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Today’s News - Wednesday, April 14, 2010

•   Jacobs on the rebuilding of Haiti: it needs "less architectural magic and more garden-variety diligence" that will include local people and materials.
•   Kansas City's 5 million-square-foot SubTropolis, the world's largest underground business complex (who knew?!!?) offers a creative solution to global warming (if you happen to have limestone mines in the nabe).
•   In Abu Dhabi, things are still looking up (for the most part).
•   Litt brings urban planning lessons from Indianapolis back home to Cleveland.
•   Big plans to breathe new life into Swansea's run-down High Street: an urban village for creative types.
•   A Seattle architect calls for more gathering places in urban neighborhoods modeled on the city's successful program that used great local talent for its new library branches.
•   Meanwhile, a Seattle high-rise that's only 9 years old is too flawed to fix and will be demolished (finger-pointing abounds).
•   Campaign underway to save Lubetkin's Finsbury Health Centre in North London from developers.
•   Glancey glowers: turning Finsbury into "a boutique hotel or gym would be a betrayal."
•   Bernstein considers the "Pritzker conundrum": why have so few laureates designed hotels (and most who have aren't happy with them).
•   Who needs a Pritzker when you're on a winning streak like Holl?
•   Someday a Filipino architect will win the Pritzker, but "until then, it pays to look outward for beautiful, happiness-inspiring buildings as we delicately nurture our sense of place."
•   AIA officials discuss the potential impacts of the new health care reform bill, from new taxes to architect-only insurance policies.
•   When you have some extra time, NYT's T Design Spring 2010 has eyefuls of everything, including a "meticulously restored" 1964 Philip Johnson-designed trophy house (it's only 12,000 sq. ft.).
•   Contract magazine's Inspirations Award winners honored for their leadership in socially responsible design.
•   Call for entries: World Architecture Festival Awards; Beyond The Hive International Competition for the ideal insect hotel; and Naef Cella Toy International Competition (the last two sound like fun!).

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2010_04_14.htm - Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Today’s News - Wednesday, March 10, 2010

•   Levinson takes on Lange's essay re: the job of architecture critic "might be doomed": The "fundamental problem of contemporary criticism" is the (growing) "global beat - dateline: placeless...we're near the end of our collective patience with this kind of global-beat, star-centric critique."
•   Betsky wonders what Cincinnati and every American city will become in this century if they don't "acknowledge sprawl and make it work."
•   United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) launch the Green Building Initiative.
•   A new airport in Florida is almost ready for its close-up; now they hope development will follow (nature be damned, it seems: "It's been oversold, underdesigned, undermanaged and now botched as a construction project").
•   Cardinal designs domed stadium on former rail yard in Regina (high hopes lots of development will follow).
•   Ratner brings in a big gun to give Atlantic Yards stadium design a "once over" (he likes it), and discusses bringing in "different architects, good architects, to do each of the residential buildings" (the project breaks ground tomorrow).
•   Hadid's Broad Museum (finally) breaking ground in East Lansing, MI, despite some raised eyebrows (lots of pix).
•   Another take (and lots of great pix) on SANAA's Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne.
•   A new training and conference center for the life sciences in Heidelberg takes its architectural cue from DNA.
•   San Antonio has big plans for an eight-mile stretch of its river to reconnect it to its neighbors (no souvenir margarita glasses or "funky, modern artwork to confound people").
•   King on a San Francisco architect's answer to disaster relief: House Arc modular cottages: "every creative initiative helps."
•   Hungary picks curators and theme "BorderLINE Architecture" for Venice Biennale (great pix, video).
•   Bernstein bemoans the "heavy, kitschy artwork" on the "ethereal, sculptural" façade of the New Museum.
•   A Spanish town ventures into solar industries - its brief boom-turned-bust is a cautionary tale.
•   Seoul's Grand Park gets an OLEV "train" for public transportation - next stop: the city's bus routes.
•   A new concept for freeways to solve the distance problem in driving electric cars.
•   An eyeful of the world's first printed building ("Dini wants to build a cathedral with it").
•   Winners all: an eyeful of the Zumtobel Prize winners from Brazil and New York; and Imagine H2O Prize ideas can save the world hundreds of billions of gallons of water.
•   Call for entries: Game Changers: Design a game that aims to create change by improving lives or inspiring new behaviors.
•   We couldn't resist: a naughty word hidden in a Tucson building's trim: "the work of a mischievous architect in the late 1960s" (who remains unnamed).

