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Today's News - November 6, 2006

ArcSpace brings us SANAA in the Netherlands, and shopping in Tokyo. -- Kamin finds two projects prove there's a place for subtlety in an age of spectacle. -- The proliferation of glass condo towers that look like "look like live-in limousines." -- The story behind the one-two punch in Denver's Civic Center saga. -- Campbell finds "excitement and delight" in Denver's new museum: "Libeskind has simply taken a well-known architectural language and used it to write a better poem." -- A Q&A with the 3 finalists vying for Denver's Clyfford Still Museum. -- New study finds sprawl not the cause of sprawling waistlines. -- Boddy finds Vancouver's EcoDensity Initiative a "minor masterpiece of the literature of greenwashing." -- Glancey revisits Britain's 60-year-old new towns and wonders if it is "time to embrace Basildon, Milton Keynes and co." -- A Canadian community looks to embrace New Urbanism (not without growing pains). -- Hopeful lessons in the Jacobs vs. Moses debate. -- Lowly rooftops becoming Corbu's dream of being the "fifth facade." -- Lessons sprout from a lone patch of green roof in the Bronx. -- One proposal for L.A.'s Cornfield Park is way out there (but at least it stirred the pot). -- Pearman finds a new London gallery "chillingly impressive." -- A third Sullivan treasure in Chicago goes up in smoke. -- A look at how sustainability is suddenly good for business. -- A Parsons program has students hanging their hearts on their hardhats. -- NYC firms offer their visions of the city in 2016.

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-- SANAA: Competition Sketches, De Kunstlinie Theatre and Cultural Centre, Almere, The Netherlands
-- "Shopping" in Tokyo (Part 1)

Pendulum may be swinging against once-revolutionary designs: ...even in this age of spectacle, there remains a place for subtlety. It's evident at the exquisite new Glass Pavilion of the Toledo Museum of Art...and the equally appealing new Kresge Foundation Headquarters in Troy, Mich...serene but lively; modest but by no means mousy. By Blair Kamin -- Sejima/Nishizawa/SANAA; Valerio Dewalt Train- Chicago Tribune

Letting in the city's light: In modern NYC, glass proliferates in spirit of material voyeurism: ...apartment buildings have come to look like corporate headquarters...cladding condominiums in tinted glass and making them look like live-in limousines. By Justin Davidson -- Koenig; Neutra; Johnson; Meier; Dubbeldam; Handel; Gwathmey; Nouvel; Tschumi- NY Newsday

Down for the Count: The greater Civic Center has delivered a one-two punch...The first...when superstar architect Daniel Libeskind...shot himself -- and the mayor -- in the foot by unveiling his ridiculous ideas for "enlivening" the Civic Center...The second disaster involved another superstar architect, Steven Holl...So how did this all go down? Here's the story. -- klipp architects- Denver Westword

Denver hits a high point: Daniel Libeskind designs an exhilarating wing for the city's art museum: ...I was ready to dismiss the new Denver Art Museum as a show-off piece of architecture...I wandered the galleries with a growing sense of excitement and delight. DAM is a wonderful building. By Robert Campbell -- Davis Partnership- Boston Globe

Who will design Clyfford Still Museum? Q&A with 3 finalists. By Kyle MacMillan -- Allied Works Architecture; Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Ohlhausen DuBois Architects [images]- Denver Post

Obesity, urban sprawl link questioned: Don't blame your ballooning waistline on urban sprawl, say researchers at the University of Toronto, the London School of Economics and Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain...The study suggests the battle against obesity should be fought on other fronts. (CanWest)- Ottawa Citizen (Canada)

Sustainability plan long on bluster, short on specifics: One day, I predict, the six-page non-manifesto...entitled Vancouver EcoDensity Initiative will achieve global renown as a minor masterpiece of the literature of greenwashing. By Trevor Boddy- Globe and Mail (Canada)

Brave new world: No expense was spared when Britain began building its new towns - yet still many residents felt as if they had been sent into exile. Sixty years on, is it time to embrace Basildon, Milton Keynes and co? Jonathan Glancey visits the land of housing estates, roundabouts and concrete cows- Guardian (UK)

Seaton's green dream: Born in an expropriation battle, this Pickering community is looking to embrace the New Urbanism. Must strike a balance between protecting environment and supporting social, economic infrastructure...will be home to about 70,000 residents. -- John Van Nostrand/Planning Alliance- Toronto Star

Stuyvesant Town, Queens West And The Debate Over Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses: The (hopeful) lesson...When people are truly included in the planning...and when smart public policy helps shape growth to make it work for neighborhoods, communities can be willing to accept large-scale development and shoulder their share of the city’s growth. By Brad Lander- Gotham Gazette (NYC)

Architects change their view of the lowly roof: Thanks in part to the surging popularity of Google Earth...rooftops are shedding their reputation as forgotten, wind-swept corners of the urban landscape and moving toward the center of architectural practice...a building's "fifth façade." By Christopher Hawthorne -- Herzog and De Meuron; Renzo Piano; Frank Gehry; Calatrava; Le Corbusier; Ken Smith; Enrique Norten; Thom Mayne- Los Angeles Times

Learning from Green Roofs: A Bronx School’s Lesson in Saving Energy: ...a lone patch of green in the quilt of gray, beige and black... -- Gaia Institute; Green Roofs Institute; Earth Pledge- E/The Environmental Magazine

An Idea That's Off Base: Proposal to Move Dodger Stadium Will Knock Design Team Out of Cornfield Contention. By Sam Hall Kaplan -- Field Operations/Thom Mayne; Mia Lehrer + Associates; Hargreaves Associates- LA Downtown News

Art and London psychogeography: Louise T. Blouin finds herself in Frestonia: ...chillingly impressive Blouin building...is good architecture, hampered by ambiguity. By Hugh Pearman -- Borgos Dance [images]- HughPearman.com (UK)

Happy 150th Birthday Louis Sullivan - We've Burned Down Your Third Building This Year! Adler and Sullivan's George M. Harvey House is gutted by middle-of-the-night blaze...Architectural preservation in the city of Chicago has hit another new low. Does anyone here know how to play this game? By Lynn Becker [images]- Repeat (Chicago)

Leaders challenge 'business as usual': Governments are legislating for it, corporations are coming round to it, and the public now expects it. Murray Armstrong looks at how sustainability is suddenly good for business- Guardian (UK)

Wearing Their Hearts on Their Hard Hats: A program at Parsons the New School for Design allows students to realize a design project by providing free architectural and construction services to nonprofit organizations.- New York Times

Visions of Manhattan: For the City, 100-Year Makeovers: History Channel design competitors presented New Yorks for 2106. -- Archi-tectonics (Winka Dubbeldam); Architecture Research Office (Adam Yarinsky, Steve Cassell); Diana Balmori/Joel Sanders; Diane Lewis/Peter Schubert; Konyk Architecture; Rogers Marvel (Rob Rogers, Jonathan Marvel); Smith-Miller+Hawkinson (Henry Smith-Miller, Laurie Hawkinson); SYSTEM Architects (Jeremy Edminton, Douglas Gauthier); Terreform (Michael Sorkin, Mitchell Joachim); URGe Urban Research Group (Moji Baratloo) [images]- New York Times

Found in Space: Griffith Observatory's New Exhibitions: Innovative exhibits for an iconic institution are designed to build an appetite for discovery. -- C&G Partners; Pfeiffer Partners; Levin & Associates Architects [images]- ArchNewsNow

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