Architects and Artisans

A mid-century modern home designed by Pacific Northwest master Paul Kirk, converted to a visitors’ center for the Bellevue Botanical Gardens when they opened in 1992, is part of a number of improvements there proposed by Olson Kundig Architects of Seattle. For Jim Olson, principal in the firm, the project has special meaning.  “Jim worked [...]

By his own admission, James Gulliver Hancock is a bit of an obsessive. The Australian native now living in New York has set a goal for himself: draw all the buildings in the city. “I’ve traveled a lot, as most artists are wont to do, and I’ve developed this weird relationship with each city I’ve [...]

Founded in 2006, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) seeks a broad understanding of cultures that once flourished from the Mediterranean Sea to China, ranging from the prehistoric to the pre-Islamic ages. “We don’t look at the ancient world in a vertical way,” said Jennifer Chi, associate director for exhibitions and public programs at the [...]

Four years ago, Israel native Dror Benshetrit, now living in New York, began to experiment, searching for architectural solutions that could be applied to disaster relief. What he discovered instead was a geometry that’s versatile and flexible, with a structural integrity reminiscent of the basic triangles in Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes. “While I was looking at two interlocking squares, [...]

It feels like an atelier – refined, hushed and ponderous, with a muted palette lit well in all the right places – and eerily reminiscent of Charles F. McKim’s Morgan Library and Museum in New York.  “The Morgan Library is a great example of a building collaboration between architects and artists who understood European traditions and [...]

For Mike Parker of Eidolon Designs in Raleigh N.C., cabinetry is a matter of control. He started out as a carpenter in his early 20s, then moved on to on custom residential work.  Along the way, he discovered that the quality of materials was a constant battle, and something that could hold an entire project [...]

Dave Wofford is a Durham, N.C.-based graphic designer who also happens to own a pair of 1960s-era, hand-cranked, cylinder-based, Vandercook letterpresses. We’re not talking Kinko’s here. His work at Horse & Buggy Press is a fusion of state-of-the-art computer-aided design and typography with the tactile impressions of brightly-colored ink on paper. He got into printing after [...]

Every two years since 1996, the World Monuments Fund (WMF), the leading independent organization dedicated to saving the world’s most treasured places, creates a list of about 100 sites on its “Watch” list. Among the more notable sites on which the organization has focused worldwide attention are the Taj Mahal in India, and Herculaneum in [...]

Pity the architects who’ve tried for almost 200 years to follow the genius of Thomas Jefferson at the University of Virginia. Their efforts bring to mind Fitzgerald’s remark regarding the dearth of second acts in American lives.  In Charlottesville, though, we’re talking about the life of one of the nation’s finest master plans – and the mostly lackluster structures that have proliferated [...]

In 1994, Jasna Sokolovic left her native Yugoslavia, putting war-torn Sarajevo behind her and venturing to Granville Island, Vancouver. She cut short her architecture studies, but began to explore ceramics in Canada, melding her interests in design and sculptural forms. Inspired by European visionaries like Gaudi and Hundertwasser, Sokolovic focused on facade and illusion, layering on [...]