Michael Welton is the author of “Drawing from Practice: Architects and the Meaning of Freehand” (Routledge: 2016). He writes about architecture, art and design for national and international publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Metropolis and Dwell. He also writes and edits a digital design magazine at www.architectsandartisans.com,
Welcome to Future Talks by RTF, where we engage in inspiring conversations with visionaries who breathe life into design stories. In our upcoming session, we are thrilled to host J. Michael Welton, a distinguished author renowned for his work “Drawing from Practice: Architects and the Meaning of Freehand” (Routledge: 2016).
Welton’s insightful perspectives on architecture, art, and design have graced the pages of prestigious publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Metropolis, and Dwell. As the curator of a digital design magazine, www.architectsandartisans.com, Welton continues to be a significant voice in the world of design.
Join us as we delve into his wealth of experiences and unravel the narratives that shape the future of architecture and creativity.
RTF: Hi Mike, We are glad to have you as a guest on Future Talks by RTF. Thanks for joining us. Tell us about your professional journey and how you started writing about architecture and design.
Mike: I come from a family of Virginia architects. My grandfather graduated from Columbia University in 1915, and settled in Richmond, where he practiced in the Georgian Revival and Tudor Revival styles through the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s. My father was a 1949 graduate of the University of Virginia’s A-School and practiced his own brand of modernism through the mid-1960s.
I studied journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University and in 1976 was elected managing editor, then executive editor, of the student newspaper, the Commonwealth Times. Appalled at this urban university’s penchant for tearing down entire blocks of 19th-century Victorian townhomes and replacing them with windowless brick boxes, the CT sponsored a “Broken T-Square Competition” in 1977, inviting readers to vote for the worst new building on campus and noting that only one could be a loser. It was my initial foray into architectural criticism.
My first job out of school in 1978 was in the corporate communications department for Best Products, a Fortune 500 retailer. The company’s founders were avid collectors of contemporary art, and extended that enthusiasm to the firm’s retail showrooms. Best was known for hiring James Wines and SITE to create brick facades for showrooms that appeared to be crumbling, tilting and peeling. One building’s corner rolled out on a rail in the morning to open for business and slid back in at night to close. The firm hired Venturi and Rauch to design a showroom decorated with oversized red, white and yellow flowers on a green background, applied to the exterior’s porcelain-enamel-on-steel cladding. The corporate headquarters were designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer in 1980. It housed part of the founders’ art collection with works by Warhol, Stella and Gottlieb, among others, and was essentially a museum in which people worked.
Part of my job was to interpret this program of unusual architecture to the media, the architecture journals, the real estate and business communities, and the public at large.
Later, I would work in public relations, crisis communications and media relations for a number of advertising agencies in Virginia, Kansas and Kentucky. In 2005, I embarked on a second career as an architecture writer for national and international publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Dwell and Metropolis.
I established my own digital design magazine, www.architectsandartisans.com, in 2010, and have been writing about architecture there three days a week since. From 2015 to 2020, I served as architecture critic for The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. I also authored a book on architects who draw by hand, “Drawing from Practice: Architects and the Meaning of Freehand,” (Routledge: 2015). It features the evolution of drawings and buildings by 26 architects, including Peter Bohlin, Tom Kundig, Deborah Berke, Frank Harmon and Phil Freelon.
My most recent freelance architecture pieces have included an article on the restoration of Thomas Jefferson’s retreat, Poplar Forest, in The Washington Post, a profile of rockstar landscape architect Thomas Woltz in Virginia Living and a feature on the restoration of the Boston Athenaeum for Traditional Building.
RTF: How do you consider the importance of building a personal brand as a writer or editor apart from the organisations that one works for? Can these go hand-in-hand?
Mike: They absolutely go hand-in-hand. Building a personal brand as a writer means developing your own voice. Some coaches advocate adapting a writer’s voice to the tone of the publication he or she is writing for, and that could work for those starting out. But with time and experience comes a voice that belongs only to the writer. And people respond positively to it. I once received an email from a public relations director for an international architecture firm in New York who wrote: “We like the way you write. Will you pitch the renovation of the Douglas House to Dwell magazine?” My query resulted in a 2011 cover story, and more recently, an extensive text for the historic home’s website at www.douglashouse.org.
It’s important to know a publication’s editorial profile and understand its brand, but a writer’s own natural voice is a one-of-a-kind asset. It’s the cornerstone of a writer’s platform, whether applied to magazines, newspapers, books, videos, talks or websites.
RTF: How has the content published been impacted by the presence of social media? What are the ‘positives’ and ‘negatives’ of it?
Mike: The positives lie in the immediacy and access to online content, the possibility of a post going viral instantly and the ability for a writer to establish a voice that’s known and recognizable in a relatively short period. Two negatives that come immediately to mind are reduced writing fees and a preponderance of anonymous comments that can veer away from a post’s or feature’s content into irrelevant political babble.
RTF: With many pitches coming your way, how do you approach them? And what grabs your attention in the pitch?
