Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto
Reiser + Umemoto RUR Architecture
October 25, 2011
Running time: 47:43

Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto, principals of Reiser + Umemoto RUR Architecture, present 0-14. Founded in 1986, Reiser + Umemoto’s New York City-based practice has an international collection of projects, yet considers each as the continuation of an ongoing inquiry, delving into relationships between architecture, territory, and systems of distribution.

Recent projects include O-14, a 22-story exoskeletal office tower in Dubai, and residences in Jerusalem, New York, and New Jersey. The firm’s current work includes projects commissioned through two recently won international competitions: the Taipei Pop Music Center and the Kaohsiung Port Terminal, both scheduled to begin construction in 2012.

Their O-14 Building has received numerous honors, including the Concrete Industry Board’s 2009 Award of Merit and the American Council of Engineering Companies’ 2009 Diamond Award. A monograph of the project, O-14: Projection and Reception, is currently in production by AA Publications. Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto were awarded the Chrysler Award for Excellence in Design in 1999 and received the Academy Award in Architecture by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2000. In 2008 they were awarded the Presidential Citation from The Cooper Union for outstanding practical and theoretical contributions to the field of Architecture, and in April 2011, they were honored with the John Hejduk Award, also from The Cooper Union.

Both partners have taught at a number of academic institutions. Reiser is currently a Professor of Architecture and director of graduate studies for the M.Arch program at Princeton University’s School of Architecture.

Michael Van Valkenburgh
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
November 22, 2011
Running time: 22:47

In this excerpt, Michael Van Valkenburgh presents two projects,  one for Cornell University and another for Princeton University. Based in Brooklyn and Cambridge, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) is a landscape architecture firm, which works on projects in scale from the city to the campus to the garden. MVVA’s commissions have sought to achieve an “ecological urbanism,” with projects such as the Master Plans for Brooklyn Bridge Park and Wellesley College, and built work like Mill Race Park and Allegheny Riverfront Park.

The office, led by its three principals, Laura Solano, Matthew Urbanski, and Michael Van Valkenburgh with a staff of 65, works closely with urban planners, architects, engineers, and ecologists. The firm’s projects have received numerous honors, including the ASLA Design Medal from the American Society of Landscape Architects; the Brendan Gill Prize from the Municipal Art Society of New York City; Progressive Architecture Awards; and awards from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Park Service, and the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada. MVVA has also won multiple high-profile design competitions including Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House, the Lower Don Lands project in Toronto, and The City + The Arch + The River competition for St. Louis and East St. Louis. Van Valkenburgh received the 2003 National Design Award in Environmental Design from the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and was the 2010 recipient of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Van Valkenburgh earned a B.S. in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University’s College of Agriculture, and a M.F.A. in Landscape Architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently the Charles Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Van Valkenburgh teaches landscape design as well as the use of plants as design material. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and the American Academy of Landscape Architects.

Francine Houben, Mecanoo
“Dutch Mountains”
December 1, 2011
Running time: 11:29

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Francine Houben, creative director and founding architect of the Dutch firm Mecanoo, presents an office complex and an apartment complex, both in the Netherlands. With offices in Delft and Birmingham, UK, Mecanoo’s ambition is to design buildings with “a strong respect for context: physically, historically, and environmentally.”

Projects of note include the Technical University Delft Library; Montevideo residential tower in Rotterdam’s harbor district; Phillips Business Innovation Centre FiftyTwoDegrees in Nijmegen, The Netherlands; La Llotja Theatre and Congress Centre in Lleida, Spain; Bijlmerpark, Amsterdam; the soon to be opened Library of Birmingham, integrated with the REP Theatre in the UK; and the 2015-anticipated Delft City Hall and Train Station. Her projects in the Far East include Wei Wu Ying Centre for the Arts, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan; and Whistling Rock Golf Club, in Chuncheon, South Korea.

Bernard Khoury, Bernard Khoury/DW5
“Where the Hell Are the Arabs?”
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Running time: 15:19

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Bernard Khoury presents the work of his firm, founded as an independent practice in 1993.  In this excerpt from his lecture he presents several projects from Lebanon, including B018 and Al Ghanim Residence.  As an architect, Khoury is preoccupied with presentness; he writes about the work of his firm: “I have given up on fantasizing on the future of cities.  My work is not about the past and it is certainly not about the future.”

