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Landscape Architects of Color on How to Combat Erasure

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Over two days, approximately 500 online participants together set the agenda, formed and dissolved discussion groups, and shared knowledge and resources. With the assistance of an open space facilitator, this is how Cut|Fill, a virtual "unconference on landscape architecture, unfolded.

Organized by the Urban Studio and Ink Landscape Architects, Cut|Fill was meant to raise questions we all want to discuss, explained Andrew Sargeant, ASLA, a founder of Urban Studio. One of those important questions: how can landscape architects design with empathy and end dismissive behavior towards people of color?

The goal of these questions was to get designers to think harder about how to stop intentionally or unintentionally erasing communities of color, which are often purposefully made invisible, and instead get them to truly see these communities, co-design with them, and empower them.

Imagine the place you love is erased. This has happened to people of color for generations, said Justin Garrett Moore, executive director of the New York City Public Design Commission, during the opening panel. Moore said that erasure, which has taken the form of urban renewal, displacement, and gentrification over the past few decades, takes work. Some groups of people need to invest time and money to make a community disappear.

He also spoke of the pain of feeling personally erased. A video was produced of a planning and design panel he was on with a number of white speakers. The organizers cropped the video so only the white panelists remained. It took work to do that it was done with intention. He called these erasures, both personal and communal, death by a thousand cuts.

For Maria Arquero de Alarcon, an associate professor of architecture and urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan, erasures of communities can be combated through new ways of teaching planning and design. One important methodology is co-creating and co-producing knowledge together in spaces of inclusion. Online technologies also now offer opportunities to become radically inclusive with marginalized communities.

In many places, erasure has been happening for many generations, but there are cultural remnants if you know how to see. For example, there is so much of Africa in the landscape of South Carolina, commented Austin Allen, a founder of DesignJones, LLC and associate professor of landscape architecture practice at the University of Texas at Arlington. Slaves brought from Africa also brought their rice farming knowledge, which shaped the southern American landscape. Allen said landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, on his tour of the South, traveled through South Carolinas rice plantations and wondered, what is this place?

Despite erasures, the legacy of marginalized peoples remains waiting to be rediscovered. Allen said this upcoming generation of landscape architecture students is exploring intersectional issues related to race, landscape, and memory with a new level of openness.

In the next panel, the discussion moved from erasure and invisibility to empowerment.

If you inhabit a black body or are disabled, you are so invisible. That is until youre not. In an instant, anything you do can be the focus of critical feedback. You could be eating skittles or going on a jog and be made very visible, explained Tamika Butler, director of planning in California and director of equity and inclusion with Toole Design Group.

She added that Black people are used to sliding in and out of a space invisibly, but to stay where we are, we need to claim space.

For Ulysses Sean Vance, an associate professor of architecture at Temple University, who focuses on universal and inclusive design, the planning and design world has created massive voids of erasure. Too often, involvement is done to a community; engagement is done to them. He added that places that experienced generations of erasure arent ruins, but places to be inhabited and re-inhabited.

In these communities, we can instead intentionally unbuild disenfranchisement. To accomplish this, communities must be real participants in the planning and design process, and their input must be reflected in outcomes. Through inclusive processes, the feeling of being invisible and marginalized can be overcome, and people can feel comfortable and confident.

Butler elaborated on the concept of intersectionality, which came up a lot during Cut|Fill and is a key framework for creating more empowered visibility. On streets, intersections are where conflict, friction, and struggle happen. If there is a poorly designed street intersection that is leading to pedestrian deaths, we arent like, this is just too complicated. No, we go in and solve the problem. To solve intersectional social and environmental justice issues, diverse designers and planners need to create brave spaces, not safe spaces that open up the difficult conversations.

Architect Steven Lewis, a principal at ZGF, offered a meaningful perspective on the entire discussion. There is self-realization as a young Black person that jars you. You realize you are not like the white characters you watch on TV. You become aware that you are different. You realize that there is a parallel Black universe and you now need to navigate between white and Black universes.

George Floyds death created a wormhole in which everyone was sucked into the Black universe, Lewis said. The walls crumbled, and were all in one place right now. (Butler added that constantly transitioning between these two universes can be exhausting. We are tired and can make some mistakes.)

