Architects live and breathe design, blissfully losing themselves in details most people would never notice — the bevel of a trim, the way light falls across a room, squared legs or curved.

So what happens, we wondered, when two such aesthetes come together under one roof?

Do they lie awake at night, pondering three-inch moldings or four? Is there a prenup for the Eames chairs? Do they fight tooth and nailhead?

Judging from the example set by these married Baltimore architects who live and work together, it all comes together much more smoothly than any of that.

These couples each share a style philosophy. Considering how essential such matters are to architects, one can imagine them writing it right into their vows … for richer, for poorer, for mid-century modern …

Their homes are not just harmonious; they speak to the principles their inhabitants live by.

One of the couples, Laura and Jeffrey Penza, have a piece hanging in their entryway, a poem written in calligraphy and framed, that gets to that very point.

"If two should architect one house, what would happen when the two should join? And one imagines wires and mortar and pipes that never somehow quite do meet. But when it comes to building a dream and a life of two in one, ah, then indeed the two must architect together and build their home of love."

Laura Thul Penza and Jeffrey Penza

Penza Bailey Architects

They met, as so many architects seem to, studying their field. Laura Penza can pinpoint her first brush with Jeffrey nearly down to the minute. It happened during their fourth year at the University of Cincinnati, the first day of spring quarter, to be precise.

"The eyes locked," she says, as he nods in agreement. "It was one of those."

They married in 1983, not long after graduation, and migrated to Baltimore. They weren't working together right away, but when Jeffrey began took charge of a firm, it wasn't too long before Laura was at his side.

In the office, they complement one another but have their own roles. But at home, it seems to be a tandem project.

The couple looked at nearly 200 houses before deciding on a 1930s deceptively large stone cottage on a corner lot in Homeland. They had wanted a fixer-upper, something they could gut and revive, where they could put into practice everything they had learned in school. They got a near-faultless house but spent years making it their own anyway.

They like to say they touched every side of it, adding a bay window to the front, a breakfast nook on one side, a family room for the back.

But it's in other, smaller, touches that one really gets a feel for the Penzas — in the vibrant, creative accessories.

"It's a very traditional house in a very traditional neighborhood," Jeffrey says. "It stayed traditional, but it has a contemporary flair."

The living room started with an Azeri rug from Turkey that they found at Alex Cooper. Big and bold, with reds, pinks, and blues, they balance it by keeping the rest of the room neutral.

More here:
From Sun Magazine: When architects build a marriage — and design a home

Architects live and breathe design, blissfully losing themselves in details most people would never notice — the bevel of a trim, the way light falls across a room, squared legs or curved.

So what happens, we wondered, when two such aesthetes come together under one roof?

Do they lie awake at night, pondering three-inch moldings or four? Is there a prenup for the Eames chairs? Do they fight tooth and nailhead?

Judging from the example set by these married Baltimore architects who live and work together, it all comes together much more smoothly than any of that.

These couples each share a style philosophy. Considering how essential such matters are to architects, one can imagine them writing it right into their vows … for richer, for poorer, for mid-century modern …

Their homes are not just harmonious; they speak to the principles their inhabitants live by.

One of the couples, Laura and Jeffrey Penza, have a piece hanging in their entryway, a poem written in calligraphy and framed, that gets to that very point.

"If two should architect one house, what would happen when the two should join? And one imagines wires and mortar and pipes that never somehow quite do meet. But when it comes to building a dream and a life of two in one, ah, then indeed the two must architect together and build their home of love."

Laura Thul Penza and Jeffrey Penza

Penza Bailey Architects

They met, as so many architects seem to, studying their field. Laura Penza can pinpoint her first brush with Jeffrey nearly down to the minute. It happened during their fourth year at the University of Cincinnati, the first day of spring quarter, to be precise.

"The eyes locked," she says, as he nods in agreement. "It was one of those."

They married in 1983, not long after graduation, and migrated to Baltimore. They weren't working together right away, but when Jeffrey began took charge of a firm, it wasn't too long before Laura was at his side.

In the office, they complement one another but have their own roles. But at home, it seems to be a tandem project.

The couple looked at nearly 200 houses before deciding on a 1930s deceptively large stone cottage on a corner lot in Homeland. They had wanted a fixer-upper, something they could gut and revive, where they could put into practice everything they had learned in school. They got a near-faultless house but spent years making it their own anyway.

