Yesterday the American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced their major award winners, the Gold Medal, Firm of the Year Award, and the Topaz Medallion. Renzo Piano, Hon. FAIA, was awarded the Gold Medal for his decades of work around the world. KieranTimberlake Associates received the Firm of the Year Award and Stanley Tigerman, FAIA, received the Topaz Medallion.
Click here to read the
Architectural Record coverage of the winners.
Our friends at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) have just released their
most recent component survey of business conditions for 2007. According to their survey, demand for architects remains fairly strong compared to 2006, though several of AIA's regions are experiencing economic upheaval. Particularly hard-hit are Michigan and Florida/Caribbean. The demand for residential projects has weakened, though both commercial/industrial and institutional are maintaining earlier levels.
Click through to read more; do you find the AIA's numbers vibe with your landscape architecture experiences this year?
The
Hartford Courant carries an interesting op-ed this morning from Patricia Wallace, a board member of
1,000 Friends of Connecticut, bemoaning
the lack of graduate schools for planning and design within the state's public and private institutions. Wallace notes that in the recently concluded gubernatorial campaign, sprawl, growth, and regional planning were all hot-button issues, but the state doesn't seem to have the knowledge base to tackle these issues. In her view, graduate school programs provide the right atmosphere for those training to be developers, architects, and planners to start working with community organizers to re-imagine old urban centers and their surrounding communities. She also notes that the Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association is working with the University of Connecticut to establish a planning program. It should be noted that UConn has an accredited undergraduate program in landscape architecture, but not a graduate program.
Getting an MBA is so 1995. To get ahead in today's business world you need to go to D-school, at least that's what
BusinessWeek thinks. According to the magazine, corporations are looking for more folks who can participate in "design thinking," an open-ended approach to business that promotes innovation and providing features customers might want, rather than focusing on marker size and financial analysis. "This change in focus is leading to a huge corporate talent hunt," the magazine says. "To make their business culture more innovative, managers are hiring thousands of new people who can think and act more creatively."
So,
BusinessWeek spotted a trend and produced a slew of content on it. Click here to see their special section
Top Innovation and Design Schools, which includes a listing and information from design schools from around the world, and several profiles of design school kids who made the jump to the corporate world after graduation.
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