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Beyond the Ordinary

The world is full of extraordinary. Join me in exploring all that sparks creativity and change.

latest inspiration posts

February Architect of the Month: Daniel Libeskind

Bold, innovative designs often challenge traditional architectural conventions. Daniel Libeskind, known for his distinctive, avant-garde projects, is an architect, artist, and friend whose provocative work I have admired for many years. Daniel was born in Poland in 1946 to parents who were Holocaust survivors. The family moved to Israel in 1957 and then to New York in 1959 on an immigrant boat. His father worked at a print shop in Lower Manhattan, from where Daniel watched the construction of the World Trade Center in the late 1960s.

600 Canal Place Earns 2022 American Architecture Award

As someone heavily drawn to the “Art & Science of Building,” the work done for Dominion Energy is a remarkable structure to highlight. Like Clayco, Pickard Chilton connects a love for art to the spaces we design and develop – which is one of the reasons why 600 Canal Place was recently awarded a 2022 American Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. Developed by Clayco and Hourigan Construction as a design-build project, Dominion Energy’s new 20-story office tower at 600 Canal Place in downtown Richmond, Virginia, was designed by Pickard Chilton, Kendall Heaton Associates, and OJB Landscape Architecture. The design team created a next-generation workplace that fosters collaboration and sustainability that will help Dominion Energy recruit and retain top talent.

February’s Inspiration of the Month: Mariane Ibrahim’s New Gallery in Mexico City

As I continue to develop Bob Clark Beyond into a platform of connectivity and creativity, I’ll start highlighting an inspiration of the month – dedicated to a person or place that is worth knowing more about. There’s no better person to start with than my friend and gallerist, Mariane Ibrahim, who has just opened her third gallery in Mexico City. Ibrahim was born to Somali parents in New Caledonia but grew up largely in France, and studied advertising before she entered into the art world.

Paul R. Williams: A Black Architectural Pioneer

The movement toward building a racially equitable society that values the power of diversity shouldn’t ever be limited to just one month of the year, and most certainly not the shortest one. Every February, we celebrate Black History Month to highlight the endless contributions Black Americans have made to American society – and the adversity still faced at the hand of it. This month I will take the opportunity to amplify a few black voices and innovators that have inspired me and countless others to put our best foot forward within our communities, passions, and ourselves.

January’s Architect of the Month: HDR

A design-firm specialized in architecture, engineering, environmental and construction services whose work I have admired for many years is HDR Inc. The company’s history spans more than 100 years. Henningson Engineering Company was founded in 1917 in Omaha, Nebraska, by H.H. Henningson, a visionary who cared about rural communities. It was his commitment to people that drove the firm’s incredible growth.

Myrlande Constant’s Paintings with Beads

Myrlande Constant is a Haitian textile artist born in 1968 specializing in Vodou-themed flags. Constant was born in Port-au-Prince, where she learned the art of beading while working with her mother in a wedding dress factory. After quitting that job because her employers wouldn’t pay her, she took a severance pay of knowledge and bags filled with beads – and went on to become one of the most celebrated artists for making Drapo Vodou. Constant started making Vodou flags in the 1990s in an entirely male environment and ultimately became the first woman in Haiti to apply the tambour technique in her work. She radically shifted her nation’s traditional religious art by using glass beads instead of sequins. Constant also prefers constructing large-scale tableaus, describing her work as "painting with beads."

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Cover of the book "Engineering in Plain Sight" by Grady Hillhouse, featuring a colorful illustrated landscape with bridges, tunnels, cranes, roads, and power plants representing various elements of the constructed environment.

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Inspiration

I have always had an insatiable curiosity

What causes me to get out of bed every morning is driven by inspiration. Ever since I was a little boy, I was inspired by my insatiable curiosity, which caused me to be a reader, a thinker, and a dreamer.

I can remember being inspired by seeing Bobby Kennedy on TV and watching videotapes of Martin Luther King Jr., and being deeply saddened by their assassination even though I was only 10 years old when I experienced all of this.

As a little boy, rocket flight was a big thing. I remember being fascinated by the moon and the stars and the astronauts exploring them.As humans we are achieving remarkable things that only a handful of years before were just in the imagination.