ABOUT LiA

ENLACES 2013- Call for Submissions!

6:44:00 AM

Miguel Roldan Lecture and Reception

7:04:00 AM

6:17:00 AM

AIA Dallas LiA - From an Architect's Bookshelf- Books Delivery

7:47:00 AM

AIA Dallas Latinos in Architecture, founded in 2010, is a grassroots initiative that this year was awarded by the American Institute of Architects with the 2012 Diversity Recognition Program.
As part of our mission that targets education, LiA has been collecting books and magazines for its annual book drive: From an Architect’s Bookshelf. The intent of this program is to be able to start or expand an architectural library at local schools in Dallas that have a high percentage of minorities enrollment.
More than 20 Architecture and Engineering firms participate and send their books to the Dallas Center for Architecture, where they are sorted, labeled and packaged. So far, LiA has been able to donate more than 1,500 books and over 500 magazines to local middle schools and high schools, some of which have an Architecture career pathway program.
This year, and after going through our selection process, our beneficiary school for 2012 is Longfellow Career Academy. On Tuesday November 20th, they received more than 200 books and over 400 magazines! As part of our distribution event at the school, LiA members had a presentation on Being an Architect, and shared their personal stories with the students with the ultimate goal of acting as mentors and role models, for these students to be inspired to stay in school and go to college. Thank you to our volunteers: Gus Hinojosa, AIA; Jimmy Castellanos, AIA; Mike Reyes, AIA; Yesenia Blandon, Assoc. AIA; Celi Sims, Assoc. AIA; Leslie Rios, Assoc. IIDA, David Munoz,

“This year’s book drive was special to me in many ways. The school benefiting from the book drive was the middle school I attended. Not only am I an alumni from there, but that’s where architecture was introduced to me as a possible career. As I gave my speech on my personal story on how I chose architecture, I saw myself in all those kids listening to us. Though I was terrified to be speaking to a crowd of young teens, it was all worth it when I saw the kids fascinated as they glanced through all the architecture magazines and books. I’d like to give a special thank you to my 8th grade art teacher Ms. Read at Longfellow Academy who introduced me to the world of Architecture”

Leslie Rios, Associate IIDA
HOK

ENLACES Reception at The Latino Cultural center

2:31:00 PM

Enlaces, Perspectivas + Self Expression

11:51:00 AM

Rojkind - the lecture

2:59:00 PM

What stimulates you? What do you see as the boundaries of Architecture? Can buildings be more than space with an envelope?

These were just a few of the questions that were posed by Michel Rojkind, founder of rojkindarquitectos, a Mexico-City based innovative firm founded in 2002, a firm that has been recognized by Arch Daily, Architectural Record and that takes every commission as an opportunity to explore the power of design. Michel was invited as part of the jury that came to select and award the 2012 AIA DallasDesign Awards. He spoke with us this Friday morning, at the Latino Cultural Center.

With a contagious attitude, Michel explored his firm’s projects from very unique perspectives: from buildings that rather than fulfilling the client’s program become a critique of the political system in a city where the unexpected is ubiquitous and part of daily life; from buildings that seem to be resolved on their entirety when drawings are issued – only to find that the local craftsmen have a true know-how and can solve very unique detailing in quite astonishing and cost-effective ways; from diversifying a practice not only in terms of typology of projects but by cutting across and in between disciplines, such as industrial design.

Michel’s presentation was followed by a one-on-one interview led by Heath May, AIA (HKS), where the discussion dealt with the Architect’s relationship with technology, media, fabrication methods, buildings that need to be more than sustainable objects within themselves, that start being entities which provide something in return to the place and the community with which they share, to embrace our architectural past and re-interpret that past, providing solutions that speak of our time.

A few sightings at this bright and early lecture included students and faculty from Skyline High School as well as from UT Arlington, Nate Eudaly – Executive Director of the Dallas Architecture Forum, Brian Mackay-Lyons – Founder of the Ghost Laboratory, who was here also as a jury for the Design Awards. We were quite pleased to see about 60 people that decided to wake up a bit earlier today!

Michel was not apologetic about questioning everything; he actually finds the nature of children as a way to approach every situation, without any preconceptions. He left us with a challenge: to challenge our own process of thinking. This was a true overdose of stimuli – quite fitting for a Friday morning.