Navigation
Pan Pacifica
The 2006-2007 Hearst Lecture Series will focus on an esteemed list of international architects, landscape architects, city and regional planners, philosophers, computer programmers, writers and theorists as well as furniture and industrial designers coming from as far away as Australia, Mexico, and Seattle as well as New York and North Carolina on the East Coast. Their work can be found in Europe, Asia, Australia, as well as the American continent.
The cross-cultural theme derives from the fact that exemplary design, planning and theory cannot be confined by political boundaries. As a consequence, the series highlights the work of designers from all parts of the world to underscore the blurred distinction between lines that officially separate countries or regions.
These free, public lectures are made possible through a generous grant from the Hearst Foundation.
Fernando Romero
"Translations"
October 19th, 2006
Fernando Romero was born in Mexico City in 1971 and graduated in 1995 at Universidad Iberoamericana. He was president of the student society in 1994. Worked at OMA with Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam, Holland from 1997-2000. In 1999 as project architect he designed the winning competition for the concert hall Casa du Musica in Porto, Portugal (recently inaugurated and considered one of the icons in the contemporary architecture). In 1999, Fernando started his independent professional practice with LCM and in 2005 founded LAR (Laboratory of Architecture) — an architectural firm established with the ambition of addressing contemporary society through a process of architectural translation.
LAR is pursuing a new direction in the architectural practice by generating unprecedented spaces, exploring uncharted geometries, developing the use of new materials and applying current building methods, as well as rethinking the prevailing discourses. The office is continually engaged in international competitions, either by invitation or open participation. They most recently received the runner-up prize in the coveted Metropolis Magazine, 3rd Annual "Next Generation-Big Idea" Award for their research Hyperborder 1050: The contemporary U.S.-Mexico Border and Its Future.
Manuel DeLanda
"Deleuze and the Use of Genetic Algorithms in Architecture"
October 20th, 2006
Manuel DeLanda is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University (New York) and teaches courses on Self Organization and the Dynamics of Cities at University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University School of Architecture. DeLanda is a world-renowned New York based philosopher and science writer with an exceptionally cross-disciplinary body of work. He has written extensively on nonlinear dynamics, theories of self-organization, artificial life and intelligence, chaos theory as well as architecture, and history of science. Born in Mexico City he moved to New York in 1975 and became an independent filmmaker. In 1980 he turned his attention towards the computer, a pioneer programmer and computer artist, before he emerged as one of the leading theorists of the electronic world. He is the author of four books, War in the Age of Intelligent Machines (1991), A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History (1997), Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy (2002) and A New Philosophy of Society (2006). He has published philosophical essays in numerous journals and collections, and has presented lectures at the University of Illinois, Buffalo State University, University of Minnesota, University of Bath, University of London, Tate Modern, Columbia University, Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, California College of Arts, and most recently Southern California Institute of Architecture among many other institutions.
Robert Arens
"Atlas Shrugged: The World Trade Center Redevelopment Five Years Later"
October 30th, 2006
Architect and Professor Robert Arens worked on the World Trade Center competition and redevelopment project with Daniel Libeskind through completion of the Master Plan and Design Guidelines phase that concluded in 2004, and has followed the project with interest ever since. His presentation examines the initial schemes by Beyer Blinder Belle, the "Innovative Designs" competition held in response to the initial schemes, the master plan that resulted from the competition, and the changes to the master plan in the last several years as political and economic forces came to bear on the design process. The Freedom Tower and its iterations are also addressed. Having been inside the competition and design process gives him a unique perspective with which to discuss the chronology.
The resolution of this major architectural site remains a fascinating and important project in terms of the urban development of a prime location in one the world’s leading cities. As we commemorate the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 events, the symbolic and historical significance of this project, not just for architects, has never been more compelling. Robert Arens is an Assistant Professor in the Architecture Department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
Henry Sanoff, AIA
"Democratic Design"
November 3rd, 2006
Henry Sanoff, AIA, Professor Emeritus, College of Design, North Carolina State University, is widely published and known for his teaching, work, and publications on community design and participation. Some of his many books include: 53 Research Papers in Social Architecture: 1963-2005; Programming and Participation in Architectural Design; Three Decades of Design and Community; Community Participation in Design and Planning; Creating Environments for Young Children, School Design, Integrating Programming Evaluation and Participation in Design, Visual Research Methods in Design, and Methods for Architectural Programming. He is the USA editor of the "Journal of Design Studies", and recognized as one of the founders of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA). His research has concentrated in the areas of social housing, children's environments, community arts, aging populations and community participation. Professor Sanoff has been a visiting lecturer and a visiting scholar at more than 85 institutions in the USA and abroad. He received the NCSU Holladay Medal of Excellence, Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Achievement Award, ACSA Architecture Distinguished Professor, ACSA Community Design Award, Fulbright Senior Specialists Award and the EDRA Honor and Service Awards. He won a Design Award and a Post Occupancy Evaluation Award for the Davidson School and the Millis Elementary School from the School Construction News/Design Share Awards.
