Thursday, June 13, 2019
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days. We'll be back Tuesday, June 18.
Click here to see today's news.
Kamin x 2: He cheers a new oval apartment tower: "Something about the oval seems alien to Midwestern pragmatism. So we box ourselves in. Now, though, there's an eye-catching ellipse-shaped high-rise in a prominent place." -- He explains why Tigerman's "Rolls-Royce of parking garages" ("a dash of wit in a sober city") and other buildings, "all less than 50 years old, occupy a netherworld: They're too old to be young and too young to be old. No longer fashionable but not yet venerated. The recent past needs to be on our radar screen - before it disappears." -- Hilburg reports that Arquitectonica's 1982 Babylon apartment block in Miami, and its "distinctive stepped, fire-truck-red façade," is about to bite the dust: "Fears over the now-abandoned building's demolition have swirled for years, but last January, the ziggurat-inspired complex" lost its historic designation. -- On a brighter note, Sasaki has been tapped to remake Pei's Boston City Hall Plaza "into a place people might actually want to be. The city is finally heeding 50 years of recommendations from countless undergrad architecture theses: fix the bricked-up prairie." -- King x 2: He takes a stroll with Dan Parolek looking for "the signals of discreet density" (the "missing middle") - his "fresh way to fit modest, relatively affordable new homes into established communities without stirring up NIMBY opposition is picking up steam." -- He parses the new plan unveiled for San Francisco's waterfront: "Where the vision a generation ago was how to bring a moribund but sumptuous shoreline to life, the task ahead includes responding to high public expectations and the likelihood of sea level rise" (the cost is "daunting"). -- Holder reports that "the biggest shared-living-space-cum-mega-dorm-for-emerging-adults ever conceived" (the "Titanic of co-living" an 800-unit "dorm for adults") is coming to San Jose - "maybe it's cynical to conclude that this whole concept is just the most efficient way to warehouse tech workers when they're not coding. But it could also be better than the alternative: isolation and loneliness" (group activities include "weekend outings" and "spill-your-guts bonding sessions"). -- It's an Uber kind of day: Ravenscroft offers video fly-throughs of 8 proposals for Uber Air Skyports envisioned for Dallas, Los Angeles, and Melbourne, Australia. -- A closer look at the proposals by 5 Dallas firms for Uber Elevate's skyports. -- Foster + Partners is on the Uber track with a design for a Related Santa Clara "skyport" - the 240-acre development "was 'a logical choice' for Uber Elevate." -- Wachs weighs in on Harvard GSD's launch of the African American Design Nexus platform that "brings together the work of black architects and landscape architects from the past and present to explore their practices and provoke change within design institutions. That change is sorely needed." -- Russell cheers Lesley Lokko being named dean at CCNY's Spitzer School of Architecture, and June Williamson being elected chair of the department: "New leadership cannot come too soon for a school plagued by leadership gaps and budget cuts" (and more women in the upper echelons of education!). -- A good reason to head to the City by the Bay next week: 9-day San Francisco Design Week, themed "CommUNITY": "Here are all the can't-miss events" that "reflect the diversity of design disciplines in the area." -- ICYMI: ANN feature: Bouras talks to Betsky re: experiment and experience at Taliesin - and beyond: Architecture, he says, is everything that is about building or buildings: how we design, represent, and discuss them, what they mean, and how they act in our society.
Weekend diversions:
-- Wainwright is wow'd by the Dulwich Pavilion: "Sitting on chubby red legs, the dizzying Colour Palace is mesmerizing," and "shows the joyful power of letting rip" with color; it will give the Serpentine's "moody grey slate canopy" by Ishigami "stiff competition this summer." -- Golenda's Q&A with Aric Chen, the new curatorial director of Design Miami/Basel, re: his "plans to not only to change the operations but also the content of the fair itself - and highlights from this year's gallery program" (up until Sunday). -- The traveling "Now What?! Advocacy, Activism & Alliances in American Architecture since 1968" lands in Buffalo (with link to the show's digital archive).
Page-turners:
-- Crosbie's great Q&A with Thomas Fisher re: his new book, "The Architecture of Ethics" that "digs into this topic in great depth and with engaging insight": "The environmental and social justice movements have infused architectural design with ethical considerations. Sometimes, you just have to say no." -- WORKac's Wood cheers Kolson Hurley's "Radical Suburbs: Experimental Living on the Fringes of the American City": "When a book contains a chapter called 'The Anarchists Who Took the Commuter Train,' you know it is going to be an interesting read - it does not disappoint. All of the stories are masterfully told." -- Lindgren considers Goldberger's "Ballpark: Baseball in the American City": "His analyses are done with clarity and wit. He has philosophical, even poetic, criteria for what makes a good shrine to the horsehide." -- An excerpt from historian Giles Tillotson's "Delhi Darshan: The History and Monuments of India's Capital" - and a Q&A with the author. -- Welton dives into Annie Kelly and Tim Street-Porter's "Splash: The Art of the Swimming Pool" - a book "that celebrates the style, design, and beauty that these watery oases bring to life."
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