Fentress Architects Explained

Fentress Architects
Architects:Curtis Fentress, FAIA, RIBA
City:Denver, Colorado, United States of America
Branches:Washington, D.C., San Jose, California
Founded:1980
Awards:Over 425 for innovation and design excellence[1]
Significant Buildings:Denver International Airport, Incheon International Airport, Colorado Convention Center, the Broncos Stadium, National Museum of the Marine Corps, Arraya Tower, National Museum of Wildlife Art, the modernized Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX (2013), and the Green Square Complex in Raleigh, North Carolina (2012

Fentress Architects is an international design firm known for large-scale public architecture such as airports, museums, university buildings, convention centers, laboratories, and high-rise office towers. Some of the buildings for which the firm is best known include Denver International Airport (1995), the modernized Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX (2013), the National Museum of the Marine Corps near Quantico, Virginia (2005), and the Green Square Complex in Raleigh, North Carolina (2012).

Founded in 1980 by Curtis W. Fentress, FAIA, RIBA, the firm's designs, especially its airports, are often compared to the expressionist architecture of Eero Saarinen.[2] However, architectural curator Donald Albrecht has noted that within Fentress' designs is a "stiff dose of regionalism.[3] " Fentress Architects has studios in Denver, Colorado; Los Angeles; San Jose, California; Washington, D.C.; London; and Shanghai.

In 2010, Curtis Fentress was awarded the highest award for public architecture, the Thomas Jefferson Award, by the American Institute of Architects AIA Awards website.[4] [5] Fentress was also given the Silver Medal in 2010, which is the highest award given to an architect from the AIA Western Mountain Region for the contributions made to the region.[6] In 2012, Fentress was awarded AIA Colorado's Architect of the Year.[7]

Fentress Architects is the designer of the Arraya Tower in Kuwait City.[8] The tower is the tallest in Kuwait and the 53rd tallest in the world [9]

History

Curtis Fentress graduated with honors from North Carolina State University's College of Design, School of Architecture where he received a Bachelor of Architecture degree. Following graduation, he joined the firm of I.M. Pei and Partners in New York City. As a Senior Designer, he was responsible for the master planning of major site development plans. He became a project designer with the New York architectural firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox. During this time, he came to Denver as the Project Designer for the Rocky Mountain Headquarters of Amoco in downtown Denver.

In January 1980, Fentress formed C.W. Fentress and Associates with James Henry Bradburn. After early success, the collapse of the oil and gas industries in Colorado in the early 1980s ushered in a period of difficulty for the firm. Fentress Architects' fortunes rebounded in 1987 when the firm won a design competition for the Colorado Convention Center. The competition pitted Fentress and his partners against several better-financed and more famous opponents, including Phil Anschutz, who had partnered with the firm belonging to Curtis Fentress' former mentor, I.M. Pei.[10] It was only in the 1990s that Fentress Architects rose to international fame by designing the Denver International Airport. The peaked roof of the terminal has become well known to travelers worldwide and ushered in a revolution in more expressionistic airport design.[3] Curator Donald Albrecht credits the design of Denver International Airport with bringing glamor back to the airport typology.[11]

The unveiling of DIA was marked by a dysfunctional "state-of-the-art" baggage delivery system (the vendor at fault has since replaced the system). Subsequently, DIA has been voted the "Best Airport in North America" [12] and the fourth "Favorite American Architecture" completed in the last fifteen years.[13]

In 2001, Fentress designed the Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, voted "Best Airport Worldwide" four consecutive years by Airport Council International's Airport Quality Survey program.[14] Airport Council "Best Airport in the World" in 2007 by passengers surveyed for the Official Airlines Guide.[15] The firm designs a range of large scale projects (see listing below) from museums and convention centers, to stadiums and commercial office buildings.

Bradburn retired, and in 2007, the firm's name was abbreviated from Fentress Bradburn Architects to Fentress Architects. To date, the firm has won 425 design and innovation awards and has a design portfolio of $27 billion. Each year, more than 330 million people worldwide visit a project designed by Fentress Architects.[1]

Now Boarding

In 2012, a major museum exhibition of Fentress Architects' airport designs entitled Now Boarding: Fentress Airports + the Architecture of Flight was opened at the Denver Art Museum.[16] Curated by Donald Albrecht, architectural curator for the Museum of the City of New York whose previous exhibitions include well-received retrospectives on the work of such architectural notables as Eero Saarinen and Charles and Ray Eames,[17] Now Boarding ran for nearly three months.

A travelling version of the exhibition appeared in Amsterdam in November 2012,[18] and the exhibition's full version will open in at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, CA beginning in March 2013.

Awards and honors

World's Best Airports: Fentress-designed Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea was voted "World's Best Airport" by Skytrax's 2009 World Airport Awards, a survey of 8.6 million international travelers.[19]

World's Most Beautiful Airports:

Denver's airport features a Teflon-coated tensile fabric roof—the world's largest when the airport opened in 1995.[20]

World's 4th tallest building completed in 2009: Fentress is the designer of the world's 4th tallest building completed in 2009—Arraya Tower in Kuwait City, also the tallest in Kuwait.[21] Arraya is one of 14 high rises in Fentress' design portfolio in the Persian Gulf.

