CHICAGO STUDIO SPRING 2015
CHICAGO STUDIO
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Spring 2015
Ryan Michael Myers CannonDesign
MYERS | 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
STUDIO
4 - 95
Precedent Research
4-9
Atypical Analysis
10 - 15
Typical Analysis
16 - 29
Programmatic Conjecture
30 - 35
Design Project
36 - 95
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS
96 - 121
Week One
98 - 99
Week Two
100 - 103
Week Three
104 - 107
Week Five
108 - 109
Weekends
110 - 111
WORKSHOP
112 - 121
Prompt
114
Photographs
115
Project
116 - 121
PRO PRACTICE
122 - 195
Lectures
124 - 139
Timeline
140 - 143
Firm
144 - 149
Interviews
150 - 195
MYERS | 3
STUDIO | RESEARCH
PROMPT 1 | PRECEDENT https://www.tumblr.com/search/ARCHITECTURAL+DIAGRAMS
Prompt: Individually, research national and international mixed-use transit stations, and after analysis: identify (2) that are successful and interesting based upon criteria that each student defines, ex. spatial connections, clarity, beauty, simplicity, complexity‌.. or historical importance, contemporary adaptation, impact on adjacent areas, programmatic manipulation, etc). Be critical and don’t simply show the obvious, search for the interesting and present the material in a cohesive and constructive way. And please talk with one another to minimize overlapping projects - if there is precedent overlap then adjust the content and lens of analysis... Make: Diagram the design concept the each station, including things such as the circulation flows, programmatic adjacency, contextual response, etc.
MYERS | PRECEDENT | 4
STUDIO | RESEARCH
FULTON CENTER
ROTTERDAM CENTRAAL
MYERS | TYPICAL ANALYSIS | 5
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | FULTON CENTER | 6
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | DIAGRAM | 7
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | ROTTERDAM CENTRAAL | 8
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | DIAGRAMS | 9
STUDIO | RESEARCH
PROMPT 2 | SITE: ATYPICAL ANALYSIS Team assignment with Michael Mekonen
Focus on the unexpected, overlooked, non-typical, uncommon, unconventional, unorthodox, off-center, anomalous, irregular, abnormal, aberrant, deviant; the strange, odd, peculiar, curious, bizarre. In groups of two…* record the site and adjacent context using only ONE of the five senses: sight {opthalmoception}, hearing {audioception}, taste {gustaoception}, smell {olfacoception or olfacception}, or touch {tactioception}. How do the senses, or the limitation of the senses, remap the perception of space and place? How much can a single sense record?… TYPICAL URBAN ANALYSIS and A-TYPICAL ANALYSIS
“Most often our perception of the city is not sustained, but rather partial, fragmentary,mixed with other concerns. Nearly every sense is in operation, and the image is the composite of them all.” Kevin Lynch focused on four main concepts, correlated to a wise urban planning: a) an urban system has to be held legible, through definite sensory cues, b) its image has to be perceived by the observer, c) arbitrarily selected by the community and finally manipulated by city planners, and d) legibility and imageability would then lead to the identification of a structure. Therefore producing a precise identity, which are both parameters through which it is possible to analyze an urban system and its own elements. Lynch believed that there might be different relations of complexity within every structure: these consist in the relations between definite elements, which are identified in: path_landmark_edge_node_district.
1. paths: the streets, sidewalks, trails, and other channels in which people travel 2. landmarks: readily identifiable objects which serve as external reference points 3. edges: perceived boundaries such as walls, buildings, and shorelines 4. nodes: focal points, intersections, or loci 5. districts, relatively large sections of the city dis- tinguished by some identity or character
“The image of the city arises from the underlying scaling of city artifacts or locations. This scaling refers to the fact that, in an imageable city {a city that can easily be imaged in the human mind}, small city artifacts are far more common than large ones; or alternatively low dense locations are far more common than high dense locations. The sizes of city artifacts in a rank-size plot exhibit a heavy tailed distribution consisting of the head, which is composed of a minority of unique artifacts {vital and very important}, and the tail, which is composed of redundant other artifacts {trivial and less important}. eventually, those extremely unique and vital artifacts in the top head, i.e., what Lynch called city elements, make up the image of the city. We argue that the ever-increasing amount of geographic information on cities, in particular obtained from social media such as Flikr and Twitter, can turn research on the image of the city, or cognitive mapping in general, into a quantitative manner. The scaling property might be formulated as a law of geography.” - B. Jiang, Nonlinear Sciences - Cornell University “Make a map as if you were making a rapid description of the city to a stranger, covering all the main features. We don’t expect an accurate drawing - just a rough sketch.”
MYERS | ATYPICAL ANALYSIS | 10
STUDIO | RESEARCH
In order to use solely gustaoception to map Jefferson Park Transit Center and its surrounding context, we broke the sense of taste down into its constituent elements: the perceptions of sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory. We then broke the physical act of tasting down into two categories: ambient tastes (what a particular place tasted like) and specific tastes (what a particular thing tasted like). We wandered around Jefferson park looking for sites and things to taste, sampled as many of the local restaurants as we could, and periodically stopped to record what the ambient taste of a place. Pictured in the map below are the specific points where we stopped to record tastes. At several of these points, we experienced multiple tastes, both specific and ambient. The site we were given for our project is highlighted in red as well.
MYERS | TASTE MAP | 11
STUDIO | RESEARCH
The taste diagrams recorded below are a result of plotting the intensities of each element of taste on the pentagonal graph also below. The number value of each intensity was then translated from just a number into a value on one of the aspects of the CMYK spectrum; sweet=C, sour=Y, salty=M, and then bitter acted as the amount of white in the K-value, and savory as black. Because of this rigorous method of documenting tastes, no two shapes share either the same shape or color of diagram. By only looking at the diagrams, it’s also apparent which tastes were ambient and which were specific. The specific ones are much larger diagrams with much bolder colors, since their tastes were so strong. The ambient tastes, on the other hand, have smaller diagrams with more subdued color palettes. CAJUN FRIES
CHICKEN MCNUGGET
IN FRONT OF BIKE RACKS
IN FRONT OF CONVENIENCE STORE
IN FRONT OF GALE ST. INN
OVERPASS
ORANGE SLICE
MEXICAN RICE
MEATBALL SUB
PHILIPPINO SPRING ROLLS
POLISH COOKIES
BEFORE WISCONSIN AVENUE CROSSES HIGHWAY
SWEET
BARBEQUE SAUCE
R
SOU
ORY
SAV
ENCHILADAS VERDES
LTY
SA
R
TE
BIT
MYERS | TASTE DIAGRAMS | 12
REFIRED BEANS
STUDIO | RESEARCH
CONCRETE WALL
DOUBLE CHOCOLATE DONUT
DUNKIN DONUTS/BASKIN ROBINS
JP STATION & MILWAUKEE AVENUE
COCA-COLA
JP STATION HALL
KETCHUP
JEFFERSON STATUE
JEFFERSON PARK BLUE LINE STATION
SITE
SOUR PATCH KIDS
STEEL POLE
MYERS | TASTE DIAGRAMS | 13
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | COLLAGED TASTE DIAGRAM | 14
STUDIO | RESEARCH
The diagram to the left is the result of superimposing each individual taste diagram to create one that is indicative of the entire taste of Jefferson Park. The diagram to the left is the result of placing each taste diagram at the point on a geographical map where they were tasted. The map was then removed to see what the tastes alone could describe. The larger taste diagrams form a strong axis that is representative of Milwaukee Avenue. The diagram shows how the commercial aspects of Jefferson Park are all gathered along Milwaukee, with hardly anything even one street away. The diagram below is an experiential map of our time spent tasting Jefferson Park. The diagrams are separated according to the perceived distance in between each taste, either physical, chronological, or both.
MYERS | COLLAGED TASTE DIAGRAMS | 15
STUDIO | RESEARCH
PROMPT 3 | SITE: TYPICAL ANALYSIS 1.0 Team assignment with Michael Mekonen
Prompt:
In groups of 2, research the Jefferson Park Terminal and after analysis present your findings of the current situation, ex. spatial connections, clarity, beauty, simplicity, complexity‌.. or historical importance, contemporary adaptation, impact on adjacent areas, programmatic manipulation, etc). Be critical and don’t simply show the obvious, search for the interesting and present the material in a cohesive and constructive way. typical 1. having the distinctive qualities of a particular type of person or thing; informal showing the characteristics expected of or popularly associated with a particular person, situation, or thing 2. representative, classic, quintessential, archetypal, model, prototypical, ste- reotypical; normal, average, ordinary, standard, regular, routine, run- of-the-mill, stock, orthodox, conventional, predictable, unsurprising, unremarkable, unexceptional. 3. early 17th century: from medieval Latin typicalis, via Latin from Greek tupikos, from tupos (see type)
To compliment our atypical analysis of Jefferson Park, we also investigated Jefferson Park Transit Center, which is immediately adjacent to our given site, in a more typical manner. We evaluated the transit center based on efficiency and movement through the space to see how well the station functioned. We went to the site and observed how people and vehicles moved through the station. It became apparent that while the station was architecturally boring, it functioned fairly well given the knot of transit functions and site parameters it needed to accommodate. Page 17 an axon drawing of the transit center and all the forms of transit that flow through and around it Page 18 a sketch of the floorplan of the transit center and how people and vehicles flow through it Page 19 further sketches of how the transit center is used Page 20 a diagram of how a commuter would move through the transit center Page 21 experiential diagram of the transit center and a quick investigation of the surrounding area
MYERS | TYPICAL ANALYSIS 1.0 | 16
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | AXON | 17
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | SKETCHES | 18
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | SKETCHES | 19
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | COMMUTER MOVEMENT | 20
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | EXPERIENTIAL DIAGRAM | 21
STUDIO | RESEARCH
PROMPT 3 | SITE: TYPICAL ANALYSIS 2.0 Team assignment with Andres Jimenez
Prompt:
In groups of 2, research the neighborhood of Jefferson Park even further. Analyze the greater context of the neighborhood as well as adjacencies, program, demographics, etc. Be critical and present the material in a cohesive and constructive way. typical 1. having the distinctive qualities of a particular type of person or thing; informal showing the characteristics expected of or popularly associated with a particular person, situation, or thing 2. representative, classic, quintessential, archetypal, model, proto- typical, stereotypical; normal, average, ordinary, standard, regular, routine, run-of-the-mill, stock, orthodox, conven- tional, predictable, unsurprising, unremarkable, unexcep- tional. 3. early 17th century: from medieval Latin typicalis, via Latin from Greek tupikos, from tupos (see type)
In this phase, we elaborated on our typical investigation of Jefferson Park and expanded it to a greater scale. Page 23 a map of the greater context of Jefferson Park Page 24 a programmatic analysis of the area around our site Page 25 a map highlighting buildings which are currently vacant Page 26 a map describing the amount of time it takes to walk to certain destinations around our site. Page 27 several charts describing the demographic makeup of Jefferson Park Page 28-29 a diagram that connects the demographic studies with the program studies. The demographics are linked to the programs already present in Jefferson Park they might associate with. The diagram then considers what might need to be done with the existing programs in order to improve the neighborhood.
MYERS | TYPICAL ANALYSIS 2.0 | 22
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | MAP | 23
N
BUSINESS/SHOPPING/TRADE [79] SOCIAL/INSTITUTIONAL/INFRASTRUCTURE [11] INDUSTRIAL/WHOLESALE/TRADE [4] ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT/RECREATION [8] TRANSPORTATION [2] VACANT [25]
SITE [1] RESIDENTIAL [1085]
STUDIO | RESEARCH
EDUCATION RECREATION ENTERTAINMENT INFRASTRUCTURE FOOD RETAIL BUSINESS SOCIAL RESIDENTIAL
MYERS | PROGRAM | 24
N
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | VACANCIES | 25
min
10
5
min
N
STUDIO | RESEARCH
MYERS | WALKING MAP | 26
MYERS | DEMOGRAPHICS | 27
Vacant
Rented Housing Median Rent 990
Below Poverty Level
White+
Hispanic
Owned Housing Median Value 271,800
Median Income $76,593
White
Individuals
Family Household
Foreign-born resident
Built After 2010
Built Before 1939
Single Parent
US Born
Foreign-born citizen
2 Vehicles
Same House over past year
1 Vehicle
No Vehicle
Second Language
STUDIO | RESEARCH
STUDIO | RESEARCH
Grade Sc
Colleg
Transport Adults
Public Se Elderly
Restaura K-12 Youths Bar Families RESIDENTS
Good College Students
VISITORS
Service Young Professionals
Offic Commuters
Apartme Tourists House Immigrants
Live The
Park
Art
MYERS | CONNECTIONS | 28
STUDIO | RESEARCH
CONNECT
chool [1]
ge [1]
tation [2]
ervices [8]
ant [16] [3]
ds [12]
es [43]
ce [5]
ent [40] [1045]
INFRASTRUCTURE RETAIL FOOD RECREATION SOCIAL
ADD
BUSINESS RESIDENTIAL ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION
eatre [2]
k [5]
t[1]
IMPROVE
MYERS | CONNECTIONS | 29
STUDIO | DESIGN
PROMPT 4.0 | PROGRAMMATIC CONJECTURE Team assignment with Andres Jimenez
This project is a community catalyst, a specialized kind of development that will prove to be an amenity for the neighborhood now and deep into the future. The building will provide a variety of residences and amenities that work together to create a vibrant and exciting ecosystem that is both self regenerating internally and stimulating to the neighborhood and the city. Mixed markets have existed for all of recorded history and there are emerging trends to create spaces that capture the unique opportunities of the local context and culture (non-generic, non-suburban). This project is hyperlocal, yet regionally connected. PROJECT : MIXED-USE RETAIL / RESIDENTIAL BUILDING Mixed Market
75,000 - 80,000 sq ft
Market Prepared Foods Coffee Bar Restaurant / Bar (seating for up to 50 ppl) Cooking Classrooms (2 @ 1000 sq ft each) Restrooms (6 fixtures per m/f) Mechanical Space Min 18’ ceiling ht Vertical circulation No parking req’d
Residential
250-300 apartments 200-250 sq ft Each unit includes: Living area Bedroom Kitchen Bathroom Closet Storage Vertical circulation No parking req’d
For the initial phase of the project, we dove right into researching the typology of the given program and developed a preliminary scheme for the project that included the site, horizontal/vertical circulation, parti, and massing. Page 31 preliminary conceptual parti sketches Page 32-33 preliminary exterior concept sketches Page 34 development of the massing study Page 35 circulation: horizontal/vertical, interior, and exterior
MYERS | PROGRAMMATIC CONJECTURE | 30
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | SKETCHES | 31
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | SKETCHES | 32
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | SKETCHES | 33
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | MASSING | 34
STUDIO | DESIGN
Horizontal circulation between towers
Interior horizontal & vertical circulation
Public area circulation
Exterior circulation
MYERS | CIRCULATION | 35
STUDIO | DESIGN
PROMPT 4.1 | DESIGN PROJECT Team assignment with Andres Jimenez
PROGRAMMATIC STUDY After we created our initial programmatic conjectures, we were tasked with challenging and evaluating any decisions we made and any and all preconceptions we had about the project. We used what we have learned to develop our design further and relate it more thoroughly to its site in Jefferson Park. In this phase of the project we backtracked to better research our program and site, in order to figure out what Jefferson Park truly needed our architecture to be. Through this understanding of the proposed program, and our previous understanding of the existing program of Jefferson Park, we were able to suggest that certain program elements that were missing from Jefferson Park be included in our proposed architecture. The architecture now would include all the elements that make up a community. The architecture also needed to provide a destination within Jefferson Park. Even though the transit center is right there, there is very little incentive for a commuter to spend any extra time in Jefferson Park. In order to truly impact the neighborhood, the architecture needed to become everything that of Jefferson Park was not. Page 37 studies of the sizes of each programmatic element Page 38-39 a diagram describing the relationship between the community demographics, the existing program of Jefferson Park, and the proposed program of our project, as well as how the elements of the proposed program might relate to each other Page 40 a diagram describing how our architecture would relate the elements of our proposed program Page 41 a diagrammatic map of program adjacencies. Page 42-43 a map describing the three ‘centers’ of Jefferson Park and the vacant buildings that exist within them Page 44-45 a map describing how introducing program into those vacant buildings can create social centers within the neighborhood Page 46-47 a map describing how program could be distributed throughout the vacant buildings of Jefferson Park
MYERS | PROGRAMMATIC STUDY | 36
STUDIO | DESIGN
The quantification of the elements of our proposed program allowed us to understand that even though the micro residential unit was the smallest individual part, because of the enormous quantity required by the program, they became the programmatic element that would influence the design the most. Residential Market Prepared Foods Coffee Bar Cooking Classrooms Bar Restaurant Gym Restrooms Multi-Use Rooms Movie Theater Gallery
SITE
HPI FITNESS
EATALY
WHOLE FOODS
SIP [restaurant/bar]
THE PIGGERY [restaurant]
BARRELHOUSE FLAT [bar]
JOHNNY CASSEROLE [restaurant]
RESIDENTIAL UNIT
NRV MALL
MCCOMAS GYM
JEWEL OSCO
NRV MOVIE THEATER
MYERS | PROGRAM | 37
THE LYRIC THEATER
STUDIO | DESIGN
This diagram allowed us to describe the relationship between the demographics of Jefferson Park, how they used the program that currently exists in Jefferson Park, and how the proposed program of our architecture could improve Jefferson Park.
CONNECT Grade School [1] College [1] Transportation [2] Adults Public Services [8] Elderly Restaurant [16] K-12 Youths Bar [3] Families RESIDENTS
Goods [12] College Students
VISITORS
Services [43] Young Professionals Office [5] Commuters Apartment [40] Tourists House [1045] Immigrants
INFRASTRUCTURE RETAIL FOOD RECREATION SOCIAL
ADD
BUSINESS RESIDENTIAL ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION
Live Theatre [2] Park [5] Art[1]
MYERS | DEMOGRAPHICS TO PROGRAM | 38
IMPROVE
STUDIO | DESIGN
Residential Unit [300] Market [1] Prepared Foods [...] PRIVATE
Coffee Bar [1] Restaurant [1] Bar [1] Cooking Classroom [2] Restrooms [2] Mechanical Space [1] Communal Area [...]
PUBLIC
Gym [1] Movie Theatre [1] Multi-Use Room [...] Gallery [1]
MYERS | DEMOGRAPHICS TO PROGRAM | 39
STUDIO | DESIGN
These diagrams began to help us visualize the relationships between program elements that our architecture would need to make in order to be successful.
Residential Unit [300] Gallery [1]
Communal Area [...]
Multi-Use Room [...]
Market [1]
Movie Theatre [1]
Prepared Foods [...]
Gym [1]
Coffee Bar [1]
Cooking Classroom [2]
Restaurant [1] Bar [1]
MYERS | PROGRAMMATIC RELATIONSHIPS | 40
STUDIO | DESIGN
Gym
Movie Theatre
Multi-Use Roo
Communal Area
Gallery
Communal Area Bar
Restaurant
Movie Theatre [1
Residential Unit [300]
Multi-Use Room
Coffee Bar
Prepared Foods
Cooking Classrooms
Market
Gy
Cooki
MYERS | PROGRAMMATIC ADJACENCIES | 41
STUDIO | DESIGN
This map shows the many vacant, commercially-oriented buildings around Jefferson Park [volumes in grey], as well as the three main commercial centers in Jefferson Park [areas in red]. The commercial centers are located [1] immediately around the transit center [top left]; [2] around the intersection of the two main roads in Jefferson Park, Milwaukee Ave and Lawrence Ave [bottom left]; and [3] along Lawrence Ave, across the Kennedy Expressway [right].
MYERS | COMMERCIAL CENTERS | 42
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | COMMERCIAL CENTERS | 43
STUDIO | DESIGN
If we were to introduce an element of social program into the hearts of these centers of commerce, then each area would become a social center, instead of ineffective commercial centers plagued by vacant lots and buildings.
Grade School [1] College [1] Transportation [2] Adults Public Services [8] Elderly Restaurant [16] K-12 Youths Bar [3] Families RESIDENTS
Goods [12] College Students
VISITORS
Services [43] Young Professionals Office [5] Commuters Apartment [40] Tourists House [1045] Immigrants Live Theatre [2] Park [5] Art[1]
MYERS | 44
INFRASTRUCTURE RETAIL FOOD
CONNECT
RECREATION SOCIAL BUSINESS RESIDENTIAL ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION
ADD
STUDIO | DESIGN
Residential Unit [300] Residential Unit [300] Communal Area [...] PRIVATE
Gallery [1]
Market [1] Prepared Foods [...]
Communal Area [...]
Multi-Use Room [...]
Market [1]
Coffee Bar [1] Restaurant [1] Bar [1]
Movie Theatre [1]
Prepared Foods [...]
Cooking Classroom [2] Gym [1] PUBLIC
Gym [1]
Coffee Bar [1]
Movie Theatre [1] Multi-Use Room [...] Gallery [1]
Cooking Classroom [2]
Restaurant [1] Bar [1]
MYERS | 45
STUDIO | DESIGN
Specific types of program could be assigned to each vacant lot. By creating a plan for the development of these vacant areas, each commercial center would create an integration of all the amenities that a community needs. This would encourage residents living in and near these centers to walk from place to place, instead of driving and bring life back to the street.
Grade School [1] College [1] Transportation [2] Adults Public Services [8] Elderly Restaurant [16] K-12 Youths Bar [3] Families RESIDENTS
Goods [12] College Students
VISITORS
Services [43] Young Professionals Office [5] Commuters Apartment [40] Tourists House [1045] Immigrants Live Theatre [2] Park [5] Art[1]
MYERS | 46
INFRASTRUCTURE RETAIL FOOD
CONNECT
RECREATION SOCIAL BUSINESS RESIDENTIAL ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION
ADD
STUDIO | DESIGN
Residential Unit [300] Residential Unit [300] Communal Area [...] PRIVATE
Gallery [1]
Market [1] Prepared Foods [...]
Communal Area [...]
Market [1]
Multi-Use Room [...]
Coffee Bar [1] Restaurant [1] Bar [1]
Prepared Foods [...]
Movie Theatre [1]
Cooking Classroom [2] Gym [1] PUBLIC
Coffee Bar [1]
Gym [1]
Movie Theatre [1] Multi-Use Room [...] Gallery [1]
Cooking Classroom [2]
Restaurant [1] Bar [1]
MYERS | 47
STUDIO | DESIGN
PROMPT 4.2 | DESIGN PROJECT Team assignment with Andres Jimenez
MICRO-UNIT HOUSING STUDY In order to begin designing the actual architecture of our proposal, we began by looking at what we saw to be the essential building block for the entire project. From our programmatic quantification study, we realized that the micro-unit, while small by itself, became the true building block of the architecture because of its sheer quantity, so we decided to begin there. We each dove into individual studies of micro residential units, in conjunction with our Urban Environments course. Page 49 a study of a micro residential unit with a circular floorplan Page 50-51 different spatial conditions and programmatic distributions that could be created by an architecture that is based off of the circular residential unit Page 52-53 a study of a micro residential unit with a rectangular floorplan Page 54-55 a proposal of the spatial conditions and programmatic distributions that could be created by an architecture that is based off of the rectangular residential unit
MYERS | MICRO-UNIT HOUSING STUDY | 48
STUDIO | DESIGN
BAR
PANTRY/CLOSET
KITCHENETTE
ELEVATOR
STORAGE
BATHROOM BEDROOM
The circular floorplan creates a very free circulation throughout the apartment, as well as a uniquely effective separation of different functional spaces. A hierarchy of use is also inherently created by having to pass though certain spaces to reach others. The circular form of the units creates a unique opportunity to stack the units to create slender towers that have one unit on each floor. Circulation from the base to the apartments would be facilitated by a central elevator and stair core. Because the units each have their own floor, every apartment commands panoramic views of the surrounding cityscape and natural lighting at all times of day. Walking through the higher-altitude apartments gives tenants the feeling of floating among the clouds. Storage in these units is managed by various cabinets throughout the kitchen, bar, and bathroom, as well as dresser/closet/cabinets build in around the bed and a pantry/closet at the entrance to the apartment. In concluding this study, it was found that living in any micro-apartment is not for everybody. But this type of circular layout offers interesting conditions that some might lack, such as a sense of circulation through the space, panoramic views, and natural light at all times of the day.
MYERS | 49
STUDIO | DESIGN
Grade School [1] College [1] Transportation [2] Adults Public Services [8] Elderly Restaurant [16] K-12 Youths Bar [3] Families RESIDENTS
Goods [12] College Students
VISITORS
Services [43] Young Professionals Office [5] Commuters Apartment [40] Tourists House [1045] Immigrants
INFRASTRUCTURE RETAIL FOOD
CONNECT
RECREATION SOCIAL BUSINESS RESIDENTIAL
ADD
ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION
Live Theatre [2] Park [5] Art[1]
An architecture that uses the slender towers that are inherently created by the circular micro-units would immediately be iconic. This could begin to act a catalyst to draw in people and businesses that might not normally want to set up shop in Jefferson Park. The many towers also define a new, implied public space. The program could be arranged in many different ways around the residential towers, whether that is above, below, or strategically dispersed throughout as it is in the center proposal. All three of these solutions leave the ground plane open to be reclaimed by the public realm to use for whatever seems fit - a park, a playground, parking, etc. The physical volumes of the architecture create implied space of varying and unforeseeable programs. MYERS | 50
STUDIO | DESIGN
Residential Unit [300] Residential Unit [300] Communal Area [...] PRIVATE
Gallery [1]
Market [1] Prepared Foods [...]
Communal Area [...]
Multi-Use Room [...]
Market [1]
Coffee Bar [1] Restaurant [1] Bar [1]
Prepared Foods [...]
Movie Theatre [1]
Cooking Classroom [2] Gym [1] PUBLIC
Gym [1]
Coffee Bar [1]
Movie Theatre [1] Multi-Use Room [...]
Cooking Classroom [2]
Restaurant [1] Bar [1]
Gallery [1]
MYERS | 51
STUDIO | DESIGN
The honeycomb shape allows for efficient stacking of multiple units and maximization of space inside. Multiple combinations of cells allow for different apartments, even though all are about the same size. Multiple stories could also give an apartment more volume and separation of spaces. Volume is also taken advantage of by layering nets between beds, which allow usage of space without solid or opaque separations in such a tight space. Finally, the bathroom is only as big as the room to house the toilet when it is closed. The door opens in a two part process to expand the bathroom to share room with a shared kitchen sink, shower, and closet. In concluding this study, it was found that these units were most effective at creating a perception that a small space was actually relatively large. The units also create an iconic architecture because of their unique hexagonal front elevation.
10’
6’ 20’
10’
MYERS | 52
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | 53
STUDIO | DESIGN
Grade School [1] College [1] Transportation [2] Adults Public Services [8] Elderly Restaurant [16] K-12 Youths Bar [3] Families RESIDENTS
Goods [12] College Students
VISITORS
Services [43] Young Professionals Office [5] Commuters Apartment [40] Tourists House [1045] Immigrants Live Theatre [2] Park [5] Art[1]
An architecture developed around this housing unit also defines space in a unique way. The public part of the architecture fronts the sidewalk and is only two stories tall, a reference to the rest of the commercial buildings around Jefferson Park. The architecture then subverts the Metra line that runs behind the site in order to reclaim some unused land near the Kennedy. The residential towers are located on that side of the Metra line and build vertically from there. In this way, the highest parts of the architecture are relegated far back from the street so as not to feel imposing to pedestrians nor cast shadows on surrounding buildings. This architecture uses the different applicable scales of each program element to define space in a smart way that residents of Jefferson Park will appreciate.