While white people have work to do and need to become comfortable with being uncomfortable, Black people can be sherpas or guides in the Black universe, Lewis said. If white people have their hearts in the right place, we can be patient and loving.

He believes empathy and caring can lead to learned and gained familiarity and then love for each other. But he cautioned that this process of developing empathy and understanding requires life-long effort; there is no quick prophylactic or therapy.

This article was originally published as "Designers of Color on How to Combat Erasure" on The Dirt. Also, we invite you to check out ArchDaily's coverage related to Architecture and Race.

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Landscape Architects of Color on How to Combat Erasure - ArchDaily

Its been nearly two years since we last heard new music from Architects. Now, they are back with their hard-hitting new single Animals.

As well, Architects have subtly confirmed their next album is on the way.

2018s Holy Hell was a true triumph for Architects. Featuring hits such as Doomsday, Hereafter and Royal Beggars, the album marked an evolutionary period for the band following 2016s All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us.

Now, Architects are back after nearly two years with their surprise new single Animals, which highlights the existential crises we deal with in life. Architects have also dropped an ominous video, directed by drummer DanSearle, for the new single which truly showcases their growth and creative development as a band.

Were just a bunch of fucking animals, Sam Carter sings on the new track. But were afraid of the outcome. Dont cry to me because the fiction that were living in says I should pull the pin.

Eagle-eyed fans seem to have spotted a major hint about Architects forthcoming album. Although no release date for the LP has been shared yet, fans spotted the albums title in the videos metadata.

According to the video information, Architects next album is called For Those That Wish To Exist. Along with the speculated new album and Animals, the band also recently dropped some new merch for this next era.

Fans last heard new music from the band last year when they released an acoustic version of A Wasted Hymn which appears on Holy Hell. As well, they also put out two Spotify singles in 2019 that were recorded at the historic Abbey Road Studios in London.

Animals is available to stream below.

What are your thoughts on the new Architects single? Let us know in the comments below.

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See Architects return in the ominous new video for Animals - Alternative Press

Architects have announced that they will play a special livestream show from the Royal Albert Hall in London next month.

The news comes after the five-piece announced yesterday (October 21) that their latest album For Those That Wish To Exist will arrive on February 26, 2021.

Architects will perform in the Royal Albert Hall on November 21, with the show set to screened around the world via the streaming service Veeps.

Tickets to access the Architects livestream will go on sale tomorrow (October 23) at 9am from here.

Architects (Picture: Ed Mason)

Architects new album is their first since 2018s Holy Hell, and the record was previewed earlier this week by the release of its lead single Animals.

Speaking about For Those That Wish To Exist, the bands Dan Searle explained that this album was me looking at our inability to change to a way of life that would sustain the human race and save the planet.

I wanted to look in the mirror and ask ourselves the question of what are we going to do, as opposed to trying to point the finger at politicians. Change has to start on a personal level. The world has developed a culture of wanting someone else to deal with it, when we need to take our own responsibility. It has to start there.

More here:
Architects announce special livestream show from the Royal Albert Hall - NME

The new Winter Visual Arts Building at Franklin & Marshall College was envisioned as a pavilion on the park by Steven Holl Architects (SHA). Rising between canopies of old-growth trees and their driplines in south-central Pennsylvania, the art center seemingly floats above the landscape of the campus and Buchanan Park. The 32,000-square-foot project is wrapped in SHAs signature translucent channel glass to provide an ethereal illumination for art students.

Housing galleries managed by the Phillips Museum of Art, the project also includes a cinema, classrooms, film production spaces and teaching studios for the Art, Art History, and Film departments. A gradual exterior ramp connects from the campus Old Main axis to a second-floor entrance in the new building. On the ground floor, the building opens up to the surrounding community of Lancaster with both a forum space and suite of galleries for art exhibitions. This design was made possible through a lightweight, two-story box-kite steel frame where the entire roof structure is exposed. Overhead, tongue-and-groove Douglas fir planks and operable skylights bring natural light and warmth into the common spaces and studios.

The star of the Visual Arts Building is its luminous concave facades. Glass covers more than 70 percent of the building envelope, and the design was realized through channel and structural glass systems, as well as a recycled glass aggregate envelope. The suspended structure features cantilevered trusses with 16-foot-tall structural glass units manufactured in Poland. As the first building on campus thats naturally ventilated during mild seasons, the project was made with an insulated envelope working alongside geothermal heating and cooling to reduce overall energy demand.

