With his distinctive aquiline nose and magnificent flowing beard, Albanias national hero, Skanderbeg, has long been a familiar presence in the countrys streets and squares. The 7ft warrior king known as the Dragon of Albania, slayer of the Ottoman Turks, is celebrated in numerous monuments and reliefs, his imposing stature and fiery eyes keeping watch over the territory he fought for in the 15th century.

Now his face will loom larger over the capital than ever before. Construction has begun on an 85-metre-high block of apartments, offices and shops in the centre of Tirana, designed in the shape of Skanderbegs head. Images of the project depict an amorphous white tower ringed with balconies that ripple in and out to form a lumpy approximation of the heros features, imprinting his profile permanently on the skyline in concrete and glass. Wealthy future residents will be able to look out from the warriors eyes, hang out on his ears or dine alfresco on the end of his nose from which greenery will dangle in an unfortunate snot-like drip.

The surreal vision is the work of Dutch architects MVRDV, who are no strangers to concocting buildings shaped like supersized novelty objects or figurative sculptural projects, as they prefer to call them. Their disastrous Marble Arch Mound in London, which arguably cost the Conservative council its leadership of the local borough, was merely the latest in a long line of cartoonish creations that seem to have been plucked from the depths of a joke shop bargain bin. The architects have designed a museum in the form of gigantic comic speech bubbles, an art storage depot in the shape of an Ikea salad bowl and an apartment complex that spells out the word HOME in the form of its blocks. But it seems they have saved their most banal metaphors for the Balkans, perhaps assuming that fewer of their clients and critics will ever see the buildings in person.

A short distance from where the giant Skanderbeg head is planned to rise, there already looms another tower designed by MVRDV, named Downtown One. Topping out last year, its 140-metre concrete frame makes it the tallest building in the city, and it continues the pop-nationalist theme. Rather than a face, this hefty slab of luxury flats and offices features a pixelated map of Albania protruding from its facade although the form is so indistinct, it looks more like the concrete formwork slipped on the way up, leaving a wonky mess in its wake. The dramatically carved volumes imagined by MVRDV appear to have been value-engineered into more shallow dimples, giving the impression that the building is prematurely eroding.

These days, cities around the world increasingly look like each other, says Winy Maas, founding partner of the Dutch architecture firm. I always encourage them to resist this, to find their individual character and emphasise it. Tirana has the opportunity of a blank canvas for high-density structures. It can be progressive in that sense and build up character and a sense of place.

But many local residents arent so sure about the sense of place being created by Maas, and the roster of other international architects who have been flown in to reshape the city. A handful of towers are rising around Tiranas central Skanderbeg Square, with four already complete and at least another six in the pipeline. There have been vocal protests against the destruction of Ottoman-era villas to make way for the slew of high-rise developments, with critics bemoaning the loss of heritage and rocketing property prices, and accusations that the projects are being used as money laundering schemes for organised crime.

Two historic villas were demolished to make way for the Skanderbeg tower in May 2020, when the city was in pandemic lockdown. At the same time, the citys cherished National Theatre, dating from the 1930s, was also bulldozed to make way for a project by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, to widespread condemnation.

The future of Tirana will be full of ghost skyscrapers, says Vincent WJ van Gerven Oei, a Dutch writer who has lived in Tirana for the last 12 years and closely tracked the citys development. I love MVRDV the things they build in the Netherlands are among my favourite buildings but then they come to Albania and become lousy assholes. They think they can get away with crappy design, checking off all the stupid nationalist tropes you can think of.

In a 2018 lecture, when the two towers were in development, Maas addressed the overt nationalist symbolism of designing a building in the shape of the countrys map. I had a discussion with some of the European politicians about that, he said. Because, can you do that? Is nationalism good or bad? But Albania needs it, to show its sexy and that its actually quite cool.

Dashing back and forth on stage, speaking like a hyperactive child who had consumed too many E-numbers, Maas rhapsodised his love affair with Albania. He described it as a country with no money, that drinks only coffee, and where there is nothing to do the perfect blank slate for his outlandish ideas, like a mini-China with bountiful opportunities for architects. Developers are getting richer, he said excitedly, but made no mention of where the money might be coming from to build such heady visions, given the countrys impoverished economy.

A 2020 report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime noted that the Albanian construction industry had become a popular hotspot for international criminal gangs to launder money, primarily from drug trafficking. It estimated that 1.6bn worth of dirty money had been laundered through the Albanian real estate sector in the previous three years, with 60% of project funding coming from illicit sources. Albanias own Office of the General Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering said that it observed considerable real estate investments with unknown source of funds, which it classified as suspicious.

Last year, anti-mafia prosecutors in Italy found that the Ndrangheta crime syndicate had identified Tiranas new high-rise developments as a prime opportunity for laundering their cash. In one wiretap, two of those arrested were heard discussing a building constructor in Albania who held three building permits for buildings worth 180m, but had only 10m to hand. The new skyscrapers are to be sold for 3,000-4,000 per square metre, one of the suspects says. And do you know how much it cost to build? 510. MVRDV says that, in accordance with Dutch law, it runs background checks on its clients using a third-party company that scans for criminal activity, among other things, and there is no suggestion of illegal funds. A spokesperson for the city of Tirana said: The duty of the municipality is to ensure that construction plans, aesthetics, architecture rules and mobility plans are respected. We understand we live in a toxic political environment in the Balkans and have repeatedly asked opposition leaders to point out: which one of these towers is suspect of such [criminal] activity? To date, we have no response and there has been no official claim with the Tirana prosecution.

