Reporting from Shichigahama, Japan

Five architects made presentations to a design jury, hoping for a chance to design a replacement for the local middle school, heavily damaged a year ago by the earthquake and tsunami that killed an estimated 19,000 people, including at least 58 here, and destroyed more than 120,000 buildings.

Kumiko Inui, a 42-year-old rising star of the Tokyo architecture scene, ultimately won the competition with an impressive design featuring tall glass-wrapped classroom wings paired with smaller wooden pavilions in a lush tree-covered landscape.

INTERACTIVE PHOTOS: Before and after tsunami cleanup

But an ugly reminder of the disaster loomed over the presentations: A three-story-high pile of tsunami debris, visible through large picture windows along the side of the room, that didn't so much mock the architectural discussion as dwarf it.

As Japan nears the anniversary of the disaster this Sunday, such scenes are playing out all over northeastern Japan. Huge, neatly sorted piles of debris dot the Tohoku region, symbols of a recovery that has stalled at the cleanup stage.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, his approval rating in danger of sinking below 30%, has faced wide criticism for failing to articulate a broad vision for rebuilding. The national Reconstruction Agency wasn't officially launched until February, 11 months after the disaster.

And though Toyo Ito, Kazuyo Sejima and other leading Japanese architects have joined emerging talents like Inui in sketching out thoughtful plans for new housing and civic architecture, their efforts have so far garnered little support from politicians in Tokyo.

The most intractable issue is whether the hardest hit fishing villages, already losing population before the disaster, should be rebuilt as they were or consolidated. In a broader sense, the nation has struggled with basic issues at the core of reconstruction, particularly the way the tsunami has exposed gaps between rich and poor, young and old, rural and urban, and between the nation's technological haves and have-nots.

In much the same way that Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath gave Americans a discomfiting picture of their own society, the events of March 11 have laid bare a Japan more divided than the national discourse here lets on.

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Japan Disaster: A Year Later: Without a blueprint

New campus buildings get designed, built and renovated no matter who's leading the University of Memphis.

But Shirley Raines has the university building architects as well as their designs, and she's using design to engage the campus with the surrounding community, architects say.

American Institute of Architects Memphis is honoring the U of M president's contribution to the field by bestowing its 2012 Francis Gassner Award on Raines during its annual Celebration of Architecture Design Gala on March 31.

The Francis Gassner Award honors each year an architect or member of a related profession for outstanding contributions to the quality of Memphis' built environment.

In her first 10 years as university president, Raines has led more than a dozen key building projects, including the new University Center, Honors residence hall, the FedEx Institute of Technology, the Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality and Resort Management, and the relocation of the law school to the historic Downtown location on the Mississippi River.

The new or improved facilities "have had an immeasurable impact on the student body and surrounding community," AIA Memphis states.

Raines said Monday she's accepting the award on behalf of the university.

"We have sought to build environments representative of one of America's great metropolitan research universities," she said.

"We seek to create environments that promote learning and involve students' and community members' engagement on and off the campus."

There's always been a construction cycle on campus.

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Local architects to honor University of Memphis president Shirley Raines

With the help of 21st-century technology, architects are harnessing that oldest of Earth's resources - sunlight - as never before.

Builders have been manipulating it for centuries, says Dr. Wayne Place, architecture professor and head of the daylighting lab at N.C. State's College of Design. Consider the Gothic cathedrals, he says. "Basically, they were all about two things, structure and light."

The difference today is that, with computers and other design tools, architects and daylighting consultants can make maximum use of the sun's benefits while blotting out its heat and glare.

"When the sun gets down low on the horizon, it's like a headlight shining through your window," says architect Steven Sweat of Neighboring Concepts in Charlotte. And that, says Dr. Dale Brentrup, professor and head of the daylighting lab at UNC Charlotte's College of Architecture, can send air conditioning bills through the roof.

During the gas crises of the 1970s, energy bills and uneasiness about dependence on foreign energy sources jump-started the current embrace of the Earth's oldest resource.

