Today’s News - Thursday, January 18, 2018
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days - we'll be back Tuesday, January 23.
● ANN feature: Bloszies' Left Coast Reflections #4 considers iceberg architecture: "We should keep our pencils above grade most of the time. And we should support theories that preserve real icebergs before they trickle away completely."
● Amazon HQ2: 20 finalists in the running for its second headquarters: "Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough - all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity."
● Saltz considers Büchel's efforts to have Trump's border-wall prototypes declared a national monument "brilliant - a perfect memorial to how close the U.S. came to giving in to the ghosts of racism, xenophobia, nativism, white nationalism, mediocrity, and a cosmic fear of the other."
● Kamin x 2 re: the Obama Presidential Center: he's basically o.k. with it being in an Olmsted park, "but the design still needs refinement. Unlike the former president, the tower does not yet speak with a clear and compelling voice."
● In a Q&A re: the Obama center, he expands on a few points: "This is a high wire act and if it isn't right, it is both a lost opportunity and a potential blight on Jackson Park."
● Green delves into what Boston is doing to become more resilient, taking a "landscape first" approach with Stoss and ONE's "flood control measures that have social, environmental, and economic benefits."
● BIG + ONE + Sherwood show their plans for the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge to protect a San Francisco creek from flooding that "aims to tackle problems like lack of affordable housing, unemployment, traffic congestion and pollution" (floating villages included).
● Italian architects 2A+P/A convert Sottsass sketch into a black barrel-roofed pavilion for the Biennale d'Architecture d'Orléans in France, using a bit of backwards engineering.
● Paris-based Marc Breitman and Nada Breitman-Jakov to take home 2018 Richard H. Driehaus Prize (and $200,000); Dresden-based Torsten Kulke will receive the $50,000 Henry Hope Reed Award.
● FXFOWLE rebrands as FXCollaborative Architects, and will be decamping from its Manhattan HQ to a building the firm designed in Downtown Brooklyn.
● Call for entries: UIA-HYP Cup 2018 International Student Competition: propose a co-living cluster in one of China's 1st- or 2nd-tier cities (Patrik Schumacher chairs the jury).
● One we couldn't resist: "Fact Check: Which of these architecture rumors are actually true?" (is it illegal to take photographs of the Eiffel Tower at night? Yes!).
Weekend diversions:
● A good reason to be in Toronto, starting today: Interior Design Show/IDS Toronto, now in its 20th year.
● Scott cheers "Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan," a "profoundly beautiful film" that is "an unassuming (though hardly unambitious) examination of a grand, at times grandiose, subject" (and Burnham "is in some ways the villain").
● Green cheers "The Life and Gardens of Beatrix Farrand," a new documentary about "the only woman to be among the 11 founding members of ASLA" (trailer included).
● Anderton & Artsy parse two must-sees in Los Angeles: Opie's short film "The Modernist" about "an arsonist who loves mid-century-modern L.A. houses so much, he's driven to destroy them. It manages to be both shocking and funny"; and "Mike Kelley Kandors 1999 - 2011" - he "was obsessed with Superman's hometown on the planet Krypton."
● The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, opens "THIS X THAT" pop-up in the MOCA Store today with limited-edition items by a very interesting mix of architects and designers.
● Filler does a fine job parsing "Gordon Matta-Clark: Anarchitect": "Many reasons for this master troublemaker's continuing grip on the artistic imagination are evident" at the Bronx Museum of Art (he "was the James Dean of postwar American art").
● Farago parses "Millennium: Lower Manhattan in the 1990s" at NYC's Skyscraper Museum that "looks at the rapid renewal and growth of this urban district - as a residential and cultural destination."
● Belogolovsky's "Emilio Ambasz: Nature Toward Architecture" in Shanghai examines the ideas and buildings of the "architect, designer, curator, and writer who has been designing and building radical green projects for 40 years."
Page-turners:
● "Infinite Suburbia," edited by Berger, Kotkin, and Balderas Guzman, is "a mammoth collection of 52 essays - and, like suburbia itself, is sprawling, often beautiful, and a bit relentless."
● Campanella's "Cityscapes of New Orleans" is a compendium of essays that "is more than a rote demonstration of knowledge."
● Cole's "Sir Edwin Lutyens' Arts & Crafts Houses" includes his own photographs of 45 houses that "illustrate the contemporary timelessness of Lutyens's designs 100 years after those first images, and to celebrate his enduring genius."
