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Today's News - March 14, 2007

Blueprint for New Orleans may not be perfect, but an "overhaul" before moving on isn't right either. -- Baton Rouge benefits from Katrina with wave of new mixed-use developments. -- Nobel finds new quasi-urban shopping centers can be "little training grounds" in building civic health. -- Finding the errors in Kotkin's attacks on new urbanism and smart growth. -- American Public Transportation Association report says public transit systems are a hot ticket and cities are trying to make them better. -- On the other hand, despite the "usual scolds -- environmentalists, urban "planners," enthusiasts for public transit," there's a call for more roads. -- On environmental professionals, economic security, social justice, and sustainability. -- Shortlist for Olympic Park public walkways. -- Ouroussoff in San Francisco: Mayne's federal building is "mesmerizing" and "magical." -- Holl's "magic lanterns" in Kansas City. -- A new school in Shanghai will be a small, green "town for children." -- Another take on Calatrava's tower talk. -- Jan Utzon muses on his return to Sydney. -- Rybczynski's amusing take on American's 150 favorites. -- For Jacobs, Robert Moses is still alive.

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Op-Ed: Plan is a message, not the final word: UNOP (Unified New Orleans Plan) is not an endpoint...But the plan is more than a blueprint. It's a way to communicate what New Orleans needs to some very important audiences, and it does that very well. By Robert B. Olshansky and Lewis D. Hopkins- The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)

Mixed-Use Development Wave In Baton Rouge: ...developers are working on at least a dozen new mixed-use projects...renewed interest in urban living...extra impetus: population growth resulting from [Katrina], development incentives created by the federal Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, and a new mixed-use zoning category.- National Real Estate Investor (NREI)

Good Malls and Bad Cities: New quasi-urban shopping centers and the digital public sphere call into question traditional hatred of malls...Santana Row and Easton Town Center look like unadulterated good news—little training grounds for the experience of being with lots of other people on a street at the same time. That alone can build civic health. By Philip Nobel- Metropolis Magazine

Kotkin bashes urbanism: ...insinuates that New Urbanism is only relevant to cities, that cities are essentially obsolete, and that smart growth reforms are responsible for every conceivable ill from suburban sprawl to deindustrialization...His arguments rest on a mass of factual errors. By Michael Lewyn [links]- Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU)

Riders crowd public transit systems: ...the highest level in nearly five decades...has put some strains on local transit systems. Around the USA, systems say they are trying to find ways to reduce crowding.- USA Today

Op-Ed: Fighting The Real Gridlock: The usual scolds -- environmentalists, urban "planners," enthusiasts for public transit...argue that more highways encourage more driving...and hence are self-defeating...congestion crisis requires joining an old material -- concrete -- with new technologies. By George F. Will- Washington Post

Remake a Living: Sustainable development in today's job market: As we struggle to become environmental professionals who deeply understand the legitimate human requirement for economic security and social justice, we are within our rights to require other professions to take on the quest for global ecological health and habitat protection as their own. By Kevin Doyle- Grist Magazine

Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) announces five shortlisted designers for walkway scheme at the Olympic Park. -- Adams and Sutherland; Alison Brooks Architects; Erect architecture; Kinnear Landscape Architects; PLUS- Contract Journal (UK)

More Openness in Government (Offices, That Is): Thom Mayne's Federal Building in San Francisco might just be the bookend to a heady phase of government-sponsored architecture...In a world where commercialism regularly trumps public service...the values of Old-World Modernism may not be so bad. By Nicolai Ouroussoff -- Morphosis [images]- New York Times

The Magic Lantern: A masterful addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum by Steven Holl Architects brightens the landscape of midtown Kansas City and pushes the limits for daylighting exhibition spaces. -- Renfro Design Group [images]- Metropolis Magazine

WISS (Western International School of Shanghai) set to create a "small town for children" -- Andreas Reich/Weimar Architects- Shanghai Daily

Mr. Calatrava is back in Chicago: The tower may be tall, but they were short on specifics...he really only talked about the lower 65 feet or so. By Edward Lifson [images]- Architectural Record

House Proud: Jan Utzon has returned to his childhood city to redesign the interiors of the Opera House - and reunite Sydney with his famous father, Joern -- Richard Johnson- The Age (Australia)

The Usual Suspects: A new list of America's most popular buildings...maybe we should be talking about the Bellagio effect—architecture as popular entertainment. By Witold Rybczynski- Slate

Robert Moses Lives: An epic three-part exhibition on how the master builder shaped modern-day New York demonstrates the role he still plays in the life of the city. By Karrie Jacobs- Metropolis Magazine

Exhibition: "DIGITAL PROJECT: Frank Gehry’s Vision," Danish Architecture Centre, Copenhagen

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