Today’s News - Friday, July 15, 2011
EDITOR'S NOTE: Apologies for late postings the last few days - our Internet connection has been (annoyingly) intermittent...hopefully, things will run more smoothly next week!
• Farrelly delivers one of her most eloquent essays re: ageing, the design philosophy of most nursing homes and hospices today (ugh), and ''thinking yourself young'' (a must read for all us baby-boomers out there!).
• Bennetts explains why he's "cheesed off" about "being shafted by an arbitrary fee-scoring system" (it's more constructive criticism than sour grapes).
• Richard Rogers "hits out at a new report recommending Britain builds a new generation of garden cities": they might have been "a fantastic idea 150 years ago," but they're no solution to today's crises.
• Birnbaum borrows "a phrase from another contemporary debate" and calls for architectural criticism to "evolve already!" (and some critics agree).
• Saffron re: a major thoroughfare between Philly and Lower Merion: "a living, breathing, controlled experiment on how clashing policies affect two hoary American tribes - city-dwellers and suburbanites" that - hopefully - will become "a walkable, urbane street."
• The first three blocks of Manhattan's East River esplanade that just opened "will likely draw comparisons to the High Line for its embrace of infrastructure, though it's literally the flipside. Here, it's about being beneath, not above."
• AfH's Design Fellow McMahan reports from Haiti and just how important it is for the College National des Ingenieurs et Architectes Haitiens to recreate itself.
• Call for entries: 2012 AIA Honor Awards in Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Regional and Urban Design + Sustainable & Modular School 4 Burmese Migrant and Refugee Children + 25th Annual Mockett Design Competition for furniture parts, components, accessories, and hardware.
• Weekend diversions:
• Moore cheers a folly, a fountain, and a memorial currently enhancing London's public spaces: "What is pleasing about these three different things is that they all work."
• Reports from MoMA PS1's Young Architects Program summer follies in New York and Rome: one a concert-friendly space filled with objects that will be recycled to the neighbors; the other "a cool, grass lawn underneath giant Jurassic tulips."
• Seattle Architecture Foundation's 14th annual model exhibit layout could use "some tweaking," but "quibbles aside, it's great fun to survey these meticulously crafted visions of the architectural future."
• George Nelson's three decades of creativity take center stage in San Antonio: "You might not know his name, but you know his stuff."
• Szenasy queries Will Jones re: "Architects' Sketchbooks": "As I look at the many, incredibly varied approaches to communicating ideas, I not only see architects thinking, but also having fun!"
• An "absorbing new biography" of the "man who invented landscape architecture" captures Olmsted's "achievements and contradictions in a brisk, unvarnished style."
• "Day After Tomorrow: Images of Our Earth in Crisis" captures "the catastrophic effects of industrial processes" with "uncannily beautiful" photos (do look!).
• "The Westward-Moving House," J.B. Jackson's classic 1953 essay is so worth revisiting + "The Eastward-Moving House," David Heymann's contemporary response is worth visiting for the first time.
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Ageing well is the real reality show: ...cue people into not just recalling but re-inhabiting their old minds, reminding themselves of the potent people they once were, and watching the body follow suit. This is largely the opposite design philosophy of most nursing homes and hospices today...is ''thinking yourself young'' science or just television? By Elizabeth Farrelly -- Ellen Langer- Sydney Morning Herald |
Op-Ed: The art of not getting shafted: What’s the best way to choose a design team? Rigid scoring systems need to change if clients are to get the best balance between cost and quality...Yes, I’m cheesed off that we lost so many recent competitions, but sometimes it’s actually easier to accept that we haven’t done the best design, rather than having the best proposal and being shafted by an arbitrary fee-scoring system. By Rab Bennetts/Bennetts Associates Architects- Building (UK) |
Richard Rogers rejects call for more garden cities: ...has hit out at a new report recommending Britain builds a new generation of garden cities...[they] "were a fantastic idea 150 years ago but it’s time that the TCPA woke up to today and to today’s crisis." -- Urban Task Force; Hugh Ellis/Town & Country Planning Association- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Dear Architecture Criticism: Evolve Already! There's good news and bad news for landscape architecture. On the positive side, employment prospects look very strong...Unfortunately, major daily newspaper critical analysis of landscape architecture doesn't appear to be following suit. By Charles A. Birnbaum/The Cultural Landscape Foundation -- Paul Goldberger; James S. Russell; Philip Kennicott; Michael Kimmelman; Nicolai Ouroussoff; Ada Louise Huxtable- Huffington Post |
Vision of walker-friendly City Avenue: ...the boundary between Philadelphia and Lower Merion...a living, breathing, controlled experiment on how clashing policies affect two hoary American tribes - city-dwellers and suburbanites...The goal is nothing less than the reengineering of an auto-dependent commercial strip into a walkable, urbane street... By Inga Saffron [video]- Philadelphia Inquirer |