The radical reshaping of the Albanian capital over the last two decades can primarily be credited to Edi Rama, who served as its mayor from 2000-2011 and has been the countrys prime minister since 2013. Rama was a professional basketball player and artist in the 1990s, and Maas says in his lecture: I know Edi from Paris, when he was a painter. Rama returned to Albania to become minister of culture in 1998, and embarked on a radical clean-up operation when he became mayor. He made headlines with his policies of painting grey soviet buildings in bright colours to liven up the city, planting trees, creating bike lanes and holding international architectural competitions reforms that landed him the inaugural World Mayor prize in 2004.

One of the first projects MVRDV scooped under Ramas reign was the Toptani shopping centre in 2005, which was conceived as a hollowed out pixelated mass covered in giant LCD advertising screens. Having won the competition, Maas heard nothing until a few years later, when he realised the building had in fact been built by other architects, and drastically watered down in the process. The digital facade was exchanged for standard grey cladding panels, while his vision for an open arcade became a generic closed-off mall.

Projects here are often realised in a totally different way to how the architects originally intended, says Van Gerven Oei. Theres the reality of the digital render, always beautiful, brilliant and groundbreaking, and then the reality of Albanian construction companies, who want to do the easiest, fastest thing at the lowest possible price.

Not to be dissuaded by the Frankenstein mall, MVRDV continued to seek work in Albania. Several unrealised projects followed, from a colossal pile of oblong apartment blocks planned for a lakeside site in 2008, dubbed Tirana Rocks, to a coastal resort for a Russian client designed as an artificial hillside that would glow eerily at night better than any James Bond movie, Maas promised. He explains how Downtown One began as a three-dimensional Albania-shaped building, but proved too expensive, so they decided to imprint the shape of the map on a simple rectangular tower instead. A further commission came in 2018 to transform the striking marble-clad Pyramid of Tirana built in the 1980s as a museum to celebrate the countrys former communist dictator which had become a popular place for the citys youth to scramble up and slide down. MVRDV were appointed, without a public competition, to transform it into a tech hub smothering the sloping sides with concrete steps in the process. Finally, when it comes to the Skanderbeg tower, the origins are as blunt as you might expect. As Maas recalls: Then Edi said: I want to do something with history. And so the giant head was born.

Local people have joked that, as Rama cultivates an elder-statesman look his 6ft 6in frame and growing beard giving him an increasingly Skanderbeg-esque appearance the head-shaped building may end up looking more like a lasting monument to the artist-politician who reshaped the capital, forever gazing out over his vision of empty towers.

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What the Marble Arch Mound architects did next: a skyscraper shaped like Albanias national hero - The Guardian

Introducing Rakewell, Apollos wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories.

Rakewell is interested to note that not only is Keanu Reeves confirmed to star in his first leading role in a television series, but that he will be playing an architect. And not just a fictional architect, of which there many examples in cinema. For The Devil in the White City, Reeves has been cast as Daniel H. Burnham, who, as the co-designer of the worlds first building with an all-steel frame, was a pioneer of skyscraper architecture and who, as head architect of the Worlds Fair of 1893 in Chicago, had a hand in making the city what it is today.

Chicago, you say? But hasnt Keanu played an architect in the Windy City before? He certainly has, although your roving correspondent with something of a thing for ridiculous films wouldnt call it the most authentic depiction of the profession on screen. But if you like lakes and houses, baffling time-travel scenarios, and Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves starring in the same film but not stuck on a bus, then The Lake House (2006) is unmissable, mystifying fun. The premise is that Keanus architect and Sandra Bullocks doctor live in the same North Shore lakeside house on stilts only they are in the property two years apart, in 2004 and 2006, respectively. With the help of a magic mailbox, the determined couple send each other letters, fall in love and wonder how they can beat the pesky time-space continuum that is keeping them apart. Reevess character is working on suburban condominiums instead of starting a firm with the unpromising name of Visionary Vanguard with his younger brother, also an architect. Both are cowed by their rather more visionary father who is youve guessed it another architect, played by Christopher Plummer (hooray!) as a charismatic cross between Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. As the one decent architect in the family, it is he who designed the titular house. Rakewell cant quite remember if the ending makes any sense, but Chicago comes out of the picture with great credit.

The Devil in the White City, on the other hand, is an adaptation of Erik Larsons true-crime thriller of 2003, which also deals with the murderous exploits of the serial killer H.H. Holmes, who despatched his victims during the Worlds Fair. Although the book is just as preoccupied by Burnhams masterminding of the event, Rakewell wonders how much screen time Keanu Reeves is really going to share with a slide rule. Still, it has to be an improvement on Knock Knock (2015), in which the actor again played an architect. This time, he is a married man left in the house on his own; a married man who unwisely opens the door to two attractive passing strangers. Lets just say that sexy times lead to harrowing times and let us hope for more, both for Keanu and for ourselves, from the real-life tribulations of Daniel H. Burnham.

