Today’s News - Thursday, October 15, 2020
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no newsletter days - we'll be back Tuesday, October 20. In the meantime: Stay well. Stay safe.
● ANN feature: Excerpt: "Stanford White in Detail" by Samuel G. White; photos by Jonathan Wallen: A rich presentation of the sensual and scenographic effects created by the legendary architect. For White, every surface was an opportunity, and few opportunities were neglected.
● Saffron on what ails Philly and how to fix it: "Almost every major problem has its roots in poverty. The only way out of that cycle is to create more good-paying jobs" (other cities - take heed).
● British architect Elsie Owusu considers how "architects can adapt to the challenges of building for a post-pandemic world - architecture must not return to 'business as usual'" - this is "a chance to see visions and dream dreams of a new profession based on equality, diversity and social justice" (follow Jane Drew's example).
● Salama & Crosbie consider the opportunities in architectural education in a post-pandemic world: "Traditional architectural education was already challenged - schools should become adaptive systems that do not strive to stay the same" (tho' "previous experiences need not be forgotten").
● Capps x 2: He parses the "a slobberknocker" of stats in the National Civic Art Society's Trad vs. Mod poll: "Regardless of age, geography, or political preference - classical won out over modern by 72% to 28%."
● He takes a deep dive into how artists, activists, and city leaders are rethinking the memorialization process - and "wrestling with a difficult national dilemma: Who gets to decide what to memorialize, and how?" (great read!).
● Kimmelman tours the East Village, "home of punks and poets," with artist and author Luc Sante, who "chats about the neighborhood's history," including Warhol's Electric Circus, Astor Place, and the Tompkins Square Park riots: "Living in the neighborhood now is safer, shinier, duller. Back then it was like camping out amid the ruins of multiple pasts."
Weekend diversions + Page-turners:
● Kamin x 2 re: Open House Chicago kicks off tomorrow: Because of the pandemic it is shifting to exterior and online tours and expanded to 10 days (fittingly, it's the event's 10th anniversary).
● On a lighthearted note, he highlights "the architecture of Chicago's beer buildings, even if this isn't happy hour for some of them - their ornate brickwork, fanciful turrets make them a savory alternative to less-is-more design sobriety" - part of Open House Chicago, Oct. 16-25.
● Marianela D'Aprile cheers "Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People" at Chicago's Wrightwood 659 gallery: "The presence of the human is everywhere - and the architectural spaces exude a certain generosity" - he is "someone completely unafraid to try on new ideas, shapes, concepts" to create "an architecture that gives shape to human activity without ever imposing on it."
● TCLF's "Landslide 2020: Women Take the Lead: Women who shaped the American Landscape" spotlights women-designed landscapes and the threats that they face" - the online exhibition links to fab profile pages of this year's selected sites.
● Reinhold Martin makes the case that the reissued classics "Modern Housing" (1934) and "Black Metropolis" (1945) have a place in design syllabi - especially as educators and students debate the importance of addressing racial and social justice in architecture and urbanism ("Delirious New York" doesn't fare well).
● Crosbie's great Q&A with designer Paul Wellington re: his "Black Built: History and Architecture in the Black Community," what he learned through his research, and the future of increasing the ranks of Black architects in the U.S.
● A fascinating excerpt from Roman Mars & Kurt Kohsltedt's "The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design": "From uncomfortable benches to sidewalk boulders, objects that say 'go away' can be hard to detect - until you start noticing them. Some of the goals of unpleasant designs can seem noble - but they follow a potentially dangerous logic with respect to public spaces."
● Betksy x 2: Daniel Stockhammer's "Upcycling: Reuse and Repurposing as a Design Principle in Architecture" is "one of the most rousing clarion calls for upcycling I have read."
● He cheers Neyran Turan's "compelling" new monograph, "Architecture as Measure" featuring "models and drawings that are both hyper-realistic and disturbingly dreamlike" that create "narratives of the violence we are perpetuating on this planet. Turan proves herself to be one of the most talented and promising architects of immense talent and critical insight."
Special Event:
● NYC Architecture Biennial 2020: "Social Inclusion in the Workplace and in Design" October 20-23: Online and free of charge - an opportunity to reach a broader audience around the world - the lectures will be shared in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. ArchNewsNow is proud to be a media sponsor!
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ANN feature: Excerpt: "Stanford White in Detail" by Samuel G. White; photographs by Jonathan Wallen: A rich presentation of the sensual and scenographic effects created by the legendary architect. For White, every surface was an opportunity, and few opportunities were neglected.- ArchNewsNow.com |
Inga Saffron: Philly didn’t become America’s poorest big city by chance. Here’s how we fix it: Almost every major problem...from gun violence to the opioid epidemic, has its roots in poverty. The only way out of that cycle is to create more good-paying jobs: There are two stories that we can tell...In one, [it] is a city resurgent, rising from the ashes of deindustrialization...In 2019, the city celebrated a remarkable milestone: 10 straight years of job growth. Yet, for many...this triumphant narrative will sound like science fiction...the last 20 years have brought the best of times and the worst of times...what can Philadelphia do to change the situation...- Philadelphia Inquirer |
Elsie Owusu: How better design will improve the spaces where we work and live: Architects can adapt to the challenges of building for a post-pandemic world: ...architecture must not return to “business as usual”. We can take this enforced furlough as a chance to see visions and dream dreams of a new profession based on equality, diversity and social justice...Jane Drew's global leadership on housing design and construction...provide us with lessons on the challenges and opportunities of the current crisis...perhaps we can follow her example...teams of architects, engineers and artists are well-placed to design greener communities...can be resilient and protect disadvantaged groups. Together, we can minimise the health and social risks of Covid-19 and future pandemics, while boosting the UK’s economy...- Financial Times (UK) |
Ashraf M. Salama & Michael J. Crosbie: Educating Architects in a Post-Pandemic World: What opportunities does the “loss of the stable state” offer the future of education? The model that has evolved over two centuries is changing within the space of a few weeks or months...Hesitant but hopeful, architecture schools are exploring possibilities...to meet the needs of the profession to a teaching/learning process that produces people who can create opportunities for themselves...traditional architectural education was already challenged...schools should become adaptive systems that do not strive to stay the same...While previous experiences need not be forgotten, the recognition of the loss of the stable state is the key starting point.- Common Edge |
Kriston Capps: Classical or Modern Architecture? For Americans, It’s No Contest: In a poll, traditional buildings soundly beat modern-looking ones, regardless of age, geography or political preference. Should that matter? The responses did not vary by demographic group...Americans...pulled the lever for traditional designs by a nearly 3 to 1 margin. Overall, classical won out over modern by 72% to 28%...The National Civic Art Society poll follows a failed effort...by classicists to move an executive order to the Resolute Desk to “Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again"...architecture may be one issue...that cuts across partisan lines... -- Justin Shubow- Bloomberg CityLab |
Kriston Capps: There Must Be a Better Way to Make a Monument: As controversial statues are toppled across the U.S., artists and activists are pushing cities to rethink the memorialization process: ...wrestling with a difficult national dilemma: Who gets to decide what to memorialize, and how? ...cultural collectives across the world are working together to undo colonialism...But decolonization...is a much bigger project than toppling statues...Establishing the civic infrastructure to identify and take action to remove or remedy these signs and symbols is very different work from persuading the public that a bronze figure of a long-dead general needs to be trucked away. -- Joel Garcia; Paul Farber/Monument Lab- Bloomberg CityLab |
Michael Kimmelman: The East Village, Home of Punks and Poets: Here’s a Tour: Luc Sante, author of “Low Life” and artist, chats about the neighborhood’s history, including CBGB, Warhol’s Electric Circus and the Tompkins Square Park riots: [He] charted a kind of imaginary route for our walk, tracing ghosts in Astor Place, the Strand bookstore..."When I arrived...the contrast was palpable between newfangled hippie businesses...and the older, working class businesses...Two streams of people intersected with one another’s reality but didn’t really interact...Living in the neighborhood now is safer, shinier, duller. Back then it was like camping out amid the ruins of multiple pasts." -- J. William Schickel; William C. Frohne; Maki & Associates; Charles Gwathmey; Henry C. Pelton- New York Times |
Blair Kamin: Pandemic forces Open House Chicago to shift to exterior and online tours: Chicago Architecture Center announced..."Unless plans change, there will be no interior tours...the center will expand Open House Chicago to 10 days, October 16-25, marking the event’s 10th anniversary...event also will emphasize entire neighborhoods rather than individual buildings...More than 20 Chicago neighborhoods will participate, along with Evanston and Oak Park. -- Lynn Osmond- Chicago Tribune |
Blair Kamin: Let’s toast the architecture of Chicago’s beer buildings, even if this isn’t happy hour for some of them: Their ornate brickwork, fanciful turrets and other decorative flourishes make them a savory alternative to less-is-more design sobriety...whether they still sell beer or have switched to coffee, some still function as the proverbial “third place,” the gathering spot apart from work or home....Open House Chicago...Oct. 16-25, will feature an outdoor-only walking tour of Wicker Park’s “Beer Baron Row,” an impressive lineup of ornate late 19th Century mansions...outlook for some owners of the beer buildings remains as bleak as a Chicago winter sky. The beer back story. The mansions. The saga of ‘Schlitz Row’ -- Frommann & Jebsen (1903); Gensler; Richard Schmidt- Chicago Tribune |
Marianela D'Aprile: Mind the Cliché: "Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People" gets the order right, puts people before architecture: It’s truly fortunate that the Tadao Ando-designed Wrightwood 659 gallery behaves as [his] other buildings do - with meticulously worked solid forms becoming receptacles for light and air - because [the show] threatens to overwhelm...The presence of the human is everywhere...and the architectural spaces...exude a certain generosity. Which imbues which? ...formal variety...reveals Doshi as someone completely unafraid to try on new ideas, shapes, concepts...common thread is...a commitment to an architecture that gives shape to human activity without ever imposing on it. thru December 12- The Architect's Newspaper |
"Landslide 2020: Women Take the Lead: Women who shaped the American Landscape": ...spotlights women-designed landscapes and the threats that they face: The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF)...annual in-depth report...profiles - and raises awareness of...at-risk American parks, gardens, horticultural features, working landscapes...each of the dozen threatened landscapes...were created, designed, tended to, and championed by women...many of them pioneering in the field and some unsung and overlooked...online exhibition led to...this year’s selected sites, linked to their respective profile pages in the report. -- Charles A. Birnbaum- The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) |
Reinhold Martin: Prometheus Unmasked: Two reissued classics of New Deal literature...deserve new attention from architects and urbanists: Many scholars, educators, and students concerned with racial and economic justice are now ferociously debating the content of syllabi on which books like "Delirious New York"...an unapologetic rebuke of the New Deal public planning...two New Deal classics stand out..."Modern Housing" by Catherine Bauer (1934)...with a new foreword by Barbara Penner; and "Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City," by St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton (1945)...with a new foreword by Mary Pattillo...If the combined 1,357 social-scientific pages...are weighed against the 263 heavily illustrated, telegraphic pages of witty retro-manifesto, the outcome may seem predictable enough.- Places Journal |
Michael J. Crosbie: Hidden Figures: The Historic Contributions of Black Architects: "Black Built: History and Architecture in the Black Community" explores the impact of the work of Black architects on communities of color: Designer Paul Wellington...documents more than 40 works of architecture...by Black architects...now working on a new book that will focus on Black women architects...Q&A re: the new book, what he learned through his research on Black architects and their work, and the future of increasing the ranks of Black architects in the U.S.: What needs to change in the profession to increase the representation of Black architects? "Having firms involved in helping to recruit students of color into the profession."- Common Edge |
Roman Mars & Kurt Kohsltedt: How Cities (and Citizens) Create Hostile Environments: From uncomfortable benches to sidewalk boulders, objects that say "go away" can be hard to detect - until you start noticing them: Some of the goals of unpleasant designs can seem noble...but they follow a potentially dangerous logic...When supposed solutions address symptoms of a problem rather than the root causes, that problem is not solved but only pushed down the street to the next block or neighborhood...Spikes beget spikes, and targeted individuals are just moved around without addressing underlying issues.- Wired |
Aaron Betksy: The Case for Upcycling in Architecture: the merits of reuse as defined in a new book by Daniel Stockhammer: Out of Liechtenstein, that tiny principality wedged between Austria and Switzerland, comes one of the most rousing clarion calls for upcycling I have read..."Upcycling: Reuse and Repurposing as a Design Principle in Architecture"...Finding aesthetic and economic merit in the combinations, defects, and recombinations of upcycling is as important as the actual reuse itself.- Architect Magazine |
Aaron Betksy: Why Neyran Turan's Unbuilt Architecture Matters: the architect's compelling new monograph, "Architecture as Measure": ...she wants to “shak[e] the discipline and the world” through her work...Through models and drawings that are both hyper-realistic and disturbingly dreamlike...NemeStudio, create[s] displays of existing building types deformed, distorted to reveal their origins in extractive industries, or combined to construct narratives of the violence we are perpetuating on this planet...I have watched the emergence of a group of young designers and thinkers of immense talent and critical insight...Turan proves herself to be one of the most talented and promising architects of this group.- Architect Magazine |
NYC Architecture Biennial 2020: "Social Inclusion in the Workplace and in Design" October 20-23: Conference will be online and free of charge, This is an opportunity for us to reach out to a broader audience around the world - the lectures will be shared in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. ArchNewsNow is proud to be a media sponsor!- New York City Architecture Biennial |
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