Design :: Resilience - The 2024 University of Oregon Reynolds Symposium

October 18-19, 2024 

Oregon State Treasury Building (photo by Tom Hahn).

The 2024 Reynolds Symposium will bring together a diverse group of designers, academics, researchers, public servants, and others to explore resilience in the face of shifting ecologies, communities, and climate disruptions. 

This event will feature keynote speakers, panel discussions, and an interactive design activity focused on resilience. Attendees will also have opportunities to network with presenters and peers during extended breaks. A highlight of the symposium includes an optional tour of the Oregon State Treasury’s new U.S. Resiliency Council (USRC) Platinum-rated headquarters in Salem. 

The discussions will address the immediate challenges posed by storms, wildfires, and earthquakes, alongside the broader, long-term impacts of climate change on water, food systems, and migration. The symposium will delve into how professionals in architecture, landscape, and interior design can shape environments that not only withstand these challenges but also foster thriving communities. 

Key topics include real-world examples and strategies for resilient design at various scales, from neighborhood resource hubs that strengthen social ties to urban infrastructure that maintains critical services. The symposium will also explore the relationship between resilience and sustainability, examining whether these two concepts are complementary or distinct. 

Dynamic and interactive sessions will allow participants to engage deeply with these ideas through exhibitions, workshops, and panel discussions led by experts in the field. Attendees can earn up to 8 AIA LU/HSW continuing education credits. 

Attend the symposium October 18-19, 2024 and leave ready to help shape the future of resilient design. 

Organizing Committee 

• Tom Hahn, UO Career Instructor, Architecture 
• John Reynolds, UO Professor Emeritus, Architecture 
• Alison Kwok, UO Professor, Architecture 
• Nicholas Rajkovich, Associate Professor, University at Buffalo 
• Maria Coronado Cabrera, UO PhD Candidate, Architecture 
• Lindsay Ahmed, BARCH & Sophia Blatnik, MARCH, UO student coordinators 

Symposium Sponsors

• UO Architecture Reynolds Endowment 
• UO Architecture Davis Family Fund 
• AIA Oregon 

Registration Information

Early-bird registration closes Monday, September 16. The registration includes all sessions, keynotes, panel discussions, the building tour, and meals. Up to 8 AIA LU/HSW credits are available. There will be no live streaming of the event. 

REGISTER NOW through Eventbrite: click Link: HERE

Building for the Pacific Northwest

Me, along with fellow CSI Willamette Valley Chapter members Kayla Bundy (2022-2023 chapter president) and Sydney Mills (2023-2024 chapter president) at the 2023 CSI Northwest Region Conference in Bellingham.

I attended the 2023 Construction Specifications Institute Northwest Region Conference in Bellingham, Washington May 4 through May 6. The Mt. Rainier Chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute served as the most gracious host for the conference, which took place at the Hotel Bellwether, idyllically situated overlooking Bellingham Bay. Under the banner of “Building for the Pacific Northwest,” the conference renewed my faith in CSI’s mission and enthusiasm for the future of design and construction. 
 
It had been far too long since I last went to a CSI Northwest Region conference. Of course, COVID-19 threw a wrench in the works for large gatherings (notably resulting in the cancellation of the 2020 CSI Northwest & West Bi-Region Conference that the Willamette Valley Chapter was organizing). So, it was a treat to reconnect with CSI friends from around the NW Region I had not seen in years. The conference was well-attended and chock full of informative, interesting continuing education seminars. The prevailing sentiment was that it had been much too long since everyone had seen each other in person.
 
To merely say I am glad I attended is a big understatement. I was tremendously impressed with the high quality of the educational sessions, the insights of our keynote speakers, and the infectious energy and kind hospitality of the Mt. Rainier Chapter organizers. Most of all, I was thrilled to spend time with fellow members who share my enthusiasm for the Construction Specifications Institute and what it offers to every design and construction professional.
 
Speaking of the educational sessions, I attended the following seminars (there were many more), each of which were an hour in duration and uniformly excellent: 

• La Conner Swinomish Library: A Case Study in Mass Timber
• Panel Discussion: Pushing the Sustainability Envelopes Western Washington University’s new Kaiser Borsari Hall’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building
• The Emergence of Mass Timber in the U.S.
• Firestop Specifications: What Architects Need to Know According to the IBC
• Floodplain Design, Construction, and Impacts on Flood Insurance
• Designing with Hardwood Veneer
• Laser Scanning & Emerging Technologies
• Electronic Moisture Leak Detection Testing, Standards, Science and Practical Applications

Matt Aalfs, AIA of BuildingWork describes his firm's design the La Conner/Swinomish Library.

