Today’s News - Friday, January 15, 2010
• AIA weighs in on support for Haiti.
• RIBA and ICE issue report on rising sea levels: "Hull could be transformed into a Venice-like waterworld and Portsmouth into a south coast version of Amalfi."
• California adopts greenest building codes in U.S.; builders to receive green certification without paying a third party (USGBC et al. not at all pleased).
• Kamin gets the skinny from the horses' mouths: the real influence on Burj Khalifa design was more Mies than FLW (take that, "architecture's chattering classes").
• It's a Vancouver kind of day: it's not quite utopia (yet) - Vancouverism requires "a powerful government to twist arms to enforce a new social vision."
• Woodward's is "aiming to bring something else to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside: change...part of a revolutionary mixed-use experiment."
• Boddy (Mr. Vancouverism himself - more below) pans 2010 Olympics architecture: "Ours will be the least architecturally ambitious Olympic Games since Melbourne in 1956."
• Baltimore takes steps to update its aged zoning regulations to protect views of iconic buildings - and prevent demolitions to make way for paring lots.
• An eyeful of ASLA 2009 Professional Awards.
• AIA Facebook Young Designers Challenge winner "uses synthetic landscape topography to reconcile commerce and public space."
• Call for entries: SMART Ideas Urban Design Charrette and Open Ideas Competition: retrofitting suburbia in NW Santa Rosa, CA (register by today and save $$$).
• AIA to part ways with Architectural Record, awarding contract to Architect magazine's parent Hanley Wood to be official journal.
• Weekend diversions:
• "Design USA" at the Cooper-Hewitt "is less an exhibition than an extra-large design seminar in your head" (that's a good thing).
• "Megacity Network: Contemporary Korean Architecture" returns to Korea following a two-year tour.
• "Vancouverism: Architecture Builds the City" (curated by Trevor Boddy) opens at Woodward's today: "politicians and urban planners have received far too much credit for the concept - this show "sets the record straight," giving architects their due.
• Page turners: "Body Heat: The Story of the Woodward's Redevelopment" tells the tale of "a crazy mixture of hard-nosed pragmatism and utopian dreaming" and "a lot of people taking risks."
• "The Smart Growth Manual" by Duany, Speck, and Lydon is "an intentionally slim, readable, well-illustrated and portable how-to guide" that no planning meeting should be without.
• Goldberger's "Why Architecture Matters" and Hollis's "The Secret Lives of Buildings" are "two decidedly undogmatic books bring us back down to earth" re: "architecture as an art of experience and use that is woven into the very fabric of human existence."
• Stewart Brand's "Whole Earth Discipline" is a must-read: it's "brilliant, controversial, unconventional, and lively" with "ideas that are anathema to much of the environmental movement" that he helped create.
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Architecture Community Supports Haiti Earthquake Relief Efforts: ...offering our profession’s technical and professional expertise when the initiative begins focusing on rebuilding...we are discussing ideas with Architecture for Humanity on how architects can provide on-the-ground design guidance in Haiti so local citizens can seek qualified counsel as they rebuild their homes, businesses, and lives. By George H. Miller, FAIA [links]- AIArchitect |
British coastal cities threatened by rising sea 'must transform themselves': Coastal cities such as Hull and Portsmouth 'must transform themselves' to withstand rising water, architects warn...The report, "Facing up to Rising Sea Levels. Retreat? Defence? Attack?," suggests swaths...city centres could be allowed to flood over the next 100 years and large parts of the populations moved out. By Robert Booth -- Institution of Civil Engineers; Royal Institute of British Architects [link to report]- Guardian (UK) |
California adopts greenest building codes in U.S.: ...the most stringent, environmentally friendly building code...dubbed Calgreen...create a single comprehensive code, clearing up confusion over varying regulations, and it allows builders to receive green certification without paying a third party.- San Francisco Chronicle |
Frank Lloyd Wright influenced the Burj Khalifa? Here's what the tower's designers say: That's a tall tale...architecture’s chattering classes are citing the wrong influence for the Burj Khalifa. The real influence has more to do with Mies than with Wright. By Blair Kamin -- Adrian Smith; Bill Baker/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Stephen Bayley; Witold Rybczynski; Mies van der Rohe [images]- Chicago Tribune |
Vancouver engineers its own urban dream: The city imposes notions of sustainability in its decisions on what, where and how to build. Still, it's not quite the utopia...Planners say the regional city centers won't get off the ground unless they bring to the table the same spirit of Vancouverism that inspired downtown's rejuvenation, including allowing a powerful government to twist arms to enforce a new social vision. -- Trevor Boddy; Bing Thom- Los Angeles Times |
