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Today’s News - Thursday, December 17, 2009

•   Forget Copenhagen. Chakrabarti imagines a city-focused national strategy to make the U.S. healthy, prosperous and green.
•   Anderson wonders whether '09 was "the best of times or the worst of times for green progress in New York City and Planet Earth."
•   Prince Charles in hot water again for meddling in eco-town policies (he wants them to look like Poundbury).
•   Hawthorne finds "a handful of memorable architectural moments" at CityCenter, but wonders "what might have been if a really rip-roaring group of firms, one with a collective taste for scale, color, irony and abandon, had been allowed to drain that $8.5 billion budget."
•   Walker chats it up with the CityCenter dream team (a veritable "starchitect love-in").
•   Q&A with Libeskind re: CityCenter, why it's more important than ever to build big, and why he's sick of the bickering over Ground Zero.
•   An amusing interview with Gehry: "Don't call me a starchitect" (and "urban planning is dead in the U.S." - who knew?).
•   Removing minarets will "not lead to the removal of Muslim architecture from the skylines - it pointed the way for architecture in the West."
•   Rosenbaum roles through even more museums with major expansions in the works.
•   Buffalo wants to hitch its reputation to vintage architecture to improve its image (lots of restoration/preservation required).
•   A onetime Nevada brothel could become conservationists' dream oasis (river included).
•   At 90, Soleri might finally get to see one of his bridges built (in Scottsdale).
•   Blueprint's picks of the change-makers for 2010.
•   Glancey glows in Speirs and Major's architectural lighting: "They're not overawed by or promiscuous with new technology."
•   Niemeyer on his birthday: "Turning 102 is crap, and there is nothing to commemorate."
•   Call for entries: Architecture for Humanity's 2010 Homeless World Cup Legacy Center in Rio de Janeiro (winner will be built).
•   One we couldn't resist: an eyeful of Hadid's "snack-itecture."

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2009_12_17.htm - Thursday, December 17, 2009

Today’s News - Monday, November 16, 2009

•   ArcSpace brings us Ando in Venice and a "visual celebration" of leopards (indeed!).
•   USGBC report: green construction will add billions to U.S. GDP and create 8 million new jobs (here's hoping!).
•   Hawthorne cheers the opening of L.A.'s 8 new metro stations: "More transit means more pedestrians...and new interest in our long-neglected streetscapes and public sphere."
•   Forgey returns from Toronto with lessons for D.C.'s "contextual community...Loosen up."
•   "Context\Contrast" at NYC's Center for Architecture puts the importance of context under a microscope: "the chief battleground for a happy city is the architectural word "context."
•   A new gallery in Johannesburg is "a small building with a big attitude" that "makes it hard not to wonder from where it appeared" (looks very cool to us).
•   Grimshaw called on the carpet by environmentalists for taking on Heathrow's third runway project: they're going "to try to persuade the firm to stand down from the job."
•   Lewis on architects' love of glass - for better and worse.
•   Traditional building arts continue to thrive in the capital of Yemen's Old City: "They experimented for hundreds of years to find these techniques...nowadays we are building houses with a very stupid concept."
•   Dyckhoff hails the new Puritanism in architecture, celebrating the "austerity" of Caruso St John's Nottingham Contemporary: "This, ladies and gentlemen, is an anti-icon."
•   Saffron cheers a new visitors center for FLW's often-overlooked (and only) synagogue.
•   Princeton celebrates the re-opening of Whig Hall after an overhaul of a 1972 overhaul of the 1893 building.
•   Lubetkin's 1930s buildings at Dudley Zoo, listed as endangered the WMF, may have a bright future.
•   Glancey takes a TV series to task for seeing "Britain's art-deco history through neon-tinted glasses" (it "should get its history straight").
•   Mack cheers Moe: "If you favored preservation before, you'll really like it when you realize it's the ultimate green movement."
•   An eyeful of two architects quietly spreading their brand of sustainable design in northern Baja, Mexico, turning trash into interesting architecture.
•   We couldn't resist: a prize-winning public potty in Austin just keeps racking up international accolades for its "exquisite simplicity" (and pix to prove it).

