Today’s News - Wednesday, October 8, 2008
• Weinstein's Words That Build Tip #7: Write a site analysis using words referring to senses beyond sight.
• Heathcote takes on the "schizophrenia of greenism" and the "numbing clichés of eco-architecture."
• Prince Charles attacks architects (again) - this time for "cynically adding on wind turbines and solar panels as 'mere gestures.'"
• Adrian Smith's green plans for Chicago's Sears tower (green roof included).
• HOK's Valentine sees green architecture opportunity in financial woes.
• Pearman issues an impassioned call to save Saarinen's American Embassy in London: "Like it or loathe it, if we lose it, we will come to regret it."
• Meanwhile, the restoration of Saarinen's University of Chicago Law School has everyone smiling.
• Hume fumes about Toronto's "civic self-cannibalization" and shortsightedness when it comes to preserving the city's history.
• He's (only slightly) more optimistic about Nuit Blanche.
• Rochon finds a back lane project that shows the "potential for architecture to honor the past while signaling a brave new afterlife."
• Dyckhoff has a very chatty - and pragmatic - conversation with Viñoly: "Architecture doesn't have to be permanent. I'm perfectly happy to demolish anything."
• Barcelona residents give "a contemptuous thumbs-down" to proposed new design museum (it looks like an "office stapler").
• Hawthorne on Siza: the "world's most underrated architect."
• Q&A with Kang Kiang, the executive architect of San Francisco's new Academy of Sciences.
• Landscape architects' billings not much better than their brick-and-mortar friends.
• An eyeful of the 84 Spark Design Award winners.
• Reinventing Grand Army Plaza People's Choice Award winner won 1st Place, too.
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WORDS THAT BUILD: Creating a Site Analysis That's Out of Sight: Tip #7: Write a site analysis using words referring to senses beyond sight. By Norman Weinstein- ArchNewsNow |
The schizophrenia of 'greenism': What has become fascinating is the stream of green devices, eco-motifs and sustainable clichés that spews forth from PR machines, developers and, worst of all, from the architects themselves...In his delightfully angry book,"The Enemies of Progress," Austin Williams points out the absurdities of contemporary development-speak. By Edwin Heathcote -- Foster + Partners; Arup; SOM- Financial Times (UK) |
Prince Charles attacks architects for making green 'gestures': ...this time accusing them of cynically adding on wind turbines and solar panels as "mere gestures" to convince others their buildings are environmentally friendly...People "need to resist the urge to seize on slick, highly marketed techno-fixes"- Telegraph (UK) |
Sears tower set for £85m green makeover: Chicago landmark skyscraper plans to install wind turbines, PV, a green roof to reduce energy use by 10%. Plus video interview with scheme architect -- Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture- Building (UK) |
Green architecture opportunity in financial woes: "It's the environmental opportunity of a lifetime," Bill Valentine of HOK told the Reuters Global Environment Summit.- Reuters |
Save our Saarinen! The American Embassy in London under threat: Like it or loathe it, this building has enormous character, the expression of a subtle architectural intelligence. I know this: If we lose it, we will come to regret it. By Hugh Pearman [images]- HughPearman.com (UK) |
Saarinen's Law School Wasn't Razed: ...the high cost of starting from scratch, a renaissance in respect for Modernism...and serendipity eventually combined to grace the University of Chicago with a result that pleases students, faculty and those who understood what Saarinen had imagined in the late 1950s, even if he couldn't turn that vision into a reality. -- OWP/P [images]- Wall Street Journal |
A nod (and wink) to heritage: In its desperation and shortsightedness, Toronto is fast becoming its own worst enemy. It's now leading the charge to eliminate its own history. This civic self-cannibalization may make developers happy, but it doesn't bode well... By Christopher Hume -- Libeskind- Toronto Star |
Minds are open to Nuit Blanche but streets aren't: ...with the odd exception, roads were still open to traffic and pedestrians were expected to make ways for cars. Not even for one night, 12 hours, could civic leaders give the streets to the people...For a few spectacular hours, Toronto wasn't simply transformed; it was transcendent. By Christopher Hume- Toronto Star |
Far from elite street, a back lane gets gussied up: For another take on a city's temperature, go to...the hidden back lane, where architecture ventures into the wild...40R Shaftesbury Avenue...a billboard advertising the potential for architecture to honour the past while signaling a brave new afterlife...points to new ways to occupy a small, ecologically sound footprint in the middle of the city. By Lisa Rochon -- Superkül Inc./Architect- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Rafael Viñoly's plans for the London skyline: Suddenly, despite 45 years in the business and as one of America's most famous architects, [he] seems to have crept up on Britain...Of all the architects I've met he is the most realistic about his profession. "Architecture doesn't have to be permanent. I'm perfectly happy to demolish anything. I don't mind"... By Tom Dyckhoff [slide show]- The Times (UK) |
'Stapler' museum condemned: Barcelona residents have given a contemptuous thumbs-down to a proposed new design museum in the heart of the city, complaining that it has the aesthetic allure of an office stapler...Perpetrator of these alleged architectural crimes is none other than the MBM practice of Oriol Bohigas, grand master of Barcelona's spectacular transformation... [image]- Independent (UK) |
World's most underrated architect: Alvaro Siza: ...picked up another significant honor...Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects. That's on top of the Pritzker Prize he won in 1992...in an age of of jet-setting design-world celebrity, the bearded Siza is something of a monk-like figure. By Christopher Hawthorne [images, links]- Los Angeles Times |
Q+A: Kang Kiang: A behind-the-scenes discussion about San Francisco's new Academy of Sciences with its executive architect. By Kenneth Caldwell -- Renzo Piano; Chong Partners (now Stantec)- The Architect's Newspaper |
Landscapers Short On Green, Too: American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) released its quarterly survey of member firms, and the numbers are no better than their brick-and-mortar friends.- The Architect's Newspaper |
Sparks Fly in San Francisco: 2008 Spark Design Awards: 84 designs won bronze, silver, gold... [images]- Spark |
Reinventing Grand Army Plaza Ideas Competition People's Choice Award: "Canopy" also awarded a First Place Prize... -- Anne-Sophie Coue, Chrystelle Sanaa, Stephane Mauget, Christian Matteau [slide show]- Design Trust for Public Space |
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Exhibition: Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles |
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