The International Festival of Arts & Ideas is a 15-day extravaganza of performing arts, lectures, and conversations that takes over theaters and open spaces in New Haven, Connecticut each June. This year’s Festival runs from Saturday, June 16 to June 30 and more than 80 percent of Festival events are completely free. More information at artidea.org.

Centerbrook is supporting the Festival again this year, sponsoring the performance of the Ben Allison Band with Robert Pinsky on Wednesday, June 27 at 8 p.m. artidea.org/event/2012/730

Louis Raymond of Renaissance Gardening poses this existential question: “After so many years of creating gardens for clients, what garden do I create for myself?” He will provide the answer at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 23 at the Essex Town Hall.

His illustrated (and animated) presentation – “Plays Well with Plants: A Gardener’s Garden of a Lifetime, Fifteen Years & Counting” – is the fourth in this year’s Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series, one of many programs presented by the Essex Library. Please call the Essex Library (860) 767-1560 to register.

Raymond is a garden and landscape designer with clients nationwide; his own riotous garden in Hopkinton, Rhode Island will be the subject of an upcoming book. His exuberant designs have been widely published, including in House & Garden Magazine (on the cover), Metropolitan Home, and Design New England. In “Plays Well with Plants,” he’ll talk candidly about his garden’s successes and failures, and how his design philosophy has guided its creation. Overall, he is pleased with the fruits of his own labor: “So far, so good: The red borders actually do look red, sometimes triumphantly. The Belgian fence – of beeches, not fruit trees – is filling out its frame. Two of the pergolas are built and largely canopied. The double-ball topiary of hardy orange is the biggest and baddest on the continent. The Southern magnolias, so rare this far north, are almost as high as the roof.”

Raymond has been gardening for over 50 years, ever since, as a pre-schooler, he “borrowed” a number of geraniums from public gardens across the street from the family home. While he has always had a fondness for plants and gardening, Raymond took the scenic route to his current vocation. By the time he was 25, he had already earned baccalaureate degrees in chemistry, piano, and voice – and still found time for a couple of years of medical school along the way – before launching successful careers as an opera singer and a freelance writer. By 30, he had retired from both to take up the trowel fulltime.

For more information on Louis Raymond, visit www.RGardening.com or www.LouisThePlantGeek.com.

Historian and architect Dr. Chuck Benson explores the work of Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), the Spanish architect renowned for a distinctive modernist style highlighted by his magnum opus Sagrada Família – in an illustrated presentation on Friday, February 24 at 7 p.m. at the Essex Town Hall.

Admission is free; please call the Essex Library (860) 767-1560 to register.

Dr. Benson has been teaching Art and Architectural History for more than twenty five years at various universities and colleges across the United States, and has led groups to explore and visit a variety of sites in Italy, England, Scotland, France, Spain, Austria, Germany, Greece, Turkey, and the United States.

His lecture credits include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, MOMA, the Whitney Museum, the Getty in Los Angeles, the Art Institute in Chicago, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. He studied the history of art and architecture at Yale as an undergraduate, and holds advanced degrees from Columbia University. He also has studied at Cambridge, Oxford, and the University of Goettingen.

Dr. Benson currently serves as the Director of Colorado Operations, and Head of Design for a Group that specializes in the architecture and engineering of Satellite Operations Centers and Mission Control Stations. He also is an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

The Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series is sponsored by Centerbrook Architects and is one of many programs presented by the Essex Library.

Photo by SBA73

Author and architect Duo Dickinson explains how to love the house you’re in his illustrated presentation, “Staying Put: Remodel Your House to Get the Home You Want.” His talk kicks off the fourth season of the Essex Library’s Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series on Friday December 2 at the Essex Meadows Hamilton Hall auditorium. A wine and cheese reception begins at 6:30 p.m.; talk is at 7 p.m.

Dickinson offers cost-saving options and smart solutions to remake older homes to fit today’s lifestyles, and he shares his passion for saving money without sacrificing good design. His seventh book, which has the same title as his talk, has just been published by Taunton Press, and will be available for sale and signing. Admission is free; please call the Essex Library (860) 767-1560 to register.

Dickinson is a Cornell graduate who established his architectural practice in Madison, Connecticut in 1987 and has written extensively about design and construction. In addition to winning numerous awards and having his projects featured in publications such as Architectural Record, he has written for many design magazines and is the architectural critic for The New Haven Register. His national broadcast credits include CNN and NPR. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and has taught at Yale, Roger Williams University, and Harvard.

The lecture series is sponsored by Centerbrook Architects and is one of many programs presented by the Essex Library.

