At a top speed of 73 miles per hour and a 95 degree drop, thrill seekers can experience the world’s fastest multi-launch roller coaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg this summer.
More »Q+A: Alyson Steele, FAIA on a Museum for All, Not the Few
The National Museum of the American Latino opened the Molina Family Latino Gallery at the National Museum of American History in June. The 4,500-sq. ft. gallery is the Smithsonian’s first gallery dedicated to the Latino experience and Latino contributions to the United States. Designed to engage multigenerational and cross-cultural audiences, the Molina Family Latino Gallery integrates the universal principles of inclusive and accessible design. The content and overall experience are in English and Spanish and accessible to diverse visitors with varying physical, sensory, and brain-based conditions. Inform sat down for a conversation with Alyson Steele, FAIA, LEED AP, principal-in-charge for Quinn Evans, on the design of the gallery.
More »Love and a Social Sculpture
I LOVE YOU is a social sculpture and place of encounters to celebrate friendship and camaraderie at the Alexandria Waterfront. The project is conceived as an emotional monument and portable square composed of two elements — a rose-hued neon and metal sign standing 15 feet above a pink ground-mural emulating a giant, 36′ x 76’-carpet, rendered with blossoming flowers.
More »Design Forum’s Cazú Zegers: Ecocentric not Egocentric
Changing our egocentric culture to an “eco-centric” one, says the Chilean architect Cazú Zegers, is when we see ourselves as part of a complex system that needs to be treated with humility. It’s a message she shares as founder and director of Cazú Zegers Architecture and Foundation +1000. Named among the Latin American architects who break down barriers by Forbes Magazine in 2020, Zegers is a featured speaker for Design Forum: South is Up! June 3-4 at the Ballston Center at Marymount University in Arlington. Register and join her at aiava.org/design-forum-2022.
In a recent Madame Architect interview, you said “The territory for America is just like monuments for Europe,” and yet student sketchbooks are still not filled with topographies and river paths today. Why are we still stuck on architecture’s monuments elsewhere to contemplate a vernacular future here?
More »Whistler to Cassatt: American Painters in France
The newly-opened exhibition Whistler to Cassatt: American Painters in France at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is exponentially more than an opportunity to see Impressionist paintings. Rather, it is an opportunity to dive deeper into timeless and ubiquitous questions creatives ask themselves throughout their careers.
More »Bamboo Contemporary
Bamboo is a perennial grass that grows rapidly and rivals steel, concrete, and wood in strength. In “Bamboo Contemporary: Green Houses Around the Globe,” author William Richards shows readers the many ingenious ways in which bamboo, one of the most renewable building materials on the planet, can be employed in residential design.
More »Blooming Building Exposition Adds Five Pavilions to UVa
Five temporary pavilions have been constructed at the University of Virginia that uniquely address how design and function can respond to contemporary needs. They’re part of the Biomaterials Building Exposition, curated by Katie MacDonald, AIA, and Kyle Schumann, principals of After Architecture and instructors at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture. They’re also part of an important global research effort to decarbonize design and construction with the use of rapidly renewable materials, which many experts see as advantageous to reducing embodied carbon and reducing the costs associated with climate positive design.
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