MYERS | 54
INFRASTRUCTURE RETAIL FOOD
CONNECT
RECREATION SOCIAL BUSINESS RESIDENTIAL ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION
ADD
STUDIO | DESIGN
Residential Unit [300] Residential Unit [300] Communal Area [...] PRIVATE
Gallery [1]
Market [1] Prepared Foods [...]
Communal Area [...]
Multi-Use Room [...]
Market [1]
Coffee Bar [1] Restaurant [1] Bar [1]
Prepared Foods [...]
Movie Theatre [1]
Cooking Classroom [2] Gym [1] PUBLIC
Coffee Bar [1]
Gym [1]
Movie Theatre [1] Multi-Use Room [...]
Cooking Classroom [2]
Restaurant [1] Bar [1]
Gallery [1]
MYERS | 55
STUDIO | DESIGN
PROMPT 4.3 | DESIGN PROJECT Team assignment with Andres Jimenez
PROGRAMMATIC CONNECTOR 1.0 Through our extensive programmatic and demographic investigations, we found that what Jefferson Park really needs is not a bunch of new program stuffed into one site to inevitably create a mixed use tower on the site that was suggested for our project. That given site definitely needs to be a part of it, as it is the largest unused site that close to the transit center, but cramming program into that site alone is not enough. What really needs to be done to positively impact Jefferson Park in a significant way is the re-purposing of the many vacant buildings and sites throughout the commercial centers of the neighborhood. By introducing program throughout the neighborhood and around the transit center, Jefferson park will become the destination that it could be, a major point along the Blue Line of the ‘L’ that attracts people for its retail, food, and social programs. Spreading these many programs around the neighborhood creates its own set of architectural challenges, though. The main problem that we endeavored to solve was how these disparate [both by location and by definition] programs could be reconciled through architecture. We decided to approach this reconciliation through a physical connection of the programs. Page 57 the preliminary concept diagram with which we began to develop the architecture Page 58-59 the concept diagram describing what the architecture will be connecting Page 60-61 a drawing describing how the connection will interact with the physical clusters of program throughout Jefferson Park Page 62-63 a drawing describing how the connector creates areas of implied public space Page 64-65 the vision of how the bridge will influence the future development of Jefferson Park Page 66-67 a section drawing of how the bridge will facilitate commercial and social participation
MYERS | PROGRAMMATIC CONNECTOR 1.0 | 56
STUDIO | DESIGN
Residential Unit [300] Communal Area [...] Market [1] ENFOLD Prepared Foods [...] Coffee Bar [1] Restaurant [1] Bar [1]
ENTANGLE
CONNECT
Cooking Classroom [2] Gym [1] IMPLY Movie Theatre [1] Multi-Use Room [...] Gallery [1]
The concept of our architecture is to connect the stratified program elements that we are introducing throughout Jefferson Park through three methods. [1] All of the elements will be entangled within one another. This prevents further stratification of program type and creates true diversity of building types throughout the neighborhood. [2] The clusters of program that we create will enfold the connecting bridge. This ensures that the architecture of the programmatic clusters and the architecture of the connector are not completely divergent. [3] The connecting bridge will imply occupiable public space beneath it. This helps to ensure that the streetscape will not be abandoned by the use of the connecting bridge. The implied space defines an inherently public space that attracts businesses and will create a lower level of the same connection between clusters of commercial program.
MYERS | CONCEPT DIAGRAM | 57
STUDIO | DESIGN
The three spaces that our architecture will be reclaiming are located on a north-south axis from each other. They are [1] the original vacant site suggested for us to use at the intersection of Lipps Avenue and Ainsley Street, [2] a luster of currently vacant buildings on the corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Lawrence Avenue, and [3] a cluster of buildings on the East side of Milwaukee Avenue between Lawrence and Giddings. The idea is to infuse individual parts of the program into each of the three sites and then connect them with a physical bridge. Each site brings valuable characteristics to the architecture. The original site is immediately adjacent to the transit center and as such is a great place to establish a program that acts as a destination for commuters to bring them out into Jefferson Park. The cluster at the corner of Milwaukee and Lawrence is located at what the residents of Jefferson Park perceive to be the commercial center of the neighborhood and will be easily accessible to both pedestrians and automobile commuters. The third site farther down Milwaukee is in close proximity to many residential bungalows and is on what could be perceived as the edge of the commercial district of Jefferson Park. This site acts as a good place for current residents of Jefferson park to begin interacting with the architecture.
Residential Unit [300] Communal Area [...] Market [1] ENFOLD Prepared Foods [...] Coffee Bar [1] Restaurant [1] Bar [1]
ENTANGLE
Cooking Classroom [2] Gym [1] IMPLY Movie Theatre [1] Multi-Use Room [...] Gallery [1]
MYERS | PROGRAM SITES | 58
CONNECT
STUDIO | DESIGN
Vacant Site [Closest to Transit Center]
Vacant Buildings [At Milwaukee & Lawrence]
Vacant Buildings [Main Cluster on Milwaukee]
MYERS | PROGRAM SITES | 59
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | CONNECTION | 60
STUDIO | DESIGN
The volumes created to rehabilitate the vacant buildings will enfold the connector bridge. By doing this, the bridge remains a distinct element that defines its own space, but the bridge is still associated with the architecture that houses the main program. The commercial programs within these clusters would be distributed on the lower level in order to involve the streetscape, and residential micro-units would be distributed throughout each of the clusters on the upper levels. The connector bridge would connect the pieces of the architecture through the residential level to encourage interaction between pedestrians who reside in the micro-units and those who reside in bungalows outside the neighborhood center.
Residential Unit [300] Communal Area [...] Market [1]
ENFOLD
Prepared Foods [...] Coffee Bar [1] Restaurant [1]
CONNECT
ENTANGLE
Bar [1] Cooking Classroom [2]
IMPLY
Gym [1] Movie Theatre [1] Multi-Use Room [...] Gallery [1]
MYERS | CONNECTION | 61
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | IMPLIED SPACE | 62
STUDIO | DESIGN
The connector bridge could become other things than simply a physical connection to facilitate movement and social interaction between the different parts of the architecture. As a completely public space, it could become home to public-oriented programs, like a free gallery. But the bridge also defines space outside of its physical enclosure. The bridge acts first as an abstract directory that tells pedestrians what path to follow. It then also implies a public space beneath it. This implied space will invigorate the streetscape by encouraging pedestrian inhabitation on their way to the clusters of program that will initially be constructed. After the streetscape becomes more populated along this implied avenue, businesses will begin to develop along the axis to cater to the pedestrian community.
Residential Unit [300] Communal Area [...] Market [1]
ENFOLD
Prepared Foods [...] Coffee Bar [1] Restaurant [1]
CONNECT
ENTANGLE
Bar [1] Cooking Classroom [2]
IMPLY
Gym [1] Movie Theatre [1] Multi-Use Room [...] Gallery [1]
MYERS | IMPLIED SPACE | 63
STUDIO | DESIGN
1 Day After Completion
5 Years After Completion
The progressive development of businesses as the physical space enclosed by the bridge and the implied space underneath the bridge are inhabited will create a new axis on which the commercial district of Jefferson Park will be organized. The initial construction of the architecture is just the beginning, the establishment of a canvas for future development. Years after construction the architecture will continue to grow and adapt th=o the changing needs of Jefferson Park.
MYERS | FUTURE DEVELOPMENT | 64
STUDIO | DESIGN
10 Years After Completion
15 Years After Completion
After fifteen years, it is conceivable that the bridge will connect even more than the clusters of program in the neighborhood center. The bridge will span the Kennedy to connect with the Blue Line and reach Roberts Square Park as well as reach south to connect with Wilson Park. The public park areas act as pedestrian collectors and emphasize that the bridge is an extension of the public realm. The bridge now connects even the most stratified areas of Jefferson Park through a continuous public axis.
MYERS | FUTURE DEVELOPMENT | 65
STUDIO | DESIGN
The connecting bridge facilitates commercial development and social space on two levels. By adding a second pedestrian street level, there is now effectively twice as many leasable streetfront properties. This means more businesses for the consumer and more valuable real-estate for the developer. Also, the pedestrian way is no longer impeded by the flow of traffic. Where pedestrians used to have to wait at crosswalks, they can now ascend to the upper pedestrian walkway and continue their journey uninterrupted.
MYERS | SECTION | 66
STUDIO | DESIGN
A
A
MYERS | SECTION | 67
STUDIO | DESIGN
PROMPT 4.4 | DESIGN PROJECT Team assignment with Andres Jimenez
PROGRAMMATIC CONNECTOR 2.0 To truly effect Jefferson Park in a positive way immediately after the project is completed, the complete North-South connection between Roberts Square Park and Wilson Park needed to be part of the original plan. The main function of the connector bridge is to bring people from the stratified areas around the commercial center. Currently, the main islands of pedestrian movement are isolated from one another by busy roads and poor planning. Milwaukee Avenue, a street that should be bustling with activity from local Jefferson Park residents and commuters transferring between forms of transportation at the transit center is rather lifeless. This is mainly due to poor programmatic planning. Immediately across Milwaukee from the transit center is a block bookended with two banks, and filled in with unattractive shops and fast-food restaurants [with the exception of the Gale Street Inn, one of the biggest commercial attractions of Jefferson Park and actually a restaurant whose location was well-planned]. As if that wasn’t enough to discourage pedestrian travel, immediately to the left as you walk out of the transit center are expansive parking lots. Farther South on Milwaukee, the street is still terribly uninhabited. if the large intersection of Higgins and Milwaukee wasn’t enough to estrange the Southern part of Milwaukee from the transit center, an expansive, blank brick wall [one of the two post offices near the commercial center of Jefferson Park] discourages pedestrians even further from making the trip. Apart form the stratification of these seemingly close areas of the neighborhood center are the current residents of Jefferson Park. They live in bungalows that are either cut off from Milwaukee by the shift in the street grid, or separated from everything by the chasm of the Kennedy Expressway. The architecture aims to connect all of these stratified areas through the creation of a new mixed-use axis. This axis will connect the bungalow-dwellers south of Milwaukee, the several islands of pedestrian movement throughout the neighborhood center, and the completely alienated residents living North of the Kennedy. The architecture also introduces the commercial and residential density that this area of Jefferson Park sorely needs. Finally, the architecture establishes an iconic destination in Jefferson Park that will draw people from outside the neighborhood to stimulate local businesses. Page 69 a map describing how the architecture connects the stratified areas of Jefferson Park Page 70-71 maps describing Jefferson Park currently, as well as maps showing how the architecture will impact the area Page 72-73 drawings describing the architecture Page 74-75 drawings describing how residential units interact with each other Page 76-77 an elevation view of a community of micro-units Page 78-79 a perspective of the Southern-most site Page 80-85 drawings and perspectives describing the market and residences in the Northern-most site Page 86-87 a section drawing describing the entire length of the connection MYERS | PROGRAMMATIC CONNECTOR 2.0 | 68
STUDIO | DESIGN
ROBERTS SQUARE PARK
NORTH
WILSON PARK
MYERS | CONNECTING STRATIFIED AREAS | 69
NORTH
STUDIO | DESIGN
Isolated Islands of Movement
Vacant Buildings & Vacant Sites
Vehicular Movement
The poor planning as well as the automobile-oriented nature of Jefferson Park both contribute to the stratification of various areas around the transit center. Unfortunately, people who live 100 yards away as the crow flies from the Blue Line station drive there for their daily commute because they are so isolated by vehicle traffic [that traffic could be either in the form of the Kennedy Expressway or the traffic-heavy Milwaukee Avenue].
MYERS | JEFFERSON PARK | 70
STUDIO | DESIGN
Proposal 1 Day After Completion
Proposal 5 Years After Completion
Proposal 15 Years After Completion
The architecture develops overtime to adapt to the changing needs of Jefferson Park. Immediately after completion, the architecture connects the stratified areas previously mentioned. Five years down the road, commercial and social programs begin to populate the new axis formed by the architecture. A new entrance to the Blue Line is even created along that axis. Ten years after that, even more commercial and social development is established along the new axis. The New entrance to the L becomes another commercial center along the axis.
MYERS | FUTURE DEVELOPMENT | 71
STUDIO | DESIGN
The ‘programmatic connector’ is not solely a bridge. It is a bridge where the urban landscape dictates that it should be a bridge, and where the landscape dictates that it should be a footpath, the connector responds accordingly. From South to North [left to right in these drawings] the bridge begins as a path on ground level exiting Wilson Park. That path then passes through the first part of the architecture [bottom of this page], which includes micro-unit housing, a gym, and retail. Still at ground level, the path continues until it reaches the second part of the architecture [top of page 73]. This part includes more retail and housing, as well as food and entertainment venues, like a movie theatre. At this point the path ascends a level to pass through a housing community above the commercial program, cross the intersection of Lipps and Ainsley, and enter the main floor of the market building [bottom of page 73]. After passing through the market, the path crosses the Kennedy Expressway to connect with the isolated community of bungalow-dwellers there.
Grade School [1] Residential Unit [250]
College [1] Transportation [2] Adults Public Services [8] Elderly Restaurant [16] K-12 Youths Bar [3] Families RESIDENTS
Goods [12] College Students
VISITORS
Services [43] Young Professionals Office [5] Commuters Apartment [40] Tourists House [1045] Immigrants
Communal Area [...] INFRASTRUCTURE
PRIVATE
RETAIL FOOD
CONNECT
Coffee Bar [1]
RECREATION
Restaurant [1]
SOCIAL
Bar [1]
BUSINESS RESIDENTIAL ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION
Live Theatre [2]
Market [1] Prepared Foods [...]
Retail [...] ADD
Gym [1] PUBLIC
Movie Theatre [1] Multi-Use Room [...] Gallery [1]
Park [5] Art[1]
MYERS | 72
STUDIO | DESIGN
Grade School [1] Residential Unit [250]
College [1] Transportation [2] Adults Public Services [8] Elderly Restaurant [16] K-12 Youths Bar [3] Families RESIDENTS
Goods [12] College Students
VISITORS
Services [43] Young Professionals Office [5] Commuters Apartment [40] Tourists House [1045] Immigrants
Communal Area [...] INFRASTRUCTURE
PRIVATE
RETAIL FOOD
CONNECT
Coffee Bar [1]
RECREATION
Restaurant [1]
SOCIAL
Bar [1]
BUSINESS RESIDENTIAL
Market [1] Prepared Foods [...]
Retail [...] ADD
ENTERTAINMENT
Gym [1] PUBLIC
EDUCATION
Movie Theatre [1] Multi-Use Room [...]
Live Theatre [2]
Gallery [1]
Park [5] Art[1]
Grade School [1] Residential Unit [250]
College [1] Transportation [2] Adults Public Services [8] Elderly Restaurant [16] K-12 Youths Bar [3] Families RESIDENTS
Goods [12] College Students
VISITORS
Services [43] Young Professionals Office [5] Commuters Apartment [40] Tourists House [1045] Immigrants
Communal Area [...] INFRASTRUCTURE
PRIVATE
RETAIL FOOD
CONNECT
Coffee Bar [1]
RECREATION
Restaurant [1]
SOCIAL
Bar [1]
BUSINESS RESIDENTIAL ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION
Live Theatre [2]
Market [1] Prepared Foods [...]
Retail [...] ADD
Gym [1] PUBLIC
Movie Theatre [1] Multi-Use Room [...] Gallery [1]
Park [5] Art[1]
MYERS | 73
STUDIO | DESIGN
The micro-units are suited to forming unique communities. Individual units are connected by a front porch area that effectively doubles the square-footage of the unit. The porch space also fosters a sense of community between people who might ordinarily be estranged neighbors. The network of stairs also acts as a community catalyst. The stairs create daily interactions between people who live on opposite sides of the micro-unit community. The stair platforms also create another gathering area at which neighbors can stop and chat. The stairs also create a unique spatial condition for pedestrians who are walking along the path beneath. The stairs as well as the units themselves give a unique character to the experience of both passers-by and residents.
MYERS | MICRO-UNIT COMMUNITY | 74
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | MICRO-UNIT COMMUNITY | 75
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | MICRO-UNIT COMMUNITY | 76
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | MICRO-UNIT COMMUNITY | 77
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | PERSPECTIVE | 78
STUDIO | DESIGN
Here, the connector path moves through the architecture, which is a base of retail with levels of residential micro-units above. An exterior room is created by the canopy of stairs that connect the residences and the storefronts below.
MYERS | PERSPECTIVE | 79
STUDIO | DESIGN
Scale: 1/32” = 1’
120’
MYERS | MARKET PLANS & PERSPECTIVES | 80
56’
24’
8’
0
NORTH
In the market building, the main commercial program of the market is bordered on three sides by micro-unit residential communities. In effect, this creates one large community within the market where consumers and residents both interact while shopping for the daily necessities. The connector path runs directly through the market, making the main market floor a completely public space, but there is a level of separation between the market and the residences in order to make the residences not quite so public. Visually, there are no barriers between the residences and the market, but physically the residences are separated by their entrances being located on walkways elevated above the market floor. The combination of the market and residential programs creates a very active and engaging space for both common pedestrians and residents.
STUDIO | DESIGN
Scale: 1/32” = 1’ 120’
MYERS | MARKET PLANS & PERSPECTIVES | 81
56’
24’
8’
0
NORTH
STUDIO | DESIGN
The facade of the architecture is defined by a hexagonal grid that evolved from the hexagonal facade of the micro-unit. The undulating roof was also derived from the residential unit and gives a very dynamic and iconic quality to the architecture. In section, the main market area is an enormous triple height space made more manageable by being broken up by structural columns.
MYERS | MARKET ELEVATION & SECTION | 82
Scale: 1/32” = 1’ 120’
56’
MYERS | MARKET ELEVATION & SECTION | 83
24’
8’
0
NORTH
STUDIO | DESIGN
STUDIO | DESIGN
Pedestrians [in red] take a path through the market that then ascends two more stories to reconnect with the bridge that crosses the expressway. Commuters coming from the transit center [also in red] can enter on the ground floor of the building and then shop to their hearts’ content before continuing along the connector path or returning to the transit center. Residents can enter the same way and then take the stairs or the elevator to a private elevated walkway on which are the entrances to the units.
MYERS | CIRCULATION | 84
STUDIO | DESIGN
PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC RESIDENT TRAFFIC
MYERS | CIRCULATION | 85
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | 86
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | 87
STUDIO | DESIGN
PROMPT 4.5 | DESIGN PROJECT CIRCUITBOARD ARCHITECTURE After spending weeks grinding out computer renderings and developing our design through computer drawings, this wrap-up part of the design project was an attempt to take a step back and process what I learned through the development of our proposal for Jefferson Park. I took a generic calculator that I had lying around and deconstructed it in the hopes of finding a new way of looking at the Jefferson Park project. When I completed my methodical dissection of the calculator, it was in 67 pieces: 1 set of instructions, 1 plastic cover, 1 back casing, 1 front casing, one circuitboard, 1 rubber button backer, 1 screen cover, 1 solar cell, 1 solar cell cover, 3 pieces of foam padding, 1 battery, 1 red wire, 1 black wire, 4 large screws, 1 reset button, 1 reset button backer, 2 small screws, and 44 buttons. I didn’t particularly learn anything from the act of destroying the calculator itself, but I did learn something when I sat down to draw the calculator’s circuitboard. The act of hand drawing, after using the computer non-stop for 5 weeks was very therapeutic. It allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of that which I was drawing and draw parallels between it and the Jefferson Park project. It occurred to me that the architecture that made up the circuitboard was the same architecture that made up Jefferson Park, and the same that we had attempted to impart on our design project. A typical circuit in the calculator starts at a specific contact point, then takes a circuitous [I had never realized that circuits were circuitous] route which passes through several other specific contact points before being funneled through a strip of circuits that then feeds the data into what I can only imagine is a central processor. The data then comes out of that processor and is funneled through another strip of circuits to be converted into pixels on the display. I believe this journey of a point of data from a point on the fringes of the circuitboard to eventually being converted into pixels on the display screen is directly applicable to urban planning and architecture. Page 89 a drawing of the calculator circuitboard Page 90-91 a drawing relating the circuitboard to the experience of suburbia Page 92-93 a drawing relating the circuitboard to the experience of the city Page 94 a drawing describing how the architecture of the circuitboard works on many different scales
MYERS | CIRCUITBOARD URBANISM | 88
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | CIRCUITBOARD DRAWING | 89
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | 90
STUDIO | DESIGN
It seemed to me that the architecture of the circuitboard directly related to the architecture of suburbia. The small individual points could be seen as individual homes connected to each other by confusingly windy roads. Those roads eventually link up with a collector road or highway, and then are taken to the outskirts of the city. In order to avoid congesting city streets with needless amounts of cars, the data is deposited in a central processor, which could be seen as a transit hub, converting the car [an element of suburban life] into pedestrians using public transit [an element of urban life]. Now that they have sufficiently transitioned from a suburban style to an urban style, the data can now continue on into the display screen, which can only be the city center.
MYERS | 91
STUDIO | DESIGN
MYERS | 92
STUDIO | DESIGN
Another way of perceiving the architecture of the circuitboard is as the architecture of an individual city. Light rail travel takes a circuitous path throughout the city in order to avoid the other rail lines and hit as many important destinations as it can to finally feed into a central train station analogous to Union Station or Grand Central Station.
MYERS | 93
STUDIO | DESIGN
The architecture of the circuitboard works on as many different levels as is conceivable to imagine. When you realize that, you realize that architecture is truly fractal in nature, that any idea that may apply to the scale of a city can apply to the scale of a room, or that the layout of the circuits in a calculator can relate to the layout of an entire state.
MYERS | 94
STUDIO | DESIGN
After this exercise was complete, I realized that this is what we were truly trying to accomplish with our proposal for Jefferson Park. We wanted to be able to plan the entire urban fabric of the neighborhood center in the same way that we were planning the specific architecture of the market building. I think that this is a completely necessary thing in architecture when it is possible to accomplish. Neighborhoods like Jefferson Park, and particularly its commercial district where our project was cited, suffer from a lack of connection between large and small-scale planning. What needs to happen is a coordination of efforts at the beginning stages of a community’s development to plan what the neighborhood will be 10, 50, or 100 years in the future so it will always be a successful place. I also believe that architecture will be a lot more successful on a human scale if it can relate itself to the architecture of the environment in which it is built. If a city and a building work within the same parameters, then they will be that much more convenient and accessible for the pedestrian user.
MYERS | 95
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS
MYERS | 96
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS
96 - 121
Week One
98 - 99
Week Two
100 - 103
Week Three
104 - 107
Week Five
108 - 109
Weekends
110 - 111
MYERS | 97
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 1
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 1 THE MODERN 9.2 Prompt:
This week’s exercise consists of taking one of the three plan options in the Urban Environments|Week 01 folder and developing that plan into a full three dimensional apartment. This can be by performed by hand or digitally (or both) in any application you choose. This is a sketch exercise that takes 6-8 hours over the next few days. Consider the home you’ve grown up in. Think of the similarities and differences of the plan as you may reconstruct it from memory and the way you would describe it to someone else. Think of what resonates with you, even the hierarchy of that memory/retelling. A home is an experience - what elements do you use to create the experience, the story you tell? What do you see in the plan and what story will you tell, what experience or series of experiences will you create? 1. The plan is fixed, only the type of door can change. All walls, openings structure must remain. The three dimensional interpretation of the non-structural elements is up to you 2. The unit has a clear floor to ceiling dimension of 10’ 3. Window sills start at 2’ AFF and the window heads are 9’ AFF.
MYERS | 98
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 1 A
B
C
D
E
F
A-
A
B-
B
C-
C
D-
D
E-
E
F-
A
B
C
D
E
F
F
MYERS | 99
A
B
C
D
E
F
A
B
C
D
E
F
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 2
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 2 RESIDENCE A18-02 Prompt:
The same three plans from last week are in play and the following guidelines apply: 1. Choose one of the two plans you didn’t use last week and list out the apartment program as you see it on the plan 2. The perimeter of the unit needs to remain as is, as does the point of entry. 3. The room sizes are flexible, although they should reflect their furnishing needs and relative hierarchy. 4. The relationship of the kitchen, dining and living, as well as any related family or great room is up to you. 5. The unit has a clear floor to ceiling dimension of 10’ 6. Window sills start at 2’ AFF and the window heads are 9’ AFF.
MYERS | 100
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 2
MYERS | 101
MYERS | 102
2
1
1
2
MYERS | 103
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 3
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 3 RESIDENCE A18-02 Prompt:
This week uses the work from the earlier two weeks. Pick one room/space from either of the previous two weeks’ exercises. This week that room will be developed further in that1. The shape, articulation and finish of each surface needs to be addressed. 2. The room/mspace needs to be furnished and the type of lighting needs to be addresses (the lighting need not function as lighting in the digital model. 3. This includes the window(s) in the room/space 4. This should be depicted with and without window covering. Is this decoration or an extension of the architecture? Can it be both? What serves what?
MYERS | 104
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 3
MYERS | 105
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 3 1
2
1
2
MYERS | 106
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 3
A
A
Section A-A
MYERS | 107
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 5
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 5 Prompt:
Based on the building you’ve chosen + photographed, make the following assumptions: 1. The use of the interior spaces, known or unknown will stay the same 2. The minimum size of the windows/apertures must be respected within reason 3. The exterior wall will remain in the same place, unless some intervention seems to have merit Proceed with the exercise as follows: 1. Working in digital format (for the final images) present at least one alternate exterior articulation of the building. This brings into question or study the vocabulary, scale and materiality, at the least, of the proposed alternative. 2. The images should be the same perspective view, although you can alter (e.g. adjusting the perspective in photoshop) the original view to allow your work to proceed 3. Models need not be built; however if a Google Earth/Sketchup conversion allows more ease and versatility in the process, have at it. The goal is to keep the tools simple to express the intent.
MYERS | 108
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEK 5
MYERS | 109
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEKENDS
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEKENDS The weekend assignments were intended to get us out into Chicago to record the urban environment that was the city. Every weekend, we’d spend an hour or two trying to discover interesting things about the city of Chicago and record them. Often it happened that while we were already doing something, like visiting a museum or just having lunch at a cafe, we would observe something interesting and be compelled to record it. In this way, the weekend assignments really give a unique picture of our experience in Chicago. Included on the right are all twelve weekend assignments that I completed over the course of the semester. They range from a photograph of an interesting light fixture in a Taco Joint bathroom to a drawing of the dark, peaceful room that Tadao Ando designed at the Art Institute. These assignments didn’t necessarily make me pay more attention to my surroundings while I was in Chicago, as I feel like I was already pretty observant, but they did make me record those observations so I could reference them in the future, which was invaluable. Looking back at all twelve of them is like re-living the entire semester again. That’s a nice thing.
MYERS | 110
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEKENDS
What is the role of reeection in architecture? How can archtecture use inherent reeections to its advantage?
The detailng a building’s interior xtures is through just as important a the detailing The lobby entrance toof CannonDesign is made dynamic a undulating metal wall andofa its facade. Atypical can beis used to create typical things, such as this cast iron pipe light sconce. glass wall on thematerials left onto which projecting ever-changing images of their work. The material choice gives the detail an unique character and aesthetic.
