errors or omissions, and then quietly correcting it without addressing the issue and its affect on ARE candidates. First, let me tell you how I discovered the error, and how NCARB reacted. Like many ARE 3.1 candidates I downloaded the ARE Reverse Transition Chart pictured in Figure 1.1. I downloaded the chart the first day it came out, printed it, posted it on my desktop and crossed out each test that I successfully passed. I successfully passed my first eight exams, and failed my last exam, upon failing my last exam I proceeded to download all of the information from NCARB and review it again, even though I was certain I had the information memorized. Upon downloading the new transition chart, see Figure 1.2, I noticed a significant difference! Site Planning and Building Planning can be passed and ARE 3.1 candidates earn equal credit in the ARE 4.0 version of the exam. This is great news because candidates can now pass two exams independently of any other exam and receive equal credit under the new format, according to the revised transition chart.

Upon discovering this conflicting information I proceeded to call NCARB. I actually telephone transferred my way up the NCARB corporate ladder, I was very polite and sincere, and received the same from NCARB, until a point. Once the transferring stopped, and I arrived at my final destination, I proceeded to explain to the NCARB employee that the transition chart that I downloaded in May of 2008 has different information than the chart from February of 2009. She/he (again I would prefer not to name names, but can if NCARB forces my hand) began to get very confrontational. I simply wanted to know which chart was correct, and if the new one was correct, why did NCARB not announce the correction and why did it take almost a year for such a vital mistake to be corrected? After awhile she said that if I had proof of a mistake to scan it in and email it to her. I did, and I did not hear anything regarding the incident again, until. . . I opened up an issue of Direct Connection: A Publication of NCARB and noticed that an errata was issued on page 31. The best part of the errata is that they “… apologize for this error” in reference to an incorrect quote attribution, but NCARB avoids apologizing for the ARE Transition Correction. Another item that is interesting to note as it is also featured on the same page of the errata is that NCARB just completed a brand new office which earned LEED Silver certification according to the Commercial Interiors system. They whine because they are poor, they build a new facility, they raise the exam fees because they need money, and then state that the money the exams raise only covers a portion of their cost, then why raise them and pass the cost to intern architects who are already feeling the brunt of the recession.

Why is this such a huge mistake? This mistake would have affected ARE 3.1 candidates’ strategy for test taking, and most likely affected the outcome of many ARE candidates’ ARE experience. I, like nearly all 3.1 candidates, had a specific strategy based on the way that the tests transition. An obvious strategy before this transition would be to take Building Planning first because that is an even trade. Some people may have focused on Pre-Design and Site Planning because those are two-for-two. Others may have taken Building Tech after Building Planning in order to give themselves multiple chances at passing this beast. For those of you that started on 4.0 this type of strategy does not apply because time is not an issue, but with the transition in place, test taking strategy is very important because you want as many chances at low-lying fruit as possible. Hopefully the importance of strategy for test taking order in 3.1 has been made clear to the 4.0 candidates and the severity of such a mistake is crystal. The ARE Reverse Transition Chart affected the way that people tested and their strategy for taking the exams, and undoubtedly affected their experience. If I had this information in May of 2008, it would have changed the way I took my exams, and the outcome (number of times I could have taken a certain exam due to the transition date).

Figure 1.1: Incorrect ARE Reverse Transition Chart which was posted on NCARB’s website for a year before it was quietly corrected.

Figure 1.2: The quietly corrected ARE Reverse Transition Chart which was posted on NCARB’s website February 3rd, 2009. Upon correction NCARB employees let out a sigh of relief, because they were able to quietly correct the issue without conflict.

Reason #2:

There are many items in the Site Design Vignette that are open to interpretation by ARE candidates. The exam is fairly straightforward at first glance, but upon closer inspection, candidates will realize that many of the requirements are open to interpretation. Unfortunately NCARB is not helping matters by supplying contradictory information. Please see Figure 2.1 & 2.2 pictured below.

Figure 2.1: Incorrect ARE 4.0 Site Planning & Design vignette solution. Note that NCARB calls out the coordination of Pedestrian Plaza as acceptable.

Figure 2.2: Quietly corrected ARE 4.0 Site Planning & Design vignette solution. Note that NCARB calls out the coordination of Pedestrian Plaza as acceptable, but this condition is different than the previous condition.

