crEATive lunch - michael green architects

At todays's lunch we'll be watching the TED talk from michael green, we saw him at the architectural record innovation conference this year and his talk on the "30 story wood skyscraper" rocked it!  Enjoy.

SFA News - Archidose 632

In an earlier Speaking of Architecture post Joe Biondo spoke about the module and structural form at Lafayette College’s Williams Visual Arts Building. He spoke about a small intervention in the project, saying, “We thought the opening needed more of an experience and would resemble a tear in the layer of brick. More importantly, the opening would happen without any conventional structural support.”

Archidose #632 highlights that intervention to the Williams Visual Arts Building. To document the project, which has been part of a 10-year relationship with Lafayette, we embarked on our first full “architectural iphoneography” photo shoot in collaboration with Vicki Liantonio of Piccolo Takes All. There will be more to come on this, and we’re thrilled that A Daily Dose of Architecture featured this moment. These four simple images convey so much about our architectural and photographic process.

 

Link to the feature below:

http://archidose.blogspot.com/2012/11/todays-archidose-632.html

 

Material, Process, Product - The Tactile Object

Material systems play a critical role throughout our design process and informs our thinking as we make places. Buildings and spaces need to become a heightened journey of varying tactile experiences. Our goal is to make spaces that are human-centered and play on all the senses. We choose to deploy honest and authentic materials harvested from the place in which the building will be rooted.. Morever, it is essential to conceive a building which strives to achieve a lasting aesthetic and resonates with its place.

Recently, we interviewed for Kansas State University College of Architecture Planning and Design. The interview was spirited and passionate and centered around a tactile object. This object is fabricated from Bayer Limestone quarried in St. Marys Kansas and Hedge wood harvested from the Kansas landscape.

 

Complimentary yet contradictory, these materials offer unique properties that can only be discovered when making the object. The Hedge Tree, a very dense and rot resistant wood is considered the natural fence post that defined the Kansas landscape. The tree's form and properties were influenced by the natural forces of the Midwest and grew out of the soils of the praire. The density of the Hedge made shaping, cutting and finsihing the wood extremely difficult. In spite of that difficulty, the final outcome yielded a glowing rich amber and striking grain patterns.

 

Contrast that with Limestone, sedimentary layers of earth compressed by the forces of nature for hundreds of years. The stone is suprisingly soft and easily shaped. We are intrigued by the varying colors, finishes and textures it could yield.

Carefully married with a steel and copper mortise and tenon joint, the two manicured raw materials compliment beautifully as one cohesive object.

SFA News – KPCC Profiles Kate Carter

Kate Carter (@carterkate11), one of SFA’s own, received the top honor in a self-portrait contest on Instagram, a photo-sharing social media network. Her winning image, “Hope”, is a poignant and personal self-portrait depicting Kate, hand-in-hand with her ailing grandmother.

"Hope" by Kate Carter

The competition, “Express Yourself,” challenged InstaGram users to submit creative, out-of-the-box self-portraits. The competition, which received 450 entries from around the world, was sponsored by InstaGram Lovers Anonymous (IGLA) and KPCC, a public radio station in Southern California. The sponsors selected eight finalists, and InstaGram user had 48 hours to vote for their favorites.

 "IGmeet Steelstacks" by Kate Carte

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As part of the top prize, Kate will be interviewed by Grant Slater, photo and video editor for KPCC radio station. In the interview, which airs Saturday, October 20^th at noon PST | 3:00 PM EST, Kate will discuss her winning self-portrait, as well as her efforts to integrate and leverage the use of mobile technology into the practice of architecture at Spillman Farmer Architects.

http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2012/10/19/28919/kate-carter/
 

"Filter" by Kate Carter

"Das Kluuunk" by Kate Carter

"Architecture" by Kate Carter

We’d like to thank Kate for all of her efforts to keep Spillman current with mobile technology and social media, as well as congratulate her on an incredible win with an amazing self-portrait.

“Old City Gothic Modern (portrait of Kate Carte)…aka But 

Officer, The Sign Says No ‘No Parking’, Not No Digging”

by Vicki Liantonio (@piccolotakesall)

Southern California Public Radio (SCPR) is a member-supported public media network that operates 89.3 KPCC-FM in Los Angeles and Orange County, 89.1 KUOR-FM in the Inland Empire and 90.3 KVLA in the Coachella Valley. SCPR also informs and interacts with their communities through our web site, mobile and social media channels and live events. Grant Slater is the photo and video editor for KPCC, where he oversees the photo and video elements of KPCC's news coverage.

Living in the Brownfield - Wright Stuff, Wrong Idea

"It’s hard to say which is more startling. That a developer in Phoenix could threaten — by Thursday, no less — to knock down a 1952 house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Or that the house has until now slipped under the radar, escaping the attention of most architectural historians, even though it is one of Wright’s great works, a spiral home for his son David. "

excerpt of Michael Kimmelman's

article for the New York Times 

"Wright Masterpiece Is seen In New Light; A Fight For It's Life"

      

 

photo of the david and gladys wright house by scott larson

 

Please sign the petition to save this important building from the wrecking ball, they're not making anymore of these beauties and your signature could make the difference as to wether or not future generations get to experience the genius of a Frank Lloyd Wright design.

NYT article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/arts/design/frank-lloyd-wright-house-in-phoenix-faces-bulldozers.html?_r=1&

Sign petition here:
http://www.change.org/petitions/city-of-phoenix-save-the-david-and-gladys-wright-house

Living in the Brownfield - Lunch and Learn

 

We're in the middle of an exciting experiment, more will be revealed shortly, but for now lets just say it involves using mobile technology as a supplement to our usual way of documenting our projects.  The following two images were shot over lunch at The Academy of the New Church in Bryn Athyn, PA.  Hope you like veggies.

 

 

Image credits to be revealed in a future blog, just a small taste test of some architectural iphoneography work in progress for now.  Let's lunch again soon.

ps. hint - we just learned that the work of the commisioned photographer was featured here
http://www.flavorwire.com/331065/the-surprisingly-colorful-homes-of-9-famous-architects
 

SFA News - Movies at the Mill 2012

Spillman Farmer Architects is proud to be a sponsor of the 2012 “Movies at the Mill,” happening Saturday, September 22, 2012 at 6pm.  We’ll also be providing support to the event, so come out and say hello. I’m curious to see the movie by Paul A. Levin. Image and information from the website below – enjoy the show!  You can find out more at: http://moviesatthemill.com/ 

BEFORE BREAKFAST by Paul A. Levin

“ Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, two of the most revered screen legends of all time, were both born in 1929. They spun in the same Hollywood and New York orbits simultaneously. And, they both exuded a kind of other worldly elegance addictive to audiences. But they’ve never been on the same screen… until now.”   http://moviesatthemill.com/

Spillman conceived the master plan for Simon Silk Mill and is now in the process of coordinating the first phase of that plan.  Renderings and information on the Simon Silk Mill will be available at the event, so come check it out.  We’d like to thank the honorable Mayor Panto, the Easton Redevelopment Authority and VM Development Group for providing great vision and leading the project into the first phases of development.

http://www.easton-pa.com/cedauthority.html

http://vmdevelopmentgroup.com/