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS | WEEKENDS
The boundary created by two buildings creates a window through which to view a microcosm of Chicago.
Color & Architecture How does the use of color apply differently between exterior and interior? How can color affect a space?
While the corner of a building is a perfect opportunity for advertisement, this building could drastically improve the way advertisement is applied to its facade. A gaudy, enormous grill is hung from the corner because apparently the sign below reading “Weber Grill” isn’t enough to clue people into the fact that food is actually grilled at the establishment. If that wasn’t enough, other advertisements are piled above the grill according to no discernable logic, imposing themselves onto the architecture instead of being developed in tandem with the building.
Virginia Tech Ryan Myers 02-09-2015
The light fixtures on the exterior of the Harold Washington Library Center embodies the flamboyant style with which the building was ornamented.
A unique covered sidewalk condition within the loop.
Grazing light on a pristine wall surface in the Milwaukee Art Museum designed by Santiago Calatrava.
The space frame structure supporting the shelter at the LaSalle Metra Station allows for fewer columns, which opens up more space for waiting passengers.
What place does Classical Architecture have in a modern setting? How can the past be used without overtly copying it?
The Ando room at the Art Institute. How can gradients of darkness be drawn? Can drawing actually capture the true feeling of a space?
MYERS | 111
MONTERREY WORKSHOP
MYERS | 112
WORKSHOP
112 - 121
Prompt
114
Photographs
115
Project
116 - 121
MYERS | 113
MONTERREY TECH WORKSHOP
MONTERREY TECH WORKSHOP
Team assignment with Andres Jimenez, Arturo Ponce, and Mariana BaidĂłn
RE-IMAGINING JEFFERSON PARK Prompt: In a one-day exercise, how can the central area of Jefferson Park (specifically around the terminal) be re-programmed, re-planned or re-imagined? What systematic changes can disrupt latency? Think BIG... What could Jefferson Park be in 100 years? Workshop Assignment: Research by design: Having a very limited amount of time, resources, and development input creates excellent circumstances to test radical interventions and scenarios. This is a short term, pressure-cooker exercise to test if strong concepts could battle long-term complexity. Let’s develop bold concepts, scenarios, and visualizations for Chicago that later can be regenerated in more manicured and evaluated forms. Big plans are good, so are small plans - as long as their effect is substantial. Topics to Consider: Accessibility, Mobility, Vertical Density, CO2 Reduction, (Affordable) Housing, Ecology, Energy Production, Food Production, Water Treatment, Segregation/ Mix, Leisure, Sport, Music, Job Creation, Tourism ... Hybrids of two or more themes?
Page 115 Photos of us working with the students from Monterrey Tech Page 116 a map showing areas we were connecting with our proposal Page 117 a map showing the axis of public space that our proposal would create Page 118 a section drawing describing how our proposal would span all the forms of transit in Jefferson Park Page 119 a map showing how streets would connect across the Kennedy Page 120 a map showing how buildings would begin to populate the new neighborhood center Page 121 a map showing the densities of program throughout the new neighborhood center
MYERS | MONTERREY TECH WORKSHOP | 114
MONTERREY TECH WORKSHOP
MYERS | PHOTOS | 115
MONTERREY TECH WORKSHOP
Our team took the stance that in order to disrupt the latency of Jefferson Park, the two sides of the neighborhood separated by the Kennedy Expressway needed to be connected. This connection would give residents access to the neighborhood center and encourage pedestrian travel to destinations instead of the current automobile-centered condition. We saw the best way to connect the two sides of Jefferson park was to remove the fracture created by the Kennedy by spanning it with a new neighborhood center. This is truly a long-term project in which the new town center would need to be entirely planned to facilitate a healthy distribution of program throughout. The center would need to have a density of apartment-style housing, restaurants, and entertainment, as well as other retail businesses.
MYERS | AREAS TO CONNECT | 116
MONTERREY TECH WORKSHOP
Roberts Square Park
Jefferson Park
Now that the Kennedy has been bridged, our proposal went one step further and removed most of the forms of transit that the Jefferson Park Transit Center served (the Blue Line and the Metra) from the pedestrian level to the level of the Kennedy, now underneath the neighborhood center. By doing that, the entrance of the transit center can now be moved to the center of the new neighborhood center and facilitate vertical circulation to the rail lines. Now that the true center of the neighborhood is a absolutely public facility, a public axis is created through the commercial center of Jefferson Park by connecting several major public lots. This axis facilitates pedestrian movement even further, and encourages interaction between the neighborhoods on either side of the Kennedy.
MYERS | PUBLIC AXIS | 117
MONTERREY TECH WORKSHOP
MYERS | NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER SECTION | 118
MONTERREY TECH WORKSHOP
The major roads would connect through the town center to facilitate the movement of buses and cars. Connecting some of these existing streets also mediates the shift in the street grid from one side of the Kennedy to the other and gives a basic organization for how buildings in the neighborhood center might be arranged.
MYERS | STREET CONNECTIONS | 119
MONTERREY TECH WORKSHOP
In order for this plan to work best, the streets through the neighborhood center need to be oriented more for the pedestrian. Streets should narrow as they enter the new neighborhood center to encourage slower traffic flow. The sidewalks should be made wider for pedestrian travel, and be lined with trees to provide a barrier between the sidewalk and the road. Finally, parallel parking on the street should be encouraged by locating large parking lots and garages outside of the neighborhood center. All of these things would contribute greatly to the creation of a pedestrian culture in Jefferson Park, which would in turn encourage patronage of local businesses.
MYERS | BUILDING DEVELOPMENT | 120
MONTERREY TECH WORKSHOP
As previously stated, the buildings in the new neighborhood center would house a variety of programs. In conjunction with that, those programs would be organized in order to create a center of density around the transit center that would decrease as the buildings got farther from the center. Very public programs like the transit center, or a movie theatre, or a market, would be put close to the center, and more private programs like banks or law offices would be pushed towards the outside of the center. This organization of density would be used for the placement of housing throughout the neighborhood as well. The most dense housing (micro-units) would be place closest to the transit center, family apartments and flats would be out a little further, and then the outskirts of the neighborhood would stay as private bungalow-style houses.
MYERS | PROGRAMMATIC DENSITY | 121
PRO PRACTICE
MYERS | 122
LECTURES
124 - 139
Laura Fisher
126 - 127
Gracia Shiffrin
128 - 129
Chip von Weise
130 - 131
Drew Ranieri
132 - 133
Don Copper
134 - 135
Carl D’Silva
136 - 137
Joshua Prince-Ramus
138 - 139
TIMELINE
140 - 143
FIRM
144 - 149
Description
146
Structure
147
Budget
148 - 149
INTERVIEWS
150 - 195
Rob Calvey
152 - 157
Jay Ryan
158 - 165
Tim Swanson
166 - 175
Polina Batchkarova
176 - 181
Drew Ranieri
182 - 187
Nick Cameron
188 - 195
MYERS | 123
MYERS | 124
LECTURES
MYERS | 125
Laura Fisher
FAIA Managing Director at IPM Consulting Ltd. BArch | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | 1975 M.B.A. | University of Chicago | 1981
MYERS | LECTURES | 126
Lecture | 02.18.2015 | Alternate Careers for Achitects.1 Corporate Real Estate Background: - BArch | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | 1975 - MBA | University of Chicago Graduate School of Business | 1981 {MBA is sort of like BArch in that you learn the language of the profession, but not necessarily how to practice.} - Went to work after architecture school for the real estate department at a bank in order to pay for night school to get her MBA - At 2 years out of school and 24 years old, she was inter- viewing I.M. Pei to build for her bank in Houston - After the bank, she worked for 2 years in London, helping Disney to build their UK office - Now she is a small business owner; IPM Consulting Ltd. Consults for large companies such as Dean Foods, McDonald’s, Walt Disney, Hyatt Being A Small Business Owner: - She never does design work, only acts as a consultant to companies who are hiring other architects - Documentation; contracts, invoice forms, etc. _ Use documents that can be reused _ Indemnification Clause | She doesn’t have insur- ance, so if someone wants to sue her about a building, the client she works for has to cover her. - “Know Your Skill Set” - “Know The Value Of Your Services” - Many, many people and groups of people are involved in any sort of project. Advice As A Professional: - Professional organizations | JOIN, VOLUNTEER, MEET PEOPLE, LEARN THINGS - Be Mindful Of How You Present Yourself _ Where do you want to work? What is that place’s culture? _ When you are representing your firm, think about what the client would think of the firm. - Get Your Credentials | IDP, NCARB, AIA, LEED, Licen- sure - Career Folder | Keep a folder of things you do {virtual or physical} - Send written thank you notes to people who have done things for you
MYERS | LAURA FISHER | 127
Gracia Shiffrin
FAIA, Esq. Asset Resolution Specialist at U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development BArch | Louisiana State University | 1984 J.D. | DePaul University | 1996
MYERS | LECTURES | 128
Lecture | 02.18.2015 | Alternate Careers for Achitects.2 Architect & Attorney Background: - BArch | Louisiana State University, College of Design | 1984 - J.D. {Juris Doctor} | DePaul University, College of Law | 1996 - Worked for the Fire Marshal in Baton Rouge as a “Plan Review Architect” _ Literally just reviewed drawings to make sure they were up to code _ “took away the fear of codes” - Then went to San Francisco _ Worked for a large engineering firm | Did parking garages with retail - Then worked at a firm that did Elementary Schools _ Saw how schools were funded - From her experience with elementary schools, she decided to go back to school to pursue a law degree. _ Types of law that interested her were; intellectual property, copyright, idea ownership, etc. | human rights | real estate - Then became a Transactional Attorney for the City of Chicago _ Worked with affordable housing _ Then worked with the Landmarks Commission | millions of dollars in incentives, tens of millions in improvements for Chicago - Then worked for the Mayor of Chicago - Now works for the Archdiocese of Chicago _ Not For Profit: Catholic Charities | housing development corporation that builds low income housing for seniors, veterans, disabled individuals | “Real Estate With A Social Purpose” - Now working for the U.S. Department of Housing & De- velopment
MYERS | GRACIA SHIFFRIN | 129
Chip von Weise
Principal at von Weise Associates B.A. in Fine Arts | Amherst College | 1986 MArch with Distinction | Harvard University | 1994 Chip built his first house at the end of grad school.
Response Chip’s lecture was about the design process, specifically the way that VWA approaches the design of one of their projects. Chip really sees the creation of architecture as the creation of art, and his design approach really illustrates that conviction. The firm looks to artists for precedent and inspiration as much as they do architects, which is demonstrated in the case study he provided, a house VWA designed in Lake Geneva, WI. They looked to Richard Sera to gain inspiration on how best to create a logic for navigating the surrounding landscape; a very long, sloped site. The firm went through the schematic design phase and came up with a design that they and the client were both very happy with. But when von Weise came back to the client with a cost estimate for the project, the client (who had originally told them to not worry about a budget, that he “could afford it”) said that the estimate was too expensive and that they needed to come up with a new design. Thankfully von Weise, who had put so much work into what they thought would be the final design for the project, had structured their contract so that they were working on an hourly instead of a flat fee. This meant that von Weise would still be compensated for both the work they did for the original design as well as the work they did for the new design. If they had been working under a flat fee structure, they would have still received a payment agreed upon at the beginning, even though they ended up basically going through schematic design twice. This lecture really made evident the need for a contract, so that all parties involved in a project will remain happy. It was also good to hear about and see an example of architecture in which a thorough and unique design process is applied in a professional environment, and that clients understood and were willing to pay for the implementation of a good design process. The notion that with a small firm, a more personalized and custom touch is used for architectural projects really appeals to me.
MYERS | LECTURES | 130
Lecture | 02.23.2015 | Design Process Weise Associates: - Started as a three-person firm, but disagreements arose and the partners went their separate ways - They do non-profit, corporate, and residential work - Residential work comes mainly through word of mouth _ Houses being featured in magazines and web sites legitimizes work for clients who might not have a background in design von
Design Process | Case Study: - Create a logic for the landscape and its relationship to the architecture _ Richard Sera’s art was used as inspiration and precedent - The house needs a retention pond, so why not make a feature out of it? _ River with underground retention basins along its length that ends in a pond - VWA goes back and forth between hand sketches and computer drawings during early design. - Hand-drawings give the client that “artistic feel” _ Hand-drafting used for drawings, and then mate- riality and shadow brought in with the computer.
Big Firm vs. Small Firm: - Big: _ Have a wealth of experience on large projects {which can be very comforting} _ Building might look similar to others {as in com petitors} {possible downside} _ Only the project manager sees the project through from start to finish {downside} - Small: _ Personalized process _ There is a designer involved in all aspects of the project _ More opportunity for unique and personalized design _ Smaller-scale projects {possible downside}
Post-Design Process: - Schematic bidding _ Budget estimates - A lot of dealing with clients is dealing with the emotional aspects of the process Fees: - Fees are a percentage of the cost of construction _ Large Projects → 12%-13% _ Small Projects → 17%-18% - There are several different ways to manage billing the client: _ Fixed: one base fee, then extra fees for any changes that happen along the way _ Hourly: Do whatever the client wants you to do and get payed by the hour for your efforts _ % per cost of construction: Estimate construction cost at the beginning - VWA likes to get payed by the hourly model for schematic design - After schematic is over, VWA estimates the cost of con - struction and then gets paid 7.5-8% of construction cost for rest the work on the project. - Construction Administration : Charge a flat monthly fee _ They do custom details; door handles, hinges, door edges, etc.
MYERS | CHIP VON WEISE | 131
Drew Ranieri
Associate Principal at Solomon Cordwell Buenz B.S. Architecture | The Catholic University of America | 1976 MArch | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | 1979
Response
Drew’s lecture was mainly about the relationship between the architect and the other parties involved in a building project, namely the contractor, owner, and sometimes the developer. This relationship is normally evaluated in professional practice through a contract which explicitly defines the relationship of everyone involved to the architectural practice. Specifically, a contract includes such things as liability (risk & responsibility), the project schedule, the scope of work to be done, and the work product (what is expected to be produced). From the architect’s point of view, a contract explains “what I am going to provide, and what I am getting paid for.” To me, it was amazing how many traps there can be in the construction world. An example that Drew gave involved him informing the contractor of one of his projects that there were no safety rails around an opening on the seventh floor (or some sufficiently high floor). A worker for that construction company then tried to sue Drew’s company because Drew mentioned that safety risk (possibly implying that he had taken responsibility for it), and it wasn’t rectified. Drew was only let off because he hadn’t explicitly told the contractor what to do, but had instead just told him something he had observed, and left the acting to the contractor (who is responsible for such things). I think this example really speaks to the modern relationship between architect and contractor.
MYERS | LECTURES | 132
Lecture | 02.25.2015 | Contracts Opening Remarks: - Drew has worked in many firms - Had his own architecture shop before moving to SCB - The Practice Of Architecture = Profession + Business _ The combination of what you want to do and what you need to do - 4-Person Firms vs. 20-Person Firms: _ The employees make the difference _ More types of work can be done with larger firms
Contract Documents vs Project Manual: - Contract Documents: Quantitative → Quantity - Project Manual: Qualitative → Quality _ Says nothing of methods _ Includes the “ingredients of a building” _ Outlines the standard of quality Phases Of A Project:
Contracts: - Definition: A guarantee between at least two parties - What is the relationship of everyone involved to the prac- tice? - Contents Of A Contract: _ Liability {Risk & Responsibility}: determines what each party is responsible for _ Schedule _ Scope Of Work: how much work is going to be done | If that changes, the contract needs to cover what happens. _ Work Product: What is being delivered - Three main parties in a contract for an architectural project: Client, Contractor, Architect - Basic Contract: What am I going to provide, and what am I getting paid for it? Relationships: - Owner vs. Architect vs. Contractor - Traditional → Equal Relationship:
O
O
O
Design Development
20%
Construction Documents
20%
Bidding
5%
C
C
A
A
A
- Owner Client: Architect & Owner Together:
D C
A O
D
O
C
- Build to Suit: Contractor, DeveloperA& Architect Together:
O
C
D O
O
A
C
D
O
A
A
C
A
C
A C O Consultants: A - Owner Brings: Financial | Legal {Standard Building Legali- C ties & Zoning Consultants} | Project Manager | Marketing - Architect Brings: Mechanical | Sustainability {“Climate”} | Electrical | Plumbing | Material | Enclosure {Curtain Wall} | Geo-Technic MYERS | DREW RANIERI | 133
33%
33%
C A Construction
C C A
O
33% 50%
O O
O
15%
Administration
- Design/Build: Contractor & Architect Together: O
Schematic Design
C A
A
C
5%
O A
C
Concept
35%
50%
Don Copper
Principal at GREC Architects BArch with Honors | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | 1980 One year of study at the Architectural Association in London | 1979
Response
Don’s talk was predominantly about GREC and how it operates as well as how the profession of architecture operates in general. The attitude that Don and GREC take towards developing architecture is one that makes a lot of sense. He views the firm’s relationship to its clients as being in the realm of the service industry. There is a lot of collaboration throughout the design process, between designers at the firm as well as between the office and the client. This ensures that the architecture GREC develops is exactly what the client wants, so they know they are getting exactly what they want and what they are paying for. A downside to this might be the difficulty of having to accept design decisions from a client who might have no background in design. But there might be much to be gained from “outside” input, especially with regards to the financial and practical aspects of a project. The insights Don gave into how a project is budgeted was valuable, but approximately what I expected. I think a very important point Don made was that in the end clients will get what they are willing to pay for. So if your fees are higher than some of your competition, but your work is also that much better, then clients will notice that and ultimately gravitate towards you. As for those that don’t and prefer to spend less on sub-par architecture, then maybe that type of client (who is willing to sacrifice quality architecture to save a few bucks) is not one that you want to work for.
MYERS | LECTURES | 134
Lecture | 03.02.2015 | Project Process _ Don started with more work than he could handle when he joined GREC _ They did a lot of education design, and then decided that they should apply their model of education design to corporate design _ You gotta catch a break → somebody has to place their semi-unfounded faith in you Project Schedule: Programming Schematic Design Design Development
2 Months → Circulation, egress, codes, etc. *the fundamental 3M issues* 3M 3M
Construction Documents Contractor Bidding Construction
1M 12 M
Project Manager Project Designer Project Architect Intern
GREC Projects: - Fixing prices is illegal, so there will always be someone cheaper than you. - You get what you pay for. _ GREC says, “There will be a principal following the entire project. We don’t staff a proj- ect entirely with interns.” _ Fees are directly related to the amount of effort put into the work. - GREC currently has 12 active projects and 4 projects that are being chased - “How do you find projects?” MYERS | DON COPPER | 135
Overhead & Profit
Project Staffing: → profit = 15% on top of Principal 70 210 overhead Base Salary
GREC Architects: - Sized between von Weise Associates and SCB - Approximately 20 employees at any given time - GREC sees and sells themselves as a “boutique” firm that does corporate-level projects - At the beginning of a project, all the partners are involved in each project _ One principal follows an individual project the entire way - The medium-small size of the firm necessitates partners following projects all the way through _ This facilitates less specialization since designers are working on all aspects of a project from start to finish, instead of the same part of every project. - GREC is “highly collaborative” _ They like to include as many voices in the con- ceptualization of a project as possible - GREC sees themselves between “that Rem Koolhaas” and “that low-cost” architecture The Nature of Work: - In the end, this is a service business and we are providing a service to our clients who are creating a real-es- tate product. Ultimately, we are responsible to the financial dynamic of the people we work for. * Don’t throw away design though!* - “Somebody pays for every mistake” - Different climates {geographic, financial, different clients’ mindsets} change things _ Dubai: - Financed entirely by client upfront because of a different type of capital income { oil, shipping} - Marketing done after the project was completed _ U.S.A.: - Banks require 40% of units in the build- ing sold before they’ll lend money - Marketing needs to be done before and throughout the project
50 40 40 30
150 120 120 90
Carl D’Silva FAIA
Vice President and Principal Architect at JAHN Architecture BArch | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | 1994
Response
Carl’s lecture made it very clear that the purpose of any drawing during the schematic or conceptual design phases of a project must support the architectural idea before they do anything else. But before drawings are even started, it is necessary to nail down just what is trying to be achieved through the architecture. Doing this focuses the intent of the project in a way that facilitates decision-making; when confronted with a design problem, possible solutions should be evaluated by whether or not they support the overall architectural concept. In the case of the Louvre Museum addition by I.M. Pei, the architecture needed to terminate the Champ Elysees, respect the original Louvre building, and improve the circulation through the existing museum. The final design takes all of these main points into account. The glass pyramids act as a landmark to sufficiently terminate the Champ Elysees. By nature of their materiality, the glass pyramids also don’t overpower the existing Louvre. Finally the pyramids act as a new central entrance point that facilitates a more radial access to the rest of the museum from a new underground space. From this lecture personally, I take away the understanding that defining what you are trying to achieve through the architecture as soon as you can is very important. If you cannot do that quickly, then the design process might be floundering without any real sense of direction or purpose. Defining an architectural concept early on allows for more purposeful design decisions in the short term and in the long term, a stronger and more unified project.
MYERS | LECTURES | 136
Lecture | 03.04.2015 | Design Concept Renovation of the Louvre: Site/Context
ANALYZE
Programming Planning
DESIGN Detailing - The Louvre sits on the major axis of the Camp Elysees _ Aligned with La Defense, Arc d’Triomphe, Obe- lisk - So, how do you make a monument that respects the cur- rently built architecture and sufficiently terminates the Champ Elysees? - Solution: Make A Glass Pyramid _ Doesn’t block views _ Lets in light underground _ Doesn’t overpower the existing building _ Marks the entrance Adaptive Reuse of Pullman Warehouse: - Repurposing the warehouse as a mall _ Takes existing conditions and repurposes them. _ The geometry of the exterior walls facilitates the addition of new glazing and entrance points - Quick sketches that illustrate the design concept of the project - Create images that communicate the design intent - Take something that is meaningful and go from there - Before you talk about the design, be sure to talk about the design concept. What To Take Away: - Figure out what you are trying to do with a project. _ How do you want people to live there? - Make drawings that illustrate exactly what you a re trying to do. - Communicate the design concept clearly and thoroughly
MYERS | CARL D’SILVA | 137
Joshua Prince-Ramus
Founder and Principal of REX Undergraduate Degree in Philosophy | Yale University MArch | Harvard Graduate School of Design | 1996
Response This lecture was really a treat. After hearing a lot about the Dutch design process of OMA from Andrew (mostly not flattering), and then a little about it from Mitesh Dixit, it was good to be able to get a new opinion on this diagrammatic type of architecture that OMA and now REX are known for. Whether or not the buildings REX designs end up being successful can only be evaluated by the client and those who inhabit them because they are inherently interior and user-focused. This means that the functionality of the architecture is what truly matters, and arguments about the buildings’ forms tend to be moot points. Prince-Ramus is more focused on how the design process can determine the architecture, and he believes that if the process is good, then the architecture will be as well. His process is this: he works with the client to figure out what the issues of a project are. Then he works with the client to develop joint positions on those issues that will inform the design. Finally, he creates a manifestation of those positions in the form of the architecture. In the case of the Seattle Central Library, Prince-Ramus (still working at OMA’s New York office) was woefully inexperienced in terms of project administration, so he relied on the knowledge of his project consultants. He says that this self-critical naiveté was important to holding the project together and developing confidence between himself and his subs, as well as his clients. For the design development of the library, Prince-Ramus found the main issues to be the outdated library structure and a necessary flexibility of space. He and the client then went on to develop the position that the modern library was more about curation and public space than it is about book storage. This truly manifested in the architecture, where Prince-Ramus’ office created an “interiorized urban space” that acted as a tether for five separate buildings housing different library functions. In the case of the Wyly Theatre, the main issue was the flexibility that the old, shitty theatre afforded the company. The old building allowed them to knock down walls and literally dig wells on stage, and they didn’t want to lose that quality with the creation of their pristine, new architecture. In order to facilitate this, REX created a way for all the equipment to be able to be flown above the performance area, fondly called the Superfly. This opened up the entire perimeter of the theatre for customization, and it worked. REX only explicitly designed 4 configurations for the stage, but in the 25 shows that have ran since it opened, 21 separate stage configurations have been used. Prince-Ramus says that this “palette of opportunity” is something that tends to emerge from most of the projects he does. MYERS | LECTURES | 138
Lecture | 04.01.2015 | Re-evaluation REX: - RE {prefix for do again} + X {variable} = reevaluate, re-pur- pose, rethink, reposition, etc. - REX is about reevaluation, whether that be through archi- tecture, function, or anything else. - Their process involves figuring out what the key issues of a project are, then developing positions on those issues, and finally manifesting those positions in the architecture. _ The positions that are developed are “joint posi- tions” that are shared with the client. This holds the client accountable for decisions made down the road that support the original positions that were established. - The basic layout of their process is:
for the theatre. _ Ex: They drove through the side of the theatre with a backhoe and then dug a 30 ft. deep well when they were creating a set for an apple orchard. _ Question: How do you create a pristine, new architecture that will allow for that radical flexibility and creativity? - Answer: SUPERFLY: Release the auditorium and put everything above it. - SUPERFLY creates a truly flexible space _ The theatre has done 25 shows since completion in 21 different configurations of the audi- torium space _ REX only explicitly gave them 4 configurations, but the nature of the architecture created ISSUES → POSITIONS → MANIFESTATIONS a palette of opportunity that allowed the client to be creative with the use of the _ But the process is a lot less linear than it seems, space. with the design team shifting back and - Because people can see through the enclosure, people now forth constantly and sporadically between spend time picnicking out on the lawn watching all three parts of the process. actors block out scenes/rehearse/create theatre _This builds patronage of the theatre and raises Seattle Central Library: revenue. - Compartmentalized Flexibility _ Stable functions {staff, parking, books, meeting} Buildings Should DO, Not Only Represent separated from flexible functions {reading room, mixing chamber, living room, kids’ space} - The structure of libraries was changing _ 32% Books, 68% Public space _ Information is now available everywhere, so what is the need for a central library? Answer: CURATION - In response to the new “structure” of the library, defined by more public space, a design of 5 separate buildings held together by an “interiorized urban space” was created. _ 5 individual spaces divided up between 5 design teams to create a truly diverse experience between parts of the library -The Dewey Decimal System was also rethought in order to remove librarians from the book space _ Allows for the creation of a “mixing chamber where all the library’s curatorial functions are gathered - Prince-Ramus was just 29 when he started the project, and says that a self-critical naiveté was important to holding the project together and developing con- fidence between himself and the project consul- tants {who knew much more than he}. Wyly Theatre: - Existing shitty building for their theatre. But that shitty facility allowed them to do whatever they wanted MYERS | JOSHUA PRINCE-RAMUS | 139
MYERS | 140
TIMELINE
MYERS | 141
1-2 months
PRE-DESIGN
Client meetings Define the problem Inform clients about what is possible Understand site and climate to set energy goals early Record and present findings to client for their approval Conclude in documentation that client signs off on 3 months
SCHEMATIC DESIGN
Programming Figure out client’s expectations Iterate design concepts Select a main concept Develop an initial cost estimate
3-4 months
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
Resolve schematic design Understand technical issues enough to understand how they impact the design Initial draft of specifications (approx. 80% accurate) Develop a more accurate cost estimate
3-5 months
CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS
Detail final design Get building permits Get preliminary bid from site utilities, foundations, and steel mill packages Write final specifications Begin developing shop drawings
1 month
BIDS
Contractors bid on the projec
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
MYERS | TIMELINE | 142
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
ct 12-17 months
CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION
15
16
17
18
19
Depends on contractual obligation Finish developing shop drawings Maintain quality control Project completion Pre-occupancy evaluations Post-occupancy evaluations
20
21
22
23
24
25
MYERS | TIMELINE | 143
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
MYERS | 144
FIRM
MYERS | 145
Hypothetical Firm
Group Assignment with Palmer Ferguson
The year is 2025. Palmer Ferguson and Ryan Myers are two graduates of Virginia Tech’s prestigious School of Architecture + Design. Since 2017 the school has been consistently ranked as the number one undergraduate architecture program in the United States, after spending several years ranked at about fourth or fifth, thanks in no small part to the professional work done by Myers’ and Ferguson’s class of 2016. After graduating, Myers and Ferguson went their separate ways for several years to gain knowledge of the professional practice of architecture, even though they felt very confident in their individual skills, having been a part of VT’s Chicago Studio. After their brief time apart, they were both hired by a medium-sized architecture firm in San Antonio, Texas. They enjoyed the work they did there, relatively small-scale projects compared to the towers they worked on right after graduation, but as they said, “The budgets were good, and the clients were better.”
