Today’s News - Thursday, August 21, 2008
EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ll be taking Friday’s off for the rest of August...see you Monday, August 25.
• A community center in Vancouver is now the focal point of culturally diverse neighborhood, both civically and architecturally.
• Plans to reverse sprawl in San Jose, CA, face many battles.
• The story behind McCloud’s Castleford project: TV show put the town in the spotlight - now "somebody needs to make sure it isn’t turned off."
• Another take on Singapore’s building boom.
• LEED 2009 will be "tweakable."
• Skeptics take on Bloomberg’s wind power proposal for NYC (solar power makes more sense).
• A "wingnut" challenges San Francisco’s attempt to make the city more bike friendly: claims cyclists cause pollution (seriously!).
• Some not-so-nice words re: Gwathmey’s Yale project; though "restoration of the interiors of the Rudolph building is moving and redemptive."
• Battle continues to save Admirals’ Row at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
• Brussat sees a silver lining in the foreclosure crisis that "could seed the nation’s future with a suburbia of new old houses (and is thrilled it would really bug architects with a Modernist bent).
• Czech preservationists hope for historic status for Modernist tram stop in Brno.
• Litt lauds efforts to reclaim Cultural Gardens in Cleveland’s Rockefeller Park (and hopes the efforts continue).
• Bridges taking center stage in kick-starting redevelopments.
• Pittsburgh ponders what to do with its collection of historic bridge piers (climbing walls, anyone?).
• Booth, Chicago’s champion low-scale buildings, changes his tune.
• Zeidler reminisces about bringing the Bauhaus to Ontario.
• Weekend diversions: Zandberg minces no words about "Performalism" on view in Tel Aviv (contemplation of form or belly button?) - A digital Holl on view at MoMA.
• Page turners: Corbu tome an "homage to a giant and a reproach to the midgets who decry him." - IDEO and Rockefeller Foundation team up on guide/workbook "Design for Social Impact." - Brake finds "The Last Days of Old Beijing" both "vexing and haunting, but ultimately deeply satisfying."
• A call for South Africans to vote for their favorite building.
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Green and Graceful: Sunset Community Centre in Vancouver is now the focal point of culturally diverse neighborhood, both civically and architecturally. -- Bing Thom Architects [images]- ArchNewsNow |
San Jose leaders try to reverse urban sprawl: ...a long-term redevelopment plan could make over large swaths of the area along decidedly more urban lines...many of the battles over long-term planning policies have centered on the conflict between meeting new housing needs...and preserving existing homes, neighborhood character and industrial businesses.- San Francisco Chronicle |
Kevin McCloud’s Castleford regeneration: the story behind the television series: Channel 4 has successfully put Castleford in the public spotlight. Somebody needs to make sure it isn’t turned off. -- Carey Jones; Allen Tod Architecture; Estell Warren Landscape Architecture; Martha Schwartz; Hudson Architects; McDowell + Benedetti; DSDHA; Parklife; Sarah Wigglesworth; Aedas; Architecture2B; Niall McLaughlin [images]- The Architects’ Journal (UK) |
Despite Its Diminutive Stature, Singapore Booms: The future has arrived. Construction is now under way on Marina Bay...luring companies—and architects—from around the globe. -- Grant Associates; Gustafson Porter; Moshe Safdie; Kisho Kurokawa Architects; Arup; DP Architects; Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF); Cox Group; NBBJ [images]- Architectural Record |
New LEED to be ‘tweakable,’ consistent, comprehensive: ...features three major changes...customized regional credits, new weighting of certification criteria and greater consistency between different types of construction...aimed at keeping the certification easy to navigate and up to date with green trends.- Philadelphia Business Journal |
Architects and Engineers Express Doubt About Bloomberg’s Windmill Proposal: ...would be complicated and expensive and barely begin to meet the growth in demand for electricity that is expected in the coming years. -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) [images]- New York Times |
San Francisco Ponders: Could Bike Lanes Cause Pollution? City Backpedals on a Cycling Plan
After Mr. Anderson Goes to Court: ...fight underscores the tensions that can circulate as urban cycling, bolstered by environmental awareness and high gasoline prices, takes off across the U.S.- Wall Street Journal |
Demolition by Design: How to destroy a great building without tearing it down. Not since the house fell on the Wicked Witch of the East has a work of architecture proven so damaging as the new Loria Center for the History of Art at Yale. It reduces the neighboring exterior of the Art & Architecture building designed by Paul Rudolph to something nearly as dreary. -- Gwathmey Siegel- New Haven Advocate (Connecticut) |
