Ideal Spaces did a podcast in Baden-Baden with David Vlachakos, a leading real estate business owner. We spoke about transformations of living spaces in cities, in regard to neoliberal socioeconomic conditions and their impact on housing, community and urban development in the present and in the future.

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In this new episode on the Ideal Spaces Podcast, co-hosts Flora and Ulrich unpack the topic ‘placemaking for communities’. They discuss with architect Sam Olshin FAIA, how architecture can be used to support and bridge the gap between different cultures, help people find joy in the everyday and feel safe and well-integrated in the places they live. Clearly, in architecture, there is no cookie cutter, ‘one size fits all’ model – and at AOS Architects, a wide range of social, cultural, economic and religious contexts are taken into account to ensure that projects can respond sensitively to local challenges, to add real long-lasting impact to communities. Sam tells us about the challenges of ‘town and gown’, and the success of an AOS student housing project that helped to bridge the two distinct communities of Lafayette College, Easton, PA. Our discussion also focuses on the firm’s recent project at Allentown Arts Park, where they worked with City Center Allentown and the City of Allentown to design a reimagined use for this green space that drew inspiration from the urban context.

Samuel E. Olshin, FAIA, is a principal at Atkin Olshin Schade Architects (AOS) of Philadelphia, PA. The twenty-person firm specializes in a wide variety of institutional projects including university, museum, school, hospitality, and religious commissions. Olshin received a BA and Master of Architecture degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. While a student, he received the E. Lewis Dales Traveling Fellowship, the Arthur Spayd Brooke Bronze Medal, and the Paul Phillipe Cret Thesis Medal. He is the recipient of the Philadelphia Chapter AIA Young Architect Award, and has served as architectural critic at multiple architecture schools. Since 1989, Olshin has served as Senior Visiting Studio Critic for the Introduction to Architectural Design course in the Growth & Structure of Cities Department at Bryn Mawr College. He currently serves on the Board of Mural Arts Philadelphia, a local arts and community organization.

For more information about Sam Olshin, AOS Architects, and any of the projects discussed on this episode, please visit: https://www.aosarchitects.com/

Lafayette College housing (Easton, PA)

AOS Architects worked with Lafayette College and Radnor Property Group to plan and implement several new student housing projects to accommodate the College’s projected enrollment increase from 2,500 students to 2,900 students. Located in the College Hill neighborhood of Easton, the McCartney Street Housing Phase 1 project includes two linked 4-story, mixed-use structures containing a new bookstore and college diner, and 165 student beds.

The two buildings are constructed of brick and cast stone with gabled, standing seam metal roofs that reflect the materials and residential character of the neighborhood. A spacious, landscaped terrace and public amphitheater form the centerpiece of the project. A future phase of the project on an adjacent site will provide the College with an additional 170 beds, a community-based wellness center, and additional retail space.

AOS Architects worked with the City of Allentown to design a reimagined use of the Arts Park green space. Bordered by the Allentown Museum of Art, Miller Symphony Hall, and the Baum School of Art, the Arts Park is the starting point of the City’s Arts Walk, a developing corridor of art, history, and culture.

The proposed renovation and addition to the Arts Park adds to its ethos of celebrating arts and culture by allowing it to function as a performing arts venue. The focal point of the Arts Park improvements is the Arts Park Pavilion, a new performance space and band shell that houses a green room and restroom for visiting performers. The Pavilion provides year-round accommodations for local and regional music and theater events including ticketed concerts, free public performances, and informal gatherings.

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Have we become too attuned to accepting throwaway, meaningless places and spaces that don’t really meet our needs? And have we been programmed to believe that a neat place is a good place, a tidy place is a healthy place, and a pristine clean surface is a sign of a well-designed building? Podcast hosts Flora and Ulrich unpack these complex questions with the help of Ian Boyd, an ecologist based on the Isle of Wight, whose mission is to to shape better places by conserving, reimagining and revitalising landscapes, places, communities and wildlife across the Island. They discuss the role of young people and the street-level democratic voice in placemaking today, and why communities should be encouraged to allow wildlife to flourish in and naturally colonise urban spaces. Finally, Ian reflects on how we can combine built and natural heritage, to create curated biodiverse spaces and places in which people and nature can thrive side by side in the future.

Ian was born and raised in Birmingham, where he developed a passion for wildlife and city spaces that has never left. He spent a decade living and working on nature reserves around the UK learning how habitats work, before settling on the Isle of Wight and working to see it become a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 2019. Ian has worked in the charity, public and private sectors, running landscape restoration, urban regeneration and environmental education programmes and advising on sustainable practice in development, asset management and urban design. He is a director of the consultancy Arc Biodiversity and Climate which includes the research partnership and ecological engineering practice Artecology. He is also a director of the public realm non-profit The Common Space.

Arc Biodiversity and Climate is at the forefront of new thinking in environmental consultancy, integrating ecology, landscape, communities and development to shape better places for people and wildlife. Click the image below to read about the diverse range of projects delivered by Arc.

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