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Today's News - Wednesday, April 25, 2007

A call for the design and construction industry to take responsibility in "creating a sustainable built environment." -- A new benchmark in green building in Dubai. -- Move over Celebration - now there's a green, medieval-modern, new urbanist hamlet on the boards in Florida. -- Malcolm Fraser minces no words: U.K.'s "obsession with privatization is ruining public buildings." -- Hume mourns the loss of Canada's "sense of confidence" born in the days of Expo 67. -- Chicago finally on the brink of breaking Block 37 jinx. -- Dubai may be a "playground for architects"; let's hope it doesn't become "a dumping ground for designs that exceed their sell-by-date." -- L.A.'s persistent problem with density: a "cliché vision of a dispirited, diminutive" downtown "stuck in a time past." -- Garage roof garden for SFMOMA can be "a model of a new sort of urban plaza that celebrates the vivid potential of those leftover spaces found in every city." -- Big names are conspicuous by their absence from Olympic 2012 Velopark shortlist. -- Gehry sails into New York with "a practical building by impractical minds," says Diller. -- Kamin answers some questions about Calatrava's Chicago Spire. -- A new campus hub will be Grecian and green. -- Not all are pleased that Berlin's new "retro palace" is being given over to museums. -- Israeli master architects on the differences between past and present. -- 57 winners take home Chicago Athenaeum 2007 International Architecture Awards. -- The ugliest buildings in L.A. are "craptastic" and "stucco-riffic." -- An architect options a play about Mies and Farnsworth (PJ plays a part, too).

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Op-Ed: New resolve on Earth day: U.S. buildings account for nearly the same carbon emissions as the economies of Japan, France and the United Kingdom combined...design and construction industry professionals must accept responsibility for their role in creating a sustainable built environment. By RK Stewart, FAIA, 2007 president of the American Institute of Architects- San Francisco Chronicle

First low carbon tower to be built in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC): ...400m, 66-storey office tower known as ‘The Lighthouse'...aiming to set a new benchmark in green building by reducing total energy consumption in the tower by up to 65% and water consumption by up to 40%. -- Atkins- ArabianBusiness.com

Call it green medieval: Planned hamlet homes have both 12th century and modern inspiration....Sky's 600 homes...medieval prototype development will come with such modern luxuries as tennis courts, a spa, coffee shops and the latest in high-tech energy efficiency. -- Julia Starr Sanford/White Starr; Duany Plater-Zyberk [image]- St. Petersburg Times (Florida)

Malcolm Fraser: How profits have shut out the light on public architecture: Government obsession with privatisation is ruining public buildings, says the former deputy chair of Architecture and Design Scotland- Socialist Worker (UK)

Expo 67: We were fab: Suddenly, works by Canadian architects, artists and designers found a place in an international context...Since then, the forces of negativity seem to have regained their position of pre-eminence, and the sense of confidence and unity that surged across the country is long gone. By Christopher Hume- Toronto Star

Trying to Break the Jinx of Chicago’s Block 37: After 20 years of failed development efforts, buildings are finally going up -- Ralph Johnson/Perkins & Will; Grant Uhlir/Gensler- New York Times

Spin city could have a point: ...some may consider Dubai as a playground for architects keen to test-drive their lifelong dreams...But let's just hope it doesn't turn the region into a dumping ground for designs that exceed their sell-by-date even before being finished. -- David Fisher- ArabianBusiness.com

Op-Ed: Missing the Point on Air Rights: Recent Debate Reveals a Persistent Perception Problem: It seems there are people of opinion...who still harbor the cliché vision of a dispirited, diminutive Downtown Los Angeles stuck in a time past, and who fear density. By Sam Hall Kaplan- LA Downtown News

High above the city, contest gives local architects chance to spread their wings: ...sculpture garden for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art...can be a model of a new sort of urban plaza that celebrates the vivid potential of those leftover spaces found in every city... By John King -- Mark Cavagnero Associates; envelopeA+D; Fougeron Architecture; Jensen & Macy Architects; Kuth/Ranieri Architects; Pfau Architecture [images, link]- San Francisco Chronicle

Big name architects missing from Olympic Velopark shortlist...for the only design-lead major scheme for the London games. -- David Chipperfield; David Morley Architects; Dominique Perrault; FLACQ; Faulkner Browns/Heatherwick Studio; Foreign Office Architects (FOA); Hopkins Architects/Sanda Douma Associates
# Wilkinson Eyre- Building (UK)

Frank Gehry finally drops anchor in New York: A shared interest in sailing with Barry Diller inspired the new IAC/InterActiveCorp headquarters..."New York may not like to hear this, but I didn't really chase after buildings in New York" [video]- Los Angeles Times

More questions (and answers) about Calatrava spire. By Blair Kamin- Chicago Tribune

Goucher College's Towson campus taps Greece for ideas: ...$46 million mixed-use structure called the Athenaeum..."a modern day interpretation of what a great public meeting space should be"... By Edward Gunts -- Hillier- Baltimore Sun

Berlin Gets Green Light for Retro City Palace: But German commentators are unimpressed at the decision to devote the bulk of the floor space [of rebuilt Stadtschloss (city palace)] to the city's museums. [images]- Der Spiegel (Germany)

Pillars of their profession: Differences between past and present... -- Ram Karmi; Gershon Zippor; Avraham Yaski- Ha`aretz (Israel)

Chicago Athenaeum 2007 International Architecture Awards: 57 winning projects [images]- Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design

Op-Ed: The ugliest building in town: Hollywood and Highland comes out on top in a contest that draws impassioned nominations...and elicit commentary such as "craptastic" and "stucco-riffic."- Los Angeles Times

Sex and Real Estate: “The Glass House,” a new play that explores the story of Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House...a play about architecture only in the sense that “A Streetcar Named Desire” is a play about public transit. By Paul Goldberger -- Kyle Bergman- New Yorker

Hudson World Bridge: An architect's proposal to span the Hudson River would be a gathering place like no other. By Fred Bernstein -- Eytan Kaufman [images]- ArchNewsNow

-- Gehry Partners: Counceling Center, Danish Cancer Society, Aarhus, Denmark
-- Winning Project: 3XN and UNStudio: Light*house, Aarhus Harbor Front, Aarhus, Denmark

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