Posts Tagged ‘architecture’

August 08, 2011

Phoenix Landmarks…?

by: Ryan Glass

Tweet Today’s post is by contributing writer Ryan Glass: This past 12 months I’ve been blessed with a reason to travel overseas and tour some fantastic cities. Having seen a number of castles, cathedrals, bridges, parks and rail stations, I am most grateful for an expanded sense of how public spaces can both succeed and fail. That said, the first question friends & colleagues ask when I return is always “how was your trip? what was (city) like?”. Inevitably, most people want to hear about the landmark places they expect you to go; “Oh, you were in London? Did you…

July 25, 2011

Eddie Jones on Design in Ruin

by: Eddie Jones

Tweet Today’s post is by one of my favorite architects Eddie Jones. I heard Eddie speak at the Arizona Historic Preservation Conference a few weeks ago about a new direction he’s taking with design. Find out why Eddie is tired of shiny new buildings and is more intrigued with the effects of time on the built environment. Edward (Eddie) Jones, with his business partner and brother Neal, were raised in the oil fields of Oklahoma. From a very early age the two bothers aspired to be architects and share a studio. Eddie was born in 1949 Texas and moved to…

June 08, 2011

5 Reasons I Love Community Tables at Restaurants

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Last Sunday Paul and I had breakfast at La Grande Orange on 40th Street and Campbell. Our favorite place to sit there is the community table. The last time we sat there, we struck up a conversation with an 8-year-old and his mom. And this time we chatted it up with a guy who noticed my “got coffee? seattle” t-shirt. We ended up talking with him for over an hour! The community table at breakfast last Sunday at La Grande Orange. Photo by the author. This made me think about the beauty of community tables. Here are 5 reasons…

May 30, 2011

Michael Pinto on How Architects Can Save the World

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet In March, I had the pleasure of seeing architect Michael Pinto speak at the Taliesin West Spring Lecture series. Michael’s office, Osborn Architects, is based in Los Angeles, a city that faces a lot of the same problems as Phoenix, except magnified and sometimes it’s a little bit further ahead in addressing those problems. The reason I decided to interview Michael was that I could tell that he takes a much broader approach to architecture than just designing beautiful buildings. He actually thinks that architects can change the world for the better. And so I was hooked. Michael proved…

May 16, 2011

Frank Lloyd Wright, Santiago Calatrava and the Beauty of the Section

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet My husband Paul shook me awake the morning after I arrived in Milwaukee at 3am just 6 short hours before. Groggily I resisted being woken up, but he insisted. He said, “you’re going to want to see the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum”. Grudgingly I acquiesced and dragged my tired self out of bed. But once we pulled up to the museum, my face brightened and I felt a rush of adrenaline. It was a dark, rainy spring day in Milwaukee, but the museum addition jutting out onto Lake Michigan by Santiago Calatrava looked stunning…

April 12, 2011

Imperfection in Architecture?

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Recently I read a book called The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brene Brown that extols the virtues of being imperfect. This book gives us permission to be imperfect in the face of constant pressures from society, the media, and ourselves to in fact be perfect. Think about it, wouldn’t you love it if your life were perfect? If you had the perfect house, the perfect car, lived in the perfect city, had the perfect marriage, the perfect kids and the perfect social life? Everyone…

April 05, 2011

John Kane on Doing Quality Projects with Less Money and in Less Time

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Today’s post is a continuation of yesterday’s – a conversation with architect John Kane, the principal of Architekton who was behind the sustainable and beautiful Tempe Transportation Center and the audacious and amazing Tempe Center for the Arts. If you missed Part I, catch it here. Most big-name architects have a big ego and downplay collaboration. Not John Kane. This is what he has to say about it: “The idea of how to work collaboratively is a really fun one. How to include the consultants and the clients much earlier on in the process to do sustainable projects (is…

April 05, 2011

John Kane on Regional Architecture, His Local Heroes and Favorite Buildings

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet On the 24th of March, I spoke with Architekton principal, John Kane at his fabulous Downtown Tempe office. Below is part I of our conversation: The architect who’s influenced John most: “In the early days, Zaha Hadid was one of my heroes. She still is one of my heroes. But I think she’s the one, when I was in school, the profession was going one way and she kind of shook it all up. I think I’ve always admired that kind of panache and the excitement in the way she works and the art of the whole thing.” His…

April 04, 2011

John Kane on Regional Architecture, His Local Heroes and Favorite Buildings

by: Taz Loomans

March 22, 2011

Interview with Architect Marlene Imirzian

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting with architect Marlene Imirzian at her office in Sunnyslope. I’m a big fan of Marlene’s not only because of her fantastic work and embededness in the community but because she is a great example of a premier woman architect here in the Valley. Below is our conversation. Blooming Rock: Can you tell me a little bit about working with Gunnar Birkerts and William Kessler and how its influenced your work? Marlene Imirzian: I am an architect because of Gunnar. Gunnar Birkerts is not well known today but at the…