Hernan Diaz Alonso introduces Mónica Ponce de Léon of MPdL Studio, praising her unique ability to combine prescient research within the academy with a thriving practice.
Mónica Ponce de Léon proposes that the power of architecture is in putting out alternatives. She describes her concern with working within the discipline and with disciplinary tools, knowing how things are made, experimenting with new tools, re-imagine assembly. She discusses important issues such as tolerance, precision, thinness, tectonics, and part to whole. The goal is to re-imagine not only buildings but space.
Ponce de Léon discusses several projects, including:
• Helios House gas station, Los Angeles (2007)
• A high-rise cafeteria/restaurant, in which services are connected by a panelized ceiling
• Own house approached as a single-family home as container that anticipates multiple futures (in process)
• Pompano Beach Library and Cultural Center (2018)
• Conrad Hotel, Battery Park City, NYC (2013), a redesign of 1986 building, focusing on the tall, narrow atrium dominated by a mural-size Sol LeWitt drawing.
She concludes with a short video of the Conrad Hotel atrium.
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