Photo credit: Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture / Christina Brown This past fall, the Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture (SoA) inaugurated EX-CHANGE, an end-of-semester exhibition celebrating student work. On 4 May 2018, the school opened the second EX-CHANGE, which featured a week-long exhibition followed by a day of discussions with Ming Fung, AIA, principal, and co-founder of Los Angeles-based Hodgets+Fung and director of Academic Affairs at SCI-Arc; Mitch McEwen, assistant professor at Princeton University School of Architecture, principal of McEwen Studio and co-founder of A(n) Office; and Amy Kulper, associate professor and head of the Department of Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. Discussions on Saturday, May 5 covered issues of pedagogy and practice framed by questions posed...

In my first week of graduate school, the department chair told our cohort – “What we do here is not normal. That’s why we provide student health services.” He then launched into a listing of the various services provided by the university for student wellness, reciting a litany of different offices and facilities for safety and security, mental, physical and emotional health. Over time, we’ve come to think of student wellness as a set of disparate health services provided for student well-being. This change has largely resulted from specific trends and changes in college healthcare needs, such as rising stress and anxiety levels among students, attention deficit disorders, suicide awareness and prevention, and increasing levels of violence and sexual assault on...

Securing basic credit and even modest visibility for design projects is a frequent frustration for architects. If your firm does not have the resources for a high-impact publicity campaign, a few simple steps can still help you receive appropriate credit. The process does not have to be time-consuming or expensive, but it does require a little creativity and follow-through. Write it down One of the first and most important steps begins with your contract. Include a requirement that all project publicity will mention your firm. Whether your firm is the “prime,” part of a design-build or JV partnership, design architect or architect-of-record, be sure this is addressed in your professional agreement. Next, create a solid description of the project. While...

Attendees having some fun in front of the Pennsylvania State Capitol.  Image credit AIA Pennsylvania. Tuesday, April 17th members of AIA Pittsburgh joined with architects from across the state, led by AIA Pennsylvania, for Architects’ Day 2018.  Nearly 50  architects joined in for this advocacy day in Harrisburg where they met with senators and congressmen from their respective districts. It was a busy day for Pittsburgh members who met with Senator Randy Vulakovich, Senator Jay Costa’s staff, Senator Wayne Fontana, Representative Jake Wheatley, Representative Paul Costa, Representative Dom Costa, Representative Frank Dermody, Representative Ed Gainey, Representative Harold English, and Representative Michael Turzai. In order to promote architects’ role in the health, safety, and welfare of the public, attendees dropped off over 200 educational...

Image credit CUDC/MOOS. The theme of Build Pittsburgh 2018 was “design with purpose.”  This year’s Keynote Address was given by Terry Schwarz, FAICP to a crowded ballroom of early risers who gathered to hear about design culture and community engagement from the director of Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC).  Schwarz began her presentation by proposing that community design does not need to be about the community OR design (discuss!) but that placemaking could, in fact, include both facets working together.  Portions of Schwarz’s keynote address are captured here. Schwarz began by showing examples of her early fascination with Bauhaus design and then showed how residents repurposed the spare spaces in Mies van der Rohe’s Layfette Park in Detroit...

These days Pittsburgh and Brooklyn share a similar dilemma: the rapid acceleration of a real estate market that makes affordable housing development and preservation highly challenging for nonprofits.  Recently Columns spoke with Kuza Woodard, Director of Real Estate for the nonprofit advocacy group IMPACCT Brooklyn about the creative partners and funding mechanisms that have aided his organization in its mission to maintain and develop affordable housing options in Central Brooklyn. Maya Henry, Editor, Columns (MH): Tell us a little bit about IMPACCT Brooklyn and your role there. Kuza Woodard (KW): IMPACCT Brooklyn has been around since 1964, so over 50 years providing all kinds of community improvement services in Central Brooklyn.  Our focus areas are affordable housing, home ownership, as well as...

We love to ask our members why they belong to AIA.  Time is precious and we find that every answer is a little bit different, but the common themes are about the value of community and the strength architects have as a collective voice.  We asked the AIA Board of Directors, including new President Mike Gwin, AIA of Rothschild Doyno Collaborative, why they participate, and here we share those responses with you. Michael Gwin, AIA, President Rothschild Doyno Collaborative Time is valuable, why AIA? I have found that the answer is always the same. Every time I participate or volunteer time with the AIA I am rewarded. The experiences and skills of the people that I have connected with have helped...

The Carnegie Mellon University chapter of Freedom by Design has taken on their first project to introduce and disperse weatherization kits into homes across Pittsburgh. These kits provide families with a series of means to help insulate their home and a booklet outlining the importance of this cost-saving process. The long winter of Pittsburgh causes high heating costs for many residents across the state. Creating energy efficient spaces benefits the resident both financially and thermally. It is important for one to understand the role they can take in keeping heating costs low and their home warm. The FBD team has prototyped and established a packaged kit organized to assist homeowners and renters across a series of communities in Pittsburgh. The...

Passive house standards apply to this multi-family project, and 2015 Architecture Honor Award winner, in Uptown. PROJECT: Uptown Lofts on Fifth CLIENT: ACTION-Housing, Inc. ARCHITECTURE FIRM: FortyEighty Architecture ENGINEERS: Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, Inc.; Keystone Structural Solutions; Iams Consulting, LLC CONTRACTORS: Mosites Construction Company PHOTOGRAPHER: FortyEighty Architecture Passive House Western Pennsylvania (PHWPA) received a $25,000 grant from the West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund (WPPSEF). The contribution will be used to secure space in Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center for the North American Passive House Network Conference on October 17-22, 2018. Passive House applies a set of design principles used to attain a quantifiable and rigorous level of energy efficiency. As a result, Passive House buildings offer tremendous...

10. Plaster ReCast is ongoing as part of Copy + Paste: Hall of Architecture at the Carnegie Museum of Art through May 6, 2018.  Interested in reviewing this exhibit in 2018?  We’d love an architect member to participate.  Contact Maya Henry at mhenry@aiapgh.org. Plaster ReCast at the Carnegie Museum of Art 9. There is not one answer to why our members belong to AIA.  Read the diverse viewpoints in this round-up. I Belong to the AIA Because … 8. A roundtable discussion with the architect and developer of the Design Award-winning Penn Mathilda Development.  What can we learn from this development and how can we build more beatiful and functional affordable housing in Pittsburgh? ACTION-Housing’s Penn Mathilda Development 7. Hands...