Beth Stroshane, CDT, CCS, LEED AP, Jesce Walz, and Shanni Hanein, Assoc. AIA, LEED Green Associate discuss how their team pushed the sustainability envelope with the design of Kaiser Borsari Hall on the Western Washington University campus. 

Susan Jones, FAIA was Friday's keynote speaker. She discussed the emergence of mass timber construction in the U.S. 

I returned home convinced more than ever that CSI is the AEC organization best suited to lead the industry as it confronts a transformative and challenging tomorrow. Why? I’ve said it before: It’s because CSI is radically inclusive, welcoming members from all corners of the industry. It’s because it remains the most influential voice across the entire spectrum of construction communications. It’s because construction knowledge is only becoming more complex and necessary to master. It’s most definitely because of the people who comprise its membership. If you were there, you know the 2023 Construction Specifications Institute Northwest Region Conference was the place to renew your faith in CSI’s mission and enthusiasm for the future of design and construction. 
 
Like many other professional membership organizations, CSI has seen its ranks decline precipitously in recent years. The reasons why this is occurring are not entirely clear to me. CSI has so much to offer everyone involved in all facets of design and construction. Hunkering down into discrete silos is anathema to CSI; the members of our organization are preternaturally disposed toward networking, breaking barriers, and crossing lines. If you charted the AEC industry as a Venn diagram, CSI would be located precisely where the intersection of all the sets occurs. Better than any other association, CSI fosters engagement and interaction between the disparate constituents of the building industry.
 
The conference bolstered my belief that CSI members are hands down the friendliest, most generous, and brightest agents of change when it comes to the goal of improving construction communication. The conference also underscored my certainty in the value of building relationships. The personal connections we establish are the most potent tools we can leverage in our professional lives. The key is connecting with those who share the common goals, determination, and chutzpah to make things happen. This spirit is best exemplified by the incredibly special people I have come to know as a member of the Construction Specifications Institute.

Carl Sandburg’s Chicago

The poet Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) loved and defended Chicago, his adopted home. Sandburg described his poem Chicago as a chant of defiance, a praise of agriculture, industry, and the railroads for which Chicago was an important hub, during a time when the city was the nation’s industrial capital. Today, the poem still resonates, particularly for me as a first-time visitor.

Chicago is big. It is bustling. Like New York, it is what I always imagined a great city should be. Yes, as Sandburg acknowledged, Chicago has its flaws, of which its notorious homicide rate (more than 800 victims in 2021) stands out. But the Chicago I’ve seen during my stay here is vibrant, diverse, exciting, historic, and exhilarating. It has an embarrassment of cultural riches, fantastic parks, strong universities, and unparalleled architecture. And the Chicagoans I’ve encountered are truly genuine and friendly. The city I was born and raised in—Vancouver, Canada—is cosmopolitan and beautiful, but it seems downright sleepy and pint-sized by comparison. Chicago may be the Second City, but it most definitely is not second rate. Chicago is world-class, full stop. 

Chicago
By Carl Sandburg (1914) 
        

        Hog Butcher for the World,

        Tool maker, Stacker of Wheat,
        Player with Railroads and the Nation's
             Freight Handler;
        Stormy, husky, brawling,
        City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft 

cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
            Bareheaded,
            Shoveling,
            Wrecking,
            Planning,
            Building, breaking, rebuilding,

Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,

Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,

Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,

Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,
            Laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Chicago, That Toddlin’ Town

Spectacular aerial view of Chicago by Jake Davis @inairshare_designer. Jake is a principal and Public Safety Design Leader with DLR Group.

 
The annual AIA Conference on Architecture takes place this coming week in Chicago, and I will be there. I have never been to Chicago before. A visit to the Windy City is a pilgrimage every architect should undertake at some point during their career, and this is my opportunity. Anyone familiar with the history of architecture in this country knows Chicago’s leading role in pioneering experimentation and innovations in building design that profoundly shaped the morphology of American cities.
 
