Metropolis 20150708

ARCHITECTURE AND
DESIGN AT ALL SCALES

July/August 2015
The Metropolis Guide
to the Worlds
Most Livable Cities:
Why Toronto
Ranks #1 on Our List
Koolhaas on OMAs
Fondazione Prada
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VERTICAL
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Koolhaas Talks Prada 66
Retirement Reboot 80
The architect speaks to Metropolis about

the Fondazione Prada and rethinking the
relationship between architecture and art.
Architect and urban studies expert Deane

Simpson discusses aging in place and
rethinking senior citizen communities.
Cloaked Cabin 88
Northern Exposure 96
Architect Tom Kundig evokes the spirit

of Washingtons San Juan Islands in
a mechanized house that literally invites
the outdoors in.
Olson Kundig Architects shows

Metropolis its regional inspirations for
the waterfront Pole Pass House.
TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT: COURTESY ATTILIO MARANZANO/FONDAZIONE PRADA; COURTESY WHERERVNOW.COM; COURTESY OLSON KUNDIG; MIKE GARTEN; COURTESY BEN RAHN
FEATURES
The Worlds Most Livable Cities 98

Metropolis provides the ultimate guide
to the best cities to live in.
METROPOLIS
On the cover: Torontos Nathan Phillips Square

and Old City Hall, shot by Aaron Wynia.
JUL/AUG 2015
Maiarelli Studio
Visit www.arborite.com and discover 16 exciting, new

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DEPARTMENTS
CONTRIBUTORS 16
PRESIDENTS NOTE 18
PUBLISHERS NOTE 21
DIALOGUE 22
TREND
Everyday Artistry 54
EXPERT OPINION
Kirt Martin of Landscape
Forms on Outdoor Spaces 56
PRODUCTSPHERE
Contract Crossovers 130
Open-Air Elegance 132
Q&A
Katie Swenson on
Affordable Housing 138
SPECTRUM 32
IN PRODUCTION
Edie Chandelier: Shards
and Feathers 46
PRODUCT SPACES
Bal Harbor Shops:
The Art of Fashion 48
THINK TANK
Special Report on
Education Design 140
BEN KATCHOR
The Wataloo Family 148
INDEX OF
ADVERTISERS 146
July/August 2015. METROPOLIS (ISSN 0279-4977) is published 11 times a year, monthly, except bimonthly for July/August. Volume 35, Number 1. Subscriptions: 11 issues for $32.95 U.S.A., $52.95 Canada, $69.95 airmail all other countries. Domestic
single copies $9.95; back issues $14.95. Copyright 2015 by Bellerophon Publications Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Metropolis
will not be responsible for the return of any unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Publishing and editorial office is at 61 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 10010. Telephone (212) 627-9977. Fax (212) 627-9988. Periodical postage is paid in New York, NY,
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METROPOLIS
JUL/AUG 2015
LEFT TO RIGHT: COURTESY NORBERT MIGULETZ; COURTESY PAUL RAESIDE; COURTESY PABLO DESIGNS
REVIEW
Pariss Les Bains
Boutique Hotel 136
corotechcoatings.com
METROPOLISMAG.COM
For more
about Les
Bains, Pariss
nightclubturnedboutique hotel,
turn to page 136.
EVENTS
Metropolis
Think Tank goes
to Boston and
Houston. Susan S.
Szenasy discusses
healthy tech
integration in
the workplace
with Humanscale
in San Francisco.
EXCLUSIVES
Q&As, videos,
and other
additional content
from your
favorite articles
DAILY CONTENT
Updates on the
latest in architecture and design
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and Amazon.
EDUCATION/CEU
Read your
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articles and
take a short quiz.
METROPOLIS
JUL/AUG 2015
COURTESY PAUL RAESIDE
PRODUCTS
Preview designs
at GlassBuild
America.
MEHNDI QUARTZ | WILSONART.COM/QUARTZ
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Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Structural Engineer: WSP Cantor Seinuk
Photograph: Tex Jernigan
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EDITORIAL INTERN
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World
View
While the world watched, One World Trade Center
grew in both height and symbolism, its 1,776-foot
crystalline form bringing unmatched views back to
ART INTERNS
Thomas Colligan Bo-Won Keum
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Guy Horton
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Lower Manhattan. A redundant structural steel

frame, the result of creative collaboration between
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and WSP Cantor Seinuk,
ensures that its safety is as substantial as its stature.
Read more about it in Metals in Construction online.
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FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER 19812014
Horace Havemeyer III
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Sub
Culture
Every day 300,000 subway riders stream through
Manhattans Fulton Center, their underground trek now
brightened by entertainment venues and daylight
YLLJ[LKMYVTP[ZZR`SP[JHISLUL[V]LYOLHK(UPU[LNYH[LK
artwork by James Carpenter Design Associates,
Grimshaw Architects, and Arup[OPZTHY]LSVM
JVSSHIVYH[PVUPZHUL^IYPNO[ZWV[ILULH[OJP[`Z[YLL[Z
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JUL/AUG 2015
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METROPOLIS
CONTRIBUTORS
Metropolis
Think Tank: a
provocative
series of
conversations
in 2015
JENNILEE MARIGOMEN
The Vancouver-based photographer is interested in investigating everyday phenomena, and
was named one of Photo District
Newss 30 New and Emerging
Photographers to Watch this year.
She is also the communications
coordinator for Gallery 295,
which provides facilities for
photographic production. Last
April, Marigomen flew out to
Orcas Island to photograph the
Pole Pass Cabin (p. 88). My
favorite parts were the blurred
lines between the indoors and
outdoors and how the design
made those lines beautiful and
efficient all at the same time,
she says. Turning the wheel
crank was fun, too!
THE HUMAN FACTOR:

IN SEARCH OF PEOPLE/EARTH
CENTERED DESIGN
Reid is a journalist, copywriter,

author, and unabashed
Melbourne lover (p.118). For 14
years she has worked with
clients in architecture, real
estate, and sustainability
something to do with a love of
bricks and mortar, she says
and her first book, John Ileana:
A Crazy Life (Wrightbooks,
2011), was about the Melbourne
personality and founder of
the Crazy John Mobile Empire.
Reid recently launched her
own consultancy, Atrium Media
(atrium.media). My favorite neighborhood is East Melbourne,
she says, Tree-lined streets, genteel parks, great eateriesall
within a few minutes meander
to the top of the city.
Leading U.S. architecture and

design firms engage with
Susan S. Szenasy to challenge
current design thinking
and chart the way forward.
REBECCA GREENWALD
Ive had Colombia in the back
of my mind for a while,
Greenwald says. For so long, all
I heard was a story of violence
and corruption, but all of a
sudden, it flipped to one of urban
innovation. Her trip last May
became the basis for her report
on Medelln (p. 116). As long as
mayoral administrations are
committed to strategic bottomup planning, the city will continue to be a positive force, she
says. The Austin-based writer
has managed cross-country road
trips for the design-and-travel
startup Mosey, and is a communications consultant for architects, designers, and planners.
Metropolis Think Tank

is sponsored by:
16
JUL/AUG 2015
TOP TO BOTTOM: COURTESY LUKAS PEET; COURTESY NILS KOENNING; COURTESY AUDREY MA
ANNIE REID
I often need a change

of perspective thats
why I value a system
adaptable enough to
open up new horizons.
Laura Tusevo, Design Student
ECAL, Lausanne
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PRESIDENTS NOTE
Push to Open
I confess I have had an obsession for five years.

Since my husbandBellerophon Publications
founder and publisher Horace Havemeyer III
became confined to a wheelchair, I have fixated
on exterior doors, as I seek out the most accessible
routes into medical facilities. Mount Sinais
Madison Avenue revolving door, New York
Presbyterians main entrance, and the Hospital for
Special Surgerys sliding doors are perfect.
Dont try Mount Sinais Fifth Avenue main entrance
if a west wind blows. New YorkPresbyterians
dreary back door on East 70th Street, where
wheelchair vans discharge, is almost impenetrable
for both chair and aidethe push to open button leads to two 90-degree turns in no space.
I am an 85-pound senior, and it takes all my
strength to enter or leave a building when the
doors are heavy and when an inside wind pocket
increases the stress. So I love those places
where that nice little silver rectangle says push
to open for a power door.
Its not just the infirm and the elderly: What
about you, your family, and colleagues? People
with kids and strollers; people carrying luggage?
Wasnt the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) supposed to solve these problems?
Seeking answers, I turned to Jeff Rosser,
vice president and account manager for
Skanska USA Building, a leader in health-care
facility construction.
Here is what he told me: The ADA was
enacted in 1990 as civil rights legislation regulated
by the U.S. Department of Justice. Its minimum
requirements were updated in 2010 for businesses
and nonprofits. To comply, businesses must
18
METROPOLIS
provide entrances that are accessible for people

with disabilities.
New buildings are a perfect opportunity
to build universal or inclusive design into the
program from the beginning. The cost implications
for incorporating ADA requirements have minimal
impact, since its a matter of enhancing typical
solutions so they can be used without the need for
customization or additional adaptationhence
universal, inclusive design.
But in existing buildings, the challenge
is finding affordable solutions that go beyond the
ADA and create a better experience for the visiting public. The cost for upgrades is greatly
affected by the following factors: space and
structural constraints, working off-hours to limit
the impact on active spaces, modifications
that disturb existing finishes and expose existing
hazardous material such as lead paint and
asbestos, and the need to update the building
to current code requirements for life safety.
A key component to moving from basic
ADA compliance toward universal design is
getting accurate costs for the most beneficial
options early in the process. Owners can then
compare that cost with the business value in
making their buildings more accessible and more
frequently visited.
So the bottom line is the bottom line!
For green buildings, LEED certification is a publicaffirming incentive. What life- and public-affirming
incentives can we come up with beyond the
ADA that would appeal both to for-profit landlords
and to health and other nonprofit facilities,
and attract donors? Eugenie Cowan Havemeyer
JUL/AUG 2015
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PUBLISHERS NOTE
Calgarys concerned citizens,
artists, designers, and
public officials collaborate
to invite humane and
environmentally sound ideas
to fix the citys Lost Spaces.
The rapid growth of 20th-century cities left us with a baseline

of solutions for global urbanization in this century. Densely
planned neighborhoods linked by efficient rapid transit, wide
sidewalks, street furniture and plantings, parks of varied
sizes, and water featuresall of them are there for us to evolve,
to connect with the people who live and work there and
the environment that supports all life. Yet all this early growth
also spawned mean streets, rusting bridges, crumbling
roads, abandoned buildings, and left us with decimated city
blocks, dangerous pollution, and spaces that seem untamable and uninhabitable.
Enter Calgary. This Alberta city of skyscrapersfueled by
the oil industry while nurturing its roots in farming cultureputs
on a really big show every July. Cowtown, as this chunk of
Western Canadas prairie is known, hosts the massive Calgary
Stampede. Another show that should have an equally long-lasting
and dramatic influence on city planning was organized by a
group of concerned citizens, artists, designers, and public officials. They came together this past spring for a public discussion
about the ideas presented in the Lost Spaces competition.
My invitation to serve as a competition juror came from
two energetic local organizationsthe Design Talks Institute
(d.talks), an advocacy group for the built environment and
WATERSHED+ of the citys Utilities & Environmental Protection
Public Art Program. During the jury process, we were able to
consult with public officials who enlightened us on bee keeping,
indigenous plants, remnants of old rail lines that brought the
original settlers to this far-West outpost, and other local knowledge and lore.
Judging from the competition entries, the idea of Lost
Spaces hit home in cities everywhereentries came from places
as far afield as Colombia, England, and Sweden.
Sterile traffic roundabouts, boring bus routes, and abandoned rail beds came under scrutiny, among other Lost Spaces.
Ideas to revitalize these and other tears in the urban-natural
fabric focused on developing bee habitats, strategic plantings
of flora native to the prairie, and a resilient food system.
As I left Calgary the next day, I glowed with the energy of
the people I met, the smart ideas that will surely fuel their future
plans, and an appreciation that cities in our digitally connected
century have a lot more human resources than they had in our
industrial, fragmented, and rationalized past. Susan S. Szenasy
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21
Call for Entries!
DIALOGUE
Our 30th annual design contest is now open for entries.

The competition specializes in furniture components, hardware
and accessories. We seek your innovative ideas in those areas.
Entering is simple: Just go to mockett.com/contest and submit online.
Or see instructions for sending us an entry via mail or FedEx.
Deadline is Tuesday after Labor Day, September 8. So hurry!
First Place award(s) receive $1000, an engraved
achievement trophy, and a royalty. First Place award(s)
vary between 1 and 4; there is no limit.
2010 Winner
Rick Poliquin, Henderson, NV
Purse Hook
2005 Winner
Andrea Ruggiero, NY
Sombrero Wire Manager
2012 Winner
Andrew Elliott,
Englewood, FL
Cord Manager
2008 Winner
Michael W. Davis,
Rockford, MN
Star Grommet
DESIGNING WITH SOCIAL IMPACT
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Metropolis and the Association of Independent

Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) hosted an alumni
event on June 11 at the penthouse of Troy Boston. The
conversation explored social design, social innovation,
design advocacy, and ethics. It brought together the
voices of Autodesk Foundation president and CEO
Lynelle Cameron, codirector of the Mayors Office
of New Urban Mechanics Nigel Jacob, and executive
director of MASS Design Group Michael Murphy.
The event was sponsored by Autodesk Foundation.
22
JUL/AUG 2015
COURTESY AUTODESK FOUNDATION
2009 Winner
Jeffrey Bolen,
Marina del Rey, CA
Table Leg
2009 Winner
John OConnor,
Grifth, IN
Shelf Support
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DIALOGUE
On May 18, Metropolis and Interiors from Spain hosted

a private presentation that took place at the IA
Interior Architects New York studio. Publisher/editor
in chief Susan S. Szenasy and senior editor Avinash
Rajagopal moderated a roundtable conversation on
the resurgence of Spanish design, with designers
from IA providing information on how to best market
to the American design community.
Celebrating the modern idiom

modernfan.com
24
JUL/AUG 2015
COURTESY MARK IANTOSCA
BREAKFAST WITH INTERIORS FROM SPAIN
competition
Calling all U.S. Architects & Designers:
Show the innovative and inspiring ways
that you have incorporated Hansgrohe
and/or Axor products in your recent
work.
www.dasdesigncomp.com
DIALOGUE
On May 29, carpet fiber company Aquafil USA celebrated the inauguration of its second North Georgia
manufacturing facility and the expansion of its U.S.
headquarters in Cartersville at the companys 16-year
anniversary gala. The event was attended by government officials, media representatives, and highlevel executives from the carpet sector. Italian
ambassador to the United States, Claudio Bisogniero,
and Georgia secretary of state, Brian Kemp,
addressed the audience on the importance of continued economic growth, environmental stability,
and strong international business relations.
26
JUL/AUG 2015
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DIALOGUE
CLARIFICATION
True Global Design
Singular attention to form and detail

in site elements for high-performance
placemaking. The benets of mass
production + the richness of regionally
sourced materials.
Designed by Francisco Gomez Paz.
Find us at landscapeforms.com or
contact us toll free at 877.831.9163.
CORRECTION
In Preview: NYCxDesign (May 2015, p. 172) the Franke
Planar 8 Flex Semi-Professional kitchen faucet (above)
was misidentified as the Franke Steel kitchen faucet.
DESIGN. CULTURE. CRAFT.

28
JUL/AUG 2015
TOP TO BOTTOM: COURTESY PATRICK TIGHE ARCHITECTURE; COURTESY FRANKE
To clarify the caption for the above photo, which was

shown in The Rise of the Robot Operator (April
2015, p. 56), the Courtyard at La Brea was designed
by MUTLOW + TIGHE, a joint association of John
V. Mutlow Architects and Patrick Tighe Architecture.
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COURTESY ARTHUR EVANS/THE TANG MUSEUM AT SKIDMORE COLLEGE
At All Scales
In the 1960s and 1970s,

Sister Mary Corita Kent
juxtaposed advertising
and biblical messages
in screen-printed artworks such as this one
from 1967. Her work is
the focus of an ongoing
exhibition, Someday
Is Now: The Art of Corita
Kent (p. 32).
SPECTRUM
An essential survey
of architecture
and design today
EXHIBITION
Civil Rights Apostle
Often compared to the work
of Andy Warhol, Sister Mary
Corita Kents silkscreens are
bright, bold, and, most of all,
uplifting. Her message reverberated throughout the civil
rights protests and antiwar
rallies of the 1960s and 1970s,
when she made the cover
of Newsweek and the Saturday
Evening Post.
Her name isnt as well
remembered as Warhols, but
a traveling exhibition, Someday
Is Now: The Art of Corita Kent,
is changing that. After stops at
the Museum of Contemporary
Art Cleveland in Ohio, the
32
METROPOLIS
Baker Museum at Artis-Naples

in Florida, and the Andy
Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh,
this full-scale survey of the
artists work makes its final run
at the Pasadena Museum of
California Art through October
11, exhibiting pieces from
Kents career of more than 30
years. She saw [art] from a
nuns perspective, says
independent curator Michael
Duncan, who co-curated the
exhibition along with Ian Berry,
director of the Tang Museum at
Skidmore College, in collaboration with Corita Art Center in
Los Angeles. She took a very
humanist approach to advertising and discovered her own

spiritual messages in the slogans and logos that Madison
Avenue had come up with.
More than 200 prints are
on view, including one of her
best-known: the large cursive
G of General Mills that Kent
set against a curvy, red-striped
background, with the words
The Big G Stands for Goodness. The G is not referring to
whats in the cereal bowl but
to actual goodness or even
God, Duncan says. Kent juxtaposed advertising logos in
this way, with Bible verses, and
quotes from Albert Camus or

even the Beatles.
After decades with only
a cult following among contemporary artists like Mike Kelley,
Pae White, and Jim Hodges,
Kents work is reemerging
because of a renewed interest
in political, communitybased art-making, and social
practice. People are wanting
things that are more direct,
that have more to do with
their lives rather than just price
tags associated with Jasper
Johns or Jeff Koons, Duncan
says. Kents work feeds into
that perfectly.Carren Jao
JUL/AUG 2015
LEFT TO RIGHT: COURTESY ARTHUR EVANS/ THE TANG MUSEUM AT SKIDMORE COLLEGE;
COURTESY THE CORITA ART CENTER, LOS ANGELES
Above: wet and wild,

a 1967 silkscreen print on
paper by Sister Mary
Corita Kent (pictured
right, with her other
works, in 1964). The print
is in the collection of
the Corita Art Center at
the Immaculate Heart
High School, Los Angeles.
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Tucked away on the sleepy

Gilded Age campus of
the Ragdale Foundation in
Chicagos northern suburbs,
the third annual Ragdale Ring
pavilion beams with youthful
allure. The temporary timber
structure strikes a Pac-Man
like profile, framing a stage for
summer performances by resident artists, poets, and musicians. Foam cushions shaped
like misfit building blocks,
feather-light and in clownish
colors, are haphazardly
scattered on the lawn in front.
For us, if children like
it, its a measure of success,
says Stewart Hicks, founder
of Design with Company, who,
with partner Allison Newmeyer,
is responsible for the pavilions Postmodern design. Its
features have their source in
Ragdales history. Its proprietor, Howard Van Doren Shaw,
a prominent architect famous
for turn-of-the-century mansions in and around Chicago,
erected the first Ragdale Ring
in 1912 to stage his wifes plays.
Since 2013, architects have
competed to erect their own
venues at the same spot.
Hicks and Newmeyer, this
years winners, combed through
Shaws portfolio, searching
for motifs that lent themselves
to creative appropriation.
These elements are abstracted
into the pillows the duo
hand-sewed as part of their
residency, and which add a
participatory element at what
the architects call Shaw
Town. Weve been pretty adamant about saying, Theres no
up or down, Newmeyer says of
how visitors may use a cushion.
Do people stand it up or lean
on it? Zach Mortice
34
METROPOLIS
From top to bottom:

Cushions being sewn
for the 2015 Ragdale
Ring pavilion. When not
in use as seats for the
performance venue, the
cushions can be stored
on the stage. The pavilion was created by
Allison Newmeyer and
Stewart Hicks of
Design with Company.
JUL/AUG 2015
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Adidas sneaker
designed by Stan
Smith in the 1980s;
Puma X Undefeated
Clyde Gametime Gold
shoe from 2012; the
Modell Waitzer shoe
from Gebrdder Dassler
Schuhfabrik, 1936.
EXHIBITION
Unboxing the Sneaker
Consider the simple sneaker,
urges The Rise of Sneaker
Culture, on view at the
Brooklyn Museum through
October 4. The show, which
originated at Torontos Bata
Shoe Museum, is the first to
chart the sneakers history, from
its origins in the 19th-century
commercialization of latex
rubber to its ubiquity today.
The exhibition features
about 150 examples of
historical and contemporary
36
METROPOLIS
footwear loaned from museums, manufacturer archives,

and the personal collections
of esteemed sneakerheads.
These high-tops, tennis shoes,
and running sneakers speak
to larger cultural developments, including the advent
of physical culture in the late
19th century, the emphasis
on fitness in nationalistic ideologies of the 20th century, the
influence of hip-hop, and currents in mens fashion, which,
in recent decades, have seen

the luxury sneaker become a
status symbol.
Curator Elizabeth
Semmelhack makes it clear
that innovation in sneaker
design has been pushing the
boundaries since the 1830s.
The exhibition and catalog
recognize designers like Tinker
Hatfield, Jr., who conceived
of the versatile cross-trainer
and designed Nikes first
Air Max sneakers, and Paul
Litchfield, who developed

Reeboks Pump pneumatic
support system.
Unlike at apparel exhibitions featuring rarefied couture,
most visitors here will readily
recognize the Converse Chuck
Taylors, Adidas Superstars,
or Vans slip-ons. The Rise of
Sneaker Culture is the rare
exhibition that offers deep
social and cultural insight into
an object used by billions
across the globe. Luke T. Baker
JUL/AUG 2015
TOP TO BOTTOM: COURTESY ADIDAS AG/STUDIO WALDECK, COURTESY AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS; COURTESY RON WOOD,
COURTESY AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS/BATA SHOE MUSEUM; COURTESY ADIDAS AG/STUDIO WALDECK, COURTESY AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS
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Cornell University seeks to

encourage a delicate balance
between books and technology, making the case that both
are necessary in its new Ho
Fine Arts Library. The proposed
design by Cornell AAP alum
Wolfgang Tschapeller combines a careful restoration of
the brick exterior of Rand Hall
with an innovative reordering
of its upper stories.
The stacks containing
the fine arts collection
books on subjects ranging from
architecture to fiber science
will consist of four levels,
undulating through Rand Halls
upper two floors. Staircases,
ramps, and catwalks wind
between the shelves, letting
light flow from above while
replicating the labyrinthine
feeling of traditional stacks,
with glimpses of bodies moving among the books and shadows and light, says Cornells
director of communications,
Aaron Goldweber. The sculptural mass of the stacks juts
through the roof of the existing
building, crowning it in a silvery mass that will cast light
across Cornells Arts Quad.
The library will also be
a testing ground for new technologies and ways of working.
Students and instructors
will be able to check out books
to specially curated tables
outfitted with sensors that
recognize RFID tags in each
volume. Bibliophiles need not
worry, however. The university
says it is staking out increasingly rare territory in defense of
the physical artifact as a durable and irreplaceable academic and creative resource in
the visual arts. A.J.P. Artemel
38
METROPOLIS
Rand Hall, originally

slated for demolition but
preserved by OMAs
design of Milstein Hall,
will be the site of the
Ho Fine Arts Library
(left). Inside, 153,000
on-site circulating
volumes will form the
centerpiece of a dramatic 42-foot-high
reading room (above).
JUL/AUG 2015
THIS PAGE: COURTESY CORNELL UNIVERSITY
EDUCATION
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BATHROOM
Handy Faucet
Twenty-five years after the
Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) was passed, bathroom
products have become the
perfect example of how accessible, user-centric design need
not mean compromised aesthetics. At New Yorks ICFF in
May, Dornbracht showcased
the CL.1 series, which is not
only ADA-compliant but goes

beyond the letter of the law. A
variety of spout heights and an
especially gentle spray in the
faucets make for an accessible
and soothing experience, while
the textured handlesavailable in two relief patternslook
good and provide useful tactile
cues. Avinash Rajagopal
ACCESSIBLE DESIGN
Room to Maneuver
doors can be easily operated
while passing by, and an LED
strip under the front edge of
the cabinet is operated by a
push buttona useful feature
for anyone stumbling into
the bathroom at night.
Other features include
two cubbies for storage,
and 22 options for finishes
ranging from Natural Maple
to Gloss Black. A.R.
DETAILS
Drain Design
There are many things that
could prove to be a potential hazard in a wet shower,
so the fact that Infinity Drains
G Series strainer is held
flush to the floor and firmly in
place with corrosion-resistant
nickel magnets is a detail
that is invisible but significant.
40
METROPOLIS
Plus, it means that there

are no screws to fiddle with
when the drain needs to be installed or opened up. The G
Series comes in a set of four decorative patterns and is ideal
for a center drain placement in
commercial or residential
applications. A.R.
JUL/AUG 2015
COURTESY THE DESIGNERS AND MANUFACTURERS
If done right, designs aimed

at users with disabilities or limited mobility can turn out to
be providential for all of us.
The slanted front of the
Libera wall-mounted vanity
from Lacava was designed to
provide maneuvering space
that the ADA stipulates, but it
is also a smart option for any
bathroom with limited space.
The finger pulls on the sliding
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Brick (Phaidon, 2015)

traces the history of
brick architecture across
style movements, featuring iconic buildings
like the National Assembly
Building in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, designed
by Louis I. Kahn.
SPECTRUM
The humble brick is back in

demand in the U.K., driven by
an increase in house-building
and an endorsement from the
London mayor, Boris Johnson.
Such is the resurgence in
brick architecture that there
is talk these days of a new
London vernacular style.
Before the 2008 financial
crisis, U.K. cities were victims of ambitious but sometimes alarming attempts
at regeneration, favoring
modern materials, like glass
42
METROPOLIS
and steel, and colorful cladding.

But Londons housing-design
guide of 2010 promoted great
background architecture
made of durable materials that
weather well. It encouraged
architects to take cues from
the capitals Georgian houses.
So now an industry that
suffered during the recession
with 30 or so brick-making
facilities closing or being
mothballedcan barely keep
up. The number of houses
being built in England is on the
increase, according to the

Brick Development Association
(BDA), with brick the most
favored material. It seems
likely that the target to start
upwards of 200,000 new
homes per year will remain,
says Simon Hay, BDAs chief
executive officer.
William Hall, author of the
sumptuous and intelligent new
book Brick (Phaidon, 2015),
points out that all architectural styles are represented
by buildings built in brick.
He cites William Morriss Red

House, which was completed
in 1860. Also in Brick are the
1960s Brutalist Leicester
University Engineering Building
by James Stirling and James
Gowan; Caruso St. John Architectss Postmodern Brick
House of 2005; and Saw Swee
Hocks Deconstructivist
London School of Economics
student union building from
2014. That, says Hall, is
evidence of bricks versatility.
Clare Dowdy
JUL/AUG 2015
COURTESY BERNARD OKANE/ALAMY
BOOK
Britain Loves Bricks
SPECTRUM
CARS
Legroom Luxe
Whenever it seems like there
can be nothing new in car
interiors, a company inevitably
surprises you. Thats the case
with Volvo Car Groups new
concept, Lounge Console, which
sets a whole new bar for luxury vehicles. The design team
at the Sweden-based company
decided to remove the front
passenger seat to provide
chauffeur-driven business people with the ultimate executive
accessory: a comfortable place
to stretch out, watch television, work on the computer,
and store valuables.
Removing the passenger
seat enabled us to create an

open space that dramatically
changes the dynamics of the
interior and led to a wealth
of ideas and new possibilities,
explains Thomas Ingenlath,
senior vice president of design
at Volvo Cars. A lot of people
thought we were crazy, adds
Tisha Johnson, one of the
cars interior designers. But
we wanted to take luxury to the
next level. Of course, those
of us who embody luxe lifestyles where cars like this are
necessary are few and far
between. But we can dream,
right? Shannon Sharpe
Finnish design company

Marimekko is famous for its bold
prints and bright colors in
everything from shift dresses
to throw pillows to tableware.
Now the 64-year-old company
is launching its first line of
eyewear, in collaboration with
Mondottica, a Hong Kong
based eyewear company. We
felt that eyewear is a natural
addition to our accessories line
and complements our ready-towear collections, capturing
the essence of Marimekko,
says project manager Pirkko
Heikkil. It is the marriage of
creativity and function. The
44
METROPOLIS
collection embraces the

unique Marimekko style, with
its splashes of color and
distinctive shapes. The oversize Janette glasses have a
black-and-white print, while
the perfectly round Ella and
masculine Vuokko both integrate a bright yellow into their
frames. The brushed-wood
effect on Eeva reflects the
influence of nature that can
always be found in the companys products.
The optical line is launching in Finland this August,
with a global launch at the
end of the year. S.S.
JUL/AUG 2015
TOP TO BOTTOM: COURTESY VOLVO; COURTESY MARIMEKKO
PRODUCT DESIGN
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IN PRODUCTION
Shards and Feathers
Mary Wallis first joined the team at Lindsey Adelman
Studios as an intern while she studied at Parsons The New
School for Design in New York. After she graduated,
Wallis decided to go it alone, opening her own studio. But
Adelman, impressed with Walliss talent, approached
her about a collaboration that resulted in the Empire
chandelier. The Edie chandelier, which was first released
in 2012, evolved from Empires design. It was an aha
moment, Wallis says of the realization that she could
break the rules and push the glass shards away from the
frame rather than using them as flat panels. The collection has grown since then, and two new versions
of Edieceiling mounted and black or white marble
were shown at ICFF in May. Wallis spoke to Metropolis
about experimentation, the play of light, and the tail
feathers of birds.
MARY WALLIS (Australia,

1981), right with Lindsey
Adelman, has her own
studio, and is also a senior
designer at Lindsey Adelman
Studios. Prior to getting
a certificate in architecture
and interior design at
Parsons The New School for
Design, she studied genetics at the University of
Melbourne, the Australian
National University, and the
University of Cambridge,
and design at Central Saint
Martins College, London.
By Shannon Sharpe
01
03
0 1 The Empire chandelier uses

the same internal frame but
with the glass flat against the
frame. The breakthrough with
Edie was pushing the glass
pieces away from the frame,
so it became more disordered.
02 I realized I could make these
shards and create planes that
played with the light, making it
bounce around.
04
04 In the marble version (not

shown here), the black marble is
basically opaque, so youre just
getting the light bouncing very
softly inside and below. The white
veins in the black marble do light
up a little bit. And the white
marble is much more translucent.
46
METROPOLIS
JUL/AUG 2015
COURTESY LAUREN COLEMAN
02
03 The form was influenced by a

birdthose sort of tail feathers
they have. I started to realize the
shards were like feathers when
I started to layer them.
Large and small squares,

planks and skinny planks.
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PRODUCT
SPACES
The Art of
Fashion
The Bal Harbour Shops Fashion
Project exhibition examines
the cultural value of couture.
By Shannon Sharpe
Miami is synonymous with vibrant culture,

cosmopolitan glamour, and forwardthinking fashion. So it makes sense that
the citys luxury Bal Harbour Shops is
the site of a new experimental space exclusively devoted to the culture and
consumption of fashion. Conceived and
developed by Cathy Leff, the former
director of the Wolfsonian Museum, and
curated by renowned exhibition-maker
Judith Clark, the Fashion Project explores
the ways we understand high fashion.
Launched in April, the six-part exhibition responds to the communitys desire
48
METROPOLIS
for a higher cultural profile. Bal Harbour

Shops CEO, Matthew Whitman Lazenby,
took note. He knew he wanted to do
something at a high level, and asked us to
come up with a concept, says Leff. After
some careful consideration, Leff realized
that there wasnt a space in Miami dedicated to fashion at a museum-quality level.
But, she reasoned, the shops arent
a museum and shouldnt be treated as
such. Leff sought out a curator who could
strike the right balance, and Clarks
name kept popping up. When I met her,
I knew she was perfect intellectually
and personality-wise, she says.

The shops themselves played an
important role in plotting out the direction the duo set forward in the Fashion
Project. Obviously Bal Harbour Shops
sells exquisite fashion, says Clark. So the
customers didnt need to be told what
a beautiful gown looks like. Instead, the
six separate exhibitions were divided
into pairs that look at the evolution of
fashion according to personal and historical narratives. The first two shows,
The Exhibition and Morphing, address
process, an idea that Clark believes
JUL/AUG 2015
COURTESY SILVIA ROS
Above: A view of Fashion

Projects first two installations at Bal Harbour
Shops. The Exhibition
looked at process and
Morphing manipulated
the items shown in the
former. Far left: Day
Dress by Judith Clark and
Rosie Taylor-Davies,
2015. Left: Costume by
Leon Bakst, 1912.
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PRODUCT SPACES
THE ART OF FASHION
Above: Cabinet 1The

Curiosity Cabinet. Bottom,
left: Cabinet 4The
Surrealist Body, headdress
by Jean Cocteau, c. 1938,
cape by Elsa Schiaparelli,
19351938. Bottom,
middle: Cabinet
5Sculpture, Bird Dress
by Felicity Brown,
2011. Bottom, right:
Cabinet 6Technology,
Remote-Control Dress by
Hussein Chalayan, 1999.
COURTESY SILVIA ROS
has never been addressed in a curatorial

manner. I wanted to embody the question of what if, she explains. What if
Id made a different selection? What if I
decided to style it this way? What if I
decided to decorate it?
The Exhibition, which ran from April
10 through May 21, featured such items
as a 1912 Ballets Russes costume and
a 1999 futuristic remote-control dress by
Hussein Chalayan. On May 28, Clark
launched Morphing (through August 10),
in which she manipulated these designs
to illustrate her concept: I wanted to
show that kind of indecision and restlessness around the curatorial process.
Of the exhibitions to come, the next
two will take a chronological look at the
postwar history of fashion through 2015,
while the third and final pair will present
a projective vision of fashions future.
Clark and Leff have both seen dramatic reactions from the public. From
people becoming tearful because theyd
never seen a Schiaparelli close up to people just asking genuine questions about
everything from cultivation to dress history, says Clark, its been really wonderful because its done what I wanted it to
do. Its raised a series of questions. I hope
very much that they linger in the room. M
50
METROPOLIS
JUL/AUG 2015
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They also bring life, and emotion, to our objects and spaces.
By Avinash Rajagopal
01
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01 VOYAGE EN IKAT DESSERT PLATE from Herms, hermesusa.com 02 AREZZO UPHOLSTERY by Dorothy Cosonas for Knoll Luxe, knoll.com 03 ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION
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METROPOLIS
JUL/AUG 2015
From imagination to implementation.

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Learn more at BusinessInteriorsbyStaples.com or order your free copy or
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EXPERT OPINION
Kirt Martin
The vice president of design and marketing
at Landscape Forms calls on the outdoor-furniture
industry to build the collaborations that will
shape the future of our cities.
All of us treasure our time in outdoor spaces.

So why do we devote so little of our attention
to their design?
As a designer in the site-furniture industry,
I am always curious about the value people place
on the outdoors. I like to ask people I meet to
describe a great city like New York, Chicago, or
Paris and what they most remember about being
there. Or I ask them, if they won $25,000 to
spend on a dream vacation, where they would go
and what they would do. Their fond memories
of a celebrated city or an escape into the wild
often have little in common, except for one thing:
Their most memorable and meaningful experiences almost always revolve around the outdoors.
We have studies showing that people tend
to be healthier and happier, and can enjoy longer
lives, in areas where they have access to nature,
including green urban spaces. Outdoor spaces are
some of the least expensive to create and can
pay some of the highest returns on investmentin
terms of community life, health and wellness, and
the generation of economic activity in surrounding
areas. As more peoplefrom young professionals
to retireesmove back into cities, green public
spaces and vibrant streetscapes are often cited as
key factors for attracting residents and businesses.
Despite this, we do not give outdoor spaces
the same value and financial support that we give
to buildings and interiors. We calculate the squarefoot dollar value of buildings and interiors but
56
METROPOLIS
dont do the same for a square foot outdoors.

