Today’s News - Thursday, April 11, 2019
EDITOR'S NOTE: After days of dealing with grumpy technology gods, we end the week with (mostly) grumpy takes on Scruton, Hudson Yards, The Shed, the Vessel, and LACMA - and, on a brighter note, some great shows and books.
Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days. We'll be back Tuesday, April 16 (we hope!).
● Following an interview the New Statesman, Scruton is "sacked" as chair of the U.K.'s of the Building Better, Building Beautiful commission for "unacceptable comments" about Soros, Islamophobia, and more.
● AJ rounds up reactions from the industry re: Scruton's dismissal: "It was foreseeable this ludicrous appointment would end badly."
● O'Neill, on the other hand, says the real Scruton scandal "is the behavior of the New Statesman" and its deputy editor who "dispensed with the ethics of journalism - a transparent hit job against a philosopher whose views it doesn't like" (with link to interview).
Hudson Yards, The Shed, and the Vessel (oh my!):
● Wainwright minces no words about the "$25bn architectural fiasco" that is Hudson Yards, and ponders why the towers "look so cheap - this is bargain-basement building-by-the-yard stuff. The hot mess starts on the skyline."
● Hagberg Fisher explains why Hudson Yards broke her heart and made her cry (twice!): "The problem really isn't its lack of humanity, it's that it's actually kind of a perfect articulation of our late capitalist longing."
● Huber explains "the false radicalism of The Shed - not dissimilar to the Vessel: both are oversize objects. But where the Vessel is a spectacle of redundancy, The Shed [is] the modernist dogma that form follows function adapted for the wellness age."
● Adamson, a senior scholar at the Yale Center for British Art, finds Heatherwick's Vessel to be "emblematic of the triumph of digital spectacle over real experience - the hood ornament" for Hudson Yards - "relentlessly photogenic" and a "self-regarding phantasmagoria."
Zumthor & Govan's LACMA plan gets a green light (not all are thrilled):
● The vote to release $117.5 million in county funds was unanimous (with "a little help" from some movie stars): "Those who spoke out against the proposed plans were less glamorous than the supporters, but they raised pragmatic concerns about the transparency of the design process, the cost, and proper vetting procedures."
● Govan explains, in his own words, why "LACMA's new building is visionary. I think key facts about the project have been lost in the debate about curves versus rectangles, and how big a museum should be."
● Walker & Lange stroll the LACMA campus and discuss why the museum "should scrap its watered-down redesign - it will look like a freeway overpass - limiting public information to a few renderings seems to be a new strategy for controversial public architecture."
● Pacheco finds Zumthor's LACMA proposal "an affront to L.A.'s architectural and cultural heritage. It follows in the tradition of slash-and-burn conquests waged by powerful men who come to Los Angeles and see nothing but a blank slate - it's time for some fresh thinking."
● Pollack breaks down the "drama" that has been a 6-year "slow moving train of controversy" surrounding LACMA's new design (a 1950s-'60s motel on Sunset Boulevard): "Even after all the not-so-subtle naysaying from California's most prominent art and architecture critics - LACMA will receive $117.5 million in county funds."
● ICYMI: ANN feature: Rick Fedrizzi: Building Abundance #3: Abundance in Architecture Starts with Abundance in Human Health: Buildings can and must become our greatest asset when it comes to human sustainability.
Weekend diversions:
● Not much time left to catch Brooks+Scarpa's "Salty Urbanism" at USC that "presents a case study approach for how two communities can plan and respond to sea level rise and global climate change," highlighting "low-impact development, green infrastructure, and other alternative concepts as possible approaches in urban areas."
● NYC-based SOFTlab installs "Mirror, Mirror," a "glowing, interactive crystal" on the waterfront in Alexandria, Virginia (check out the video!).
● The Met Breuer presents "language of exile" in "Siah Armajani: Follow This Line," the first U.S. retrospective of the 79-year-old Iranian-born artist + In Brooklyn Bridge Park, a restaging of "Bridge Over Tree," Armajani's 1970 installation, "awe-inspiring in its humility."