Mike: For A+A, I have set the design bar fairly high. Recent posts have addressed SOM’s restoration of the exterior of Gordon Bunshaft’s groundbreaking 1952 Lever House in Manhattan, a re-post of my compilation of Ocean Home magazine’s 2023 Top Coastal Architects and a collaboration between a high-end mosaic studio and a detail-obsessed outdoor furniture manufacturer.
The Lever House pitch came to me from one of the top architecture public relations firms in New York; the coastal architects compilation was assigned to me by the editor of Ocean Home; and the mosaics/furniture piece was the result of a longstanding relationship I’ve had with the public relations professional who represents the mosaics studio.
What grabbed my attention for each post was that the subjects towered above the competition. Bunshaft’s Lever House is an architectural masterpiece. I’ve personally selected the architects included in Ocean Home’s top coastal architects listing for the past five years, adding new ones annually. The collaboration between two of Virginia’s leading makers – one for mosaics and the other for furniture – was an outside-the-box design experiment.
What’s grabbed my attention in feature writing for print over the past few years are pitches about the capacity for landscape architecture to heal our environment. So I’ve responded to pitches about a shoreline restoration of a resort in Virginia’s Northern Neck for Metropolis, the restoration of Pollocksville, N.C. by N.C. State’s Coastal Dynamics Design Lab after a major hurricane for The Assembly and North Carolina’s response to sea-level rise in the Virginia Sportsman.
RTF: What has your approach been like throughout your career?
Mike: I am by nature curious. I want to know how things work, who the people behind them are and what their thinking is. In a feature on the restoration of Jefferson’s Poplar Forest for Virginia Living, I opened with a lengthy scene of three 21st-century paint conservators working from a 19th-century treatise to mix pigments with water and chalk and create a liquid that was a precise replica of the paint that makers created for the retreat’s parlor in the early 1800s. I had spent an entire afternoon at Poplar Forest watching them do it and taking notes.
RTF: What would you suggest the aspiring designers and creatives who wish to get their feature published in the top publications? What are some challenges in doing so?
Mike:Relationship building over time with editors and writers is a must. Excellent communications skills are also important – and prompt follow-up. The challenge is that designers, architects and creatives aren’t trained to do any of these things. And besides, their business is designing, not pitching and writing. So if a designer or creative doesn’t have the skills, the chops or the discipline to pitch or write, hiring a professional communicator – either a staff member or a respected outside practitioner – is the way to go.
RTF: What does it take for writers and editors to be on the bandwagon and put up relevant content constantly?
Mike: Every editor I work with has a different approach to working with writers. Some respond to pitches immediately, and some not at all. Some assign stories to me while others expect me to understand their publications and bring relevant ideas to them. Some barely touch the content that I send them, while others will have a number of editors review it over a period of weeks. Exclusive offering of an interesting story idea can often be the key to success.
RTF: What are some challenges that the interviews and general exchanges with architects and designers present?
Mike: Most of the architects and designers I interview want to have questions sent to them in advance. Some writers are opposed to that, but I believe it’s helpful – though unanticipated follow-up questions often present themselves.
The biggest challenge for a professional journalist occurs when an architect or designer requests to see an article before it’s published. It’s important for them to understand that what they’re asking for is not only unethical for a journalist, but would likely get him or her fired from working for that publication again. Minimal fact-checking from the writer for accuracy is one thing, but pre-publication reviews are verboten.
RTF: We would like to get your idea of a good pitch and how you differentiate between a ‘positive’ and a ‘negative’ approach from the writers and artists.
Mike: Here’s a recent pitch that was both commercial and self-serving – and deleted immediately:
Celebrity homes such as Rod Stewart’s beautiful Beverly Park mansion, Jim Carrey’s longtime Los Angeles home, Gisele Bündchen’s Florida equestrian ranch, the New Orleans home that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie bought in 2006 to serve as a base for their Make it Right Foundation, Elton John’s longtime Atlanta residence, Robin Williams’ San Francisco home, the Miami home that Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner sold just a few weeks before they filed for divorce, Jacqueline Kennedy’s Georgetown home, Paul Anka’s Thousand Oaks mansion and Bob Dylan’s home in Scotland.
And here’s one that worked because of its subject matter, its pedigree and its history:
Today, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), joins Brookfield Properties and WatermanCLARK, LLC in celebrating the completion of the newly renovated and restored Lever House, an icon since it was completed in 1952. At the time of its completion, Reyner Banham said of the building “it gave architectural expression to an age just as the age was being born.” Since then, the landmark has been under the care of SOM for over 70 years, a level of stewardship that is unprecedented in the architectural profession.
RTF: What are the essential components of a media kit according to you?
Mike: A news release, a fact sheet, a sourcing sheet, high-res images, low-res images, and a contact with a direct line.
Thank you so much for doing this interview with us. It has been a pleasure getting to know about you and your work. We’re sure that your insights will be highly valuable to our audience which includes architects and design students.