We have not made a strong business case for
designed outdoor spaceswe can and should be
making this case. I also believe that design and
innovation in public and privately owned outdoor
space is laggingand the first step to address
that challenge is to better leverage the skills and
talents of landscape architects, the professionals best prepared to design them.
This is a time in human history when landscape architecture has something really important
to say. We should listen. Landscape architects
practice a discipline rooted in holistic thinking.
They understand the natural environment,
the built environment, and the interface between
them. And they are ideally prepared to take
leadership in shaping outdoor spaces and framing
public awareness about them.
Recent high-profile projects such as the
High Line and Millennium Park have achieved
placemaking of the highest order, and the star
landscape architects responsible for them have
captured public attention. But there is a whole
legion of talented, inspired landscape architects
out there who should also be at the center of
envisioning and designing outdoor space.
This is also a time when industry can play
a constructive role. Those of us who provide the
site elements that help shape and activate
these spaces need to do our part, and Im excited
about taking on that challenge, researching
JUL/AUG 2015
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EXPERT OPINION
KIRT MARTIN
methods to make the case for the return on investment for well-designed outdoor spaces measured in terms of community, identity, well-being,
environment, and dollars spent. I am focused
on driving innovation with new types of scalable
solutions that go beyond the standard litter
bin, bike rack, and bench, to help people enjoy
great outdoor experiences. The outdoors starts
only a half-inch outside the door, so we need
new ideas for spaces adjacent to buildings. We
also need to integrate technology in public
spaces, but in ways that respect the special
qualities of the environment.
I am excited by the work and believe that,
in collaboration with landscape architects
and other design professionals, all of us in the
site-furniture industry can elevate awareness
and promote greater investment in outdoor
spaces that create memory and meaning. We can
make a real difference in the urban landscape
that is our future.
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Kirt Martin is the vice president of design and marketing at

Landscape Forms, leading the companys creative teams for product development, marketing, and marketing communications.
Martin is an award-winning industrial designer, and previously
directed design activities at Turnstone, a division of Steelcase.
58
METROPOLIS
JUL/AUG 2015
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COURTESY BAS PRINCEN
In Depth
In Milan, we speak with architect and OMA partner

Rem Koolhaas about the mesmerizing cultural
compound the firm designed for Prada. Halfway
across the globe, in the chilly waters of the
Pacific Northwest, we encounter an island cabin
by Olson Kundig Architects. And finally, we
come to our annual cities survey, in which we
identify 21 of the worlds most livable metropoles.
The Fondazione Prada

in Milan is the apotheosis
of OMAs long-term
collaboration with the
Italian fashion house.
The architects rehabilitated an old industrial
complex for the purposes of Pradas arts
foundation. Pictured: An
elevated balcony of the
Podium, one of three
new structures built by
OMA at the Fondazione.
The Fondazione Prada

in southern Milan
houses the fashion
brands namesake arts
foundation, established by Miuccia Prada
and Patrizio Bertelli
more than two decades
ago. Opened in May,
the walled-in compound is a small city of
culture, with a series
of revitalized industrial
buildings linked by
de Chiricolike streets
and piazzettas.
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METROPOLIS
COURTESY ROLAND HALBE
Koolhaas
Talks Prada
When the Fondazione Prada opened its doors to a new permanent
home in Milan dedicated to contemporary culture, it not only
placed the Italian city firmly at the forefront of todays global art
world, but also introduced an ambitious new way of thinking
about the relationship between architecture and art.
The locationan original 1910 distillery in a distinctly gritty
part of the citycomprised seven spaces including warehouses and
three enormous brewing cisterns with a raw industrial quality
that the architects, Dutch firm OMA, retained while adding three
new buildings made of glass, white concrete, and aluminum foam.
One, the centrally located Podium, is intended for temporary
shows, while anotherstill under constructionis a nine-story
tower that will house the foundations archives, art installations,
and a restaurant. The third, a theater with a mirrored facade,
features folding walls that allow the building to open onto a courtyard. In total, the collection of buildings provides nearly
120,000 square feet of exhibition space, more than twice that
of the new Whitney Museum of American Art.
Metropolis correspondent Catherine Shaw visited the site
with Pritzker Prizewinning architect Rem Koolhaas to find out
more about the challenges of creating a new cultural paradigm.
JUL/AUG 2015
67
Catherine Shaw: Youve talked

about this project expanding
the repertoire of spatial
technologies. Can you explain
what you mean by this?
Rem Koolhaas: For a couple of years now, I have
been well, I dont know what the best word is,
but it is somewhere between bored and irritated,
by the current course of architecture forcing
people to be extravagant even if they dont want
or need that. I think there is a fatigue with originality now and an interest in the modesty of an
artist. In this case, this was important for me as it
allowed us to find a new relationship with architecture. It was more interesting than saying Prada
or We are interested in strange new materials.
I saw an opportunity to use preservation as
an antidote to this, so I declared I would work on,
investigate, and mobilize the potential of renovation as a kind of a countermovement. We have
done this for a couple of years now. When we
worked on the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg,
we analyzed everything that existed and made
a commitment not to add anything new but to
simply reinterpret some of the buildings from that
point of view.
We discovered thatin terms of size, intimacy, and also materialsexisting architecture has
so many conditions that, even if we wanted to,
we couldnt reproduce any more. It would be too
expensive, and there are so many invisible rules
now that didnt exist before.
CS But how is this new? Surely
preservation has been part of
the architects repertoire for
some time now?
RK Architecture in the past 20 years has been
focused far too much on the expression of individual architects. The new Fondazione is not a
preservation project and not new architecture.
It is about respect for what was here. We started
by analyzing what exists. There were a number
of conditions and needs that were missing, so we
added those into the new architecture.
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METROPOLIS
There are multiple levels to look into, and that

is what we tried to do here; to mobilize the
skill and the freedom and the steepness and the
compression that is there and then add things
that expand the repertoire so that we have a collection of spaces.
A lot of things here may look authentic, like
the sequence of small rooms that become bigger
in one of the galleries, but that was our intervention rather than a found situation, so we are
also playing with the look of a found object. We
actually intervened everywhere on that level.
We didnt work with contrast, but, on the
contrary, we tried to create a situation where
old and new can work very seamlessly together,
and are sometimes actually merged together so
that you cannot tell at any one moment whether
you are in a new or an old situation. That was
our ambition: to create a kind of seamlessness.
CS The Fondazione Prada is a
vast complex with ten very different buildings of varying scale,
but the most visually striking is
the gold building at the center.
Where did the idea to cover it by
hand in gold leaf come from?
RK It was actually a last-minute inspiration to
find a way to give value to a seemingly mundane
and simple industrial element. But we discovered
that gold is actually a cheap cladding material
compared to traditional claddings like marble and
even paint. What I love is the way it contaminates
the walls around it. Milan is like a pancake with
few highrise elements. The environment is so gray
that it needed a little color.
CS Using industrial buildings as
art galleries is a common practice today, but you seem to have
avoided slipping into the generic
white-box art gallery mentality.
RK I find it surprising that the enormous expansion of the art system has taken place in a reduced number of typologies for arts display, but
here there is less emphasis on hammering

down a vision.
What is wonderful about this location is its
industrial quality. I think what we have done is different simply because it is a new real engagement
with the space. We were really prepared
and this may be one of the most important driving forces with our work in generalto be highly
alert to the development of clichs. The combination of industrial space and art is a huge clich,
so that was definitely the thing to beat here.
By introducing so many spatial variables, the
complexity of the architecture will promote an
unstable, open programming where art and architecture will benefit from each others challenges.
The Tower, for instance, exists simply because
our interest here was to develop a repertoire
and options for display with different scales of
interpretation. We wanted a real diversity of
conditions and it felt important to have a vertical
element for various reasons. Somehow, art
feels different on the ground than in the air, and
what is unique is the varied effect on the artists
content because of the different levels. Each of
the ten stories will have progressively taller floors.
CS What is it like working with
a fashion brand like Prada?
RK An architect is nothing without somebody
who wants something, and that makes architecture a strange profession because we are essentially passive until someone mobilizes our talents.
This is what happened in this case with the
founders of Prada.
After 15 years of collaboration, Prada is very
confident about what we do, so we dont have to
overcome the typical skepticism that exists between the architect and first-time clients. We
have to overcome other forms of skepticism,
but not that one. Through Prada, we were in close
dialogue with Italian culture, traditions, and obsessions, so it has enabled a deep engagement between our cultures. What was implicit for me from
the beginning was to discover the efficiency of
fashion. What I think is incredible is how fashion
can, in eight hours, organize something sublime
when for us it takes eight years. The difference

in speed is totally fascinating. And that is only
one example of where the collaboration is deeply
inspiring. Architecture has an ability to integrate
everything that comes at it into a new whole or
language. And fashion, to some extent, does the
same thing, so, collectively, we have been able
to respond critically to what developed in recent
decades in terms of culture and techniques.
CS The Fondazione is intended
to accommodate a wide variety of
cultural events, including cinema.
How did you incorporate this sort
of flexibility into your design?
RK I dont know if you have seen our project
called the Transformer. It was a temporary pavilion in Korea that we designed for Prada. It had to
answer to different functions, so what we did was
draw ideal plans for each function, like an exhibition, cinema, or art space, and then put the
floor plans together in a tetrahedron and wrapped
it in the rubber they use to shield airplanes in
the desert. The project worked by picking it up by
a crane so that each of the ideal plans could become the ground. It could work in different
ways, but each plan was the ideal plan for that
particular function. So we were thinking about
this here in Milan and we knew there was an
interest in performance, which is why we designed
the cinema so that the sides open. The plan of the
floor extends so the courtyard becomes a stage.
In that sense, those are transformations that work
with existing conditions but can accommodate
an enormous range of different activities.
CS Your subtle visual blending
of indoors and outdoors here is
almost Japanese in style.
RK Of course we benefit enormously from the
experience of working in other countries with different sensibilities, and Japan is perhaps the
kind of culture that I most relate to and for which
I have an enormous amount of respect. That is
very deliberate. Here, we divided the site into
JUL/AUG 2015
69
covered and open-air parts. You will discover

streets and plazas for public activities, and
that gives the project a wonderful quality that is
not only a museum or a place for art, but also
a collection of public spaces. Every building is
communicating with open space and open air.
CS Youve also introduced several
new technologies, including the
use of aluminum foam, which
is usually used by the military,
but which youve reworked as
indoor and outdoor cladding of
the Podium building. Where did
this idea come from?
RK As you know, we have an architectural office
that is a kind of think tank. The only reason for
having it is we felt that, in addition to needing
to be a tool of our clients, we must also set our own
agenda. In this case, it means we can basically
explore issues before anyone asks about them, so
we are prepared. We are currently doing that with
the exploration of the countryside. I have a hunch
that the countryside is changing faster than the
city. We are gravitating to a ridiculous situation
where half the world has to change dramatically
and where the other half stagnates. That is why we
felt we should engage it to see if, in a preservations regime, we could actually gain something
and kind of model it. This is what I like.
a tool with a vast range of possibilities. The Tower

is one such space.
CS You say you were given a lot
of design freedom in the
Fondazione Prada brief, so what
was the biggest design constraint?
RK It was probably not to succumb to an overdose
of freedom.
CS How do you respond to criticism directed at your projects?
RK I think we are living in an age where criticism
is not particularly welcome, whether it is political
criticism or corporate criticism. It has become
a dirty word. For example, you can see the phobia
of a bad review, how it causes hysteria and the
immediate defensiveness that sets in. I can say that
I am kind of really used to bad reviews, so I dont
take them personally, unless they are intended to
be personal. On the whole I am really open to
criticism, simply because I am of a generation that
doesnt have that kind of fear. M
RK What they almost always get wrong is that it is

so blatant and so repetitive.
CS One of the three new buildings,
the Tower, is still under construction. Can you tell us a little about what we can expect?
RK I see the Fondazione Prada as a campus;
70
METROPOLIS
OMAs design converts

a century-old distillery into a series of gallery
spaces spread across
seven restored structures
and three new onesan
exhibition pavilion,
cinema, and a yet-to-be
completed concreteand-glass tower. Rem
Koolhaas, OMA partner
and lead on the project,
describes the Fondazione
as being part preservation and part architecture, given the campuss
hybrid building character.
OPPOSITE PAGE: COURTESY BAS PRINCEN
CS The lighting of the various

exhibitions at the Fondazione
Prada is exceptional. Why do galleries so often get such a basic
requirement wrong?
JUL/AUG 2015
71
72
METROPOLIS
THIS PAGE: COURTESY BAS PRINCEN; OPPOSITE PAGE: COURTESY ROLAND HALBE
An architect is nothing without somebody who wants something,

and that makes architecture a strange profession because we
are essentially passive until someone mobilizes our talents. This
is what happened in this case with the founders of Prada.
The Fondazione encompasses a veritable

townscape consisting
of warehouse hangars
interwoven with the
new buildings (opposite).
The former are subtly
spruced up, indicated by
the linear orange markings repeated on their exterior. Elevation changes
in the ground variegate
the pedestrians
experience of the compound while demar-
cating the Fondaziones

important nodes,
such as the cinema clad
in a mirrored veneer.
Touches likes this lend
the complex a haunting,
almost Surrealist dimension. Right: OMAs
approach to the exhibition pavilions is eclectic, though undeniably
modern. (Note the Miesian
detail of the vertical
beam affixed to the building envelope.)
JUL/AUG 2015
73
post-rationalizes on
functionalist grounds.
The building towers
above the rest of
the campuss open-air
spaces and warehouses, which all can
be taken in from
the Haunted Houses
balconies (left).
Architecture in the past 20 years has been focused far too much
on the expression of individual architects. The new Fondazione is
not a preservation project and not new architecture. It is about
respect for what was here.
74
METROPOLIS
THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE: COURTESY BAS PRINCEN
The gilded exhibition

hall is the central focal
point of the Fondazione.
Called the Haunted
House, the structures
blank utilitarian features
are draped in gold leaf
(opposite), an ostensibly
spontaneous extravagance that Koolhaas
JUL/AUG 2015
75
76
METROPOLIS
THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE: COURTESY BAS PRINCEN
The combination of industrial space and art is a huge clich,

so that was definitely the thing to beat here. By introducing so
many spatial variables, the complexity of the architecture
will promote an unstable, open programming where art and
architecture will benefit from each others challenges.
Adjacent to the Haunted

House is a new exhibition structure dubbed the
Podium. Clad in exquisite aluminum foam, the
building cantilevers
toward the perimeter
wall (right). Italian law
requires new public
buildings to be earthquake-proof, an imposition that Koolhaas
giddily interprets
as the massive I-beam
undergirding the cantilevered volume. The

beam marks a point of
disjunction in the
otherwise tight jigsawensemble of buildings.
The deadpan formal
juxtaposition is vintage
OMA, but the highly
refined detailing, including strip LED lighting,
smooth concrete surfaces,
and the aluminum foam
(opposite) are new.
JUL/AUG 2015
77
forming a grid punctuated by thin LED strips

and narrow returns for
lighting channels. Opposite: The Fondaziones
inaugural exhibition, the
Serial Classic, explores
questions of authenticity
and imitation in classical antiquity. The lifesize
sculptures are mounted
on an intricate flooring system designed for
the exhibition and
composed of travertine,
brushed aluminum, and
perspexall exposed
along the edges.
Architecture has an ability to integrate everything that comes

at it into a new whole or language. And fashion, to some extent,
does the same thing, so, collectively, we have been able to
respond critically to what developed in recent decades in terms
of culture and techniques.
78
METROPOLIS
THIS PAGE: CHARLIE KOOLHAAS; OPPOSITE PAGE: COURTESY ATTILIO MARANZANO
The Fondazione is the

capstone of a 15-year
collaboration between
Prada and OMA, an
achievement made all the
more striking given the
prolific nature of the
relationship. But what
sets the Fondazione
apart is its tactile grasp
of historyhistory of the
formerly industrial site,
of Pradas decades-long
cultural sponsorship, and
of OMAs own Oedipal
struggle with Modernism.
Left: Aluminum foam
panels line the ceiling,
JUL/AUG 2015
79
Retirement
Reboot
Designed by Studio
Joost Grootens,
Young-Old contains a
number of analytical
charts, illustrations, and
maps, as well as urban
texture studies by
students at Bergen
School of Architecture.
This one analyzes the
urban components
of Youngtown, Arizona,
which was founded in
1954 and became the
first age-segregated
retirement community.
80
METROPOLIS
COURTESY WHERERVNOW.COM
Young-Old: Urban
Utopias of an Aging
Society, Lars Mller
Publishers, 2015, $50
How does society

provide for the needs
of those who have
retired and newly
entered the ranks of
the aged? Based on
his book, Young-Old:
Urban Utopias of an
Aging Society, architect
and urban studies
expert Deane Simpson
shares his critical
perspectives on aging
in place, the history
of aging communities, and the future
of retirement.
JUL/AUG 2015
81
DEFINING THE YOUNG-OLD

My starting point came from two researchers,
Bernice Neugarten and Peter Laslett, who first
characterized this age group with the idea of late
freedomfrom the responsibility of adulthood
in terms of work and the responsibility of making
a family. They bifurcated old age, forming this
group of young-old people who are also free from
the physical and mental limitations of the fourth
(and final) age. It is a phase in life thats hard to
define. For us, its the post-retirement age group,
but at each time in history it has been constituted
by a different cohort, who have experienced quite
different lives and cultural experiencessuch as
the baby boomer generation that is distinguished
from the silent generation, in the American context. Old people are changing all the time.
AGING IN PLACE VERSUS
RETIREMENT COMMUNITIES
I want to introduce nuances into a debate that
has become black and white. Aging in place is an
emerging orthodoxy thats universally accepted
and promoted. Retirement communitiesfrom the
perspective of planners or architectsare seen
as a negative situation.
I would characterize my own relationship to
retirement communities as a deep ambivalence.
These types of young-old urbanism are an increasing
fragmentation of our society, and I think of them
as four-layered dystopias. The first layer would be
the dystopia of segregation, which adds age to the
existing forms of segregation based on income or
race. The second is the dystopia of securitization, the
third would be a dystopia of privatization, and the
last one would be a dystopia of denial. Im deeply
critical of these environments, but its also important
to acknowledge the emancipatory aspect of these
urban settings. For example, they were based on the
utopia of a vacation that never ends, but they
are also a new job market. People who retire to the
Villages in Florida end up having a second career,
in some cases out of economic necessity, but in most
cases for social interaction and to occupy themselves. Theres also a kind of liberation in examples
like golf-cart infrastructure, which produces a peculiar intermediate between the automobile and the
82
METROPOLIS
wheelchair. Or on the hospital strip in the Villages,

where the negative, daunting image of the hospital is
turned into a kind of shopping exercise.
Im generally supportive of the concept of aging
in place, but the danger is to wholly accept it in
an uncritical way. The support for the idea is linked
to societys recognition of peoples ownership of
and attachment to a place, and their need for a familiar setting in relation to the challenges of aging.
This is common sense. But there is a danger of overromanticizing the concept of place. When the
average American moves his or her household 11.7
times in a lifetime, we have to be slightly more
critical about their attachment to place.
Also, some types of urban or spatial organizations are much more appropriate than others to
support aging in place. For example, suburbia
is more challenging to aging in place, particularly
in the last years of life when one has lost the ability to drive or the confidence to do it anymore.
In any case, this relationship between aging
in place and the retirement community is not
an either/or condition. Aging in place often produces
naturally occurring retirement communities. In
Denmark, postwar suburbs are occupied by families
that moved into them in the very beginning, and
many of those people have aged there. Now those
areas are completely dominated by 70-year-olds.
MARKETING TO THE YOUNG-OLD
You could say that Sun City, Arizona, marks the
introduction of young-old urbanism as a lifestyle
product. It had the clear strategy to shift away
from selling housing to marketing a wider lifestyle,
very specifically directed toward the needs and
desires of this particular age group.
The notion of a lifestyle product has two
aspects: spatial and temporal. The spatial component is the comprehensive environment for the
consumption of leisureyoure talking about clubhouses, golf courses, and commercial centers.
The temporal aspect is the idea of designing programs and activities to discipline ones time. When
you bought into Sun City at the beginning, it was
clear there was a time-based program of activities
and club life that would effectively discipline your
life and avoid any danger of boredom. This has
Residents of the
Villages in Florida use
golf carts as a solution
for urban mobility,
and a new form of transportation infrastructure has sprung up
around them: A peculiar
intermediate between
the logic of the automobile and the wheelchair, Simpson
says. Residents take
great pride in customizing their golf carts
these examples were
recorded in 2008.
JUL/AUG 2015
83
The Senior Recreational

Vehicle Community
(SRVC) in the United
States has around
two to three million
members, who lead a
nomadic lifestyle. These
images of nature belie
both the urban and
networked nature of the
SRVCmembers gather
at camping sites and
form RV clubs that are
coordinated online.
Calling these communities Technological
Arcadia, Simpson writes:
Perhaps the strongest
historical resonance
exists between the
SRVC and the projected
spatial visions of the
1960s and 1970s architectural avant-garde,
such as Superstudio
and Archigram.
84
METROPOLIS
JUL/AUG 2015
85
Retirement is being challenged

at an economic and cultural
levelis it viable to take people
at a certain age out of productivity and society in this way?
86
METROPOLIS
The contours of golfcourse urbanization in

Spains Costa del Sol,
commonly referred to
as Europes retirement
home. The region,
Simpson explains in his
book, consists of three
urban ecologiesthe
existing historical towns,
tourist resorts, and
developments like the
one above, referred to as
urbanizaciones, which
are dominated by foreign
retirement migrants.
been developed over the years into a more sophisticated lifestyle product in the case of the Villages.
ONLY FOR THE RICH?

