AD Interviews Craig Hartman / SOM

Anyone who has condemned an Architecture History collection already knows SOM: Skidmore & Owings & Merrill. This training played a key persona during the so-called “International Style”, in a instance where the modernism was existence consolidated around the world. The practice, which unsealed in 1936, is behindhand the centers of the most essential cities of the army and today the rest of the world. One period I was travel by San Francisco´s Downtown with a friend, and he was pointing buildings: “SOM, SOM, SOM, SOM… and that digit I conceive is also by SOM”.

Currently the training has embellish digit of the maximal AEC firms in the world, with over 10,000 projects handling with architecture, field and design. They hit offices in Chicago, New royalty City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., London, Brussels, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

But backwards to their beginnings, SOM was behindhand individual iconic buildings and another projects, much as the Lever House in Manhattan, or the Air Force Chapel in river Springs.

But what is engrossing is how the concern grew over the years, decent digit of the maximal AEC practices in the concern with over 10,000 projects. But don´t conceive most this training as a antiquity generating machine… what is engrossing is how they hit managed to ready innovating over the years. A hornlike task, specially when decent a super joint training with a Byzantine structure. But SOM has been up to the challenge. The Burj metropolis module presently embellish a housing think in cost of structural engineering, the Cathedral of Christ The Light in metropolis has an original design, materialized using digital tools to modify the design/building process, and their honor success careful help of San Francisco has embellish a strategic agency to impact within the city. And that’s meet to study a few.

Recently, Fast Company titled SOM among the 50 Most Innovative Companies, and Architect Magazine fresh awarded fivesome SOM projects with their R+D Award: The San Francisco Digital Model, the Oasis Generator, the Pine-Fuse Joint system, the Active Phytoremediation Wall System, and the Sustainable Form-Inclusion System. After these projects you crapper wager that SOM is not a exemplary joint practice, ever researching and actuation scheme forward.

And well, we desired to undergo more most the ideas and the impact behindhand a joint training ever innovating, and we had the quantity to sat downbound with Craig Hartman (FAIA), Design Partner at SOM employed at the San Francisco office.

Craig has been behindhand the honor success Treasure Island Master Plan, the Cathedral of Christ the Light (where the discourse was conducted), the SFO International Terminal… and more projects.

I wish you same this interview, specially the teen architects that are play their possess firms.

AD Interviews Craig Hartman / SOM