Got a story for Rakewell? Get in touch atrakewell@apollomag.comor via @Rakewelltweets.

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Is Keanu Reeves about to become the architect of his own destiny? - Apollo Magazine

The following editorial from Aki Ishida kicks off the Focus section of the July/August 2022 edition of The Architects Newspaper, which showcases the latest and greatest innovations in glass. You can view the entire section, complete with product roundups and case studies, in full here.

In recent decades, technological advancements in chemical coating, structural engineering, and fabrication methods have altered architectural possibilities for the use of glass. As new techniques expand the range of effects and performance of clear glass, glass transparency has become increasingly multivalent and complexit is blurred, both materially and metaphysically. Historical associations of glass with exclusivity and exquisiteness have resulted in todays predicaments of excessive consumption, as evidenced by all-glass iPhones, the curtain walls of luxury high-rises, and other glass buildings and products. At the same time, when we spend more than 90 percent of our day indoors, glass that connects us to the outdoors remains indispensable to architecture.

Beginning in the late 1990s, I worked for four years at the office of glass artist/technologist James Carpenter when glass knowledge was still exclusive relative to today, as now many architecture offices have their own glass and curtain-wall experts. At the time, Carpenters studio worked at the forefront of experimenting with reflective coating (including the polychrome effects of dichroic glass that characterized much of Carpenters early work) and the first use in the United States of cable-net glass walls, designed in collaboration with German engineering firm Schlaich Bergermann Partner.

Building on my professional experience as an architect, in my book Blurred Transparencies in Contemporary Glass Architecture (2020), I examined the intertwining of material, culture, and technology through six case studies and argued that readings of transparent glass are increasingly blurry.

Glasss fragility, which intensifies its exquisiteness, has challenged architects and captured their imagination. From the 11th to the 16th centuries, the secrets of glassmaking were highly coveted by the Venetians until three glassmakers were smuggled in by King Louis XIV of France to realize Versailless Hall of Mirrors. Crystals, glass slippers, coffins, and mirrors often appear symbolically in fairy tales, which describe the collective dreams of a culture. In modern architecture, glass is a material imbued with idealism, symbolism, and utopian vision. Walter Gropius, for example, referenced crystals in the Bauhaus manifesto, writing that the new structure of the future [] will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the crystal symbol of a new faith. It was thought that in early modern sanatorium buildings, including the Zonnestraal (1931) in the Netherlands, solar transmission through the glass walls would heal sick patients, transforming them into healthy workers. Today, these historical examples continue to affect meanings associated with glass.

Following the financial fallout of 2008 and amid increasing concerns about global warming, glass came under attack for being environmentally irresponsible and unaffordable. Bird lovers villainized New Yorks Javits Center as a hazard for birds that flew into its reflective glass walls. In 2014, FXFowle replaced I.M. Pei and Partners (now Pei Cobb Freed & Partners) original glass with fritted glass that is more visible to birds; avian fatalities dropped by 90 percent. In 2019, in response to a surge of glass skyscraper construction in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio alarmed architects and developers by hyperbolically claiming that steel and glass have no place in our city or on our Earth anymore, although what he meant was that the energy code requirements should become more stringent, not that glass would be banned. Architect and academic Andres Jaques 2021 performance Being Silica was a critique of ultra-clear, low-iron glass made with a white sand extracted from a few exclusive locations around the world; the same sand is also used in fracking. Jaque remarked that low-iron glass, which costs three times as much as regular glass with a green tint, has become the material of choice for high-profile glass architecture, including Apple stores and the supertall luxury apartment towers on New York Citys Billionaires Row. In other words, ultra-clear glass symbolizes excessive wealth and environmental exploitation.

Despite the negative attention given to glass in recent years, much of which is based on valid societal concerns, most people would agree that a world without glass would be unimaginably grim and dull. Responding to the climate crisis shouldnt require a ban on glass, but rather more thoughtful applications instead of draping every face of the building with the material, top to bottom. Architects can educate their clients and the public to no longer associate floor-to-ceiling glass with the good life. Excessive fritting, coating, and tinting needed to meet the energy codes defeat the purpose of having glass in the first place.

Architects can also consider smarter couplings of building function and location with the material of glass. For example, SANAAs Glass Pavilion (2006) in Toledo, Ohio, is an all-glass building that recirculates the heat generated by the furnace in a hot glass shop to heat the gallery and office spaces in the winter. As Michael Na Min Ra of facade consulting firm Front shared in my book, this innovative approach to heating and cooling made an all-glass building sensible in the cold climate of Toledo.

Moreover, as architects such as Lacaton & Vassal have shown, transparent walls and windows can be made operable and adjustable, thus offering the occupants a sense of agency in managing their own environment.

Even though glass is no longer specified for its curative effects as it was for tuberculosis sanatoriums a century ago, transparent glass continues to capture our imagination and remains vital to our cities. As advancements in glass surface treatments and engineering continue to alter glass as a material, its visual perception will become further blurred, along with its cultural symbolism.

Aki Ishida is an architect, educator, and writer currently serving as interim associate director of Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design in Blacksburg, Virginia.

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Advances in technology shape contemporary glazing applications - The Architect's Newspaper

Like the Brutalist-style home that Volpato proposed for furniture company owner Nick Scali, his designs were booted by councils because they didnt conform with a neighbourhoods character. They stand out in the drab crowd like the Sea Princess amid a fleet of tankers, reported the Herald in 1982 reporting on Haberfield Councils rejection of another Volpato plan.

