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National Architecture Week has come again. This is an annual celebration supported by the American Institute of Architects. This year it landed on 4/8-4/14 but locally we decided to celebrate the following week. National Architecture Week, or ArchWeek, as I like to call it is a time to showcase the positive role architects play in our communities and highlight the power of design.

From recent history, in 2009, we went on a blogging marathon. In 2010, AIA San Joaquin hosted a full slate of engaging events related to architecture. In 2011 we did another action packed series of events.
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This year we are partnering with a few groups (AIA San Joaquin, Creative Fresno, Central California CAL Bears Alumni Association, and the Downtown and Community Revitalization Division, City of Fresno) to bring you more design, architecture, and history. Please check out the schedule below.
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Monday 4/16 – PechaKucha Night Fresno Volume 15

Kick off National Architecture Week 20×20 with PechaKucha Night Fresno. PechaKucha is a longstanding Creative Fresno event that started in Tokyo. It highlights design professionals in a creative format. Presenters show 20 images for 20 seconds each. The result is a dynamic presentation under 7 minutes long. Theme for the evening is Structure.

7pm
Fulton 55
Fulton & Divisadero (map)
$5 general, $3 CF or AIA members

Tuesday 4/17 – Fresno’s Architectural Heritage: the Cal Connection

From Julia Morgan (1894) and Ernest Kump Jr. (1932) to more recent grads such as Paul Halajian (1984, 1988), U.C. Berkeley has profoundly shaped Fresno’s architectural landscape. The forum: “Fresno’s Architectural Heritage: the Cal Connection” will explore how Berkeley pedagogy and philosophy have been adapted to the climate and demographics of the San Joaquin Valley.

The free program will include a slide overview by Karana Hattersley-Drayton (1978, 1996) of the Fresno work of 15 or so Berkeley grads. Following Ms. Drayton’s presentation, Paul Halajian will chair a panel of Cal Bears including James Oakes (1951), Martin Temple (1958) and Robin Goldbeck (1980). Kiel Famellos-Schmidt (2005) will conclude the evening with a Pecha-Kucha style presentation on the work of Berkeley architects in this area.

7pm
Fulton 55
Fulton & Divisadero (map)
Free

Wednesday 4/18 – Chapter Social

Meet architect and fans of architecture alike at an informal gathering at a local firm. Mingling with your colleagues and meet others passionate about architecture. Appetizers and drinks will be provided by AIA San Joaquin. The location will be the Central California offices of HMC Architects.

6pm
HMC Architects
1827 E. Fir Avenue, Studio 103 (map)

Many thanks to our partners and a s/o to Anti Laboratories for the sharp design work.
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Design Awards

Often your peers are the best judge of quality and professional achievement. This is true for actors, writers, and architects, among others. The AIA San Joaquin hosts bi-annual Design Awards Program that recognizes the exemplary architectural design by San Joaquin Valley architects and for work built within the San Joaquin Valley.

Local firms and clients submit their completed works to the awards program and they are judged by and independent judges from partner AIA chapters outside of the San Joaquin Valley. The awards program honors the architects, clients, and consultants who work together to set the bar for design excellence.

This awards program will include 7 categories (Public, Commercial, Interiors, Multi–Family Residential, Single Family Residential, Remodel/Renovation, and Lived Well). To be eligible the project shall have been designed by an AIA member, be located within the boundaries of AIA San Joaquin, or by an AIA San Joaquin member, be previously unawarded (by AIASJ) and be under construction or completed within the last four years. Please note: Projects entered under ‘Lived Well’ category shall have been in use for at least 15 years and conform to the eligibility requirements except that it may have been previously awarded.

Creative Fresno People’s Choice Award

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In addition to the juried awards, we are offering a People’s Choice Award sponsored by Creative Fresno. All the submissions from the above categories are eligible for your vote. You are the people, so what do you think? Click through all the submissions and vote below. Voting will close at noon on Friday, January 27th.
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The awards will be presented at the event below. Register to attend.

