Joshua Prince-Ramus



From the blurb on TedBlog, which links to Joshua Prince-Ramus's talk at last February's TED conference:

Joshua Prince-Ramus is architect of the Seattle Public Library and principal of REX (Ramus-Ella Architects). Previously, he was U.S. Director of Rem Koolhaas's Office of Metropolitan Architecture. Through a series of beautiful visualizations, he deconstructs the collaborative process of building the Seattle Public Library, and also offers a sneak preview of his works in progress (TheWyly Theatre in Dallas, Texas andMuseum Plaza in Louisville, Kentucky).

For an amazing explication of how and why modern architecture sometimes does what it does, and why what it does (when it does it) is brilliant, DO take the 20 minutes to watch the video linked to on this page. If you don't understand why the Seattle Public Library looks like it does (whether you like how it looks or not), if you don't understand why an art gallery can be part of a swimming pool or why a theatre might want to show vintage cars, ...well, if any of these finer points of usage and spatial allocation are a mystery, watch the video.

This link is on the Victoria City Style Council wiki because, first, Prince-Ramus's work is certainly stylish (not to mention smart), and second, Victoria has been talking itself silly about getting a new library (hint-hint), as well as a downtown location for an art gallery (hint, hint) as well as a new performing arts centre. In these 20 minutes, Prince-Ramus presents some cutting edge ideas on all three concepts. Interestingly, Louisville's Museum Plaza is set in what could be the harbour edge of our Old Town...

And he claims they were all built on relatively low budgets....