The arts center utilizes a two-layer U-plank system that has never been done before. Instead of traditional interlocking U shaped glass, the facade is composed of two U-Plank extrusions in which the cavity between them is filled with Okalux translucent insulation. The result is 19 percent light transmission for the studios and a high thermal performance that minimizes heat gain in the summer and harnesses solar gain to reduce heat loss in winter. In turn, low-level site lighting is provided by the spill from the buildings interior lighting where more than 75 percent of spaces are daylit. Balancing form and enclosure, the Visual Arts Building becomes a new campus destination for students with space to gather, learn and grow through the universal language of art.

Read more here:
Steven Holl Architects's scalloped Winter Visual Arts Building showcases the first-ever two layer, u-plank facade - The Architect's Newspaper

AIANY Calls on American Architects to Stop Designing Unjust Spaces of Incarceration

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The Board of Directors of AIA New York has recently released a statement discouraging the design of criminal justice facilities that uphold the current system. Taking a stand against designing unjust, cruel, and harmful spaces of incarceration, AIA NY solicited architects to reflect on the broader social implications of their work.

Stating that for too long, architects have been complicit in upholding intrinsic racism within the American criminal justice system [] good design alone is not enough to remove or overcome the racism inherent within the criminal justice system, the AIA NY is taking actionable steps to address the current situation. Noting that architects are not responsible to alleviate an unfair structure and that it is beyond their scope of work, the Board of Directors has called upon American professionals of the field to no longer design unjust, cruel or harmful spaces of incarceration within the current United States [] such as prisons, jails, detention centers, and police stations.

We [] urge our members to shift their efforts towards supporting the creation of new systems, processes, and typologies based on prison reform, alternatives to imprisonment, and restorative justice. -- AIA New York.

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The decision, effective until more comprehensive policy changes are made on a national scale, the application of the law occurs without racial bias, is completed with several initiatives by AIA New York. The measures will include examining architectures role in the criminal justice system, limiting construction of new criminal justice facilities, focusing on large-scale justice issues, advocating the cause so that fellow chapters adopt similar positions, etc. Read more on the AIA NYs policy here and discover AIAs code of Ethics and Professional Conduct here.

While we recognize that the United States is not the only country with a flawed justice system and that architects have been complicit in bias and mistreatment abroad as well, we hope these changes in chapter policy will further advance racial justice within our city, state, and country. -- AIA New York.

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AIANY Calls on American Architects to Stop Designing Unjust Spaces of Incarceration - ArchDaily

To look at ways to update and modify La Jollas Planned District Ordinance, or blueprint for development, a La Jolla Community Planning Association ad-hoc committee is joining forces with the PDO review committee, which looks at projects and whether they conform to the PDO.

Potential changes include revising the requirements for ground-floor retail and expanding residential and outdoor dining opportunities, and could be submitted to the city for consideration by spring 2021.

During its Oct. 12 meeting online, LJCPA President Diane Kane explained that the idea for the ad-hoc committee stemmed from her review of the citys Complete Communities proposal, which looks to alter development regulations to create incentives to build homes near transit, provide more mobility choices and enhance opportunities for places to walk, bike, relax and play, according to the city.

The citys [Complete Communities] plan is to add density to areas that were already maxed out, but what flagged my curiosity was they never looked at The Village, she said. If we were going to put additional density anywhere, it would be The Village. I started looking at a counterproposal and set up an ad-hoc committee to see where we can add density in a sensitive way.

The type of development that can be built and its location is regulated by the PDO. For example, the heart of The Village Girard Avenue and Prospect Street is defined as the primary retail and visitor oriented commercial area in the core of La Jolla. This area is characterized by high levels of pedestrian activity. Standards for this zone are designed to maintain that pedestrian scale and continuity, and preserve and enhance the retail development pattern of department stores, and small retail shops and restaurants.

In this area, retail uses are required for 50 percent of the ground floor.

However, Kane said I think some flexibility in those spaces might be helpful to help the businesses and help smaller businesses with rents and could even include residential.

