This website, since it’s inception, has been aimed at informing the public about architecture and spurring informative and critical discussion about the San Joaquin Valley’s built environment. That was the driver behind writing Decade in Review: Top 10 in Fresno Architecture. To date the article is our top read piece with nearly 1,500 page-views and 41 public comments.
Since that article was so popular, we are following up. Now is your chance to hear directly from the architects that designed the buildings. This will be a moderated panel discussion with public Q&A.
Location
Unitarian Universalist Church
2672 E. Alluvial Ave. @ Willow Ave. Clovis, CA
Time
Friday 4/16/10 6:30 wine social, 7-8 panel
Panelists:
Chris Johnson AIA – Sante Fe Depot
Matt Kennedy – Coyle Federal Courthouse
Don Dommer AIA- Clovis Fire Station No. 5
Paul Halajian AIA – H Street Lofts
Anthony Pings AIA – New Harvest Church
Marty Dietz AIA – Clovis North High School Performing Arts Center
Introduction
Shaunt Yemenjian & Joe Moore
Moderator
Kiel Famellos-Schmidt
Great discussion tonight. Certainly was more inward [architecture] focused that outward [public] but I think that led to pretty interesting conversation about what challenges we face, not only to design & build good architecture in the Central Valley, but also the become more relevant to the community at large.
Thanks to Tony Pings, Don Dommer, Paul Halajian, Chris Johnson, Matt Kennedy and Mart Dietz, Kiel Schmidt and Joe Moore for a healthy dialog.
There were a few thought provoking comments, namely the suggestion that “cities that boast great architecture benefit from three major factors: 1) they are an economic center in some way 2) they have history and 3) they have an architecture school.”
I think Fresno has two of three down in that we are an economic center [agriculture, light industry] and we certainly have a rich history. Does the lack of a school of architecture mean that our architecture will struggle to stay on par with the major cities in the World until we have a school here?