Today’s News - Friday, February 17, 2012
EDITOR'S NOTE: We will be taking a break for Presidents' Day on Monday, and will return Tuesday, February 21. Also of note (to us, anyway): ArchNewsNow launched 10 years ago (tomorrow), so every now and again throughout the year we'll be revisiting random ANN newsletters to see what was making headlines way back when. First up is the first: February 18, 2002 (primitive layout prior to now signature logo/layout courtesy of our oh-so-talented friends at Calori & Vanden-Eynden). Now it's on to the next decade!
• Knight takes on all the "noise" coming from the National Civic Art Society's "McCarthyite attack" on Gehry's Eisenhower Memorial: "Seriously. Welcome to the 21st century."
• Farrell puts forth a plan to demolish parts of Battersea Power Station to save it.
• Move over Dia:Beacon: Koolhaas heads up the Hudson River to build a new Center for the Preservation of Performance Art in a "cavernous" former tennis center.
• A proposal to build elevated islands on land to make Japanese towns tsunami-proof "is not just an architect's flight of fancy."
• A Charlottesville local unhappy with a new bridge design that's "essentially what we have now" inspires UVA architecture and landscape architecture students to come up with their own visions.
• Rose reviews the week, which includes diamond Damian's plans to build 500 eco-homes (glitz and dead animals not included - we hope).
• Call for entries: 2012 EPA National Award for Smart Growth Achievement + Azure magazine's AZ Awards 2012 international design competition.
• We couldn't resist: the "Best of New York Fashion Week Interpreted As Obscure Architecture" (very cool).
• Weekend diversions:
• Bryan Bell minces no words about his disappointment with MoMA's "Foreclosed."
• Rago, on the other hand, says the show "demonstrates the importance of involving architects and design practitioners in the early stages of development."
• Goodyear finds that, though the designs in "Foreclosed" may never actually be built, they are "a meaningful addition to a conversation we've waited too long to have about the way we will live and work."
• Jacobs tools around MCNY's "The Greatest Grid" (and some amusing tales of her tooling around some other cities and towns) and concludes NYC's original master plan is "actually a visionary piece of urban planning."
• King cheers "'Safe Enough to Stay" at SPUR Urban Center, and the "ethereally sumptuous new monograph on Oakland's Cathedral of Christ the Light."
• Heathcote hails "The Near and the Elsewhere" on view in London as a "striking exhibition" of a "compelling collection of works that depict our environment as something less benign than we might imagine."
• Moore and McGuirk are both intrigued and inspired by the Design Museum's Designs of the Year 2012: "what stands out is a spirit of innovation - and a growing concern with social issues" (though Moore has doubts about Pawson's design for the museum's new home - and hopes he's proved wrong).
• Zandberg finds Fenster's "Whose City is It? Planning, Knowledge and Everyday Life" a "thought-provoking" book that "uncovers the power struggle between residents and the planning authorities that has raged for decades."
• Hanscom on Ross's "Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City": it "holds lessons that will be of use to the rest of us."
• Nobel cheers "Rem's love letter" to Japan's Metabolists: it's a "colorful," "free-ranging and fast-paced" journey.
• 10 years ago: ArchNewsNow Today: February 18, 2002: what we were reading about: Muschamp; Bing Thom; Libeskind; Stern; and more (not all links are still active, but you'll get the idea).
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Eisenhower Memorial opponents' McCarthyite attack: What's the complaint? Frank Gehry's design is contemporary, not Neoclassical. Seriously. Welcome to the 21st century...the loudest - and most troubling - noise is coming from...the National Civic Art Society...latest assault slanders acclaimed American artist Charles Ray, asked by Gehry to consult on the memorial's sculpture. They defame the artist as degenerate. By Christopher Knight- Los Angeles Times |
Terry Farrell to apply to demolish parts of Battersea Power Station: Proposal would slash cost of preserving grade II* building, claims architect...would preserve the most important parts...would reduce the cost of repairing the building from £90 milion to £25 million... [images]- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Rem Koolhaas to Build Marina Abramovic’s New Center for the Preservation of Performance Art in Hudson, New York: ...a cavernous former tennis center “only two hours” from the city...future museum devoted to marathon pieces...- New York Magazine |
Islands on land could make towns tsunami-proof: Sako Architects has created a blueprint in which groups of these islands form entire towns...To-hoku Sky Village is not just an architect's flight of fancy: one municipality in the affected region is making moves towards building one in its locality and others could follow. [images, video]- New Scientist |
Bridge builders: 300 UVA School of Architecture and and School of Landscape Architecture students attack Belmont Vortex: 29 teams get a first-hand try at transforming and beautifying the Belmont Bridge..."Once you have seen that vision...for the city to come back and say, ‘We’re going to give you what you used to have...and we’re going to pay $14 million of your taxes to build it...I just don’t see it." -- MMM Design Group; Eduardo Arroya/NO.MAD; Maurice Cox; etc.- C-Ville (Charlottesville, VA) |
Constructive criticism: the week in architecture: Damien Hirst plans to build 500 eco-homes, RIBA puts 250 years of housing on display and the notorious Heygate estate is transformed from urban film location into romcom residence...Le Corbusier's famed Unité d'Habitation, the mothership of modern mass housing, caught fire... By Steve Rose -- MRJ Rundell Associates; Metaphorm Architects [images, links]- Guardian (UK) |
