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Washington University Update

Groundbreaking October 29th, 2008.

Brauer Hall foundation walls up December 17th 2008.

To keep closer track of construction progress of Washington University’s Engineering Campus visit Clayco’s Live Webcam. 

The Engineering Campus at Washington University in St. Louis is an ARIEL design in collaboration with RMJM Hillier.  The three phase project is expected to be completed in 2020. 

Previous Washington University Posts

So You Need Extra Help…?

Feather Quill Pen

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The Ravenwood Event – A Huge Success!

The Ravenwood Lecture at the General Society Library in conjunction with the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America was a huge success last night – selling out and leaving standing room only for the presentation. Below are a few pictures from the event.

Mingling and drinks before the lecture in the General Society Library.

A pre-show view of the giant presentation set up and opening sequence of the show.

Richard Cameron, M. Night Shyamalan, and Barbara Paca, discussing the evolution of the Ravenwood Estate.

Richard Cameron, M. Night Shyamalan, and Barbara Paca as Mr. Shyamalan answers questions from Paul Gunther, ICA & CA Director (not pictured) while a collage of images and photographs from Ravenwood plays above him.

Ravenwood Event Sneak Preview!

IN CONVERSATION: THE RAVENWOOD ESTATE

SPECIAL HOLIDAY EVENT!

Wednesday December 10th, 2008, 7:00pm at The General Society Library in New York

IN CONVERSATION: THE RAVENWOOD ESTATE

Join writer-director M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN, designer and Principal of ARIEL – The Art of Building’s RICHARD CAMERON and landscape designer BARBARA PACA for a discussion on the creation of the Pennsylvania estate of Ravenwood. Take an exclusive drawing and photographic tour of the Shyamalan Home and its 125-acre grounds, saved from speculative development and transformed into a private residence and land trust. Please join us for a discussion on how the assembly of craftsmen, artists, designers, architects, and tradesmen shaped watercolor concept paintings into the reality that is the Ravenwood Estate.

Imagination and The Sketch

“Occassionally the model intimidates the client.  Then faith must be stronger than understanding, and only a vague intuition allows the work to begin favorably.  But it is difficult for the client to understand the vision of the artist.  Envisioning the finished work is not always easy for the architect, and it is almost always impossible for the client.  Unlike the painting to be bought, or clothing, food, and the many other choices available to people – choices made on the basis of finished materials – the decision about the new house lies in the future, is based on credit, on the model (drawings), on agreements.  The finished product is a surprise.  Only faith can reward the client.  After that critical moment is overcome, sometimes what emerges is the satisfaction of finding smooth solutions and natural resolutions to every uncertainty.  The room responds to the client’s way of life.”

Renzo Mongiardino, Roomscapes

We were recently completing a large estate project for some wonderful clients in the Mid-Atlantic area, and after nearly four years of work I came across this quote from Mongiardino.  It lead me to think about the beginning of the project and the role that drawing and imagination play in the work with our clients.

I made many sketches at the outset of the project exploring ideas for the estate and for the main house, some of which encapsulated ideas that remain visible in the built work.  Before our first formal meeting however, I made a series of presentation sketches in plan, elevation, and perspecitve to illustrate the proposed design.  One of these drawings became – more than any other – the touchstone for the project (illustrated above).  As we proceeded to design and build the project all of us referred to this drawing at different times and for varied purposes (in conversations and decisions over the selection of building materials, design features, character, etc.). 

As the project was nearing completion the owner told me that the thing he had found most satisfying about working with ARIEL was our ability to capture in sketches not only what the final result would look like, but also what it would feel like.  He referred in particular to this drawing as the one that best exemplified this ability.  “It looks and feels exactly like the house,” he said. 

There are actually many points of difference between this presentation sketch and the final building:  the roof is a different color; there is no half-timbering on the gatehouse drawing – as there is in the final building; and many details are different or were refined.  However, the thing I believe the client intended to say, which was central to the success of our working collaboration, is that the sketch looks like what he and his wife ‘imagined’ the house was going to look like, and so in retrospect that fantasy house, and the house we built are in some fundamental agreement.  This is why the sketch embodied not just the look of the house for them, but also the feeling it would have.

We were very lucky to have such wonderful clients with whom to work on such a large and long project, and the fact that they had that faculty of imagination was among the greatest gifts.  Yet if there is a fundamental message I drew from the experience, it is this:  when we sketch as designers, we dream, and we convey those dreams to paper.

The work of architecture that is in our head is transferred directly to the paper in an almost unconscious way.  This is not to suggest that it is unstudied or that years of training and experience do not go into its making, but the hand-eye communication that translates to what the Beaux-Arts would have called the ‘parti’ is direct and at its best captures the fundamental features and character of a design.  In the best cases this is shared by everyone involved and acts as a guide to the project as it comes to fruition. 

One of the reasons we draw everyday at ARIEL – and that we draw and sketch by hand specifically – is to practice and refine this ability.  However adept we may become in the digital realm, this basic skill will continue to underlie the most successful designs and will always create the most productive working relationships with our clients.  This is the fundamental principle that we continue to rely upon as we continue to build our design practice – capturing the essence of our designs for our clients with hand-drawn sketches.

~ Richard W. Cameron, 18 September 2008

ARIEL Press Announcement

ARIEL is pleased to announce our first self publication, ARIEL – The Book, Composition One: Selected Works January 2005 – June 2008.

Visit the website to learn more about this publication and to view new photography, paintings, and updated bios.

 

Ariel Packaging

LEIRA took an off the shelf wood box and customized it both inside and out for a prospective client of Ariel.  Inside, the box holds both small design sketches and a photographer’s loop for viewing the fine details of the enclosed drawings.