Catching Up: Three blocks of esplanade finally open on the East River...from Pier 11 at Wall Street to Pier 15 at South Street Seaport...will likely draw comparisons to the High Line for its embrace of infrastructure, though it’s literally the flipside. Here, it’s about being beneath, not above. -- Amanda Burden; SHoP Architects; Ken Smith [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Haiti: Taking the First Steps Toward Progress: One important group taking steps to recreate itself and aid in the revitalizing effort is the College National des Ingenieurs et Architectes Haitiens (CNIAH), the Haitian counterpart to the American Institute of Architects (AIA)...It's critical that the CNIAH becomes active once again in the region... By Stacey McMahan/Architecture for Humanity -- Patrick Paultre; Gina Bungener- Huffington Post |
Call for entries: 2012 AIA Honor Awards Celebrating the Best in Contemporary American Architecture in Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Regional and Urban Design; open to all architects licensed in the United States; deadline: August 26- American Institute of Architects (AIA) |
Call for entries: Sustainable & Modular School 4 Burmese Migrant and Refugee Children Open International Design Competition; deadline: October 1- Building Trust International (UK) |
Call for entries: 25th Annual Mockett Design Competition for furniture parts, components, accessories, and hardware; cash prizes, royalties; deadline: September 6- Doug Mockett & Company |
Silence; Folly for a Flyover; 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Memorial: ...ingenious Folly is one of three new works currently enhancing London's public spaces...a fountain called Silence...the first work in London by Tadao Ando...in the gardens of the Natural History Museum, Carmody Groarke have inserted a single 115-ton block of granite...the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Memorial...What is pleasing about these three different things, the memorial, the folly and the fountain, is that they all work. By Rowan Moore -- Assemble; muf- Guardian (UK) |
"Holding Pattern" at MoMA PS1: ...Young Architects Program (YAP) has been giving emerging architects an opportunity to reimagine an outdoor recreational space...Providing the setting for Warm Up this year is...an installation...focused on the theme of recycling...a concert-friendly space filled with objects that will also benefit its Long Island City neighbors after. -- Interboro Partners [images]- Metropolis Magazine |
Letter from Rome: YAP [Young Architects Program] Opening Night at the MAXXI: ...imagine stretching out on a cool, grass lawn underneath giant Jurassic tulips the size of a cherry tree...A temporary installation?..."Be attentive to the temporary, as it often becomes the permanent"...Magari! (We hope so.) -- Zaha Hadid; MoMA PS1; stARTT Architects [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Seattle Architecture Foundation's 14th annual model exhibit, "Transitions: Place, Process, Practice," puts work by more than 100 local firms and architectural students on display...The layout of the exhibit could use some tweaking...Quibbles aside, it's great fun to survey these meticulously crafted visions of the architectural future. -- Röllerhaus Pictureworks & Design Co.; Atelier G40; Hewitt; Hinthorne Mott Architects; AECOM; Miller Hull- Seattle Times |
"George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher": ...organized by the Vitra Design Museum...the first significant retrospective of Nelson’s career, presenting over 120 objects that span three decades of creativity...You might not know Nelson’s name, but you know his stuff...at the McNay Art Museum to Sept. 11- San Antonio Current (Texas) |
Q&A: Will Jones, editor of "Architects’ Sketchbooks": ...many schools are integrating such analog technologies as pencils, pens, water colors, pastels...As I look at the many, incredibly varied approaches to communicating ideas, I not only see architects thinking, but also having fun! By Susan S. Szenasy [images]- Metropolis Magazine |
"Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted - Abolitionist, Conservationist, and Designer of Central Park" by Justin Martin: ...an absorbing new biography...captures Olmsted's achievements and contradictions...In a brisk, unvarnished style...artfully balances [his] achievements with his personal limitations.- Seattle Times |
Photos Reveal The Shocking Beauty Of Earth's Destruction: "Day After Tomorrow: Images of Our Earth in Crisis"...documenting the catastrophic effects of industrial processes, J Henry Fair hopes to turn readers into consumer activists...The photos are uncannily beautiful... [slide show]- Fast Company |
"The Westward-Moving House: Three American Houses and the People Who Lived in Them": J.B. Jackson's classic essay first published in 1953 in "Landscape"...explores the relationship of house building to cultural values over three centuries and across the American continent...- Places Journal |
The Eastward-Moving House: David Heymann's essay...a fiction, generated in response and as an addition to another fiction: J.B. Jackson's "The Westward-Moving House."- Places Journal |
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-- Celebration: John Lautner Turns 100
-- Belzberg Architects: Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, Los Angeles, California |
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