Call for entries: 2012 EPA National Award for Smart Growth Achievement: open to public- and private-sector entities that have successfully used smart growth principles to improve communities environmentally, socially, and economically; deadline: April 6- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) |
Call for entries: AZ Awards 2012 international competition recognizing excellence in architecture, landscape, interiors and product design; deadline: March 1- Azure magazine (Canada) |
The Best of New York Fashion Week Interpreted As Obscure Architecture: ...a few unofficial awards to recap the week of mayhem... -- Thomas Heatherwick; DOSE; Brisac Gonzalez; Junichi Sampei/ ARCHITECT LABEL Xain; Tiffany Dahlen/Virginia Melnyk; Eduardo Souto de Moura; Foster + Partners; H2o Architects; Jean Nouvel; Clavel Arquitectos [images]- Flavorwire |
MoMA Misses by 99%: "Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream" sets out to address a critical issue of our time, but fails to do so...The result is a disservice to the people the organizers set out to help...It’s too bad. Especially since we’ve seen that design can have both artistic merit and true social value as well. By Bryan Bell -- Jeanne Gang; MOS [images]- Metropolis Magazine |
(Sub)urban Realities: MoMA's "Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream"...demonstrates the importance of involving architects and design practitioners in the early stages of development...on both a local and global scale. Thanks to these efforts, the architecture and design community can now offer a more substantial role in the redevelopment of cities... By Danielle Rago -- Barry Bergdoll; Reinhold Martin- Domus |
The American Dream, Revised: "Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream": The designs on display at MoMA will never be built in the real world. They are, however, a meaningful addition to a conversation we’ve waited too long to have about the way we will live and work...for the next hundred years, and the next American dream. By Sarah Goodyear -- WorkAC; Visible Weather; Studio Gang [images]- The Atlantic Cities |
The Almighty Grid: Although today it seems as natural as air, Manhattan’s system of numbered streets is actually a visionary piece of urban planning. "The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811–2011" at the Museum of the City of New York. By Karrie Jacobs- Metropolis Magazine |
'Safe Enough to Stay' at SPUR Urban Center: Disaster preparedness tends to focus on the 72 hours after a cataclysmic event. But what about the weeks and even months that follow? + A wonderful real-life anecdote is tucked inside the ethereally sumptuous new monograph on Oakland's Cathedral of Christ the Light. By John King -- Craig Hartman/Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM); Pierluigi Serraino; Paul Goldberger- San Francisco Chronicle |
"The Near and the Elsewhere," Pitzhanger Manor Gallery, London: This striking exhibition takes the post-crash urban landscape as its starting point...a compelling collection of works that depict our environment as something less benign than we might imagine. By Edwin Heathcote- Financial Times |
Designs of the Year 2012: The Design Museum's annual awards show is absorbing, but doubts persist about plans for its new London HQ: ...it makes for a diverting if wandering exhibition...There is an undercurrent of affection for tradition, for things made well, and of real stuff...Above all there is a desire for "design with a conscience"... By Rowan Moore -- John Pawson; Rem Koolhaas/OMA; Deyan Sudjic; Terence Conran- Observer (UK) |
What are the best Designs of the Year? The Design Museum's new exhibition shows us the last year in 89 objects – and reveals many of our current preoccupations...what stands out is a spirit of innovation – and a growing concern with social issues...offers an annual snapshot of how the world is changing – how, through the design equivalent of natural selection, today is becoming tomorrow. By Justin McGuirk [slide show]- Guardian (UK) |
Whose city is it anyway? A thought-provoking new book uncovers the power struggle between residents and the planning authorities that has raged for decades. "Whose City is It? Planning, Knowledge and Everyday Life" by Tovi Fenster. By Esther Zandberg- Ha`aretz (Israel) |
Phoenix rising: Can ‘the world’s least sustainable city’ go green? What was the most surprising thing that came out of Andrew Ross’s two-year research stint in Phoenix, Ariz.? People who live there (weirdly) don’t expect their desert civilization to collapse around them at any moment..."Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World’s Least Sustainable City" holds lessons that will be of use to the rest of us... By Greg Hanscom- Grist Magazine |
Rem’s Love Letter: Koolhaas pays tribute to the architects of the 1960s who forged a new path in postwar Japan: "Project Japan: Metabolism Talks..." by Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist...a thoroughly, brilliantly, even compulsively documented record of what Arata Isozaki claims...was “the last avant-garde movement” in architecture...Metabolism as “the last movement that changed architecture." By Philip Nobel -- Kenzo Tange; Fumihiko Maki; Atsushi Shimokobe- Metropolis Magazine |
ArchNewsNow Today: February 18, 2002 -- Herbert Muschamp; Andrea Bruno; Bing Thom Architects; Daniel Libeskind; John King; McCall Design Group; Robert A.M. Stern Architects- ArchNewsNow |
INSIGHT: Bringing Art to the Streets without Breaking the Bank: An architect explains how he used innovative materials and a close-knit alliance of stakeholders to create an economical yet artful amenity for a city's public transit passengers. By Walter Geiger, AIA, FARA- ArchNewsNow |
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Richard Meier & Partners x 2: Villa Gardone, Gardone Riviera, Italy + Mitikah Office Tower, Mexico City |
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