What can we assume from the above illustration? The first thing that I am going to assume is that the new vignette solution for the ARE 4.0 Site Planning & Design, which can be downloaded from NCARB’s website, has been corrected. I am also going to assume that not even NCARB fully understands what the white box is that denotes the front entrance. The last thing that I am going to assume is that the way in which the plaza connects to the white box in front of the entry affects exam grading, how can I assume this? Why would NCARB go through the effort to make such a change, unless they found a glitch in the NCARB matrix and are now attempting to quietly correct it. There are other minor differences, but this difference is a clear contradiction of what was there before.

If this is a mistake, and is one that affects grading and thus exam results, then NCARB needs to review previous Site Planning vignettes to verify that this did not cause any candidate to fail. The next item that NCARB needs to address is what in the world is the white box at the entry denoting, and how should it be treated? Is it an overhang? Is it part of the building pad? Who knows? Does NCARB really know? If they don’t know what it is, then just tell us how to treat it so that ARE candidates can move on with their lives. The graphic vignettes are fairly straightforward, what is not, are the rules. There are other things that bother me about the graphic vignettes. What does close mean? What does near mean? What does far mean? Why define proximity in feet for some restraints, like handicap stalls must be within a 150ft circle, but near the road, wtf? What does the computer grading this exam think that these adverbs really mean? These are questions that don’t have anything to do with  protecting the health, safety or welfare of the general public, but rather test your understanding of the SOFTWARE AND HOW THE SOFTWARE GRADES YOUR SOLUTION! This should not prevent someone from becoming an architect. I know that conifers and buildings block wind, and that deciduous trees shade and allow views to the street, but what are the criteria that the computer is using to determine what any first grader knows.

Reason #3:

A very reliable source has informed me of the most egregious of offenses by NCARB and Prometric. In New York City, ARE 4.0 candidates taking the ARE 4.0 Site Planning & Design exam experienced a curse in disguise. When they sat down to take the exam, the solution lay before them, candidates need only trace the solution as it appears on the background of the vignette and voila, an easy exam pass, or so it seemed. Some of the candidates reported the glitch and NCARB immediately investigated the glitch, and have not released a statement about the event. What I do know is that this is another examples of a glitch in the NCARB matrix, and yet another reason why NCARB needs an appellate process that works. See my article *The Importance Of The Asterisk, if you think that one already exist. If you are not familiar with the process, then you will find out that it is a joke that is both funny and sad.

A Ridiculous Conclusion

It appears that this game will not end anytime soon, NCARB is here to stay, and I suggest that we learn the rules to the game and try to beat it. That is what I have done my whole life, and partly why I love being an intern ARCHITECT, because my job as a designer consists of learning the rules and constraints and trying to manipulate them to achieve the desired results. I hate losing, and love to win, so if the rules are in place I’ll do whatever it takes to beat the game, but what is so ridiculous about this game (the ARE) is that NCARB is consistently changing the rules. The only way to give integrity back to the system is for NCARB to come clean about certain vignette requirements, and to develop a grading report that can serve to give us a set of checks and balances to verify results. NCARB must also eliminate such vague adverbs as near, far and close. Remember in high school when you would take a Scantron exam and find that four or five correct answers were marked wrong by the computer, well this is a lot more complicated than that, so why should we trust that they are getting it right. There have been several instances where NCARB has stated that results were delayed due to various grading problems. Give ARE candidates an opportunity to see what it is that caused them to fail on the graphic vignettes or an appellate process that works. A system needs to be put in place that allows candidates to review their exams in order to check for discrepancies.

I am not calling for a complete removal of the exam process, I think that we need the ARE, because there are many people (some of them that I went to school with) that should not have graduated school with a degree in architecture, and should not be allowed to practice architecture. They were allowed to slip through the cracks, and given a degree, because they bought one, and the ARE should be the final barricade that prevents those people from practicing. What I am calling for is an examination of a process that is not clear, and at times contradictory. Please submit contradictions and supporting information below. If you are as concerned as I am about these issues, please submit an email to: AREOperations, or Contact NCARB through the form on their website.

Thank you for your support, and good luck with your AREs.

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The structure was completed in 2001, and is known by few. Unfamiliarity is a common theme of most of Tschumi’s work, but this will undoubtedly change after the publicity he has received for his recently completed New Acropolis Museum in Athens. Tschumi’s design for the Miami School of Architecture is actually a campus of five separate buildings which are connected by a series of exterior walkways. The most impressive constraint regarding the design and construction of this building is the fact that Tschumi managed to create a unique architectural image, while working within a budget of $130 a square foot. This alone makes the structure impressive and should serve as encouragement for the vast majority of us that are faced with creating innovative architectural solutions for projects with limited budgets. The Miami School of Architecture is proof that quality architecture doesn’t have to break the bank.

