Today’s News - Tuesday, August 24, 2010
EDITOR'S NOTE: We're heading to la bella Italia for the Audi Urban Future Awards and the Venice Biennale (our first!). Time and Internet access will be scarce, so we - and Today's News - will be back bright and early on Tuesday, August 31. Ciao...ci vediamo tra poco!
• Q&A with Caples and Jefferson, two architects who "have proven time and time again that architecture can transform reality and change attitudes."
• It's official: DS+R tapped to design Broad's big Grand Avenue adventure in art.
• Hawthorne clues us in on what DS+R's winning proposal looked like; alas, no pix - but there's "no doubt that the design contains the seeds of a canny, theatrical and high-energy piece of architecture."
• A battle for NYC skyline: Empire State Building owner takes umbrage at plan to put Pelli-designed 15 Penn Plaza tower to close to Midtown's Grande Dame.
• An interesting look at how Yamasaki's WTC was a "complex loaded with Islamic architectural references" - something overlooked in the "cacophonous debate over plans to build an Islamic cultural center just blocks from Ground Zero."
• Is the Des Moines Art Center Meier wing iconic or out of place?
• King bemoans a San Francisco project that gives architecture (and the nabe) short shrift, while another "newcomer" that may not "light up the blogs" is a "satisfying and well-crafted piece of urbanism."
• Merkel on the "irrational exuberance" of the last 20 years that has also "produced some great architecture among the glitz."
• New buildings by Selldorf "suggest a growing demand for sensual buildings that are well-designed and don't scream for attention" (well, there those sky garages).
• Celebrating the African-American architectural team that helped shape Boston and their legacy that Northeastern University wants to help preserve.
• FLW's grandson is trying to maintain a piece of his family's legacy, but the "house has health issues of its own."
• Revisiting Netsch's Air Force Academy Chapel in Colorado Springs: its soaring spirit still flies.
• University of Iowa names an impressive shortlist to design a new auditorium to replace the one destroyed in the 2008 floods (this time, a little higher up the hill).
• Work begins on Hood's "Solar Strand" at the University at Buffalo, where solar power and public spaces will co-exist within the landscape.
• Floridians get behind helping a Port-au-Prince hotel to be the first to re-open its doors since the earthquake.
• Campbell gives two thumbs-up's to Thompson's "Design Research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes": it's "a loving scrapbook of D/R and its era."
• Eyefuls of the James Dyson Award national winners (great presentations).
• We couldn't resist: the Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest winners (it took sorting through 1,322 of 'em).
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The Art of Ennobling Communities: Interview with Sara Caples and Everardo Jefferson: These architects have proven time and time again that architecture can transform reality and change attitudes. By Vladimir Belogolovsky [images]- ArchNewsNow |
It's official: Eli Broad will build his art museum downtown; Diller Scofidio + Renfro will design: ...Broad said he considered the museum’s location, which is close to Walt Disney Concert Hall designed by Frank Gehry. “We didn’t want it to clash, but we didn’t want it to be anonymous either"- Los Angeles Times |
Eli Broad and the Diller Scofidio + Renfro museum design: Car culture and the benefactor's public versus private lives are woven into the design that was submitted into competition...there is no doubt that the design contains the seeds of a canny, theatrical and high-energy piece of architecture. By Christopher Hawthorne- Los Angeles Times |
King Kong 2.0 as Tower Topples NYC Skyline: Empire State Building owner takes fight over a proposed Pelli-designed neighbor to City Council...suggestion to limit heights within 2,000 feet of the ESB would essentially kill development between 42nd Street and 23rd Street. -- Rafael Pelli/Pelli Clarke Pelli [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
WTC Was Influenced by Islamic Architecture: Lost in the cacophonous debate over plans to build an Islamic cultural center just blocks from ground zero is a seldom-discussed aspect of the former World Trade Center itself: It was a complex loaded with Islamic architectural references. -- Minoru Yamasaki- AOL News |
