Marina City

Seeing the buildings downtown brought back all I had learned about the evolution of high-rises back in architecture school. I saw the whole spectrum of history, from the Monadnock Building (the tallest building built without steel) to the famous Marina City and John Hancock Center to the shiny and new Trump Tower.

Having returned home, I find myself still thinking about all of the stone and terra cotta ornamentation that I saw. The terra cotta is a great example of the “material of the times,” and it’s prevalent use can be attributed to the need for fire protection and the availability of clay and labor. As beautiful as the terra cotta is, it’s a mass produced product.

Terra cotta facade

Stone engraving

Stone engraving

FLW Studio Sign

I also had a chance to go out to Oak Park and see some of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, which was a true pleasure. I could see the influence of Wright and Lewis Sullivan (his mentor) throughout Chicago.

Arthur Heurtley House

Detail of Nathan Grier Moore House

Of course Mies Van Der Rohe had a huge influence in Chicago as well:

Kluczynski Federal Building

I was also struck by the amount of money and Power in Chicago. This project appeared to be an abandoned pedestrian bridge that easily cost millions of dollars.

Bridge to nowhere.

Lastly, while in the Windy City I visited the neighborhood where my grandfather grew up. This is me on the front steps of one of the apartment buildings he lived in.

My grandfather’s home.

Evan at the new Group Main Stream Home. Photo by Tim Greenway for MaineBiz

“Unforgettable Designs.” That’s the title of the new article by Darren Fishell now in the printed version of the MaineBiz this week. The on-line version of the article is called, “Architects embrace new designs for memory care facilities.”

No-matter the title, Darren does a great job connecting the practical and visceral considerations for why we at Bild are so impassioned about life-long design, design for memory loss, and design for affordable housing.

In other news:

• Check out the Prezi for a recent talk I gave called “The Aging of Mainers and Their Buildings.” I have not yet figured out how to add the audio that I recorded when I made the talk.
• We’ve got some new photos of the Group Main Stream Home.

The branding of these images is to me, a clear example of what good architects will create for their clients. While design itself embodies values and ideals so does it’s presentation. The rendering of the Apple HQ is ultra-realistic and the building has an almost god-like aura. The effect makes you feel as though the Apple Company is an institution that will last forever.

On the other hand, the Google rendering looks hand-rendered and is playful and colorful. This style suggests a design that is in flux and a company that is constantly evolving. The designs themselves support the rendering styles. One is pure and unbroken while the other is fragmented and serendipitous.

I have a bias for the experimental over the refined myself, and that shows in my own renderings, which tend to include a hand-rendered quality and are less often photo-realistic. This varies of course, with each client.

Vanity Fair, on Google

New Yorker, on Apple

Living in a Nursing Home – Evan Carroll from Evan Carroll on Vimeo.

As stated by the LEED website:

“LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a building, home or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at achieving high performance in key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.”

The knowledge that Evan gained in earning this credential will be of a clear benefit to all of Bild’s clients. Please contact us if you have any questions about LEED or the LEED certification.

As stated by Evan:

“I am just glad to have this credential under my belt! The testing was rigorous and the threshold of knowledge of the LEED credit system was high. I’m looking forward to applying what I’ve learned on our upcoming projects!”

We enjoy receiving your feedback. Please feel free to contact us by email: sasha@bildarchitecture.com

Where Love Matters from The Green House Project on Vimeo.

We enjoy receiving your feedback. Please feel free to contact us by email: sasha@bildarchitecture.com

This evening will be the first of three in UMA Architecture’s fall lecture series. The speakers will be:

Rick Jones of Jones Architecture in Salem, Mass. (October 20th),

Soren Deniord of Soren Deniord Design Studio in Portland, Maine (November 17th),

And our very own Evan Carroll on December 15th!

 Here is the lowdown:

The article is:  From “nursing home” to “home”: The small house movement – by Judith Rabig and Donald Rabig

The piece does a wonderful job summarizing one initiative that has the goal of re-imagining nursing homes. The “Small House” movement is the generic title for proprietary initiatives like the Green House Project.

The progression of transforming care for elders started with reforming the care itself, and was called “Culture Change.” The next step was to realize that the architecture was causing limitations to Culture Change and thus came the “Small House” initiative.

At Bild we know that care facilities that are isolated from the community cannot provide the social stimulation that helps individuals to THRIVE. We believe that care facilities need to be adjacent to community gathering places and institutions and that only a reunion of the generations can bring a complete healing atmosphere to the residents.

If this belief means that a new initiative will be born, that initiative could be called: “Age Reunion.”

Read the article!

The reporter, Leslie Bridgers did a fantastic job putting this story together, and John Ewing got some great pictures! In the opening sentence, Leslie mentioned empathy, and that word really captures exactly what this project was about. Evan enjoyed the experience and the people he met while at the Veterans home.

We do need to explain one slight misquote though. Here is the quote:

“Better lighting, window trimmings and more color in the linoleum-tiled floors are some of the ideas Carroll has for making the nursing home feel cozier.”

When Evan was talking to Leslie about this in the interview he cited these things as the obvious, and not necessarily that useful, responses that a facilities manager of a nursing home might have. Evan then told Leslie that he was still processing his thoughts on good architectural solutions!

We are looking forward to publishing some thoughts soon, so please stay tuned!

Working at Peloton Labs has been a wonderfully stimulating experience for us. If you didn’t already know, Peloton Labs is a co-working space. This means the Bild is renting two desks in a open office space where we regularly share ideas with professionals from many different disciplines. Peloton has marketing professionals, transportation advocates, website designers, professional organizations, developers, a resident artist, and now. . . architects.

The word “Peloton” is French and refers to the “pack” formed by racing cyclists. This pack has greatly reduced wind drag in the middle, and thus if the cyclists all take turns at the front of the pack, the whole group is able to ride faster for longer. I think you probably now understand that Peloton Labs hopes to be MORE than the sum of it’s parts!

This idea that a group of creative, motivated people can do things that they wouldn’t have dreamed of doing separately is central to our own beliefs at Bild. We are certainly proud of our own design and collaboration skills, but we are even more excited to team our skills with other professionals. It seems obvious to us that Portland, as a whole, embodies this philosophy, and that is why we live and practice here.

Peloton has a conference room available for use by all of it’s members as well as a kitchenette, a printer, WIFI and “phone rooms.” Some professions I would like to see at Peloton in the future are Realtors, Engineers and Photographers.