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ANN feature: Charles F. Bloszies: Left Coast Reflections #4: Iceberg Architecture: A London cabbie asked if we had heard of the "iceberg houses." We should keep our pencils above grade most of the time. And we should support theories that preserve real icebergs before they trickle away completely. [images]- ArchNewsNow.com |
Amazon HQ2: picks 20 finalists for its second headquarters: ...potential cities include Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Montgomery County in Maryland, Nashville, Newark, New York City, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Toronto and Washington D.C. .."Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough - all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity"...- CNN |
Jerry Saltz: Trump’s Border-Wall Prototypes: A Kind of National Monument to American Nativism: Christoph Büchel has created an online petition to declare Donald Trump’s eight border-wall prototypes...a permanent national monument. This is brilliant...proposal allows us to see through layers of flimflam, illusion, posturing, and political theater... prototypes make you see something that’s always been there in minimalism but that we’ve always turned away from, flinched at, denied, or still deny...will be a perfect memorial to how close the United States came to giving in to the ghosts of racism, xenophobia, nativism, white nationalism, mediocrity, and a cosmic fear of the other.- New York Magazine |
Blair Kamin: An Obama tower in an Olmsted park? Yes, but design still needs refinement: ...museum tower that I panned as ponderous and Pharaonic...revised design...taller, slimmer and even more monumental than the first edition...a fraught issue: Is the tower a good or bad fit for its naturalistic setting, historic Jackson Park...The Cultural Landscape Foundation...brandished an age-old quotation from Olmsted as though it were Holy Writ...Williams and Tsien clearly do not feel bound by that point of view...Unlike the former president...the tower does not yet speak with a clear and compelling voice. -- Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects; Frederick Law Olmsted; Calvert Vaux [images]- Chicago Tribune |
Blair Kamin on Obama Presidential Center Design Tweaks: "It’s all about human experience, not preserving design from 100 years ago...We need more political transparency and more architectural transparency as well"...What are your biggest concerns? "It’s still the tower’s architecture and design. This is a high wire act and if it isn’t right, it is both a lost opportunity and a potential blight on Jackson Park."- WTTW Chicago / PBS |
Jared Green: To Become More Resilient, Boston Takes a “Landscape First” Approach: ...aims to act fast and protect two coastal neighborhoods most vulnerable to rising sea levels and storms...a simple fix like creating a temporary flood wall...at a cost of just $100,000, would protect 4,300 residents, 70 businesses and critical infrastructure, and result in $17 million in benefits...“flood control measures that have social, environmental, and economic benefits.” -- Stoss landscape urbanism; ONE architecture [images]- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
BIG unveils scheme to protect San Francisco creek from flooding: ...includes building floating villages connected by ferries, a red-hued cycle route, and a highway for autonomous vehicles...one of the 10 winning groups selected to develop proposals for different areas in the Bay...also aims to tackle problems like lack of affordable housing, unemployment, traffic congestion and pollution. -- BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group; One Architecture + Urbanism; Sherwood Design Engineers; Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge; BIG + ONE + Sherwood [images, video]- Dezeen |
Italian architects convert Ettore Sottsass sketch into pavilion for French architecture festival:...a black barrel-roofed pavilion for the Biennale d'Architecture d'Orléans, France...The architects backwards engineered a design...imagining what the other two sides of the structure not shown in the sketch could look like...runs until 18 March...will be moving to a permanent location in the Parc Floral...where it will continue to host exhibitions and function as a venue for future biennales. -- 2A+P/A [images]- Dezeen |
Marc Breitman and Nada Breitman-Jakov named 2018 Richard H. Driehaus Prize laureates: Paris-based architects known for improving cities through quality architecture and urbanism...will be awarded the $200,000 prize...Torsten Kulke, chair of the Society for the Rebuilding of the Historical New Market Dresden in Germany, will receive the $50,000 Henry Hope Reed Award. -- Breitman & Breitman architectes- Notre Dame News (Indiana) |
Ahead of Its Move to Brooklyn, FXFowle Architects Rebrands as FXCollaborative Architects: ...to relocate its headquarters of 35 years from Manhattan...to a planned Downtown Brooklyn building that the company designed at One Willoughby Square.- Commercial Observer (NYC) |
