May 2010 Infrastructure propels development worldwide. Despite the news of a rising stock market, or the fact that the Dow Jones average has topped 11,000, your own architectural practice may be struggling. Where is the recovery, you might ask? Why hasn’t the stimulus package hit the marketplace yet, or affected your revenues? You must wonder if the whole world feels as you do, if the economy has gotten back to normal anywhere, and is it possible there are places that are actually prospering. Photo © André Souroujon McGraw-Hill Construction convened a gathering of construction leaders to address some of those

April 2010 Architecture goes back to nature BIOPHILIA, BIOMIMICRY, BIONIC ARCHITECTURE: In searching for a meaningful theory, a conceptual framework on which to construct our architecture, three little letters have sprouted like fresh spring grass — all hail, the prefix bio. Today, in the age of biodiversity, it seems that every other architect has clipped a portion of the Greek root word for life, bios, and attached it, like a philosophical lifeline, to projects. Call the current fascination biomania. Photo © André Souroujon Fashionable “isms,” in this case using nature as referent, sometimes suffer from the self-absorption and arrogance of

March 2010 Shattering the Myths of Sustainability It might be counterintuitive to most Americans, but cities offer the most viable models of sustainability. That assertion runs counter to our cultural history. Since the Romantic period of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, we have vilified urban life and been enamored, like Henry David Thoreau, of living close to nature. The results of our hunger sprawl around us. Today, rather than finding ourselves freed to commune with the out-of-doors, we have become shackled to the automobile, a situation in which it takes an SUV to get from Walden Pond to

February 2010 What can we learn from Haiti? Tragedy has struck Haiti again. On Tuesday, January 12, at 4:53 p.m., a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck 10 miles from the heart of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, along the fault line that stretches from the Dominican Republic to Jamaica, rendering entire quadrants of the hilly, coastal city in ruins. As of this writing, approximately 3.5 million persons out of a total population of approximately 9 million have been affected in a country roughly the size of the state of Maryland. The dead number at least 50,000, with some estimates as high as 200,000.

January 2010 Government’s ambitious building plans In 2010, the tables have turned. In a challenged economy, government looks more attractive to architects than the private sector. With the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, government was tapped by the current administration to help stimulate the nation, with building and rebuilding as cornerstones of economic recovery. Architects took note. Photo © André Souroujon The recent infusion of capital may obscure the fact that federal agencies, and the General Services Administration (GSA) in particular, have been at the forefront of developing and promulgating contemporary design and building practices,

November 2009 Whenever two or three architects gather — over the coffeepot, at a cocktail party, in the elevator —a single topic emerges: When will the recession end? Faced with frequent layoffs and calls from their bankers, and with a dynamic marketplace that seems to be constantly shrinking, principals have been relying on help wherever they might find it, whether through anecdotes, colleagues, advice from professional practice consultants, or Ouija boards. Then on Friday, October 16, 2009, the construction economists spoke. Photo © André Souroujon Interest in where the markets will trend always draws a crowd. We all want to

October 2009 The gaggle of intelligent-looking folk dressed in black under the marquee on Governors Island in mid-September could have come from any urban center — Manhattan’s SoHo, perhaps, except that they primarily spoke Dutch. They gathered to celebrate their ancestors’ prodigious contributions to contemporary design and commerce near the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s momentous arrival in New York harbor (an event that occurred in September 1609). Their presence on the silent, tree-shrouded parkland, with its magnificent, unfamiliar views of the harbor islands, offered an ironic commentary on New York’s origins and a living, chattering mnemonic on what might

September 2009 Say the word, “planning,” and watch someone’s face morph: The term can conjure up a multitude of responses. Regardless of your own prejudices, some municipalities are discovering that good design can help sell a city—whether old and established or new as fresh paint. Photo © André Souroujon Two Asian cities illustrate the principle and constitute textbook cases of their respective kinds. First, the newest. Songdo City, Korea, an eventual $35 billion, tower-filled new city is rising where nothing but seawater once existed. The planners’ precepts defied traditional expectations by standing certain ironclad real estate notions on their heads,

Ask who has built the essential Southern California house, and the answer for many California architects will be Ray Kappe.

August 2009 For generations of American architects (generations, not years), Julius Shulman idealized the built world. Born in 1910, and active until recently, Shulman’s eye framed essential architectural imagery and recorded it for the world. His passing on July 15 marks a shift in how we appreciate architecture today and suggests we pause to reflect on architectural photography. Photo © André Souroujon First, Julius. This irrepressible personality, lacking formal training in either architecture or photography, but with an upwelling enthusiasm for good architecture, found his calling when he saw Richard Neutra’s California houses in 1936. Shulman subsequently mastered the craft