Arcitectural Pilgrimage | Fallingwater

Each month until December the AIA will run a feature piece on Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece on Bear Run creek in rural Pennsylvania. The six part series will explore all things Fallingwater.

Two years ago, on a brilliant October morning, two colleagues and I set off from New York City (the images above are courtesy of them, Jimmy Chang and Yen-Ming Lee, as my camera died upon arrival at Fallingwater). Six hours later we were observing for ourselves the iconic image heretofore only seen in the many Frank Lloyd Wright books one receives from friends and family when they find out you like architecture and are from the Midwest.

I had visited the Willey House in Minneapolis and the Johnson Wax Headquarters in Racine, WI so I had a certain expectation of what this visit would entail. We would be walked around by a guide, we would take photos, we would respect the quality of the work, and we would get back in our car.

Instead I was awestruck.

It’s tough to compose that sentence and have the reader not think I’m injecting hyperbole, but that was my honest reaction. The building was destined to be on that site and be composed as it was composed. Further, it was seemingly made to be visited in the fall. The way the building’s palette interacts with the oranges, reds, and browns of nature’s palette in the fall creates a visual harmony. The trail that meanders around the property offers both glimpses and grand vistas of the building.

Not only is it a great piece to be viewed it is an equally great place to view from. The expansive balconies open to views of the creek and the ravine it cuts through. The circulation areas frame natural vignettes. The interior spaces offer a great variety of spatiality, something I greatly enjoy about Frank Lloyd Wright’s work and appreciate when it is found in architecture in general. The living area on the first level leans toward the panoramic. It is architectural space as a widescreen viewer. Conversely, the stair, hallways, and bedrooms are short and intimate. To put it in aspect ratio terms, the living space is a 16:9 and the stair, bedrooms, and hallways are a 4:3.

The restoration of the building has left it immaculate even though it is traversed by 120,000 visitors each year. I highly recommend that you make the journey to take in one of the great pieces of American architecture, and to be one of those 120,000 people in the near future.

Adam Regn Arvidson, ASLA l L.Architecture l Aqua's Roof Garden

This is Aqua:


It's a nearly-complete residential tower in Chicago's brand new Lakeshore East mega-development, designed by Studio Gang and obviously best known for those undulating (aquatically-inspired, might we say) balconies. Images of this groundbreaking addition to Chicago's venerable skyline are hardly rare, but less well known is this:


It's a 80,000 square foot roof garden on top of the third floor. The rendering is by Loewenberg Architects, a local firm that is primarily the design arm of Aqua's development company. The garden itself is the work of Wolff Landscape Architecture, whose offices are mere blocks away on Michigan Avenue.

A few weeks ago, I toured it with Wolff's Ben Baker, who gave me the stats: a 1/5 mile running track, pool, fire pits, a yoga garden, and Styrofoam-supported berms up to eight feet tall. The whole thing is inspired by the work of Roberto Burle Marx, and is comprised of biomorphic raised beds with radiused corners. Here it is under construction:


The garden is one of Aqua's biggest selling points, according to marketing vice president Tricia VanHorn. She told me that "luxury is out; no one wants to pay for it. It's all about lifestyle now." Lifestyle, indeed. Yoga gardens? Sounds pretty luxurious.

But whatever you call it, to me it's the essence of L.Architecture: the seamlessness of building and landscape. Aside from the expression of the amorphic, curvilinear building balconies in the roof terrace planting beds, the landscape and building share some functional synergy. The terrace is the view from the building, so anything but a well-composed landscape would detract. The spaces within the building that directly access the terrace are the for-rent community rooms (which spill directly out into the large grill-and-gazebo areas) and the fitness center (one floor below and connected to the roof by a stairway in an open atrium).

But the building and landscape also work together from a marketing / sales standpoint. As we stood amidst the raw concrete and Styrofoam, VanHorn suggested to me that while the building brings people to the door, it's the amenities that sell the condos.

Have you seen other good examples of L.Architecture? Drop me a hint and I'll get more info and post it here.

True Sustainability

I visited an ad hoc elementary school in Surakarta that used an old semi, a shipping container, a bus and train car as class rooms. The children had adorned every inch of them, painting murals and plastering them with homework assignments and art projects. The entire school was off every grid and built from virtually 100% recycled content. It made me think how silly it would be to even attempt LEED certification for a place like this. USGBC hasn't conceived of a rating high enough to encapsulate the social, environmental and economic innovation of this place. And so began a clearer sense for me of what true sustainability might be.