I have been working on this article for a long time, and have repeatedly delayed its release, because I thought it was necessary to understand Tschumi’s theory on architecture, before critiquing it. After reading Architecture and Disjunction, one of Tschumi’s many manifestos, I realized that Tschumi’s process and theory, although interesting, is his, and that it is more important to critically analyze the project according to the project’s architectural tactics and not the creator’s theoretical musings. I think it is important for young architects to take their own theories of form and space and apply these principles in the form of a critique, a critique that focuses on all works that define the built environment, significant and not. The mere process of writing down your thoughts and analyzing a built structure does two things: First it forces you to put what you see into words. The process of writing down your thoughts in the form of a critical argument is an important skill, because all designers at one time or another will be forced to explain their project verbally to clients, peers, friends and family. Secondly, practice makes perfect. I hate cliches but it is true, the more times you practice critiquing projects, the more refined your architectural theory and process becomes. The more you talk and write about architecture, the better you become at verbally communicating your design intent and observations. In the Beaux Arts system of training, it was required for students to study a single building for a year or longer. This research forced students to develop strong theories and techniques related to formal generation, composition and ornamentation. Architecture in the United States has suffered from a lack of critical thought. American architects tend to over complicate architecture, as if it is like catching lighting in a bottle, or we are some mystics that channel creative energy through our hand via the great creator. Even worse is that many take an architectural critique as a personal attack. Preference for architectural style may be in the eye of the beholder, but all architecture can simply be defined in terms of formal tactics. These tactics are the same regardless of the inspiration or theme. I hate projects that have themes. I hate project presentations that begin with an architect talking about a bird in flight and how their design represents that. Architectural theming is a crutch, and should be avoided by anyone looking to become a serious architect. Process and technique should be the focus of your studies, not theming. Theming in architecture is the equivalent of a one-liner in stand-up comedy, after awhile its just not funny. Steve Urkel, meet Santiago Calatrava, I rest my case.

Tschumi in his explanation begins to talk about generators that shape the site. This becomes a little to cute for me, but it is important to note that there are three generators on the site: red, yellow and green. The green generator seems as if an afterthought and not as developed as the other two, but the red and yellow generators are the driving forces behind this project. These generators become the image of the school, and regardless of how Tschumi created the design, the outcome is impressive.

Let’s take a quick photo break before I begin my critique.

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Composition and Formal Relief

Given the project’s limited construction budget, Tschumi had two choices: create a mediocre building or create a composition that takes advantage of such a constraint. Tschumi viewed a negative, like a crappy budget, as a constraint that drives the creation of the form, rather than limit it. FIU’s School of Architecture wanted a signature project but they lacked the funds to create 102,000 square feet of architectural gold. Tschumi’s solution was to create an exaggerated formal figure through fabricating an exaggerated context which creates a high degree of contrast with the adjacent structures. There are five buildings that are part of the complex. Three of the structures are simplified tilt wall concrete structures. The tilt wall structures creates  a rigid datum that begins to form a background for the brightly colored red and yellow generators. The tilt wall structures is a blank canvas for the reflected light from the tiled red and yellow generators, the light that paints the background structures is beautiful and changes throughout the day. This effect may have been an unintentional result of the material selection but is great nonetheless, and this play of light should be examined and thought about by designers that wish to create spaces that have a quality of spirit that is not easily distilled to shape, size, location, orientation or treatment.

Color, Light & Miami

The structure is undeniably Miami. The warm colored tiles exemplify the flair and color of the varying styles of architecture made popular in Miami and South Beach. The yellow, orange and red tiles are the best part of the design. Tschumi and his design team selected colors which were appropriate to the context of the project.  His team avoided the trap that many designers fall into of selecting popular or fashionable colors, which tend to date a project to a particular era of design. In doing so Tschumi avoided a lime green kitchen in favor of something timeless and appropriate to the project.

It wasn’t the colors alone that were just right, but the materials selected for the project embellishes the bright colors as they almost seem to glow like pixels on a monitor. The smooth tile contrasts with the surrounding rough concrete, and further emphasizes the notion of contrast that Tschumi is beating over our heads. The yellow and red tiled generators contrast beautifully with the green vegetation and the blue Florida sky, creating dynamic vignettes of color and composition. The embrasures of the red generator’s roof line draws the sky into the composition as if creating a joint between the building and the sky, a connection that allows it to hold on tightly. This formal gestures pulls the blue into the red generator and creates an experience of intense saturation of red tile and blue sky that one is not accustomed to seeing when gazing up at the clouds.

