Site Visit

Ashley and Erik speak with Hiba Bhatty about life under quarantine at home in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. Hiba is an Pakistani-American architect, comedian and youth mentor. She works at Valerio Dewalt Train (VDT) in Chicago, and has performed sketch comedy, stand-up and improv at The Second City, IO Theater, and Steppenwolf Theatre.

October 18, 2020

QUARANTINING IN THE SUBURBS WITH HIBA BHATTY

Ashley and Erik speak with Germane Barnes about life under quarantine at home in Miami, Florida. Germane is an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Director of the Community, Housing & Identity Lab (CHIL) at the University of Miami and principal of the research and design practice, Studio Barnes.

June 26, 2020

QUARANTINING IN MIAMI WITH GERMANE BARNES

Ashley and Erik speak with Carrie Norman, Assistant Professor of architecture at Tulane University, and co-founder of the New Orleans and Chicago-based architecture and design collaborative, Norman Kelley, about life under quarantine at home in New Orleans, Louisiana.

June 24, 2020

QUARANTINING IN NEW ORLEANS WITH CARRIE NORMAN

Ashley and Erik visit the McMurty Building with Sunil Bald, Associate Dean and Adjunct Professor at the Yale School of Architecture, and parter in the New York-based Studio SUMO.

October 1, 2019

THE MCMURTY BUILDING WITH SUNIL BALD

Ashley and Erik visit the Alcoa Building with Raymund Ryan, curator of architecture at the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Heinz Architectural Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

September 15, 2019

THE ALCOA BUILDING WITH RAYMUND RYAN

Raymund Ryan is the curator of architecture at the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Heinz Architectural Center in Pittsburgh. An architect, critic and curator, Ray’s work focuses on the architecture and unique urban characteristics of Pittsburgh, and produces exhibitions that attempt to move the often forgotten cities beyond the coasts, like Pittsburgh, to the forefront of architectural discourse.

On today’s episode, we discuss our visit to the Alcoa Building in downtown Pittsburgh. Designed by Harrison and Abramovitz, the Alcoa Building is one of Pittsburgh’s most notable skyscrapers, celebrated for its structural and material ingenuity, and representative of the city’s storied history as one of the nation’s most important hubs for wealth, manufacturing and technological advancements.

Ashley and Erik visit Airtime with Anya Sirota, Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and principal of Akoaki.

August 1, 2019

AIRTIME WITH ANYA SIROTA

Anya Sirota is an architectural designer, researcher and educator. With her partner, Jean Louis Farges, Anya directs the Detroit based studio Akoaki. Through a distinct synthesis of aesthetics, social enterprise and cultural programming, the practice has established a reputation for innovation in the urban realm. The work, grounded in an affection for collective, unrestricted and inclusive experiences, has recently been featured in exhibitions at the Vitra Design Museum, the Saint Etienne International Design Biennial and the Detroit Institute of Art. Anya currently teaches at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where she directs the Michigan Preparatory Program in Detroit.

On Today’s Site Visit, we discuss a recent trip we took to Airtime in Ann Arbor, Michigan - an interior trampoline park popular for kids birthday parties, gymnastics training or simply exerting some pent up energy. We began by asking Anya to explain why she chose Airtime for today’s Site Visit, and how the building has come to represent a new medium through which she has been able to understand architecture, program and its cultural implications.

Ashley and Erik visit the U.S. Air Force Academy campus in Colorado Springs, CO with Paul Andersen, Clinical Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago and director of Independent Architecture.

September 1, 2018

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY WITH PAUL ANDERSEN

Paul Andersen is the director of Independent Architecture. His projects range from cruciform bubble gum columns to almost ordinary houses. Paul teaches at UIC and previously taught at the Di Tella, the Harvard GSD, and Cornell University. He has been a guest curator at the MCA Denver and the Biennial of the Americas, a Fulbright Specialist in Architecture, and is the author of The Architecture of Patterns and Curve Culture.

On Today’s Site Visit, we return to Colorado and discuss our visit to the US Air Force Academy campus located in Colorado Springs. Built between 1958 and 1968, the campus spans almost 20,000 acres of land on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, about 60 miles south of Denver. Designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, the US Air Force Academy campus abandons the traditional architectural styles typical of the country’s other military academy buildings and instead, embraces a Modernist approach. The massiveness of the campus, along with the austerity and simplicity of its buildings, speaks to the messaging the US Air Force Academy and the country as a whole sought to display during the nation’s post-WWII era. Paul’s interest in the campus ranges from how its material characteristics relate to the surrounding environment, to the influence national politics had over the academy’s design. The Air Force Academy Campus, along with Colorado’s role in contemporary architectural discourse, have inspired much of Paul’s interests and work.

Ashley and Erik visit Downtown Denver with Kevin Hirth, Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning, and director of KEVIN HIRTH co. 

July 1, 2018

DOWNTOWN DENVER WITH KEVIN HIRTH

Kevin Hirth is the Director of Kevin Hirth Company and  Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning. Kevin holds a Master's of Architecture with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor's of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia. Upon graduation, Kevin was granted the singular honor of receiving both the Harvard Faculty Design Award and AIA Henry Adams Medal. In 2017 he was awarded the League Prize by the Architectural League of New York.

On today’s Site Visit, we are going to discuss our recent tour of downtown Denver. Some highlights of the tour included Phillip Johnson’s Wells Fargo Center and Roche Dinkeloo’s Denver Performing Arts Complex. These buildings, which were an extension of a larger master planning initiative led by Pei, Cobb, Freed & Partners, play an important role in contextualizing the city within the dramatic landscape of Colorado. Completed in 1983, the Wells Fargo Center is currently the third tallest tower in Denver and among several of Johnson’s famous towers located throughout the US. The Denver Performing Arts Complex, which was completed in 1979, is a massive performing arts center with ten performance spaces and home to a handful of Colorado’s music and theater companies. These buildings, along with the architectural character of the city, have inspired much of Kevin’s work, his interest in history, urbanism, representation and materiality. 

Ashley and Erik visit the Bounce Milwaukee with Whitney Moon, Assistant Professor of Architecture at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where she teaches architectural history, theory, and design. 

April 1, 2018

BOUNCE MILWAUKEE WITH WHITNEY MOON

Whitney Moon is Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she teaches architectural history and theory, as well as design studios. Her research interests reside in 20 th and 21 st century art and architecture, with an emphasis on theatricality, performance and ephemeral works. Currently, she is working on a collection of essays about the rise and fall of pneumatic architecture in the 1960s and 70s entitled “Who Let the Air Out?” Moon’s writings have been published in JAE, Dialectic, Places, Room One Thousand, and The Other Architect, with a forthcoming essay in PRAXIS. A registered architect in California and Wisconsin, Moon earned her Ph.D. in Architectural History & Theory from University of California, Los Angeles, and B.Arch from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

On today’s Site Visit, we discuss our recent trip to Bounce Milwaukee, an indoor adventure playground that hosts a wide variety of activities including an inflatable sports arena, a laser tag course, a rock climbing wall and other attractions geared towards a broad audience of patrons. Located just off the city’s North-South freeway, Bounce Milwaukee is a destination for kids and adults alike, offering an exciting environment for birthday parties or rainy Saturdays complete with alcoholic beverages and snacks for adults. The character of Bounce Milwaukee speaks directly to Whitney’s passion for pneumatic architecture, the term used to describe membrane structures stabilized by the pressure of compressed air. First conceptualized in the 1960's, pneumatic structures were proposed as a progressive and lightweight alternative to standard construction techniques. They have since been utilized across a diverse assortment of professions, as infrastructure for factory work to military operations used as decoys in times of war.

Ashley and Erik visit the Monadnock building with Stewart Hicks, Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a co-founder of Design With Company. 

March 1, 2018

THE MONADNOCK BUILDING WITH STEWART HICKS

This episode of Site Visit was recorded live in Design with Company’s office, which is located on the Monadnock building’s 14th floor. Erected in 1893, the Monadnock building, designed by two notable Chicago architecture firms Burnham & Root and Holabird & Roche, is considered the world’s tallest load-bearing brick building. The building is prolific in terms of the revolutionary technology employed in its construction, one of the signature contributions of Chicago’s historical architecture. Other notable structures located within proximity to the tower include the Harold Washington Library designed by Thomas Beeby, the Arts Institute of Chicago and Millennium Park. The Monadnock building has evolved into an icon for the city, with its purple-brown brick, thickened street-level walls, and limited ornamentation. Stewart’s passion for the building has played a role throughout his work, and particularly through his interests in architectural legibility, and the public’s engagement with design.

Stewart Hicks is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a co-founder of Design With Company, a practice he leads with Allison Newmeyer in Chicago. Design with Company’s work focuses on how literature and architecture intersect through fiction, character, type, or metaphor and how these themes can translate into installations, speculative urban scenarios, temporary pavilions and designs for buildings.