Architectural philosophy

Fentress has developed a design process he calls the "Patient Search". He has said of the process; "I don't begin with a preconceived notion of what the building needs to be – it is not a sculpture. I patiently search, walk the site, study the culture, follow our process until I find a seam somewhere, crack it open and discover the art inside." Asked about his philosophical approach, Fentress once stated, "My philosophy is ultimately...pragmatism".[22] [23]

Rankings

Sustainable design

LEED certified projects include, but are not limited to:[29]

Projects

Airports

Civic

Commercial Office & Mixed-Use

Cultural

Laboratory

Public Assembly

Education

Hotel & Residential

Further reading

Newspaper/Magazine articles

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Fentress Architects | the Art Inside | Firm Profile . 2013-01-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130228053854/http://www.fentressarchitects.com/the-art-inside/firm-profile/ . 2013-02-28 . dead .
  2. Web site: Now Boarding: Fentress Airports + the Architecture of Flight, Denver Art Museum | California Literary Review . 2013-01-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130116220459/http://calitreview.com/29170 . 2013-01-16 . dead .
  3. Web site: Fentress Architects and the Reinvention of Airport Design - SURFACE . 2013-01-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130109013119/http://www.surfacemag.com/blog/architecture/6423-fentress-architects-now-boarding-airport-design/ . 2013-01-09 . dead .
  4. Web site: AIA Jefferson Award recipients . Aia.org . 2019-07-29.
  5. Web site: AIArchitect website. https://web.archive.org/web/20120219222815/http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek09/1218/1218n_tjawards.cfm. dead. February 19, 2012. Jul 29, 2019.
  6. Web site: Silver Medal. Design Team Information. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20111002234418/http://www.conventioncenterexpansion.com/Design/DesignTeam.aspx. 2011-10-02.
  7. Web site: Architectural Jobs, Resources, & Education. A. I. A.. Colorado. AIA Colorado. Jul 29, 2019.
  8. Web site: Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat: Tallest Buildings Completed in 2009 . Ctbuh.org . 2019-07-29.
  9. Web site: The Skyscraper Center. www.skyscrapercenter.com. Jul 29, 2019.
  10. Web site: Seeds of the center. May 20, 2005. Jul 29, 2019.
  11. Web site: 'Now Boarding: Fentress Airports + The Architecture of Flight' Exhibition. Feb 17, 2012. ArchDaily. Jul 29, 2019.
  12. Airport Council International's (ACI) Passenger Quality Survey of 200,000 world travelers every year for the past four years, 2006-2009
  13. American Institute of Architects (AIA) survey conducted by Harris Interactive, 2008
  14. Web site: Airport Council International . 2009-04-15 . 2012-05-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120526062436/http://www.airports.org/ . dead .
  15. Web site: Official Airlines Guide Awards . 2008-03-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080306070649/http://www.oagairlineawards.com/ . 2008-03-06 . dead .
  16. Web site: Now Boarding. Denver Art Museum. Jul 29, 2019.
  17. Web site: Donald Albrecht. Jul 29, 2019.
  18. Web site: Now Boarding takes off at Airport Exchange 2012 in Amsterdam. Nathalia. Vélez. Nov 27, 2012. Westword. Jul 29, 2019.
  19. Web site: Skytrax World Airport Awards. https://web.archive.org/web/20130805183929/http://www.worldairportawards.com/Awards_2009/Airport2009.htm. dead. August 5, 2013. Jul 29, 2019.
  20. Web site: World's Most Beautiful Airports. Travel + Leisure. Jul 29, 2019.
  21. Web site: CTBUH website . Ctbuh.org . 2019-07-29.
  22. The Patient Search and Other Architectural Adventures
  23. Web site: Curtis W. Fentress Quotes :: Quoteland :: Quotations by Author. www.quoteland.com. Jul 29, 2019.
  24. Web site: Architectural Record Top 150 Design Firms. Jul 29, 2019.
  25. Web site: BD&C Giants 300 . Bdcnetwork.com . 2019-07-29.
  26. Web site: ENR Top 500 Design Firms . Enr.construction.com . 2019-07-29.
  27. Web site: Reports. Feb 8, 2017. www.construction.com. Jul 29, 2019.
  28. Web site: The 2009 Architect 50: Our First Annual Ranking of Top Architecture Firms - Architects, Business, Sustainability - Architect Magazine . 2010-01-29 . 2012-06-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120610152029/http://www.architectmagazine.com/architects/the-architect-50-introduction.aspx . dead .
  29. Web site: U.S. Green Building Council - LEED projects directory. Jul 29, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20161219111547/http://www.usgbc.org/LEED/Project/CertifiedProjectList.aspx?CMSPageID=247. December 19, 2016. dead.
  30. Web site: Tallest Buildings Completed in 2009 . ctbuh.org . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100323041202/http://ctbuh.org/HighRiseInfo/TallestDatabase/TallestBuildingsCompleted/2009BuildingsCompleted/tabid/1353/language/en-US/Default.aspx . 2010-03-23.

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