Deconstructing Form & Contested Symmetries

The plan for Tschumi’s Miami School of Architecture is a play of symmetrical relationships, which are used to create a dynamic asymmetrical composition. Tschumi’s end design results in a building that is open to a textual reading. The final design cannot be deduced to a single reading that can determine its origin, but the final form can never be deduced to a single condition and is open to multiple readings. The textual nature of this project is what makes the building’s composition dynamic. Below is a series of diagrams that examine the contested symmetries used by Tschumi, which order the campus. I do not have access to sections or elevations for the building, but can only assume that the below analysis would maintain similar results in the building’s section and elevation.

Diagram 1: The above diagram denotes the existing regulating lines of the site, the dashed lines are further emphasized by the addition of the structure designed by Tschumi. The walkways that lead to the courtyard are slightly canted. This emphasizes the formal entry of the automobile on the western facade, while the diminishing walkway on the eastern part of the building is scaled more appropriately to the pedestrian.

Diagram 2: The initial composition is symmetrical about the major walkway in the center of the initial composition. Regulating lines begin to form from this central axis. The moves that follow this base transformation seek to maintain a sense of symmetrical balance while working within an asymmetrical composition.

Diagram 3: This is the first move that begins to suggest rotation within the composition. One could argue that rotation as a formal technique occurs in diagram 2 as well. The regulating lines that frame the shape of the red and yellow generators could have begun initially as lines that were parallel to the background structures which are highlighted in red. These parallel lines would then have been rotated along the central axis to create the diagonal.

Diagram 4: In an attempt to find balance, rather than symmetry, several narratives could begin to emerge from the above transformation. The mass of the northern background building could have been displaced, creating a fatter northern building, while still maintaining the same amount of mass. The displacement of mass is denoted by the letter A above.

Diagram 4.1: It is important to note that the corridors for the northern building are exterior, while the corridors for the southern building are interior. The building could also be read as a separation of mass, rather than a reconfiguration, see diagram 4.1 above. Focusing on interior space results in massings that are more rectilinear and similar in size to the southern building. The severing of the mass creates formal balance.

Diagram 5: The above diagram suggest that the primary axis of symmetry is part of sub symmetries that begin to regulate the composition. These symmetries duel for attention, and the lack of a clear hierarchy creates the illusion of disorder. Tschumi’s skillful understanding of symmetry is used to create what at first glance appears to be a highly disordered campus of buildings, but upon further investigation the plan is actually highly ordered through a hierarchy of contested symmetries which is not easily recognizable. The notion of contested symmetries is an idea originally brought forth by Preston Scott Cohen, and is being used here by Tschumi to control the dynamic composition of the Miami School of Architecture.

Diagram 6: An east-west axis of symmetry begins to emerge upon further investigation. This axis is important in determining front and rear, public and private entry points.

Diagram 7: There are many sub axis of symmetry that exist in the project. These symmetries shape the building and its alignments. One can only assume that a similar technique is applied by Tschumi to the building’s section and elevation.

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The terracotta rainscreen cladding developed by NBK Ceramic, is called Terrart, and like many of the materials and products featured on this site, it is a complete system that responds to various climatic constraints. The system contains numerous functions built into its cross section: a back ventilated ceramic shell to keep the construction dry, an elastomeric protective membrane to prevent moisture penetration, heat insulation, and lastly, a precise and beautiful architectural finish.

The Terrart ceramic panels are available in a number of finishes: natural, polished and glazed, as well as a nearly infinite number of colors, while still maintaining the touch and feel of a natural material. The NBK site claims that every shade of colour can be obtained. The Terrart system offers more than variation in color and finish, but the panels can be made into any number of shapes, patterns and sizes. The ceramic panels do not have to be solid. Terrart is available in two types of  systems. The first system is the rainscreen system, which is an enclosure system, and the second system available is a louver and baguette system which has many architectural possibilities. When the louver and baguette system are combined with the rainscreen system there are endless combinations.

Terrart is also available in three different types of installations: terracotta precast concrete system, terracotta unitized curtain wall system and the metal stud wall system. All of the installation types offer rapid construction, ease of construction and extreme precision, but of the three installation types, the terracotta unitized curtain wall system is the superior installation type. All of the units are prefabricated which means when they are fabricated with a very high level of craftsmanship.

