Home  Yesterday's News   Site Search   Jobs    Contact Us    Subscribe  Advertise

Today’s News - Monday, March 23, 2015

•   A new report says urban sprawl costs U.S. economy more than $1 trillion per year, and "details planning and market distortions that foster sprawl, and smart growth policies that can help correct these distortions."

•   The World Health Organization's Global Age-Friendly Cities project aims for an urban "revolution" for older people: "our city centers have become age-cleansed youth enclaves, where the only older people to be seen are affluent ones" - Lyon and Manchester are models that "show that they needn't be."

•   Lots of news from Down Under today: A fascinating look at Australia's "multicultural built landscape," and "the role of race, and the subconscious motivations influencing our appreciation of architectural interventions of the recent immigrant groups."

•   Hansen has no issue with the fine design of Melbourne's Portrait Building as "the evocative portrait is a poetic and welcome intervention in the cityscape," but it's "a cruel juxtaposition" of "high-end CBD real estate and an image of the most famous of 19th-century land rights activists."

•   On a brighter note, the National Gallery of Victoria is taking major steps to become an international hub for design with "a raft of new design initiatives."

•   Wainwright cheers a new initiative to bring graphic design into the spotlight: "compared with architecture and fashion, it has a whisperingly low profile. Might plans for a new National Centre for Graphic Design kick it up a few font sizes?"

•   Kamin cheers the "the trend of transit-oriented development" in Chicago that is "confounding skeptics who predicted that the absence of parking spaces would make it a financial flop" (and high hopes for no more "plop architecture"!).

•   Saffron sees a great future in UPenn's Pennovation Works co-working space in a former industrial park that's "funkier and cheaper," and "an intriguing contrast to the standard co-working fare - a slew of high-profile architects and consultants" (and views) will help offset its "offbeat location."

•   Campbell gives two thumbs-ups to Mecanoo/Sasaki Associates' "gem" of a Bolling Building in Roxbury: "The city-as-developer punched all the right boxes on the score card of architecture and urbanism" - what makes it great is "the wisdom of the process by which it was created."

•   Glancey has nothing but glowing words for Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art, declaring it "one of the great buildings of all time - God, the devil and an entire chorus of angels were in the details. Even in its charred state it remains a haunting composition asking us to resurrect it as soon as possible."

•   Anderton asks Kennard to make the case for saving Welton Becket's 1955 Parker Center LAPD headquarters from the wrecking ball "from her vantage point as an African-American, and as principal of an architecture firm, whose founder (her father) worked for Victor Gruen."

•   A great take on how London's Serpentine Pavilion "has inspired similar experimental structures" everywhere from NYC's City of Dreams Pavilion Design Competition on Governors Island to the current Chicago Architecture Biennial Lakefront Kiosk Competition and the OUE Artling Archipavilion design competition in Singapore.

•   Speaking of temporary pavilions (and not mentioned in previous story), the Arch League/Socrates Sculpture Park Folly 2015 winner is "Torqueing Spheres" by Cambridge, MA-based IK Studio (looks very cool!).

•   Koolhaas x 2: Hustwit's hearty Q&A in which Rem "dishes on cities, what architecture and film have in common, and the idiocy of design competitions." + Rem re: "high praise for Dubai developments: 'Dubai has escaped from its architectural caricatures.'"

•   Peter Stutchbury takes home the 2015 Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal; others garner 2015 Australian Achievement in Architecture Awards.

•   Frampton reflects on Gold Medalist Stutchbury: "the architect, as agent provocateur, remains a man of the people, combining in one volatile persona both a leader and a collaborator."

•   Eyefuls of 2015 AJ Small Projects Award winners.

•   The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects names its 2015 CSLA Awards of Excellence.

•   One we couldn't resist: 14 World Changing Ideas Of 2015; our fave (but all well worth reading): "To stop humanity from turning into useless, pleasure-seeking blobs, some designers are abandoning the quest to make everything easy, and introducing a little extra difficulty into our lives."

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window.
External news links are not endorsed by ArchNewsNow.com.
Free registration may be required on some sites.
Some pages may expire after a few days.

Yesterday's News

© 2015 ArchNewsNow.com