business

Some big architecture business news this week. It's been announced that the Kansas City-based firm Ellerbe Becket, has been acquired by the massive California company AECOM Technology Corp. Becket, you might recall, has come to more prominence recently for seemingly being Populous' only rival in the stadium building game, most recently getting handed the high-profile commission to design the New Jersey Nets Arena at Atlantic Yards after Frank Gehry got booted. The sale will apparently be good for both sides, with Becket, who will be keeping its name, having a much larger financial backing behind it, and AECOM buying a presence in the Midwest. Here's a bit:

"One of the big-picture issues now is the global marketplace," [managing principal Steve Duethman] said. "We have to figure out the best way to serve that marketplace and be a player in it. Joining AECOM allows us to do that."

For instance, Duethman said, in the sports and health care design fields, which are among the Kansas City office's strengths, the merger will allow Ellerbe Becket to expand into geographic markets that it previously didn't have the financial resources to enter.

What a sad start to the summer it was when back in May, Michelle Kaufmann released the news that she would be closing her Bay Area firm and no longer designing pre-fab, sustainable houses. Several months have now passed and while Kaufmann's company might still be but a memory, it looks like some of her work will live on. The Boston-based Blu Homes has announced that they have purchased three of Kaufmann's home designs and will begin offering them to their customers soon. And the San Francisco Chronicle reports even better news: Kauffman will be coming on to help out as a design consultant. Here's a bit about the differences between the originals and Blu Homes' new models based on her designs:

They have developed a proprietary unfolding modular technology that will enable cost savings to be made on Kaufmann designs at the shipping and on-site building stages. Elements that make up the homes such as wall panels are created with hinges so they can be compacted for transportation and unfolded on site. The MK Designs homes will have slightly different floor plans, proportions and elevations from the originals, although, Kaufmann said, the design principles should remain the same.

Having conquered the likes of Kmart, Macy's, and Michael's, Martha Stewart is bringing her lifestyle-branded Good Things to the biggest of big box retailers: The Home Depot. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) has signed a deal to develop a Martha Stewart Living brand of home improvement products—think outdoor furniture, closet organizers, and home décor items—that will be exclusive to Home Depot. And this is no mere licensing play, assures MSLO. "The Home Depot and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia partnership is one of true collaboration," the company stated in a press release announcing the deal. "Martha Stewart and her team of designers are working side by side with The Home Depot merchant and design teams to produce a brand that allows customers to easily coordinate décor and design elements when taking on home improvement projects." The first products are expected to hit U.S. Home Depot stores in January.

In case you've not yet been touched personally by the multimedia publicity blitz, we should let you know that Gap is celebrating its fortieth anniversary with a new line of jeans that head designer Patrick Robinson describes as "rengineered...cool, sexy, and relevant for right now." However, as double-digit decreases in comparable store sales have become the norm at Gap Inc., can the investor community be convinced that the company is a smart buy? Free jeans can't hurt. On Friday, a day after announcing second-quarter earnings, Gap outfitted 1,200 New York Stock Exchange Traders in its new 1969 Premium Jeans. "The fact that we're dressing the New York Stock Exchange in jeans for the first time in history really speaks to the role that Gap still plays in our culture today," said Marka Hansen, president of Gap brand North America. We smell a tautology there, but the plan seems to have worked, at least in the short term. When members of Gap's founding Fisher family rang the closing bell on Friday, Gap stock had reached $19.48 per share, its highest price since last September.

Mongoose Civique. Pastelogram. Utopian Turtletop. These were but a few of Marianne Moore's inspired suggestions to the Ford Motor Company when, in 1955, an executive approached the poet to suggest some names for its latest product line. Writer Danny Heitman recounted the story in a recent New York Times op-ed piece that suggests a literary bail-out for the beleaguered auto industry.

Moore apparently had no qualms about enlisting her muse in the service of the automotive industry. She was also willing to embrace the risks of the marketplace, agreeing to be paid only if she came up with a winning name. As Moore's biographer Charles Molesworth points out, she "had always enjoyed the language of advertisement, delighting in its inventiveness and ebullience, and even relating it to the poetics of praise."

