Today’s News - Thursday, December 17, 2020
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the final newsletter of 2020(!). We wish everyone a happy - even though a very different - holiday season. We'll be back Tuesday, January 5(!). In the meantime: Stay well. Stay especially safe (and please don't travel!).
● ANN double-feature to end the year: Peter Gisolfi: Consider the Place: The idea of place is a much freer, more far reaching, and potentially more inspiring understanding of setting than one that simply extols the virtues of contextual design.
● Trahan Architects & Spackman Mossop Michaels reveal their design for the renewal of Luther George Park in downtown Springdale, Arkansas - made possible by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation's Design Excellence Program.
● Saffron: "'When will this be over?' has become, 'When this is over...' - for all the terribleness of this pandemic, the hundreds of thousands of lives lost, we've learned some unexpected lessons - here's what we should keep."
● Bloomberg Green invited Julien De Smedt, Casper Mork-Ulnes, and Koichi Takada, all architects known for their focus on sustainability, to envision what dream homes might look like once the EU goes net-zero (great presentation!).
● How New Orleans-based Bryan C. Lee, Jr., founder of the nonprofit design & architecture firm Colloqate, "is using design justice to empower communities through outdoor spaces - 'the very premise of architecture is complicit in systems of racism. Public spaces present an opportunity to build community and host civic engagement.'"
● Gamolina's (great) Q&A with Pritzker Prize laureates Yvonne Farrell & Shelley McNamara: "Architecture is a universal right. As a profession, we need to communicate that more. If we're not careful, we sound exclusive, and architecture deserves more than that" (and "advising young architects to nurture their true friendships").
● Baldwin's (great) Q&A with Vivian Lee, Maureen Boyer, and Christiana Kyrillou, the women who head Woods Bagot studios in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles: "What do we bring to the table is not contingent on being female."; "We are not just women leaders; we are leaders, period."
● Welton cheers Hamilton, Ontario-based Thier + Curran Architects' transformation of the town's 1850 Gasworks building into a music hall "dedicated to the concept of introducing children to music. Every city on the planet would do well to embrace that kind of concept."
● Hickman reports that Noguchi's site-specific 1957 "Ceiling and Waterfall for the Lobby of 666 Fifth Avenue" has been removed as part of a KPF renovation; the good news: It is now "safely in the hands of the Noguchi Foundation, which is exploring ways in which it can be re-introduced into the public realm in a new location."
● One we couldn't resist: 'Christmas Star' will be closest visible conjunction of the "planetary giants" Jupiter and Saturn in 800 years - looking like one large star on the winter solstice, Dec. 21, in the southwest sky.
● ICYMI: 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.
Deadline:
● Call for entries/RFP: On Olive Residential Design Competition as a part of a residential development in St. Louis; open to Black Emerging Architects (national) & Local Emerging Architects; $30,000 to take the house through schematics, and the house will be built.
Weekend diversions & Page-turners:
● Blake Gopnik takes issue with MoMA's "Broken Nature": "A show, and a field, that seems set to push back against our consumerist urges feels almost consumed by them" - with "the faulty message that our species can get out of its existential predicament simply by craving somewhat more earth-friendly goods."
● "Aldo Rossi. The Architect and the Cities" opens today at the MAXXI in Rome with more than 800 models and archival documents "associated with the late lion of Italian postmodernist design" (Huxtable described him as "a poet who happens to be an architect").
● Finbarr Toesland's Q&A with Leslie Kern re: her book "Feminist City: Claiming Space in the Man-made World": "If the majority of architects are men -.they perhaps have a limited set of life experiences that don't allow [them] to notice certain issues" facing women and other marginalized groups.
● A fab photo-essay excerpted from "Enabling Connections to Empower Place: The Carolinas", by Kofi Boone, that appears in Hood and Mitchell's "Black Landscapes Matter."
● Kamin offers "a rich array of design books for the holidays. They're all related to Chicago and its suburbs, but have much broader appeal" (they all sound great!).
