Today’s News - Thursday, April 11, 2013
• Pogrebin reports that MoMA has made up its mind about what to do with Tod and Billie's neighboring American Folk Art Museum: if you don't want a gem of a building to come between you and your Nouvel - knock it down (needless to say, we're aghast, appalled...words fail us).
• Bernstein and Hawthorne offer eloquent tributes to Soleri, who "showed a generation of younger architects an alternative to corporate modernism" ("a desert Obi-Wan Kenobi," says Alastair Gordon).
• Stott makes the case that "without architects, smart cities just aren't smart - by using their skills the 'smart city' will cease to be a mere buzz word, and truly become an integrated movement towards intelligent urban development."
• Dyson makes his own case that engineering and design must become the "fourth science" in education, deserving "pride of place alongside biology, chemistry, and physics."
• Quirk offers a most interesting take on "why China's copy-cats are good for architecture": when we "settle into the role of superior scoffer, we fail to look in the mirror at ourselves, and trouble our own unquestioned values and supposed superiority."
• Sullivan takes on architecture and a "bunker mentality" amidst the gun control debate: "Instead of panic rooms in every home and classroom, we need more symbols of awareness. Instead of new building codes and bulletproof doors, let's open the shades on who we are."
• Litt cheers Corner's latest plans to revamp Cleveland's Public Square - "part of what has become a loosely organized civic movement."
• Calys gives thumbs-up to the Exploratorium's new home on San Francisco's waterfront, another winner in a decade of "a veritable torrent of museum building activity" in the city.
• Hume hails Toronto's new Bridgepoint Health Care Centre as "a milestone in healthy human architecture" - from now on, "there can be no excuses for horrible hospitals or medical mediocrity."
• Lubenau visits another Bruner Award finalist site, Via Verde: it "illustrates another approach to designing affordable, sustainable housing."
• Brussat continues his ruminations on Chicago and the Driehaus Prize, and bemoans the "kidnapping" of Louis Sullivan by modern architecture, and "the purposeful misinterpretation" of his words.
• Eyefuls of the AIA 2013 Small Project Award winners (great presentation!).
• A good reason to head to Sarasota next week: Docomomo U.S. National Symposium 2013: Modern Matters.
• One we couldn't resist: Q&A Part Deux with the ever-prickly TJ Plunkitt (not a lot to do with architecture or planning, but always amusing).
• Call for entries: WAF's INSIDE World Interior of the Year Awards 2013.
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MoMA to Raze Ex-American Folk Art Museum Building : Just 12 years old and critically acclaimed, the former [museum] will be torn down to make room for an expansion by...the Museum of Modern Art...will interview architects to design the new addition...and hopes to select one by the end of this year. It expects to have the building demolished by then. By Robin Pogrebin -- Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects- New York Times |
Paolo Soleri, Architect of Counterculture, 93: ...designer and oracle of Arcosanti...a symbol of hippie-era utopianism and a prescient environmentalism...developed a philosophy he called arcology — architecture coupled with ecology — that some saw as an answer to suburban sprawl...showed a generation of younger architects an alternative to corporate modernism. By Fred A. Bernstein- New York Times |
Paolo Soleri, 93; architect of innovative city Arcosanti: ...a former apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, brought his vision of ecologically sensitive urban living to the Arizona desert four decades ago. Arcosanti never exactly flourished, but his emphasis on denser, vertical settlements is echoed in today's green architecture. By Christopher Hawthorne [slide show]- Los Angeles Times |
Without Architects, Smart Cities Just Aren’t Smart: After the grand projects of Masdar and Songdo, pioneers in technology such as IBM and Cisco have forged ahead with new concepts...leaving architects behind...By better employing the skills of architects...the “smart city” will cease to be a mere buzz word, and truly become an integrated movement towards intelligent urban development. By Rory Stott [images]- ArchDaily |
The Fourth Science: Engineering and design must become core elements of our schools’ curricula: ...if children are so naturally inclined to think like engineers, where are all of the engineers? The problem...lies with education...deserves pride of place alongside...biology, chemistry, and physics. By James Dyson- Metropolis Magazine |
Why China’s Copy-Cats Are Good For Architecture: ...when we allow ourselves...to settle into the role of superior scoffer, we do not do just the Chinese, but ourselves, a disservice...we fail to look in the mirror at ourselves, and trouble our own unquestioned values and supposed superiority. By Vanessa Quirk [images, links]- ArchDaily |
Bunker mentality: Architecture for gun control? Instead of panic rooms in every home and classroom, we need more symbols of awareness. Instead of new building codes and bulletproof doors, let’s open the shades on who we are. By C.C. Sullivan -- Peter Normand/Design PosseKevin Flanagan/NAC Architecture; Edmund Einy/GKKWorks; Thomas Mellins; Fantastic Norway; Thomas de Monchaux- SmartPlanet |
Latest plans for revamped Public Square in Cleveland include trees, food pavilion and room to roam: The drive to improve Public Square and the Mall is part of what has become a loosely organized civic movement...urban landscape design is undergoing a global renaissance. By Steven Litt -- James Corner Field Operations [image]- Cleveland Plain Dealer |
Science on the waterfront: Exploratorium's new home on Piers 15-17: The past ten years have seen a veritable torrent of museum building activity in San Francisco by noted architects...The Exploratorium is another winner. By George Calys -- Marc L’Italien/EHDD [slide show]- San Francisco Chronicle |
Toronto’s new Bridgepoint Health Care Centre raises the bar for health care facilities: ...a milestone in healthy human architecture...it will be impossible to ignore the rightness...and the sheer common sense and humanity behind its most basic moves...After Bridgepoint, there can be no excuses for horrible hospitals or medical mediocrity. By Christopher Hume -- Stantec; KPMB; HDR; Diamond Schmitt [images]- Toronto Star |
On the Road with the Rudy Bruner Award: South Bronx: Following our site visit to Congo Street Initiative in Dallas, the Bruner Foundation team headed to New York City to our next 2013 Rudy Bruner Award finalist site, Via Verde...illustrates another approach to designing affordable, sustainable housing, albeit at a larger scale and catalyzed by a different set of circumstances. By Anne-Marie Lubenau -- AIANY; Dattner Architects; Grimshaw Architects [images, links]- Metropolis Magazine |
Windy words in the Windy City: Louis Sullivan's kidnapping by modern architecture relies much less on the buildings he designed than on the words he wrote - such as "form ever follows function" - and on the purposeful misinterpretation of those words...Don't muddy the water by "capturing territory" that classicists should not want! By David Brussat -- Thomas Beeby; David Watkin; Michael Graves; Steven Peterson/Barbara Littenberg/Peterson Littenberg Architecture; Andrés Duany/Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk [images]- Providence Journal (Rhode Island) |
AIA selects the 2013 Recipients of the Small Project Awards -- Min | Day; Kariouk Associates; Johnsen Schmaling Architects; Mell Lawrence Architects; Cooper Joseph Studio; Robert M. Gurney, FAIA; WRNS Studio; Edward Ogosta Architecture [links to images, info]- American Institute of Architects (AIA) |
Docomomo US National Symposium 2013: Modern Matters; Sarasota, Florida, April 18-21- Docomomo US |
Thomas Jefferson Plunkitt explains it all... [Part 2]: The final turnout of registered voters in LA was admittedly pitiful...TJ Plunkitt: What did you expect from such a boring campaign.- The Planning Report |
Call for entries: INSIDE World Interior of the Year Awards 2013; registration deadline: May 24 (submission deadline: May 30)- World Architecture Festival (WAF) |
Book Review: "Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China" by Bianca Bosker: A must-have for those who wish to see a design phenomenon and trend explained in a clear and concise manner without the pretentious tribal signifiers that so plague academic writers. By Christian Bjone- ArchNewsNow |
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Sambuichi Architects: Rokko Shidare Observatory, Kobe, Japan |
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