July 12, 2010

A Primer on ADA and Why it’s Important to Design

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Do you have people in your life with disabilities? I do. My mother, as she has aged, has experienced a considerable decline in her mobility. She often uses a wheelchair and a walker when she is out and about. I sometimes push my mother’s wheelchair when we are out together and whenever I do, I become instantly aware of ramps to sidewalks and to entrances of buildings. In those times, accessibility becomes an immediate reality, something I have to negotiate with personally, instead of the abstract notion that many times serves as a hindrance to architects and designers. Accessibility…

July 07, 2010

A Conversation with Chris Nieto about his Young Firm, merzproject

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I sat down with Chris Nieto, the founding principal of merzproject along with Joe Herzog, last week at one of their projects, Giant Coffee. merzproject is a premier up and coming architecture firm in the Valley. They’ve done some excellent projects such as the After Hours Gallery, The Galleries at Turney and the Show Low Public Library. Many of the people who work at merzproject went to school with me, Joe Herzog, Jonah Busick and Alison Rainey to name a few. This firm is one of a handful in town that’s producing exciting, cutting edge work. I very much…

July 06, 2010

What the Sari Teaches us about Good Design

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This 4th of July weekend along with the independence of our country, I celebrated my niece’s wedding. My family is originally Indian and this wedding celebration was a chance to dress up in beautiful traditional clothing over the several occasions of the wedding. On one occasion, I wore a sari for the first time. This may surprise some of you that it was only my first time wearing a sari. But the sari is an interesting piece of clothing and to be honest with you, there is an art to wearing it. It’s not something you just throw on…

June 30, 2010

Any Building Lacking Passive Solar Design is a Failure

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet “Beginning in the early 1930’s, Chicago architects Fred and William Keck began a decade-long investigation of south-facing windows in residences that became the first to be called ‘solar houses’. During this same period, two internationally reknowned modern architects, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breur, both applied climatic analysis as major design determinants, as evidenced by generous south-facing and properly shaded windows. Frank Lloyd Wright in his Usonian house designs in Wisconsin and simultaneously in his design of Taliesen West in Arizona, all executed in the late 1930s, ingeniously and appropriately applied climatic design elements to diverse and contrasting climates, giving…

June 29, 2010

The Life that’s Passing Phoenix by as We Sit in Our Cars

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This morning, I was running some errands and had to walk between the two banks on Central, just north of Thomas, you know – the Wells Fargo and Bank of America there. It didn’t make sense to get into my car, drive for 5 seconds, park and go to the next door bank, so I walked. As I walked out onto the sidewalk (thankfully it was in the shade on this 109° summer day) I was struck by the smell of the city, the growl of the cars as they whizzed by and the sight of people waiting for…

June 28, 2010

Sunday Studio Turns Blight into Bright with their Garfield Eco-Flip

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I was very excited when I got invited to an open house by Sunday Studio a couple of weeks ago to check out the eco-flip they did on McKinley and 16th St. in the Garfield Neighborhood. The photo of the end product was gorgeous and it intrigued me. I was duly impressed when I got a tour, it was a house that any downtown resident would be proud to call their home. When I saw the slide-show of the before and after pictures of the house, I knew we had a visionary on our hands, a person who cared…

June 23, 2010

Women in Architecture – the Big Gap

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Recently I was approached by a colleague looking to build some LEED homes to be considered for the role of architect. As I’m busy with other projects right now, I had to decline and he asked me if I could recommend any other women architects. I’m sad to say I was stumped! Many of the women architects I know are working for large or medium-sized firms and wouldn’t have time to work on this. A more appropriate fit would be a person that has her own firm and could take this project on for herself. There are quite a…

June 22, 2010

The Delightful Design of Giant Coffee

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Giant Coffee is finally open! It opened in May in fact and it’s a big hit with this coffee shop-loving architectural writer. I first went to Giant last Sunday to meet friends Aaron Kimberlin and John Jacquemart. I was absolutely delighted with it at first glance from my car. First, I give Matt Pool, owner of Giant (along with Matt’s Big Breakfast and The Roosevelt) a big thumbs up for locating his coffee shop near McDowell and Central. This corner, significant because of the Phoenix Art Museum, needed a serious injection of the coolness factor. And Giant, along with…

June 21, 2010

The Summer Solstice at the Burton Barr Library – Transcendant!

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Today, at the Burton Barr Library, I attended one of the most beautiful events that I’ve ever been to anywhere. The Summer Solstice event at the library celebrates the wonderful moment in the year marking the beginning of summer. It’s celebrated all over the world in different ways, but in Phoenix, we commemorate it through a wonderous piece of architecture. Wendell Burnette, the architect on the building along with Will Bruder, led the solstice ceremony, explaining how the sun spot on the round skylight hits the candlestick columns at precisely the point where it lights all four sides. At…

June 16, 2010

Tax Increment Financing as a Historic Preservation Tool

by: Aaron Kimberlin

Tweet Last week, I asked how we can make historic preservation a more lucrative option. Today, Aaron Kimberlin tells us about one way to do just that – Tax Increment Financing: ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Nationally, Tax Increment Financing (“TIF”) is the foremost tool used to stimulate downtown redevelopment and economically jumpstart blighted areas. Arizona is the only state in the U.S. that does not promote this redevelopment tool. Let me repeat that… ARIZONA IS THE ONLY STATE IN THE U.S. THAT DOES NOT PROMOTE THIS REDEVELOPMENT TOOL. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the City of Phoenix should follow in the State of…