Today’s News - Wednesday, December 19, 2018

EDITOR'S NOTE: Today and tomorrow will be the last newsletters of the year, hence you'll notice they're a bit longer than usual (so much news - so little time and space!).

●  Wainwright picks his Top 10 architecture of 2018: "A building made of boulders, Battersea's blazing miracle, the rugged return of Mackintosh - and recognition at last for a Vegas visionary" (with links to his and Moore's reviews).

●  AN picks "the top architecture scandals and controversies of 2018. Take a look back at the wildest stories of the year, and relive some of the outrage as the New Year rolls in."

●  Huber parses "the myth of age in architectural practice" - saying "one's best work emerges only late in life now feels nefarious - it starves younger generations. What we need is other ways of coexisting that are mutually supportive. And some retirements would help too" ("fragile egos" included).

●  Hagberg Fisher (speaking of age) tries to find architects who will talk about succession: "I get a very gentle no thanks, 'given the sensitive nature of the subject'" - only Libeskind and Berke "agreed to speak on the record - both are starting to put succession plans in place."

●  Hong & Franklin lay out why "New York's proposal for Amazon HQ2 is much worse than we thought" with some astoundingly troubling promises, a Non-Disclosure Agreement, and a stipulation that the city would notify the company "of all public records requests to 'give Amazon prior written notice sufficient to allow Amazon to seek a protective order or other remedy'" (yikes!).

●  Apple, on the other hand, is going to build a $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, and will forgo "the billions in subsidies that Amazon accepted, and will only take about $25 million from the state."

●  Kamin cheers Evanston City Council reversing itself, voting to save (rather than demolish) the Harley Clarke Mansion and Jens Jensen-designed landscape: "Historic preservation victories are rarely any sweeter - or more democratic, small 'd' - than this one. The 91-year-old mansion now has a future, albeit an uncertain one. The same goes for its gardens."

●  TCLF hails the saving of the Harley Clarke House and Garden, a city-owned landmark: "The city council's unanimous (9-0) decision came in the wake of an outpouring of public support for the historic property" (gorgeous photos!).

●  On a more ominous note, TCLF warns that a planned revamp of Milwaukee's Marcus Center for the Performing Arts threatens "a masterfully designed campus whose building by Harry Weese, and landscape by Dan Kiley, exist in harmonious equilibrium."

●  WORKac's Amale Andraos is tapped to design the BeMA: Beirut Museum of Art in Lebanon: "The project was approached in a sort of personal way" - she left Beirut at the age of 3 (lots of fab images of what looks like a stunning building!).

●  Diamond Schmitt and KWC transform Ottawa's 1912 Union Station into the interim Senate of Canada, restored and modernized into "a state-of-the art, accessible and green building. More than 90% of construction waste has been diverted from landfill" (great shots by Bozikovic - we took a hard-hat tour ages ago, and it already looked amazing!).

●  K. Jacobs walked to LaGuardia Airport with photographer Stanley Greenberg "simply to see if it could be done. Google Maps informed me it was impossible. I'm beginning to think that walking is an act of civil disobedience, a last hurrah for the autonomous pedestrian" (Fentress, Speck, and others weigh in).

●  Gamolina's Q&A with architecture critic Lange re: "building the foundation to develop her voice": "To be a critic, you do have to have this grounding in history and in knowledge of the city so that you feel like you can say that other people are wrong [laughs]."

●  Salingaros tackles complexity. "Human beings 'feed' on visual complexity. But some types of complexity are useless, or can be harmful for us. Building the wrong type of complexity results in dysfunctional buildings and urban regions that waste enormous energy resources to maintain."

●  Two we couldn't resist: Miranda introduces us to the anonymous artist who is "surreptitiously" installing wood benches at neglected bus stops on L.A.'s Eastside - "'grim' would be a generous description," and highlights L.A.'s "more byzantine corners of transit bureaucracy" (one of our fave stories of the year!).

●  Stinson brings us eyefuls of a new development in Moscow that includes Hokusai's famous wave print stretching across six buildings, and three other building facades sport colorful cityscapes of New York, Barcelona, and Monaco - "we have to give them points for creativity" (really wild).

●  ICYMI: Weinstein at his eloquent best with his pick of the 10 Best Architecture and Design Books of 2018, which he describes as "invaluable and impeccably designed"; "quirkily inclusive"; "charmingly loopy"; "enthralling"; "produced with panache" (and then some!).

Of sustainability, climate change, and eco-cities (and cars):

●  The AIA COTE Top Ten Toolkit offers "curated, concise, and effective strategies for achieving sustainable designs, and provides criteria for evaluating a project after it is built."

