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Showing posts from August, 2018

What Comes After Steel? A Second Chance for a 3200 Acre Brownfield

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Sparrows Point tells the story of America, the story of an industrial nation in the midst of finding a place in a post industrial world. Once home to a steel mill hissing and clanking 24 hours a day and employing 30,000 workers who lived in the surrounding communities or streamed in on streetcars, the 3,200 acre peninsula as big as the entire land area of Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) the last 2,000 workers had left what had been left of the plant in 2012 when yet another attempt of giving steel a renaissance in the US had failed and RG Steel went bankrupt. No traces of the past: Bethlehem steel facility before demolition (SUN photo) When only six years later Aaron Tomarchio, Senior executive in administration, government relations, communications and public affairs of a company called Tradepoint Atlantic , steers his company SUV to the gate which secures the southern end of one of the country's largest brown-fields, not only have almost all traces of the steel h

Architecture between money making and equity. A postscript to A'18

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AIA's big topic at this year's convention was equity. This meant, keynote speakers were architects of color, women and sometimes female architects of color, such as Native American architect Tamar Eagle Bull. And then there was Sheela Søgaard. She is a partner in Bjarke Ingels architecture firm BIG, the CFO to be specific, an non architect and a woman. Sheela Søgaard As a woman CEO in architecture, a male-dominated industry where only 18% of licensed architects are women Søgaard certainly is a trail blazer. But she is also a trail blazer with her message that architects should finally behave like real businesses. He talk was, well should one say: macho? Certainly it was tough talk. She clearly thinks that too many design folks are just too glad they can design to worry about the business side of thinks.  She even played a clip from the Dark Knight in which the Joker says “If you are good at something, never do it for free” ( Video Clip ) In a earlier conversation with Quartz sh