Notably, Chicago is the birthplace of the modern skyscraper. Seminal Chicago skyscrapers include the Home Insurance Building (which was the first steel-framed skyscraper, completed in 1885, but demolished in 1931), the Monadnock Building (completed in 1893, the tallest load-bearing brick building ever constructed), the Reliance Building (completed in 1895, it was the first tall building whose facades would be dominated by glass), the terra-cotta clad Wrigley Building (Chicago’s first air-conditioned office building), the gothic revival Tribune Tower (the winner of a famous 1922 design competition), Marina City (a visionary mixed-use complex, completed in 1968), the structurally expressive John Hancock Center (completed in 1969), and the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower, and the tallest building in the world when completed in 1974).
 
Chicago is equally known for promulgating several influential strains of modern architecture, which include the first Chicago School (which exploited the new technologies giving rise to the skyscraper), the Prairie School (an attempt to develop an indigenous North American style of architecture, of which the Robie House is perhaps its supreme expression), and the International Style (exemplified by the work of Bauhaus émigré Ludwig Mies van der Rohe).
 
The famous architects who helped build Chicago are legion: William Le Baron Jenney, Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies, and many more. Generations of architects since stand on their broad shoulders, ensuring Chicago continues to be in the vanguard of new developments in architecture.
 
Of course, there is so much more to do and see in Chicago beyond its noteworthy architecture, including world-class museums (the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Art Institute of Chicago, Adler Planetarium, and the Museum of Science and Industry are on my can’t miss list), the Chicago Riverwalk, and the city’s unique neighborhoods (Wrigleyville sounds like a fun place to visit). And I will be sure to indulge in the best Chicago-style pizza and a Chicago Dog or two.
 
I fully expect Chicago will overwhelm me with everything it has to offer, which is why I only purchased a one-day pass for AIA A’22. Even though the conference schedule spans from Wednesday through Saturday, I selected Thursday as my sole day at the McCormick Place convention center. I learned during my trip to New York to attend the 2018 Conference on Architecture that I primarily wanted to take in the city, as opposed to spending precious days inside an antiseptic meeting hall. My one regret with my decision to only attend A’22 on Thursday was the late announcement that former president Barack Obama is set to speak at the conference on Friday. I will see if I can find a way to get in without shelling out big bucks for another full day pass.
 
Look forward to future posts documenting highlights from my trip to Chicago, that toddlin’ town.

2020 CSI Northwest by West Bi-Region Conference

UPDATE: Event organizers have postponed the 2020 CSI Northwest & West Bi-Region Conference due to concerns about the COVID-19 virus and recommendations about social distancing and avoidance of large groups. The event will now take place October 25-27, 2020 at the Sunriver Resort.

Registration is now open for the 2020 Construction Specifications Institute Northwest & West Bi-Region Conference. The event—hosted by the Willamette Valley Chapter—will take place April 15-18 at the magnificent Sunriver Resort in Central Oregon.

Don’t miss this opportunity to get together with other members of the construction industry for leadership development, education, networking, and fun under the high desert sun.

Learn

Attend multiple educational sessions and earn continuing education credits to meet your professional licensing or certification requirements. Educational sessions will focus on the construction industry’s adaptation to rapidly shifting economic forces, evolving codes, advances in technology, manufacturing & fabrication, and changes in project delivery. General educational sessions will include two or three simultaneous tracks on April 17 and 18, while CSI Leadership classes will take place April 15 and 16.

Education topics will include:

• Oregon Structural Specialty Code (OSSC) Changes
• ADA Code Changes and Design Issues
• Mass Timber/Cross Laminated Timber Design
• Modular Construction
• Resiliency Planning/Design
• Historic Preservation in Masonry Structures

The nearby city of Bend is booming, with construction happening everywhere. Look for more information soon on construction tour options associated with the conference.

Network

Network with your fellow design and construction professionals. Get to know people who can help you throughout your career. Attend the tradeshow to learn about the latest new products and trends for the future. Meet the architects, specifications writers, designers, facilities construction teams, and engineers who specify construction products. Make connections with other construction industry professions from all corners of the Northwest & West Bi-Region area.

Explore & Have Fun

Located 15 miles south of Bend on the dry side of the Cascade range, Sunriver is Central Oregon’s premier destination resort—the perfect basecamp for adventure, group retreats, and family fun. Enjoy world-class golf, mountain biking, horseback riding, hiking, paddling on the scenic Deschutes River, and so much more while immersed in some of the most spectacular scenery to be found anywhere in the Pacific Northwest. With over 300 days of sun annually, a sun-soaked spring getaway is virtually assured!

