Today’s News - Thursday, May 30, 2019

EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days. We'll be back Tuesday, June 4.

●  ANN feature: Johannes Knoops parses the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Arte 2019: "Martin Puryear: Liberty/Libertà" - an architecture of hushed narratives.

●  Driehaus calls on Chicago's new mayor to move up "sophisticated design and smart urban planning" as "priorities on her agenda - urban design, which nurtures and enhances, is not necessarily a matter of money but of thought and respect."

●  Kamin looks at how some Chicago skyscraper lobbies, "once stuffy, are loosening up. Some are dazzling, some painfully off-key" (one now "looks more like an Apple store than a modernist mausoleum").

●  Ravenscroft reports that in Paris, H&deM's 42-storey Tour Triangle, which has been "caught up in legal battles since 2014," has passed its final legal hurdle and, apparently, will be built (vociferous comments ensue).

●  Meanwhile, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Tennessee's oldest and largest art museum, has tapped H&deM and local firm archimania to design its new home that "will be a landmark along the six miles of Mississippi riverfront being stitched together by parks, paths and other civic and recreational structures" (we'll se the design early next year).

●  The Princeton University Art Museum has acquired almost 5,000 drawings by Michael Graves that "span the entire range of his subject matter and design concerns - revealing both his classical training and his commitment to draftsmanship."

●  NJIT renames its College of Architecture and Design for "icons in profession" J. Robert and Barbara A. Hillier in recognition of their making the "largest private gift in school's history" (they also designed the architecture school).

●  A most excellent reason to head to Vegas next week: A'19: AIA Conference on Architecture 2019: Blueprint for a Better Future, "with some of the biggest names in our industry and beyond. Don't miss it!"

●  Then there's the 10-day Atlanta Design Festival that kicks off this Saturday, themed "Collaboration."

●  Wallpaper* whittles down (from 400+ events) what to see at the London Festival of Architecture 2019, covering everything from "debates on emergency housing and co-designing to exhibitions on Brexit and happiness - this year's LFA has it all."

●  ICYMI: ANN feature: Susanne Angarano: Building Abundance #4: Abundance from Regeneration - Our Opportunity as Designers.

Weekend diversions:

●  Bozikovic: Hillel's feature documentary "City Dreamers," which profiles "four women who shaped the world we live in" (Lemco van Ginkel, Lambert, Scott Brown, and Oberlander), is "beautifully shot. Weirdly, the film does not share the forcefulness of its subjects - you have to wonder if these four minds would like to see a portrait of themselves that is as frank and bloody-minded as they've been."

●  Rose parses "New Towns, Our Towns," a new archive film compilation that chronicles Britain's "pioneering" but "controversial postwar new town movement" (the "overriding visual motif is Mother Pushing Pram").

●  "Nature - Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial" on view in New York and the Cube design museum in Kerkrade, Netherlands, presents 60 projects in "seven themes related to how designers utilize science and technology to interact with nature."

●  "Smart Policies for a Changing Climate" at ASLA's Center for Landscape Architecture in Washington, DC, presents 20 case studies, and "features solutions, recommendations, and principles from the Smart Policies for a Changing Climate report" (and a call for new case studies submissions).

●  Medina's Q&A with Garutti, curator of the CCA's "Our Happy Life: Architecture and Well-Being in the Age of Emotional Capitalism" re: the "'happiness industry,' the 'cold intimacy' of Instagram, and architecture's new spaces of meaning."

●  Gendall's Q&A with Adjaye re: his use of Ghanian mud to design the country's first foray to the Venice Art Biennale: "Ghana Freedom" is "a prototype for a potential national museum in Ghana. It's a fragment, a test, and Venice is the experiment ground."

Page-turners:

●  Lange is not all that taken with MacCarthy's "Gropius: The Man Who Built the Bauhaus": "On the whole, she doesn't seem particularly interested in architecture. The lives and skills of Gropius's partners hardly come alive."

●  Dizikes cheers Hyde's "Ugliness and Judgment: On Architecture in the Public Eye" and his take on "the politics of ugly buildings - controversies specifically over the 'ugliness' of buildings have shaped matters from libel law to environmental policy. Perceptions of ugliness precipitate civic battles."

●  Rafson finds el Samahy, Grimley & Kubo's "Imagining the Modern: Architecture and Urbanism of the Pittsburgh Renaissance" paints "a vivid picture of the mixed emotions evoked by the changing urban landscape" in the "first book to chronicle the city's modernist history in a comprehensive way."

●  Reiner-Roth says Goldberger's "Ballpark: Baseball in the American City" proves that "the ballpark building type is as worthy of design scholarship as any other" (Goldberger and Petrunia in L.A. on Saturday).

●  In "Ballpark," Goldberger "sees ballparks as indicators of how cities develop and sustain their aesthetic values. For better and worse. Cincinnati can be proud of having an early example of the best."

