DESIGN WITH ENTERPRISE I wasn't always fascinated with architecture and design. I'm not an architect, but I have come to realize how important good design is as an ingredient to better human health and well-being. And how important business skills are to successful practice. — Published 2012.0425
	BASICS - STAIRS, RAMPS, AND SLOPES Stairs, ramps, and slopes are specific types of flooring assemblies that join two or more different levels. Their design is guided, in part, by larger design intentions that involve human movement through space, along with scale, location, orientation, wayfinding strategies, and their contextual fit within the immediate and surrounding environment. — Published 2012.0418
	THE ARCHITECTURAL DETAIL: MAYBECK AND AALTO The San Francisco-based magazine Architectural News ceased publication in 1891 after only three issues, so there is no way of knowing what the specific contents of a planned future issue, a translation of Gottfried Semper's Der Stil by Bernard Maybeck, might have been. There is no evidence that the translation was ever made, of what sections he would have chosen, or what Semper's influence on Maybeck's work might be. — Published 2012.0404
	ST. PANCRAS HOTEL It rises regally from the front of London's St Pancras railway station — Sir Gilbert Scott's confection of a masterpiece, which has not made its way lightly through the years. — Published 2012.0229
	AIA NATIONAL DESIGN AWARDS Viewed at a distance from the southwest, 8 House looks almost like a strange landform: two vegetated roofs form a massive green "V" reaching from the ground-floor roof all the way to the top of the building, nine stories above. The logic of this mixed-use building is better understood from a bird's-eye view. In concept, the plan is a 230-meter- (750-foot-) long loop that has been twisted to form a giant, angular figure eight. — Published 2012.0215
	AUSTRALIAN ARCHITECTURE AWARDS 2011 On a tiny site measuring only seven by six meters (23 by 20 feet), a compact new home rises four and a half stories amidst the urban fabric of Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, Australia. Designing for himself and his partner, Sue Bassett, architect Domenic Alvaro achieved an unexpected sense of expansiveness within this small space through the use of large precast concrete panels and plate-glass windows, with minimal additional interior detailing. — Published 2012.0125
	BEST OF BUILD BOSTON Build Boston, the largest regional conference and trade show for the design and construction industry in the United States, recently demonstrated again why it has earned such preeminence. More than 14,000 architects, designers, construction and facility managers, and owners attended the 27th Build Boston conference, hosted by the Boston Society of Architects in November 2011. The trade show floor boasted some 300 vendors — up 6% over last year — who plied their products with the usual vigor. — Published 2012.0111
	THE STORY OF SAARINEN'S JOHN DEERE HEADQUARTERS Carefully tucking away "the car's fat shine" was integral to the definitive Deere & Company Administrative Center in Moline, Illinois, later renamed Deere & Company World Headquarters. The exemplar for all subsequent corporate estates, it brought together landscape, site plan, and architecture into an elegant and commanding solution. Deere definitively proved the corporate value of the high-image, high-style suburban headquarters. — Published 2011.1207
	WILLIAM WURSTER - HOUSES Thinking back, an image that most endures in my mind is the white tower and compound of William Wurster's Gregory House (1929) in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Gregory Farmhouse, as it's usually referenced, is a misnomer: it is a country retreat designed and built between 1927 and 1929, a place of the soul, no doubt, for a very sophisticated San Francisco family. — Published 2011.1130
	AIA EDUCATION DESIGN AWARDS When Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music set about expanding its midtown Toronto campus, a careful balancing act was required. The project combined construction of the new Telus Centre for Performance and Learning with the progressive restoration of historic McMaster Hall. The conservatory also sought to energize a new cultural district for the city in conjunction with major cultural facilities nearby, such as the Royal Ontario Museum and Gardiner Museum. — Published 2011.1116

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