Tom Sheehan
Sketches and Collaborations
exhibition from April 20 to May 19.2012
Immeuble de Grande Hauteur, Pont d’Issy-Les-Moulineaux © Tom Sheehan
Excerpts of his sketchbooks, Tom Sheehan exhibits a selection of drawings from 1997 to 2012. Sketches as notes, as research or as a condition, are the datum of the carrier of a Parisian creator open to the world.
The sketch is the irreducible instrument of communication for an architect. It resists the test of time and technological progress, it is light, portable and speaks all languages.
A collection of works is also presented to illustrate that, contrary to a sketch, a project is never made alone, but is the product of encounters and camaraderie. These few works testify of the richness and complexity of collaboration.
The sharing of ideas and their transformation into projects is the unique test that allows a draftsman to be architect.
For the occasion of the expo, Tom has invited a few video artists and friends to collaborate on the theme, the origin of projects. Five ephemeral portraits are projected onto the verso of five tangible projects to reveal a certain relationship between the means and their ends, but also endorse the promiscuity of the creative process. The pleasures of making are ends in themselves.
Tom Sheehan, born in San Francisco in 1963, and resident of Paris since 1989, invites you to share the intimacy of his visual notes and to enjoy a few amiable works conceived in good company.
+ BIOGRAPHY
Tom SHEEHAN, was born in San Francisco (California), in 1963. “I started on a building site”. His father, self-taught architect, is the author of numerous outstanding houses around the bay area that he conceived and built himself.
From San Francisco in 1967, he moved into Santa Monica, beach town in the heart of the Los Angeles beatnik movement. Artists, philosophers and tramps marked the end of an unforgettable time.
In 1979, he attended High School in Hong Kong where he received his degree in 1981. Contrary to the Californian relaxed rhythm, Tom realized that, in Hong Kong, “the more you work, the luckier you are”.
Back to California in 1981, Tom starts his engineering studies in Lajola University. He obtains good results, but nevertheless he decides to carry on with architecture studies. Accepted to the Cincinnati University in Ohio, in 1982, he studies for 6 years and discovered the treasures of Middle West America.
In the course of his second year in architecture, he follows his older brother’s advice, John, also architect, who suggests to him to register at the American Fontainebleau Art Schools. During the 1985 session he was awarded the First Prize. It entitles him to be accommodated in the Paris International City of Arts during one year. He works in the Archives Department of the Academy of Architecture and prepares drawings for this own exhibition, in 1986, titled “the found object”.
Back to Ohio, he passed his diploma with distinction in 1988. Determined to further his French experience, he has only one idea into his head, to get back to France. In 1989, he obtained an Assistant job in Fontainebleau with Marion Tournon-Branley and settled down with the intention of staying only three months.
From Fontainebleau to Paris, he worked in the office of Aymeric Zublena for 8 and a half years. Several important projects were confided to him, such as: the Ilkirche Technopole (Science and technology Park), the School of Mining Engineering in Nantes, the Grand Stadium of France and the Suwan Stadium in South Korea. These experiences with those large institutions, particularly sports equipments, give him confidence. In 1997, he left the agency in order to start his own business.
Together, with Franco-Finnish associates, they design the first Football Stadium in Finland, the Finnair Stadium, site of the World Soccer Junior Cup in 2001.
In 2005, the Sports Centre in Issy-les-Moulineaux is inaugurated, the third biggest sports surface in Europe in this time. Realized with Claude and Didier Girardet, the Sports Centre was the first public venue on the scale of the Arc de Seine “Communauté de Communes”.
In 2003, Tom started an association with the architect, Anthony BECHU, which brought about several important successes, such as the China Executive Leadership Academy of Pudong, CHINA, The Moscow Hippodrome, the Expansion of the Monaco Bay, the D² Tower in La Defense.
In 2005, in association with Salah Saïdoune, they create the ATSP agency and join with Christian Bonnaud, in 2007. With about 20 collaborators in France and more than one hundred in Algeria, they realized studies intended to big sports and cultural facilities, numerous tertiary projects, as well as thousands of affordable housing units. Most recently, they have worked together with Pierre Parat and Aydin Guvan on the renovation of the POPB (Palais Omniports de Paris Bercy).
+ Project lists
Sports Center
Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
2005, completed
Partner : Didier & Claude Girardet
Client : Ville d’Issy-les-Moulineaux
Structurale engineering : DVVD
Services engineers : Oger International
Budget : 14,5 m €
Net surface : 10 000 m2
Team : Ingrid Schmit, Cécil Tirard, Marie Gasparini
© Fernando Urquijo photographe
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Grand Mosque
Algiers, Algéria
2008, competition
Client : Agence Nationale de Réalisation et de Gestion de la Mosquée d’Alger
Engineers: Atkins international
Landscape designer : COLOCO Designer : ABDI Design
Scenography : Emmanuel Bourgeois
Art critic : Laurence Farines
Music : Mustapha Mataoui
Net surface : 90 609 m2
Budget : 330 M €
Team : Mario Caceres, Christian Canonico, Carlos Moraga, Monia Ounis, Marie Gasparini, Soufiene Halimi, Dara Sarkari
© Labtop Rendering
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China Executive Leadership Academy
Shangai , China
2005, completed
Association with A. Béchu
Client : CELAP
Structural engineering : DVVD, ECADI
Services engineering : ECADI
Economist : BECAR
Budget : 125 m €
Net surface : 72 000 m²
Team : Mario Caceres, Clément Vala, Tamara Kwist,
Nan Shin
© Fernando Urquijo photographe
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D2 Tower
Paris, France
2009, under construction
Association with A. Béchu
Client : SOGECAP
Developer : Bouygues Immobilier / SOGEPROM
Budget : 168 m €
Net surface : 56 000 m²
© Agence ABTS
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Chengdu City Center
Hong Zhao Bi, China
2011, Concept
Client : Chengdu Longhao real estate co. ltd
Net surface : 310 000m²
Team : Christian Canonico, Mario Caceres, Marie Gasparini, Mehdi Boulkroun, Mohammes Sadaoui, Linda Ait-Belkacem
© ATSP
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High-rise Office Tower
Issy-Les-Moulineaux, France
2011, Competitions
Client : LUXINVEST
Structural partners : IGAPE : Patrice Elluin / GC Ingenerie : Samy Abib /Green Affair : Olivier Jarry / CSD Faces : Sylvain Fournie
Net surface : 68 000 m²
Team : Christian Bonnaud, Marie Gasparini, Linda Ait-Belkacem, Mehdi Boulkroun
© ATSP