Below is the talk I gave at the Boomerang Reception held on 12/20/2009 at the CSUF Smitcamp Alumni House. I was the first speaker of the evening. The other speakers were Mayor Ashley Swearengin, CSUF President Dr. John Welty, FUSD Superintendent Michael Hansen, and FPU President Merrill Ewert. It was an honor to be included with such a prestigious list and take part in trying to attract talented professionals to boomerang back to Fresno. There was over 100 potential boomerangs in attendance.

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Welcome back to Fresno. My name is Kiel Famellos-Schmidt. I am here this evening representing Creative Fresno as the vice chair to the board of directors. And you were greeted at the door by our membership director, Andy Hansen-Smith.

Creative professionals are in the business of new ideas. This includes artists, architects, designers, scientists, among others. Another term used is “knowledge workers,” who make their living developing or using knowledge. Creative Fresno’s mission is to engage creative professionals to create a stronger community.

To that end we have numerous projects that encourage the lifestyle our constituency desires. Our mural project that has paid artists to create over a dozen murals downtown. We brought the global phenomena, Pecha Kucha Night, to Fresno to showcase the work of local designers. We organize monthly Blenders to connect creatives. We host an online listserv, MindHub.org, for creative discussions. In October, we held our second annual music festival of 40 local bands. We also partner with other organizations to create events like this Boomerang Reception that we are at today.

All of this is united by a membership of creatives that all have interesting stories. I’ll share a piece of my story about how I boomeranged back to Fresno after being educated at UC Berkeley and working in San Francisco, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Sri Lanka.

Three years ago, this week, I moved back to Fresno after two months of volunteer service in Sri Lanka. It was not long after the devastating tsunami that hit the island nation as well as an ongoing civil war. I spent my time amongst the tea lined hills of a town called Nawalapitya, to design an orphanage and community center to help fill the needs of a devastated people.

It was during my work in this beautiful but embattled landscape that I came to a realization. All of these challenges that I was trying to fight around the world, poverty, homelessness, unsustainable growth, access to resources, and access to quality and healthy housing. They all existed in my hometown. Not only did they exist in quantity, but I was intimately familiar with them from my childhood and young adult life.

I did not move back for the satisfaction of being a big fish in a small pond. It was not my family asking me to move back, they wished me to explore the best opportunity wherever it happened to be. I chose to move back to Fresno because I believe I’m uniquely suited to make an impact here, more than anywhere else in the world.

In these three short years, the impacts of my efforts can already be seen:
I joined Creative Fresno and organized the Pecha Kucha Night. The event’s 1 year anniversary this January 11th is entitled Benchmarks and Milestones. We built awareness of local design talent and introduced many creatives, who now regularly collaborate.

I founded and curate archop, a quarterly architectural exhibit and lecture series, accompanied by a built environment news and opinion website, archop.org. The exhibit in its third year, the website one year old. We’ve reached over 12,000 fresnans, who now know more about architecture and quality design.

26 other citizens and I co-authored the City and County of Fresno 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. The plans first year goal of moving 100 chronic homeless individuals into housing has been met under the Swearingin administration

And most recently in November, with my partner Shaunt Yemenjian, starting up an architecture and urban design firm called Spacio Design with offices in downtown Fresno and Los Angeles. We have projects of various scales from Los Angeles to Hawaii. And we are taking advantage of new technologies and our city’s low overhead to be competitive with a global reach.

If you have the skills and passion to make Fresno a better place, I want to personally invite you back.

I now have the pleasure of introducing this city’s passionate and diligent mayor. Recently she was one of five mayors invited to Washington DC to attend President Obama’s job summit. Ensuring that our city has access to all the resources it needs

During her campaign for mayor, Ashley had given a response to a question that rang true for me. The question from a well respected architect, Paul Halajian, was “How can we get the talent here that we need?” Her answer was that the best and the brightest will be attracted because this is a rare place where young, intelligent people can lead and shape the future of this entire region. That is why I am here.

Please join me in welcoming Fresno Mayor, Ashley Swearengin.