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Today’s News - Tuesday, November 12, 2019

● Waite reports sad news: We've lost Ted Cullinan, 88, "RIBA Gold Medalist, teacher and much-loved architect."

● Kimmelman explains why he considers Essex Crossing, the new mixed-use mega-project on Manhattan's Lower East Side, to be "the Anti-Hudson Yards": It is the result of "long years of ground-up neighborhood consultation and holistic planning - balancing equity with gentrification," and "points toward a better way."

● Berg explains how an urban-scale garden show inspired the transformation of "80 gray acres of rail yards and warehouses" in Heilbronn, Germany, into a new park and urban district for 3,500 residents, 1,000 jobs, and more.

● Hu, on a darker note, parses the prevalence of "hostile architecture" and the increasing "backlash from critics" for being "inhumane and targeting the homeless. As evidenced by the spikes - even the pigeons are not safe."

● Hill reports that Zumthor's LACMA plan to span Wilshire Boulevard has cleared another hurdle, garnering approval from the Los Angeles Public Works Committee.

● Giovannini minces no words re: MoMA's expanding for less $$$ than LACMA will pay to shrink, but he has high praise for DS+R's ("perhaps the wittiest, most wry architects") MoMA makeover, "sizing for generosity, dialing up the warmth - making the environment upbeat and buoyant - the architects pushed the Zen button."

● Steinhauer considers MoMA's expansion and "radical rehang": "Has the 20th century's emblematic museum found a place in the 21st? The renovation does not change the commercial, almost soulless, feeling of the place. But it has given us a much more interesting institution."

● Betsky bemoans the missed opportunity and "the disappointing results" of the Pulse Memorial & Museum Design Competition, describing the winning design as "a computer-aided version of a Pyrex-style coffee carafe at an urban scale" (ouch!).

● On a brighter note, the Houston Endowment's new HQ "will become architectural 'jewel' for the city" with "an airy glass building," the winning design by Kevin Daly Architects, Productora, TLS Landscape, and Kirksey Architecture.

● Rodriguez and Ennead's renovation of Pei's Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University is a "must-see": It's reopening is "the opportunity to see how a 21st-century team aimed to keep, and open up, the spirit of Pei's original intent."

● Welton cheers P+W's plans for Detroit's Motown Museum that includes preserving Berry Gordy's Hitsville U.S.A. studio, "one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city - and connecting three adjacent buildings that also served as recording studios."

● Peters also cheers P+W for its design of modular units that would "make homeless shelters a little more livable," offering "more privacy and a space of their own" proposed for L.A.'s A Bridge Home program that is building new emergency housing throughout the city.

● Kamin considers whether the Home Insurance Building, the "long-gone Chicago high-rise," should "still be called the 'first skyscraper' - skeptics have long contended that it doesn't deserve such adulation" (What might replace it? "Who knows").

● Block delves into how UK architects' new trade union plans "to challenge industry's 'toxic culture' of long hours and low pay," and represent "their rights, rather than promoting the industry."

● Hurst reports that Penoyre & Prasad has been "snapped up by Perkins and Will" - P&P's brand name will remain "as long as it makes sense."

● The 2019 Architect 50 list of the top firms of the year is here: "Lake|Flato Architects claimed the overall top spot - discover how Marmol Radziner, BNIM, and Trahan Architects had their own banner years" + Register for next year's Architect 50.

● One we couldn't resist: Move over, Kanye: Gibson reports that Pharrell Williams, working with IBI Group and U31, is designing a two-tower residential development in Toronto (it's not his first foray into architecture).

● ICYMI: ANN feature: Duo Dickinson: The End of Design Movements: We are in the greatest time of change since the Industrial Revolution. When things change, Movements happen. But is the Era of Movements over?

