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Today’s News - Tuesday, October 6, 2020

● Giovannini re: LACMA: "Intending to save the museum, Michael Govan is destroying it" - Zumthor's "derivative, retro design hardly achieved the messianic vision Govan had promised. The LACMA encyclopedia becomes a CliffsNotes jog-trot."

● LA Times former arts editor Tom Christie, on the other hand, ponders whether "LACMA's redesign deserves this much carping - why do their plans have so many Angelenos' cultural knickers in such a twist? .My bet is that the result will be as promised: sublime."

● Dana Goodyear offers a fascinating - and at times, unsettling - profile of Zumthor, including his take on the LACMA saga: "We do what we want, and we are on budget!" Govan said. "Well, I didn't want to be on budget," Zumthor said. "I said, 'I don't give a f*ck if we're on budget'" (the Therme Vals makes him "puke").

● Betsky, on a brighter note, cheers the AIA giving its Twenty-Five Year Award to Eric Owen Moss's "masterpiece" Conjunctive Points (a.k.a. Hayden Tract) that transformed a collection of warehouses into a creative hub in Culver City, California: "It is difficult not to be delighted by the architecture (although I know some people find the forms irritating). Nothing appears to be stable or finished, and that is the point."

● Wainwright cheers "Britain's biggest zero-carbon housing project" in York by Mikhail Riches (of Stirling Prize-winning Goldsmith Street fame) - "arguably the UK's most ambitious council-led housing program in a generation. When will the rest of the UK catch up?"

● Diana Budds' Q&A with Miriam Peterson & Nathan Rich, who explain their plan, developed with the RPA over the past year, "that calls for adaptive reuse and infill on NYC Housing Authority campuses," with the aim to restore "public housing to a dignified place to live."

● It's an NYC kind of day: Laurel Graeber walks us through OLIN's new Pier 26 in TriBeCa: "This environmentally themed project features an unusual design, including soaring walkways that lead to an unexpected destination" via "a sequence of small ecological habitats" (very cool!).

● Thomas Hynes argues that it's time to revisit Jeff Speck's 2013 proposal to "make Broadway the great green way - a 45-block pastoral thoroughfare - it would be a stunning second act for one of the world's most famous streets and a breath of fresh air for our weary city."

● Co-author of the "Retrofitting Suburbia" series June Williamson busts "5 myths about the suburbs" - it's time "to dispel some long-held misconceptions. Myth No. 1: Suburbs are less dense than cities."

● Pedersen's Q&A with Caleb Negash & Andrew Mbuthia Ngure, members of the African American Student Union and AfricaGSD, re: "the African American experience at the Harvard GSD," how the groups' public statement "Notes on Credibility" that calls for reforms at the school came about, and more.

● Saturday was Venice's first acqua alta (high tide) of the season and the "long-awaited flood barrier MOSE, "beset by delays and corruption" for years, worked! Then, 24 hours later, "the city's iconic piazza was calf-deep in water - an air of resignation hung over the shops and cafes that had had to close - again."

● Sunand Prasad, "recognized as a prominent voice on sustainability across the built environment," is named Chair of the UK Green Building Council.

● Call for entries (deadline looms!): 2021 Berkeley Prize Essay Competition - open to full-time undergraduate students enrolled in an architecture degree program or majoring in architecture throughout the world (cash prizes).

Winners all:

● 2020 Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards: Meet the people using design to change the world (great presentation).

● Yesterday, the 2020 Pritzker Prize ceremony celebrating laureates Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, was not celebrated in person for the first time - now everyone can celebrate via a special online video (scroll down to "Ceremony Videos").

● Winners of the Young Talent Architecture Award 2020 and the YTAA Asia Edition, sponsored by Fundació Mies van der Rohe & Creative Europe, hail from Spain, Belgium, UK, Chile, Korea, China, and India.