Page-turners:
● Pedersen's Q&A with Nathaniel Rich re: "Losing Earth: A Recent History" - how the "controversial book came to be, how close we really were to fixing the problem in the 1980s, and how the political argument around climate change has shifted."
● Holleran cheers MacCarthy's "Gropius: The Man Who Built the Bauhaus" that "transforms him from a dull institutionalist into a stylistic rebel - a reminder of the importance of exciting educational spaces, even those that are unabashedly utopian and outlandish, in which the end goal is social change."
● Howard's Q&A with Kolson Hurley re: "Radical Suburbs" that challenges "architects and planners to take a fresh look at the suburbs," and "insists that history can provide surprising insight into national issues" such as segregation, inequity, and climate change.
● Kolson Hurley offers an excerpt from "Radical Suburbs": "Clichés and misconceptions still define suburbs. Unfortunately, [they] carry a stigma among the very people who could improve them: architects."
● Campbell-Dollaghan cheers Barasch's "Ruin and Redemption in Architecture": "'Adaptive reuse' has long had a halo, wafting the aura of sustainability - abandoned and ruined spaces can be massive economic boons or cynical attempts to cloak a neighborhood's rapid socioeconomic transformation."
● Francis takes us on a tour of 16 designs from "Bubbletecture: Inflatable Architecture and Design" with an excerpt that "teases the 200+ works of architecture, furniture, fashion, art, and industrial design" included in the book.
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Government sacks Roger Scruton after remarks about Soros and Islamophobia: Philosopher loses role as housing adviser following ‘unacceptable comments’: ..."has been dismissed as chairman of the Building Better, Building Beautiful commission...new comments were “despicable and invoke the language of white supremacists”...Tell Mama, the anti-bigotry campaign...raised questions about why he had been appointed in the first place.- Guardian (UK) |
Reaction to Roger Scruton sacking: ‘It was foreseeable this ludicrous appointment would end badly’: The profession has been quick to react to news that outspoken traditionalist...has been fired as chair of the government’s Building Better Building Beautiful Commission. -- Tamsie Thomson/London Festival of Architecture; Ben Derbyshire/RIBA; Angela Brady/Brady Mallalieu Architects; Maggie Mullan; Tim Abrahams; Alan Dempsey/Nex Architecture; Biba Dow/Dow Jones Architects; Peter Barber; Piers Taylor/Invisible Studio- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Brendan O'Neill: The real Roger Scruton scandal: It is the behaviour of the New Statesman that has been most disturbing: ...deputy editor George Eaton dispensed with the ethics of journalism, wilfully distorted a quotation, and inferred racism where, to the best of our knowledge, none exists...All those who think Scruton expressed racial hatred against Chinese people and Jews really should read the interview...a transparent hit job against a philosopher whose views it doesn’t like.- Spiked (UK) |
Oliver Wainwright: Horror on the Hudson: New York's $25bn architectural fiasco: It is a billionaires’ playground where haircuts cost $800 and high-rise duplexes go for $32m. So why do the angular towers of Hudson Yards look so cheap? The surprising thing isn’t that such a development has happened. The real shock is that it’s quite so bad...this is bargain-basement building-by-the-yard stuff...The hot mess starts on the skyline... -- Dan Doctoroff; Thomas Heatherwick; Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF); Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Rockwell Group- Guardian (UK) |
Eva Hagberg Fisher: Hudson Yards Broke My Heart: And not just because it's a billionaire's playground: The easy joke should be that it’s all empty and soulless, but actually, the problem with Hudson Yards...are so much more than that...the problem with Hudson Yards really isn’t its lack of humanity, it’s that it’s actually kind of a perfect articulation of our late capitalist longing.- Architect Magazine |
David Huber: The False Radicalism of The Shed: Though technically innovative, the design of Manhattan’s newest art space is a far cry from its historical precedents: ...the most well-funded and self-confident new arts organization to open in New York this century has erected a building on the southern fringe of the 28-acre nonplace known as Hudson Yards that it will have you believe is a temple to raw potential and eternal flexibility...not dissimilar to Thomas Heatherwick’s neighboring Vessel: both are oversize objects...But where the Vessel is a spectacle of redundancy, The Shed...the modernist dogma that form follow function adapted for the wellness age. -- Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Rockwell Group- Frieze |
