“Straight Talk On Smart Gardens: Why And How Using Native Plants Really Matters” With Landscape Designer Diana Drake

Friday, January 12 at 7 p.m. in The Cube at Centerbrook Architects

In recent years, the effort to use native plants has become a subject of such great controversy among the landscape architecture community that it’s become something of a flashpoint, a source of such disagreement that merely hearing the words ‘native’ and ‘plants’ in the same sentence can cause reasonable, seasoned professionals to curl their lips in disdain.  New York Landscape Designer Diana Drake hopes to use this opportunity to share why she considers it important, from an ecological standpoint, to use native plants, and to talk about some of the differences inherent in designs that take advantage of using them.

Diana Drake has worked as a landscape designer for two decades, managing large and small public projects with the firms of Judith Heintz Landscape Architecture and Wallace Roberts & Todd in New York City, specializing in selecting the best-suited plants for outdoor spaces, whether campus, park, public plaza, rooftop garden or residential property.  Since 2013 she’s been working cooperatively with Judith Heintz and Napat Sitisara as sassafras55. Her commitment to using native plant species deepened as she taught planting design at Columbia University with Darrel Morrison, adding to her earlier stint at the Center for Plant Conservation, and her hands-on training at Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum.  With sassafras55, Ms. Drake currently is involved with the all-native plantings of East Midtown Plaza in Manhattan, the Queens Borough Municipal Parking Field, and the Kearny Point Industrial Park Landscape in New Jersey. Throughout this entire period, she’s been learning first-hand via her experiments in her garden lab in Old Lyme. She holds a Masters in Landscape Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design.

This Essex Library program is free and open to the public. Centerbrook Architects is located at 67 Main St. in Centerbrook. Please call the Library at 860 767-1560 to register or for more information.

Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series Presents–Architect Jim Childress, FAIA “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!”

 

Image: Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, designed by Rem Koolhaas (OMA, 2015).

 

Friday, October 20 at 7 p.m. in The Cube at Centerbrook Architects, 67 Main St., Centerbrook

Centerbrook Architects Principal Jim Childress, FAIA takes the audience on a whirlwind illustrated tour of some of the best architecture, new and old, from Cuba, St. Petersburg and Moscow. Enjoy images of wonderful examples of mid-century modern houses in Cuba, and some of the best contemporary architecture in Russia including the Boris Eifman Dance Academy, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art and the renovated French Impressionist wing of the Hermitage Museum.

Jim Childress has won more than 60 design awards including the American Institute of Architects 1998 Architecture Firm Award. In 1994, he was selected as one of the decade’s “40 National Architects under 40” by the Architectural League of New York and Interior Magazine.  He was invested, for design, into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 2001 and recognized for Professional Achievement by the Rhode Island School of Design at their 2005 Commencement. He is a long-standing member the National AIA Committee on Design, serving on its Advisory Group and as the 2015 Chair. 

Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series: Historic Houses: An Architect’s View Inside and Out with RISD Professor Jim Barnes

Friday, September 22nd at 7 p.m. in The Cube at Centerbrook Architects
We’re honored to welcome Rhode Island School of Design Professor Jim Barnes as he kicks off the 10th year of our Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series.

Our experience of historic houses is most often framed by exterior appearances. We come to identify and understand historic time periods and changing styles of architecture through building forms, rooflines, materials, and even paint colors. These are the elements of a public realm accessible to all. Exterior patterns can build whole neighborhoods and clearly reflect our culture’s constantly shifting shared values.

We know less well interior spatial patterns, the private domestic realm hidden from view. Yet we know the power of interior spatial arrangement to convey cultural values. Room placement, stairway arrangements and fireplaces are among the many tools that architects and builders use to shape and express domestic life. This illustrated talk will address the changing styles of historic houses in an historic Providence neighborhood by comparing the shifting patterns of exterior forms and interior floor plans from the mid-19th century to the beginning of the 20th century.

Jim Barnes is an Architect and Professor of Architecture at RISD. He lives with his wife Victoria in a Queen Anne period home in the Elmwood Historic District of Providence.

This program is free and open to the public. Centerbrook Architects is located at 67 Main St. in Centerbrook.

Six-Time Emmy Winning Documentary Maker Screens Latest Film: “The Life and Gardens of Beatrix Farrand”

Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.

The Essex Library will welcome documentary filmmaker and six-time Emmy Award winner, Karyl Evans, who will screen her latest film and discuss Beatrix Farrand’s work with Landscape Architect Shavaun Towers who also appears in the film on Sunday, April 23 at 3 p.m. in The Cube at Centerbrook Architects’ office.

