Today’s News - Friday, February 5, 2010
• An in-depth look at New Songdo City and plans to standardize many elements in other high-tech, green, built-from-scratch cities (Cisco has 9 green cities on the boards; 20 more could follow), but is it really the way to go?
• Once-shunned Marrakech has transformed itself into a luxury hot spot, but not all of the effects have been positive (does it really need 15 golf courses?).
• .Aberdeen could one day sport a Guggenheim Scotland, but is it such a good idea: there's a "vital difference between the Guggenheim effect and the Bilbao effect."
• Dublin's Tara Street Station redevelopment, including a landmark office development, gets the go-ahead.
• The NYC Active Design Guidelines offers user-friendly common sense ideas to engineer physical activity back into the city (hopefully, other cities will take advantage as well).
• Top sustainability trends: will the next 10 years be "the turning point for addressing climate change by using effective urban management strategies," or seen the' time when we collectively fumbled the Big Blue Ball."
• RMJM tapped for an indoor ski centre in Vladivostok that will rival facilities in Dubai.
• Beijing's Water Cube slated to be a water park and large-scale entertainment destination "reportedly being designed by a yet-to-be-named Canadian firm."
• Moscow's mayor calling out the wrecking balls once again
• this time an artists' colony that is one of the city's "last green enclaves" (even Corbu had a house there).
• It's pastor vs. preservationists in plans for a landmarked church in Manhattan.
• Plans to demolish an International Style church in Salem, MA, to make room for an apartment building hit a road block.
• Saffron cheers NYC's urbanSHED competition to redesign sidewalk sheds, but "it's likely to take some persuasion" to get installers to use it.
• This year's Times Square valentine to the city will melt your heart.
• Weekend diversions:
• Ouroussoff cheers four films as "an unusually earnest, and long overdue, effort to explore a fascinating question: What is it like to live or work inside a piece of art?"
• Architects' notebooks are the center of attention at Montreal's CCA and Belfast's PLACE gallery.
• King finds Gibbs' drawings commissioned for SFMOMA's 75th anniversary "remind us that big cities are far more flexible than we think...a procession of impressions, legible and elusive at once."
• Heathcote finds four design books that "do something to fill the gap of serious criticism," but some are better than others ("jargon-packed and excruciating" - ouch!).
• Brussat says "The Future of the Past" proves that "today's preservation ethic is destructive."
• An ex-Heatherwick employee's project highlights positive side of job losses.
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Cisco's Big Bet on New Songdo City: Creating Cities From Scratch: ...tech companies are rushing to build new green cities to house them. Are these companies creating a smarter metropolis - or just making money? New Songdo is the most ambitious instant city since Brasília 50 years ago...has been hailed since conception as the experimental prototype community of tomorrow. By Greg Lindsay [images]- Fast Company |
Marrakesh's Troubling Transformation into Luxury Hot Spot: Less than a decade ago, tourists shunned Morocco because of its poor infrastructure and supposedly unsafe conditions. Now, though, a major initiative...has turned Marrakesh into a playground for the world's rich and famous. But not all of the effects have been positive.- Der Spiegel (Germany) |
City square team aims to learn from Spanish success story: ...Aberdeen could one day be home to a Scottish Guggenheim...“Lots of places...said, ‘let’s have a Guggenheim’ and they all came to grief. What Acsef has failed to grasp is the vital difference between the Guggenheim effect and the Bilbao effect." -- Stuart MacDonald; Brisac Gonzalez- Press & Journal (Scotland) |
Tara Street Station redevelopment gets permission: ...in the centre of Dublin, one of the busiest on the national rail network...a landmark office development will also be included over the station, with...nine stories of office development over a three-storey height concourse area. -- Iarnród Eireann Architects; Aecom/Austin Smith-Lord; Adamson Associates/Murray & Murray [image]- Archiseek (Ireland) |
Active Design Guidelines: A new definition for sustainable cities: ...in our current urban environments, we have engineered out physical activity...these guidelines represent the re-engineering of the choice for physical activity back into the city...I was struck by its common sense. By Samir Shah -- Janette Sadik-Khan; David Burney; Amanda Burden; Adrian Benepe [links]- Urban Omnibus |
The Next Decade's Top Sustainability Trends: ...will be one day looked at as 1) the turning point for addressing climate change by using effective urban management strategies, or...2) the time when we collectively fumbled the Big Blue Ball....#4. The marriage of ICT and Green Cities...#6. The First Big Urban Climate Change Adaptation: Drought...#8. Focus on Urban Agriculture and Foodsheds...- WorldChanging |
Siberian snowdome in the works: An indoor ski centre will be part of a giant new casino complex due to open in Vladivostok, Eastern Siberia...will also contain an exhibition centre and water park and ‘rival’ facilities in Dubai -- RMJM- SkiRebel Magazine |