Register Now

Register now to lock in conference fee savings. Early bird rates end on Friday, March 13, so act quickly.

Conference Registration: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=jaxbm4dab&oeidk=a07egszl82936960f60&condition=SO_OVERRIDE

Additionally, book early (before March 16) to take advantage of the conference’s special room rates at the Sunriver Resort.  

Book now: https://www.destinationhotels.com/sunriver-resort/meetings/csi

The conference website includes additional information regarding registration package options and the complete event schedule. Full registration includes the Welcome Reception, all breakfasts and lunches, the Awards Banquet, and the aforementioned abundant learning and networking opportunities.

Sponsorship Opportunities
Additionally there are numerous sponsorship opportunities available; check out the full listing here: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07egszy4874d5c710e&llr=jaxbm4dab

Questions?
If still have questions about the 2020 Northwest & West Bi-Region Conference, contact Willamette Valley Chapter president Geoff Larsen at csiwnwbiregionconference@gmail.com

Every CSI conference I’ve attended has bolstered my belief that CSI members are hands down the friendliest, most generous, and brightest agents of change when it comes to the goal of improving construction communication. Each of these events has underscored my certainty in the value of building relationships. The personal connections we establish are the most potent tools we can leverage in our professional lives. The key is connecting with those who share common goals, and the determination and chutzpah to make things happen. This spirit is best exemplified by the very special people I’ve met at past CSI region conferences. Join me and the many other CSI Northwest and West Region members this April in Sunriver and see what I mean.

Plus ça change

The Willamette Valley Chapter (WVC) of the Construction Specifications Institute is hosting the 2020 CSI Northwest + West Bi-Region Conference this coming April 15-18 at the Sunriver Resort in central Oregon. As is always the case with such gatherings, this year’s conference promises plenty of opportunities for continuing education, networking, a trade show, and numerous recreation activities. If you haven’t previously visited Sunriver, you owe yourself a stay there to soak in the sunshine, scenery, and crisp High Desert air. Look for conference registration information soon. 

The conference organizers will field a veteran panel of speakers for one of the educational sessions that will compare and discuss advancements in various fields of expertise (construction, architecture, and contract law) that have occurred over the courses of the panel members’ professional lives. I’m certain many will find such a panel discussion intriguing, particularly younger people just beginning their careers in the design & construction industries. There’s no doubt rapidly evolving paradigms will impact how they work in the coming decades. Reflecting upon past changes is a useful means to appreciate the necessity of skillsets and strategies geared toward resilience in a future fraught with challenges of global consequence. 

I’ll be one of the “veteran” speakers on the panel. Though I once found it odd to consider myself in such terms, the fact is I’m now in my fifth decade of professional life: I first worked in an architectural office in 1978. I’ve been a licensed architect since 1985. Even if I don’t think I am, by virtue of my experience I’m probably as qualified as anyone to take stock of the massive changes that have occurred during my working life. 

One thing I hope to avoid is succumbing to using a variant of the old trope “when I was a kid, we had to walk fifteen miles to school, barefoot, in the snow, uphill both ways!” Yes, it’s easy to denigrate how much easier it is now to perform certain tasks—such as quickly generating multiple 3-D renderings of a design—than when I first started out. The reality is all the new-fangled modern conveniences we have at our disposal today are simply necessary for survival in a far leaner and meaner profession than the one I entered more than forty years ago. 

The following are the key advancements I’ve seen during my professional career and will speak to during the panel discussion: 

The Emergence of Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
Some of you youngins might find it hard to believe, but there was a time when architects had to rely upon primitive implements we called “pencils” to help prepare elaborate technical drawings on “vellum” or “mylar” for reproduction as “blueprints.”(1) I cut my teeth learning how to hand-draft, and spent my first years mastering the distinctive style of lettering architects were known for. 

2D CAD software made for use on personal computers—most notably AutoCAD—appeared on the scene during the 1980s. I began using AutoCAD in 1989 and haven’t relied upon hand-drafting ever since.(2)  For all its nostalgic charm, hand-drafting didn’t make sense once CAD appeared on the scene. The increased productivity, ease of editing and sharing, and convenience of data saving & retrieval afforded by CAD technology meant it was the future. 

Any architect today who asserts the slowness of method associated with the use of tools of the hand to produce construction drawings is superior or preferable to computer-aided design is a romantic Luddite, plain and simple. 

