Mic Patterson Named FTI’s Ambassador of Innovation & Collaboration
The Facade Tectonics Institute announced that Mic Patterson has been named to the post of Ambassador of Innovation & Collaboration. Patterson is a co-founder and former President of the Institute, and accepted this posting after passing the mantle of presidency to President Elect Dr. Helen Sanders. Both Patterson and Sanders were named to the institute’s College of Fellows in 2016.
USC Professor Douglas Noble, the Institute’s Managing Director, commented that the position was a new one to the Institute, and one inspired by Patterson himself. “As co-founder and Inaugural President, Mic has been instrumental in the formation and early development of the Institute. The FTI President is elected from membership to a one-year posting, and we wanted to perpetuate Mic’s unique involvement in the Institute. He has a career history of promoting innovation and collaboration in the building industry. The position is basically about Mic being Mic.”
Asked about his plans in this new position, Patterson provided the following statement:
I’m deeply honored to play this role for the Institute, it’s a great opportunity, not to mention the coolest title I’ve ever had! But seriously, it’s a huge challenge. The building facade is pivotal to achieving a sustainable built environment. The mission of the Institute is to leverage the art, science, and technology of the building skin in this pursuit. Facilitating this transformation will require a crazy amount of innovation throughout the building industry, an industry with recognized reluctance to investing in vital research and development, and an industry known more for competition than collaboration. FTI is a research institute, with the opportunity to pool industry resources in collaborative strategic research initiatives under its umbrella. Using the Institute as a base for deep industry innovation and collaboration is a very exciting prospect, with real potential to move the ball down the field.
Patterson is currently the Director of Strategic Development for Schüco-USA, headquartered in Newington, Connecticut. Schüco is an Inner Circle member of the Institute. Patterson works from Schüco’s Virtual Construction Lab (VCL) in New York City, a studio that he founded for Schüco with his long-term business partner, TJ DeGanyar. The VCL hosts a multidisciplinary team of designers focused on advanced facade product development and applications. Patterson and DeGanyar were founding principals of ASI Advanced Structures, a pioneering firm that introduced structural glass facade technology in the US in the early 1990s, completing many landmark high transparency facades such as the cable net wall at the Time Warner Center in New York City. ASI was acquired by Enclos in 2007, where the pair formed the Advanced Technology Studio of Enclos, a design-assist and research & development team within the Enclos organization.
In addition to FTI, Patterson is co-founder of the Facades+ conference series. He is on the technical research committee for GlassCon Global, and served on the Advisory Group of the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat from 2013-2016. He has been twice named among the industry’s most influential by US Glass magazine. He is currently a PhD candidate in the University of Southern California School of Architecture with a research focus on sustainable facade renovation practices. He has taught, written extensively, and lectured internationally on diverse aspects of advanced facade technology. He is the author of Structural Glass Facades and Enclosures.
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