Member Slideshows are created each year for the Spring Conference to illustrate the recent work of the attendee’s firms. All COD members are welcome to participate. Attendees have 6 slides and 60 seconds to present their projects, or whatever is on their mind. Many of the 2012 Member Slideshow slides are posted on the COD Pinterest page.
J. Windom Kimsey, FAIA, LEED AP, presented his slides.
J. Windom Kimsey, FAIA, LEED AP. Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects, Las Vegas, NV.
J. Windom Kimsey, FAIA, LEED AP. Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects, Las Vegas, NV. Shenzhen b-Tech Tower.
J. Windom Kimsey, FAIA, LEED AP. Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects, Las Vegas, NV. Shenzhen b-Tech Tower.
J. Windom Kimsey, FAIA, LEED AP. Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects, Las Vegas, NV. Butte County Courthouse.
J. Windom Kimsey, FAIA, LEED AP. Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects, Las Vegas, NV. Butte County Courthouse.
J. Windom Kimsey, FAIA, LEED AP. Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects, Las Vegas, NV. Butte County Courthouse.
J. Windom Kimsey, FAIA, LEED AP. Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects, Las Vegas, NV. Butte County Courthouse.
Member Slideshows are created each year for the Spring Conference to illustrate the recent work of the attendee’s firms. All COD members are welcome to participate. Attendees have 6 slides and 60 seconds to present their projects, or whatever is on their mind. Many of the 2012 Member Slideshow slides are posted on the COD Pinterest page.
Michael Ross, FAIA presented his slides.
Valley Performing Arts Center, California State University-Northridge.
Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum.
Virtua Voorhees Hospital.
Benedicta Arts Center, College of St. Benedict.
Performing Arts Center, Napa Valley College.
West Valley Campus Master Plan, College Of The Desert.
The Committee on Design visited Columbus, Indiana in April, 2012. Click here to read the conference report written by John Morris Dixon, FAIA. Photos courtesy of Jim Childress, FAIA, Ann Thompson and Aaron Trahan.
2012 Member Slideshow: Copley Wolff Design Group, Inc. Boston, MA
February 4, 2013
Member Slideshows are created each year for the Spring Conference to illustrate the recent work of the attendee’s firms. All COD members are welcome to participate. Attendees have 6 slides and 60 seconds to present their projects, or whatever is on their mind. Many of the 2012 Member Slideshow slides are posted on the COD Pinterest page.
Lynn Wolff, FASLA of Copley Wolff Design Group presented her slides.
Frog Pond, Boston Common. Boston, MA.
Rose Kennedy Greenway. Boston, MA.
Science Park, Montshire Museum. Norwich, VT.
The Clarendon, Boston, MA.
First Church of Christ, Scientist. Boston, MA.
Columbus Commons, Columbus, IN.
Save The Dates: 2013 COD Events
January 16, 2013
Planning for this year’s Committee on Design events is in full swing. The following conferences and events are now scheduled with details to come. Please visit the COD website in the coming months to see details of these events.
Spring Conference: Regional Modernism, Palm Springs, May 9-12
We will spend three days exploring early modern buildings in Palm Springs, California. As with all of our conferences, we will be pulling all possible strings to give our members the opportunity to visit projects seldom seen.
The Spring Conference also includes the Annual Member Slideshow where all COD members have six slides and sixty seconds to show their work from the last year.
Miller House, Richard Neutra 1937
Elrod House, John Lautner 1968
National Convention Awards Reception and Dinner – Denver, June 20th
We will hold our annual Awards Reception and Dinner at the National Convention on Thursday, June 20th at 6:30 P.M. This event will be held at the McNichols Civic Center Building, a recently-restored Carnegie Library in Denver’s Civic Center Park. The reception and dinner will be an opportunity to celebrate this year’s winners of the Gold Medal, Firm Award, 25 Year Award, Honorary Fellows, and Collaborative Achievement Award. This event provides the opportunity to meet some of the best architects in the world in an informal setting.
2012 Gold Medal recipient Stephen Holl at the COD Annual Reception. Photo courtesy of Jeff Wolfram.
During the convention, the Committee on Design will also lead conversations with the Firm Award recipient, the Twenty-five Year Award recipient, the Honorary Fellows from around the world, and the Institute Honors for Collaborative Achievement Award recipients.