Anthony Burke
"Media Meets Complexity"
November 17th 2006
Anthony Burke is a San Francisco-based Australian designer. He teaches digital design studios and seminar courses related to architecture, urban design, new media and technology as an Assistant Professor of Design at the University of California, Berkeley. He lectures and conducts digital media workshops internationally. He received his Bachelor of Architecture degree with honors from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and his MArch from Columbia University. Professor Burke has completed several small-scale domestic and commercial projects and has worked as an architectural designer in Hong Kong, Sydney and New York. Burke received an award for the Sydney Town Hall Precinct International Ideas Competition in 2000, and has published articles on technology and architecture in Australia.
Professor Burke is a member of the Organizing committee for the International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA San Jose 2006) Interactive City Group, and collaborates with Intel research labs on projects related to urban design and environmental computing. He has co-organized the Interactive City Summit Aug 06, Ex-Urban Noir (ubicomp workshop) Sept 06, and co-convened the international symposium "Distributed Form: Network Practice" in 2004. He is co-author of Network Practices: New Strategies in Architecture and Design due for release March 2007 by Princeton Architectural Press.
Steven Ehrlich, FAIA
"Steven Ehrlich Architects"
January 19th 2007
Steven Ehrlich, FAIA learned early on the significance of how architecture responds to the culture and the environment. Upon graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1969, Ehrlich spent six years living and working in Africa, serving for two years with the Peace Corps as their first architect in Marrakech, Morocco. He later traveled across the Sahara and taught architecture at Ahmandu Bello University in Nigeria. The lessons of indigenous building were instrumental in forming Ehrlich’s approach to design and continue to influence the firm’s work today.
Los Angeles, with its multi-cultural diversity, kinetic energy and open-minded nature has proven fertile ground for his unique brand of Modernism. Within the artistic Los Angeles milieu he has also championed the collaboration of artists and architects.
A visiting professor at USC, Ehrlich has been a guest critic at Harvard and Yale, and has lectured in China, Japan, Germany, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela.
Steven Ehrlich Architects was founded in 1979 and has been widely published and won numerous design awards including the 2003 California Firm of the Year, and seven National AIA Awards. Known for the diversity of its public and private works, the firm’s recent projects include a biotech research laboratory near M.I.T., a college campus in San Bernardino, and residences in Dubai and Santa Cruz.
Kalvin Platt
"Fifty Years of Design – The Trajectory of the SWA Group"
January 26th, 2007
Kalvin Platt is consulting principal and chairman of the SWA Group (Planning, Landscape Design, Urban Design) that he joined in 1967. He will be presenting SWA´s experience of over fifty years (1957-2007), the work they have on the boards, and what they expect to be doing in the next years.
The SWA Group has been widely recognized as one of the world’s leaders in the fields of planning, landscape architecture and urban design. The firm has offices in Sausalito, Laguna Beach, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Shanghai, which have produced thousands of national and international projects. Some SWA´s most famous plans and projects are: Golden Gate National Recreation Area Plan, San Diego Embarcadero Master Plan, Irvine Ranch Plan and the Village of Woodbridge in Irvine, Fashion Island in Newport Beach, Arizona Center in Phoenix, Worldwide Plaza in New York, Anaheim Resort District, Williams Square in Las Colinas, Santana Row in San Jose, Centro Shopping and Leisure Center in Oberhausen-Germany, Sun City Kashiba in Chiba-Japan, and projects for Stanford University, Soka University, and Tokyo University. The SWA has received numerous national and international awards for their work that was compiled in special editions of Land Forum (# 14; 2002) and Process Architecture #103 (1992).
Mr. Platt is a licensed architect with a master of city planning from Harvard School of Design, where he was director of the land development studio from 1980 to 1982. He is a fellow of the AIA, and a member of the American Institute of Planners, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Urban Land Institute where he was vice chairman of the sustainable development council. He is also a board member for the Cultural Landscape Foundation.
