Today’s News - Tuesday, September 23, 2014
• ArcSpace brings us Meyer's tour of Tokyo; Hybel's take on H&deM and "their commitment to challenging the Modernist ornament-aversion"; 7 "sharp-eyed architectural photographers"; and 7 "remarkable architects using the freedom of the hand drawing to express their particular architectural vision."
• High praise for the last stretch of NYC's High Line: Kimmelman: "If it doesn't make you fall in love with New York all over again, I really don't know what to say."
• Goldberger: the final segment is "stunningly refreshing," with "some deft variations on the design themes of the two older sections, and they show some gentle wit."
• Davidson: it "becomes more playful in its latest incarnation," but "preserves the look as it was during its years of abandonment - weedy, wild, poetic."
• Cuozzo: "Vestiges of a lost industrial age, views of buildings destined to fall for new ones, strike a melancholy chord. But sadness" is "overcome, by the promise, and visible reality, of regeneration."
• Russell's riff strikes a more rueful tone: after the starchitect-designed buildings went up, "the bottom-feeders moved in, throwing up the oversized, under-designed cookie-cutter junk. Trying to bathe in the High Line's reflected glory has not inspired the making of architecture to match."
• Saffron has high hopes for the long-abandoned Delaware Station: "We've begun to recognize the value of Philadelphia's industrial heritage and the awe-inspiring cathedrals it produced. There are few better examples than this building" - why not Philly's own version of Tate Modern?
• King cheers Freemont, CA's "imaginative planning" that puts "San Francisco's to shame - it's startling to see a major city take an open-ended approach to planning nearly 900 acres - a long-term gamble with a real chance for success."
• Albuquerque's long-abandoned rail yard "is getting the Eric Owen Moss treatment": "adaptive reuse, not preservation, is the goal...buildings are certain to be built with brash, inventive form-making" that will "honor this industrial history without nostalgia or mimicry."
• Sydney issues a draft Walking Strategy and Action Plan with a series of projects and targets to make the city "a safe and convenient walking environment, backed up with clear wayfinding and engaging public art."
• Merrick gives (mostly) thumbs-up to RSH+P's Cheesegrater that is "striking not only for its height but also for the two significant voids it creates" ("shining entrails," a "steel hernia," and a "gaping shark bite" included).
• Bevan, on the other hand, gives thumbs-down (and then some) to the Walkie Talkie, which may offer the "most spectacular views" of London, but it has "a face only a mother could love" that "looms with its dumpy body and thick neck jutting aggressively forward as if it is about to start a sack race, thumping its way towards the river" (ouch!).
• Morgan isn't much kinder to Providence College's Ruane Center for the Humanities that "portends a journey into a Disney-fied architectural wilderness. This is the same sort of Potemkin village found in upscale shopping malls and themed suburban restaurants" (ouch, again!)
• Rollo brings us back to a happier note with (mostly) cheers for the "wonderful new" Melbourne School of Design: "Like most complex buildings, this one has faults...but on balance it is an architecture of light and space and transparency."
• Rochon revels in Maki's "sublimely detailed" Aga Khan Museum and Correa's "stunning" Ismaili Centre that have moved Toronto's cultural brand "into a new galaxy."
• "How in the world do you design a museum that says 'Bible'" near the National Mall? "It's a tricky thing to put in the nation's capital. Politics come to mind..." (no kidding).
• Lubell has a great Q&A with Pali re: his split with Piano on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: "what I expected out of the process was some sort of interesting discourse. And that is not where it went."
• Hawthorne welcomes the first day of Fall with an architectural preview of the season: "a steady supply of ambitious, market-tested architecture is emerging" in L.A that may be "less breezily unorthodox, perhaps, but also tougher-nosed and harder won."
• Capps delves deep into how Lowe's Project Row Houses in Houston earned a (well-deserved) MacArthur Grant.
• Time to cash in those frequent-flier miles to head to the 2014 World Architecture Festival in Singapore (who won't be there - besides us?).
• Call for entries deadline reminder: Workplace of the Future 2.0 Design Competition (deadline looms!).