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2009_11_16.htm - Monday, November 16, 2009

Today’s News - Tuesday, July 7, 2009

•   We lose Bernard Zimmerman, who "will be best remembered as the conscience of his profession."
•   A review of London's "particularly poignant" 7/7 Memorial, which opens today.
•   Ouroussoff sees much more at stake if Kurokawa's 1972 Nakagin Capsule Tower is allowed to be demolished: "This is not only an architectural tragedy, it is also a distortion of history."
•   New homes in a New Orleans neighborhood show a "gutsy individuality" - a.k.a. "Post-Katrina Eclectic"; architects critique (judging from the pix, there are some goodies - and some groaners).
•   King looks at three teams' visions for "collateral damage from the recession": vacant lots.
•   The profession of the future: landscape architecture.
•   Of Fisher's museum plans for the Presidio and the "sheer venom" of the NIMBY crowd: "No wonder he pulled the plug on the project."
•   Pei's National Gallery East Building façade is getting an $85 million overhaul.
•   Gardner on Gwathmey's "best recent work in New York": Soho Mews possesses "an undeniable dignity."
•   The new Beirut Art Center in a former factory is now "a popular destination for Beirutis, tourists and critics across Lebanon."
•   A most intruiging look at what life was like living in Koenig's Case Study House No. 22 (and did he really design it?).
•   Despite the economy, "interest in sustainability is at an all-time high" (it's good to have LEED after your name on a resumé).
•   ENR's Top 100 Green Design Firms.
•   A sustainable design survey calls out who architects cite as role models.
•   Getting serious about urban farming: in NYC, a massive rooftop vegetable garden, and Milwaukee's Growing Power "is an agricultural Mumbai."
•   Australia's National Portrait Gallery takes top prizes.
•   Call for entries: international competition to redesign Abbey Green in Barking, East London.

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2009_07_07.htm - Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Today’s News - Monday, March 16, 2009

•   ArcSpace brings us OMA in Taipei, and Vuga in Slovenia.
•   We offer our own take on the happy ending for Venturi Scott Brown's little beach house that could (with links to other reports: Saffron x 2 - from the beginning to the end of its journey).
•   Ouroussoff on a Stockholm competition that has "done us a major public service" offering "a snapshot of contemporary urban planning ideas" (Novel: "breathtaking"; Foster: "head-scratching"; BIG: "impetuous").
•   What of NYC's grand plans now we're in a recession: the administration "has no intention of scaling back its Moses-like ambitions."
•   More on "Grand Paris" plans (this one includes links to images by all architects involved).
•   Wood takes on his "fifth, biggest and most challenging 'romantic interlude'": transforming another old neighborhood in a Chinese city into a thriving urban center.
•   More details re: L.A. Civic Center Park, "envisioned as a connector between government and cultural institutions."
•   Starchitects feel the pinch as the boom turns to bust in Spain: "Barcelona's glory fades as city of pioneering designs."
•   Litt sheds more light on Cleveland's debate re: new medical mart and convention center proposals (straightening the riverbank perhaps not such a good idea after all).
•   The new U.S. mission to the U.N. is only "one of a new generation of hardened U.S. diplomatic outposts."
•   Finland picks design for a new embassy building in Tokyo (though economics may put the project "on hold for a bit").
•   Glancey is "dazzled" by Berlin's Neues Museum: "an unapologetic modernist can take a major historic building and bring fresh life to it without losing the old fabric, its charm and its ghosts."
•   Hawthorne gives (mostly) thumbs-up to Dodgers' Camelback Ranch training camp: "an aesthetic attitude on display that stops well short of extravagance" and a "winningly low-key feel" - despite the big price tag.
•   Lewis on the brouhaha re: Apple store in Georgetown: "too much ado" about the design.
•   Campbell profiles a young Boston architect shifting to the global stage.
•   Winners all: SBIC 2008 Beyond Green High-Performance Building Awards.

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2009_03_16.htm - Monday, March 16, 2009

Today’s News - Monday, January 5, 2009

•   ArcSpace launches into the new year with an eyefuls of Gehry's AGO and Robert Wilson's VOOM Portraits and Chairs.
•   China may be reigning in its eco-city plans, but at least it's making some progress on green design codes; even its economic stimulus package includes environmental projects.
•   Malaysian architects cheer the country's just-launched Green Building Index.
•   Even NYC is coming around to wind power.
•   An impressive shortlist of 9 for U.S. Embassy in London.
•   King on the behind-the-scenes planning going on for the Transbay district: "a contrast to the sporadic drama of the past two years."
•   Towering plans in L.A. include demolishing Yamasaki's 1966 Century Plaza hotel (not all are pleased).
•   Russell on Libeskind's One Madison Avenue in Manhattan: it "captures a ruthless energy...If only he did not so clumsily cross just about every line that used to define architectural civility."
•   Heathcote has high hopes for OMA's Commonwealth Institute: the "architecture is surprisingly quiet...One day London will be grateful."
•   Kimmelman calls plans to rebuild Berlin's Hohenzollern Stadtschloss (a.k.a. the Prussian Palace) a "grand blunder."
•   Why design loves a depression: "the design world could stand to come down a notch or two."
•   A battle looms over plans to build a museum in the St. Louis Arch park.
•   Cincinnati Museum Center's roof may bloom to slash energy bill.
•   Glancey and Bayley offer their takes on what to keep an eye on in '09.
•   Rochon reviews '08: "The year threw us great curves."
•   Hawthorne's best - and worst - of '08: "a little self-analysis might be a productive thing in the end."
•   An army of experts (big names all) hone in on the decade's most remarkable homes.
•   Call for entries: DWR Champagne Chair Contest - deadline: this Friday(!), January 9.