Joey Shimoda
Shimoda Design Group
February 1st, 2007
Shimoda is an alumnus of the Architecture Department here at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. After graduation he worked in several "star" studios around Los Angeles, including Morphosis, Frank O. Gehry, Marmol + Radziner, Johannes Von Tilburg and Partners, Keating Mann Jernigan Rottet, and DMJM Design. He also spent time in Europe working for Peter Wilson of the Buros von Bolles + Wilson. The Shimoda Design Group has a core staff of six and currently has projects underway in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Phoenix. Shimoda has taught at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and continues to participate in symposia and student reviews at USC, UCLA, SCI-Arc, Art Center College of Design, and Woodbury University. He is also an appointed Commissioner for the City of Los Angeles Affordable Housing Commission.
Eric Pfeiffer
Pfeiffer Design Lab
February 2nd, 2007
Eric Pfeiffer of Pfeiffer Design Lab is the author of the publication Bent Ply and designer of the ubiquitous Offi Mag Table, Wave Desk, and Perch Lounge will come down from the San Francisco Bay Area to lecture on his work in the realm of furniture and industrial design. Pfeiffer is also an alumnus, earning his degree in Architecture from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.
John Trautman
February 9th, 2007
John Trautman will discuss his award winning work and his just completed second accomplished building on the Cal Poly campus, the Bonderson Building in the College of Engineering.
Tom Wiscombe
EMERGENT
February 23rd, 2007
Born in La Jolla, California, Tom Wiscombe is one of the most significant young architects based in Los Angeles today. In 1999, he founded EMERGENT, a platform for researching issues of materiality, technology, and systems through built form. In 2003, EMERGENT won the competition for the renowned P.S.1/ MoMA Urban Beach project, which opened to critical acclaim, and won the New York Engineering Excellence Platinum Award for 2004. Also in 2004 EMERGENT was awarded the prestigious Architectural League of New York’s Young Architects Award before going on to win second place in the international competition for the Seoul Performing Arts Center in 2005.
Wiscombe’s work engages computer design and fabrication with one of the most spectacular technical facility of any architect of his generation. His building designs and renderings are formally exquisite while at the same time spatially provocative, sophisticated and pragmatic. EMERGENT’s approach is informed by contemporary models of biology and business. His work concentrates on propagating the logic of landscape, infrastructure, and network systems that negotiate between multiple interests and territories. His work specifically creates combined use of structural systems, mechanical systems, and cladding systems to create seductive high-performance architecture.
Prior to launching EMERGENT, Wiscombe was Chief Designer and Project Partner at Coop Himmelb(l)au for over 10years working directly with Principal Wolf Prix. He was in charge of various international projects, including the Dresden UFA Cinema Palace, completed in 1998, and the Lyon Musée des Confluences, the Akron Art Museum, and the BMW World, Munich.
Educated at UCLA and UC Berkeley, Wiscombe has taught design and technology at SCI-Arc, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. He was the Esherick Chair of Architecture at UC Berkeley in 2005.
Mark and Peter Anderson
ANDERSON + ANDERSON
March 2nd, 2007
With offices in Seattle and San Francisco, Anderson + Anderson Architecture is a respected, award-winning design firm with experience in a broad range of project types. Partners Mark Anderson and Peter Anderson started the firm as a design-build construction company in 1984. With a strong foundation in the practicalities of construction, they have since grown into a diversely experienced architecture firm collaborating with many other general contractors, manufacturers and construction professionals to provide clients with design excellence, high-quality execution, and experienced representation of the client’s interests throughout the construction process. Maintaining a relatively small design staff assures close personal attention to the firm's designs projects. Mark and Peter Anderson work together as the lead designers directing all of the firm’s projects, working closely with their clients and collaborators.
Close association with an experienced team of design, engineering, and construction associates provides a depth and range of expertise that has allowed them to accomplish many complex projects of varying scales with a high degree of economy, creativity and recognized excellence in both design and finished construction.
