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Today's News - October 10, 2006

It's a Denver kind of day: ArcSpace brings us spectacular photos of Libeskind's Denver Art Museum. -- Opinions by Kamin, King, and Voelz Chandler about the new addition include soaring highs and lamentable lows. -- MacMillan's take on losing Holl courthouse: a "blow" to Denver's national standing. -- It's a case of city-says-he-says as to why Holl pulled out. -- Dunlop has high hopes for Miami Art Museum (even though location is poor choice). -- Goldberger offers lessons in how to use - and not use - Gehry. -- Ouroussoff on Foster's new Madison Ave. tower: it may infuriate some, but no denying it's a marvel. -- Pei's return to China "a possible swan song and a second chance." -- Kamin minces no words about Chicago's new, "bloated" mega-mansions. -- Becker begs to differ -- or at least considers it a bit of "reverse snobbery." -- Hadid to Glancey: "I don't do nice." -- Dyckoff offers Stirling odds. -- NYT's Design 2006 special (many articles, you pick). -- Two we choose: Muschamp on cloud buildings now "wafting across urban skies. -- Two takes on Kundig's industrial strength dream buildings. -- Whimsical winners from around the world in British beach hut competition.

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Studio Daniel Libeskind with Davis Partnership: Frederic C. Hamilton Building, Denver Art Museum; photographed by John Boak/Cubistro

Rocky Mountain highs -- and lows: Libeskind's Denver Art Museum addition is a spectacular urban presence but doesn't soar as a showcase...all too often in this building the art is forced to accommodate the architecture rather than the other way around. By Blair Kamin -- Davis Partnership- Chicago Tribune

Denver design bodes well for S.F. Jewish Museum: Libeskind's Denver Art Museum addition...It's great theater rather than great architecture. But at his Contemporary Jewish Museum, there's the chance to achieve both. By John King -- Davis Partnership; WRNS Studio- San Francisco Chronicle

Libeskind-designed museum puts Denver on the map: The exuberant, blossoming, titanium-clad museum...is a brilliant container for art and a stunning work itself...In one camp are those who revel in the flamboyance...On the other are those looking for more restraint and severity...But this much is clear: the Hamilton Building is an outstanding achievement, no matter your perspective. By Mary Voelz Chandler- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Loss of Holl doesn't do city justice: ...After this blow to [Denver's] national standing, the city needs great architecture more than ever. By Kyle MacMillan -- klipp- Denver Post

Costly design cited in architect's exit: Justice center plans came in $30 million over budget, city says...Holl, however, blames the city for his leaving.- Rocky Mountain News (Denver)

Art direction: Choice of architects could lead to greatness for Miami Art Museum -- if they do right by us...Herzog and de Meuron will be a great choice only if a great building follows. Miami already has its share of not-great buildings by great architects... By Beth Dunlop- Miami Herald

Gehry-Rigged: Two New York projects show how to use Frank Gehry and how not to...he clearly needs commissions that spur new discoveries rather than clients who just want his name on their projects. By Paul Goldberger- New Yorker

Injecting a Bold Shot of the New on the Upper East Side: Norman Foster’s design for 980 Madison Avenue may well infuriate people, but you cannot help but marvel at the project’s sophistication as a work of architecture. By Nicolai Ouroussoff [images]- New York Times

I.M. Pei in China, Revisiting Roots: ...the sprawling white stucco museum that opened to great fanfare in China over the weekend is both a possible swan song and a second chance. [images]- New York Times

Exercises in isolationism: I don't typically take aim at houses. But I have no problem going after the mega-mansions...They're turning what was a vibrant urban neighborhood into a collection of bloated, physically isolated, suburban-style manses...How strange-and sad-that so many could spend so much and in doing so, still cheapen the public realm. By Blair Kamin [slide show]- Chicago Tribune

Chicago's Orchard Street - Urban Menace? ...There is a kind of reverse snobbery going on here...The rich are no more prone to bad taste than the rest of us. They just have a lot more money with which to indulge it. By Lynn Becker [images, links]- Repeat (Chicago)

"I don't do nice": Zaha Hadid has created spectacular buildings all over the world - but never in Britain. As her first UK work is unveiled, she talks to Jonathan Glancey about the trials of being a woman architect, and why her new designs are inspired by the swamplands of southern Iraq- Guardian (UK)

So what is Stirling stuff? Second-guessing the Stirling Prize judges can be a tricky business...Does it go to the prettiest? The most thrilling? To the architect most deserving? Or, old-fashioned notion this, to the building that best fulfils its brief, be it a bicycle shed or a cathedral? By Tom Dyckoff -- Rogers; Caruso St John; Hopkins; Adjaye; Hadid- The Times (UK)

Design Fall 2006 -- Pierre Chareau; Hadid; Kundig; Zeisel; etc. [articles, images, slideshows]- New York Times Style Magazine

The Cumulus Effect: Cloud buildings today offer redemption by architecture...It showers cultural prestige and the economic benefits that flow from it. By Herbert Muschamp -- Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Hadid; Coop Himmelb(l)au; Alsop; REX; Fuksas; Asymptote; Maltzan; Peter Cook/Colin Fournier- New York Times Style Magazine

Industrial Strength: When an architect known for tough-as-steel houses designs one of his own, the results is powerful, but refined, too. By Pilar Viladas -- Tom Kundig/Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen [slide show]- New York Times Style Magazine

Dream Builders: Tom Kundig/Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects...a rarity in architecture, yet also part of an emerging breed: a hybrid who combines highbrow architectural credibility and a distinctly contemporary architectural vocabulary... By Andrew Blum (Pursuits)- AndrewBlum.net

Bathing Beauties: Winning designs in an international competition to 'Re- imagine the Beach Hut for the 21st Century' and 'Beachfront Restaurant & Boathouse' -- Atelier NU; Feix&Merlin; 'i-am' associates; we made that; Thurgood Hobson Design; Amoia Cody Architects [links to images]- Bathing Beauties (UK)

North Carolina Museum of Art Expansion: Skylights and garden galleries create a firmly grounded museum expansion that sits softly on the land. -- homas Phifer and Partners; Peter Walker and Partners [images]- ArchNewsNow

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