(sketch by Eric Gunderson, AIA)

The Sustainable Design Imperative
The 1970s energy crisis (triggered by oil embargos, wars in the Middle East, and the advent of “peak oil”) as well as a nascent environmental design movement were very much part of the architectural agenda while I was in school. The University of Oregon’s architecture program was a leader for sustainable design education then, as it is now. Since I graduated from the school in 1983, I’ve witnessed attentiveness to the impact of buildings upon the natural environment grow by leaps and bounds such that “sustainability” and “resilience” are commonplace in the lexicon of design and construction.

The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system, rolled out by the U.S. Green Building Council in 1998, spurred mainstream awareness of “green building” and the vast ecosystem of green commerce we’re awash in today; however, by reducing sustainable design to a set of checklists that fail to take actual building performance into account, the LEED rating system may not do as much to limit environmental degradation as it promises. The way forward is de-carbonization, which demands far more drastic measures, beginning with reduced consumption on all fronts.

Increasing Diversity and Universal Design
Designing with universal access in mind and seeing diversity within the architectural profession has never seemed new or foreign to me. The design brief for my very first studio project (at the British Columbia Institute of Technology) was for a fully accessible, barrier-free student housing project. It wasn’t uncommon for my studios at the University of Oregon to be evenly split between men and women, or to include numerous persons of color. And my early years working professionally were spent in Vancouver and Los Angeles, two cosmopolitan metropolises with especially diverse (and largely progressive) populations. So why am I listing increasing diversity and universal design since the 1970s as among the significant advances in architectural practice?

The fact is addressing inequities in the profession and in society in general has been necessary. Notwithstanding my encouraging personal experiences, inequitable practices were very much present back in the 1970s and persist today despite the Americans with Disabilities Act being placed into law in 1990 and widespread recognition of the disproportionate lack of representation of women and minorities in senior leadership positions throughout architectural firms. While much has improved over the years, the fact is intractable structural inequities are only slowly abating; regardless, I consider increasing diversity and universal design to be among the significant developments during my career.

Integrated Design
The proliferation of various project delivery methods is a phenomenon I’ve witnessed in real time. When I started out, by far the dominant way of doing things was the linear design-bid-build process. It was conceptually simple, and everyone knew their roles. It did (and still does) have its shortcomings, which spurred development of new project delivery methods. These include design-build (wherein the design team works under a general contractor and holds no direct contract with the owner), an arrangement which was once regarded by some architectural licensing bodies as unethical (since the architect’s allegiance might be construed to lie first with the contractor rather than the building owner, the public interest, or the project itself). Other project delivery methods, such as CM-at risk (Construction Manager/General Contractor) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), have become commonplace on larger, more complex projects. 

The bottom line is I’ve participated in the trend toward working in a more consultative, networked manner as part of project teams whose focus is to deliver projects with greater assurance of being on budget and on schedule. Aligning interests, objectives, and practices through a team-based approach is the common thread. In my current experience, the “alternative” project delivery methods, and integrated design & collaboration have become mainstream. Use of any one type is dependent upon the specifics of each project. More is better because one size no longer fits all. 

Increasing Complexity/Accelerating Project Timelines
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. 

We must have had more time at our disposal back when we prepared drawings and models by hand, did not use computers, and lacked email, video conferencing, and smart phones. Perhaps we didn’t but the time we had was certainly proportionate to what our projects demanded of us. Increasing complexity and diminishing project timelines have changed the equation.

If our clients truly understood architecture, they would regard the time they allow us to do our jobs just like the money they leverage for future profit—as an investment. The bottom line is without such an investment the likelihood of a profitable return is diminished. Our clients would realize real benefits accrue when architects enjoy the luxury of schedules that are commensurate with the scope and complexity of their projects. The most obvious benefits include greater efficiencies in the completed buildings—improved productivity, lower life-cycle costs—as well as enhanced property values. Devoting more time to significant projects could also yield something less tangible: great architecture that possesses integrity, presence, and beauty. 

The Hegemony of Building Information Modeling
2D CAD dominated the production of design & construction documents for many years (roughly from 1989 until 2010 in my office). During that same period, software developed around the concept of the Building Information Model (BIM) began making inroads on projects, promising much more than mere electronic drafting. 

