TOBIN

09/22/2018

Max Tobin

06/08/2018

Please support public transit; the single most powerful economic development catalyst, anytime, anywhere

https://www.facebook.com/191977716489/posts/10156818409526490/

Don't blame Uber for recent transit ridership drops.

03/08/2018

Studio Project 17_061 is progressing at a methodical pace. Including here a current hint of Option 3

12/30/2017

John Portman Retires

We’ve been working for a client on multiple floors of a Portman building here in Charlotte. With all the disappointing new construction coming up here lately, I consistently hear compliments from all quarters for this new Portman project. Not raves, but genuine compliments that something elegant, simple and pleasing has been added to the Charlotte skyline. It has been our pleasure to work in it.
Portman is an icon and model for the profession. Long live his memory and legacy.
dst

Architect Who Made Skylines Soar Is Dead at Age 93https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/obituaries/john-portman-dead.html

Mr. Portman, who was also a developer, built futuristic office complexes and hotels with towering atriums, transforming cityscapes across the world.

12/28/2017

Uptown Charlotte and near-in neighborhoods now have at least 4 bike share options (docked and dockless). It’s easy, convenient and low cost. Hopefully we’re seeing the beginning of a persistent and sustainable market demand. Ride a bike ya’ll!
dst

The vast majority of Americans who commute to work do so by car, and many policymakers in America’s towns and cities are trying to change this by encouraging more healthy alternatives such as…

12/06/2017

Living and working inward is likely to be a significant, long-term trend; especially as we progress in thinking about the way we get around and where we want to live and work. This is healthy and evidence of a welcome shift away from the worst of the automobile-centric, urban sprawling mindset we've been living.

As businesses leave, developers around the country are considering new uses for office and industrial parks, often lifeless spaces far from restaurants and retail.

11/19/2017

Of all the traditionally public building types, Libraries are among the most reshaped by the Information Age. We're in a transitional time and struggling to understand what Libraries have become and what they will be in the future. How will they will remain relevant and vital as repositories and purveyors of information and knowledge; not museums for quaint antiquities?

Visitors have reported that the books on display are either fake or printed onto the shelving itself. Some have also fallen victim to the uneven stairs.

11/16/2017

Various Projects

11/16/2017

In the course of a year in our studio, we fill our time with any number of assignments for our clients that, by their nature, are confidential, lengthy or so preliminary that they’re not yet suitable for public display. However, when schedules allow, we will pursue “studio projects” for which we ourselves play the role of client. Within the past few years we have adopted several needy city blocks in Charlotte with special challenges and what we consider to have special potential for positive change. We treat the adopted blocks as a blank slate to explore ideas in urban design, materials, massing and detail. The work is a way to stretch the abilities of our staff, learn how to use new tools, examine building types and systems that we may not often work with and have some fun. Watch this space in the coming months as another block, Project 17_061, undergoes some serious but playful analysis and study.

07/08/2017

this is us, take note
DTobin

Weirdly, we’re still building corporate campuses like it’s the 1950s.