Decades before the idea of indoor/outdoor living took off in Australia, Volpato argued that British architecture was too influential, and irrelevant in the Australian climate.

His was a Mediterranean vibe: One of fun and openness with indoors and outdoors merging Id like to see the square massive style typical of Australian architecture disappear, he told Australian House & Garden in 1973.

Other than his familys archives of drawings and records, details of Volpatos work are scant.

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He was typical of many post-war European designers who often worked in obscurity, said Hawcroft. They worked as furniture or industrial and architectural designers when they didnt qualify with the Architects Registration Board. Volpato was self-taught, and though he enrolled in architecture in Australia, his English wasnt proficient enough to continue.

Their name is never really on [the plan], she said. They had to work within a bigger organisation, and so their design work was never attributed ... They dont get known in the same way as people like Harry Seidler, said Hawcroft, the author of the 2017 book, The Other Moderns: Sydneys Forgotten European Design Legacy about these migrants who arrived in Australia up to 1960.

These emigre architects and designers like Volpato were doing their thing, and out of sync with the rest, she said. Many people would say his houses are ugly because they are over the top. They appealed to a cultural group that was not the majority.

Clients either loved him or hated him. But the father of six was unfazed. His son Marco Volpato said his father always broke the norm. He had no fear in expressing his own designs, and turning heads.

Marco Volpato, an architect working in Switzerland and Australia, said the public was now more open to different and fluid styles like his fathers. I often catch myself saying, Hey thats one of Dads designs. Its easy to spot them around Sydney, they are unique and stand out in the crowd.

Gino Volpatos granddaughter Sara Iarossi, and daughters Liris Iarossi and Paola Candi go through some photos of his designs at the family home in Marrickville.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Volpato was indefatigable. When a Sydney council rejected a house saying it conflicted with the areas red brick character, he doorknocked 150 homeowners for their thoughts. They loved it. Volpato won. The council changed its mind.

His daughter Liris Iarossi said her father never stopped. He designed and made the mural at Munmorah Power station, a shopping trolley with a brake, an electric scooter, a tape dispenser for 3M, mausoleums, aged care facilities, and modern office furniture in marble, glass and granite.

When married in the 1950s, he created a sleek modern gown for his wife Adelia, who would have preferred something traditional. And like architects Mies van de Rohe, Marcel Breuer and Harry Seidler, Volpato also designed interiors and furniture.

Working for Sabemo, he designed Wollongongs Sacred Heart Chapel and Italian Centre. Iarossi said her father also designed the pews, the Stations of the Cross and the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary. My father was a hands-on person. He was there day and night, said Iarossi.

In the weeks before he died in 2008, he completed a self-portrait, dictated to-do lists of unfinished designs and artwork for his six children, patents that needed lodging and wrote extensive instructions for his funeral.

He also came up with a design for a floating building, suspended from above, that he instructed his children to pursue.

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Iarossi said her father never wasted a minute. He used to say, You know that minute that just went past? You will never get it back.

His extended family is enjoying the interest in his work. It makes me so happy knowing his legacy lives on and people are appreciating his work, said his granddaughter Sara Iarossi.

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Why is he only a thing now?: The Italian-born architect finding a new audience - Sydney Morning Herald

By: Zephyr Melton August 17, 2022

Gil Hanse is one of the most renowned course architects in the world.

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PARAMUS, N.J. Gil Hanse is a busy man.

The 59-year-old is one of the foremost golf-course architects in the world, and his fingerprints are everywhere in the game. From Olympic Club to Southern Hills to The Country Club (among many others), Hanse has left his mark.

This weeks U.S. Amateur host, Ridgewood Country Club, is no exception. Hanse led a restoration of the classic A.W. Tillinghast design back in the 90s, and three decades later, the course is as good as ever.

And despite the U.S. Amateur being one of the most hectic weeks in golf, Hanse made sure to carve out some time in his schedule to pop over to Ridgewood this week to take in a little of the action. On Wednesday, we found him following along early in the evening as Gordon Sargent and Ford Clegg battled into extra holes.

Hanse might be the busiest man in golf, but he was gracious enough to take a few minutes to chat about his favorite hole on property, the challenges of restoring classic courses and more.

Zephyr Melton: How do you feel the course is holding up so far this week?

Gil Hanse: Its great so far. I think its presenting a really great challenge for these guys the rough is thick and youve got to hit it straight. And I think for a U.S. Amateur thats a great test. I think the thing thats been interesting is that these greens have so much slope in them, that not only from a putting standpoint, but also from an approach standpoint, youve got to hit the ball to certain spots to get it to feed to where you want it to go. Thats been interesting to watch. The subtleties of the greens have been a challenge Im sure.

ZM: Do you ever get nervous watching players compete on courses that youve had a hand in shaping?

GH: Not in this format, because its match play. No one is focused on what they shot its just whoever wins, wins and youve got to get the ball in the hole. Thats a lot easier on the architect, because when you put score into the equation, then not only do you have your own expectations, but also the expectations of the members and if they think its playing too easy or too hard.

ZM: Whats your favorite hole out here on this championship routing?