 

This compelling film is the first ever to chronicle the life of Beatrix Farrand (1872-1959), the niece of Edith Wharton and the most successful female landscape architect in early 20th century America. Farrand grew up in the privileged world of the East Coast elite and fought through the challenges of working in a male-dominated profession to design over 200 landscape commissions during her remarkable 50-year career.

The documentary includes never-before-seen archival materials and recent photographs of over 60 Beatrix Farrand related sites, taking viewers on an inspiring journey across the country to explore her personal story and many of her most spectacular gardens, including Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.; the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden; Garland Farm in Bar Harbor, Maine; the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Bar Harbor, Maine; and her California gardens. The narrated film also includes interviews with Beatrix Farrand scholars.

Karyl Evans’ undergraduate degree is in Horticulture / Landscape Architecture. She earned her Master’s Degree in Filmmaking from San Diego State University. Ms. Evans was a full-time Professor at Southern Connecticut State University for two years, teaching film production and theory. Karyl is a Fellow at Yale University and is one of the organizers of the New Haven Documentary Film Festival at Yale.

Landscape Architect Shavaun Towers PLA, FASLA, graduated from Smith College with a BA in Architecture and received a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a founding Partner of Towers | Golde Landscape Architects in New Haven and has taught at Yale University Schools of Architecture and Forestry as well as the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

This event is free and open to the public. Advance registration is requested. Please call the Essex Library for more information or to register at (860) 767-1560. The event will be held in The Cube at Centerbrook Architects’ office at 67 Main St. in Centerbrook. Heartfelt thanks to our event co-sponsors: the Essex Garden Club and Centerbrook Architects.

Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series Presents Architect Jim Childress, FAIA with “The Architecture Of Gardens: Man-made Nature”

Friday, February 17th at 7 p.m. at Centerbrook Architects -67 Main St. Centerbrook

Gardens have captured people’s imagination for centuries. Jim Childress will illustrate the design ideas behind some of world’s best small gardens. He will explore how they are planned and how plants are integrated. And, to escape winter for an hour – there will be plenty of images of gardens in full bloom.

This program is free and open to the public. Ample free parking is available at Centerbrook Architects- 67 Main St. Centerbrook.

Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series Presents Architect and Author Jimmy Stamp with “Pedagogy and Place: 100 Years of Architecture Education at Yale”

Friday, January 20th at 7 p.m. at Centerbrook Architects 67 Main St. Centerbrook

2016 marked the centennial anniversary of the Yale School of Architecture. In recognition of this occasion, Jimmy Stamp, co-author with former YSOA Dean Robert A.M. Stern of the book Pedagogy and Place: 100 Years of Architecture Education at Yale (Yale Press, 2016) will trace the development of the School’s pedagogy alongside a critical overview of the succession of buildings designed to house Yale’s architecture program. Stamp will draw parallels between historic moments in Yale’s history and things that have happened more recently.

Jimmy Stamp is a writer at Robert . M. Stern Architects whose work has appeared in The Guardian, Smithsonian, and the Journal of Architecture Education.

This program is free and open to the public.

Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series Presents Stephen Wanta, AIA

Friday, September 23 at 7 p.m. at Centerbrook Architects, 67 Main St. in Centerbrook
What do a former Vermont residence of a Phish band member, a 96-foot custom motor yacht, a loft inspired by the relationship between Judaic Mysticism and Quantum Mechanics, law offices using strategies similar to those of architect/artist Gordon Matta-Clark (with a bit of the “Terminator” thrown in) and a penthouse combination in “one of the 10 most haunted buildings in New York” have in common?  The answer is New York-based architect Stephen Wanta, who will begin the ninth year of the Library’s Architecture Lecture Series on Friday, September 23 at 7 p.m. in The Cube at Centerbrook Architects, 67 Main St. in Centerbrook. This program is free and open to all. There is parking behind the office and also at Spencer’s Corner.

Among Mr. Wanta’s commercial projects are film and sound production facilities, restaurants, numerous private law offices, and showrooms and trade show exhibition booths for the home furnishings industry. The firm has also designed several museum stores, their pop-up locations and retail outlets. Mr. Wanta has designed and executed well over 100 residential projects with budgets from less than $100,000 to over $5 million in New York City, with a number of others across the country and in Europe.  The firm is just completing its second long-range motor yacht project; built in Xiamen China and commissioned in Florida.

