George H. Miller, FAIA, has been chosen to serve as president of the American Institute of Architects in 2010. Miller, a partner at New York-based Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects, was elected by AIA delegates during the institute’s national convention in Boston last week. He is the first New York City architect to hold the top AIA post in more than three decades, since the late Max Urbahn was president in 1971, according to an article in The Architect’s Newspaper. A Berlin native, Miller grew up in the U.S. and received his B. Arch from Pennsylvania State University in
Photo courtesy Ann Pendleton-Jullian Guillaume Jullian de la Fuente Guillaume Jullian de la Fuente, who launched his architectural career as a protégé of Le Corbusier, died on March 22 in Santiago, Chile, of heart failure. He was 76 years old. Jullian was born in Valparaíso, Chile, in 1931. Upon graduating from the Catholic university in his hometown, he traveled around Europe, ultimately landing in Paris and taking his first job in Le Corbusier’s studio. The young architect was quickly promoted to manager of the atelier, where he worked until Corbusier’s death in 1965. During Jullian’s tenure he shepherded a range
On Tuesday the National Trust for Historic Preservation unveiled its 2008 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. The private, nonprofit organization has released the list annually since 1988 to galvanize preservationists and community members to save threatened buildings, neighborhoods, and landscapes. The effort has been mostly successful: only six of the 200 total identified sites have been lost so far.
The U.S. Green Building Council is giving the public a look at the first fruits of its sweeping revision of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. On May 19, the organization posted the working draft of LEED 2009 for a 30-day public comment period. LEED 2009 is the rating system component of a larger program referred to as LEED Version 3 (LEED v3), which will replace LEED 2.2. Other features of the new program include a revamped online project management tool and an expanded third-party certification process. In general, LEED 2009 increases the rating system's emphasis on
Ben van Berkel, cofounder of UNStudio with Caroline Bos, recently unveiled designs for Five Franklin Place, a condominium tower that will rise in Manhattan’s swanky Tribeca neighborhood. The project, whose 55 units range in price from $2 million to $16 million, is the Amsterdam-based architecture firm’s first major building in the United States. It is being developed by New York–based business partners David Kislin and Leo Tsimmer.
The University of Pennsylvania plans to announce today that Marilyn Jordan Taylor, FAIA, a long-time partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, will be the new dean of its School of Design.
Harmon Sews the Seeds of 'Earthy Modernism' If architecture is didactic, and Frank Harmon, FAIA, thinks it is, then his design for the American Institute of Architects North Carolina (AIA/NC) headquarters in downtown Raleigh is a master course in what the architect calls “earthy Modernism.” The 12,000-square-foot structure is intended to meet both LEED Platinum standards and the American Institute of Architects’ Committee On the Environment objectives. In addition to containing staff offices and a lecture hall for presentations, it will feature less obvious elements such as a community recycling center and an outdoor area for concerts and farmers’ markets.
Ceramic Frit Does Double Duty The downtown of Mesa del Sol, a 25-square-mile development in Albuquerque, will feature a cultural, office, and retail core whose design is unlike most others at the heart of similar master-planned communities. Designed by Antoine Predock, FAIA, with locally based Jon Anderson, AIA, as executive architect, the Town Center building will be clad in a glass curtain wall whose ceramic frit—that doubles as a film screen—was inspired by the cellular structure of bone. Images courtesy Forest City Covington NM LLC The Town Center building will be the office, cultural, and retail core of Mesa Del
Superdome's New Skin is Tougher Than Pig Skin In deciding how to repair the outside of the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, a local design team faced a challenge of time and engineering. Locals love the bronze hue of aluminum panels that clad the arena’s curvy walls, but Hurricane Katrina had blown off some of those panels. Could the architects make repairs without stamping on incongruously shiny bits? Or, could they replace the entire skin without cheapening the dome’s resilient look? Images courtesy Trahan Architects The Louisiana Superdome’s steel skin is being replaced with new aluminum panels that will match
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