Bernard Khoury studied architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design (B.F.A/B.Arch). He received a Masters in Architectural Studies from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. In 2001, he was awarded by the municipality of Rome the honorable mention of the Borromini prize given to architects under 40 years of age. In 2004, he was awarded the Architecture + Award. In 2008, Khoury was a visiting professor at the Ecole polytechnique Federale de Lausanne; he has lectured and exhibited his work in academic institutions in Europe and the U.S including a solo show of his work given by the International Forum for Contemporary Architecture at the Aedes Gallery in Berlin (2003) and numerous group shows includingYOUprison at the Fondazione Sandretto in Turin (2008) and SPACE at the opening show of the MAXXI Museum in Rome (2010).

Michael Maltzan
Michael Maltzan Architecture
“No More Play”
October 6, 2011
Running time: 17:54

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Since founding his firm in 1995, Maltzan has created a practice committed to “creating architecture that is a catalyst for new experiences and an agent for change in our cities.” In this excerpt from his lecture, Michael Maltzan, principal of Los Angeles-based Michael Maltzan Architecture, presents the School for Inner City Arts, and the Carver apartments.

Recent projects include the Inner-City Arts complex, New Carver Apartments, Rainbow Apartments, and Playa Vista Park, all in Los Angeles. The firm’s current work also includes the Star Apartments and One Santa Fe in Los Angeles; Ju Gong Bridge and Waterfront Park, and Zhe Zhi Bridge both in Chengdu, China; and the recent competition winning entry for the Mashouf Performing Arts Center at San Francisco State University.

Maltzan’s complex for the Inner-City Arts campus located in the heart of the Los Angeles Skid Row serves at-risk youth from area public schools, providing a range of art facilities and services. The project was featured in the 2010 MoMA exhibition “Small Scale: Big Change.” Maltzan’s New Carver Apartments, which provides permanent supportive housing units for formerly homeless residents was awarded the 2011 AIA/HUD Secretary’s Award for Excellence in Affordable Housing Design. Additionally, his work has garnered numerous Progressive Architecture awards, citations from the American Institute of Architects, and the Rudy Bruner Foundation’s Gold Medal for Urban Excellence.

The Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment
October 12, 2011
Running time: 25:33

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The 2011 Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment, an annual invited lecture by an international figure whose work has significant implications for understanding and reconceiving the relationship between architecture and the environment, was delivered by Jeanne Gang on October 12, 2011 at the Great Hall of Cooper Union in New York City.

In the following excerpt, Gang presents several ecological projects for Chicago, including the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Ford Calumet Environment Center.

Click here to watch the first part of this lecture, in which Gang presents several ecological projects for Chicago, including the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Ford Calumet Environment Center.

Jeanne Gang is the founder and principal of Studio Gang Architects, an international practice based in Chicago since 1997. Recent projects include the widely acclaimed Aqua Tower, which was named the Emporis Skyscraper of the Year in 2009; the Northerly Island framework plan; the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo; and Columbia College Chicago’s Media Production Center. Gang was recently named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow (the so-called “genius” grant) for “challenging the aesthetic and technical possibilities of the art form in a wide range of structures.”

The firm’s work has been published and exhibited both nationally and internationally, most notably at the Venice Biennale, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Building Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. This year Princeton Architectural Press published Reveal, the first monograph of the firm’s work.

The annual Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment was created in honor of long-time League trustee Ulrich Franzen. The Franzen Lecture on Archiecture and the Environment is made possible by contributions from the Riggio Foundation, Juliana Terian Gilbert, and Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown.

The Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment
October 12, 2011
Running time: 15:43

Click here to subscribe to League podcasts on iTunes.

The 2011 Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment, an annual invited lecture by an international figure whose work has significant implications for understanding and reconceiving the relationship between architecture and the environment, was delivered by Jeanne Gang on October 12, 2011 at the Great Hall of Cooper Union in New York City.

In the following excerpt, Gang presents several ecological projects for Chicago, including the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Ford Calumet Environment Center.

Click here to watch a second excerpt from this lecture, in which Gang presents the Aqua Tower and the Post-Industrial Periphery/Cicero Case Study for the Museum of Modern Arts Foreclosed Design Study.

