Today’s News - Monday, January 4, 2010
EDITOR'S NOTE: We're back - with Happy New Year wishes to all! There's a lot of catching up to do (and, as expected, lots of year/decade in review and forecasts for the future). As ArchNewsNow.com enters its 8th year, our hopes are high (and fingers crossed) that it will be a brighter new year for everyone.
• ArcSpace brings us Chipperfield in Anchorage, and Perrault in Seoul.
• We are deeply saddened by the passing of Norval White - so close to the release of his 5th AIA Guide to New York City.
• Hawthorne on the Burj Dubai: if it is "too shiny, confidently designed and expertly engineered to be a ruin itself, it is surely the marker - the tombstone - for some ruined ideas."
• Kamin is a bit kinder: "It is a luminous, light-catching skyscraper that looks like a skyscraper - ridiculously tall, but exquisitely sculpted, elegantly detailed and unapologetically exultant"; and a profile of the architect behind it: Adrian Smith marries "poetry and pragmatism," and "designs with an eye toward economical construction and function, not just surface dazzle."
• Meanwhile Dubai's "The World" archipelago may not be totally under water: an Austrian investor says he will soon proceed with construction on the island of "Germany."
• Ouroussoff gets the scoop on a pharmaceuticals giant's hidden campus designed by (another) gathering of starchitects: have they managed "to make a rigidly controlled, insulated environment that is also human?"
• Russell has a most interesting conversation with the mastermind behind CityCenter re: "how big-name architects figured into a city defined by fantasy and spectacle" (hint: Ground Zero played a part).
• Kennicott finds CityCenter "strangely isolated and insular...It's good, as far as it goes, but is it really revolutionary? Is this the sort of thing that progressive architects should be involved in?"
• Q & A with Pelli re: CityCenter: "This is a project of many, many architects working simultaneously...getting here is a surprise and a miracle and we all still remain friends."
• Looking forward:
• Now it's done, CityCenter architects face a future of far fewer high-profile projects (if there will be any).
• Lewis offers some predictions for the future: smart growth, density, and sustainable design among the obvious; as for architectural styles: we will "have plenty of them, and regrettably plenty of not-so-beautiful buildings, regardless of their style."
• Rawsthorne on a new wave of designers redefining "their discipline as something that does more than produce "things... Let's hope design does better in the next decade."
• Hawthorne offers up some faces to watch in 2010.
• Looking back:
• Rochon says "the boom has slowed, but the pause is making room for some serious assessments of what it means to build with care."
• King looks at architectural trends of the decade: "iconic museums! stratospheric towers! Let's hope that when architectural ambitions come back, the I-word doesn't" + plus his pick of Top 10 San Francisco projects that (hopefully) portend a trend where "neighborhoods count for more than icons."
• Kennicott's take on the decade: the most encouraging trend was green design, and "'starchitect'...became something of a dirty word, as momentum grew for a new kind of modesty and problem-solving, rather than flamboyance and busted budgets."
• Some surprises in a round-up of the "Brightest Green Projects of 2009."
• Inaugural Imagine H2O Prize finalists are "awash with innovative ideas."
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-- David Chipperfield Architects: Anchorage Museum expansion, Anchorage, Alaska
-- Dominique Perrault: Ewha Woman’s University, Seoul, Korea |
Obituary: Norval White, of AIA Guide to New York City, 83: ...tapped into and fostered a growing national awareness that America had an architectural past worth preserving, a present worth studying and a future worth debating. -- Elliot Willensky; Fran Leadon- New York Times |
The Burj Dubai and architecture's vacant stare: ...real symbolic importance: It is mostly empty, and is likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future...If the Burj Dubai is too shiny, confidently designed and expertly engineered to be a ruin itself, it is surely the marker -- the tombstone -- for some ruined ideas. By Christopher Hawthorne -- Adrian Smith; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)- Los Angeles Times |
The Burj Dubai: New world's tallest building shows that nothing succeeds like excess: It is a luminous, light-catching skyscraper that looks like a skyscraper - ridiculously tall, but exquisitely sculpted, elegantly detailed and unapologetically exultant...seems rooted in its site, not plopped onto it. It simultaneously stands out and looks like it belongs. By Blair Kamin -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Adrian Smith- Chicago Tribune |
The tallest building ever - brought to you by Chicago; Burj Dubai's lead architect, Adrian Smith, personifies city's global reach...a marriage of poetry and pragmatism...He designs with an eye toward economical construction and function, not just surface dazzle. By Blair Kamin -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture [images]- Chicago Tribune |
'Germany' for Sale: Developer Moves Forward with Ambitious 'World' Development: Dubai may be perilously close to economic disaster...Although much of the ambitious "The World" archipelago of high-end real estate developments are languishing, an Austrian investor says he will soon proceed with construction on the island of "Germany." -- A-Cero [images]- Der Spiegel (Germany) |