They like to say they touched every side of it, adding a bay window to the front, a breakfast nook on one side, a family room for the back.

But it's in other, smaller, touches that one really gets a feel for the Penzas — in the vibrant, creative accessories.

"It's a very traditional house in a very traditional neighborhood," Jeffrey says. "It stayed traditional, but it has a contemporary flair."

The living room started with an Azeri rug from Turkey that they found at Alex Cooper. Big and bold, with reds, pinks, and blues, they balance it by keeping the rest of the room neutral.

See the original post:
SUN MAGAZINE When architects build a marriage — and design a home

I NDIANAPOLIS -- Tom Lewand did his usual drive-by at the Super Bowl this year.

He showed his face at a few league functions, made small talk over a couple of meals, and by the time the Giants and Patriots kicked off Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday night, the Lions' president was back home, far from the spectacle of the game.

"For me, it's always a reminder that we're one of the 30 teams that isn't here, and that's not what we aspire to," Lewand explained of his annual pilgrimage home before kickoff. "I used to come down to Super Bowls with Roger Penske before we hosted because Roger was our chair of the host committee and Roger would always wonder why I left on Saturday night or Sunday morning, 'What are you doing?'

"I said, 'Roger, if your car doesn't qualify for the Indy 500 in the month of May, do you stick around for the race?' And he said, 'Say no more. I'll see you back in Detroit.' That's the feeling that you get here more than anything else."

Lewand's approach is understandable. Plenty of players in the NFL do the same. They want nothing to do with the Super Bowl until they're in one.

But had he chosen to stay Sunday, Lewand would have seen the Giants validate his team's blueprint with a thrilling 21-17 victory at Lucas Oil Stadium.

New York won its second championship in four years with the same plan the Lions hope will pay off for them. Start with a cold-blooded quarterback on offense, mix in a dominant pass rush on defense, let the two marinate with some good personnel moves and harden into a Super Bowl ring.

Designing a brilliant building isn't the same as constructing one. You need the right materials and the best workers, and there are 31 other architects in the NFL eyeing the same piece of real estate.

But to the Lions' credit, they appear to have a foundation in place.

Matthew Stafford isn't in Eli Manning's class as a quarterback yet, but he has the talent to be. He just threw for 5,000 yards, the fourth player in NFL history to accomplish that feat, and he turns 24 today, the same age Manning was when he became a full-time starter in his second season in the league.

Manning, of course, has two titles and two Super Bowl MVPs to his name -- Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw and Bart Starr are the only other players with that distinction -- and after 119 straight starts he has a staying power Stafford can't claim yet.

Likewise, the Giants have constructed a defensive line that, through four years and countless changes, has been the fuel for two Super Bowl runs. Justin Tuck, one of the few holdovers from New York's Super Bowl XLII team, had two sacks in both games, but Jason Pierre-Paul replaced Michael Strahan as the Giants' top pass rusher, and New York has new starters at both defensive tackle positions.

The Lions have cornerstone pass rushers in Ndamukong Suh and Cliff Avril, a pending free agent who's likely to return to Detroit, and general manager Martin Mayhew has made no bones about his desire to keep the line well-stocked for years to come.

Mayhew jumped at the chance to draft defensive tackle Nick Fairley 13th overall last year, adding to a position of strength, and it wouldn't surprise anyone if he winds up with another pass rusher in April.

Beyond Avril's contract situation, Corey Williams and Lawrence Jackson are entering the final years of their deals and at 33 there's no telling how much longer Kyle Vanden Bosch will be around.

Coach Jim Schwartz said last week it's impossible to tell how close teams really are to winning a Super Bowl in the NFL. The last two winners needed victories at the end of the regular season to get in the playoffs, got hot and went on miraculous postseason runs.

The NFC will be a grind next season. Manning and the Giants aren't going anywhere, the Packers are still the team to beat in the NFC North, the Saints and 49ers are coming off 13-win seasons, and the Bears were a playoff-caliber team until Matt Forte and Jay Cutler got hurt.

But the Lions at least have a plan in place that has been tried and tested and proven to work.

"I think we're close," Stafford said. "I think we've got some steps to make. Obviously, there's teams year in year out that make it to the playoffs and don't go back to the playoffs for a couple more years. Hopefully we can avoid that, we can be smart enough and tough enough to go out there and make it back to the playoffs, and then anything can happen from there."