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Obituary by Richard Waite: ‘Inspirational’ Ted Cullinan, 88: RIBA Gold Medallist, teacher and much-loved architect..."The inspirational founder of our practice was a true pathfinder for all architects. Ted was designing for climate change 60 years ago with a holistic vision for the practice of architecture that he described as a social act." -- Edward Cullinan; Cullinan Studio- The Architects' Journal (UK)

Michael Kimmelman: Essex Crossing Is the Anti-Hudson Yards: The new mixed-use mega-project on the Lower East Side heals a civic wound with hundreds of affordable apartments, community perks and a sleek home for Essex Market: $1.9 billion, six-acre, for-profit mega-project...replaces what had been a vast no-man’s land and gaping civic wound...[it] results from long years of ground-up neighborhood consultation and holistic planning...seems testament to the virtue and value of arduous, upfront negotiations and plans...balancing equity with gentrification...it points toward a better way. - SHoP Architects; Beyer Blinder Belle; Handel Architects; West 8; Dattner Architects- New York Times

Nate Berg: A New Urbanism Plucked from the Garden: An urban-scale garden exhibition in Germany became an opportunity to re-envision a riverside industrial site: For more than half a century...Heilbronn looked out across the waters of the Neckar River onto 80 gray acres of railyards and warehouses...Oliver Toellner has been transforming this large industrial plot into a new park and urban district for 3,500 residents and 1,000 jobs...That such a project is even possible is due to the city hosting the 2019 Bundesgartenschau, or Federal Garden Show...city leaders saw in the garden show...an opportunity to reinvent the industrial eyesore... -- Adi Faust/SINAI Gesellschaft von Landschaftsarchitekten; Steidle Architekten; LOMA- Landscape Architecture Magazine

Winnie Hu: ‘Hostile Architecture’: How Public Spaces Keep the Public Out: Hostile design has flourished in New York as a way to maintain order and ensure public safety. But critics say it is inhumane and targets the homeless: Proponents say this type of urban design is necessary to help maintain order...But hostile architecture, in New York and other cities, has increasingly drawn a backlash from critics...city has required regular inspections of privately owned public spaces [POPS] to ensure more public access...As evidenced by the spikes...even the pigeons are not safe. -- Jon Ritter; Jerold S. Kayden- New York Times

John Hill: Zumthor's LACMA Clears Another Hurdle: Los Angeles County Museum of Art has revealed that the Los Angeles Public Works Committee has approved the air space vacation that will allow the Peter Zumthor-designed building for the museum's permanent collection to span Wilshire Boulevard.- World-Architects.com

Joseph Giovannini: MoMA: Expanded and Refreshed: Los Angeles and New York are now facing a cross-country duel of museums that pits the just completed renovation-expansion of New York’s Museum of Modern Art against the demolition-contraction planned for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Their respective approaches...couldn’t differ more...[DS+R] pushed the refresh button...refining details, sizing for generosity, dialing up the warmth...and making the environment upbeat and buoyant...the architects pushed the Zen button. -- Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Cesar Pelli; Yoshio Taniguchi; Philip Goodwin/Edward Durell Stone; Philip Johnson- Los Angeles Review of Books

Jillian Steinhauer: The Big Review: the new MoMA: After a $450m expansion and radical rehang, has the 20th century’s emblematic museum found a place in the 21st? ...the renovation does not change the commercial, almost soulless, feeling of the place...But it has given us, at least so far, a much more interesting institution than the one to which we bade farewell in June...In many ways, I suspect the new MoMA building will be a lot like the old MoMA building - which is part of the plan, of course... -- Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Gensler- The Art Newspaper (UK)

Aaron Betsky: An Opportunity Missed in Orlando: The disappointing results of the Pulse Memorial & Museum Design Competition: As tall as a midrise office building, but almost devoid of program, the winning proposal...is a computer-aided version of a Pyrex-style coffee carafe at an urban scale...highly derivative...What all of this has to do with the shooting at the Pulse nightclub...is beyond me...the most intriguing submission, that belonged to the team led by MVRDV...None of the designs were as good as the firms were capable of producing. -- Coldefy & Associés; RDAI- Architect Magazine

