Designer Lonny Israel on crafting new signage for a San Francisco institution — In 2003, San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum (AAM) moved into its new home, a more than century-old Beaux-Arts style building designed to be a public library. Since its opening in 1966, the museum had occupied a wing of the de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park, but a city…

In a 1979 commencement speech, the boundary-pushing architect shared insights from an unconventional life in design. — On May 6, 1979, architect Walter Netsch received an honorary doctorate of humanities and gave a commencement address to the graduating class at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The site was a familiar one. The Miami University Art Museum, which Netsch designed, had opened one year prior. He spoke to…

What if buildings absorbed carbon like trees? This future may not be far away. A research team at the University of Colorado Boulder believes that a new generation of biological materials could turn the construction industry into a force to heal the planet. …

We asked four women at SOM to tell us what inspires them. — “Women Take Charge at SOM”: This May 2020 article in Architectural Record, a profile on the three women partners who lead SOM’s Executive Committee, describes a milestone in the journey toward gender equity in our firm and in our profession. Women’s History Month is an occasion to celebrate influential women…

When the pandemic upended our global photography plans, photographer Dave Burk revisited some of SOM’s most noteworthy 20th century works in his backyard. — Dave Burk was quite familiar with SOM’s work before joining the firm in 2019 as our photographer. An architecture fan and Chicago native, Burk grew up with SOM towers in the backdrop to his daily life as a child before eventually taking an apprenticeship with the heralded photography firm Hedrich…

How meaningful public engagement in Kansas City shaped the vision for a terminal that welcomes all travelers — by Jordan Pierce “Can we pump barbecue smells through the terminal?” one gentleman asked. “You’ll know where you are as soon as you step off the plane.” At each of the three dozen community meetings our team at SOM attended in Kansas City, we fielded a bevy of requests and…

After years of hunting on eBay for SOM artifacts, historian Nicholas Adams shares his favorite finds. — The author of two books on SOM, most recently Gordon Bunshaft and SOM: Building Corporate Modernism, Nicholas Adams probably knows the firm’s history better than anyone. He is also keenly aware of the gaps in the historical record. That’s why Adams has spent years hunting for artifacts related to SOM…

As travelers fill the new skylit concourse, we trace the history of the station that’s become an emblem of New York’s recovery. — With the heat and humidity rising, many New Yorkers are continuing a time-honored summer ritual: getting out of town. At the same time, while tourism is still far its pre-pandemic levels, a trickle of vacationing visitors has begun to reanimate the city. …

Completed decades after her first collaboration with SOM, a Florida tower offer clues to a more experimental side of the famed designer. — When thinking of Florence Knoll Bassett and SOM, it’s only natural to visualize 1950s Bloomfield, Connecticut, and the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company headquarters. There, the glass and steel architecture of Gordon Bunshaft and SOM hosted the impossibly stylish office interiors done by Knoll Associates. …