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To subscribe to the free daily newsletter click here ANN feature: Johannes M.P. Knoops: Martin Puryear ... artist, sculptor, and possibly architect? The U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Arte 2019: "Martin Puryear: Liberty/Libertà" - an architecture of hushed narratives.- ArchNewsNow.com Richard Driehaus: Sophisticated design and smart urban planning aren't just a downtown luxury: They're a must for thriving neighborhoods. Here's why the new mayor should move those priorities up on her agenda: When we initiated the Driehaus Awards our intentions were to assert that...urban design, which nurtures and enhances, is not necessarily a matter of money but of thought and respect...Not only has there been an exponential increase in the number...vying for the award, there has been a marked improvement in design and execution...It is my hope the Lightfoot administration will make good design and real urban planning a hallmark.- Crain's Chicago Business Blair Kamin: Once stuffy, Chicago's skyscraper lobbies are loosening up. Some are dazzling, some painfully off-key: Now, the lobby of the CME Center office building looks more like an Apple store than a modernist mausoleum. It’s bright, transparent and (dare I say it?) hip...The artfully remade entry exemplifies a trend...the lobby is letting its hair down...But in some cases, as those screeching video boards suggest, the shift is producing interiors that overdo the new at the expense of the old... A key task for the owners and managers...is to give current tenants an “experiential reward"...How rewarding is that reward? It varies, as four recently remade lobbies show: -- Fujikawa, Johnson & Associates (1980s); Krueck + Sexton Architects; Edward Durell Stone (1973); Gensler; Ricardo Bofill (2003)- Chicago Tribune Tom Ravenscroft: Herzog & de Meuron's Tour Triangle set to be built in Paris after passing final legal hurdle: ...poised to become the tallest skyscraper built in central Paris since 1973...has been caught up in legal battles since 2014...the 42-storey tower...will be the third-tallest building within the city limits, with only the Tour Montparnasse and the Eiffel Tower rising higher.- Dezeen Herzog & de Meuron to design Memphis Brooks Museum of Art: ...teaming with local firm archimania as the project’s architect of record...112,000-square-foot [$105 million] building will be 25% larger than its current, historic facility...will be a landmark along the six miles of riverfront being stitched together by parks, paths and other civic and recreational structures...will be perched atop the natural stone bluff and face westward toward the Mississippi River...- The Daily Memphian (Tennessee) Princeton University Art Museum acquires drawings by Michael Graves: ...almost 5,000 drawings...span the entire range of his subject matter and design concerns...also left his creative mark on the town of Princeton...drawings...form the visual archive of Graves’s work, revealing both his classical training and his commitment to draftsmanship - something Graves advocated for strongly in his teaching.- Planet Princeton NJIT renames College of Architecture and Design for Hilliers, icons in profession: J. Robert and Barbara A. Hillier College of Architecture and Design recognizes largest private gift in school’s history...[In] the 1990s, the Hilliers’ firm designed the architecture school at NJIT that will now bear the Hillier name...referred to as “the lantern on the hill.”- ROI-NJ/Return On Information (New Jersey) A’19: AIA Conference on Architecture 2019: Blueprint for a Better Future, Las Vegas, June 6-8: Explore how design can take on some of the critical challenges facing cities - and our world - today with some of the biggest names in our industry and beyond. 500+ Sessions, tours, parties, networking, 750+ exhibitors. Don't miss it!- American Institute of Architects (AIA) Atlanta Design Festival returns with architectural tours, expo June 1-9: ... a showcase for leading international designers, brands and companies with events, exhibitions, talks, workshops, installations and tours. Presented by MA! Design is Human...the theme for this year’s festival is “Collaboration.”- Atlanta INtown What to see at London Festival of Architecture 2019: ...centred on the theme of ‘boundaries’...From a virtual reality swing...to debates on emergency housing and co-designing...exhibitions on Brexit and happiness - this year’s LFA has it all. Here, we make an edit of the 400 plus events...thru June 30. -- Yinka Ilori; Eva Jiricná; John Soane’s Pitzhanger Manor; Jestico + While; Seth Kriebe; Anish Kapoor; Studio Go Go; Etcetera Studio; Carl Turner Architects; 31/44; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Lily Jencks Studio; Przemek Rylko; AMID.cero9/BAC ecg / evolve- Wallpaper* Alex Bozikovic: "City Dreamers": Portraits of four women who shaped the world we live in: ...[at an important 1953 architecture conference], the attendees are a sea of mostly older men. Blanche Lemco van Ginkel is the odd woman out....The same is true of the three other characters in Joseph Hillel’s feature documentary: the Canadian Centre for Architecture founder Phyllis Lambert, the American architect Denise Scott Brown; and landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander...these four women are remarkably accomplished, and that in a less sexist milieu they would all be seen as stars in their own right...Weirdly, the film does not share the forcefulness of its four subjects...you have to wonder if these four minds would like to see a portrait of themselves that is as frank and bloody-minded as they’ve been themselves.