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Today's News - May 12, 2006

Rebuilding New Orleans: are there "too many cooks in the kitchen"? -- University of Virginia faculty and students offer some solutions. -- New Urbanism in the U.K.: a new town - modernists welcome. -- Maybe feudal landlords had it right all along. -- Gehry/Olin team presents a new, slightly smaller (but mostly unchanged) plan for Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards. -- In Massachusetts, a ban on filling landfills - construction/demolition recycling is the way to go. -- McDonald's new look for the 21st century (look out Starbucks!). -- An Ohio town library expansion says thanks but no thanks to "progressive contemporary architecture." -- A Sacramento museum expansion says thanks but no thanks to replicating 19th century style. -- Beautiful planters that really suck up storm water (let's hope we see more of these!). -- In this age of computers, "if we want to live in a world that looks as if it has been conceived and designed by humans, architects will need to pick up their pencils again and start drawing on napkins over long lunches." -- Design-Build Awards call for entries. -- Another thumbs-up for Gehry flick. -- Editor's note: don't forget this Sunday is Mother's Day!

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New Master Planners Being Sought in New Orleans: ...proposed city master plan...was supposed to be the definitive document for rebuilding. But now there is another major player vying to get involved....RFQ will likely be released shortly after the mayoral runoff May 20... -- Wallace, Roberts, Todd (WRT); Concordia Architecture & Planning; Paul Lambert/Lambert Advisory; Sheila Danzey/SHEDO; Reed Kroloff- Architectural Record

Gulf Coast rebuild: Form should follow function: If you dont have basic services, you cant get things done...but who's going to deliver the materials? Whos going to inspect the building? -- John Quale; William Morrish; Elizabeth Roettger; Maurice Cox; Robin Dripps; Habitat for Humanity; ecoMOD [image]- The Hook (Virginia)

New Urbanism sweeps Britain: from Seaside to Sherford: ...an entirely new town to be built over the green fields of the Sherford Valley...And yes, contrary to popular belief when it comes to anything connected with Charles, modernists will be welcome. By Hugh Pearman -- Hank Dittmar/Prince's Foundation [image]- HughPearman.com (UK)

Praise the lord for the patrician approach of feudal landowners: Britain spent centuries overthrowing feudal landlords...only to discover that the heart has been ripped out of our towns... The Great Estates at New London Architecture...has shown why the old ways were not all bad.- Telegraph (UK)

Gehry, Olin unveil progress on Atlantic Yards design: Forest City Ratner and designers discuss new, mostly unchanged project for [$3.5 billion] stadium, residential and office complex...it seems that New York’s Gehryville, U.S.A. is here to stay. [images]- The Architect's Newspaper (NYC)

Developer Defends Atlantic Yards, Saying Towers Won't Corrupt the Feel of Brooklyn: ...developer and the project's opponents still have different visions of what Brooklyn should feel like..."puts a Gehry sheen on top of repudiated 1960's-style urban renewal." - Olin [images, video]- New York Times

Massachusetts Landfills Are Off-Limits For Construction and Demolition: ...ban is designed to help preserve limited landfill capacity and increase recycling...- Engineering News-Record (ENR)

Mickey D's McMakeover: The heavy plastic look is history. A clean, simple design is on the way in: The world's largest hamburger chain is redesigning its 30,000 eateries around the globe in a 21st century makeover of unprecedented scale. -- Gensler/Studio 585; Lippincott Mercer [slide show]- BusinessWeek

Lakewood's new library plan speaks volumes: ...reached for a star when it chose Robert A.M. Stern to design its $16 million expansion and renovation. It also sent a very strong message about the current trend toward progressive contemporary architecture in Ohio: Thanks, but no thanks. By Steven Litt- Cleveland Plain Dealer

Crocker Art Museum's new vision: Infusion of city funds will allow $78 million expansion to begin in 2007...Unlike last expansion, the painstaking 1989 reconstruction of the historic Crocker home next to the gallery, this one won't seek to replicate a 19th century style. -- Gwathmey Siegel [images]- Sacramento Bee (California)

Storm-water surprise: Four planter boxes suck up 180,000 gallons annually from entering the sewer system...American Society of Landscape Architects named them “the best executed example of this type of work we’ve ever seen.”- Portland Tribune (Oregon)

Back to the drawing board: ...computers have become an indispensable part of the construction process...have created a dangerous fissure between the brain and the hand which...is leading to an insidious and serious diminution of quality and thought in architecture. By Edwin Heathcote -- Gehry; Foreign Office Architects; Hadid; Reiser + Umemoto- Financial Times (UK)

Call For Entries: 2006 National Design-Build Awards Competition; deadline: July 14- Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA)

In 'Sketches of Frank Gehry,' a Design for Living Large: ...respects the essential enigma of its subject even as it illuminates his ways of thinking about form, space and construction.- New York Times

-- Maya Lin: Confluence Project, Cape Disappointment State Park, Ilwaco, Washington
-- Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington

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