As Chief Architect and Chief Deputy City Engineer presiding over a group of 800+ architects and engineers, Deborah Weintraub has a big picture of LA infrastructure in mind when it comes to the river. She also has a fair amount of historical perspective, having overseen the implementation of the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan after it first issued RFPs in December of 2004. Additionally, she oversaw the design and construction of the river's new 6th Street Viaduct by Michael Maltzan'...
Nov 19, 2016•10 min
Steven Appleton and Catherine Gudis are some of Next Up's most active participants when it comes to physically being in the LA River. Appleton co-founded LA River Kayak Safari, which has lead over 6000 people on kayaking tours down the river. He's also a public artist, and has made work that engages with the river for more than 15 years—his "50 Clean Bottles of LA River Water" used a bespoke water wheel to pump the river's water into bottles, and clean it to potable levels. Gudis, while her core...
Nov 19, 2016•12 min
This week we're devoting our entire episode to the debacle that was AIA CEO Robert Ivy's statement in support of President-elect Donald Trump, and the ensuing fallout among AIA members and others within the architecture community. Joining us is Katherine Darnstadt, founder and principal at Chicago-based Latent Design, and the originator of the dissenting #NotMyAIA hashtag, tweeted in response to to Ivy's initial letter. To get the full background to the whole controversy, read our feature: Archi...
Nov 17, 2016•53 min
Our second conversation from 'Next Up: The LA River' is with Marissa Christiansen, Senior Policy Director of Friends of the Los Angeles River. FOLAR, as the non-profit is known, turned 30 this year, and was founded on the mission to "protect and restore the natural and historic heritage of the Los Angeles river and its riparian habitat through inclusive planning, education and wise stewardship." Its role in much of the river's discourse has often included reminding all parties involved that the ...
Nov 17, 2016•11 min
When Frank Gehry's office was first attached to the L.A. River's master plan and redevelopment, the river began attracting fresh attention over a project that had already been evolving for decades. This October, in an attempt to do justice to the river's complexity and history (and the accompanying urbanist discourse), Archinect hosted ' Next Up: The LA River '—a live podcasting interview series with an array of architects, planners, artists, and journalists with varying perspectives on the subj...
Nov 16, 2016•13 min
Recorded in the wake of Tuesday's election results, this episode got a bit emotional. Fred Scharmen —designer, researcher, and assistant professor at Morgan State University's School of Architecture and Planning in Baltimore—joins us to discuss the potentials and pitfalls of a technocratic urbanism, and whether the former king of cat memes can really offer anything to cities. Our conversation is largely in response to Fred's recent piece for Archinect, " Architects: If You Don't Start Disrupting...
Nov 10, 2016•40 min
Joining Miami's proud tradition of statement-parking projects by the likes of Herzog & de Meuron and Gehry Partners, Faulders Studio has a new garage-facade design set for Miami's formerly industrial Wynwood Arts District. Faulders joined us on the podcast to talk about the potentials of parking structures for local urbanism, the role of street art in the neighborhood, and how Miami is becoming a must-build place for globalized design....
Nov 04, 2016•51 min
The sudden death of Dame Zaha Hadid could not also mean the end of Zaha Hadid Architects. With major projects still ongoing all over the world, the firm had to keep things running strong, focusing on the future while managing grief. After working with Zaha for nearly thirty years, Patrik Schumacher has now taken over leadership at the firm, and joins us on the podcast to discuss what it was like collaborating with her "killer instinct", and how he can continue honoring the "DNA" of her. This epi...
Oct 27, 2016•52 min
Blair Kamin, Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune , has had a tempestuous relationship with Donald Trump for years. As a developer working in Chicago, Trump's buildings have been critiqued by Kamin, and as often happens when Trump is criticized, he does not shy away from firing back personal attacks—calling him "dopey" and "a lightweight" when Kamin decried the developer's decision to slap a 20-foot-tall "TRUMP" sign on his downtown Chicago hotel. But instances like...
Oct 20, 2016•53 min
We discuss the latest big news from the awards-world of architecture, as we saw Caruso St John take home the Stirling Prize for their Newport Street Gallery, and the Aga Khan Award recipients ranged from a female Muslim starchitect to lesser-known female Muslim architects. We also take a slanted look at the hilarious winners of the satirical "Good Walls Make Good Neighbors, Mr. Trump" ideas competition....