Glenn Adamson: A Hollywood Special Effect Let Loose in the Landscape: Thomas Heatherwick’s Vessel: The controversial addition to Manhattan’s west side is emblematic of the triumph of digital spectacle over real experience: ...subjected to merciless critique, mainly because it is the hood ornament for the controversial Hudson Yards project...[it] never looks as good in your eyes as it does on your [phone] screen...relentlessly photogenic...most paradoxical feature: it’s a viewing platform with no view...self-regarding phantasmagoria...- Frieze |
A Unanimous Vote - and a Little Help From Brad Pitt - Pushes LACMA’s Controversial Building Plans Forward: ...release the $117.5 million in county funds...Those who spoke out against the proposed plans were on the whole less glamorous than the supporters, but they raised pragmatic concerns about the transparency of the design process, the cost, and proper vetting procedures. -- Peter Zumthor- artnet News |
Michael Govan: LACMA’s new building is visionary - and big enough: I think key facts about the project have been lost in the debate about curves versus rectangles, and how big a museum should be. The new Peter Zumthor-designed building is one part of an already begun, long-term plan to transform, expand and enhance the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s galleries and public space. -- Renzo Piano; Rem Koolhaas- Los Angeles Times |
Alissa Walker & Alexandra Lange: LACMA should scrap its watered-down redesign: ...the proposed building in its current incarnation is not very instagrammable...it will look like a freeway overpass...Or a toll plaza...almost as this new giant-sized Googie architecture...it is very roadside architecture...I’m going to just call it “the Slab"...limiting public information drops to a few renderings seems to be a new strategy for controversial public architecture...we need to think about how it will serve the community. It’s not just a museum. It’s going to have a much bigger job. -- Michael Govan; Peter Zumthor; Renzo Piano- Curbed Los Angeles |
Antonio Pacheco: Peter Zumthor’s LACMA proposal is an affront to L.A.’s architectural and cultural heritage: Say what you will about the existing William L. Pereira & Associates and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates-designed mish-mash of buildings the scheme seeks to demolish, but the $650 million proposal is simply not a suitable replacement...Govan...has persisted in pushing a vision that is fundamentally and irrevocably flawed...It follows in the tradition of slash-and-burn conquests waged by powerful men...who come to Los Angeles and see nothing but a blank slate...it’s time for some fresh thinking.- The Architect's Newspaper |
Gina Pollack: LACMA's New Building Design Has Some People Mad - But Not Brad Pitt Or Diane Keaton: ...design has been called a travesty and compared to a cartoon antler: So why are people so angry? ...has been a slow moving train of controversy...watered-down design will have less space...And people still aren't happy about the shape..."The new structure looks like a motel that you'd find somewhere on Sunset Boulevard in the 1950s or '60s"...Even after all the not-so-subtle naysaying from California's most prominent art and architecture critics...The decision was unanimous - LACMA will receive $117.5 million in county funds... -- Peter Zumthor; Michael Govan- LAist |
Brooks+Scarpa explore “Salty Urbanism” in latest exhibition at USC [University of Southern California]: ...presents a case study approach for how two communities - the North Beach Village in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Venice in Los Angeles - can plan and respond to...sea level rise and global climate change...highlights low-impact development, green infrastructure, and other alternative concepts as possible approaches...in urban areas... thru April 19- The Architect's Newspaper |
