Today’s News - Wednesday, February 10, 2010
• Let's get the negativity over with first: Farrelly minces no words about how she feels re: an urban Modernism come-back: not only is it back, "it's back unrethought, unreconstituted, unrepentant. How can sentient professionals be so dumb?"
• Glancey questions the decision to bury V&A extension underground: what we "should be burying underground are very different creatures...raiding our purses and nurturing avarice and dimwittery."
• Hume x 2: Canada's Olympic pavilion is "an ugly pre-fab dud" that "could be mistaken for a public toilet" or an emergency shelter better suited for the streets of Port-au-Prince.
• He jeers Brantford's city council for cheering for the wrecking ball aimed at 41 heritage buildings not "to make way for something bigger and better, just to clear the site" (it's dumb and self-destructive).
• In Gettysburg, the battle to save Neutra's Cyclorama Center is much bigger than trying to save just one building - it is about the very idea of preservation.
• Moore thinks it's "power meets poverty" with Tottenham football team's stadium-and-then-some plans: "What's needed is architecture that can walk and chew gum at the same time."
• On a much brighter note, an uber-impressive shortlist announced in the St. Louis Gateway Arch Design Competition (more reports sure to follow).
• King will be "happily surprised" if Hood's "inventive approach to urban space gains traction in a city as fractious as Berkeley."
• An in-depth looks at Vancouver's Olympic Village, "one of the biggest, most lavishly landscaped, environmentally-friendly developments in Canada."
• U.K. hands over £60 million for 600 eco homes (100 will be just for show).
• Russell on Architecture for Humanity being tapped by Buffet and the Vatican to help in Haiti.
• Saitowitz's Tampa Museum of Art doesn't try to be a Guggenheim by Wright or Gehry: "It is a neutral box, a scaffold, to be completed by its contents."
• SHIFTboston Ideas Competition winners offer new life for an abandoned subway tunnel: "Here's hoping the city's politicians are canny enough (and/or jealous enough of New York's High Line) to take the proposal seriously."
• RAIC announces 2010 Honorary Fellows.
• Michigan's State Historic Preservation Office gets serious about its Modernist treasures.
• We couldn't resist (it's snowing quite heavily): a coyote on Central Park pond.
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People who don't want to live in glass houses should throw stones: Modernism is not only back, it's back unrethought, unreconstituted, unrepentant. How can sentient professionals be so dumb? ...cities have to be more than green. They have to make us want them. By Elizabeth Farrelly- Sydney Morning Herald |
Bury a car park, not the V&A: A museum extension should raise our sights and spirits, not be hidden underground...the buildings and structures we should be burying underground are very different creatures...raiding our purses and nurturing avarice and dimwittery. By Jonathan Glancey- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Canada's Olympic pavilion an ugly pre-fab dud: Feds' official building is a $10 million architectural portrait of public-sector cynicism. Canada has never looked so bad...could be mistaken for a public toilet, temporary of course, or maybe an emergency shelter. It would be a welcome sight on the streets of Port-au-Prince, but not a parking lot in Olympic City. By Christopher Hume- Toronto Star |
Brantford aims wrecking ball at its future: If Brantford council gets its way, 41 heritage buildings on Colborne St. will be destroyed...Not even the absence of a plan deters these would-be wreckers. They're not pursuing demolition to make way for something bigger and better, just to clear the site. Not only is this dumb, it's self-destructive. By Christopher Hume- Toronto Star |
Comment: Preservation is a moving target: On the Gettysburg Battlefield...Richard Neutra’s Cyclorama Center is currently deteriorating...this case...is about the very idea of preservation, and this in turn impacts the discourse of architecture...There are unexplored degrees of preservation between its ever-present all-or-nothing proposition...has the potential to become the catalyst for shaping richer and healthier environments. By Jason Hart/CUBE design + research- The Architect's Newspaper |
