Today’s News - Thursday, November 8, 2018

EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days- we'll be back Tuesday, November 13.

●  AIA San Francisco Equity by Design releases its 2018 Equity in Architecture Survey findings - "the largest data set ever collected," with "14,360 respondents in every state and across six continents."

●  Ravenscroft reports that Stockholm's "new regime" plans to block Chipperfield's Nobel Center, Foster + Partners' previously-approved revised plans for an Apple Store, and the city's Olympic bid ("Chipperfield remains hopeful that a solution can be found").

●  Holder ponders what the consequences could be re: reported Amazon HQ2 plans to split between two cities: "Why did Amazon go all Solomon on us in what may be the final week? Perhaps pitting regions against each other until the bitter end has been its M.O. all along" (never mind the deep data it now has on 200 regions "at its disposal").

●  A lot of not-happy folks re: Amazon's reported decision to split its HQ2 between New York City and Virginia: "Critics say Amazon's decision to split the headquarters make the drawn-out process seem like a PR stunt" (tweet storms ensue!).

●  Green, on a brighter note, reports on experts weighing in on landscape architecture and public health: In "study after study, all this research is meant to arm landscape architects, planners, and others with the facts they need to make the case to policy makers and legislators" - designers should "influence the big decisions."

●  Three we couldn't resist: The We Are Human Rights project "develops tools for change by pairing designers with activists" to tackle issues in seven countries.

●  Vivienne Westwood, Nan Goldin, and Tilda Swinton are among 10 artists and activists commissioned by Visionaire magazine to design protest posters "ranging from gun violence and criminal justice to climate change and equal voting rights" that can be downloaded for free (very cool).

●  Shiundu puts on a detective's hat to find out if the inspiration behind Kenya's landmark Kenyatta International Convention Centre really was a donkey's penis (probably not) and, along the way, clarifies who designed the icon (turns out the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo had the answer).

Deadlines:

●  Call for submissions: Harvard GSD's 2019 Wheelwright Prize (international): $100,000 travel-based research grant awarded to early-career architects.

●  Call for entries: Proposals for Lincoln Institute Case Study Awards.

●  Call for entries: Lincoln Institute/Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Curriculum Innovation Awards.

●  Call for entries: Applications for three different Architects Foundation Scholarships.

Weekend diversions:

●  A great reason to head to Sarasota: A Q&A with Paul Goldberger, who headlines the 2018 Sarasota MOD Weekend celebrating the centenary of Paul Rudolph's birth.

●  Corbu's Paris home reopens its doors to the public following two years of restoration, which includes - "his ocean liner-inspired bedroom" now looks as it did during his lifetime (fab photos!).

●  "Architecture Itself and Other Postmodernist Myths" at the Canadian Center for Architecture "challenges the typical narrative of the heroic architect by revealing a counter-reading of postmodern procedures" (we're still trying to figure out what that means).

Page-turners:

●  Byrnes' Q&A with Lubell re: "Mid-Century Modern Architecture Travel Guide: East Coast USA" that "plays all the Modernism hits and a lot of deep cuts" - Lubell's "site descriptions give a rewarding perspective on the ideas that fueled each design and how reality has guided their aging."

●  An excerpt from Lamster's "The Man in the Glass House: Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century" that reveals Johnson "spent the late 1930s quite differently: as a wealthy young aesthete gadding about Germany and embracing Nazi politics."

●  Jensen cheers Tzonis and Lefaivre's "ambitious" new book, "Times of Creative Destruction: Shaping Buildings and Cities in the Late 20th Century" - they "chart the sometimes-erratic development of these seismic shifts while reassessing their own writing and thinking over the past five decades - with a light touch and easy good humor"; it's "thought-provoking and inspiring."

●  Brussat x 2: He cheers Stevens Curl's "Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism": "Modern architecture has hoaxed the world for well over half a century. Curl exposes this tragedy and the immoral theories and practices of its proponents - his tirades are entertaining, and glow with the vitality of truth."

