As always, the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are filled with immense excitement and anticipation as people reconnect with family and friends whom they may not often see. At Concordia, we aim to stay connected with each other through a variety of events during the year. Recently, we participated in an office-wide CPR certification classes with the American Heart …
Did you know our very own Steven Bingler is also co-founder and chairperson of Common Edge Collaborative, an online publication with the mission to advocate and report on equitable engagement, planning and design in the built environment? Check out the excerpts below from his article, Climate Lessons From the Floating Villages of Cambodia. There are a lot of parallels drawn …
The Heritage Park Master Plan is designed to incorporate as many of the community’s preferences as possible. Included are a wide range of the rides, family fun, performance and relaxing ideas that emerged from the most common ideas captured during community dialogue. In total, 120 Andalusia residents participated in this first round of engagement. This document summarizes everyone’s feedback who …
People often green up interior spaces with measly potted plants placed here or there. Why use small potted plants when you can liven up a space with a full fledge living wall? Living walls can be made up of variety of plants, ranging in color and texture providing great visual appeal. They transform a typically horizontal application to a vertical …
On the way to our annual retreat in rural Mississippi last month, some of us stopped by the Crosby Arboretum in Picayune to see the stunning Pinecote Pavilion by architect E. Fay Jones. Like being underneath a canopy of trees, the thin wood framing of the pavilion delicately filters light and frames views of the surrounding southern pine forest. After visiting …
Two current exhibitions in New York combine to provide some insights into 21st century design thinking. One is the comprehensive Le Corbusier retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, the other is James Turrell’s magnificent installation at the Guggenheim Museum. Meanwhile in a land far, far away from MoMA and the Guggenheim, near Arizona’s painted desert and the resplendent Grand Canyon, …
In memory of renowned architect, designer, mentor and innovative thinker Paolo Soleri: For some, Paolo Soleri was the perfect iconoclast. For me, in 1975, as a young intern architect, he was an ideal mentor. My arrival at his home in suburban Scottsdale, Arizona, for the beginning of a summer workshop at Arcosanti was the start of a mesmerizing experience. On a …
As designers, we are always looking for connection between geometries, proportion, and the built environment. So what does music have to do with it? Musical frequencies are usually talked about in terms of musical notation. In the west, we use a standard 12-tone scale (13 if you include the octave of the first note) from A to G with a …
I came across a wonderful book of late entitled A Mindful Nation, by Congressman Tim Ryan from Ohio. I was pleasantly surprised to see such a thoughtful, insightful book coming from one of our Washington politicians. This book is about how the practice of being mindful can have a positive impact on our country on many levels as well as …
