Discussion of some newer and selected older projects by SOM architects

SOM Journal 6 is the most recent in a series that traces the conceptual leanings in the work of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP. A jury selects the buildings discussed in the volume, in the process subjecting the office’s work to external critique. This time, the jury, consisting of critic Peter Buchanan, architects Patricia Patkau and Shelley McNamara, and engineer Mark Whitby, decided on the list of featured projects during a colloquium at the Glasgow School of Art.

In addition, Thomas Herzog, who initiated the European Charter for Solar Energy in Architecture and Urban Planning, was invited to contribute an article on the topic of solar energy. Manuel de Solà Morales’s pivotal text on urban planning is again being made available, Robert Polidori’s photo essay documents the slums surrounding the Mumbai airport, and the former Head of the Mackintosh School of Architecture discusses the seminal building by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Last but not least, Nicholas Adams presents a masterpiece by SOM from the sixties: the Mauna Kea Beach Resort in Hawaii.

Featured projects:
AMP System; Al Rahji Bank Headquarters, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the Cathedral of Christ the Light, Oakland, California; the Foshan Donghuali Master Plan, Foshan, China; Inland Steel Renovation, Chicago; the San Francisco Digital Context Model