Centerbrook Partner Jefferson B. Riley, FAIA, and two senior officials from Quinnipiac University will lead an illustrated presentation about the development of the school’s campus at the annual convention of the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) on Tuesday, July 26th at 3:30PM in National Harbor, MD. Titled “Quinnipiac University: One Vision, One Architect, Three Campuses,” the session will explain how the institution has grown exponentially and yet managed to achieve an extraordinary level of aesthetic harmony.

Joseph Rubertone, Quinnipiac Associate Vice President for Facilities Administration, and Dr. Patrick Healy, Vice President for Finance and Administration, will join Riley in telling the story of the Quinnipiac campus from 1977 to the present. The university’s campuses are located in Hamden and North Haven, Connecticut. Centerbrook has been the architect for more than 45 projects at Quinnipiac University over the past 34 years.

The session will describe how a shared vision has been responsible for successfully transforming Quinnipiac into a highly active modern campus environment. It also will highlight specific architectural interventions that, together with this shared vision, have produced a distinct sense of place, one with an underlying richness and diversity typically reserved for institutions with a much longer history. These elements encompasss built and natural campus features that contribute to the student experience, including the relationship of academic buildings, residential neighborhoods, wooded and formal outdoor spaces, paths and roadways, and gateways from one sector of campus to another. For more details on the convention, visit www.scup.org/page/annualconf/46.

Founded in 1929 as a small two-year school, Quinnipiac today is a major university with 5,700 undergraduates and 2,500 graduate students – and is in the process of establishing a new medical school that Centerbrook is designing. National ranking surveys that place it in the top tier of American higher education frequently cite the allure of its campus and modern facilities.

Established in 1965, SCUP is a community of senior, higher education leaders who are involved in campus planning.

Centerbrook Partner Mark Simon will lead a tour of Kroon Hall, the new ultra “green” home to the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, as part of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas on Wednesday June 22 starting at noon. Simon also will make an illustrated presentation on the innovative design prior to the tour.

Certified LEED Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council, the building was voted in 2010 by the American Institute of Architects and its Committee on the Environment as one of the top ten examples worldwide of “sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment.” Kroon Hall was designed to use 81 percent less water and 58 percent less energy than a comparable baseline structure and to generate 25 percent of its electricity onsite from renewable sources.

The tour is free and registered attendees (limited to 50) will gather in front of Kroon Hall, at 195 Prospect St. in New Haven.

Registration information

David Greenbaum, vice president of the national architecture firm SmithGroup, presents “The Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center Overlooking Omaha Beach” on Friday, June 3, 2011 at 7 p.m. in the Essex Meadows auditorium.

The leader of his firm’s Cultural practice, Greenbaum, FAIA, is driven by site and client mission, and his work applies his philosophy of amplifying an institution’s mission by creating powerful and memorable places. This approach has been most recently exemplified with the design of the Normandy American Cemetery Visitors Center – as well as the International Spy Museum and the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden Pavilion renovation.

The solemn yet powerful visitor center reverently encourages focus on the memorial cemetery it serves, deepening the tribute to those who served in World War II. With great dignity, the center draws visitors beyond the beach views and the cemetery's monumental axis to consider the landscape, sky, and ocean.

His illustrated presentation is part of the Essex Library’s Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series (www.essexlib.org). Admission is free; please call the Essex Library (860) 767-1560 to register. The Lecture Series is sponsored by Centerbrook Architects and is one of many programs presented by the Essex Library.

Rafael Pelli, who is a partner in the internationally renowned architecture firm of Pelli, Clark, Pelli, presents, “It's Not Easy Being Green: Interesting Environmental Issues from Around the World,” on Friday, May 20 at 7 p.m. in Essex Meadow Auditorium.

In his illustrated presentation, Mr. Pelli, explores several recent projects and the distinct and often subtle environmental challenges each raised. His focus includes a residential high-rise – the first LEED Platinum construction project in New York City – a new business headquarters in Mumbai, India, and an academic building for the College of Business at Illinois University.

His illustrated presentation is part of the Essex Library’s Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series (www.essexlib.org). Admission is free; please call the Essex Library (860) 767-1560 to register.

Mr. Pelli, AIA, has directed the design of several of the firm’s New York City projects, including Bloomberg Tower, a 1.4 million-square-foot, mixed-use high-rise in Midtown. He also was the designer of the reconstruction of the World Financial Center and the lead designer for a new U.S. Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, as well as three high-rise apartment buildings in Battery Park City that have achieved significant milestones in sustainable design.

