A view into the workings of GPA

Screenshot from the New York Times

The award we received recently from TMC, partly for our firm’s care in reusing an historic building as our new office, has had me thinking a lot about things I visited in school, but which I am not reminded of too often in my daily practice of architecture:

Cities, and the buildings which make them up, ARE ALIVE! – in every sense of the word.

I was so happy to see this feature in the New York Times today (11/12/09-thumbnail above) reinforcing this idea.

As we are still finishing up work on our new office, I can’t help but imagine what the original designers of this “bath house” would be thinking if they saw this happening. I should hope they would be delighted to see that we found value in their work that transcends the building’s original built purpose.

165 10th Street, San Francisco

As stated in the previous blog post, a hefty portion of our firm’s work engages the reuse of existing building stock. It’s a reminder that, though this type of work is not often in the glossy architecture magazines, it is a responsible and respectful way for our cities to develop – responsible and respectful both to the city and the environment.

The glossy magazines make this reminder all the more important, because popular architecture culture seems to always embrace the new over the old, the shiny over the patinated. It is too easy to think of a building’s planned use as its only one.

The photos in the NYT article are testament to the lives many of our buildings will have – lives that will be long, and unpredictable.

In 90 years, when someone renovates a building we’ve done, I may be in my grave, but I will certainly be delighted.