BIM is based on several principles that can be implemented with relative independence. These include assembling a virtual, 3D model of a future building, which is continuously modified throughout the project’s life, valuably even after the completed building is in use. In addition, the model includes attached metadata, such as the material properties of a building component, and parametric modifiers like the height of a wall. Preparation of specifications can be tied to the metadata embedded in the model, and objects linked to online libraries can be updated automatically. Because the BIM model is an electronic simulacrum of the real thing, immersive visualization of an unbuilt design is possible.

The evolution of multiclient databases and cloud storage facilitates access to and sharing of the model by several people at once. I’ve always fancied myself as a bit of a futurist, but I doubt I could have predicted the power of building information modeling and how it has transformed the way the design and construction industries operate. 

My tools of the trade, circa 1978-1989

 

Given how much things have changed just since I’ve been around, odds are plenty more will change in the years to come. We’ll undoubtedly see continued pressure upon architectural practices to increase efficiency and commoditize fee structures, while creating ever greater value for our clients. In response, architects will work toward selling results as opposed to their time. As I mention above, we will rely more and more upon integrated design and collaboration, coupled with evermore powerful computer technology (including artificial intelligence). Most importantly, the profession of architecture—and more broadly the entire design & construction industry—must do its part to address the consequences of climate change, certainly the most pressing and challenging problem confronting humankind. 

Taking stock of how far we’ve come is useful. Doing so gives us some perspective. We may have had it tough when I was a mere child in architecture, but the profession is demanding today too, if only in different ways. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. 

I’m looking forward to participating in the panel discussion at the 2020 CSI Northwest + West Bi-Region Conference and hearing from my fellow panelists. I hope to see all of you there too.

(1)  Actually, blueprints were already obsolete by the time I entered the profession. The prevalent reprographics technology in use when I started was the diazo printing process (whiteprinting), which was simpler and less toxic than blueprinting. Regardless, the diazo process generated noxious amounts of ammonia fumes. Whiteprinting itself became a rarity by the early 2000s. In my mind though, I still vividly recall the odorous smell of the ammonia.

(2)  Hand-sketching during the initial design phase remains my most fluid means to explore and record ideas in a rapidly iterative process. Drawing by hand preserves traces of intentions and speculations in a way CAD and BIM software generally cannot.

Gothic City

St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York (all photos by me)

New York is a thick forest of towers, many of them distinctive and running a gamut of styles. Its dystopian doppelganger is the imagined Gotham City of the Batman comics, in its consummate form the dark Gothic vision of Tim Burton’s Batman movies. The equally dark and romantic monumentality of Hugh Ferris’ moody, chiaroscuro-heavy renderings further the mythos of New York as an enigmatic metropolis whose primary axis is the vertical. The layering of architectural styles is remarkable and yet, in my mind at least, Manhattan is the epitome of a contemporary Gothic city: breathtakingly perpendicular, grotesque, and compact. Like a work of Gothic architecture, the complex whole is ordered and coherent, even as its constituent parts teeter on the brink of chaos. 

I’ve always been drawn to Gothic architecture despite my decidedly modernist upbringing. I believe it’s an instinctual response. It’s a response that comes naturally to non-architects, one that many designers since the advent of Modernism have struggled to reconcile with their education and biases. The Gothic style relied heavily upon its ability to convey a narrative, most often of an ecclesiastical nature, striving for spirituality through lightness of form and a lavishing of expressive and didactic ornamentation, in contrast with the relatively spare ponderousness of the Romanesque forms that preceded it. The Gothic vocabulary would come to be distinguished by pointed arches, rib vaults, flying buttresses, large stained-glass windows, and elaborate tracery. 

Of course, all the “Gothic” buildings in New York (and elsewhere in North America) are not actually Gothic but rather derivative and historicist. They are “Neo-Gothic” or “Gothic Revival.” The resurgence of the Gothic style during the 19th century was championed by A.W.N.Pugin, John Ruskin, and others claiming it was the style of the great age of faith and thus inherently superior to other forms. Even architects who were more secular in outlook would deem the Gothic appropriate for a variety of new applications, particularly those for which stylistic precedents did not exist. Thus, train stations, university buildings, parliament houses, country estates, and ultimately skyscrapers around the world would all utilize the style to imaginative effect. 