A Call to Preserve Admirals’ Row at the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Edge: The Municipal Art Society wants to preserve 11 buildings that would be demolished under a redevelopment plan supported by the city. -- Andrew Burdick/Architecture for Humanity New York [images]- New York Times |
New old houses on the march: Like a silver lining that eventually brightens a whole depressing horizon of dark clouds, the foreclosure crisis could seed the nation’s future with a suburbia of new old houses...This prospect horrifies many architects, especially those with a modernist bent. By David Brussat -- Russell Versaci; Robert A.M. Stern; Christopher Alexander; Nikos Salingaros- Providence Journal (Rhode Island) |
Tram stop may receive heritage protection: Experts consider overlooked structure an ’architectural pearl’...and one of the city’s finest examples of functionalist designs by famed local architect Oskar Porízka (1928). [image]- The Prague Post |
Cultural Gardens in Cleveland’s Rockefeller Park need - and deserve - TLC: The new energy is encouraging. But it’s still an open question whether the current generation will push the reclamation to greater heights or ease up, let the rot resume and squander a magnificent legacy. By Steven Litt [images]- Cleveland Plain Dealer |
What are bridges for these days? No longer solely in the business of getting people from A to B across a waterway, bridges are now also about putting a place on the map and kick-starting wider investment. [images]- BBC Magazine |
The city’s former bridge piers are reminders of a time gone by: They still stand, mostly because of the high cost to remove them and their historical significance...Historians covet the craftsmanship of the piers but differ on how to preserve them.- Pittsburgh Tribune-Review |
The Turnaround Artist: For years, Laurence Booth...championed low-scale buildings and decried "antihuman" high-rises. Now he has designed three towers and has a fourth under construction. Why? "We have to make some huge changes in this country," he says. By Robert Sharoff -- Booth Hansen [images]- Chicago Magazine |
The Bauhaus in Peterborough: Eberhard Zeidler studied with disciples of Mies van der Rohe and later left an indelible imprint on the Ontario city..."Peterborough Modern" by Susan Algie and James Ashby...hopefully, it will convince cottagers blasting past that a detour is in order to they can spend a day ogling this incredible bevy of Bauhaus beauties. By Dave LeBlanc- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
The belly button of the form: To architects, architecture sounds like a children’s fable...Architecture is a propaganda tool used by those who have power..."Performalism: Form and Performance in Digital Architecture," at the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv unfolds the apolitical children’s fable. By Esther Zandberg -- Deyan Sudjic; Karl Chu; Archi-Techtonics; Peter Eisenman; Greg Lynn/FORM- Ha`aretz (Israel) |
Architectural Drawings by Steven Holl on View at the MoMA: Dubbed "Pré," the digital installation features 365 of Holl’s drawings, made between 2002 and 2008. [images]- Interior Design magazine |
Book review: Modernist master: Despite the carping of anti-modernist reactionaries, Le Corbusier remains the greatest architect of the 20th century and a colossal study just published does justice to his protean creativity..."Le Corbusier Le Grand" is a feast. A homage to a giant and a reproach to the midgets who decry him.- New Statesman (UK) |
Book review: Casting a design eye on social issues: ...as social issues and responses to them begin to intertwine, the discipline of design is becoming an essential toolset for anyone hoping to make a positive difference...IDEO and Rockefeller Foundation have created a new Guide and Workbook "Design for Social Impact"... [link to book]- ArtsJournal |
Book review: Michael Meyer’s lamentation, “The Last Days of Old Beijing,” is by turns vexing and haunting, but ultimately deeply satisfying...It is unlikely that the rest of us will be able to forget or ignore the new China, built on the rubble of the hutongs. By Alan Brake- Louisville Eccentric Observer |
We need to build it our way: Visi magazine, in conjunction with the South African Institute of Architects (SAIA), has commissioned the fourth nationwide survey of the best architectural designs in the country and has invited South Africans to vote for their favourite building. [links]- The Times (Johannesburg) |
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-- 3XN: The Blue Planet Aquarium, Copenhagen, Denmark
-- Massimiliano Fuksas Architetto: Zenith Music Hall, Strasburg, France
-- Studio Nicoletti/Hijjas Kasturi Associates: Putrajaya Waterfront, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
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