Today’s News - Friday, March 19, 2010
• Q&A with Yeang: there is more to green design than "stuffing buildings with ecogadgetry or getting a certification."
• BOMA International extends green challenge to industry suppliers.
• Dillon on a Dallas park that's more "more hodgepodge than urban escape": everyone loves the Winspear and Wyly, but with a "Parisian no-show," there's a "predictable loss of focus and continuity."
• SOM tapped to continue its work on Moynihan Station Phase 1 (the saga continues).
• Montreal picked "a practical green building...over more whimsical concepts" for its new planetarium.
• A filmmaker finds Detroit a city in terminal decline - but also uncovers reasons for hope: "we discovered, to our surprise, an irrepressible positivity in the city."
• Members of Congress are still getting lost in the Capitol Visitor Center - and let the Architect of the Capitol know "albeit in a good-natured way" (and he wants how much moolah for his budget?).
• Lots of weekend diversions:
• DC Environmental Film Festival includes world premiere of "A Necessary Ruin: The Story of Buckminster Fuller and the Union Tank Car Dome" (we've seen it - it's a fascinating though sad tale).
• "Citizen Architect" profiles Mockbee and the humble origins of socially-responsible design: "it's important to remember where it all started."
• Director defends "The Art of the Steal: The Untold Story of the Barnes Foundation," has attracted criticism for being too one-sided.
• A new play that pits a promising American architect against the Minister of Culture of a Middle Eastern country is "a consuming character study" (one wants to build something monumental, the other wants a gazebo for his garden).
• Davidson on MoMA's "Rising Currents": it's "a tour de force of visionary pragmatism...proposals seem quixotic and expensive, but consider the reality."
• Snøhetta at NYC's Scandinavia House shows the firm's "emphasis on nature, landscape, social consciousness, and teamwork."
• Yale trip: Russell and Dickson are both intrigued by "Eero Saarinen, Shaping the Future": "he wasn't putting a new wrapper on the same old box. He was reinventing the box" in "an extraordinary exhibit."
• In "Compass and Rule," also at Yale, "mathematics is the unsung hero," making it "a lot more arcane and sometimes a bit turgid."
• Hawthorne on L.A.'s busy season of intersections between architecture and photography (why is Rudolph's work so "tough to love"?).
• Also in L.A., Lubell finds "Fat Fringe" "origami on steroids."
• In Richmond, VA, "Glass Ceilings" puts early women architects front and center.
• In Paris, "Animal Architecture" explores the intersection between architecture and the natural world (links to great Q&A between Arsham and Viladas).
• In Bangkok, "Architecture Without Paper 2010" has architects saying "no paper, no problem."
• Page turners: Maki's "Nurturing Dreams" is "lucid and highly readable" - essays by an accomplished architect "is a rare thing"; Ban's "1985
• 2007" is "refreshingly devoid of the marketing aroma that too often spoils the contemporary architectural monograph."
• Stratigakos's "A Women's Berlin" explores a time when women were defying convention: "the problem was there was no architecture to go along with their lives," so they set about creating a metropolis of their own.
• Brussat cheers "Yankee Modern": the houses "are quite delightful, several of them superlatively so...they certainly are not modernist. Bravo to them!"
• Glancey goes in search of the world's best offices, and finds some in ""I Wish I Worked There!"
• Walker on Shubin + Donaldson tome of workspaces that inspire creativity.
• Q&A with Weeks re: "Interior Design in Practice" and what it takes to be successful: "Passion and practicality."
