May is Bike Month
This month should be fun. Bike to Work Week is coming up! We are defending our title as 2011′s Bike to Work Week winners this month. To help motivate us, we’ve decided to celebrate the human-powered transportation device by displaying some of our favorite designs through window displays. Included is everything from low-riders to concept models.
Have you dusted off your bike this year yet? Now’s the time to get out and ride!
Amanda Snelson Named 417 Magazine’s 20 Under 30
For the past 6 years, 417 Magazine has asked readers to nominate their co-workers, employees, friends and spouses to create the impressive “20 Under 30” list of the brightest young professionals. Amanda Snelson was privileged to be among this list as one of the area’s most brilliant, active young professionals.
Asked why she was selected, Amanda stated “I strive, in everything I do – from where I buy my coffee to how I spend my free time – to better our community and make every decision with integrity. Springfield is such a unique place with great potential, I just wish more people saw how special this area is and how much more it can become.” She has lived in the Springfield area her whole life, except for a two year stint in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Many charitable organizations benefit from Amanda’s involvement including one that she founded here in Springfield called PechaKucha Night, a quarterly event for creatives to share a recent project or topic of their choosing. She also is the Exhibition Organizer for Springfield Foundation for Architecture which recently produced an exhibit displayed at Drury University’s Pool Art Center Gallery titled “Springfield Modern: The Mid-Century Architecture of Richard P. Stahl, FAIA”. Also, for 2011’s Toolbelts and Bowties, a fund-raising event for Habitat for Humanity, she and three other designers volunteered their time to design a doghouse that brought in over $600 in the live auction. She is also the firm representative at Dake Wells Architecture for Ozark Greenways’ Bike to Work Week, motivating coworkers to use alternative transportation which led to the firm winning the 2011 participation award for medium-sized businesses.
Amanda is also very active with professional organizations including the American Institute of Architects’ Springfield component as an associate member. Involved with AIA Springfield’s Emerging Professionals, she is responsible for starting and organizing a lecture series to help motivate and connect young professionals studying for the ARE exams. She is on AIA Springfield’s Holiday Party Planning Committee, and helped AIA Springfield and AIA Central States’ Joplin Community Advisory Charrette preparing maps and diagrams compiling information from FEMA used for a two-day planning charrette focusing on post-disaster recovery. She also frequently volunteers at Drury University’s Hammons School of Architecture as a critic for student designs and final projects at mid-term and the end of each semester.
For her the best part about being a ‘20 Under 30’ is “engaging with a wider audience.” The reception to celebrate and honor this year’s 20 Under 30 will be at Highland Springs on April 26, 2012.
CONGRATULATIONS AMANDA!
Andrew Wells Elevated to the AIA College of Fellows
It’s been fast and furious around the office lately. And when we heard the news that Andrew had been elevated to the AIA College of Fellows, the F-bomb jokes started flying
All joking aside, this is a tremendous honor.
Andrew was recognized for his contribution to the architecture profession through his commitment to design excellence and education. His recognition states “Andrew is widely recognized for his ingenious responses to everyday constraints in unexpected places, creating inspired architecture that enriches the human spirit. His passion moves others to elevate the profession through design excellence for everyone.”
According to the American Institute of Architects, “The College of Fellows, founded in 1952, is composed of members of the Institute who are elected to Fellowship by a jury of their peers. Fellowship is one of the highest honors the AIA can bestow upon a member. Elevation to Fellowship not only recognizes the achievements of the architect as an individual but also elevates before the public and the profession those architects who have made significant contributions to architecture and society. The 2012 Jury of Fellows from the American Institute of Architects elevated 105 AIA members to its prestigious College of Fellows. Out of a total AIA membership of over 80,000 there are over 3,000 members distinguished with this honor.”
Until now, Richard P. Stahl, FAIA, whose elevation came in 1996, was the only architect from Springfield, Missouri to have received the designation of Fellow from the AIA. Widely considered to be the grandfather of modern architecture in Springfield, Missouri, Richard P. Stahl, FAIA passed away in 2003. His work and contributions to the profession were recently honored in a retrospective exhibition at Drury University’s Pool Arts Center.
Andrew Wells, FAIA, will be honored at an investiture ceremony at the National AIA Convention in Washington D.C., May 17-19, 2012.
The 2012 Jury of Fellows included Gregory Palermo, FAIA, Chair, of Ames, Iowa (Iowa State University); Jeffery A. Huberman, FAIA of Charlotte (Gantt Huberman Architect, PLLC); Leevi Kiil, FAIA of Wayne, N.J. (Leevi Kiil Architect); Susan Maxman, FAIA of Philadelphia (SMP Architects LTD), Crag Rafferty, FAIA of St. Paul (Rafferty Rafferty Tollefson Lindeke Architects); Linda Searl, FAIA of Chicago (Searl Lamaster Howe Architects); Raymond Yeh, FAIA of Honolulu (University of Hawaii, School of Architecture).
