ST. PETERSBURG

Few companies here last year played more of a punching bag than Wannemacher Jensen, the architectural firm charged with cheerleading the Pier's voter-doomed replacement candidate, the Lens.

But even as their most prominent project crumbled, the architects' fortunes soared. As demand for new designs surged last year, the firm boosted its staff from seven architects to 12 and saw revenue nearly double to $3.2 million "our best year ever," partner Jason Jensen said.

If real estate watchers had a crystal ball, it would probably be designed by architects: They start blueprinting and billing nine to 12 months before builders spend their first construction cent. And experts say flourishing demand for architects has inspired optimism that the construction economy is back on track.

Florida added 7,000 architectural and engineering jobs between December 2012 and December 2013, state data show a 10 percent jump and the fourth best of all industries. (The top three: building materials suppliers, heavy construction and probably unrelated hobby, book and sporting goods stores.)

Nationwide, the rate of unemployed architects dropped from 17 percent to 6 percent between 2010 and 2012, the most recent year available, American Institute of Architects data shows. The largest segment of laid-off architects found a new job in less than six months.

So why is the architecture market waking up now? Public purse string holders long strapped by the Great Recession are now seeing surpluses, and opting to restart stalled projects and retool old fire stations, schools and city halls. And pent-up commercial leaders are finding the confidence to suddenly build again after years of just making do.

"People are tired of the economy we've had. We're all tired of it," said Mickey Jacob, the executive vice president of Tampa-based BDG Architects, who served last year as the president of the American Institute of Architects. "Our private sector clients are investing heavily thinking 2014 will be a benchmark year."

But little is certain even now as to whether architects' fortunes will continue to dip or fall. The Architecture Billings Index, which charts nationwide designer demand, dipped at the end of last year after a run of solid growth, with many firms saying they were "coping with an unpredictable economy."

And though Tampa Bay builders have broken ground on thousands of new suburban homes, developers are a lot less optimistic about the prospects for certain commercial properties full-service hotels, suburban offices, regional malls that once served as architects' bread and butter.

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Architects engineer a comeback as construction revives

By Gotabaya Rajapaksa

The theme adopted for 31st National Conference organised by the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects Architecture Envisioning Futures, is a timely one that will no doubt encourage considerable deliberation among members of the profession. Architects have an important role to play in development as the nation moves swiftly to a prosperous future built on a platform of unparalleled peace, security and stability.

When Mahinda Rajapaksa was first elected President of Sri Lanka in 2005, he had a very clear vision to end the three decades of terrorism and bring peace to the nation. This vision was outlined in his primary election manifesto, the Mahinda Chinthana document. Within his first three and a half years in office, that vision was achieved.

The President's vision for his second term of office, as outlined in the Mahinda Chinthana Idiri Dekma document, is to strengthen peace and fast track economic development. This vision centres on transforming Sri Lanka into a dynamic global hub that will make full use of the country's unique strategic position and its educated and productive work force. It envisions that Sri Lanka will become a naval, aviation, commercial, energy and knowledge hub in the future.

One of the foremost requirements in facilitating this transformation is creating an overall environment that is people friendly. Such an environment will greatly uplift the living standards of the people, whilst also encouraging high net worth investors, entrepreneurs, and high calibre professionals to live and work in Sri Lanka.

Such people expect to maintain a high quality of life for themselves and their families. They, therefore, need a social and physical environment that is of a considerably high standard. Maintaining such an environment will also help attract Foreign Direct Investments and sustain local investments that will further develop Sri Lanka's industries and businesses. With all this in mind, the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development and its line agencies, together with the provincial and municipal authorities, has undertaken many programs throughout Sri Lanka to uplift the quality of its metropolitan areas.

The focus is on developing clean, green, people friendly cities and towns that will foster an efficient working environment and a relaxed living environment.

Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa being introduced to office-bearers of the SLIA

Because of the need to have a vibrant commercial capital, the Government has focused much effort on the development of Colombo and the greater metro Colombo area. There were many issues that the city faced due to its organic and rather unplanned growth over the years. There were also many long needed infrastructure improvements that had to be made. These included:

Flood control and improvement of drainage infrastructure Providing proper housing for low income, underserved settlements Improving the road network and improving pavements for pedestrians Developing parks and more public open spaces for people to use and enjoy Restoring old heritage buildings to bring out the architectural heritage of the city, and Enhancing public facilities such as toilets, bus halts and markets.

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What we build today must last for generations

Mastodon #39;s Bill on "High Road" -- 5FDP Japan - Architects + letlive tour -- Chiodos new vid
Mastodon #39;s Bill reveals new song title "High Road" off new album in interview -- Five Finger Death Punch in Okinawa, Japan video - Architects + letlive tour ...

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Baca Architects Director, Richard Coutts, talks to ITV London News on the 17th February 2014 about the Practice #39;s innovative flood-related architecture and l...

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ITV NEWS Baca Architects' expert flood mitigation commentary, Amphibious House and Masterplanning - Video

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Architects - Construction Design Architects

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Architects - Construction Design Architects - Video

Early Grave - Architects - Guitar Cover
Tuning Drop B with the bottom string tuned to Ab Got bored and finished learning this. Recorded through Boss Me-70 and an M-Audio fast track. "Copyright Disc...

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The difference between artists and architects is that architects work for clients while artists serve their own imaginations. Architects have to deal with things like gravity, zoning laws and general contractors while artists are free to ignore function altogether.

But what if architects, with all that training, all that understanding of spatial relationships, color and the way lines intersect, were unshackled by the practicality of actually having to build anything? What if they could just lay their concepts down on canvas or construct utopian places without having to worry about a construction budget?

Likely, they'd come up with the kind of work Anibal Catalan has made for the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.

"The Land, The Space, The Square" is an art exhibit, for sure; paintings, sculpture, an installation in the traditional sense. But it is equally rooted in architecture, the field where Catalan did his formal education.

Catalan uses acrylic paint, prints, three-dimensional constructions and video to lay out theoretical landscapes. His works look like modified plans for developments or urban redevelopments, complete with buildings, blocks and streets. Or they resemble aerial views of cities and towns, stretched, squeezed, reduced to primary forms. He employs the architect's No. 1 tool shape massing together squares, rectangles, cubes and triangles.

Artists have tapped this idea before, of course. Entire movements have been built around connecting shapes, and Catalan's work has direct references to the great Constructivists and Suprematists of the early 20th century. The whole show feels like an homage to the revolution-minded paintings of Kazimir Malevich, the greatest abstractionist Russia ever produced.

But again, Catalan leans his work toward design, and that makes his painting less abstract, more picturesque and easier to access. You don't so much have to make out images as you have to figure out what Catalan wants us to notice about them. Which buildings stand out and how do they relate to one another? How is land divided into polygons and slivers and what does that look like if you take away the people and the cars?

Like any good architect, he is all about context, presenting his works in relation to one another, and more broadly to the room and the whole museum where they are displayed. All new buildings relate to the buildings around them (at least the good ones do), and Catalan links his paintings together in similar ways.

In the museum's main gallery, his painted lines and shapes start on canvases and then run right off their edges on the walls, continuing until they smash into the next painting over. Paintings morph into murals, and then, entertainingly, into three-dimensional objects. Catalan has constructed sculptural pieces with the same shapes as his flat paintings giant, arrow-like things with quivers made of flat, metal panels which look as if the paintings manufactured themselves into some sort of industrial equipment.

Technically, you would say this is an installation, one giant piece of art filling BMoCA's main space, though you could equally call it a show of hyper-related objects that could each stand on its own. Either way, Catalan gets you thinking about the interconnectedness of our universe, how all architecture springs from the same human tendency to organize things into patterns.

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At BMoCA, Anibal Catalan dreams up his utopia

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE RELEASE FINAL SONG | NEW Architects, Silverstein | Music News Weekly
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