Contact Dave Birkett: 313-222-8831 or dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @freeplions.

View post:
Dave Birkett: Lions' architects following a super blueprint for success

Design costs for the Beale Street Landing project shot up by more than a half million dollars as architects modified plans to deal with unstable soil along the Mississippi River, records show.

The Riverfront Development Corp., the nonprofit firm under contract with Memphis to oversee parks along the Mississippi, so far has paid $4.42 million in architectural fees for the project, according to figures provided by RDC.

That's an increase of almost $570,000 from the $3.85 million RDC said it had spent on design as of July 31, 2010, in a report filed with City Council last year.

And design costs could increase by at least another $100,000 as work continues, said RDC president Benny Lendermon.

Nonetheless, Lendermon said, the RDC will not be asking City Council for additional funding for the landing, relying instead on other revenues it already has.

"There's no more (city) money going into this project," he said.

Including the $38.1 million committed for construction, the rising architecture expenditures have increased the total cost of the project to at least $42.52 million -- more than twice the original estimate of $20 million of nearly a decade ago.

RDC has paid the $4.42 million in fees to the architect of record, Bounds and Gillespie Architects, a Memphis firm. Bounds and Gillespie, in turn, has hired several consultants that it pays from the RDC funds it received.

Located between Tom Lee Park and the historic cobblestones, the landing will feature a riverboat dock, a building for a restaurant and other operations and a terraced park leading to the river.

The project has been paid for by funds from the city's capital budget as well as state and federal grants. But it has been plagued by cost overruns, many of them attributed to increases in steel and contracting prices that occurred as the project was delayed by budget issues.

Just last year, the council agreed to ante up almost $9.75 million more to cover shortfalls.

The council would be hesitant to provide any more funds for the landing, member Shea Flinn said.

"Any request for additional money would come under very, very serious scrutiny," he said.

The dock and building are nearing completion, but the park phase, with intricately designed islands connected by walkways, has been undergoing redesign because of soil problems that weren't revealed by initial borings before work began.

In late 2008, during an early phase of construction, a retaining wall held back by sheet piling "slid" after soil shifted, Lendermon said.

"It wasn't catastrophic or anything, but it was something everyone knew shouldn't have occurred," he said.

Subsequent borings revealed more serious problems, which would require millions of dollars worth of extra steel reinforcements to prevent the concrete walkways and islands from settling in the mucky soil.

To eliminate the need for the extra steel, architects modified the design to remove some of the concrete walkways and slightly reduce the size of the guitar-pick-shaped islands. The latest design drawings are expected to be finished this week.

-- Tom Charlier: (901) 529-2572

See the original post:
Costs rise for Beale Street Landing project on Memphis riverfront

We are exhorted, vividly and unequivocally in bold block letters signed over a stairwell: BELIEVETH.

It’s almost the only hint of churchiness left in the former First Church of Christ Scientist on Capitol Hill, just reincarnated as The Sanctuary in a conversion to a dozen high-end townhomes. The stained glass windows feature geometric abstractions rather than religious motifs. The rest of the architectural flourishes could as easily belong to a bank or school building from the early 20th century. But BELIEVETH remaineth from the Christian Scientists, and it’s a worthwhile exhortation even for secular Seattleites.

Believe in community, in beauty, in architecture — you name it. Just go forth and honor it.

Whether this conversion will help us to believe more deeply in adaptive re-use is a good question. The architects and interior designers have done a lot of things right, and it’s decidedly a good thing to have an important and exquisite historic building preserved. But some things weren’t done right, and they’ve diminished the integrity of the original. It’s worth pondering them as wider issues in preservation, because they’re common practices that nobody seems to be questioning.

First, the good. The original building was designed by Charles Bebb and Louis Mendel, European-born architects who had the most prominent design firm in the Seattle of a century ago. Like most architects of the time, they worked in a wardrobe of styles from German Medieval to Mission Revival. This church, completed in 1914, is supremely assured but just-short-of-grandiose neoclassical revivalism.

It’s solid and stately, but its heroic stance is softened by restrained ornamentation. It’s a better building outside than the more talked-about First United Methodist, which is more pompous and less coherent.                     

The Sanctuary’s modern architects, the Runberg Architecture Group, and interior designers Robin Chell Design, preserved the shell of Bebb & Mendel’s church and essentially grafted a new residential compound inside it. There’s a central atrium under the great egg-shaped stained glass skylight, with swankly sculpted individual entrances to all the units on its perimeter. Wisely, Runberg raised the apparent ground floor of the atrium 12 feet so residents wouldn’t get that mouse-in-a-cathedral sensation.

