By definition, baking is the preparation, process, or activity of cooking through the use of heat. From bread and cakes to pastries and cookies, baked goods in all of its iterations across the globe often linger in the minds of those who have savored them, where creativity and heat transform simple ingredients into something more. It is often an art and craft of inspired cultural tradition, bringing people together through story and nourishment. For Annie Paul, owner and executive pastry chef of AP Baked Goods LLC in Zeeland, Michigan, baking is a passion and a therapeutic practice, and one that at its heart is extremely gratifying when it is able…
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Rhythm and scale
Built at the intersection of W. Fulton Street and N. Halsted Street, 800 Fulton Market is an intentional composition of materiality, form, and function, where architectural expression is informed by the grit, the resilience, and the innovation of an industrial past and vibrant future. Its three-story podium, from which the 19-story, mixed-use office building rises, is inspired by the rhythm and scale of its neighborhood, blurring temporal and physical lines of the historic and existing low-rise streetscape to higher-density commercial districts nearby. The offset core and series of landscaped terraces, triangular in form, are set back from its ground-level footprint, softening its presence at the Fulton Market District Gateway and…
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New space to thrive
Ghafari Associates LLC, a global architecture and engineering firm, announced Nov. 3, 2022 it will hold an official grand opening of its new space in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. The private event is a celebration of the newly renovated 8,500-square-foot office space overlooking Rosa Parks Circle in downtown Grand Rapids, featuring design inspiration from the firm’s recent hospitality projects. Tom Tooley, AIA, executive vice president of Ghafari Associates in Grand Rapids, noted creating a functional and inspirational environment for staff to work collaboratively in the space and between offices was one of the main goals of the project. “The incorporated advanced technology to work across offices…
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Chicago celebrates DESIGNNIGHT 2022
AIA Chicago, the second largest chapter of the American Institute of Architects, kicked off its new DESIGNNIGHT 2022 on September 12th, 2022 in Chicago’s famed Millennium Park at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. The night comprised a free public awards event and overall celebration honoring the numerous design achievements of Chicago’s diverse and internationally renowned architectural community. Included in the celebration were the inaugural Lerch Bates People’s Choice Award—presented in collaboration with the Chicago Architecture Center—the AIA Chicago Lifetime Achievement Award, the chapter’s new Decarbonization Award, the Roberta Feldman Architecture for Social Justice Award, and the Design Excellence Awards, which were restructured to recognize projects of all scales, from small- to…
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LoveITDetroit
In 2015, Detroit’s creative potential was recognized on an international stage with its designation as a UNESCO City of Design. It is a designation that not only recognizes a long history and legacy of creativity and innovation, but also a forward-thinking vision championing design-driven businesses and their role as a cultural, social, and economic catalyst in a larger regional and global community. Design Core Detroit, the steward of that initiative, has outlined strategies to activate and develop Detroit as global leader in inclusive design, celebrating its community of designers across industry sectors, and sharing a larger story of the significance of and the accessibility of design. For years, Design Core…
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The boardwalk connection
“I look at design as a creation of how humans interpret the natural world. I think there is this connection between the natural world and the built environment, and it is up to us—those in the design field—to interpret what that is, and to create our own values on how we intersect the natural world and the built environment,” said Ernest C. Wong, PLA, FASLA, APA, founding principal and president of site design group, ltd. “I think the general public takes design for granted. They go to places—the parks we design—and say ‘oh, it was just here.’ Nobody really thinks about the effort it takes to design this space. They…
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Refractory
For Refractory’s inaugural body of work and inception—forged at a moment of unprecedented change—its muse sings of a reverence for a frontier unbridled by time, when mountains were new, sandstone buttes clustered, continents drifted, and oceans receded. It speaks of mountain ranges, canyons, basins, and plateaus, shaped by deep-rooted geologic pressures and carved by powerful movements of rivers and wind. It gestures to the fire of transformation, the resilience of form and creature, the presence of materiality, and the harsh grace of natural forces. It embraces the rugged honesty of erosion, the celebration of unusual moments of irreverence, and a dedication to craft as integral to design—set in a region…
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The Caterpillar
In Core City, Detroit, urbanism is defined in unconventional terms. For the creative and technical minds behind the neighborhood development at the intersection of Grand River Ave. and Warren Ave., it is about investing in intentional and thoughtful ideas grounded in reality to create a place rather than a market or projects motivated by demand. It is about renovating and activating land that has been vacant for decades in a manner that not only honors the history, people, and space characteristic of the surrounding city, but also enhances and preserves the environment through developing as little real estate as possible. Core City envisions a depopulated urbanism, where public spaces like…
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Spirited exploration
The process of distillation is often a poetic one, speaking to age-old traditions spanning rich, diverse cultures, landscapes, and agricultural origins. Within its composition—from the herbal notes of gin and bright earthy flavors of tequila and the malted aroma of whiskey—a narrative unfolds of both planting and harvest, climate and soil, innovation and historical technique, and chemical equation and artful dedication. For Rich Lockwood, co-owner and head distiller of Motor City Gas in Royal Oak, Michigan, it is the latter that defines the award-winning, small batch distillery’s ever-evolving whiskey, bourbon, and moonshine portfolio as it takes a fresh take on the age-old trade. The distillery, led by the husband-and-wife team…