There is no other way to describe the construction of the Terrart ceramic system developed by NBK Ceramic, other than beautiful. Check out the videos on the site to learn more about this product.

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Herzog & de Meuron Architekten:

Unless you have been living in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan for the past ten years, it is likely that you are familiar with the architecture of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. Herzog & de Meuron are the design principals and creative forces behind the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron Architekten. The architecture of Herzog and de Meuron has drastically evolved  since the completion of the Tate Modern renovation in 2000, which proved to be a defining work in their careers and lead to the duo’s international fame.  Herzog & de Meuron’s work has evolved in parallel with their fame, it seems that image and form have become the major focus of their current works. In the beginning their architecture possessed a high degree of sensitivity to context, and their design signature was barely perceptible from project to project. Their architecture in the early years could be compared to a finely aged wine or a carefully scripted play. Their approach to architecture now, is similar to a Hollywood summer blockbuster, packed with action, special effects, and rather than creating an architecture that could be read like a novel, their work is clearly readable to the masses similar to a comic strip in the Sunday paper. The evolution of Herzog & de Meuron’s work is what makes following their career exciting. It is rare for an architect to discover a style or process that leads to fame and success, but it is even rarer for a firm to reinvent their approach after finding fame and the public loving them more for it.

Despite this recent obsession with image and form, Herzog & de Meuron still maintain their roots as architectural renegades, which at this point is somewhat contradictory to their current focus. The firm lacks a website or any kind of presence on the internet, which is anti mainstream. One would expect after the completion of the Bird’s Nest for the Beijing Olympics that you would be able to go to their website and find information upon information about the project, but no such site exists. It is this apparent obsession with architectural image and form, which is contradicted or contrasted by the firms apparent lack of interest in promoting their own image on the internet that makes Herzog & de Meuron complex architectural personas.

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Tate Modern:

Prior to the completion of the Tate Modern by Herzog & de Meuron in 2000, a competition was held in order to find a solution for renovating the old power station. Herzog & de Meuron’s proposal was selected for its sensitivity and preservation of the existing structure. The details and forms generated all seem to respond to the existing spaces, and make the building and experience better with their addition. Now I am not going to delve deep into an analysis of the Tate Modern, but only want to note that the project represents an example of a similar project to 1111 Lincoln Road, but was completed earlier in Herzog & de Meuron’s career. Like the Tate Modern, 1111 Lincoln Road is an addition/adaptive reuse project, the context is historic, and the site is highly public, yet the architects solve the problem with two completely different solutions.

Context: Do, or do not. There is no blending.

I have always been a firm believer that if you are designing a new building on a campus or in a historic district that there are only two ways of doing so. You either need to design a building in the historic style of the context, or you need to design a structure  that clearly indicates that it is of a different style or time period. I hate blending, and I hate architects that cannot commit. It seems that many architects try to blend existing styles with new styles when adding onto existing structures, and never commit to taking a do or do not approach. Without a do or do not approach, the new and old architectures are compromised, and the final product becomes a muddled mess. An anti-blending approach does not mean that the new structure should not complement the existing. This also does not mean that the new structure should not respond to existing orders or structures, on or adjacent to the site. Whig Hall by Charles Gwathmey is a excellent example of an addition to an existing historic structure, some might call this blending, but I strongly disagree. When analyzing the form of Whig Hall, it becomes quite clear which parts of the structure are new and pre-existing. The structure as it stands today is more exciting and actually better, because of Gwathmey’s design for the addition. Whig Hall is an example of an addition in a different style than the original structure. The new responds to the existing orders and constraints of the preexisting structure, and is again similar to the problem solved by Herzog & de Meuron in their design of the Tate Modern. (See the slide show above for reference photo of Whig Hall and Tate Modern)

1111 Lincoln Road:

1111 Lincoln Road is part of an addition and upgrade to the existing  Sun Trust Building, which is a modern concrete relic from Miami’s modern past. At first glance, 1111 Lincoln Road looks like a new museum or a  swanky new condo building just beginning construction, but in reality the structure is nearly complete and its program is not so cliché as a museum or condo tower.  1111 Lincoln Road is a parking garage, with retail at the base, styled in a way that one would expect a parking garage to look like in Miami. The site sits along South Beach’s popular Lincoln Mall, which is a pedestrian friendly avenue for shopping, food, drink, entertainment, and now parking.

