Tempus Fugit

 
Photo by Matt Barrett on Unsplash

The flight of time never seems as fast as when we prepare to turn the calendar at each year’s end. Despite passing in what seems a blink of an eye, 2021 bore more than its fair share of virus angst, fear, division, fire, and flooding. The past twelve months have been strange, disorienting, and full of monumental events with global repercussions. 2022 will undoubtedly bring us more. My profession, like every other segment of society, can only hope to adapt to an unpredictable and constantly evolving “new normal.”

Blogging encourages me to think about the way architects can work toward building places and communities that help people live healthy and productive lives in the face of an increasingly uncertain future. By nature, I am resistant to change. Stasis is my default condition, so forcing myself to occasionally engage provocative topics is a good thing.

Below are links to one blog post from each month this past year. I chose to highlight these entries because they either directly respond to topical events or reflect the constant of change in our lives and the practice of architecture. Click on a link if you find the excerpted tease at all intriguing and if you haven't previously read the post (or read it again!).

January: The extent to which our treasured symbols endure and withstand the efforts of those who wish to undo the institutions that bind our society is important. Architecture matters for this and so many other reasons. [link]

February: Team bonding is a critical ingredient for any organization but is especially so in the creative culture of architecture. [link]

March: The fact Glenwood has laid fallow for so long is remarkable given its prime location between Eugene and Springfield, proximity to I-5, situation along the already established EmX BRT corridor, not to mention its immediate adjacency to and scenic promise of the Willamette River. [link]

April: The hallmarks of good architecture should be an attentiveness to the essence and uniqueness of each project, design intentions that translate those unique needs in a synthesized and comprehensive manner, and responsiveness to the natural, historical, and physical context of which it is a part. [link]

May: The intent of renaming is not to gloss over the historical record by imposing a fraught set of current beliefs and worldviews but to acknowledge the past forthrightly. [link]

June: While many employers are eager to get their employees back on-site full-time, it is true a substantial number of others are considering extending remote work indefinitely or the possibility of shifting to a hybrid model combining in-person and at-home work. [link]

July: Rather than designing prescriptively, we should tackle every design problem holistically, in a balanced fashion tailored to the specifics of each project and site. [link]

August: Despite the sophistication of today’s parametric tools, the level of analysis enabled by computer technology does not yet approach that which the human mind is instinctively capable of processing, nor can a limited set of primitive algorithms fully account for the profundity of our interactions with the places in which we dwell. [link]

September: The moral imperative to act has existed throughout the entirety of my professional career and yet here we are, confronted by a situation more dire than ever. [link]

October: The architectural profession and the schools of architecture that turn out its future practitioners will have come of age when an appreciation for diversity, equity, justice, and social well-being are ingrained and institutionalized. [link]

November: The value of reminiscing is its ability to strengthen our sense of identity, help us move forward with optimism, and provide inspiration. [link]

December: Fundamentally, architects bring to the project an understanding that a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. [link]

Let’s end 2021 and start the new year by building upon the lessons we have learned. Let us look ahead to 2022 with courage and optimism. Time is too short for all of us not to.

Architecture w/Stewart

 

YouTube’s algorithm is unnervingly effective at suggesting which videos I am most likely to find interesting. My viewing history and preferences include a healthy dose of architectural content, so it isn’t surprising when YouTube occasionally introduces me to new channels devoted to architecture. Such was the case just yesterday, when several videos with the tagline of Architecture w/Stewart suddenly popped up on my YouTube list of recommendations for the first time.   
 
Stewart Hicks is an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Additionally, he and Allison Newmeyer are the cofounders of Design With Company, whose work “explores the territory between the architectural and the literary, real and unreal, mundane and fantastic.” I was previously familiar with the firm because of its playful Porch Parade project in my hometown of Vancouver, B.C. Stewart began his YouTube journey just a little over a year ago. Since then, his weekly entries have attracted an impressive 102,000 subscribers (as of this writing) to the Architecture w/Stewart channel.  
 

Porch Parade (photo from Design With Company)

 
Stewart describes Architecture w/Stewart as an exploration of “architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory.” His goal is to increase the general understanding of architecture and its importance in shaping the world we inhabit.   
 
