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Today's News - Friday, March 21, 2008

With the economic downturn, Ouroussoff ponders what will be left of Gehry's vision of Atlantic Yards; would be a "painful setback for urban planning" in NYC (might Gehry just walk away?). -- Saffron says it's time to put planners back in charge of Philadelphia's city planning. -- Boddy brings a lesson from London home to Vancouver. -- Washington, Dc's "grand experiment" in low-income housing. -- Providence is till beautiful, says Brussat, but its beauty is in danger. -- Burrell Collection architects go ape (not in a good way) for Go Ape adventure course. -- A Prague hotel is "luminous beauty." -- A 1930 constructivist masterpiece in Moscow to be reborn as boutique hotel. -- Eero Saarinen still strikes awe. -- MIT's Just Jerusalem competition winners announced. -- Weekend diversions: V&A celebrates one of the unsung heroes of 20th century design: the structural engineer. -- Hawthorne is heartened by "Lessons From Bernard Rudofsky" at the Getty. -- "Inside Architecture" at MOCA's Pacific Design Center explores architecture through the imagination of contemporary artists. -- Chasing "Utopia's Ghost" at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. -- "Birth of Cool" at the Addison in Andover is 1950s California at its most "seriously playful." -- Palladio, from Rome to Baltimore. Book reviews: Two-volume tome "Jean Prouvé" is "design ooh-la-la." -- "Designing Modern Childhoods" traces the history of "architecture and objects that have molded the landscape of children's private lives." -- "Water Tanks of Chicago" is a "charming and important book." -- We couldn't resist: Forget the stairs and take the slide in U.K. office building. -- Tickling the ivories tickle the fancy all 'round Birmingham, U.K.

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What Will Be Left of Gehry’s Vision for Brooklyn? The growing possibility that the Atlantic Yards development will be scrapped because of financing is a painful setback for urban planning in New York. By Nicolai Ouroussoff- New York Times

City Council still snubs planners: ...until the day when the zoning laws are perfected, Philadelphia is likely to get better deals by putting the planners back in charge...Sites might still need to be rezoned. But there would be at least a fighting chance that the changes are based on policy, and not just politics. By Inga Saffron -- KlingStubbins; H2L2; Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) [images]- Philadelphia Inquirer

London's new look offers lessons for Vancouver: British architect Paul Davis doesn't shy from building social housing side-by-side with tony shops and galleries...we also need creative ways to integrate the needy, the aged, and the creative into our equivalents of Sloane Square. By Trevor Boddy- Globe and Mail (Canada)

Washington’s Grand Experiment to Rehouse the Poor: Citing a “moral goal,” the District of Columbia is preserving low-income housing by replacing dangerous projects with new communities that mix the poor with higher income residents. -- Torti Gallas- New York Times

Is Providence still beautiful? Yes, it is. Is its beauty in danger? ...letting an East German Embassy arise near every beautiful building we succeed at saving, or in every gap that’s left where we fail, would eventually leave our favorites standing as forlorn in Providence as they do in almost every other American city. By David Brussat- Providence Journal (Rhode Island)

Burrell Collection designers Go Ape at plans: ...have spoken out against the proposed development of a treetop adventure playground in Pollok Park...Sir Barry Gasson and John Meunier said the Go Ape plans would destroy the "magic" of the collection.- BBC News

Simply irresistible: Hotel Josef is a luminous beauty...Like a well-executed puzzle, everything fits... -- Eva Jiricna [images]- The Prague Post

Hope for Utopia: Plans are in place for Moisei Ginzburg's 1930 constructivist masterpiece Narkomfin to be converted into a hotel...."Narkomfin and Its Significance". at the Shchusev Architecture Museum... -- Alexei Ginzburg [image]- The Moscow Times (Russia)

His Buildings Get High Marks: Saarinen took America's enthusiasm for its potential and framed it in his blueprints.- CNN

MIT Just Jerusalem Competition Winners Announced: Four winning entries and seven honorable mentions ...hail from all over the world... [links]- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Structures in an exhibition: ...celebrates one of the unsung heroes of 20th century design: the structural engineer. "Unseen Hands: 100 Years of Structural Engineering," at the V&A...centred around three themes: building high, enclosing space and spanning voids. -- Freeman Fox & Partners; HG Balcom; Greisch [images]- Building (UK)

A Getty study of Rudofsky, 'virtuoso in the art of life': "Lessons From Bernard Rudofsky"...an iconoclast who called architecture 'a vase for life.' ...architecture with compelling stories to tell is all around us, every day, if we'd only open our eyes to see it -- may finally be starting to take hold. By Christopher Hawthorne- Los Angeles Times

The walls can talk, and these artists listened: "Inside Architecture" at MOCA's Pacific Design Center site explores a more private kind of architecture, not through the eyes of designers, but through the imagination of contemporary artists.- Los Angeles Times

Chasing After Utopia's Ghost: "Utopia's Ghost: Postmodernism Reconsidered" at the Canadian Centre for Architecture considers whether the utopian ideals of early modernism continued to haunt the architectural designs of the '60s, '70s, and '80s. -- Eisenman; Graves; Hejduk; Isozaki; Rossi; Venturi- Architect Magazine

Store in a Cool, Fertile Place: 1950s California: "Birth of Cool" at the Addison Gallery of American Art, is laid back yet cleanly articulated, impersonal yet intimate, and seriously playful. -- Julius Shulman; Richard Neutra; Eero Saarinen; Charles and Ray Eames- New York Times

Built in Baltimore, inspired by Italy: "Harmony to the Eyes, Charting Palladio's Architecture From Rome to Baltimore," an exhibition at the George Peabody Library... By Edward Gunts- Baltimore Sun

Prouvé tome celebrates life and work of designer: ...new 648-page, two-volume "Jean Prouvé" by Catherine Coley, Francoise-Claire Prodhon, Raymond Guidot, Jean Prouve , Catherine Prouve, and Patrick Seguin...exquisitely produced and comprehensive...How’s that for a little design ooh-la-la?- Austin American-Statesman (Texas)

Book review: For Youngsters, Leaps and Boundaries: "Designing Modern Childhoods," edited by Marta Gutman and Ning de Coninck-Smith, traces the history of a veritable toy box of specialized architecture and objects that have molded the landscape of children’s private lives.- New York Times

Book review: Tanks for the memories: Historic rooftop towers, a legacy of the Great Fire, are on their last legs..."Water Tanks of Chicago: A Vanishing Legacy" by Larry Green...a charming and important book...- Chicago Tribune

Tate slide comes to office building: A new office block in Sheffield has become the first building in the UK to permanently install a giant slide for visitors and employees to use...but employers had better have good compensation lawyers. -- Josef Wiegand [image]- The Architects' Journal (UK)

Pianos hit the streets: 15 pianos have been placed in locations throughout Birmingham, where any member of the public who wants to play them can do so...a project for the Fierce arts organisation, a collaboration renowned for getting odd things into odder places. [slide show]- Guardian (UK)

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

-- Rafael Viñoly Architects: Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay
--Design Hotel: Lux 11, Berlin, Germany

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