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Skyscrapers: Can skyscrapers...be green? Yes, insists...Kenneth Yeang...But first, he says, architects, designers and governments must realize that there is more to green design than "stuffing buildings with ecogadgetry or getting a certification." -- T.R. Hamzah & Yeang; Llewelyn Davies Yeang- Wall Street Journal |
BOMA International Extends Green Challenge to Industry Suppliers: ...announced an addendum to its 7-Point Challenge Market Transformation Plan that calls on associate members - providers of products and services to the commercial real estate industry - to institute sustainable practices in their business operations.- Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) |
Sammons Park more hodgepodge than urban escape: ...response to the AT&T Performing Arts Center has been enthusiastic...with spring just days away, attention shifts to...the 10-acre swath...connecting [the Winspear and Wyly]. Here the news isn't so good. "We needed a French landscape architect for this?" By David Dillon -- JJR; Michel Desvigne- Dallas Morning News |
Architecture firm picked for Moynihan Station: Skidmore Owings & Merrill selected to design first phase of work to convert Farley Post Office into a new train station...SOM has taken a leading role in the advocacy and design of this infrastructure project since the 1990s and has worked on several prior iterations of the new station.- Crain's New York Business |
New Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium has architects reaching for the stars: ...will move next to Olympic Stadium...In the end, a practical green building with most of its features buried won the day over more whimsical concepts...Architectural Competition exhibition runs at the existing Montreal Planetarium...through Nov. 14. -- Cardin Ramirez Julien; Ædifica Architecture + Design- Montreal Gazette |
Detroit: the last days: ...a city in terminal decline. When film director Julien Temple arrived in town, he was shocked by what he found – but he also uncovered reasons for hope: ...seems to be an insoluble disaster with urgent warnings for the rest of the industrialised world. But...we discovered, to our surprise, an irrepressible positivity in the city...decided to call our film Requiem for Detroit? – with a big question mark at the end.- Guardian (UK) |
Members of Congress Say They Still Get Lost Inside Capitol Visitor Center: ...vented their frustration - albeit in a good-natured way - at a hearing on the Architect of the Capitol’s fiscal 2011 budget request.The consensus: More signs and maps are desperately needed. -- Stephen Ayers- Roll Call |
National Building Museum in D.C. is hosting DC Environmental Film Festival: "A Necessary Ruin: The Story of Buckminster Fuller and the Union Tank Car Dome" directed by Evan Mather; narrated Frances Anderton: ...located north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was the largest clear-span structure in the world...relates the powerful, compelling narrative of the geodesic dome’s history...world premiere March 22- DC Environmental Film Festival |
"Citizen Architect": The Humble Origins of Socially-Responsible Design: A new documentary profiles the late Samuel Mockbee, founder of Auburn University's Rural Studio - which taught students by building houses in rural Alabama...With groups like Architecture for Humanity and Project H becoming so popular, it's important to remember where it all started. By William Bostwick [image, video]- Fast Company |
It’s about the steal, not about the art: Director defends the collector and his museum rules: "The Art of the Steal: The Untold Story of the Barnes Foundation"...not only partisan but also proud to be so.
an engrossing and deftly made film, but it has attracted criticism for being too one-sided...Q&A with director Don Argott- Boston Globe |
World Premiere "In a Garden" blooms at South Coast Repertory [Costa Mesa, CA]: ...promising American architect...arrives in the fictional Middle Eastern country...by personal invitation of its Minister of Culture...turns out to be not some monumental structure to boost his notoriety, but rather a commission to design the Minister's summer home: a gazebo.- Broadway World |
When the Water Rises: “Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront"...Five architects’ plans for managing a globally warmed future. “Your mission is to come up with images that are so compelling they can’t be forgotten and so realistic that they can’t be dismissed,” Barry Bergdoll told them. The result is a tour de force of visionary pragmatism...proposals seem quixotic and expensive, but consider the reality... By Justin Davidson -- Architecture Research Office/ARO/dlandstudio; LTL Architects; Scape; Matthew Baird Architects; nARCHITECTS [slide show]- New York Magazine |
Building an Architecture Out of Consensus: Snøhetta...always placed an emphasis on nature, landscape, social consciousness, and teamwork - a distinction that makes the firm's work particularly relevant today...“This does not avoid disagreement or even polarization but it does ensure inclusion,” says Craig Dykers...on view at Scandinavia House in New York until April 24. [slide show]- Artinfo |