Fall Conference: Origins of Modernism – Berlin, September 22-28
We will spend five days exploring the roots of modernism in Berlin, Germany. This conference has been in planning for about four years and will provide an opportunity to visit early modern buildings as well new ones accompanied by their architects.
Neue Nationalgalerie, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 1968. Photo by Jim Childress.
Member Slideshows are created each year for the Spring Conference to illustrate the recent work of the attendee’s firms. All COD members are welcome to participate. Attendees have 6 slides and 60 seconds to present their projects, or whatever is on their mind. Many of the 2012 Member Slideshow slides are posted on the COD Pinterest page.
Jay Turnbull, FAIA, of Page & Turnbull in San Francisco, California presented his slides.
Walt Disney Family Museum, Presidio of San Francisco, California. Photo courtesy of Cesar Rubio.
Ferry Building, San Francisco, California. Photo courtesy of Tom Palva Photography.
Antelope Valley Indian Museum, Lancaster, California. Photo courtesy of Stephen Schafer.
Copeland Donahue Theater, Webb Schools, Claremont, California. Photo courtesy of Sherman Takata, Takata Photography.
Bvlgari Temporary Pop-Up Store, prototype concept design. Rendering by Transparent House.
Design and Context – Community Design Excellence
September 11, 2012
By Aaron Trahan, Committee On Design Spring 2012 Conference Knowledge Scholar
“Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context – a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.”
-Eliel Saarinen
As the Fall Conference approaches, it is important to remember where we left off this Spring in Columbus. One of the consensus’ that we was that context matters in design excellence. I found this quote from Eliel Saarinen particularly relevant to this topic because it seems so obvious, and yet there are buildings in all of our cities, towns and neighborhoods that somehow miss this fundamental principal.
The modernist additions to downtown Columbus truly embodied a consistent sense of scale, and a natural progression from the residential neighborhoods, to the community buildings, and to the retail center. Living in Boston, with such beautiful historic buildings, I always imagined what our neighborhoods would look like if the only structures breaking above the canopy lines of the trees were public buildings, such as churches, town halls, and courthouses. I imagine there would be a higher quality of civic discourse prevalent when you could find your way to a public meetingplace by just looking up, and knowing where to go by distinguishing the design of each tower.
Architecture, in this sense, has the ability to prioritize and foster community. Columbus has a unique character in its urban planning, which is applicable today in neighborhoods of a similar scale. Hopefully, as young architects focus on community design, buildings that serve a public function will be given greater architectural presence.
The Committee On Design Is Going To Columbus, Indiana
April 5, 2012
Image provided by UnconfirmedBreakingNews.com
The Committee On Design is holding its Spring Conference in Columbus, Indiana April 12 – 15, 2012. COD Chair Mike Mense selected Columbus as part of his year’s theme: Defining Architectural Design Excellence.
His premise:
Why, after so many years of excellent public and commercial architecture in Columbus, Indiana, are there almost no modern houses?
Why, when you drive north from Florida’s South Beach passing miles and miles of waterfront houses, less than one percent are anything we would call architecture?
Why do Americans drive designer cars and drink designer coffee but live, most all of them, in a house or apartment that is pretending to be the home of some wealthy ancestors long deceased?
Are we determined as a profession to continue to define ourselves in ways that isolate us from the greater part of the society in which we practice?
Can we find some definitions of architectural excellence upon which we can agree and that we can explain successfully to the silent majority? Is it even something we want to do?
The exclusive opportunities for attendees to the Columbus Conference Include:
- The opportunity to meet and converse with many of the national and local architects who have worked in Columbus, Indiana, including Gunnar Birkerts, Ben and Cynthia Weese (representing Harry Weese), Daniel McCoubrey and Nancy Rogo Trainer (representing Robert Venturi), Ralph Johnson of Perkins+Will, Jane Weinzapfel, Kevin Kennon, Carlos Jimenez, Fred Koetter and Susie Kim.
- An open house tour, with personal photography allowed, of the Miller House and Gardens, “America’s most significant modernist house” per Travel+Leisure. The house showcases the collaborative design of leading 20th-century architects and designer: Eero Saarinen, Alexander Girard and Dan Kiley. You will be allowed to wander the house and gardens on your own, with docents available for information, instead of the limited guided tours. Personal photography is permitted, not allowed on public tours.
