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Today's News - Friday, May 9, 2008

Words That Build #2: fascinatin' rhythms create a persuasive story for your client.
-- London holds its breath to see if new mayor nixes new towers (and who will be design advisor?).
-- Gardner a bit more positive about Miss Brooklyn's redesign and re-naming (B1 is better?).
-- NYC's Hudson Yards plans hit major snag (oh - the design has been "jettisoned," too).
-- Lessons from Latin America and Rio de Janeiro: integrating low-income communities into their larger urban contexts.
-- California to be home to America's first "one-planet-living community" (good plan; too bad the developer fails to credit the planner).
-- U.K. eco-towns: a supporter and a protester slug it out.
-- Is the drive for sustainability killing architects' creativity? One yes, one no.
-- Was there anything new to learn at anti-terrorism training session?
-- Not good new for Robin Hood Gardens.
-- Irish Georgian Society celebrates 50 years ("pity about the countryside").
-- Glassy re-clads good for energy efficiency, but only sometimes more elegant.
-- A new Brooklyn tower designed to be part of the neighborhood's resurgence.
-- Weekend diversions: A poetic side of Maya Lin on view in San Diego. -- In London: Heathcote finds "Skin + Bones" fascinating (with just a few "niggles"). -- Rogers' show is a "telling display of pure ingenuity" and "something to smile about."
-- In print: "How to be a Happy Architect" (don't enter competitions). -- Why "From a Cause to a Style" and "The Architecture of Happiness" should be read together.

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Words That Build: Clarifying Presentations to Clients through Rhythmic Emphasis: Tip #2: Use rhythmic accents to create a persuasive story for your client. By Norman Weinstein- ArchNewsNow

Boris Johnson’s threat to tall buildings: Developers wait to see if new London mayor will act on promise to scrap capital’s skyscrapers...Lord Rogers’ role as chief design adviser to the mayor’s office was also thrown into doubt by Simon Milton’s appointment. -- Ian Simpson; Allies & Morrison; Lifschutz Davidson Sandiland; Wilkinson Eyre- Building (UK)

‘Miss Brooklyn’ Renamed & Reconsidered: In an architectural context that tends, over time, to drag all things down in the direction of safe and unassuming mediocrity, these plans...have the distinction of being even bolder than the initial ones and, in some senses, a little better. By James Gardner -- Frank Gehry [images]- New York Sun

Deal to Build at Railyards on West Side Collapses: ...the sudden setback in the development of the railyards is a very public embarrassment for everyone involved...Tishman Speyer also jettisoned its designs by the architect Helmut Jahn...- New York Times

Improving Informal Settlements: Ideas from Latin America: Prevailing strategies for addressing non-formal settlements have shifted away from large-scale slum clearance and relocation...approach favored today is on-site upgrading and improvement, with the goal of integrating low-income communities into their larger urban contexts.- Harvard Design Magazine

Resisting Representation: The Informal Geographies of Rio de Janiero: As geographers, architects, or planners, accepting our inability to articulate urban boundaries is infinitely useful for describing the contemporary city.- Harvard Design Magazine

In California, Building a Town With a Gentle Footprint: ...in the final planning stages of what promises to be America's first one-planet-living community, Sonoma Mountain Village...will appear to be a typical New Urbanist town, but close up, a visitor will see significant differences... By Katherine Salant [images]- Washington Post

Ready to rumble: The shortlist for England’s 10 eco-towns is out...we brought eco-town supporter Wayne Hemingway and eco-town protester Myles Pollock together to slug it out..."You simply cannot plonk people down in the middle of the countryside and call it a community."- Building (UK)

Is the drive for sustainability killing architects’ creativity? Austin Williams, author of new book The Enemies of Progress, is convinced it is, but Pooran Desai of BioRegional Quintain has plenty of examples to back his counter-argument.- BD/Building Design (UK)

Designing out terror: It may be hard to think of architects...as fearless agents of counter-terrorism, but the Home Office is determined to thrust them into the front line of the country’s defence...It has teamed up with the RIBA to run a series of anti-terrorism training sessions for architects, designers and planners. So what goes on at these events?- Building (UK)

English Heritage fails to back Robin Hood Gardens: ...commissioners have overruled the advice of the organisation’s own advisory committee...and recommended it is not listed; Op-Ed: Erased from our memories: The government wants to forget the optimism of sixites and seventies social housing ever existed. By Amanda Baillieu -- Smithson (1972) [link]- BD/Building Design (UK)

The saving of the Irish country house (pity about the countryside): The Irish Georgian Society is celebrating its 50th anniversary: the battles won — and still to fight...No one enjoys a slump, but if this one forces a better use of existing housing stock and a slowdown in building, then not all the pain will have been wasted.- The Art Newspaper (UK)

Glassy Re-Clads Boost Energy Efficiency But Confound Critics: ...a new skin can make a middle-aged building more energy efficient — but only sometimes make it look more elegant. -- Gensler; Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF); Pelli Clarke Pelli; Diamond + Schmitt- Architectural Record

Born in Brooklyn: the Ashland Center: Mixed-use project strives to give neighborhood tools and resources to maintain borough’s resurgence -- Studio MDA; Behnisch Architects [images]- AIArchitect

Maya Lin makes art, architecture, monuments; "Systematic Landscapes"...don't expect to find any evidence of the buildings or interiors...inside the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD)..."making of art is like writing a poem, while creating architecture is like writing a novel." [images, video]- San Diego Union-Tribune

Flirt, marry, merge: A flâneur’s stroll through New York’s Soho and Tribeca [and] Tokyo's Aoyama...should be enough to convince you that fashion and architecture are two worlds deeply in love with each other..."Skin+Bones"...Architecture and apparel, for better or for worse, have more in common than we imagine. By Edwin Heathcote- Financial Times (UK)

Rogers, Unfazed by Heathrow Flap, Shines at Show: "Richard Rogers + Architects - From the House to the City," with a generous and telling display of pure ingenuity, is something to smile about...at the Design Museum, London. By Colin Amery -- Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners- Bloomberg News

Happiness is not entering competitions: Bauman Lyons director Irena Bauman gives her tips on how to be a happy architect in a new book "How to be a Happy Architect"...unveils a radical formula for wellbeing, revealing her firm will no longer enter for awards or for competitions that don’t pay...- BD/Building Design (UK)

Book Review: "From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture's Encounter with the American City" by Nathan Glazer; "The Architecture of Happiness" by Alain de Botton: Clearly both writers are fairly ignorant about the history of architecture...Yet the issues they raise concerning Modernism and the current state of architecture and planning should be carefully considered.- Harvard Design Magazine

-- Construction start: UNStudio: Five Franklin Place, New York City
-- Studio Granda: Hof Residence, Skakafjordur fjord, Iceland

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