●  He follows up with jeers for Bayley's thumbs-down for "Making Dystopia" ("it is natural that modernist architects shellacked by Curl are fighting back, and fighting, as is their habit, dirty"), and cheers for Daniels' take (see next story).

●  Daniels finds "Making Dystopia" to be "a polemical, but deeply scholarly, history of architectural modernism, its antecedents and its results, practically all of which have been baleful" (Gropius, Mies, and Corbu "possessed psychopathic ambition, ruthlessness" - includes another Bayley take-down).

●  On a brighter note, Waldek highlights 10 projects from Pare's "Le Corbusier: The Built Work," a photographic survey that Jean-Louis Cohen says captures the projects' "present features" - from "buildings that have been so recently repaired, to the wounds inflicted on others - that one hopes is only temporary."

●  Filler minces now words about what he thinks of Rense's "gaudy" (and "unintentionally hilarious") new compendium "Architectural Digest: Autobiography of a Magazine 1920-2010" (he's sure he's on her enemies' list - if he's not, this should do it).

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To subscribe to the free daily newsletter click here AIASF Equity by Design Releases 2018 Equity in Architecture Survey Findings: ...the AIA San Francisco committee shared its analysis of the largest data set ever collected on equity within the design profession in the United States: ...14,360 respondents in every state and across six continents...EQxD research team will be able to conduct further analysis on responses within individual ethnic and racial groups...which Annelise Pitts says “is new and exciting.” -- Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA); Ming Thompson/Atelier Cho Thompson- Architect Magazine Tom Ravenscroft: Stockholm blocks Chipperfield's Nobel Center, Foster + Partners' Apple Store and city's Olympic bid: Apple's revised plans were given the go ahead by the former city council, but look likely to be stopped by the new regime...Nobel Center ruling will not be appealed...David Chipperfield Architects remains hopeful that a solution can be found.- Dezeen Sarah Holder: Double the HQ2? What It Means if Amazon Splits Up Its Second Headquarters: It won't get double the tax incentives (probably). But there are other tactical reasons for the move...For the two chosen regions, this means the boon - and cost - of becoming an HQ2 could look different than initially projected...The strain on transportation and housing might sting less, and the population might stabilize sooner...will it also mean the company makes off with double the public money? Not necessarily...Why did Amazon go all Solomon on us in what may be the final week? Perhaps pitting regions against each other until the bitter end has been Amazon’s M.O. all along.- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) People are furious about Amazon's reported decision to split its HQ2 between New York City and Virginia after months of deliberation: ...closing in on deals to develop its second headquarters in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York, and the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia...Critics say Amazon's decision to split the headquarters make the drawn-out process seem like a PR stunt.- Business Insider (via SFGate) Jared Green: This Is Your Brain on Nature: Neurosurgeon Edie Zusman...has completed some 6,000 brain and spinal surgeries, said what landscape architects do saves far more lives than what she does...At the ASLA 2018 Annual Meeting, she and a number of landscape architecture professors delved into research proving that access to nature improves our health and well-being...landscape architecture and public health have been intertwined since...Frederick Law Olmsted...the brilliant intuition of Olmsted has only been proven by study after study...all this research is meant to arm landscape architects, planners, and others...with the facts they need to make the case to policy makers and legislators:..Zusman wants designers to influence the big decisions... -- Sara Jensen Carr; William Sullivan; Dr. Bin Jiang; Dongying Li; Jenny Roe- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) We Are Human Rights develops tools for change by pairing designers with activists: Designers have developed projects for human-rights defenders in seven countries...a project spearheaded by Dutch designer Bernhard Lenger...The results...tackled issues ranging from illegal settlements in Nicaragua to the criminalisation of homosexuality in Burundi..."