Suisman Urban Design

Suisman talks streets at Bauhaus / Cal Poly Re:Street conference

Doug Suisman addressed an audience of German and American architects, planners, and students at the two-day symposium called “re:street.” The public conference, held at Metro headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, served both as an introduction to the new science of streets and as a basis for discussion about the form of the future city. It was jointly organized and hosted by the Bauhaus Universitaet Weimar in Germany and California State Polytechnic University in Pomona.

Students of both universities conducted a hybrid workshop led by faculty members of the Departments of Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning, and Landscape Architecture. The Goethe-Institut Los Angeles will organized and curated an art program that brings artistic positions on the subject matter into the conference. Suisman spoke at the first session, which looked at the urban street as a living environment which, when viewed from various angles, can identify the social, cultural, and economic behavior of its users.

Links:
re:street.org

iQuilt project included in new book, "The Car in 2035"

he CARSuisman Urban Design’s work in Hartford has been included in a new book offering a refreshingly multifaceted view of the combined future of cars, streets and policy: “The Car in 2035: Mobility Planning for the Near Future.” Essays and images present the car as both a challenge and benefit to our neighborhoods, cities, and suburbs. A lively mix of auto industry experts, planners, designers, artists, researchers, and architects contemplates how we will adapt our cars and their context so we can continue to enjoy the freedom and benefits of individual mobility in the future.

Downtown Santa Monica Redesign Featured in Palisadian Post

The streetscape renovation by Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. with Suisman Urban Design was the subject of an extensive article by Libby Motika in the Palisadian Post, entitled “Cities Thrive on Village Ideas.” It provides a thorough overview of the history of the Promenade and the plans to upgrade the street’s infrastructure and appearance.

Zimmer Children’s Museum asks Suisman to help envision (and locate) its new home

The Zimmer museum has asked Suisman Urban Design to help it develop a strategy for determining its new location and the character of its new urban and architectural setting. Working with CEO Esther Netter, Museum Director Julee Brooks, and a special committee of the board, Suisman will lead a four-month process. The result will be the publication of a “visionary prospectus” providing strategic, site selection, and design guidance to the board and staff as the museum moves into its next phase.

Suisman’s plan for Vancouver media arts campus helps gain $110 Million grant

Suisman Urban Design has prepared an urban design master plan for the Great Northern Way (GNW) Campus and the new campus of Emily Carr University of Art and Design (ECUAD). The Great Northern Way Campus in East Vancouver is a former industrial site which the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and ECUAD are turning into a digital media hub for education and business.

Suisman’s design was presented as part of the funding application to the provincial government of British Columbia. The government subsequently approved $113 million to build the new facility for ECUAD. Construction is slated to begin in May 2014 and be completed by July 2016.

Emily Carr President Ron Burnett said, “Doug Suisman is an extraordinary visionary” who was instrumental in developing the early phase site plan and urban design for The Great Northern Way.

The funding means the art and design school will be leaving Granville Island, Premier Christy Clark confirmed. “Emily Carr University had outgrown its old home,” said Clark. The original Granville Island campus was designed for 800 students, but now has 1,800 registered, and the university needs a larger space to grow and stay competitive, say officials.

Emily Carr President Ron Burnett said the aim is to bring art and technology together at the site. “Emily Carr’s Great Northern Way Campus will be at the centre of a new social, cultural, educational, entertainment and economic engine for British Columbia,” said Burnett. The new campus will have numerous positive economic benefits for the Province of British Columbia and will drive creativity and innovation in BC and Canada while supporting the future growth of the creative sector. Burnett said, “Emily Carr’s vision is to be internationally known as one of the top global schools for its undergraduate and graduate programs in Media Arts, Design and Visual Arts. Our new campus will be built to the highest standards with design features unique to the mandate of the university, that is inspired by design excellence and that promotes an integrated, comprehensive and sustainable approach to the goals of the university; it will create an imaginative and cost-effective urban landscape that forms the centre of activities for Great Northern Way.

Doug Suisman joins Mayor Segarra at Hartford’s annual Rising Star Breakfast

Work could start on iQuilt’s first big project next spring

By Kenneth R. Gosselin – The Hartford Courant

Construction is expected to begin next spring on three areas crucial to the iQuilt plan — State House Square, Gold Street and Union Station — a first major step in making the city’s center more easily navigated by pedestrians, cyclists and those who ride the bus. City officials and urban design consultants unveiled the latest plans Wednesday under iQuilt, a vision for making the city more walkable and capitalizing on its arts and cultural assets as well as Bushnell Park and the Connecticut River. The first phase, expected to cost $23 million, includes sweeping changes in how buses crisscross downtown and the way the central business district handles bus traffic from CTfastrak, the New Britain-Hartford busway now under construction.
READ THE FULL
ARTICLE

Doug Suisman speaks at MoMA: "The Walking City as a Child’s Muse"

In conjunction with the exhibition Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900–2000, the Museum of Modern Art presented a half-day symposium exploring the impact of play in urban environments on childhood development. The symposium was organized by longtime playground advocate Jane Chermayeff. The sessions featured play theorists, architects and designers, and educators. The afternoon session, called “Designing Playful Cities,” included Adriaan Geuze of West 8, MoMA’s architecture and design curator Juliet Kinchin, Darell Hammond of KaBOOM, Neil Stevenson of IDEO, and SUD’s Doug Suisman. Suisman spoke about the importance of walking in the city on the development of a child, and his or her awareness of their own potential. He quoted architect Louis Kahn’s maxim that “the city is the place of availabilities, where a small child, walking through it, may discover what she wants to do for the rest of her life.”

SUD engaged by Vancouver arts university to help envision new campus

Suisman has been asked by Vancouver’s Emily Carr University of Art and Design to help envision their new home. ECUAD will move from their current campus on Granville Island in downtown Vancouver to the new Great Northern Way digital media campus on the edge of downtown on a former industrial site.

Suisman Interviewed as Part of “Unfinished Business” Exhibition

Doug Suisman’s seminal monograph, “Los Angeles Boulevard,” was featured at the exhibition called “Unfinished Business,” created by the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. The exhibition celebrated 25 years of discourse in and around Los Angeles under the umbrella of the Forum. Suisman’s book was originally published by the Forum in in 1989 as part of its renowned pamphlet series. For the exhibit, exhibition curator Siobhan Burke interviewed Doug Suisman, and the recordings became an integral part of the exhibition. They can be heard here:

Doug Suisman by LA Forum