Placa Dali: The Box vs. The Blob

The design for the new Salvador Dali Museum which will be located on the waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida was revealed at a City Council meeting yesterday. The design, by HOK's Tampa office, appears to be a minimal white box that is being attacked by a glass blob dubbed "The Enigma".

The preliminary design was approved by Council. Construction should begin this fall with the new museum opening in 2010.

See the story in the St. Petersburg Times.

Tampa Center for the Built Environment?

A lot of you may not know that our local AIA chapter has been exploring the possibilities of leading a team to convert the old federal courthouse in downtown Tampa into a "center for the built environment". This idea has been in the works for months but is now starting to get some real traction as AIATB will sign a letter of intent with the city. AIATB now has 6 months to perform due diligence to determine if the concept is feasible. The adaptive reuse concept for the 102-year-old courthouse building includes office space for AIATB and other organizations, an urban-planning research center, galleries, retail and restaurants.

You can read more about this at the St. Petersburg Times and at the Tampa Tribune.

What do you think of the concept? What things would you like to see go into the building?

I think that this may be a great use for a building that has seen many proposals come and go. It is certainly an opportunity for AIATB to step up and show some leadership in the community. I would like to see the program include a shared studio space for young architecture firms where people could rent desks and have access to shared facilities like conference rooms, voicemail, plotters, etc. Something along the lines of what LTL Architects had in NYC. In its heyday, the collaborative studio with a storefront presence at 147 Essex Street housed the emerging firms LTL, L.E.FT, nArchitects, Architecture Agency, Miloby Ideasystem, and Briggs Knowles Architecture + Design. Essentially, 147 Essex acted as a business incubator for young architecture firms.

Architectural League NY: Young Architects 2007

This year's Architectural League NY Young Architects include PARA (whose Times Square Recruiting Center project is pictured to the left), Productora, UNI, and Ludens.

The Architectural League has posted podcasts from each of the honorees. Also, in the 2006 Young Architects section, you can also check out an interview of Craig Borum and Karl Daubmann of PLY Architecture, the keynote speakers at this year's EP Conference.

There are also podcasts of lectures by such luminaries as Renzo Piano and Bob Stern. Also, if you're interested in sustainability, be sure not to miss the "Architecture and the Environment" podcast from Bill McKibben, the author of the landmark book "The End of Nature".

2007 AIAFLA Emerging Professionals Conference

You should have received your "save the date" cards in the mail by now. I got mine in the mail yesterday. You can see some preliminary information about the conference on the AIA Florida website. This year's conference will be held in Sarasota on October 26-27. Mark your calendars now and make sure that you don't miss keynote speakers Craig Borum and Karl Daubmann from PLY Architecture

Be sure to check out the Emerging Professionals Design Problem brief while you're there. The projects will be juried by the aforementioned keynote speakers. This year's design problem focuses on the development of a prototypical light rail system for the Sarasota region.

TMA Approval Featured in ArchRecord

The approval of our very own Tampa Museum of Art is featured in the news section of this month's Architectural Record.

And, if you haven't seen all of the renderings yet, you can check them out here.

What do you think about the design so far??? Is is fantastic? Is it lackluster?