- Globe and Mail (Canada) Steve Rose: Sterile or stirring? Britain's love-hate relationship with new towns: Paternalistic social engineering or make-Britain-great-again utopianism? A new archive film compilation takes a look at the UK’s controversial postwar towns: "New Towns, Our Towns"...chronicling Britain’s pioneering postwar new town movement...Textbook example of the failures of macro modernism, or the type of bold, ambitious government initiative we need more of? Their modernist petri dishes were often too sterile for culture to flourish in...There is no final verdict on the success of new towns. They are still works in progress...No other country in Europe undertook such an ambitious rebuilding scheme... -- Frederick Gibberd- Guardian Cities (UK) Cooper Hewitt to Showcase Design Interventions for Climate Change: "Nature - Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial" on view in New York and the Cube design museum in Kerkrade, Netherlands, from May 10 until Jan. 20, 2020: ...60 projects...seven themes related to how designers utilize science and technology to interact with nature... [images]- Architect Magazine ASLA Opens New Exhibition: "Smart Policies for a Changing Climate": 20 case studies demonstrating how landscape architecture helps communities become more resilient to climate change...also features solutions, recommendations, and principles from the Smart Policies for a Changing Climate report...ASLA is also calling for the submissions of further case studies. Center for Landscape Architecture, Washington, DC, thru May 1, 2020 -- Toole Design Group; Ten Eyck Landscape Architects; SWA Group; Hood Design Studio- American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Samuel Medina: How the “Happiness Industry” Is Changing Architecture: "Our Happy Life: Architecture and Well-Being in the Age of Emotional Capitalism" at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA)...probes its impact on architects' importance: ...explores how, after the 2008 financial crash, the “happiness industry” - comprising government initiatives, economic indices, and city rankings - hijacked virtually every facet of contemporary life. Q&A with curator Francesco Garutti about happiness as a social project, the “cold intimacy” of Instagram, and architecture’s new spaces of meaning. thru October 13 [images]- Metropolis Magazine John Gendall: David Adjaye Used Ghanian Mud to Design the Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale: ...the starchitect and spoke about the origins of the pavilion, his approach to designing it, and where he plans to go next with the idea...“Ghana Freedom"...“It’s a prototype for a potential national museum in Ghana. It’s a fragment, a test, and Venice is the experiment ground.” [images]- Architectural Digest Alexandra Lange: Was the Founder of the Bauhaus a Doctrinaire Bore or a Brilliant Innovator? "Gropius: The Man Who Built the Bauhaus" by Fiona MacCarthy: The [cover] depicts the classic architect pose: man and skyscraper as twins, the latter an apparent testament to the virility of the former. But is virility - architectural or otherwise - reason enough to read...Do we need another architect hero? ...On the whole, she doesn’t seem particularly interested in architecture...The lives and skills of Gropius’s partners hardly come alive. They seem like gray shadows compared with the Bauhaus students... - The Architects Collaborative (TAC)- New York Times Peter Dizikes: The politics of ugly buildings: In "Ugliness and Judgment: On Architecture in the Public Eye," MIT’s Timothy Hyde looks at the architectural controversies that have helped shape Britain: Prince Charles’ public tussles over architecture have led to legal battles...controversies specifically over the “ugliness” of buildings have shaped matters from libel law to environmental policy...Few people try to prevent buildings from being built...if they are merely a bit less beautiful than onlookers had hoped. Perceptions of ugliness, however, precipitate civic battles.- MIT News Sarah Rafson: New book grapples with ambitious, contentious moment in Pittsburgh’s urban history: "Imagining the Modern: Architecture and Urbanism of the Pittsburgh Renaissance" by Rami el Samahy, Chis Grimley & Michael Kubo: ...a vivid picture of the mixed emotions evoked by the changing urban landscape in...a city heralded as a role model of rustbelt reinvention...first book to chronicle the city’s modernist history in a comprehensive way...deals with the built and imagined architectural transformations...in the 1950s and ‘60s... shows the development of the city’s most iconic buildings alongside ambitious plans that remain unbuilt.- The Architect's Newspaper Shane Reiner-Roth: Baseball's Rightful Place in Architecture History: Paul Goldberger's "Ballpark: Baseball in the American City": The ballpark building type has been overlooked from accounts of modern architecture history by its most prolific writers...Goldberger's treatise...succeeds in assuring his reader that [it] is as worthy of design scholarship as any other...it can still authentically become the incubator of an energy akin to “the whole of urban life.”- Archinect Paul Goldberger Examines the Ballpark: You can tell a lot about the vibrancy of a big city by the way it treats its ballparks: "Ballpark: Baseball in the American City"...sees ballparks as indicators of how cities develop and sustain their aesthetic values. For better and worse...Cincinnati can be proud of having an early example of the best...Wrigley and Fenway may be the most admired ballparks still in use today - icons of urban architecture.- Cincinnati CityBeat ANN feature: Susanne Angarano: Building Abundance #4: Abundance from Regeneration - Our Opportunity as Designers: Design strategies that are driven by an understanding of place, community, and full intentionality can achieve abundance.- ArchNewsNow.com

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