Today’s News - Thursday, September 7, 2017

EDITOR'S NOTE: Today's News is a bit longer than usual because we're still catching up after our end-of-summer break. We'll be back (with more catching up to do!) on Tuesday, September 12.

As we watch heartbreaking Hurricane Irma barrel across the Caribbean towards Florida, we thought it timely to re-run a story from Today's News, August 15, titled "As Hurricane Andrew memories fade, Florida weakens building codes." The story, once again our lead item, has been updated with a new title:

●  "Hurricane Irma could test Florida's Hurricane Andrew-inspired building codes - the codes once hailed as the gold standard other states should emulate are under assault."

●  Apparently, the NYT didn't get the memo, but does a good job explaining how, "out of the ruin of" of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, "came changes that helped remake the way South Florida, the state and the rest of the country confront hurricanes."

●  Gunts delves into "how Texas AIA chapters & cultural institutions fared during Hurricane Harvey" - the almost-completed Architecture Center Houston suffered "almost total devastation," yet the AIA is still "playing a major role in disaster assistance."

●  Moore takes on the competition process "that once enabled hungry young architects to design iconic public buildings," but now "has given way to a climate of caution - more likely to favor celebrities over bold new talents - bets are hedged, and everybody's second choice wins."

●  Bennie tackles "how architects can win back trust and influence: instead of looking forlornly backwards, we should look at 'customer' perspectives and assess what architects might do to change these."

●  Booth says it's better to "fight marginalization by pushing forward, not looking backwards. There is no point longing for some supposed golden age before Design and Build and Prince Charles, or whatever knocked the profession off its glorious perch."

●  Florida ponders whether "urban revival is over. People are no longer pouring into America's cities. And that's bad news for everyone."

●  Cortright pushes back on some of Florida's arguments: "Rather that proclaiming the end of the urban revival, his evidence really makes the case for a renewed national commitment to building more great urban neighborhoods."

●  Nouvel's Louvre Abu Dhabi (finally) has an opening date - five years after its scheduled opening: the museum's "soft curves and fresh white façade" will "elegantly" (and finally) "thrust into the glistening emerald waters of the Persian Gulf."

Deadlines:

●  Call for entries: The Architect's Newspaper 5th Annual Best of Design Awards.

●  Call for entries: Winnipeg's Warming Huts: Art + Architecture Competition on Ice v.2018.

●  Call for entries: Presentation proposals for Nexus 2018: Relationships Between Architecture and Mathematics 12th international conference.

Weekend diversions:

●  The European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017 is now underway - with some great architecture and urban planning programs, exhibitions, talks, and installations.

●  Hawthorne parses "MoMA's love-hate relationship" with FLW on display in "Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive": "for all the elegance of its presentation and the novelty of its curatorial approach, it has a dutiful feel - a Cubist portrait by committee."

●  Meanwhile, Columbia University's new Lenfest Center for the Arts will unpack "Living in America: Frank Lloyd Wright, Harlem & Modern Housing," opening this Saturday.

●  Paletta cheers Volner and Kirkham's "This is Frank Lloyd Wright": don't be fooled by its "hipster-friendly" (and most excellent) illustrations - the "narrative dodges simple synopses making it "a substantive account of his life and work."

●  Menking cheers "The New Inflatable Moment" at Boston's BSA Space: "Inflatables are having another moment" in a show that brings back architects' work from the late 1960s to the now.

●  At Yale, "Social Construction: Modern Architecture in British Mandate Palestine" examines "the transformative process of developing of a new state by blending the urban tissue of a foreign style with the particularities of local conditions."

●  Quito proffers a lively report from "Exhibit Columbus," the "ambitious" festival offering "a Disneyland-like experience for visiting architecture gawkers" for the next 3 months.

●  Get all the "Exhibit Columbus" details celebrating the city's design heritage on the festival's (most excellent!) website (we spent way too much time here!).

●  A good reason to be in Shanghai starting Monday: the "meticulously planned" 40th China International Furniture Fair, themed "Better Life, Better Work."

