Interview with Mark Wagner - Episode 95

As Built

Mark Wagner, AIA, is a Principal at Davis Brody Bond, a Page/ Company. Based in New York City, Mark has deep experience in the design of cultural and public spaces. His portfolio includes the National September 11 Memorial Museum, the World Trade Center Archive, the National Park Service Ellis Island Emergency and Long-Term Museum Collections and Storage, and the Hall of Gems at the American Museum of Natural History. In this episode, Mark talks with Patience Jones about the roles that empathy and memory play in the design of public cultural spaces. They also discuss Davis Brody Bond’s own history of work and founding architect J. Max Bond, Jr.’s role in designing the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta.

Highlights:

• What inspired Mark to become an architect
• A leadership view of the organizational transition when Davis Brody Bond joined forces with multidisciplinary design, architecture, and engineering firm Page/
• How intentionality is expressed in design
• Managing dual states of empathy and emotional distance to achieve design goals
• The ways in which cultural buildings both reflect and shape our memories
• What public ownership of a space really means
• How cultural space design has changed over the last five years, and where it's headed in the next five

Episode Resources:

Connect with Brian Jones and Patience Jones

• https://www.linkedin.com/company/graphicmachine/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-jones-graphicmachine/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/patiencejones/

Connect with Mark Wagner, AIA

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-wagner-8a1242a/
• https://www.davisbrodybond.com/mark-wagner

Read More About Mark’s Work

• “Preserving Emotion and Memory: The Case for Combining Memorials and Museums”
• “Beyond the Rubble: How the 9/11 Museum Redefined Building Impact and Cultural Resonance”