Today’s News - Tuesday, December 15, 2020
EDITOR'S NOTE: Just a heads-up that this will be the final week of news for the year - hopefully the Nor'easter heading our way tomorrow won't affect the last newsletter of 2020 on Thursday.
● ANN feature: Turan Duda & Jeffrey Paine: Predicting the Unpredictable - 2021 Workplace Trends: Several emerging trends will improve our ability to navigate the future with employee health and wellness in mind.
● A tribute to and in-depth profile of Carol R. Johnson, 91, "founder of what became one of the largest woman-owned landscape architecture practices in the U.S., and a role model for women in the profession - in 1998 she was the first American woman to receive the ASLA Medal."
● Betsky makes the case for "why we should cancel Philip Johnson" - but that doesn't mean we should "pretend that he never existed. His life, after all, has many lessons to teach us. He was a cultured, rich cad who made us forget our own failings as a country and as a profession."
● Lamster minces no words re: plans for a "garish" fountain in Dallas's Klyde Warren Park - "an unsustainable gusher of civic hubris. Is it really necessary to say that the presentation of such an extravagant folly at a moment when food lines stretch for a mile is grotesque, not to mention utterly tone deaf?"
● Pedersen, on a brighter note, has a great Q&A with Christopher Hawthorne re: the Low-Rise: Housing Ideas for Los Angeles design challenge, and his 2+ years as the city's chief design officer (registration for Low-Rise challenge: December 18!).
● William Morgan mulls the post-COVID office: "Nothing will be normal ever again - despite our national yearning for a return to normalcy - the long evolution to gigantic and often remote office buildings was the abnormal. The office isn't going away," but it will require "some radical and creative rethinking."
● Hickman reports on a dead mall in Columbus, Indiana, "getting a new lease on life as a health-focused community hub - in a refreshing deviation from the norm" (becoming a private mixed-use development), a non-profit now owns the property and plans to transform it into a public asset."
● Studio Gang's first Colorado project is a 13-story building that "won't look anything like the rest of the historic buildings that surround Denver's Civic Center Park" - hosting a hotel, micro-apartments, a public rooftop bar - and more.
● Ravenscroft brings us eyefuls of Tehran-based ZAV Architects' multi-colored domed cultural retreat on the Iranian island of Hormuz, constructed using a low-tech method so that "the buildings could be largely completed by people in the local community" (we want one!).
● Shafaieh reports on Toshiko Mori's Harvard GSD studio that took students to Hokkaido, Japan, to "focus on the ecology, and economy, of creating and designing with wood in communities where forests are abundant or special" (fab photos by Maggie Janik!).
● GSD's Alex Krieger takes us on his "iconic tour of Boston - a city in constant need to create land'" (fab video by Janik).
● A who's who of nearly 70 architects and designers have donated art to ARCH (Architecture for Change)'s just-launched one-week auction "to raise funds for a scholarship program for Black women" established by the Architects Foundation (some stunners with starting bids $50!).
● In the "AIA's ongoing effort to meaningfully address structural racism in the built environment and to uphold our professional values," its Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is revised "to prohibit the design of spaces intended for execution, torture and prolonged solitary confinement."
● The Graham Foundation awards grants to 36 international organizations - "all committed to expanding on the ways we interact with architecture. It's quite a varied list, too" (with link to details).
● Not again! Venice is "hit by high tides of up to 5 feet after its MOSE flood barrier system was not activated as a result of mistaken forecasts."
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ANN feature: Turan Duda, FAIA & Jeffrey Paine, FAIA: Predicting the Unpredictable - 2021 Workplace Trends: Several emerging trends will improve our ability to navigate the future with employee health and wellness in mind.- ArchNewsNow.com |
Obituary: Remembering Carol R. Johnson, 91: ...founder of what became one of the largest woman-owned landscape architecture practices in the U.S...When she founded her Cambridge, MA-based firm in 1959...there were few women landscape architects working on urban design and planning issues...she also made her mark as an educator at Harvard GSD and as a role model for women in the profession...did have opportunities that were unusual for a woman...her first foreign project, the landscape associated with the U.S. Pavilion at Montreal’s Expo ’67, where she collaborated with Buckminster Fuller and Cambridge Seven Associates...in 1998 she was the first American woman to receive the ASLA Medal.- The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) |
Aaron Betsky: Why We Should Cancel Philip Johnson: ...on the call to strip the architect's name from public institutions: ...it’s long overdue. For all of his significance...despite his philanthropic generosity...there is no getting around the fact that he was a Nazi supporter...No longer honoring him with gallery and curator titles does not mean...we pretend that he never existed. His life, after all, has many lessons to teach us...With a flippant witticism, [he] could make anything seem, if not OK, at the very least amusing. To spend time with [him] was to find yourself charmed, bought, and sold...He was a cultured, rich cad who made us forget our own failings as a country and as a profession.- Architect Magazine |
Mark Lamster: Klyde Warren Park’s splashy proposed fountain is a design belly flop: Dallas needs better spaces, not gaudy baubles that reinforce dated stereotypes: Introduced with a garish rendering and billed as the “world’s tallest interactive fountain"...spouting jets of water nearly 100 feet in the air...amplified by music and colored lights...[city] does not need a corny gimmick that propagates an ersatz vision of itself...an unsustainable gusher of civic hubris...Is it really necessary to say that the presentation of such an extravagant folly at a moment when food lines stretch for a mile is grotesque, not to mention utterly tone deaf? -- James Burnett/OJB Landscape Architecture; Jim Garland/Fluidity Design Consultants; Alexandra Lange- Dallas Morning News |
Martin C. Pedersen: Christopher Hawthorne on Low-Rise: Housing Ideas for Los Angeles design challenge: The newest effort organized by the city’s chief design officer: Q&A re: his two-plus years in government, the latest “ideas” challenge...and other issues facing the city: "...the genesis for Low-Rise is the stalemate in our policy debates about the future of housing policy in low-rise residential neighborhoods...We see using the winning proposals primarily...as the basis for further public engagement and discussion...We see a symbiotic relationship between this design challenge and...various planning, policy and code efforts.- Common Edge |
William Morgan: The Post-COVID Office: Nothing will be normal ever again. Despite our national yearning for a return to normalcy, the coronavirus has changed how we live, how we work, and where we work...The pandemic has helped us to see that the long evolution to gigantic and often remote office buildings was the abnormal. The Internet and related technology has made working outside of the corporate environment highly doable and perhaps preferable...The office isn't going away...There is still a desire to have one...we need to do some radical and creative rethinking...- GoLocalProv.com (Providence, Rhode Island) |
Matt Hickman: From Auntie Anne’s to Ellipticals: In Columbus, Indiana, a dead mall is getting a new lease on life as a health-focused community hub: ...in a refreshing deviation from the norm, the Fair Oaks Mall won’t give way to a private mixed-use development...nonprofit...now owns the 36-acre property and plans to transform the mall into a public asset: A health and recreational campus centered around “holistic well-being”...goes beyond turning an old Sears into a very large Equinox...25% will be reserved for nonprofit community partners... -- César Pelli/Gruen Associates; MKSK; Perkins + Will- The Architect's Newspaper |
Renderings reveal look of new 13-story triangular building by Denver's Civic Center Park: 13-story, mixed-use building...won't look anything like the rest of the historic buildings that surround the park...distinctive windows that are meant to evoke the growth patterns of aspen trees...Populus...will feature a 250-key hotel, 40 micro-apartments, a public rooftop bar and view deck... -- Urban Villages; Jeanne Gang/Studio Gang- Denver Business Journal |
Tom Ravenscroft: ZAV Architects creates colourful domed cultural retreat on Iranian island of Hormuz: ...[Presence in Hormuz] holiday community that is housed in around 200 brightly coloured domes overlooking the Persian Gulf...constructed using a low-tech method with a structure made of stacked sandbags...supported with steel and finished with cement...method meant that the buildings could be largely completed by people in the local community.- Dezeen |
Charles Shafaieh: "Making Next to Forest": Toshiko Mori’s studio demonstrates how design decisions relate to natural-resource use and protection: She took students to Hokkaido, Japan...focused on the ecology, and economy, of creating and designing with wood in communities where forests are abundant or special. Photography by Maggie Janik- Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) |
Land for a City on a Hill: Alex Krieger’s iconic tour of Boston: ...professor and former chair of the Harvard GSD Department of Urban Planning and Design speaks of the historic and contemporary geographical, infrastructural, and racial conditions of Boston, a city in “constant need to create land.” Video by Maggie Janik- Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) |
India Block: David Adjaye, Forensic Architecture and Daniel Libeskind donate works to support black women in architecture school: Organised by architectural initiative ARCH (Architecture for Change), the auction [launched yesterday] will run for one week to raise funds for a scholarship programme for black women...100% of net proceeds...to the Desiree V Cooper Memorial Fund...established by the Architects Foundation in memory of the late, black female architect...Each recipient will receive $25,000 towards their education. -- Hector Esrawe; Jennifer Bonner; David Rockwell; Jerome Byron; Sean Griffiths; Perry Kulper; Michel Rojkind; Mark Foster Gage; Leroy Street Studio; Hernan Diaz Alonso; FreelandBuck; Jean Pierre Crousse- Dezeen |
AIA Board of Directors commits to advancing justice through design: AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to prohibit the design of spaces intended for execution, torture and prolonged solitary confinement: ...reflects AIA’s ongoing effort to meaningfully address structural racism in the built environment and to uphold our professional values.- American Institute of Architects (AIA) |
Graham Foundation awards its 2020 Grants to Organizations: ...36 international organizations who will split $480,000 in grants, all committed to expanding on the ways we interact with architecture. It’s quite a varied list, too..., broken up into four sections: Exhibitions; Film, Video, and New Media Projects; Publications, and Student-Led Publications.- The Architect's Newspaper |
Venice floods as forecasts fail to predict extent of high tide: Flood barriers were not activated after forecasts predicted high tide of only 1.2 metres [@ 4 feet]: ...hit by high tides of up to 1.5 metres (5 feet) after its flood barrier system was not activated as a result of mistaken forecasts...By the time the water had entered the lagoon...completely flooding the narthex of St Mark’s Basilica, it was too late for the MOSE system to take effect.- Guardian (UK) |
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