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Overview
Join us on Thursday, April 22nd for Best Practice, a virtual fireside chat series dedicated to practice operations at architecture firms and beyond. From pain points to potential, hear how leaders in the architecture and engineering industry are innovating through new business models and managerial techniques.
We’re chatting with Alan Maskin and Jerry Garcia of Olson Kundig.
Alan Maskin is a principal and owner of Olson Kundig, where he leads an interdisciplinary team of architects, designers, visual artists, and researchers. His team designs buildings, parks and gardens, installations, sculpture, digital art, graphic novels, and film. For over two decades, Alan has pursued unconventional design challenges in public places. His built international portfolio includes museums, installations, exhibits, visitor-based destinations, and urban park projects.
In recent years, Alan has been awarded first place in multiple international design competitions, including The Bob Dylan Center, ANOHA – The Children’s World at The Jewish Museum Berlin, and Fairy Tales 2016, the world’s largest architectural ideas competition. Alan’s self-provoked works include [storefront] Olson Kundig, a two-year experiment in design, culture and social practice; and “The 5th Façade,” a multidisciplinary exploration into the uppermost layer of cities. Alan’s recent and current work includes a redesign of Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, a master plan and renovation at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, and several narrative-based projects.
Jerry Garcia is a principal at Olson Kundig whose practice has focused on instigating dialogue between architecture, art, and the community at large. He has collaborated with world-renowned artists such as Anish Kapoor, Jaume Plensa, and Doug Aitken on installations in both the public and private realms. These collaborations have been featured in Art Basel, The Chicago Architectural Biennial, and the Broad Museum of Art. Working across a broad range of project types and scales, from 200 square-foot cabins on wheels to high-rises around the world, Jerry’s work has received numerous design awards and appeared in publications such as Architecture, Architectural Record, and Art+Auction. For Jerry, “Good architecture rewards inspection – the deeper you look, the more you see.”
In this 45 minute chat, we'll talk to Alan and Jerry about their deep interest in design culture in the firm and how to foster design dialogues in the studio.
Find out:
- How Alan's early initiatives influenced Olson Kundig's studio culture today
- How the studio has evolved and deepened into other cultural experiments
- How firm leaders continue to shape the spirit of the practice at Olson Kundig
- How to create a formative place for many architects to practice
- And more!
About Olson Kundig
Now in its sixth decade of practice, Olson Kundig is a collaborative design practice whose work includes cultural and museum projects, exhibition design, commercial and mixed-use design, private and multi-family residential, hospitality projects, places of worship, interior design, product design, and landscape design. With deep roots in the Pacific Northwest, the firm and its staff of 200 work with clients around the world. More information at olsonkundig.com
