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Today's News - January 17, 2006

All those "best-of" year-end reviews spark a sharp look at architectural criticism in mainstream media (you mean Muschamp is not the new Mumford?). -- Dublin's Grand Canal Square will include a striking "red carpet" (with pictures to prove it). -- Abandoned hospitals into housing, but not without battles between developers, activists, and preservationists. -- Chicago color-codes its historic buildings (the Wrigley Building isn't landmarked!). -- MiMo motels on Miami's Biscayne Boulevard in for a renaissance. -- Pratt gets a gem of an architecture school by melding the old with the new. -- What will it take to appease a local deity so plans for a mammoth ski resort in India can move ahead? -- Pittsburgh has high hopes for its first new office tower in almost 20 years. -- Chipperfield dares to revive columns. -- A young Arab Israeli architect hones his craft. -- Want to sell condos? Put your starchitect on a billboard (with the building showing - sort of). -- 1946 steel home needs a home - free for the taking (it's the taking part that'll be costly). -- International call for entries for a Market Square in Newport, Wales.

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Sidewalk Critics: ...the problem with the end-of-year summaries hasn't really to do with any of the individual critics or their surveys; the problem is that these annual lists expose what have become the limitations of the enterprise. By Nancy Levinson- Pixel Points

Squaring up to the future: Landscape artist Martha Schwartz’s arresting designs for Grand Canal Square are like nothing we have ever seen -- Libeskind; Manuel Aires Mateus; Duffy Mitchell O’Donoghue- The Times (UK)

Martha Schwartz's designs for [Dublin's] Grand Canal Square [images]- Archiseek (Ireland)

Abandoned Hospitals for the Mentally Ill Morph Into Housing: While the projects bring benefits, they are often hard to develop...rotting buildings filled with asbestos and lead paint...stigmas about the sites...preservationists who are worried about the fate of historic buildings.- New York Times

Barlow Hospital's Bidding Battle: Developers, activists, preservationists and park advocates are eyeing the 25-acre site...sets up a humdinger of a land-use conflict.- Los Angeles Times

FAT [Fashion, Architecture, and Taste] is a postmodernist issue: British pranksters get serious...has promised much, down the years. Now, it is starting to deliver.. By Hugh Pearman [images]- HughPearman.com (UK)

Why the Berghoff is safe from wrecking ball: City landmarks are a slippery subject. Simple questions get complicated answers, and the final word sometimes isn't...Chicago developed a kind of shadow landmark system by color-coding buildings that might have architectural or historic importance.- Chicago Sun-Times

Vagabond Motel's new owners hope restoring the landmark will inspire a revival of 1950s architecture on Biscayne Boulevard...brightest in a constellation of 1950s boulevard motels...in a style lately christened as MiMo, for Miami Modern. -- Robert M. Swartburg (1953); Teri D'Amico; Allan Shulman- Miami Herald

Where Old and New Collide: By joining two historic buildings, Steven Holl's modern addition to Pratt's architecture school makes a more vibrant campus. By Fred A. Bernstein -- Rogers Marvel Architects [images]- Metropolis Magazine

Ford ski resort plan runs into deity opposition: ...in the process of setting up its ambitious $520 million ski village...may now have to appease the local deity to push through its dream project. -- Zehren and Associates- New Kerala (India)

PNC Plaza designers envision one office tower, two images of Pittsburgh: Architects propose a building that reflects Downtown's past and looks to its future...city's first new Downtown office tower in almost 20 years. By Patricia Lowry -- Gensler; Astorino [image]- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A casualty of war: In the 20th century, classical virtue was hijacked by fascism. Now one modernist working in Germany is daring to revive columns...his newest building a frisson of apostasy. Deyan Sudjic -- David Chipperfield- Observer (UK)

Balancing a Love of the Land and an Escape Fantasy: Few things are more deadly to the career of a budding architect than the lure of the celebrity spotlight...Senan Abdelkader is already demonstrating the kind of patience a young architect needs to master his art. By Nicolai Ouroussoff [images]- New York Times

Architect draws notice: Celebrity designer billboard promotes a capital high-rise -- Daniel Libeskind- Sacramento Bee (California)

Home, steel home: A 1946 prototype of the inexpensive houses that united powerful needs with energetic men is up for grabs in Chester County. -- Oskar G. Stonorov; Louis Kahn; Edmund Bacon- Philadelphia Inquirer

International Open Ideas Competition: Market Square, Newport (Wales) - a renewed place and space; registration deadline: February 23; submissions due March 3- RIBA (UK)

On View: "Santiago Calatrava: The Architect's Studio" at Santa Barbara University Art Museum: Buildings take wing and bulls stampede in an exhibit exploring the architect's design process [images]- ArchNewsNow

Zaha Hadid Architects: BMW Plant Central Building, Leipzig, Germany

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