The Dallas Architecture Forum is pleased to announce that architect, sculptor and glass technologist James Carpenter will speak Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012 at 7 p.m. in the Lone Star Auditorium in the Maverick Activities Center at University of Texas Arlington, 500 W. Nedderman Dr. in Arlington.  This lecture is presented with the School of Architecture, UTA. Season Benefactor is Briggs-Freeman Real Estate. The Spring Series Benefactors are Jackson Walker LLP and Rogers OBrien Construction Company. Carpenter also will speak that day at UTA’s 10^th Annual Building Science Expo. 

Tickets are $20 per lecture for general admission and $5 for students (with ID).  Tickets can be purchased at the door before the lecture.   Dallas Architecture Forum members receive free admission to all regular Forum lectures as a benefit of membership, and AIA members can earn one hour of CE credit for each lecture.  For more information, visit www.dallasarchitectureforum.org , email director@dallasarchitectureforum.org or call 214-764-2406.  

James Carpenter

Glass is the most characteristic and telling material of modern architecture. And as a master in working with glass, James Carpenter helps bridge the gap between art and architecture. After RISD, he worked with Corning Glass Works on innovative products, and then in 1978 began his independent studio practice. A MacArthur Fellow and recipient of many major design awards, Carpenter created the exquisite moving glass screen in Dallas Rachofsky House.

James Carpenter studied architecture and sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1972.  Mr. Carpenter actively exhibited his sculpture and installation film projects in the United States and Europe and worked from 1972 through 1982 as a consultant with Corning Glass Works in Corning, New York.  He worked on the development of new glass materials including photo responsive glasses and various glass ceramics.  These research projects were aimed at potential architectural applications that would utilize the unique technical capabilities of these glasses to control and manipulate light and information, and this work eventually brought him back to the practice of architecture itself. This emphasis on theoretical, aesthetic and industrial materials research, together with Mr. Carpenter’s ongoing practice in architecture and structural glass design, continues to inform and guide the work of James Carpenter Design Associates.  Mr. Carpenter is the recipient of numerous awards including the National Environmental Design Award from the Smithsonian Institution, the American Institute of Architects Honor Award and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2004.

Since 1978, Mr. Carpenter has been working to develop independent and integrated building structures that have progressively synthesized art and architecture.  The studio, James Carpenter Design Associates Inc., is a collaborative environment encouraging an exchange of ideas between architects, materials and structural engineers, environmental engineers and fabricators.  The studio has developed unique architectural projects and structural designs employing glass, steel, wood and composites for a variety of works, including museums, university buildings, commercial office towers and cultural facilities.  The emphasis of JCDA’s design leadership with such major projects as the redevelopment of the McKim Mead & White Farley Post Office as the new Pennsylvania Station in New York (2005); the planning and design of the renewed campus of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (2005-2009), and the completion of the exterior and lobby of Seven World Trade Center (2001-2006) in New York has focused upon the transformation of the urban environment and public realm.

www.jcdainc.com

About the Dallas Architecture Forum

The Dallas Architecture Forum is a not-for-profit civic organization that brings leading architectural thought leaders from around the world to speak in Dallas and also fosters important local dialogue about the major issues impacting our urban environment.  The Forum was founded in 1996 by some of Dallas’ leading architects, business, cultural and civic leaders, and it continues to benefit from active support and guidance from these citizens. The Forum fulfills its mission of providing a continuing and challenging public discourse on architecture and urban design in - and for - the Dallas area. The Dallas Architecture Forums members include architects, design professionals, students and educators, and a broad range of civic-minded individuals and companies intent to improve the urban environment in North Texas.  The Forum has been recognized nationally with an AIA Collaboration Achievement Award for its strategic partnerships with other organizations focused on architecture, urban planning and the arts.  For more information on the Forum, visit www.DallasArchitectureForum.org . 

Among the over 130 speakers who have addressed the Forum’s Lecture Series are Shigeru Ban,  Brad Cloepfil,  Diller Scofidio, Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves,  Daniel Libeskind,  Thomas Phifer,  Rafael Vinoly, Juhani Pallasmaa, AIA Gold Medal Winner Peter Bohlin, and  regional architects David Lake and Ted Flato.  Pritzker Prize winners speaking to the Forum have been Kazuyo Sejima, Rafael Moneo, Thom Mayne, Rem Koolhaas and Norman Foster (the latter two in collaboration with the ATT Performing Arts Center).   Other speakers for the Forum have been leading designers Calvin Tsao, Andrée Putman, and Karim Rashid; landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh; and National Trust President Emeritus Richard Moe.  Important critics, authors and patrons who have spoken to the Forum include Emily Pulitzer, Terence Riley, Pulitzer prize winners Robert Campbell and Blair Kamin, Aaron Betsky, and the late David Dillon.

The Forum organizes and presents an annual series of Panels—local, informal, open, and offered free of charge as a public service to the community—led by a moderator who brings a subject of local importance along with comments by participating panelists.  Moderators and Panelists have also come from both other Texas cities as well as from national institutions that were connected with particular Panel subjects.  Panels offer attendees the opportunity to participate in creating discourse.  Important topics addressed in Panels in recent years include: “Thoughts on the Dallas Comprehensive Plan”; “The Kimbell Expansion: A Discussion”; “Filling Out the Dallas Arts District”; and “Re-envisioning the Trinity”.  

The Dallas Architecture Forum also presents two symposia annually.   The Forum works closely with the School of Architecture of the University of Texas at Arlington, and jointly presents the David Dillon Symposium in Texas Architecture.  Symposia have focused on local architectural icons Frank Welch and E. G. Hamilton, and on “African American Architecture in Dallas”.  The Dallas Design Symposium, founded four years ago by the Forum, has created a partnership with the Nasher Sculpture Center and in 2011 presented environmental artist Christo.