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.
Below: serie of activity tables.
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!
All the main galleries that inaugurated on the Gallery Crawl night are still open. Check the Cultural Trust website to learn more.
I was published again, on the AIA Pittsburgh eColumns (the online magazine of the American Institute of Architects, Pittsburgh Chapter).
Click here to read my article on Seth Clark, a very talented artist based in Pittsburgh.
" Beyond the subject-matter of the work, Clark’s compositions are well balanced and almost pleasant. They don’t provide solutions. They capture a condition that, as architects or even residents of less popular areas in the city, we are seeing repeatedly: abandoned buildings and deterioration. His technique is powerful and mastered: the collages are hyper-realistic, but also composed in a surreal manner. "
I am very pleased to announce I am one of the 2015 Recipients of the Jason Pettigrew Memorial ARE Scholarship. It is a scholarship organized by the AIA at a national level.
Applicants should demonstrate one or more of the following attributes:
• Significant contributions at an early stage of career to the profession and/or community;
• Exemplary involvement in community and/or professional organizations;
• Outstanding achievement in the creation, development and delivery of creative programs for students, interns, Associates, and/or young architect members;
• Demonstrated passion for pursuit of registration.
Click here to see all the 10 recipients. Below is my bio:
Beatrice Spolidoro, Assoc. AIA, is a 2011 graduate from the University Politecnico of Milano in Italy, with a Master’s Degree in Architecture. She regularly volunteers at the AIA Pittsburgh chapter and for the Young Architect Forum (YAF) of Pittsburgh. Spolidoro is the recipient of the Young Architect Studio Competition, 2012 edition. She has been working as an Intern for the Pittsburgh based architectural firm Rothschild Doyno Collaborative since 2012. She has been involved in projects that aim to rebuild communities and align the goals of many Pittsburgh neighborhoods. In addition to helping the design development, she has been focusing in the storytelling of such projects and in facilitating the delivery of complex concepts.
A huge thank you goes to my firm, Rothschild Doyno Collaborative, and all the wonderful people working there. Geoff Campbell has been my tutor and mentor since 2012 and I really value his help and guidance.
Another huge thanks goes to Mindy Fullilove, MD for the opportunity to contribute to her book Urban Alchemy. She taught me what welcoming means, and many precious lessons of "architecture for the people".
I really admire the AIA Pittsburgh Chapter and its staff, particularly Rachael Kelley. The Young Architects Forum benefits a lot from all the efforts Rachael put in coordinate us. Thanks for the support you constantly provide!
Finally, thanks to Pittsburgh, for being such an amazing place to grow as an architect. It is a wonderful mix of challenges and opportunities. Plus fun.
It is official: my city, Milan, has been selected to be the 1st place you have to visit in 2015. According to the New York Times, 52 "once-avoided destinations become must-sees and familiar cities offers new reasons to visit". In a world ruled for years by systems too big to fail, it is now the golden age of the underdogs (after the big systems failed indeed). I smile thinking that my city is the first of the once-avoided destinations. Truth, after the excitement of discovering I am Italian, people are a bit perplexed still now, when I tell them I am from "Milano". Then I underscore that I am from the very center of Milan, like 10 minutes walking from the Duomo, pretending I didn't notice their bafflement.
Sunday morning I opened the NYT and I could recognize, even without wearing my glasses, the familiar shape of the guglie, the gorgeous gothic pinnacles of the Duomo. For me, it was indeed what we Italian describe as a "dive of the hearth", a mixed sense of nostalgia and happiness, that makes you feel as if your hearth is diving into a pool.
(c) Bea Spolidoro
I started reading the article, which was a serie of recommendations for tourists spending 36 hours in Milan. Quite a big leap from the typical 36 minutes spent at the Milanese airport only, waiting for the following flight. This year is special, though, for the next EXPO will be hosted here. The theme is food and "feeding the planet". As a comedian noticed some years ago, this is typical of people from Milan: we always think bigger...
Back to the NYT: "Twenty million visitors are expected to visit
the city for the Expo, a mammoth event that runs from May through October and
involves more than 130 participating nations and organizations sponsoring more
than 60 pavilions. The Expo’s theme focuses on food, nutrition and
sustainability practices — a fitting choice for a city steeped in Italian
culinary traditions."
The related article starts with a video in Italian with subtitles, in which some people are describing the city. In the opening, a man sincerely states that Milan is not a touristic city: it is an Italian city, "founded for work, industry". That is pretty much what I always say as well, and it usually sounds like a threat. After years of saying that, I am convinced it is just a way to protect our city from the tourists, so that we can keep working smoothly. Nevertheless, Milan is indeed a wonderful city. It deserves to be visited.
Milan it is not only shopping, food, design, industry, fashion... Milan is a very attractive city, from an architectonic point of view. There is only one thing that some people might regret: the presence of nature is very sporadic, but when you can find a green spot, it is indeed a wonderful garden, able to compete with the Japanese ones. The rest of the city is an architectonic manifestation of how 50 shades of gray could look - and I am thinking of concrete tonalities!
As an architect, and a big supporter of my city, I don't want people to visit Milan only for what the NYT selects. Out of 11 items, 6 are about food and drinks, 2 about shopping, and only 3 items are about museums or churches, carefully surrounded by places that sells food and drinks.
I will split the article in two part: first the history, then my recommendations.
