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Today's News - Friday, March 14, 2008

An in-depth look at what NYC is planning (or not planning) when it comes to climate change and rising waters. -- Not all are pleased with the revival plans for some of Britain's historic piers. -- Waterfront Toronto taps Holl to design District Energy Centre. -- Hawthorne on LACMA's real estate adventures (is it the end of Govan's "charmed run" as a "serial builder and extender of museums"?). -- The Brits in a run to rebuild razed Chinese city, and mastermind a modern Paris. -- Qatar's new "stealth church" (a "sort of mosque-lite"?). -- Call for entries: design the ultimate bike rack for NYC. -- AIA announces 2008 Housing Award winners. -- Australia's Griffith University launches Master of Design Futures course. -- U.K.'s Prince's Foundation launches Fellowships in Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism. -- Weekend diversions: Pearman says "Modern Architecture between the Wars" is an "important alternative history of our towns and cities." -- "Forgotten Architects" profiles 43 German-Jewish architects "whose groundbreaking work is sadly forgotten." -- Kennicott reviews "The Last Wright," a film about FLW's only surviving hotel, and "The Green Dragon," about the "frantic efforts" to bring green design to China. -- Dyckhoff and Rawsthorn offer two different views of V&A's "China Design Now." -- Saffron surveys Acconci show in Philadelphia. -- We couldn't resist: a city comes alive to devour an SUV (its' an SUV commercial, so the city doesn't win - but watching it try is so worth a look). -- Call for nominations: America's Best Restroom Award (they're not kidding).

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A City by the Sea -- or Under It? With climate change promising more violent and frequent storms, much of the planned and existing development in New York City could face severe floods...So how is the city preparing? Task forces and more task forces...other governments in the nation are farther along in the process. [images, links]- Gotham Gazette (NYC)

Goodbye kiss me quick: developers offer new hope for crumbling piers: Transformation plan at Weston-super-Mare may herald new luxury future...Britain's historic piers stand on the cusp of being revived, and possibly turned into enclaves of luxury homes and five-star hotels. By Robert Booth -- Levitate Architecture; Atomik Architecture [slide show]- Guardian (UK)

Steven Holl to design the District Energy Centre in Toronto's West Don Lands: ...will provide centralized heating and cooling to the first new waterfront neighbourhoods...will be designed for eventual conversion to alternative fuels when they become approved for urban use. -- Bortolotto Design Architect- Canadian Architect

Los Angeles County Museum of Art could spread out: New parcel means new opportunities....Govan is serial builder and extender of museums. It is a kind of pathological talent of his...experience with the Broad Contemporary Art Museum marked an end to that charmed run...LACMA has a chance to break the mold of the gated-community museum once and for all. By Christopher Hawthorne -- Renzo Piano; William Pereira (1965); Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer (1986); Greg Lynn- Los Angeles Times

UK collective to rebuild razed Chinese city: GroundLab, a collective formed last year 'to win large-scale competitions', has bagged the international competition to redesign the Chinese city of Longgang...and provide homes for an estimated 350,000 people. [images]- The Architects' Journal (UK)

UK architects seek to modernise Paris: British-based architects including Zaha Hadid, Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners, Michel Mossessian and Think Place are competing to lead one of 10 multi- disciplinary teams tasked with creating a future vision for Paris; deadline: April 15 [link to competition site]- BD/Building Design (UK)

Stealth church comes to Qatar: How do you design a church without any of the obvious religious paraphernalia? ...'a perfect blend of traditional Christian church and Arab architecture'. The result seems to be a sort of mosque-lite... -- Lorenzo Carmellini/Laboratorio Associati [images, links]- The Architects' Journal (UK)

Call for entries: NYC Department of Transportation and Cooper-Hewitt Bike Parking Design Competition seeks to tap the creative energy of the international design and art communities; registration deadline: April 30- Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

AIA Announces 19 Recipients of the 2008 Housing Awards -- Lake Flato; Randy Brown; Robert Gurney; Voorsanger; Leroy Street Studio; Marlon Blackwell; studio d'ARC; Circle West; Lorcan O'Herlihy; Erdy McHenry; Burt Hill; Kanner; Cook+Fox; BKSK; William Rawn; Johnsen Schmaling; Hacin + Associates [links to images]- American Institute of Architects (AIA)

Master of Design Futures course launched by Griffith University, Queensland College of Art: Led by Adjunct Professor Tony Fry it is based on the development of new design thinking and practice...taking design and sustainability to a new level.- Griffith University (Australia)

Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment establishes Prince of Wales Graduate Fellows in Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism...for the next generation of architects and designers who will evolve traditional architecture and urbanism in response to the global climate and urbanisation challenges.- The Prince's Foundation (UK)

Book review: Find modernist architecture chill and clinical? Your response is historically appropriate. "Light, Air and Openness: Modern Architecture between the Wars", by Paul Overy...excellent new book examines the roots of the movement and comes to some interesting conclusions...an important alternative history of our towns and cities. By Hugh Pearman- HughPearman.com (UK)

Pentagram Papers 37: Forgotten Architects: Nearly 500 Jewish architects were working in Germany before 1933...a look at 43 whose groundbreaking work is sadly forgotten...based on the extensive research of architect Myra Warhaftig, who sadly passed away last Tuesday, 4 March at age 78. [images, links]- Pentagram

"The Last Wright": Green Issues as Wide as the Prairie...a film about the only surviving hotel by Frank Lloyd Wright...1908-1910 Park Inn Hotel...makes its points by referencing an old, emotionally powerful argument about sustainability..."The Green Dragon" follows the frantic efforts to introduce "green building" initiatives to China... By Philip Kennicott [slide show]- Washington Post

"China Design Now" at the Victoria & Albert Museum: ...visible in the architectural models, photographs and films, is the architectural face of new China, newly Botoxed with icon projects, though mostly crusted with developers’ “designer” carbuncles. By Tom Dyckhoff [video link]- The Times (UK)

Exhibition review: China's new designers: Building on a rich heritage of innovation: "Designed in China" at the Victoria & Albert Museum...a new generation of designers trying to forge a distinctive style...depicts a vibrant Chinese design ecology without attempting to disguise its weaknesses... By Alice Rawsthorn [slide show]- International Herald Tribune

'Power Fields' surveys architecture of Vito Acconci: ...[he] has been able to look at architecture with a provocateur's eye....his architecture now questions the building as an exalted totem that exists apart from its users and its place. By Inga Saffron- Philadelphia Inquirer

City Living: The urban infrastructure comes alive. [video]- Creativity Online

Call for entries: America's Best Restroom Award VII; nomination deadline: April 7- Cintas

Transparent Connections: Princeton University School of Architecture Addition: A contemporary connection revitalizes two wings of an existing campus building. -- Architecture Research Office (ARO)- ArchNewsNow

OMA/Office for Metropolitan Architecture: Netherlands Embassy in Berlin

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