GH: Well I always get the composite numbers wrong, but Id say its No. 13, the par-5. I love that hole. Every once in a while, youll get a magazine or a book ask you, If there was a hole that you didnt design that you wish you had, which would it be? Ive picked that hole a couple times. Just because of the beauty of it, the way the cross hazard comes into play. The mounds and the way they diagonally set. And with your second shot, if you play it close to the boundary, you open up the angle into the green, but if you play away from the trouble, youve got to come into the green with trouble. And the green in that little bowl I think is a beautiful setting. Id definitely say thats my favorite.

ZM: What are the challenges with restorations in keeping the essence of a course while also challenging the modern player?

GH: I think a lot of what challenges these guys is baked into the original design. Its greens and contours of slopes and rough, of course. But I think where we have to reposition fairway bunkers, we would tend to do that if the topography allows us to shift them downrange to challenge the modern player. And with tees, well extend them too, but not in a way that we would perceive as disconnecting holes like if you had to walk 90 yards back and then walk the same 90 yards back to the fairway. That takes away the essence of these great old golf courses.

But one of the things that Jim Wagner and I have learned, is that if we trust Tillinghast and Donald Ross and George Thomas, 99 percent of the time, they got it right, and its still relevant to todays player. So we try to keep as much of that as we can.

ZM: What makes a great golf hole?

GH: Its having options. What makes a great golf hole in strategy is that the level of precision required to just go play is fairly low, with wide fairways and generous landing areas. But the level of precision required to score meaning accessing hole locations and getting close and making birdies means that youre relying on angles and hazards and theres a thought process to that. And thats not easy to do, but its what we try to accomplish.

ZM: Last question whats harder: playing golf, or designing golf courses?

GH: Playing golf. (laughs) I seldom get frustrated designing golf courses, but I definitely get frustrated when playing.

Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com where he spends his days blogging, producing and editing. Prior to joining the team at GOLF.com, he attended the University of Texas followed by stops with Team USA, the Green Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all things instruction and covers amateur and womens golf.

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Gil Hanse Q&A: Renowned course architect talks the U.S. Amateur, his favorite hole at Ridgewood and more - Golf.com

Edited By Jan Cigliano Hartman | The Women Who Changed Architecture | Princeton Architectural Press | $50.00

Edited by Marcia F. Feuerstein, Paola Zellner Bassett, and Jodi La Coe | Expanding Field of Architecture: Women in Practice Across the Globe | Lund Humphries | $99.99

At the time of this writing, the future for women in the United States looks grim. The U.S. Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade doesnt just mean that women in at least 20 and up to 30 states wont be able to choose when and if they endure pregnancy and childbirth. It also means that some of them wont be able to, for example, leave a bad job because they need the money to raise the child they didnt want to have. It means they wont be able to leave a relationship they dont want to be in anymore because they need to split child-care duties. It means they might die if their pregnancy ends in a miscarriage, the treatment for which is dilation and curettage, the same as a late-term abortion. It means that, in approximately half of this country, women dont have full control over their own fates.

Contemporary politics is a deeply unfair frame through which to review two recently published books about women in architectureThe Women Who Changed Architecture and Expanding Field of Architecturebut doing so offers an opportunity to remark about how to best understand and support womens struggles today.

The first volume (The Women) is a collection of short profiles of more than 144 architects who are women. It takes a consciously revisionist stance; editor Jan Cigliano Hartman claims in her preface that it will change the history of architecture, bringing female architects into the central narrative.

The second (Expanded Field) is not a collection of people but of projects; the editors state up front that they envisioned that this book would be a collection of 40 projects that happen to be designed by women. The desire for this shared trait to appear as a coincidence when it was in fact a deliberate choice reflects a discomfort with the category of woman architect, a clue that there is something not quite right with establishing this category and holding it up as relevant. This discomfort is present in both volumes; in The Women, it appears as a repeated conjuring of Dorte Mandrups proclamation that she is not a female architect but rather, simply, an architect. Instead of interrogating this discomfort, both volumes barrel right through it.

The results are, in the case of The Women, an unfortunately tone-deaf and reductive near-fairytale about the accomplishments of women architects and their contributions to the field of architecture. For its part, Expanding Field is a bland collection of nicely photographed projects from around the world; its only uniting thread is the fact that they were all designed by womenhardly an elucidating metric.

The Women divides its subjects into six chapters, each corresponding to a different generation and featuring an introduction that glosses over the material context in which these women practiced. Some of the essays provide salient historical tidbitsa profile of Joan Forrester Sprague, for example, mentions the economic and housing crisis that influenced her practicebut, relegated to short biographies barely a thousand words long, they hardly constitute enough of a picture for readers to get a real sense of the worlds in which these women worked. Even if a particularly smart reader could piece things together, its hard to believe Hartmans claim that The Women could change the history of architecture when the book dedicates at most two spreads to the full careers of architects with enormous bodies of work. I learned about women architects from The Women, but I also came away with the dreadful feelingwhich increased each time I turned the page and saw a new black-and-white portrait of a woman cropped into a circlethat these women were being tokenized to prove a point.

Expanding Field takes up a similar charge, claiming to contribute to the global effort of normalizing women in leadership roles in the expanding field of architecture. The book focuses more built work than on biography; its objects of study are buildings instead of architects themselves.