Yale Celebrates Saarinen, Corporate, Campus Image Maker: In the catalog, curators Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen and Donald Albrecht position him as a propagandist of U.S. industry...a corporate ad man, rather than a true architect dedicated to his own vision...but he wasn’t putting a new wrapper on the same old box. He was reinventing the box...I’m not the only one who finds the “real” Saarinen elusive. He could be called an auteur: a singular genius who could collaborate. By James S. Russell- Bloomberg News |
Innocent Modernism on display in Saarinen show: An extraordinary exhibit, “Eero Saarinen, Shaping the Future"...is about the architect, a cultural movement and, perhaps unintentionally, how architecture can reflect the spirit of its times and give perspective about how the aesthetics of the buildings around us came to be. By Duo Dickinson- New Haven Register (Connecticut) |
Beauty bloomed when architects arrived: Yale's British Art center's "Compass and Rule: Architecture as a Mathematical Practice in England, 1500-1750" charts era when math became an artistic science...Mathematics is the unsung hero...an art museum is singing its praises makes this exhibit more unusual than most. It also makes it a lot more arcane and sometimes a bit turgid.- Republican-American (Connecticut) |
Rudolph and the wrecking ball: The intersection of architecture and photography has been meaningfully busy lately..."After You Left, They Took It Apart"...photographs are powerful...also raise questions that have vexed architects, historians and preservationists for years: What it is about Paul Rudolph's work that continues to make it so vulnerable to demolition?...[his] architecture was tough to love... By Christopher Hawthorne -- Chris Mottalini; Luisa Lambri; Venturi Scott Brown and Las Vegas [images, links]- Los Angeles Times |
Origami On Steroids: ...one of the coolest paper structures ever assembled, called Fat Fringe. Hung from the ceiling of the new Fix Gallery in LA...the die-cut canopy...of white paper seems to morph into hundreds of fluttering shapes... By Sam Lubell -- Materials and Applications; Layer [images, links]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Exhibition of early women architects, designers by Donna Dunay displayed in Richmond: "Glass Ceilings: Highlights from the International Archive of Women in Architecture" at the Virginia Center for Architecture...includes artifacts from Virginia Tech’s International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) collection -- Nobuko Nakahara; Lois Gottlieb; Beverly Willis; Mary Brown Channel; Han Schroeder- Virginia Tech News |
Daniel Arsham explores the intersection between architecture and the natural world...“Animal Architecture"...debuts March 20 at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris...proof that talent need not be restricted to one dimension. -- Snarkitecture [images, link to NYT Q&A with Pilar Viladas]- Flavorpill |
No paper no problem, say architects: "Architecture Without Paper 2010" at the ASA Centre, Siam Discovery until March 26- Bangkok Post |
Words and Pictures: Fumihiko Maki "Nurturing Dreams: Collected Essays on Architecture and the City"...Lucid and highly readable...A collection of fine essays by an accomplished architect is a rare thing...Shigeru Ban's "1985–2007"...refreshingly devoid of the marketing aroma that too often spoils the contemporary architectural monograph. By Robert Taylor/Taylor & Burns Architects [images]- Places Journal |
Exploring women’s role in architecture: “A Women’s Berlin" by Despina Stratigakos explores the German capital at the turn of the 20th century, a time when more and more women were defying convention..."the problem was there was no architecture to go along with their lives"...So women set about envisioning and creating a metropolis of their own.- UB Reporter (University at Buffalo) |
Yankee Modern: more former, less latter: "Yankee Modern: The Houses of Estes/Twombly" by William Morgan...rhetoric and reality do not always meet in books about houses. That said, the houses in this book are quite delightful, several of them superlatively so...They may or may not be typically Yankee, or modern, but they certainly are not modernist. Bravo to them! By David Brussat- Providence Journal (Rhode Island) |
In search of the world's best offices: "I Wish I Worked There! A Look Inside the Most Creative Spaces in Business," by Kursty Groves and Will Knight, outlines some of the most creative working spaces in the world. But what makes a great office? By Jonathan Glancey- Guardian (UK) |
10 Workspaces That Inspire Creativity: ...every bit as innovative as the advertising, graphics, post-production and special effects firms that use them..."Live and Work: Modern Homes and Offices: The Southern California Architecture of Shubin + Donaldson"... By Alissa Walker [slide show essay]- Fast Company |
Katie Weeks on Interior Design in Practice: ...co-author of "Interior Design in Practice: Case Studies of Successful Business Models"...speaks about the book and what it means to be successful during an economic downturn...what are the one or two most important factors for success in a design practice? Passion and practicality.- otto |
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Kengo Kuma & Associates: The Opposite House, Beijing, China |
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