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Today's News - December 12, 2006

What constitutes good or bad "messy" urban vitality. - EcoDensity: affordable, sustainable housing based on wise land use. - One of Canada's smartest buildings is a hospital aiming for LEED silver. - A British architect designs his own green home to "prove that you don't have to suffer to be green." - Three new Toronto towers may not be cutting-edge design, but at least they will "rebalance the mix of uses in the wake of a condo boom downtown." - E.T. lands in Texas? No, it's a new billion-dollar stadium for Dallas Cowboys. - Gehry's Miami concert hall is a gutsy attempt to "jolt new life into a languishing art form." - Pelli expansion of Saint Thomas More Chapel at Yale is "stunning." - Two thumbs-up for two V&A projects. - Arch Record picks 10 young design vanguards of 2006. - Q&A with Ray Kappe: sustainable architecture, the future of SCI-Arc, and why he rejects the "living legend" label. - Another take on de Botton's "The Architecture of Happiness." - A look at Gaudi's "almost impossible structures." - Call for entries: Living Steel Architecture Competition for Sustainable Housing (and check out ANN calendar - we have added a number of competitions).

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Which has more "messy vitality," Reston Town Center or Tysons Corner? And what kind of "messy vitality" do we want?...flawed design theories, or ill-conceived public policies regulating land use and urban design, can impede achievement of desired vitality, messy or otherwise. By Roger K. Lewis -- Jane Jacobs; Venturi/Izenour/Scott-Brown- Washington Post

Affordable housing rises on wise use of land: Replace big houses with row houses, apartments... "EcoDensity" initiative, if only it was allowed to proceed, could help reduce housing costs, traffic congestion and create a more sustainable region. By Michael Geller- Vancouver Sun

Green design: just what the doctor ordered: When the 360,000-square-foot Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute opens in Edmonton in the fall of 2007, it will be one of the smartest of Canada's smart buildings...poised to become the first Canadian hospital of its kind to achieve silver LEED... --Stantec; Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz (KMD)- Globe and Mail (Canada)

A green house you grow things on: A roof made of plants is just one unusual feature of Jerry Harratt's mould-breaking home..."I want to prove that you don't have to suffer to be green"... -- Search- Observer (UK)

A Conservative Outlook for Toronto Offices: ...Tall, sleek, and sedate...the three new towers do not challenge the city’s architectural fabric because “after a long drought in office buildings, neither Toronto developers nor the market can make a big statement about design”...will rebalance the mix of uses in the wake of a condo boom downtown... -- WZMH; Adamson Associates/Sweeney Sterling Finlayson; Kohn Pedersen Fox; Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg- Architectural Record

Retro takes a hike in design for a colossal glass house: You may think you've seen the new Dallas Cowboys stadium before...It is highly cinematic and futuristic; it is also a serious piece of contemporary architecture, a rarity in a design-challenged field... By David Dillon -- HKS [image, links]- Dallas Morning News

Cowboys, architects share their vision for new stadium: Its tab has ballooned to $1 billion from the original $650 million estimate...stands to be the second-most-expensive in the National Football League -- HKS [slide show]- Star-Telegram (Dallas/Ft. Worth)

Gehry's See-Through, Online Miami Beach Hall Can Woo Audience: This architectural high-wire act poses enormous risks... It is, however, the gutsiest attempt I know of to jolt new life into a languishing art form. By James S. Russell- Bloomberg News

New Yale center a marraige of Catholicism, intellectualism and design: Full of natural light and detailed carpentry... -- Pelli Clarke Pelli- New Haven Register (Connecticut)

So far, so good for the V&A's transformation: The first step in a £110 million redesign offers a fitting setting for the museum's masterpieces without betraying its educational mission...from a design point of view, the new galleries are a triumph. By Richard Dorment -- Eva Jiricna [slide show]- Telegraph (UK)

Much more than a doll's house: The reopened V&A Museum of Childhood is a fascinating example of the development of museums, architecture and community...a careful and successful reworking of a simple building full of complex ideas...Bethnal Green may still have its problems, but the museum is no longer one of them. -- James Wild (1870s); Caruso St John- Observer (UK)

Design Vanguard 2006: ...the works of this year’s emerging designers display mature skills. -- UnSangDong Architects; Studio Luz; BAR; Studio SUMO; Kumiko Inui; Bercy Chen Studio; BmasC Architects; Assadi + Pulido; WORK Architecture Co.; SeARCH- Architectural Record

Curbed LA Interviews: Ray Kappe...his thoughts on sustainable architecture, the future of SCI-Arc, and why he rejects the "living legend" label.- Curbed LA

Dream Houses: ...Alain de Botton’s latest book, “The Architecture of Happiness”...turns his attention to architecture, pondering the question of just what are the elusive qualities that make one building beautiful and another hideous.- New York Times

Power to dream: The almost impossible structures of Antonio Gaudi, in the Sagrada Familia Cathedral and other projects he undertook, are inspired by nature. [images]- The Hindu (India)

Call for entries: 2nd International Living Steel Architecture Competition for Sustainable Housing; €300,000 prize fund along with contracts to complete designs for construction; Expressions of Interest (EOI) due January 12, 2007- Living Steel

-- Expansion: Arquitectonica: Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, New York
-- Exhibition: Racing Cars, The Art Dimension, ARoS Aarhus, Denmark

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