The residence interiors are endlessly intriguing, featuring tall and skinny but often exhilarating spatial volumes. There’s stirring built-in wall decoration in the form of the church’s original pilasters with leafy Corinthian capitals, and a good variety of textures from exposed brick walls and stair treads recycled from fir flooring and oak pews. Wherever possible, the architects carved out decks and roof gardens. They weren’t afraid to give the units a strong vertical orientation; most of them are four levels deep—some five, counting their roof decks.

But now the problems, which begin in that atrium. There’s a wierd and intrusive visitor from the planet Mongo, a tall, oval-shaped fencelike structure made of colored resin panels, occupying prime real estate right in the middle of the space. Peer inside, and you’ll see there’s nothing but a pair of large mirrors, intended to bounce some of the light filtering through the skylight around the atrium.

Architect Michele Wang, Runberg’s principal in charge of the project, says the city building department insisted on something to keep human bodies out of the space directly below the skylight, just in case a quake might happen to shake loose a piece of glass. More fetching solutions such as a decorative pool were considered, Wang says, but fell by the budgetary wayside. It was a ridiculous requirement by the city, and the solution is antithetical to the classical logic of the original building. It’s like stuffing a Batman bookmark in a Bible.

The residences tend to be dark, which may discourage some buyers. The architects ingeniously remounted some of the stained glass windows on sliding tracks where they can move aside and expose clear glass windows, but many more remain fixed in place.

The result, unfortuntely, is many rooms that feel claustrophobic. Some, buried deep in the building’s bowels, have no outside exposure at all and interior “windows” to the atrium don’t much help. There was probably no good solution here; replacing the stained glass would have provoked existential howls from the preservation establishment. Light wells might have helped, but it wouldn’t have been easy to plumb adequate daylight all the way to the lowest floors.

In some places, pieces of new structure butt rudely into old, like a heckler interrupting a professor’s lecture on classical aesthetics. In one of the units a steel mezzanine rail smacks right into the middle of a pilaster. You wish it had shown a little respect. This is one of those things that happens all too frequently in renovations of historic buildings. The widely accepted philosophy is to clearly distinguish new construction from old, so there’s no cheap faux-historicism and the building forthrightly displays its evolution through time. This is as it should be, but too often in practice it plays out as the new simply dissing the old, the conjunctions between the two executed carelessly or gracelessly.

With all these conjunction issues, the four units on the building’s west side — the back alley, essentially — may be the most attractive in the complex. Since this back-alley facade didn’t have historic value, all the windows can be clear glass; and there are no built-in classical ornaments posed in uneasy counterpoint with the modern design theme inside.

These units also sport rooftop decks and views of Elliott Bay, no minor perk.

Is there a preservation lesson somewhere in this mixed bag? Yes, a couple. One is that building codes need to be flexible enough to let common sense prevail. The other is that projects such as this are absolutely worth the risk and nearly inevitable criticism, even though perfection is unattainable.

There’s a near-100 percent probability that if the church had been demolished, whatever modern condoplex replaced it would be a poorer building. That’s a hell of an indictment, but look around Seattle — and believeth.

Here is the original post:
The architectural pitfalls of refitting urban churches

Uploaded: Thursday, February 2, 2012, 4:10 PM                                             

Architects hired to brainstorm about Cubberley
Future of Palo Alto community center will be subject of community meetings in 2012

Photo

City and school leaders have engaged architects to do informal, preliminary work on ideas for the Cubberley Community Center, Palo Alto school district Superintendent Kevin Skelly said Tuesday, Jan. 31.

In a report to the Board of Education on the progress of talks about the future of Cubberley, located at 4000 Middlefield Road, administrators said the architects -- Gelfand Partners and Group 4 Architecture, both of San Francisco -- are "coming up with some very rough and preliminary notions of how that site would be used."

Group 4 has worked on the city's libraries, and Gelfand has designed renovations of many campuses in the current facilities-bond program, including the new, two-story classroom building at Ohlone Elementary School.

City and school staff members were to have a conference call with the two architectural firms Thursday, school facilities and bond program manager Bob Golton said.

"It's just to kind of warm them up, get a notion of ideas for what might go on that site," Golton said.