Call for entries: UIA-HYP Cup 2018 International Student Competition: Architecture in Transformation - Urban Co-living: Customizing Modules for Community: propose a co-living cluster in one of China’s 1st- or 2nd-tier cities; cash prizes; registration deadline: August 30 (submissions due September 20)- International Union of Architects (UIA)/School of Architecture, Tianjin University/Urban Environment Design Magazine (UED) |
Fact Check: Which of These Architecture Rumors are Actually True? So what can Snopes tell us about our dear profession? Get your facts right with our list of dubious (and some not-so-dubious) claims about architecture, buildings, and city design.- ArchDaily |
Interior Design Show/IDS Toronto is now in its 20th year...shapes the industry for the year to come - in North America and beyond; January 18 - 21- Interior Design Show (Toronto) |
A.O. Scott: "Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan" Is a Little Movie About How Buildings Got So Big: The competing legacies of two pioneering Chicago architects frame a documentary’s exploration of the modern American cityscape: ...an unassuming (though hardly unambitious) examination of a grand, at times grandiose, subject...directed by Manfred Kirchheimer...more essay than epic, preferring coherence to comprehensiveness...Daniel Burnham...is in some ways the villain...a profoundly beautiful film...- New York Times |
Jared Green: "The Life and Gardens of Beatrix Farrand": ...a new documentary on...the only woman to be among the 11 founding members of ASLA...designed over 200 landscape commissions over 50 years..."the most successful female landscape architect in 20th century America.” [trailer]- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
DnA/Frances Anderton & Avishay Artsy: Catherine Opie's "The Modernist": a short film about an arsonist who loves mid-century-modern LA houses so much, he’s driven to destroy them....a valentine of sorts to The Los Angeles Times...Julius Shulman, along with a utopian and dystopian LA. It manages to be both shocking and funny; at Regen Projects, Los Angeles, thru February 17; Mike Kelley was obsessed with Kandor, Superman's hometown on the planet Krypton. "Mike Kelley Kandors 1999 - 2011” at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles thru January 21- KCRW (Los Angeles) |
"THIS X THAT": MOCA Store presents a pop-up...featuring limited-edition items...by Jimenez Lai and Joanna Grant of Bureau Spectacular, Besler & Sons, New Affiliates, Architecture Office, WelcomeCompanions/WelcomeProjects, and others; thru March 19 -- SCHAUM/SHIEH; Platform for Architecture + Research/PAR; West of West; OBJECT TERRITORIES; The Los Angeles Design Group/The LADG; FreelandBuck; etc.- Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles |
Martin Filler: The Cutting-Edge Art of Matta-Clark: ...audacious...opened new modes of contemporary expression...Many reasons for this master troublemaker’s continuing grip on the artistic imagination are evident in the Bronx Museum of Art’s exhibition “Gordon Matta-Clark: Anarchitect"...retrospective fully conveys the conceptual grandeur and raw physicality of his art, despite the fact that his most famous site-specific works no longer exist. thru April 8- New York Review of Books |
Jason Farago: When Wall Street Was Unoccupied: At the Skyscraper Museum, a reminder of how Lower Manhattan was recast in the 1990s as a residential and cultural destination...“Millennium: Lower Manhattan in the 1990s” looks at the rapid renewal and growth of this urban district.- New York Times |
"Emilio Ambasz: Nature Toward Architecture" examines the ideas and buildings of Ambasz, an architect, designer, curator, and writer who has been designing and building radical green projects for 40 years...James Wines called him the “forerunner of Green Architecture"; curated by Vladimir Belogolovsky; HKU/Shanghai Study Centre, thru March 4- HKU/Shanghai Study Centre |
"Infinite Suburbia": ...a mammoth collection of 52 essays edited by MIT landscape architecture professor Alan Berger, geographer Joel Kotkin, and environmental urbanist Celina Balderas Guzman...the result of a yearlong study at MIT’s Center for Advanced Urbanism, and, like suburbia itself, is sprawling, often beautiful, and a bit relentless.- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
"Cityscapes of New Orleans" by Richard Campanella; ...a compendium of essays that examines New Orleans’ landscape through the lenses of design, planning, and history. It is more than a rote demonstration of knowledge, though. The book is an energetic engagement with Campanella’s two great passions: New Orleans and geography.- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
A Modern-Day Survey: "Sir Edwin Lutyens’ Arts & Crafts Houses": Architect David Cole's new book includes his own photographs of 45 houses: ...575 contemporary photographs...he took these images “to illustrate the contemporary timelessness of Lutyens’s designs 100 years after those first images, and to celebrate Lutyens’s enduring genius.- Architect Magazine |
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