Today’s News - Friday, June 15, 2012
• Peirce parses cities' futures in this new age of violent storms and rising seas: "It's significant that world cities will be speaking up, demanding an urban focus at the Rio+20 environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro this week" (a good thing, since "cities' voice was hardly heard" at '92 conference).
• Florida's Q&A with Barber re: his new book, "If Mayors Ruled the World": a key point "is not simply that cities can and should govern globally...they already are!"
• Dittmar cheers small community initiatives as being key to regeneration: "most urbanist theories depend on either a Big State or a Big Corporate approach, and that's not how great cities are made. Neither has produced great urbanism."
• Berger bemoans the "Canadianization of America" where, in "Hollywood North, Vancouver substitutes for Seattle, BC supplies the landscapes of everywhere from Ohio and Kansas to Oregon...as well as cities on other planets."
• In Boston, a "gleaming glass skyscraper" is set to rise "above the rubble-strewn block" to be the city's fourth tallest building and a "harmonious pairing of new and old."
• Restuccia sees the project as "a chance to mend the ugly scar," but "why does the tower have to be so dull? ...the city should demand no less than a skyscraper that you'd want to put on a postcard."
• A "self-described 'career patient' implores hospital architects to collaborate with interior designers, psychologists and neuroscientists in order to eradicate forever the pain of 'medical incarceration.'"
• Goldberger cheers Hardy's new theater atop Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont: it may be "pleasing, deferential - and barely visible," but by no means is it just a "simple act of engineering."
• Kennicott takes Brooks to task for his criticism of the Eisenhower Memorial for being "lazy on multiple levels...merely using the general harrumphing about Gehry to vent ideas unrelated to Gehry's design."
• Hadid leads the pack as favorite to win bid to buy London's Design Museum and turn it into an architecture museum.
• Weekend diversions:
• The BMW Guggenheim Lab opens in Berlin today.
• A good reason to find oneself in L.A. next week: Dwell on Design 2012: Modern Beyond Expectations launches.
• Maciunas and Fluxus are the stars of "Fluxcity: Prefabricated/Modular Solution for Social Housing," a current "conceptual web exhibit" that will take physical form in NYC this fall (great links!).
• In London, "Bureau Spectacular: Three Little Worlds" is "an inhabitable installation" of a modular home at The Architecture Foundation + "Wide Open School" at the Hayward Gallery offers artists' visions of future cities.
• George Nelson takes center stage at the Cranbrook Art Museum beginning this weekend (great slide show).
• "Richard Henriquez: Narrative Fragments" in Vancouver - tripods included.
• Glancey is totally taken by P.D. Smith's "City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age": a "richly packed, colorful and well-written primer on the role the city plays in our lives" that "deserves rapt attention."
• "Hitler's Berlin: Abused City" is a "detailed survey of Nazi architectural dreams" that "would have made Haussmann's reconfiguration of Paris seem cosmetic."
• Q&A with co-authors of "Social Media In Action" re: "the need for communication in landscape architecture and how the increasing prevalence of social media tools are helping the architecture, engineering and planning industry change the way we communicate."
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Storms; Rising Seas Shadow City Futures: ...some of the most destructive blows will all but surely strike the low-lying, fast-expanding coastal cities of Asia...It’s significant that world cities, led by New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the C40 cities group...will be speaking up, demanding an urban focus at the “Rio+20" environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro this week. By Neal Peirce- Citiwire |
What If Mayors Ruled the World? With Washington paralyzed by political dysfunction, is it time for mayors to take over? Benjamin Barber gives us a sneak peek at his much anticipated new book, "If Mayors Ruled the World"..."the key point in my argument is not simply that cities can and should govern globally...they already are!" By Richard Florida- The Atlantic Cities |
Big ideas don’t often produce great architecture: Small community initiatives are the key to regeneration: ...most urbanist theories of the modern era depend on either a Big State or a Big Corporate approach, and that’s not how great cities are made. Neither Big State nor Big Corporate have produced great urbanism. By Hank Dittmar -- Wouter Vanstiphout; Owen Hatherley- BD/Building Design (UK) |
The Canadianization of America: We're rapidly being colonized by the culture and landscape of British Columbia. What's that all a-boot, eh? Vancouver, BC has skinny towers, and Seattle covets them...the America of our video dreamscape has been outsourced. Moody and gloomy are rapidly becoming the landscape of thee we sing, except it ain't really ours. It belongs to the Dominion. By Knute Berger- Crosscut (Seattle) |
From Basement to Tower: Condos, shops eyed for Downtown Crossing: ...a gleaming glass skyscraper soaring 606 feet above the rubble-strewn block where Filene’s once operated...“Millennium Tower” would rise up as the city’s fourth tallest building...with the restoration of the historic 1912 Burnham Building...a “harmonious pairing of new and old.” -- Handel Architects [image]- Boston Herald |
Filene’s hole deserves icon: ...no doubt a cause for celebration and a chance to mend the ugly scar that’s marred Downtown Crossing for years. The proposal has a lot going for it...But...my heart sank when I saw the rendering. Why does the tower have to be so dull? ...the city should demand no less than a skyscraper that you’d want to put on a postcard... By Paul Restuccia -- Handel Architects- Boston Herald |
Lost in Limbo: Mark Dery...implores hospital architects to collaborate with interior designers, psychologists and neuroscientists in order to eradicate forever the pain of "medical incarceration"...Hospitals aren’t like prisons; they are prisons. -- Michel Foucault; Michael Graves- Australian Design Review |
Hugh Hardy’s New Lincoln Center Space, the Claire Tow Theater, Is Pleasing, Deferential — and Barely Visible: The goal here was to be discreet, not conspicuous. That said, this was no simple act of engineering. By Paul Goldberger -- Eero Saarinen (1965); Diller Scofidio + Renfro; David Rockwell; H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture- Vanity Fair |
David Brooks’s criticism of Eisenhower memorial design falls short: ...lazy on multiple levels...another salvo from another conservative critic...But it suggests that he hasn’t kept up with the debate and changes made in response to critics...and that he is merely using the general harrumphing about Gehry to vent ideas unrelated to Gehry’s design. By Philip Kennicott- Washington Post |
Zaha Hadid frontrunner to buy London’s Design Museum: ...proposal is favourite out of eight bids...to turn it into an architecture museum.- BD/Building Design (UK) |
BMW Guggenheim Lab Opens in Berlin on June 15: "Confronting Comfort" - Second Stop on Six-Year Global Tour Focuses on Citizen Participation in Shaping Cities. Worldwide Call for Ideas to “Make” Urban Comfort Launched in Collaboration with GOOD -- Atelier Bow-Wow; Sulki & Min- BMW Guggenheim Lab |
Dwell on Design 2012: Modern Beyond Expectations: brings together the best and brightest products, services, and thought leaders in modern design today; Los Angeles, June 22-24, 2012- Dwell |
"Fluxcity™: Prefabricated/Modular Solution for Social Housing": George Maciunas/Fluxus Foundation to undertake an experimental curatorial approach...The conceptual web exhibit will be online in June and the exhibition will be formally open to the public in New York in September 2012. [links to essays, videos]- George Maciunas Foundation |
"Bureau Spectacular: Three Little Worlds": For his first solo exhibition outside of North America, Chicago-based Canadian architect Jimenez Lai’s Bureau Spectacular will transform the AF’s Project Space with an inhabitable installation; creating a modular home of ‘super-furniture’.- The Architecture Foundation (UK) |
"Wide Open School" at Hayward Gallery, London: 'We live in a time of transformation': artists reveal vision of future cities: Deep space, queer home economics and an Antarctic village + Making space: where art meets physics; etc. -- Lucy and Jorge Orta; Fritz Haeg; Marjetica Potrc; Tomás Saraceno; Margaret Wertheim [images, links]- Guardian (UK) |
"George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher" opens this weekend at Cranbrook Art Museum...a showcase for Nelson's writings, curation work and other ephemera..."he is one of the most important designers of the 20th century"..."Vision and Interpretation: Building Cranbrook, 1904-2012" runs concurrently... -- Herman Miller; Vitra Design Museum; Eliel Saarinen; George Booth [slide show]- Huffington Post |
Architect adds new gallery to career: "Richard Henriquez: Narrative Fragments" steps out in his first art show in a commercial venue at the Winsor Gallery...The first thing you notice about Henriquez's art is the tripods. He's been collecting them for years, then adding found objects to turn them into sculptures.- Vancouver Sun |
"City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age" by P.D. Smith: A lively urban tutorial deserves rapt attention paid to it...packs the blood, guts, underbelly and driving forces of the archetypal city into chapters as densely packed as the streetscapes of Manhattan or Hong Kong...The sorcery of cities should not be lost; Smith's ebullient guidebook helps to remind us why. By Jonathan Glancey- Guardian (UK) |
"Hitler's Berlin: Abused City" by Thomas Friedrich, translated by Stewart Spencer: A detailed survey of Nazi architectural dreams...wanted to tear down Berlin to rebuild his world capital...Chillingly, Albert Speer wanted to make sure the buildings would also make great ruins. The realisation of Germania would have made Haussmann's reconfiguration of Paris seem cosmetic. By Chris Hall- Guardian (UK) |
The Need for Communication: Finding landscape architecture's voice...Amanda Walter and Holly Berkley, co-authors of "Social Media In Action" talk about the need for communication in landscape architecture and how the increasing prevalence of social media tools...are helping the architecture, engineering and planning industry change the way we communicate. By Sarah Kathleen Peck/SWA Group- Metropolis Magazine |
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-- Herzog & de Meuron: Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Switzerland
-- Snøhetta: Wolfe Center for the Arts, Bowling Green, Ohio |
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