This will be a semi-serious version of Milan, with some carefully selected historic facts and some partisan explanations of why Milan is how it looks like today. Or as we say in Milan, why Milan is a big Milan. This is not a scientific article, but if you happen to be in Milan for 36 hours, you'd better follow my recommendations.
BRIEF HISTORY OF MILAN
Milan was founded by Celts, which were not exactly friendly barbarians, and left in us a sort of atavic grumpiness that you'll have to face, soon or later in Milan.
There are different explanations for the name of the city. One version says someone recognized that the only noticeable feature of the place was to be "in-the-middle-of-the-land" (written Medio-lanum). Another version, this legendary, says that, after a war, people found a boar with "medium-length hair" (also written Medio-lanum) on the site. That was the sign to found a sanctuary, around which Milan arose.
(c) www.storiadimilano.it
Milan has always suffered from having a poor weather in a very sunny country. The natural activity in such a place was, since the beginning, working a lot - possibly indoor.
While Ancient Romans were conquering even sunnier places around the Mediterranean, Milan was already working in a frantic way, likely creating what can be considered a primitive form of pollution.
During the Middle Ages, Federico Barbarossa conquered Milan, arriving from places that had a weather even worse than Milan. All in all, he couldn't complain and remained and adapted to the Milanese work-life balance.
In 1386, the Cathedral of the city was started. The famous Duomo di Milano, despite the prodigious Milanese efficiency, was said to be never finished, due to continuous changes. Some would say it was just because the Milanese fashion was changing so quickly, that the building couldn't keep up with the following fashion season.
In the Renaissance, Milan was flourishing thanks to commerce, and the Duke of the city Ludovico Maria Sforza invited some great Tuscan artists, like Leonardo da Vinci. Milan was the only city that asked Leonardo to do something practical, like war machines or hydraulic masterpieces and very complex dams. The few drawings Leonardo made in Milan where likely sold to make profitable investments. The rest was stolen by the French army, which made way better use of the masterpieces. We still have the Last Supper, firmly attached to a big wall.
Between the 16th century and 19th Centuries France, Spain and Austria conquered Milan, building many Bastions that started eroding the little vegetation Milan was trying to preserve.
The Bastions, though, were beautiful, and Milanese started enjoying their presence. Once there was no more danger of invasions, the city kept the Bastions and turned them into passeggiate.
The 20th Century saw Milan as the richest and most productive city in Italy. Not the biggest, even if many people from the south of Italy migrated here, looking for jobs. In 1943, during the Second World War, Milan was heavily bombed. Period.
Above, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele
Above, Santa Maria alle Grazie. This church still guests the Da Vinci's Last Supper
Milan, together with the rest of Italy, got back on track as soon as possible. There was the economic boom in the 60s and the city grew even more. In the 80s, though, the production relented, and many industries relocated elsewhere. Milan slowed down, both economically and morally. These are the years of the Dolce Vita Milanese, and despite that sounds good now, the city didn't give its best.
After two decades of relative immobility, the New Millenium saw Milan getting a bit better, leading the industrial design sector, keeping the role of Italian fashion capital, and inventing the Happy Hour. The city, which has always a relatively poor weather, is still polluted, but less than in the past.
Despite all the irony I put in this post, I think Milan is a truly precious city. I love it, so full of complex relation between old and new buildings. The density of the city is incredible, so full of overlapped details.
When I left the city in 2012, many of the buildings designed for the EXPO 2015 were under construction, including the famous Bosco Verticale by Stefano Boeri, voted the most beautiful highrise.
Here you can see more photos I took in summer 2013.
BEA'S RECOMMENDATIONS
For Architecture lovers, I love these tours of the city (architecture).
Last Thursday, October 23rd 2014, the Pittsburgh Architectural community gathered to celebrate the "Good Design" with a Gala and Awards. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Building was full of people from the construction scene. Not only Architects, but also Contractors, Engineers, Sponsors, Builders. Everybody under the same roof, was celebrating the winners, and the city of Pittsburgh.
The AIA of Pittsburgh hosted the event and I was honored to help in setting part of the space. My personal contribution was the creation of a pretty big map of the Burgh, 12 by 12 feet, to welcome the visitors in the Young Architect Studio Competition area, focused on Pittsburgh Rivers. Scale 1"=500'.
In the same zone of the YASC competition, there was the photography exhibition "Along the Rivers", again centered on the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers.
I helped in curating that as well, after the photos were selected by our jurors Ed Massery, Natalie Grandinetti, and Kevin Kunak.
I had the idea of such a map, and designed it. Tri-state Reprographics was very professional at printing the map and install it nicely. Despite the number of people that walked on it, and those who carefully looked for their house, the map still looked good after a month!
Here a shot from the opening night, before everybody arrived:
Below: people arriving on the 4th floor, during the September Gallery crawl in Downtown.
Below, on the walls, some boards from the photo exhibition "Along the Rivers".
All the events, from the Gallery Crawl to the Design Awards and Gala, were really successful. On October 9th there was also a PechaKucha Night which registered a very high number of presences: 130 people! This PKN was volume 19th in Pittsburgh, organized by the AIA PGH together with the AIGA PGH.
It was a month of celebration for the Pittsburgh Design Community.
Looking forward the next year. I will start thinking of something amazing pretty soon.
Google Street View is certainly a powerful tool, for many different purposes. It allows us to explore places we've never been to, remember places we visited, or give us ideas for future travels.
Here I collected some views of places I find inspiring. Hopefully, one day I'll see them with my eyes.
