May 15, 2008
SMoCA announces finalists and exhibitors for Flip A Strip, a national architectural design competition

Exhibition opening and announcement of award winners: October 4, 2008

Flip a Strip, a design competition organized by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art [SMoCA], generated 95 completed submissions, from architectural teams in 46 cities and six countries. This innovative project intends to inspire creative, new visions for the renovation of the small-scale strip shopping plazas that line the streets of this metropolitan area—and virtually every suburban zone in the country. Finalists in the competition will be featured in an exhibition at SMoCA from the evening of October 4, 2008 – January 18, 2009.

The competition was a hybrid, both a national open call and an invitation to fifteen diverse firms. Participants were invited to select one of three typical strip-mall sites, (submitted by the city planners of Scottsdale, Phoenix and Tempe) to re-think and re-design. Projects were juried in a two-stage process. Proposals first underwent a technical review by local experts, followed by a rigorous design review by a prestigious architectural jury. Aaron Betsky, director, Cincinnati Art Museum, and former director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam; Julie Eizenberg, Konig Eizenberg Architecture, Santa Monica, California; Merrill Elam, Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, Atlanta; Richard A. Eribes, former dean of the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and founding director of the Center for Urban Studies at Arizona State University, Tempe; and Grady Gammage, Jr., partner, Gammage & Burnham, Phoenix, an expert in land-use regulation, senior research fellow at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy and adjunct professor at the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, Arizona State University, Tempe, comprised the Design Jury. Per the competition’s parameters, projects were displayed anonymously, so that the juries had no indication of the authorship of any of the entries.

The Design Jury awarded three monetary prizes and three honorable mentions, which will be announced at the opening of the exhibition on the evening of October 4, 2008, at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. The following ten firms are the finalists, invited by SMoCA to further develop a three-dimensional presentation of their projects for the exhibition: Aptum Architecture, Zurich; Architecture-Infrastructure-Research, Scottsdale, Arizona; Avery Architecture & Design, Chicago; AEDS, New Orleans; Gould Evans, Phoenix; Marlene Imirzian & Associates Architects, Phoenix; Miller Hull Partnership, Seattle; MOS, New Haven, Connecticut; cityLAB/Roger Sherman Architecture & Urban Design, Santa Monica, California; and Studio Luz Architects, Boston.

Twenty-five additional stellar projects will be featured in the exhibition in two continuously running, large-scale computer projections. Invited firms: Alter Studio, Austin, Texas; Wendell Burnette Architects, Phoenix; D&G, Scottsdale, Arizona; El Dorado Architects, Kansas City; Ibarra Rosano Design Architects, Tucson, Arizona; PLY Architecture; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Richärd + Bauer, Phoenix; Julie Snow Architects, Inc., Minneapolis; SUMO Studio, Long Island City, New York; and UrbanLab, Chicago. Respondents to the open call: Al-Mimariya, Beirut, Lebanon; Frank André, Atlanta; Bredella Lahusen, Berlin; Will Bruder + Partners, Phoenix; Field Paoli Architects, San Francisco; Gensler, Phoenix; Brantley Hightower, San Antonio, Texas; LLa architecture, Ltd., Grand Junction, Colorado; Looney Ricks Kiss, Dallas; MOBIUS, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Moran Architects, Scottsdale, Arizona; OWP/P, Phoenix; rosete pakravan, Berkeley, California; Shepley Bulfinch, Boston; and Steve Worthington Architect, San Francisco.

Of the 95 submissions, the Scottsdale site generated 44 design concepts; the Tempe site 24; and the Phoenix site 27. (Note: this is an idea-generating competition, not a design/build project.)

Projects range from astute interventions that have major impact for minimal investment; to projects that bring sustainable agriculture into an urban context; to projects that creatively address the perennial problem of parking; to creative mixed-use developments that invent new energy and recycling systems.

Flip a Strip continues SMoCA’s commitment to creating a forum for public issues of both local and national importance and to generating ideas that better the quality of civic life. Scottsdale Mayor Mary Manross states, “As Scottsdale continues to revitalize our southern areas, it's important that we seek opportunities to enhance existing infrastructure in our community. Strip plazas have long played an important role in our community by providing neighborhoods with valuable services and products. The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art's Flip a Strip competition is a unique opportunity to glimpse into the future of our strip plazas.”

COMPETITION ADVISORS:
Jones Kroloff design services is the competition advisor. Led by Casey Jones (formerly of the U.S. General Services Administration Design Excellence Program and a founder of Van Alen Institute, an architecture and urban-design research center) and Reed Kroloff (director of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Museum, former editor-in-chief of Architecture magazine and a Phoenix native), the firm has managed many of the recent major architectural competitions across the country, including: Design the High Line in New York; the September 11th Memorial Competition for the Pentagon; the Brad Pitt / Global Green Sustainable Design Competition for New Orleans; the Jose Vasconcuelos National Library of Mexico; and the Motown Center for Detroit, MI. Jones Kroloff is known internationally for its vast knowledge of both emerging and established architects and its expertise in managing complex competitions that yield functional and forward-thinking results.

ABOUT SMoCA:
Mission: The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art champions creativity, innovation and the vitality of the visual arts. We seek both to build and to educate audiences for modern and contemporary art, as well as to provide opportunities for the artistic community—locally, nationally and internationally. SMoCA provides a memorable experience of art, architecture and design by exploring new curatorial approaches and by highlighting cultural context. We interpret, exhibit, collect and preserve works in these media.

Located in the center of one of America’s fastest growing and most dynamic regional economies, SMoCA contributes to its communities' vitality and provides a forum for creative dialog. The Museum is dedicated to advancing public awareness and knowledge of architecture and design, building on the proud legacy of visionary architecture in this community, epitomized by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin and Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti.

Founded in 1999, the Museum is a unique and vital cultural resource for the Southwest, serving local audiences as well as visitors from throughout the United States and abroad. Designed by award-winning architect Will Bruder, SMoCA's minimalist building has five galleries for showcasing changing exhibitions and works from the Museum's growing permanent collection. SMoCA also features an outdoor sculpture garden housing James Turrell's Knight Rise, one of the renowned artist's few public skyspaces, and Scrim Wall, a monumental curtain of prismatic glass by James Carpenter Design Associates. The Museum presents a wide variety of educational programs and special events for adults and families, including lectures, docent-led tours, workshops and classes.