Seeing both books together made me ask two questions: First, what points are these books trying to prove? That women have been architects all along? Any fairly smart reader of architectural history (and of history in general, for that matter) already knows this. Or was it their goal to properly recognize womens contributions to the field of architecture? It would take a lot more than a few hundred pages to do that. It will take, namely, changing the collective imaginary and shared references of people in the field, something which can only happen slowly, over time. And second: Who is the intended audience for this? I find it hard to imagine a woman architect whose primary struggle is not seeing enough women in the field. Shed likely be better served by exchanging tips on how to deal with sexism at work.

Mandrup is right that the women featured in these books are architects. The reason they made buildingsthe reason they contributed to the fieldis that theyre architects. The fact of their gender is incidental. If I were them (and any of them are welcome to disagree with me), Id want my work to be recognized for its own merits, held up next to the work of anyone else, not set aside into its own volume, crammed together into a rapid revisionist history or a global survey.

In terms of understanding the impact of women on architecture, Id be more interested in, for example, a history of womens organizations in architecture and design (Why did they get together and how did they do it? What problems did they cite and have any of them improved?) or a survey of the design of spaces used predominantly by women (nurseries, domestic violence shelters, single-sex schools, and gyms, to name a few). The majority of women who interact with buildings are not architects; there is more to be gleaned about the role of architecture in womens livesand about the impact of women on architectureby looking at their experience.

While the books offer interesting historic information and nice images, I dont think we need either to improve the cause of women as an oppressed class in our society. What is the point of making more room for women at the top when really what we need is more roomand more freedomfor women at the bottom? What is the point of celebrating women in positions of leadership as an accomplishment for our gender when our rights are being stripped away?

I am, of course, not saying that people featured in these volumes should not be celebrated as individuals. Many of them overcame personal adversity and societal sexism to achieve professional success. That is laudable. But we should not fall into the trap of believing that individual women gaining power under a deeply unjust system is good for all women. To conflate personal achievement with collective progress is naive at best, cynical at worst, and harmful in all cases.

After reading both books, I detect in each a hope that women will see themselves represented and know it is possible for them to achieve what the women in their pages have done. I find it hard to imagine such a woman. Women dont need books about women architects to understand that they can be anything they want, that they can do anything they want. On that playing field, feminism has already succeeded. Women know that they are capable. We just need basic human rights.

Marianela DAprile is a writer in Brooklyn.

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To advance in today's world, women architects need more than books - The Architect's Newspaper

Remote working arrangements continue to be a popular feature among the openings listed on Archinect Jobs, as many architecture and design firms in need of new team members seek to attract talented applicants regardless of geographic proximity, according to the feedback we received from this Archinect employment survey.

In today's curated job picks, we are highlighting a number of exciting remote working opportunitiesat hiring firms around the country.

To show only positions designated as "remote" on Archinect Jobs, use this direct link or select "Remote" under the "browse by state/country" region selector.

To look up specific job titles from the architectural profession, consult Archinect's Guide to Job Titles series. Also, follow our Archinect Tips series to improve your portfolio, resume, interviewing skills, and increase your overall chances of getting that next job.

OFFICEUNTITLED (OU) seeks three Regional Design Strategy Managers: Bay Area, APAC, and EMEA - Germany and/or India"We are seeking a Regional Design Strategy Manager to partner with our clients talented global real estate design and development organization. The role focuses on the strategic planning and design management of our clients workplace hospitality-forward amenity programs. Working as contributors to the clients real estate organization, the Regional Design Strategy Manager is responsible for the holistic execution and implementation of the strategic vision for the companys hospitality-forward amenity programs at specific sites."

OFFICEUNTITLED (OU) is also currently hiring a Regional Design Strategy Manager (LA/NY) and Interior Designer in Culver City, California.

HUTS seeks a Designer/Project Coordinator, Senior Designer/Project Lead, Architectural Draftsperson, and Customer Success Coordinator - Studio"HUTS in on the hunt for excellent architectural designers with demonstrated production, organizational and communication skills that are ready to make an immediate impact on our residential design and development projects. [...] Familiarity in residential design, building codes, construction techniques, detailing, permit process, producing CD sets, and building technologies."

Carbon Leadership Forum, University of Washington seeks three Embodied Carbon Researchers"The Carbon Leadership Forum, a research organization based out of the University of Washington's College of Built Environment, is seeking a collaborativeResearcherto help execute our mission to accelerate the decarbonization of the building sector through eliminating the embodied carbon in building materials and construction through collective action."

Perkins&Will seeks a Digital Content Manager"Perkins&Will is seeking a self-motivated, detail-oriented, and highly collaborative Digital Content Manager to oversee the creation and distribution of compelling, high-impact digital content. This highly strategic leadership role is responsible for enhancing public perception of the firms global brand by ensuring excellence in communication on the firms website, microsites, social media channels, e-newsletters, and other multimedia platforms."

SFJones Architects, Inc. seeks a Project Architect/Job Captain"SFJones Architects is an established boutique architectural/interior design firm specializing in restaurants and commercial projects. [...] The position is for an Project Architect/Job Captain who is capable of running a project and creating working drawings either independently or with other team members. The candidate will work directly with the principal on the project designs and with other team members and a BIM manager using our templates."

Neme Design Studio, Inc seeks a Facade Designer/Project Architect"We are Faade Design Consultants and Digital Fabrication Specialists based in Los Angeles, California. [...] The candidates role is a Facade Designer working under a Senior Facade Designer to design, model and document facade systems."

Omgivning Architecture / Interior Design seeks a Job Captain "Were looking for a Job Captain that is excited to learn and get in the trenches of all scales and scopes, from large adaptive reuse to small scale TI projects. [...] 5-6 years of applicable, professional work experience for Job Captain (2+ for Designer level)"

Check out also Omgivning's opportunity for a Senior Interior Designer/Senior Interior Architect III in Los Angeles.

Arktura LLC seeks an Industrial Designer"Arktura LLC, a global technology and design manufacturer of Architectural Systems is searching for a Industrial Designer who has a refined design sensibility, enthusiasm, anda passion for making things. You will join a collaborative multidisciplinary team of designers, engineers, software developers, scientists, and sales, and marketing experts in our state of the art Los Angeles Manufacturing Headquarters, where we will design the future of the built environment."

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Work from anywhere: 15 featured remote job opportunities for architects and designers - Archinect

The Portland Museum of Art, which plans an expansion in coming years, has come up with a short list of architects.

Earlier this year, the museumannounced plans for an $85 million expansionat 142 Free St. that would incorporate the former home of the Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine.

To find an architecture team for its "campus unification and expansion" plan, the museum worked with New York City-based Dovetail Design Strategists.

On Aug. 11, the museum named four teams in the runningfor the project. They are:

The PMA has committed itself to a mission of art for all, and said principles of diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as sustainability, will guide the selection process.

Nearly a third of the lead firms, or 30%, were founded or are owned by people of color; 16% were founded or are owned by women.

We are deeply moved by the diversity of experience and records of innovation represented in these submissions, said Mark H.C. Bessire, the Judy and Leonard Lauder Director of the Portland Museum of Art.

Our aspirations as a cultural institution are far greater than simply building a building, and when we launched the competition, we were curious to see if our colleagues in the architectural world were equally interested in the paradigm shift we were imagining. Turns out, they were.

The museum said it hopes to create centers of belonging and foster social change.

File Photo / Tim Greenway

Mark Bessire, director of the Portland Museum of Art

It was vital to us as jurors to ensure our unique character as a region was considered in thesubmissions, said PMA board member Kyo Bannai.

Portland and Maine are international destinations and proudly welcome visitors from around the world, yet this is due to a recognizable, evolving, and renowned cultural landscape that must be elevated and sustained through this new landmark building and competition.

The present museum has been virtually unchanged for the past four decades. The museum said it has made no increases in the number of galleries, visitor amenities or capacity.

InFebruary, the museum committed to an agreement to conduct and manage a design competition for the Campus Reunification Project for a contracted cost of $250,000 plus reimbursable expenses, according to its annual report.

The Campus Reunification Project seeks to unify the museums downtown Portland campus through construction at 142 Free St., which is the former Childrens Museum & Theatre of Maine. The PMA paid $2.1 million for the building in 2019.

With the expansion, the museum expects to add 60,000 square feet of flexible space with gallery and community space.

The museum collection includes some 18,000 objects. Its principal structure is the Charles Shipman Payson building, which was designed by I.M. Pei & Partners and opened in 1983. The PMA also owns the McLellan House, Charles Quincy Clapp House andL.D.M. Sweat Memorial Galleries, as well as the historic Winslow Home Studio on Prouts Neck in Scarborough.

Through Jan. 31, the museum had assets of $80.9 million. For the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, it had expenses of $8.6 million, according to its annual report.

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Portland museum gets closer to expansion with short list of potential architects - Mainebiz

The artistry of Frank Lloyd Wright is front and center when it comes to Prairie School architecture. But other architects made enduring impacts. A new group turns the spotlight on George Washington Maher, an under-recognized designer of buildings throughout the Midwest.

Marc Vitali: At the corner of Pleasant Street and Home Avenue in Oak Park stands Pleasant Home also known as the John Farson House.

The early Prairie-style residence was completed in 1897 and is a National Historic Landmark.

Kevin Brown, Pleasant Home Foundation: A lot of Prairie School design, early Prairie School especially, was pretty devoid of extraneous ornamentation. If you look at Pleasant Home especially, theres a lot of pretty elaborate motifs that are woven into those designs and corbels and other accents, and that was not typical for what people think of for Prairie School work by Frank Lloyd Wright, for example.

Vitali: Pleasant Home was designed by a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright, George Washington Maher.

Brown: Pleasant Home was really his first foray into Prairie School architecture and one of the earliest examples of Prairie School design. When it was designed and built in 1897, it was highly borrowed from or copied, especially across the Midwest from other architects because it was groundbreaking, not just the exterior look of it, the Prairie School forms, but also the interior design, the open-flowing spaces which obviously he and Wright have that in common as well.

Vitali: Maher buildings are all over the region.

This limestone mansion is in East Garfield Park.

This brick home is one of several in Beverly.

And theres a group of his residences in the Buena Park neighborhood each one filled with fine craftsmanship and incredible details.

George Maher designed his own family home in Kenilworth in 1893. Its on the National Register of Historic Places.

Some of his work borrowed from the English Arts and Crafts movement.

Other buildings had a symmetry uncommon to the Prairie School or decorative touches that show the influence of Louis Sullivan.

Brown: Hed take geometric shapes and natural motifs like flowers and plants, and he would use those throughout the design to create a sort of design harmony.

He gets lumped in with the Prairie School of architects and for a lot of his career he definitely did design Prairie houses or Prairie-leaning houses, but a lot of the elements that he incorporated were European, and he was always into European architecture and design.

I think thats one of the major differences between him and Wright. Similarly, they advocated for an indigenous American architecture, and they practiced to develop an indigenous American architecture, but its very obvious the borrowing from Maher of European designs, and youll see that as his career evolved.

Vitali: The Pleasant Home Foundation just launched the George Maher Society, whose mission is to document Maher designs and preserve his legacy.

Kevin Brown started the Society he also lives in a George Maher House that hes currently renovating in Blue Island.

Brown: Were one of the lucky handful of people that get to live in one of his designs and for me its like living in a work of art. Youre kind of a shepherd, a steward of a work of art.

Vitali: Maher also did institutional design the Bathing Beach Aquatorium still stands Gary, Indiana.

Some designs havent survived like Patten Gymnasium on the campus of Northwestern. More recently, Mahers Chicago Town and Tennis Center was demolished in June 2020.

Brown: Theres a lot of buildings and houses that people walk by in their everyday life that they dont know the history of, or they dont the significance of them. We want to shine a light on some of these communities, see where theyve been, where theyre at, and where theyre going.

Vitali: George Mahers career was cut short when he took his own life in 1926 after his health declined.

His son took over the business and had a successful career as an architect.

Brown: Family was very important to him. The client was important to him -- their tastes, the way they lived, their everyday lives was very important to him.

He wanted to create a democratic architecture, an architecture for the people.

More on this story: Find out more about the newly formed George Washington Maher Society and Pleasant Home.

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Big Houses on the Prairie: the Chicago Area Homes of Architect George Maher - WTTW News

Pappageorge Haymes Partners David Haymes, HP Architectures Jim Plunkard and BKL Architectures Thomas Patrick Kerwin (Pappageorge Haymes, HP Architecture, BKL Architecture, Illustration by Priyanka Modi for The Real Deal with Getty)

Pencils down: Chicagos busiest architecture firms are bKL Architecture and Pappageorge Haymes Partners, which filed 28 major project permits each in a five-year stretch and cite strong residential demand.

High-rise residential buildings made up many of the larger projects. The Real Deal combed city permit data to find which architects were named for the most major projects in each of the last five years.

TRD pulled permit data from Chicagos open data portal and looked at all new construction permits reviewed. Click here to see a map of every permit approved since 2017.Those projects include new construction of buildings higher than 80 feet, non-residential projects exceeding 150,000 square feet, residential projects with 50 or more units, schools more than 60,000 square feet and projects with two or more basement levels.

Remote and hybrid work schedules dont seem to have affected someones desire to live near the downtown core.

Tom Kerwin, founding principal of bKL Architecture, said his projects during those years totaled $1.65 billion in hard construction costs. Among bKLs most notable ones is the $150 million Cascade Chicago, a luxury apartment building at 455 East Waterside Drive Lakeshore East that was the citys priciest.

Kerwin said most projects are going ahead, even after costs rose because of supply-chain issues. Demand kept up with escalation, he said.

The Loop is the hub of the firms business, and Kerwin is seeing more permits in the West Loop for major structures. He noted that the 2020 census showed a slight uptick in Chicagos population, which he said indicates that people still want to move to the city.

Remote and hybrid work schedules dont seem to have affected someones desire to live near the downtown core, Kerwin said.

Tim Kent, a partner at Pappageorge Haymes Partners, said projects slowed in 2020 and picked back up as the pandemic eased.

A lot of those projects came roaring back, he said. Chicago has shown that its pretty resilient.

Two of the firms most notable recent projects are a 444-unit high-rise at 465 North Park Drive and Wolf Point East, which brings almost 700 units to the convergence of the north and south branches of the Chicago River. The city has had significant development along transportation corridors, something city leadership is pushing for, and in Fulton Market.

Theres been a huge amount of work going on in Fulton Market, Kent said. Thats a seismic shift in the development pattern of Chicago, and well see whether that has a long-term effect on other developed areas, whether the Loop itself or River North.

More people are living in the Loop as well.

If you go back 20 to 25 years, the Loop wasnt a residential neighborhood, he said.Still, he said his firm is looking for opportunities on the South side where he said Mayor Lori Lightfoots Invest South/West initiative will help spur development.

Jim Plunkards Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture came in third, with 27 major project permits. Its designing the mixed-use megaproject that Onni Group is bringing to Goose Island.

Joe Antunovich of Antunovich Associates, who was named on 23 major project permits from 2017 to 2021, described absorption of apartments in Chicago as bottomless and said work has been busy downtown and in the West Loop. He attributed that to corporations with headquarters located there and young people wanting to live near where they work.

Who wouldve known the West Loop wouldve grown incredibly as it has. I dont think anyone saw that coming, he said. Companies like Google and McDonalds made that happen.

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Here are architects with Chicagos most big projects - The Real Deal