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Today's News - March 6, 2007

Hot off the press: the Louvre and Abu Dhabi sign on the dotted line - good news for Nouvel and the Château de Fontainebleau (not all may agree). -- A call for a major overhaul of federal transportation and housing policies to help struggling U.S. metropolitan areas. -- A study of Massachusetts second-tier cities, and the lessons for thorny issues like housing, sprawl, and workforce problems elsewhere. -- Could a Big Dig in Philadelphia be an answer for reclaiming the city's waterfront, or just pie-in-the-sky? -- Is Atlantic Yards really a done deal? -- A mixed Maine community creates a new identity. -- Take that, erotic gherkins and turning torsos: Koolhaas brings his "cynical wit" to San Francisco, and stirs King to warn of the dangerous side of "gargantuan novelty." -- Rochon finds timidity in all but one of four proposals for Nathan Phillips Square. -- Culture secretary wants "buffer zones" around British heritage sites. -- That could cause problems for Viñoly's planned "Walkie-Talkie" tower, among others. -- TED conference: "Where artists and inventors plot to save the world." -- Is Prague ready for "a huge green and purple jellyfish, with a big glass eye?" -- Mau meets Adjaye. -- Critics don't know quite what to call Heatherwick ("just don't call him architect"). -- Red Bull's London HQ seems "dreamed up by 12-year-olds." -- A call for UAE's design industry to get professional (no "decorators" please). -- Call for presentations for New Orleans Traditional Building Conference.

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Abu Dhabi and French governments in historic cultural accord: Louvre Abu Dhabi to be created within the Saadiyat Island Cultural District. -- Jean Nouvel- AME Info (United Arab Emirates)

Remaking Transportation and Housing Policy for the New Century: American metropolitan areas are struggling to shape growth patterns that are economically efficient, environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive...federal transportation and housing policy...needs to be substantially overhauled... By Bruce Katz- Brookings Institution

Reconnecting Massachusetts Gateway Cities: Lessons Learned and an Agenda for Renewal: 11-city study suggests that...mill cities...hold out potential answers to some of the Commonwealth's thorniest housing, sprawl, and workforce problems.- Brookings Institution

Let's bring prosperity to our second-tier cities, too: Now fresh light has been thrown on America's urban split. By Neal Peirce- Houston Chronicle

City's biggest block: The great I-95 divide: Experts on the waterfront think a Big Dig could make a contender...five design teams produced a laundry list of suggestions, from the familiar to the fanciful... By Inga Saffron -- Richard Bartholomew/Wallace Roberts & Todd; Harris Steinberg/Penn Praxis; Peter Latz; Gary Hack [link]- Philadelphia Inquirer

Atlantic Yards: A “Done Deal?” Both left and right now seem to agree that this project is too large and dense...and that state officials are both abusing the government’s condemnation powers by using them to favor one powerful developer... By Tom Angotti -- Frank Gehry; Laurie Olin- Gotham Gazette (NYC)

A Portland [Maine] Community Forges a New Identity: Unity Village, which cost $5.25 million and opened in 2001...offering affordable apartments in attractive town-house-style buildings...has coaxed people of different incomes, backgrounds and races to live side by side.- New York Times

Architectural curios dazzling but unsettling: Overall, it's great that design novelty sells...But today's craze for gargantuan novelty has a dangerous side...Buildings are real life -- that's their beauty and threat. By John King -- Koolhaas/Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) [images]- San Francisco Chronicle

Nathan Phillips Square needs design edit: While most of the finalists pay tribute to the follies of the past, a New York plan bravely moves forward. By Lisa Rochon -- Viljo Revell (1960s); Rogers Marvel Architects/Ken Smith Landscape Architect/du Toit Allsopp Hillier; Plant Architect; Zeidler Partnership Architects; Baird Sampson Neuert Architects- Globe and Mail (Canada)

World heritage sites to get protection from high rise and TV dishes: Public inquiries able to block insensitive building. Unesco warns of sites hit by unsightly development...new laws will create "buffer zones" around the country's most treasured sites...- Guardian (UK)

'Say no to Walkie Talkie tower': English Heritage demanded a veto on new skyscrapers being built between the City of London and Canary Wharf...could spell the end for the controversial "Walkie-Talkie" tower. -- Raphael Viñoly [image]- This is London (UK)

Where Artists and Inventors Plot to Save the World: More than 1,000 people will gather in Monterey, Calif., for the annual TED conference, named for the convergence of technology, entertainment and design.- New York Times

Czech National Library to have new building by Jan Kaplicky: ...who has come up with a most futuristic design: a huge green and purple jellyfish, with a big glass eye overlooking the city. -- Future Systems [images, audio]- Radio Prague

Bruce Mau meets David Adjaye...about design challenges in the 21st century. ...the dilemmas of longevity, sustainability and their own projects from Guatemala to Tower Hamlets.- Guardian (UK)

Bright Stuff: Artist, architect, a modern da Vinci — the critics don’t quite know how to describe Thomas Heatherwick. All they know is that they love his designs. [images, links]- Wired magazine

Red Bull HQ: Some aspects of the eye-catching interior seem dreamed up by 12-year-olds, but with quality finishes and detailing. By Terri Whitehead -- Jump Architects [images]- ArchitectureWeek

Professional body for pro designers: Association of Professional Interior Designers (APID)...in a bid to encourage more members of the UAE's design industry to become affiliated...to counteract imposters within the industry who are "perceived to be professionals, but who are merely decorators."- ArabianBusiness.com

Call for presentations: New Orleans Traditional Building Exhibition and Conference in New Orleans in October; deadline: April 2 [pdf]- Traditional Building Show

Urban Oasis: Gardner 1050: Simple forms and refined materials add high style to a speculative urban infill housing project. -- Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects (LOHA)- ArchNewsNow

-- Alvar Aalto: North Jutland Art Museum, Ålborg, Denmark
-- Santiago Calatrava: Three Bridges over the Hoofdvaart, Haarlemmermeer, the Netherlands

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