September is always a great month for the architects in Pittsburgh, as we open to the public with a huge exhibition of our works. Only October can beat September, when we have the Awards and Gala. This year, the opening was during the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Gallery Crawl and the Gala will take place on October 22, 2015. Tickets and info are available on the AIA Pittsburgh website.
Also this year, I helped in creating "the right atmosphere" (read: cheerful) and I volunteered to arrange the space with other friends.
The main spaces I was involved with were the Young Architect Studio Competition, the photo exhibition "Place that inspire" and the 4th floor, with some interactive activities.
Below, the photo exhibition "Places that Inspire". Joe Adiutori, Jr. made the final arrangement. Two of the presented photos are mine.
Here the photos, which I took in Pittsburgh in 2014 (click to enlarge)
On the opposite wall, the YASC competition was presented to the visitors, with many creative ideas about how to re-use the former Bayer billboard, recently dismissed. This year we had a record of submissions and the space was almost too small for hosting the boards.
The visitors seemed to be pretty entertained, and enjoyed the show.
On the floor, you will see the gigantic floor graphics I prepared, printed by Tri-State Reprographics and skillfully mounted also this year. Last year it was a 12 feet by 12 feet. This year, I created a 34 feet by 4 feet strip with the challenging topography on the south shore of the Ohio River.
Above: the whole 34 feet strip. Below, the detail showing the clean graphics of the topography, buildings and roads between Mount Washington and the Ohio River. The dark line represents the true footprint of the billboard, compared to the surroundings.
Also this year I submitted for the Young Architect Studio Competition. Below you can see the images of the "Duquesne Gardens". An incredible place dedicated to Pittsburghers. But also to resiliency.
You can vote for it following this link. It is the third project of the first row.
The rest of the space was really beautiful even this year. Many volunteers are doing so much in order to craft this event, and the staff at the AIA Pittsburgh is fantastic.
The AIA Pittsburgh Design Awards cannot be complete without the right soundtrack. David Roth kindly takes care of that. And rocks the night.
I didn't get to see much of the outside, but I loved the DJ session by DJ Rekha.
I also loved the exhibition of Sarika Goulatia at 709 Penn. Open until November 29th!