The book frames how the market responded
to the emergence of this group of young-old in the
second half of the 20th century and the beginning of this century. Many of the examples come
across as addressing different levels of affluence.
The earlier visions of Sun City, for example, were
very much about an inexpensive retirement
for those who were retiring only on Social Security
benefits. But those developers quite quickly
realized that the greater profit margins were in
developing for the affluent.
The recreational vehicle (RV) community, on
the other hand, is quite mixedmany of these
people are not affluent. People are traveling long
distances, staying for several weeks in one location, and then going to another place where theyd
stay with their children and grandchildren,
driving around in simple and small RVs. Interestingly, in the Villages in Florida, the early areas
were sectored for mobile homes or trailer homes.
RETIREES ON THE ROAD
In the book, I write about the RV community in
terms of what I call compensatory domesticity.
According to Canadian anthropologists who spent
a lot of time in this community, there are two to
three million American retirees who give up their
homes and live year-round in these vehicles.
Giving up ones home and being a kind of
permanent nomad produces a kind of counterreaction. Theres an exaggerated domesticity that
takes place in the interior of the vehicles, but
also in the way that the immediate sites are colonized around the vehicles. Many of the tropes
of the American middle class interior are replicated through furniture, interior surfaces, and
ornamentation. The exterior plot of a suburban
house also plays out herefrom the extended
veranda that comes out of the side of the RV to the
placement of deck chairs and artificial lawns.
Whats also interesting is the downsizing: In
this process of moving out of ones home and into
the RV, one is forced to reduce the amount of stuff
one has. But on the outside of the vehicle, there are

all kinds of incredible lawn ornaments, garden
gnomes, neon palm trees, and wind decorations
its an extraordinary obsession with kitsch.
EMERGING AGING COMMUNITIES
The cruise ship industry today functions as a sort
of retirement community. It is exploited or used
by this age groupone can think of it as a kind of
extended mobile network of the young-old.
Other examples that are starting to emerge
are smaller communities focused on niche
lifestyles, interests, activities, or even previous
careers. For example, there are retirement
communities for university faculties, or small
communities that are themed around artistic
exploration late in life.
THE FUTURE OF RETIREMENT
Theres been a general discussion in the last
decade or so about how baby boomers will want
and produce and occupy different environments
or lifestyles. Thats a meta-narrative around
this generation that should not be accepted uncritically, because its not just about the nature
of the baby-boomer generation but also about
events that are taking place regarding, lets say, the
viability of retirement as an institution.
Retirement is being challenged at an economic and cultural levelis it viable to take people
at a certain age out of productivity and society
in this way? Of course, this makes for a neoliberal
agenda around the notion of active agingmeaning
that the responsibility to age well and to take
care of oneself is an individuals responsibility and
not the responsibility of the state. Thanks to this
neoliberal agenda and the current fi scal reality,
the obligations of the state are being reduced.
So I think its a much more complex thing
than saying that the baby boomers will reach their
late freedoms and want to realize all of their youthful ambitions. It is about the challenge to retirement. You no longer entirely stop working at the
age of 65, so increasingly you will see five or ten
different ways in which retirement can take place.
My general sense is that therell be more individualized forms of retirement and ways of living. M
JUL/AUG 2015
87
By Fred Moody
Photography by
Jennilee Marigomen
Designed for philanthropist Janet Ketcham

(opposite, top), the Pole
Pass Cabin sits at the
edge of a waterfront site
(above) on the San
Juan Islands archipelago,
located at the northwest
corner of the continental United States. Clad
in charred cedar planks
and outfitted with a
black steel structure,
the country house
pulls from the dark hues
of the islands forest.
88
METROPOLIS
JENNILEE MARIGOMEN, ASSISTED BY LUKAS PEET
Cloaked Cabin
Architect Tom
Kundig evokes
the spirit of the
San Juan Islands
in a mechanized
house that
literally invites
the outdoors in.
The problem with practicing architecture

in the Pacific Northwest is the natural
environment. It is so surpassingly beautiful
that any building you introduce to this
setting tends to diminish rather than enhance it. The greater the statement by
the architect, the more egregious the blot
on the landscape.
Seattle architect Tom Kundig, principal
at Olson Kundig, has a long track record of
meeting this challenge ingeniously. Favoring
unpainted wood, milled steel, green roofs,
and massive glass panes, his buildings settle unobtrusively into their surroundings,
receding into, rather than standing out
from, the Northwest landscape.
So it is with the Pole Pass Cabin. Making your way through the San Juan Islands
archipelago, in the picturesque waters
north of Puget Sound, it can be hard to spot
the house as you approach its Orcas Island
setting. All muted colors and horizontal
lines that match those of the shoreline and
hill behind, the structure seems determined not to stand out.
This ambiguity belied a seemingly
straightforward program. The homes
owner and Kundigs client Janet Ketcham
wanted to build a small, private getaway
on her familys property that could double

as a gathering space. Since hes so creative, Ketcham says of her architect, I just
gave him the specifics of what I wanted
only one bedroom, with the thought of a
kitchen outdoors to entertain a lot of
people. Having visited several of his regionalist houses and noted their inventive
details and fulsome embrace of the landscape, Ketcham felt that Kundig was
uniquely qualified to provide the flexible,
adaptable home she envisionedone
that could serve as a quiet redoubt for one
or two people but that also could accommodate crowds.
The house, a gift to Ketchams children
and grandchildren, was to be more a place
for hosting and entertaining than
a permanent home. (It is a short boat ride
away from the familys main house.) To
that end, Kundig designed a large ground
floor with a glass-enclosed entryway,
kitchen, and spacious, partially covered
deck, or pavilion. Topping the latter is
a small bedroom that overlooks a planted
roof and enjoys a spectacular
view of the waters and neighboring islands.
To further suit large gatherings, Kundig
employed one of his trademark gizmos:
JUL/AUG 2015
89
Olson Kundig Architects,

who designed the luxe
cabin. This attitude
is reflected in details
such as the wood flooring and weathered Ipe
deck, whose stain was
matched to the color
of on-site sand and dirt
found onsitepermitting
the trekking in of both.
a wheel-and-chain apparatus allowing one

to effortlessly retract the adjoining glass wall
on the south side of the large kitchen. By
walking along the outside of the house while
turning the wheel, one can convert the
ground-level living spaces into an open
pavilion with cooking facilities and a long,
cantilevered counter approachable from
both the shore and the indoors. With that
turn of the wheel, the house sheds its first
floor, so to speak; in its place is a fully furnished outdoor social space.
You can get away with this sort of thing
in the Pacific Northwest, with its mild
temperate and largely insect-free summer
climate. Neither too cold nor too hot, it calls
for structures that allow one to revel in
nature rather than hole up inside. Since the
roofline, which incorporates radiant-heat
panels, extends over the kitchen deck, the
houses owners can keep the walls open
into the shoulder seasons, Kundig says.
So you can sort of stretch the summerstay
outdoors during the evenings and mornings when the weather is good but still
a little cold.
The idea for disappearing the large
glazed walls with minimal physical force
came to Kundig on a tour of a World War II
era airplane hangar in Renton, just south
of Seattle. Inside the cavernous hull, he
saw how easily the hangars massive doors
could be moved using an enlarged version
of the pulley device. Its a nice way of
controlling everything, Kundig says. Youre
not losing much through friction or inefficiencies. Its not rocket sciencebut its sort
of a science. This kind of engineering
affects a sort of minor miracle in the Pole
Pass Cabin, making it effectively a casual
abode for all seasonsone that provides
shelter, an incomparable view on intemperate days, and an unobstructed immersion
in the outdoors when the weather allows.
90
METROPOLIS
The houses functions are

split between providing
shelter for a couple of
overnight guests and an
event space for large
crowds. The resultant
tone of the architecture
is casual, a house that
doesnt want to be taken
too seriously, says Tom
Kundig, principal of
JUL/AUG 2015
91
BUILDING HOPE
92
METROPOLIS
Another of Janet Ketchams

architectural projects is at the
opposite end of the world
Afghanistan, a country she first
visited in 1972. At the time,
she was visiting a relative who
was the last United States
ambassador to that country
before its takeover by the Soviet
Union. It was to be the beginning of a lifelong love affair.
An avid art collector who
owns works by Picasso, Matisse,
Diebenkorn, Lichtenstein,
Hockney, and many other luminaries, Ketcham found herself in the early 2000s growing
increasingly troubled both
by the turmoil in Afghanistan
and by the tremendous increase in value of one of her
paintings, Ib and Her Husband,
by Lucien Freud.
Inspired, she says, by the
accounts of the plights of Afghan
girls in the book Three Cups
of Tea, she decided to sell her
Freud painting and use the
proceeds to establish and fund

a foundation providing schools
for Afghan adolescent girls. The
idea of educating girls in a country where something like 80
percent are illiterate is just very
appealing, she says. Having
helped finance the construction
of two new schools, the foundation recently completed the first
school to be built entirely with
the organizations money.
Working with Seattles Miller
Hull Architectscofounder
David Miller had served in the
Peace Corps in Afghanistan
and his firm did its work pro
bonoKetcham and her team
communicated weekly via Skype
with the Afghani contractor.
Their efforts are visible in the
Gohar Khaton Girls School,
which opened in June in Mazar-iSharif. Serving 3,500 girls from
grades one through 12, the
school, Ketcham says, is really
specialsomething the Afghan
people can look at with pride.
In recent years, Kundig

has developed a particularly idiosyncratic,
regionalist interpretation
of the Modernist house
as machine for living
in. At the Pole Pass
Cabin, the architecture
is mechanized through
the integration of a
pulley system that can
retract the kitchen
facade with incredible
ease. In a matter of
minutes, the glazed wall
(Cascadia Fiberglass)
can be pulled back to
open up the ground floor
to the outdoor elements.
The kind of
engineering
built into the
pulley system
affects a sort
of minor miracle
in the Pole Pass
Cabin, making
it effectively
a casual abode
for all seasons.
JUL/AUG 2015
93
The engineering of the removable wall

is such that Ketcham can open and close
it by herself. Im in my 80s, and theres
no problemno problem at all, she says.
Its really fun to have guests, and then
open it for them, so that they get the whole
effect. Its fabulous because the house is
right on the water. She is also pleased to see
that the house is being put to exactly the
use she had envisaged. When the whole
familys there, we can have 20 to 22 people
on a regular Saturday night. And thats
every age, people from four years old to 84.
Its wonderful!
The second-story bedroom, which
occupies a small portion of the structure,
looks out over the 54-by-24-foot green roof
to the northwestthe roof is thus both a
meadow and a buffer affording privacyand
to the sea waters and other San Juan Islands
94
METROPOLIS
to the east. Furnished with a double bed

and an additional double Murphy bed, it can
comfortably sleep four people.
Throughout, the interior of the house is
lined with Douglas fir plywood and millfinished steel, which has found its way into
several of Kundigs recent projects. It brings
the environments characteristic earthiness
inside the house. On the exterior, cedar
siding has been charred to a uniform, dark
color using a Japanese technique called
shou-sugi-ban, which doesnt use any solvents or finishes, Kundig says. It makes
the wood fire-resistant and insect-resistant.
And if you burn it at a certain temperature and certain depth, youre going to
get a uniform tone, he adds. The darkening effect also helps, of course, to blend
the building into its natural surroundings.
This camouflage operation is as much
a signature Kundig touch as his fabled

gizmo-engineering. Kundig homes can be
found all over the Pacific Northwest, and
while the details vary house by house, the
effect tends to be the same. Made of cedar or
other native woods left untreated by paints
or solvents, and of steel left to rust and
weather the elements, they take on the dark
hues of a typical Northwest natural setting. Combined with large glass walls and
windows, they approach near-invisibility
as they age.
As Kundig tells it, the trick is simple,
even if the effect isnt always literal. All
youre doing is hiding the coloring of the
building, picking up the darker colors of the
ground, and the bark of the trees, he says.
It already is a landscape that is overwhelmingly beautifulyour eye is going to be
focused on that. M
The charcoal exterior

helps the house recede
into the surrounding
forest, reducing the visual impact of the structure from the waterfront.
Dark materials are
used for the hard shell of
the envelope in contrast
to the softer, warmer
materials of the deck and
interior, says Kundig.
The green of the planted
roof rounds out the
picture, adding daubs
of color through the
inclusion of droughtresistant succulents.
Opposite: The upstairs
bedroom, which sleeps
up to four guests,
commands privileged
views of the coastline.
The houses
owners can keep
the walls open
into the shoulder
seasons, Kundig
says. You can
sort of stretch
the summerstay
outdoors during the evenings
and mornings
when the weather
is good but still
a little cold.
JUL/AUG 2015
95
The Pole Pass Cabin is a rich exercise

in regionalism. Designed by Seattle-based
Olson Kundig Architects, the house is a
vessel for the many natural materials and
articles found on its waterfront site, on
Washingtons San Juan Islands. Inside and
out, the architecture is precisely calibrated to resonate with the mood of the
Pacific Northwest and its murky forests,
overcast skies, and deep-blue waters. The
charred cedar cladding, prepared in the
shou-sugi-ban tradition, and the stained
finish of the wood floors meld perfectly
with the surrounding terrain, as does the
planted green roof. Softer textures and
brighter hues found in the bedroom and
kitchen are appealing contrasts to this
earthiness. All, says Tom Kundig, principal
of Olson Kundig, are in the service of
reminding us of our place in the world. M
MIKE GARTEN
Northern
Exposure
03
04
02
01 CUSTOM GRAY WASHED PLYWOOD from Olson Kundigs office

collection 02 TORCHED LAMINATED FIR from Meyer Wells meyerwells
.com 03 LOG from Olson Kundigs office collection 04 MATCH POINT
COLORBODY UNPOLISHED PORCELAIN in pure white from Daltile
daltile.com 0 5 P I N E C O N E S from Olson Kundigs office collection
0 6 STEEL WHEEL from Olson Kundigs office collection 07 POLISHED
QUARTZ in Mesa from Pental pentalquartz.com 08 STONE from Olson
Kundigs office collection 09 RITTENHOUSE S Q UA R E T I L E in Arctic
White f r o m Daltile daltile.com 1 0 STONE from Olson Kundigs office
collection 11 PAINTED STEEL from Olson Kundigs office collection
10
11
A 7004 Snowbound
B 6880 EnergeticOrange
C 7020 Black Fox
All paints by Sherwin-Williams
01
96
METROPOLIS
Material Palettes
06
05
C
08
07
09
JUL/AUG 2015
97
The
Worlds
Most
Livable
Cities
METROPOLIS EXPERTS
EUGENIE BIRCH
is a professor, city
planner, and codirector
of the Penn Institute
for Urban Research.
JAN GEHL
is founding partner of
Gehl Architects, and
former professor and
researcher at the Royal
Danish Academy of Fine
Arts, School of Architecture. He has published
several books, including
Life Between Buildings,
Cities for People, and
How to Study Public Life.
ROBERTA BRANDES
GRATZ
is a writer, urban
consultant, and former
member of the Landmarks
Preservation Commission in New York. Her
latest book, Were Still
Here Ya Bastards: How the
People of New Orleans
Rebuilt Their City, was
released in June.
GREG LINDSAY
is a writer, journalist,
and urban futurist.
A senior fellow at the
New Cities Foundation,
he is currently preparing his second book,
Engineering Serendipity,
for release.
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RAFAL NIEMOJEWSKI
is the director of the
World Biennial
Foundation. He earned
his doctorate from
Londons Royal College
of Art with a thesis
focusing on the proliferation of the contemporary biennial.
CARLO RATTI
is director of the MIT
SENSEable City
Laboratory and principal
of Carlo Ratti Associati.
He is currently serving as
a member of the World
Economic Forum Global
Agenda Council for
Urban Management.
TALEB RIFAI
is secretary-general of
the Madrid-based World
Tourism Organization
(UNWTO), the United
Nations agency dedicated to the advancement of sustainable
and accessible tourism.
MAXWELL YOUNG
is vice president of
global communications
and marketing at the
Rockefeller Foundations
100 Resilient Cities,
an organization that
helps cities across the
globe become more
resilient to the physical, social, and economic challenges of the
21st century.
JESS ZIMBABWE
is a licensed architect
and certified city
planner and serves as
founding executive
director of the Daniel
Rose Center for
Public Leadership at
the National League
of Cities and the
Urban Land Institute.
The word livability gets tossed around a lot these days when it comes to the popular
discussion of cities. But what do we mean by the term, exactly? In our extensive
urban coverage throughout the year, we often look at a variety of facets that contribute to a citys overall quality of lifei.e., the sum of the housing, amenities,
connectivity, and, in a word, pleasures a city has to offer the people who live in it.
So, in addition to ranking our top three livable locales for 2015, we consulted
a variety of experts to identify cities that are excelling in key areas such as smart
infrastructure, walkability, and preservation. And we round out our selection
by spotlighting nine other rising cities to watch in the years to come.
98
METROPOLIS
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#1 Toronto
#2 Tokyo
#3 Helsinki
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PLUS ...
Copenhagen, Hong Kong,
Indianapolis, Medelln,
Melbourne, Pittsburgh,
Rotterdam, Singapore
JUL/AUG 2015
99
TORONTO
LIVABILITY
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JOB OPPORTUNITY
The last decade has seen
double-digit job growth
in the downtown core,
greatly eclipsing the same
figure for the citys suburbs.
POPULATION
Within the next 15
years, Torontos
population will
grow to more than
three million.
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INVESTMENT
In 2014, the city council
approved more than $20
billion in development.
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METROPOLIS
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PRESERVATION
Ontarios Greenbelt,
a 1.8-million-acre swath
of protected farmland
and green space, has
encouraged high-density,
high-rise development
in the capital.
now outpaces suburbia for the first time

since the 1970sin 2014 alone, more than
20,000 residential units were completed.
Long-term public/private sector
projects are also remaking vast swaths of
the city according to principles urban
guru Jane Jacobs, who lived in Toronto from
1968 until her death in 2006, would have
admired. The best example is Waterfront
Toronto (WT). Created in 2001 to revitalize
the citys post-industrial harbor lands,
it has presided over the creation of whole
new neighborhoods with parks, complete
streets, ultra-high-speed Internet, fiveminute access to transit, and full mixed-use
zoning. Much to its critics chagrin, WTs
strategy starts not with necessitiesroads
and transit will come laterbut with frills
such as Sugar Beach, Sherbourne Common,
and Corktown Common. Its success, however, is that the waterfront is suddenly sexy.
The citys largest landlord, the Toronto
Community Housing Corporation, is
rebuilding Canadas largest social housing
complex, a low-rise Pruitt-Igoe called
Regent Park. The failed 1950s low-income
residential complex is being torn down
and replaced by a mixed-income neighborhood with cultural amenities and a stunning aquatic center. For the first time in
more than 60 years, a bank has moved into
the area. Oh, and Regent Park actually has
a park now.
One of the most innovative programs,
Tower Renewal, aims to find ways to
reconfigure the languishing 1,000-plus
residential slabs that comprise much of
Torontos inner-suburban landscape.
NICK KOZAK
After four chaotic years under car-loving,

crack-smoking former mayor Rob Ford, life
in Toronto has returned to normal. Fortunately, the citys weak mayor system gives
the chief magistrate, like councils other
44 members, just one vote. In other words,
even the worst administration can only
inflict limited damage. The city is no longer
tearing itself apart and has returned its focus
to realizing its enormous urban potential.
Indeed, Toronto is in the midst of
a transformation that will make one of the
most livable cities on earth even more
attractive. Condo and office towers continue to pop up at a fast and furious rate
as peopleespecially seniors and young
professionalsflood into a downtown
where they can enjoy Canadas most urban
environment. Growth in the inner core
JUL/AUG 2015
101
Torontos most capacious

public space, Nathan
Phillips Square (pictured)
is the site of frequent
festivals, farmers markets,
and protest demonstrations. An ongoing
$70 million revitalization
project promises to
further activate the citys
foremost civic forum.
Opposite: The newly
opened Union Pearson
(UP) Express airlink connects Union Station
in downtown to Toronto
Pearson International
Airport. The new rail
line is the first fruit of
the citys ambitious
$11.5 billion transportation rehaul, dubbed
The Big Move.
102
METROPOLIS
ordinary Ismaili Centre/Aga Khan Museum.

