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Today's News - June 2, 2006

Charities are discovering the benefits of good design. -- Mayne's big plans for downtown New Orleans (with pix this time). -- A word of warning from Prince Charles about Edinburgh's "shortsighted commercialism." -- Not just another "dumb box": a Halifax hotel/condo shows the future of tall buildings in Canada. -- RISD scales back Moneo museum design: "Sometimes less really is more." -- Scaled-back plan for yachtsman's memorial in New Zealand is "still a bit spooky." -- Rochon's take on the Seven Wonders of the World. -- Next Generation prize-winner tries transformation from digital to reality. -- With PBS series on sustainable architecture launching tonight, Hawthorne pulls no punches about what it's going to take to make it fundamental (move over, famous aging architects). -- Weekend diversions: the Guggenheim offers Hadid and her "cosmopolitanism that is hard put to assert itself in our dark age." -- Erickson, Canada's "concrete poet," in a retrospective in Vancouver. -- de Botton waxes poetic about Architecture Week in the U.K. -- SoundaXis offers 11 days of exploration of the intimate relationship between music and architecture. -- Two takes on Gehry flick. -- Kamin takes us on a tour of Sullivan's "gems of the prairie." -- Three tomes of design classics by everyone from the ubiquitous anonymous to the stars.

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Building With a Mission: Charities find that good design benefits the people they serve: ...heightened interest in design and architecture comes at a time when an increasing number of people in those fields...are seeking ways to use their skills to benefit society. -- Association for Community Design; Enterprise Community Partners; Habitat for Humanity; Center for Health Design; Architecture for Humanity- The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Downtown Revitalization Plan for New Orleans Unveiled: $715 million, 20-acre multiuse center and park that will include a refurbished Hyatt Hotel, the National Jazz Center, a new city hall, civic courthouse, amphitheater, and residential buildings. -- Thom Mayne/Morphosis; Ray Manning [images]- Architectural Record

Edinburgh at risk of being 'clone city', says Charles: ...warned that the Scottish capital is at risk [of] losing its status as a beacon of excellence if it does not seek to address "shortsighted commercialism"...should be regarded as a model for new development...across the world...- The Scotsman (UK)

'Twisted Sisters' not just another dumb box: Halifax hotel/condo shows the direction of Canadian design of tall buildings... it's looking increasingly as if curves, billows and twists will constitute our new millennium's signature style... By John Bentley Mays -- Hariri Pontarini- Globe and Mail (Canada)

Rhode Island School of Design breaks ground today on Chace Center: ...scaled-back design has made the $43-million project "a better building"...provide a long-desired downtown entrance for RISD's Museum of Art... -- Rafael Moneo- Providence Journal (Rhode Island)

Swap Saint for Sir Peter in memorial: Three years ago...the national museum, Te Papa, proposed to honour murdered yachtsman Sir Peter Blake by building a great glass mausoleum...Te Papa is now back with plans for a more modest, $8 million memorial instead...For a born sceptic, it's all a bit spooky. -- Pete Bossley Architects- New Zealand Herald

Seven Wonders of the World: Lisa Rochon favours Gehry's Guggenheim, Le Corbusier's chapel and other structures, both modern and ancient, for their beauty and clarity -- Barragan; Louis Kahn- Globe and Mail (Canada)

Out of the Computer: Virginia San Fratello tries to convert her Next Generation prize-winning proposal for a Hydro Wall from digital rendering to material prototype. [images]- Metropolis Magazine

For architects, green design is in full bloom: ...sustainable architecture...a Brad Pitt-narrated series “Design e2: The Economies of Being Environmentally Conscious”...most effective when it acknowledges that sustainable architecture will become the norm...when universities decide...to make green design a fundamental part of architectural education. Or when the famous architects in their 60s and 70s, who as a generation could hardly care less about sustainability, finally shuffle off into retirement. By Christopher Hawthorne- Los Angeles Times

Zaha Hadid: A Diva for the Digital Age: ...defiant cosmopolitan vision...is as close to a manifesto for the future as we have...By collecting such disparate strands into one vision, she defiantly embraces a cosmopolitanism that is hard put to assert itself in our dark age. By Nicolai Ouroussoff [slide show]- New York Times

Concrete poet: "Arthur Erickson: Critical Works"... As a new Vancouver Art Gallery retrospective shows, Erickson’s buildings are an integral part of the local landscape...[he] hasn’t got anything good to say about postmodernism...- Georgia Straight (Canada)

Guest Editor: June is the time for Architecture Week and the Architecture Biennale...What’s always been special...is their playfulness...an exuberant carnivalesque mood takes hold...But alongside the fun, there’s a process of architectural education at work. By Alain de Botton- London Architecture Diary

Set your sites: The intimate relationship between music and architecture will be revealed during the 11 days of SoundaXis. Some notable sites... -- Iannis Xenakis; Philip Johnson; John Burgee/Niels Jordan; Adamson and Associates- Toronto Star

“Sketches of Frank Gehry”: Gehry is smart enough to know he may well be the greatest architect of his time and insecure enough not to admit it — even to himself.- San Mateo Daily Journal (California)

Geniuses at work - both subject and storyteller: ...the brilliance of the thoroughly engaging documentary "Sketches of Frank Gehry" is that it allows us to believe creation involves futzing with torn paper.- Denver Post

Small-town [Louis] Sullivan: Exploring his twilight treasures: They are gems of the prairie, a brilliant series of buildings...tucked in hidden corners of the Midwest at the bitter end of his enormously influential career. By Blair Kamin- Chicago Tribune

Household heroes: Anonymous creators vie with celebrities in a list of classics...many have high hopes that "Phaidon Design Classics" will do for design what Alain de Botton's book, "The Architecture of Happiness," has done for buildings.- Sydney Morning Herald

So Tall: International High-Rise Prize 2006 Goes to Barcelona's Torre Agbar by Jean Nouvel -- Commendations to: Calatrava; Delugan Meissl Architects; mecanoo architecten; and Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop [images]- ArchNewsNow

Competition winner: Henning Larsens Tegnestue: Georgian Choreographic Centre, Tbilisi, Georgia

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