An Interview with David Graham, AIA

August 4th, 2009 in Interviews    1 Comment

As a founding Design Partner of Elness Swenson Graham Architects, Inc. (ESG), David Graham has innovated a city-building practice in which signature context-sensitive contemporary architecture serves to repair and expand urban fabric, shape civic public realm, and enhance the livability and vitality of neighborhoods.

His built projects have significantly expanded the range of typologies for urban residential, infill structures and mixed-use developments that interweave an understanding of traditional urban patterns with contemporary vigor. Graham’s initiatives and inspired collaborations have created a firm culture whose work has been recognized with more than 120 awards, including four national AIA awards and 70 chapter awards for architecture and urban design. This commitment to vision, excellence and collaboration was recognized by the AIA Minnesota 2007 Firm Award, bestowed in part for the firm’s “tremendous impact they have had on the Twin Cities and the region in the area of urban design and infill architecture.”
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An Interview with Ted H Davis, AIA, IIDA

July 25th, 2009 in Interviews    No Comments

Architecture has the responsibility to make special places. It should inspire us with an uplifting experience and improve our daily lives. Each design has unique parameters and potentials from which springs a unique solution. Within each is a poetic opportunity to find a character, an essence, or a soul which will lead to a solution that uplifts our spirit.

The hope is that design will create a positive emotional reaction. This requires thought, hard work, luck, passion and risk on the part of the client and the designer. It is easy to do what is the norm, but not so easy to strive for a unique design. So what makes something unique?

If you think about a memorable experience, it most certainly caused a moment of discovery – resulting in seeing the familiar in a new way. (more…)

Intensity: An Interview with Julie Snow, FAIA

August 18th, 2007 in Interviews    No Comments

After several years of teaching at the University of Minnesota, I recently completed a few semesters as a visiting critic in architecture at an Ivy League university. This led to a colleague’s question comparing the quality of students here and there. To be sure, the students out east were consistently very bright and very talented. I would not say that they are necessarily smarter nor more able than our students here, but the caliber of work was consistently far higher. One could argue that there were many reasons, but my sense was that the students were highly focused and worked incredibly intensively. Intensity and focus is the major differentiator of a practice dedicated to excellence. It is our insistence on excellence, the value that we bring to the thinking, designing and planning for our client’s projects, that creates the intensity of our practice.

Our design energy is not exclusively focused on the building’s appearance, as obviously important as that is to us. In fact, if all we had to do was to make the building look good, our jobs would be quite easy. Design intensity and focus must simultaneously solve the myriad of issues that surround the project. Early in my practice, I had the opportunity to work for manufacturing engineering clients. Their projects demanded high performance design–visually, functionally, and culturally. In addition, we were expected to perform well against reduced consumption of energy and fiscal resources, while meeting an aggressive planning design and construction schedule. For us, the design of each project must engage all of the issues surrounding the project: managing structural change within an organization, hearing the varied and sometimes opposing concerns of all parties, managing complex phasing, or creating a powerful architectural experience within the constraints of a limited budget. We believe that design is a powerful tool that our clients can use to challenge some of their most complex problems. (more…)

The Fine Art of Listening: An Interview with E. Tim Carl, AIA, LEEP AP

April 18th, 2007 in Interviews    2 Comments

It is important to respect, care about, and listen attentively to the inhabitants of the places we, as architects and builders, help to make. The best buildings emerge not from the application of an abstract style but from the close engagement of the complex and delightful ways in which buildings can shape our lives. Memorable form, orientation, light, materials and program can all be orchestrated to help us enjoy our cities more, encourage us to go to the theater or the library, to do better work.

The increasingly challenging requirements of building delivery should not constrain the design potential of a project. The application of experience and skill in a genuinely collaborative process can effectively
incorporate goals of design, budget and schedule. Architecture is a social process, the success of which relies on good communication between all the collaborators – client, user, community, builder and architect. Consistently, strong relationships between collaborators foster solutions that are responsive, creative and more personal. I lead a studio of diversely talented people who share this philosophy. Our team’s hallmark is approachability and accessibility. We listen to our clients, while engaging with a project to uncover its every detail and nuance. By understanding the original intentions of General Mills mid-century campus and its impact on their culture, we helped them create a more interactive and productive place to work, while promoting pride in the company. In a similar way, we were inspired by the historical context of Maryland neighborhoods and the patchwork patterns of folk art quilts in the creation of affordable housing for artists outside of Washington D.C. (more…)