He is a graduate of Yale University and received his Masters of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1985. The Lecture Series is sponsored by Centerbrook Architects (www.centerbrook.com) and is one of many programs presented by the Essex Library.

Jeff Riley will present a singular viewpoint of what design elements contribute to making buildings universally beautiful regardless of their architectural styles.

Waterford Public Library, April 28, 2011, 7-8 PM
waterfordpubliclibrary.org

Photos by Carol M. Highsmith and Trey Ratcliff

Chuck Benson, historian, architect, and former Green Beret, explores the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini – the leading figure in Roman Baroque architecture and art in the 17th century – on Friday, April 22, at 7 pm in the Essex Meadows Auditorium, 30 Bokum Rd., Essex. Dr. Benson's talk includes a humorous look at some of Bernini’s sculpture, which can be bawdy and is not often a topic of scholarly rumination.

“Gian Lorenzo Bernini was one of the greatest of Roman Baroque artists, architects, and certainly sculptors,” Dr. Benson said. “It could be argued that his mastery of marble even exceeded that of his esteemed predecessor of the High Renaissance, Michelangelo. Without question, Bernini exploded on the art scene of the 1600’s in Rome as a luminous, transcendent talent.”

His illustrated presentation is part of the Essex Library’s Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series (www.essexlib.org). Admission is free; please call the Essex Library (860) 767-1560 to register.

Dr. Benson has been teaching Art and Architectural History for more than twenty five years at various universities and colleges across the United States, and has led groups to explore and visit a variety of sites to Italy, England, Scotland, France, Spain, Austria, Germany, Greece and Turkey. He also has led art and architecture trips to New York City, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.

His lecture credits include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, MOMA, the Whitney Museum, the Getty in Los Angeles, the Art Institute in Chicago, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. He studied the history of art and architecture at Yale as an undergraduate, and holds advanced degrees from Columbia University. He also has studied at Cambridge and Oxford, as well as the University of Goettingen in Germany.

Dr. Benson currently serves as the Director of Colorado Operations, and Head of Design for a Group that specializes in the architecture and engineering of Satellite Operations Centers and Mission Control Stations. He currently teaches as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and has taught at the Colorado College and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.

The Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series is sponsored by Centerbrook Architects (www.centerbrook.com) and is one of many programs presented by the Essex Library.

Photograph by Sarah Sampsel.

Award-winning architect Bill Grover presents a brilliantly illustrated talk on “Color” in all its glorious shades and applications as part of the Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 1 at the Essex Meadows Auditorium. Admission is free, register at (860) 767-1560. Mr. Grover is a founding partner of Centerbrook Architects and now partner emeritus, and his portfolio includes more than 45 projects at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York under the directorship of Nobel Laureate Dr. James D. Watson. The series is one of many programs hosted by the Essex Library.

Photo by Piulet

Landscape designer Louis Raymond conducts an illustrated and animated presentation on that perennial horticultural question “To be Formal – or Not to be Formal” as part of the Essex Library’s Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series.

Raymond’s exposition, which is formally titled “Putting Everything in Perspective: Formality in Your Garden,” is on Friday, March 18 at the Essex Meadows Auditorium from 7 to 8 p.m. Admission is free; please call the Essex Library (860) 767-1560 to register.

Raymond and his exuberant garden designs have appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, House & Garden, Metropolitan Home, and Design New England. His broad plant palette ensures that his gardens go from peak to peak Spring through Fall, while his acute sense of space combines with a keen interest in foliage and form, bark and berry, to ensure that his landscapes maintain their interest right through the Winter.

A flower lover at the core, he’s nonetheless unafraid to speak plainly about the impracticality of relying on flowers alone for garden interest. “In New England, it’s a triumph to have even one thing in bloom in any given week, month after month after month. So it’s best to think of flowers as the icing on the cake. Delicious indeed, but the heart of your garden’s appeal must be in its plants’ form and foliage, as well as overall layout.”

Raymond served for six years as the design manager of the New England Spring Flower Show, which draws more than 100,000 people a year, and his portfolio includes work from Montreal and Manhattan to the Caribbean. Favorite projects include New York’s legendary Turtle Bay Gardens, the eye-popping gardens for owners of a rare Gustav Stickley house in Wellesley, MA, and a massive waterfront estate in Narragansett, RI. For other projects, visit his website, www.RGardening.com.

