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There was a time, for architect Michael Graves, when designing buildings for people with disabilities was just another interesting design challenge. It meant complying with the Americans With Disabilities Act. It was about door thresholds, wheelchair passage width, grab bars.
It's still an interesting challenge for Graves, one of the country's best- known architects, the man generally credited with elevating the taste of the masses by designing hundreds of stylish household products for Target, from toasters to toilet brushes.
But now it's also personal.
Graves, who turned 70 in July, contracted a spinal infection in February 2003 as the result of a virus and is now paralyzed from the waist down. After almost a year in hospitals and rehabilitation centers, he remains bisected, he said, into a man for whom a "good body meets bad body." Ironically, the man who's been at the forefront of American architecture and design for more than 30 years can no longer access one of his own office buildings.
Yet despite disabling pain that can be "absolutely horrible," he continues to work, travel, design and preside over two thriving businesses and more than 100 employees: Michael Graves & Associates, an architectural and interior design practice; and Michael Graves Design Group, a product-design firm. The companies are busier
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Put 16 of the area's top home designers together, and you're bound to create something beautiful.
The Brickton Art Center's charity showcase of designers did just that with a new house at 423 S. Engel Boulevard. The brick, 4,800-square-foot home - built by Rob Lohens, president of L & K Development - features four bedrooms, two and one-half baths, a designer kitchen, and a 1,800-square-foot finished basement.
Walter E. Smithe Custom Furniture, the corporate sponsor for Brickton's "Design a Dream" benefit, furnished several of the rooms. A handful of Chicagoland artists adorned the walls, floors and ceilings with their works.
The house is open for public guided tours through Sept. 26. House walk tickets are still on sale, running $15 in advance and $20 at the door. The center plans a mother-daughter tea, a pampered spa day, cooking classes and creativity workshops at the house as well. Proceeds from these events will help the art center expand its programs and services, according to the center's officials.
Visitors to the house see plenty of surprises. A tiny mud room sports an elaborate bee-and-sunflower mural on the ceiling. A handsome custom foosball table stands in the basement. On one wall of the nursery, a line from a children's story about a frog is painted large and green.
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It is fortunate that many people seem naturally drawn to architectural models because, without them, the ninth Venice Architecture Biennale would be reduced to photographs, drawings, videos and words. But even stunning handmade computer-designed models point to a problem with architectural exhibitions. They cannot show what architecture is really about - buildings and the contexts in which they are placed.
Still, after two days reserved for professionals and reporters, the doors of this year's biennale opened on Sunday to crowds of enthusiasts curious to share some of the buzz created over the past decade by a score or more of big name international architects, including Frank Gehry and Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas and Jean Nouvel. The notion that architecture is art is probably more widely accepted today than in recent memory.
For Kurt W. Forster, a Swiss-born academic who is director of the architecture biennale, the sprawling show's main purpose is to reach a broader public. He is hoping for as many as 120,000 visitors before it closes on Nov. 7. And many leading professionals were also on hand including Mr. Libeskind, Zaha Hadid, Christian de Portzamparc and Peter Eisenman, who was awarded a Golden Lion for his lifetime achievements.
To turn a vast array of design into a manageable exhibition, Mr. Forster had two
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At first glance, it looks like a castle.
The peaked roof lines, arched entryways and brick facade provide a dramatic presence adjacent to the University of Notre Dame's main avenue.
The DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts was designed by the Los Angeles office of Hardy-Holzman-Pfei ffer Associates.
"We spent a lot of time looking at the Gothic areas of campus. We used it as inspiration for the details," said William Murray, a principal at Pfeiffer Partners Inc. in Los Angeles who served as project manager. (Hardy-Holzman-Pfe iffer Associates split into three separate firms in August.)
The architects interviewed for the job in 1997 and started planning the building the following year.
Initially, Notre Dame officials were considering building a single 2,000-seat theater.
After discussions with the university's Department of Film, Television and Theatre, it became apparent that each discipline had distinct needs.
"To share one auditorium between all the departments was not reasonable," Murray said.
As the plan developed, five separate performance spaces were deemed necessary. The result is five venues under one roof -- a concert hall, mainstage theater, studio theater, cinema, and organ and chorale hall -- plus offices, classrooms, studios and other learning space.
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BetterBricks talked with Bert Gregory, president & CEO of Mithun, a Seattle-based architecture, design, and planning firm and a national leader in resource sensitive and sustainable design. Mithun has received numerous awards for their work, including honors from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Architecture+Energ y, Business Week/Architectural Record and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The AIA Committee on the Environment selected three of the firm’s projects among the top ten United States green buildings.
Mithun is probably best known for its design of the REI stores and IslandWood, the innovative environmental learning center on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Bert served as design team leader for both of those projects. He is currently the design leader for Lloyd Crossing, a cutting-edge sustainable urban design plan for 35 blocks in Portland’s city center; Jackson, Wyoming’s Teton Science School; and the Seattle Monorail Project’s West Seattle stations. Bert’s national impact in design leadership has been noted by the AIA, the International Interior Design Association, and CoreNet Global, which honored the firm with the 2003 Sustainable Design Leadership Award. He speaks frequently around the country on sustainable building and design.
Sustainability is a fundamental factor of design and busi
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