{"id":245175,"date":"2012-07-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/newschool-names-christopher-bittner-alumnus-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2012-07-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-07-06T07:00:00","slug":"newschool-names-christopher-bittner-alumnus-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/newschool-names-christopher-bittner-alumnus-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"NewSchool names Christopher Bittner Alumnus of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uptown resident and business owner seeks to keep art in architecture<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Anthony King |\u00a0SDUN Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Golden Hill resident and North Park Main Street board member Christopher Bittner was named NewSchool of Architecture and Design (NSAD) 2012 Alumnus of the Year, receiving the honor at the university\u2019s commencement ceremony on June 23. Bittner graduated from the university in 1997.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very excited and humbled to be selected,\u201d Bittner said. \u201cI am very proud of the education I received at NSAD and to be selected \u2026 when I know there are many worthy candidates, is really something special to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After receiving his bachelor\u2019s degree from NSAD, Bittner launched the firm obrARCHITECTURE in 2008 with Garrick Oliver and Anney Rosenthal-Hall. The group focuses on a broad range of projects including civic, educational, residential and commercial spaces, but keeps their attention focused on cultural projects, art galleries and non-profit work as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NSAD Alumnus of the Year Award recognizes graduates who have advanced the interests and standards of excellence of NSAD through distinctive professions or volunteer careers,\u201d said NSAD President Steve Altman in a press release. \u201cWe are pleased to honor Christopher Bittner this year for his dedication to projects that not only reflect these standards but also exemplify the community service role of architects and designers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bittner served as a faculty member for NSAD, located in downtown San Diego, and currently participates as a juror, critiquing student projects.<\/p>\n

\"NewSchool
Christopher Bittner was honored at NSAD's June 23 ceremony. (Photo courtesy Christopher Bittner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Held at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Bittner called the June 23 ceremony \u201cexceedingly wonderful\u201d and said the event was world class.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit of a shock to be back in an academic setting,\u201d he said. \u201cI have had to take a recess from teaching in order to get my firm up and running the last few years.\u201d Bittner said he admitted to missing teaching and added, \u201cI am looking forward to being able to get back to being involved in academia.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a North Park Main Street (NPMS) board member since October 2010, Bittner was able to participate in the organization\u2019s sustainable North Park master plan, and said he believes he brings an architect\u2019s view to the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy training as an architect allows me to think about issues from different perspectives, from the big picture to the minute [and] from planning and zoning issues that might affect a particular board decision,\u201d he said. \u201cAlso, as a gallery owner and artist, I am in position to help NPMS to continue to grow the art community in North Park.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bittner said he estimates that approximately 70 percent of the work he, Oliver and Rosenthal-Hall do through their firm is for non-profit organizations, and the trio strive to include artistic elements into the company as much as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs artists ourselves, my partners and I always wanted to include an aspect of art in our business plan,\u201d Bittner said. \u201cTo that end, we now maintain a permanent gallery and host a different artist each month.\u201d<\/p>\n

The obrARCHITECTURE office, located at 3817 Ray St. in North Park, serves as the gallery space, showcasing the monthly artists. The group does not require rent or a commission from sales, rather they ask for one donated piece from the featured artist. Near the end of the year, Bittner said they hold an auction, with all proceeds going to Young Audiences of San Diego, a nonprofit promoting architecture in education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt it was a way for us to support art and architecture,\u201d he said, \u201cand we wanted to support art, not profit from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to their other work, Bittner said obrARCHITECTURE is currently in the preliminary phases of three different projects in Uptown, including a residential property in Mission Hills, a restaurant in Hillcrest and a market in Golden Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really excited about designing a project in my own neighborhood, Golden Hill, as I see it growing and maturing much like North Park has over the last few years,\u201d he said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uptown resident and business owner seeks to keep art in architecture By Anthony King |\u00a0SDUN Editor Golden Hill resident and North Park Main Street board member Christopher Bittner was named NewSchool of Architecture and Design (NSAD) 2012 Alumnus of the Year, receiving the honor at the university\u2019s commencement ceremony on June 23. Bittner graduated from […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"NewSchool names Christopher Bittner Alumnus of the Year","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}