Today’s News - Friday, May 8, 2009
• Hopeful signs in architecture field (in Charlotte, anyway).
• Inverness heritage group warns the city "in grave danger of becoming an 'identikit' city" with the spread of "characterless buildings" (design review panel a temporary victim of construction downturn doesn't help things).
• Eyefuls of model cities: real, unrealized, and potential spaces.
• Is Prince Charles ready to bury hatchet with Modernist architects, and extend a conciliatory hand at his RIBA speech next Tuesday?
• Sagharchi says the Prince is right to stick up for up for the general public, and take on "an architectural closed shop dominated by modernists" and their "we know best" attitude.
• Hume has high hopes for the "all-encompassing approach" to revitalizing Toronto's Lower Don Lands (a good dose of patience required).
• In Brooklyn, high hopes foreclosed condo could be transformed into affordable housing; a possible blueprint/trend for other stalled developments.
• Prefab and green: "i-house" is "about as far removed from a mobile home as an iPod from a record player."
• Jones's ode to the Chrysler Building: "a monument to a lost age" and "the most sublime building in Manhattan."
• Hodges' ode to Detroit's Guardian Building on its 80th birthday: it's "exotic, playful, majestic and utterly over-the-top...the architectural equivalent of Aretha's hat."
• Arieff is totally taken with the work of inventor/author/cartoonist/former urban planner: "a sort of R. Crumb meets R. Buckminster Fuller" (and pix that prove it).
• Winners all: Global Holcim Awards 2009: four impressive winners; ditto for the 19 IALD International Lighting Design Award winners.
• Lots of weekend diversions: L.A.'s A+D Museum celebrates its new (unfinished) home with a pop-up exhibition (we look forward to seeing the Meier/Gensler pro bono design).
• MoMA's "In Situ: Architecture and Landscape" raises some troubling questions (alas, no answers).
• Also in Manhattan, "Santiago Calatrava: World Trade Center Transportation Hub"; and American architecture's best-kept secret: FLW's Florida Southern College.
• A good reason to head to Brooklyn this weekend: 7th annual Bklyn Designs.
• LOT-EK's Puma City mobile shipping-container pavilion lands on Boston's waterfront.
• Documentary "Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman" explores the monumental career of 98-year-old photographer (and Dustin Hoffman narrates!).
• Page turners: "Writings on Architecture" by Paul Rudolph: "a pleasure to read the words of an architect so obviously passionate about architecture"; and Hume on "A Progressive Traditionalist: John M. Lyle, Architect": few architects "were more strongly committed to the idea of capital 'A' architecture."
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Hopeful signs in architecture field: New signs have emerged suggesting the bottom may be near, say half a dozen local architects. And a report recently released by the American Institute of Architects bolsters the slightly sunny view. -- Bill Monroe/WGM Design; Wayne Camas; Overcash-Demmitt Architects; Narmour Wright- Charlotte Observer (North Carolina) |
Inverness in grave danger of becoming an 'identikit' city: ...at risk of losing its unique identity if something is not done to stop the spread of characterless buildings...heritage group has warned...wants plans for buildings that add little to Inverness's architectural appeal to be stopped in their tracks.- The Inverness Courier (Scotland) |
"Urbanisms: Model Cities": The first of two issues devoted to examining our current urban situation and what lies beyond it: the city’s past and its future; the suburban, the exurban, the frontier: Learning from John Lindsay’s late-modern metropolis; Supreme geometries, densely packed buildings: cannibalizing the sites and structures of modernism in Mexico; etc.- Triple Canopy Magazine |
AJ exclusive : Prince Charles to bury hatchet with architects: [his] much-anticipated speech at the RIBA on Tuesday 12 May is expected to offer a conciliatory hand to the architect’s body, with which he fell out so spectacularly 25 years ago...expected to talk about ‘the common ground’ shared between himself and the institute. -- Rogers Stirk Harbour; Quinlan Terry- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Op-Ed: Prince Charles was right to speak out, now architects must listen: ...was sticking up for a general public denied a voice by an architectural closed shop dominated by modernists...The "we know best" attitude of the complaining architects...their retreat behind an inherently flawed planning system will do the profession no favours. By Alireza Sagharchi, chairman, Traditional Architecture Group- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Breathing new life into Don River: Waterfront Toronto expects that this precinct – the Lower Don Lands – will eventually be home to 25,000 residents...all-encompassing approach is critical if waterfront revitalization is to avoid the fate of sameness. By Christopher Hume -- Michael Van Valkenburgh; Ken Greenberg- Toronto Star |
Second Life: Locals look to nab foreclosed condos for affordable housing: ...could take years to resolve, but its backers are already hopeful that their efforts might serve as a blueprint for the plague of similarly stalled developments sprinkled throughout the city.- The Architect's Newspaper |
Clayton 'i-house' is giant leap from trailer park: ...about as far removed from a mobile home as an iPod from a record player...conceived as a moderately priced "plug and play" dwelling for environmentally conscious homebuyers...solar-powered, energy efficient...prefab home has just gone on sale [images]- Associated Press (AP) |
The lost glory of Chrysler: With the American motor giants in trouble, New York's Chrysler Building seems, more than ever, a monument to a lost age...the most sublime building in Manhattan is as much a relic of a lost empire as any marble fragment decaying in timeless sands. By Jonathan Jones- Guardian (UK) |
Detroit's glorious Guardian Building celebrates 80 years: It's exotic, playful, majestic and utterly over-the-top. Call it the architectural equivalent of Aretha's hat. By Michael H. Hodges -- Wirt Rowland/Smith, Hinchman and Grylls (1920s); SmithGroup [images, links]- Detroit News |
Searching for Value in Ludicrous Ideas: ...we’ve forgotten...how to daydream, invent, engage with the absurd. That’s why I am so enamored with the work of inventor/author/cartoonist/former urban planner Steven M. Johnson, a sort of R. Crumb meets R. Buckminster Fuller. By Allison Arieff [images]- New York Times |
Global Holcim Awards 2009: four winning entries are a river remediation scheme in Morocco, a greenfield university campus in Vietnam, a rural planning strategy in China, and a shelter for day laborers in the USA. -- Aziza Chaouni/Takako Tajima; Kazuhiro Kojima/Daisuke Sanuki/Trong Nghia Vo; Yue Zhang/Feng Ni; Liz Ogbu/John Peterson/Public Architecture [links to images, info]- Holcim Foundation |
26th Annual IALD International Lighting Design Award winners announced: 19 projects from 11 countries... -- Speirs & Major; Auerbach Glasow French; Lighting Design International; Licht Kunst Licht; WSP Flack + Kurtz; pfarré lighting design; artec3; MCLA; Grandar Lightscape; Lumina Group; Office for Visual Interaction; Paul Marantz; Ljusarkitektur P&Ö- International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) |
Home Sweet Home: LA's A+D Museum finally lands its own space...Museum Row...Before construction begins, the A+D will host a pop-up exhibition in the new space from May 8 to 23 called "UPCYCLING: Recuperating Past Lives" -- Richard Meier & Partners; Gensler [image]- The Architect's Newspaper |
"In Situ: Architecture and Landscape": Despite its title, a surprising number of the buildings in MoMA’s new exhibition more or less ignore their surrounding landscapes...When the buildings do relate to their settings, it’s sometimes a very one-sided relationship...is visual harmony with the landscape at odds with actual harmony? It’s a troubling question, and one on which In Situ is silent. -- Superstudio; Aldo Rossi; Bernard Tschumi; Tadao Ando; Peter Eisenman; Frank Lloyd Wright; Edward Larrabee Barnes [images, links]- Metropolis Magazine |
"Santiago Calatrava: World Trade Center Transportation Hub" on view at Queen Sofía Spanish Institute, New York City, May 9 – August 31 -- DMJM + Harris; STV Group- Queen Sofía Spanish Institute (NYC) |
Frank Lloyd Wright in Florida: Call it American Architecture's best-kept secret: ...an opportunity to check out the campus in New York City, courtesy the gorgeous photography of photographer Robin Hill..."Child of the Sun": Frank Lloyd Wright's Florida Southern College, will be on show at the Charles Cowles Gallery, May 19-23 [images, links]- Azure magazine (Canada) |
Made in Brooklyn: ...seventh annual...Bklyn Designs — will open in Dumbo, drawing renewed attention to this neighborhood of former factories and warehouses, and its vibrant design scene. [images, links]- New York Times |
Looking at LOT-EK: Puma City...mobile shipping-container pavilion, has landed on Boston’s waterfront, a stone’s throw from the Institute of Contemporary Art...Catch it while you can: the maritime carnival decamps for Galway, Ireland, on May 16. [images, links]- Metropolis Magazine |
"Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman": ...documentary film by Eric Bricker narrated by Dustin Hoffman...explores the monumental career of 98-year-old architectural photographer [links]- JuliusShulmanFilm.com |
Book review: Penetrating the density of Rudolph’s world: "Writings on Architecture" by Paul Rudolph...it’s difficult to know whether to be awed by [his] prescience about important issues...or depressed by the fact that the many failings he is rallying against are still perpetrated in today’s architecture...a pleasure to read the words of an architect so obviously passionate about architecture.- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Book review: Architect John Lyle left legacy of style: "A Progressive Traditionalist: John M. Lyle, Architect" by Glenn McArthur documents the career of the man who designed more than his fair share of landmarks across Canada...few architects, Canadian or otherwise, were more strongly committed to the idea of capital "A" architecture. By Christopher Hume- Toronto Star |
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-- KK Letter: From Graz, Austria to Ljubljana, Slovenia
-- Design Hotel: Augartenhotel, Graz, Austria |
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