Tottenham need to think again over new stadium: ...when Tottenham Hotspur propose a 58,000-seat stadium...as well as 450 flats, a hotel and a supermarket to help pay for it, worlds collide. Power meets poverty...whooshing pubs and shops and the odd listed building into oblivion...What's needed is architecture that can walk and chew gum at the same time. By Rowan Moore -- KSS; Martha Schwartz; Make Architecture [images]- Evening Standard (UK) |
Nine Teams Reach Second Round of Gateway Arch Design Competition -- Eero Saarinen/Dan Kiley (1965); Behnisch Architekten/Gehl Architects/Stephen Stimson Associates/Buro Happold/Transsolar; FIT (Fully Integrated Thinking) Team/Arup/Doug Aitken Studio/HOK; Michael Maltzan/Stoss Landscape Urbanism/Rafael Lozano-Hemmer/Richard Sommer; Michael Van Valkenburgh/Steven Holl/Greenberg Consultants/Uhlir Consulting/Guy Nordenson/Ann Hamilton Studio/James Carpenter/Elizabeth K. Meyer/Project Projects; PWP Landscape Architecture/Foster + Partners/Civitas/Ned Kahn; Quennell Rothschild/Diller Scofidio + Renfro/Vishkan Chakrabarti/Atelier Ten,/Nicholas Baume; Rogers Marvel/Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects/Urban Strategies/Local Projects; SOM/BIG/Hargreaves/Jaume Plensa/URS; Weiss/Manfredi/Magnusson Klemencic Associates/Mark Dion- CityArchRiver 2015 Foundation |
Berkeley plan weds the natural, the practical: ...when an inventive approach to urban space gains traction in a city as fractious as Berkeley, I'm happily surprised. And curious as to what the future might hold..."What intrigued me is, how can we make the 'natural' environment revelatory in the public realm?" By John King -- Walter Hood/Hood Design; Ecocity Builders [image]- San Francisco Chronicle |
Olympic Village is city's most lavish new landscape: When 2,800 world-class athletes move into condos at the $1-billion-plus Olympic Village...they will occupy one of the biggest, most lavishly landscaped, environmentally-friendly developments in Canada. -- Durante-Kruek [images]- Vancouver Sun |
Government hands out £60m for 'eco homes': ...investment to boost the development of 600 new green homes across the UK...around 100 of them will not initially be lived in, acting instead as ‘eco show homes’- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Buffett, Vatican Look to Architect’s Group for Help in Haiti: Architecture for Humanity has written an earthquake manual, but Haiti’s poverty makes it difficult to construct earthquake-proof buildings. Cameron Sinclair has already rejected offers to use shipping containers for housing because he fears they would become mosquito-infested ovens. “You can’t do a shoddy job." By James S. Russell [links]- Bloomberg News |
In Tampa, a metal monument to art: ...Tampa Museum of Art stands, monumentally, as a silent framework for the art within..."It doesn't symbolize or express anything...It is a neutral box, a scaffold, to be completed by its contents." -- Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects [images]- Herald- Tribune (Florida) |
Underground Inspiration: The winners of SHIFTboston Ideas Competition envision new life for an abandoned subway tunnel...Here’s hoping...the city’s politicians are canny enough (and/or jealous enough of New York’s High Line) to take...TUTS: Tremont Underground Theater Space proposal seriously. -- Sapir Ng/Tsoi/Kobus & Associates; Andrzej Zarzycki [image, links]- Metropolis Magazine |
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) announces 2010 Honourary Fellows -- Manfredi Nicoletti; Sunand Prasad/Penoyre & Prasad; Christian Ouellet- Canadian Architect |
Michigan Modern a Draw for Travelers: ...offers wealth of modern architecture, with notable buildings open for intimate visits...State Historic Preservation Office is behind an effort to highlight Michigan's modern architecture and design heritage. -- Minoru Yamasaki; Marcel Breuer; Cranbrook; Saarinen; Ray and Charles Eames; Ralph Rapson; Harry Weese; Reed Kroloff; Gwendolyn Wright; Alden B. Dow; Frank Lloyd Wright; Mies van der Rohe [images, links]- ABC News (US) |
Coyote on Ice: ...the pond in Central Park... [images]- New York Times |
Twilight Visions: Vintage Surrealist Photography Sheds New Light on Architecture: An exhibition and book of photographs of Paris between the wars might just be the necessary correctives to the virtual sterility of digital imagery. By Norman Weinstein- ArchNewsNow |
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Morphosis: Cahill Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California |
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