Given the above context it seems that Herzog & de Meuron has done little to maximize their response to the given orders and constraints of the site. The new parking garage is made of concrete and glass like the existing Sun Trust Building, but unfortunately that is where the similarities stop. The connection between the two buildings is not visually strong, and is nothing more than an city sized butt joint. The old Herzog & de Meuron would have explored this joint and celebrated it, the new Herzog & de Meuron is focused on the image and the form, forgetting to study what is perhaps the most important detail of the project, the connection between the old and new. What is even more unfortunate is that it is not as if these are two programmatically unrelated structures, the parking garage actually services the existing Sun Trust Building. What would have been a more interesting approach, would have been if the planes of the parking structure engaged the existing building in a way that would make the composition more dynamic and express the circulation of professionals from the parking garage to the newly renovated office space of the Sun Trust Building. Another approach would have been to pull the mass of the existing structure into the new parking garage. There are many approaches or techniques that could have been implemented to make a stronger connection between the buildings. Both structures are horizontal, and Herzog & de Meuron’s design does incorporate an alternating vertical rhythm of horizontals, which is a play on the rhythm on the Sun Trust Building facade, but these moves are not strong enough alone to create a cohesive whole. I believe that Herzog & de Meuron know this, and that this is the reason that you have never seen the design rendered in its true context as I have photographed.

The sharp angles of the concrete structure contrasts nicely against the streamlined forms of the expensive automobiles and neighboring Art Deco structures, but what happens at the base of the building? The structure does very little to engage the public at the street level. The retail spaces at the ground level do not have the same lightness and transparency as the parking garage that sits atop it.The base lacks the sculptural spirit of the rest of the structure. It would have been more interesting to expose some of the angular columnar forms at the base, bringing the public mall inward, instead the sculptural garage sits atop a glass box, and again the connection between the base and the rest of the building is weak at best. Take a look at the renderings that are posted in the gallery above. Now is a good time to mention that Herzog & de Meuron also designed the landscaped plaza in front of the structure. Of all the missed opportunities on this project, the plaza is the most disappointing element and does nothing to enhance the design of the structure. It is interesting to examine the renderings of this project, because the renderings only focus on select views and never tell the full story of the structure, which is misleading to the public.

The strongest part about this project is the form, and the spirit of the project. Herzog & de Meuron have failed to maximize the opportunities presented by the given problem, and despite their weak architectural mechanics, they have managed to create an architectural form which is instilled with the spirit of Miami’s South Beach. The automobile is an undeniable symbol of status and wealth in America. The display of status and wealth is the whole reason Miami and the Art Deco style exists. Miami in its boom could be equated to the Dubai of the 1920’s. What car do you drive? How much money do you make? What designer labels are on your clothes? This is the culture of Miami and these are the things that matter. The Art Deco style in Miami was the result of the wealthy searching for a means to displaying their wealth in the homes that they lived in. Herzog & de Meuron understand this, and do not create a monument to the automobile as some critics have suggested, but rather create a billboard for wealth. The garage is a stage for the celebutantes of South Beach to display their wealth and gain the attention of tourist that visit the mall. The structure although architecturally weak, is undeniably South Beach.

Aside from context, Herzog & de Meuron did do a few things that went against standard norms for parking structures. An interesting detail is the treatment of the striping in the garage. It appears in the renderings that the concrete will be white washed, while the striping is black. Another interesting formal gesture is the vertical rhythm of the parking garage. Typically parking garages are repetitive vertically, featuring a consistent vertical ten foot rhythm. Herzog & de Meuron were granted the luxury of exploiting the verticality of the parking structure and creating a garage unlike any other. If I had to some up the design of the structure with two words it would be contrast and juxtaposition. The structure contrasts with nearly every element on the site. As mentioned above the angular forms and geometries contrast with the curves often found in the design of automobiles and the Art Deco style. 1111 Lincoln Road will not be remembered as a masterpiece of the Swiss architectural duo, but is an example of a mundane building typology, reexamined with a fresh set of eyes. For more information about this project, check out the 1111 Lincoln Road Blog.

On a side note I read a review on Eikonographia, and the author questioned why Herzog & de Meuron did not place the garage below ground.  I found the comment to be funny because unlike other cities found around the world, Miami is built on a swamp, which means that the water table is very high and that you will find few basements or underground parking structures in Miami or Florida for that matter.

