The Current State of LA's Architecture Student Publications

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10/28/19 • 73 min

On this episode of Archinect Sessions we’re sharing the recording of a panel discussion I moderated last weekend at the A+D Museum, as part of the current exhibition The Los Angeles Schools. The panel brought together five students and three faculty members representing student-led publications from LA’s architecture programs. Rayne Laborde and Phoebe Webster represented UCLA's POOL; Marcelyn Gow represented SCI-Arc’s Offramp; Richard Mapes, Corie Yaguchi and Irvin Shaifa represented SCI-Arc's Underscore; Alvin Huang represented USC’s Supertall; and Stephen Phillips, Cal Poly LA Metro’s Director, represented their program’s hardcover publication LA Ten.

Our talk covers a lot of ground, exposing the inner-workings of editing and producing publications in today’s unique and highly transformative media landscape. Our conversations cover issues of editorial decision-making, design, freedom of expression and thoughts on the future of student publishing in architecture school.

Previous Episode

Madame President Goes ALL-In

For Archinect Sessions episode #145 we are joined by Kimberly Dowdell, a principal at HOK in Chicago and the current President of the National Organization of Minority Architects. Our conversation covers Kimberly’s impressive path to success in architecture, and the leadership role she’s taking in NOMA. We’ll also discuss the upcoming NOMA conference taking place in Brooklyn in a few weeks from October 14th-20th.

Next Episode

Giving Shelter

On this installment of Archinect Sessions, we’re sharing a conversation I had a couple of months ago with Sofia Borges and R. Scott Mitchell, the leaders of a design-build studio at USC that addressed one of the most pressing issues in Los Angeles today - homelessness.

The MADWORKSHOP Homeless Studio set out with the goal of addressing this city-wide crisis by developing a real-world architectural response. The initial motivation for the studio came from the founders of MADWORKSHOP, Mary and David Martin, who reached out to USC School of Architecture with the hope that the students would be able to come up with some practical, creative and buildable solutions of homelessness in Los Angeles. You can learn more about the studio in this feature we have previously published. Since the completion of the studio they have produced a book documenting the process and results in "Give Me Shelter." The book is currently available for purchase from ORO, the publisher, or on Amazon.

Our conversation ranges from discussing both Sofia and Scott’s complementary backgrounds, considerations for approaching this difficult and delicate problem in an academic environment, to thoughts on how architects can actually make a positive difference to this growing problem.