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-- Travel guide: Tokyo: Like Kenzo Tange and his fellow Metabolists famously noted, Tokyo has the appearance of a sophisticated organism with a highly developed metabolism, constantly modifying its own urban fabric. By Ulf Meyer
-- Herzog & de Meuron: What truly distinguishes them is their commitment to challenging the Modernist ornament-aversion. By Jakob Harry Hybel
-- 7 Sharp-Eyed Architectural Photographers -- Åke E:son Lindman; Thomas Mayer; Michael Wolf; Ken Konchel; Andrew Prokos; CphCph; Pygmalion Karatzas
-- 7 Unmistakable Architect's Sketches: ...remarkable architects, who are using the freedom of the hand drawing to express their particular architectural vision. -- Dominique Perrault; Frank O. Gehry; Santiago Calatrava; SANAA; Jørn Utzon; Álvaro Siza; Steven Holl |
The Climax in a Tale of Green and Gritty: The third and final phase of the High Line is like a Rorschach test, signifying different things — about urban renewal, the environment, gentrification — to different people...If [it] doesn’t make you fall in love with New York all over again, I really don’t know what to say...a heartbreaker...Not since Central Park opened in 1857 has a park reshaped New Yorkers’ thinking about public space and the city more profoundly. By Michael Kimmelman -- James Corner Field Operations; Diller Scofidio + Renfro- New York Times |
The Final Segment of the High Line Is Stunningly Refreshing: There are some deft variations on the design themes of the two older sections, and they show some gentle wit...The designers, this time, have worked hard in the hope of rendering themselves almost invisible. By Paul Goldberger -- Diller Scofidio + Renfro; James Corner Field Operations [images]- Vanity Fair |
The High Line’s Last Section: ...swerving towards the sunset...hooking around the rail yard and its cornfield of glinting train cars...The park becomes more playful in its latest incarnation...The designers kept their interventions modest, and after a block or two, they practically peter out...preserves the look...as it was during its years of abandonment — weedy, wild, poetic. By Justin Davidson -- James Corner Field Operations; Diller Scofidio + Renfro- New York Magazine |
Bravo to the High Line’s grand finale: ...reveals itself in a succession of harmoniously contrasting passages like symphonic movements. Vestiges of a lost industrial age, views of buildings destined to fall for new ones, strike a melancholy chord. But sadness over the irretrievable past is tempered, and finally overcome, by the promise, and visible reality, of regeneration. By Steve Cuozzo -- James Corner Field Operations; Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Piet Oudolf- New York Post |
In 3rd Phase, High Line Park Confronts Crowds, High Buildings: Now as its last stretch wraps the massive Hudson Yards megadevelopment, the city...is transforming the park...I’m tempted to say it is being loved to death...As [it] moved north...the bottom-feeders moved in, throwing up the oversized, under-designed cookie-cutter junk...Trying to bathe in the High Line’s reflected glory has not inspired the making of architecture to match. By James S. Russell -- Diller Scofidio & Renfro; James Corner Field Operations [images]- JamesSRussell.net |
Historic Delaware Station is ripe for reinvention: ...though badly in disrepair, has plenty of space and a grandeur that would make it suitable as a museum...We've begun to recognize the value of Philadelphia's industrial heritage and the awe-inspiring cathedrals it produced. There are few better examples than this building...Penn Treaty Park, on the station's southern edge...has rebounded as a neighborhood respite...A museum...would add synergy to the mix. By Inga Saffron -- John T. Windrim (1920) [images- Philadelphia Inquirer |
Fremont's imaginative planning puts S.F.'s to shame: ...it's startling to see a major city take an open-ended approach to nearly 900 acres of high-profile land. Startling, and in the case of Fremont's new plan for the district surrounding BART's next station, a long-term gamble with a real chance for success. By John King -- Perkins+Will- San Francisco Chronicle |
Going the Extra Yards: A historic, but disused, rail yard in Albuquerque is getting the Eric Owen Moss and Samitaur treatment: Though in disrepair, the existing rail yard (established in the 1880s) has a striking machine-age glamour...adaptive reuse, not preservation, is the goal...buildings are certain to be built with brash, inventive form-making...one challenge will be to honor this industrial history without nostalgia or mimicry. [images]- AIArchitect |
New walking strategy puts people first: The draft Walking Strategy and Action Plan details a series of projects and targets to make walking easier and more attractive for residents, workers and tourists...building a city with a safe and convenient walking environment, backed up with clear wayfinding and engaging public art.- City of Sydney (Australia) |