Just a few short months into advertising icon Tim O'Kennedy's tenure as the new head of the creative charity D&AD and he's already had to take on a tough decision. Less than ten days into O'Kennedy's takeover as chief executive, the organization has announced that they will be laying off twelve positions, which includes two higher-up managers and four spots they were previously intending to fill. Reason being for the cuts is that they've had far fewer entries (and along with them: entry fees) to their bread-and-butter, the annual D&AD Awards (you'll recall this year's Cannes awards also ran into this issue). Here's a bit from over at Design Week from the group's chairman:

"We have spent the past six months reviewing the numbers and planning for the next year, and have decided that a reduction in headcount is the most regrettable, but the most secure, course of action for the long-term welfare of the organisation."

Other cost-cutting measures being put into place to meet the executive committee's strategic plan include a reduction in the number of President's Lectures to four or five a year

Every once in a while, the "no spec" debate flares up again, and so it has once more. This time the controversy surrounds blogger Tim Ferriss, author of the best-selling book The 4-Hour Workweek. As he prepares for the launch of his next book, the writer decided to kick off a short design competition to come up with a cover for said new book. In exchange, he'd pick four winners and give each $250, with perhaps one of the covers actually making it through to publication (Ferriss warns from the start that the publisher might decide to just go with whatever they come up with in-house, in which case nothing gets used). Of course, this was all very ripe for the anti-spec crowd, who quickly jumped all over the competition, claiming it unfair and disrespectful to designers and asking if Ferriss would enjoy writing his books with the hopes of maybe, possibly getting a paltry $250 if someone deemed it worthy. All of this forced the writer to update the post and answer various comment in the huge swarm that developed, explaining himself and the contest. It's fairly typical stuff, if you've seen any fight develop over spec before. However, our pal Eric Karjaluoto smells a rat about this whole brouhaha. He wonders if this is something Ferriss created as a controversy from the start, intending to get himself in the middle of an anti-spec debate for quick, cheap, and easy free publicity. Per usual, Karjaluoto forms a great essay, getting into a larger view of spec and what's wrong about Ferriss' contest from the start, whether it's a stunt or not.

While times have been tough for starchitects lately, from Richard Rogers' projects disappearing to Zaha Hadid's and Norman Foster's mass layoffs, it sounds as though rising star David Adjaye has it the worst. Despite his recent conquests including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, landing two libraries in Washington DC, and everyone still going gah-gah over his Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Building Design reports that his nine year old company is deeply in the red. Following a number of canceled jobs, Adjaye now owes at least a million pounds to creditors, forcing him to lay off staffers and seek council on getting the company back in the black. What's more, the starchitect even put £400,000 of his own money to keep things semi-stable. Yet while the company is suffering, Adjaye seems confident that closing its doors isn't a concern: "We have enough work on our books and we're repaying our [Company Voluntary Arrangement] very well so we're in a good place." Elsewhere in Building Design, Amanda Baillieu says that the issue isn't so much with Adjaye's finances, it's working with public building projects and having his central office located in the UK that are the larger problems.

Some potentially sad local news here. The Tribune's Blair Kamin reports that the forty-eight year old Prairie Avenue Bookshop in downtown Chicago is facing closure, unless they can find a new buyer for the building. The bookshop, which specializes in architecture books, and is the first place any building buff should stop if you're visiting town, had been hit by the economy, the city's continuing sales tax hikes, and customers leaving to buy online. It's difficult to see how they'd be able to pull off saving the store, as several of their options, like teaming with the Chicago Architecture Foundation, have fallen through and the economy certainly isn't rising anytime soon. Though they certainly are interested in hearing any plans anyone might have, including leaving the brick and mortar and moving online. So should you be visiting Chicago before September 1st, when their lease runs out, make sure to either stop by the Prairie Avenue Bookstore with either lots of money, a few nice parting words, or some incredible idea that will propel the business along.

Bryan Batt is a man of many talents. When he's not playing the fabulous, closeted art director Salvatore Romano on AMC's Mad Men, Batt keeps busy designing contemporary interiors as the co-owner of Hazelnut, a gift and home accessories store in the Big Easy. Three words: New Orleans toile! His latest project is a home decor book. According to Publishers Marketplace, Batt has just inked a deal with Clarkson Potter for a tome that will explore his favorite spaces and "through his own witty commentary and design techniques, show readers how to create their own stylish and enchanting spaces." While the book isn't slated for publication until fall 2011, Batt will be back in living rooms in a few short weeks: Mad Men's third season premieres on August 16.