Located in a nondescript area in the
citys North End, the two luminous structures are contained within an exquisite
contemporary version of a traditional Islamic garden. This part of Toronto has never
looked so beautiful, or been so enticing.
The center highlights the diversity that
fuels Torontos civic dynamismsuccessive
waves of immigration have made the
city a microcosm of the world. Though there
are inevitable tensions, multiculturalism has
turned a waspy colonial outpost into
a model of tolerance envied globally.
The most obvious testament to the
vitality of immigrant culture is Torontos
burgeoning food scene. A city that barely
knew what garlic was 50 years ago now
relishes cuisines from the world over. Consider the case of Uncle Tetsu, the celebrated
Japanese cheesecake maker who chose
Toronto to open its first store outside Asia.
The unassuming shop sells only the one
item, but from the moment it appeared last

April, the lineups have been blocks long.
Still, Torontos urban evolution hasnt
always been easy. A controversial move
to demolish the eastern portion of its crumbling 50-year-old elevated highway, the Gardiner Expressway, was rejected by the city
council. The speed of change has also
left many feeling the city is no longer theirs.
Growing economic disparity has also undermined civic confidence; lack of affordable housing is worse than ever. Id rather
be here than just about any other place on
Earth, enthuses Richard (Creative Class)
Florida, who moved north in 2007. But he
warns that the city shouldnt be overromanticized as an urban paradise.
Torontos respected former chief
planner and urban activist, Paul Bedford,
doesnt heed the advice. Make passionate
love to your city, he likes to tell audiences. Wandering the streets here, it seems
people are listening. Christopher Hume
THIS PAGE: COURTESY BEN RAHN; OPPOSITE PAGE: AARON WYNIA
Built between the 1950s and the 1980s,

these concrete high-rises were intended
for young middle-class couples but ended
up as enclaves of poor immigrants. The challenge is to upgrade the buildings to modern
environmental standards and change
outdated single-use zoning regulations to
allow a more healthy mix of residential,
retail, and recreation.
Transit remains a huge issue. Toronto
has not kept up with demand, but thats
changing in a flurry of projects that will
extend the subway to suburban municipalities north of the city. Theres also the
Eglinton Crosstown, a 12-mile light-rail line
now under construction that will provide
100 million rides annually when its completed in 2023. Meanwhile, the longawaited express train connecting downtown Toronto to Pearson International
Airport began operation in early June.
The most unexpected development
in Torontos inner-suburbs is the extra-
JUL/AUG 2015
103
Its estimated that some

one million people live
in the concrete high-rise
residential towers of
Torontos inner suburbs.
Built between the 1950s
and 1980s by mostly
private developers, the
towers were envisioned
as a commodious real
estate option for young
middle-class couples;
after Canadas liberalization of its immigration
policies, the slabs quickly
became enclaves for
migrant populations.
They play an absolutely
crucial role as entry
housing for newcomers,
104
METROPOLIS
but they werent designed for that, says

architect Graeme
Stewart, who for the
last decade has mobilized
political interest in
the towers to preserve
their building stock and
vital social role. Period
zoning mandated that
the slabs be set back
in a field of green, effectively creating dead
zones for commercial and
social activity. Rezoning
measures based, in part,
on Stewart and partner
Sabina Alis research,
have a good chance of
being passed into law.
JUL/AUG 2015
105
THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE: COURTESY JESSE COLIN JACKSON
TOKYO
LIVABILITY
#2
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PUBLIC SAFETY
Tokyo is the safest city
in the world, despite its
significant population.
TRANSPORTATION
Shinjuku Station, the
busiest train station on
earth, averages 3,640,000
passengers per day.
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COST OF LIVING
Tokyos entire metropolitan
area is more affordable
than any other megacity
(defined as cities
with more than ten
million residents).
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HIGH DINING
The city has more
Michelin-starred
restaurants267 in total
than any other city.
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METROPOLIS
Tokyo, home to 32 percent of Japans

urban population, is the worlds largest
urban area, a true megalopolis. Yet, despite
its overpowering scale, density, and frenetic
pace, it is consistently found at the top of
leading urban and socioeconomic indices.
According to Tokyo-based architect
Alastair Townsend, this success stems from
the relative safety and social order engendered by Japans incredibly strong cultural
cohesion. He also credits Tokyos excellent public infrastructure and bike-friendly
roads. This, despite having no cycle paths.
Tokyo also gets high marks for housing. With its massive population, the city is
constantly challenged to provide adequate
and affordable residences. It has been
able to meet these challengesthough affordable is a relative termthrough a laissezfaire approach to development that allows
some pretty interesting and dense urban
configurations to arise, such as super-
efficient residential architecture on tiny lots

in very mixed, walkable neighborhoods.
Its also this type of density and mixed
programming that makes Tokyo one
of the leading cities for aging in place.
With one of the oldest populations in
the world, Tokyo, says expert Mark Hager,
has committed considerable resources
to rethinking how its communities are
designed. He cites centuries of multigenerational housing as one reason Tokyo
has been quick to create communities
where older people can continue living
where they wish, have many generations
and neighbors near, and still get the care
or assistance they need. Technology-driven
efforts to service this demographic
ceiling cameras to monitor movement,
beds that convert into wheelchairs,
high-tech chair liftsappear far ahead of
similar developments in the United States.
Sustainability may not be the first
thing that comes to mind when you think

of Tokyo, but new initiatives are changing
that. The city government is lowering its
carbon footprint by greening existing
buildings, while new structures in excess of
54,000 square feet must meet sustainable
standards before receiving permits. It is also
developing a 27-million-unit smart meter
infrastructure to link users and utility platforms, in order to make city-wide energy
management more efficient.
Clearly, Tokyo is doing a lot of things
right, but there is room for improvement.
Here, 14-hour work days are normala
badge of honor even, Townsend says. Would
the salarymen who cram into trains every
morning and stumble home exhausted
late at night agree that Tokyo is the worlds
most livable city? Tradition is not easily
trumped here, but one hopes Tokyo can set
its considerable ingenuity to ameliorating
such problems. Guy Horton
CLOCKWISE: COURTESY KENTA HASEGAWA; COURTESY DAICI ANO; COURTESY EDWARD CARURSO
TERMINAL 3
Prestige projects are
terribly expensive and
unimaginative for the
most part, typically
coming in only a handful
of formswith the airport being chief among
them. Terminal 3 at the
Narita International
Airport, however, expertly demonstrates that
great design neednt be
lavished upon. The budget, 15 billion (roughly
$122 million), is significantly reduced for a project of its size. (It services
upwards of 7.5 million
passengers a year.) The
design by Tokyo firm
Nikken Sekkei, designer
Ryohin Keikaku, and
creative agency Party,

eliminates features such
as escalators, peoplemovers, and other
accoutermentsdigital
signage, glass partitions
in favor of cost-effective
elements, such as metalmesh wallcoverings and
the continuous running
track. The latter, an ingeniously simple way-finding
device, loops throughout the airports nine gates.
In addition to these, the
airports planners opted
for low-cost furniture,
designed by Naoto
Fukasawa, a Muji advisory board member, and
produced by the Japanese
designed brand.
SUNNYHILLS
Tokyos approach to development tends toward
impermanence and constantly new construction.
Such a ravenous building
cyclehomes depreciate
rapidly and only have a
lifespan of 30 years or so
can be chalked up to
economics. This mindset,
coupled with relatively
lax zoning laws, has always
given architects a license
for experimentation,
and not just in the domes-
tic sphere. Kengo Kumas

design for the SunnyHills
cafe in Tokyos leisurely
Aoyama neighborhood
is a case in point. The
project, completed in
2014, was realized for a
Taiwanese bakery specializing in pineapple cakes.
The architecture riffs off
the perennial Japanese
tradition for building
(and rebuilding) with
wood, rendering it in a
contemporary fashion.
JUL/AUG 2015
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HELSINKI
LIVABILITY
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ACCESSIBILITY
Helsinki came in 2nd
place for the European
Commissions 2014
Access City Award.
CYCLING
There are 745 miles of wellmaintained bike paths.
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POPULATION
The citys population is
expected to increase by
40% over the next 35 years.
108
METROPOLIS
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HOSPITALITY
Special uniformed teams
known as the Helsinki
Helpers advise tourists
during the summer.
Helsinki punches above its weight. Thats

how Hanna Harris, program director of
Helsinki Design Week, describes the citys
success in areas ranging from maker culture
and design heritage, to infrastructure and
accessibility. These strengths, along with its
quality of services, architecture, and
ample green space, are what make the city
one of the worlds most livable.
We are using design in a very crosssectoral way, says Harris. The city is
working out different things, from infrastructure and planning to governance and
services. Helsinki Design Week itself is a
prime example of how Helsinki is a designdriven city. The home base of the 2015
festival is the L3 harbor warehouse in

Jtksaari, an adaptive reuse project on
the former site of an inner-city commercial harbor. This rethinking of the old
is evident in the teams project with an
architectural collective that is envisioning
a new future for the island of Vallisaari off
the city centerintertwining the idea of manmade and nature. A former home to military fortresses, it has been dubbed Uusi
Kaupunki, which translates as New City.
Helsinki is finding the next stage of
how it will manifest itself, Harris says. The
city also intends to develop even further
the transport systems that are already very
advanced. In this vein, the city is launch-
ing an on-demand bus service, called

Kutsuplus, and planning to fold car- and
bike-sharing into an ambitious smartphoneenabled public-transport system by 2025
the end goal being that car ownership will be
unnecessary. This idea may seem extreme,
but when one considers the citys forwardthinking attitude and accessible technology
the ubiquitous free WiFi in the city is
fast enough to allow video calling and HD
streamingit suddenly doesnt seem so
unattainable. As we question how designers are shaping, imagining, and forecasting
futures, says Harris, Helsinki, with all
thats going on, is in a very good position to
answer that. Shannon Sharpe
COURTESY AINO HUOVIO
KELLOHALLI
One of the main event
venues for Helinski
Design Week in 2014
was the former abattoir
a prime example of
Helsinkis adaptive reuse
movement and culinary
revival. Now named
Kellohalli, the historical
slaughterhouse was
renovated into a venue
that integrates local
food, pop-up eateries,
and urban gardens.
The really exciting

thing is that design
culture is obviously
manifest in professional circles, but its
also quite prominent among the general
public, says Hanna
Harris. They want
to develop their
relationship with
their built environment and have
some stake in it.
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COPENHAGEN
WALKABILITY
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ENERGY
An estimated 39%
of Denmarks
total electricity
consumption
was powered by
wind in 2014.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Copenhagens first
pedestrian street, Strget,
was established in
1962 and remains the
worlds longest.
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BIKEABILITY
The city has a 242-mile
stretch of bicycle
lanes, tracks, and
separate routes.
OUTDOOR SPACE
96% of all Copenhageners
can access an open-air
recreational area within
15 minutes of walking.
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METROPOLIS
Theres a famous saying in Copenhagen

that theres no such thing as bad weather,
just inappropriate clothing. Its a fitting
attitude for a city that, despite enduring
inclement conditions for the better part
of the year, excels in walkability.
The cluster of bikes that jostle outside
most buildings is indicative of the citys
preferred mode of transport50 percent
of all journeys to places of work or education
in Copenhagen are made by bicycle.
This is enhanced by the consistent efforts
of its governing bodies to make the
urban landscape as pedestrian- and bikefriendly as possible.
In 2009, the city outlined its vision
for urban life for the year 2015 in the manifesto A Metropolis for People, which included
the goal to increase the amount of pedestrian traffic by 20 percent. And with Copenhageners now walking an average of 15 minutes
per day, compared to 10 minutes in 2010,
Morten Kabell, the citys mayor of technical
and environmental affairs, thinks that
they have been successful in fulfilling that
vision. We have had the courage to continue taking space from cars and giving it to
people, he says. If you want people to walk
more, it must be safe and a nice experience.
The key to fostering walkability in
an urban space, Kabell says, is giving importance to sidewalks and designing
for pedestrians before vehicles. Small

design measures, such as installing hanging
street lamps in place of lampposts, help
to create as much walking space as possible.
The other important factor is focusing on
prioritizing people over buildings. We
want people to have a good city life, and
walkability is a big part of getting people to
slow down and stop, talk, and make eye
contact with each other, says Tina Saaby
Madsen, the city architect of Copenhagen.
With every project, we talk about how
a building can give back to the cityhow can
we get people out of the buildings and
make them part of the community between
the buildings? Mikki Brammer
SUPERKILEN
that also acts as a giant outdoor exhibition, housing
a menagerie of found
objects from more than
50 different countries,
including a Thai boxing
ring and a Jamaican
sound system. As a
celebration of the citys
diversity, and fundamental to its dedication
to fostering community
interaction, Superkilen
features pedestrian
and bike paths, along
with playgrounds,
Ping-Pong tables, basketball courts, picnic
tables, chess boards,
and spaces to accommodate skating rinks
and impromptu markets.
LEFT TO RIGHT: COURTESY SUPERFLEX; COURTESY IWAN BAAN
Cutting a swath through

the urban landscape of
Copenhagens Nrrebro
district, Superkilen
deserves the superlative
in its name. The park,
which snakes 0.6 miles
through one of the citys
most ethnically diverse
neighborhoods, is the
result of a 2011 collaboration between Topotek1,
BIG Architects, and
creative studio Superflex.
Divided into three
chromatically distinct
sectionsthe Red
Square, the Black Market,
and the Green Parkthe
concept is intended to be
a multicultural community gathering space
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HONG KONG
CULTURE
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CULTURE
Nearly 60,000 visitors
attended Hong Kongs
Art Basel in 2015.
LANGUAGE
Hong Kong means
Fragrant Harbor
in Chinese.
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POPULATION
The neighborhood of
Mong Kok has one of
the highest population
densities in the world.
112
METROPOLIS
TRANSPORT
In 1888, the Peak Tram
became the first
cable funicular in Asia
and currently carries
up to four million
people per year.
COURTESY HERZOG & DE MEURON AND WEST KOWLOON CULTURAL DISTRICT AUTHORITY
In Hong Kong, things move fast. Long

renowned as a financial powerhouse, the
city has reinvented itself from a handful
of local galleries and a small auction market
to an international cultural and creative
hub, transforming urban life for its residents.
The newfound interest in contemporary culture has been largely thanks to the
unprecedented boom in Chinas art market,
combined with the Special Administrative
Regions enticing combination of a central
regional location, tax-free status, financially
secure transactions, and robust legal
system. Art Basel has also been a cornerstone of the revival, attracting international
collectors, auctioneers, and the usual
blue-chip suspects such as Galerie Perrotin

and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, both of
whom set up outposts in Central, the nexus
of the emerging art scene. The sheer
concentration of people in the city, however, means that the impact on everyday life
has been extraordinary, stimulating a
new wave of interest in diverse cultural
events from Dragon Boat racing to street art.
The government has also initiated
several creative programs including the
renewal of historic buildings, such as the
PMQ enclave, providing fledgling artists
and designers some respite from the citys
exorbitant rents. The historic Central Police
Station will also soon emerge from a major
renovation as a new arts and retail complex.

Such creative placemaking brings new
cultural activities across design, fashion,
and architecture, fostering more interesting and livable neighborhoods. This has
inspired local creative industries such as the
nonprofit Spring Workshop in the fast gentrifying Wong Chuk Hang neighborhood,
which offers activities ranging from poetry
and musical concerts to urban farming.
Spring founder Mimi Brown says the evolution has been driven by the denizens of
Hong Kong. We see a desire in this citys
people to find spots of refuge where they
can engage in conversation and experimentation around culture.Catherine Shaw
M+ VISUAL ARTS MUSEUM

