November 24, 2014

LCCC Culinary Arts Design Receives IIDA Best of Category Award

Bialosky + Partners received a 2014 design award from the Cleveland Chapter of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) for Best of Category in Education for the Lorain County Community College Ben & Jane Norton Culinary Arts Center in Elyria, Ohio.  We are pleased to announce that this is our second design award for the Culinary Arts Center and we want to again thank the college, the construction team, our consultants, and our photographers as well as our colleagues and the prestigious jury for this honor.

Visit our AIA Honorable Mention blog post to see the award submittal images and read the project brief.

Additionally, Plain Dealer Art & Architecture Critic Steven Litt has a recap of the event here: Healthcare projects dominate winning entries in 2014 AIA Cleveland architectural design awards

September 17, 2014

A Future Practice: Bialosky + Partners Lead Sessions at the 2014 AIA Ohio Convention!

AIA Ohio Convention 2014 Bialosky + Partners Architects

AIA Ohio Convention 2014 Bialosky + Partners Architects

This week, Bialosky + Partners Architects will lead sessions at the 2014 AIA Ohio Convention, in Kent, OH that tackle the theme of "A Future Practice".  Senior and Managing Principal Jack A. Bialosky, Jr.,  AIA, LEED AP and Principal David W. Craun, AIA, LEED AP are  jointly leading two sessions. Thursday’s Session, Action Planning For Firm Development will be facilitated by Jeffery Carmen, Management Consultant to the AEC industry. On Friday, Jack and David, along with Partner Aaron Hill AIA of Richard Fleischman + Partners Architects, and Principal Mike Schuster, FAIA, LEED AP of MSA Architects will be hosting a discussion titled It Takes A Village to Raise A Partner. Finally, Designer and Business Development Director Theodore Ferringer, Assoc. AIA, LEED Assoc., is leading a session on Thursday with designer Michael Christoff, Assoc. AIA, of Vocon and Project Manager Angela Jayjack Assoc. AIA, LEED AP of the General Services Administration, titled Empowering Emerging Professionals & Non-Traditional Practitioners: Lessons Learned  From AIA Cleveland.

We hope to see you there!

See details regarding the convention and the individual sessions below:

About the 2014 AIA Ohio Convention:

AIA Ohio, in collaboration with host chapters AIA Eastern Ohio and AIA Akron will be hosting the 2014 AIA Ohio convention at Kent State University on September 18 - 20, 2014. Working together with members of the profession from throughout Ohio, this years convention will be the first time that AIA Ohio has worked to bring its annual convention to the site of one of the states architectural programs.

This years theme, "A Future Practice" focuses on careers, business and practice opportunities for those who are just entering the architectural profession as well as long time practitioners looking for ways to change their existing practices.  Centered out of the Kent State Hotel and Conference Center, the convention will focus on the connection of practice to the academy as the profession is redesigned.

Thursday, Sept. 18: 1:00 - 2:15pm at Dix Ballroom, KSU

Action Planning For Firm Development
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Too much time spent working in the business and not enough spent on the business can leave a firm stagnant and unable to compete. Generational changes and new technologies are not only changing how we produce architecture, but the business of architecture itself. This session reflects on how leadership can successfully plan for the changing landscape of practice, creating opportunities for innovation and growth, while still getting the job done. This session is primarily focused on mid to large size firms. Jeffery Carmen, Management Consultant to the AEC industry will lead this session, explaining the trends, hurdles, opportunities to both the business and practice of architecture. With over 35 years of experience, Carmen has helped many define and achieve success on their terms. With a belief that "industry standard metrics" perpetuate mediocrity, Jeffrey will explain how to plan for action without falling into usual solutions. Joining Jeffery will be Bialosky + Partners Architects Managing Principal, Jack Bialosky, Jr., and the firm's youngest Principal, David W. Craun. They will share BPA's recent Action Planning strategy which has transformed such things as work environment, branding and messaging, and young leadership that has pushed the firm to never before seen successes.

Thursday, Sept. 18: 2:30 - 3:45pm at McGilvery Ballroom, KSU

Empowering Emerging Professionals & Non-Traditional Practitioners: Lessons Learned From AIA Cleveland

2014-09-16_AIA_Empowering Emerging Professionals & Non-Traditional Practitioners COVER IMAGE

Organizations throughout the county are evaluating how they engage the generations they serve. With an average member age of 50 and 40% of members retiring in the next 10 years, AIA is at a particularly sensitive and exciting time as it evaluates its relationship with Emerging Professionals (EP) and those on non-traditional career paths. In response to this context, AIA is proactively responding to evolving membership needs through the Repositioning Initiative. This session will showcase engagement and programming lessons learned by the AIA Cleveland Associates Committee; a committee organized by a series of Associate Directors who recognized the importance of engaging EP's and non-traditional career path professionals in the organization. This panel will engage the audience in discussing: How can EP's and associates become valuable resources for AIA as outreach into the community, positioning components as leaders within the community? How can increased EP and associate participation help address the diversity gap found in most chapters? What value does AIA participation by EP's and associates have for firms? We shall discuss these questions and more in this moderated panel discussion, sharing the replicable model that AIA Cleveland has recently developed to engage and empower EP and associate members.