Beijing ‘Water Cube’ to Turn Water Park: ...set to be revamped into a large-scale entertainment destination...reportedly being designed by a yet-to-be-named Canadian firm... -- PTW Architects; Arup- Contract magazine |
Demolition ball threatens Moscow artists' colony: Fury as mayor targets one of last green enclaves...mayor declared war on residents in...the riverside area of Rechnik...Sokol village and its bohemian denizens are next up for the wrecking ball...Le Corbusier liked it so much he built a house here. -- Alexei Shchusev (1923) [slide show]- Guardian (UK) |
Thy Neighbor's Will: Pastor condemns Landmarks Preservation Commission for landmarking Upper West Side West-Park Presbyterian church...“This has nothing to do with the stones...This is all about money.” -- Leopold Eidlitz/Henry Kilburn (1880s); Franke, Gottsegen, Cox Architects; Gruzen Samton; Page Cowley- The Architect's Newspaper |
Threatened: International Style Church: St. Joseph Church, built in Salem, Mass., in 1948...slated to be torn down for an apartment building...plans hit a road block when the Massachusetts Historical Commission ruled that loss of the church would have an "adverse impact" on the site. [images]- Preservation magazine |
An umbrella for pedestrians: An elegant, functional sidewalk shed has won a prize for a Penn architecture student..."Urban Umbrella"...striking merger of beauty and function...it's likely to take some persuasion to get installers to spend money to acquire the new system. By Inga Saffron -- Young-Hwan Choi;Andres Cortes/Sarrah Khan/Agencie Group; Amanda Burden; AIANY [images]- Philadelphia Inquirer |
Coronary Blockage: With Valentines Day barely a week away, the Times Square Alliance is eschewing flowers and candy yet again...A giant ice heart by Moorhead & Moorhead will be installed in Times Square next Thursday. [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Inhabiting a Piece of Art: It’s Not Always So Pretty: Four films by Ila Beka and Louise Lemoine...at the Storefront for Art and Architecture...feel like fresh takes on architecture, avoiding the clichés about architects as pretentious eggheads oblivious to their clients’ needs...represent an unusually earnest, and long overdue, effort to explore a fascinating question: What is it like to live or work inside a piece of art? By Nicolai Ouroussoff -- Rem Koolhaas; Frank Gehry; Richard Meier; Herzog & de Meuron- New York Times |
CCA presents the exhibition "Take Note": ...traces selected pivotal moments in the ongoing relationship between writing and architecture over the past 50 years...explores the intellectual dimension of architecture...in which architects visualise their ideas and transcribe them in their notes... -- Sylvia Lavin; Gordon Matta-Clark; John Hejduk; Gehry Partners; Greg Lynn FORM; Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Stan Allen Architect; Bernard Tschumi; Reiser+ Umemoto RUR Architecture- Archiseek (Canada) |
'Hidden World' of Architecture Revealed: "The Secret Laboratory - Notebooks and Narratives" at Belfast's PLACE gallery brings together a series of private reflections by architects from across Ireland and the UK...captured in their notebooks.- 4NI (UK) |
Ewan Gibbs' drawings suite marks SFMOMA's 75th: Devotees of San Francisco, like the zealous defenders of any locale, tend to be spooked by change...That's why an outsider's perspective on the city can be revealing, if only to remind us that big cities are far more flexible than we think...a procession of impressions, legible and elusive at once. by John King [images]- San Francisco Chronicle |
It’s time we took design seriously: These books all do something to fill the gap of serious criticism; but much more is needed. By Edwin Heathcote -- "Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life and Maybe Even the World"/Warren Berger; "Woman as Design" by Stephen Bayley; "Design in Britain: Big Ideas (Small Island)" edited by Dejan Sudjic; "Dansk Design by Thomas Dickson; "Limited Edition: Prototypes, One-offs and Design Art Furniture" by Sophie Lovell- Financial Times (UK) |
Today’s preservation ethic is destructive: “The Future of the Past: A Conservation Ethic for Architecture, Urbanism and Historic Preservation" by Steven Semes asks professionals in those fields to re-examine the ethic that many of them embrace today, which sees historic buildings as “documents of their time” with “little relevance to how we design buildings and cities today.” By David Brussat- Providence Journal (Rhode Island) |
Photo book focuses on redundant architects: Ex Heatherwick employee's project highlights positive side of job losses- BD/Building Design (UK) |
INSIGHT: Can Green Interiors Help Power the Recovery? How the demand for sustainability and long-term value are shifting attitudes in the world of commercial interiors, creating an environment ripe for design professionals with incentives for both landlords and tenants to move the sustainability agenda forward. By Sascha Wagner, IIDA, CID, LEED AP, and Robin Bass, LEED AP- ArchNewsNow |
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-- Allied Works Architecture: National Music Centre of Canada, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
-- Competition winner: OMA: Chu Hai College Campus, Hong Kong, China |
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