On Thursday, the EMPAC committee held an open forum to meet the four finalist architectural firms in the design competition for the proposed Electronic Media and Performing Arts Center.
During the forum, representatives from each architectural firm gave a quick 25-minute slide presentation of their current and previous work, and answered questions posed by the attending audience.
The four architecture firms noted in the question-and-answer session that their desire to design the EMPAC building rests on the opportunity to create a facility for the arts at a historically technological institute. "The challenge to give RPI the one missing part dares us," said Thomas Leeser of Leeser Architecture.
Students in the School of Architecture were well represented at the discussion forum, as they have been providing design ideas and information in studio classes this semester.
Roger Schluntz, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico and an outside consultant and coordinator of the EMPAC project, said that the forum enabled the members of the campus community to realize the "brilliance of these architects. The design competition unites all of you to committee discussion."
Alan Balfour, dean of the RPI School of Architecture said it allows "people to share the character and vision of their architecture."
Chief among architectural projects showcased by The Davis Body Bond LLP-Leeser Architecture venture at the presentation include the King Center in Atlanta, the Cornell Center for Biotechnology, and the Wexner Center for Performing Arts in Ohio.
The venture emphasizes lower energy use in buildings and consideration of supplemental internal issues such as the King Center’s reflection of black heritage.
The firm Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners Ltd. highlighted that they believe in a "kind of team-working architecture that works very closely with engineers."
The firm’s representatives said, "Every one of our buildings is a collaboration with a respect for ideas."
Their noteworthy design projects include the Waterloo Train Station in London, the Frankfurt Science Hall, and London’s Battersea Power Station, which is planned to be transformed into a performing arts center.
The Morphosis Architects stressed the importance of "work of life, emotion-intellect contradictions" and the dual "texture/onion skin" nature of design in their projects.
Their principle architectural works include projects for the University of Toronto’s student housing, projects for the Los Angeles school system, and the Crawford House.
The final group, the architects from Bernard Tschumi, believes in the significance of the juxtaposition of old and new and the idea that "space is there to give to events."
Noteworthy projects in their presentation included those done for The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the video glass gallery at the School of Architecture in Paris, and Columbia University.
