Architects Rochester Ny

IBM at 100: How Big Blue Helped Redefine Corporate Architecture

Between 1956 and 1971, IBM constructed approximately 150 plants, labs and office buildings around the world. The building boom was orchestrated by IBM President Thomas Watson Jr. and architect and industrial designer Eliot Noyes, who commissioned many of the period's greatest architects, graphic designers and artists to do work for Big Blue.

Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, Paul Rand and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe are among the designers whose work cemented IBM's role as a leading patron of modern design and architecture, beginning in postwar America and continuing into the 1980s.

[IN PICTURES: IBM's greatest architectural gems ]

"There were other corporations that were also focusing on design quality and using buildings to express their corporate culture, but it's fair to say that IBM was a vanguard. It was really the scope and ambition of IBM's efforts that stood out," says Martin Moeller, senior vice president and curator of the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

This period in IBM's 100-year history -- the company is celebrating its centennial anniversary this week -- started with a walk down Fifth Avenue in New York. As the story goes, Watson Jr. saw the showroom of Italian office equipment maker Olivetti and was impressed by its cohesive approach to industrial design, graphic design and architecture. Watson Jr. wanted the same for IBM. He recruited Noyes to develop a corporate design program, and Saarinen was the first architect hired.

Saarinen had just completed the landmark General Motors Technical Center, a sprawling corporate campus built around a manmade lake in Warren, Mich. Saarinen adopted fabrication techniques and industrial materials from GM's assembly lines. For instance, instead of traditional caulking to seal the buildings' windows, Saarinen specified Neoprene gaskets similar to those GM used for car windshields.

His first building for IBM -- a research and manufacturing facility in Rochester, Minn. , with sweeping expanses of blue-hued glass -- likewise is an expression of modern architecture and modern science. "It was architecturally advanced in the same way that the new IT technologies were technologically advanced," says Donald Albrecht, curator of architecture and design at the Museum of the City of New York.

Architects From Rochester, NY Win Regional Design Award ...

PERRY — In. Site: Architecture (I.S:A) has received one of three Merit Awards presented by the Rochester Chapter of the American Institute of Architects at its 2011 Design Excellence Awards.

I.S:A’s “cohesiveCAMPUS” projects at the Rochester Institute of Technology developed a language for RIT’s new goal to “green” its dynamic campus — creating bike shelters, bus stops and pedestrian spines that connect and protect alternative modes of transportation. In partnership with Environmental Design & Research (EDR) of Rochester and Syracuse, In. Site: Architecture’s projects also include an eco-swale and rain gardens that heighten the sustainability — and beauty — of the campus core.

Founded in 2001 by partners Rick Hauser and Ali Yapicioglu, In. Site: Architecture employs six full-time staff at its offices in Perry and Geneva. I.S:A has garnered seven awards in the past four years. The practice includes sustainable, innovative design from residential to institutional scales, new construction to adaptive re-use, throughout New York, in Pennsylvania and Madagascar.

The cohesiveCAMPUS Awards Competition Board is among the many resources located on the I.S:A blog at www.insitearch.com/blog . Awards were presented by the Rochester AIA at a Gala event June 4 at RIT’s new Golisano Institute for Sustainability.

The Chief Architect at Mossien Associates has not only earned my trust over many years but he has earned the trust of the Board members of my client homeowners associations and condominiums. He has been their architectural doctor, diagnosing and prescribing professionally based on his wide experience and analytical skill – with a friendly manner thrown in. You’re good too, Dan.

When given the opportunity to be a part of an extraordinary project, Dan approaches it with enthusiasm, vision and an open mind. He gets right into it. As a team member with great listening skills, he absorbs everything with the ability to bring forward ideas in keeping with the mission. In the end the design is right on the mark; a perfect balance of form and function that endures the test of time but is still fresh.

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