Houston Endowment’s new HQ will become architectural ‘jewel’ for the city: Kevin Daly Architects, along with Productora of Mexico City and TLS Landscape Architecture...won over the selection committee with their design of an airy glass building set amid a grove of oak trees and sheltered by a latticed rooftop canopy...proposal bested 120 other teams...from 22 countries. -- Malcolm Reading Consultants; Deborah Berke Partners; Olson Kundig; Schaum/Shieh Architects; Kirksey Architecture- Houston Chronicle

I.M. Pei designed IU's art museum. Here's what makes its $30M renovation a must-see: The triangle-shaped building in the heart of Indiana University's campus just saw the biggest renovation of its life. That on its own would be noteworthy. What makes it even more so is that the...Eskenazi Museum of Art is one of two remaining structures in Indiana designed by the late Pei...grand reopening...the opportunity to see how a 21st-century team aimed to keep, and open up, the spirit of Pei's original intent. -- Susan T. Rodriguez Architecture and Design; Ennead Architects- Indianapolis Star

J. Michael Welton: Detroit’s Motown Museum: Perkins and Will: ...originally initiated by the late Phil Freelon...now being developed by a team led by Zena Howard...Hitsville U.S.A. studio...one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city, and it’s due for preservation work in Phase 1. Also on tap is connecting three adjacent buildings that also served as recording studios...early 20th-century houses..."connect on the backside, and on the front they keep the look as if there’s not an addition to join them.”- Architects + Artisans

Adele Peters: These modular units are designed to make homeless shelters a little more livable: Many people living on the streets avoid shelters...A new design would give people more privacy and a space of their own while they wait to find permanent housing: ...shelter furniture called Dome...a city program called A Bridge Home... building new emergency housing throughout Los Angeles...modular design is simple...Arranged together, the cabinets create partitions and privacy in an open space...prototype...will soon be on display at the A+D Museum... -- Yan Krymsky/Perkins+Will- Fast Company

Blair Kamin: Should this long-gone Chicago high-rise still be called the ‘first skyscraper’? Maybe not, says the group that stripped Willis Tower of its tallest-building titles: ...many architectural historians, critics and tour guides...citing the long-gone Home Insurance Building as Skyscraper No. 1...skeptics have long contended that [it], which was demolished in 1931, doesn’t deserve such adulation...once-solid pioneering status...seems wobbly...What building might replace it as the first skyscraper? Who knows. -- William LeBaron Jenney (1885); Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)- Chicago Tribune

India Block: UK architects unionise to challenge industry's "toxic culture" of long hours and low pay: ...architecture workers in the UK have formed a grassroots trade union for the first time...United Voices of the World's Section of Architectural Workers (UVW-SAW)...the first time that workers across all areas of the sector have come together to create a union that represents their rights, rather than promoting the industry...represents not just architects, but office cleaners, model makers, administrative staff and interns...As well as lobbying for workers' rights, the union said it wants to create a supportive community of architectural workers- Dezeen

Will Hurst: Penoyre & Prasad snapped up by Perkins and Will: ...senior partners Sunand Prasad and Greg Penoyre stepping back from day-to-day leadership: Penoyre & Prasad staff will occupy their own section of the Perkins and Will [London] office with the brand name remaining "as long as it makes sense."- The Architects' Journal (UK)

The 2019 Architect 50: Here are the top firms of the year: ...we crunched the data from 182 firms...Lake|Flato Architects claimed the overall top spot...check out the Top 50 firms in business, sustainability, and design to discover how Marmol Radziner, BNIM, and Trahan Architects had their own banner years + Register for next year's Architect 50.- Architect Magazine

Eleanor Gibson: Pharrell Williams designs Untitled residences for Toronto: ...a two-tower residential development...to work with architects IBI Group and interior designers U31...first foray into residential development, following other architecture and design endeavours such as collaborations with...Zaha Hadid and...a youth centre in his home town Virginia with Miami-based architect Chad Oppenheim.- Dezeen

ANN feature: Duo Dickinson: The End of Design Movements: We are in the greatest time of change since the Industrial Revolution. When things change, Movements happen. But is the Era of Movements over?- ArchNewsNow.com

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