Today’s News - Thursday, September 8, 2011
• Arch Record offers an extensive overview of just about everything that's gone/is going on in NYC over the last 10 years.
• CTBUH invited a bevy of industry notables to reflect on how the world of tall buildings has changed since 9/11.
• Sorkin, Rybczynski, and Brussat see "smoke and mirrors," "black holes," and a "failure of memory" at Ground Zero (ouch, ouch, and ouch!).
• Tuchman, on the other hand, finds the 9/11 Memorial "an eloquent gathering" that transforms 9/11 "from a day of tragedy into a place of remembrance, one that will henceforth be observed with grace."
• Q&A with Libeskind re: the 10th anniversary, what the term "sacred ground" means to him, and the "musicality of the site."
• Heathcote on the "criticism leveled at architects working with undemocratic regimes" (i.e. China), and why, perhaps, they "deserve more rigorous scrutiny."
• On the other hand, the "architecture of the future" (by Western architects, of course) "will very likely resemble that which is being built in China today".
• King x 2: on Apple's "spaceship HQ" in Cupertino: "it's refreshing to see real architectural ambition - even when that ambition translates into a sci-fi fantasy best viewed from a helicopter" + Four cubes that make up the Diane Middlebrook Memorial Writers' Residences "is not a static line of boxes."
• Chaban finds a High Line building that is not an architectural blockbuster (gasp!).
• The Brooklyn waterfront is about to be graced with a carousel housed in "in a pretty ritzy transparent acrylic jewel box" by Nouvel (so "where's the architecture?" wonders Wadler).
• Thackara finds full marks are due to Aalto University in Helsinki for making "wellbeing their spearhead project in next year's World Design Capital festival."
• Q&A with Korean "starchitect" helming the Gwangju Design Biennale re: what "design is design is not design" really means.
• Crosbie on why his "New York Dozen" are architects to watch.
• A RIBA Building Futures debate had critics, journalists, and architects pondering whether the architecture press has let down the industry: "the motion was not just beaten, it was battered."
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The Death and Life of a Great American City: New York City: 2001-2011; The City Rebuilds; The City Redefined; The City Reimagined. By Cathleen McGuigan, Suzanne Stephens, Clifford Pearson, William Hanley, Fred A. Bernstein , Gregory Wessner, etc. -- Daniel Libeskind; David Childs/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Michael Arad/Handel Architects; Peter Walker/PWP Landscape Architecture; Snøhetta; Davis Brody Bond Aedas; Santiago Calatrava; Shigeru Ban; Annabelle Selldorf; Frank Gehry; Alexander Gorlin; Audrey Matlock; Jean Nouvel; Neil Denari; James Corner Field Operations; Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG); Kohn Pedersen Fox; Rafael Viñoly; Beyer Blinder Belle; H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture; Renzo Piano; Grimshaw Architects,; Dattner Architects; FXFOWLE; SHoP; Ismael Leyva; West 8; Rogers Marvel Architects; Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Frederic Schwartz Architects- Architectural Record |
9/11 – Ten Years on: CTBUH Reflections: ...articles from industry leaders, reflecting on how the world of tall buildings has changed...What has been the direct impact of 9/11 on the typology? What has become of the predictions of the end of the skyscraper typology...Has too much changed, or too little? By Charles Killebrew/ Tim Johnson /NBBJ; Leslie. Robertson/LERA; William. Baker/SOM; Eugene Kohn/KPF; Paul Goldberger; Kenneth Lewis/Nicholas Holt/Skidmore Owings & Merrill; etc.- Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) |
Smoke and Mirrors: The new buildings are shiny, reflective, thin-walled, veneered, and smooth...this is going to be one very strange and unpleasant place, overscaled and aggressively bereft of humane meaning...At Ground Zero, the melding of memory and profit will, in fact, be the “theme” of the site...it will be a record of much that is wrong, ungenerous, and crass about American culture today...The memorial will surely be noble but it will be overshadowed by too much that is not. By Michael Sorkin -- Fumihiko Maki; Norman Foster; Richard Rogers; Daniel Libeskind; etc.- Architectural Record |
Black Holes: There is nothing comforting about the 9/11 memorial...Water cascades down the four walls...The effect is quite beautiful...But more than beauty is required of a memorial; one searches for meaning...The strongest sense I came away with was of hopelessness. By Witold Rybczynski -- Michael Arad; Peter Walker- Slate |
Failure of memory at Ground Zero: "Reflecting Absence," the memorial...arguably honors tragedy with dignity...The memorial and the anniversary offer an opportunity to judge the project to rebuild at Ground Zero...from the practical to the symbolic, it has failed monumentally. It is a cacophony of modernism that makes, at best, no statement at all. By David Brussat -- Beyer Blinder Belle; Peterson/Littenberg; Franck Lohsen McCrery; Herbert Muschamp; Daniel Libeskind; THINK/Rafael Vinoly [images]- Providence Journal (Rhode Island) |