because while working in San Antonio, they discovered the opportunity that came with being based in an up-and-coming city that didn’t already have the surplus of design firms that the New Yorks and Chicagos of the world have. Ferguson stated, “We really believe that working in a city such as Raleigh gives both or practice and the city the chance to grow into something great.” After completing several projects ranging from a private residence to an interactive installation at Nash Square, they became known locally as an excellent firm who engage in a very collaborative process with their clients. Ferguson said, “That’s really the idea behind calling ourselves a collective. We see a major part of our process as collecting the ideas and strengths of all the parties involved and then going from there to create a great design that comes from not just one person or entity, but from everyone involved.” Since becoming locally known, NKDCollective has been published in several major architectural journals as well as Home & Design Magazine and won But after 3 good years there, Ferguson and several local and national awards for their Myers decided that there was something work. missing from the work they were doing. The architecture they were designing was great, When asked about how their office grew but they didn’t want to limit themselves to from just the two of them, Myers answered, just the design of buildings - they wanted “Well, at first it was just Palmer and I workto branch out into more aspects of design. ing all hours of the day, focusing on just one So they quit their jobs in San Antonio and project at a time, but as we started getting started up a new firm. more and more commissions, we began hiring project managers that we’d worked In a tongue-in-cheek homage to the ste- with in the past, and a couple of interns reotypical three-letter architecture firms that we eventually made associates, until that plagued the cities where they studied we got to the point where we are today We and worked in the past, they called their like the size we’re at right now.” Right now, new design firm NKDCollective. When the Collective (as they sometimes refer to asked what the letters stood for, Myers their firm) has 22 designers - Myers and said, “Well, the D is Design. The other two Ferguson as the two principal designers are up for interpretation.” They intentional- and owners, eight senior project managers, ly avoided using any term that references and then twelve associate designers - and architecture in the firm’s name in order to one employee that handles a lot of the not immediately define themselves as just office managerial responsibilities. The emarchitects. ployees have a range of backgrounds from architecture, to interior design, to one of Ferguson and Myers say that they learned a their project managers with a background lot about what they wanted their firm to be in metal and woodworking, who runs the like through their careers working at archi- small fabrication studio that the Collective tecture firms. They chose to grow their “de- recently established. “We’re really excited sign collective” in Raleigh, North Carolina about our fabrication studio.” Said Myers,
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“It’s a side of design that we’ve always been interested in, but until just recently, we haven’t had the funds to expand our practice in that direction.” Out of that fabrication studio, NKDCollective will be producing custom designed and built furniture as well as architectural models and custom details. “We hope to be able to do all of that to enhance our own designs and projects,” said Ferguson, “but we could also see our fabrication studio being contracted out by other design firms to fabricate things for their projects as well.” For those of you readers who might be looking to hire NKDCollective for your unique design needs, the way that they bill might be slightly different from billing models you might have worked with in the past. Ferguson explained, “We weren’t happy with how previous firms we encountered billed their clients, with a more traditional model. We wanted to tailor our fees so that they enabled better design, not hinder it.” The way they achieved this is by billing on an hourly rate for the beginning stages of a project, the pre-design and schematic design phases. After they get an estimate of the construction cost, they then get paid a percentage of that cost for the finalization of the design. Specifically, this is for the architectural projects that they do, but they say that the same basic principles are applied to the way they structure their fees for other types of projects. “With this fee structure,” Ferguson continued, “the design receives the attention it needs, and we are able to work closely with the client to achieve everything they want. But we are also protected as a firm so that if our client changes their mind at the end of developing a design ,we are not stuck redesigning everything without compensation.” Above the door at NKDCollective’s office in downtown Raleigh as a reminder for all their employees is a sign that reads, “Design for Today. Clean, Concise, and Contemporary.” If that sounds like what you might be looking for as a solution to your next design challenge, look them up. You won’t be sorry.
Proposed Firm Employee Structure
Project Manager
Associate Associate
Project Manager
Associate
Principal Project Manager
Associate Associate
Project Manager
Project Manager
Associate Associate Associate
Project Manager
Associate
Principal Project Manager
Associate Associate
Project Manager
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Associate
Hypothetical Firm Generic Budget Analysis 1 Planning the yearly office budget First figure your total yearly payroll: Principal architect: Job captain: Drafter: Secretary:
2 8 12 1
(No.) (No.) (No.) (No.)
$ $ $ $
@ @ @ @
120,000 76,000 65,000 31,000
= = = =
Total yearly payroll: Then figure your overhead: Payroll taxes and benefits (avg. 25% of total yearly payroll): Rent: $ Utilities, phone, internet, postage: $ Accounting, services: $ Equipment, supplies, printing: $ Insurance: $ Marketing: $ Dues, training: $ All other: $ Total expenses:
48,000 79,200 10,000 15,000 1,000 5,000 8,000 250
"Total to run the office:" Profit percentage:
$ $ $ $
240,000 608,000 780,000 31,000
$
1,659,000
$
414,750
$
166,450
$
2,240,200
x
15%
Profit amount:
$
336,030
"Total to run office"+ profit amount = yearly revenue goal:
$
2,576,230
2 Now figure your office efficiency ratio: Percentage of total hours which each category can bill to projects: Principal architect: Job captain: Drafter: Secretary:
50% 80% 95% 10%
of 2000 hrs. x of 2000 hrs. x of 2000 hrs. x of 2000 hrs. x
(No.) (No.) (No.) (No.)
2 8 12 1
= = = =
2,000 12,800 22,800 200
Total hours the office will bill in a year:
37,800
Total hours staff will work in a year (no. staff x 2000):
46,000
Office efficiency ratio (hrs. will bill รท hrs. will work):
billable hrs./yr. billable hrs./yr. billable hrs./yr. billable hrs./yr.
0.82
=
Now (at last) figure your office multiplier: $
1,659,000 0.82
Billable salary on which office can earn income:
$
1,363,265
Yearly revenue goal:
$
2,576,230
Yearly payroll: Efficiency ratio:
x
Divide yearly revenue goal by billable salary
1.89
=
Office multiplier
3 Now figure your office billing rates: (office multiplier x hourly salary [ = yearly salary รท 2000] ) Principal architect: Job captain: Drafter: Secretary:
1.89 1.89 1.89 1.89
x x x x
$ $ $ $
60.00 38.00 32.50 15.50
= = = =
$ $ $ $
113 72 61 29
Now figure how many hours per week each category of staff can work on projects: (percentage of time billable x 40 hours) Principal architect: Job captain: Drafter: Secretary:
50% 80% 95% 10%
x x x x
40 hours 40 hours 40 hours 40 hours
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= = = =
20 32 38 4
hrs./wk. hrs./wk. hrs./wk. hrs./wk.
4 Budgeting the project First figure how much fee you have to work with: Total fee from the client for the project: Fee to structural consultant: Fee to mechanical consultant: Fee(s) to other consultant(s): Total fees to consultants: Total fee remaining to architect:
$ $ $
3,000 5,000 2,000
-
$
250,000
$ $
10,000 240,000
$ $ $ $ $
36,000 48,000 72,000 12,000 72,000
Then figure how much of fee to architect you can spend during each phase: Schematics: Design development: Construction documents: Bidding/negotiation: Construction:
15% 20% 30% 5% 30% (
of of of of of
100%
$ $ $ $ $
240,000 240,000 240,000 240,000 240,000
= = = = =
)
5 Then allocate those phase fees among your staff: First figure the maximum hours each staff category can devote to a phase (billable hrs. per week x calendar weeks in the phase = max. billable hrs.): During pre-design & schematics: Total fee for the phase: Principal architect: Job captain: Drafter: Secretary
( ( ( (
20 32 38 4
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
5 5 5 5
wks.
=
wks.
=
wks.
=
wks.
=
100 160 190 20
hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs.
) ) ) )
100 160 190 20
hrs. @ hrs. @ hrs. @ hrs. @
$ $ $ $
113 72 61 29
= = = =
Total fee to be charged to the phase:
$
36,000
$ $ $ $
11,338 11,490 11,669 586
$
35,083
$
48,000
$ $ $ $
11,338 18,671 16,583 1,172
$
47,763
$
72,000
$ $ $ $
8,504 32,315 29,480 879
$
71,177
$
12,000
$ $ $ $
3,402 4,309 3,685 351
$
11,747
$
72,000
$ $ $
11,792 56,012 1,523
$
69,327
During design development: Total fee for the phase: Principal architect: Job captain: Drafter: Secretary
( ( ( (
10 26 27 4
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
10 10 10 10
wks.
=
wks.
=
wks.
=
wks.
=
100 260 270 40
hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs.
) ) ) )
100 260 270 40
hrs. @ hrs. @ hrs. @ hrs. @
$ $ $ $
113 72 61 29
= = = =
Total fee to be charged to the phase:
During construction documents: Total fee for the phase: Principal architect: Job captain: Drafter: Secretary
( ( ( (
5 30 32 2
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
15 15 15 15
wks.
=
wks.
=
wks.
=
wks.
=
75 450 480 30
hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs.
) ) ) )
75 450 480 30
hrs. @ hrs. @ hrs. @ hrs. @
$ $ $ $
113 72 61 29
= = = =
Total fee to be charged to the phase:
During bidding/negotiation: Total fee for the phase: Principal architect: Job captain: Drafter: Secretary
( ( ( (
10 20 20 4
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
3 3 3 3
wks.
=
wks.
=
wks.
=
wks.
=
30 60 60 12
hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs.
) ) ) )
30 60 60 12
hrs. @ hrs. @ hrs. @ hrs. @
$ $ $ $
113 72 61 29
= = = =
Total fee to be charged to the phase:
During construction: Total fee for the phase: Principal architect: Job captain: Secretary
( ( (
2 15 1
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
hrs./wk.
x
52 52 52
wks.
=
wks.
=
wks.
=
104 780 52
hrs. hrs. hrs.
) ) )
Total fee to be charged to the phase:
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104 780 52
hrs. @ hrs. @ hrs. @
$ $ $
113 72 29
= = =
MYERS | 150
INTERVIEWS
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Rob Calvey
Post-Baccalaureate Fellow at Design for America BArch | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | 2013
Response Rob’s career track is a very interesting one for a graduate of architecture school. After graduating from Virginia Tech two years ago, he is now working as a Fellow for Design for America (DFA). DFA is, in Rob’s words, “a group of interdisciplinary college students using human centered design to solve local issues.” In this organization, students from Universities all over the United States work in small teams to affect change in their local communities using design. DFA is all about the design process, so they have a very specific one that they suggest studios follow: Identify → Immerse → Ideate → Test → Implement. The part of DFA that Rob works at is the organization’s headquarters at Northwestern University. His office is an open room shared by his fellow DFAers with two solid walls and two glass - one looking outside to Northwestern’s campus, one looking down into a prototyping shop, and all covered in sticky notes. They like sticky notes. Rob’s job is, again in his words, “to support teams as they’re learning the design process and support studios as they try to organize multiple teams working in their communities.” He is currently working on ways to make the design process more accessible and easier to understand and follow. This way, even students who are not in design-centered majors can learn the design process and apply it to their projects and their lives. While certainly not an architectural profession, Rob’s job at DFA still has many similarities to one at an architectural firm. Obviously, it is focus around design; not the design of buildings, but still the design of user experience, which is critical in architecture. DFA’s hierarchical layout is also reminiscent of an architecture firm, with one central office that is connected to many other studios throughout the country, which then have even smaller design teams within them working on individual projects. Finally, the design process that DFA uses, of identifying problems, iterating and testing solutions to those problems, and then finally implementing those solutions in a sustainable way is exactly what needs to happen to create good architecture.
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Interview Ryan: So, First question. I already have my experience and background with DFA at Virginia Tech, but what is design for America to you? Like, what does it entail?
ect has, so they were thinking about making it sustainable and market-ready… that sort of came up when they were sharing their idea, talking about it with one of their mentors who’s like, “You know, this type of Rob: I think I get the question. Design info could be really, really helpful for care for America is a group of interdisciplinary providers.” college students using human centered design to solve local issues. They will get Yeah, there’s just kind of like a humanistic together in groups of 4-6 from all different draw to it too, for the people who actually majors, they will identify a problem topic care for the elderly people. that they are passionate about, work with local communities to immerse themselves Yeah, and I don’t know how much they’re in the situation to really try to understand allowed to push this, because it’s kind of like, the need. They will ideate and brainstorm getting into diagnosing medical conditions potential solutions that they will then bring more, but it’s like if you start to recognize back to the community and try to test and patterns - like they’re getting out of bed get feedback on to implement some sort three times a night now for the past two of sustainable thing, whether that be hand- weeks - maybe there’s some sort of undering out new maps so that newly homeless lying condition that needs to be addressed individuals in Houston have a better time and you can start to get to that with the understanding all the resources available to data. them, or whether that be creating a smart lighting system that turns on and off when Yeah, the whole idea of data collection is one elderly individuals get out of bed and can of the things that I’ve seen in a lot of DFA track whether or not they could have fallen projects. because they haven’t gotten back in bed for the last 90 minutes. So it’s a wide range Yeah and I think data collection is big for a of solutions. My job here at DFA is to sup- lot of startup-type ideas. port teams as they’re learning the design process and support studios as they try to So, back to the original question, what made organize multiple teams working in their you want to work at DFA with your architeccommunities. tural education background as opposed to going into an architecture firm or something That’s fantastic. So, one of those I know you like that? were talking about was the Luna Light, right? And that’s in Oregon? I worked in architecture firms since high school. I interned at a couple different ones Luna Lights is here actually. They just got over summers and over winter breaks and out of the health box incubator. So they are then my senior year of high school I got to going full time. Two of their guys graduat- do this yearlong externship-ish type thing. ed. Instead of going to school? Like actual start-up? Well, so I would go for like one of my peYep. riods or two of my periods for this “class”. So I’d work there. And… what drew me to Fantastic! And the last time I heard about design is really the ability to understand an that, the part about the alert system for that issue and create solutions to that. I found wasn’t involved. So did that come about just out about DFA in Chicago Studio actually recently, or is there still development going because there was an anthropologist workon, or do they know exactly what they’re go- ing at Cannon, who had no architecture ing to do and they’re just going forward with background, doing research on how does production? built space really impact people more from the testing end. So, hearing about that and Well, so as they started really thinking seeing how she learned to use design and about what is the value-add that this proj- think about design in this broad community MYERS | ROB CALVEY | 153
context really drew me to DFA. And as I kept working with the organization seeing how it was... we introduce a lot of backgrounds to design thinking and creative problem solving and the power of that to address a large number of different types of issues was something that was really appealing to me. So that was what really that drew me to DFA as opposed to a more traditional architecture firm. Yeah, I mean it’s the exact same kind of thinking that goes into architecture. It’s just applied to a more broad scale of projects… Okay, so going on that, what’s the most rewarding part of working for DFA for you? Yeah, there’s a lot! Uhm… I really like getting to go mentor projects and studios to do different things. So… That’s traveling to the different schools? Yeah, traveling or just providing resources, or you know, weekly calls or emailing stuff, and then all of the material that we’re building is to help these teams in the end. So like, I gave a workshop in Blacksburg, and the… It’s my current most proud moment, I’ve shared this with a couple people… let me find it… [Grabs a piece of paper] a feedback from the workshop was… it was a testing workshop… User testing? Yes. But it was not what I ran with you. That was more of rapid prototyping and then getting out to do testing. This one was we set up three different stations of different DFA projects from the past and had people be the user in that test. And then they rotated through different stations. Because you need to participate in the user tests to get what it really means. It’s hard to design something when you’ve never experienced it and a lot of people have never been a part of a test or haven’t conceptualized themselves as being part of a test. So after the workshop, someone said, “I see prototyping as much more of a tool now. Prior to today, prototyping seemed like a final step, but it’s quite obvious now that prototyping could hugely alter a project, and the earlier you prototype the better.” So it’s just being able to have small changes on that and like, teaching people so that they get the process, and seeing how that affects teams is probably the most rewarding part for me.
Yeah. And one of the best things about DFA is how multidisciplinary it is. And some disciplines that in school might not get the whole design education really can get it from DFA. That just brings a whole new way of thinking about a project in say, engineering or any other discipline. Yeah. Well, and also, in this particular case, I think what I really liked was the prototyping not as a final step. So I think there’s a difference between having high craft and just making the thing, and I think in a lot of contexts people… like in architecture school, you would want something to be fully fleshed out before you make it. And you want to have the prototype answer the question, rather than use the prototype to pose new questions. And so being able to see people start to think through making more. Because you do that in school, and get how it works, but it takes a while, right? Like I didn’t get it as a second year, or as a third year really… or you’ll get through a project and realize, “Oh if I had made things more earlier, then this problem wouldn’t have come up.” So, yeah. It’s interesting. Yeah, that’s great. So. I guess tying into that, how do you think your architectural education really prepared you for this job in DFA outside of the architectural world? Well I mean, you said it. It is the process. And I mean, I think you got it, because you joined DFA. [laughs] [laughs] But for the microphone… [laughs] For the microphone! I think a lot of people don’t necessarily fully see it that way and in architecture school we’re not nearly as human centered, right? Like you don’t necessarily bring ideas to end-users as much, who will give feedback. Especially since it’s with professors in architecture school. Right. And it’s harder to build and test something that’s at a human scale. Like you can’t just completely tear down walls or choose new finishings. Yeah, in that way, industrial design is sort of at that really small scale in which rapid prototyping and trying to figure out how different parts of the thing work are really accessible for that approach but architecture really not so much.
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Yeah, a little bit. I mean people can make models and I think there’s ways to do it more and I think like what Sara Malin was doing at Cannon or firms like Mass Design are trying to do… Mass Design just hired an anthropologist from DFA Northwestern to work out there too. But yeah, so architecture school put me in this process of having to be comfortable with and understand ambiguity and define your own questions. And then you trust in the process to provide answers to those questions and that’s something that we do every day in our own projects. I mean there’s only six of us in the office, so a lot of projects we make ourselves define in order to address an underlying need… so we need to really understand what that is. Yeah. I think that answers your question. Yeah. It was pretty much the process. That’s kind of what I figured, but anyway. Yeah. So what you’re saying about there only being six people in the office… do you guys do individual projects within this office or are all the design projects really at the Northwestern University branch of DFA and you guys are more of the administrative aspect? Yeah, so I consider all of the projects we’re working on design projects. They’re not social impact design necessarily, but we’re making these one-pagers to help teams better use the process and go through the steps of the process. So we did a lot of different user testing and looking at examples and trying to really understand what is a way we can distill the questions you’re asking at each step into an easily manageable form to then point people to more resources to help them even more. But like with the process guide, we just found that, I mean it’s a book, so people weren’t reading it as much as they could. So what are ways that we can make it more helpful? So answering that is a design project. And a lot of the other stuff that were doing. Like I’m working with Stacy on finding implementation themes. Like what makes a continuing team successful? What are the underlying attitudes or mindsets or themes that these different projects are working on? So we’ve been working on that for the last two quarters and now were really trying to design tools that instill those themes in people. So rather than just saying like at the beginning of the year, like these are the themes these are the mindsets that you need to have, like how can we make sure those things get ingrained.
Mmhm. Like as opposed to telling them directly, “well this is what you need to do,” having them come to that conclusion through the process. Well and then support them to do it too. So its one thing to say, “fail fast, fail often” right, but its another thing to say, “what are the three prototypes you’ve built and how are you going to test them?” So just setting those expectations and naturally including those mindsets. Yeah. Okay, so. Could you talk about your time specifically at Chicago studio and how that prepared you and influenced your life, both educationally and professionally? I mean, obviously it brought you to DFA. Well yeah! So, Chicago studio introduced me to DFA [laughs] and sort of got me thinking about what are the ways that you can use design to really address big, big problems. That’s something I think that was a little not talked about in architecture as much, just because it’s harder and you have a little less control over it and it’s not fully the skill set that we’re trained in. But being trained in the process is there. And then Chicago studio also let me see a large number of different types of offices and get an understanding of what is it like to work in a six-person firm versus a 100-person office or like a 400-person office right? Like, I don’t know if I’d be at DFA right now if there were 600 of us. It’d be a different type of working environment. I think getting to see all those different types of environments and understand that was there… And it made me love cities a lot more. The big problems that you talked about that architecture really doesn’t tackle as much I guess, is that more like social impact problems? Yeah, and I mean it’ll influence them. I mean like architecture and urban planning have huge effects on poverty and inequality and structural issues. But yeah, they don’t have to. And I think some projects are neutral. But I don’t think architects can be neutral, even if they think they can be. Because by saying this is not my problem, or this isn’t the problem that the client is trying to solve, it just exacerbates the problem. And it’s inherently taking a stance. Right, so that was something that I think
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drew me to human centered design and so- but do you do any other professional work or cial impact design type stuff as the stance personal life stuff? that was being taken. I don’t moonlight or consult. I have been Okay, so, looking to the future, where do you working on my thesis off and on. Like I resee yourself in ten years? Still in DFA? Still in made the wall because when I moved here, the design world? we couldn’t take it. It was too big. But I remade that and shot a couple more films. I think I want to be working with and teach- I’ve thought about ways to get that shown ing communities how to use design to em- somewhere. Tried every month or two power themselves. So whatever context months to make something a little more that means. At DFA I think that means artistic… Like, I went to MOMA and got a working with young college students as bunch of the maps because every language they try to understand the impact they comes in a very strong color and it’s sort of can make in the world and what it means just that single color and I made some like to build a network community out of that. wall hanging on there. So I try to do that. I think it could also mean working directly Because it is something that I think you with neighborhoods or communities as they don’t realize how hard it was to make more try to address some of these issues. But I artisticky stuff in school just because you’re definitely will still be in design... Some form. constantly doing that and you’re constantly being told to have a very fine level of craft So what you’re kind of talking about with on all the things you make. working directly with communities is, in my opinion, a kind of consultancy aspect. Do you And outside of school there’s no one really see DFA going more towards that in any way pushing you towards a specific end. or shape, or is DFA just kind of staying in the university role of facilitating student-led de- Yeah. I also like cooking. That’s become fun sign groups? and enjoyable. I like to think of cooking… My first year Dave gave this lecture… So, we are having a strategic planning meeting in two weeks actually, fifteen days. Dugas? So we’re not going to become a design consultancy. In any way shape or form. And Yeah, Dave Dugas gave this lecture on chili. if we do, I’m probably not going to be here. How chili related to design. And I didn’t get Me and Stacy might have our own consul- it at all, and now I get it! Like completely. I tancy though. do Toast Masters now, which is like an improve public speaking group, just a way to Stacy: Totally! Watch out. No, that’s an in- get better at public speaking. teresting question though, because of the strategic plan coming up, all of these big Toast like cheers, not as in bread? questions, like “hmmm… is that a possibility?” Like, it’s just crazy! [laughs] Yeah. Yes. The masters of bread-making! [laughs] and the second lecYeah, and it would be unfortunate if that’s all ture I gave was on how onions are fundathat DFA became but I mean like as a branch mental to cooking and why those basics are or something, maybe that’s something valid. also very important when you’re thinking about design. So that was fun. To try to use And I think it’d be unfortunate if we stayed cooking as a creative outlet. the way we are. And not move up with what’s happening and changing and stuff. Did you tell Dave about your onion lecture? Rob: Yeah great question! I think right now, like we are helping college students make an impact in their communities in whatever shape or form that takes. So that will probably stay the bread and butter, but exactly what that means could, will change.
I didn’t. I bet he’d appreciate it. Yeah, maybe I should. Maybe when you go back, you can tell him that I told you this story. [laughs]
Okay so, outside of DFA, what do you do? [laughs] I will. Cool. So last kind of question: That might get into a little bit of personal life, all designers have influences right, so what’s MYERS | INTERVIEWS | 156
your greatest influence in general, and then So, LAST last question. Just came up with it. either architectural or non-architectural, ei- What’s your favorite movie then, and favorite ther or both categories? director? Yeah… um. That’s an interesting question because I wish I had a better answer... It has been interesting moving design fields, so like no one in this building knows who any architects are and they don’t really care either. [laughs] Who really does outside of architecture? Right. So no one in architecture school knows who any of the like, Ideo or the Kelly brothers or Don Norman who are… but if you told the designers in this building that you’re a designer and you don’t know who Don Norman is they look at you like you didn’t do something right. So it is interesting trying to understand what that means for my influences or the precedents I have because the former precedents or inspirations I have might not be as directly applicable. But the D-School is probably one of our biggest influences. And that has a lot to do with the history of how DFA came to be and how Segal came to be and who’s here and where they came from, which IS the D-School. Sort of like how the Bauhaus is to Tech? Yeah, sure, maybe… actually you know what. One of my biggest influences if Monet. Just in general. And his ability to iterate on something, you know? He’s got the same haystacks. Or the same set of foggy London but it’s a different day. And just that dedication to understanding one thing I try to think about in anything we’re designing or making.
Wow, okay. That’s a big question. [laughs] My favorite director is Antonioni… Okay so, my favorite movie is requiem for a dream. And that one is… Because it’s not like a good, uplifting movie, right? It just makes you feel a raw, pure emotion. And the ability for someone to do that is… And three months ago, I watched it back to back. And the subtleties in there that I didn’t get… Like you know the cut scenes whenever they shoot up? Well most of those cut scenes, they’re not actually shooting up. Like they might be smoking weed, or doing crack, or it’s something money-related. But the way that got so ingrained… And I mean in a lot of them they are shooting up but it’s like wow that’s really subtle that you’re able to create these distinctions and get to this underlying mood... And then director… I do like Antonioni. He’s from like the fifties and sixties. And Red Desert was one of the films he did. He did a lot of black and white stuff and it’s really slow and it’s all about women. There’s always some female character who’s trying to find herself in some post-war, post-World War Two Italy. But his first film, Red Desert, was his first color film, and he treats it like a painting canvas. So he had people… The way he uses color in the neutral colors and highlight colors is amazing… He had people paint trees white so that when he was shooting the film he’d get the right set that he wanted. But yeah. That’s dedication.