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Joseph Giovannini: The Demolition of LACMA: Art Sacrificed to Architecture: There are two demolitions going on at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art...[it] has razed three of the four structures...The second is the demolition of the museum’s very mission...Michael Govan’s plan is...above all, needless...To establish greater equity among artworks...he is resorting to the hard and expensive corrective - architecture...Intending to save the museum, [he] is destroying it... Client and architect [Peter Zumthor] bonded in a shared “edifice complex"...derivative, retro design hardly achieved the messianic vision Govan had promised...The LACMA encyclopedia becomes a CliffsNotes jog-trot.- New York Review of Books

Tom Christie: Does LACMA’s redesign deserve this much carping? Michael Govan is without question one of the shrewdest museum leaders in the world...we are about to get an entirely new Los Angeles County Museum of Art, designed by Peter Zumthor, one of the world’s great architects. So why do their plans have so many Angelenos’ cultural knickers in such a twist? One positive outcome of all the controversy is the realization of how much Los Angeles actually cares...My bet...is that these...professionals have in fact got this, down to the door handles, and that the result will be as promised: sublime.- Los Angeles Times

Dana Goodyear: The Iconoclast Remaking Los Angeles’s Most Important Museum: Will the new LACMA building be Peter Zumthor’s masterpiece or a fiasco? “There’s always this conflict between an artistic way of working...and the building process, which is a big administration and a lot of money,” Zumthor said. “Michael says, If I’m over budget, I’m gone...“I have to be sly as a fox"...“We do what we want, and we are on budget!” Govan said...“Well, I didn’t want to be on budget,” Zumthor said. “I said, ‘I don’t give a fuck if we’re on budget.’" -- Joseph Giovannini; Christopher Knight; Renzo Piano- New Yorker

Aaron Betsky: Why Conjunctive Points - The New City Deserved to Win AIA's Twenty-Five Year Award: the merits of this Eric Owen Moss masterpiece: There are several reasons why [awarding] Hayden Tract project, AIA has made the right move. First of all, the Hayden Track (I prefer the site’s original name...) is a very good and very influential body of work... it is not a building, but rather a series of renovations, deletions, insertions, and additions that have transformed a collection of warehouses in Culver City, Calif., into a creative hub...It is difficult not to be delighted by the architecture (although I know some people find the forms irritating)...Nothing appears to be stable or finished, and that is the point. These are building blocks for a continually evolving neighborhood.- Architect Magazine

Oliver Wainwright: 'This is the Everest of zero carbon' - inside York's green home revolution: York plans to build Britain’s biggest zero-carbon housing project, boasting 600 homes in car-free cycling paradises full of fruit trees and allotments. When will the rest of the UK catch up? ...arguably the UK’s most ambitious council-led housing programme in a generation...perhaps the most important element is how the plans have been developed in close consultation with local communities, to ensure they link to their surroundings... -- Mikhail Riches; Sally Godber/Warm Passivhaus consultancy- Guardian (UK)

Diana Budds: Can Balconies, Bigger Lobbies, and Package Rooms Help Save Public Housing? Peterson Rich Office walks us through an idea, developed with the Regional Plan Association, that calls for adaptive reuse and infill on NYCHA campuses: For the past year, RPA has been working with...architecture firm...to create design solutions for the New York City Housing Authority...report, “Scalable Design Solutions for NYCHA"...knits together many of the ideas that have come before...restoring public housing to a dignified place to live. -- Miriam Peterson; Nathan Rich; Sagi Golan- Curbed

Laurel Graeber: At the End of the New Pier 26, a Surprise: This environmentally themed project features an unusual design, including soaring walkways that lead to an unexpected destination: The latest addition to Hudson River Park...city’s only public pier dedicated to river ecology...[its] most distinctive feature is a feat of 21st-century artifice...15,000-square-foot wetland...Tide Deck...human-engineered rocky marsh..."living laboratory"...visitors stroll westward, they encounter a sequence of small ecological habitats - woodland forest, coastal grassland, maritime scrub, the wetland... -- OLIN; Tillett Lighting Design Associates- New York Times