Agreeing, PDO Chairwoman Deborah Marengo said The Village has gone through a lot of changes, and ground floor retail has been hit really hard, noting that high end businesses such as Sur La Table and Kate Spade have recently closed their Village brick-and-mortar locations.

These are good-size spaces, so possibly reducing some of the square footage on the ground floor and making it up by activating our alleys, where we could allow a residential unit or look at some buildings that could be converted to residential would help, she said.

The PDO further limits outdoor dining to fast food establishments, with standards such as Food to take out shall be restricted to minimum packaging and shall include a container or paper sack in which the refuse can be collected to be thrown away.

However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, several Village restaurants have been permitted to move tables and chairs outside and serve patrons at a reduced capacity.

The outdoor experience is going to be more important than the indoor experience, said Marengo, adding that changes could be made to the PDO to ease some of the restrictions on outdoor dining going forward.

Marengo tasked the board members to walk around and see what is positive and what is negative so we can really tackle them, because there is a lot we could be doing better as a community to help our businesses and get a lot more people living in The Village.

She said the discussion will be slated for the next months meeting.

Architects Brian Will, Andy Fotch and Trace Wilson, Realtors John Shannon and Patrick Ahern and engineer Matt Mangano are on the LJCPA ad-hoc committee, which will continue to work with the PDO committee to see if there are code items that need to be modified, and dovetail those with the citys next code revision update.

Kane said the target submission date to get the proposal to the city is between January and March of next year.

At the same meeting, the board discussed the Girard Avenue Lofts project, which calls for a coastal development permit for three connecting two-story buildings at 7606 Girard, currently a vacant lot between Vons and the Tempur-Pedic mattress store. The plans include 1,960 square feet of ground-floor retail, 17 loft-type apartments over parking and one accessory dwelling unit on a pedestrian path at grade level. The apartments would range from 350 to 755 square feet.

A rendering of the Girard Avenue Lofts project (the mural is for illustration purposes).

(Courtesy)

It got the green light at the Development Permit Review Committees Sept. 15 meeting after an extensive preliminary review the week before.

Applicant Pauly de Bartolo, founding principal of De Bartolo and Rimanic Design Studio, touted the Girard Avenue Lofts project as a village within a village and easily walkable to the heart of La Jolla.

He also offered support for the earlier discussion, saying I think micro-retail smaller scale tenants that can afford to pay smaller rents are going to be the thing of the future. So [this project has] a retail/commercial space that can be broken down into smaller tenants if needed. The total square footage of the commercial space is 1,960.

Due to some questions as to whether the project meets the terms of the PDO, the board asked de Bartolo to come back to a future meeting for approval.

The La Jolla Planned District Ordinance review committee next meets at 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, online. Learn more at lajollacpa.org.

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La Jolla planners, architects, Realtors and reviewers to work together to revise development guidelines - La Jolla Light

RUMFORD An architect advised members a Regional School Unit 10 building committee Wednesday that her company is studying several pieces of land on which to build a school for elementary students or elementary and middle school students.

Lisa Sawin of Harriman Associates in Auburn said several parcels of 40 acres or more are being looked at, including the one where Mountain Valley Middle and Meroby Elementary schools stand in Mexico.

The district is considering constructing a school or renovating Rumford Elementary or Meroby Elementary schools, and Mountain Valley Middle School. A new school might house grades pre-kindergarten to eight, or pre-kindergarten to grade five, depending on decisions by the committee and voters in the seven district towns, which also include Buckfield, Hartford, Sumner, Hanover and Roxbury.

Among the criteria set by the Building Advisory Committee are:

The building or buildings be within a three-mile radius of the Red Bridge in Rumford; and

There be nearby access to nature and trails to enrich students educational experiences.

Rumford Elementary School Principal Jill Bartash said another should be property the district already owns to save money.

Sawin said the next phase of planning required by the Maine Department of Education includes looking at existing sites and researching other areas that may be better suited for a building.

The plan is to have new space ready by 2023.

RSU 10 has six schools: Buckfield Junior-Senior High School, Hartford-Sumner Elementary School in Sumner; Mountain Valley High School in Rumford; and Meroby Elementary and Mountain Valley Middle schools, both in Mexico.

Wednesdays meeting had some committee members meeting in person but most attended via the internet.

