Today’s News - Tuesday, November 24, 2009
• Walker compares (sometimes amusingly) presidential libraries and what they say about their namesakes' legacies.
• King looks at San Francisco's "phantom skyline" of what-ifs, and how even "booms gone bust alter our surroundings in subtle, lasting ways."
• Moore wants London mayor to be clearer about what he wants the city to look like: "a thrusting metropolis of the 21st century...or with Georgian proportions and imperial colonnades?"
• Ouroussoff gives a hearty thumbs-up to H&deM's Miami Art Museum: it is "mesmerizing architecture" that "avoids the pitfalls of much recent museum design, which is no small feat" (though he expects others will snipe).
• Helsinki's new music center will make up for 40 years of bad acoustics (Aalto was more interested in "his fantasy and his vision" than what an orchestra sounded like).
• Correa claims Kolkata "has turned its back on its river, unlike Paris or London, and paid a heavy price for the apathy" (but all is not lost yet).
• Vyborg is letting its architectural heritage crumble to the ground.
• Baillieu doesn't buy the call CABE's Sorrell put out for architects to refuse a job rather than produce a bad building: it is "likely to result in worse buildings in the sectors that matter most."
• "Dangerous by Design" report documents unsafe streets and what needs to be done: "making isolated safety improvements after a crash is not enough...We need Complete Streets policies that ensure that every road is planned and designed from the outset."
• A good reason to head to Bali next week: inaugural Design Life 2009 conference.
• Call for entries: Atlantic City Boardwalk Holocaust Memorial; RFQ for Seattle's landmark Lower Kinnear Park; and 2010 Bentley Student Design Competition.
• One we couldn't resist: The Best New Buildings of the Decade! covers "all types of '00s insanity" in NYC.
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What Do Presidential Libraries Say About Their Namesakes' Legacies? ...how does W's design stack up against his predecessors? By Alissa Walker -- Robert A.M. Stern; Polshek Partnership; Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK); Hugh Stubbins; Jova/Daniels/Busby; Lawton, Umemura & Yamamoto; Gallagher & Associates; Marvin DeWinter; Langdon Wilson [images, links]- Fast Company |
Cities full of unfilled architectural dreams: ...the unbuilt futures, the lost designs, the collateral damage of booms gone bust. It's a phantom skyline and a realm of what-ifs, and it alters our surroundings in subtle, lasting ways...Cities take shape in complex ways, and the false starts are part of the show. By John King -- Toyo Ito; Renzo Piano; Rem Koolhaas; Brand + Allen Architects- San Francisco Chronicle |
Boris Johnson should tell us what he wants London to look like: Would it be a thrusting metropolis of the 21st century...or...with Georgian proportions and imperial colonnades? Where [he] and his gang can prove their mettle is in developing and enforcing policies that support the well-being of the city rather than impose a style or a vision on it. By Rowan Moore -- Richard Rogers; Prince Charles; Nicholas Serota- Evening Standard (UK) |
Matching Architecture to the Art in a New Miami Museum: The design is not a regurgitation of outmoded historical forms...it breaks those forms apart and then pieces them back together to create something wholly new...avoids the pitfalls of much recent museum design, which is no small feat. It has found an uneasy middle ground: mesmerizing architecture that nonetheless will put curators and their audiences at ease. By Nicolai Ouroussoff -- Herzog & de Meuron [slide show]- New York Times |
Helsinki’s $208 Million New Music Center Upstages Aalto’s Hall: "Finlandia Hall was a catastrophe from the beginning because it was never really planned together with acoustic experts...Aalto wasn’t really interested. He was creating his fantasy and his vision." -- Alvar Aalto (1971); Yasuhisa Toyota/Nagata Acoustics; LPR-arkkitehdit Oy [images]- Bloomberg News |
Hooghly: River Of Shame: Great cities, they say, are ones that grow around a river...India is no exception. Delhi was built around Yamuna and Kolkata next to Hooghly. Sadly, that's where the comparison ends..."Kolkata has turned its back on its river, unlike Paris or London, and paid a heavy price for the apathy"...all is not lost yet; it is possible to recover the riverfront but requires political will and foresight. -- Charles Correa; Partha Ranjan Das; Manish Chakraborty- Times of India |
Historic Vyborg Building Crumbles Through Neglect: ...cultural heritage is unique...one of the few cities in Europe to boast almost every architectural style to be found on the continent since the 1300s. But times are changing...the pressure to replace the old heritage with more modern buildings is growing. -- Karl Hard af Segerstad (1903) [images]- St. Petersburg Times (Russia) |
When it's wrong to walk: ...Cabe’s outgoing chairman, John Sorrell, urged architects to resign from a job rather than produce a bad building...Refusing to work for difficult clients is likely to result in worse buildings in the sectors that matter most. By Amanda Baillieu- BD/Building Design (UK) |
The American Streetscape: "Dangerous by Design": New report documents unsafe streets across the nation..."making isolated safety improvements after a crash is not enough...We need Complete Streets policies that ensure that every road is planned and designed from the outset for the safety of everyone who will be using it..." [link to report]- LAND Online / American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
Design Life 2009, Bali, December 4-6, 2009...inaugural RMIT Architecture & Design Alumni gathering in Ubud Bali for like-minded individuals from Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Industrial Design and Fashion from all over Asia and Australia.- RMIT University School of Architecture and Design (Australia) |
Call for entries: Atlantic City Boardwalk Holocaust Memorial open, two-stage competition; registration deadline: February 15, 2010- Atlantic City Boardwalk Holocaust Memorial organization (ACBHM) |
Call for entries/Request for Qualifications (RFQ): Landscape architect to create a conceptual plan for the enhancement of Lower Kinnear Park, a designated Seattle landmark; deadline: December 4, 2009- Friends of Lower Kinnear Park (FOLKpark) |
Call for entries: 2010 Bentley Student Design Competition open to Middle School/High School/Secondary School Level and Community College/University/Collegiate Level; deadline: February 26, 2010- Bentley Systems |
Top of the Aughts: The Best New Buildings of the Decade! ...a retrospective series covering all types of '00s insanity. -- Foster + Partners; Diller Scofidio + Renfro; FXFOWLE; SHoP; Herzog & de Meuron; David Childs/SOM/James Carpenter; Mayne/Morphosis/Gruzen Samton; SANAA; Richard Meier; Robert A.M. Stern; Schliemann/Polshek Partnership; Roman & Williams [images, links]- Curbed New York |
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-- Coop Himmelb(l)au: Mobile Performance Space, Pavilion 21 MINI Opera Space
-- Zaha Hadid Architects: Mobile Performance Space, JS Bach / Chamber Music Hall |
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