Soon, other reasons for including as much daylight as possible in new buildings emerged. It's a nonpolluting energy source, and the U.S. Green Building Council started giving LEED points for it.

Studies in selected elementary schools in Washington State, Colorado and California and in a large retail chain showed that both children's grades and retail sales went up in the presence of ample daylight.

N.C.'s best examples

Showcase buildings in North Carolina have bought into the philosophy, using everything from exterior glass walls individually tailored to the amount of sunlight (University of North Carolina at Charlotte's new $50.4 million Center City building in Charlotte) to 11-foot-2 ceilings with super-tall windows (the Wildlife Resources Commission's 2005 LEED Gold-rated headquarters on Raleigh's Centennial Campus).

Gantt Huberman Architects of Charlotte, partnering with Kieran Timberlake Architects of Philadelphia, divided the 12-story UNCC building into multistory blocks cantilevered above each other. They give both shade and a distinctive appearance that the university likens to "a stack of books."

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Computers help architects harness sun

By James S. Russell - Tue Mar 13 04:01:00 GMT 2012

James Ewing/Museum of Modern Art via Bloomberg

A proposal for flexible housing to be built on an abandoned industrial site in Cicero, Illinois, by the Chicago architecture firm Studio Gang. It is one of five concepts for five cities envisioned in the exhibition "Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream," at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

A proposal for flexible housing to be built on an abandoned industrial site in Cicero, Illinois, by the Chicago architecture firm Studio Gang. It is one of five concepts for five cities envisioned in the exhibition "Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream," at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Photographer: James Ewing/Museum of Modern Art via Bloomberg

The New York architecture firm MOS proposes to insert housing in the underused streets near a train station in Orange, New Jersey. Their concept is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, as part of the exhibition "Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream."

The New York architecture firm MOS proposes to insert housing in the underused streets near a train station in Orange, New Jersey. Their concept is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, as part of the exhibition "Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream." Source: MoMA/MOS via Bloomberg

A rendering of the edge of Keizer, a suburb of Salem, Oregon, as imagined by the architecture firm WORKac. It posits higher density as a means of preserving nature. It is part of the exhibition "Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream" at MoMA.

A rendering of the edge of Keizer, a suburb of Salem, Oregon, as imagined by the architecture firm WORKac. It posits higher density as a means of preserving nature. It is part of the exhibition "Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream" at MoMA. Source: WORKac via Bloomberg

Museum of Modern Art via Bloomberg

For an almost empty residential tract in Rialto, California, architect Andrew Zago conceived houses draped with sheltering grill work on sites where property lines have been rearranged to make more efficient use of land. The project is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition "Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream."

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Foreclosed Homeowners Inspire Museum’s Architects Show: James S. Russell

HARRISBURG, IL (KFVS) -

Saturday kicks off a week-long effort to help get displaced storm victims started on repairing or replacing their homes.

A team of students and faculty from the SIU School of Architecture will be at the Harrisburg Public Library from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 10, and every day through March 17.

They'll be offering free residential design services to families whose homes were damaged or destroyed.

The architects and architects-in-training will visit the home sites, take pictures and collect information about the location. Then they'll evaluate what remains of the home. Based on interviews with the families, they'll create working drawings to repair or replace the homes.

"They'll design new homes at no cost to homeowners to walk them through the entire process of putting their homes back together," said Harrisburg Mayor Eric Gregg. "Those are things you don't think about on day one, but you definitely think about it going forward because that's a huge need. There are hundreds of homes that have been damaged and if you've got people who are experts willing to come in and help us, we're going to greet them with our arms wide open."

SIU organizers say the goal is to offer a valuable service to families at this early stage, to help them plan and begin preparing for the future as well as offer students valuable hands-on learning experience.

Homeowners are encouraged to bring in photographs of their home before the tornado to help with the design.

Copyright 2012 KFVS. All rights reserved.

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SIU architects to help Harrisburg tornado victims redesign homes

Leicester manager Nigel Pearson was disappointed with his team's performance in the 3-1 defeat to in-form Reading.

