School of Architecture and Planning

Monday 3 December: George on “The business of design”. George Reitter is our CFO and he will talk to the students on “The business of design”.  I can’t stress enough how critical it is that the students listen and learn from this talk.  It may be their only opportunity to “get” the financial side of this tricky design business we’re all in.  I should add that many of the young architects I work with, especially those with their own studio practice, tell me they constantly struggle to understand how to justify or even conceptualize what their work is worth.  How do you put a dollar value to a conceptual design process? Especially one that can last an unknown amount of time?

Wednesday 5 December: Glenn on “Spaceship Earth at Epcot”. Glenn Bell is our CEO and he will talk to the students on the geodesic sphere of EPCOT Center in Disneyworld.  Glenn was the lead designer and project manager of this seminal, one-of-a-kind, project in the 1980s.  “Spaceship Earth” (as it’s actually called) had many unique structural and envelope issues to grapple with: How do you actually build a sphere? How do you stop rainwater from pouring off the sides and onto the people below? Could it topple off its supports and roll down Main Street?  We recently asked Glenn to give this talk to us here at our office as, obviously, all our younger staff joined after EPCOT was built...your class will actually be getting this talk before us!

Monday 10 December: John on “Simmons Hall”.  John Thomsen was the lead designer and project manager for the Simmons Hall dorm at MIT by Steven Holl.  I’m sure most of the students are familiar with the building to some extent, and John will explain to them what it was like designing a building that was fundamentally about creating as many voids as possible, how he managed to make the structure and façade a single cohesive unit, and what random event by a young SGH engineer inspired the colors on the façade.   I can tell you from having seen his talk, there’s a lot going on with the building that’s not so obvious to the casual observer…

The second structures quiz (scheduled for 11/28/07) has been canceled. There will be a final project, details of which are being finalized.

Please drop your wall sections off at the BT Office (5-418) sometime today (11/14/07) - please note that this is the faculty office in building 5, not the student lab. There is a room just inside the door on the left, labeled 5-421, where you can leave your models. Class will meet as usual in 4-149 this morning, where you will get your structures quiz back.

Our first meeting will be Wednesday, September 5 in Room 4-149 at 11am.