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Architect reports on land search for new RSU 10 school - The Bethel Citizen

symbiotic house by r.e.a.d. & architects is a minimal residential villa in the area of minami-karuizawa, in nagano, japan, designed for a couples new life after retirement. located on a long site area, the project comprises two buildings, one for the owners and one for guests, topped with two sloping concrete roofs that harmonize with the surrounding mountains. the two buildings are connected via corridor, while all living spaces are surrounded by a rich landscape of seasonal gardens, which are visible from the large windows of the rooms.all images by masaya yoshimura, copist

drawing by r.e.a.d. & architects

what is a life after retirement in the 100-year life?, asks r.e.a.d. & architects. taking inspiration from the ancient japanese way of life of symbiosis, we thought of a house that snuggles up to the couples life. located on a corner site surrounded by fir trees with a view of mount asama, the project makes use of the surrounding environment unique to karuizawa. its two buildings are arranged along the elongated site shape: the main building, where the couple lives; and the guest wing, where guests are invited to stay when they visit. a corridor clad in floor-to-ceiling glass connects the two buildings while offering views of the seasonal gardens that surround the property.

the two buildings are topped with sloping concrete roofs that harmonize with the surrounding mountains, while the same form and material can also be found on the ceiling inside the house. the interior is characterized by spacious rooms with high ceilings, which allow the couple to maintain a proper sense of distance, as r.e.a.d. & architects explains. natural materials that will blend into the surrounding landscape over the years have been used throughout the project, while all hardware is handmade by craftsmen. it is a setting that allows them to feel that you are living with nature and the passage of time in their daily life, concludes the japanese architecture studio.

Link:
read & architects tops 'symbiotic house' with sloping concrete roof in karuizawa, japan - Designboom

Image courtesy of Lesley Lokko

Lesley Lokko, an architect, academic and bestselling author, will present the virtual lecture "Look Back in Anger," on Oct. 26 as part of the fall lecture series in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. Lesley Lokko will present a virtual lecture at 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, as part of the fall lecture series in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. Lokko is an architect, academic and the author of 11 bestselling novels. She recently stepped down asthe dean at The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at The City College of New York, effective at the end of January 2021.

Lokko is the editor of White Papers, Black Marks: Race, Culture, Architecture (University of Minnesota Press, 2000); editor-in-chief of FOLIO: Journal of Contemporary African Architecture; and is on the editorial board of ARQ (Cambridge University Press).

The Fay Jones School's fall lecture series focuses on issues of equity and justice in the built environment. The series is presented in collaboration with Places Journal, an internationally respected online journal of architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism, and the University of Arkansas Office for Diversity and Inclusion. The series is also made possible in part by a gift from Ken and Liz Allen of Fayetteville, part of an overall set of commitments the Allens have made to the school's programs and initiatives in diversity, equity and inclusion.

Registration for the entire lecture series is available on Zoom.

In her lecture, "Look Back in Anger," Lokko will discuss how the world is reeling in 2020. From environmental catastrophes to bitter political dog fights, the war on terror has morphed into a war on health and there's no end in sight. Collectively, people seem to be the angriest they've ever been and certainly the most vocal.

At one level, a school is a collection of learning spaces and environments. But it is also the place where people learn how to distinguish between their private and public selves, where they practice what it means to be civic and civil. So what will this year teach us? When the curtain comes down on this double-digit year, what will we have learned about ourselves and the capacity of our institutions, like schools, to make sense of what has happened and prepare us for what may come next?

Look Back in Anger is the title of a 1956 play by the British writer John Osbourne, whose real genius lay in the way it liberated theatrical language from its conventions, allowing a new and more accurate interpretation of events to flourish. When we, as architects and educators, look back at 2020, what new languages of place, space, program and form will we have helped emerge during this time?

Before arriving at The City College of New York, Lokko served as the Head of School at the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

In 2004, she made the successful transition from academic to novelist with the publication of her first novel, Sundowners (Orion, 2004), a UK-Guardian top 40 bestseller, and has since then followed with 10 further bestsellers, which have been translated into 15 languages.

The school is pursuing continuing education credits for this lecture through the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects.