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Augmented Reality – AR
The technology featured above was not developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology, but evolved there in a way its creators did not imagine. The YouTube video above was created by GIT to explain their visualization process. Augmented reality refers to a mixed reality in which physical real-world environments are merged or augmented with virtual computer imagery. Although researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have now brought this technology and its possibilities to the forefront of visualization via Google Earth, augmented reality technology is perhaps more famous as seen in televised NFL Football games, through the creations of seemingly 3D instant replay and other virtual information like the line of scrimmage and the first down marker. This notion of an augmented reality has been implemented by some architects in a superficial manner. For instance Asymptote’s early works like the New York Stock Exchange (1999) look at combining virtual information with real world information. Although the NYSE by Asymptote is intellectually revolutionary, its execution will be looked at in the same light as NASA’s first computers, which were clumsy, bulky and as large as a single family residence.

What Does This Mean For Architecture? AR Revolution
I predict that in the next twenty years that the augmented reality revolution will be the catalyst necessary to lead the architectural community in a unified movement for the first time since modernism. Augmented reality as related to architecture has several possibilities. The first and most obvious possibility is that it will change the way architects communicate and research information regarding site forces, context and other orders that may influence the development of architecture. This is boring to me and I will let your imagination elaborate upon the visualization possibilities as it is related to architecture. Have you ever noticed that architects often become more obsessed with graphic possibilities of technology and software? Forgetting that process and creating great architecture should always be the focus of our profession.

A more interesting possibility, but foreshadowed by the dot-com architecture firms of the nineties is an architecture which truly blurs virtual and physical realities into an augmented reality. Learning how to create augmented realities that users can navigate without a computer will be the first hurdle that architects must leap before entering the augmented reality movement. How will architects do this? Similar to the NFL, buildings that exist in an augmented reality may have the ability to change texture, surface, or color. Architects need to figure out a way to create an environment that is the interface with which users navigate the augmented reality, rather than using a computer. There are already many examples of this type of an augmented reality. Kieran Timberlake is an architectural firm whom has already developed a unique product, SmartWrap, which executes many functions, also has OLEDs printed on the surface allowing the surface to change the information, color, texture or patterning displayed. There are other similar materials that have been developed for strictly visual purposes, which will soon be featured in another article. Our world is slowly developing the tools necessary for the creation of an augmented reality that users can navigate without a computer. Architects and users should examine the evolution of technology in terms of ethics and morals. What are the consequences of virtual sociopetal environments? What affects will an augmented reality have on culture and society? With the fast approach of the existence of an extensive augmented reality, when should the augmented reality stop evolving? Is an augmented reality a precursor to humans living in a complete virtual reality? Fulfilling the revelations of 1990s science fiction movies. Before we worry about the ethical and philosophical concerns of living in an augmented reality, a revolutionary development must first me made. A technology must be created that has not been foreshadowed in science fiction movies or novels. Technology must develop past the environments featured in movies like Minority Report and Back to the Future, but not as far as The Matrix, as this would bypass the augmented reality revolution and throw our culture into a complete shock, as if transforming from solid to gas, abruptly entering a complete virtual reality. The transition between physical and virtual has not been documented in film and text as much as the possibility of virtual worlds, because we simply do not know how to get there. This not knowing, rather than not having the technology is why it will be a revolution in the same way that the invention of the steam engine was the key component to the Industrial Revolution. What will be the steam engine of the Augmented Reality Revolution?

Lastly, the most interesting development from the researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology is their process. My mind has not rested since viewing the video  above, and the process that the researchers used to create the augmented reality. This process is applicable to the process of architecture, right now. A book that has been most influential in the development of my creative process is Contested Symmetries and Other Predicaments in Architecture by Preston Scott Cohen. Cohen uses the process of drawing to create complex architectural forms which are capable of solving even more complex problems. Cohen introduces his skillful process in a Forward written by Rafael Moneo titled Geometry and the Mediation of Architectural Conflicts: Comments on the Work of Scott Cohen. Cohen uses geometry and the process of drawing to mediate what Moneo calls architectural conflicts. Following the forward Cohen discusses examples of architectural conflicts resolved with complicated geometric gymnastics in such precedents as San Carlo ai Catinari and Villa Tauro, which he eventually builds upon in order to give the reader a fighting chance of understanding the precise and very complex process that Cohen must follow in order to produce beautiful architecture. The process developed by the researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology is adaptable to resolving architectural conflicts, in the same manner that Cohen has developed his process. It will be interesting to see how the augmented reality revolution plays out, or if this is just another tool that we are building for something bigger than any of us can imagine.