Raymond is not shy about expressing his beliefs: “Naturalism is for wusses. People use it as an excuse to plant things willy-nilly.” While he has always had a fondness for plants and gardening, Raymond, who is 56, took the scenic route to his current vocation. By the time he was 25 he had already earned baccalaureate degrees in chemistry, piano, and voice—and still found time for a couple of years of medical school along the way— before launching successful careers as an opera singer and a freelance writer. By 30, he had retired from both to take up the trowel as a garden designer.

One reviewer described the riotously-expansive gardens at Raymond’s country home in Rhode Island as “pyrotechnic.” Many hundreds of varieties of indigenous, exotic, and tropical plants cavort within its strictly-formal layout. It’s where Raymond celebrates both his successes and failures, learning from each. “To have a garden of this intensity is freakishly rare,” he said. “I can only do it because it’s my business, so I don’t have to hire myself. My gardens are a big lab to figure out every possibility for what we can grow here in New England.”

The Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series is sponsored by Centerbrook Architects (www.centerbrook.com) and one of many programs presented by the Essex Library.

Andrew Santaniello, AIA, will discuss the design of the Sullivan Museum and History Center at Norwich University on Thursday, March 10 in conjunction with a new exhibit on the university’s architecture program titled “Building & Beyond.”

In the first class of architecture graduates of the school in 1995, Santaniello was Project Manager for the Centerbrook team, led by Partner Jeff Riley, FAIA, that designed the museum at his alma mater. His talk is at noon at the museum, which opened in 2007 and is located in Northfield, Vermont. Other early NU architecture graduates will also be discussing and displaying images of their work.

The 16,000-square-foot Sullivan Museum (http://www.norwich.edu/museum/) houses a growing collection of artifacts that offer dramatic testimony to the impressive history and heritage of the institution, the first private military university in America. The museum's distinctive entry pavilion serves as an iconic landmark that, when lit at night, is visible across campus. In addition to serving the university community, the museum, which showcases the significant contributions of the “citizen soldier,” aspires to be a regional destination.

The museum’s sustainable design incorporates recycled copper panels, local granite, the re-use of existing stone ventilation towers, low wattage display lighting, natural light in the entry pavilion, fly-ash concrete, rain water management, structural insulated panels (SIPS), energy efficient mechanical systems, and indigenous plant material.

Dariel Cobb, Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Hartford, examines the role of inspiration and authorship in architecture and the arts on Friday, February 18 at 7 p.m. in the Essex Meadows Auditorium.

Her wide-ranging presentation on the nature of creativity will encompass the writings of 19th century painter Robert Henri, poet Gail Sher, and author Malcolm Gladwell, as well the design work, such as that by the Swedish firm Front.

Her talk, titled “Inspiration and Authorship in the New Millennium,” is part of the Essex Library’s Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series, which is in its third year. Admission is free; please call (860) 767-1560 to register.

Ms. Cobb teaches architectural design and advanced design theory to graduate and undergraduate students. Her professional experience includes design and project management at Robert A.M. Stern Architects and at Arquitectonica. Previously, she was the Assistant Director of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, which works to expand knowledge about the history of women in architecture.

The next presenter in the series is landscape designer Louis Raymond, who conducts an illustrated and animated presentation on that perennial horticultural question “To be Formal – or Not to be Formal.” His talk is on Friday, March 18 at 7 p.m..

Essex Meadows is at 30 Bokum Road in Essex.

On Friday, January 14, Victor Deupi, architectural designer, teacher, and writer, presents “The Architecture of Andrea Palladio” as part of the Essex Library’s Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series. Palladio, a 16th -century Venetian, is widely considered the single most influential figure in all of Western architecture. Buildings from the Redwood Library in Newport to Monticello pay homage to his classical designs.

Mr. Deupi’s illustrated presentation is from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Essex Meadows Auditorium on 30 Bokum Road in Essex. Admission is free; please call (860) 767-1560 to register.

Mr. Deupi earned his Masters and Ph.D. in architecture from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania respectively and his teaching credits include Notre Dame and the Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture in London. Presently he is teaching design, history, and representation at Fairfield University and the New York Institute of Technology. He has written extensively about New Urbanism and the humanities underpinning the classical tradition. Mr. Deupi is also a watercolorist whose work has been exhibited here and abroad.

Now in its third year, the Centerbrook Architecture Series is hosted by the Essex Library and Centerbrook Architects.

Photo by Giulio Bernardi

Centerbrook Architects Jefferson B. Riley and Meg Lyons are among the presenters on the Ocean House on Wednesday Nov. 17 at Build Boston at the Seaport World Trade Center from 8:30 to 10 a.m.