Skelly said he's been meeting monthly with City Manager Jim Keene and Assistant City Manager Steve Emslie on the city's and district's joint interest in the former Cubberley High School, currently leased by the city for use as a community center.

They plans to convene a "community advisory committee," probably in mid-March, with broad representation of interested parties, including neighborhood associations, recreational users, PTAs, sports leagues and the senior citizen community, Skelly told the school board.

— Chris Kenrick

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Comments

Posted by Not-Happy-With-Group-4, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, 19 hours ago

There is something wrong with the City's continued association with Group 4. It's time to use another architect. The library that is being constructed on Middlefield is certainly looking like it will be more ugly, and vastly too large, than not.

It's time that someone take a long, hard, look at the cronyism that seems to be well developed between the City Manager's officer, and Group 4.

Posted by Paul Losch, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, 19 hours ago

I am on the City of Palo Alto Parks and Recreation Commission. While this matter is still in relatively early stages, it is clear that it will be a proverbial elephant in the room. Our Commission talked about it briefly at a recent meeting, and the surface was hardly scratched.

The school district is largely in the driver's seat on this issue, since most of the property is PAUSD owned. The use of the campus as a school site again has not been thought through, and there are alternatives that can potentially serve the need for a 3rd high school and conccurrently provide community services would be a great outcome.

Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, 19 hours ago

I don't understand how architects can decide how Cubberley could be used. I thought architects were given instructions on how to design a building with a list of what facilities were required. Have they been given a list of requirements? This sounds like the cart leading the horse to me.

Posted by JA3+, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, 18 hours ago

Perhaps it's wise to demolish any and all existing structures and start anew on a small scale, with two story structures suitable to PAUSD's current use.

I'd likely suggest selling all remaining land -- that is, all land other than that needed to satisfy the siting of the buildings discussed in my preceding sentence -- and using the proceeds to construct additional two-story buildings on existing PAUSD school sites, including, but not limited to, Cubberly.

Posted by Doesnt pass smell test, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, 17 hours ago

Not-Happy says it clearly, something doesn't smell right in the City Manager's office connection with Group 4.

They just rehired a company that had a FOUR MILLION DOLLAR COST OVERRUN on Mitchell Park Library.

Something really really is not right. Newspapers should investigate this.

Posted by Mark, a resident of the University South neighborhood, 17 hours ago

Could they explore the possibility of using the new site (whatever they build on it) as an alternate Emergency Operations Center in case of disaster? (i.e. Essentially, if there is a conference room, they make sure to wire it up and have a backup generator.) Might help to build some redundancy for preparedness.

Posted by another resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, 3 hours ago

Resident, No, it was the cart leading the horse on the high school construction, school board officials have said as much -- trust the professionals to tell us what to do. That whole interaction was far more suspicious than the library, I think. This s a different architect. Seems to me they did a pretty good job on the library. And there's nothing wrong with getting ideas. I thought this architect was far better at taking ideas and incorporating them in a good design. I think the cost overruns are the contractor's issue, or is it that much overrun on the design? (Of course the contractor is going to try to blame the architect, but a contractor at that level should have enough experience to question a serious omission from the start.)

Posted by Mom, a resident of the Greenmeadow neighborhood, 3 hours ago

Please make the third high school, but a special one. A high school for STEM and/or Art at Cubberley. There are quite a few of that kind in other area in CA and in other states. Just not here yet.

Some PA teacher told me that PA parents would push their students even more if we had such a school, but I don't think PA parents are that foolish.

I just want my kids to have a real lab available in/after school with proper adult supervision. At this moment, due to all the regulations, they have to apply for competitive applications in order to get an intern position in far away universities. Science summer camps are so expensive. My kids are not disadvantaged enough or smart enough to get into the Stanford programs. We are not Stanford professors who can let their kids to work in their labs.

In "Cubberley high school for STEM" I hope they have a project based science class with capable and willing teachers for the purpose.

Posted by Not-Happy-With-Group-4, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, 1 hour ago

> I think the cost overruns are the contractor's issue, or is

> it that much overrun on the design?

Yes, and no. In the construction industry, there are always many players having input into decisions. The architect is supposed to provide a complete plan to the initiating party (a plan that can be constructed without OMGs [Oh My God] popping up). The party funding the construction project has an obligation to check the plans, because once they are "signed off", then the project is now the initiating party's problem. The contractor, of course, needs to do a comprehensive plan check, in order to estimate the project--expecting to make a profit when it is completed.