●  Meanwhile, the AIA "has called on members of the profession to sign an open letter" to Trump that "outlines the organization's 'outright opposition' to his policies on climate change."

●  Hubbard offers "five steps to becoming a more responsible architect in the age of climate change - we must first acknowledge the effect our work has on the environment, and then focus on what steps can we take to mitigate those impacts."

●  Lindeman looks at Norway's "new era of climate-conscious architecture," and "a consortium in Oslo made up of architects, engineers, environmentalists, and designers creating energy-positive buildings."

●  Jaguar is working with British architects "to imagine eco cities - many ideas are set in the far future, yet mostly feel ultimately achievable."

Winners all:

●  Harvard announces six 2019 Richard Rogers Fellows who hail from New York City; Ithaca, NY; Novara, Italy; Rochester, NY; and Berlin.

●  CTBUH announces the 2019 Award of Excellence winners (one looks like a 1 WTC mini-me).

●  Curbed takes a very different approach to this year's Groundbreakers award by asking "previous jurors and Groundbreakers winners to talk about mentorship and collaboration, in an effort to further dispel the myth of the virtuosic architect working alone."

●  A shortlist of 15 entries from 9 countries now vying for the Dezeen x MINI Living Future Urban Home competition.

Tweet

To subscribe to the free daily newsletter click here Oliver Wainwright: Top 10 architecture of 2018: A building made of boulders, Battersea’s blazing miracle, the rugged return of Mackintosh - and recognition at last for a Vegas visionary. -- Junya Ishigami; Donaire Arquitectos; Haworth Tompkins; Charles Rennie Mackintosh; Assemble; Amin Taha; David Chipperfield; Jamie Fobert; Denise Scott Brown/Soane Medal; Kengo Kuma- Guardian (UK) Egads! Here are the top architecture scandals and controversies of 2018: ...the world of architecture wasn’t immune from the deluge of drama that swept over politics and pop culture. Take a look back at the wildest stories of the year, and relive some of the outrage as the New Year rolls in.- The Architect's Newspaper David Huber: The Myth of Age in Architectural Practice: A glacial maturation process is a defining myth of the architectural profession. One’s best work emerges only late in life...we are told by bosses and professors and other fragile egos...it now feels nefarious...it starves younger generations in their 20s and 30s, and even 40s...What we need, architects and affiliated practitioners of all ages, is other ways of coexisting that are mutually supportive. And some retirements would help too.- Metropolis Magazine Eva Hagberg Fisher: Why Won't Architects Talk About Succession? ...what happens when a firm's founding partner dies: ...I get an apologetic email response...that it’s not quite the right time...a very gentle no thanks, “given the sensitive nature of the subject"...The response I would use, if I were...a more aggressive person, would be something like, “Do you think Zaha Hadid ever thought it was the right time?” What I’m asking everyone to talk about is their deaths...Daniel Libeskind and Deborah Berke...are the only two architects I contacted who agreed to speak on the record...both are starting to put succession plans in place. -- Patrik Schumacher; Charles Gwathmey; Louis Kahn; Eero Saarinen; Kevin Roche; John Dinkeloo; James Polshek/Polshek Partnership/Ennead Architects- Architect Magazine Sukjong Hong & Sydney Franklin: New York’s proposal for Amazon HQ2 is much worse than we thought: We now know the deal was secured through a state-controlled process...where large-scale and dense developments are scrutinized at a different level if they’re being constructed in a low-income area...Among the more controversial promises...is the offer to use eminent domain...and “override local zoning” to speed up and develop the campus...What’s even more troubling...is the city’s Non-Disclosure Agreement...stipulated that the EDC would notify the corporation of all public records requests...to “give Amazon prior written notice sufficient to allow Amazon to seek a protective order or other remedy.”- The Architect's Newspaper Apple announces a $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas: ...already employs 6,200 people in Austin...133-acre Robinson Ranch...a mile away from the extant campus and hold another 5,000 employees, with room for up to 15,000. With 3 million square feet of office space, 50 acres of open area, and a commitment to only using electricity from renewable sources, [it] may end up rivaling the spaceship-like Apple Park complex for size...Apple will be forgoing the billions in subsidies that Amazon accepted, and will only take about $25 million from the state of Texas for its new campus.