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Today's News - December 22, 2006

EDITOR'S NOTE: We are taking a (much needed) holiday break...ANN will be back Tuesday, January 2. It's been a great year - our thanks and CHEERS to you all!!! ----- News not on the web (yet): Koolhaas/OMA wins competition to design Shenzhen Stock Exchange HQ (in rendering, we don't see even one canted/curved/angled wall). -- Norten wins big again - this time in New Orleans (sorry Gehry, Hadid, Libeskind). -- Person of the year: the man making China green. -- Calatrava's Chicago tower "has regained some of the whirring, twisting look"; receives "far more positive reviews." -- Is Chicago going to end up with an inferiority complex with the "largest building on Earth in the postage stamp called Dubai?" -- According to Slatin and Saffron, this a bad time for good buildings in New York and Philadelphia. -- A Las Vegas icon of kitsch gets a second chance. -- Hong Kong "hovels" to get facelifts as the city puts more focus on preservation and reuse. -- A "health-integrated residential tower" for Dubai (looks beautiful, but we could find no mention of architect). -- National Organization of Minority Architects lauded by American Institute of Architects. -- Another thumbs-up for "Frank's Home" in Chicago (heading to NYC in January).

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New Orleans' east bank riverfront project team picked: Hotel, ship terminal arena are possibilities -- Alex Krieger/Chan Krieger Sieniewicz; George Hargreaves/Hargreaves Associates; Enrique Norten/TEN Arquitectos; Allen Eskew/Eskew + Dumez + Ripple- The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)

Person of the year: The man making China green: Pan Yue, vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (Sepa), is a rare, if not lone, public voice within the Chinese government warning that disaster threatens unless development is checked.- New Statesman (UK)

Tiplike peak may top tower: Addressing criticism sparked by the latest plan for a 2,000-foot-tall twisting skyscraper along Chicago's lakefront, the project's developer and architect have quietly shopped an alternative version...tower's top has regained some of the whirring, twisting look... By Blair Kamin -- Santiago Calatrava; Perkins + Will- Chicago Tribune

Revised design puts spire in better light: Slimmed-down version topped by a beacon: ...after a firestorm of criticism of his recently unveiled redesign for a supertall condo tower...Santiago Calatrava has floated a new version that received far more positive reviews. By Kevin Nance -- Perkins + Will- Chicago Sun-Times

Op-Ed: Reach for the Middle East sky: Maybe I'm too nationalistic...but why -- in the name of common sense -- build the largest building on Earth in the postage stamp called Dubai? By Ed Schwartz -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill- Daily Southtown (Chicago)

Bad Times for Good Building: For builders of big buildings in New York City, it is the best of times. For those who love big buildings in New York City – not so much....Freedom Tower at Ground Zero, the egregiously clunky and skyline-sucking icon [and] Atlantic Yards, a vast, out of scale, and deeply unloved mixed-use development project... By Peter Slatin -- Skidmore Owings & Merrill; Frank Gehry [images]- The Slatin Report

Eyesore or eye-opener? The new Brooklyn: New York's biggest ever private project approved. Opponents go to court to halt 'out of kilter' [Atlantic Yards] scheme...Brooklynites have expressed reservations, much of it directed at what they say is the misguided use of Gehry's architectural creativity.- Guardian (UK)

Trouble in River City, and that's poor planning: Aren't two big slots barns on the Delaware going to be enough of a Chinese Wall for Philadelphia's rivers? ...a master plan for the east bank of the Schuylkill...There are so many problems with the new "River City" proposal... By Inga Saffron -- Daroff Design- Philadelphia Inquirer

Historic preservation -- Las Vegas style: A masterpiece of motel architecture from the era of the Rat Pack is being preserved...kitschy La Concha Motel lobby...Sliced into six pieces, crated and trucked about 2 miles to the other end of the Las Vegas Strip...will become the centerpiece of a new park and visitor center for the non-profit Neon Museum. -- Paul Revere Williams (1961); Friedmutter Group- Chicago Tribune

City hovels to get face-lifts: Many of Hong Kong's abandoned buildings will undergo a face-lift next year..."We want to show the public what can be done"...even the most run-down buildings can be transformed into adequate office space. -- Yue Chi-hang/Architectural Services Department- The Standard (Hong Kong)

Sungwon launches ($108.9 million) 25-storey tower at Business Bay in Dubai...SanteVill is the first health-integrated residential tower... [image]- TradeArabia Business News

National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) Selected as 2007 Recipient of the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award: ...exemplifying the profession’s responsibility toward current social issues.- American Institute of Architects (AIA)

Frank Lloyd Wright's Pacific Overture: "Frank's Home," a new play by Richard Nelson starring Peter Weller, captures Frank Lloyd Wright at the point between despair and resurrection. By Lynn Becker- Repeat (Chicago)

Design Team Selected for Rutgers Grand Redesign Plans: Green spaces and connecting the campus to the river will create places as much for the community as the campus -- Enrique Norten/TEN Arquitectos; Wallace, Roberts & Todd Design [images]- ArchNewsNow

-- SANAA: 21st Century Museum, Kanazawa, Japan
-- Exhibition: New York Times Building (Renzo Piano Building Workshop/FXFowle Architects), Center for Architecture, New York City
-- TEN Arquitectos: Taller de Enrique Norten Arquitectos: National School of Theater, Mexico City

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