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Today's News - Monday, October 29, 2007

ArcSpace gives us a pas-de-deux from France. -- Hawthorne calls for California planners and builders to "break the cycle of build and burn." -- Metropolis spearheads ReDI, a new initiative to design and build prefab transitional retail "general stores" and community centers for the Gulf Coast. -- Rose wonders if a pioneering housing association in London's South Bank is "compromising its principles by wanting to build tall." -- A historian brands Bradford, U.K.'s Park at the Heart scheme as "alien." -- Hume has high praise for plans to revitalize Toronto subway stations; "rebirth... couldn't come at a better time." -- Calatrava sues for violation of copyright over alterations (by another starchitect) to his Bilbao footbridge. -- Rising Irish stars win Olympic Park Footbridge competition. -- Meanwhile, London Architecture Foundation's YAYA winner gets to design a new pavilion in Farrell's Regent's Place. -- Ouroussoff is in awe of Tschumi's New Acropolis Museum: "It's a magical experience" and "a mesmerizing work in its own right." -- Plans for Viet Nam's new parliament house hit some archeological snags. -- Cleveland Institute of Art unveils $53 million expansion plan by MVRDV. -- Saffron talks to Gehry about what he digs about design underground in Philadelphia. -- Set design for Frank's fado favorite "is absolutely an idiotic extravagance... It may be a total flop...Do I need to inject my ego into her thing?" -- Meier has his eye on London: "maybe after this exhibition they will ask me" to build something. -- For Kamin, a new women's hospital in Chicago "demonstrates that the feminine in architecture is about much more than superficial geometric gestures." -- Winnipeg Humane Society is greener than green. -- Two new observation towers marking either end of a cycle route in Lincolnshire Fens (U.K.) are more than just artful "stairways to the heavens."

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-- Morphosis/Thom Mayne: Phare Tower, Paris
-- The Camera: Paul Raftery: Church of Saint-Pierre de Firminy by Le Corbusier 1954-67

It's time to recognize, not defy, wildfire risks: To break the cycle of build and burn, those who create and approve subdivisions in Southern California must take site and climate into consideration...We build reassuringly familiar-looking subdivisions...in locations that by land-use standards -- and by common-sense standards -- are truly exotic. By Christopher Hawthorne- Los Angeles Times

Designers Aid Gulf Area with New Retail Initiative [ReDI]: Helping communities gain access to essential goods and services...will create a series of prefabricated buildings that will serve both as transitional retail "general stores" and community centers. -- Eskew+Dumez+Ripple; Rockwell Group; Unabridged Architecture; IDEO; Kalkin & Co.; etc.- Metropolis Magazine

Towering ambition: Is a pioneering South Bank housing body compromising its principles by wanting to build tall? It is ironic that CSCB started out campaigning against proposals to put a high-rise hotel on the site, but are now putting up a huge tower themselves - and of non-affordable housing to boot. By Steve Rose -- Coin Street Community Builders; Haworth Tompkins; Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands- Guardian (UK)

Historian criticises planning strategy: Gavin Stamp has branded the Park at the Heart scheme, which includes a large mirror pool, as "alien" to Bradford's Victorian heritage. -- Will Alsop- Telegraph & Argus (UK)

Public space finally gets support: Come January, there will be two Royal Ontario Museums [ROM], one above ground, one below...As the city struggles to reclaim its public realm, the rebirth of these long neglected but impressive stations couldn't come at a better time. By Christopher Hume -- Gary McCluskie/Diamond + Schmitt Architects- Toronto Star

Calatrava sues for 'violation of copyright' over bridge changes: ...Campo Volantin footbridge has become as distinctive a part of the Bilbao skyline as the nearby Guggenheim Museum...suing the city of Bilbao for €3m (£2m) for...allowing an extension to the bridge to be built by another star architect...Arata Isozaki...- Independent (UK)

Heneghan Peng Architects to design Olympic Park Footbridge for 2012 [images]- Archiseek (Ireland)

YAYA [Young Architect of the Year] finalist Carmody Groarke wins Architecture Foundation competition...to design a new pavilion in Regent’s Place, London...part of Terry Farrell’s masterplan for the Regent’s Place Estate... [images]- BD/Building Design (UK)

Where Gods Yearn for Long-Lost Treasures: ...in mastering his ego, Bernard Tschumi pulled off an impressive accomplishment: a building that is both an enlightening meditation on the Parthenon and a mesmerizing work in its own right. I can’t remember seeing a design that is so eloquent about another work of architecture. By Nicolai Ouroussoff [slide show]- New York Times

A house fit for the parliament: Plans for Viet Nam’s new parliament house had gone smoothly until the discovery of an archaeological treasure trove caused an unexpected hitch. -- Nguyen Cao Luyen/Tran Huu Tiem (1963); Meinhard Von Gerkan/Nicolaus Goetze/GMP [images]- Viet Nam News

Cleveland Institute of Art unveils $53 million expansion plan: The expansion of the McCullough Center, in effect, would unify the art institute in a single campus for the first time since 1981. By Steven Litt -- Winy Maas/MVRDV- Cleveland Plain Dealer

In Gehry, a model architect: The Art Museum looks past his playful image and puts him to work underground...vowed that he would leave his personal tag somewhere on the classical garage that is the Philadelphia Art Museum..."the same impact as Bilbao, but underground." By Inga Saffron- Philadelphia Inquirer

Gehry has designs on fado favorite Mariza: The wonder-architect will create an intimate, folksy taberna stage for Mariza's Disney Hall show...wonders if his flight of fancy as a music fan could end up being his folly.- Los Angeles Times

Architect Meier turns his ambition to London: It is ironic that London is hosting a major retrospective of work by...Richard Meier -- the city is one of the only European capitals where he has not designed a building..."Nobody has asked me... but maybe after this exhibition they will ask me."- France24

Inner beauty: The new Prentice Women's Hospital: Beautifully feminine on the inside, less so outside...sense that the building was shaped by people who've delivered tens of thousands of babies, not by architects chiefly concerned with how it all will look in their next magazine spread. By Blair Kamin and Barbara Mahany -- OWP/P; VOA- Chicago Tribune

Winnipeg Humane Society by Number TEN Architectural Group and and George Miers and Associates: ...the first environmentally sustainable animal shelter in Canada, recognized by the Canadian Green Building Council with LEED Gold... [images]- Archiseek (Canada)

Stairway to the heavens: Ellis Woodman reports on a towering project in the Fens...two observation towers...to mark either end of a cycle route being created along the river Witham... -- Robbrecht and Daem [image]- Telegraph (UK)

Modern Focus on the Patient: Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, gives form to a parallel shift in medicine that emphasizes the art of healing rather than the mere administration of scientific procedures. -- Anshen+Allen [images]- ArchNewsNow

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