AIArchitect

By Zach Mortice
Associate Editor  

As a spirited and congenial contrarian, I thought I’d celebrate our preserving modernism theme issue by leafing back through an old polemical against Modernist architecture: Tom Wolfe’s From Bauhaus to Our House.  The picture Wolfe paints of Modernism makes it a tough sell for preservationists, but at least the author’s weightily cultural import means it’s an argument they’re used to waging.

This week’s article, “Four Buildings Under the Gun,” reports on four powerful essays submitted to AIArchitect—three from AIA members, and one from a political science college instructor. Each argued strongly for the preservation of a favorite Modern building. The four writers each displayed passionate appreciation for their Modern building, explained why the structure should be saved, shared ideas for its reuse and renovation, and offered steps that they are taking to get it off the preservation/demolition bubble.

by Abram Goodrich
Studios Architecture 

The AIA has commissioned Studios Architecture—the firm for which I work—to fulfill a task: Take a Modernist office building from 1973, turn it into a paragon of green architecture and workplace design while also positioning it for Landmark status. I love this project. At its core is this question: How does one simultaneously transform and preserve?

By Zach Mortice
Associate Editor

Last month, a handful of Middle Eastern business journals and architecture publications picked up on British engineering and design firm Hyder Consulting's announcement of what we're supposed to assume will be the world's next tallest buildings. Here's what we know:

--It will be located in the Middle East.
--It will be twice as tall as the 160-plus-story Burj Dubai, perhaps reaching a mile in height.

by Steven G. Shapiro, LEED-AP

With the evolution of integrated project delivery, the AIA continues to lead the discussion of design, development, and construction.  Integrated project delivery is broadcast as “a tool to assist owners, designers and builders to move toward integrated models and improved design, construction and operations processes.” Is there real meaning to those words?

It’s only a thought shared among bloggers such as on the San Jose MercuryNews.com Web site. Maybe it isn’t happening this way.

But IBM Building 25 burned to a shell recently, which, coincidentally, was convenient to some; as suspiciously so as the conflagration of several other landmark buildings in San Jose over the past few years.