I quickly recognized the reasons for Stewart’s success with his channel. The production values are high. Stewart himself is a genial and well-spoken host. Most importantly, the channel’s content is at once both wide-ranging and in-depth. A quick scan of the entire Architecture w/Stewart playlist, you can find videos on subjects as diverse as why it is architects insist on using flat roofs, how buildings are making people sick, what kind of architect George Costanza would be, and the lessons to be learned from the architecture of LEGO.
 
So far, I’ve watched the following videos:

• What’s it Like Being an Architect? Here’s a Typical Day. - YouTube
• The Architecture of Liminal Space - YouTube
• Exploring Louis Kahn's LOST Unbuilt Masterpiece [Goldenberg House] - YouTube
• Architectural Design Starts with a TIC TAC TOE BOARD - YouTube

Stewart is obviously an instructor and designer immersed in the culture of architecture, design, and building, not simply in terms of how architecture simultaneously reflects and influences our ways of life but also how the discipline comes with its own peculiar rigor, sets of rules, and traditions. I especially appreciate Stewart’s attentiveness to topics related to how architecture is conceived and perceived.      
 
As I mentioned above, the cadence of new Architecture w/Stewart videos seems to be one per week, which, given the obvious thoughtfulness, quality, and effort required by each, is prodigious. Stewart enlists the assistance of several people, which helps to explain how this is possible. I suspect he may also receive support from UIC’s College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts.
 
It’s true YouTube can be an enormous waste of time, but I allow myself this indulgence when the content is very good and there is something new to learn. I watch very little television anymore, aside from live sporting events and news, as the variety and quality of YouTube videos is the increasingly attractive alternative. I’m pleased to add Architecture w/Stewart to my roster of favorite YouTube channels for architects.  
 

The Farmers Market Pavilion and Plaza

 
Farmers Market Pavilion - view from 8th looking north (this and other renderings by FFA Architecture + Interiors)

Just a brief blog entry this week, as seasonal obligations and work demands compete for my limited time: I recently stumbled across the renderings for the new Lane County Farmers Market pavilion by FFA Architecture + Interiors. Construction of the pavilion is poised to take a big leap forward in the coming weeks, as the glulam framing and CLT (cross-laminated timber) panels are on site awaiting their imminent assembly. The construction manager/general contractor for the project is Lease CrutcherLewis.

The construction site as of December 12, 2021.

For FFA, the design challenge was how to accommodate a longstanding agricultural tradition within an urban setting. The firm looked to greenhouses for inspiration, settling upon “a simple form that is open and transparent, allowing the activity inside to be the primary focus.” The design’s simplicity kept costs in check, ensuring the biggest bang for the available bucks. When completed before next year’s market season, the pavilion will provide a commodious, all-season shelter for vendors while being a deferential backdrop to the Farmer’s Market Plaza and a future Eugene City Hall.

FFA designed the pavilion to open to the surrounding plaza and streets as much as possible. Visitors and vendors will move easily between indoor and outdoor spaces.

View through Polycarbonate Facade to Mass Timber Structure

Indoor-Outdoor Connection to West Park Street

The old Eugene Producers’ Public Market originally occupied this same site more than a century ago, so the current Farmers Market Pavilion and Market Plaza project is a return to its roots. As part of the greater Eugene Town Square project designed by Cameron McCarthy Landscape Architecture & Planning, it promises to help rejuvenate the city’s historic center. The overall concept is an organic outcome of a multiplicity of factors, not the least of which was a serendipitous share of dumb luck. The Town Square project promises to unify the Park Blocks, the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza, and the new City Hall & Farmers Market Block in a way that is synergistic. The whole will certainly be much more than the sum of its parts. 

 
First dedicated for public use in 1853 by the city’s founding families, Eugene’s erstwhile civic center deserves a vibrant future. If successful, Eugene Town Square will attract high-value downtown development, jobs, residents, and a concomitant boost to the tax base. Building the new Farmers Market Pavilion is an important first step.

I’m a Jack of All Trades and a Master of None

Tools of the trade from a simpler time.