- The Architect's Newspaper Blair Kamin: Evanston City Council's vote to save lakefront mansion is a big 'W' for bottom-up efforts to preserve the past: Historic preservation victories are rarely any sweeter - or more democratic, small “d” - than this one...Five months after Evanston took the first steps toward demolishing the Harley Clarke Mansion...City Council effectively reversed itself...a triumph of people power...a stunning 80% of voters signaled that they wanted the city to pursue refurbishment and reuse of the vacant lakefront structure, which previously had been Evanston’s arts center. The 91-year-old mansion, an official city landmark...now has a future, albeit an uncertain one. The same goes for its gardens...There was this irony, too. -- Richard Powers; Jens Jensen- Chicago Tribune Saved: Harley Clarke House and Garden: ...the City Council of Evanston, Illinois, voted to abandon plans to demolish [it], a city-owned Landmark on the shore of Lake Michigan. The council’s unanimous (9-0) decision came in the wake of an outpouring of public support for the historic property...has been vacant since 2015, when the Evanston Arts Center’s lease on the property expired. -- Richard Powers; Jens Jensen; Alfred Caldwell (1927) [images]- The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) Marcus Center redesign plans threaten historically significant landscape: The Cultural Landscape Foundation concerned with plans to alter plaza: The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts’ plans to revamp its downtown Milwaukee campus make it a “nationally significant at-risk and threatened cultural landscape...a masterfully designed campus whose building, by Harry Weese, and landscape, by Dan Kiley, exist in harmonious equilibrium..." -- Harry Weese; Dan Kiley (1965); HGA [images]- Milwaukee BizTimes WORKac chosen to complete BeMA: Beirut Museum of Art in Lebanon: The project, which is set to open in 2023, was approached in a sort of personal way as one of the studio’s founders - Amale Andraos - is a Lebanese-born architect who left Beirut at the age of 3. Featuring an Art Nouveau-inspired shape, the museum structure is a hybrid that blends public and private, iconic and generic, and large and small. [images]- designboom Diamond Schmitt Architects and KWC Architects unveil Ottawa’s interim Senate of Canada: ...the culmination of years of collaboration with the Senate to restore the century-old former train station and modernize it into a state-of-the art, accessible and green building...Narrowly escaping demolition in the 1960s, Ottawa’s Union Station has undergone several transformations since it was completed in 1912...More than 90% of construction waste from the project has been diverted from landfills. -- Ross & MacDonald (1912) [images]- Canadian Architect Karrie Jacobs: What if you could walk to the airport? As airports are reimagined...maybe they should instead be reimagined as urban spaces: Accompanied by Stanley Greenberg, a photographer whose primary interest is urban infrastructure, I walked to LaGuardia Airport simply to see if it could be done...only five miles, as the crow flies, from midtown Manhattan...Google Maps informed me it was impossible to get there by foot...never mind all my theorizing about how airports should be more like urban neighborhoods - LGA pretty much is an urban neighborhood...I’m beginning to think that walking is an act of civil disobedience, a last hurrah for the autonomous pedestrian...I’m now forced to confront the disturbing possibility that neighborhoods will wind up being more like airports. -- Stephen Barrett/Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; Curtis Fentress; Robert Chicas/HOK; Andrés Ramirez/Aerial Futures; Jeff Speck- Curbed New York Julia Gamolina: Madame Critic: Alexandra Lange on Building the Foundation to Develop Her Voice: ...and convey her opinions, advising young architects to be as open as possible and explore the environment that they’re in..."To be a critic, you do have to have this grounding in history and in knowledge of the city so that you feel like you can say that other people are wrong [laughs]...don’t get on a rat path and follow it endlessly. That way leads to boredom and dissatisfaction."- Madame Architect Nikos A. Salingaros: Adaptive versus Random Complexity: Human beings “feed” on visual complexity...But some types of complexity are useless, or can be harmful for us. Both “designed” minimalism and random complexity remove life-enhancing structural features from the built environment...Building the wrong type of complexity results in dysfunctional buildings and urban regions that waste enormous energy resources to maintain.- New Design Ideas / Jomard Publishing Carolina A. Miranda: Meet the anonymous artist installing bus benches at neglected stops on L.A.’s Eastside: It is one of those Los Angeles bus stops for which “grim” would be a generous description...Forlorn. Inhospitable. Designed with little regard to anyone who might take a bus...artist has taken the matter...into his own hands...has surreptitiously installed more than a dozen wood benches...he has it down to a science...In about 15 minutes, the stop has a brand-new bus bench.