National Pulse Memorial & Museum International Design Competition Sponsor: onePULSE Foundation Type: open, international, two-phase (RfQ) Location: Orlando, Florida Professional Adviser: Dovetail Design Strategists, LLC www.dovetailstrategists.com Eligibility: Open to architects across the globe. Architects will be required to form and lead a multi-disciplinary team to include urban design, landscape design and exhibition design professionals. The inclusion of an artist is strongly encouraged. Fees: None Language: English and Spanish Timetable: 25 March 2019 – Competition launch 30 April 2019 (15:00 EST) Stage I RFQ submissions due Compensation: Up to six architect-led design teams will be selected to participate in Stage II of the Design Competition and an honorarium of $50,000 will be paid to each of the shortlisted teams who have met onePULSE’s Stage II requirements, payable upon selection of a winning team. Design Challenge: On June 12, 2016 the largest and deadliest act of violence affecting LGBTQ+ people, and one of the deadliest terrorist attacks by a single gunman in modern American history occurred at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. A total of 49 people’s lives were taken that night, 68 others were injured and hundreds were left permanently affected from the trauma. In the aftermath, the Orlando community and the world came together to prove that love will overcome fear and hatred. Under this banner, the onePULSE Foundation, an educational nonprofit, was created to memorialize this tragedy and ensure that Pulse’s legacy of love, acceptance and hope will never be lost. The National Pulse Memorial & Museum International Design Competition challenges architects to create an iconic Memorial & Museum, including a pedestrian pathway called Survivors Walk in Orlando, Florida on the site of the Pulse nightclub and nearby properties. The National Pulse Memorial will be a sanctuary of hope and healing, the Pulse Museum will educate, enlighten, inspire reflection and start conversations that will change mindsets. Survivors Walk will trace the three-block journey many victims and survivors took the night of the tragedy to get to the Orlando Regional Medical Center. Together these three distinct elements will be a tribute to all those affected, will engage and educate visitors from around the world, and will serve as a catalyst for positive change. The Jury includes: - Mayra Alvear, Victim’s Liaison, Mother of Amanda Alvear, Task Force Advisory Council, onePULSE
- Earl Crittenden, Chair, Board of Trustees onePULSE, GrayRobinson, P.A.
- Yolande Daniels, Principal, studioSUMO
- Mayor Jerry Demings, Orange County, Florida
- Mayor Buddy Dyer, Orlando, Florida
- Hilary Lewis, Board of Trustees onePULSE, Chief Curator & Creative Director, The Glass House
- Teresa Jacobs, School Board Chair, Orange County Public Schools, former Orange County Mayor
- George Kalogridis, Vice Chair, Board of Trustees onePULSE, President, Walt Disney World
- Ricardo J. Negron-Almodovar, Survivor, Service Legal Coordinator, Latino Justice Southeast Office
- Barbara Poma, Owner, Pulse Nightclub, Founder & CEO of onePULSE
- Laurinda Spear, Principal, Arquitectonica
- Sarah Whiting, Dean, Rice University School of Architecture, Principal WW Architecture
- Susanna Sirefman, Competition Director and Jury Advisor, President, Dovetail Design Strategists
HOW to SUBMIT: www.onePULSEfoundation.org/international-design-competition/ |
The Urban Confluence Silicon Valley Competition  Image ©SMAR Architecture After several stops and starts, a decision to name the winner of the Urban Confluence Design Competition appears to be nearing its conclusion. In 2017, three founders of a local non-profit established The San Jose Light Tower Corporation (SJLTC). The founders of the non-profit, Restauranteur Steve Borkenhagen, construction company executive, Jon Ball and filmmaker Thomas Wohlmut, saw its primary mission in designing and building a new tower as a San Jose and Silicon Valley landmark. This idea was based on the memory of the original San Jose Electric Light Tower (1881-1915), a 22-story structure, located in downtown San Jose and came down as the victim of a gale, never to be rebuilt. Read more… Young Architects in Competitions When Competitions and a New Generation of Ideas Elevate Architectural Quality  by Jean-Pierre Chupin and G. Stanley Collyer published by Potential Architecture Books, Montreal, Canada 2020 271 illustrations in color and black & white Available in PDF and eBook formats ISBN 9781988962047 What do the Vietnam Memorial, the St. Louis Arch, and the Sydney Opera House have in common? These world renowned landmarks were all designed by architects under the age of 40, and in each case they were selected through open competitions. At their best, design competitions can provide a singular opportunity for young and unknown architects to make their mark on the built environment and launch productive, fruitful careers. But what happens when design competitions are engineered to favor the established and experienced practitioners from the very outset? This comprehensive new book written by Jean-Pierre Chupin (Canadian Competitions Catalogue) and Stanley Collyer (COMPETITIONS) highlights for the crucial role competitions have played in fostering the careers of young architects, and makes an argument against the trend of invited competitions and RFQs. The authors take an in-depth look at past competitions won by young architects and planners, and survey the state of competitions through the world on a region by region basis. The end result is a compelling argument for an inclusive approach to conducting international design competitions. Download Young Architects in Competitions for free at the following link: https://crc.umontreal.ca/en/publications-libre-acces/  Aerial view of site – Courtesy National Finnish Museum When major cultural institutions in Finland plan a new building project, one can almost always assume that an open competition will be the vehicle by which the client settles on the building’s design. The only question is, will this be organized in a format open to local, Scandinavian, or international architects. In the case of the National Museum of Finland annex competition, it was open to architects throughout the world — resulting in 185 entries. Read more…
The Opening of Taichung’s Central Park by Catherine Mosbach/Philippe Rahm
 View from the south with downtown Taichung in the distance image: ©Mosbach/Rahm
The abandonment and closing of airports, including decommissioning those that were used for military purposes, has presented design communities with several opportunities to convert them entirely to civilian purposes. Notable among those which have been the result of competitions are Orange County Great Park, Irvine, California (Ken Smith Landscape Architects), The Estonian National Museum (Dan Dorell, Lina Ghotmeh and Tsuyoshi Tane), and Toronto’s less successful Downsview Park competition, whereby the winning design by OMA, with trees as the primary feature, has been basically ignored. Instead, the area has become the site of numerous commercial and residential projects.
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SMAR’s Winning Entry Gets the Green Light  Image: ©SMAR Architecture The winning competition entry in the 2016 Science Island competition in Kaunas, Lithuania by SMAR Architects may only take five years to realize—from the date of the competition to completion. This is encouraging news, as the duration of such projects resulting from a competition can often take much longer—sometimes up to 8-10 years. Read more…  Night view of the memorial tapestry from Independence Avenue, with Gehry’s sketch of the Normandy cliffs. Explaining the contributions of a World War II hero and later President of the United States on a very modest site on Independence Avenue just off the Washington Mall is tantamount to asking an author to describe the life of this person in no more than one paragraph. But on September 17th, after a long and bumpy journey, lasting almost 20 years and navigating a warren of the DC approval processes and public scrutiny, the Eisenhower Memorial finally was dedicated and opened to the public. Designed by Frank Gehry, it has received mixed reviews, the majority being more positive. But most have pointed out that the memorial is more impressive at night than in full daylight. This is due primarily to the illumination of an almost block-long metallic tapestry—featuring a sketch by Gehry, which depicts his interpretation of the cliffs of the Normandy coastline where the Americans landed on D-Day. Read more… |