It's appropriate to celebrate the recognition of the Smith and Williams Collaborative work on tour this weekend, May 21st, by Pasadena Heritage. I'm posting above one of Wayne Williams' scans of the 1414 Office Building structure that housed the firm and its related consultant offices in South Pasadena. It was designed by Wayne and Whit Smith, and landscaped by Garrett Eckbo to express a unique collaborative practice that set a precedent for the integrated design methods used today in the digital BIM design of projects. It was a laboratory of design and technical innovation for the firm's projects that brought together engineers, contractors and designers from the start.
Then take a look at the conceptual design with a similar aesthetic for the Extreme Light Infrastructure project, designed by design studio BFLS in London. It starts operating in 2015 at Dolní Břežany near Prague in the Czech republic. The building will house the required infrastructure for scientific research in the field of laser development, dedicated to the investigation and applications of laser-matter interaction at the highest intensity level (more than six times higher than current levels of laser intensity). The central element of the design is a massive concrete ‘box’ comparable in size to a football field, with a lightweight roof, floating over the complex, providing a unifying element.Cutting edge, technology, design integration, landscaped interiors and an explosion of creative ideas coalescing into forms that speak similar languages across the globe. Generation after generation!
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