Opened in May, the resurrected Ocean House in Watch Hill, Rhode Island embodies the faithful replication of an historic, Victorian, beachfront hotel combined with contemporary strivings all its own. The “historic kernel” of Centerbrook’s design revisits the early 20th century, when the hotel was at its architectural apex, while newly conceived additions and built-in amenities create a modern, luxury resort within that romantic vessel. Many components of the original 1868 hotel were preserved or precisely replicated.

The hotel now offers fine dining in the replicated dining room, new decks with broad ocean views, a bar with casual dining, an indoor lap pool that “flows” to an outdoor water feature, banquet halls, a private club room, a corporate board room, a spa and fitness center, 49 hotel rooms, 23 residences, underground parking, and an international croquet court.

Other presenters include Mark Banfield of Dimeo Construction, Nicolas – Nicholas Moore of Bluff Avenue Associates, and Jordon Stone of Peregrine Group.

Nobel Laureate Dr. James D. Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, and William Grover, partner emeritus of Centerbrook Architects, explore “Making a Village for Science,” an overview of their 34-year collaboration at the renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) on Long Island. Their illustrated presentation, part of the third annual Centerbrook Architecture Series presented by the Essex Library, is free on Thursday, Nov. 11 at the Essex Meadows Auditorium from 7 to 8 p.m. Admission is free; please call (860) 767-1560 to register.

Although hailing from quite distinct professions, the two men agreed that the process of scientific discovery could be served by compelling architecture that affords places for interaction, quiet contemplation, and leisure – whether bird watching, sailing, or tennis – as well as venues designed for casual sociability and collegiality. Scientists do not succeed by test tubes alone, they reasoned.

In its 120th year and home to seven Nobel Laureates, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s 400-plus scientists conduct research into the fundamentals of genetics with a focus on cancer, neuroscience, genomics and bioinformatics, plant biology and quantitative biology. Their work bears on diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Autism.

Centerbrook Partner Mark Simon discusses the design process and his work, including the award-winning “Slapstick Table,” at the Lori Warner Gallery in Chester on Saturday Nov. 6 at 5 p.m.

Simon’s architectural practice ranges from private houses and highly crafted furniture, to commercial, institutional, academic, and religious projects. He has designed many landmark buildings, among them: Nauticus – National Maritime Center in Virginia; the Chemistry Building at the University of Connecticut; Yale’s Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center, and Kenny Center and Jensen Plaza at the renowned Yale Bowl.

Simon majored in sculpture in college, and after graduating from the Yale School of Architecture in 1972, he initially built cabinets and houses. Returning to architecture, he was soon hired by Charles Moore, his former teacher and dean at Yale. They collaborated on a number of unique homes, and Simon was named as a partner at Moore Grover Harper, which eventually became Centerbrook Architects. Among his 94 architectural awards is the prestigious American Institute of Architects (AIA) Firm Award that Centerbrook received in 1998. In 1990, he was inducted into the AIA College of Fellows.

The Lori Warner Gallery is the exclusive East Coast representative for the Slapstick Table, which is a modern take on the classic farm table. It won a 2009 Good Design Award from The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design together with The European Centre for Architecture Art design and Urban Studies, as well as a silver medal from the Industrial Designers Society of America.

Located at 21 Main Street in Chester, the Lori Warner Gallery
carries a wide selection of artwork such as monotype prints and encaustic paintings by Lori Warner, hand-blown glass, ceramics, diamond jewelry and custom letterpress. The event is free.

Pioneering architect Beverly Willis, FAIA, kicks off the annual Centerbrook Architecture Series with a screening and discussion of her film “A Girl is a Fellow Here: 100 Women Architects in the Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright.” The 20-minute film documents the legendary Wright’s little known legacy of hiring and mentoring women. Today women represent approximately 50 percent of the enrollment in architecture schools, although a much lower percentage of practicing architects. The American Institute of Architects reports that women represent 15 percent of their registered architect members.

Her presentation is on Friday, October 15 from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Essex Meadows Auditorium on 30 Bokum Road in Essex (http://www.essexmeadows.com/directions/). Admission is free, call (860) 767-1560 to register. Now in its third year, the Centerbrook Architecture Series is hosted by the Essex Library and Centerbrook Architects.

Photo by Via Bulatao

The Addison Gallery of American Art, housing an acclaimed collection highlighted by the likes of Winslow Homer, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Jackson Pollock, will reopen its doors to the public on September 7 after an eighteen-month renovation and expansion. Centerbrook Architects designed an addition and extensive renovations to the 79-year-old building, which is part of the campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.

For more information visit the museum's website at addisongallery.org