Many Hands, One Vision: A chemical giant musters world-renowned architects to create its hidden campus...More than any project of the new millennium...Novartis crystallizes one of the central challenges in corporate architecture today: Is it possible to make a rigidly controlled, insulated environment that is also human? By Nicolai Ouroussoff -- Frank Gehry; Rafael Moneo; Alvaro Siza; Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA; Diener & Diener; Peter Markli; Studio di Architettura; Adolf Krischanitz [images]- New York Times |
MGM Mirage’s James Murren Says Ground Zero Inspired CityCenter: ...how big-name architects figured into a city defined by fantasy and spectacle..."I knew that world-class architects could make an experience that was meaningful and immersing...They all took us to places we couldn’t imagine." By James S. Russell -- Daniel Libeskind; Rafael Vinoly; Norman Foster; Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF); Murphy/Jahn; Pelli Clarke Pelli; Gensler- Bloomberg News |
Las Vegas CityCenter: The most striking thing...it is out of place, strangely isolated and insular, despite the professed goal of creating an open, walkable, urban environment...It's good, as far as it goes, but is it really revolutionary?...Is this the sort of thing that progressive architects should be involved in? By Philip Kennicott -- Cesar Pelli; Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF); Murphy/Jahn; Daniel Libeskind; Rafael Viñoly; Foster + Partners; Gensler- Washington Post |
Q & A with Aria architect Cesar Pelli: ...about CityCenter, Las Vegas architecture and the future of themed design in Southern Nevada..."This is a project of many, many architects working simultaneously...MGM Mirage has really done an extraordinary thing. So getting here is a surprise and a miracle and we all still remain friends."- Las Vegas Business Press |
After CityCenter, Architects Face New Reality: Over-the-Top Las Vegas Project Marks a Peak for Design Firms as High-Profile Jobs Fall by Wayside -- Cesar Pelli, Helmut Jahn, Norman Foster and Daniel Libeskind; David Rockwell; Rafael Viñoly; Eugene Kohn/Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF); Frank Gehry; Santiago Calatrava; Toyo Ito- Wall Street Journal |
Look for development, workplaces and architecture to contract in the new decade: Where, what and how will we design and build? Consider some predictions...my only prediction about future architectural styles is that we will continue to have plenty of them, and regrettably plenty of not-so-beautiful buildings, regardless of their style. Welcome, 2010. By Roger K. Lewis- Washington Post |
Trying to Be Responsible and Cutting-Edge, Too: Designers have redefined their discipline as something that does more than produce “things.” A new wave is using that process to tackle issues such as aging and homelessness...Was it enough? Sadly not. Let’s hope design does better in the next decade. By Alice Rawsthorne -- Participle; IDEO; Hella Jongerius; Konstantin Grcic; M/M; Graphic Thought Facility; norm; Stefan Sagmeister; Yugo Nakamura; John Maeda; Architecture for Humanity ; Project H Design- New York Times |
Faces to Watch in 2010: Architecture. By Christopher Hawthorne -- Thomas Heatherwick; Ray LaHood/U.S. Secretary of Transportation; Michel Rojkind/Rojkind Arquitectos; Kazuo Sejima/SANAA- Los Angeles Times |
To soar, yes – but also to get burned: The boom has slowed, but the pause is making room for some serious assessments of what it means to build with care...architects in Canada managed to escape relatively unscathed while economic tumbleweeds blew through 2009... By Lisa Rochon -- Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB); Diamond + Schmitt Architects; Santiago Calatrava; LEMAYMICHAUD; James Cheng; Gregory Henriquez; Arthur Erickson- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Architectural trends of the decade: ...Big Plans of a few years back - iconic museums! stratospheric towers! - are gathering the digital equivalent of dust on the shelf...Let's hope that when architectural ambitions come back, the I-word doesn't...By the end of the decade, every big city had its own hyped building by a star architect - often with results that weren't "iconic," just odd. By John King -- Frank Gehry; Daniel Libeskind [slide show]- San Francisco Chronicle |
Decade in review: Top 10 in S.F. architecture: ...the criterion extends beyond pure architecture to works that exemplify the qualities and potential of a city where neighborhoods count for more than icons. By John King -- HOK Sport [now Populous]; Craig Hartman/Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM); Pelli Clarke Pelli; SMWM (now Perkins+Will); Pfau Long Architecture; David Baker + Partners; Herzog & de Meuron; Roma Design Group; Stanley Saitowitz/Natoma Architects; Marta Fry Landscape Associates; MKThink [slide show]- San Francisco Chronicle |
Best of the decade: Architecture: Perhaps the greatest and most encouraging architectural trend was the widespread acceptance of new and green building technologies..."starchitect"...became something of a dirty word, as momentum grew for a new kind of modesty and problem-solving, rather than flamboyance and busted budgets. By Philip Kennicott -- Herzog & de Meuron; Frank Gehry; Rem Koolhaas; Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Daniel Libeskind- Washington Post |
The Brightest Green Projects of 2009 -- Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects; Ecker Architekten/Frank Flury/Illinois Institute of Technology; Grimshaw; etc. [slide show]- Fast Company |
Water Prize Finalists Awash with Innovative Ideas: Imagine H2O Prize...inaugural global competition — rewards business plans that offer the greatest promise of breakthroughs in the efficient use and supply of water.- GreenBiz |
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