Mikele Leigertwood gave put the Royals ahead after 15 minutes before Jason Roberts and Simon Church scored late on to wrap up the points, meaning Neil Danns' injury-time goal was only a consolation.

Pearson said: "Reading are good team in a rich vein of form but we contributed to our own downfall.

"We need to start games better. The annoying thing is that we have caused problems by not applying ourselves in the right way in the first half. I will have to consider making changes.

"To make the play-offs now is a massive task. We have had two games this week where we have contributed massively to our own downfall. I am unhappy about the way we have gone about the game.

"There's a lot of hard work to be done because that was not good enough and I will be demanding a reaction in our next game against Birmingham."

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Pearson: Architects of our own downfall

The annual Tour of Architects, which showcases some of the top residential design work in the Pacific Northwest (including the house pictured here), is Saturday (March 17) and Sunday (March 18), and March 24 and 25.

The architects and their clients offer an opportunity for the public to visit custom homes and architecturally designed spaces, and to meet the architects who designed them.

The event, sponsored by AIA Seattle and AIA Southwest Washington, offers four tours on four different days. Tour One (Saturday) features projects in the Tacoma, Gig Harbor and Port Orchard areas. Tour Two (Sunday) features projects on Bainbridge Island. Tour Three (March 24) features projects in Seattle. Tour Four (March 25) features projects in Seattle and on the Eastside.

Tickets are $20 per tour, $35 for a weekend pass, or $50 for two-weekend pass. Profits will be donated to Wild Fish Conservancy.

Tickets and info at http://www.TourofArchitects.com; email Liz@TourofArchitects.com or call 206-819-3618.

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Annual tour of custom homes in the area coming up

Ashley McGraw Architects announced the addition of ELIZABETH SAYED as a project architect in the college and university studio. Sayed has five years of professional experience, having worked at Ithaca College, Onondaga Community College, State University College at Brockport, State University College at Cortland, State University College at Oneonta and Syracuse University. She is a 2007 graduate of the Syracuse University School of Architecture.

VIP Architectural Associates, PLLC, announced KATIE CARROLL and BRIAN DIONNE have joined the firm as intern architects. Carroll, of Syracuse, and Dionne, of Canastota, earned a master of architecture degree at Syracuse University.

APRIL WHISENHUNT has joined M&T Bank at the Canastota branch at 3375 Seneca Turnpike as branch manager. She has more than 13 years of banking experience. Her experiences include a position as the regional office manager for the Oneida Savings Bank; money manager for Carolina First Bank; and customer representative at Citizen Financial Group.

Gilberti Stinziano Heintz & Smith, P.C., announced the following new hires: CHRISTOPHER J. STEVENS, has been hired as an associate attorney in the litigation department. Stevens previously worked under the Justice Leslie E. Stein, New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department. He received his law degree from Albany Law School, graduating magna cum laude. PATRICK D. DONNELLY, has been hired as an associate attorney in the real property tax assessment and condemnation practice group and also the environmental practice group. He previously was an associate with Jacobowitz & Gubits, LLP. He attended Pace University School of Law.

The following individuals joined St. Josephs Hospital Health Center as active medical staff: Dr. ARAN W. LAING of Penfield, internal medicine; and Dr. LOUIS C. RIVERA of Oakland, Calif., emergency.

Turning Stone Resort Casinos The Villages RV Park has received a perfect score in the 2012 Trailer Life RV Parks and Campgrounds Directory. The Villages is one of only 18 Good Sam RV parks in the U.S. and Canada and the only one in New York to earn a score of 30 out of 30 points.

Excellus BlueCross BlueShield has been named among the Healthiest Companies in America by Interactive Health Solutions Inc.

Submit announcements about people in your company to business@syracuse.com. Please include text in the body of the e-mail, not as an attachment. Photos, color preferred, can be sent as attachments.

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Company News: Elizabeth Sayed hired by Ashley McGraw Architects

To hear Sharon Litwin's interview with Lake Douglas on WWNO radio, clickhere.

Hard to believe that Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday. Already its spring, although the trees and flowers have known that for weeks.

