Today’s News - Wednesday, November 10, 2010
• Chicago channels Burnham's big plans with GO TO 2040, which includes suggestions for "compact communities where owning a car is not a prerequisite" (and lots of public transportation).
• Kamin cheers re-think of Chicago's Navy Pier, "but creative spark is missing"; the good news: officials may turn to the city's "mother lode of design talent" for solutions.
• Thackara offers an in-depth analysis of high-speed transportation systems and concludes, "They are not the way of the future" (definitely worth checking out, all you public transit advocates).
• Gendall looks into Sherman's take on how "car-obsessed Los Angeles" can work with high-speed public transit: New Urbanism may offer "quick-fix solutions" but it "seems a bit too paint-by-numbers for him."
• Russell minces no words about what he sees in plans for a "behemoth"15 Penn Plaza: it "would deface New York City's skyline and cast a pall over surrounding streets already shortchanged on light and air...How did this thing get so huge?"
• San Diego Convention Center picks its expansion design team that "wowed officials" with a 5-acre rooftop park and more (flythrough explains it all).
• Meanwhile, the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge is set to get an eye-popping - and very green - lighting scheme.
• Gehry's Ohr-O'Keefe Museum in Biloxi dances with the trees "breezily, playfully...there's probably no place in the world where his joyful shapes seem so ideally suited to their purpose" (great video tour with amusing voice-over Q&A) + Dobrzynski's take on the "museum for the area's self-styled mad potter" with "a mad architect in charge. Just kidding."
• Bernstein looks into Scientology's really grand growth plan: 50 centers, 16 countries, around $500 million, and includes salvaging lots of historic buildings (not everyone is pleased, of course).
• Cleveland's PlayhouseSquare is a real estate mogul in its own right, reviving the nabe and reaping the financial benefits "that might otherwise have landed in private developers' pockets."
• And Boston's Modern Theatre comes back to life to play role in the reclamation of "a once-glorious cultural center that became a porn-soaked symbol of city decay."
• Swank (and they mean swank!) meets history in "glitzy rehabs" of two of Moscow's Stalin-era skyscraper hotels: "We might have overdone it in a few places" (great slide show!).
• Green and greener: NYC's Battery Park City Parks Conservancy maintenance facility glitters with LEED Platinum (no Quonset hut here!) + Lexington, Kentucky's Bottlestop bus shelter turns lemons into lemonade to shelter and enlighten transit riders.
• A handy guide to the USGBC's draft of the next version of the LEED, now open for public comment: "what's (mostly) the same; what's different; what's new."
• Two winners in competition to design water fountains for London's eight Royal Parks (let's see them in lots of parks!).
• Moggridge receives the 2010 Prince Philip Designers Prize for lifetime achievement.
• We couldn't resist: "suburban sprawl elevated to aerial art: Eye-catching and provocative" - truly amazing.
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Chicago Channels Burnham in Bold Regional Plan: The city's first comprehensive vision in 101 years offers a complete reassessment of seven-county region...GO TO 2040 is the result of three years of research and public input...suggests compact communities where owning a car is not a prerequisite. [images, links]- The Architect's Newspaper |
New vision for Navy Pier: A welcome retreat from excess, but creative spark is missing: Fortunately, pier officials say they will consider asking Chicago’s architects to submit redesign proposals...And well they should, given that the city has a mother lode of design talent that’s sidelined by the construction downturn. It’s time to use that talent - and to use this fresh opportunity to make Navy Pier the great public space it ought to be. By Blair Kamin [images]- Chicago Tribune |
A Tale of Two Trains: High-Speed Transportation Systems: Which country has the most advanced and resilient infrastructure?..."high speed railways, yes or no?" is a second order question. First order questions concern the kind of society Norway (or California) aspires to become in the decades ahead...My conclusion...is that high-speed, high-entropy transportation systems take a country back to the past. They are not the way of the future. By John Thackara/Doors of Perception [images, links]- Change Observer |
Preparing the Automobile City for High-Speed Rail: Roger Sherman and cityLAB examine how America’s most car-centric city can work with high-speed public transit...in car-obsessed Los Angeles...Some municipalities are turning to New Urbanism for quick-fix solutions on how to integrate high-speed rail into cities. Sherman positions himself as a distinct alternative to that. New Urbanism seems a bit too paint-by-numbers for him. By John Gendall -- Dana Cuff- AIArchitect |
Behemoth Packs 2.83 Million Square Feet of Blight: Commentary: ...15 Penn Plaza that may rise opposite Pennsylvania Station would deface New York City’s skyline and cast a pall over surrounding streets already shortchanged on light and air...How did this thing get so huge? By James S. Russell -- Pelli Clarke Pelli [images]- Bloomberg News |