In the case of the library, the initiating party was the "City" (which is staffed with unaccountable individuals) who assume that all of their mistakes/errors/omissions will be ignored by the taxpayers, who will simply dig deeper into their pockets to put good money after bad.

Clearly the City of Palo Alto P/W officials failed to do adequate plan checking, prior to signing off when the Architect/Mechanical Engineers claimed that the "design is complete".

Most construction projects include a hefty "contingency" line item (15%-25%), which allows for cost overruns that do not end up being overly obvious. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to tack how often these contingency funds are used, since most construction projects are in the private sector, and the books closed to the prying eyes of the public.

Posted by Casey, a resident of another community, 1 hour ago

Don't forget the important campus bike connections!

Posted by Paul Losch, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, 1 hour ago

My understanding from City Staff is that despite the change orders, the Mitchell project will be done under the original budgeted amount, and have improved traits environmentally. This is due to the lower costs of materials and construction as a result of our wonderful recession.

Until Main Library renovation is completed, it will not be clear what the final cost of the entire endeavor will be. At this point, despite cjange orders, we are getting for our money what we voted for. And if it turns out that the total bill is less than what the bond initiative called for, the difference will be returned to the taxpayers.

Posted by Deep Throat, a resident of another community, 1 hour ago

How much is each public agency paying for each of the contracts and how much would be paid for any work beyond the "informal, preliminary work" covered by the current contracts? Follow the money.

Posted by landuse, a resident of the Professorville neighborhood, 58 minutes ago

Supporters of more playing fields in Palo Alto had better keep a close watch on the design plans of the Cubberley site to ensure that those that are there now are not lost.

Posted by Doesnt pass the smell test, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, 52 minutes ago

Paul Losch seeks to cover the city's and contractor's mistakes:

"from City Staff is that despite the change orders, the Mitchell project will be done under the original budgeted amount"

Irrelevant. The Architects and the City made FOUR MILLION DOLLARS worth of mistakes.

Now the city is hiring them again. Collusion to cover up? Pretend it never happened by pointing to savings that should have been OURS.

Posted by Not-Happy-With-Group-4, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, 43 minutes ago

> the difference will be returned to the taxpayers.

This statement is not exactly true. Not spending money that was authorized is not the same thing as "returning money" to the taxpayers.

And .. there is always the possibility that someone on the City Council will suggest that since $XXXX were authorized and not spent, then the City has a right to spend those dollars. We have seem that, from time-to-time, in the past.

> Irrelevant. The Architects and the City made

> FOUR MILLION DOLLARS worth of mistakes.

This comment is spot-on.

The problem here has to do with a failure to both plan and estimate the materials necessary for building this building safely. Hiring the same outfit again certainly does not pass the "smell test". Unfortunately, people like Paul Losch are more interested in spending other people's money, than operating a well-managed, honest, and cost-effective government.

It's clear that the City Manager is more interested in moving construction projects along, than dealing with the best design/construction outfits.

Read the original post:
Architects hired to brainstorm about Cubberley

Bangalore: Enterprise architects undoubtedly are the key palyers in business transformations and adding value to data analyics but considering today’s revolutinizing trends they need to act fast recommend the open group speakers as reported by Dana Gardner in zdnet.com.

The open group conference which took place in calafornia featured some of the industry experts and eminent speakers  who disscussed about how enterprsie architechture(EA) can powerfully impact the transformation of an enterprise through analytics, good data management and by helping shape the goals of the business.

Jaenne Ross, Director and Principal Research Sientist at MIT’s Center for Information System and Research in her opening session told that the stakes are high for EA and the enterprise architechts need to help their organizations better use new services and instill a “value cycle.”  Ross said that IT companies need to recognize the forces around consumption of business service and not just the implementation.

Explainig further Ross said that working towards making good data management is a priority also a way to make EA valuable, enterprise architects can rise in their performance by ensuring the quality of data and the speed of data refresh

Companies typically under-utilize applications and new systems hence IT-enablement isn’t enough companies aren’t using the system to their potential therefore architects need to consider this and then market and evangelize solutions said Ross.

EAs need to be more concerned on making Quality data center stage in companies. “You don’t get good analytics with bad data,” Ross said, “The secret to good EA is to put information in every person’s hands so they can use data better.” This will eventually lead to transformation of the business and encourage innovation utilizing IT systems systems and good architecture principles.