One of the reasons I enjoy being an architect is because what I do is so multifaceted. Every project presents unique challenges rooted in specific circumstances. My responsibility is to connect multiple and complex fields of knowledge and engage in multidisciplinary thinking to help the design team arrive at the most cost-effective, sustainable, and attractive design solution possible. Having a very good, broad knowledge about design and construction is obviously helpful, but being a generalist rather than a specialist means I am a Jack of All Trades and a master of none.

 
I’m probably wearing my rose-colored glasses as I look back, but I’m pretty sure life was simpler and the world a little less complex and hurried when I started in architecture than it is today. I’ve seen building codes become more voluminous, expectations grow unreasonably, and litigiousness rise to worrisome levels. The decisions we’re compelled to make on every design project have multiplied exponentially: What type of weather-proof barrier should we specify for the rainscreen assembly in our project? Should it be breathable? Liquid-applied or a self-adhering membrane? What thickness? Back in the day, we didn’t detail our exterior wall assemblies as rainscreens, and our weather barriers were often simply “building paper.” The scope of many other concerns has expanded as well. We worry now about a building material’s carbon footprint and whether its constituent elements are on “red lists”; such concepts didn’t even exist at the start of my career. 
 
Accordingly, it is not unusual these days for the demands of a project to require a large and diverse group of specialists to complement the architect’s limited skillset. This group may include consultants to address many or all the following areas of concern:

• Accessibility
• Acoustics
• Audiovisual Systems
• Building Envelopes
• Civil Engineering
• Cost Estimating and Value Analysis
• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
• Electrical Engineering
• Environmental Graphics & Branding
• Historic Preservation
• Interior Design
• Landscape Architecture
• Lighting
• Low-Voltage Systems
• Mechanical Engineering
• Plumbing
• Programming
• Project Management
• Security
• Specifications
• Structural Engineering
• Sustainability

. . . and more.

The mounting burden of knowledge is pushing the architectural profession increasingly toward reliance upon specialists and a willingness to outsource more and more of its responsibilities. The underlying objective is to reduce immensely complex design problems to calculable and more easily comprehended packets. This goal-oriented focus favors traditional scientific processes—the gathering and measurement of empirical evidence—to achieve neatly categorized and reliable outcomes. This is scientific reductionism—silo thinking.

By breaking down complex interactions and entities into the sum of their constituent parts, the silo mentality effectively isolates disciplines. Those ensconced within their silos too often fail to see the promise inherent in a bigger picture.
 

Photo by D-M Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Some architects lament a diminishing of their control over the process of design and construction as the trend toward increased specialization accelerates. They believe this trend is inexorable and signals an end to the role of the architect as the “master builder.” I disagree. Mastering specific skills or focusing upon a single, narrow field of expertise is necessary to achieve success in many endeavors, but the advantage of being a generalist is the ability to see things in an integrated way. While the specialist can boast a great depth of knowledge in a specific area, the generalist can see the interconnectedness of everything demanded by a project. Generalists may sacrifice some depth of knowledge for breadth, but they also know where to seek specific knowledge when it is required. Importantly, generalists know what they don’t know.
 
The enormous value architects bring to projects is the ability to oversee the integration of the full range of design considerations. Systems thinking is the process of understanding how things influence one another. It emphasizes the interconnections between disciplines rather than what distinguishes them. In so doing, it more adequately addresses the infinite complexity of the problems at hand. Systems thinking leaps the barriers erected by specialization. The systems perspective is the antithesis of the silo mentality. Integrated processes and multidisciplinary collaboration are now principal tenets of designing for sustainability and resilience. Those dedicated to the development of sustainable communities increasingly recognize that the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with other systems, rather than in isolation.
 
Fundamentally, architects bring to the project an understanding that a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Effective generalists are strategists who visualize the big picture and approach solving problems from that perspective. Architects with significant design or project management duties still possess a considerable depth of expertise; however, that depth of expertise is necessary across the full range of concerns for which they are responsible.
 
During my career, I’ve acquired a remarkably broad range of professional experiences. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work on interesting projects of all types and sizes. As a child, I knew early on I wanted to be an architect. I may have thought I had chosen to be one thing, but I came to learn this meant being someone who assumes a broad range of duties, someone who is a generalist but not necessarily a specialist. I absolutely have no regrets about my career choice and its trajectory. I wear my Jack of All Trades label as a badge of honor.