Oct 13, 2016•40 min
Architect Sean Lally of Weathers runs the podcast Night White Skies: "A podcast about architecture's future, as both Earth's environment and our human bodies are now open for design." The podcast is in its infancy, but Lally has already logged some really fascinating interviews with the likes of Timothy Morton , architect Mitchell Joachim , and architects/authors Geoffrey Thün & Kathy Velikov . Lally joins us on this week's show to talk about the podcasting+architecture game, and the archite...
Oct 06, 2016•50 min
Beginning today through October 1, Columbus, Indiana will celebrate its architectural history and identity with its very first Exhibit Columbus —an annual event alternating between a symposium and a design exhibition. Known for its rich architectural holdings of work by Eero and Eliel Saarinen, Kevin Roche , I.M. Pei , Deborah Berke , Richard Meier , Robert Venturi and others, Columbus has earned its "Athens of the prairie" tagline, and Exhibit Columbus hopes to honor that proud tradition into t...
Sep 29, 2016•37 min
Alvin Huang, founder and principal of Synthesis Design + Architecture in Los Angeles, joins us to talk about growing his practice into the award-winning firm it is today. Alvin dips back into his time in London, going to school at the AA and working with Zaha, and shares the terror and excitement that is starting your own firm. We also discuss taking criticism on social media, firm/teaching/life balance, and computation's role in design.
Sep 22, 2016•32 min
In a landmark decision last month, Columbia University graduate students won the right to unionize in a case filed against the National Labor Relations Board. As a result, graduate students in private universities across the U.S. now have the right to collectively bargain. What effect does this have on architecture student labor, and the valuation of architecture overall? We're joined this week by special guest A.L. Hu, a third-year GSAPP MArch student and key organizer with Graduate Workers of ...
Sep 15, 2016•31 min
We're joined this week by Devin Gharakhanian, co-founder and co-creative director of the online platform SuperArchitects, to discuss his work in architecture media and community-building, alongside issues troubling architecture education and the public's perception of the profession. Gharakhanian was inspired to start SuperArchitects to share architecture theses globally, feeling they are under-appreciated and underexposed. Frustrated by the gap between education and practice he experienced afte...
Sep 08, 2016•44 min
Closing out August's special theme of Games , we're joined this week by Quilian Riano to talk through all the ways games can help architects reimagine not only their designs and design processes, but also their own role in the system and structures of city building. We discuss Quilian's recent piece for Archinect on his own work with games in pedagogy, practice and protest, and share our other experiences at the intersection of games and architecture....
Sep 01, 2016•37 min
This week's show is dedicated to Louisville , and we're delighted to share the mic with longtime Archinect favorite Steven Ward . Steven is an architect and partner at Studio Kremer Architects , teacher and architecture critic/cheerleader for the local independent paper LEO Weekly . We discuss his recent writings, in particular his survey of the recently completed Speed Art Museum , and the differences between local architecture criticism vs national criticism. We also find our what's going on w...
Aug 25, 2016•24 min
The term "zoning" recently celebrated its 100-year anniversary in the U.S.'s city planning parlance, and many of our News postings recently have had to do with its fraught, wonky legacy. From racial segregation to housing discrimination to Pokémon Go trespassers, we dip into the debate around zoning, with special guest Mitch McEwen.
Aug 18, 2016•29 min
Peter Zumthor released new renderings for his LACMA redesign last week, and boy are people not impressed! We talk about the "undercooked" look of Zumthor's snaking concrete inkblot plan for the museum, and experiment with a new segment devoted to ranting. You've been warned.
Aug 11, 2016•37 min
The last few weeks have been a bit of a downer—we had a big ol' roundtable on how Brexit is changing architecture practice and education , the Democratic and Republican National Conventions raged, and Rio is coping (somewhat) with its Olympic stress. Now, we're in need of some lighter fare. We wanted to take a moment in the summer heat to check-in with what Donna and Ken have been up to, and pass on some of our own recommendations for what to read and listen to this summer. Also featuring: Ken d...
