The Dogrun
a place to share ideas
Congratulations to the Knox project team for delivering the first newly constructed campus facility since the early 70's and important part of the Knox College commitment to liberal arts education. "Our new building is a delight...designed for teaching multiple art disciplines, the abundance of light-filled open work areas, studio space, and a gallery-like two-story critique hall enhance student learning and imagination. It also directly impacts our effectiveness as teachers and promotes student’s ability to think of themselves as artists, not just students.” - Mark Holmes, Associate...
Architects have always had to deal with the challenges of solar energy, whether providing protection from it, or leveraging it for energy and daylight. Like many other challenges, we have a habit of throwing brute force technology at it to solve the problem at hand. Building technologies of the past were simple and utilitarian by necessity, and today, we are finally returning to the simplicity of the past with elegant, biomemetic solutions. Lake Flato recently established a research and development program with the goal of providing a framework to promote innovative thinking in the...
Ask “why did the chicken crossed the road?” and you’ll likely hear a common answer, “to get to the other side”. This may be true, but it's only part of the story. Aristotle described four “causes” that govern the process for change. Not only is the “why” or Final Cause important, but also the “what” (Material Cause) and the “how” (Formal Cause and Efficient Cause) Aristotle and his peers saw single events happening for diverse reasons. This is a useful framework, providing the ability to see a problem from multiple “causes” rather than just one. For example, using this framework: Why did the...
Friends – Much like in business and higher education, the landscape of leadership and learning is transforming in the K-12 world. Grant Lichtman, a former client, is one of the strongest voices arguing for fundamental changes in how we educate our students. In his most recent blog post , Grant champions that architects have the types of qualities that would create successful school leadership and cites our very own Schools Studio as an example. Enjoy! I have worked with some extraordinary architects, including Greg Papay and Brandi Rickels of the firm Lake/Flato in San Antonio. I learned a...
A group of Lake|Flatonians traveled to Orlando, Florida recently to participate in this year’s AIA Conference on Architecture. This year’s theme was “Anticipate” – what it means to anticipate need and change in architecture and design. The profession has encountered challenges around climate change , diversity , and social consciousness in recent history, so it was interesting to overlay those discussions with the conference theme. Perhaps the most anticipated conference event was Michelle Obama in her first public appearance since leaving the White House in January. Her keynote speech was...
We have amassed some new interns in the past several months and we are excited to introduce them to our readers. All of them have diverse passions, varied interests, quirky talents and all have been a great fit to our growing LF team. Let’s meet them! Mitch What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on at LF? I've been focused on development projects in SA's urban core. They're all going to be great projects — I can already tell. I like the idea of them; starting new catalysts downtown. That’s a big reason I came to LF, to do projects like that. What is the Battle of Flowers? I know we got...
[Lake Flato Design Team, Grace Boudewyns, Jonathan Smith, and Kerry Phillips, at the Fur Ball] "Situated in your backyard, The Arf Residence is envisioned as a place that evokes the playfulness of summer by the lake and emphasizes exterior living spaces. A broad welcoming front porch and a green roof allow the house to keep things cool in the summer. The green roof is removable in trays to keep the overall weight down and to simplify maintenance. The Arf Residence features a powder coated steel structure for years of durability. Materials were sourced locally, with a common regional palette...
For all of our LEED projects, we calculate the percentage of regularly occupied spaces that have exterior views. By developing this quality views tool in Grasshopper, we can now automate this calculation process and make it possible to analyze large projects that would be difficult to calculate manually. We can also get a better idea of the quality of exterior views in each space in addition to the pass/fail criteria used for LEED. The views calculator was first used to analyze the new dining hall at Georgia Tech to see how it performed in blurring the line between indoor and outdoor dining...
Lake|Flato’s collaboration with the San Antonio River Foundation (SARF), Rialto Studio, Andrew Kudless of Matsys , Architectural Engineers Collaborative (AEC), CNG Engineers, and Spawglass Contractors has magically evolved the vision of Confluence Park into a pavilion that responds to and enhances the surrounding natural environment. While capturing and treating its own water, the petals of the pavilion at Confluence Park are meant to inspire its occupants and offer an interactive learning experience about the San Antonio River and its watershed. Since the early phases of our design process,...
We're excited to introduce three LF interns! Originally from China, Malaysia, and Guatemala, respectively, Michelle, Serena, and Alex have lived all over the world before arriving in San Antonio. Here is an exclusive Dogrun interview about their Lake Flato experience. Michelle Meng Favorite place in San Antonio? La Villita Favorite films? Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Revenant, Chungking Express, The Last Emperor. I’ve struggled to narrow down to 5! What would you do if not Architecture? I would work in the film industry. What was your first impression of Alex? She’s so tall. What...
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