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Today's News - Tuesday, April 17, 2007

A New York kind of day: thumbs-up (and down) for Nouvel's and Gehry's Manhattan adventures. -- The joy of seeing the Guggenheim as Wright saw it last. -- Cooper-Hewitt picks renovation team. -- Boston mayor wants his city to be the greenest in the land. -- A university focuses on environmental friendliness. -- L.A.'s chief planner hopes her city's tolerance of sprawl, traffic, and cheap architecture can grow elegantly. -- Washington, DC, facing its own raised highway conundrum: raze and recycle as riverfront avenue? -- No one seems to mourn the loss of "one of the nastiest concrete boxes in London," Euston Station. -- An American firm gets the nod for its revamp. -- For Dyckhoff, Munich's new, main synagogue is "a masterly work," and a new planetarium is "forbidding, but mesmerizing in its otherness." -- Heathcoate finds a school to be "one of the most outstanding architectural ensembles in London," and dismayed that bureaucrats remain surprised that "everyone performs better in well-conceived spaces." -- NYC to be graced with an "L.A.-centric fusion of creativity and computers." -- Even with a full plate of projects, Niemeyer finds life politics are more important than architecture. -- Rybczynski's "Last Harvest" misses the mark by focusing "on vindicating the hardworking developer." -- On the eve of the Milan furniture fair, Rawsthorn sees the market as both buoyant and gloomy. -- Integrated firms top the Top 150 U.S. Architecture Firms list. -- RIBA Norman Foster Traveling Scholarship winner announced.

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Nouvel Richness on Mercer Street: ...a jarring blast of gleaming, opulent, but unadorned structural integrity...overall effect that is neither forbidding nor banal...One would like to be able to say the same of...project [on] 11th Avenue ...its rough and harried surface will have all the appeal of chapped skin. By James Gardner- New York Sun

The glass menagerie: Frank Gehry's first New York structure is merely a gimmick molded into an office building...a minor mood piece, not the sort of rhapsodic extravaganza his adorers are used to. By Justin Davidson -- STUDIOS Architecture [slide show]- New York Newsday

Art in the Round: "Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum: Restoring a Masterpiece"...The real joy is the rare architectural opportunity of seeing this building...as it was last seen by its architect...As the museum competes for public attention by launching expansion projects all over the world, it is refreshing to see it also investing in the architectural treasure that it already has.- New York Sun

Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Announces Design Architect: ...renovation is part of a $43 million capital campaign to nearly double the museum’s exhibition space... -- Gluckman Mayner Architects; Beyer Blinder Belle- Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Boston Mayor aims to cut city's greenhouse emissions: Within several months, said Menino, businesses and residents will be eligible for low- or no-interest loans to pay for retrofitting their homes and workplaces with efficient energy technology, a potential $500 million program that would be the largest of its kind in the nation.- Boston Globe

Environmental Friendliness Part of Overall University Plan: From bamboo to bike racks, Salisbury University’s Teacher Education and Technology Center, currently under construction, proves careful planning is the key to environmental friendliness. -- Ayers Saint Gross Architects- Newswise

She has a city to build on: L.A.'s chief planner blends a can-do attitude with a vision of 'great streets' and social justice...Gail Goldberg finds herself in a position to determine whether a city tolerant of sprawl, traffic and cheap architecture can grow elegantly.- Los Angeles Times

Remove Whitehurst Freeway, and Behold the Potential -- and Pitfalls: Virtually all traffic congestion ...is attributable...to the awkward interchanges at its ends...If feasible solutions can be found, convincing skeptics that the Whitehurst should be replaced by a beautiful waterfront avenue would be much easier. By Roger K. Lewis- Washington Post

Euston: we have an architectural problem: I don’t usually rejoice at the destruction of anything. But in the case of Euston Station, I shall make a very large exception. Even by the bleak standards of Sixties architecture...one of the nastiest concrete boxes in London...- The Times (UK)

Revamp for Euston station: American architect Leo A Daly has beaten competition from Make and Arup for a £1 billion redesign of one of London’s most notorious 1960s eyesores [image]- BD/Building Design (UK)

Munich buries the legacy of hate: Munich’s main synagogue was razed by the Nazis. Now, at last, there’s new one...Ohel Jakob synagogue — the largest Jewish construction project in Europe... It’s a masterly work. By Tom Dyckhoff -- Wandel Hoefer Lorch- The Times (UK)

The heavens are a place on Earth: The Royal Observatory’s new planetarium respects its historic site and properly reflects its celestial subject...looks self-consciously alien. A tilted cone, snipped at one end, abstract, austere, monolithic, battleship grey, forbidding, but mesmerising in its otherness. By Tom Dyckhoff -- Allies & Morrison- The Times (UK)

Make way for the new school: Kingsdale School is an enigma...is now one of the most outstanding architectural ensembles in London...the point that everyone performs better in well-conceived spaces is one that still seems to surprise bureaucrats. By Edwin Heathcote -- de Rijke Marsh Morgan (dRMM)- Financial Times (UK)

L.A.'s Ball-Nogues Studio brings home N.Y.'s Young Architects prize: Echo Park team reflects an L.A.-centric fusion of creativity and computers.- Los Angeles Times

Architect of optimism: Brazil’s most famous architect, Oscar Niemeyer, will turn 100 in December ...The common denominator of Niemeyer’s old and new projects is...his drive to create structures that seem lighter even as they become larger.- Financial Times (UK)

"Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville" by Witold Rybczynski: The architectural critic's take on the creation of a residential subdivision in rural Pennsylvania...about as rich with genuine inquiry as a four-color brochure for a time share in Vegas.- Los Angeles Times

On eve of Milan fair, much to celebrate: After years of decline, the global furniture market is remarkably buoyant...Architects are furnishing museums, sports stadiums and corporate headquarters with new designs...But the underlying picture is gloomier...Growth is concentrated at the top and bottom of the market, squeezing the middle... By Alice Rawsthorn- International Herald Tribune

Top 150 U.S. Architecture Firms: Integrated firms dominate architecture practice ranking- Architectural Record

RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship winner announced: ...Ben Masterton-Smith for his proposal titled, Emerging East: Exploring and Experiencing the Asian Communist City.- Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

-- Jinhua Architecture Park, Jinhua, China
-- The Camera: Iwan Ban: ICA Boston by Diller Scofidio + Renfro

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