The Alesari project originated with a senior/graduate-level special topics environmental design course at Kent State University. Design students in David Middleton's class teamed with architecture students from the Illinois Institute of Technology and real estate MBA students from The DePaul Real Estate Center in Chicago. Teams of students from each of the three schools worked together in several interdisciplinary groups during the 15-week course, via weekly videoconferences and two in-person group meetings at IIT.
In its new world-class stadium designed by Eisenman Architects and HOK Sport, the Arizona Cardinals can boast a retractable roof and the only retractable grass playing field in North America. The state-of-the-art facility is also the site of the 2008 Super Bowl. Thanks to a high-impact environmental graphics program by Pentagram Design, the stadium also provides a one-of-a-kind destination for football fans.
After spending decades and billions of dollars developing a commuter bus and light rail system for the sprawling Los Angeles region, the Metropolitan Transit Authority needed to create a comprehensive identity system for it.
Metro assembled an in-house design team to brand the system and develop signage and wayfinding guidelines, identification for rail and bus stations, fleet graphics, image advertising, web site, timetables and maps, bus passes and brochures, merchandising and other materials.
In 2002, the Liberty Memorial Associated charged Ralph Appelbaum Associates with creating a museum that, like the memorial itself, would honor those who served in World War I in defense of liberty and country. The new National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, MO, chronicles one of the nation's central epics, one that brought the United States onto the world stage.
The Thai government recognizes design as an important tool for business growth and development and, in 2005, it established the Thailand Creative & Design Center to provide Thai businesses with design inspiration and resources. Located inside a Bangkok shopping mall, the 40,000-sq.-ft. center is a long, rectangular space with primary rooms connected by long corridors.
For a major university, the most valuable currency is not its sports teams, but its scholars and their accomplishments. The University of Minnesota recognizes that, and celebrates its most renowned faculty and students with a new installation that allows viewers a window into their brilliant minds.
