Today’s News - Thursday, August 27, 2015
EDITOR'S NOTE: As the lazy, hazy dog days of August continue, tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days. We'll be back Tuesday, September 1.
• Kamin and Glanton get the skinny on why the Obama Foundation is launching an international search for an architect to design the presidential library, with Goldberger as competition advisor; sayeth one pundit: "It's a great publicity move."
• Rosenbaum ponders what's behind the worldwide search for an Obama Center architect - possibly to put "Adjaye in play?"
• Now's your chance: RFQ (international): Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago; deadline: September 16.
• Much is being written about New Orleans 10 years after Katrina; among the best: Baumy offers "10 lessons that have strengthened storm and flood resilience" (there is "a silver lining").
• Hepler reports on the report "Resilient New Orleans" that offers "lessons on resilience for cities everywhere," and pushes "resilience beyond rhetoric" by "addressing social iniquity in tandem with environmental issues and disaster preparedness."
• New Orleans is included in "5 civil engineering failures that led to design breakthroughs and new technologies," an insightful infographic by Ohio University's Online Master of Science in Civil Engineering.
• Hecht looks beyond the design of Libeskind's Pyramid Tower: "Will the luxury high-rise give Jerusalem's downtown a boost, or create a ghost town" of empty apartments owned by wealthy foreigners (word is that 20% will be affordable, so not totally empty?).
• Beyer Blinder Belle, tapped to transform the old Whitney into The Met Breuer, is "working hard to preserve the building's weathered patina rather than scrubbing and polishing its history away."
• Goodman has a grand time (and great pix) of Battery Park's new "trippy" and "surreal" SeaGlass Carousel.
• Two we couldn't resist: Eyefuls 10 totally trippy treehouses (well, some are actually pretty practical - we'd be happy with any of them!).
• There's a new sheriff in town who seems to have it in for Burning Man folks who now face "a local police department that is foaming at the mouth to throw them in cages" (his biggest complaint: "We don't have the personnel to issue citations to 70,000 naked people" - give me a break!).
• Good reasons to be in San Francisco and Helsinki next week: SF's Architecture and the City 2015 festival: PLAY: Design in Action, and Helsinki Design Week 2015: "Time Machine."
• Weekend diversions:
• Zara gives (mostly) thumbs-up to "Shelter: Rethinking How We Live in Los Angeles" at L.A.'s A+D Museum: it's "an architectural version of a science fair" with an "experimental spirit" that "offers an alternative reality to the current starkly uninspired housing options put forth by developers."
• Eyefuls of Banksy's Dismaland Bemusement Park that includes "imagery unsuitable for small children, and swearing" + A "brilliantly ironic commercial" for Dismaland - the "video is definitely one for all those who hate schmaltzy theme park ads" (watch it!).
• Melbourne's Docklands is now haunted by ghosts: "Into this bleak context comes an artwork that resists the near ubiquitous 'banalization' of public space" (great pix!).
• Silverstein cheers Braae's "Beauty Redeemed: Recycling Post-Industrial Landscapes": the "the focus becomes less entirely on form and more on process - a worthwhile read."
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Obama's library team to ask some architects for bids but casts global net: If a foreign architect wins the job...it would mark the first time a non-American has designed an American presidential library..."It's a great publicity move"...Paul Goldberger is advising the foundation...Barack Obama Foundation officials justified the global search on the grounds that it will lead to a better library. By Blair Kamin and Dahleen Glanton- Chicago Tribune |
Adjaye in Play? What’s Behind Worldwide Search for Obama Center’s Architect? My guess is that it might be a great strategic move, designed to give more ballast to the selection of a foreign architect for this plum assignment. By Lee Rosenbaum- ArtsJournal |
Call for entries: Request for Qualifications/RFQ (international): Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago; deadline: September 16- Barack Obama Foundation |
Schooled by Katrina: 10 lessons that have strengthened storm and flood resilience: ...with the perspective of time, we can now perceive a silver lining: The experience transformed the way we plan and engineer flood protection - and indications are that new ideas are working. By Walter Baumy/ARCADIS- civil + structural ENGINEER magazine |
How New Orleans plans to survive the next Katrina: 10 years after the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history, New Orleans has unveiled its plan to prevent a repeat - providing lessons on resilience for cities everywhere..."Resilient New Orleans"...emphasize pushing resilience beyond rhetoric...and addressing social iniquity in tandem with environmental issues and disaster preparedness. By Lauren Hepler -- 100 Resilient Cities- GreenBiz |
5 civil engineering failures that led to design breakthroughs and new technologies, ensuring that the accidents and damages were not in vain. #3: New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina [infographic]- Ohio University Online Master of Science in Civil Engineering |