Friday, Sept. 19: 9:00am - 10:15am at McGilvery Ballroom, KSU 

It Takes A Village To Raise A Partner

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A roundtable discussion will allow participants to examine the road to Partnership as one that requires equal ownership of the process by both older and newer leaders of the firm. This model of shared ownership asks experienced Partners to strategize in growing and harvesting the next generation of leadership together with future firm leaders. A culture of empowerment and self-driven responsibility proves to be the soil for emerging practitioners (EPs) to not only bloom, but to take roots in the firm. From the EP side, the session explores how to emerge as a partner in a fashion that fits him/her personally. Managing Partner of Bialosky + Partners Architects, Jack A. Bialosky, Jr, AIA, LEED AP, will host this roundtable with David W. Craun, AIA, LEED AP, who made history when he earned the first intern-to-partner promotion in the firm. Mike Schuster, FAIA, LEED AP, Founding Principal of MSA Architects and AIA Ohio Immediate Past President and Aaron Hill, AIA, Partner at Richard Fleischman + Partners Architects and AIA Cleveland President-Elect will join other architects at various career milestones from around the state to join the discussion.

August 14, 2014

Job Openings: Architect & Engineer at Bialosky + Partners Architects

ARCHITECT: Bialosky + Partners Architects, an AIA Ohio Gold Medal Firm and Northcoast 99 Winner as one of the “99 Best Places To Work” is seeking registered architects with 7-12 years of experience to enhance our collaborative team. Applicants must demonstrate a proven track record of technical excellence in the production of construction documents for complex projects in which quality design is a priority. Experience leading project teams and managing consulting engineers is essential. Proficiency in AutoCAD, Revit, and other digital design technologies is also required. Please submit resumes and recent project examples to the following e-mail address: bialosky@bialosky.com. No phone calls please.

ENGINEER: Bialosky + Partners Architects, an AIA Ohio Gold Medal Firm and Northcoast 99 Winner as one of the “99 Best Places To Work” is seeking a versatile licensed Mechanical Engineer with 10-15 years of experience. The selected candidate must be comfortable working alongside our architects on a daily basis, as he/she will lead the integration and coordination of both internal and external engineering into our design process.  Applicants should be entrepreneurial and driven individuals willing to step outside the traditional role of systems engineering. The selected candidate will lead a new collaborative design approach with balanced consideration given to both architectural form and engineering function. Applicants should also possess excellent communication skills, electrical & plumbing experience, energy modeling and passive design experience in addition to displaying proficiency in AutoCAD, Revit, and other digital design technologies. Please submit resumes and recent project examples to the following e-mail address: bialosky@bialosky.com. No phone calls please.

July 30, 2014

Jack Bialosky Jr.’s “Beyond the Menorah” featured in Faith & Form

We are excited to share that Senior Principal at Bialosky + Partners Architects, Jack Bialosky Jr., AIA, LEED AP, has an article featured in Volume 47, Issue 2 of Faith & Form: The Interfaith Journal on Religion, Art, and Architecture, titled Beyond the Menorah - The Ner Tamid as the Second Source of Light in Jewish Sacred Space. While the imagery surrounding Chanukah, the Jewish feast of re-dedication and the festival of lights, is well-known – the miraculous story of a single day’s worth of oil burning for 8 days and nights in the Temple.  But beyond this story lies the lesser-known origins of the lamp itself, the Ner Tamid. Read the article here: http://faithandform.com/feature/beyond-menorah/

Jack A. Bialosky, Jr. featured article in Faith and Form, Beyond the Menorah

Cover of Faith & Form - The Interfaith Journal on Religion, Art, and Architecture Volume 47 Issue 2 / Image of "Cario, September 30, 2012" from the "Be Still" series by Kristen Bedford

Inspired by a pine cone, the Ner Tamid at Suburban Temple Kol Ami hangs a copper-crocheted tapestry. Both the Ner Tamid and Suburban Temple were originally designed by Jack A. Bialosky Sr. in the 1950s.