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To subscribe to the free daily newsletter click here Hurricane Irma could test Florida's Hurricane Andrew-inspired building codes: Floridians rewrote the state's building codes, making them the toughest in the nation. Now, as memories of the horrendous destruction of Aug. 24, 1992, grow dim, the lessons learned from Andrew may be fading, too. The building codes once hailed as the gold standard other states should emulate are under assault.- USA Today Lessons From Hurricane Andrew Helped Florida Reinvent Planning: ...out of the ruin of the 1992 storm came changes that helped remake the way South Florida, the state and the rest of the country confront hurricanes...After the storm, South Florida approved a building code intended to make structures better withstand high winds. The state came to be seen as an international leader in storm preparation.- New York Times Edward Gunts: How Texas AIA chapters & cultural institutions fared during Hurricane Harvey: Some of the best-known museums and other attractions...were relatively unaffected...Others weren’t so fortunate...[AIA Houston's] Architecture Center Houston...suffered “almost total devastation"...Anecdotal examples fail to convey the widespread scope of the damage...As the flood waters recede and efforts shift from rescue to recovery, the AIA is playing a major role in disaster assistance. -- Texas Society of Architects- The Architect's Newspaper Rowan Moore: Why British architecture needs to be open to all talents: The competition process that once enabled hungry young architects to design iconic public buildings has given way to a climate of caution...more likely to favour celebrities over bold new talents: Competitions have become managerialised, encased in regulation, procedure and risk-avoidance, and varnished in PR...bets are hedged, and everybody’s second choice wins.- Observer (UK) Claire Bennie: How architects can win back trust and influence: The role and authority of architects is increasingly marginalised...How can they win over decision-makers and regain their once vital role in key areas such as housing? The growing public distrust in experts of any kind...is a challenging starting point...instead of looking forlornly backwards, we should look at ‘customer’ perspectives and assess what architects themselves (as well as their professional body) might do to change these.- The Architects' Journal (UK) Emily Booth: Fight marginalisation by pushing forward not looking backwards: Clients need to know that they are in the hands of competent and inspirational practitioners: There is no point longing for some supposed golden age before Design and Build and Prince Charles, the recession or whatever knocked the profession off its glorious perch. Better to change the here and now.- The Architects' Journal (UK) Richard Florida: The Urban Revival Is Over: People are no longer pouring into America’s cities. And that’s bad news for everyone: The urban revival that swept across America over the past decade or two may be in danger. As it turns out, the much-ballyhooed new age of the city might be giving way to a great urban stall-out...signs that the tide has crested are emerging.- New York Times Joe Cortright: Oh, no! Is the urban revival really over? Reports of the demise of the city rebound have been greatly exaggerated: Richard Florida’s op-ed piece in The New York Times...synopsized his argument as “Our fragile urban revival” not “the “urban revival is over"...let us push back on some of the arguments...Rather that proclaiming the end of the urban revival, Florida’s evidence really makes the case for a renewed national commitment to building more great urban neighborhoods.- City Observatory The Louvre Abu Dhabi announces opening date for November 11: The Gulf branch of the iconic Paris museum was originally slated to open in 2012, and then 2016...In 2007, France's most famous museum agreed to attach its name to a new space in the UAE...Ten years later, the soft curves and fresh white façade of the Louvre Abu Dhabi elegantly thrust into the glistening emerald waters of the Persian Gulf.- CNN Style Call for entries: A|N 5th Annual Best Of Design Awards (international); 42 categories; deadline: September 29- The Architect's Newspaper Call for entries: Warming Huts: Art + Architecture Competition on Ice v.2018 (international): 3 winners will be placed along the Red River Mutual Trail on the Assiniboine and Red rivers in Winnipeg, Manitoba; prizes: honorarium + travel and construction budget; deadline: October 3- The Forks, Winnipeg Call for entries: Call for Presentation Proposals + Call for Ph.D. Day Proposals: Nexus 2018: Relationships Between Architecture and Mathematics, 12th international, interdisciplinary conference, Pisa, Italy, June 11-14, 2018 ; deadline: October 30- Nexus Network Journal / DESTeC – University of Pisa / Kim Williams Books European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017: "Let’s Rethink": Architecture and Urban Planning Program of exhibitions, talks, site-specific interventions, and performances includes RISING Architecture Week; A Path towards the Sensual City; 1:1 Harbour Magnets; Design for Diversity; Architecture Moves; A New Culture of Urbanism; etc.