This virtual lecture is open to the public. For details on watching the lecture, please visit the Fay Jones School's lecture page. To register for the entire lecture series, complete this form on Zoom.

For more information, contact 479-575-4704 or fayjones.uark.edu.

Read more here:
Architect and Academic Lesley Lokko to Present 'Look Back in Anger' Lecture Online on Oct. 26 - University of Arkansas Newswire

Fred Ortiz talks about his El Paso background Wochit

Fred Ortiz juggled two life goals as a fourth-grader atStanton Elementary Schoolgrowing up in the Lyndon B. Johnsonprojects in Northeast El Paso in 1977.

One was common for boys his age, particularly ones good enough to earn a college football scholarship. Ortiz wanted to play tight end for the Dallas Cowboys.

The other goal was a path less dreamed.

"I remember in fourth grade being asked, 'What do you want to do when you get older?' " Ortiz, 53, recalled from his home in the Dallas area. "I said, 'Well, I want to be one of those guys who draws buildings.' "

El Paso native Fred Ortiz is a director of sports at the HKS Inc. architecture firm.(Photo: HKS Inc.)

Ortiz draws great big buildings now. A director of sports at the HKSInc. architecture firm, one of his newest works, Globe Life Fieldin Arlington, will be in the spotlight this week when it hosts the World Series.

Instead of playing on one of the biggest stages in the world as an athlete, Ortiz designed one of the biggest stages in the world for an architecture firm that has drawn up many of those venues.

"You work so hard on these projects and when they are actually done, serving their purpose, it's a great feeling," Ortiz said.

Ortiz is the embodiment of the American dream, both his and that of his parents, Aniceto and Teresa. The factory workers emigrated from Jurez to El Paso on April 23, 1969, with their son, two years after Fred was born in an El Paso hospital.

The Ortizeswere looking for a better life for a family that would soon grow to five boys, and that began to take shape in 1975 when the LBJ projects opened.

"I was blessed with the right people," Ortiz said. "I've been reflecting a lot on my past and one of the special moments was when my parents had an opportunity to move to the Northeast. We lived in little apartments not far from the border, but they had this opportunity first-come, first-serve to live in these new government-owned projects.

"They got their name on the list and there we were. It was a new beginning. That's where the right people were able to guide me, influence me and mentor me, whether it was working me as hard as they could or educating me in the classroom, it all made the difference."

One of those people Ortiz credits for his success was Irvin High School football coach Tony Shaw, himself an architect of powerhouse Rocket teams in the mid-1980s, who saw how special Ortiz and his family were. Ortiz, the oldest of his parents' five children, is a 1985 Irvin graduate.

"He was dedicated, he was a hard worker.I would give a pep talk and the Ortiz brothers would have tears in their eyes," Shaw said. "They drank the coach's Kool-Aid."

Ortiz agrees.

"We drank the Kool-Aid," he said. "On the wall in the locker room there were words that to this day I can recite: Poise, character, leadership, dedication, attitude. Our motto for everything was, 'What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.'

"I took that and I ran with it, not just through high school but into college and to now. If I have a vision and an idea, I work it through my team. I don't hesitate to push ideas out there.

"Now it's my turn to be a mentor. I've taken pride over the years offering to spend one-on-one time with young individuals who are inspired to be in the position I'm in."

Fred Ortiz (in blue jeans) and his four brothers with father Aniceto Ortiz in the LBJ projects in El Paso.(Photo: Courtesy photo)

Although Ortiz didn't know what an architect was in elementary school, he showed a fascination from a young age for the skills that would define his life.

After sharing his dream of drawing buildings,"teachers said, 'OK, when you get to high school, be sure and take drafting,' " Ortiz said. "I get to Irvin and loand behold, I'm taking drafting. I'm learning how to visualize, how to draw in two dimensions. All the while I'm doing my own personal investigations into drawing freehand, drawing anything I can get hold of."

He also was taking a star turn for the Rockets football team, as a tight end, deep snapper and defensive end, and that opened up another door. That's when the dream of becoming an architect took a step forward.

"When it started becoming reality was when my high school coach understood I wanted to go to college, I aspired to be an architect," Ortiz said of Shaw. "He came to me one day and said, 'Here are the list of schools in Texas that offer architecture;this one is coming to see you tomorrow.'