Jeanne Gang is the founder and principal of Studio Gang Architects, an international practice based in Chicago since 1997. Recent projects include the widely acclaimed Aqua Tower, which was named the Emporis Skyscraper of the Year in 2009; the Northerly Island framework plan; the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo; and Columbia College Chicago’s Media Production Center. Gang was recently named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow (the so-called “genius” grant) for “challenging the aesthetic and technical possibilities of the art form in a wide range of structures.”

The firm’s work has been published and exhibited both nationally and internationally, most notably at the Venice Biennale, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Building Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. This year Princeton Architectural Press published Reveal, the first monograph of the firm’s work.

The annual Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment was created in honor of long-time League trustee Ulrich Franzen. The Franzen Lecture on Archiecture and the Environment is made possible by contributions from the Riggio Foundation, Juliana Terian Gilbert, and Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown.

Current Work
Simón Vélez
Recorded February 24, 2011
Running time: 30:08

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In this excerpt from his February 2011 Current Work lecture at the League, Colombian architect Simón Vélez discusses building with bamboo and various projects he has designed around the world.

Simón Vélez was trained at the University of Colombia in Bogotá, where he lives and has practiced architecture for more than 40 years. His achievement utilizing bamboo as a structural material for architecture grew out of close collaborations and relationships on-site. Often working in rural areas, Vélez capitalized on the lack of regulating authority and the relative difficulty of importing standard building materials such as brick and mortar to experiment with locally available materials. With Marcelo Villegas, he developed a mortar-filled joinery system that allows long-span and cantilevered structures to be built out of bamboo. By building only with his own well-trained crew of workers, Vélez has been able to draw upon past successes and failures in detailing. He intentionally keeps drawings simple, usually freehand on single sheets of 8×11 inch graph paper.

Completed work ranges from low-cost houses that can be built by their inhabitants to large-scale pavilions and commercial projects including: a bamboo pavilion for the Expo Hanover 2000; the Zócalo Nomadic Museum in Mexico City, which houses Gregory Colbert’s “Ashes and Snow”; and a bridge for Crosswaters Ecolodge, the largest commercial project in the world to use bamboo.

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In this excerpt from his March 2011 Current Work lecture at the League, Bijoy Jain, principal of Studio Mumbai, presents the projects Tara House, Palmyra House, and the House on Pali Hill, all in India.

Bijoy Jain was born in Mumbai, India in 1965 and received his M. Arch from Washington University in St. Louis in 1990. He worked in Los Angeles and London between 1989 and 1995 and returned to India in 1995 to found his practice. Jain’s work endeavors to explore “the genuine possibility in creating buildings that emerge through a process of collective dialogue, a face-to-face sharing of knowledge through imagination, intimacy, and modesty.” The studio designs through “an iterative process, where ideas are explored through the production of large-scale mock-ups, models, material studies, sketches, and drawings. Here projects are developed through careful consideration of place and a practice that draws from traditional skills, local building techniques, materials, and an ingenuity arising from limited resources.” In this spirit, the studio consists of both architects and skilled craftsmen who design and build each project from start to finish.

Click here to read the interview with Bijoy Jain.

Ruy Klein
Emerging Voices 2011
Recorded: March 23, 2011
Running Time: 31:46

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The New York-based office of David Ruy and Karel Klein, Ruy Klein, examines contemporary design problems “at the intersection of architecture, nature, and technology.” In this excerpt from their lecture they discuss “Knot Garden,” a proposal for PS1 Queens, NY; and “Klex,” their ongoing experiments with developing ornamentation through digital modeling. The office describes its investigations within this context: “The devastating technological changes of the last century have marked unusual territories of material production where artificial and natural systems share vague, overlapping boundaries. As architecture grapples with new synthetic regimes, the uncertainties of contemporary material practices unexpectedly opens unexplored possibilities for aesthetic experience and a renegotiation of architecture’s meaning structures.” Ruy Klein’s work includes “Klex,” “Biaxial Bouquet,” and “Knot Garden,” a proposal for PS1. In 2009, Surface Magazine honored the office with the Avant Guardian Award. The office has been a finalist for both the Young Architects Program at MoMA/PS1 and for the Iakov Chernikov Prize.

Karel Klein received her Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Architecture from Columbia. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor at The Pratt Institute. David Ruy received his Bachelor of Art from St. John’s College, Annapolis and his Master of Architecture from Columbia. He is an Associate Professor at The Pratt Institute, where he also directs the Network for Emerging Architectural Research.