On this episode of Archinect Sessions we’re sharing the recording of a panel discussion I moderated last weekend at the A+D Museum​, as part of the current exhibition The Los Angeles Schools​. The panel brought together five students and three faculty members representing student-led publications from LA’s architecture programs. Rayne Laborde and Phoebe Webster represented UCLA​'s POOL​​​; Marcelyn Gow represented SCI-Arc​’s Offramp​; Richard Mapes, Corie Yaguchi and Irvin Shaifa represented SCI-Arc​'s Underscore​; Alvin Huang​ represented USC​’s Supertall​; and Stephen Phillips​, Cal Poly LA Metro’s Director, represented their program’s hardcover publication LA Ten​. 

Our talk covers a lot of ground, exposing the inner-workings of editing and producing publications in today’s unique and highly transformative media landscape. Our conversations cover issues of editorial decision-making, design, freedom of expression and thoughts on the future of student publishing in architecture school.  

For Archinect Sessions episode #145 we are joined by Kimberly Dowdell, a principal at HOK in Chicago and the current President of the National Organization of Minority Architects. Our conversation covers Kimberly’s impressive path to success in architecture, and the leadership role she’s taking in NOMA. We’ll also discuss the upcoming NOMA conference taking place in Brooklyn in a few weeks from October 14th-20th.

On this episode, we're joined by Chilean architect​​ Alejandro Aravena​​. A long-familiar name to most of our listeners, Aravena’s work gained significant media attention upon winning the Pritzker Prize in 2016​, elevating his reputation for working to address some of today’s most difficult issues through participatory design, engaging users, groups, experts, and the public-at-large. His most notable projects are his “incremental housing” developments, a partially subsidized low-income solution for displaced families providing half-built homes for families to complete on their own, within their own budgets and tastes. Elemental has since released the plans for these projects for free, via download from their website​.

This week Aravena was awarded another significant prize, the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development​. The award recognizes visionaries that are making significant contributions to international community building, with an emphasis on land use and development bettering society. Our conversation starts with him describing how this ULI prize is so important to him...

This week we’re joined by one of our favorite regulars, Fred Scharmen. Fred currently teaches architecture and urban design at Morgan State University's School of Architecture and Planning, and is the Principal and Co-Founder of The Working Group on Adaptive Systems. What brings him on today’s show is his just-released new book Space Settlements. The 400-page paperback contains a visually stunning collection of designs for space colonies from the mid-70’s, including iconic artwork and comparison studies of 20th and 21st century architecture projects. Our conversation talks about his research leading up to this book, the process of writing the book and the fascinating stories discovered along the way.

We have a very special July 4th episode for you today. 

Today’s show offers a very American conversation with the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Paul Goldberger. The discussion was recorded live at Archinect Outpost last month for the launch of his latest book Ballpark. 

Ballpark takes a deep dive into the history of the ballpark, and the impact it’s had on the evolution of the American city. The book looks at a selection of case studies to arrive at a simple yet compelling thesis: “In the ballpark,” Goldberger writes, “the two sides of the American character - the Jeffersonian impulse toward open space and rural expanse, and the Hamiltonian belief in the city and in industrial infrastructure - are joined, and cannot be torn apart.

If you’re interested in a copy of the book, we have a few copies available at Archinect, both in our shop in downtown Los Angeles, and online at outpost.archinect.com. 

Paul Goldberger began his career at The New York Times, where in 1984 his architecture criticism was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, the highest award in journalism. From 1997 through 2011 he served as the Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, where he wrote the magazine’s celebrated “Sky Line” column. He is currently a contributing editor for Vanity fair and holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in New York City. 

On this latest episode of the Archinect Sessions podcast we're joined by Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers of the Minneapolis-based practice Dream the Combine.

Jennifer and Tom are a husband and wife team that specialize in site-specific installations. Their work is deeply-collaborative, directly referenced in the name of their practice, and looks at the overlaps in art, architecture, and cultural theory, while manipulating the boundary between real and illusory space.

This week Ken and I are speaking with the leadership team responsible for the upcoming Brown University Performing Arts Center – Joshua Ramus of REX, Carl Giegold of Threshold Acoustics and David Rosenburg of Theatre Projects. 

The Brown University Performing Arts Center is a formally stunning project designed by REX for the Brown University campus in the relatively small town of Providence, Rhode Island. The exterior of the almost 100,000 square foot building consists of a large monolithic mass clad in aluminum, with a cantilevered glass-encased 13-foot tall clearstory jutting out from the lobby level, covering a lower-level outdoor public space. 

The interior of the Arts Center, however, is where the magic happens. To facilitate the university’s requirement to host performances for a variety of needs and audience sizes, REX and his team of theater and acoustics specialists designed a transformable concert hall that can accommodate five completely different configurations, from a small experimental sound cube for media performances, to a 625-seat symphony orchestra hall.

Our conversation starts with Joshua Ramus describing the conception of the project, starting with the client’s brief… 

This week Ken and I are joined by Alan Maskin, partner and co-owner of Seattle-based Olson Kundig. Alan shares his story growing up on the East Coast, working as an artist and arts educator before moving onto architecture school in his 30s. He tells us about how he finally landed a job at Olson Kundig after 4 failed job applications, and then strategically moved his way out of his initial role of IT manager. He provides insight into what it took to move up in the firm, eventually becoming a partner and co-owner, and what kind of qualities Olson Kundig looks for when hiring new talent that fits well with time-crafted firm culture.

Of course, we also talk about his work, including the highly publicized renovation of Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, and some recent projects he has designed for children and families. We even get his thoughts on two topics weighing heavily in the news these days - unpaid internships and the restoration of the Notre Dame Cathedral.  

On this episode of Archinect Sessions we're joined by Eva Hagberg, a NY-based writer and architectural consultant. Our conversation covers Eva’s architectural studies at Princeton and Berkeley, and how that transitioned into a successful writing career spanning architecture criticism to writing about her own life in her recently published memoir How to Be Loved. We also talk about the unique personality traits of architects and her approach to helping architects communicate.

On this week's episode of Archinect Sessions we talk with Carlo Aiello, a Mexican-born, LA-based designer and founder of eVolo . Most of our readers are familiar with eVolo's (very) popular annual skyscraper competition and related series of books. Carlo, the founder of eVolo, is also the designer of the award-winning Parabola Chair  and the designer of the Kickstarter-success ESCALA , a 2-in-1 drawing tool combining the scale-ruler with an insertable fountain pen . In our conversation we track his progress from his studies at Columbia's GSAPP , to working for SOM  and Asymptote , to embarking as a self-made entrepreneur with a move west, to LA.