MERCED, Calif., June 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Along with focusing on education in a 21st century learning environment, safety was of utmost concern to President Paul Bunton's BCA Architects, the community-based Steering Committee and the Merced Union High School District Administration that collaborated together to design the new El Capitan High School in Merced, CA. The new 2,000-student school just reached the 50% complete milestone and is on track to open for classes in fall 2013.

"This is truly a school designed by the community," said Paul Bunton, AIA, president of BCA Architects. "This collaboration is evident in the design of several buildings on campus such as the gymnasiums, the performing arts center, cafeteria and the library that each are sited to allow after-hours access by the public while maintaining security in the quadrangle."

According to Bunton, the design of the new high school, from start to finish, responded to the Board of Trustees objectives of "providing students with a quality learning environment the students will respond to with pride, commitment, and respect."

"It is an incredible environment that will both motivate and challenge the students that enter it to excel in life. The desire to convey an attitude of Student Achievement in a high-quality, safe, educational environment was paramount," said Bunton.

Michael Belluomini, the District's Director of Facilities, stated, "Having worked on the planning of two high schools in the district prior to BCA's involvement, I was struck by BCA's attention to obtaining stakeholder input regarding the design of the school. The final design of the school is tailored to the needs of teachers, students, administrators and staff."

During the course of the design, the Merced Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team reviewed BCA's design and offered valuable information that would help the Police Department evaluate "lock down" procedures and intruder scenarios at the school. These collaborative efforts even inspired a change in the design from interior corridors to exterior corridors so school administrators would be able to aid the Merced SWAT team should an unfortunate Columbine type of event occur at Merced.

"BCA's clear awareness of the importance of student safety in schools led them to include the Merced Police Department early in the design of the new Bellevue Road Area High School," said Chief of Police Norm Andrade of the Merced Police Department. "This holistic vision of their public school design has led to an incredibly integrated and safe solution."

El Capitan High School was designed primarily as a two-story campus with interconnected buildings that wrap around a large central landscaped quadrangle and provide exceptional visual supervision. The sweeping curve of the main educational building is reflective of Fehrens Creek that runs directly behind the new high school.

The project has been designed as a Collaborative for High Performance Schools facility and is being built with durable products and materials such as masonry, steel, and energy-efficient mechanical equipment. The end design always kept the community's goals in mind: Student Achievement, Safety, Family and Community Partnerships.

"BCA Architects successfully and skillfully led the complex design process for the new (El Capitan) High School in Merced. As a member of the Steering Committee and a member of the local Community, I was impressed with the design of the new high school, and BCA's responsiveness to the Committee," said Bill Cahill, assistant city manager, City of Merced. "BCA's design solution for this new High School integrated the community's perspective on diverse issues, while responding to a very difficult site."

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Paul Bunton's BCA Architects Partners with Community to Design a School that Optimizes Learning and Student Safety

Yeekai Lim started a coffee company in 2009 due to a slowdown in architectural work.

The recession and its aftermath have clearly taken a toll on the architecture profession. In May, during the AIAs annual convention, Kermit Baker, the institutes chief economist, reported that 60,000 payroll jobs had been lost at firms over the past four years, with 36,000 of them being designers and architects. Of that group, about a third have found work outside of architecture, according to surveys conducted by the AIA.

Roughly 6,000 of these architects will likely quit the profession for good, the surveys founda move that could have serious ramifications. This doesnt even account for recent graduates who, unable to find jobs at firms, may pursue work in entirely different fields. According to sources we interviewed, these new career paths vary widely, from culinary endeavors to digital game design.

I hung on to my desk as long as I could afford to, but I realized I wasnt going in nearly as much, says Yeekai Lim, 39, who ran his own practice while also holding down jobs at various firms over the years. In 2009, he decided to pursue his second passion: coffee.

For years, Lim had been experimenting with beans and brewing styles at his California home and had become obsessed with this notion of the perfect cup. This ultimately led him to found Cognoscenti Coffee, which began as a coffee cart. Today, Lim has six employees and two coffee shops: one in Los Angeles and another opening soon in Culver City. Moreover, his business is turning a profit, he says.

Lim hasnt abandoned architecture entirely. He designed his two stores, and hes working for a client on a restaurant in Los Angeles. He doesnt know if he will ever return to architecture full time, but if he does, his coffee company experience will be a boon. Pouring lattes has definitely provided a lot of insight on client-architect relationships, he says. I better understand the service side, which is what architects should be focusing on.