- Los Angeles Times Liz Stinson: Behold, Hokusai’s famous wave print stretching across six buildings: A new development in Moscow is taking the concept of a wall mural to a whole new level: Etalon City is a nine-building mixed-use complex in a residential area of Moscow with some truly wild facades. Splashed across six of the complex’s nine buildings is a reproduction of “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa"...The wave is joined by three more buildings whose facades feature colorful cityscapes of New York, Barcelona, and Monaco. How the two fit together conceptually, we’re not sure, but we have to give them points for creativity. [images]- Curbed New toolkit helps architect achieve high-performance buildings: The AIA COTE Top Ten Toolkit presents curated, concise and effective strategies for achieving sustainable designs and provides criteria for evaluating a project after it is built...consolidates the most current, useful, and objective resources for architects.- American Institute of Architects (AIA) / Committee on the Environment (COTE) American architects implore Trump to address climate change: The American Institute of Architects has called on members of the profession to sign an open letter to president...outlines the organisation's "outright opposition" to his policies on climate change...Trump's policies counter findings in US climate-change report...Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4), the 1,656-page study...U.S. must "embrace" climate change reality says AIA...American architects urged to address global warming in projects...- Dezeen Gunnar Hubbard: Five Steps to Becoming a More Responsible Architect in the Age of Climate Change: ...we must first acknowledge the effect our work has on the environment, and then focus on what steps can we take to mitigate those impacts...We must work toward ensuring that [AIA's] and other important environmental guidelines become the professional norm. We not only have a moral and ethical obligation to our clients, but to the environment as well. Support and Follow Architecture 2030; Measure, Manage and Improve; Speak to Clients About the Environmental Impact of Their Projects; Seek Optimal Partners- Archinect Tracey Lindeman: Norway Is Entering a New Era of Climate-Conscious Architecture: The country now has a suite of buildings that generate more energy than they use: A consortium in Oslo made up of architects, engineers, environmentalists, and designers is creating energy-positive buildings... -- Peter Bernhard/Asplan Viak; Powerhouse alliance; Jette Hopp/Snøhetta- The Atlantic / CityLab Nargess Banks: Jaguar Works With British Architects To Imagine Eco Cities: The project, led by Ian Callum and the architect Jon Eaglesham of London practice Barr Gazetas, broadly examines the electrified automotive future and its relationship to architecture...an open dialogue involving architects, planners, property and infrastructure developers and the car company...Some of these ideas are imaginative, many are set in the far future, yet mostly feel ultimately achievable.-- RIBA [images]- Forbes Harvard Announces the 2019 Richard Rogers Fellows: ...six recipients of the 2019 cycle...fellowship allows the winners to spend a three-and-a-half month residency at the Rogers' Wimbledon House in London. The recipients also receive funding to cover their travel to London and $100,000 cash. -- Esther Choi (New York City); John Paul Rysavy (New York City); Sarosh Anklesaria (Ithaca, NY); Maria Letizia Garzoli (Novara, Italy); Peter Christensen (Rochester, NY); Michael Waldrep (Berlin, Germany)- ArchDaily CTBUH Announces 2019 Award of Excellence Winners: 2019 Tall + Urban Innovation Conference will take place in Shenzhen, China from April 8–10, 2019. -- BVN Donovan Hill; b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos; Aedas; Zaha Hadid Architects/Brewer Smith & Brewer Gulf; TFP Farrells/Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates/Beijing Institute of Architectural Design; von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects/gmp Architects; Miguel Oriol e Ybarra; Goettsch Partners; etc.- Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) Curbed Groundbreakers 2018: Beginning a conversation on architecture and mentorship: Four years into our annual award for innovative architecture, we’re rethinking our approach: This year, rather than conduct our usual nomination process, we’ve asked previous jurors and Groundbreakers winners to talk to us about mentorship and collaboration, in an effort to further dispel the myth of the virtuosic architect working alone - and learn about the folks whose work we should be keeping an eye on. -- Nadine Maleh/Institute for Public Architecture; Stella Lee/Bureau V; Marlon Blackwell,- Curbed 15 urban homes of the future revealed on shortlist for Dezeen x MINI Living Future Urban Home competition: Parasitic structures, 3D-printed homes, floating architecture and even flying houses... winners will be announced on 17 January 2019, with £10,000 of prizes available: £5,000 for the winner, £3,000 for the runner up and £2,000 for third place. -- Jonathan Hellsten; Maria Vergopoulou; Superficium Studio; Jasmax/Beca; Studio McLeod/Ekkist; No-To-Scale/Joseph Robert Goodwin; SomePeople; The D*Haus Company- Dezeen ANN feature: Norman Weinstein: Best Architecture and Design Books of 2018: 10 Books to deepen historical awareness and stretch imagination.- ArchNewsNow.com

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window.
External news links are not endorsed by ArchNewsNow.com.
Free registration may be required on some sites.
Some pages may expire after a few days.

Yesterday's News

© 2018 ArchNewsNow.com