"It was the University of Texas at Arlington. Loand behold, I was offered a full ride and they had a great architecture program. That's how it evolved."

Fred Ortiz is a director of sports at the HKS Inc. architecture firm. He fulfilled his childhood dream of drawing buildings, designing some of the most iconic sports venues in the nation.(Photo: Daryl Shields/HKS Inc.)

That's also where the dream of playing for the Cowboys died. Ortiz wasinjured his freshman year, then UTA killed its football program. One of the UTA coaches got a job at Louisiana Tech and Ortiz had a scholarship offer there.

"I turned to coach Shaw. I was literally crying: 'Coach, what do I do?' " Ortiz said.

Shaw knew what he should do.

"You've got a bum knee, you're one of the best architecture students in the country, Louisiana Tech doesn't even offer architecture," Shaw said. "Get your education."

Ortiz took UTA up on its offer to honor his scholarship, he got his degree and by the early '90s was working his way up through small architecture firms.

In 2007, he moved to the big time, taking a job as director of design at HKS Richmond, Virginia,office, where he began working on sports projects. HKS has built, among many other things, the football stadiums for the Dallas Cowboys, the Minnesota Vikings, the Indianapolis Colts and the Los Angeles Chargers and Rams.

In 2017, HKS was formally awarded the rights to design what has become Globe Life Fieldin Arlington.

"As much as I love being a generalist, working on all kinds of projects, I feel deep down inside athletics were very important to me growing up," said Ortiz, whose current projects include the Socorro Student Activities Center II, set to open in 2023.

"They motivated me, they shaped me, they made me who I am today. Now I love knowing not only was I a player, I became a dad, I coached, I became an architect and I'm able to choreograph incredible experiences for fans around the world."

In fact, one project he did was the athletic facilities at Virginia Military Academy when his oldest son was attending. His two youngest sons, twins Antonio and Marco, are currently third-year deep snappers for the TCU and Florida football teams, respectively. By moving back to the Metroplex two years ago, Ortiz gets to be closer to Antonio.

A general view of Globe Life Field is shown during batting practice before a baseball game between the Texas Rangers and the Seattle Mariners in Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020.(Photo: Ray Carlin/Associated Press)

In the disappointment that is 2020, the 40,300-capacity Globe Life, which opened this season, didn't host fans through the regular season. Itwill be at 25%capacity for the World Series, like it was for the National League Championship Series it hosted the past week.

On the plus side, it wouldn't have hosted the World Series in a normal year, but Major League Baseball opted for a neutral-field bubble for this year's Fall Classic and baseball's newest stadium was selected.

For Ortiz, getting to see fans come into the park began to make his design visions come true. Ortiz describes his creationin an almost mystical fashion, as if it is aliving thing.

A view of the field is shown as the Atlanta Braves work out at Globe Life Park in Arlington on Oct. 11, 2020.(Photo: Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports)

"Finally, the doors were open, finally, the fans were roaming through the concourses," Ortiz said. "The comments they were making, the selfies they were taking, the game (hot) dog, the nachos in the air, then lo and behold the roof starts to open it was awesome. It was awesome.

"It's the kind of stuff you look forward to. You work so hard, in this case four years, to design and build something, and you want people to look through it, you want them to experience it. It's almost like a form of testing, whether or not all the moves you made were going to happen the way you intended it to.

"And I think in a very serendipitous way it's awesome to find them using it in a way you never thought. As simple as an aperture or view to the field you didn't anticipate. ... Maybe it's lighting, maybe it's an audible aspect to it. It's tapping into a lot of the senses and it can be a simple little platform someone has found and fans will congregate."

When he's describing his creation, Ortiz sounds like a proud father. There is, of course, another proud father to consider. Ortiz was able to give a tour of Globe Life Fieldto his parents early this year, shortly before the COVID-19 shutdowns.

"My father's a very quiet man, but his smile was ear-to-ear, full of pride," Ortiz said.

Aniceto Ortiz said: "I don't have the words. I'm very, very proud of him. 'You're my man.' I almost cried, I'm so happy."

His son created a venue where dreams come true, including the dreams of an El Paso family.

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Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.

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From Irvin High to Globe Life Field, architect Fred Ortiz lives his life's American dream - El Paso Times