Aug 04, 2016•42 min
We're now about a month past the UK's historic 'Brexit' vote to leave the European Union, and, well, lots has happened. David Cameron stepped down as Prime Minister, and was replaced two weeks ago by fellow Conservative, Theresa May. The economy has drastically slowed down as the value of the pound against the dollar dipped to historic lows, and while there's plenty of gloomy prospects, there are even more unknowns. To check in on how UK architecture is getting on, and it's sights for a post-EU ...
Jul 28, 2016•44 min
When Indianapolis began demolishing its RCA Dome in 2008, Michael Bricker saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To save the stadium's white, Teflon-coated fiberglass roof from the landfill, Bricker salvaged 13 acres of it, and turned it into shade structures for the city, as well as locally-designed accessories. With this project, People for Urban Progress was born. Bricker is the Founder and Executive Director of People for Urban Progress , aka PUP, based in Indianapolis. The non-profit is focu...
Jul 21, 2016•36 min
This week on the podcast, Julia Ingalls joins us to discuss the byzantine considerations behind how architects charge for work, and shares some helpful guidelines from her recent piece about how residential architecture fee rates are determined . We also dip into the recent $3M lawsuit against Architecture for Humanity for allegedly misusing restricted funds. After suddenly going bankrupt last year, many of AFH's volunteer cells have continued operating, and an offshoot organization, Open Archit...
Jul 14, 2016•26 min
Wrapping up our special editorial theme for June 2016, Privacy , Archinect writers Julia Ingalls and Nicholas Korody join us on the podcast this week to discuss two of their recent features—Julia's piece on banking security with input from a reformed robber, and Nicholas' interview with the architecture firm that moonlights as a government whistleblower , posting hundreds of secret documents online....
Jul 07, 2016•41 min
Last Thursday, Great Britain voted to leave the European Union, with a margin of 52% to 48%. The result was a huge surprise—especially for those in creative industries like architecture, many of whom publicly supported the Remain campaign. While no official exit strategy is yet in place, within hours of the 'Brexit' vote becoming clear, the British pound dropped 10% in value against the US dollar (the lowest it's been since the 1980s). Prime Minister David Cameron resigned shortly after, and man...
Jun 30, 2016•25 min
In light of the recent killing of 49 people at Pulse, a gay night club in Orlando known to many as a center for Queer and Latinx culture, our focus for this week’s podcast is the role and significance of queer spaces in creating community and culture. We wanted to use this time to encourage constructive discussion of why recognizing, and preserving (in some way), these 'third spaces' is so important. Not just for those who identify as queer or the Latinx community, but for creating diverse, welc...
Jun 23, 2016•40 min
This week, we’re taking a moment to catch-up with what’s happened on Archinect lately, and share some endorsements—we discuss our latest interview with Snøhetta , our ongoing coverage of the Venice Biennale , student work on refugee camps , and more. Next week, in light of the shooting death of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando, we plan to discuss the significance of accessible queer spaces, for all members of a city community....
Jun 16, 2016•24 min
This year's winning Serpentine Pavilion, designed by BIG , came with an architectural posse—for the first time in the Serpentine Pavilion's history, the annual competition also featured four "Summer Houses" designed by other international architects. The pavilion and summer houses open to the public tomorrow on the Serpentine Galleries' lawn in London's Royal Kensington Gardens, and we discuss our initial take on their at once surprising and familiar elements. Get briefed on the pavilion and the...
Jun 09, 2016•36 min
Andrea Dietz spent four days in Venice reporting on the Biennale's opening for us, and brought back her reflections on the hallowed event—in all its chaotic, problematic, inspiring, messy glory—to discuss with us on the podcast. Amidst the fray, one thing came out clearly: the map is not the territory.
Jun 02, 2016•31 min
Donna, Ken and Fred all converged in the meatspace that was the AIA National Convention last week in Philadelphia – to explore the massive Expo floor, visit local architecture, vote on resolutions and oh yes, those keynotes (!) from Julia Louis-Dreyfus , Neri Oxman and Rem Koolhaas . Spoiler alert: Rem's was the most boring. For more information about the resolutions up for debate at the convention, check out our episode with Gregory Walker covering unpaid internships and WTC-truthers. And don't...
May 26, 2016•53 min