And that whole idea of iteration and trying to understand something before you move on to another thing is really reminiscent of Le Corbusier and Mies and how they just did this one thing really well again and again until they were very much satisfied with how they did it and then moved on to the next thing. Yeah, definitely. And also I just read a lot of stuff on film that last thesis year. Thinking about montage and cutting and what are different ways to make people see a whole scene and conceptually get a big picture without necessarily having to paint the whole thing at once. I think that has a lot to do with learning as well. MYERS | ROB CALVEY | 157
Jay Ryan
Owner, Print Designer, & Print Maker at The Bird Machine Lead Bassist for Dianogah B.F.A. in Painting | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | 1994
Response Jay Ryan is one of my personal design idols. In a field where most lauded work is overly serious and focused on realism, his work is unique. His posters are set in a land of whimsy - in his posters you’re just as likely to find a couple of squirrels holding a revolver and using a laptop computer as you are to find them scampering down the street in the real world. Of his work Jay says, “When I got into poster making, in the mid 90’s, the tradition seemed to be doing bad Grateful Dead rip-offs or stuff. Everything else was hot-rods and boobs and monsters... and that just wasn’t a part of the experience that my friends and I were going through, being heavily involved in making rock music and enjoying rock music... so I wanted to achieve the same goals while using toasters and raccoons.” But the aesthetics of his finished posters aren’t nearly as interesting to me as the process that Jay uses to get to that finished product. He still does the design manually. When most other print-makers nowadays are using computers to draw everything, Jay still develops his poster designs with pencil and paper. And up until recently in his career, he was even cutting all of the color layers for his posters by hand out of rubylith. He still does some of that now, but it became apparent that the six hours he would normally spend cutting rubylith could be better spent developing a design or spending time with his family. Jay’s process is a very fluid one. Even though he designs the entire poster before it goes to the press, he usually only designs the color fields for densities, rather than a specific color. In this way, he feels free to change direction while at the press, and never knows exactly what the end product will be. Jay Ryan originally wanted to be an architect. He applied to architecture schools around the country, but ended up settling for studying industrial design at UIUC. Then he wasn’t happy with where that was taking him, so he switched to painting and got his B.F.A. Now he makes posters and plays bass guitar in a rock band and loves what he does. This comfort with being able to alter your course in order to do what you love is something I find very admirable. His track was certainly not a typical one, but it got him to where he wanted to be. MYERS | INTERVIEWS | 158
Interview Ryan: Alright, so, jumping right into it, what’s then print that out onto a transparency and the kind of personnel layout you have at your burn that onto the screen. I was really curious office? when you were doing everything by hand, how you got that line work to transpose onto Jay: Yeah, we usually have an office man- the screen when you’re not scanning it into ager and then a printer and then sometimes the computer first. some other part time helper. But right now, between Elizabeth and I, we’ve got all of the Well you know, for years, I mean for fifteen stuff covered She’s mainly in charge of the years or something like that, I would simmail order and I do the bookkeeping and ply photocopy it onto red transparencies. money management stuff. She also does Either that or you can always draw straight most of the printing just because I can have on film. So photocopying it over onto transsomebody else run the press but I can’t parencies and then hand-cutting rubylith have somebody else draw the stuff. So my for most of the layers, that’s the way the time is better spent working on the drawing. majority of my work over these 20 years has happened. Like I said, changing over the So you do all the drawing and then also all the last couple years. [With Photoshop] there’s cutouts for the color fields? just a complexity that is more possible when you’re doing like a 7 color print as far as Yeah, sometimes we cut rubylith for the planning out how its going to layer. Doing separations of the different colors, but that in Photoshop just makes it easier. I enmore and more recently, I’ve been doing all joy cutting rubylith more, but there’s just a the separations in Photoshop. practical side as far as trying to make more where I’m not sitting for two days cutting Oh really? That’s really surprising. Because, films. Instead I’m sitting for two hours colat your request, I was looking through a oring things in Photoshop and then printing bunch of previous interviews, and it has al- the films. ways been a big thing with you that everything’s hand-done. It’s interesting that you say that. A large aspect of Photoshop is that you’re able to see Yeah, well I mean, everything is still coming the full outcome of the print at the beginning. from a pencil drawing. It starts as a pencil I found looking through interviews that you drawing and then… There are times that a say you often don’t know what you’re going level of productivity is necessary. I’m able to get when you’re working by hand from the to do more complex images in Photoshop beginning and you’re kind of working on the than I am able to do by hand; or rather I am design through that entire process. able to do complex images more quickly. So I think doing a drawing and then coloring it Correct. And even with Photoshop I’ll just in like a coloring book in Photoshop is dif- kind of design it for darknesses or color ferent from just solely creating something densities, not specifically that it’s going to digitally without having any hand in it and be red or green but more specifically that without having any direct tactile contact. this will be a dark color and this will be a lighter color on top of it. And we feel free to And I think you’d lose a lot of the overall style change directions when we’re at the press. that you’ve been going for. Also, with my travel schedule these days, like for example yesterday or the day beThere’s a character to the line work and to fore, I was able to make the films and then the gesture of the drawings that some peo- leave a jpeg for Elizabeth so that she knows ple can do on the computer that I myself what I’ve got in my head as far as where this just can’t. So I enjoy working with my hands. should end up. Like, this part will be pink, this part will be blue. And that’s a more tanMy knowledge of printmaking is very limited gible way of communicating to her what I - I took Chris Pritchett’s screen printing class have in my mind. And that’s just the praca couple of years ago - but I can’t imagine tical side of working closely with somebody not using Photoshop throughout the process. else who is responsible for making things I would draw posters, draw the line work and look good. everything, and scan that into Photoshop, MYERS | JAY RYAN | 159
Yeah, for sure. So, how was your trip to Tech? building site go from cuts in the ground to getting foundation poured, to framing, to Had a really good time! It’s a lovely school. putting up the joists and hanging plywood, I visited there for college visits in 1981 and hanging drywall, shingles, everything… Just then ended up not going there, but… cool seeing the whole process go. There were a school, had a great time with a bunch of the couple rounds of construction on my parstudents. ents’ house when I was a kid, and thinking about designing those spaces, and imagChris told me that you guys were printing ining how those spaces would be used was until like 12:30 at night. of great interest to me… I took four years of drafting in high school, back when that Something like that yeah. I mean that’s what was a thing that was offered. From that I I feel like is an accurate picture for students. got good ability to draw different types of Like working late is a part of the job. But perspective, and an understanding of line yeah, you know, trying to do a relatively weight, relative line weights and how those ambitious project for having one day to work. And continued that basically into indo it between the other stuff they had set dustrial design. But carving a better coffee out there as far as a museum visit at the ar- pot out of foam insulation was just not that mory, and then the lecture that I gave, and interesting to me. It seemed like everyone then getting to eat food and sit down for a else in the program was just interested in few minutes… Just having fun working with building the best car stereo system they people, you know. That’s the reason to go! could, everybody just competing with their car stereo systems, which seemed weird… Exactly. I’m glad you enjoyed it. So, when you So… what was the question? [laughter] were applying to schools, you said you went to UIUC in one of your interviews, and that [laughter] Oh, just what was it that originally was the only place that you couldn’t get into appealed to you about architecture? the architecture school… So you had originally wanted to go to architecture school? Oh yeah, about architecture. Um yeah, that’s probably it. I probably answered that. Yeah, so I grew up thinking I was going to be an architect, so I applied to Boulder, Syr- Yeah. You did. So, taking that a little bit furacuse, Miami of Ohio, and Virginia Tech for ther, a lot of your posters have architectural architecture. My high school GPA wasn’t elements in them. You did that entire series high enough to apply for it in Champaign, about your garage and the one you did reso I applied for industrial design there. Long cently for your lecture at Tech with the sheep story short, that’s the program I ended up in. inside the house frame. I know that was kind First quarter basically, I realized that wasn’t of part of the design intent for the architecactually what I wanted to do and changed ture school. majors to painting, which turned out not to be the worst idea. Could’ve been bet- The art direction I got for that poster was, ter, but it was not the worst idea. [SIREN “anything that has to do with architecture or NOISE] 10:00! Air raid. [laughter] sheep.” That was pretty much it. [laughter] Do air raids happen a lot in Skokie? So do you see architecture as being one of the influences in your work or is it mostly just 10:00 on the first Tuesday of the month! the bands you work with? Wow, great timing. It’s right out back in the alley, it’s one of the loudest things ever… [laughter] Fantastic!... [siren finally stops]… So, what originally appealed to you about architecture? I grew up just fascinated with building things. There was construction on our house while living in it, neighbors building houses. I just loved the process. Seeing a
No, I’d say architecture is an influence when it’s appropriate. In an abstract way, like being able to reference structures believably. They can represent home, society, civilization, or whatever it is you want to do. It’s also just a really good compositional tool. A bunch of windows and siding perpendicular to one another and all the angles of gables on houses have always fascinated me. My first job out of school was actually building houses, building a house really. And it had sixteen roof ridges. I learned a lot about fig-
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uring out how to make joists. Jeeze, how big was that house? It was a coach house. It was relatively small, but intense. It was in a pretty fancy suburb over here and I can’t even imagine what they spent on it, but it was just this crazy little fortress of a garage basically, with the whole living space upstairs. Yeah, I mean drawing a house gives me a sort of weird connection to putting sixteen-penny nails through 2x8s. Yeah, and when you’re working with rabbits and squirrels, it’s an interesting way to relate that back to the human scale and make them actually seem like they’re in a human environment. Yep… I’ve got to crack something here… [cracks neck] Dude it sucks getting old. God… [cracks neck again] So yes! What is the next question? Let’s talk about that. Sure! So your style is really unique, obviously. What was the kind of influence that got you towards that style? Because there’s nobody else really drawing like you. I mean, when I got into poster making, in the mid 90’s, the tradition seemed to be doing bad Grateful Dead rip-offs or stuff. Everything else was hot-rods and boobs and monsters. I was spending a handful of nights a week out at rock clubs playing and practicing every day and playing shows, and that just wasn’t a part of the experience that my friends and I were going through, being heavily involved in making rock music and enjoying rock music. It wasn’t about quote-unquote chicks with big tits and it wasn’t about heroin and it wasn’t about hotrods, and so I kind of wanted to, as I’ve said other times, achieve the same goals while using toasters and raccoons. So just this kind of anti-establishment thing in a way. Yeah, when the establishment is, you know, Frankenstein driving a ratfink style dragster. That’s not really challenging anybody; it’s a complete visual cliché in this field. Not that my stuff is groundbreaking in any way, but I just wanted to do something other than what was the norm.
So, we were talking about your style in a sort of way… So one of my favorite quotes from somebody writing about your work goes something like, “The question that comes to mind about Jay’s work isn’t so much, ‘Why is this bear running with scissors?’ it’s, ‘Why is the bear wearing socks?’”. One of my absolute favorite quotes. So when you first drew that sock-wearing bear, did you think to yourself, “That’s what I’ve been going for. The search for my style is done!” or was it more of a process to reach that style? [laughs] No, I think the work kind of discovers what it is during the process. I mean I don’t remember the particulars of drawing the bear wearing socks because it was like twelve years ago or something like that. But I guess when I picture it… Growing up we had this carpeted hallway that would lead into the tiled dining room, at which point you’d have to make a sharp 90 degree turn to go into the family room, so I just remember as a kid, like you’re wearing your footy pajamas coming down that hall… you change into your pajamas after dinner and now you’re going to want to watch The Charlie Brown Christmas special or whatever, and you’re coming down that hall and that 90 degree turn just, “fwoop!” feet are flying out, and you’re cracking your butt on the dining room floor. So I guess I associate unsafe running with running in socks. I don’t remember what this was in particular, but you know, you’re not supposed to run with scissors... A lot of the time, it’s more about the gesture of the figure at the beginning. And then the particulars of what they’re wearing, what they’re holding, is something that I sort of find in the process of the drawing. So its not necessarily that I’d set out to draw somebody running with scissors as much as I’d set out to draw a running bear or a bear running or just a mammal running, and then, “What’s he carrying?” “What’s he got?” “What’s chasing him?” “What’s sitting on his head or on his shoulders?” “Is he wearing pants or what’s the deal?” Is that just a matter of looking around the room and seeing an object and being like, “That’s what he should be holding!”
Sort of. To some degree yeah. No two projects are the same. One of the most important things I learned in school was learning to accept stupid ideas. Like lets come up with some really dumb ideas and let’s draw them [Doorbell rings, Jay helps a customer he before that part of our brain says, “no that’s seems to know well] a dumb idea.” Let’s get them out in the MYERS | JAY RYAN | 161
world and evaluate them later as opposed to just shutting them down before they’re on paper. I’ve had times where I’ve been better or worse at that. But if somebody told me, okay draw a bear holding scissors wearing socks, we could sit and work that through, but the problem I was getting into during college was, I’d do that through my brain, see the finished image, and say I don’t actually need to put that down on paper because it’s going to look stupid, you know. I think it’s good if you just get it out and evaluate it later, if at all. That’s tended to be the thing that I’ve done or tried to do. Or used to do and then tried to maintain.
and you just went back and forth.
So it’s more this idea of production and just trying to get things out and make as many things as you can and then evaluate whether or not those things are good after the fact.
No, I had no background in business at all. I’ve made mistakes and had people help me. I’ve asked opinions from people who had similar, not the same, but similar courses; whether it was starting record labels or recording studios or whatever. The maintenance of stuff is difficult, but like incorporating is not hard, then getting insurance for your business is not hard, and having a lease on a place is not hard. It’s just finding the money to pay the rent every month and remembering to have a paycheck service cut your paychecks for your employees. There are all these resources that you can use. It’s just a question, like for me, making sure there is enough money to pay the insurance bill. And for me it all happened really quickly. I started the company, started the shop in 1999, January ’99, but we didn’t actually incorporate for four more years.
That’s how it started. I mean that was sort of my thesis getting my bachelors degree. That’s not really how I work these days I guess but it’s the philosophical basis of it. Doing basically the same thing for 20 years you eventually learn. I’ve got my own interior visual language and visual process for getting things out. No I’m not usually involved with following the “dumb idea technique” but I am starting drawings without knowing what they’re going to be of and just figuring that out as we go. I’m sure there’s a kind of veteran experience that you know now when your ideas are going to have some sort of tract when you do them. Yes, but only because they get worked on until they have something. If I can draw on something until it makes me laugh sitting at the kitchen table at 11:00 at night giggling to myself, then I know I’m onto something… If you’re working on something and it’s not coming together, just keep adding stuff until it does. Like, “How does this change if I put a goat here? Oh that’s what it needed!” And all that that implies.
Yeah, in that particular case, I drew two intersecting halfpipes… [takes a call on his cell] So yeah! Words. I said some words. [laughter] [laughter] Yeah so, going to a completely other topic, designers, in my experience, are pretty terrible business people because they’re focused on the design aspects, not so much the fiscal ones. So, how difficult was it starting your own company with just an undergraduate degree in painting? And did you have any background in business before that?
So what was the difference between pre-incorporation and post-incorporation? Levels of legality, basically. I mean, and then at some point you get a tax ID number and you have to start collecting sales tax and stuff like that. Boring stuff.
Yeah, it’s a lot of boring stuff. But the management of all that is the big pain in the And I was reading this one thing about your butt. But that’s the counterpoint to drawcollaborations with this other print artist, I ing a bunch of goats and squids running don’t remember exactly who… through a restaurant. It’s just those things are the practical side of things. You got to Maybe Aaron Horkey? pay the rent. Yes. It was Aaron Horkey. And it was this collapsing house with a polar bear and this thing going around behind it and that’s the same process that you guys went through, you drew one thing and then he added on
So, you said that the thing you learned the most in school was getting out these bad ideas. What would you say is the biggest thing you’ve learned after the fact through your professional career?
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Oy… Um… That’s a tough one. I’m good at questions. Yeah, I’m going to say it has something to do with balancing being true to what I want to make with doing the right thing for the client. If there IS a client. There’s usually a client right? Even if it’s yourself. Because you do posters for your own band sometimes. I guess I don’t really look at it that way… like art prints, I’m not really looking at myself as a client, I’m looking at me as doing something fun. But if we’re doing something for some band, it’s heavily on the side of drawing something that I want, but at the same time trying to honor what they want to see. That makes it seem more complex than it actually is.
Well thank you. They’re always great to work for. Art direction from them is like, “if salamanders could be involved, that’d be cool.” Working for Shellac, they’ll be like, “Hey, we’re doing a tour of Australia. If you could include some Australian mammals, that’d be awesome.” Like that’s not real super intense art direction… Like they can be off in a corner somewhere… I guess I ask sometimes for themes if I need help. I don’t want someone to be like, “Okay. It’s a dragster, and it’s got Betty Paige, and there’s beer and there’s a keg right. And it’s on the right-hand side and it’s got to be this color purple…” like, that sucks. But art direction of like, “Hey, if you could do something with polar explorers…” like that’s great, that leaves it way open for me. Or, “If you could do something that has to do with breakups, or with France…” or whatever it is. That’s good art direction to me. A loose theme is very welcome.
Yeah I was going to say, is there a lot of back Favorite designer? Other than yourself. and forth between you and the band when you’re making? Designer, Illustrator? I mean Aaron Horkey is probably my favorite living draftsman, as Not usually, because the bands aren’t gen- far as I mean his line work is just insane. I erally in a situation where they’re able to really like Landland, who’s a poster maker budget for having a lot of back and forth. with a shop here in Chicago. Who else? Art direction is expensive. So at the level So many good things… Old favorites like we’re working with most bands, it’s the case Chris Ware, and new favorites… There’s an of no real art direction. But when I’ve been illustrator named Laura Park. I really love doing this for twenty years, it should be her work... If you want just black and white no surprise what comes back. It might be shapes that are amazing in portraiture, more on the, quote-unquote, realistic end Yann Legendre is this Persian whose stark, or it might be more on the unrealistic, like high contrast illustration work is insane. bears flopping around in space. So you just need to know which kind of category you This is great for me because this is basically fall under. just giving me things to follow and look at. Do you find that you are kind of in the quote-unYeah. So, last couple of questions. Talking quote in-crowd in the design world? I mean about bands, what’s your favorite band? And Chicago is a pretty good place to be for that. your favorite designer? It’s going to be a few favorites. I don’t know if I’d look at it that way. There’s a lot of stuff, landmarks in the field I’m in, for Oh God… There’s so many favorites. A lot example, Juxtapoz or some galleries, that of the bands I work for are bands we listen have no interest in me. I’ve never shown to here. Just recently I’ve been on this kick or done anything like that. So I think in this of listening to comedy and listening to pod- day and age with the internet, I don’t think casts. At home this week we’re listening a there’s a single scene or single reality that lot to the new Father John Misty record. anybody can say like, “that’s popular, that’s Perennial favorites like Andrew Bird and not popular.” Because you’re always going Shellac, and bands I work for. One of our to find somebody that’s a fan of anything next projects is for Hum. that’s being made. You could make the craziest thing ever and it’s still going to get 600 Aw cool. Those dinosaur posters you did for followers on Facebook. Hum are some of my favorites that you’ve done. The internet is pretty great.
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Yeah, it speaks to how weird people can be. And I feel that it’s not so much an in-crowd, but that I feel like I have a bunch of friends. So there are a lot of couches in this world that I can sleep on. And I don’t know how into architecture you are in your life, but do you have a favorite architect? Ummm… uh, no I don’t. I don’t know enough. Anything I’d have to offer would be just clichés. Like having visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio and really enjoying his graphic work. [laughs] That’s like an inspirational poster on the wall. Yeah, I don’t know anything about contemporary architects. Yeah, sure. I was talking to one of my friends yesterday. He’s at Northwestern right now and he went to Tech for architecture. He says he talks to people around the design school at Northwestern about architecture and they just look at him like he’s insane, like the benchmark architects that we’re taught in school are not taught to people in other design majors, but then other people who are drilled into those students’ heads are not taught to architecture students at all. So it’s strange to me that the two things are so related yet so distant. It’s so present in our lives. You know, so much of the work is not layperson accessible. The other part is that you get a name-brand clothing designer because clothing turns over all the time. But I live in a 101-year-old house and I have no idea what asshole designed it. But if houses had to be new when you bought them, for example, then you’d see a lot more celebrity architects. We’d have to have somebody to do our new house. If somebody dies, their house gets torn down, or if somebody moves, then their house gets torn down. It’d be great for the economy! It’d be super wasteful, but America would get back on its feet! And that sort of happens, in a way, but it happens in the upper echelon, so then architecture becomes a privilege for the privileged. Which is terrible to me. Yeah, and, if I talk about it you’ll probably know what I’m talking about… The architecture teacher in the south who is always out building houses with his students… Mockbee?
Yes, thank you. Mockbee. He’s the other side of that, as opposed to building your Tony-Stark-flying-saucer houses. So you try to get a modest house that’s well designed, and made out of found or inexpensive materials. That’s much more impressive to me. And that ties into the idea of what we’re trying to do here. Like, I could make a painting that sells for $4000, or I could make 200 prints that sell for $20 and then once those 20 dollar prints have sold to 200 people I’ve still got my $4000, but there’s 200 homes that have them rather than one. And for $20, every college kid in America can afford one for their favorite band. So that, in some abstract sense, is tying back to what we’re doing here, as far as Mockbee trying to make inexpensive, attractive residential situations. Yeah, okay. So, last question. Any advice for a young aspiring designer? Yeah, one of my main bits of advice that I give to young people who are in school is when you go to school, or when you’re in your internship, you have this community around you. They’re not people you’ve chosen, they’re people in your program. You might not like them, but they’re going to still be there when you’re at your class or critique and you are, to some degree, performing for them. Then when people leave school, finding that community to be in is of the utmost importance. So if you’re a graphic designer, you need to get the bullshit entry-level graphic design job. You’re probably going to move out of it in 6 months, but you got it. You’re meeting other people who are in the same boat… If you’re a painter, get in the painting studio, rent a corner of a painting studio with 8 other people. Whatever it is. Just the idea that you’ve got to find a community to get into a soon as possible. A lot of people drift away from what they’ve been studying because they got a decent job at the coffee shop or wherever, and then suddenly five years pass and you haven’t done anything. So it doesn’t have to be your dream job, but it should be what you want to do as quickly as possible. Make sure you get immersed in that, because you can always move on from there. And it doesn’t even have to be a job. If you’re a graphic designer but you want to take your job at the Best Buy or whatever, that’s fine. But then having a place to go with other people that are doing graphic design is necessary. That’s the main bit of advice I have for people. And for me it was
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stumbling into working at screwball press and having this group of people working basically at all hours, no money, working for the same bands around the clock, learning together, getting better at screen printing together, trading off and helping each other. So yeah. That’s my two cents. And then you’ll have all the couches in the world to sleep in once you make those connections. [laughs] Yeah, exactly. And traveling around the world in a band helps with that also.
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Tim Swanson
Associate Vice President of Urban Strategy at CannonDesign B.A. in Economics and Design | Colgate University | 2004 B.A. Fine Arts | Colgate University | 2004 MArch, Urban Development & Infill | University of Illinois at Chicago | 2007
Response Our talk with Tim was a rush of information covering everything from theoretical physics to the quality of Indian plumbing systems. He is excited about almost everything, and is a very open-minded individual. That open-mindedness might possibly originate from his very diverse educational background. Tim first got an undergraduate degree in theoretical physics because he “thought it was badass.” He then became disenfranchised with physics because it was too intangible for him and pursued a degree in economics, something he thought would impact people more. But economics was still not enough about physical stuff for Tim, so to balance it out, simultaneously with his economics degree, he earned a B.F.A. in sculpture, which to him was, “straight up stuff in a stuff sort of way.” He started a career in sculpture, but then was made aware that what he was really creating was architecture, so he went and got his MArch and started his career as an architect. Now he works as an Urban Strategist at CannonDesign and says that his main role is creative problem-solving and bringing people together. Tim’s career has been legitimately amazing. He’s worked for tiny firms of 10 people and giant companies of 17000. He’s worked in Chicago, New York, Abu Dhabi, and rural India. His own experiences have been so unique that it’s impossible to compare them to anybody else’s. But I think he is a great example for one trying to use architecture and design to it’s full potential. He uses design as an avenue to positively impact entire communities and cultures. His story about a project he did in Brownsville, Texas is a particularly powerful one, I think. The original project was just for a small cemetery in a 12-acre park that was connected to several small lakes. They had a 3-month-long design process for it, the first 9 weeks of which they spent “engaging the entire community” in order to find out (among other things) what the community already had, what they needed, and what stories the next generation of people in Brownsville wanted to have. The result of that intensive investigation into the town’s culture resulted in a park that connected communities, that was good for the local ecosystem, that revitalized its associated communities, and was just genrally loved. All of this from a project that was originally a tiny little cemetery. That’s the power that good design can have. MYERS | INTERVIEWS | 166
Interview
Group Interview with Kirstin Hull, Andres Jimenez, and Michael Mekonen
Ryan: First off, a few of our questions have to kind of do with your educational background, how it’s so different from the normal track that an architect takes, so could you talk about that just briefly for a little bit? If you can do it briefly.
and stuff. So, got my masters degree in architecture and started working at SOM about halfway through architecture school because it… I was bored with architecture school. I mean it was fun, but it was sort of, again it was really interesting and theoretical, and I wanted to understand the balance Tim: I guess, you know, it is a little bit atyp- of the real STUFF. ical but it’s… I dunno, in the end sort of the same thing that we all did. You know… No. K: Where did you go to grad school? yeah, it’s atypical. T: Here in Chicago. Um… so it was... I startKirstin: Yeah, because I know your first de- ed working at SOM, I worked part time at gree was in theoretical physics. SOM, so it was like 40 hours a week. Yeah, I know. Just a reality. And when I graduatT: Yeah, so I started, and that was just me ed, I went straight into working for SOM being a nerdy high school kid. I finished for a little while and then sort of wandered high school early. I got into science because around through architecture and urban I thought it was badass. And it was, but planning and design. And that was about the... and you’re recording this, so I won’t stuff, but really about people. And interacsay that the people I hung out with weren’t. tions. But yeah… It was all about imagining how systems worked and imagining interactions, K: So what firms have you worked in? right, so that sounds sort of familiar. And that’s why I got into it. But it was a little T: Started at SOM and then had gone back bit intangible. And so I did that - I got into and forth a couple of times to the mideconomics, because I thought, “Oh that’s a dle-east for a couple of projects fungible thing...” well it’s really not fungible I guess, but it impacts people, it affects peo- K: Was that at SOM? ple, it’s actually talking about systems and the way we operate. So I thought that was T: At SOM. And realizing that I had no idea interesting. Alright, so relationships. And what who I was designing for. SOM is a I think it’s still that same sort of story, but wonderful place, I’m sitting in this beautiful to sort of balance that out and, and may- office, it’s 80 degrees outside, the Art Instibe it’s part of my bipolar perspective, but tute is right in front of me, the lake is glisto balance that out, I got a B.F.A. in sculp- tening, and I’m designing for cultures that ture. I wanted to do something that then I don’t understand. Climates that I don’t was actually about stuff. So I liked physics understand. And I’d go, and you’d Google but it was talking about stuff, but in a non- what its like in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or stuff sort of way. Economics was talking UAE or these places and just sort of halfabout stuff, but in a non-stuff sort of way. ass it. Or just do your best with what you So sculpture was just stuff. Straight up stuff could Google. And after one of those trips in a stuff sort of way. And so I did that for a I got back and drove to my wife and said, while. And after school, after I finished that “I can’t do it like this any more. I need to up, I worked as a starving artist in New York. actually be in that place.” Because what we I was a DJ in a nightclub; I was just sort of assume is the case is rarely the case once like living life, and not being what I want- you get there and get to know it. And my ed to be when I grew up. I did large-scale wife said, “Well this is a crazy idea.” And it sculptures and large-scale installations, and was. But there’s an architecture firm - some I had a client who said I was just being an guys based out of the UK, Atkins, and they idiot and I should just go to architecture. He had a design office they were trying to build said, “Everything you’re doing is steel and in Abu Dhabi, and so they reached out at wood and large construction and they’re about the same time I was wondering how spaces and they’re interactive,” so he said, do I actually be more purposeful with the “stop being an idiot and be an architect.” So people and the place. So they reached out I went to school for architecture, I agreed and I said okay, and so a couple months with him. And it was still about relationships later we moved to Abu Dhabi, which was MYERS | TIM SWANSON | 167
crazy. We were there for about four years I think. And then started to get antsy, started to look at opportunities. We were trying to decide between staying in Abu Dhabi, taking a job back in Chicago, taking a job in Rotterdam, in Shanghai, or outside of Delhi in India. And so they were all amazing jobs, they were all amazing offers, and they were all amazing places. We were like, alright, which way does it go. For whatever strange reason, at the end of the pros and cons list, India won, so we moved to rural India. Peter was just starting a practice in India, and he came calling, so we moved to rural India. We were there for about a year, year and a half. And then we were looking for a larger architecture firm to partner with. So we had a small practice, it was maybe 25 people. But we needed a large office because of the scale of what we were doing. So we started dating firms, we started dating Cannon, started going steady, then one thing led to another, and we joined them three years ago now. K: So like not saying that Cannon is your end point, but you’re kind of at this point now, so how have these different structures and philosophies of these different firms, how have they affected your outlook on the profession? T: Yeah, that’s a really good question because they’re all very different. SOM is a bit colonistic if I’m going to be honest, right? So you do it here in the comfort of the western world. You sort of craft your object. You pack it safely in a box, you roll the drawings up and they ship it away to somebody else. So that’s one approach to architecture. Atkins, even though I had a small design studio working in Abu Dhabi, it’s a 17000-person organization. They did everything from architecture and planning to running oil pipelines in Africa. They’re in charge of the entire London school system. They’re all over the place. So that was surreal because that was this wild perspective where everything is related and everything is interconnected. So that was a really cool perspective. Because I could call somebody up who was running the school system while I was designing a police academy and get their perspective. And that was weird. And then from that to in India we had a core team of about 8 and then we had another 15-16 Indian employees. Young architects who were really sort of understanding and learning, and that was in the field, on the ground. You’re drawing a line with a
pencil and there’s a guy with a radio watching you draw your line to a person out in the field carving it into the earth. And that was weird because it was incredibly intimate but incredibly real. And then you come to Cannon and Cannon has these sort of… It’s a different scale than Atkins, but they had the expertise here, these sort of focal areas that I think at least they excited us when we were looking at different firms. Because they knew how to do health care, but they were wondering how to do wellness. And they knew how to do education, but they were wondering how to do learning. They knew how to do corporate offices but they wanted to understand the workplace and how people actually engaged. And so for us, these were the perfect questions. Because we understood the big fabric and we wanted to know how each one of these pieces fit into it. We wanted to know how a student learned the other sixteen hours of the day that they weren’t in the classroom or how somebody didn’t have to go to a hospital because the community supported him. So it was really synergistic. But each one of those offices gave us these widely different perspectives. I worked at a small office for a little time, Bill Worn’s offices. Like 10 or 12 people. And it was like hippy, sustainable, social good, and I remember when I left that firm to go to SOM a bunch of my colleagues were like, “What are you doing? You’re going to the big bad beast.” I said, ”Look. We’re trying to do sustainable things. And we’re doing them for these fifteen-unit apartment buildings in Chicago. And I’m going to work with Gordon gill on a 90-story tower that is self-sufficient and makes its own energy. So I’m doing this same thing that we’re saying that we’re doing, but maybe at a bigger scale.” But yeah, so each one of the firms had a different perspective. And I think that was really awesome. Really valuable to see different approaches to the same thing at the end of the day. Sometimes more overt about humanity and designing for humanity and sometimes not really caring about it but at the end of the day still designing for humans. So it was interesting. R: So off of that, what do you think is the most important aspect of design, physical or non-physical, for a community specifically? Since you have the aspect of a city planner. T: Yeah, so whatever scale it is, whatever you’re doing at the end of the day - whether you’re an architect or you’re a planner, a
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city designer or a product designer or industrial designer, whether you’re a graphic designer, whether you’re an artist, whatever you’re doing, you can’t take design and disassociate it with dignity and humanity. You can’t take design and pull it away from people. Design is pointless without people. The city is empty, we’ve talked about that before, without people. This office is beautiful because we, as humans, see it and then interact with it. For the love of God, that’s the most important thing in design. And so often we ignore that. So often it’s what do I want to create. What do I want to see. And what am I going to give you. And that’s bullshit man. It’s sort of what do you need, what do you know, what do you have and what do I have, and we get it all out on the table and we create something together. Something that is intrinsically you and intrinsically me. Something that is both of that moment and has legs and a life beyond that. Humanity man, for the love of God we gotta get into that stuff. And we see this in design whether it’s in politics and were talking about the authenticity of politicians and how, in our generation, we reject the notion of the political structure and the political machine because we want to know that it’s doing something. The economy is the same way. Our rebellion towards the 1950s and 60s and a microwave could heat a prepackaged meal in our plastic house and that was the future - and now we’re saying that the future is an apple that you pull off a tree that was planted here, and that’s our notion. It’s more authentic. It’s more meaningful, whether its design or just life in general, it’s about being more authentic. That we can’t lose that. We got to fight for that stuff. We have to. Because so many people won’t fight for it, but they’ll give lip service to it. We got to call them up – “if you mean this, then we do this.” R: do you see that as actually being the future- picking an apple from a tree that you grow in your own yard? What do you see the future of architecture being 15, 20 years down the road? T: You know, we’re getting better at it. In the profession up to this point, we’ve gotten really good about removing any responsibility that we have, so I joke that as architects we draw pretty pictures and build dollhouses. And then we give it to someone else, and we give the responsibility and the risk and the requirement to build it to someone else. We give all that away and then won-
der why we as profession don’t get respect. Why is everyone in the building industry making money and we’re not? Why is architecture sort of this 2-, 3-, 5-month thing that they just have to deal with in order to actually start building? Why do people care so little about the design process for something they expect to occupy for the next 5 decades? That rests on our shoulders as a profession because we’re kind of nervous about all that stuff. Did I ever talk to you guys about the notion of old-school mass? So theres this notion that the old cathedrals were massive, but not in the way we think about them, not because of the weight of the stone, not because of the scale, but because of their gravity and presence in a sort of experiential and human way. When that cathedral was built, it was built over a hundred years. When I started it, I did not finish. Thats massive, right? When we were building a dome, we would pile dirt stories high to build that dome. That’s massive. We would do these things and there was a gravity to the process that we’ve lost. So yes, now when we look at these cathedrals or any sort of big old artifact, we see the massive scale of it, but it’s really the massive process, the investment into it. With the master builder notion of a designer and an architect, not only did you sketch it out but you had to know what you’d be drawing in the first place. Technology is sort of bringing us all the way back around with that right? Up until the date, it’s meant that we can do anything. Mies can do curtain walls and Jeanne Gang can have satellite-controlled balconies and all these sorts of things and technology has allowed us to do that. And now technology is moving us a step further, where you can think of a detail and imagine what that’s like, and then you can sit with a 3D printer and make it, so you can understand how it could actually work or couldn’t. So all of a sudden, we’re coming full circle, back to the apple on the tree. If you think about it in the community, you have the mom and pop shops, and they serve their community and they are part of their community and they are part of the fabric and then a big store like Walmart showed up and it sold everything, and hosed these mom and pop shops because you could get it all in one place, cheaper, better, faster. And thats a fine thing, Thats not offensive. Technology is coming all the way back around. So now Amazon is a much bigger box than Walmart, and they’re causing Walmarts
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and Best Buys to struggle, because Amazon can put a box in every state, not in every city, and get you something by the end of the day. So technology has gotten rid of the big box, but now you don’t have a place to go. I buy 80-90% of my stuff online and then the other 10-15% I get at the little tiny mom and pop shops and hipster shops that are opening up again because you need human interaction. You aren’t going to get an amazing donut from Amazon. You’ll get everything else from Amazon, but I can go and have a cup of coffee and enjoy this donut because I don’t have to go to the store to get diapers. We get diapers shipped to our house, automatically. They know we have twins and so their algorithms know when to send them, and they’re pretty damn good- it’s weird. So what technology is now allowing us to do is to be more human in our interactions. There’s this notion of wearables, like an Apple Watch, and some of the reviewers were saying they’ve noticed that they don’t use their phone as much. They’ll just get little snippets of information and when it’s time they can look at it and go back to what they were doing. The interface is about “tapping” so you can be connected to the digital world but in a very intimate sort of thing. My wife can put two fingers on her Apple watch, if we were to have them, and I could feel her heartbeat on my skin. So all of the sudden, technology is getting out of the way. It’s getting so good that it’s out of the way. The proliferation of the US and the growth of cars happened simultaneously, and now we’re at the point where Über can get you a car wherever you are, Zipcar means you don’t have to have cars in the first place, and the Teslas and Googles of the world are doing self-driving, electric cars. Now what happens when they all go together? When you don’t have parking garages, but you have your own car, or any car you want, and it meets you downstairs because when you close the door to your flat, you tap something on your wrist or it knows where you’re going based on your calendar, and there’s a car waiting outside to take you there. So now technology is getting out of the way and giving you more time to do and be a human. Philosophers have suggested, and you see this in utopian films, that the utopian future is all philosophers in beautiful white robes sitting under trees eating an apple because technology has gotten to a point where we’re afforded to do and afforded to think and to be and to create because of that. So I do see that is where we’re going, and as a profes-
sion that is where we’re going. We have the opportunity to go there or we have the opportunity to let other people get there. We see amazing technology that stacks bricks and 3D prints in concrete and we can either be the masters of those and we can be part of that process or we can be outside of it. We see community activist groups and sociologists and anthropologists trying to understand the human condition so they can create the right built environment, whether it’s planning or buildings for them, or we can be part of that. So we can be fully invested and go headlong into the way that the world’s operating, or we can just think that people are going to continue hiring us for dollhouses and pretty pictures. Andres: So where do you see yourself going in your career? T: It’s a tricky question, and it’s sort of wavered over the years. A year and a half ago, I was going to step away from architecture and planning, and go and get a degree in public policy. Because I felt like that was one of those roadblocks where as a designer you’re really trying to make an impact on the world and you hit policy, and Policy is never like, “Here, let me help you.” Policy is like, “I’M RIGHT HERE IN THE WAY” and you’ve got to go over it or under it or around it, and you get creative to get past it. So I thought if I understood public policy better, I could understand design better, and I could make that impact. And then magically convinced the Harris School of Public Policy, one of the greatest public policy schools in the country, to hire me as a faculty vitae. So I said, “Alright, I don’t need to go to policy school, I’ll just lie to them.” So if I come from a design perspective and they come from a policy perspective, let’s talk about it before it becomes a regulation, let’s think about how those things work. I see that as a thread through my life. I see myself focusing more on this notion of designing for humanity, whatever that might be. We’ve got this city design practice and this urban strategy that we’re running here, and I dig it, but I don’t like that it’s an other, that it’s a thing over here that could be added onto any project. I want human-centered design to be this sort of everything, whatever scale it might be. And take that notion - and this used to be a joke for me but may become reality - really understand how you can be an engaged member of this sort of government, and what’s a political platform that is about human-centered engagement
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and design. I never want to be a politician but do you engage in something like that? How do you be part of a story? How do we use the talents that we’ve been given and the tools that we have to really push our agenda forward and make this world a better place? So that’s what I want to do. I don’t know where that is, but I think the cool that I’ve found and what I’d stress to y’all, is that you can do it. Every step of the way has nothing to do with the other steps, but they all do. They all bridge together and help me grow and give me width and depth. So they all make sense together when you look at them together, and it’s the same thing whether you’re designing a building or a city. So we’ll see. I just want to help people! Michael: So you’ve spoken about why you wanted to become an urban designer. Can you elaborate on what your role is within CannonDesign? T: Oh Jesus, I don’t know. Sandy Stevenson used to joke that what I did best was integration and creative problem-solving, and a willingness to say, “Lets look at everything.” If someone is talking about a table and I know that person over there has a background in furniture design, the first thing I’ll say is “I don’t know, let me grab someone.” I’d say that’s my role is at CannonDesign, and why I’ve been successful is a willingness to say, “I have no idea, but let’s get the people who do.” I know how to do a lot of things, but I don’t know how to do more things. But what I do well is to bring people together to have a dialogue and to be non-egotistical about where that solution comes from. So it is about sort of bringing people together at building scale and cultural district scale, which is what I’m working on right now. I’m about to start a new city in Kuwait and an overlay for a city in India. And I think we got those and I’ll be successful at those because we’re bringing all the right people together and not taking a sheet of paper and saying, “Here, this is what it is.”- I have no idea what it is. But together we’ll figure it out and together it’ll be more robust. And with the client and community engaged, together you’ll have ownership and you’ll want to do this more and you’ll find things to do. Thats what I do here, I think. M: You’re like a networking master. T: Yeah, a little bit. Because it is the power of the network. We describe our team as a
sort of dispersed network that’s not the four of us, but it’s every person at CannonDesign, every expert at CannonDesign, every expert that we’ve engaged with outside. We shouldn’t be afraid to bring anybody into the table. The only thing that’s important is the value of the people that should come to that table, regardless of where they come from. R: So what do you think about the big onename architect firms like Tom Mayne/Morphosis who’s maybe that egotistical, this-ismy-building-I’m-going-to-do-what-I-want kind of firm? T: Alright, it’s going to sound awful, but if your name is on the door, I’m done with you. You’ve sort of answered the question already. If that’s your name on the door, and there’s another door within that office with another version of your name on it, sorry Charlie. I give up. Now that’s not to say that they don’t do beautiful buildings. It’s not to say that Michael Schumacher isn’t a brilliant, talented visionary architect at Zaha’s office, but he’s a dick. He’s the guy who was saying it’s not our responsibility to be concerned about the social justice welfare of the people that either build or live in our buildings - “We create form...” Shut the fuck up! Yes we do, but in service of all of that, not despite it... I was walking with someone, who will remain nameless. We were walking through a campus in Bert, Texas and there was this covered walkway that connects a lot of buildings. It is delightful, well shaded, and the columns were covered in these advertisements for school clubs, fraternity/ sorority rushing, and all this sort of stuff. Class let out and it was just packed, and this person said, “It would be so much nicer if we didn’t allow students to put anything on the columns and there was like 80% less courtyard.” I said, “Do you understand the whole point of all of this is the people here?” There is this notion that in general we sit down, I take a napkin, I give you an answer and that’s it. Napkins are designed to break bread; napkins are designed to share drinks and really get to know each other, not to provide answers. You can’t provide an answer, you just can’t. I’m sorry. But that’s not to say you can’t do something phenomenal. So that’s how I sort of catch myself, like Tom Mayne does some pretty great buildings, also some junk. Bjarke Ingels does a really good job with buildings, but at the end of the day is it more about the building and new ways to build buildings? So that’s
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one side of the coin. The other side is that pure, high-minded design with defined materiality that I love, I cherish, and care about, but in service to us living there. So there is sort of the form follows function or function follows form. Like screw it all, really. There’s not two different things. There’s not the form bucket and the function bucket, and then mix it in on either side, because you missed the point. K: With your philosophy of connecting certain people, is there a project that sticks out in your mind where you got to accomplish your concepts?
built it better, your employees would be better paid if you built it better and if they were better compensated. So build a trade school in a village and then invest into that village and that village is not just going to send people straight from the onion fields to the construction site. Now you are bringing people who are trained to do the stuff that you want so you can actually do better work. If you do better work then you can pay them better, and you make more money, and things are more fetching, and you can be a modern country.” Again, it is sort of all about paying attention to not actually how you’re building but who you’re building, and who you’re building is the big question. So maybe I’m the kind of guy working with my hands in the field but I can save up to send my daughter to a trade school in the village, and she can send my grandson to a community school in the town, and my grandson can send my great granddaughter to a university. Now we built and supported each layer of the community, each socioeconomic link, we kept it all continuous and raised the whole damn thing around them instead of doing this, right. So this was a huge opportunity and a huge miss, a huge missed opportunity.
T: Yeah there is actually, and there’s one were we missed the boat entirely. So we did this Indian city for two million people. And every day we watched laborers come in from the farms and they would build scaffolding made out of bamboo, like three stories tall! They were tied together and they would just hang on it and work. Well the plumbing failed, and the buildings cracked, and everything was just awful. The Indian building code requires that you can’t have any plumbing inside any walls. So the buildings facades are like this, you have these external chases for every pipe and then they are usually covered by some kind of screen- K: So did he not make the public school? ing because the pipes will break. T: He just didn’t see the value in it. He said, K: Was it the quality of the pipes? “Well how much is this going to cost me to build the school?” T: The quality of everything! So there’s an effort that I was really pushing hard for R: It’s such a long term kind of thing too, to with our client, who was a billionaire, so he look that far into the future and see the value could do it. Bring in a construction man- of that. ager, someone who knows how buildings work. The client was in concrete however, T: He would say that all the time. And he could do only little in concrete even my response to him was, “Say, Mr. Gore. though he was the country’s largest distrib- You’re building a five thousand acre city for uter and builder of concrete. Again, Jeanne two million people. You know how to look Gang’s satellite-guided thin shell concrete; into the future bro.” everything is at least 4 feet thick and there is no flat surface. If you ask someone to R: That’s fair. [laughs] do a 4 by 4 by 4 cube, it would be this sort of rhombus at the end of the day. So that T: Come on, we’re talking about where the was one issue, the other one was we were subway trains are going to go, even if we building a middle class community and how start building it now it wouldn’t be done in many of those people coming out from a decade. So at Cannon, one of the most farms are like, “Oh my gosh, Becky I can’t interesting kinds of project was a small projwait for us to get a two bedroom flat over- ect, the cemetery at Brownsville, a tiny little looking the park.” No, their entire closet is project 12 acre park. So we won the project, the clothes they are wearing. That’s the re- won the interview, for a 12 acre park with a ality. So this was a huge opportunity to say, 3-month design process. And as a 12 acre “Alright you’re contractors, you build stuff, park it connects to the edges of these tiny you would make more money if you built it little horseshoe lakes that are part of the urbetter, you would have fewer injuries if you ban fabric. We won the project because we MYERS | INTERVIEWS | 172
talked to them by saying, “Let’s work with their public utilities board and use these as water storage facilities so when it rains there is fresh water.” Because fresh water is a big issue there. K: Where is this? T: Brownsville, Texas, right at the border. What was really fun about it - again it was this meaningless little project, like a couple napkin sketches on thinking of the design. So 3 month design process. We spent 9 weeks not drawing anything. 9 weeks engaging the entire community to understand who was living around this park and understand how they were using it, what assets were missing, what are the success stories, what are the stories the next generation of Brownsville folks want to have. We had workshops with students from the richest private high schools and one of the poorest schools in Texas at the same time. They were like, “What the hell are you doing?” But they are high schoolers! They have the same cares and concerns, let’s talk to them. Let’s not say they’re different, let’s say they’re the same. And they were like, “You can’t do that.” Guess what. It was brilliant. They engaged because they liked soccer, dancing, sketching, music or whatever they might be. We worked with the university and high schools to help support them by saying that the university students can teach high school science teachers about wetlands so they can teach their science classes. If you actually teach people the value of the wetlands and freshwater storage, that’s going to be good for the utility systems long-term and it will be more resilient that way. We worked with the community health coalition to help get grants for community gardens, which also helped this park, but also bring people to the park and get them invested into it. We convinced people to build a bridge over the river so we could have two communities who could both access it. Then went after HUD funding for community revitalization grants to build those communities up and invest back into those communities. So all of this stuff led to a really great park. A park that the American Architecture Foundation recognized in 2014. We got to a park that is just beautiful. It’s so beautiful, not just because of what it looks like, but because of how it functions, and how everybody in the community is invested and raising money for it. We partnered with non-profits who were taking the tires out, pulling them from the lake and
building planted retaining walls to beautify neighborhoods. With the Harris School students we started talking about how the school has an early-start program to teach parents to raise their two-year-olds so they can eat better, so they are better educated, better performers. It was all over the board. The editor of the newspaper down there said, “I don’t understand how this has anything to do with designing a park, or planning, or urban design.” So by the time we were done he was like, “Oh shit, if we don’t think about all this, about all these things, then it’s just a park, and we have plenty of those, what’s the point in that?” Plant some nice grass, call it a day and it’s going to fall into disrepair later on. Instead, it’s something wildly different. I love that story because it’s a tiny story and you know in the grand scale, one is a multi-billion dollar city and the other is this tiny little poor community park, but this one is having more impact down here whereas this one wasn’t willing to ask the questions they didn’t need to. This one had to ask those questions and explore that stuff because when you are at the bottom you have to look at everything so you have a good view of what’s there. When you’re at the top, you’re at the top, things are down here and you don’t see it. This was a cool project. M: That was great… Going back to you more general.. T: Yes, I am an assassin. K: You keep telling us that, you’re not going to be a very good assassin. People are just going to be like, “Oh there’s Tim the assassin.” T: No, eventually the CIA is going to be like hey, heard you want to be an assassin. I have to get their attention. M: So what is the balance for you with your professional life and your personal life so far, and how will that change in the future? T: So, there is this notion that if you love what you do, then it’s not working, then it is your life. There is also this notion, I think from my personal perspective, that it’s all about human engagement and relationship. I gotta practice what I preach, which means I have to be available for my family. And being available - watching and learning - how a five-year-old interacts with space, tells me a lot. I could ignore them,
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but it’s actually impactful to my work to understand a five-year-old. It’s impactful to see my wife’s perspective, or my kid’s perspective, or my friend’s perspective. It’s impactful for me to get out of the office and spend time with friends and congregate in public spaces, or restaurants and bars. To understand what all of that means. So again, the human is the center of your focus, so it’s equally relevant to working and to life. I’d say I’m pretty good at it, and part of that is one, that I don’t sleep much, and two, is that I look from my perspective that I have 24 hours of the day and I don’t have to limit that to any structure. So I’ll go home and leave early to play with my son at the park. I’ll be working on a paper or doing some sketches at 2 in the morning. That’s not to say you have to do it that way. Life is a priority, work should be part of that life, because you love what you’re doing. Find a situation where that is the case and then it’s not a balancing act. Balancing act is when you have a little fulcrum and you’re trying to drop grains of sand to keep it level and you know that as soon as you put too much on, it tips. That’s about balance. Really about wholeheartedly living is when there is no effort to slide things back and forth, when you’re really jellin’ with what you’re doing, what you believe in, how you’re living, you’re spending zero time on that little scale. Because, often times, people who are trying to do that balancing act spend more time on the balancing than on the things they’re trying to balance. I go home and I spend quality time with my family, and as long as I’m sitting there with my family with my phone, then it’s not quality. You’re focused on the balance, you aren’t focused on the quality. And there have been different seasons of my life. I’ve been more invested or less invested, but I think through the whole thing, when we’re in Abu Dhabi and we were considering different options, I started to smell that I would have to start balancing, I started to notice that I was fully vested. So it was time to pivot. And one of the options was to pivot here, another there. So moving to rural India and working crazy hours to make something happen, but simultaneously a good life balance. Because Beth and Josiah were next-door and we would have breakfast, lunch, and dinner together and play in the park together. And I’m still working 16 hours a day, but unbeknownst to them. It was just heaven. And it was hell, but it was heaven. So it’s an important question because we’re masochistic in our profession. If you’re a designer, you’re never going to
be done. And that means that any second more you have, you’re going to continue. I learned something early on at SOM from a really good friend of mine. He said, “Always take dinner and always go for walks with a friend or significant other, because at the end of the day. If it’s 6 o’clock and you stay at your desk, you’re going to go home at midnight. If it’s 6 o’clock and you go for a 30 minute walk, you’re going to go home at midnight.” You’re going to make up for it feeling refreshed. So we’re going to work until the last hour, and that means we’ll be burnt out and then that last hour is worthless, so take that hour and do something that actually counts. M: Have you seen any time commitment extremes, or any change in your workflow? T: It’s about time organization and allocation. One of them likes to be awake for an hour at 2 in the morning, so I get some writing done with the baby on my chest, life is good. So it’s taking a breather when you need it and pushing through when you can. A: What are you writing? T: Helping a community understand what they need from cultural districts. Also, working on a white paper for how the design process needs to be this whole-hearted process. So I’m part of the UN Habitats Placemaking leadership group, trying to codify some of the things that we’re talking about there, into this meaningful approach. Also, doing some translating with ‘El manual de Urbanismo’. It’s a Latin-American document and it’s designed to be given to anybody - sort of a guerrilla urbanism for anybody. We’re translating that to English right now. So many communities can use that. I’m going to teach people all the right ways to break the rules. A: What rules can be broken? T: As many as possible. All of them. You don’t know the value of the rule until you push it. And it’s not breaking a rule just to break a rule. If you have a conviction on something, push that conviction in all directions. And if it runs up to a rule, you kind of have to weigh how much you believe in the rule as a rule or more so about the conviction. Sometimes the rule will snap and you’ll just go right through it. Sometimes that rule snaps and pops a hole in your conviction. And that’s OK, it’ll let your idea expand. It’s
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all about asking for forgiveness. Challenge and push and be creative. Never accept the status quo. A lot of people complain about an entitled generation. That people just expect that they should get something. I joke that that’s actually a huge asset that we don’t recognize. There are a lot of people that just expect something, but then there’s the other half of the generation that believe they are entitled to make changes, and if you’re in their way, they’re going to go around you because they believe there’s something better. They’re saying they don’t have to suck it up and hate this thing for the next 3 decades. They can go change the world and pivot until they get to do what they want. So break every rule, not just to break it, don’t run around with a baseball bat, because then it’s all about the swing of the bat. The inflation of a conviction is all about the growing and swelling of the idea and opportunity. A baseball bat is just destructive. And sometimes you’ll push against a rule and it won’t budge, and you realize that it’s fundamental, and that’s an OK thing, until it’s not. K: So going into our last year in undergraduate, do you have any advice for opportunities we should really take while we’re in an institution that we might not get in a firm or anywhere else. T: There is so much thoughtfulness in an institution. There are countless Virginia Tech students that have said that Chicago Studio is wildly different - you actually see the impact and it’s so different than Blacksburg - and then you go back to Blacksburg and back to the books. That’s a great thing. So take everything that you’ve tested in the real world and take that back to school and test that against theory and perspective and freedom and opportunity. It is the back and forth, and you’ll never get that opportunity again. Be without a client or community, and then come back and test them in the real world. In this last year, really leverage every faculty member, even in other departments. Chase it to the ends of the earth, because you have access to it. If you’re looking at the human condition and how humans interact, go hang out in the education or behavioral science program, go hang out with the anthropologists and sociologists. It’s much easier to do that when you’re on a campus.