Stephen Wanta received his Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1980 where he received the Reynolds Aluminum School Prize in 1979 and 1980 and The American Institute of Architects Certificate of Merit. He has worked at the offices of Machado & Silvetti, Rafael Vinoly Architects, and at Peter Marino Architect and Associates. Mr. Wanta has taught and lectured at a number of schools, including Columbia University, the Rhode Island School of Design, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Please call the Essex Library to register or for more information at (860) 767-1560.

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Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series Presents Norwegian Architect: Reiulf Ramstad, HFAIA

Tuesday, May 17 at 7 p.m. to be held at Centerbrook Architects 67 Main St. in Centerbrook

We are very proud to present acclaimed architect Reiulf Ramstad at Centerbrook’s office on May 17th at 7 pm. Ramstad’s firm, Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter, has earned an international reputation for boldly simple architecture that strongly connects to its Scandinavian context and landscape.

Mr. Ramstad’s Oslo-based firm achieved notoriety for its design of the Trollstigen Visitor Centre, in Møre of Romsdal, Norway. Completed in 2012, this facility is one of the earliest and largest structures among the the now-famous Norwegian Tourist Routes. Set in a stunning natural environment, it exemplifies how the deep understanding of a place can lead to innovative modern architecture. The firm has gone on to produce a wide range of pioneering projects that have attracted international accolades, including the Architizer A+Awards Firm of the Year in 2015.

Mr. Ramstad earned professorship from The Oslo School of Architecture and was a regular thesis advisor and juror. Recognized professionally as a board member of the National Association of Norwegian Architects, he has served on juries for domestic and international architectural competitions. In recent years, following awards and publicity of his firm’s projects, he has lectured around the world. He will receive an Honorary Fellowship into the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows at the AIA National Convention in Philadelphia this May.

The lecture will be held at Centerbrook’s office, located at 67 Main Street in Centerbrook, Connecticut. Space is limited, so please call the Essex Library at (860) 767-1560 to register.

Historic Barns/Modern Farms with Architect Charlotte Hitchcock

The Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series continues its eighth season with Architect Charlotte Hitchcock presenting: “Historic Barns / Modern Farms” on Friday, February 19 at 7 p.m. at the Essex Town Hall.

Architect Charlotte Hitchcock helped pioneer a survey of historic barns beginning in 2005 with the goal of finding and documenting barns around the state, which were thought of as endangered relics of a vanished way of life. They discovered that farming in Connecticut is alive and well in this time of local food movements. And historic barns are an integral part of the trend. This illustrated talk will draw on Charlotte’s experience with Historic Barns of Connecticut, a project of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation made possible by support from the State Historic Preservation Office, Department of Economic and Community Development, and funds from the Community Investment Act of the State of Connecticut. Charlotte will focus on barns that are in use on working farms – dairy and egg farms, grass-fed beef, and CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms growing vegetables and fruits.

Charlotte Hitchcock is recently retired from her job with the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation after working at the state-wide non-profit preservation organization since 2009. During two years as a volunteer and six years on the staff, she visited most of the 169 towns and many of the smaller village centers in Connecticut in search of barns and other historic places.  Charlotte has worked in various roles as an architect, parent, high school teacher, and architectural historian. She has earned degrees in art history, architecture, and mathematics education. She lives in the Westville neighborhood of New Haven, in a 104-year-old Craftsman cottage.

This program is free and open to the public though advance registration is highly recommended for this event; please call the Essex Library at (860) 767-1560. The Essex Town Hall is located at 29 West Avenue in Essex.

Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series 2015-2016 Kicks Off With Chad Floyd, FAIA

“SS United States, Hallmark of Twentieth Century Design” with Chad Floyd, FAIA

Friday, January 29th at 7 p.m. at the Essex Town Hall
Chad Floyd will tell the story of the great ocean liner SS United States, designed by marine architect Francis Gibbs and interior designer Dorothy Marckwald.  He will show how this little-known pair reimagined ocean liners and invented a new Mid-Century aesthetic that married function with glamour and changed American design forever.

An award-winning architect, Floyd has designed buildings nationwide for colleges and universities, independent schools, and civic and cultural entities. Signature projects include the Palmer Events Center in Austin, Texas; the Liberty Memorial in Virginia that honors those who lost their lives on 9/11; the Nessel Wing of the Norton Art Center in Florida; an expansion and renovation of the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy Andover in  Massachusetts; and the Krieble Gallery at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme.