Today’s News - Tuesday, April 17, 2018

●  Volner takes a deep (and fascinating!) dive into the U.S./Mexico "ongoing cross-border pollination in architecture - since the 2016 election, architectural offices on both sides of the border have found themselves in a strange new climate," but "ideas continue to flow freely across the border despite the bellicose rhetoric surrounding the immigration debate."

●  Princeton art history professor Okeke-Agulu explains why Ghana deserves Adjaye's "awesome cathedral," and why, though the issues they raise are right, the naysayers are wrong: "Africa has to aim beyond basic needs" - this project "will inspire ambitious civic architecture projects across the continent."

●  Campbell Gallagher continues to raise the alarm about proposed Paris skyscrapers "threatening the beauty of the City of Light. Today's feverish, high-pressure, campaign for skyscrapers looks more like power politics than like thoughtful policy. But excellent, indeed, conclusive, counter-arguments exist."

●  Sneider delves into how the "winds have begun to change" when it comes to Moscow's modernist buildings, denounced by Stalin as "a failed experiment," and then neglected - but "now being restored by a new generation of architects" that is "helping to shift perceptions" (though many such treasures "still face dilapidation and destruction").

●  Kershner digs into the saga of how Israel's National Memorial Hall for fallen soldiers came about: It is "the product of decades of political wrangling, emotional strife and procrastination," where "commemoration has been pared down to bare essentials" with a "minimalist design" that "sidesteps internal conflicts over what should be memorialized."

●  Davidson cheers "a much more promising attempt to fix the Frick," with a new plan by Selldorf that "finds space within, below, and above" by "unearthing unsuspected space that's been there all along" - the "future Frick emerges organically from the architecture like new growth on an old tree."

●  Kamin cheers "a water-filled vision" for Chicago's Jackson Park - "even though it won't solve the most nettlesome issues associated with the proposed Obama Presidential Center, it's worth stepping back to glimpse the bigger picture: Water is back on the design agenda - and in a smart way."

●  Speaking of green on a different scale, Lau parses Bruner/Cott's mass-timber Kern Center at Hampshire College that is now the largest higher education project to be certified as a Living Building by the International Living Future Institute, joining an "elite group of 17 projects (and one park) that have earned what is arguably the most rigorous green-building certification."

The profession evolves (we hope!):

●  AIA and the University of Minnesota partner to develop "Guides for Equitable Practice" that "will provide architects and firms with guidance on best practices in equity, diversity, and inclusion principles," and "include attention to professional ethics and sexual harassment."

●  Arizona State University architecture juniors establish the Student Organization of Women Architects and Allied Arts that "seeks to represent the often-underrepresented female minority in the field of architecture. The girls plan to mold SOWA+ into a platform to connect students with professionals" ("The girls"?!!!?).

●  One more thing to add to your Venice Biennale dance card: Sexual harassment experiences highlighted in "Just so f***ing beautiful," an Australian exhibit at a satellite show organized by the European Cultural Centre.

●  Morais talks to Alda Ly about what a workspace designed for women looks like "at a moment when more buildings are being reconfigured and reapportioned to take women into account" - not just "man-cavey environments" (the "underside of gender-specific spaces": NYC is investigating the women's club The Wing for possible discrimination).

●  Bernard looks into a very gender-specific space in the work environment: lactation rooms that "can also double as wellness rooms that are available to all employees": San Francisco now requires such spaces, and provides technical specs and design recommendations - a "model for future code amendments."

Winners all:

●  The 2018 AIA Education Facility Design Award winners are "vibrant examples of contemporary educational architecture" (great presentation!).

●  The Arch League/Socrates Sculpture Park Folly/Function 2018 winner is "RRRolling Stones," HANNAH's "playful, movable outdoor seating made from 3D-printed concrete" (very cool!).

Three we couldn't resist:

●  Premiering tonight: PBS's 9-part CIVILIZATIONS "reveals the role art and the creative imagination have played across multiple cultures and civilizations" (not specifically architecturally-focused, but sounds fab!).

●  Absolutely stunning aerial images "showing the vast diversity of landscapes across China."

●  Absolutely "weird and wonderful" images of 7 iconic buildings reimagined in 7 architectural styles: Sydney Opera House - Tudor style; Fallingwater - Classical style; Buckingham Palace - Bauhaus style (you get the picture).

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To subscribe to the free daily newsletter click here Ian Volner: Regardless of Trump’s wall talk, the border’s always been blurry to these architects: ...given the close physical quarters of Mexico and the United States, it seems only natural that the two would cross-pollinate architecturally...But since the 2016 election, architectural offices on both sides of the border...have found themselves in a strange new climate...As applied to architecture, the concept of transnationality can take many forms...ideas continue to flow freely across the border despite the bellicose rhetoric surrounding the immigration debate. -- Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman; Henry Muñoz/Muñoz and Co.; Alfonso Medina/T38 Studio; Frida Escobedo; Andrea Steele/TEN Arquitectos; Fernando Romero/FR-EE [images]- Washington Post Magazine Chika Okeke-Agulu: Ghana Deserves This Cathedral. Don’t Fight It: National Cathedral of Ghana...government will build in Accra...will inspire ambitious civic architecture projects across the continent...Not everyone is cheering...Some have complained that the mixing of church and state is ill advised...Others say the money...should [be] invested in schools, hospitals and infrastructure...They are right to point to these endemic problems; but they are wrong to connect them with the cathedral...Africa has to aim beyond basic needs...Adjaye belongs to a generation of African architects...[whose] works will be seen around the world as among the great structures of our era. We need more architects like them and far more projects like Adjaye’s awesome cathedral. -- David Adjaye; Diébédo Francis Kéré; Kunlé Adeyemi; Mphethi Morojele; Mokena Makeka- New York Times Mary Campbell Gallagher: Stop Skyscrapers in Paris: Skyscrapers are threatening the beauty of the City of Light: ...political pressure is gutting the law...Residents feel powerless. And the world does not know...City Hall, developers and star architects say that Paris needs skyscrapers to be modern, by which they seem to mean, more like Dubai...Today’s feverish, high-pressure, campaign for skyscrapers...looks more like power politics than like thoughtful policy...But excellent, indeed, conclusive, counter-arguments exist. -- SOS Paris; International Coalition for the Preservation of Paris/ICPP; Renzo Piano; SANAA [illustrations by Liana Finck]- Traditional Building magazine Noah Sneider: Reconstructivism: Moscow’s modernist buildings were denounced by Stalin and then neglected. But they are now being restored by a new generation of architects with a different view of history: exemplified this radical reimagining of domestic space...Narkomfin's [1928] influence was international...Stalin’s reign...recast [it] as a failed experiment...Activists and preservationists...helping to shift perceptions. For a new post-Soviet generation, constructivism looks less like a failed experiment than a potential point of pride...Melnikov House...is on the road to a restoration...city authorities have also begun to embrace the avant-garde...Tagansky Telephone Station and the Shukhov Radio tower still face dilapidation and destruction. -- Moisei Ginzburg/Organisation of Contemporary Architects; Alexei Ginzburg; Konstantin Melnikov (1920s); Natalia Melikova/Constructivist Project [images]- The Economist / 1843 (UK) Isabel Kershner: In Memorial to War Dead, Israel Avoids Addressing Its Conflicts: The product of decades of political wrangling, emotional strife and procrastination, the [National Memorial Hall for fallen soldiers] reveals little about Israel’s wars with its external enemies. Instead, its minimalist design sidesteps internal conflicts over what should be memorialized...Lacking a consensus around a single national narrative, commemoration has been pared down to bare essentials...Israelis cannot even agree on what to call some hostilities... -- Michal Kimmel-Eshkolot/Kimmel Eshkolot Architects; Etan Kimmel [images]- New York Times Justin Davidson: This Time, a Much More Promising Attempt to Fix the Frick: It’s gratifying to see the Frick wind up where it should have been all along...The new plan preserves - or rather rips out and then rebuilds - Russell Page’s gated oblong of look-but-don’t-touch landscape intervention...finds space within, below, and above...unearthing unsuspected space that’s been there all along...future Frick skirts the garden, respects the skyline, and emerges organically from the architecture like new growth on an old tree. -- Thomas Hasting (1914); John Russell Pope (1935); Davis Brody Bond (2011); Annabelle Selldorf/Selldorf Architects [images]- New York Magazine Blair Kamin: Look beyond the Obama center plans - here’s a water-filled vision for Jackson Park South Lakefront Framework Plan...seeks to restore water’s prime place in Jackson Park...That’s good news, even though it won’t solve the most nettlesome issues associated with the proposed Obama Presidential Center...it’s worth stepping back from the battles over the Obama center to glimpse the bigger picture: Water is back on the design agenda - and in a smart way - in Jackson Park. -- Frederick Law Olmsted/Calvert Vaux (1871); SmithGroupJJR [image]- Chicago Tribune Wanda Lau: Hampshire College's R.W. Kern Center [in Amherst, Mass.] Is a Living Building: Designed by Bruner/Cott & Associates, [it] is the largest higher education project to earn the green certification: ...has become certified as a Living Building by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). Among the elite group of 17 projects (and one park) that have earned what is arguably the most rigorous green-building certification...the mass-timber building...must document one year’s worth of post-occupancy performance data to prove they are in fact net-zero water...energy [and] waste...also won a 2017 AIA COTE Top Ten Award... [images]- Architect Magazine AIA and the University of Minnesota partner to develop “Guides for Equitable Practice”: Recommendation from the AIA Equity in Architecture Commission report: ...will provide architects and firms with guidance on best practices in equity, diversity, and inclusion principles...will address such issues as career progression, work culture, leadership development, pay equity, talent recruitment and more...Topics under work culture include attention to...professional ethics and sexual harassment.- American Institute of Architects Introducing the Student Organization of Women Architects and Allied Arts: SOWA+, created by architecture juniors [at ASU], seeks to inspire and advance women in design: The club seeks to represent the often-underrepresented female minority in the field of architecture...The girls plan to mold SOWA+ into a platform to connect students with professionals...Despite the closing gender gap in architecture school, there remains a significant disparity in the number of women that move on to become licensed architects. -- Ali Patrick; Nenwe Geeso; Cecile Kim- The State Press (Arizona State University) Sexual harassment experiences highlighted in Australian exhibit at Venice Biennale satellite show: ...forms part of "Time - Space - Existence"... organized by the European Cultural Centre..."Just so f***ing beautiful"...is based on XYX Lab’s ongoing research work with CrowdSpot, a community-based digital mapping tool, and children’s rights organization Plan International. -- Monash University Art Design and Architecture’s (MADA); Nicole Kalms/XYX Lab; Gene Bawden- ArchitectureAU (Australia) Betsy Morais: What Does a Workspace Built for Women Look Like? Enter Alda Ly: ...during early design meetings for The Wing, a women’s club...bathrooms were discussed at length...first location opened in [NYC] in 2016...at a moment when...more buildings are being reconfigured and reapportioned to take women into account, only a quarter of all architects in the U.S. are female...Solving for feminism in architecture...is a matter of making room for choice...some design features...are explicitly and thoughtfully female: “Like having a pumping station"...It’s about offering a variety of spaces in which women feel comfortable. This is different from the man-cavey environments of certain start-ups. -- Alda Ly Architecture and Design; Zaha Hadid- The Atlantic Murrye Bernard: Priming the Pump: Lactation Room Design Guidelines: Companies with well-furnished mother’s rooms can empower new parents to care for their family without sacrificing career goals: ...nursing or mother’s rooms should be comfortable, private, and accessible environments...San Francisco...one of the first cities to require the inclusion of lactation rooms and to provide technical specifications and design recommendations. This landmark legislation may serve as a model for future code amendments...Nursing rooms can also double as wellness rooms that are available to all employees. Architects should then be mindful of helping to facilitate space-sharing... -- Liz York, FAIA/CDC; Perkins+Will; Elliott + Associates Architects [images]- Architect Magazine AIA Education Facility Design Awards 2018: The year's best school and college facilities, presented by the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education: 8 Awards of Excellence and 2 Awards of Merit were vibrant examples of contemporary educational architecture. -- Mithun; MSR Design; Perkins+Will Canada; archimania; Shepley Bulfinch; Bohlin Cywinski Jackson; Open Architecture; LMN Architects; Mahlum [images]- American Institute of Architects (AIA) Folly/Function 2018: "RRRolling Stones" by HANNAH: ...movable outdoor seating to be used in Socrates Sculpture Park...made from 3D-printed concrete...playful design encourages creative interaction and emboldens park visitors to configure them in original arrangements based on preference and need... -- Leslie Lok; Sasa Zivkovic [images]- Architectural League of New York / Socrates Sculpture Park Liev Schreiber to Narrate PBS's Nine-part Global Series CIVILIZATIONS: ...will premiere on PBS on Tuesday, April 17...broadens the canvas to reveal the role art and the creative imagination have played across multiple cultures and civilizations.- Broadway World China Viewed From Above: Simply a collection of some amazing recent aerial images showing the vast diversity of landscapes across China, from cities to mountains, deserts to sea shores, and much more. [images]- The Atlantic Seven Iconic Buildings Reimagined In Seven Architectural Styles: Weird and wonderful indeed: Sydney Opera House - Tudor style; Fallingwater - Classical style; The Louvre - Brutalist style...Erno Goldfinger would have been proud; Buckingham Palace - Bauhaus style; CN Tower - Egyptian style; Petronas Towers - Gothic style; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói - Sustainable style -- Jørn Utzon; Frank Lloyd Wright; I.M. Pei; Edward Blore; Aston Webb; César Pelli; Oscar Niemeyer [images]- Forbes

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