A glowing crystal lands on the waterfront in Alexandria, Virginia: ...an interactive installation..."Mirror, Mirror," the eight-foot-tall circular construction features a faceted surface made of acrylic lined with one-way mirror film. During the day, the acrylic is opaque, creating a crystalline mirrored exterior and a brightly-colored rainbow interior. At night...LED lights behind the acrylic turn on...Microphones pick up ambient noise and translate it into a flashing light show.. thru November -- SOFTlab [image, video]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Dennis Zhou: Siah Armajani’s language of exile: "Siah Armajani: Follow This Line"...first US retrospective of the now 79-year-old artist...ranges from his earliest works...to models of his large-scale, public architectural installations...works from his first decade in the US reveal an artist occupied by both the losses of exile and the exuberant discovery of arrival [Met Breuer, NYC, thru June 2]...in Brooklyn Bridge Park. "Bridge Over Tree," a restaging of a 1970 installation...awe-inspiring in its humility...The bridge will be dismantled September 29, but the tree will remain. [images]- Apollo Magazine (UK) |
Martin C. Pedersen: Nathaniel Rich on Losing Earth, Climate Change and the Shifting Political Argument: Q&A with the author about his controversial new book "Losing Earth: A Recent History": ...how the book came to be, how close we really were to fixing the problem in the 1980s, and how the political argument around climate change has shifted...."climate change is the great human story of our time - really, the great story of our species, since it’s a problem that we’ve created...and that now threatens everything we call human."- Common Edge |
Max Holleran: The Dean: Out of the ruins of war, Walter Gropius made a vital political community: Architecture is a notoriously egotistical profession. One person, usually an older man, often takes credit..."Gropius: The Man Who Built the Bauhaus," by Fiona MacCarthy, shows a very different way of working...Unlike many modernist masters, he was far more interested in community and education than in mega-projects branded with his own name...[she] transforms him from a dull institutionalist...into a stylistic rebel...a reminder of the importance of exciting educational spaces, even those that are unabashedly utopian and outlandish, in which the end goal is social change.- The New Republic |
Tanner Howard: Revisiting America’s Little-Known Experimental Suburbs: In "Radical Suburbs," CityLab editor Amanda Kolson Hurley wants architects and planners to take a fresh look at the suburbs: ...highlighting little-known historical examples...While contemporary issues of segregation, inequity, and climate change seem to call for a wholesale abandonment of suburban values, Radical Suburbs insists that history can provide surprising insight into these national issues. [Q&A]- Metropolis Magazine |
Amanda Kolson Hurley: The Secret History of the Suburbs: We all know the stereotypes: Suburbia is dull, conformist, and about “keeping up with the Joneses.” But what about the suburbs of utopians and renegades? Clichés and misconceptions still define suburbia in the popular imagination..."Radical Suburbs" is about waves of idealists who established alternative suburbs...beginning in the 1820s and continuing through the 1960s...Unfortunately, the suburbs carry a stigma among the very people who could improve them: architects. [excerpt]- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan: The big business of ruins: "Ruin and Redemption in Architecture" by Dan Barasch...Half of the book is devoted to...demolition photos alongside archival photos of the original buildings, from Penn Station to Prentice Women’s Hospital...half...is devoted to ruins that have been redeveloped into high-value real estate, from the Tate Modern to the High Line...“Adaptive reuse” has long had a halo, wafting the aura of sustainability...Like all architecture, abandoned and ruined spaces are animated by what people want from them. They can be massive economic boons or cynical attempts to cloak a neighborhood’s rapid socioeconomic transformation. -- Theaster Gates; Ricardo Bofill; Merkx + Girod Architects- Fast Company / Co.Design |
Sharon Francis:.Explore 16 Designs From Phaidon’s New Book "Bubbletecture: Inflatable Architecture and Design": This excerpt teases the 200+ works of architecture, furniture, fashion, art, and industrial design that are included in the book: ...includes the introduction’s sections on furniture and architecture...- Metropolis Magazine |
Rick Fedrizzi: Building Abundance #3: Abundance in Architecture Starts with Abundance in Human Health: Just as buildings became an incredible tool in the movement for environmental sustainability, they can and must become our greatest asset when it comes to human sustainability.- ArchNewsNow.com |
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