Defining Architectural Design Excellence Columbus Indiana 1 Searching for Definitions of Architectural Design Excellence in a Measuring World Defining Architectural Design Excellence 2012 AIA Committee on Design Conference Columbus, Indiana | April 12-15, 2012 “Great architecture is...a triple achievement. It is the solving of a concrete problem. It is the free expression of the architect himself. And it is an inspired and intuitive expression of the client.” J. Irwin Miller “Mediocrity is expensive.” J. Irwin Miller “I won’t try to define architectural design excellence, but I can discuss its value and strategy in Columbus, Indiana.” Will Miller Defining Architectural Design Excellence..............................................Columbus, Indiana 2012 AIA Committee on Design The AIA Committee on Design would like to acknowledge the following sponsors for their generous support of the 2012 AIA COD domestic conference in Columbus, Indiana. DIAMOND PARTNER GOLD PARTNER SILVER PARTNER PATRON DUNLAP & Company, Inc. AIA Indianapolis FORCE DESIGN, Inc. Jim Childress & Ann Thompson FORCE CONSTRUCTION Columbus Indiana Company, Inc. Architectural Archives www.columbusarchives.org REPP & MUNDT, Inc. General Contractors Costello Family Fund to Support the AIAS Chapter at Ball State University TAYLOR BROS. Construction Co., Inc. CSO Architects, Inc. www.csoinc.net Pentzer Printing, Inc. INDIANA UNIVERSITY CENTER for ART + DESIGN 3 Table of Contents Remarks from CONFERENCE SCHEDULE SITE VISITS DOWNTOWN FOOD/DINING Mike Mense, FAIA OPTIONAL TOURS/SITES 2012 COD Chair Schedule At-A-Glance Friday, April 13, 2012 Cummins Walesboro Plant Remarks from Detailed Schedule Saturday, April 14, 2012 Anthony “Tony” Costello, FAIA Indianapolis & Steven Risting, AIA Sunday, April 15, 2012 Conference Co-Chairs Speaker Bios Defining Architectural Design Excellence..............................................Columbus, Indiana 2012 AIA Committee on Design Colleagues, Being an old, mostly residential, architect from the boondocks of Alaska with a degree from a school out in the mountains of western Virginia, how can I not be humbled by the people who have preceded me as Chair of the Committee on Design, and for that matter, the people attending this conference. Mike Mense, FAIA Welcome to Columbus! Welcome to the Committee on Design! (if this is your first COD event) Anchorage, Alaska Work hard, walk far, party hard, and get up at O-dark thirty. That’s how it’s always been since I discovered 2012 AIA Committee on Design Chair COD, the best part of the AIA for an architecture lover like me. We’ll continue those COD traditions, but this conference is going to be a little different. It’s still about touring, looking, sketching and photography; but you’ll probably notice a little more emphasis on talking and listening. You’ll have a calm dinner with one of the speakers; an opportunity to argue with a few of those speakers at a pub late into the night; and an invitation to an informal discussion with Gunnar Birkerts, and Ben and Cynthia Weese. I hope you will take advantage of all of these opportunities. We need to spend more time talking and listening because our profession and our society may be at an important crossroads. Why, here in Columbus, after the efforts of J. Irwin Miller and other enlightened leaders for so many years, are there almost no modern houses? Why do even most of us live in homes that try to look like grandmother’s house? There is an important taste gap between our profession and the rest of American society and it profoundly limits our ability to make meaningful contributions to our shared future. This conference, at its heart, is about searching for ways to remove that gap. It’s about finding definitions of architectural design excellence that we can believe in, but equally importantly, that our fellow citizens can heartily embrace. Everything about this conference has been designed to encourage you to contribute to that effort. Do good, learn a lot, and have fun. 5 Welcome to Columbus, Indiana With over 80 modern architectural buildings, Columbus, Indiana was ranked 6th in the nation for architectural innovation and design by the American Institute of Architects. It has been called the “Athens of the Prairie” and “a mecca for modern architecture”, it is internationally recognized as a world-class collection of modern architecture by master architects. Anthony “Tony” Costello, FAIA Costello + Associates This conference will focus on “Defining Architectural Design Excellence” through design 2012 AIA Committee on Design Columbus, IN Conference Co-Chair statements, presentations, discussions, parlor chats and after hour conversations with many of the prominent architects who have designed buildings here. We will experience many of the iconic buildings by the masters of modern architecture, as well as many of the recently completed buildings. These will serve as a point of reference to the value and strategy that this community Steven R. Risting, AIA CSO Architects, Inc. has taken with design excellence. 