TM officeinsight 4 1706 all ignorance toboggans into know e.e. cummings West Edge Emergent Solutions: Where IIDA/NY Pioneering Design Langdon Wilson: Tomorrow’s Design and Organization Series: The High Line Design Meet Classroom Today Team Six design firms. On Tuesday, An office’s physical space should take Six environments. April 11, IIDA/NY into account the type of workplace A 600 sq.-ft. space. presented The business owners envision. This is And a whole lot of High Line De- what Dave Ancel, Ed.D, Emergent manufacturers. sign team, its’ Solutions, Inc., discussed at NeoCon second install- West in a seminar called “The Future ment in its Pio- neering Design Series. of Workplace Design.” Full Story, page 3 Full Story, page 5 Full Story, page 8 NeoCon West: Allsteel Break- fast Pritzker Prize Winner: Who? The Calibre Awards On the second day of NeoCon West, In the 28-year The 18th an- a rainy Tuesday in LA, Allsteel invited existence of nual IIDA industry professionals to a breakfast the $100,000 Southern Cal- at its downtown LA showroom (444 S. Pritzker Prize ifornia Cali- Flower Blvd.). for architec- bre Awards ture, it has took place on never gone to March 28th anyone as lit- at the Beverly tle known in- Hilton. ternationally as this year’s winner. It is safe to say that 99% or more of U.S. architects have never be- fore heard of Paulo Mendes da Rocha from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Full Story, page 10 Full Story, page 12 Special Feature Departments Business/Tech Material of the Week 4th Quarter Financial Review Noteworthy Re-Sited Financial Affairs Projects Industry Stock Prices Events Job Site officeinsightTM 04.17.06 2 of 18 Tickets are selling out fast for Boston, New York & Dallas. Log on to www.iida.org or contact [email protected] to make your reservation today. officeinsightTM 04.17.06 3 of 18 West Edge ing whole-class instruction and lowered Langdon Wilson: Tomorrow’s Classroom Today to provide privacy to groups during collaborative work (an idea that might by Jonathan Katz benefit some offices). Like this year’s ix design firms. Six environments. winner, Interior Ar- SA 600 sq.-ft. space. And a whole lot chitects, Langdon of manufacturers. For the third consec- Wilson’s West Edge utive year, NeoCon West and Interior display was light- Design magazine teamed up to present hearted. Jockimo’s the West Edge show and competition. floor tiles, called Liv- This year, Interior Architects, Griffin ing Surfaces, were Enright Architects, Hodgetts & Fung, possibly the most HOK, Langdon Wilson, and Gensler conspicuous aspect participated, drawing an environment of the showroom. – corporate, multi-functional, spa, re- Encasing a neon tail, education, or hospitality –to create green and yellow liq- and a list of manufacturers with whom uid that shifted under to work. One of the resulting show- one’s foot, they add- rooms will be featured each week in of- ed a playfulness that ficeinsight, between April 3 and May 8. would have been as much at home in an If a tree falls and no one is there elementary class- to hear it, does it make a noise? Is a room as they were in classroom without bookshelves really a secondary or col- a classroom? How about a classroom lege classroom. without a teacher? This March, in room 230 of L.A. Mart, Los Angeles-based Mr. Head, how- architectural firm Langdon Wilson an- ever, doesn’t believe swered at least two of these questions that computer-cen- – the latter two. tered classrooms will be making their Collaborative learning has become way into elementary more popular in schools nationwide schools or even high and the firm’s education showroom schools anytime was certainly not the first classroom soon. “It probably to replace individual desks with long won’t trickle down tables that favor group work; however, to high schools for a it may be the first with designated stor- while,” he said. “But age space for CD-ROMs instead of it’s already happen- books. ing in colleges.” “The concept [for the room] is based sign for Langdon Wilson and the de- The environment also included prod- on computer technology in smaller signer of the firm’s West Edge space. ucts from Cooper Lighting, Global, classrooms, on students having lap- The classroom of the not so distant Indiana Art Glass, Interface Floor- tops instead of pads and pencils, and future, he explained, is one where “ev- ing, Roman Architectural Finishes, on programs being done on-line by erything is done on computers.” and USG. teachers who are virtual,” said Regi- nald Head, the Director of Interior De- Tomorrow’s classroom (as forecast- 2006 was not the first time the firm ed by Langdon Wil- participated in West Edge. Last year, son) might also in- Langdon Wilson completed a health- clude MechoShade care environment which won top prize. shades and Joc- This year, Mr. Head and Langdon Wil- kimo moveable floor son’s assigned environment gave them tiles. The Mecho- one inherent advantage: many class- Shade product, pre- rooms actually are 600 sq.