Articles by Russell Fortmeyer

An Office for Hodgdon Powder Company

El dorado Architects rethink the Quonset hut to enliven simple, new offices for the Hodgdon Powder Company in rural Kansas.

Russell Fortmeyer

February 19, 2008

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It wasn’t image consciousness or architectural publicity that convinced the board of the Hodgdon Powder Company to hire an architect to design its new production facility’s administration building near Herington, Kansas.

Russell Fortmeyer

February 19, 2008

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Project Specs An Office for Hodgdon Powder Company Herington, Kansas El dorado Architects << Return to article the People Architect El dorado Architects Principal in Charge: Josh Shelton Project Architect: Sean Slattery, AIA, LEEP AP Furniture Design and Fabrication: Brady Neely Engineer(s): Structural: Genesis Structures Metal Building Engineering: Steelmaster USA MEP: Lankford and Associates Landscape: el dorado inc Lighting: Derek Porter Studio General contractor: Kelley Construction Company Photographer Mike Sinclair, all photos Renderer(s) El dorado inc, all drawings CAD system, project management, or other software used: Vector Works the Products Wall and Roof system: Steelmaster USA; Qounset Profile applied

Russell Fortmeyer

February 15, 2008

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The California Building Standards Commission (CBSC) moved in December 2007 to allow the reclassification of potentially hundreds of seismically questionable hospitals in the state to avoid possible closure due to code noncompliance. The decision will likely ripple through the large market for health-care design and construction that developed following Southern California’s Northridge earthquake in 1994, which left many hospitals still standing, but structurally unsound. “This is giving hospitals more time to do what’s right,” says Chris Poland, a structural engineer and the president and C.E.O. of San Francisco–based Degenkolb Engineers. After the 1994 earthquake, Poland served on an advisory board

Russell Fortmeyer

February 15, 2008

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Robert Campbell, FAIA, is the architecture critic of The Boston Globe. Robert Campbell, FAIA Readers of Robert Campbell’s columns in our pages perhaps don’t know that The Boston Globe’s longtime architecture critic helped the General Services Administration select Thom Mayne and Morphosis to design the San Francisco Federal Building, completed in 2007. “I’ve never seen a building of his that didn’t have major flaws, but I felt he needed a client who could hold his feet to the fire,” Campbell says. He compares the U.S. to the Netherlands, where young architects have greater chances at larger commissions.

Russell Fortmeyer

February 15, 2008

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David Dillon is the architecture critic of The Dallas Morning News. David Dillon “Dallas is a very image-conscious place, and it has always been looking to headlines,” says David Dillon, who writes on architecture for The Dallas Morning News. Lately, the headlines have been filled with the starry names of the architects for the Dallas Arts District—an opera house by Norman Foster, a theater by Rem Koolhaas, and a science museum by Thom Mayne will soon join the existing sculpture museum by Renzo Piano and symphony hall by I.M. Pei. “It’s important to set the bar high,

Russell Fortmeyer

February 15, 2008

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Blair Kamin is the architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune. Blair Kamin “We now live in a culture of infinite choices,” says Chicago Tribune’s architecture critic, Blair Kamin. “You go to Home Depot and there are 60 different kinds of floors you can put in your basement, whereas in 1950 you would have had two. A lot of our architecture is like that.” Kamin is explaining how the boxy skylight vaults of Steven Holl’s sensuous Bloch Building at the historicist Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri [RECORD, July 2007, page 92], consist of myriad customized pieces

Russell Fortmeyer

January 23, 2008

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The California Building Standards Commission (CBSC) moved in December 2007 to allow the re-classification of potentially hundreds of seismically questionable hospitals in the state to avoid possible closure due to code non-compliance. The decision will likely ripple through the large market for health care design and construction that developed following Southern California’s Northridge earthquake in 1994, which left many hospitals still standing, but structurally unsound. “This is giving hospitals more time to do what’s right,” says Chris Poland, a structural engineer and the president and CEO of San Francisco-based Degenkolb Engineers. After the 1994 earthquake, Poland served on an advisory

House at the Shawangunks

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson's leafy House at the Shawangunks deftly scales a hillside.

Russell Fortmeyer

January 19, 2008

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It would be easy to think of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson’s House at the Shawangunks—located a few miles west of the Hudson River in the hills near the upstate New York town of New Paltz—as a house designed for rock climbers.

Russell Fortmeyer

January 19, 2008

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Project Specs House at the Shawangunks New Paltz, New York Bohlin Cywinski Jackson << Return to article the People Architect Bohlin Cywinski Jackson 8 West Market Street, Suite 1200 Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701 570-825-8756 (phone) 570-825-3744 (fax) Peter Q. Bohlin, FAIA, Principal-in-Charge Julie Scotchie, Project Manager Todd Howard, Project Architect Lee Clark, RA Julia Dalton Engineer(s): E.D. Pons and Associates (structural) General contractor: Kira Construction Photographer(s): Nic Lehoux Photography Ltd. 866-599-2774 (office) 604-805-1811 (cell) nic@niclehoux.com CAD system, project management, or other software used: MICROSTATION the Products Structural system: Laminated Douglas Fir beams, Site found tree columns, Douglas fir rafters Exterior

Russell Fortmeyer

January 16, 2008

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Structural base isolation—effectively “floating” a building on rubber pads to safely ride out an earthquake—is nothing new in California. But the isolators installed for the structural and architectural renovation of Pasadena’s 1927 City Hall, designed by Bakewell and Brown, represent an innovative approach for addressing historic structures.

Credits: 1 AIA LU/HSW; 1 AIBD P-CE; 0.1 ICC CEU; 1 IIBEC CEH

Evaluate advanced PVC solutions that improve fire resistance, support WUI compliance, and enhance resilience in residential and commercial building design.

Credits: 1 AIA LU/HSW; 1 AIBD P-CE; 0.1 ICC CEU

Upon course completion, participants will possess a deeper understanding of glass railings to help ensure that safety, aesthetic, and performance objectives are achieved.