Thomas Hynes: Make Broadway the great green way: Time for a 45-block pastoral thoroughfare from Union Square to Columbus Circle: As the city struggles to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic...policymakers are contemplating some big ideas...Broadway Park...would signal a renewed commitment [to] other initiatives that put people’s interests above those of the automobile...it would be a stunning second act for one of the world’s most famous streets and a breath of fresh air for our weary city. -- Jeff Speck- New York Daily News

June Williamson: Five myths about the suburbs: No, the suburbs aren’t all about open space and multi-car garages.: Our suburbs do face urgent challenges, including automobile dependence, an aging population and environmental risks. To address them, we’ll have to dispel some long-held misconceptions. Myth No. 1: Suburbs are less dense than cities. Myth No. 2: All suburbanites own detached houses. Myth No. 4: Today's suburbs are racially integrated; etc.- Washington Post

Martin C. Pedersen: Reflecting on the African American Experience at the Harvard GSD: In the wake of the murder of George Floyd...two groups at the Harvard Graduate School of Design - the African American Student Union (AASU) and AfricaGSD - posted a public statement, Notes on Credibility, calling for reforms at the school. Q&A with two of their members: Caleb Negash...and Andrew Mbuthia Ngure...re: the statement, the experience of being a Black student at the GSD, and their plans for the future.- Common Edge

Venice holds back the water for first time in 1,200 years: Saturday was the first acqua alta of the season...the city finally trialled its long-awaited flood barriers...MOSE project has been in the works since 1984, but beset by delays and corruption...devastating floods such as last year's should be a thing of the past (at least, in the medium term...)...just 24 hours after the MOSE triumph, the city's iconic piazza was calf-deep in water...an air of resignation hung over the shops and cafes that had had to close - again.- CNN Travel

Sunand Prasad becomes Chair at UKGBC: UK Green Building Council...announced...its new Chair of the Board of Trustees: He plans...to champion climate action in the property and construction industry...He has risen through the profession to become a president of the Royal Institute to British Architects (2007 -2009) and is recognised as a prominent voice on sustainability across the built environment. -- Penoyre & Prasad (now part of Perkins + Will)- UKGBC / UK Green Building Council

Call for entries: 2021 Berkeley Prize Essay Competition (deadline looms!): As a future architect, what is the best way you can serve the needs of your local community? cash prizes; open to full-time undergraduate students enrolled in any architecture degree program or majoring in architecture throughout the world; Stage 1 (500-word essay proposal); deadline: November 1- Berkeley Prize / Department of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley

2020 Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards: Design can change the world. Meet the people making it happen: ...honors the timeless legacy of preeminent design leadership in America... -- Design Visionary: Kickstarter/Aziz Hasan; Climate Action: Sponge Park/DLANDstudio; Architecture
Snøhetta; Digital Design: Design I/O; Landscape Architecture: OJB Landscape Architecture; etc.- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (NYC)

2020 Pritzker Prize: Watch our special video honoring 2020 Laureates, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara. -- Grafton Architects- The Hyatt Foundation

Young Talent Architecture Award 2020 Announces Winners by Mies van der Rohe Foundation / Fundació Mies van der Rohe / Creative Europe announced 4 YTAA 2020 Winners and 3 Winners of the Asian Edition. -- Álvaro Alcázar Del Águila, Eduard Llargués, Roser Garcia, Sergio Sangalli/Barcelona Tech; Willem Hubrechts/University of Leuven (Belgium); Monika Marinova/The Sir John Cass School of Art Architecture & Design, London Metropolitan University (UK); Pía Montero, Maria Jesús Molina, Antonia Ossa/School of Architecture of the University of Talca (Chile); JiSoo Kim/Hanyang University School of Architecture, Seoul (Korea); Peiquan Ma, Yuan Liu, Jing Cheng, Yuxuan Liang, Zi’ang Li/School of Architecture Tianjin- ArchDaily

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