Architechts can play a key role in helping their bosses deliver increased business value as most of senior executives are bad at combining business and technology strategies. The following points outline an Enterprise architecht’s role:

1)Pin down architectural capabilities that can be readily exploited

2)Help senior executives clarify business goals

3)Present options and their implications for business goals

4)Build capabilities incrementally

Excerpt from:
Enterprise Architects Need to Act Fast

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IA Interior Architects (IA) is pleased to announce that Kirk Stewart has joined the firm as Project Director. He will be based in Los Angeles.

Kirk has over 20 years of architectural and interior design experience across a variety of markets including Broadcast and Entertainment, K-12 Education, Higher Education, Civic, Corporate, Hospitality, and Retail. His experience ranges from client development and programming to design, project management, and post-construction evaluation. Prior to joining IA, Kirk was the Design Director at WWCOT (currently DLR Group) where he oversaw 160 professionals. He was also a Senior Associate and Project Designer at HLW International's offices in China and the United Kingdom.

"The addition of Kirk Stewart as Project Director to the IA Los Angeles team supports our objective to recruit the best and brightest in our industry to service our clients.  Kirk is an award winning architectural designer with a diverse portfolio in media, entertainment and technology as well as higher education. He offers us an opportunity to further strengthen our bench," said Helen Watts, Managing Principal, Los Angeles.

"I am extremely happy to be working with a firm that has a stellar reputation locally and beyond.  IA attracts high profile clients and produces work at the highest caliber in a congenial environment. I believe the essence of every firm boils down to its people, and upon meeting the leaders and staff at IA, I was convinced that this would be an ideal place for me to grow and to make a contribution," said Kirk Stewart.

Kirk is a Registered Architect in California and New York. His work has been recognized with awards from the Los Angeles Business Council, the American Institute of Architects, and the Society for Environmental Graphic Design.

About IA Interior Architects
Founded in 1984, IA Interior Architects is the first and largest global architectural firm focused exclusively on interior architecture and workplace strategies. IA helps clients in diverse markets worldwide align their business strategies and core values with the dynamic use of space. IA has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, London, Los Angeles, New York, Orange County, Raleigh, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Washington, DC and has partner affiliates in Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia and Australia, Canada, and Latin America through the IA Global Alliance. For more information, visit http://www.interiorarchitects.com.

Press Contact:
Sofia Zimmerman
917.579.5702
s.zimmerman@interiorarchitects.com

Read the rest here:
Kirk Stewart Joins IA Interior Architects in Los Angeles

BEIJING - The latest demolition of a siheyuan, the traditional
Chinese courtyard home, in the capital's Dongcheng district,
has triggered a huge public outcry, as it once belonged to two
architects famed for protecting the country's ancient
buildings.

Residents at the Beizongbu Hutong in Beijing's Dongcheng
district on Saturday talk about the demolition of Liang
Sicheng's former residence to a reporter with China Central
Television. 

Between 1931 and 1937, Liang Sicheng (1901-72) and his wife Lin
Huiyin (1904-55), both regarded as among the most distinguished
modern Chinese architects, lived in the courtyard house located
at 24 Beizongbu Hutong, Dongcheng district. It was here they
finished their groundbreaking study on traditional Chinese
architecture.

Liang and Lin probably never imagined that one day their home
would meet the same fate as many other ancient buildings in the
country had faced - being demolished to make way for real
estate development.

Over the past decades, high-rising office buildings, apartment
blocks, and sprawling shopping malls have mushroomed in the
heart of Beijing, replacing the maze of siheyuans and hutongs -
the narrow lanes that used to characterize the city.

In 2009, some parts of the courtyard were demolished to make
way for a commercial development project, but the cultural
authority stopped the demolition in response to public anger.
Since then, the site has been designated as a cultural relic,
though a low-level one, requiring approval from the cultural
heritage authorities for any redevelopment.

However, what remained was "furtively torn down" during the
recent Spring Festival.

"When I was at home on Thursday, I read a post on a heritage
protection forum, which said Liang and Lin's former home had
already been destroyed," said Zeng Yizhi, a cultural relics
protection activist.

Zeng, who lives in Heilongjiang province, asked a friend in
Beijing to visit the site to confirm the news.