Meier wing: iconic or out of place? Architects can be sorted into all kinds of -isms, but there are basically two big camps: those who build things that blend in with their surroundings, and those whose buildings stand out....Des Moines Art Center, which is really three buildings in one: the 1948 original structure by Eliel Saarinen (blends in), the 1968 addition by I. M. Pei (blends in) and the 1985 addition by Richard Meier (stands way out). [image]- Des Moines Register |
Mission District condos no match for setting: Good design gets short shrift compared with scoring symbolic points or navigating the political process. Architecture loses out - and so does the urban terrain we all share. By John King -- Christiani Johnson Architects; SB Architects [images]- San Francisco Chronicle |
Irrational Exuberance Comes Home: The building boom of the last 20 years produced some great architecture among the glitz...the most interesting buildings...have been more playful, more enthusiastically experimental, even dazzling...it was more pragmatic; it was about using design to improve lives, often in subtle ways. By Jayne Merkel -- Alexander Gorlin; Frank Gehry; Shigeru Ban; Audrey Matlock; Herzog & de Meuron; Jean Nouvel- New York Times |
The Sensualist: The completion of such an extreme building (two words: sky garage) is a positive note amidst the punishing recession that has sidelined so many other projects. Selldorf Architects’ newest buildings suggest a growing demand for sensual buildings that are well-designed and don’t scream for attention. [images]- Architizer |
Designing a legacy: Celebrated African-American architectural team helped shape city. Their designs are part of the fabric of Boston...But there is much more to the 40-year legacy of Donald Stull and David Lee...a legacy that Northeastern University wants to help preserve. -- Stull and Lee- Boston Globe |
Frank Lloyd Wright house in Bethesda now belongs to architect's grandson: As Thomas L. Wright, 74, shows a visitor around the [Robert Llewellyn Wright] residence, his reverence for his grandfather's legacy is apparent...The house has health issues of its own. [slide show]- Washington Post |
Geometry of the Spirit: The Air Force Academy Chapel [in Colorado Springs] combines the soaring forms of Chartres with the imagery of fighter jets aloft...It is Colorado's most visited man-made tourist destination... -- Walter Netsch/Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM)- Wall Street Journal |
University of Iowa narrows Hancher Auditorium design search to four finalists -- Pelli Clarke Pelli; Snohetta; Trahan Architects; William Rawn Associates; OPN Architects- Des Moines Register |
South Florida companies help Haiti hotel: Hotel Villa St. Louis was once a thriving business in Bourdon, Port-au-Prince...With an opening date set for early 2012, the...first hotel to re-open its doors after being destroyed by the January 2010 earthquake. -- Adache Group Architects- South Florida Business Journal |
Site Preparation to Begin on University at Buffalo's 'Solar Strand': ...concept will embed public spaces within the landscape...will help define the "iconography" of solar power in the 21st century. -- Walter Hood/Hood Design [image]- University at Buffalo News |
We lived it here first: "Design Research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes" tells how a Cambridge store spread modern design across America...Jane Thompson’s book is a loving scrapbook of D/R and its era. By Robert Campbell -- Ben Thompson; Thompson Design Group [slide show, video]- Boston Globe |
James Dyson Award Shortlist: National winners announced [link to images, info]- James Dyson Foundation |
Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest: After being deluged with 1,322 cocktail napkins bearing sketches from 352 architects and architecture students, [the] jury of editors has determined the winner... -- Truc Dang Manh Nguyen/TDMN and Associates; Keegan Carmichael/Kallmann McKinnell & Wood; David Fox/University of Tennessee; Ernesto Liebrecht; Stanley Stark; John Henley/ESa [slide shows]- Architectural Record |
INSIGHT: Save What's Left: Architects as Stewards of Our Planet: We need to develop a new design culture of responsibility, one that seeks in every instance to do as little damage as possible to natural systems. By Peter Gisolfi, AIA, ASLA, LEED AP- ArchNewsNow |
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KK Letter: Work and time off in Beijing: ...working on the installation of the first Frank Gehry exhibition in China...an opportunity to combine work with a short vacation...We will be back on September 6th. -- Foster + Partners; Kengo Kuma; Arata Isozaki; Paul Andreu [images] |
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