[we] also want to invite governments and private organisations to work together with us"... [images]- Dezeen Open-access protest posters by Vivienne Westwood, Nan Goldin and Tilda Swinton appear in Visionaire magazine: ...among 10 artists and activists commissioned...to design protest posters for readers to download and use for free... issues ranging from gun violence and criminal justice to climate change and equal voting rights...posters aim to "re-contextualise" the protest poster as an art object, while also providing an "essential tool of modern political activism." [images]- Dezeen Alphonce Shiundu: The inspiration behind Kenya’s architectural icon, the KICC: Was Nairobi’s landmark Kenyatta International Convention Centre inspired by a donkey’s penis, as a veteran architect has claimed? ...when Kenyan architect David Mutiso set social media alight with a yet-unheard claim...[he] also said he had designed the KICC...KICC says the building was “designed by the Norwegian architect Karl Henrik Nøstvik and our own David Mutiso”...“I have never heard the ‘donkey’s penis’ association before,” said Nina Frang Høyum of Norway’s National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design...She provided other accounts of the building’s inspiration. -- Manuel Herz/Shadi Rahbaran/ETH Basel Studio; Jacqueline Resley- Africa Check Call for entries: Call for submissions: 2019 Wheelwright Prize, Harvard Graduate School of Design/GSD (international): $100,000 travel-based research grant that is awarded annually to early-career architects; deadline: January 27, 2019- Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) Call for entries: Call for Proposals: Lincoln Institute/Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Case Study Awards: ten $2,000 awards to research and write a teaching case study to be included in the Lincoln Institute’s digital case library; deadline: December 21- Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Call for entries: Call for Submissions: Lincoln Institute/Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Curriculum Innovation Awards: three $7,000 awards for proposals of novel curricula and teaching cases that align with one or more of four key issues: Land Value Capture and the Property Tax, Informality and Urban Poverty, Climate Change, and Municipal Fiscal Health; deadline: February 11, 2019- Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Call for entries: Call for Applications: Architects Foundation Scholarships: Diversity Advancement Scholarship ($20,000) + Payette Sho-Ping Chin Memorial Academic Scholarship ($10,000 + senior Payette mentor) + Yann Weymouth Graduate Scholarship ($5,000); deadline: January 16, 2019.- AEC Cafe This Year’s Sarasota MOD Weekend Celebrates Paul Rudolph: Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger headlines...2018 marks the centenary of Rudolph's birth...."a great tragedy of Rudolph’s life is that he died before he could see things come full circle, to his being as appreciated as he is today." November 9-11 -- Sarasota School of Architecture; Sarasota Architectural Foundation- Sarasota Magazine Le Corbusier's Paris home reopens its doors to the public: ...following two years of restoration works led by the Fondation Le Corbusier...has returned the apartment on the seventh and eighth floors of Immeuble Molitor, which includes...his ocean liner-inspired bedroom - to how it would have appeared during his lifetime. -- François Chatillon Architecte; Marie-Odile Hubert [images]- Dezeen "Architecture Itself and Other Postmodernist Myths": ...presents canonic projects from an unexpected and unfamiliar point of view...challenges the typical narrative of the heroic architect by revealing a counter- reading of postmodern procedures. The purpose is simultaneously to deflate the postmodern mythologizing of the architect and inflate the importance of empirically describable architectural activity. Canadian Center for Architecture, Montreal, thru April 6, 2019 -- Sylvia Lavin; Sarah Hearne- Canadian Architect Mark Byrnes: An Ultimate Architectural Road Trip of East Coast Mid-Century Modernism: Sam Lubell and photographer Darren Bradley reveal the hidden gems and greatest hits of postwar design along the Eastern Seaboard: "Mid-Century Modern Architecture Travel Guide: East Coast USA"...A follow-up to their recent West Coast guide...includes over 250 houses, offices, schools, museums, civic and religious buildings that tell the story of the industrial and cultural prosperity that occurred...after World War II. [They] play all the Modernism hits and a lot of deep cuts...site descriptions give a rewarding perspective on the ideas that fueled each design and how reality has guided their aging.- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) Mark Lamster: Was Architect Philip Johnson a Nazi Spy? ...excerpt from Lamster’s new biography, "The Man in the Glass House: Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century" reveals, he spent the late 1930s quite differently: as a wealthy young aesthete gadding about Germany and embracing Nazi politics.- New York Magazine Jamie Jensen: Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre track the seismic shifts in post-war architecture: In their ambitious new book, "Times of Creative Destruction: Shaping Buildings and Cities in the Late 20th Century," the authors...chart the sometimes-erratic development of these seismic shifts while reassessing their own writing and thinking over the past five decades...their greatest influence may have come via their more than 400 essays and lectures, the best of which have been translated and collected here for the first time...contextual introductions...reappraise, with a light touch and easy good humor, the intentions and ideas behind their writings...thought-provoking and inspiring...- The Architect's Newspaper David Brussat: "Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism" by James Stevens Curl: Modern architecture has hoaxed the world for well over half a century. Charlatans bred the founding modernist frauds...They used monopoly power to squelch dissent and to inflict a catastrophic urbanism on helpless populations...Curl exposes this tragedy and the immoral theories and practices of its proponents. He reveals damning facts about the founding modernists and their proclivities...Given his subject, his tirades are almost in the vein of diplomacy. They are entertaining, and glow with the vitality of truth.- Architecture Here and There David Brusst: More on "Making Dystopia": A book whose vile subjects have grown used to shucking off well-framed attacks for decades...are naturally offended by what could be their coup de grâce. So it is natural that modernist architects shellacked by James Stevens Curl...are fighting back, and fighting, as is their habit, dirty...Perhaps the most egregious was Stephen Bayley...his dismissal of the book’s prose amounts to fraud...Curl’s prose is engagingly rococo at times...Anthony Daniels...takes particular aim at Bayley...Modern architecture...from its best on down, is offensive to humanity, and intentionally so. -- Patricia Craig- Architecture Here and There Anthony Daniels: Authoritarianism in Cement and Steel: How can one fail to see the totalitarian sensibility in modernist architecture? "Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism" by James Stevens Curl...a polemical, but deeply scholarly, history of architectural modernism, its antecedents and its results, practically all of which have been baleful...He has examined the intellectual foundations of, and supposed justifications for, modernism very closely, above the call of duty, for it cannot have been very pleasant work...Curl does not claim to be the first to criticise modernism, but his book is the most complete account both of its roots and of it fruits so far written. -- Stephen Bayley; Richard Morrison- Quadrant Magazine (Australia) Stefanie Waldek: See Le Corbusier’s Complete Works: A new book surveys the legendary architect’s projects around the world: ...the polarizing figure is the subject of "Le Corbusier: The Built Work," a photographic survey by Richard Pare...reflecting the current state of his buildings...Jean-Louis Cohen in the introduction, “Pare’s investigations capture their present features - from the provisionally immaculate surfaces of buildings that have been so recently repaired, to the wounds inflicted on others, which have been left in a state of abandon, that one hopes is only temporary"...we look at 10 of Le Corbusier’s projects from the book. [images]- Architectural Digest Martin Filler: A Gilded Age at Architectural Digest: Paige Rense takes a stroll down memory lane in a gaudy new compendium, "Architectural Digest: Autobiography of a Magazine 1920-2010." Given the relentlessly first-person focus of her otherwise rambling and disorganized text, it might be more accurately subtitled Autobiography of a Magazine Editor...Leafing through her unintentionally hilarious AD retrospective, it is easy to discern a through-line from the lust for glittering opulence [of] the Reagan White House to the still more repellent style embodied by Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, and assorted golf clubs owned by the incumbent president. The Rense-inspired drooling over celebrity, money, and power...is depressing, as well as symptomatic of social values with far worse implications for the nation.- New York Review of Books

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