Bios
As Managing Director of Busby Perkins+Will, Peter is involved in the design and sustainable direction of each project the firm engages. Overseeing design offices in Vancouver, British Columbia and Seattle, Washington, and now San Francisco, Peter directs more than 100 employees working on projects across Canada, the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. As a director of Perkins+Will since 2004, Peter has expanded his role to include sustainable design leadership to the firm’s 23 offices worldwide; and Perkins+Will has been recognized internationally as the leader in sustainable building design, having the largest portfolio of built green projects in North America.
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Jeanne Gang, founder of Studio Gang, a leading Chicago-based architecture firm, received her B. Arch degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana in 1986. After obtaining a M.Arch degree from Harvard's GSD and a fellowship to the ETH in Zürich, she spent two years with the Office of Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, then with Booth/Hansen Associates in Chicago. After the founding of Studio Gang Architects in 1997, the firm received several commissions, including the Starlight Theater in Rockford, Illinois. The firm later won two national competitions, The Ford Calumet Environmental Center and the Hoboken (NJ) 9/11 Memorial Competition. Later she was the runnerup finalist in the Taipei Pop Music Center Competition, Taiwan. A MacArthur genius grant is among the various awards she has received.
Photo: ©Dane Tashima  Craig Hartman joined Skidmore Owings and Merrill immediately after receiving his B.Arch from the new Ball State architecture program in Muncie, Indiana. At SOM he was mentored by Principal, Walter Netsch, who became a life-long friend. By 1985 he became a design partner at SOM's Houston office, then Partner-in-Charge at SOM's Washington office two years later. There he collaborated with Charles Correa and Nikken Sekkei on the Second Place entry to the World Bank competition.
Shortly thereafter he moved to SOM's West Coast region in San Francisco as Partner-in-Charge. In 1993 he won the San Francisco International Terminal Competition, which was completed in 2000.
SOM's San Francisco office became very active in China, winning competitions for two large projects in 1993 and 1994. That same year, SOM won the extension competition for the California State Office Building in San Francisco. Led by Craig, SOM prevailed over four other high-profile firms in an invited 2001 competition for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing—which opened in 2008.
In neighboring Oakland, SOM was invited as the only U.S.-based firm to participate in the Christ the Light Cathedral competition, where they were again up against stiff competition, Santiago Calatrava among others. After winning the competition, the site was changed to a new location, but the result drew wide-spread acclaim upon the building's dedication in 2009.
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The Makasiiniranta South Harbor Competition
Helsinki South Harbour and Tori Quarter Suomen Ilmakuva Helsinki. Image credit/ Tietoa Finland, Janne Hirvonen
As a prelude to a competition for the design of a new Architecture and Design Museum to be located in Helsinki’s South Harbor, the City of Finland staged an open competition to establish a roadmap for the future redevelopment of the Makasiiniranta harbor area, the last old harbor area to be transformed for public use in Helsinki. The competition for the museum is scheduled to take place later this year; but the entire surrounding area has come up with a plan to review improvements for the entire harbor environment.
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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/
Vltava Philharmonic Hall Design Competition
View to Concert Hall from bridge ©BIG
Classical music is still part of a vibrant musical scene in Prague, with at least four principal venues hosting concerts, ballet and opera. As a modern European city, the only missing venue from these choices is a state of the art concert hall. Other European neighbors have also recently staged competitions for such projects: Munich, won by Cukrowicz Nachbaur Architekten of Bregenz, Austria; Belgrade, won by AL_A of London; and Vilnius, Lithuania, won by Arquivio Architects of Spain. It should be noted, however, that one of the most important competitions for a concert hall, not only in Europe, but the world, was the 1961 Berlin Philharmonic hall competition, won by Hans Scharoun (below). It was the interior of that building, in particular, that served as a model for many others that followed, one of the first being Los Angeles’ Disney Hall by Frank Gehry.
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Budapest’s Nyugati Rail Station Competition
Image courtesy Budapest Development Agency ©Grimshaw
Completed in 1877, Budapest’s Nyugati Railway Station has witnessed many of the twists and turns of Hungarian history: the Austro-Hungarian Empire, revolutions of post-World War I and 1956, and various shades of expansion and shrinkage in their territory. Its important location in Europe’s history as a contested land in southeastern Europe has not only served as a path for armies of conquest, but as a matter of great interest for major powers. Amid all the changes it has experienced, Hungary, and Budapest in particular, has retained a fascination for outsiders, making it one of Europe’s high profile tourist attractions.
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A Quest for that Elusive Connective Formula
First Place: Pedestrian perspective from Parliament – Zeidler Architecture in association with David Chipperfield Architects
How do you find a common thread that can connect an eclectic collection of buildings, visually as well as physically, all located within a one-block site, located just across from Canada’s Parliament building in Ottawa. To identify this common thread that could tie everything together, the client turned to a design competition for answers. With the aid of consultants, [phase eins] from Berlin and experts from Canada’s’ own Université de Montréal’s School of Architecture, the client turned to an invited international format to finally settle on six teams that could rethink the site.
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Vilnius Railway Station and Public Square Competition
Vilnius Station competition Image: ©Zaha Hadid Architects
In European cities, recent history has seen their central railway stations become the subject of upgrades, or totally new projects, many of them springing up in Eastern Europe. In most cases, the focus on this phenomena occurred several decades after earth-shaking political events. In Germany it was the construction of a new main central station (Hauptbahnhof) shortly after the reunification of Germany and Berlin. in Estonia, and now Lithuania, it has occurred after the independence of those countries in conjunction with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. And in Hungary, it was the subject of a recent competition encompassing a large area surrounding the station.
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Craig Hartman joined Skidmore Owings and Merrill immediately after receiving his B.Arch from the new Ball State architecture program in Muncie, Indiana. At SOM he was mentored by Principal, Walter Netsch, who became a life-long friend. By 1985 he became a design partner at SOM's Houston office, then Partner-in-Charge at SOM's Washington office two years later. There he collaborated with Charles Correa and Nikken Sekkei on the Second Place entry to the World Bank competition. 
