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Today's News - February 19, 2007

ArcSpace in the Netherlands and Chile. -- Cleveland picks yet another foreign architect. -- While "architecture and urban planning have become critical tools in shaping" a new New Orleans, Ouroussoff is wary of public housing plans. -- Perhaps there are lessons is starchitect-studded public housing in Madrid. -- Cardboard emergency shelters become more viable. -- Toronto's green blueprint hopes to give Chicago a run for its money. -- Hume notes the "edifice complex" is being "tempered by the sustainability reflex." -- How smaller projects can overcome green certification obstacles. -- As plans stand now, Ouroussoff bemoans that the Freedom Tower would be "a constant reminder of our loss of ambition." -- St. Petersburg's Gazprom tower plans continue to irk foes. -- L.A. river plan needs more magic and muscle. -- A call for urban design guidelines to temper Calcutta's skyline. -- As Warsaw's Stalinist Palace of Culture, "part Empire State Building, part Socialist Realism," finds new uses (not all are pleased). -- A new concert hall sounds great, architecture unfulfilling. -- A French architect is an "urban chameleon." -- Detroit is perfect setting for "Shrinking Cities." -- Another gracious tribute to Hans J. Wegner.

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-- UNStudio: Tea House on bunker, Vreeland, The Netherlands
-- Gonzalo Mardones Viviani: 18th Fire Station, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile

Dutch firm to design Cleveland Institute of Art expansion. By Steven Litt -- MVRDV/Burt Hill Architects; Foreign Office Architects- Cleveland Plain Dealer

All Fall Down: Unbuilding Housing for the Poor of New Orleans: This is a fool’s game. Sadly, HUD’s plan manages to trivialize the past without engaging the painful realities that have shorn this city apart. By Nicolai Ouroussoff [images, slide show]- New York Times

Castles in the air: Want to live in a home designed by a famous architect? Then get a council flat in Madrid..."They were judged on the quality of their designs, not their names." By Steve Rose -- Isozaki; Chipperfield; Mayne/Morphosis; MVRDV; Foreign Office Architects; Ricardo Legorreta; Sheppard Robson/ACP; Peter Cook/Gavin Robotham; Jose Cruz; Ahlqvist and Almqvist- Guardian (UK)

Emergency Shelter: Cardboard To The Rescue: ...Scattered in the quad of the Yale Divinity School...Global Village Shelter (GVS) is pretty basic, but at the same time pretty ingenious. By Michael J. Crosbie -- Daniel Ferrara/Mia Ferrara Pelosi/Ferrara Design- Hartford Courant (Connecticut)

Toronto's green blueprint: David Miller says this will be North America's greenest city. Chicago's goal is exactly the same. Here's how Toronto can triumph, the Star's environmental action plan for Toronto- Toronto Star

New towers paint the town green: The edifice complex hasn't exactly disappeared, but today it's tempered by the sustainability reflex...Finally, Toronto's getting into the act, and in a big way. By Christopher Hume -- Sweeny, Sterling, Finlayson; KPF Associates; WZMH Architects- Toronto Star

The Missing Link: Small Buildings and Sustainability Certification: The smaller the project, the less likely it will be certified....larger buildings can better absorb the cost of certification...how a small-project team can overcome this obstacle. By Michael J. Crosbie- AIArchitect

A Tower That Sends a Message of Anxiety, Not Ambition: If built, the lamentable Freedom Tower would be a constant reminder of our loss of ambition, and our inability to produce an architecture that shows a genuine faith in America’s collective future... By Nicolai Ouroussoff -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)- New York Times

Planned Tower Splits Venerable Russian City: 77-Story [Gazprom] Complex For St. Petersburg Irks a Range of Foes -- RMJM- Washington Post

Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan Needs Magic and Muscle: With Its Gloss and Spin, a Long-Awaited Report Risks Becoming a Historical Footnote...Obtaining a consensus should not have to be the ultimate test for critical river projects... By Sam Hall Kaplan- LA Downtown News

Call for urban design norms: Civic body advocates development in sync with surroundings...In a city plagued by piecemeal planning and haphazard growth...stressing the need for urban design guidelines, has held out hope for not just an aesthetic uplift to Calcutta’s skyline, but a more standardised urbanscape.- The Telegraph (India)

"Stalin's gift" finds new role in Warsaw: Palace of Culture...as a post-Communist generation matures it is finding a new role. -- Lev Rudnev (1955)- Reuters

Daring music in safe surroundings: Tufts' Granoff center scores with its concert space, but its rather tame design falls short of innovative...seeks to bridge the gap between traditional and innovative and thus make everyone happy. As often is the case, it falls between those two stools. By Robert Campbell -- Perkins + Will; Babcock Design Group- Boston Globe

Edouard François: urban chameleon: The Parisian architect mixes architecture with ecology... designer of the offbeat Tower Flower in Paris- CafeBabel.com (Paris)

Urban Retreat: Motor City Hosts a Probing Look at Boomtowns in the Bust of Times...The power of "Shrinking Cities" is not, in the end, a set of moral lessons about urbanism. Rather, it is the eerie sense that...gets at one of the scarier truths of life... By Philip Kennicott- Washington Post

Appreciation: Sitting the test of time: Danish furniture designer Hans J. Wegner died last month at 92, but his work lives on. Zahid Sardar [images]- San Francisco Chronicle

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