As Joe Valerio sees it, architects shouldn’t just shape structures; they should interpret their times. “The most useless term in architecture is `timeless building,’ which I translate into `meaningless,’” Valerio says over lunch at the sleek Blue Water Grill at Dearborn Street and Grand Avenue. “Our job is to do cultural commentary.”
Valerio is hardly the [...]

Many of us know, or think we know, why we love or hate particular people, places or things. But architecture? One building strikes us as a vision of loveliness, another as a horror, but if asked to explain ourselves, a lot of us shrug and resort to the old standby, “I know what I like.”
The [...]

At the Tuesday, Dec. 12 meeting of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, MBAJ Architecture’s John Thomas received a National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) Outstanding Communicator Award.
NSPRA Outstanding Communicator Awards are given to individuals who practice outstanding communication in their daily activities; effectively work for the betterment of schools; and earn the respect of [...]

The Telfair Academy Museum in Savannah, Ga., may be the oldest public art museum in the South. But its brand new wing—the Jepson Center for the Arts—promises to revitalize this venerable institution’s cultural role in the historic city’s future.
“Because the museum is in Savannah, which has the largest historic district in the country, our goal [...]

Opponents of the city’s $141 million plan for a new Newton North High School are increasingly coming up with alternate site plans and designs that they insist will be less costly and more efficient than the one created by the Gund Partnership , the nationally renowned architects hired by the city for the job.
While two [...]

The designs of architect Golden Joseph Zenon Jr. included the Swanson Branch of the Omaha Public Library, the performing arts building at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the College of Nursing at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
His work earned him local and national recognition, and in 1986 he was named a member [...]

Local artist Floyd Marsellos isn’t quite sure how his ideas for paintings come to him. But he does believe they don’t come from him.
“Somehow God is the author of all creativity,” Marsellos said. “Somehow we can plug into that. Even people who don’t believe in God, I think that this is where their creativity comes [...]

Amid other shops still under construction, the home furnishings store Studio C by California Design Center opened Dec. 1 in Oro Valley’s Steam Pump Village shopping center.
The new store, at 11085 N. Oracle Road, is named Studio C to distinguish it from the California Design Center on East Fort Lowell Road, said General Manager Amy [...]

“Rethink Urban” is Vulcan Real Estate’s trademarked motto for its burgeoning South Lake Union development, and you’ll encounter one startling measure of innovative urban thinking if you ask for valet parking at the flagship 2200 hotel/condo/retail complex: $30 for four hours, please.
But you’ll find more inviting urban ideas (and even a few scraps of free [...]

The year 2007 looks as if it’s going to be more about circuses than bread.
While Lord Foster’s over-budget and unfashionably late Wembley Stadium reaches completion and Londoners begin to worry about paying for the 2012 Olympics, the costs of which are rising as fast as the city’s absurd property prices, Beijing will be completing its [...]

In late November, the General Services Administration (GSA) named Leslie Shepherd, AIA, its new chief architect. Shepherd had been acting in the position since Edward Feiner, FAIA, retired as chief architect in January 2005. Feiner launched the Design Excellence Program and is credited with recruiting leading Modernist architects to design federal buildings. Shepherd has worked [...]

Graphic designers from across Tennessee will gather in Chattanooga in January to compare their efforts.
The second Ten Show event, founded by the state’s chapters of design trade group AIGA, is a chance for designers to examine their peers’ work and to highlight local art in a growing industry, organizers said.
“We want to communicate to not [...]