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Polina Batchkarova
Architect I at CannonDesign B.S. in Architecture | Illinois Institute of Technology | 2014
Response Polina is a very recent graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology, and an even more recent employee at CannonDesign. As a designer who is so new to the profession, her perspective is pretty unique among the other people professionals I interviewed. She was able to describe her educational experience more thoroughly than my other interviewees since she graduated so recently and it was great to hear about how another premiere architecture school structured their education. When Polina started there, IIT had what she called, “material semesters� semesters that were each devoted to studying and working with a different building material. They are very technically-oriented semesters, and the students become very comfortable with the materiality of architecture, which is something that maybe is lost at other architecture schools. But towards the end of her time at IIT the College of Architecture got a new Dean, and he changed that curriculum to a more theory-based model similar to that of the studio at Virginia Tech. Because of her experience at IIT with the material semesters, Polina is very interested in the materiality of buildings and not using just default materials to create architecture. I think that is a very interesting avenue of design and something that the best architects pay very close attention to. Talking to Polina was very comforting. To me, she represents my very near future; a recent graduate just starting off at the bottom rung of an architecture firm. And while she said that school definitely didn’t prepare her for everything she was doing at Cannon, she said she developed enough of a base of experience in school that she could pick up everything she needed to pretty easily. And while she very much enjoys her job at Cannon, she still maintains a healthy view towards the future, looking to fulfill her life goals. I think that is very admirable, and something I hope I can emulate.
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Interview Ryan: So, why don’t we start with your edu- with the clients in the Lightbox. Yeah, so cational background. Could you talk just a bit they lock themselves in there. Yeah, so the about IIT and how that was? DD drawings have some details, construction details, but that’s for the CDs. And I Polina: IIT was… I’m very glad I went there don’t think Ill be going into CDs for a while. going into the real working world. I’m actually very proud to have gone to IIT because Sure. So, what originally made you want to do I got a lot of technical skills that I don’t think architecture? I would’ve gotten anywhere else… IIT is a five-year program. You do… Well, before At IIT or?… Wiel, the new Dean, Wiel Arets, came in we had material semesters. So, every se- Just in general. Was there somewhere else mester, you’d work on a different material, other than IIT that you maybe wanted to go? building material. Do everything, little details, and just really experience what that No. No, I never… IIT was the only place I material was. applied to because… I played soccer there too for three years. And they had a great That is really technical. soccer program for an architecture school. Yeah, exactly. Very technical. We had a semester for wood, a semester for concrete, so we would like pour concrete and create sculptures and things like that. And yeah. It was very technical until third or fourth year, and then Wiel came and changed it. So they don’t do that any more, which is unfortunate. But I got to experience his style, which is more conceptual… “Metropolis” is a huge word now that they throw out there. So I got to experience the metropolis, which was kind of cool, but getting to know both…
That must’ve been hard to do… Like I don’t know what division they are for soccer, but, playing Varsity soccer…
Yeah, It’s really nice to get the technical side and then the sort of more theoretical side. Because I mean, most schools… my background at Tech is there’s some technical aspects, like we have the building assemblies classes and stuff like that, but the studio is really theoretically focused, focused on just design as opposed to the technical construction.
It wasn’t?
Yeah, and I mean, coming here and going right into Revit and doing all these things here, I don’t know if I’d have been able to do that if I had went anywhere else, because it is very technical. I didn’t know everything when I got here either, but I knew the basics of these programs. So it was easier to jump in.
Yeah, it used to be NAIA… But now they switched to division three which kind of sucks. Still, it must’ve been tough to do architecture and like a club sport. No…
No it wasn’t. I mean sometimes it was kind of hectic, but it was easier in a way because you know you don’t have a lot of time to just goof around and not do anything. So when you’re working you’re actually working and not talking to your studio friends and things like that. And it gives you like a nice break away from it too, to run around and kick things. Yeah, and I didn’t gain my freshman fifteen until I got out of college, which sucks. [laughs]
[laughs] I don’t know if they call it the freshSure. So are you doing a lot of details, a lot of man fifteen at that point. Okay, so, then what technical drawings yet, or are you still work- made you want to do architecture? ing in general design? I think I knew that’s what I wanted to do Mostly, yeah, mostly general design, but at like age eleven or something like that. again, for this past project… they actually It seemed… I was very analytical and my have the DD right now, the page-turner thought process was analytical, based on MYERS | POLINA BATCHKAROVA | 177
reasoning, and I was kind of artistic, not to much… But I got into it at eleven. And since then there was like nothing else in my way, so I just knew that’s what I wanted to do, so I didn’t really look into anything else. So that’s just my path I guess.
with architecture before coming into the profession.
Oh, no. Not architecture. I did some graphic design stuff. Which is a lot of what I do right now. A lot of information gathering. But that was… My boyfriend started a comSo, did you grow up in Chicago that you only pany. It was like a solar energy company. So wanted to go to IIT, that’s the only place I did all their graphics. where you wanted to go? Nice! Was that a paying job or was that just Yes. [laughs] like a favor? [laughs] Yeah. That’s what I figured honestly. It was like 200 dollars a month. So, mostly a favor but it’s a lot of experience. ActualI didn’t know about IIT before I started ly getting stuff out to customers like brolooking. chures and things like that is kind of cool. Really?
Yeah, to have your work actually seen is great. So, obviously you do think your educaYeah. It’s really weird now when in soccer tion at IIT prepared you for what you’re dowe’d play other teams and they’d think that ing now. Is there anything you’re doing now we were ITT… No. No we’re not. [laughs] that you wish IIT had prepared you a little bit more for? [laughs] That’s funny. Umm… Yeah. It’s so much different. Yeah, it’s kind of weird. That nobody knows, but we’re such a great school. With engi- Really? How so? neering… and architecture. I mean school gives you the basic things Yeah, it’s one of the better architecture that you need to know. But if you’re going, schools around. I mean not many architec- I mean especially starting off in an architecture schools can say that their school was ture firm, you’re not making any important designed by Mies van der Rohe. decisions. You’re just doing the little tedious things. And in studio you kind of do Yeah. the whole design, but you’re never gonna do that in the real world. So I wish they So, what other experiences have you had stressed more not the overall vision of the working at architectural firms? Did you have project, but maybe smaller details of it. like internships throughout school or was this your first one? Like, group work more as opposed to individual work or just like looking at the finite detailNo. ing kind of aspects? Really? That’s surprising. Because they really Yeah, I mean, IIT was great in doing… we push that at Tech. Like it’s unfortunate if you did a lot of calculations - heating, cooling don’t have an internship over the summer. loads and stuff like that - And a lot of the smaller detail work. We did some group No, they didn’t push us to do it at all. work, but it’s a lot more of that than it is full concept work. That’s nice honestly. Takes away some pressure. Yeah. I think that maybe… I can’t speak for IIT, but at Tech, we have that sort of studio I don’t want to say that I wish I did it, be- mindset as well where you’re working on one cause I kind of don’t. I’m glad I just took large project. You’re the one that’s making school, took a full load and graduated early all the decisions. So I don’t think they want so I could start working in the real world. But to take that away because then you’re not yeah, what was the question? learning how to design in a context maybe? And then you can’t, maybe it’s impossible to It was just if you had any other experience make those tiny little decisions and do those MYERS | INTERVIEWS | 178
little things without the big picture. Because Yeah, in a book that we’re turning into our in the profession you’re basically being told to professors. [laughs] It’s strictly confidential do this little thing right? don’t worry. I can take out some parts if you don’t want me to put them in also. Yeah, exactly. And that’s how it’s going to be for several years. I don’t even think the [laughs] No, I like Cannon. It’s a wonderful design principals handle the semi-big ideas. experience, a lot of great experience. And I They might do conceptual ideas, stuff like want to get licensed here, that’d be great. that, but they don’t really know what’s going But in ten years I kind of want to have a to happen. small firm that doesn’t do such big projects like these. [laughs] Who does then? Yeah, to be able to get the whole project deNobody! It’s just a lot of collaboration. sign aspect. [laughs] It just eventually happens!
Right.
That’s one of the things that we’ve been seeing because we’re at four firms, right. The That’s really funny. smaller ones, there’s really this… hand-holding is not the right word, but there’s the abiliI mean, unless it were a starchitect I guess. ty for the designers to really follow the entire project through and have that entire decision Yeah, if your name’s on the door then you’re making project be their own, as opposed to doing something. this fragmented thing that you’re talking about here. But I don’t even know if they do that much design. I think Peter Zumthor maybe… He I mean, there are flaws in both, you know. seems like he does it. [laughs] So it’s not, you can’t necessarily compare them, but I guess I’d prefer to, when and if I [laughs] I’d like to think so. Okay, so where do start something like a firm, it’d be very small. you see yourself in ten years? Still in Chicago, More focused on materials. I’m very interstill at Cannon? ested in the materiality of buildings and not just using regular materials… Maybe that’s I don’t know! going back to IIT , but that research is interesting. Or what would you want to be doing in ten years if you could do anything? Yeah, and I mean if you start your own firm, you can’t really just start it at the level that Well, I want to… and I don’t know why… like Cannon or SOM is at right? but I always set these goals for myself that I have to do even if it doesn’t make sense to Right. My uncle has like a development firm finish something through. in Germany. And he does developments for real estate and things like that. But he That’s a pretty good quality to have, honestly. has architects now and he wants to start like a small wood firm, wooden firm specifiWell, sometimes not really. Because I want cally working in wood. So I think that’s kind to move to Germany. And I want to live of cool. And what I would like to do. Like, there, start a family there. But at the same I love Herzog & de Meuron and how they time, I want to get licensed as an architect use material. here, and that doesn’t make sense, because why would you do that? Why would you Yeah, their material studies are unparalleled. go through that? If you’re in Germany you Okay, good answer… So, what do you see as don’t have to be licensed, you can just prac- being your largest influence in design. I guess tice. But yeah, it’s one of those things that now you’re not really doing much of your own doesn’t make sense in the long run. If you design decision-making, but in school or just start it you just have to finish it. But in ten in general, what do you see your biggest inyears? Are you going to write this some- fluence being? where? Where is this going? I mean, it has to be materials. It has to be Yeah! I think that’s what happens.
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playing with things. And looking into the can’t do that. details of them. Making things. Yeah. Nice. Okay, so who’s your favorite architect? Favorite architect? Starchitect? Favorite firm, practice, starchitect. Any of the above. There’s so many. There isn’t one. It’s like asking what’s your favorite food, right? Like there’s a lot of good food out there. [laughs] [laughs] That’s true. But a lot of people have favorites. I won’t make you answer if you really don’t have one. Well, I know which I don’t like, which ones I don’t like… Maybe that’d be easier to answer. Alright, that’d be good. Go for that. Zaha. I’m more interested in site-specific buildings than just building something to look like your style. Like how she does all the curves… And Gehry. Gehry for the same reason. Yeah, I get you. Okay. And kind of last question. How do you, as a young adult, manage your personal life versus your professional life? Because I know you said you were here until 9:00 last Thursday. Actually, it’s really not that bad. Usually I’m home at the right time, you know. But sometimes you have to meet the deadlines. There’s also a difference because I’m an Arch 1. And we get paid by time instead of salary. So I would get overtime but everyone else does not. So they’re expected to stay here more without being payed, so that’s kind of nice for me for right now. But when you’re in school you think, oh man I’m gonna have so much time. I won’t have to take my work home with me… But you just go home and you want to sleep. [laughs] I thought I’d have time to work out and everything, but it’s hard. Yeah, you just have to, even in school, you just have to force yourself to make time for things you want to do. Yeah, but you get home and you don’t want to do anything else. [laughs] But there’s still people like Tim who just is all over the place and doesn’t sleep and can do everything. I MYERS | INTERVIEWS | 180
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Drew Ranieri
Associate Principal at Solomon Cordwell Buenz B.S. in Architecture | The Catholic University of America | 1976 MArch | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | 1979
Response
Drew has taken a pretty classic track through his architectural career to get to where he is now, but along the way he has encountered several roadblocks that make his journey unique. His time in undergraduate school sounded like an awful one, with professors that really didn’t seem to be there to advance his progress as an architect. That is, except for one of his professors whom he remembered very fondly. Drew named that professor Belinda, and she was a graduate of Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture and Design. She got he students involved in the process of making and got them to start actually thinking like designers. Her guidance also made Drew want to pursue his graduate degree at Virginia Tech. Without Belinda, Drew says, he probably would have quit architecture. But it’s a good thing he didn’t. Drew was able to give me a lot of insight into the process of designing a home. He says that unless you are designing a house that your clients are just going to move out of in a couple of years, then you are really designing for your clients and their idiosyncrasies. As the designer, you must completely understand the perspective of who you are designing for. Once you understand that, then you can begin to ask the questions that are relevant to the architectural development. I think that this is a great way to design, especially when what you are designing is a person’s home. The home needs to appreciate everything about its inhabitant in such that in the home, the inhabitant’s quality of life is significantly increased.
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Interview Ryan: So, why don’t we start off with your ed- education after that. It was awful. Anyway, ucational background? the long and the short of it was, I did finally finish. It was held against us for really liking Drew: So, how far back do you want to go? her. There were four or five of us who really liked working with her, and we took her two Just universities. semesters in a row, which was against the rules. Okay There’s the cheating part. Because I know you went to Catholic, right? Well, that’s additional cheating. And so I Yes, I went to Catholic for my undergrad- had a teacher who flunked me the followuate. And the reason I’d go back to high ing semester to pay me back. Oh yeah. He school was because they had no idea what said, “Would you consider it a learning exto advise me when I said I wanted to go to perience if you were doing ‘A’ work and I architecture school. I went to a very good flunked you?” And he did. Yeah. So I had to prep school, a private school in New York go to school for another semester. And it City and they had no idea. ended up being good. I ended up meeting a guy in the summer who ended up working You asked them what you wanted to do?… the UT Austin program and he was a good follow-up to Belinda. And then I worked for No, I told them what I wanted to do. And a year, ran into Belinda, told her I wanted they said, “We don’t know where to tell to go to Virginia Tech for graduate school you where to go.” And parents were less and two weeks later, I was in. Thanks to her. involved than they are now, you know? In She took my work down there and showed the long run hopefully that’s a good thing. it to them and got me in. So then I started So I went to a school that could give me and did my little over 2 years of graduate both a swimming scholarship and had an work. architecture school, and I didn’t know much about it. I almost dropped out because I Because Catholic’s a four-year program? thought I wasn’t creative. At the end of my sophomore year I was so fed up. We didn’t Four and two, yeah. have studio, we did these little three-day problems that would last a semester. So Yeah, so, you knew that you wanted to be an it was really a whole different world. And architect when you were in high school… the classic thing was when you’re in studio was you’d get the same project every year. When I was twelve. Third year fall, you’d get these same three projects. Yeah, so why did you know that, why did you want to be an architect? The same projects you were getting first year? Passing aptitude tests that told me… It kept coming up architect, architect, architect all Every year. The teachers would repeat the time. Or musician, or music teacher, but them and repeat them and repeat them…. I am not… I love music, but I am not gifted I got a woman from Virginia Tech, who was at all. And my mom would, I’d go into New in her second year teaching. And every- York every month with my mother, and body said, “If you want to stay here, get her. so I loved New York. And we lived right She’s great.” So I lied and cheated my way across the river from Manhattan in New into her studio. I did. And she was great. Jersey, and seeing the city get built and And that was the whole Virginia tech ped- then torn down and rebuilt was really pretty agogy. and the whole thing was so different cool. And then beach houses in the sumthan everything else. We started making mer in the jersey shore where we’d spend things almost immediately. We were build- the summer, there were always new things. ing furniture, we were doing things, she was As it turned out, Venturi had a house, one getting us into exhibits with our own work. of his houses… So I’d see these things. And It was really great. But it was still a terrible going to MOMA every so often got me MYERS | DREW RANIERI | 183
really excited about architecture. I had no idea what it meant to be an architect. I just thought these things were cool. And then I didn’t think about it again until I applied to college.
I love it and I think it’s great, but I’m happy with the way that I draw. So getting over that, which was all surface - to the, ‘what are you thinking about, what are you drawing, what are you trying to make’. Because the drawing is only a means to getting to the That’s quite the leap of faith, honestly. Okay, making. Unless you’re only doing a drawing, so what do you think is the most important and then that’s a whole other world. aspect of design? Physical or non-physical, just design in general? Yeah. Honestly, it kind of seems like there was a lot against your personal journey to beThe process of it? How I would define the come an architect, but you’ve made it. process, or?… Yeah, but with Belinda, everything changed. It’s intentionally open-ended. Just the most I mean, she just got us to thinking, and seeimportant aspect to you. ing, and understanding, and expressing ourselves, and making things, and not worTo me it’s really, and you’ve heard me say rying about making mistakes, but just doing this, understanding what’s given, under- it. And that to me, is what Virginia Tech is standing what the variables are, and then about. deciding what questions you want to ask about that process. It doesn’t matter what So, how do you think that difficulty that you you’re designing. went through before you met Belinda, before you got into that Virginia Tech mindset or So, Like furniture or architecture… Is that whatever you call it, how do you think that something that you picked up in school? helped your development? Yeah, so I always liked taking things apart, Well there was just no reason to not give seeing how things worked. it a try. You know, it was like, “Why not do this?” “What about that, why not try that?”… Did you ever put them back together? Going to graduate school there or going wherever, and then moving to New York [laughs] No! No, that wasn’t critical. I was and working in Switzerland. This was not not as good at putting them back togeth- common then. It’s not like I was a frontierser. Eventually, I had to do it, but I liked just man, but I didn’t have any role models to trying to make stuff. My parents and been look at. People weren’t coming back and artists. Not professionals, well my dad was forth. I mean we had visiting professors and a professional, but he had to give it up to things, but we didn’t know anybody who run his business. And I was the least artistic lived in Europe, I didn’t know them through of my siblings according to the nuns. Yeah, family or even through the school. I was one they would say to me, “Oh it’s too bad you of the first ones. And then people started don’t draw like the rest of your family.” And doing it bit by bit and then it became kind of then if I did a nice drawing, they’d say, “Oh a ground swell, and across the board study did your mom do that?” I went to Catho- abroads became more and more popular. lic school all the way through college until They had always been a thing going on, but I went to Virginia Tech. but I honestly think all of that kind of informed me that well, I that arts are not really… it’s thought that like this guy and I think he’s doing the things you somehow need to express yourself as that I think about. an adult by about seventh or eighth grade. And if you can’t draw in this Frank Ching, Bota, you mean? picturesque, everyone-gets-it way, then it’s not good. And that’s where I come back to Yeah, he was doing things that I was thinkthe good. It’s what people like to see, but ing about, so it was like, “Why not go work it’s not necessarily good. I mean, you look at for him and actually do these things, and Kahn, Le Corbusier. You look at a lot of art- make these things?” So that was the goal, ists, Picasso… Architects… They don’t draw and I had a big helping hand from a proin a way that’s here. I mean they’re capable fessor who knew him well and made the inof it, but if you look at a sketch that Kahn troduction and sold them on me. And then did, it’s scratchy. But it’s content-full, con- some weeks later I got the job. I didn’t speak tent-rich. So, I didn’t draw like Frank Ching. Italian at the time. I spoke German, not ItalMYERS | INTERVIEWS | 184
ian. So it was just one of those things. Just to Scarpa and Bota. So, talking about your go try it, give it a whirl. own firm, how difficult was it transitioning from running your own office to coming back How long did you work for Bota? and working for a larger office? Less than a year. He ran out of work before Essentially it’s the same. You can have good I was there very long. or bad clients, whether you’re picking them, running the firm, or within the firm. Clients So it was at the end of his career? are clients. The culture of the firm - when it’s your own firm, you try to create it. When Oh, no, no. He did fine, he just didn’t have it’s a firm that you’ve been hired by, hopeenough work for everybody. It was only a fully it’s a firm that you’ve selected because little five-person shop. So like seven months you like their culture. And you have some in, a guy who had been working for him had influence on that, but… And money goes just opened up his own office and I had been either way, you know. The profession is cyworking with him for the seven months prior clical. The pressure though. There are two to that, so I asked Rudy if I could work for things that are different when you run your him, and he was like sure, great. So I worked own firm. There’s the pressure of running it for him, which was an interesting thing be- and supporting everyone else. And it’s not cause I got to see him working post-Bota. so much the weight of your own vocabuHe had been working with him for years lary style, I mean, our firm was successful, and now he was on his own. well liked, we had work all the time, but we didn’t make enough money for me to send Did you see that his style were influenced by my kids to college. But we were successful, that? and any time I wanted to get in the magazines, we did. I didn’t run it well enough in Yeah. Because a lot of people in the area the sense of managing it, marketing it, and had this kind of, it was called the tendenza, doing it all the time. I should’ve delegated which means the tendency. And that was a little bit more than I did. So, I was good the school of architecture, the school of at doing them, I just wasn’t good at doing style that a lot of people worked in that Bota them all all the time. And I don’t know anywas one of the leaders of. So we worked in it body who really can. That’s rare. But the big and tried to make it our own. Rudy gave me difference when you put the pressure aside a lot of responsibility for a young guy. is at the end of the day when you work for yourself you know how hard you’ve worked. So do you think working there influenced There’s not a question of that. When you your own architectural style? work for somebody else, do they know how hard you’ve worked? Hopefully, but it’s a Oh yeah, and even before I went there. The question. And sometimes it’s worth saying problem was I never got to really express that that’s a big difference. And the other that in the work I did here. Because it just side is the pressure’s not personal. never clicked in Chicago. Okay. So, looking back on your time owning So not just in SCB, even in your own firm? your own firm, you said you felt like you didn’t market as well as you possibly could have. Is Oh yeah, and the firms before that. But it there anything else you could’ve done better has always informed the way I think about in hindsight? stuff. But he wasn’t the only guy. I mean I look at Scarpa as a big influence. Kahn. Well, there are a number of things I could’ve Bota of course. There was the Kahn side of done better. I could’ve managed it better, I it, the Scarpa side of it, Mackintosh in it’s could’ve marketed it a little bit more from own way. And then I loved shaker archi- time to time. Yeah, it was about to grow, tecture. I think shaker architecture is really we were starting to grow more and more, good… So, clean, simple, but rich. I mean getting bigger jobs and competing against look at Mackintosh. It’s not clean. Or Scar- bigger firms. But it was fish or cut bait. Eipa, it’s not plain. But there’s a very strong ther spend four years doing that, growing integrity to all their work, and I just hoped and building that up, or spend the next four that I could aspire to some of that. years helping get ready to pay for college. And that was a choice that I just had to [laughs] I think everyone would like to aspire make. MYERS | DREW RANIERI | 185
Was that a difficult decision? Well I knew what I had to do. Heidi and I talked about what we had to do and this was the best way to do it. Cool. So, how long ago was it that you started at SCB? 15 years. Okay, so where do you see yourself fifteen years from now? I don’t know! I don’t think I’ll be working here. I don’t think I’ll be working in somebody else’s firm. I’ll be doing the other things that I want to do as an architect and designer. What would those be?
so happy with the result. Not all the time, but sometimes. And then I had one client who didn’t do… we only built maybe 50 to 65 percent of what we originally tried to do for them, the way we wanted to do it. And there could’ve been a little more teamwork, they could’ve been a little more interested. After the house was done, and the additions were done, and the renovation, they were like, “We are so sorry that we didn’t do more of what you wanted to do, what you proposed to us. Because we see it now. It took us forever to understand it.” And I tried every which way, but this was before digital three-dimensional work was as prevalent as it is now. So we built models drew perspectives and everything, but you can’t do it in the same way you can now. so they were like, “Oh its such a shame, we’re kicking ourself for not having done that” And I said, “Well, you’ll be great clients for the next architect.” But it was really good, you know. That’s a really good thing. And so, they got on board. And most of the clients I’ve worked for, whether they were here or in my own shop, the whole idea was really getting them into architecture. Getting them invested, not just financially, but so that they felt like it was theirs.
I still love industrial design. So whether it’s furniture or lighting, other things. Drawing and painting a little bit more. Still making buildings if I can. Whether it’s for myself or someone else, that’s up in the air. Yeah. I mean I don’t think I’ll ever stop being an architect. First of all because it’s the way I think. Second of all because I just like making things. That’s nice. That’s a really interesting aspect of design. Like that’s not something that you It would be a shame to stop “being an archi- really think about - having to sell architectect” right when you retire, just because you ture as a concept instead of architecture as retire… So, what project of yours are you most a product. proud of? In industrial design or architecture. And there were things I really like that I’ve Oh I’ve done some nice chairs. It’s hard to done. But that’s not really what you’re asksay. I’ve been asked, “What do you think is ing me, and that’s not really the important your best building?” part. Well, not necessarily your best, but the one I have one last question that’s pretty big for you’re most proud of. me personally. Next year, my thesis is centering around designing a model for an accessiSome of the small houses I did. Or addi- ble house for an elderly couple. And with your tions to houses for clients who had never background in housing, I was just wondering been involved with an architect before who if you had any advice for that sort of typology. wanted to make the most out of the smaller amounts of money they had. We didn’t Yeah, well, it’s like, what defines it? What’s have rich clients. I started to get a reputa- taken and whats variable? So right off the tion for being able to do good architecture bat, you’re saying, is it one story? Is that a on the cheap, which is not the best way to question or not? Or, how are you going bring in money. We used to joke about to deal with levels if you aren’t going to that it’s not the best thing because you’re do that. So, what’s critical in it being horinever going to get rich doing that. But zontal or the way you see it. So if that’s the that was part of it. Doing work for people case, then what kinds of places are critical? who wouldn’t ordinarily hire an architect. Is there a range of places, light, dark, big, and they got totally into it. I had one client small? Is there a simple procession? So, it’s that… I used to get bonuses from my clients also understanding what are the disabilities when we were done because they were that you’re designing for. MYERS | INTERVIEWS | 186
So, I’m working with a partner on this. We hope to take the model and then go into our graduate thesis and actually build the model that we design, through Habitat for Humanity. But it’s supposed to be a model that Habitat can use for elderly clients just in the future. So it’s for a range of disabilities for a range of climate zones that we want to make it adaptable for. So we have a list of disabilities, things that it needs to pay attention to. So there’s a house that Charles Moore did years and years ago. It’s really interesting. The client was blind. So he worked with a landscape architect, and the two of them started to work out how the house was designed, how the landscape was designed. So, certain things would bloom at certain times of the year, and the client would know where he was when the windows were open because of the smell coming in from the garden. So that is thinking about blindness in a whole different way. So things like that. Now are you going to find those kinds of things? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s like, what are you taking, what are you seeing, how do you walk through a house if you can’t walk? If it’s a different kind of disability, if you’re in a wheelchair, what does that mean? What’s the perception like? What’s the path like? What’s the section like? What’s it like to be in a chair looking around from 40 inches up for the rest of your life except for laying down. The part of my life where I was in the hospital, in a wheelchair for a month. I could stand up sometimes to do physical therapy, but I could never walk around outside of PT. That’d give you a really new perspective on architecture. Yeah, on everything. The way I looked at things, the way that stuff was done, that was a whole different thing. So there are those kind of things. Is it about hearing, and how are you designing around that? You and I joked about it after that first exercise about limitations. What do you want to do? Limit the things you want to think about, and then from there, exploit what you have to work with. Because right now you’re looking at - you have a house that you can build hopefully, and that’d be great. But hopefully, you can understand what’s the process of designing a house with these things in mind. What do you have to think about. If you think about it, you know, how many houses have you done in your life?
