February 4, 2004

Design Detailings: Austrian architect speaks Feb. 16

Photo courtesy of Baumschlager-Eberle Baumschlager-Eberle, which designed this home in Liechtenstein, is known for minimalist single-family home designs. Dietmar Eberle, a principal in the firm, will speak Feb. 16 at SAM.

Tickets are available for the Feb. 16 lecture by Dietmar Eberle of Baumschlager & Eberle -- an Austrian firm, which has won over 35 national and international competitions.

Carlo Baumschlager and Dietmar Eberle have based their practice in the western Austrian province of Voralberg since the early 1980s. Their work is characterized as disciplined formal intensity, like minimalist art. They are best known for their housing projects, but recently they won a series of competitions for larger works, including an extension to the Vienna Airport, a 1,000-bed hospital in Belgium, the E-Science Lab on the ETH Zurich campus, the new headquarters for the WHO/UNAIDS organization in Geneva, and a large mixed-use project in Beijing. Since 1984, they have finished more than 150 projects.

There will be a book signing the day of the lecture, at 4:30 p.m. at Peter Miller Books, 1930 First Ave. The lecture will be at Seattle Art Museum at 6:30 p.m. Advance tickets are $10, available at Peter Miller Books. Remaining tickets will be sold for $15 at the door. For more information go to www.space-city.net, or call (206) 842-2283. The event is sponsored by Space.City.

ESM expands to Cle Elum

ESM Consulting Engineers has opened a third location in Cle Elum. Ray Miller serves as general manager and Anne Phillips is the office administrator.

Since 1986, ESM has provided civil engineering, survey, project management, land use planning, landscape architecture and GIS services. Experience includes master-planned communities, mixed-use, residential, commercial, educational, health care and transportation.

The address is 516 E. First Street, Cle Elum, WA 98011. Phone is (509) 674-1905, fax is (509) 674-1906. ESM also has offices in Federal Way and Bothel. The Web site is esmcivil.com.

Member needed for art committee

The Cultural Development Authority of King County's Public Art Advisory Committee is seeking a new member. The volunteer position involves a three-hour meeting once every two months, and committee meetings up to once a month.

Responsibilities include reviewing staff recommendations on project budgets and scope, selection panels for public art projects and updates on current projects. The committee also reviews design, meeting with the artist and principals during course of a project.

The committee would be strengthened by the following skills: materials fabrication, engineering, landscape architecture, past project experience in public art and practical management skills.

Send a letter of interest and resume by Feb. 15 to the Cultural Development Authority of King County, Heather Dwyer, Public Art Program, 506 Second Ave., Suite 200, Seattle 98104. Or e-mail materials to publicart@culturaldevelopment.org. The Web site is www.culturaldevelopment.org.

SEAW hosts trade show

The 8th Annual Structural Engineers Association of Washington Southwest Chapter Tradeshow is 3 to 8 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Fife Best Western Hotel and Convention Center. The event is open to SEAW and AIA members, as well as other design or technical professionals. It will feature presentations, vendor display areas and complimentary buffet and beverages. Forty-five vendors are registered for the trade show.

The show introduces architectural and engineering products, and several vendor seminars will be presented to discuss construction and engineering practices. Cost is $10. To register, e-mail seawswchapter@comcast.net or leave a message at (253) 565-0769. The SEAW Web site is http://home.att.net/~seawtradeshow/index.htm. The Best Western Fife Hotel and Conference Center is at 5700 Pacific Highway E., Fife.

AIA honors Rural Studio founder

The Board of Directors of The American Institute of Architects selected Samuel Mockbee, 1944-2001, to posthumously receive the 2004 AIA Gold Medal. Mockbee may be best known for founding the Auburn University Rural Studio -- conceived as an opportunity to raise the spirits of the rural poor through the creation of homes and community centers.

The medal is the highest honor the AIA confers to an individual and recognizes an individual whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture.

Mockbee, or "Sambo" as he preferred to be addressed, is the 60th AIA Gold Medalist, joining the ranks of such visionaries as Thomas Jefferson, Frank Lloyd Wright, LeCorbusier, Louis Kahn, I.M. Pei, Cesar Pelli and 2002 AIA Gold Medal recipient Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

Mockbee worked in architectural practice for many years prior to founding the Rural Studio. In 1977, he founded Mockbee Goodman Architects with friend and classmate Thomas Goodman. The firm built a regional reputation for using local materials, winning more than 25 state and regional awards in four years. In the mid-90s, Mockbee observed and investigated the social, economic, and cultural inconsistencies that he saw permeating the South. Out of these observations grew a mission and a plan for the Auburn University Rural Studio.

Architecture students enrolled in the Rural Studio live in and become a part of the community in which they are working. This context-based learning format teaches them critical architecture skills with an eye towards social responsibility.

To his students, Mockbee presented architecture as a principle that must be committed to environmental, social, political and aesthetic issues. Mockbee died in December 2001 of complications from leukemia.