Architecture Design and Building in the Great Lakes Region, USA - 01
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Inside and outside, this building comes across initially as nice, but seemingly a bit buttoned down, handsome yet perhaps a bit conventional in affect. Published 2009.0805
Renzo Piano is known for his finely tuned designs, especially for a refined talent in dovetailing elegant new architecture with an existing context, playing on contextual strengths without duplicating the neighbors.
He has achieved this feat once again at the Art Institute of Chicago, where a light-studded new museum wing by Piano opened in May 2009. The Art Institute's new addition is laudable in its intelligent siting, sensitive scale, urban presence, and manipulation of light. Published 2009.0805
When the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation of Evanston, Illinois, set out to build a new synagogue, they found the goal of achieving LEED Platinum certification arising naturally from the spiritual context.
"The Torah teaches us that the earth does not belong to us, that we are but stewards of God's creation," says Rabbi Brant Rosen. "Building the most sustainable facility possible was for us a religious act." Published 2009.0415
We pause this week in remembrance of the thirteen Minnesotans who were killed and the dozens injured in the catastrophic failure of the I-35W bridge across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Published 2008.0730
The Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee simply radiates with a special kind of beauty, from the inside out. It's a charming, efficient, respectful, and delightful structure, and more. It's a community building whose building has helped build a community. Published 2007.1128
In the 19th century, the great majority of the houses of western Minnesota were cheap, plain, awkward, and unlovely. Harmony and unity emerged from the mundane clutter, however, in the form of the classic L-house, which became representative of much of the farming way of life in the Midwest. Published 2007.1114
AIA Chicago has announced the winners of its 2007 Design Excellence Awards. Chapter president Laura Fisher, FAIA, lauded the almost 300 submissions as reflective of the "versatility and creativity of Chicago's architecture and design community." Forty-six awards were given in the categories of distinguished building, sustainable design, interior architecture, and "divine detail," including 13 honor awards, the highest honor.
"That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics." — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949 Published 2007.1003
New schools are springing up across the United States with design that doesn't go "by the book." These schools for grades Kindergarten through 12 are responding to meet new community demands or simply to replace aged facilities.
Forty-five percent of the nation's elementary schools were built between 1950 and 1969, according to ZweigWhite, a market research firm. And enrollment in public K-12 schools will continue to rise through 2012, predicts the National Center for Education Statistics. Published 2006.1213
When a theological seminary commissioned a worship space that would be timeless, spiritually uplifting, and ecumenical, architect Joan Soranno returned to first principles, posing to herself the question: "what is each individual's relationship to God?" In a striking play of form and material, her answer offers a fresh take on religious architecture. Published 2006.0201
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