We are privileged to have been selected as lead architect for the team tasked with honoring the sacrifice of Virginia public safety officers killed in the line of duty. The Commonwealth Public Safety Memorial will be prominently located on the grounds of Virginia’s Capitol. BAM is the chief design voice on a talented design-build team which is being led by Gilbane Building Company and includes Glave and Holmes Architecture. We have been working closely with the Virginia Public Safety Foundation, the Memorial Construction Advisory Committee, and our partners to develop a fitting tribute to Virginia’s fallen heroes.
Virginia Public Safety Foundation
Commonwealth Public Safety Memorial
BAM Project Page
The Virginia Tech School of Education's new STEM Education Collaboratory celebrated its official opening last Saturday as part of a campus-wide Open House. People of all ages came out to see the space, hear some speeches and play with the myriad robots, tools, equipment and computers on display. We were super-excited to participate in the festivities, and for the chance to contribute to an innovative space on the vanguard of educational theory. For the first time under one roof, students and teachers have access to an adaptable space primed for a variety of teaching scenarios - a lab that brings together science, technology and fabrication equipment in support of an integrated approach to learning. You can design something on the touch-screen table and then step through the door and cut it out on the table saw.
Charles Steger (President of Virginia Tech), The Honorable Laura Fornash (Virginia Secretary of Education) and others had many lovely things to say about the STEM program and offered high marks for the quality of the Collaboratory environment. High fives all around!
Richmond is a city of hills, not unlike Rome or a colony of ants. For 100 years, elevated viaducts (which are like bridges, only way cooler) have crossed Shockoe Valley and connected downtown with the communities of Church, Union and Jefferson Hills. The first such structure, the Marshall Street Viaduct, opened for business in 1911 and was a trestle of steel and wood that stretched a half-mile from College Street downtown to 21st Street in the East End. Streetcars, automobiles, horse-drawn carts, pedestrians and farm animals could now travel above the fray of Broad Street without fear of the steep hills awaiting them at either end. This being Richmond, tolls were required: wheelbarrows were assessed a flat 2c fee while children under 10 were allowed to pass free of charge. There was even an elevator to the streetcar line below at 18th street.
Fast forward many decades...
For the second time in a week, we find ourselves staring at color-coded maps that attempt to quantify the relationship between humans and the earth. First it was the earthquakes (which are continuing, by the way). Then came hurricane Irene which left most of Richmond (and the rest of the East) soaking wet, in the dark and wondering where our chainsaws were for all those trees which had gone from vertical to horizontal. This time around, the maps come from Dominion Power and include an interactive real-time map of outages complete with estimated repair times. For all the technology on display, we are reminded that it only takes an errant piece of wood hitting a wire to grind one's day (or in this case week) to a screeching halt.
This got us thinking architect-y thoughts…
So the strongest earthquake in over 100 years shook Virginia (and most of the eastern seaboard, it would seem) yesterday afternoon. Not knowing what else to do, we went and stood outside on the sidewalk for a few minutes and offered suggestions for what just happened - a large truck, a train, the rooftop HVAC unit broke. Who knew that the BAM headquarters is located in the "Central Virginia Seismic Zone" which none of us can recall ever seeing on a road sign. The US Geological Survey provides a wealth of real-time information when the Earth feels the need to shake. Our favorites include the appropriately named "ShakeMap" and the "Community Internet Intensity Map". For a more detailed explanation with awesome-sounding terms like liquifaction, seismicity, and reverse faulting mechanism, check out this early analysis.
So what does this have to do with architecture?