I suppose, we first have to ask ourselves what we're trying to sustain. To think we have the power to save the planet is probably a bit arrogant. And if we really wanted to, we might quickly conclude the planet is perfectly capable of sustaining itself with or without us. So, sustainability is really about sustaining ourselves, the human race, not because we're selfish, but simply because it's all we're capable of controlling. Of course the fear of this mentality is the pitfall of preserving human life at all costs. However, the one distinction we now make, versus decades ago, is that we are a part of nature rather than in opposition to it. We know the importance of a balanced ecosystem in our own survival.

This might lead us to see sustainability as the continuing survival of the human race through preservation of the environment. Wandering through that tiny school, though, made me believe sustainability is not purely biological, but rather the capacity for the human race to preserve humanity.

Perhaps sustainability should be less concerned with natural science and more with global health, social equity and economic stability. Perhaps, if we work to preserve humanity, we will inherently achieve ecological balance, just like that small school on the island of Java.

Guest Post | Chuck Liddy

There is more attention now being focused on the Fort Snelling Upper Post (July/August Architecture Minnesota, pages 42-47) area than at any time in the past 30 years. Since 2007, both the National Park Service and National Trust for Historic Preservation have awarded grants—NPS to help mothball the structures and NTHP to define new development locations—and the State Legislature has also provided rehabilitation funds. There also finally is dialogue and coordination taking place between the DNR, Hennepin County, NPS, MHS, and other area stakeholders; and the County is currently soliciting proposals for LRT Station Area Master Planning services for the entire Ft. Snelling area east of the LRT line, south of the Mississippi River, west of the Minnesota River, and north of the airport. The Master Plan will further identify where and what type of new development in the area may be appropriate and at what density. For example, more intensive new commercial and residential development closer to the LRT line and outside of the historic district may help economically with less intensive and more appropriate new development and building reuse within the landmark area.

The existing buildings at the Upper Post currently cover approximately 10 percent of the land outside of the golf course and ball fields, and although nearly 35 acres of land where new buildings could be built on the Upper Post have been identified by the NTHP funded study, they are concentrated in the southwest corner of the site on the current golf course and in the southeast corner behind the barracks buildings. Building reuses should be carefully considered to fit the building, not the other way around. New development coverage should be similar to the existing, 10%, and heights should generally be limited to those of the existing buildings on the Upper Post so that new development doesn’t dwarf the historic buildings and open space.

Events | UMore Park

Above: Concrete remnants of the Gopher Ordnance Works (Photo by Brandon Stengel)

We've already written about the strange history of the Gopher Ordnance Works, a WWII ammunition factory which now exists only as 5,000 desolate acres of Rosemount, Minnesota.

At the monthly AIA Minneapolis luncheon on Thursday, June 18th, you can hear about its future. Jeff McMenimen from HKGi will give an overview of the Concept Master Plan for UMore Park, a new sustainable community planned for the area.

Click here for more details about the event.

Above: Proposed neighborhood center at UMore Park (Rendering courtesy of HKGi)

The Other World

I know the paradigm of three worlds still exists, perhaps the more culturally sensitive term now is "developing nations". Either way, it seems clear to me that there are two, and they co-exist in every country throughout the world now. Call it urbanization, globalization, or any of a host of -ations you can muster. What's clear is the growing contrast between the rich and the poor in the world. Today, 85% of the world's population makes less than $5 a day while 10% makes more than $50 a day. With only 5% of the population now making up the 10 fold difference, it seems pretty clear that the second world has all but disappeared. There is no more global middle class.

Driving through Jakarta, the urban landscape tells the same story with seas of slums and luxurious high rises as their backdrop amidst clouds of smog. On that journey to the airport, a simple, albeit phenomenally complex, truth was revealed to me. The cloud of smog comes from our world, the $50+ world, that consumes too much. And the massive spread of preventable disease comes from the other world.

Perhaps sustainability needs a new, practical definition. If we really want to make the world better, we should probably just design ways of living that consume less. And if we really want to preserve humanity, we should probably just focus on designing public health.

Community Oven | Part 3 of 3

On May 8th students and faculty from the College of Design, as well as Casa De Esperanza staff and supporters turned out to celebrate the completion of the oven (more images can be seen in the slideshow at right). The students then presented their design proposals for the reconfiguration of the shelter's outdoor spaces.

Funded in part by the architecture firm of Horty Elving, the oven will stand as a functional connection to traditional Latino culture.

Leaders of the course, adjunct instructors Marcelo Valdes and Benjamin Ibarra-Sevilla, will be featured as Citizen Architects in an upcoming issue of Architecture Minnesota. Look for their profile to appear this fall.