Despite my characterization of Manhattan as Gothic in character, the actual number of buildings genuinely designed in the Gothic manner is small. I visited several of the most noteworthy examples while I was in New York for the 2018 AIA Conference on Architecture. These included St. Patrick’s Cathedral, The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, Saint Thomas Church, and the Woolworth Building. 

Nave, St. Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick’s Cathedral 

Definitely one of the highlights of my A’18 experience was a tour of the recently restored St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Members of the restoration team from Murphy Burnham & Buttrick Architects provided a wealth of informative details about the 3-year, $150 million project, which included 30,000 individual repairs to the stonework, plaster, wood, and stained glass. 

Originally designed by architect James Renwick and constructed between 1858 – 1888, St. Patrick’s was upon its completion the tallest structure in New York (and remains the largest neo-Gothic Catholic cathedral in North America), which seems remarkable now that it is completely overshadowed by the bulky towers of the neighboring Rockefeller Center. The cathedral’s exterior is largely comprised of Tuckahoe marble and richly ornamented in a highly unified and consistent Flamboyant Gothic style. 

Inside, the cathedral does indeed soar, appearing much larger than I’d imagined as I approached the cathedral from outside. The restoration repaired decay in the roof structure and removed decades of accumulated candle soot on the ceiling over the nave. The interior is bright, lofty, and very impressive. 

West facade, Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

Looming over the Morningside Heights neighborhood, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine is the largest Episcopal cathedral in the world, and the fifth largest Christian church overall. Its list of superlatives includes the longest Gothic nave in the country, the largest rose window, being taller at its interior crossing than the Statue of Liberty, and seven apsidal chapels (a nod to the different national origins of various immigrant groups the church initially welcomed). It is, in other words, enormous. 

Choir, Cathedral of Staint John the Divine

The cathedral has mockingly been dubbed “Saint John the Unfinished” because construction and restoration has continued ever since the first cornerstone was laid in 1892. Unlike St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Saint John the Divine is a mish-mash of styles. The original architects, Heins& LaFarge, intended the building to be of Romanesque-Byzantine design. Following the death of George Heins, the Cathedral Trustees elected to hire Ralph Adams Cram to complete the design along neo-Gothic lines. Saint John the Divine suffered a large fire in 2001, which destroyed part of the north transept. The south tower on the west façade has only partly risen, while the north tower lags even further behind. It’s immediately evident the cathedral remains a work in progress. 

Saint Thomas Church

Saint Thomas Church 

Like St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Saint Thomas Church is located in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, and like the Cathedral of Saint John Divine, Saint Thomas was designed by Ralph Adams Cram (along with his partner Bertram Goodhue). I was previously familiar with the building because of an essay written by Gerald Allen in the book Dimensions, co-authored with Charles Moore. In that essay, Allen explained how Cram and Goodhue designed the church in a way that addressed the particulars of its site within a modern city, as well as its general purpose as a place of worship. The result is an oddly asymmetrical design allied to its specific corner location at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 53rd Street. 

As Gerald Allen wrote, Saint Thomas does not make the kind of coherent, self-contained sense that architects typically strive for in their designs. I like Saint Thomas’ consequent eccentricity. Cram and Goodhue demonstrated their mastery of the Gothic Revival style, expertly adapting it to its location within Midtown. The church confidently stakes claim to its location without attempting to compete with much taller neighbors. 

Woolworth Building

Woolworth Building 

The Woolworth Building was the tallest building in the world when it was topped off in 1912. Architect Cass Gilbert, a leading proponent of the neo-Gothic style for tall buildings, designed the richly ornamented 60-story tower, which would aptly be nicknamed “the Cathedral of Commerce.” The building’s piers, pinnacles, pointed arches, and patinated copper roof all draw one’s eyes skyward. Gilbert over-scaled the Gothic detailing on its upper reaches so they remain legible from the street level far below. The design exploits the Gothic style’s use of vertical elements to emphasize its height. Somewhat incongruously, Gilbert used Romanesque forms for the building’s elegant two-story lobby. 

While following Louis Sullivan’s adage that a skyscraper should be “every inch a proud and soaring thing,” the Woolworth Building also admirably functions as an urban block. Its lower 27 floors are configured around U-shaped floors that define the public space on all sides, while bringing daylight to the center of the plan by means of a central court open to the west. The Woolworth Building, like most pre-WWII towers, manages to work effectively at both the pedestrian level and as part of Manhattan’s impressive skyline. 

