Jeanne Gang, founder and president of Studio Gang Architects and the lead designer of downtown Chicago’s recently completed iconic Aqua Tower, will present the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning’s 2010 Bethune Lecture.
Jeanne is a friend of mine so I know she will deliver a great lecture which, I am sure will take you through many subjects not normally associated with architecture as she explains her work. She is influenced heavily by the things she finds around her as she conceives a design, whether it be an animal’s fur or the way concrete falls from the chute into a formwork. Her work has been met with great acclaim in Chicago with meteoric recognition throughout the world in recent years. Aqua Tower, finished in 2010, is the tallest building in the world designed by a woman-owned firm. Its undulating balconies produce a visually stunning representation of waves formed in concrete. Other recent projects by the Chicago-based Studio Gang include a media production center for Columbia College Chicago, which draws inspiration from the color bar test pattern that is iconic to the film industry.
Studio Gang also recently completed a rehabilitation of the South Pond at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. The project improves water quality, hydrology, landscape and accessibility to turn a dilapidated, man-made pond into a natural and sustainable ecological habitat. The transformation of this pond is stunning. With a new boardwalk and pavilion, the site now functions as an outdoor classroom, demonstrating the co-existence of nature and urban surroundings. The new pond pavilion was inspired by the tortoise shell, the laminated structure consists of prefabricated, bent-wood members and a series of interconnected fiberglass pods that give global curvature to the surface.
The Bethune Lecture is an annual lecture made possible by the joint sponsorship of AIA Buffalo/Western New York and the UB School of Architecture and Planning. It celebrates the life and professional work of Louise Bethune. Bethune, an architect who worked in Buffalo, was the first woman to be elected as a member of the AIA.
When – Today December 1 at 5:30 p.m.
Where – 301 Crosby Hall on UB’s South Campus
The lecture is free and open to the public