Excavation Begins on Daniel Libeskind's Pyramid Tower: Will the luxury high-rise give Jerusalem's downtown a boost, or create a ghost town? City officials say [it] will help revitalize the city center...critics have voiced concern that the luxury tower...will exacerbate the phenomenon of ghost apartments...Jerusalem has the highest concentration of such apartments in Israel... By Esther Hecht- Architectural Record |
Beyer Blinder Belle restoring Marcel Breuer’s Whitney building for 2016 reopening: The Met Breuer...restoration efforts, including touching up Breuer’s distinct concrete walls, stone floors, bronze fixtures, and lighting...working hard to preserve the building’s weathered patina rather than scrubbing and polishing its history away. A streamlined entry sequence, new restaurant, sunken garden, and “book bar” retail shop are also planned.- The Architect's Newspaper |
Inside Battery Park’s Trippy New SeaGlass Carousel: It’s a surreal feeling to stand within the carousel’s nautilus-shaped pavilion of glass and steel. By Wendy Goodman -- WXY Architecture + Urban Design; Piet Oudolf [images]- New York Magazine |
10 Stunning Treehouses: ...big and small, whimsical and practical...make the most of the nature-loving, folly-like structure. -- Noma Bar; Berni Du Payra; ArtisTree; Perspective Design/Build; Bruno de Grunne/Nicolas d’Ursel/Trees & People; Narein Perera; Sharon Davis Design; WilkinsonEyre; Baumraum; Luciano Pia [images]- Azure magazine (Canada) |
Nevada Sheriff’s Department Promises to Turn ‘Burning Man’ Festival into a Police State: ...promises more arrests than ever at the world-famous music and arts festival...determined to write as many tickets and make as many arrests as they possibly can...burners will now be facing a local police department that is foaming at the mouth to throw them in cages.- AlterNet.org |
Architecture and the City 2015 festival: PLAY: Design in Action: ...month-long celebration features behind the scenes and walking tours, films, exhibitions, lectures and more that address varying aspects of the design and planning process. September 1-30- AIA San Francisco / Center for Architecture + Design |
Helsinki Design Week 2015: "Time Machine": A record 200 events are scheduled for the urban festival, held for the 11th time, September 3–13- Helsinki Design Week |
L.A.’s Architecture + Design Museum Rethinks Housing: For the first exhibition in its newly minted facility, A+D commissions architects to propose new ways to shelter the city: ...left to their own devices, the firms have put together an architectural version of a science fair...experimental spirit...offers an alternative reality to the current starkly uninspired housing options...put forth by developers. "Shelter: Rethinking How We Live in Los Angeles" By Janelle Zara -- Sam Lubell; Danielle RagoBureau Spectacular; LA-Más; Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects; MAD Architects; PAR; wHY [images]- Architectural Record |
Banksy Opens Dismaland Art Theme Park in Southwest England : ...dubbed the Dismaland Bemusement Park...“contains uneven floor surfaces, extensive use of strobe lighting, imagery unsuitable for small children, and swearing"...Occupying the Tropicana, a former lido on the seafront at Weston-super-Mare, the event is described as “a festival of art, amusements and entry-level anarchism.” [images]- Artinfo UK |
Watch the Brilliantly Ironic Commercial for Banksy's 'Dismaland': Subversive British Attraction Has its Own Promotional Film: ...video is definitely one for all those who hate schmaltzy theme park ads...- Creativity Online |
Ghost town: Monument Park: Artist Callum Morton has collaborated with landscape architects Oculus and architects McBride Charles Ryan to deliver a new public artwork in Melbourne’s Docklands...Here in this would-be lifestyle citadel...a public art program that has, up until now, excelled in the art of polite interventions...Into this bleak context comes an artwork that resists the near ubiquitous “banalization” of public space. By Andrew Mackenzie/Architects Without Frontiers, Australia [images]- ArchitectureAU (Australia) |
Design Thinking for a Post-industrial Century: In "Beauty Redeemed: Recycling Post-Industrial Landscapes," Ellen Braae argues...that the emergence of post-industrial landscapes is a new kind of design that is engaged in an ongoing dialogue with the landscapes of past, present, and future...the focus becomes less entirely on form and more on process...a worthwhile read... By Yoshi Silverstein/Mitsui Design -- Peter Latz, Latz + Partner- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
ANN Feature: Swimming with the Fishies: SeaGlass Carousel: David Dunlap was right: the new carousel in Lower Manhattan's Battery Park is like no other you've ever ridden...oooh's and aaah's will ensue. By Kristen Richards -- WXY architecture + urban design [images]- ArchNewsNow.com |
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"HOT TO COLD: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaption": While not as revolutionary as its predecessor [YES IS MORE], it is still a beautifully designed book illustrating a diverse range of BIG's international projects and reinforcing it as one of the giants in contemporary architecture. By Robert Martin -- BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group [images] |
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