United States

Leo Marmol is one of the world’s leading authorities in the restoration of iconic Mid-Century Modern and International style residences, including the Kaufmann House by Richard Neutra in Palm Springs, considered one of the most important residences of the 20th Century. His firm also incorporates those timeless concepts into new architecture, including product design exemplifying these design elements. Marmol will overview his firm’s landmark restoration projects, and discuss how the firm integrates Mid-Century design elements into their new construction and pre-fab projects, producing award-winning residences.

On Monday, August 24, the Harvard Graduate School of Design opened its main Fall 2015 exhibition Living Anatomy: An Exhibition About Housing. Focusing on the past 50 years, the mixed-media exhibition features both built and academic work and showcases innovative approaches and solutions to housing in contexts around the world.

MAD Architects has proposed a futuristic model for housing in Los Angeles, as part of the ongoing “Shelter: Rethinking How We Live in Los Angeles” exhibition at the A+D Museum. Dubbed the "Cloud Corridor," the concept is based on Ma Yansong’s “Shanshui City” philosophy for architecture to "manifest the spiritual essence between people and nature." The vision is the opposite of sprawl, proposing a high-density vertical village made up of nine interconnected residential towers.

+ 19

New York-based SO-IL has unveiled plans for a new Brooklyn art gallery, dubbed Artes Amant. The 1,320-square-meter building will house the production, display and storage of art in a four-story "concrete mass" that is "spatially marked by its industrial past."

"This arts’ building is an exploration in soft form, where a cluster of shells acts to diffuse an exterior presence and shape the building’s interior," says SO-IL. 

+ 36

SarasotaMOD is an architectural festival, this year celebrating Paul Rudolph and the opening of SAF's Walker Guest House Replica at The Ringling Museum of Art. The Guest House was designed by Rudolph in 1952 and the original still stands on Sanibel Island, Florida, USA.

+ 25

+ 13

Beijing-born architect Ma Yansong, founder and principal of MAD Architects, will be delivering a lecture at LACMA on September 15th at 7:30pm. He will discuss his work and his concept of "Shanshui City," which is his vision to create a new balance between society, the city, and the environment through new forms of architecture. Ma is recognized as an important voice in the new generation of architects with projects in Asia, Europe, Canada, and the US. Works include Absolute Towers; Beijing 2050; China Wood Sculpture Museum; Harbin Cultural Island; Hutong Bubble 32; Ordos Museum; and Pingtan Art Museum.

The AIA|DC Emerging Architects Committee (AIA|DC EAC) is excited to announce our presenters for the second-annual Thesis Showcase. Five recent B.Arch and M.Arch graduates from schools around the world will present their thesis projects to members of the AIA|DC and the public. The showcase event aims to bridge the gap between recent graduates and local practicing architects, by providing an opportunity for practitioners to view a sample of the work hailing from architecture schools around the country and abroad. The selected presenters will showcase their work at AIA|DC’s District Architecture Center (DAC) on August 27, 2015 at 6:00pm. Following the presentations a networking reception will occur at DAC’s gallery space in Penn Quarter.

With no end in sight to the current residential building boom in New York City, 2016 looks to be another busy year for the A/E/C industry. Join Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) and a slate of industry experts to discuss current trends in new residential design and construction, as well as opportunities for investigation and rehabilitation/adaptive reuse of existing buildings.

Research grants of up to $15,000 will be awarded to one or two mid-career professionals who have an academic background, professional experience and an established identity in one or more of the following fields: historic preservation, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, environmental planning, architectural history and the decorative arts. The James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation will consider proposals for the research and/or the execution of the preservation-related projects in any of these fields. Applications for 2016 funding are now being accepted. Applications must be submitted by October 15, 2015, 11PM EST. More information here.

+ 20

Earlier this month, after viewing the contenders in the US World War I Centennial Commission’s competition to redesign the National World War I Memorial in Washington DC, organizations like The Cultural Landscape Foundation began to began to voice their opinion regarding the reach of the competition. With the cultural importance of the site in mind, such organizations had hoped that the redesign would maintain the existing Pershing Park, but were disappointed to discover that the majority of the competition’s design proposals seek to demolish the existing landscape.

Although left off of the competition’s shortlist, KAMJZ Architects’ proposal for the World War I memorial addresses these concerns by leaving Pershing Park almost completely intact. Leaving alone the park’s seating areas, agora, and landscaping, the design proposal unifies the park by adding an outer ring of trees “along the borders of the site [to] provide an acoustic barrier from the noisy adjacent streets.”

+ 2

Lecture, presentation and panel discussion on the newly published book “Building Paradise in California” about the role that David and Mary Gamble played in creating their winter home and garden with the famed Greene brothers.

+ 30

+ 30