Photo of the Day: Renderings of the design by Portuguese firm Aires Mateus for the University of Architecture in Tournai, Belgium. [Público.pt]

The Art of Architecture: You know the world’s largest architecture firm. But do you really know Gensler? Architecture critic John King profiles firm founder and namesake Art Gensler, FAIA, in a story that traces his time in San Francisco back to 1965. The profile comes complete with warm quotes from Cesar Pelli, FAIA, and an anecdote about Art Gensler working with Steve Jobs to design the Apple Store. “I'm not the guy perfecting the detail on the curtain wall. We've got good people for that,” Gensler tells King. “I'm good at understanding what clients want. That's the fun of it for me.” [The San Francisco Chronicle]

The Building Blocks of Memory: Thomas de Monchaux pens a letter about maker culture, tracing its roots from Frank Lloyd Wright’s fascination with Froebel Blocks to his own memories of playing with LEGOs to the present day. As you know from reading his criticism in ARCHITECT, Monchaux matches poetry with perception: “All building-block toys are about appearance and disappearance, demolition and reconstruction,” he writes. “Maker culture, for all its love of stuff, is similarly a culture of resourcefulness in an era of economic scarcity: relentless in its iterative prototyping, its radically adaptive reuse of ready-made objects, its tendency to unmake one thing to make another—all in a new ecology of economy.  [The New York Times]

Quote of the Day: “My house is my refuge, an emotional piece of architecture, not a cold piece of convenience.” —Architect Luis Barragán, as architecture critic Edwin Heathcote relates in an article comparing Barragán’s work with that of architect Lina Bo Bardi. [Financial Times]

Tweet of the Day: Here’s a handy Storify from the Bloomberg Businessweek Design conference earlier this month, courtesy @BrianJCarney.

3 More Stories From the Weekend:

“Infrastructure has become so gold-plated and extraordinarily expensive,” says Andrés Duany, the founding New Urbanist thinker who is now pitching “lean urbanism.” So far, it’s all talk: He’s on a year-long speaking tour to promote his vision for cutting through red tape, he says, then he builds the tools. [The Atlantic Cities]

Former ARCHITECT executive editor (and regular contributor) Amanda Kolson Hurley joins urban planner Dan Reed in calling for the Montgomery County Council to re-think its position on the Wheaton Community Recreation Center. (The Council just voted against historic designation for the midcentury-modern building. [The Washington Post]

A peace rally was held near the home of 26-year-old Philadelphia resident and architect Amber Long, who was slain earlier this year. Police have not tracked down the killers who shot and murdered her. [NBC Philadelphia]

Step Up, Step Down:

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego is bringing on Selldorf Architects to design its expansion.

A team from Texas Tech University’s took first place at a healthcare symposium and design competition organized by the Committee On Architecture for Health and the American Institute of Architects Houston.

Allison Hoadley Anderson, FAIA, gets profiled after getting fellowed.

Raleigh, N.C.–based firm Ratio Architects will design the Forsyth County Central Library.

Justin A. Mihalik, AIA, is the first vice-president of AIA New Jersey.

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