San Diego Convention Center expansion to include rooftop park: A five-acre rooftop park, truck tunnel for exhibitors and 500-room hotel built on top of a nearby parking garage wowed officials as they announced the lead architect... -- Fentress Architects; John Portman & Associates; Civitas [images, flythrough]- San Diego Union-Tribune |
San Diego Crossing Gets Green Lighting Scheme: The 2.5-mile-long San Diego–Coronado Bay Bridge is set to undergo the “largest interactive green energy lighting project in North America.”...lighting will respond to the rate and intensity of automobile traffic on the bridge, as well as major boat traffic... -- Peter Fink/FoRM Associates; Mark Major/Speirs + Major; Buro Happold [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art defies the odds and Hurricane Katrina to open on Mississippi’s battered coast: ...a glinting cluster of silver structures...the product of a marriage made in aesthetic heaven...Gehry...intended his Biloxi buildings to dance with the trees. And so they do: breezily, playfully, with a sense of abandon that flies in the face of form-follows-function philosophy. Yet there’s probably no place in the world where his joyful shapes seem so ideally suited to their purpose. By Doug MacCash -- Frank Gehry [video, links]- The Times-Picayune (New Orleans) |
Back On Its Feet: A New Ohr O'Keefe Museum Opens: More than five years after hurricane Katrina...the new museum for the area's self-styled mad potter...has opened -- with a mad architect in charge. Just kidding... By Judith H. Dobrzynski -- Frank Gehry [image, links]- ArtsJournal |
In Pasadena, a Model for Scientology’s Growth Plan: ...part of a larger undertaking for the church: the creation of 50 centers in 16 countries for around $500 million...seeking to install nearly identical facilities in buildings as distinctive as a resort near Johannesburg, a bank headquarters in Brussels and a hotel in Kaohsiung, Taiwan...criteria often lead it to historic buildings. By Fred A. Bernstein -- Gensler [slide show]- New York Times |
PlayhouseSquare stars in its own real estate revival: PlayhouseSquare Foundation...owns roughly 1 million square feet...buying and redeveloping real estate has allowed it to reap the financial benefits...that might otherwise have landed in private developers' pockets. -- Urban Design Collaborative [images]- Cleveland Plain Dealer |
Modern Theatre brought up-to-date: Restored theater to play role in area’s resurgence...joins the Paramount Center and the Boston Opera House, all in the row...to represent the reclaiming of a once-glorious cultural center that became a porn-soaked symbol of city decay. -- Clarence Blackall (1913); CBT Architects [images]- Boston Globe |
Moscow Hotels Get Glitzy Rehabs, But Where Would Stalin Sleep? Swank Meets History; 'We Hope We Don't Need a Bomb Shelter'...Proud rivals, the Leningradskaya and Ukraina...two of Moscow's "seven sisters"—Stalin-era skyscrapers..."If the restoration experts hadn't been there, the whole inside would have been covered in gold"..."We might have overdone it in a few places"... -- Alexander Solovyev; Leonid Polyakov; Vladimir Sheskin [slide show]- Wall Street Journal |
Battery Park City Parks Conservancy Maintenance Facility: ...in the base of the Visionaire, a new, sustainable high-rise residential tower...LEED Platinum facility uses a combination of low-tech, passive strategies and high-tech equipment to reduce the energy costs by 35%. -- Dattner Architects [slide show]- Eco-Structure magazine |
Lemons to Lemonade: Empty bottles inspire a young designer’s competition-winning bus shelter in Lexington, Kentucky...Bottlestop, by designer Aaron Scales, is the Art in Motion’s first attempt to shelter and enlighten transit riders. By David Sokol [slide show]- GreenSource Magazine |
Your Guide to the New Draft of LEED: The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has released a draft of the next version of the LEED rating systems, and has opened the first public comment period...to Dec. 31, 2010...What’s (Mostly) the Same; What’s Different; What's New [links]- BuildingGreen.com |
Two British Designers Win International Competition to Find the Ultimate Drinking Fountain: ...for London's eight Royal Parks...Trumpet and Watering Holes... -- Ben Addy/Moxon Architects; Robin Monotti Architects/Mark Titman [images]- Dexigner |
Bill Moggridge honoured with Duke of Edinburgh prize: The creator of the world's first laptop has been given a lifetime achievement award...the 2010 Prince Philip Designers Prize...co-founded design company IDEO...currently the director of the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.- BBC (UK) |
America's suburban sprawl elevated to aerial art: Eye-catching and provocative aren't descriptions you'd readily associate with the architecture of America's sprawling suburbs. But seen from photographer Christoph Gielen's perspective, they are. -- Jeff Speck [slide show]- CNN |
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Toyo Ito & Associates: Za-Koenji Public Theatre, Suginami-ku,Tokyo, Japan |
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