March 2011 Window Displays
It’s time we changed the displays on our windows as they haven’t been changed in 2 months. This month, we’ve dedicated our windows to showing the local public a new Dake-Wellsian language. Lately, we’ve developed a new way of communicating in the office. No, no, it’s not using #hashtags on Twitter for interoffice discourse. We’ve gone speechless and have adopted simple hand gestures. As architects, we are visual people, and the best form of communication involves drawing or picture-making, hence the highly visual lingo. It also allows some minut form of exercise, however small.
“It’s a sign of the times (or the antithesis): we’ve reverted to hand gestures as our primary source of communication. We thought about tweeting each other for interoffice dialogue, #hashtags and all, but the primal instinct of hand signals to communicate overtook our technological tendencies. Represented in our windows overlooking Campbell are the hand signs we use the most. For those who aren’t fluent in Dake-Wellsian, use the legend above to decipher.”
Glenwood Residence Published
417 Home, a local magazine that features interiors of unique homes in the area, featured Glenwood residence in their Spring issue. The article outlined the story of how Brandon Dake’s family of four renovated their home themselves. “After getting home from their day jobs, he and Casie put on their toolbelts and plugged away. While living in the basement, they worked on the remodel in steps, first completing the kitchen, then moving onto the living room area, bedrooms and eventually the entire upper level,” explained Savannah Waszczuk.
Be sure and pick up your copy of 417 Home so you can read the full story and view the accompanying images in the magazine.
Springfield Modern: The Mid-Century Architecture of Richard P. Stahl, FAIA
One of our project associates, Amanda Snelson, is the head organizer for an exhibition coming up this Friday, February 3rd with the Springfield Foundation for Architecture. Drury University’s Pool Art Center will be exhibiting work from one of the most renowned architects of the area, Richard P. Stahl, FAIA.
Beginning in the mid 1940s, architect Richard P. Stahl (1914-2003) built a practice that helped change the face of Springfield architecture. Stahl was not formally trained as an architect, but apprenticed instead with local builder and furniture manufacturer C. A. Bissman. Stahl and Bissman formed an architectural partnership in 1945, and Stahl left to found his own firm four years later. Over the next several decades Stahl’s office produced designs for a wide range of individual, business, and institutional clients throughout the Ozarks. In 1996 he became the first architect from the region to be inducted into the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows.
This exhibition, organized by the Springfield Foundation for Architecture, will highlight Stahl’s mid-century work, focusing on original drawings of his buildings as well as photographs and other documents from the period. The exhibition will place Stahl’s groundbreaking designs in the context of the mid-century modernization of Springfield and its region.
Graphisoft’s 2012 Calendar
“Great Buildings Designed with ArchiCAD” is the title of this year’s calendar featuring work produced with Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD program. If you look at the left middle image on the cover, Exeter is featured as the only US project.
ArchiCAD is a BIM (building information modeling) software program, similar to Autodesk’s Revit. ArchiCAD allows us to be an all Mac office with the industry’s leading software. Graphisoft interviewed Andrew Wells and Brandon Dake on how ArchiCAD helped Exeter become such a successful project:
“Our acoustics consultant visited our offices to review the model and using that model, he was able to run an analysis,” explained Wells. “That analysis gave us information on which we modified and reworked the design. The end result is not the first solution that we came up with. 3D modeling in ArchiCAD allowed us to test things out and led to the finished project, providing a huge benefit of being able to work and plan in advance, without adding to the bottom line unnecessarily.”
The 3D models created in ArchiCAD also helped the firm address the bond issue, make presentations about how the project addressed the needs for the school and be clear about budget requirements. ArchiCAD also helped the firm shed light on the room as well.
“Our approach to daylighting was a big issue for us on this project as well,” said Wells. “We worked with a daylighting consultant from EMSI. Through viewing the 3D model of our original proposal which had two large clear story windows at the end of the space, we were able to determine that although we saw good levels – we had a glare issue. That’s when we added the skylights.”
New Year’s Resolutions for Architects
Happy New Year!
As architects, we wanted to take a moment to make a few resolutions. You know, something along the lines of your typical “lose weight” or “get outside more” but geared for the world of design and construction. Then, to help drill these goals into our heads (and vainly promote our lofty goals to the community, hoping to spark some sort of inspiration for others) we taped them up in the windows of our office.
Below is a list of our resolutions, but the best way to view them is by coming by our office. We hope to employ the following goals in every one of our projects this year, or at least plead the case for them when applicable. We resolve to design with integrity in 2012, which must include striving for the following:
- Build lean.
- Increase density.
- Maximize daylight.
- Reduce stormwater.
- Design for durability.
- Improve air quality.
- Divert construction waste.
- Support alternative transportation.
- Increase energy efficiency.
- Respect the land.
- Use less materials.
- Adapt and reuse.
Here’s to the best year yet!
Happy Holidays!
Dear Friends,
We wanted to thank you for your visits to our website and blog, as we enjoy sharing our thoughts with you here on our site and other social media outlets.
We look forward to continuing to share our work and other random notes here, and are grateful for your continued interest in our practice.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at Dake Wells Architecture!
Dake Wells Architecture in the news
Lately, we have been featured in a few news sources. Andrew Wells was featured in Drury University’s “Alumni Spotlight” last month. Also, he was featured in the “Five Questions” section of December’s Springfield Business Journal.
Congrats Andrew!