2012 AIA Committee on Design Columbus, IN Conference Co-Chair Thursday begins with a symposium, a tour of a Cummins engine plant, and the opening reception at the new Commons, where we will be joined by members of AIA Indianapolis. Friday we will explore the modern architecture of downtown Columbus, tour the Miller House and Garden, and have an exclusive reception and dinner at the Cummins Corporate Office Building with Cummins executives and community leaders. Saturday we will visit the modern architecture throughout the city, have a panel discussion, and celebrate at the annual COD banquet. Sunday we will venture off to the often forgotten modern architecture in Hope, Indiana and conclude with a brunch and closing discussion. We hope your experience here the next three days will find Columbus, Indiana as unexpected, unforgettable, uncommon and different by design. Defining Architectural Design Excellence..............................................Columbus, Indiana 2012 AIA Committee on Design Conference Presenters Bradley Brooks Gunnar Birkerts, FAIA Ben Weese, FAIA Cynthia Weese, FAIA Indianapolis Museum of Art Gunnar Birkerts Architect Chicago, IL Chicago, IL Indianapolis, IN Wellesley, MA Bradley Brooks is director of historic Born in Riga, Latvia in 1925, Mr. Birkerts Ben Weese is a founding principal of Cynthia Weese is a founding principal of resources at the Indianapolis Museum of was exiled to Germany in 1944, where he Weese Langley Weese. He worked for Weese Langley Weese. Her clients have Art. He studied American decorative arts received a Diploma Architect Engineer at twenty years at Harry Weese and included the Art Institute of Chicago, the in the University of Delaware’s Winterthur the Technical University Stuttgart in 1949. Associates where major projects included University of Chicago and Northwestern Program in Early American Culture and Arriving in the U.S. in 1949, he worked the Northside Junior High, Columbus, University. Her work has received many has worked in historic house museums of in the offices of Eero Saarinen and Indiana and the Irwin Union Bank, Hope, awards; she has lectured nationally and the nineteenth and early twentieth Minoru Yamasaki before establishing his Indiana. He has worked extensively with internationally. centuries in Texas and Indiana. own firm and becoming a professor at the educational institutions throughout the From 1995-2006 she was professor Working to open the Miller House and University of Michigan in 1959. Professor country including Williams College, Illinois and dean of the School of Architecture at Garden to the public brought him into Emeritus at MIchigan since 1990, he Wesleyan University and Grinnell College. Washington University in St. Louis, her closer contact with the modern and holds distinguished professorships from His work has been widely published, alma mater, where she was also active in contemporary architecture of Columbus, the Universities of Illinois, Oklahoma and exhibited and awarded. the process of planning and building an Indiana and the legacy of J. Irwin Miller. Michigan. An Architect in Residence at the In 1996 Ben led the campaign to buy arts campus including renovating three American Academy in Rome in 1976, he and restore H.H. Richardson’s Glessner existing buildings and constructing two is a Fellow of the AIA, the Latvian House in Chicago; he was a founding new ones. Architectural Association, and the Graham member and president of the Chicago Cynthia has been active in the AIA, Foundation. A member of the Latvian Architecture Foundation. He was a board serving as President of AIAChicago and Academy of Sciences (LAS), he received member and president of the Graham vice president of the national AIA Board. the Brunner Prize in Architecture, “The Foundation for Advancement in the Fine She is a founding member of Chicago Great Medal” from LAS, and the Republic Arts. He was a member of the Women in Architecture and the Chicago of Latvia’s “Order of the Three Stars”. He Commission on Chicago Landmarks. Architectural Club and was president of the is married, has three children and has In 2011 AIAChicago awarded him their latter. She currently is a Board member of received 58 major architectural awards. Lifetime Achievement Award. the Society of Architectural Historians. 7 Nancy Rogo Trainer, FAIA Daniel McCoubrey, AIA Jane Weinzapfel, FAIA Venturi Scott Brown & Associates Venturi Scott Brown & Associates Leers Weinzapfel & Associates Philadelphia, PA