-ft., a space sumably made of the artificially small for the other environ- company’s environ- ments. The firm also has experience in mentally friendly fab- designing educational facilities. Its list ric, functioned as an of educational projects includes three adjustable partition schools in both Pasadena and Beverly separating the front, Hills, CA, and the DeVry Institute of middle, and back Technology in West Hills, CA. of the classroom. It Cont’d on page 4, West Edge . could be raised dur- officeinsightTM 04.17.06 4 of 18 . WestEdgeCont’d from page 3 ists Agency, The J. Paul Getty Trust, Hyatt International, Inc., The firm’s educational design expe- Los Angeles Unified School rience showed through in at least one District, and Wells Fargo. of the real world constraints to which Next week, we’ll feature the it adhered. Because schools usually West Edge space designed by cannot afford architectural finishes, Griffin Enright Architects. the environment was mostly painted. A window in the back wall also gave the illusion of looking out onto L.A.’s skyline. There were also some conventional teaching tools to be found in Room 230. “I don’t think you can rule out the possibility of interaction with teach- ers and professors and students alto- gether,” Mr. Head said. For this reason, there were maps on the left wall (post- ers, not computerized renditions) and a dry erase board on the right (in case someone wants to write, as Mr. Head suggested, “Blog into your blog.”). Los Angeles-based Langdon Wilson International was established in 1951. In addition to its Los Angeles office, the firm also has locations in Orange County and Phoenix, Arizona. It has done or is doing projects in the U.S., as well as Mexico, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Its projects include work for Lockheed Corporation, Creative Art- officeinsightTM 04.17.06 5 of 18 IIDA/NY Pioneering Design Series Presents: The High Line Design Team by Jean Lin The future of the High Line n Tuesday, April 11 IIDA/NY pre- The Tischman Auditorium at New Osented The High Line Design School University was nearly filled to team, its’ second installment in its Pio- capacity, and the subject matter was neering Design Series. Bruce Eisen- clearly one of importance to the IIDA berg, New York City Parks and Rec- community. Keeping to the series reation, Jennifer Hoppa, New York theme of forward thinking in design, City Parks and Recreation, Robert this project is innovative and ground- Hammond, Friends of the High Line, breaking. The old railroad structure James Corner, Field Operations, and was seen by many as an eyesore in the The High Line was built from 1930 Ricardo Scofidio, Diller Scofidio city and was on the brink of destruction to 1934 as part of the West Side im- and Renfro discussed the history, in 1999 before Friends of the High Line provement movement that sought present condition and future plans swooped in and took steps not only to to eliminate street level freight trains for the High Line, an elevated aban- save the historical structure, but also to that caused numerous accidents and doned railway that stretches a mile transform it to an outdoor park destina- deaths in the mid 1800’s. It was known through the west side of New York City. tion in New York City. as the “lifeline of New York” in the years between 1934 and the early 1960’s. The High Line and it’s freight trains carried in dairy, produce and meats directly to warehouses and factories including what is now Chelsea Market. Currently the line is a well-known “secret” that is not accessible to the public, but is known widely as a get- away from the city, beautifully over- grown with vegetation. The plan for the future of this historical structure is to transform it into a public space designed to preserve the “secret get- away” feeling while answering struc- tural and functional concerns – such as entrance points, and over-passes, which will hopefully bring hundreds of thousands of people to experience the High Line for years to come. The presentation was informative, displaying Field Operations and Diller (l-r) Bruce Eisenberg, Jennifer Hoppa, Robert Hammond, James Corner, and Ricardo Scofidio Cont’d on page 6, IIDA/NY . officeinsightTM 04.17.06 6 of 18 . .IIDA/NY Cont’d from page 5 Scofidio and Renfro’s design plans for the space. The team outlined major concerns (keeping the unique feeling of today’s High Line preserved), as well as areas and problems that re- quired recruitment of more specified expertise (Piet Oudolf, Horticulture, JUNE 12-14, 2006 L’Observatoire, Lighting Design, Buro Happold, Structural Engineering/Sus- The Merchandise Mart, tainable Engineering, and many, many Chicago, Ill., USA others).