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2009_01_05.htm - Monday, January 5, 2009

Today’s News - Wednesday, January 14, 2009

•   In Brooklyn, a new community center re-imagines public architecture and what civic buildings represent.
•   Calys cheers small town public buildings: "they aren't ho-hum any more."
•   AIA develops Rebuild and Renew Plan to stimulate economy and create 1.6 million jobs (let's hope Obama crew and Congress listen!).
•   Seven questions every firm needs to answer to see a "future beyond the economic dilemmas of today."
•   Campbell bids adieu to the "Bilbao Decade."
•   Viladas steps into the Cannell vs. Moss flap: "Score one for designers."
•   Stepping into the conversation now: Starck, Conran, and Allsopp debate the future of their industries in these lean times.
•   Another (not very positive) take on U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
•   A $5,000 dwelling made out of paper could revolutionize slums.
•   An environmentally-friendly cement that eats carbon dioxide could revolutionize construction.
•   Voelz Chandler gives (mostly) thumbs-up to 3 new Denver buildings that, while contemporary, get along with their more traditional, historic neighbors.
•   A new bridge for the Portland-Vancouver area could include vertical wind turbines; not all are convinced.
•   Heathcote heaps praise on London's "quirky, delightful little" Garden Museum.
•   Hume takes us on a stroll through the "accidental wilds" of the "new urban wilderness emerging in the shadowy spaces" beneath the Gardiner Expressway.
•   Parker receives Lifetime Achievement Award from ACHA.
•   We couldn't resist: the $40,000 workstation to replace your desk, chair, and computer setup (we're adding this to our Christmas wish list!).

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2009_01_14.htm - Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Today’s News - Monday, November 3, 2008

•   ArcSpace brings us the very first, exclusive look at Gehry's master plan to transform the industrial waterfront in Sønderborg, Denmark (lots of pix!).
•   Adam minces no words about the dearth of traditional architecture training in Britain because it's ruled by the "Sect of the Great Mystery" (a.k.a. Modernists).
•   Kamin takes an in-depth look at Chicago's skyline "on the verge of being frozen in place."
•   Foster's U2 tower in Dublin now "the most significant symbol of Ireland's slide into recession."
•   Dark clouds surround Scotland's national design center, The Lighthouse (we hope it finds a silver lining).
•   Dunes be damned: Trump trumps nature and wins approval for £1 billion Scottish golf resort.
•   Campbell gives two thumbs-up's to Yale's "enthusiastically renovated" Rudolph Hall (he's not so kind to the addition).
•   Rochon roils at intentional defacement of Mies benches - not by skateboarders, but as part of a larger "courtyard improvement project."
•   Glancey calls Westfield mega mall "the death of city architecture" (pix prove it - or not - your call).
•   But he finds Piano's Academy of Sciences "an environmental marvel" - it is "somehow classical, modern and organic in one and the same green breath."
•   Cloepfil's arts magnet school in Dallas is "a well-organized and thoughtfully appointed 'factory for the arts'...It's too bad the building itself can't have a little more fun."
•   Pearman on plans for permanent park in London: maybe this Olympic 2012 plan will win the public over.
•   King sees a modest bank branch in Modesto as "a throwback to a time when roadside architecture glowed with pride."
•   Face-lift for the Fontainebleau; "We kept asking ourselves, 'What would Morris do?'"
•   Rockwell tapped to design Academy Awards show: "I think we'll see things never seen before at the Oscars."
•   NYC's skyline glitters with a gentler glow.
•   An Israeli company develops a clean technology to extract water from the air.
•   Call for entries: 2009 Berkeley Prize - 11th Annual Essay Competition.
•   It's election eve - we couldn't resist: Heller's vote for best 2008 campaign buttons...now, Americans - be sure to VOTE tomorrow!

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2008_11_03.htm - Monday, November 3, 2008