● In "Philip Cox: An Australian Architecture," Patrick Bingham-Hall "depicts the evolution of Australian society and architecture as a whole in the post-WWII years."
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ANN feature: Peter Gisolfi: Consider the Place: The idea of place is a much freer, more far reaching, and potentially more inspiring understanding of setting than one that simply extols the virtues of contextual design.- ArchNewsNow.com |
ANN feature: Trahan Architects and Spackman Mossop Michaels reveal their design for the renewal of Luther George Park in downtown Springdale, Arkansas: The project is made possible by a generous grant from the Walton Family Foundation'sDesign Excellence Program.- ArchNewsNow.com |
Inga Saffron: As we contemplate the end of the pandemic, here’s what we should keep: From working from home to voting by mail to dining by the light of a street lamp, the pandemic has reshaped our worlds in ways that are not all bad. We could even end up learning to love Zoom: “When will this be over?” has become, “When this is over...” ...for all the terribleness of this pandemic, the hundreds of thousands of lives lost, we’ve learned some unexpected lessons...If we can improve our parks and open up our streets to people instead of cars, cities could become even more livable.- Philadelphia Inquirer |
Laura Millan Lombraña: Architects Imagine the Dream Homes of Europe’s Green Future: Three leaders in sustainable design envision what buildings might look like once the continent goes net-zero: Bloomberg Green invited Julien De Smedt, Casper Mork-Ulnes, and Koichi Takada, all architects known for their focus on sustainability to perform an exercise of imagination. Pick a place in Europe, design a single-family home to suit that climate, and make it produce more energy than it uses.- Bloomberg Green |
This architect is using design justice to empower communities through outdoor spaces: New Orleans-based Bryan C. Lee, Jr...founder and design principal for a nonprofit design and architecture firm Colloqate...wants to use architecture and design justice to tell a story about the displacement of people, cultures, communities, and environments across [NOLA]...architecture is not simply a profession of designing buildings and structures...the very premise of architecture is complicit in systems of racism...Public spaces present an opportunity to build community and host civic engagement.- Grist Magazine |
Julia Gamolina: A Universal Right: Pritzker Laureates Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara on the Fundamentals of Architecture, Building Bit by Bit, and Friendship: ...advising young architects to nurture their true friendships: "Architecture is a universal right...As a profession, we need to communicate that more...If we’re not careful, we sound exclusive, and architecture deserves more than that." -- Grafton Architects- Madame Architect |
Eric Baldwin: The Women of Woods Bagot: Architects Building New Futures: ...the firm's three US studios are now each run by women...Each Director has taken the reins before the global pandemic was underway, and now the trio is working to rethink how the practice can address diverse challenges in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Q&A with Vivian Lee, Maureen Boyer, and Christiana Kyrillou: "While we're proud of being women leaders, we're wary of tokenism"; "What do we bring to the table is not contingent on being female."; "We are not just women leaders; we are leaders, period."- ArchDaily |
J. Michael Welton: Architecture in Service to Kids and Music: Hamilton, Ontario, may be a blue-collar steel town...it’s a music town too...Bill Curran, principal in Thier + Curran Architects...recently completed the design and renovation of a music hall there, dedicated to the concept of introducing children to...music...Voortman Charitable Foundation...bought the town’s (1850) Gasworks building...a building that [now] enhances kids' musical experience [and] thoughtful architecture to enrich their lives even further. Every city on the planet would do well to embrace that kind of concept.- Architects + Artisans |
Matt Hickman: Site-specific Isamu Noguchi installation pulled from 660 Fifth Avenue lobby: "Ceiling and Waterfall for the Lobby of 666 Fifth Avenue" (1957)...undulating, illuminated installation...was an original feature of the landmark Carson & Lundin-designed high-rise, which opened to significant fanfare in 1957...Noguchi Foundation...makes clear, [it] has indeed been removed as part of [KPF] renovation and is now, reassuringly, safely in the hands of the foundation, which is exploring ways in which it can be re-introduced into the public realm in a new location. -- Carson & Lundin (1957); Kohn Pedersen Fox- The Architect's Newspaper |