This issue of Faith & Form includes Alexander Gorlin, FAIA on his recent addition and renovation to Louis Kahn's Temple Beth-el in Chappaqua, New York; Bert Daelemans, S.J.sharing his thoughts on the use of Christian imagery in Tadao Ando's religious projects, among other features! Read the full issue here: http://faithandform.com/feature/

May 22, 2014

Meet Chelsey Finnimore

Bialosky + Partners Architects welcomes our newest team member, graphic designer and Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) graduate (Communication Design BFA ’13) Chelsey Finnimore. Growing up Chelsey wanted to be a fashion designer, a writer or a detective. Combining her creativity, a passion for communicating, and a strong desire for problem solving, graphic design seemed like an obvious choice. Chelsey’s skill set will come in handy if the office decides well designed private detective work is a lucrative market. At CIA, Chelsey’s Communication Design program included an emphasis in Fiber and Material Studies. This interest in the digital and tactile resulted in developing skills in silk-screening. One such project included a series of “fake products”, like the Apocalypse Survivor Backpack. Backpack contents included tools like bug spray to protect one from giant locusts, and a rope with carabineer set in case of accidental accession. The project was a commentary on the role of technology becoming a hindrance to our survival in times of crisis.

Be Prepared For Anything... With Chelsey Finnimore's Apocalypse Backpack!

Be Prepared For Anything... With Chelsey Finnimore's Apocalypse Backpack!

Chelsey’s favorite professor at CIA was Graphic Design professor, Gene Pawlowski. Chelsey learned from Professor Pawlowski’s “old school” style of teaching typography. He was detailed orientated, pushing his students to be specific and precise in their designs. Chelsey’s favorite class with him was a Hand Made Bookmaking Class. The class included learning and using tons of ancient gadgets for bookmaking. Chelsey is continuously striving to find a legitimate use for the font Adobe Giddy Up in her work. She loves storytelling and believes that great design can be used to tell great stories. Her dream project would be to design a coffee table book of objects organized neatly in rainbow order.

Adobe Giddy Up aka the New Comic Sans.

Prior to joining the team at Bialosky + Partners, Chelsey worked at Agnes Studio where she had interned since 2011. In addition to her work at Agnes, she has worked on freelance projects for Case Western Reserve University, Cuyahoga Community College, and Reclaimed Cleveland. Chelsey was attracted to the Bialosky team, as many of her favorite projects bridge the gap between the digital realm and the real world as tactile objects. This could be through environmental design or other means, with a particular interest in the ongoing life of projects and materials once the designer’s “scope of services” is complete. She brings value to our team with a multi-disciplinary skill set to engage with print and environmental design in unique ways. A native of Sharon, PA and former elevator operator at The World’s Largest Off-Priced Ladies’ Fashion store. Chelsey spent much of her childhood making “bad” fan websites for her favorite bands. Chelsey currently resides in Lakewood with her two feline roommates, Steve and Trevor. In her free time she enjoys riding bikes, drawing terrible horses, and telling bad jokes. One day she will own a kayak or a hammock to aid in her favorite hobby: marathon weekend napping.

The Winner - A Sharon, PA legend.

We recently sat down with Chelsey to learn a little more:  Favorite designed object / project in the last year (could be a building, piece of graphic design, product design, etc.): I am a huge fan of pretty much anything Vallee Duhamel has produced in the last year—super playful graphic and motion design. I love to see designers bringing in tactile/handmade elements into their work.

Cover art and album design for the album Bellevue, from Montreal electro-jazz band Misteur Valaire.

Hidden talent: Not so much a hidden talent as much as a deep dark secret—I played bass in a sludge metal band called “Lightning Bug Collection” in high school. And I can solve a rubik's cube in a minute and a half. Alternate  Reality Career: A florist or a CIA agent. If You Could Have Dinner With One Architect or Designer, who would it be and where or what would dinner be? Spaghetti with Massimo and Leila Vignelli off of their Heller dinnerware followed by an intense game of Risk and fashion parade of Leila’s jewelry.

Chelsey's table setting for dinner with Massimo and Leila Vignelli would look something like this.

We’re ignorant architects. What is the different between a typeface and a font? The best analogy I’ve ever heard for explaining the difference is that typeface is to song as MP3 is to font. Typeface refers to the design of the letter forms where as font refers to the physical (or digital) means for reproducing a letter. Bonus sub-question: Legendary designer Massimo Vignelli once said a designer should only use 5 typefaces (bodoni, helvetica, times roman, century and futura) in their career. Is he right or crazy? I obviously love Vignelli and think he’s pretty on point with this—while I love playing with new typefaces, I find that most that really stay with me are offshoots of those “classic” five.

Bialosky Announces Transition Plan

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