Creative hope for a troubled 'hood: SFU Woodward's is...aiming to bring something else to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside: change...part of a revolutionary mixed-use experiment...encompasses luxury condominiums, social housing, retail and office space...as well as Simon Fraser University's School for the Contemporary Arts...- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Leading thinker pans 2010 Olympics architecture: One of Vancouver’s leading architecture critics has given the urban vision of 2010 Games planners a staunch thumbs down..."Ours will be the least architecturally ambitious Olympic Games since Melbourne in 1956." -- Trevor Boddy- The Tyee (Vancouver) |
New zoning would protect views of iconic buildings: ...preliminary ideas...for new rules and guidelines to replace downtown's zoning regulations, which haven't been updated in nearly 40 years...Planners hope to give Baltimore tools to support growth while preserving its character...also want to prevent buildings from being demolished to make way for parking lots.- Baltimore Sun |
ASLA 2009 Professional Awards announced -- Michael Van Valkenburgh; Tierra Design; WORKSHOPWEST Ken Smith Landscape Architect; SWA Group; Coen + Partners; Ten Eyck Landscape Architects; Janet Rosenberg + Associates/Claude Cormier Architectes Paysagistes/Hariri Pontarini Architects; Landworks Studio; Mikyoung Kim Design; Surfacedesign Inc.+ Harari arquitectos; CMG Landscape Architecture; West 8 + DTAH; OLIN; Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects; Wallace Roberts & Todd; Mia Lehrer + Associates/Civitas/Wenk Associates; etc. [links to images, info]- American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
Emerging Professionals: AIA Facebook Young Designers Challenge Winner: Market for T-City Builds an Urban Market Place by Subtraction. Omar Rodriguez Lavandero, Assoc. AIA, uses synthetic landscape topography to reconcile commerce and public space -- 3D Metaphors [images, links]- AIArchitect |
Call for entries: SMART Ideas Urban Design Charrette and Open Ideas Competition: retrofitting suburbia in NW Santa Rosa, California; registration deadline: February 1, 2010- AIA Redwood Empire Chapter / Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy |
Publish or Perish? AIA awards decennial contract to Hanley Wood, raising questions about Architectural Record's future. Design and shelter magazines have been shuttering left and right over the past year, but the mother of them all could yet be to come.- The Architect's Newspaper |
A Guided Tour in the Palm of Your Hand: With its use of the iPhone as a curating device,“Design USA: Contemporary Innovation” at the Cooper-Hewitt...is less an exhibition than an extra-large design seminar in your head...sends the traditional audio guide the way of the one-horse buggy. -- 2x4; Bill Moggridge; I.M. Pei; Walter Hood; Tod Williams Billie Tsien; Milton Glaser; Eva Zeisel; Venturi Scott Brown; LTL [slide show]- New York Times |
Innovations in Korean architecture on display: “Megacity Network: Contemporary Korean Architecture” returns to Korea following a two-year tour...at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea through March 7. -- Kwon Moon-sung; Kim In-cheurl; Lee Chung-kee; Chung Gu-yon; Hwang Doo-jin; Space Group; Junglim Architecture- JoongAng Daily (Korea) |
Giving architects their due: If ever there was an example of Vancouverism at work, Woodward's is it. And so it seems the perfect venue for..."Vancouverism: Architecture Builds the City"...politicians and urban planners have received far too much credit for the concept, and architects...have received far too little...the show...sets the record straight on this front... -- Trevor Boddy; Arthur Erickson- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Book Tells Story of Daring Downtown Project: "Body Heat: The Story of the Woodward's Redevelopment" by Robert Enright..."Everything about this project is a crazy mixture of hard-nosed pragmatism and utopian dreaming...involved a lot of people taking risks.”- Exchnage magazine |
Architect's urban living guide doesn't include cars: "The Smart Growth Manual "...an intentionally slim, readable, well-illustrated and portable how-to guide co-written by...pioneering anti-sprawl combatant Andrés Duany...with planners Jeff Speck and Mike Lydon...is in some ways Suburban Nation's user-friendly sequel...- Miami Herald |
Book review: "Why Architecture Matters" by Paul Goldberger and "The Secret Lives of Buildings" by Edward Hollis: These two decidedly undogmatic books bring us back down to earth, helping us understand architecture as an art of experience and use that is woven into the very fabric of human existence. By Kirk Savage- Washington Post |
Why Stewart Brand's New Book is a Must-Read: "Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto"...It’s brilliant, controversial, unconventional and lively...argues that we need nuclear power to combat global warming...biotechnology to feed the world and...take geo-engineering seriously — ideas that are anathema to much, though not all, of the environmental movement that Stewart helped create roughly 40 years ago.- GreenBiz |
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-- Coop Himmelb(l)au: House of Music, Aalborg, Denmark
-- TEN Arquitectos: Xochimilco Masterplan & Aquarium, Mexico City |
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