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Current Summer 2007

Take a Walk around the Block with Richard Rogers, Pritzker Prize award winner.
By Ginny Graves

I'm sure you all saw the recent headlines about Richard Rogers winning this prize, the architectural profession's highest honor. The reviewer (Robin Pogrebin) mentioned that he was the first who showed us how to use the building as a machine with The Pompidou Center building in Paris. (He was quick to affirm that he works in a partnership with many people; that it isn't just his idea, his design.) He will receive a $100,000 grant and spoke of "celebrating the components of architecture" when interviewed for the article.

He mentioned that he liked to be known for..."buildings that are legible—you can read how the Building is put together." Rogers can be seen easily when traveling abroad, but now there will be four buildings in New York as well. Mark your travel calendars.

Which brings us to CUBE's Walk around the Block curriculum and the "Reading a Building" activity. Architect John Lee, A+#1 CUBE tour leader, helped us refine the work of Sir Bannister Fletcher (A History of Architecture) and his Comparative Method. Reading a Building is a much broader technique for understanding the building's parts and how they are put together. One teacher commented, "I can talk to the kids about a Victorian style on Sixth street, but when we get to 8th street, they are baffled. "Looking at the parts" means they can look at a building anywhere—Kansas City, Chicago, Hong Kong—and can begin a scientific process for understanding the building that can be used anywhere.

See pages 44 and 45 ("Understanding the Comparative Method") in Walk around the Block, as well as the preceding pages for similar "reading" activities for all ages. Once this method is conquered, you can move on to Reading the Streets. 47-52.

If you'd like to know more, the article appeared in the NY Times, March 29, 2007. Richard Rogers Wins Pulitzer Prize, pp. B1 and 5.

Visit the Web site and click on archiStore for instant purchase of Walk around the Block. http://cubekc.org/archistore.html