Committee on Design

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  • 1.  Gunnar Birkerts

    Posted 09-12-2025 03:21 AM

    I am inside Gunnar's Latvian National Library in Riga.  It is magnificent!  I was last here when it was under construction and it seemed terribly out of scale with Riga. The city has grown up around it and it now fits.  It is apparently well-loved and used and a source of Latvian national pride.  Across the River is a museum that is purported to also have been designed by  Birkerts.  I will check it out and report.  Maybe some of us who campaigned for Gunnar to receive the Gold Medal should have tried harder.

    be well, all



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    Mike Mense FAIA
    Architect, Writer, Planner, Painter
    mmenseArchitect
    mensenyc on Instagram
    Hamilton Heights, NYC and Snohomish WA
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  • 2.  RE: Gunnar Birkerts

    Posted 09-13-2025 01:35 PM

    Sounds great! I could look it up I guess, but anyway I wonder if this forum has any method for sharing images?  I checked and just say in the task bar above about a third of the way across that bar above and on the lower level I place my curser on it and it shows 'insert-edit images'  

    It seems impossible to me that Gunnar did not become more highly recognized than he was. he certainly was very good and very forward looking.



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    Roy F. Knight, FAIA, NCARB
    Practitioner, Architecture and Urban Design Consultant
    Knight Associates
    Tallahassee, Florida, USA
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