Leadenhall Building by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners: ...striking not only for its height but also for the two significant voids it creates...the most important thing about the architecture is the missing bit: the seven-storey void beneath the south-facing cantilever...The slant of its south facade releases a twinned phantom wedge of vertical space...as significant as the piazza volume under the cantilver... By Jay Merrick [images]- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Does London’s latest skyscraper Walkie the Talkie? ...20 Fenchurch Street reveals greedy architecture...and the most spectacular views of the city...Walkie Talkie looms with its dumpy body and thick neck jutting aggressively forward as if it is about to start a sack race, thumping its way towards the river...With a face only a mother could love...even...Rafael Viñoly, has distanced himself from his creature...fake public space as crummy crumbs of comfort... By Robert Bevan -- Adamson Associates- Evening Standard (UK) |
Faux Gothic at Providence College: ...Ruane Center for the Humanities...portends a journey into a Disney-fied architectural wilderness...an uninspired piece of real estate wrapped with a thin veneer of brick and a few pointy details. This is the same sort of Potemkin village found in upscale shopping malls and themed suburban restaurants...classrooms and offices are depressingly yesteryear’s high school. By William Morgan -- Sasaki, Dawson and Demay (1969); S/L/A/M Collaborative; Sullivan Buckingham Architects [images]- Design New England |
Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne: ...a wonderful new facility...designed for visibility and engagement...Like most complex buildings, this one has faults...but on balance it is a refreshing and much needed addition to the university's stock...an architecture of light and space and transparency, spatially open in a manner that the old school never was. And it is big. By Joe Rollo -- John Wardle Architects; Nader Tehrani/NADAAA- Sydney Morning Herald |
Maki's Aga Khan Museum Makes Its Debut: Toronto’s cultural brand has moved into a new galaxy...sublimely detailed...bookended to the west by the stunning...Ismaili Centre... By Lisa Rochon -- Fumihiko Maki/Maki and Associates; Moriyama & Teshima Architects; Charles Correa; Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture [slide show]- Architectural Record |
So, just how in the world do you design a museum that says “Bible”? ...eight-story Bible museum being built near the National Mall. Q&A with SmithGroupJJR's David Greenbaum: "It’s a tricky thing to put in the nation’s capital. Politics come to mind...It was incumbent that everyone take this museum very seriously." [images]- Washington Post |
Q+A> Zoltan Pali: SPF:a principal discusses his departure from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum team and more: "what I expected out of the process was some sort of interesting discourse...And that is not where it went...We may end up teaming up with others, but I’ll be more careful about it." By Sam Lubell -- Renzo Piano [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Fall marks season of revival for architecture in Los Angeles: For the first time in nearly a decade,...a steady supply of ambitious, market-tested architecture is emerging from the city's cultural pipeline...The city is also learning to reuse its underappreciated older buildings in inventive ways...architectural victories...are less breezily unorthodox, perhaps, but also tougher-nosed and harder won. By Christopher Hawthorne -- Arquitectonica; Koning Eizenberg; Moore Ruble Yudell; HOK; Daly Genik; KieranTimberlake; Michael Lehrer Architects; Michael Maltzan; Thom Mayne/Morphosis; Jerde Partnership; David Lawrence Gray [images]- Los Angeles Times |
How a Houston Housing Project Earned a MacArthur Grant: Through Project Row Houses, artist Rick Lowe nurtures artists and residents alike with a project that pushes contemporary practice and engages the community...serves in part as an arts incubator [and] Young Mother Residential Program subsidized transitional housing...also fosters new architectural and historical preservation. By Kriston Capps [images]- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
2014 World Architecture Festival: Be inspired with architecture's leading lights and the global community as a whole. October 1 - 3, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore- World Architecture Festival (WAF) |
Call for entries deadline reminder: Workplace of the Future 2.0 Design Competition: imagine what our work lives will be in the next 10 to 15 years; cash prizes; deadline: October 6- Metropolis Magazine / Business Interiors by Staples |
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