In the West Kowloon
Cultural District, M+
a new visual arts museum
designed by Herzog &
de Meuronis set for
completion in 2018 on
the 40-hectare reclaimed
waterfront site that
will also sport a landscaped park, theater,
performing-arts spaces,
and a 1,100-seat auditorium modeled on
a traditional Chinese tea
house. The museum
will be dedicated to
20th- and 21st-century
art, design, and architecture. While M+ will
create a much-needed cultural landmark, the city
still has a long way to go

before it becomes an
art capital, says its executive director Dr. Lars
Nittve. This will be not
only the museum that
Asia does not have, but a
museum the world does
not have, he says. A
new model, based around
an Asian experience,
embracing the unfamiliarity of Western concepts
within an Asian context. Though still under
construction, M+ has
already made its creative mark with shows
including an online
exhibition of the citys
neon signs.
JUL/AUG 2015
113
INDIANAPOLIS
LANDSCAPE
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CITY PLAN
Indianapoliss
neoclassical European
grid was devised
by Alexander Ralston,
an apprentice
to Pierre LEnfant.
BUILDING BOOM
New downtown
development
will have reached
$1.36 billion by 2017.
REVITALIZATION
The Cultural Trail alone
has generated close
to $300 million in
development, with
more to come.
RECREATION
The last decade
has seen the creation
of 150 miles of
bike lanes and trails.
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METROPOLIS
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Unlike the coastal capital cities, Indianapolis

is not blessed with any remarkable geographical features. Contours are hard to
speak of in a terrain that is breathtakingly
flat. When the city was founded in 1821,
the land designated for development must
have presented planners with an almost naturally occurring tabula rasa that later proved
extraordinarily capacious for sprawl.
The paucity of topographical interest
is certainly a challenge for city officials
looking to distinguish Indianapolis in the
fierce marketplace of American cities.
When you dont have mountains and oceans,
you have to create a better environment
that makes up for the lack of natural features
that make a city exciting, says Adam Thies,

the director of Indianapoliss Department
of Metropolitan Development. Efforts to
combat this deficit began a generation ago
and accelerated in the new millennium,
with the citys embrace of the greenways
and rail-to-trail movements.
Opened in 2003, the Monon Trail, an
18-mile nature corridor extending from
the heart of the city to its northern edge, has
become an incredibly popular quasi-urban
amenity. The Pogues Run and White
River Trails are picturesque recreational
outlets that frame downtowns longitudinal
borders. Connecting these is the prized
Indianapolis Cultural Trail, which was
opened in 2013. The eight-mile pedestrian

and bicycle path loops around the city
center, linking numerous attractions
including the Capitol, City Market, and the
Indianapolis Zoo. With extensive landscaping, street furniture, and public art, the trail
has had exactly the cosmopolitan effects its
planners hoped it would.
It has also helped catalyze real estate
and business investment in Market East,
a new central district that promises to
greatly increase Indianapoliss livability
quotient. Were building a fantastic urban
environment downtown, Thies says. Its
all about high-quality placemaking. Thats
our anti-sprawl policy. Samuel Medina
INDIANAPOLIS CULTURAL TRAIL

transit, such as the
extensive Pacers bikesharing program. The
Cultural Trail has redefined how people
in Indianapolis define
connectivity, says Kren
Haley, executive director of the Indianapolis
Cultural Trail, Inc.,
the organization that
manages the trails
programming and maintenance. It not only
connects people to
places, but to each other,
to art, and to nature
and beauty.
COURTESY INDIANAPOLIS CULTURAL TRAIL, INC.
In a bold move for a

midwestern city, the
$63-million urban
transformation project
reclaimed a lane of
traffic in Indianapoliss
downtown and turned
it over to pedestrians and
cyclists. To its planners,
the trail is a vehicle
for introducing twin
agents of urban change
valuable design, in
the form of Rundell
Ernstbuger Associates
subtle planters and
hardscape features, and
alternative modes of
JUL/AUG 2015
115
MEDELLN
TRANSPORTATION
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COST
The first Metrocable
was built for just
$24 million and covers
1.2 miles.
URBAN CHANGE
Improvements to the
citys fabric like the
Metrocable have curbed
violence by up to 66%
in intervention areas.
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INVESTMENT
30% of the citys annual
profits (about $450 million)
is directed toward social
investment projects.
116
METROPOLIS
PUBLIC SPACE
The city has built 25
new parks and 11
new promenades in
the past 15 years.
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Few cities have seen transformation as

dramatic as Medelln has in the last decade.
In the 1990s, Colombias second largest city
had the worlds highest murder rate and
was ruthlessly ruled by the drug trade. Today,
Medellnwhich hosted last years World
Urban Forumis a vastly different place.
A series of visionary mayors endeavored
to rapidly modernize Medelln and unify
its fractured urban identity. Their legacies
reveal a two-fold approach that infused
large investments into transit infrastructure
and engaging public spaces. The result is
an astonishingly rehauled transportation
network encompassing a rapid-transit bus,
a privatized bus service, three gondola lift
systems, and a tramline that is set to open

downtown in September. Together, these
provide safe and direct links to the citys
newest civic buildings including the Parques
Biblioteca, the Atanasio Girardot Sports
Complex, and the 14-acre Jardin Botanico.
The Metrocable system is the most
visible of Medellns efforts to use public
transit to reduce inequality. The gondolas
whisk about 3,000 people per hour down
two commuter lines from the hilly impoverished comunas to the city centerwith the
third line connecting tourists to Medellns
nature preserve Arvi Park.
The slums arent part of the problem,
theyre part of the solution, says Francesco
Maria Orsini, head of consultancy for the

think tank Urb.Am. What were doing with
the Metrocables is to let them be part of the
citys social, economic, and political grid.
This inclusive mentality is embodied by
the open-air escalators in Comuna 13, formerly one of Medellns most violent and
economically depressed areas. The unorthodox structure has had a dignifying effect
on the community, says the escalators chief
architect Carlos Andres Escobar Gutierrez,
and its indicative of whats to come. We are
betting on incredible things planning-wise,
tackling big challenges and taking big risks
to get thereall within a remarkably short
period of time. Rebecca Greenwald
LEFT TO RIGHT: COURTESY EDU; COURTESY ANDREA GONZLEZ
METROCABLE
In 2004, Medelln initiated an Integral Urban
Projects (IUP) program,
investing most heavily
in design interventions
for those parts of the city
lowest on the quality
of life index. The IUPs
inaugural project was the
Metrocable, Medellns
highly prized and globally
lauded network of gondolas. Over a decade
after its introduction, the
system has fundamentally reconfigured the
populaces relationship with its city. The
Metrocable, which has
a negligible footprint
compared to other transit
systems, has eviscerated
commuting times and
bridged urban divides.
(Both Caracas and
Rio de Janeiro have since

adopted Medellns
aerial transit system to
address similar topographical and socioeconomic challenges.) But
despite recent gains,
major transportation
challenges persist
cultural biases still
favor cars and motorbikes
in spite of major road
congestion, 40 percent
of residents use a heavily
polluting for-profit bus
network, and planners
are working to better
integrate an ever-growing
number of transit
options. An ambiitious
bike-sharing program
is currently being developed to combat some
of these problems
and holds huge promise.
JUL/AUG 2015
117
MELBOURNE
SMART
INFRASTRUCTURE
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GREEN SPACE
The total area of
Melbournes parks,
gardens, and reserves
is 1.54 square miles.
DATA PLATFORM
The City of Melbourne now
publishes 74 open datasets
from heat maps to the
Urban Forest platform
for anyone to download
and adapt.
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ARCHITECTURE
The citys oldest building
is the Mitre Tavern,
which was built in 1837.
MULTICULTURALISM
An estimated 48% of
Melbourne residents were
born overseas.
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METROPOLIS
Melbourne was a lifeless place when Rob

Adams emigrated from his native Zimbabwe
in the 1980s. As the citys new urban designer, he was thoroughly underwhelmed;
but hed brought with him a lesson from
Cape Town University, where a rising student
population was accommodated not by increasing square footage but by intensifying
students use of the campus over the course
of the day. Its the same for Melbourne,
says Adams, now director of city design for
the City of Melbourne. The best way to
tackle densification is to repurpose and retimetable our city to use what its already got.
Today, his vision to invigorate the city is
manifest. With its population anticipated to
increase by five to seven million by 2040,

Melbourne has become even smarter.
Municipal councils, designers, and entrepreneurs are embracing digital technology,
hot-wiring the city and intensifying infrastructure to transform the built environment and daily lives.
A snapshot reveals that the smart inner
city and suburbs like Fitzroy offer all amenities within walking distance210 acres of
city asphalt have been converted to wider
footpaths and open space, while in eclectic
Smith Street, Collingwood, a proliferation
of mid-rise development has popped up
along tramlines to cater to a growing population. High density doesnt necessarily
mean high rise, says Adams. Whole precincts, like Cremorne, have also become
sharing communities with fluid coworking
spaces to rent, while modular companies
such as Unitised Building fine-tune digital
technology to construct the city faster
using factory-built prefabricated designs.
While Melbourne consistently tops
livability rankings, residents are demanding
a bold vision and the government announced
last year it had doubled infrastructure
investment over the past decade. If we can
continue to repurpose, well become more
vibrant, says Adams. People will be
close to what they need, and we can foster
the sense of community. Annie Reid
STORM-WATER HARVESTING
TOP AND BOTTOM: COURTESY NILS KOENNING; COURTESY JOHN GOLLINGS
Some of Melbournes
oldest open spaces are
working hard beneath
the surface, housing
major water-harvesting
infrastructure thanks
to the City of Melbourne
and Biofilta. Last February,
one of the largest systemstwo underground
tanks that hold a total
of 1.3 million gallons of
storm waterwas installed under the 167-yearold Fitzroy Gardens. It
produces up to 18 million
gallons to irrigate the

surrounding natural
landscape. In 2011,
Melbournes first major
in-road harvesting
system was built under a
street in East Melbourne,
saving more than five
million gallons of water.
Biofiltas technology
treats and redirects
runoff that otherwise
would have been lost
to waterways. This also
helps the city during
times of drought.
ARBORY BAR AND EATERY

Newly opened and
already a firm favorite,
Arbory Bar & Eatery
is a 394-foot-long hybrid
public/private terrace
between the Yarra
River and the iconic
Flinders Street Station,
in the heart of the city.
The site reclaims land
formerly occupied by a
disused railway line
and is built from prefab
illuminated shipping
containers. A central
passage from the east
entry to the west

offers timberlined bars
and places to perch
under a canopy of plane
trees. It nestles comfortably within its
heritage context, says
project architect
Jon Clements, director
of Jackson Clements
Burrows. And it redefines Melbournes
central business
districts connection
with the North Bank
of the Yarra River.
JUL/AUG 2015
119
PITTSBURGH
PRESERVATION
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Pittsburgh reinvented
itself from the last
industrial revolution.
The spirit of innovation
is intense. Richard
Piacentini, Phipps
Conservatory and
Botanical Gardens
RESTORATION
The local preservation
community prevented the
demolition of 64 historic
buildings in the core
downtown business area.
SUSTAINABILITY
Pittsburgh has the most
certified green
building square footage
in the United States.
INFRASTRUCTURE
The city has more vertical
feet of public stairways
than San Francisco,
Cincinnati, and Portland,
Oregon, combined.
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METROPOLIS
Pittsburgh, like so many other Rust Belt

cities, faced huge hurdles with the decline of
its steel industry. But it is overcoming many
of these challenges thanks, in great part, to
its preservation movements, neighborhood
renewal projects, and active communities.
We have a significant group of foundations here, says Raymund Ryan, curator
at the Heinz Architectural Center at the
Carnegie Museum of Art. Whether its about
supporting exhibitions or organizing people
to discuss neighborhood or heritage issues,
there is a great amount of will here.
The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks
Foundation (PHLF) is a prime example. We
see preservation as a means to improving
quality of life, says president Arthur

Ziegler, Jr. And we see it as a tool for
economic revitalization. Since the 1960s,
the group has reinvigorated such areas as
the Mexican War Streets, creating lowincome housing and turning it into one of
the most sought-after historic neighborhoods in the city. These projects continue to
happen; for a current one in Wilkinsburg the
PHLF acquired deteriorated historic houses,
restored them, and is subsidizing sales to
low-income individuals or families.
It doesnt hurt that this support for
revitalization has played a role in current
mayor William Pedutos administration.
When one-third of the Strip Districts
landmark Produce Terminal was in danger

of demolition, Peduto stepped in and put
the plans to a temporary halt. Eventually the
building found its way onto the National
Register of Historic Places. Peduto has also
established the Bureau of Neighborhood
Empowerment to work with communities
that have seen historic disinvestment.
Even with support from foundations
and politicians, the preservation movement would carry little weight without the
community behind it. Theres a lot of
neighborhoods that give the city character,
says Ryan. During the bleak times, these
communities held together. Its very much
about local engagement. Shannon Sharpe
MARKET AT FIFTH
COURTESY CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART, PITTSBURGH: HEINZ FAMILY FUND
Market at Fifth is a
mixed-use development
of the Pittsburgh
History and Landmarks
Foundation. If you look
at the historic buildings
in cities, the majority
are often in areas where
there are economic
and educational challenges and needs, says
the foundations president, Arthur Ziegler, Jr.
We believe in restoring
buildings as a means
of restoring the quality
of life for people without

dislocating them. The
group saved and restored
four endangered historic buildings in Market
Square in the heart
of downtown Pittsburgh.
Heinz Healeys, a
high-end mens clothing
store, was just one
of many retail shops
that returned to the
area. The development
achieved LEED-Gold
certification, a green
building standard.
CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART

HAC Lab Pittsburgh:
Imagining the Modern
(September 12, 2015,
to May 2, 2016) at the
Carnegie Museum of Art
examines Pittsburghs
complicated relationship
with modern architecture
and urban planning. It
highlights architectural
achievements, disrupted
neighborhoods, and
Pittsburghs role as a
model for the modern
American city. In this
1969 photograph by
Charles Teenie Harris,

a billboard in the citys
Hill District demonstrates the resounding
demand for equalopportunity housing.
The lower hill was
devastated in one of
these waves of modernization in the late fifties
and early sixties, says
curator Raymund Ryan.
In this case, they pulled
down a lot of the hill, and
its still a very contentious and fraught issue.
JUL/AUG 2015
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ROTTERDAM
SUSTAINABILITY
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About a third of
the citys 126-squaremile area is covered
by water.
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SHIPPING
32,000 seagoing vessels
and 87,000 inland
vessels call at the Port of
Rotterdam each year.
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Rotterdam has decided

that instead of fighting
water, it wants to live with
it. Maxwell Young, the
Rockefeller Foundations
100 Resilient Cities project
GREEN ROOFS
By the end of last year, an
estimated 1,722,000 square
feet of roof space in the
city had been planted.
^^^^^.... ^ .
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122
METROPOLIS
All coastal cities have a precarious relationship with nature, but Rotterdam is in an
especially tough spot. With the largest port
in Europestretching over 48 square
miles, the harbor is big enough to contain
the island of Manhattan with room to
sparethe city has an economy that depends upon the water, yet it must protect
itself from inundation. The Maeslantkering
storm surge barrier, completed in 1997
as part of a nationwide network of water
protection in the Netherlands, more than
proved its worth during a storm in 2007.
In 2013, Rotterdam moved some of its
harbor activities farther out to sea via the
Maasvlakte 2 port expansion project. This
opened up interesting civic possibilities,

says David Gianotten, managing partnerarchitect at OMA. It created a new way for
people to live together in the city, with less
pressure from industry, he says. It was the
biggest initiative, not just in terms of climate, but also the sustainability of society.
Rotterdam is able to implement such
changeswhich also include a region-wide
heat-sharing infrastructure and a widely
adopted green roof programbecause the
city has a very engaged civic society.
Networks are created, maintained, and
deepened through such programs, says
Maarten Hajer, who is the director of the
PBL Netherlands Environmental Assess-
ment Agency and chief curator of the 2016

International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam. We see how designers, business
leaders, young entrepreneurs, and intellectuals collaborate with the city government.
While significant challenges remain,
in reducing the harbors reliance on fossil
fuels and re-energizing the citys inefficient
postwar building stock, both Hajer and
Gianotten laud the citys mayor, Ahmed
Aboutaleb, for his political will. He is very
progressive in how he looks at the population, and how he encourages initiatives,
Gianotten says. And in that, sustainability
and especially water management play a
very special role. Avinash Rajagopal
WATER SQUARE BENTHEMPLEIN
TOP TO BOTTOM: COURTESY DE URBANISTEN; COURTESY JANNES LINDERS
Students at a neighboring college, members

of a local church and
gym, and neighborhood
residentsa lot of people
had a say in the design
of the Watersquare
Benthemplein, an ingenious public plaza and
recreation area that
opened in December and
which will act as a reservoir during heavy storms
or floods. The architects at
De Urbanisten designed
it as part of Climate Proof
Zomerhofkwartier, an
urban laboratory that
uses the district, known
locally as ZoHo, to test

sustainable strategies
for the whole city. Our
goal is to transform the
entire district, so climate adaptation can be
experienced in all its
diversitycoping with
storm water, drought,
and fighting heat
stress, says Florian
Boer, cofounder of
De Urbanisten. We are
seeking a balance
between the overall
vision and taking concrete actions on the
ground with people in
the neighborhood.
CENTRAL STATION
Rotterdam Central
Station already handles
as many travelers per
day as Amsterdam
Airport Schiphol, and
that figure is expected
to triple by 2025.
Three architecture firms
Benthem Crouwel
Architects, MVSA
Architects, and West 8
joined forces as
Team CS to give the city
a new station that
can handle that kind of
traffic, in a sensitive
and sustainable way.
Natural light floods the

station, filtered through
the patterns of solar
cells on the roofone of
the largest such installations in Europe, and
capable of producing
enough energy to power
100 households. The
buildings ingenuity lies in
the details; Rotterdam
Central is in every way a
fantastic building,
gushed the Royal Society
of Dutch Architects
(BNA), which named it
the Best Building of 2015.
JUL/AUG 2015
123
SINGAPORE
HOUSING
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HOUSING SOLUTION
The Housing &
Development Board
(HDB) has built
one million apartments
in 50 years.
CRISIS SQUASHED
Within a decade of its
founding, the HDB
had already licked
i.e., solvedthe
city-states housing crisis.
______
/______\
| [][] |
||||||||_
HIGH-RISE LIVING
The Pinnacle@Duxton is
the tallest public housing
project in the world.
HOME OWNERSHIP
About 9 in 10
HDB residents own
their apartment.
(
)
[]___
/
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124
METROPOLIS
( )
(_,,_)
||
O
/|\
/\
As nations struggle to house their rapidly

growing urban populations, Singapore
offers a promising solution with its profusion of innovative high-rise, high-density
housing estates, as is the local parlance.
Today, over 80 percent of the city-states
resident population lives in public housing.
Key to this success is the Housing
& Development Board (HDB), the nations
public housing agency, which was set up
in 1960 to tackle the shortage of housing
and clearly overcrowded slums. HDB has
since evolved from resettling Singaporeans
who once lived in overcrowded villages
to catering to the lifestyles of its now 5.5
million inhabitants.
In the last decade, public housing
has gone from utilitarian rectangular blocks

formulated by faceless public servants to
stylish complexes designed by top local architecture firms, such as WOHA Architects,
which completed their SkyVille@Dawson in
July. Containing 960 units of a variety of
apartment types and sporting tropical landscaping and extensive communal spaces,
the three-tower scheme humanizes the HDB
housing blocks of yesteryear.
SkyVille@Dawson is just one example
of HDB enlisting the private sector to create more distinctive public housing. The
concepts that we have tested out in Dawson
are also being implemented in other new
housing projects in different ways, says
Dr. Cheong Koon Hean, HDBs chief execu-
tive officer. Our new estates will be greener

and more garden-like, to provide a more
conducive living environment for residents.
Against this backdrop of progressive public housing for low- and middleincome residents, Singapores developers
have turned to starchitects to differentiate
their profit-driven projects. Jean Nouvel,
Zaha Hadid, and Toyo Ito have all recently
designed signature high-rise luxury residences. OMAs Interlace and Moshe Safdies
soon-to-be-completed Sky Habitat offer
further examples. Yet, Safdie is discerning:
Very few countries at this point are
building housing by the government for the
people as Singapore does. I dont think there
is any country like that.Justin Zhuang
THIS PAGE: COURTESY IWAN BAAN
THE INTERLACE
Towering beside a busy
expressway, this
sprawling compound
reformulates the
Modernist equation that
high-density equals
high-rise. Architect Ole
Scheeren, who first
developed the design
during his tenure at
OMA and whose Bro Ole
Scheeren saw the project through its completion in 2013, avoided
the leftover, neglected
spaces resulting from
the towers-in-the-park
developments typical
of Singapore. At the
Interlace, he collapses
these towers on their
sides, arranging the
oblongs horizontally in
a hexagonal, Jenga-like
arrangement. The
development, which
packs 1,040 homes
into the complexs 31
six-story blocks, is shot
through with lush landscaping and generously
shaded and airy plazas.
JUL/AUG 2015
125
CITIES TO WATCH
VILA
CHRISTCHURCH DOHA
There is a reason why medieval

rulers built the fortifications that
have made Avila a tourist destination
todayat more than 3,000 feet
above sea level, it is the highest city
in Spain. But in spite of this, the
mountainous UNESCO World Heritage
Site managed to overcome the
challenges of its terrain to win the
first-ever Access City Award from
the European Commission in 2011 for
being accessible to people with disabilities; all this thanks to an initiative
that has been in place since 2002.
The years following a natural disaster

can either define or break a city as it
tackles the mammoth task of rebuilding.
For Christchurch, New Zealand, the
recovery process since the 2011 earthquake has enabled the city to embark
on a new creative courseperhaps best
symbolized by Shigeru Bans transitional Cardboard Cathedral, erected
in place of the badly damaged
Christchurch Cathedral. Focusing its
efforts on the River Avon downtown,
Christchurch is reemerging as a greener,
more compact, and more resilient city.
Projects such as Jean Nouvels National