Neil Watson
Watercolor Workshop
April 28th , 2007
Neil Watson has drawn and painted continuously since childhood. Born and educated in Oxford, England, He practiced as a Hand Surgeon in Britain for more than 20 years, leaving insufficient time for his drawing. In 1988 he "quit the day job" and moved to the USA and has been making art, teaching art and writing about art ever since. His work has been shown in museums and galleries on both sides of the Atlantic. It has been accepted into many Regional and National shows and it has received numerous awards. In 1996 he exhibited more than 130 drawings and paintings in a 3-month-long one person show in Venice, Italy, which was visited by almost 10,000 people. This led to more than 90 of his images of the city being reproduced in a book about Venice entitled 'Seeking Venice'. This was originally published by Grafiche Vianello in Italian as 'Cercare Venezia' and has now been released in French as 'A la Recherche de Venise'.
His literary criticism, satire and verse have been published in the USA and in Europe. He has recently completed a 'TRIGRAFICA; A Drawing Trilogy', three books on drawing, each published on CD-ROM. His work is in private and corporate collections in 8 countries.
He has carried out numerous commissioned works, mainly of architectural subject matter, for private and corporate clients, and has produced cards, posters and prints. He has taught drawing and painting workshops, mainly on location, in the USA and Europe for many years. He has resided in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1998 and has been an instructor at the Academy of Art College since 2000.
Sarah Graham
agps.architecture
May 4th, 2007
With offices in Los Angeles and Zurich, agps.architecture continually produces award-winning architecture on both continents. Their work has been published in Austria, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Switzerland and the United States. In addition, they exhibit internationally, most notably the 2004 Biennale in Venice, Italy: Mostra Internazionale di Architettura.
Sarah Graham grew up in Portland, Oregon, attended Stanford for her undergraduate degree, and completed her architectural education at the Harvard GSD with a Masters of Architecture. For Graham, architectural design is not so much about drawing as it is about solving problems, embracing technology and adding the “poetics of everyday life.” She has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Southern California, the Harvard GSD, and in 2001 she was the Friedman Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.
Kevin Daly
Daly,Genik Architects
May 11th, 2007
Kevin Daly was born and raised in northern California. Mr. Daly received his undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1980 and his Master of Architecture from Rice University in 1985.
Mr. Daly practiced architecture in Berkeley, California and in Los Angeles with Hodgetts & Fung and Frank O. Gehry before associating with Chris Genik in 1989. Daly, Genik Architects is now a nine-person practice.
Mr. Daly has directed the design of a number of the firm's award-winning projects including the Valley Center House, the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, and the Mar Vista House. In addition to his architectural practice, Mr. Daly has taught at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, the University of California, Los Angeles, Arizona State University, the University of Southern California, and the University of California, San Diego. He has served on juries and lectured at a number of institutions including Rice University, the Vico Morcote in Switzerland, the Architectural League of New York, and the University of Michigan.
Since it’s founding in 1989, Daly, Genik Architects has developed collaborative relationships with clients in the arts, education, media, and science fields. The practice is distinguished by a commitment to solving challenges in built environments by the application of disciplined design principles and emergent technology. The firm provides efficient and responsive project management services while maintaining a high level of creative excellence.
Its two principals, Kevin Daly and Chris Genik, are recognized practitioners and are respected educators. Fusion of the architect's trained intellect with the craftsman's practical ingenuity is a defining element in Daly, Genik's approach to architectural design. Fluid and experimental, their work evolves out of empirical observation and collaborative effort, involving the participation of specialists in construction, engineering, component manufacturing, and landscape design.
The principals active involvement in the execution of their designs is clearly expressed in a number of projects whose interior and exterior spaces achieve the rigorous serenity of a refined yet practical aesthetic. The scope of their practice encompasses master plans for the adaptive reuse of large urban spaces, neighborhood designs for low-income housing, educational facilities for charter schools and universities, and unique residential spaces.
Stanley Saitowitz
Stanley Saitowitz Office
May 18th, 2007
Stanley Saitowitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and received his Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Witwatersrand in 1974. He received his Masters in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977. He is a Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught at numerous schools of architecture, including the Elliot Noyes Professor, Harvard University (1991-2), the Bruce Goff Professor, University of Norman, Oklahoma (1993), UCLA, Rice University, SCIARC, and University of Texas at Austin. He has given more than 200 public lectures in the United States and abroad. His first house was built in 1975, and together with Stanley Saitowitz Office, has completed many buildings and projects that have received national and international recognition. These have been residential, commercial and institutional, including houses, housing, museums, a winery, memorial, and urban promenades. Three books have been published on this work, and articles have appeared in many magazines and newspapers. His paintings, drawings and models have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums.