Beginning next month, the International Network of Traditional Building, Architecture, and Urbanism (INTBAU) USA chapter will launch its book club called Reading Tradition. As chair of INTBAU USA, I am so pleased to bring this new program to you. It is open to all.
Learn more about how the book club will work here. To join our book club, please click here. Look forward to seeing you online!
Enjoy this interview by Beth Mosenthal, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, of Anderson Mason Dale Architects, in which she explores Christine Franck’s background and ideas about classical and traditional architecture. “Letting the Past Thoughtfully Inform the Present” was published in the Colorado Real Estate Journal’s Building Dialogue magazine.
Seeing the terrible devastation of parts of Abaco and Grand Bahama in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, has sadly reminded of my work in Mississippi with my New Urbanist colleagues shortly after Katrina. Since our efforts there, much has been learned about recovery and rebuilding after natural disasters. Indeed, the work began at the charrette has gone on to evolve into emergency housing as well as also being at the forefront of the tiny home movement.
(R. John Anderson and John Anderson, AIA (left to right) pose in front of our architecture team’s presentation. Other members of the architecture team included Allison H. Anderson, AIA, Marianne Cusato, Milton Wilfred Grenfell, Susan M. Henderson, Christine G. H. Franck, Michael G. Imber, Gary Williams Justiss, Eric Moser, and Stephen A. Mouzon.)
I am republishing the following essay, which I wrote after returning from the Mississippi Renewal Forum. At the time I struggled to put into words what I had seen and experienced, as I know so many will now again. My heart is with them as is my hope that some of what we learned then can help now.
Late this summer, I was pleased to spend an afternoon with Spencer Campbell of 5280 Magazine, touring him around the city and looking at examples of new residential designs, discussing their positive or negative impact on the public realm.
His article is now out, and I am so pleased that 5280 Home is taking on the issue of design quality in Denver. To read the article, click here.
I enjoyed presenting this brief lecture at the 24th Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) on the panel discussion “Architecture of Urbanism,” along with panelists Vinayak Bharne, Gary Brewer, Ellen Dunham-Jones, John Massengale, Steve Mouzon, Stefanos Polyzoides, Dan Solomon, Paddy Steinschneider, Galina Tachieva, and Samir Younés.
The panelists examined the specific means by which architecture, one building at a time, forms the urbanism of a place. The issue of the role of architecture and architectural style and character has been a long-running debate in the CNU.
The Congress for the New Urbanism is an international nonprofit organization working to build vibrant communities where people have diverse choices for how they live, work, and get around. For more information see www.cnu.org.
Recorded in Savannah, Georgia, this brief lecture, delivered to trustees of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, presents the history of the development of the ICAA over the years and its place in the larger context of architecture, urban design, landscape, decoration, construction, and the arts today.
N.B., as history is only as good as the historian, corrections and additions to this story are welcome by the author.
Next week, I am honored to be presenting a lecture at the Seminario Internacional Arquitectura y Humanismo being held at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in conjunction with the Premio Rafael Manzano Martos. I will be presenting the rationale and work of our new center, CARTA, and my thoughts on the role of place, particularly in the American West. An excerpt from the catalog accompanying the symposium follows the break below, the full text of which may be downloaded by clicking HERE.
Denver’s Larimer Square.
As America rebounds from the Great Recession of 2008, cities such as Denver, Seattle, and Portland are experiencing rapid growth, in both city-center infill projects and expanding suburban development. This building boom, driven as much by demand for new housing and commercial space as it is by capitalism, is unfortunately characterized by buildings that all too often lack durability, sustainability, and beauty. Many of the buildings being built, especially in historic neighborhoods, have nothing in common with their contexts.
ICAA Rocky Mountain Chapter President Don Ruggles, Irene Stillman, Leon Krier, Contemporary Traditional Architecture Initiatives director Christine Franck, ICAA Rocky Mountain Chapter secretary Tom Matthews on Leon Krier’s visit to Denver.