[laughs] I’ve done a pavilion… Yeah, so, doing this, it’s like, how do I get there? Because it’s also designing the house anyway. So understanding the differences. So this summer, imagine yourself with some of these disabilities. What is it like when you’re home, how does your house seem different to you. Same house, different experiences. That’s something to talk about with your advisor too. Yeah, and we have, but I wanted to get your input as well, since you have this housing background. So, one last question: What do you usually see popping up when you do homes on that scale, like small-scale residential homes? What do you see popping up? Well, it could be anything, it could be budget scale, site, program. Well, sorry, let me rephrase that. What problems come up more often than others in this small scale residential architecture? I think the issue becomes one of, when you’re actually working with a client, actually getting them to talk about how they want the house to feel. Programmatically you an make a list and that’s fine. But what are they actually trying to accomplish with that? And then when they don’t know that, you’ve got to make up a story. Ask yourself, what is it like when your kids come home when you live alone? Are you rambling around a big thing, or is it a series of smaller things? What is that like? So I think it’s just, what is the rhythm of the day, to the season, to the year? How does the house change and grow and get older? How does that work? So I think that’s where, even if you’re designing it for older people, well you’re designing it with the assumption that they’re older to begin with, so how does that evolve? How does the house work for them? Is there a certain flexibility built into the house? And you can start asking things like that. So I think it’s worth understanding how long someone is going to be in that house. It makes a big difference. If you’re designing it for them for a couple of years and then they’re going to move, you’re designing it for the person they’re selling it to. If they’re staying there for ten years or more, then you’re doing it for them and their idiosyncrasies.
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Nick Cameron
Vice President of CannonDesign’s Digital Practice B.S. in Architecture | The State University of New York at Buffalo | 2002 MArch | The State University of New York at Buffalo | 2004
Response Talking with Nick was fascinating. His job is basically to think about the future - where the profession is going and how CannonDesign should best approach that future. We covered a lot of information during our talk, but the things that stood out to me the most had to do with the future roles of technology in architecture. He is currently working to make virtual reality interfaces like Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard integrated into how architecture is presented to clients. Even applications other than presentations are on the horizon. Nick talked about how he saw virtual reality becoming the interface that replaces video-conferencing, just as video-conferencing replaced screen-sharing and screen-sharing replaced phone calls. He said that he envisioned being able to meet with clients or other architects in a virtual reality model of what was being worked on, and work through design problems and other issues. That just ends up creating an environment that is totally conducive to collaborative design. Because of the new technology that architecture is starting to use, Nick said that the way architects were payed needed to change as well. Since basically all the drawings that an architect makes now come from a base Revit model, the deliverables in a contract need to reflect that. The contract should no longer demand drawings on paper for the deliverables. Rather, the deliverables should reference the completion of a computer model. If this was the case, then a very detailed model of the architecture would be completed before construction began, and all the problems that might have been run into during construction would have been found out through the building of the virtual model. That saves both time and money, as well as makes all parties involved in the creation of an architectural project much more confident. This conversation really got me excited about the future of architecture. But along with the excitement that comes with new technological advances came a wonder of how the current culture could ever possibly change enough to accommodate the new technologies. Nick says that it will need to be like a new language that slowly permeates our culture, and that when it’s finally there, we won’t even know it because it will be so intuitive. Personally, I can’t wait to not realize that everything has changed. MYERS | INTERVIEWS | 188
Interview Ryan: Can we start with your educational Other offices for Cannon? background, like where you went to school and what school was like for you? Yeah. And then we worked mostly on international projects, a lot of work in Saudi AraNick: Yeah, so for my first two years of bia, Korea, inside of China, so those were school I went to like a technical college. So I the big projects that I was part of. was supposed to get an associates degree, but then I left and went to the University Did you ever do rendering for companies of Buffalo and got my Bachelors of Archi- outside of Cannon? Or was it just all intectural Science ore something. So it was a house stuff? four-year professional degree. Yeah. So, essentially, at the time, there were Did you have to get a masters after that in a lot of firms that were contracting… Like order to practice? there’s a company in China called Crystal that actually just went out of business last So then I went back and got my masters, year because of corruption, go figure. But yeah. So I did that and then actually started they were really a powerhouse. And essenworking at CannonDesign in Buffalo. I was tially what we did was we figured out the kind of recruited while I was in my senior guys who we really wanted to work with and year and just started building models over we just started hiring them. So we cherry winter break and then once the last semes- picked the best people. [laughs] ter was over, I was asked back there to work on design pursuits and build models. And [laughs] I’m sure they weren’t too happy not too many people back then could ren- about that. der and I could render a bit. [laughs] It was fine because we had them! Like computer render? It worked out actually pretty well. We did a lot of graphics, did a lot of fun stuff. A Yeah. So I did that for a couple years. Just lot of stuff in Revit, a lot of Rhino work. All kind of worked my way up in the practice sorts of stuff. So I was there. I had two litto associate or senior associate and then tle kids while I was there, well my wife did, I went back for my masters. I did that for I should say. And we wanted to move back two years, again in Buffalo. And as that was to the States, and there was an opportunity wrapping up, I was going to move back east to work centrally for the firm still. Kind of where I was originally from. I lived in New communications, collaboration… And part York for a while and was kind of re-recruit- of that was setting up a new intranet. And ed by CannonDesign. So I stayed in Buf- Chicago seemed like a cool place to live. It’s falo for another couple of years. And then in the middle, you can get to the west coast in 2008, there was an opportunity - we had in one day and back, you can get to the east just opened an office in Shanghai. A friend coast in one day and back. It’s a great city. of mine that I had went to school with for It’s a little cold, but… So we just sort of figundergrad had just started that. So there ured we’d move here. And we were buildwas like maybe six people. And I headed ing up the office and would be a part of the over there for three and a half years. And design team, work on this. So it made a lot we grew the office to about 50 people. of sense. So were you in the leadership over there?
So you pretty much have been at CannonDesign your entire career. Have you ever Yeah, I was the operations manager, leader. gone off to other firms at all? Or had any exBut that really just meant… we needed that perience with other firms? for the office, but we did everything, like bought toilet paper, locked the door every Yeah, my first internship I did residential night, pay the electric bills, like everything work on Long Island. So all kinds of highyou could imagine. So it was pretty exciting. end residential work out in the Hamptons. And while we were there, we started a ren- It introduced me to some pretty interesting dering studio which serviced other offices. clients. So that was pretty cool. MYERS | NICK CAMERON | 189
Eccentric billionaires and stuff like that? Not quite billionaires, just people who were very particular. But I find that anyone who’s dropping money on architecture, it’s a lot of money, so they’re pretty particular. So I thought that, now when I look back, that was very interesting . That I had that experience so early. And then when I was doing my thesis, my thesis advisor is a good friend of mine now, but we were doing a lot of work together, competitions… So I was going to go work for him. We did some work together, But that ended up just being on the side in the end. So I’d say, you know for six months, that was another kind of experience that I had. Which was pretty good. What was your thesis?
grass…” “No like Kentucky Bluegrass.” And they’d be like, “WHAT?” And they’d just give me all this shit for free. They’d be like, “You gotta send us pictures, man, you gotta send us pictures!” So I built a one-squaremeter mock-up panel and I got grass to grow, and it was in this stuff that hydroponics uses, so it was actually translucent, so we captured photography through it… And that was where at the end of the project that my thesis advisor was like, there’s a competition in California, we got to use this. So then we did that. And that was really cool because then like four of my buddies ran back into my studio and just cranked on this thing for like three weeks. So the thesis went from the urban scale down to detail. Detailing grass panels. So, building a lot of stuff and seeing how far we could push it.
So, my thesis was… I made up my own word Did that ever go anywhere with the competo describe it. [laughs] tition? [laughs] That’s always a good start. Yeah, right. Like I don’t like the word, so I’m going to design one. But it was about all different scales of architecture. So, it started at the urban planning scale, the operational scale of a neighborhood and an institution, which happened to be a hospital, and where they met. So there was a very clear dividing line, which was the boundary of the street. And I wanted to investigate how you could make that more porous… Between the hospital and the neighborhood? Yeah, and how you could transfer program and transfer activities and open that up and have it become a campus onto the neighborhood. So it went from the kind of urban scale, how that would work… So, retail components. I figured programming-wise, retail was how it could cross over into health and wellness, with retail space. I didn’t actually detail any… It was pretty much a parking garage in a way, but that was just the kind of structure that I used. I was pretty lucky, in that Heatherwick was in and out of the school, and his structural engineer, I got to work with for like a month. And we devised this plan of how you could span a street with a park. And I got into how to make a transparent grass surface. So I ended up growing grass on these translucent panels, which was pretty cool. So I would go to these hydroponic stores, and they’d be like, “What’re you growing?” And I’d be like, “Grass…” And they’d be like, “Yeah right,
No, so we were like finalists, and then we took another idea that we had worked on that semester for a 9/11 memorial in Hoboken, NJ and we made the finalists for that too, but we didn’t win that one either. And we did a residential project that’s been published in Rochester, NY. It’s a pretty sweet little, just a bathroom addition. And what else did we do? We did an installation at RISD, it was kind of a retrospective as work, but we floated a twenty-foot cantilevered beam that doubled as a light box for slides. But then when the team got there, the column that they thought was a column was just a drywall box. [laughs] [laughs] That’d screw up your plans. [laughs] Yeah, so they had to rethink a lot of stuff. [laughs] Do you know why the box was there? Because they needed some dividing thing in the room and it seemed like that would work, I guess… Like, just pretend there’s a column there. Yeah. So the thesis was that and then I think it ended up being a thirty page book. A lot of writing. Which is funny , because I thought I would do, because I didn’t want to write anything, was I’d just record all the presentations and cries, so I didn’t do any writing until after I presented. I thought, this is great, I’m just going to transcribe
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this. And that’s really a hard thing to do. So then I realized that because I’d worked at CannonDesign before, and I knew some of the admins, I was like, “Could you transcribe this?” And they did. They did a for a little bit and then they were like, “Nick. There’s like 40 hours here. I love you, but I can’t do this for free.” And I couldn’t afford to pay them, so I kind of scratched that whole idea. So I did a lot of writing over the summer.
these other things. And on the backside of that, we call it design authoring. So some others would say that it’s production work, but it’s construction documents. And how we’re using tools like Revit to produce that work and make it more efficient. So is it like coming up with standards of development for the entire corporation?
Yeah, so a lot of it is about their standards. But you used that recording as a basis for Standards are okay, but sometimes I’ve notes? Or did you just scrap the whole re- found what we had as standards were decording? veloped in 2012 or 2011 and haven’t been touched since. So with that framework, I listened to some of it to get a sequence of some place that gets to the essence of where we started from and where we ended what we need to do. Because you can’t and where there were some breakthroughs. keep the standards up to date with the But it was a lot of scrubbing to try and find technology and tools that are coming out. that stuff. Every once in a while if I have You shouldn’t write it for Revit, you should iTunes on shuffle, it’ll pop up and it’s just be writing it for a tool that’s producing our like… I’ve been on some really long flights construction documents. Because the tool and that’s happened and I just like, relive could change tomorrow. Google could it. Because I have nothing else to do other come out with something that’ll blow the than sit on a plane for fourteen hours. Yeah, doors off of Revit. I think that’ll happen. So so it’s kind of fun. we have to be ready for that. And that’s not about sticking to something that was writSo, it seems like you’ve done a lot of differ- ten three years ago. So we are doing stanent roles for Cannon over the years, so what dards, but we’re doing it a little differently would you say your role is now? in that they’re all electronic wiki-documents. And when I said this like three years ago, My role now is leading and thinking about that anyone can change them, people were differently… What we’ve been working on like, “You’re fucking crazy. You can’t have a for about a year and a half is as technology second-year student change this.” But like, has changed how we work or even what we why not? You’ll know that it got changed produce, we’re trying to get a very clear un- and then their idea will be there and you can derstanding for what that means, and what debate it. Just this commenting on stuff. It’s it means to us in the future. So, we’ve kind of about moving it from where in the past it coined that as our Digital Practice. And the was a pdf file, and getting it in terms of a reason we call it that is it’s not IT. IT has tak- wiki that can be updated and commented en over a lot of businesses in a way. It’s just on and changed very easily. grown, right? Like, over twenty years I had a computer, then I had a phone, then all these So this is something that’s available for evother things… It’s everything, right? It’s ev- erybody outside of Cannon to use? erything that’s plugged in. So this team will look at that and say, you know, IT is an infra- So, that’s a really good point. I think it should structure. And there are absolutely people be. I could literally flip a switch and make who are experts at that and need to be on it public. [laughs] I haven’t done it yet, but top of that. The interface of design and the that’s where I want to get it to. And the reabusiness side of architecture and engineer- son I want to do that is because there’s no ing for us and how we operate, should be value to us to have these special standards. though of more as a practice. And the prac- It’s actually a better value to us if we were tice goes across every market that we have to flood it into these schools and say, here’s and every region and every office. So, my best practices and workflows for Revit. So job right now is to kind of lead that and co- when we hire folks from those schools, they ordinate with a lot of different people. You already know our standards, right? Or use know, so like, Randy. Trying to figure out our template or use the tools we’ve develhow we’re using renderings and works and oped. And that’s changed over the last few starting to look at automations in terms of years. When I was in China… China kind of Grasshopper and parametric planning and taught me this in a way. We developed a MYERS | NICK CAMERON | 191
lot of these families, these components, this collateral. And we were trying to keep them locked down, like, “Oh, this is so valuable, this is so valuable, we built all this.” But essentially what happens is then, you win a big job, and on a big job there’s a lot of different architects. and you’re going to share your work. Well now they have it. and it’s not like they’re going to sell it, but it happens eventually. While I was in China, I could literally go around to the corner and buy a CD of all of KPF’s details in AutoCAD. They sold them on the corner. So, theres no value in holding stuff so tight or in holding that knowledge. It’s like, we’re better off sharing and telling people what we’re doing.
gun, shooting chickens, [laughs] and you could blow holes in the walls of the models he was putting in there. and then someone later on was like, “Oh maybe someone else would like to use this, maybe we don’t need the gun.” So, we’ve been pushing that for a while and I think we’re getting closer and closer. But I think something else that’s happening that’s really interesting is… The way Oculus is now, it’s still scary to folks. It’s this big contraption that you have to - it’s a lot smaller than the helmets used to be - but you still have to strap this thing on your face, which is a little weird. It makes people ill… And the new one is much better. But what we’re going to push out in a project on Tuesday, it’s sort of a pitch for new work, is Yeah, honestly, it’s kind of intuitive to say, “I Google Cardboard. did this, this is mine, I need to hold onto this.” If everybody else gets ahold of this great That’s one of the articles I was reading the thing I’ve done, then it won’t be as valuable. other day. And you stop developing at that point because you put it away and think it’s safe. And that shouldn’t be the case. So, I’ve proposed to some folks that that’s what we should be doing, just putting this stuff out there. But that’s part of the standards. But also, workflows or even looking into VR, virtual reality.
Yeah, so Cardboard’s really interesting because, not just because it’s free, essentially, but it really can remind people of a Viewmaster, right? It’s something you grew up with in your childhood. It doesn’t strap onto your face, it’s light, you can figure out what it’s doing, you can just put it up and take it down.
I’ve seen a lot, like several articles about that recently. That people really think that’s about to change the way that we design and the way that we visualize space, and the way that we give the space that we design to clients to look at. It’s amazing.
It seems like it’s way easier to use.
Yeah, I mean I bought three Oculus Rifts last year and sent them out to different studios to see what we could do. It was a lot of fun. And one of the projects out in L.A., they built a mock-up station and then people were there and you put on the units and were able to get a real look at this stuff. Really cool. The way that we’re building it is on a gaming platform, Unity. So then inside of that platform, we can run around. So they had Xbox controllers where you could run around the space. They had a lot of fun, like they put easter eggs in there where you could break out of the space and go running around the rest of the building. Which was kind of fun! So, a good friend of mine in the L.A. studio, Yan Krymsky, he’s been pushing that for years and years. He had built that stuff like five years ago when no one was even thinking about architecture, it was just gaming. So the first model he was able to import, you were running around with a
Yeah, photospheres. You can kind of do that for Oculus too, but I think that that is actually something that we can throw in a bag and make it simple for people to step into. The other one we use with the photospheres, for interior spaces it works really well, and exterior from one point, is the same thing on an iPad. And you can zoom around or have it work on a gyroscope.
Yeah, and there’s no wires. Easier to render the images too. They’re just the big photospheres right?
Yeah, but that’s not the same thing as getting to put it up to your eye and actually feel like you’re in the space. Because there’s lots of programs that you can just zoom around a space on the computer, but to actually be in the space… Immersed. Yeah, I think the other thing here with the VR that will kind of be amazing is… So, I do a lot of work with people from all over the world, and we use screen-sharing to collaborate. And I’ve been using a lot
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more video-conferencing, which a couple of years ago seemed unnecessary. It was like, screen-sharing is the only thing that you need and so on and so forth, but I’ve kind of rethought that a little bit because I started to look at how I was working. Essentially, if I was in a screen-sharing session, in my mind, that just meant that I could do something else while I was on a phone call and just look every once in a while. But what I try to do now is have video conferences for thirty minutes or twenty minutes, because as soon as someone picks up their phone, you can be like, “Listen, we got five minutes left. Let’s just keep on working here.” I think the next thing I want to do is, with those same participants, do a virtual tour of a project. Or be in a virtual meeting room. I think that, to me, would be pretty impressive and bring our clients in. I think we’ll do it to ourselves first, and then we’ll be able to bring our clients into those buildings. And I could see something where inside whatever the state of the model is at that point, it’s like under construction, and you have a virtual table. And you can have a virtual screen and you can pull up presentations and things like that. I think that, for twenty-five minutes, could be a really, really… I just want to try it and see what it’s like. That’s super exciting. Do you see work actually being done in that space? Do you see working on a keyboard where you actually are? Honestly, that’s just a little bit confusing to try and visualize. Yeah, I think it’s more about just being there watching, being an observer to a certain extent. We’ve talked about having a laser-pointer that could circle something virtually. We went to a hack-a-thon here, and one of our guys from Pittsburgh presented. He was part of a team at Autodesk, and they were trying to create something like that, and that question came up. Like, “How do I type out notes?” And they were talking about how you could have one of these arm-loaded keyboards [mimes a keyboard on is forearm] and I was like, well, I can type on my phone really fast. So if I had something like that, I could make my notes like that [mimes typing into his phone]. It’s how I take notes in the field, right? Like I won’t even carry an iPad. Or you could get something like that. An iPad mini would probably be better if you’re looking for something to actually type on, but I would be faster with two thumbs than this [mimes typing] on an iPad. So I don’t think that’s going to happen
next year, but it’ll be pretty interesting. It kind of gets into the question of how people are starting to have to learn an entirely new set of skills that nobody has because it’s such new technology. So, how do you see that being handled? So, I think it would be a new language in a way. In the way we’ve been developing in this office, there are these things called Smartboards, right? Yeah, we had those in high school, actually. Yeah, and I think teachers are the only ones who know how to actually use those things because they use them every day. Our firm has bought a lot of those over the years. Sometimes when we talk about designing spaces we’re like, “Oh we gotta use a Smartboard.” And dealers will be like, “There’s ones out now where you can touch the screen and it’s amazing.” And we’ll have them come in and I would be like, “Okay so, how do you write?” “Oh you just draw with your finger!” “Alright, how do you erase?” “Okay, well, what you do is…” and each of them were different. “I draw a circle and tap the center.” “I draw an X and tap it with my hand.” Nobody’s ever going to know that. Here’s what people know: I can zoom like this. [mimes zooming in on a touchscreen] And I can swipe like this. [mimes swiping his fingers across a touchscreen] Right now that’s the language. What’s next? I mean, on some devices, this is rotate [mimes rotating something with two fingers]… those things’ll start to come more in use and that’s going to be the language. So how do I type in this virtual space? Well, there’s two examples that we brainstormed. Just give me a piece of paper that’s the size of my phone and I’m typing away like crazy, right? I look at my kids, I have two kids, six and four. They have a hard time with a mouse. They now can use a touchpad, but that was even weird at first. Because they had the touchscreen first. It’s come to where even when they see a TV, they do this [mimes a swiping motion], and are like, “It’s broken!” So I think it’s just inherent, you know. It’ll come over time. It’ll be these gestures that we just start to use. That is so cool. Yeah, and I think that’s how it’ll come. So, unfortunately, it can’t be forced. It has to be a language. And it’ll develop over
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time. I think one thing that’ll help with that is… Windows 10 or whatever it’s called is touch-enabled with a screen and a camera and you can do big things with it. And like when we were doing the space where we would talk to clients they’re like, “Oh, yeah! It’s like Minority Report!” Well, yeah, Minority Report’s really cool, but… I didn’t talk to Tom Cruise, but someone did, and what he said was it was so tiring to work like that. Like no one’s ever going to do it. Like, the glove, where even if you didn’t need the glove, and there is that technology to not need it, it’s too tiring!
watch. It just taps you on the left side of your wrist. That’s how the Apple Watch works, yeah. So, I think that stuff will, once it gets to be commonplace and easy and wireless, I think it will change what the inside of an office is. Battery life will be more like a phone. So you’ll just have a device that can plug into any other thing and be super powerful, so you can just roam. It’ll all be wireless, so teams will really be able to work and collaborate together.
Yeah, the physical, kinetic interfaces, I’ve read about that too, and people say that it’s so exhausting that you can only do it for so long.
Yeah, and it’s really already going in that direction with just laptops that you can just plug into a workstation, as opposed to twenty years ago when you had your big drafting board at your desk and you were really staThat’s where teachers are kind of amazing. tionary. They’re on their feet all day, they’re dealing with kids… My son’s kindergarten teacher, I Yes. Absolutely. ask her some strange questions. A lot of it was about the Smartboard when I first met And do you think that helps the company her like, “You really use this thing?” And she community? Do you see it as more of a comsaid, “Yeah, I’ve got this thing on my mac munity that way? and blah, blah, blah…” I was like, “Really? You use this every day?” And yeah, she I do. The way that our firm operates uses it every day. She can’t do without it. wouldn’t be able to operate without the That’s really interesting. free-flowing of information. So, twenty years ago, what was amazing then was beSo, one of my questions was where you see ing able to overnight drawings to someone the future of the profession going in the next so then we could have a phone call the next fifteen years, so do you see it getting there by day. Now I can just share my screen and that point? To this virtual reality? share information together, or we can be in a model actually working together. So I Yeah, I think some of the stuff that Micro- think that that’s amazing. And where we’re soft, the Halo or whatever it’s called, where going, I think, is going to be data-driven. If it’s this visor that will pull in virtual objects we’re smart as an industry, we will own that into… It’s augmented reality. You know, data and start selling that data. we could have these visors on and then on the table we could have a screen that we’re So, instead of the normal development moving around and looking through and process of billing and doing a design develseeing a model and doing all these things. opment process or something like that, just That’s going to happen in the next four working on the model and selling it to the years, I would say. client as it gets progressively built? I mean, there have been attempts at stuff like I don’t think that’ll change much until conthat, like Google Glass, and that just failed struction is all robotics - I don’t know when immensely. that’ll be - but they’ll be more based on the models, and if we’re smart, we’re leverage Yeah, with Glass… I had no interest in Glass. that much more than we do now. Right But I think for people who are into cycling, now it’s all about paper. We’re not getting that’s an amazing tool. I think on a construc- paid for modeling. We need to change the tion site, it could be an amazing tool. I don’t mindset. I don’t use the word BIM because think for walking down the street it’s all that I think it’s stupid. I think Autodesk has done great. People say, “Well you can put direc- a great job of marketing that name, and it tions on it, and my phone can vibrate and just means Revit to a lot of people. And tell me to go left or right…” And now it’s my that’s unfortunate, but it’s also the same MYERS | INTERVIEWS | 194
reason that I came up with my own word to than that. describe my thesis. Because architects are dumb and we want to design everything. So, I mean to build that thing, to build something real is really expensive. But if What was the word that described your the- you take a set of drawings and then build sis? I don’t think you ever actually said it. a virtual model of that, then you’ll find out your mistakes as you go. And that’s some[laughs] Oh it doesn’t matter. Anyways, thing that we’re interested in being able to what we do is we model, right? And when sell as a product. So, virtual construction. you model everything, we’re modeling this And then you have that thing based off building, but we also have people here at of the way that we design and document CannonDesign who model operational now. And I think that’s going to be the models, financial models, costing models, next bridge. Then I think it’s going to be, energy models. And if we’re real smart “Why are we building this when we could about it, we’ll integrate all those models and be building this? People are so comforthave a new product that will go with the able with building things like this, we should physical form and really help our owners be building it that way.” And I think that’ll manage the physical space on large projects bring even more value for our clients. I don’t like this. Or I could even see the intranet of know when that is, but…It’s not going to be things. If we’re designing those, it should Revit, I can tell you that much. be easy for someone in a residence to just move in and program and already know all Do you think Revit and Autodesk and the these widgets or gadgets that they’re going Autodesk programs are kind of on their way to be working with. out? Like you said Google’s going to make something. Sure. It’s kind of interesting that you say that its all about paper and we don’t get paid for They could. But that was just an example. the model. Because nowadays, it’s the model that really informs the paper. Because most Do you think they’re outdated? drawings are taken directly from a Revit model, right? So what do you mean when I think they’re entrenched in this industry you say we’re just being paid for the paper and it’s hard to change when you’re the and not for the model, since the model be- number one. So it’s hard for them to make comes the paper? the moves that they probably want to. I know the lead product developer for ReSo, a typical AIA contract right now is for… vit. He’s an amazing guy, Anthony Hauck. it’s not means and methods… I can’t re- And I know that guy’s got big ideas, but he’s member what it’s called, but our deliverable also got to sell the software. And I think he is paper. struggles with… you know, people say, “The code in Revit is horrible.” “Well, yeah, but It’s in the contract that it needs to be a draw- I can’t really change it because people deing on paper? pend on their models being able to open in this new version.” So they can’t really Yeah, essentially. And there are riders on rewrite all the code. So, when or how can the contract - AIA E203, G201, G202 - that I make a break? Well, you can do it if you now begin to describe the model saying, make a new product. But people are still if you want the model to build off of, then going to need this product because people this is the level of development that it’s at don’t want to upgrade, they don’t want to so you know it’s reliable. Because right now learn a new tool to train their staff. we’ll be producing drawings and I’ll fake a model to make the drawing look right. It So instead of Revit 7.0 or something like that, saves a lot of time, right? If you want me to just something else entirely. make a model of the actual thing, it’s a lot more time. Probably. And what I’ve said to folks is that when it happens you’ll just know it because Yeah, because then it gets into the problem it’ll be so easy, so intuitive. And that’s such of you’re basically building the entire building great value that you can’t not use it. That’s in the virtual world, and then taking it out of my thinking. it and building it again in the real world. It just seems that you could use your time better MYERS | NICK CAMERON | 195
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