With the season come thoughts of planting and gardens, both private and public. But not everyone has the artistic vision to design an elegant outdoor space nor a green thumb, even in this area of lush foliage. So for someone like me, who practices her own horticultural version of Darwins Theory of Evolution (if it lives, it lives; if it dies, it dies), its probably best to go sit some other place and be the beneficiary of a real landscape architect's skills.

We are lucky in our city to have a number of sites to choose from. So imagine my surprise to learn that, in New Orleans, the identification of landscape architecture as a formal academic occupation is fairly new. The history of our 200-year-old citys outdoor design landscape made me think such skills must be the outcome of a profession long taught.

Not so, says Lake Douglas, Associate Professor in theRobert Reich School of Landscape Architecture at Louisiana State University.

Numerous examples of early professionally designed outdoor spaces exist around town; theNew Orleans Botanical Garden, one of the few remaining examples of public garden design from the 1930s Art Deco period,is one. It was built by William Weidorn, a professionally trained landscape architect from Cornell University brought down to work on City Park. But it wasnt until several years later that another Cornell University graduate and ardent believer arrived in Louisiana, bent on creating a formally accredited university academic program.

'Doc' Reich, as we call him now, came to Louisiana in the 40s and started the program, Lake says of Robert Reich, for whom the LSU School of Landscape Architecture is named and who died in 2010. He remained on faculty teaching until he died. Students actually went to see him in assisted living, where he worked with them up to age 97.

Today landscape architecture projects can range from those as modest as private garden designs to those addressing issues of such huge scale as coastal erosion or managing environmental disasters.

Currently involved in a grass-roots effort to increase this citys inventory of public green spaces through the creation of the Lafitte Corridor Greenway, Lake uses several already-constructed projects to demonstrate to his students excellent examples of thoughtful and successful local landscape architecture.

You can look at improvements to the Audubon Zoo, which used to be thought of as an animal ghetto and now is one of the most impressive zoos in the world, he says. And then theres the new Big Lake area of City Park, a project made possible through the Trust for Public Land. When you pass by it you can see people walking, running, skateboarding from 7 in the morning until 7 at night. Its wonderful.

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Landscape architects shape city's green spaces

Needham could fix its two aging and overcrowded elementary schools by reshuffling populations among five town schools, according to a pre-feasibility study.

Dore and Whittier, an architectural firm hired by the Needham School Committee to study Hillside and Mitchell Elementary Schools, presented four options for the two schools at a School Committee meeting on March 7.

According to Massachusetts School Building Association standards, the two schools house nearly twice as many students as they should.

The buildings are also in need of renovation. In 2010, the MSBA rated Mitchell a two on a scale of one to four, where a four denotes poor conditions and a one denotes good conditions. Hillside earned a ranking of three.

Dore and Whittiers four options are intended to solve those overcrowding and aging problems.

One [option] involves looking at Hillside and Mitchell and what we can do with the populations as they currently exist, said Dore and Whittier principal Donald Walter. That plan would either keep the current populations at each school; put kindergarten and first grade at Hillside and second grade through fifth grade at Mitchell; or put grades kindergarten through third grade at Mitchell and fourth and fifth grade at Hillside.

The second option, said Walter, involves repurposing Hillside and either combining the two school populations at the Mitchell site in two buildings, or in one building.

Essentially you would have two buildings under one roof. You would still have Hillside and Mitchell, but they would share some of the core facilities, said Walter. That option would concentrate upwards of 900 students at one site, far more than Needhams current biggest elementary school, Newman, which houses 641 students.

Option three would move High Rock, Needhams sixth grade school, to Pollard Middle School or to DeFazio Park. It would move Hillside to Newman and part of Newman to High Rock, renovate or rebuild Mitchell and repurpose the Hillside site.

Option four would install full-day kindergarten--long on Needhams wish list--lump grade five with grade six at Pollard or DeFazio, then relocate Hillside to Newman, part of Newman at High Rock, renovate Mitchell and repurpose Hillside.

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Architects present four options for overcrowded Needham schools