Call for entries: Request for Proposals/RFP: On Olive Architectural Residential Design Competition: single-family residences as a part of a residential development in the Grand Center area of St. Louis; open to Black Emerging Architects (national) & Local Emerging Architects; $30,000 to take the house through schematics, and the house will be built; deadline: January 30, 2021- On Olive |
'Christmas Star' will be closest visible conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 800 years: The conjunction of the planetary giants will look like one large star on the winter solstice, Dec. 21, in the southwest sky.- NBC News |
Blake Gopnik: The Mixed Message of Earth-Friendly Design: “Broken Nature” at MoMA offers up a trove of ‘restorative’ projects. Does buying more elegant objects help heal the planet? A show, and a field, that seems set to push back against our consumerist urges feels almost consumed by them...a number of the objects...send the faulty message that our species can get out of its existential predicament simply by craving somewhat more earth-friendly goods. -- Paola Antonelli- New York Times |
A major Aldo Rossi retrospective opens today at the MAXXI in Rome: "Aldo Rossi. The Architect and the Cities"...display more than 800 letters, sketches, photographs, models, letters, and various archival documents associated with the late lion of Italian postmodernist design...Ada Louise Huxtable...member of the Pritzker Prize jury, famously described Rossi as “a poet who happens to be an architect.” thru August 29, 2021- The Architect's Newspaper |
Finbarr Toesland: What makes a city feminist? We live in places designed by and for men. In "Feminist City: Claiming Space in the Man-made World," geographer Leslie Kern offers alternatives: ...women and other marginalised groups are left out of planning decisions that impact their lives, and they must deal with countless hidden obstacles that make navigating the city unnecessarily arduous. Q&A re: how lockdowns have highlighted several failures of cities, the need for an intersectional approach to urban planning and whether a truly feminist city is close to becoming a reality: "If the majority of architects are men...they perhaps have a limited set of life experiences that don’t allow [them] to notice certain issues."- City Monitor |
The Black Landscapes That Matter: centuries of oppression followed by disinvestment have led to the erasure of many places important to Black history, and the histories behind them. That must change. If spaces and landscapes are to reflect America as it is, then America as it is must be able to see itself in America's spaces and landscapes...photo essay excerpted from "Enabling Connections to Empower Place: The Carolinas", by Kofi Boone...appears in "Black Landscapes Matter," edited by Walter Hood and Grace Mitchell- Next City (formerly Next American City) |
Blair Kamin: From the Great Fire to modernist houses to Jeanne Gang, a rich array of design books for the holidays: They’re all related to Chicago and its suburbs, but have much broader appeal: “Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City” by Carl Smith: scholarly yet highly readable...captures the immediacy of the calamity; “Broken Glass: Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the Fight Over a Modernist Masterpiece” by Alex Beam: charts the evolution of Mies van der Rohe’s celebrated steel-and-glass house and the devolution of the relationship between its architect and client; “Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929-1975" by Susan S. Benjamin and Michelangelo Sabatino: lucid text...handsome historic photographs, fills a significant gap in our understanding of mid-20th-century modernism; “Studio Gang: Architecture” by Studio Gang; “Evanston’s Design Heritage: Architects, Designers & Planners” by Design Evanston- Chicago Tribune |
A career celebrated in "Philip Cox: An Australian Architecture": Photographs, sketches, drawings and original artworks capture his career: Patrick Bingham-Hall depicts the evolution of Australian society and architecture as a whole in the post-WWII years. "“[His] career spans an era that was the making of modern Australia"...The Sydney-born architect, who just turned 81, is best known for the “structural gymnastics of his public buildings” -- COX Architecture- Australian Design Review |
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 |
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