Today’s News - Monday, November 24, 2008

•   ArcSpace takes us to Korea and The Netherlands.
•   ULI report: London, New York still lead, but other global cities are nipping at their heels.
•   Bayley's silver lining in economic crisis? It could "herald a new era of more considerate architecture" as "godless architectural experimentation has been turned into a graveyard of the architecture of greed."
•   Some firms fear tried-and-true methods of surviving a tanking economy "will fall short as the economy craters."
•   Could the current economic crisis teach Czech businesses to have a better attitude toward the environment?
•   Foster's Russia Tower is another victim (or not, depending on whom you talk to).
•   Rose on how Dubai's "fantasy skyline" is tumbling to earth" (or not, depending on whom you talk to).
•   Rybczynski takes on buildings that try too hard to be icons: "the Bilbao effect has not proved easy to replicate...iconic buildings don't have to be great architecture."
•   Ouroussoff finds Pei's new museum in Qatar "an art museum of imposing simplicity" (it looks perfectly iconic to us).
•   King has high hopes that it is the beginning of a fresh chapter - and not a finale - in saga of Fisher's Presidio museum plans.
•   Goldberger offers high praise - and suggestions - for "lucky" Portland.
•   Renovating the U.N., with hints of green.
•   Kamin looks even deeper into his long love/hate relationship with Rudolph's A+A - and has a revelation.
•   Cheek gives (mostly) thumbs-up to Indianapolis International Airport's new terminal.
•   FIU's new Frost Art Museum is a "high-tech architectural jewel" (very green and hurricane-proof, too).
•   University of Chicago picks architects for Laboratory Schools expansion project.
•   Cooper-Hewitt's Paul Thompson heads to London's Royal College of Art (a surprise pick to some; shortlist even more surprising).
•   Rumors roiling re: AR's Paul Finch ("this may be but the first tremor in the world of British design pubs").

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2008_11_24.htm - Monday, November 24, 2008

Today’s News - Monday, September 8, 2008

•   ArcSpace brings us de Portzamparc in Brazil, and Moneo at RISD.
•   McGuigan looks forward to the day when green architecture "won't be discretionary but required...Then we could all shut up about it."
•   Q&A with two U.K. green architects: "Green technology is not something that can be bolted on."
•   A new environmental game to determine how human behavior and land use affect air quality.
•   A call for Phoenix to regain its seemingly lost architectural moxie in settling for low-bid buildings and timid design.
•   Ouroussoff offers a few highlights of the coming architectural season.
•   Davidson dives into a building-by-building survey of what's hot (and what's not) in new New York architecture (it's exhaustive and worth the time!).
•   The architects behind the starchitects (or what the architects-of-record really do).
•   Glancey finds the Darwin Centre "a quietly masterful stroke" (though it might be a bit too "Kafka-esque" for some).
•   Amery finds the "giant egg" a building "of great originality and intelligence...that functions both practically and dramatically."
•   Hadid to get value-engineered again - this time in Glasgow.
•   Rochon on the latest trend in university design: offering "big-city pleasures wrapped up in welcoming, occasionally daring architecture."
•   Saffron is pleased to see the trend catching on in new state college buildings because today, "merely being a bargain is not enough."
•   Rockwell lands the 2008 Sarno Award for contributions to the field of casino design and architecture.
•   MoMA's Lowry begs to differ with Ouroussoff's take on Koolhaas not winning the job Taniguchi ultimately landed.
•   Deadline reminder: 56th Annual P/A Awards - September 19.

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2008_09_08.htm - Monday, September 8, 2008

Today’s News - Monday, September 29, 2008

•   ArcSpace brings us an eyeful of a new museum in Austria, and Ma Yansong's new book.
•   A rather contentious day for architecture: Ouroussoff's wish list of NYC buildings he'd like to seen torn down because they bring us down (who "us," kemo sabe?!!?).
•   Rosenbaum calls him on it, saying his call to obliterate new MAD is nothing short of "critical malpractice."
•   Speaking of MAD, Campbell finds its IKEA carton exterior "a huge disappointment," but likes what he sees inside.
•   Kamin calls it "sweetly, but imperfectly, transformed," holding lessons "about breathing new life into oddball architecture."
•   Kennicott seems most pleased to see the Stone building gone: "a building that was hard to love has been turned into a building that is hard to hate."
•   McGuigan muses that while it's not flawless, MAD "manages to both echo the past and breathe new life into a long-derelict little block."
•   Hawthorne offers an amusing annotated reading of Huxtable's famous "lollipop" review (even though he respectfully disagrees).
•   Dietsch on Pei's new China chancery in DC: "more diplomatic than daring...possesses all the requisite qualities of a Washington government building - solidity, dignity and monumentality."
•   Gunts has high hopes for Baranes's plan to save the Mechanic Theater "as long as the owners and the city don't settle for anything less."
•   Heathcote heaps high praise on Hadid: "the most astonishingly original figures in contemporary design."
•   King on Piano's clear vision for the Academy of Sciences.
•   Behind all the Academy hoopla is the too under-heralded Gordon Chong finally given a voice.
•   Big plans for a sculpture park in Des Moines.
•   New study says don't blame cities for climate change, see them as solutions (they're not as polluting as you think).
•   The details that take buildings from being wonderful to genius.
•   Kaplan calls for L.A. to let loose the neon.
•   With 10% of its membership overseas (and depressing home-front downturn), RIBA moves into Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Gulf.
•   An eyeful of the winners in Jordan's Omrania | CSBE Student Award for Excellence.

http://www.archnewsnow.com/news/news_2008_09_29.htm - Monday, September 29, 2008