by: Lisa Delgado
Event: 2010 ConvergenceNYC — Panel Discussion
Location: Center for Architecture, 04.17.10
Speakers: Bradley Samuels — Partner, Situ Studios; Thomas Knittel, AIA, LEED AP — Principal, Senior Project Designer, and Sustainable Design Leader, HOK; Michael Westlake — Associate Designer, Populous; Debra Pothier — Senior Education Marketing Manager, Autodesk;
Moderator: Martin C. Pedersen — Executive Editor, Metropolis
Organizers: Convergence Group; AIAS; AIANY Emerging New York Architects Committee; AIANY Professional Practice Committee
Sponsors: AIA New York State; AIA New York Chapter; Cornell University; HOK; KPF; Armstrong; The Mohawk Group
For this year’s ConvergenceNYC, students attended a two-day long conference, complete with panel discussions, firm tours, and mentoring sessions. Marc Clemenceau Bailly, AIA (left, in the gray sweater) gave a firm tour of Gage Clemenceau; Mark Behm, Assoc. AIA (right, in the plaid shirt) presented the work of Mancini Duffy at the office.
Edith Altamiranda
It’s a common complaint that academia doesn’t fully prepare students for the real world of architecture practice. In a lively and thought-provoking panel discussion, a group of practicing professionals recently shared their thoughts, experience, and advice with architecture students during a time of economic uncertainty and some profound paradigm shifts. The panel was presented as part of 2010 ConvergenceNYC, an annual networking event that also includes firm visits and mentoring sessions to help students learn more about what awaits them outside the ivory tower.
Many panelists remarked on how the young students’ technology skills will be much in demand — a notion sure to give hope to those nervous at the prospect of an imminent job search. At HOK, the design process is “pretty much 3-D all the time,” said Thomas Knittel, AIA, LEED AP, a principal at the firm. “You’re well positioned to be a new generation that’s going to be able to lead those efforts.” When he looks at job candidates, a good command of parametric modeling programs is a big plus, he added. Autodesk’s online student community offers free software and tutorials to help students boost their tech skills, noted Debra Pothier, senior education marketing manager at the technology company.
Bradley Samuels’ story might inspire some students to sidestep a job search by starting their own firm. Shortly after graduating from Cooper Union in 2005, he and four other former students banded together to form Situ Studio. The first couple of years were lean times, he recalled, but their talents in digital design and fabrication have recently led to projects such as “Solar Pavilions” (temporary structures created using a kit of parts that can produce many forms), and a commission as fabrication consultants for the curvaceous bamboo plywood walls of a lobby at One Jackson Square, a West Village condo designed by KPF.
For them, forming their own firm was “a natural progression” from their student work, Samuels recalled. “We didn’t have any investors or a business plan. That was all done after the fact,” he said. “I think we were just at the right moment emerging with an interest in the right sorts of technologies.”
Beyond brushing up on their tech skills, students would also be well advised to immerse themselves in sustainable design. “Sustainability is finally coming into its own,” Knittel said, though it is “still very much an emerging field.” At HOK, biomimicry has proven a fruitful source of inspiration for green architecture, he said, citing AskNature.org as a helpful resource.
These days, “Rather than form follows function, form follows performance,” he observed. “And I think that we’re finding — and we really want to try to pursue — the idea that there is a real beauty to performance.”
Lisa Delgado is a freelance journalist who has written for OCULUS, The Architect’s Newspaper, Blueprint, and Wired, among other publications.