Today’s News - Thursday, March 4, 2021
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow, Monday & Tuesday will be a no-newsletter days. We'll be back Wednesday, March 10.
● Design and disability scholar Elizabeth Guffey wanders Roosevelt Island, "named for a disabled president. I am very sorry to report that even a self-consciously forward-looking project [Cornell Tech] can still be insidiously inaccessible. Is this the best we can expect from 'the future'?" Never mind that Four Freedoms Park, "the memorial to a disabled president, was not ADA compliant" when it opened.
● William Morgan reports that it's gown-vs.-town - again - when it comes to Brown University's plans to build "a massive block" of dorms - partly in a historic district in Providence: "Deborah Berke Partners is a firm with a good track record of academic work. Sadly, Brown has a record of hiring good architects and underutilizing their talents."
● Zach Mortice reports on the ongoing battle to save a 1939 National Register-eligible African American housing project in Buffalo, New York: Housing Agency: The battle is being waged by "the largely white preservation community'" - why devote "resources to maintaining a giant monument of segregation when we could be making beautiful new housing?' For Preservation Buffalo Niagara, that's a false choice."
● Frank Edgerton Martin takes a deep dive into the fascinating history and $158-million restoration of SOM's Air Force Academy Chapel in Colorado: The "Cadet Chapel's bold expression of lightness and form soon became a global symbol of America's vision and technological promise - the planning and design team became a virtual who's who of 20th-century American culture."
● Eyefuls of Populous's $500 million sports or entertainment venue on Toronto's waterfront for OverActive Media (it certainly lives up to client's name - put on your sunglasses!).
● USGBC expands LEED Earth to include homes, communities and cities, "designed to bring LEED to countries where green building is still emerging."
● One we couldn't resist: Eyefuls of the "world's first space hotel to begin construction in low Earth orbit in 2025 - complete with restaurants, cinemas and rooms for up to 400 guests" (we'll take a room with a balcony, please).
Deadline reminder (deadline looms!):
● Call for Applications: Places Journal Inaugural Critics-in-Residence in Architecture and Landscape Architecture - includes a stipend to write four major critical essays.
Weekend diversions:
● Matt Shaw takes a thoughtful dive into MoMA's "Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.": "The damaging impact architecture has often had on communities of color is explored along with ideas of how to move forward. The histories of the laws and ideologies that administered racial oppression through urban space are mostly left out of architectural discussions" - but not here.
● Jared Green brings us eyefuls of "Illuminate," a new free public art exhibition that brings "world-class light and interactive art" to a two-mile stretch of Coral Gables, Florida (looks fab!).
● Welton parses "Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman" - a 68-minute-long documentary that opens virtually tomorrow: "He'd bet the farm, because he'd found something that resonated with a large middle class. World War 1 came along. 'He was hot - and then not.' Though he died forgotten in 1942, his name is now a near-household word."
● Akiva Blander's Q&A with Mariana Mogilevich re: her book "The Invention of Public Space: Designing for Inclusion in Lindsay's New York," in which the architectural historian discusses how Mayor John Lindsay's "attention to public spaces and diverse communities has left an unmissable mark on the city's public realm."
● Welton talks to Kundig re: "Tom Kundig: Working Title" and his "artistic eye": "Art is the filter through which he assembles what's around him into a coherent whole - this is a 10-inch-by-12-inch case history of what that process yields."
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Elizabeth Guffey: Active Exclusion: Too often the concept “active transportation” produces environments that are not fully accessible. The history of Roosevelt Island, named for a disabled president who used a wheelchair, offers lessons at once troubling and hopeful: ...what is usually missing amidst the growing enthusiasm for non-motorized mobility is any awareness of the ways in which...active transportation itself, can reinforce longstanding forms of exclusion...Cornell Tech...has been widely praised...As a physically impaired person...I am very sorry to report that even a self-consciously forward-looking project...can still be insidiously inaccessible. Is this the best we can expect from “the future”? I was reminded, again and again, of one of the fundamental experiences of disability - the feeling that the world has been designed for somebody else...Soon after Four Freedoms Park opened, activists raised concerns that the memorial to a disabled president was not ADA compliant.- Places Journal |
William Morgan: Brown University Versus the Neighbors, Again: ...the perennial tension between the university and its College Hill neighbors...its evolution from a liberal arts college into a major research institution has exacerbated town-gown fault lines...a small portion of the dorm site...lies in an historic district...Complaints centered mostly on the...inappropriateness of such a massive block...in an older streetscape...Deborah Berke Partners is a firm with a good track record of academic work; they do handsome, tasteful, sometimes elegant, if unexciting work...Sadly, Brown has a record of hiring good architects and underutilizing their talents...- GoLocalProv.com (Providence, Rhode Island) |
Zach Mortice: Whose History? Buffalo, New York, says its first National Register-eligible African American housing project can’t be saved. Preservationists beg to differ: Built in 1939, Willert Park Courts...was among the first public housing projects in the country...shortcomings have created barriers to preservation...But plans to raze the site...in favor of new housing...are meeting pushback...preservationists and...the local Black community point to the site’s architectural merits, [which] tie back to the area’s cultural heritage...Buffalo Municipal Housing Agency is not impressed...portraying it as a monument to ethnic perseverance is “a romanticized view...by the largely white preservation community...Are we really [going] to devote... resources...into maintaining a giant monument of segregation when we could be making beautiful new housing?” For Preservation Buffalo Niagara, that’s a false choice. -- Frederick C. Backus- The Architect's Newspaper |
