capital A - Architecture

Charlotte is actually going to get some architecture… strike that… some Architecture. And yes, there is a big difference! You even pronounce that word like this… ‘capital A – Architecture’

Steven and I got in this huge heated discussion about architecture… it’s many great heroes… and their shitty theories today at work. It was quite enjoyable. There are few of my colleagues, professors included, that seem to be able to think past their nose. It’s kinda curious actually – UNCC is the top school in the state for Architecture. As opposed to NCState, UNCC actually does teach design based. State seems to be more technical. I used to be totally against this… but I am seeing its lagistics now. Their philosophy is that our profession is easy to figure out when it comes to the technical shit. Well, not easy, but once you get a job its just part of working. And each firm you work at do things so differently it would be impossible to train everyone on all the different systems. So they cover their history and then let you make up your own mind about how you see the designed world.

But back to the important stuff… For those of you who don’t know, I work at Jenkins Peer Architects. (http://www.jenkinspeer.com/) We are probably the top firm in Charlotte. Maybe not the most well known, but definitely the top. As such, we are in the process of getting the Charlotte Mint Museum. This project will be a piece of the puzzle to South Tryon’s revamping… AND MARK MY WORDS… will become the most popular, traveled to, urban environment in Charlotte.

Mario Botta, a Swiss (meaning European so it’s gotta be hot!!!) designer is heading up the design of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. This will be a piece of the puzzle… a very important one! Although I don’t necessarily LIKE Botta’s work (its modern, yet rooted in history) one must appreciate it. He is where he is because he is a great designer (one of the top in the world at the moment). This makes him famous! I think for the first time architecture is coming back into the publics eyes the way it should. Which makes it a great time to be graduating from architecture school… but I’m straying again… back to the topic at hand.

This museum will be part of a mixed use complex on South Tryon and West 1st Street. It will also include a new Wachovia tower (30-35 stories) where Wake Forest will be moving it’s Business School that is in the South Park area. UNCC is also building some school down there… I haven’t done my research on this yet or I would expand. And with Johnston and Wales being downtown … OMG people … we are creating a city with a 24-hr urban environment. New high-rise RESIDENTIAL towers are springing up like wild flowers… literally. There for a while there was a new one announced every week… sometimes two. And across the street from all of this is the new Mint Museum location.

Jenkins Peer was short listed for the project yesterday along with 4 other firms. We would be working with Gwathmey Siegel on the project – a respected and fairly famous firm. The other names on the list were a bit disheartening simply because their status exceeds Gwathmey Siegel, but it’s kinda like Elaine said – the general public hasn’t really ever heard of these people so they don’t understand their famousness.

Point being, all of these things coming together in one spot is going to create one extremely cultured area in our city… something that Charlotte has literally been DIEING for. And for those of you who don’t know this about your great city… Charlotte is on the list for the 20 fastest growing cities in the US! That’s pretty impressive.

So for all of you people who are ready to get out… I suggest hanging around for a while. You might see something great happen here!