Round Table 3: Post Office

Watch the video here.

Architects:

KELLY BAIR AND KRISTY BALLIET, BairBalliet, Chicago, IL and Columbus, OH
BairBalliet is a joint design venture invested in architectural research in the form of both speculative and built projects. Based in Columbus, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois BairBalliet sees opportunity in the synthesis between events and the physical world in which those events take place. Their work examines the potential to place architectural figures in direct dialog with its viewers through volumetric expansion, spatial layering and projective imagery. In addition to their professional work, BairBalliet are engaged in innovative thinking and making through the academy with respective positions at two institutions: Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture and The University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture. Bair and Balliet are co-founders (with Adam Fure and Kyle Miller) of Possible Mediums, a collective of fellow architects interested in shaking up the context and format in which architecture is produced and engaged.

ALBERT POPE AND JESUS VASSALLO, Present/Future, Houston, TX
Present Future is a research and design team based at Rice University School of Architecture, in Houston, Texas. Its current mid and long term project is the development of an urban model that unites architecture with an explicit urban project. The team’s current approach is to operate at all scales of the built environment with the aim of developing a new model of density that is commensurate with the drastic and imminent reductions of carbon emissions. The team’s previous expertise includes sustained research on contemporary urban forms such as spine-based urbanism, extensive experience in the redevelopment of inner city areas, studies on carbon sequestration through urban forestry and innovative applications of mass timber construction to the housing market. Through writing and exhibitions, the team puts great emphasis on working within an explicit architectural and urban theory. With regards to the hot  topic of Detroit, the city is uniquely positioned to become a laboratory for many urban transformations that are yet to come. Its wrenching experiences during the retreat of the auto industry has prepared the city to confront the challenges that other cities will soon face during the adjustment to the new carbon economy.

PRESTON SCOTT COHEN, Preston Scott Cohen, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Preston Scott Cohen, Inc., based in Cambridge, MA, is an internationally recognized architectural practice distinguished by its designs for cultural and educational institutions. The firm is renowned for its innovative development of combinatory geometries, its new approach to integrating buildings with their urban environments and for its interior spaces of architectural exceptiion. Preston Scott Cohen has developed a lexicon of architectural forms and organizational principles suited to the particular circumstances, desires and aspirations of private owners, institutions, government agencies and corporations. Many of his designs have involved historically and socially contested sites. The firm includes two registered architects and a team of six experienced designers working under the design leadership of Harvard Professor Preston Scott Cohen. The organization of the practice is structured to ensure his personal involvement on a daily basis in all matters of client and consultant collaboration, program development, conceptual design, technical development, material specification and detailing. The range of services the firm provides includes architectural design, construction documentation, and construction administration. Its facilities are occasionally extended during periods of research by access to Harvard Design School’s manifold computer technologies, including 3-D printing, prototyping, visualization technologies, milling and multi-frame structural analysis programs.