Frank Edgerton Martin: Up In The Air: The restoration of the Air Force Academy Chapel is the U.S.’s most complex modernist preservation project ever: ...the [Academy] near Colorado Springs marked a watershed moment in American architecture...the most expensive federal project in American history...Cadet Chapel’s bold expression of lightness and form soon became a global symbol of America’s vision and technological promise...The $158-million, 4-year project remedies several original design and construction shortcomings...SOM invested years in concept development and a staggering $100,000 ($1,000,000 in today’s dollars) on a roll-out exhibition that became a multi-media artwork itself...planning and design team became a virtual who’s who of 20th-century American culture. -- Walter Netsch Jr./Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); AECOM; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates; Hartman-Cox Architects; LEO A DALY; Eero Saarinen- The Architect's Newspaper |
OverActive Media and Populous reveal details for new performance venue in Toronto: ...a $500 million...sports or entertainment venue...plan is a strategic extension of the master plan for the region previously established by city officials...the building composition delivers a prominent architectural presence along the Toronto waterfront- Canadian Architect |
USGBC Expands LEED Earth to Homes, Communities and Cities: ...has enabled the expansion of green building to nearly 200 countries around the world...aims to accelerate USGBC’s healthy economy strategy: ...designed to bring LEED to countries where green building is still emerging...- U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) |
World's first space hotel to begin construction in low Earth orbit in 2025 complete with restaurants, cinemas and rooms for up to 400 guests: Voyager Station will rotate to generate artificial gravity that will be set at a similar level to the gravity found on the surface of the Moon...No details of cost to build...or the cost of spending a night in the hotel have been revealed, although OAC [Orbital Assembly Corporation] say build costs are getting cheaper thanks to reusable launch vehicles like the SpaceX Falcon 9 and the future Starship.- Daily Mail (UK) |
Call for entries: Call for Applications: Places Journal Inaugural Critics-in-Residence in Architecture and Landscape Architecture; 2 critics will be selected, one in architecture and one in landscape architecture; stipend of $7,500 to write four major critical essays; deadline: March 12- Places Journal |
Matt Shaw: How can architecture help rather than harm blackness? In "Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America," the damaging impact architecture has often had on communities of colour is explored along with ideas of how to move forward: The histories of the laws and ideologies that administered racial oppression through urban space...are mostly left out of architectural discussions...In response to this troubling condition...at the Museum of Modern Art...[Sean Anderson and Mabel O. Wilson set out to ask why black stories and identity are rarely considered when we imagine what society should look like [and] to repair, restore and rebuild these histories by understanding and looking for new possibilities for black space.- Guardian (UK) |
Jared Green: Light Art for Dark Times: In the era of the coronavirus, public spaces enable us to socialize and connect, across the masks..."Illuminate," a new free public art exhibition, has brought world-class light and interactive art to Coral Gables southwest of downtown Miami, Florida...features a two-mile-long downtown strip that now hosts eight new interior and exterior art installations. Wednesday through Sunday, sunset - thru March 13 -- Fung Collaboratives- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
J. Michael Welton: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Gustav Stickley: “Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman”...celebrates the life and work of one of America’s first self-made men of the early 20th century. {Film] opens virtually on March 5...68-minute-long documentary [by Herb Stratford] about the man who reinterpreted Englishman William Morris’s work for American audiences...created a lifestyle that rebelled against all things Victorian and ornamental...He’d bet the farm, because he’d found something that resonated with a large middle class. World War 1 came along...“He was hot - and then not"...By the end of the 1970s, the American Arts and Crafts Movement was back - with a vengeance...Though he died forgotten in 1942, his name is now a near-household word.- Architects + Artisans |
Akiva Blander: Q&A: Mariana Mogilevich on New York City’s Path to a More Democratic and Diverse Civic Realm: Upon the release of her book "The Invention of Public Space: Designing for Inclusion in Lindsay’s New York," the architectural historian discusses a little-known but pivotal chapter of urban history: John Lindsay is not the most revered or famous mayor of New York City...But his attention to public spaces and diverse communities has left an unmissable mark on the city’s built forms and the ways its residents use, experience, and reshape the public realm...Mogilevich, who is the editor in chief of the Architectural League’s "Urban Omnibus," shows how Lindsay’s mayorship came at a transitional moment in global design practice and theory...and how its legacy continues to be readapted and reassessed today..."We have to continue to think about what type of public is being included..."- Metropolis Magazine |
J. Michael Welton: In “Tom Kundig: Working Title” - Kundig’s Artistic Eye: ...split 50/50 between small and large projects. For good reason...."everything comes from the residential footing,” he says. “We look at residential work as the soul of our architecture.” [Book] covers 29 projects around the world...that Olson Kundig’s residential work informs its larger commercial and cultural projects - is the driver behind this book. That stems from a recent conversation with Glen Murcutt...he looks at each project with the eye of an artist...Art is the filter through which he assembles what’s around him into a coherent whole...[book] is a 10-inch-by-12-inch case history of what that process yields.- Architects + Artisans |
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