Fukushima, Part 1

Almost a year ago Japan suffered damage caused by an incredibly strong earthquake and tsunami. We all learned what transpired during that period from images of the destroyed Fukushima Nuclear power plant, constant videos on YouTube of the tsunami wave, and stories about the subsequent loss of life and widespread destruction. Initially I thought that I had a pretty good perspective of what occurred, but I soon learned that I had no concept of what really happened.

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Beyond the Gap between Art and Architecture

Over the course of my career I have had the opportunity to work with several artists on public art projects that attempted to bridge the gap between art and architecture. The projects ranged from Acconci Studio's Newtown Creek project, in Brooklyn NY, which ushers the exterior environment into the visitorscentre, to Dennis Oppenheim's Ventura Bus Home, Ventura CA, where the bus shelter transforms from a bus to a home conceptually joining public and private space. This past year I was involved in a project with Gensler's Education and Culture Studio which did more than bridge a gap; it literally sliced right through the architecture.

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Size Matters Not: Designing Sustainable Airport Terminals

Sustainability, air travel, and India are not three concepts that pop to mind as single thought, but I believe that will change when the new Gensler designed terminals at Chennai International Airport in March of 2012.

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London doesn’t need a floating park on the Thames, but would it benefit from one?

In cities across the world you can find all sorts of public structures that residents don’t need. Take the Eiffel Tower or the Washington Monument, for example. Neither provides Parisians or Washingtonians with food, shelter or any of the other amenities necessary to sustain life, but I bet you won’t find a single a person in either city that would say the monuments make Paris or Washington, D.C. worse off.

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Little by Little, We Will Arrive: Rebuilding a School in Haiti

In the wake of one of the worst earthquakes in Haiti’s history, the world focused its attention on the extensive damage to the country’s capital city, Port-au-Prince. What went somewhat overlooked was that the catastrophe of equal magnitude that was unfolding on Haiti’s southern coast in the city of Jacmel, where as many as 70 percent of the homes were damaged or destroyed. The images left no doubt in our minds - we knew we needed to put our talents to use to help Haitians recover from this terrible disaster.

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