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2010_03_10.htm - Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Today’s News - Monday, February 1, 2010

•   ArcSpace brings us Allied Works Architecture in Calgary, and OMA in Hong Kong.
•   How architecture has played a vital role in the redevelopment of (once very violent) Medellín, Colombia, "driven by the concept of 'the most beautiful for the most humble'" (what a concept!).
•   Kamin cheers (with caveats) Obama's high-speed rail plan: "It could be transformative, but stations (and architecture) matter as much as speed."
•   A possible 2020 Budapest Olympics on the horizon (it would do wonders for the city).
•   Architects come up with prefab and modular flat-pack housing for Haiti (now all they need are sponsors).
•   New LEED long-term reporting requirements: will building owners want to play ball.
•   Rawsthorn mediates a debate at Davos re: sustainable design with three designers committed to sustainability, but with very different perspectives.
•   Renovation plans - including a much-discussed vertical green wall - for Portland's 1975 federal building of "concrete, glass and minimal inspiration" are still being refined (and raising some eyebrows).
•   An impressive team works on overcoming the "ugly factor" of building-integrated solar panels because for architects and developers, "looks matter."
•   An interesting discussion re: urban agriculture - "There are no downsides, except, possibly, rats. But if you plan well...you won't get rodents."
•   Essen's Folkwang Art Museum expansion by Chipperfield is Germany's latest architectural landmark (wonder-of-wonders for a starchitect's project, it also finished on time and on budget - wow).
•   Q&A with Chipperfield re: Folkwang: "I don't want people to come here and say 'oh, wow' about the architecture...I want them to walk straight to the works, and then afterwards, say, 'oh, the architecture was nice, too.'"
•   Saffron on a lost opportunity at a much-needed shopping center in North Philly: it "is hardly the worst-designed...It just happens to be the worst-designed one in the best location."
•   London-based muf to curate British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
•   Lord Foster pens an essay re: his Yale School of Management and how his time at Yale inspired the design.
•   One way Edmonton, Canada, could stem "a brain drain of creative types" could be "inspiring urban design, spurred by an architecture school ("Our tolerance for crap is now zero," sayeth the mayor).
•   U.K. puts nuclear bunkers on list of protected national monuments (a housing development soon to follow).
•   Webb weaves a lively tale of Contract's Designers of the Year 2010, Graft: "a productive bundle of contradictions" + eyefuls of the Interiors Awards 2010 winners.
•   Is outer space the next architectural frontier? Foster + Partners' Jennings says yes; Edward Cullinan' Nicholson says "we should master building on earth rather than screwing up space."

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2010_02_01.htm - Monday, February 1, 2010

Today’s News - Monday, June 29, 2009

•   ArcSpace brings us eyefuls a new museum in China and another take on Piano's Modern Wing.
•   Lewis hopes the U.S. can find an "official champion of architecture" a la Moynihan: "is thoughtful design advocacy by U.S. leaders and citizens also improbable, now and in the future? Let's hope not" (at least the Brits are worrying and talking about design).
•   Russell to Atlanta: just because you're not getting a concert hall by Calatrava: "a new site and a new architect should not be a license to lowball."
•   Pearman visits the new Acropolis Museum and likes what he sees - on the inside, anyway.
•   San Francisco rethinks its Transbay Transit Terminal plans: a gamble that might - or might not - pay off.
•   Some ideas on how to green a city without tearing it down.
•   Does the disabled lobby have too great a say in planning? Yes, says Allford; no, argues RNIB's Winyard.
•   Kamin gives a hearty thumbs-up to Chicago's new Riverwalk: "combines engineering muscle and architectural élan" (don't expect San Antonio - and that's a good thing - great pix, too).
•   Rochon finds "there's no war being waged between cars and bikes" as she cycles around Copenhagen; the city offers some serious lessons for Toronto's planners.
•   Meanwhile, California could be in for an interesting architect-designed bike storage system (an added plus: it won't be easy to steal wheels).
•   Twisting, turning towers in Dubai take a "turn for the worse" (not all are so pessimistic).
•   As India modernizes its airports, will they lose their uniqueness?
•   O'Donnell & Tuomey beats out an impressive shortlist for LSE student center commission.
•   A new museum in Germany turns the world's climate zones into an experience (alas, no mention of architect).
•   "Dresden will survive" losing UNESCO World Heritage Site status for Elbe Valley (but Germany gains another site).

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2009_06_29.htm - Monday, June 29, 2009