Also drawn to food service was Natasha Case, who, after graduating from UCLA in 2008, went on to design hotels for Disney. But after her six-month contract wasnt renewed due to the recession, Case started an ice cream company in 2009 with a friend. Coolhauswhose name is an amalgam of Koolhaas and Bauhausnow has 10 trucks, two carts, and an L.A. storefront, where customers can choose flavors such as Louis Pe-Kahn and Mint-alism. The companys ice cream sandwiches are also sold in certain Whole Foods Markets. Case says her architecture know-how has been helpful, particularly in regard to packaging design. Im obviously not working in CAD, she says, but theres a huge amount that has translated from my background.

Some architects determined to stick with the profession are expanding the services they offer. Robert Vecchione, of Sarasota, Florida, has run a private practice since 1997. Two years ago, he began advising nonprofit clients on how to drum up additional revenue in the face of declining public funding. He helped the Easter Seals of Southwest Florida, for instance, conceive a plan to sponsor design competitions for toys that can later be sold in stores.

Vecchione encourages clients to take a more studio-style approach to brainstorming sessions. I tell them, you cant just sit there with a pen and paper hunched over a table, he says. Better is to hash out ideas with brown paper, on a wall, and black markers. Like architecture, it should be a visual, creative process, he says.

For aspiring architects, finding a job is no easy feat. Those who recently completed undergraduate architecture programs have the highest rate of unemployment, at 14 percent, of any profession, according to a recent report from the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University. (In contrast, the rate for those working in law is 8 percent; for journalists, 7 percent.) These headwinds come against a national overall jobless rate of 8.2 percent.

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Battered by the Recession, Architects Pursue New Lines of Work

TORONTO, June 19, 2012 /CNW/ - ACE Canada, the Canadian-based operating division of the ACE Group, today announced the launch of ACE Advantage Architects and EngineersSM professional liability insurance. This new product provides domestic and international coverage against the numerous perils faced by design professionals including, professional negligence, pollution incidents, and personal injury.

The challenges faced by today's design professional have proliferated -- broadening contractual requirements, increased emphasis on sustainability, new developments in design technologies and heightened client expectations are but a few difficulties faced by professionals practicing in this industry. In addition to these challenges, any ensuing litigation can threaten a design professional's financial stability and carefully cultivated reputation.

"Canadian design professionals are increasingly called to conduct business in emerging economies," said Michael Trendler, Vice President, ACE Professional Risk. "ACE Advantage Architects and Engineers professional liability policy provides global coverage supported by ACE's worldwide network of offices located in all principal markets."

ACE Advantage Architects and Engineers Professional Liability Coverage Highlights:*

To learn more about ACE Canada's Professional Risk portfolio, please contact Michael Trendler at (416) 594-3073 or michael.trendler@acegroup.com or visit http://www.ace-ina-canada.com.

*Product highlights are summaries only; please see actual policy for terms, conditions and exclusions. Product remains subject to ACE Professional Risk's underwriting criteria.

ACE Canadarefers to ACE INA Insurance and ACE INA Life Insurance, subsidiaries of the ACE Group, and is rated AA- (Very Strong) by Standard & Poor's and A+ (Stable) by A.M. Best Company. ACE Canada, through its underwriting companies, provides insurance products and services throughout Canada. Additional information on ACE Canada and its products and services can be found at http://www.ace-ina-canada.com. The ACE Group is one of the world's largest multiline property and casualty insurers. With operations in 53 countries, ACE provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. ACE Limited, the parent company of the ACE Group, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ACE) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Additional information can be found at: http://www.acegroup.com.

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ACE Canada® Launches New Professional Risk Product to Address Challenges Faced by Design Professionals

Michael Murphy was 26 years old, and deep into final exams his first semester at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, when Dr. Paul Farmer came to campus to speak. Murphy knew of Farmer, who in 1987 cofounded Partners in Health, to serve Haitis neediest.

It was 2006, World AIDS Day, and Murphy headed over to hear what Farmer had to say. He had no idea that the speech he crammed into his busy schedule would determine the direction of his lifes work.

Farmer told the students about the homes and hospitals Partners in Health (PIH) was building in rural Haiti, Rwanda, and Peru. Murphy was moved. This guy was talking about architecture, but hes calling it health care, he recalls. As a student, I thought it was an interesting reframing of architecture as a key piece of the health care delivery system.

After the speech, Murphy found Farmer and asked how he could help.

Architects? responded Farmer. Why do I need an architect? I just draw it all out on the back of a napkin.

But an e-mail correspondence began, and at the end of his first year in graduate school, Murphy spent the summer in rural Rwanda, working with Partners in Health. Farmers team was treating some of the poorest people in the world, people whose lives had been devastated by the 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 in 100 days.

Murphys lofty aim: to show how architecture fits snugly into the health care cause. Farmer and his colleagues, who had already built clinics and hospitals, agreed that professional architects could indeed help. Shortly after Murphy returned to Harvard, they asked if he could help build a state-of-the-art hospital in Rwanda. It would serve Burera, a district with a population of 400,000, one doctor, and no hospital.

I didnt know how to build a hospital, says Murphy, now 32. But when Paul Farmer calls you, you say yes.

Murphys classmate Alan Ricks, 29, offered to help, along with a few other students and professors. Murphy spent the winter term in Rwanda, puzzling the project out with Farmer and the Rwandan minister of health. We realized it was more than just helping draw up a few plans, says Murphy. It really was about a new vision of architecture.

In 2010, that vision would become MASS Design Group, a Boston team of architects committed to projects that will improve both the health and the lives of a community. With nonprofit status pending, MASS Model of Architecture Serving Society has often teamed up with Partners.

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The architects of a new kind of health care

The planned site of the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. Photo by Shiran Granot

The original architects of Jerusalem's Museum of Tolerance, who quit the project a number of months ago, say they own the rights to their design and the Simon Wiesenthal Center cannot use them.

The husband-and-wife architect team of Bracha and Michael Chyutin are owed an estimated several million shekels for their work on the Wiesenthal Center's controversial project. The Israeli couple was hired after the prominent Los-Angeles-based architect Frank Gehry, resigned from the project in January 2010.

The Chyutins were awarded the job after winning a closed design competition sponsored by the Wiesenthal Center, also based in Los Angeles. They submitted a new design for the structure in October 2010, and began applying to the Jerusalem Municipality for the required permits. Their relationship with the Wiesenthal Center ran aground last September over what has been described as "a business disagreement."

The Wiesenthal Center has proceeded with the project using the Chyutins' plans, saying it owned the rights to the design. Last month the municipality gave the go-ahead to begin construction.

Early on in the project, controversy erupted over the choice of the museum site, part of which is an old Muslim cemetery.

A spokesman for the Wiesenthal Center, Lior Horev, declined to comment specifically on the Chyutins' claims, which he called "imaginary, but he said the Chyutins' contract provides for binding arbitration in the event of a dispute with the Wiesenthal Center. He said that once all building permits are received construction is expected to take about 48 months. The Chyutins' lawyer, Rakefet Peled, said no architect, engineer or other professional associated with the project has permission to use the plans her clients developed.

Haaretz has learned that detailed plans for the museum are currently being developed by Jerusalem architect Yigal Levy and Aedas, a British-Singaporean group of architects. The choice of Aedas, which is one of the world's leading architectural firms, is seen as a sign of the Wiesenthal Center's determination to proceed with the Jerusalem museum.

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Museum of Tolerance ex-architects fight plans to use their design

Cautious Optimism

By Jim Cronin

Banker & Tradesman Staff Writer

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Boston Architects Drafting Blueprint For Recovery

Originally published on ArchDaily

Architects: Werner Tscholl Architects Location: Brenner Pass, Italy Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Alexa Rainer, Jrgen Eheim

The Timmelsjoch is the deepest, non-glaciated indentation in the main Alpine ridge between the Reschen Pass and the Brenner Pass.

A road, once a mule track, links the Passeiertal valley and the tztal valley. Over thousands of years, unique similarities between the two valleys evolved, triumphing over the natural boundary created by the mountains.

Since 2010 architectural sculptures located at several stopping places along the road, enlighten travellers about the natural surroundings, the history, the culture, the communities and the economy of the region.

All together there are 5 sculptures to be explored, two on the Austrian side called walkway and smuggler and two on the Italian side of the road named telescope and garnets. On the highest point of the pass one can find the pass museum. The concrete structure on the North Tyrolean side juts out like an erratic boulder into the South Tyrolean side, underlining the cross-border nature of the Timmelsjoch Experience. The Ice Cave inside the museum pays tribute to the pioneers of the High Alpine Road and their remarkable accomplishment.

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The Timmelsjoch Experience / Werner Tscholl Architects

The Safe Haven Bathhouse is a new sanitary building to meet the basic personal hygiene needs of the orphanage.

The will to do something meaningful and good lies within all of us, agree architects with heart Hanstad (left) and Gjertsen who stayed in Thailand for a full year studying, designing and building with several different communities.

The Safe Haven Library workshop undertaken in 2009 by TYIN involved the participation of 15 Norwegian architecture students from NTNU to ensure that the Safe Haven Orphanage has a space for the children to do homework, use a computer, read books and play games.

The Soe Ker Tie House in Noh Bo, a small village situated at the border tucked between Thailand and Burma is the realisation of a dream for the Karen refugee children. Here, bamboo weaving technique was used for the creation of the Butterfly Houses.

The Old Market Library built in a 100-year old market building caught on with the locals who have developed an attachment to this place built with local and reused materials.

The Cassia Co-op Training Centre located in an area where 75 per cent of the worlds cinnamon production takes place is designed as a space for educating local cinnamon farmers in Sumatra.

Energetic duo Andreas G. Gjertsen and Yashar Hanstad, partners of TYIN tegnestue Architects from Norway live by Finnish architect and writer Juhani Pallasmaas saying, Architecture is about the understanding of the worldand turning it into a more meaningful and humane place.

We have always been interested in basic solutions to fundamental challenges.

Our architecture is usually based on rational choices with the aim of creating useful and beautiful structures. Our background in Norway has taught us a lot about wooden construction and we cherish other natural materials as well.

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Norwegian architects reach out to the needy

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Architects overwhelmingly agree that people perform better in buildings with abundant natural light. Controlling the natural light, as well as providing it, is an important design concern, according to a new survey conducted by Hanley Wood, a leading media and information company in the construction industry. The survey was sponsored by SAGE, the leading manufacturer of electronically tintable dynamic glass.

More than 99 percent of the nearly 500 architects surveyed believe people perform their jobs or activities better in buildings when exposed to natural light. Additionally, almost 98 percent of architects surveyed felt occupants perform better when they have a view and connection to the outdoors.

When uncontrolled, however, abundant sunlight can adversely affect building occupants as much as it benefits them, with problems such as glare, heat gain and fading. That is a reason why more than 93 percent of architects surveyed also agree that sun control is a significant challenge when designing glass into buildings.

Glass, traditionally a double-edged sword

Traditional approaches to controlling sunlight have frustrated architects who love to design with glass. Controls such as mechanized shades, blinds or exterior louvers may block the sun but also limit exposure to daylight and the view to the outdoors, which are the very reasons why windows are designed into building facades. Consequently, only 39% of architects agree that they are satisfied with options for managing solar control today. Furthermore, 17% of architects pointedly indicate that they are not satisfied with conventional sun control options.

The recent research supports the value proposition of new glazing technologies like dynamic SageGlass, which electronically tints and clears on demand to tame the suns harmful rays without blocking the view to the outdoors.

The survey also found that the use of energy-efficient glass is aligned with a majority of architects green design objectives. Approximately two-thirds of architects surveyed said that they typically design buildings with LEED principles in mind. This viewpoint indicates a growing awareness of sustainable building design practices in the industry over the past 10 years, and bodes well for new glazing technologies that can demonstrate a direct contribution to LEED points and environmental objectives.

The Hanley Wood study validates the SageGlass value proposition and many of the reasons why SageGlass is gaining momentum in the market, said Derek Malmquist, vice president of marketing at SAGE. In addition to energy savings and enhancing sustainability, dynamic glass provides architects and glaziers with a product that uniquely solves the problem of solar control. SageGlass can be controlled to let in exactly the right amount of sunlight to maximize building efficiency without ever having to sacrifice natural light or a connection to the outdoors.

A common misperception in the industry is that dynamic glazing is too expensive for mainstream projects. The survey suggests that attitudes may be changing on this issue. Nearly 75 percent of architects were positive or neutral about the affordability of new technologies like dynamic glass, which is a significant departure from earlier industry perceptions (with one in five architects agreeing or strongly agreeing that dynamic glass is affordable compared to other traditional solar control options).

Original post:
Architectural Survey Finds That Architects Have Love/Hate Relationship with the Sun

American Institute of Architects handed out its annual awards to projects showcasing the best innovative design

By Louise Boyle

PUBLISHED: 22:06 EST, 12 June 2012 | UPDATED: 03:24 EST, 13 June 2012

What do Scottsdale, Arizona, Syracuse in upstate New York and the San Juan Islands off Washington have in common? They are all home to some of the most architecturally inspiring addresses in the United States.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has handed out the 2012 Housing Awards to projects at the pinnacle of design, creativity and sustainability.

The jury recognized projects in four categories - custom-built homes for one family, large structures which sleep many individuals in their own apartments and specialized buildings such as community centers.

The ten homes selected were: The Nakahouse, a space-age home in the Hollywood Hills; Relic Rock, a luxury home in Scottsdale, Arizona; The Pierre, a strange stone inspired home in the San Juan Islands off Washington state; The Camelview Village, a futuristic condo complex in Scottsdale, Arizona; Hampden Lane House in Bethesda, Maryland; The Live Work Home in Syracuse, New York; the luxury Carmel residence in Carmel-by-Sea, California; a new Jesuit Community centre in Fairfield, Connecticut; new low-budget homes in San Francisco and new college halls of residence in Houston, Texas.

Otherwordly homestead: Optima Camelview Village is a 700-unit condominium development comprised of eleven buildings linked by bridges in Scottsdale, Arizona

Spiritual setting: The Arizona complex draws inspiration from the surrounding mountains and Native American desert communities

Sit back and relax in your surroundings: A lounge area in the Optima Camelview Village in Scottsdale

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American Institute of Architects hand out awards for best designed homes in the U.S.