Other New York skyscrapers employing features reminiscent of Gothic architecture include the American Radiator Building, the Sherry-Netherland Hotel, the Lincoln Building, and the General Electric Building. Following the completion of the General Electric Building in 1931, architects would largely eschew the Gothic Revival style in favor of the more fashionable Art Deco or Modernist idioms. The asceticism of most post-war skyscrapers may have reached its apogee (or nadir depending upon your point of view) with the completion of the astoundingly banal 432 Park Avenue in 2016, a supertall and slender tower that rises 1,396 feet without relief or any sense of proportion or grace. 

432 Park Avenue

I’m no architectural revivalist or historicist; however, I do admire architecture regardless of style that inspires, is rich in detail and meaning, and joyous in character. Neo-Gothic works like St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, Saint Thomas Church, and the Woolworth Building greatly contribute to New York’s appeal and coherence as an incredibly diverse amalgam of memorable places, images, and ideas. I favor identity over anonymity, and architecture that connects people with their environment rather than alienating them from it.

Wright’s Guggenheim Museum

Guggenheim Museum, New York (all photos by me)

Visiting New York for the first time last month made me feel like a kid in the biggest imaginable candy store, one offering urban delights and fantastical architecture of all sorts for my delectation. There was so much to see. Without a doubt, one confection I craved that did not disappoint was Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, completed in October of 1959. Wright had passed away earlier that year, so he never did see his revolutionary design in actual use, but I’ve no doubt he would have been pleased. As much as any other single building in his oeuvre, the Guggenheim is an embodiment of Wright’s grandiloquence, genius, and stature as the greatest American architect of his time. 

The Guggenheim is unlike any museum that came before it, and arguably unlike any that have followed. Its primary design conceit—the spiraling ramp—unapologetically dictated its exterior expression and how visitors should experience the works of art inside. Next to its genteel Upper East Side neighbors and across from Central Park, the museum appears as a revelation, an anomalous and subversive form that should not have been unexpected from an architect who openly loathed New York and its density. 

The story of the museum’s long gestation and the opprobrium the design received when Wright unveiled it have been well-chronicled. Many—including a number of the contemporary artists whose work was to be showcased in the building—believed the idiosyncratic building would overshadow the art and only serve the architect’s ego. Critics cited the limitations imposed by the sloped plane of the spiraling ramp, the canted walls, the low ceilings, and the shallow dimensions of the display niches. Some likened its form to a snail’s shell, while to others the Guggenheim resembled nothing if not a giant toilet bowl. Wright dismissed the detractors as unable to appreciate how it was possible to make a museum and the work it displayed an “uninterrupted, beautiful symphony such as never existed in the World of Art before.” He regarded a collection’s physical home to be as crucial a part of the museum experience as the work itself. 

In the rotunda, looking up . . .

. . . and looking down.

It’s true the limited dimensions of display niches along the ramp overly prescribe which pieces can be presented most favorably. The museum addressed this limitation by including more traditional, flat-floored and generously proportioned galleries in the 1992 addition designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates. Regardless, I did not find the fluidity and continuity of the space within and about the central rotunda distracting. The primary exhibition during my visit featured the distinctively attenuated figures sculpted by Alberto Giacometti. For these, what might have been curatorially restrictive instead seemed perfectly calibrated to the artist’s interest in existentialism and phenomenology and his frequent themes of melancholy and loneliness. Seeing the Giacometti pieces both up-close and from various levels across the rotunda, their frozen poses juxtaposed with the dynamism of the ramp and museumgoers, is exactly how I believe Wright intended the architecture and art should work together.

Part of the Giacometti exhibit

The Guggenheim is undoubtedly one-of-a-kind but is also a culmination of motifs Wright drew upon with regularity. His V.C. Morris Gift Shop in San Francisco likewise features a spiraling ramp, albeit at a much smaller scale, along which one’s perspective constantly shifts. Both designs are attempts by Wright to express the interrelatedness of time, space, and architecture through movement. 

Singling out a favorite building to highlight from my trip to New York is not unlike attempting to choose a favorite chocolate bar. The bottom line is the Guggenheim does stand out. I truly like Wright’s 5^th Avenue folly. I appreciate the design’s audacity and the controversy that would become part of the building’s legacy to this day. My opinion may be that of an architect and Frank Lloyd Wright fan, but I don’t think this is a matter of acquired taste. The Guggenheim Museum offers a visceral experience that is universally appealing.