- Meet Will Miller, patron of modern architecture, son of J. Irwin Miller who commissioned the Miller House and started the renowned Cummins Foundation architectural program.
- The Cummins’ Friday evening reception and dinner at the Cummins Corporate Headquarters, designed by Kevin Roche, including tours of the workplace. Dinner provided by Cummins’ executive chef. You will also have the opportunity to meet and dine with Cummins executives and community leaders. Cummins Corporate Headquarters is a secured building and typically not open to the public except for the lobby.
- Tour Cummins midrange engine plant in Walesboro, an innovative sustainable design by Kevin Roche completed in 1973. Cummins facilities are not typically open to the public without special arrangements.
- If you have never been to Columbus, Indiana before, we will visit many of it’s unique collection of over 80 modern buildings, designed by nationally and internationally noted architects, including Eliel Saarinen, Eero Saarinen, I.M Pei, Harry Weese, Robert Venturi, Richard Meier, SOM and many more. Columbus was ranked 6th in the nation for innovation and architectural design by AIA members. It was ranked 11th by National Geographic Traveler’s on a list of 109 historic locations to visit worldwide.
- If you have previously visited Columbus, but not been back in the last 5-10 years, we will visit many new buildings and experience the ongoing redevelopment of the downtown, designed by noted architects Carlos Jimenez, Ralph Johnson, Deborah Berke, William Rawn, Cesar Pelli, Fred Koetter and Susie Kim.
Visit the COD website for more information and follow the conference on our Facebook page and Twitter feed.
We toured the building with two of the architects from the local architecture firm who collaborated on the project. The project was more complex, and the central atrium space that has been so widely published, was warmer and more inviting than I expected. The site plan was the key to winning the project according to the local architects.
The simple box of performance and convention spaces fronts onto the central business district. The now familiar fish-shaped atrium sits tight against a rail line on one side and on the other side creates an outdoor gathering space between this atrium and the performance house. Enclosed bridges connect the ‘fish’ atrium to the performance venues.
The ‘fish’ is a tour de force of structure and light and is truly beautiful to walk through. It is curious that it is so disconnected from the theaters and convention spaces; not really serving as a lobby for either. Its prime role appears to be as an atrium for a small group of people to pass through to get to the narrow band of small conference rooms bordering the rail tracks. It also functions as a dramatic light fixture in the city. The quality of this light-filled space running alongside the entire outdoor gathering space is what makes the experience so special day and night. The local architects noted that Tadao Ando had suggested the ‘fish’ be filled in with glass floors to make the large atrium more useful–and profitable.
The theaters are another challenge. With an understandable desire to have their public entries overlook the central business district on one side and the outdoor courtyard on the other, the entry sequence up to the theaters contorts one way, then another. Ultimately, this sequence is a regrettable let-down compared to the marvelous ‘fish’. The same can be said for the theaters themselves, though I suppose one goes to the theater for the show more than the quality of the space. In the end, the lasting memory is of the grand spectacle of beautiful architecture in the atrium space. As a visitor to an event, it is conceivable one might miss this tour de force and wonder what all the architects are excited about.
Jim Childress, FAIA
(Photos courtesy of Jim Childress and Ann Thompson)
COD Japan Conference 2011: Tokyo, Day One (Part 2)
December 6, 2011
For the second lecture on the first day we were honored to have Fumihiko Maki, Hon FAIA. The title of his talk was Fond Project Memories
Before showing his work he gave his view of the world of architecture after 60 years of practice. He noted that modern architecture has developed a common universal language, similar to how English has developed into a global language. However, he noted that meaning, in architecture, was achieved through adding a layer of type and place to this universal language. He also noted that each individual should have his own religion, and that art came from this. However, in the end, he felt that while tastes will vary, what delights us (such as a cozy corner with soft light) is common to all of us. I was touched by his admission that it is very hard to know where to begin on any project.
He summed up his overview with these observations:
Time and Architecture
Time offers a fertile ground for personal memories and experiences
Time is a mediator between city and architecture
Time is the final judge of architecture
Space and Architecture
Space accommodates a given function and generates new uses
Space has no differentiation between interior and exterior
Space, not form, fosters delight (venustas) for people
“and that”, he said, “is the end of my academic presentation.”
Jim Childress, FAIA
(photos courtesy of Jim Childress)