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Gehry and the Scale of Pliable Surfaces:

I want you to build something in your mind. Begin to build a mental image of a Frank Gehry interior space. Can you do it? Now, build a mental image of a Frank Gehry building, exciting, huh? I always like to resort to search engines for research, specifically Google, because Google tracks something that books cannot, popularity. Google places importance on popularity when returning search results, now there are other variables that come into play, but popularity is the key difference in search rankings between this site and Dezeen.When googling images with the search term Frank Gehry one has to flip through many virtual pages before finding an image of an interior space. Nearly all of the images are pictures of exciting exterior compositions, most have Frank in them, and less then one percent are of Frank Gehry designed interiors. When googling images with the search term Frank Gehry Interior half of the images are exterior spaces portrayed as interior spaces, and the rest are exterior images of Gehry designed buildings or Gehry-esque buildings.

You now should ask yourself two questions: Why is this important? And why is this important to the New World Symphony? The renderings and floor plans suggest that Gehry is turning his attention to form and detailing inward. Although the Serpentine Gallery marks the first instance where Gehry’s free formed surfaces are defining space, rather than creating an object, the New World Symphony design takes this concept further. In the Serpentine Gallery the structural system is exposed on the exterior for what it is, and it is not hidden by drywall or other materials. Prior to the Serpentine Gallery, Gehry’s interior spaces were the resultant, not necessarily a force shaping the surfaces. The key difference between the Serpentine Gallery and the New World Symphony is scale, and that the Serpentine Gallery is an open air pavilion, while the New World Symphony must accommodate a highly complex program. The New World Symphony is a 100,000 sf state of the art facility, it’s complexity and scale will make it one of Gehry’s defining works.

Typically the excitement of Gehry’s active compositions seem to slow down on the interiors as if experiencing the building in slow motion. The reason that Gehry’s surfaces lose energy and slow down in his interior spaces is that Gehry has a difficult time translating his work at varying scales, and is perhaps his greatest weakness. Gehry needs a lot of space to work his magic, and in this project Gehry creates a box to work within, inside this box are large interior spaces that are shaped by his pliable surfaces. The interior spaces in this project are intricate, not because they are detailed and small, but because of the way that the smaller interior spaces relate and flow into larger interior spaces. The interior spaces relate in scale to one another and form an assemblage that is dynamic and memorable. It appears in the physical model that Gehry has finally bridged this gap in scale, but what remains unclear is if Gehry is able to to achieve this effect in the built structure, and thus conquering the differential in scale between the person and the larger spaces in the New World Symphony.

Formal Sophistication:

In order for this building to be given the same degree of importance as the Gugenheim Museum Bilbao, Gehry must do something that he has not been able to do thus far, and that is create a formally sophisticated composition without strictly relying on free formed curves. At this point, all I can say is that the juxtaposition of the orthogonal verse the free form is a strong start, and we will have to wait for the final verdict when the building is completed.

Containing the Beast:

The partí is simple, the creative energy and the music inside cannot be contained by the rigid order that supports and frames it. Gehry wisely chooses to be gehry in select places and not everywhere.

gehry [gair-ee, gar-ee]

- verb  – to place free formed surfaces in a whimsical and playful manner similar to that of Frank Gehry.

-noun -  whimsical or playful surfaces in the style of Frank Gehry. Yah-yah.

In time, history may refer to things being gehry in the same manner that Gaudí inspired things to be gaudy. Gehry spills out at the main entry in the form of a canopy, at the top of the building, and in a few other skillfully selected areas. The careful placement of gehry in the overall composition suggest something, but is unclear in the Florida sunlight. At night the composition changes and the curves contained by the glass curtain wall are on display for everyone to see, and the surfaces appear to spill out of the rigid structure. What was not clear in the sunlight is now crystal clear. Behind the glass is entertainment, music, energy, gehry. The surfaces are metaphorically music, and represent the energy that sound of music and its ability to leak through any structure, no matter how rigid.

A More Mature Frank:

It appears that at the ripe old age of eighty that Frank has finally matured, and unless he does something shocking or daring in his old age, he has entered the final and most memorable stage of his architectural career. Frank’s architecture is now about developing interior spaces that relate in scale to its users. His interior spaces in the New World Symphony are now as memorable as the exterior compositions that have made him famous. The New World Symphony is lastly about showmanship, it is not the flashy Frank that we are used to, but a more mature Frank that understands that sometimes the anticipation of something is greater than the actual thing. The construction is set to complete sometime in 2010, at which time I plan on seeing a show, and hope that America’s favorite Canadian architect is able to surprise us one more time.

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