"When I found the news was true, it broke my heart," Zeng said.
"Liang and Lin made such a great contribution to the protection
of Chinese ancient buildings; if their home can be torn down,
then developers can do the same thing to hundreds other ancient
houses in the country."

Zeng reported the situation to the Beijing municipal
administration of cultural heritage and the Dongcheng district
cultural heritage committee submitted a report to the municipal
cultural heritage bureau on Saturday. In the report the
committee quoted an unidentified developer saying that the
demolition was "in preparation for maintaining the heritage
site".

"The developer should have consolidated the ancient buildings
instead of pulling them down." Zeng said. "According to the
law, even if the courtyard was a dangerous building that needs
repair, the project should have been carried out by a
certificated construction company, which wasn't the case."

Media reports named the developer as Fuheng Realty, a
subsidiary of China Resources.

The municipal government has said that Liang's residence will
be rebuilt and that it has ordered the developer not to remove
anything from the rubble.

"But if we replace every ancient building with a new replica,
we will end up with a pile of meaningless fake antiques," Zeng
said.

"Protected relics cannot be rebuilt once demolished, according
to international cultural heritage protection principles," Chen
Zhihua, professor with the School of Architecture at Tsinghua
University, and a former student of Liang and Lin, told
reporters.

"Building a replica only makes things worse. So I suggest that
the government build a monument or a park on the original site
in memory of Liang and Lin," Chen said.

As of 5 pm on Sunday, an online survey by the popular
micro-blogging site Sina Weibo showed that 90 percent of the
8,360 participants said Liang's siheyuanshould not be
demolished because it is of great historical value.

An unidentified executive with China Resources' Beijing branch
told Xinhua on Sunday that his company "could not agree" that
the demolition was against related regulations.

Liang is considered "the father of modern Chinese architecture"
for his pioneering role in advocating the preservation of the
country's ancient architecture.

Liang was particularly known for his proposal with another
architect Chen Zhanxiang to preserve the ancient city of
Beijing and build a complete new city to the west of it after
the Communist Party of China made Beijing the capital of the
new republic.

But the country's leaders back then opted to build a political,
economic, and cultural center within Beijing's historical core.
Traffic jams, air pollution, and disappearing ancient
architecture linked to poor urban planning in recent years have
led more and more people to feel nostalgic for Liang's
ill-fated plan.

The rest is here:
Eastday-Anger at demolition of renowned architects' home

January 30, 2012 by Rochel Leah
Goldblatt 

Constructing building models with materials from Rebel
Recycling saves green in two ways

Architecture students plan to use 25,000 recycled boxes this
semester to build models — and construct a full-size house.

Rebel Recycling donated hundreds of cardboard boxes to the UNLV
School of Architecture and the students are using the boxes to
build all their models throughout this semester.

At the end of the semester, the class hopes to submit a
life-size living space built out of recycled cardboard to
RecycleMania, a competition among universities in the United
States.

The project will be completed by Earth Day and the final model
will be displayed in the Student Union courtyard.

“I don’t know how far we are going to go with this project,”
said graduate assistant Nathalia Ellis, “but we do have
furniture designs made out of cardboard.”

Using old boxes shrinks the students’ carbon footprint, but it
increases their workload because the cardboard is more
difficult to work with than the modeling board they are used to
using.

However, that doesn’t stop the students from trying their
hardest.

“It’s like a challenge,” said junior David Magdaluyo. “If we
can do this, we can do whatever we put our mind to.”

He said that the partnership between the architecture school
and Rebel Recycling benefits students in that it lets them
“deal with recycled goods hands-on.”

And in a field where sustainability is a major focus, that
means a lot.

“This will assist our architectural careers by being
environmentally friendly and responsible,” Magdaluyo said.

The first project the students undertook was to build
four-by-four cubes out of the cardboard. The task was made more
difficult by inevitable inconsistencies in the material that do
not exist in the typical modeling board.

Despite difficulties with using the material, students have a
positive outlook on the project.

“I was a little bummed out at first,” said freshman Josue
Arevealo. “[But] if anything, I am glad to be using some kind
of material instead of using a book.”

The cardboard also saves the students money, because they are
not responsible for buying their own material to use in the
models.

Any unused cardboard will be re-recycled through Rebel
Recycling.

Contact Rochel Leah Goldblatt at
rochelleah.goldblatt.ry@gmail.com.

See the rest here:
Student architects to build residence from of recycled boxes