Clifford A. Pearson

Talking Design in Monterey

August 14, 2013

Photo © John Scourkes The Dodge Chapel Auditorium at Asilomar, designed by Julia Morgan and built in 1915. An eclectic mix of international stars, leading American architects, and emerging voices will present their work at the Monterey Design Conference (MDC) from September 27 through September 29. Held at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California, where Julia Morgan designed many of the rustic buildings in the early 20th century, the event offers a camp-like setting on the Monterey Peninsula for a rambling examination of the state of design both in California and around the world. The California chapter of

First Look: Trey Trahan's Louisiana State Museum and Sports Hall of Fame

Clifford A. Pearson

July 29, 2013

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This Trey Trahan-designed 28,000-square-foot building, set in the oldest settlement in the Louisiana Purchase, aims to resolve a number of conflicting demands—bringing contemporary design to a historic context and finding a common language for a program that involves both a history museum and a sports hall of fame. In deference to its neighbors on Natchitoches’ main public square, the $12.6-million museum maintains the area’s two-story scale and wraps itself in a louvered copper rainscreen that alludes to the shaded porches of Creole architecture. The architects pinched the copper louvers at various locations to create a pleated effect that animates the

Pearl Brewery

Lone Star Revival: A local developer has spent more than a decade converting an old brewery into a mixed-use complex where food is the main draw.

Clifford A. Pearson

July 16, 2013

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When the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio shut down in 2001 after 120 years of operation, it left behind a 22-acre, asphalt-covered site in a crime-ridden part of town.

Progress Report: Renzo Piano's New Whitney Museum

Clifford A. Pearson

June 27, 2013

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On a recent hard-hat tour of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s new building in Downtown Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, the project’s architect Renzo Piano emphasized the way it will connect to its surroundings.

U.S. Courthouse by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects

Austin, Texas

Clifford A. Pearson

June 16, 2013

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An innovative pinwheel plan brings daylight into a rugged cubic building that strengthens the public realm's imprint in a historic part of the Texas capital.

Judd Home and Studio by Architecture Research Office

New York City

Clifford A. Pearson

May 16, 2013

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With a light touch, a New York firm restores the base of minimalist master Donald Judd.

Tucson Mountain Retreat

Beneath the Sheltering Sky: A design-build firm uses earth and space to connect its first project to a remarkable desert site.

Clifford A. Pearson

April 16, 2013

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Cade Hayes admits he was nervous when he started work on the Tucson Mountain Retreat, a 3,650-square-foot house on the edge of Saguaro National Park.

Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction

Clifford A. Pearson

April 16, 2013

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By Christopher Bascom Rawlins. Foreword by Alastair Gordon. Metropolis Books/Gordon de Vries Studio, 2013, 202 pages, $60. Consider this book a handy time machine set to take you to a sun-soaked place in a hedonistic era. Bring your Speedo and Ray-Bans and let go of your hang-ups. Both a cultural history and an architectural meditation, Fire Island Modernist captures the look, feel, and sensation of gay society in the 1960s and '70s that flourished on the sandy shores and shifting dunes of the 31-mile-long barrier island of its title. Separated from the Hamptons by Great South Bay, Fire Island developed

SkyVille@Dawson

Gardens in the Sky

Clifford A. Pearson

March 16, 2013

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Right next to SCDA's SkyTerrace, WOHA's SkyVille@Dawson offers a different response to the Singapore Housing & Development Board's call for new approaches to public housing.

SkyTerrace@Dawson

Bridging Generations

Clifford A. Pearson

March 16, 2013

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With its population jumping from 4 million in 2000 to 5.2 million in 2011 and housing prices rising fast, Singapore needed to expand its supply of public housing at the end of the last decade.