- Aarhus 2017 Christopher Hawthorne: MoMA's love-hate relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright is on display: “Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive” suggests that the museum can’t shake the old ambivalence...a gold mine for a new generation of scholars...and something of a burden...charting Wright’s relationship to a range of subjects under-explored until now...Yet for all the elegance of its presentation and the novelty of its curatorial approach, [it] has a dutiful feel...a Cubist portrait by committee...a series of Little Shows on America’s most famous architect. -- Barry Bergdoll [images]- Los Angeles Times Frank Lloyd Wright and NYC’s first public housing development together in new exhibit: "Living in America: Frank Lloyd Wright, Harlem & Modern Housing" presented in tandem with MoMA’s "Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive"...will center two parallel narratives: Wright’s vision for Broadacre City...and the simultaneous development of Harlem’s first public housing for working-class African Americans. Columbia University Lenfest Center for the Arts Wallach Gallery thru December 17 -- Project Projects & Leong Leong- The Architect's Newspaper Anthony Paletta: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Life, In Hipster-Friendly Illustrations: Despite its styling as a kids book..."This is Frank Lloyd Wright" is...slim but substantive...there are a surprising number of finely wrought details...Ian Volner’s narrative dodges simple synopses...Michael Kirkham’s excellent illustrations...betray a clear fondness and facility for architectural rendering...Text and image are so complementary as to be inseparable. [images]- Metropolis Magazine William Menking: Blowing Up: Inflatables are having another moment, thanks to the BSA Space in Boston: There was a moment in the late 1960s when architects...wanted to literally lift their projects off the ground..."The New Inflatable Moment"...is bringing the work back yet again...also highlights recent projects; thru September 30 -- Boston Society of Architects; Haus-Rucker-Co; Utopie; Ant Farm; Archigram; Cedric Price; Buckminster Fuller; Frei Otto; Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Grimshaw; Anish Kapoor/Arata Isozaki; Otto Piene; Norman Foster/Foster + Partners; Graham Stevens; Chico MacMurtrie; raumlabor [images]- The Architect's Newspaper "Social Construction: Modern Architecture in British Mandate Palestine" opens at Yale: ...examines a period of modern architecture that emerged during the British Mandate period...(1917-1948). This particular interpretation of the International Style established a cohesive vernacular that not only altered the architectural and urban context but also revealed the social values that helped to adapt modernism to the region... the transformative process of developing of a new state by blending the urban tissue of a foreign style with the particularities of local conditions; thru November 18- The Architect's Newspaper Anne Quito: A tiny town in Indiana is a must-see mecca of mid-century modern design: "Exhibit Columbus"...ambitious three-month long festival featuring contemporary installations erected next to the old, iconic buildings...Columbus offers a Disneyland-like experience for visiting architecture gawkers....A stunning new film...may lend its beleaguered landmarks the protection of greater fame. -- Eliel Saarinen; Eero Saarinen; I. M. Pei; Alexander Girard; Robert A.M. Stern; Richard Meier; Robert Venturi; Cesar Pelli; Tomomi Itakura/Yugon Kim/IKD Design; Benjamin Aranda/Chris Lasch/Aranda\Lasch [images]- Quartz "Exhibit Columbus" seeks to celebrate Columbus, Indiana’s design heritage, while making it relevant to new audiences. The 2017 exhibition features 18 site-responsive installations that connect with and comment on Columbus’ design legacy. -- Aranda\Lasch; Plan B Architecture & Urbanism; IKD; Oyler Wu Collaborative; studio:indigenous; PRODUCTORA; Pettersen & Hein; Snarkitecture; Formafantasma; Cody Hoyt; etc. [images]- Exhibit Columbus 40th China International Furniture Fair, Shanghai, September 11-14: CIFF has meticulously planned to create a furniture event for “Better Life, Better Work” to host 2,000 brands and 90,000 professional visitors- China International Furniture Fair/ CIFF

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