People and Places
                                                    . . . THIS WEEK

San Deigo · 2007.0321
Construction is complete for the Calpulli Student Health Services facility at San Diego State University in San Diego, California. Architects | Delawie Wilkes Rodrigues Barker of San Diego completed design development drawings, construction documents, and specifications and construction administration for the $20.4 million project. The building is a steel-framed, moment-framed structure, with a steel-studded and cement plaster exterior curtain wall system, and porcelain cladding at its base. A four-story exterior courtyard walkway provides access to all areas of the facility.

Newark · 2007.0321
Construction of the new Prudential Center sports facility in downtown Newark, New Jersey, has reached the topping off point. The $375 million facility will be the home of the New Jersey Devils Hockey Team, a new Major Indoor Soccer League franchise, and will host other collegiate and professional sports as well as concerts and other events.

Rome · 2007.0321
The City of Rome and Tor Vergata University have broken ground on several related projects designed by architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava. His new campus master plan organizes the university along a promenade bordered by a double row of cypresses. At one end will be the new Sports City, comprising two identical fan-shaped pavilions, arranged symmetrically, with a series of external infrastructure works. At the other end of the promenade will be the Rectorate, the essential element of the which is an office tower configured as a spiral winding around itself, accentuated by metallic columns. Architecture along the promenade will be characterized by transparency, with alternating solid and glazed sections. An abundance of water features is planned.

Sheffield · 2007.0320
The first phase of construction is complete for a new critical-care unit at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, United Kingdom. Sheffield-based architecture firm Race Cottam Associates designed the facility to include daylighting, views, and a high proportion of private rooms. Work is also underway on another of the firm's projects, the latest phase of construction at the Moorgate Crofts office development in Rotherham. The new project will include a green roof, automatic light sensors, and cutting-edge heating and cooling controls.

Atlanta · 2007.0320
Three associates at CMMI (Culpepper, McAuliffe and Meaders, Inc.) of Atlanta, Georgia, have been promoted to the position of principal and studio director. Billie P. Thorne, ASID, who joined the firm in 1991, focuses on interior design for high-end hotel renovations and new properties. William E. Cox, AIA, LEED AP, who joined CMMI in 1994, focuses on base-building architecture, interior architecture, and space planning for high-end hospitality, mixed-use, senior living, and multifamily projects. Jeffrey C. Beindorf, Allied ASID, who joined the firm in 2002, focuses on interior design for high-end hotels and international projects.

Newport News · 2007.0320
A new $34.4 million student union has opened at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. The Arlington, Virginia, office of DMJM Design provided planning, programming, and architectural, interior, and engineering design for the project. The 125,000-square-foot (11,600-square-meter) facility comprises two separate buildings connected by an interior "street" with a three-story atrium. The exterior design incorporates the traditional brick aesthetic of the campus, with modern touches, such as barrel-vaulted skylights and a glass curtain wall running the height of the building at either entrance.

Vail · 2007.0320
Gwathmey Pratt Schultz Architects, P.C., of Vail, Colorado, has changed its name to Gwathmey Pratt Schultz Lindall Architects, P.C. (GPSL), in recognition of principal Scott Lindall, AIA, NCARB. Lindall has led such projects as Custom Homes at Village Walk, Horizon Pass Townhomes, Golden Bear Lodge, Buckhorn Condominiums, Forbes Retreat Complex and several high-end single-family residences.

Los Angeles · 2007.0316
Altoon + Porter Architects LLP has promoted five senior associates to principal in the firm's Los Angeles, California, headquarters. Kenneth R. Long, AIA, who has been with the company for 18 years, has expertise in urban planning and civic integration. Frederick P. Kerz, AIA, who has been with the firm for 15 years, is responsible for the design and management of projects both domestically and internationally.

With over 30 years of award-winning commercial and residential experience, Douglas Meyer, AIA, continues his work on several mixed-use and retail projects for the firm. Completing his thirteenth year with the firm, Mitchell Lawrence, AIA, has expertise on detailed programming for institutional sustainable and mixed-use projects. David Green, AIA, LEED AP, oversees large-scale commercial projects nationally and abroad, including environmentally sustainable designs.

Berkeley · 2007.0315
Wilson Gifford Combs, retired University of California faculty member, died in Berkeley on March 15, 2007, at age 92. Combs was the last survivor of a group of architects assembled at UC Berkeley by architecture dean William Wurster.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, these teacher-practitioners embraced and helped to define the Bay Area Regional Style, and made it an important countervailing variant to the then-pervasive International Style of "high Modernism." The Bay Area Regional Style featured an earthier, nondogmatic kind of modernism that was sensitive to social conditions, eclectic in style, economical in presentation, suffused with light, and respectful of local, natural materials. Others in the group included Vernon DeMars, Joseph Esherick, Howard Friedman, and Donald Olsen.

In such diverse projects as consulting on the master plan for the new university campus at Santa Cruz or a simple house at the Wente Brothers winery, Combs sought to create architecture that was simple and clear. Combs got his bachelor and master of architecture degrees at UC Berkeley, published an underground student magazine, worked as a railroad surveyor and draftsman in the Nevada desert, and printed battlefield condition maps in the Army during WWII.

St. Louis · 2007.0314
Demolition has begun in preparation for the G.E.W. Lofts mixed-use renovation in St. Louis, Missouri. Local firm Rosemann & Associates. P.C. designed the project with vibrant colors to identify individual buildings. Similar floor plans and fenestration unify the development. Completion is slated for fall 2007.

New York · 2007.0314
Glenmore Gardens, a $2.3 million affordable housing project, has opened in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. Brooklyn firm Della Valle Bernheimer, winner of a 2007 AIA New York Honor Award and named a 2007 Architectural League Emerging Voice, was both developer and architect for the residential condominium project, developed through the City of New York Department of Housing Preservation & Development New Foundations program. The firm coordinated the design and construction of five buildings. Collaborators included New York firms Architecture Research Office (ARO), Briggs Knowles Architecture+Design, and Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis (LTL Architects).

Burbank · 2007.0312
Construction is underway on a new architecture studio building at Woodbury University in Burbank, California. Los Angeles architecture firm Rios Clementi Hale Studios designed the two-story, 19,000-square-foot (1,800-square-meter) building with an open, flexible floor plan. The facility will include a 1,700-square-foot (160-square-meter), double-height room, with a high glass lantern, for general university exhibitions and events. Sustainable materials will be used in the interior, and the new building is part of a larger project led by Swinerton Builders, a design-build contractor.

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