Museum of Qatar and Zaha Hadids
Al Wakrah Stadium represent two new
areas of growth for Qatars capital.
The first is a push for the artsa recently
announced architectural competition
will add another 86,000 square feet
of waterfront art gallery space to the
citys already flourishing institutions.
The second is the FIFA World Cup,
which has inspired some useful civic
infrastructure for all, including
much-needed public transit in the form
of the Greater Doha Metro Project.
GOTHENBURG
LAGOS
RENO
Forging its own path independent from

the capital, Swedens second-largest city
is actively branding itself as a cultural
hub. As the host of one of Scandinavias
largest cultural festivals, and the
Gothenburg International Biennial for
Contemporary Art, it is quickly earning global respect. A diverse restaurant
scene (and a generally bohemian
approach to life), juxtaposed with a
respected innovation and sustainability
sector driven by the Mistra Urban
Futures organization, are helping it
become a dynamic global city.
This October, Nigerias largest city will

once again host its annual Fashion
and Design Week. Since 2012, the event
has drawn designers from all over the
continent, and a popular platform for
young talent has launched new careers
in an industry that has expanded as
the region has prospered. The design
world is taking note of Lagoss rapid
growththe task of finding creative
solutions for a city with an estimated 21
million people has engaged international architects, including Rem Koolhaas,
and David Adjaye, and local talent NL.
It might be known for its casinos and

quickie divorces, but Reno, Nevada,
is also earning a more respected
reputation as a hub for historic preservation. It hasnt turned its back
on its past, however. The focus of its
preservation efforts is the repurposing of three particular buildings: the
courthouse where people filed for
divorce, the post office where they got
a mailbox to establish residency, and
a residential hotel that was home to
many early transitory residents (often
women fleeing unhappy marriages).
SHENZHEN
TALLINN
VALPARASO
In the last decade, Chinas economic

powerhouse has presided over several
ambitious programs to make the city
actually livablea trend among other
economic zones aiming to resemble the
traditional metropoles they originally
counterposed. Notable among these
are Shenzhens sustainability aspirations, summed up in that ambiguous
designation, green city. Sustainableminded policies have also had felicitous
effects for start-ups, which have
found the city more conducive to
innovation than Hong Kong.
The birthplace of Skype, Estonias

capital is a digital hub frequently ranked
among the smartest cities in the world
few places can match the red carpet it
rolls out to entrepreneurs. Estonia
recently began to issue e-residencies
that allow foreigners to establish
Estonian companies from anywhere
in the world, and gain access to
more than 4,000 local services. But
Tallinn is not all about bits and bytes.
In 2013, it made public transit free,
increasing transportation accessibility
for the citys poorest residents.
Built on hillsmore than 40 of themat

the edge of the Pacific, Chiles second
city is rooted in a vintage cosmopolitanism. With a high walkability score, a
lower cost of living, a milder climate,
a preserved builtscape, and the
ever-present ocean, Valparaso is an
attractive alternative to the nearby
capital, Santiago. The Ex Crcel Parque
Cultural, a Pinochet-era prison-turnedart center, is representative of the
booming arts scene, while start-ups
are beginning to carve out niches
in and around the historic cityscape.
126
METROPOLIS
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COURTESY LUMINAIRE
Perspectives
Made of Tyvek laminated

with silver foil and
stitched with elastic yarn,
Stitcher is one of 27
curtains in Kinnasands
Faces collection. The
fabrics were showcased
at Luminaires Chicago
showroom to coincide
with NeoCon (p. 130).
PRODUCTSPHERE
Contract Crossovers
Blurred boundaries between contract,
residential, and hospitality design
the industry trend that we first identified
in our May 2014 issue (Hedging Their
Bets, p.118)were visible in full force
during Chicago Design Week and NeoCon
last month. Both residential heavyweights
like West Elm and emerging enterprises
like Tudelu announced their entry into the
office-interiors segment, offering solutions that bring the comfort and authenticity of home to the workplace.
Soft furnishings become especially
important in this scenarioLuminaire
displayed new collections from Kinnasand
and Kvadrat at its showroom, while
HBF Textiles continues to explore unconventional textures. Geiger looked to
both past and present, updating crossover
designs by Ward Bennett and unveiling the result of a collaboration with the
Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa.
Heres a selection of products that can
help designers strike the perfect
work-life balance. Avinash Rajagopal
05
04
03
09
01
02
130
METROPOLIS
01 HBF TEXTILES ERIN

RUBY COLLECTION
Designer Erin Ruby
explores the idea of
imperfect beauty in this
collection for contract
spaces. The range
includes designs like
Cork Cloth, Tickled
Herring, and Wabi Sabi
(shown), with textures
that invoke patina
and everyday materials.
hbftextiles.com
04 TEKNION TEXTILES
ARTOPIA
Inspired by Color Field art
of the 1950s, dry-brush
painting, and the work of
contemporary artists like
Christopher Wool, this
textile by Suzanne Tick
has a free-form pattern.
tekniontextiles.com
05 BRETFORD JUICE
POWER SYSTEM
This power system comes
with a magnetic connector (shown) that provides power to the Juice
Boxes, which offer
USB and AC slots. An
amber LED indicates
continuous power supply.
bretford.com
06 KINNASAND SOFT
FURNISHINGS
Available through
Luminaire, this collection
of Nordic designs was
created by Kinnasands
award-winning creative director Isa Glink,
and fuses modern and
nomadic influences.
luminaire.com
07 ARBORITE INK
COLLECTION
Graphic designer Giona
Maiarelli and interior
designer and illustrator
Marina Sagona have
expanded this collection
of laminates with
eight designs that draw
inspiration from
sources like astronomy,
meteorology, and
midcentury Modernism.
arborite.com
06
02 GEIGER
SAIBA CHAIR
The first chair designed
by Naoto Fukasawa
for an American manufacturer, Saiba exemplifies the designers Super
Normal philosophy.
It has a mid or high
back with a tilt mechanism and comes
with glides or casters.
geiger.com
03 TUDELU OFFICE
COLLECTION
Customizable with
different colors and
materialsincluding
soundproofingTudelus
walls, room dividers,
and privacy partitions
can be retracted at the
touch of a button. They
are now available in
workplaces, to create
flexible spaces.
tudelu.com
07
08
08 MARTIN BRATTRUD
FELIX TABLES
These handcrafted tables
feature a distinctive
base with tops in wood or
Corian. The side tables
can have round or square
tops, and the bases
come in white and black
matte finishes.
martinbrattrud.com
09 WEST ELM
INDUSTRIAL FILING
CREDENZA
Inscape and West Elm
have collaborated on an
exclusive collection of
more than 75 pieces for
workplaces. This credenza, from the Industrial
collection, is made of
oak and a steel frame
that lets it fit in as
well in a modern office
as in a restored loft.
westelmworkspace.com
JUL/AUG 2015
131
Designers and manufacturers are offering

many innovative options for the great
outdoors this summer. Large-scale furniture remains as popular as ever, with
designers like Paola Lenti and Kenneth
Cobonpue debuting collections of seating,
tables, and complementary accessories.
Traditional outdoor furniture forms continue being used with a new twist. For
example, designer Fernando Mastrangelo
works with hand-dyed cements and
aggregates to create stunning sculptural
designs. Offerings for outdoor public
spaces are becoming increasingly thoughtfulcompanies like Neri are coordinating their lighting to work with other public
fixtures such as signposts, bus shelters,
and even a clock. Whether youre simply
adding a modular birds-nest to your
backyard or planning the next open-air
hospitality lounge, this collection of
products should make outdoor living
more enjoyable for everyone.
Paul Makovsky and Avinash Rajagopal
PRODUCTSPHERE
Open-Air Elegance
04
01 ROYAL BOTANIA
ZENHIT COLLECTION
Available through
DApostrophe, this
collection includes a low
cocktail table, a foot
rest, a three-seater bench,
a chair, a chaise longue
daybed (shown), and
various two-seater and
corner modules. The
frames are all made out
of teak wood.
dapostrophe.net
03
02 PLANK BON TABLE

Distributed by ICF Group,
this indoor-outdoor
table by Biagio Cisotti
and Sandra Laube
reinterprets the Italian
bar and coffee tables.
The cast-iron base and
slim metal columns are
available in black, white,
or gray. Tabletops are
in high-pressure laminate,
in black or white
powder-coated MDF.
icfsource.com
01
02
03 ROOM & BOARD

CRESCENT BAR CART
This sleek and modern
bar cart, handcrafted
in Minnesota from powdercoated aluminum,
comes in a choice of
two sizes, ten color tops
(such as durable recycled
plastic or frosted glass),
and three bases. Details
include a lower shelf
for extra storage, smoothrolling wheels, and a
sturdy handle.
roomandboard.com
04 LALO BIGUA
OUTDOOR ARM CHAIR
Designed by Carlos
Motta, this FSC-certified
wood outdoor armchair
has comfortable arms
and a wide curved seat.
It comes in blue or black.
lalo-outdoor.com
132
METROPOLIS
05 PAOLA LENTI
RAMS SUNBED
Victor Carrascos
stackable sunbed has
an adjustable backrest,
and is available in a single
or double size. The seat
pad can be covered with
Paola Lentis signature
fabrics for exterior use.
paolalenti.it
05
06 USONA COFFEE
TABLE 07003
The top of this adjustable
white aluminum coffee
table can be raised or
lowered on two sides, so
it has a dual height.
usonahome.com
06
07 DESIGNLUSH
BOUQUET COFFEE AND
END TABLES
These tables by Kenneth
Cobonpue are made
of resin and stainless
steel and come in
black or white versions.
designlush.com
08 NERI SYRMA
BOLLARDS AND
COLUMNS
These sleek bollards
have a unique illuminated
edge and come in various heights. They can be
used with the Lilium
street-furniture collection,
including a parking
deterrent, signposts, a
clock, and a bus shelter.
nerinorthamerica.com
07
08
09 GANDIABLASCO
DOCKS FURNITURE
The elements of this
modular system by
Romero Vallejothe seat,
armrest, cushions,
and backrestscan form
sofas, a bed, and more
complex relaxation
areas. Its now available
in an anthracite color.
gandiablasco.com
09
JUL/AUG 2015
133
12 SHELTER OUTDOOR
2000 SERIES SHELTER
These made-to-order
shelters are great
as outdoor living spaces.
Sun and wind sensors,
motorized side panels,
and integrated LED
lighting ensure that you
stay comfortable in
all types of weather.
shelteroutdoor.com
12
13 NOVIEMBRE
ESTUDIO DO GOZO
This stone bench, made
for Ricardo Antelo,
invites users to explore
its sculptural surfaces.
The shaded nook in
the middle is perfect for
reading a book on
a sunny day, or as a refuge from rain.
noviembreestudio.es
11
13
10
10 JANUS ET CIE
NIWA CHAIR
Part of Janus et Cies
expanding collection of
die-cast aluminium
designs, the Niwa chair
has a scooped seat and a
gently angled back,
making it a comfortable
choice indoors or out.
Easily portable thanks
to its slender frame,
the chair is available in
16 colors.
janusetcie.com
11 UTOOPIC
NEIGHBIRDS NEST
Designed by Andreu
Carulla, this modular
birds-nest is a way to
encourage interaction
with nature in our urban
environment. It can be
hung from a tree branch
or a hook on a wall, and
comes with an optional
twig for birds to perch on.
utoopic.com
134
METROPOLIS
19
PRODUCTSPHERE
OPEN-AIR ELEGANCE
14 PABLO UMA LIGHT

This portable lantern
combines cutting-edge
LEDs and a powerful
wireless speaker in a
durable shell with an
impact-resistant
polycarbonate shade, a
silicone-lined base,
and steel speaker grills.
making it ideal for
outdoor gatherings.
pablodesigns.com
15
14
16
15 SMARIN
NOLIVINGSTONES
These outsize pebbles
are actually a modular
system of outdoor
furniture. They come in
three sizes for seating
and in six sizes as cushions, all upholstered
in Kvadrats biodegradable Jumper 2 fabric.
smarin.net
16 MMATERIAL
HAUSER COLLECTION
Fernando Mastrangelo
fuses sculpture and
design and works with
hand-dyed cements and
aggregates to create
this indoor-outdoor collection of a chaise, side
tables, and planters.
M-material.com
17 SHADESCAPES USA
UMBROSA ECLIPSE
This dramatic shade can
rotate on both its
horizontal and vertical
axes, and its height
can be adjusted using
a pneumatic handle.
Eclipse is offered
with both Texsilk and
Sunbrella fabrics.
shadescapesusa.com
18 FORMS+SURFACES
RINCON PEDESTRIAN
LIGHTING
This minimal light has a
precisely manufactured
4.5-inch-square profile
and incorporates 3000K
warm white or 4000K
neutral white Cree LEDs.
forms-surfaces.com
19 VITO SELMA
ARI SOFA
Designer Vito Selma
creates furniture
under his namesake
brand based in Cebu,
Philippines. The striking
latticed frame of
the Ari sofa can be made
in Mahogany (shown
here), Pine, or Gemelina,
in a variety of finishes.
vitoselma.com
18
17
JUL/AUG 2015
135
THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE: COURTESY PAUL RAESIDE
REVIEW
Hotel Disco
Once a haunt for hedonists,
Pariss Les Bains gets the
boutique hotel treatment.
By Mikki Brammer
The streets of Paris are richly fabled, but

the labyrinthine rues of the Marais are
especially laden with history. Stroll down
the diminutive Rue du Bourg-lAbb, for
example, and youll encounter an architectural resident with a rather colorful past.
It was originally built in 1885 as
Les Bains Guerbois, a private thermal
bath house founded by Franois Auguste
Guerboiswho also owned the bohemian
mecca Caf Guerbois in Montmartre,
beloved by douard Manet and mile Zola.
That clientele soon began to also frequent
the baths, including Marcel Proust, who
enjoyed regular steam sessions alongside
local workers from the nearby Les Halles.
In 1978, the ailing building was
resurrected as the nightclub Les Bains
Douches, which, designed by a relatively
unknown Philippe Starck, became a
playground to glitterati including Yves
136
METROPOLIS
Saint-Laurent and Catherine Deneuve.

The club closed in 2010, after which the
tattered property briefly functioned as
a temporary artist space. In 2014, construction began on the 39-room boutique
hotel Les Bains, which opened in April.
In a city where new buildings arent
always welcomed into the urban fabric,
boutique hotels in old buildings are relatively common, but they arent always
done well. While Hotel Molitor opened to
fanfare last year, many argue it lacks the
soul of the original edifice that housed the
iconic Piscine Molitor. Owner Jean-Pierre
Maroiss vision for Les Bains was equally
precariousa hotel that seamlessly
referenced the buildings varied incarnations, without falling victim to gimmick
and he enlisted the star lineup of architect
Vincent Bastie and interior designers
Denis Montel and Tristan Auer for the task.
In spite of the design pedigree, its

hard not to expect the odd aesthetic
stumble when hearing the hotels concept.
Yet, most aspects of Les Bains exist in
relative harmony. There are nods to the
original baths throughout the rooms,
including complimentary loofahs, personal
hammams in the suites, marble bedheads,
and brushed-concrete textures. The most
notable design thread, however, stems
from Starcks iconic black-and-white
checkered dancefloor, crafted from
kitchen tiles (a cost-saving measure for the
then-fledgling designer). This tile fixation
begins in the lobby, where ornamental Art
Nouveau patterns are given a pixelated
update; the motif morphs a second time
in the restaurant-bar, where it finally
becomes the famous checkerboard. Upstairs in the rooms, Starcks tiles make an
unexpected appearance, embellishing
Below, left to right: The

reception desk at Les
Bains, the pool in the
nightclub downstairs,
and one of the hotels 39
rooms, most of which
have a balcony. Other
attentive particulars
include Bluetooth
that usual eyesore, the mini-bar fridge.

In the hotels basement, a smaller but
faithful replica of the original nightclub
with the notorious swimming pool just
off the danceflooropened in June. Its a
fitting tribute to the buildings hedonist
past that doesnt encroach on the hotels
generally understated elegance, as
the clubs subterranean existence allows
adequate separation between revelling
and rest. There are other subtle references to the disco eraartworks by Futura
and Basquiat are among the hotels
rotating collection curated by gallerist
Jrme Pauchant. The baroque hallway
carpet replicates that found in Serge
Gainsbourgs apartment at Rue de
Verneuil. And in several rooms, Auers
cartoonish copy of Andy Warhols famous
sofa from The Factory takes prominence
among the other bespoke furniture.
Outside, carved into the stone above

the looming arch of the entrance, a likeness of the god Bacchus keeps a somber
watch over all those who enter. His visage carries over into the graphic identity
of Les Bains, but, for a hotel that manages
to expertly navigate the line of subtlety,
its branding is cloyingly overt. While
hotel-branded stationery and towels are
expected accouterments, slipping into
patently emblazoned bed sheets feels a
little cheap, as do the signature Les Bains
energy drinks in the mini bar.
Fortunately, that minor aesthetic
oversight is one of the only areas where
Les Bains falters. Granted, there is the
hackneyed intention of creating a home
away from home, commonly uttered
among the Les Bains staff. But where other
hotels make superficial attempts to
fulfill such promises, Les Bains achieves
Marshall speakers,
an ample supply of Le
Labo toiletries, and a
collection of books
curated by owner JeanPierre Maroisfrom
art, film, and photography tomes to the iconic
ditions Gallimard.
it in smaller, less obvious details. Many

rooms feature a separate foyer-like entry
(with coat racks) that can be completely
closed off by a door. And for guests who
like to actually spend time in their room,
theres the thoughtful (yet often forgotten)
addition of an armchair, corner banquette,
or sofa, keeping the bed for the activities
for which it is traditionally intended.
These incentives to linger at Les Bains
are all part of Maroiss well-executed plan,
which, overall, manages to inject a newfound creativity to the well-worn boutique
hotel concept. Traveling to a new city
can be very inspiring, but sometimes
going back to the hotel each night is the
low point of your trip, he says. So when
youre lucky enough to have found a great
hotel in which you can continue a very
inspiring experience, it makes your whole
trip magical. M
JUL/AUG 2015
137
Q&A
Creating
Communities
In New York alone, about
30,000 children are
homeless today. The task
of affordable housing
is a daunting one, and
one organization has tackled
it for the past 33 years
through public-private
partnerships. Katie Swenson,
vice president of national
design initiatives at
Enterprise Community
Partners, spoke to Metropolis
about the housing crisis,
healthy communities, and
the value of integrated design.
By Avinash Rajagopal
Clockwise from top left:

In Cleveland, Enterprise
is converting a wing of
the former St. Lukes
Hospital building into
classrooms for the
Intergenerational School,
a leading city charter
school. Star Apartments
(top and bottom right)
in L.A. provides a public
medical clinic on the
ground floor. The project
includes over 13,000
square feet of community
space. The Richardson
Apartments were designed to promote physical and mental health
by providing homeless
people with a feeling
of security and encouraging social interaction.
138
METROPOLIS
Katie Swenson: At Enterprise, were

really trying to confront what we see
as a broad housing and security crisis in this
country. Nineteen million low-income
families are housing insecure. About one
in six households in the U.S. is living
paycheck to paycheck. Essentially, one
unforeseen eventillness, job loss, dropping
hours at workand people are on the
doorstep, having to move or being evicted.
With renters its even worse. Since 2000,
the number of housing-insecure renters
has increased by 82 percentfrom six million
people to 11 million people. These people
are forced to make these really toxic choices
pay your rent or buy groceries, pay for
transportation to work or for health care.
AR How has Enterprise Community Partners worked to
combat homelessness?
KS The Star Apartments in Los Angeles

and the Richardson Apartments in
San Francisco are examples of projects
that were done by our partners who
work to end chronic homelessness in
those cities. We support these homeless
groups in a number of ways. What weve
really learned is that getting somebody
off the street and into a housing unit is the
first step, but it goes further than that.
Weve also learned that design makes
an incredible difference. Both of these
groups have come to understand that the
quality of the unit, the building, and
the experience for the resident are each
essential to transitioning them permanently off the street. We also do what we
call permanent supportive housing
we know there needs to be both mental
and physical health services. Both the
San Francisco and Los Angeles apartment
buildings include support for the arts,
THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: COURTESY WAYNE MORTENSEN; COURTESY THERESA HWANG;
COURTESY THERESA HWANG; COURTESY LAURA SHIPMAN. FACING PAGE: COURTESY DANIEL SPLAINGARD
Avinash Rajagopal: Is affordable housing in the

United States in crisis?
In Chicago, the
Rosa Parks Apartments
consists of more
than 60 units across
eight sites. The scattered infill strategy
helped evenly disperse
affordable housing
and reverse the
psychological effects
of neighborhood
deterioration by filling
vacant lots.
Q&A
CREATING COMMUNITIES
exercise, nutrition, and reestablishing a

way of life for people.
The design of those complexes has
been really important. On Los Angeless Skid
Row, some of the citys highest-quality
architects such as Michael Maltzan are
working closely with the Skid Row Housing
Trust, which has invested in visually
stunning buildings. They boost pride for
the residents and subvert the stigma
around affordable housing. In San
Francisco, the Richardson Apartments is a
few steps away from City Hall. Theres a
not in my backyard mentality in many
places, but the incredibly beautiful design
done by David Baker Architects and our
Rose Fellow, Laura Shipman, allows that
building to be integrated into the neighborhoodeverybody uses the caf,
whether theyre formerly homeless and live
in the building, or just work around the
corner. The quality of the design is a part
of the solution.
AR What is an ideal team to
come together for an affordable housing project?
KS Weve learned things over time. The
Rose Architectural Fellowship [which
partners young architects with local
community-based organizations] started
in 2000, and then we developed the
Affordable Housing Design Leadership
Institute [which organizes workshops for
best affordable housing practices and
their design]. Out of that evolved the
predevelopment design grants that weve
been making.
What weve shown is that when you
find community-development groups that
have a real ambition around holistic neighborhood developments, then we can get
a designer on that development team to
sort of push and unearth all the opportunities, to help these groups go through a meaningful community-engagement process. It
can really be a transformative process.
Weve been doing this for 15 years, and this
idea that design is embedded in the
development team hadnt really happened
before in affordable housing.
As our practices evolved, we also
understood how to work best with
landscape architects and other types of
designers in the development process. The
leadership institute really tries to cultivate
an awareness around the possibilities that
a rigorous and robust design process can
bring to every development project. Most
recently, we started saying, If 70 percent
of design decisions are being made in the
first ten percent of the design process, in
affordable housing, that early stage is
exactly the time when there is not enough
time, not enough money, and not enough
expertise. So we started making a targeted grant-support plan to fuel design at
those early stages.
AR How can affordable
housing design move beyond
solving the problem of homelessness to creating sustainable, healthy communities?
KS We recently announced the 2015
revision of our Enterprise Green
Communities criteria. In 2004, we started
what is essentially a green building
program for affordable housingonly it
was always called green community,
not green building, because that is
baked into Enterprises approach. You
have to look at good locations and
transportation issues and if the building
connects to jobs, health care, schools,
and fresh food, and if it is in a safe
neighborhood. The Green Communities

criteria also work their way through
energy and water efficiency, which not
only has an environmental impact, but
also affects resident success if you can
lower energy and water bills. In the 2015
criteria, we are putting an additional
emphasis on a few other things, such as
integrated design. We learn more ever day
that the success of a project is going to be
directly related to its design process and
that the ability to be making design
decisions up front will lead to outcomes
that can have a measurable impact,
especially on human health. We have a
wonderful board member who says
housing is like a vaccine. She is a pediatrician, and children will come into her clinic
with asthma problems or with allergies,
and she essentially wants to write them a
prescription for healthy homes.
AR What is Enterprises
next focus?
KS We are working toward this outcomebased design approach. Basically, the
outcome that you seek is not a new
building, but a safer neighborhood. Or if
you want to think about a family, whats
your hope for them? For that mom to
have a job, the ability to take her kids to
school or daycare, that there is a healthy
meal on their table at dinnertime, and
that children are getting up in the morning,
well rested, and able to go to school with
their homework done. How do you set
that as your intention? The seismic shift is
to make sure we focus everything we
do in design and development on those
ultimate outcomesto hold ourselves
accountable for really creating equitable
access to health and all the things that
are most important in our lives. M
JUL/AUG 2015
139
THINK TANK
Special Report on
Education Design
Throughout 2015 to 2016,
Metropolis is engaging the
design community in a series of
talks sponsored by Bretford,
Dupont Surfaces, and Sunbrella
on the subject of Earth and
human-centered design in the
digital age. At our most
recent listening and learning
session on March 26, FGM
Architects invited their clients
and collaboratorstwo superintendents from two very
different Illinois schoolsto
discuss the current shifts
in educational design at their
Oak Brook, Illinois, office.
What follows is an edited version
of our program, prepared by
Zachary Edelson.
TECHNOLOGY AND CAREERS
Susan S. Szenasy, Metropolis: We are in the midst

of incredible shifts in institutional knowledge about designing for
K to 12 education and communities. Augie, you have been practicing for 37 years and have seen many changes come and go. In
all that time, can you remember changes as momentous as this
current technological shift is bringing with it?
Augie Battaglia, FGM Architects: The technology
is allowing things to happen that were talked about in the 1970s
and 1980s: specifically, the idea of a school within a school or
breaking down the school into smaller groupings. Initially, this
concept developed in the 1950s and 1960s with the leading
educators and educational architects at that time and manifested itself in the evil open plan that everybody cursed. By the
1980s and early 1990s, we were subdividing these buildings
into traditional classrooms because acoustics, technology, and
teacher training had not supported the development of the
concept of the open plan. Fundamentally, I believe that it has
taken 20 to 30 years for an idea to be realized and for all the
technology and training to catch up to the most advanced
thinking. This pace of change has accelerated and will continue
to accelerate with the rapidly increasing pace of change in
technology and research into the human brain and how we learn.
Tim Truesdale, J.Sterling Morton High School
District 201: Along those lines, when working on the
design of our schools in Cicero we try to make rapid changes in
response to technology fields. We have to be flexibly prepared
to respond to the outlook of careers five to 10 years from
now, and give our students a leg up in competitiveness. So,
we look for ways to provide that flexibility for different
programs to collaborate.
SSS Whats your approach to connected learning and not putting
subjects into silos?
TT When we think about our course strands, be it in engineering,
automotive technology, graphic design, business, or marketing,
those cross-curricular connections are necessary today. Students
need to be able to see the connections between the marketing
field and the graphic-design or video-production fields. Its about
seeing the branches of career pathways. Thats where you see the
need for teacher collaboration and understanding each others
curriculum. For example, we have a pre-engineering program
called Project Lead the Way; it offers diversified course opportunities so we can be responsive to whats out there. Thats a great
thing because students can have the depth of investigation of
those fields and make a good career decision before committing.
Paul Gordon, Glen Ellyn School District 41:
When youre talking about Project Lead the Way, youre
talking about problem-based learning, and thats where our
140
METROPOLIS
JUL/AUG 2015
THINK TANK
students need to be. They have to be grounded in the standards,

but learning has to be about solving authentic, real-world problems that engage kids and allow them to be the thinkers. Thats
what the twenty-first century is about. Kids cant just regurgitate the information technology makes available.
TT Another example would be STEM [Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics]. STEM is a buzzword that speaks
to longstanding, traditional connections between fields like
math and science.
SSS STEM is great, but Im interested in STEAM. It adds an A for
Art and Architecture, and thats a more complete idea. Are you
looking at STEAM programs?
PG We absolutely are. We have a STEAM program where our
arts come alive and students are able to see art from multiple
perspectives. We call it a trans-disciplinary lens, where our
students take on multiple lenses: political, financial, social, historical. We have to allow the kids to invest in creativity, to
understand its value.
SSS Public schools in the United States have a terrible rap, so
with Cicero, being in the middle of the country and having
the famous midwestern ethic, how are your school and other
public schools going to lead this discussion?
TT Our school districts mission statement is that every student
successfully pursues the path he or she chooses. The bad rap
has a lot to do with standardized test scores that are very artificial in terms of a life-long career and contributions to society.
We turned that on its head by keeping a long-term track record
of what fields Morton graduates enter and the contributions
theyre making. Thats the way public education needs to start
turning itself around.
OUTDOORS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
AB Whats also changing is a mindset toward a more holistic

design, one that centers on the Earth and human beings. The idea
is that humans are not the center of the environment, but the
Earth is the center. In addition, todays students work in teams
and establish equality among individuals. This is being taught
at the youngest ages: pre-K and kindergarten. Over time, I
believe, this idea will manifest itself into the more equal environment and with a better understanding of each other.
PG In District 41, in Glen Ellyn, we really try to ensure that human
and Earth connections are made through the work we do with
FGM. Its no longer just about the numbersI need 30 kids in this
roomits about creating quality space for learning outcomes.
Were in the midst of adding 21 classrooms to our elementary
schools, all of them are exactly what Augies talking about, truly
JUL/AUG 2015
Earth-centered and collaborative. We have outdoor learning

spaces where students can be outside, in groups, learning. Its
encouraging our teachers to look at other countries that have
done well, or better, and understanding that our teachers need
places to collaboratively plan to meet their needs, because the
differentiation doesnt just happen in the classroom magically.
SSS Are you looking at the Scandinavian school system, where
the children spend time outside? Are parents going to allow that
in Cicero and in Glen Ellyn?
PG Absolutely. Were working with partners to ensure that we
have areas for kids to be able to go outside and to be able to
access fresh air and sunlight. Thats why outdoor learning spaces,
with weather-resistant tables, are critical for us.
CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT
AB People took a different approach to energy conservation in

the 1980s and 1970s, a time when they thought energy efficiency
meant getting rid of the windows. Daylight was counterintuitive at that time. Today were more about bringing in the daylight,
combining it with artificial light. The idea is really to make an
equality of light throughout the whole room so there are no shadows cast on any surface. This allows the teacher to put the chairs
in the room anywhere they want to. You add a skylight and you
have some indirect light fixtures, and now the teacher can move
the furniture around the room, set it up for different activities.
PG Each teacher is using his or her room very differently from
others. You can move our walls or write on them, and our students
love it; theyre partners in their own education.
Kerry Leonard, FGM Architects: While we are
used to tackling acoustics, light, and air quality, and now we
have the tools to measure them, its the fuzzy, soft stuff that were
now trying to understand. How do kids learn? How does the
brain affect learning? How does one child learn differently from
another child? Its hard to find good research data on these
issues, and were just scratching the surface. So we try to observe
and learn as much as we can.
SSS Tim, whats your research revealing, and what are you
hoping to do in the future?
TT Were seeing the importance of lighting and acoustics,
flexibility of space, those kinds of things. Traditional fluorescent
lighting for students with scotopic sensitivity wreaks havoc on
their ability to sit in a classroom and read a textbook. FGM brings
us ideas about how we bring lighting into the classrooms that are
more receptive to all of the different needs that students have.
When we think of acoustics, its not only in the classroom but
also in places like the cafeteria. Traditionally, you might have a
METROPOLIS
141
THINK TANK
cafeteria where there wasnt concern for acoustics. Now we have

those design elements in mind. When kids walk out of a lunchroom that has a high level of noise, that stress level impacts how
they perform in geometry class or in chemistry class.
ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY
SSS As part of the larger community, businesses understand

that intelligent workers are necessary for success. Is the business
community interested in what you are doing at the schoolboard level?
TT Absolutely. Formerly it was about engaging businesses.
Today we talk about partnerships, not just monetary investment.
If we can start interacting with businesses, all of a sudden
my English-language learner knows Augie, and he has somebody
to whom he can reach out and say, Hey, do you remember me
when I presented at that panel? Would you mind if I interned for
you? Thats a game changer with long-term impact for people
who come from less. There are so many different possibilities
around business and school partnerships if we come to the table
with those conversations. We cant keep saying, as we used
to, You pay more, you get more. Thats taken us nowhere
in education.
KL It is so important how you engage the entire communitythe
architects, planners, and educatorsin this discussion. It is like
a pebble thrown in the water; it creates ever-expanding circles.
You start with a small group and you keep bringing more and more
people into the conversation.
TT For example, we made a major upgrade to our stadium.
This was a collaboration between athletes, coaches, physicaleducation teachers, and school administrators with the
goal of creating the best place for the students. But it was
also about making that facility a part of our community. Having a pro-turf feel, we no longer have to worry about the Park
District using the football stadium on Wednesday night and
tearing up the grass for the football game on Friday night.
Also, there are ways we could bring the community into our
Culinary Lab where they can have their own events. Theres a nice
dining area thats connected to a faculty cafeteria right off of
that new culinary lab. We see it as having a potential to generate
new revenue. Its not only the trans-disciplinary flexibility for
students, but its the flexibility for the school to become a community resource. We have a huge window to the lab where
anybody walking by can see the work that the students are doing
in the kitchen. We want to be able to showcase whats available because, in some ways, we compete for students with some
of the private schools.
SSS Its run like a business?
142
METROPOLIS
TT We say were a $500-million corporation, basically with all

of our assets. We have about a $105-million budget for about
8,500 students, so were stewards of the taxpayers dollar. We
need to be able to show that these kinds of investments have
benefits to student learning and the larger community.
While our culinary program has been in existence, with the recent
upgrades, students can get a professional experience. Grades 9
to 12 have opportunities to earn industry certifications before
they graduate from high school; theyll have a leg up on the course
work thats required to get those licensures or degrees in
culinary arts.
SSS Everything weve been discussing also implies a lot of
investment in human resources, architecture that is bristling with
all kinds of technology while still being humane. We are talking
about some major commitment here.
PG In Illinois, were worried about what our legislators and
governor are going to do. Moreover, our communities have to
understand the value we invest into our schools. When people move they know to ask about the schools and the school
district: because it matters to them and for their property value.
SSS Earlier Tim said, Every student succeeds. I love that. If we
look at that idea as the end goal in all of education, that means
that were not looking at poverty versus wealth, or racial or
ethnic divides, but were looking at the human beings who will
have the same opportunities.
TT When students come to Morton High School, those factors
exist, and were responsible for identifying them and addressing them. There cant be excuses for why our students have less
opportunity than students in affluent communities. Mortons
student population is 64 percent low-income families. Yet when
you walk into our schools, you wouldnt get the impression
that we have that mindset of poverty. By making these kinds
of investments, our students can compete with students
from any other community with any other socioeconomic status.
We must be stewards of the dollar to and design school
environments that maximize opportunities for students. Thats
our responsibility.
ARCHITECTS-AS-TEACHERS
SSS Youre not the type of architects who leave when the school
is completed. Can you talk about that?
KL We have a long-term relationship with our clients. Were
able to see how projects are used, and visit years down the road.
We build personal relationships, so whenever we start the
next project, were building on a foundation: We know each other.
We have a common language. Were immersed in our clIents
JUL/AUG 2015
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clients. This leads to constructive conversations.
SSS Schools are an opportunity for you, architects, to become
a part of the larger discourse of the culture, and that seems like a
really solid step forward. What are you doing to connect with
the kids and show them what this incredible profession, architecture, is about?
AB We do a lot of student workshops. We bring in a project,
large or small, where were grappling with solutions. The interesting thing is to turn around and present the students work
alongside our own to the parents and community. Remarkably,
the students identify the issues. This discourse opens the
eyes of the taxpayer and/or parent to exactly what the kids are
thinking. In reality the student is the user; the rest of us are
the facilitators or creators of the space.
Student Design by Chen Wei

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METROPOLIS
Augie Battaglia, FAIA, REFP, Principal, Design Director | PK12 Education, FGM
Architects; Kerry Leonard, AIA, Principal | PK12 Education, FGM Architects;
Dr. Paul Gordon, Superintendent of Schools, Glen Ellyn School District 41, Glen Ellyn,
IL; Tim Truesdale, Assistant Superintendent at J. Sterling Morton High School
District 201, Cicero, IL; program moderator, Susan S. Szenasy, editor in chief/
publisher, Metropolis.
JUL/AUG 2015
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ARCHITECTURE AND

DESIGN AT ALL SCALES

The best cities to

Laufen Bathrooms North America

P7350 Discover the fascination of a kitchen which

Poggenpohl New York Midtown

Poggenpohl New York Downtown

JUST ADD YOU.

Koolhaas Talks Prada 66

The architect speaks to Metropolis about

Architect and urban studies expert Deane

Architect Tom Kundig evokes the spirit

Olson Kundig Architects shows

The Worlds Most Livable Cities 98

On the cover: Torontos Nathan Phillips Square

Visit www.arborite.com and discover 16 exciting, new

COURTESY PAUL RAESIDE

MEHNDI QUARTZ | WILSONART.COM/QUARTZ

EXPLORE NEW SURFACES

Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Lower Manhattan. A redundant structural steel

FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS OR SERVICE

Photograph: Tex Jernigan

Nicole Qualls Doyle

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER

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Learn more, visit ClosetMaidPro.com or call 1-844-795-9537

2013 and 2014 Home Builder Executive Innovation Awards

THE HUMAN FACTOR:

Reid is a journalist, copywriter,

Leading U.S. architecture and

Metropolis Think Tank

I often need a change

I confess I have had an obsession for five years.

provide entrances that are accessible for people

The rapid growth of 20th-century cities left us with a baseline

View the entire collection at

Call for Entries!

Our 30th annual design contest is now open for entries.

DESIGNING WITH SOCIAL IMPACT

Metropolis and the Association of Independent

COURTESY AUTODESK FOUNDATION

2015 Shaw, A Berkshire Hathaway Company

Flow >> Matte Nickel with Bamboo Blades

On May 18, Metropolis and Interiors from Spain hosted

Celebrating the modern idiom

COURTESY MARK IANTOSCA

BREAKFAST WITH INTERIORS FROM SPAIN

COURTESY AQUAFIL USA

True Global Design

Singular attention to form and detail

DESIGN. CULTURE. CRAFT.

TOP TO BOTTOM: COURTESY PATRICK TIGHE ARCHITECTURE; COURTESY FRANKE

To clarify the caption for the above photo, which was

MINIMALIST DOOR FRAMES

ARCHITECTURAL METALS + ENGINEERED PRODUCT SYSTEMS | 800-237-9773 | www.fryreglet.com

Lets work together.

COURTESY ARTHUR EVANS/THE TANG MUSEUM AT SKIDMORE COLLEGE

In the 1960s and 1970s,

Baker Museum at Artis-Naples

humanist approach to advertising and discovered her own

quotes from Albert Camus or

Above: wet and wild,

Tucked away on the sleepy

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