A Fitting Memorial: When the National 9/11 Memorial is dedicated at Ground Zero...we’ll all owe a standing ovation to architect Michael Arad....[he] has created an eloquent gathering place that answers many needs...has transformed 9/11 from a day of tragedy into a place of remembrance, one that will henceforth be observed with grace. By Phyllis Tuchman [images]- Obit magazine |
Q&A with World Trade Center Site Architect Daniel Libeskind: ...about the 10th anniversary, what the term "sacred ground" means to him and the musicality of the site. [images]- WNYC.org |
Starchitects risk losing lustre: The CCTV controversy is typical of criticism levelled at architects working with undemocratic regimes...architects are often singled out...Perhaps, however, architects arguably deserve more rigorous scrutiny. After all, architecture is the physical manifestation of a particular notion of order...It is politics and, often, propaganda made concrete. By Edwin Heathcote --
OMA/Rem Koolhaas/Ole Scheeren; Sutherland Hussey; Foster + Partners; Frank Gehry; Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; Link Arkitektur; Michael Sorkin; Herzog & de Meuron; Ai Weiwei- Financial Times (UK) |
China as Architectural Testing Ground: The emergence of China on the global economic stage has been discussed at nauseum...But this emergence has had an impact on the world of architecture...The architecture of the future will very likely resemble that which is being built in China today. -- OMA; Zaha Hadid; Steven Holl; Foster + Partners [images]- ArchDaily |
Apple spaceship HQ might work in Cupertino: ...it's refreshing to see...real architectural ambition - even when that ambition translates into a sci-fi fantasy best viewed from a helicopter...The garage is gargantuan. It also eliminates the need for surface parking lots, allowing a deep green buffer between the spaceship and Planet Cupertino...Yet there's a rightness... By John King -- Foster + Partners [images]- San Francisco Chronicle |
Diane Middlebrook Memorial Writers' Residences: ...four cubes jostling one another beneath a sculptural canopy of structural steel. "I think of them almost as a row of bad teeth"...this is not a static line of boxes...If visiting writers take cues from their housing...look for taut prose coming soon to a bookstore near you. By John King -- Cass Calder Smith/CCS Architecture [images]- San Francisco Chronicle |
Not Every High Line Building Is a Blockbuster: the Minuses of Chelsea’s +Art: ...the High Line has created the highest concentration of high quality architecture in the entire city...a faux factory condo project on the once bawdy 28th Street...ends up feeling clumsy, oversized and plain. By Matt Chaban -- GF55 Partners [image]- New York Observer |
A Ride With Head-Spinning Views: The journey from an Ohio theme park to Brooklyn has been long and difficult for 48 wooden horses...It’s a pretty dramatic location, between the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges, and "Jane’s Carousel" will be sheltered in a pretty ritzy pavilion, a $9 million transparent acrylic jewel box by the French architect Jean Nouvel. -- Jane Walentas [slide show]- New York Times |
World Capital of Wellbeing: Along with “sustainability,” “wellbeing” is one of those words that is worthy, but hard to sell...Full marks, then, are due to Aalto University in Helsinki. They have made wellbeing their spearhead project in next year's World Design Capital festivities...WDC Aalto has positioned itself astride a bit of a fault line. It is dawning on some designers...that this innocuous word has radical implications for mainstream, business-as-usual, design. By John Thackara/Doors of Perception- Design Observer |
Korean Starchitect H-Sang Seung on Helming the Gwangju Biennale With an Imprisoned Ai Weiwei: ...discusses his goals for the biennale, persevering as only half of a directorial team, and what he means by the slogan "design is design is not design." -- IROJE architects & planners- Artinfo |
The "New York Dozen": 12 Working Architects to Watch: ...title is a play on "Five Architects"...a slice through the city's strata of architectural talent...all point to an edginess with the star architect system as we know it. By Michael J. Crosbie -- Peter Eisenman; Michael Graves; Charles Gwathmey; John Hejduk; Richard Meier; Arts Corporation; Architecture in Formation; Andre Kikoski; Christoff:Finio Architecture; Della Valle Bernheimer; LevenBetts; Leroy Street Studio; MOS; nARCHITECTS; studio SUMO; WORK Architecture Company (WORKac); WXY Architecture [slide show]- The Atlantic |
Two camps of architecture journalism: ...a RIBA Building Futures debate on whether the architecture press has let down the industry...the motion was not just beaten, it was battered...has the press let down the industry? No, it hasn’t because it’s not an industry that needs propping up. It can do that itself. -- Hugh Pearman/RIBA Journal; Will Hunter/AR; Will Alsop; Amanda Baillieu/Building Design; Piers Gough/CZWG; Paul Finch/Design Council CABE [link to podcast]- BD/Building Design (UK) |
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Henning Larsen Architects: Harpa - Reykjavik Concert Hall & Conference Centre, Reykjavik, Iceland -- Olafur Eliasson |
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