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Today's News - Tuesday, October 30, 2007

From super-blocks to eco-blocks: eco-cities starting to take root (with China taking the lead?). -- "The sanctity of green belt land should be questioned": are U.K.'s greenbelts under threat from official guardian? -- Freelon and Bond get coveted nod for African-American museum on the Mall in Washington. -- An image-filled sneak-peek at California Academy of Sciences. -- How the Prado's prayer was answered (and the battles it took to get there). -- Pearman on the rebirth of British regional theaters, and one that may not be "high architecture" that wins design awards - "but it should." -- Digital imagery to resurrect lost Vietnamese palace that may become actual brick-and-mortar restoration. -- Architectural mysteries to solve in restoration of a Jefferson masterpiece. -- National Building Museum's 2007 Scully Prize to president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. -- The "brickbats fly" at RIBA conference (ironically themed "collaboration"). -- Several Belgian architecture and art schools to merge. -- Bayley takes a promenade along the "boulevards of unbroken dreams" of Paris. -- An Indian architect who vows off commercial work to work with the earth. -- Melbourne's Federation Square celebrates its 5th birthday (and nary a critic in sight). -- The Lighthouse in Glasgow explores "tragedy as well as of triumph" with "Gillespie, Kidd & Coia: Architecture 1956-87." -- Boddy is taken by Roy Arden landscapes at the Vancouver Art Gallery. -- In NYC, Rockwell razzle-dazzle to eat lunch by (but only until Friday!). -- How could we resist: Piano's first super-duper cruise liner.

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Eco-Cities Take Root: Coming soon to a market near you is a zero-carbon property...but you'll find it in China before it springs up in the U.S. -- Arup; Huahui Designs; PTW Architects; Equator Principles; Ecocity Builders; organicARCHITECT; etc. [images, links]- GreenBiz

Country guardian threatens greenbelt: The head of the official body charged with protecting the English countryside is to call for a review of laws preserving the green belt, clearing the way for thousands of homes to be built on safeguarded land..."the sanctity of green belt land should be questioned" -- Natural England- The Times (UK)

Reginald Lewis Museum architect chosen for national museum job: ...will play a key role in shaping the even-larger African-American museum planned for the Mall in Washington...one of the most sought-after museum commissions in the United States... By Edward Gunts -- Freelon Group; Davis Brody Bond- Baltimore Sun

A sneak peek at what's to come at new California Academy of Sciences: Take a deep breath, science buffs - and get ready to be blown away. -- Renzo Piano [images, video]- San Francisco Chronicle

How the Prado's prayer was answered: The extension of Madrid's great museum, which opens today, involved rebuilding a 16th-century cloister...answers an extraordinarily taxing set of requirements very persuasively...there is very little about the finished building that suggests what a battle it has been to get it built. By Ellis Woodman -- Rafael Moneo- Telegraph (UK)

A culture reborn: the renaissance of British regional theatre: The new Live Theatre is not high architecture...feels like is what its name implies: it's the productions that count, not whether the place wins design awards or not. Well, I'm sorry, but it should. By Hugh Pearman -- Stanton Williams; Rafael Vinoly; Wright and Wright; Ian Ritchie; Bennetts Associates; Aidan Jackson/Waring and Netts [images]- HughPearman.com (UK)

Korean technology helping to resurrect lost Vietnamese palace...Hue's mostly lost royal structures through 3-dimensional digital imagery. The Vietnamese government may use the virtual city as a basis for rebuilding the lost palace. [images]- Korea.net

University of Virginia's signature structure -- the Rotunda -- to be renovated: U.Va. hired John G. Waite Associates...to help the school figure out how to repair and authentically renovate Thomas Jefferson's masterpiece, which was completed in 1826. -- Stanford White; Frederick D. Nichols- Richmond Times-Dispatch (Virginia)

Historic Preservationist Awarded Vincent J. Scully Prize: Richard Moe...As president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Moe serves as one of the nation's leading advocates for architectural preservation. By Philip Kennicott -- National Building Museum- Washington Post

Pulling punches at the RIBA conference: ...the brickbats fly at this year's event themed around collaboration...Niemeyer had a dig at Le Corbusier, Vinoly followed suite on Foster and Nouvel, Sunand joined in for a round on Vinoly. And Will Alsop...landed a punch on the ‘Krouts’. The Dutch. Not to mention planners, masterplanners and landscape architects.- BD/Building Design (UK)

Art and architecture schools to merge: Hogeschool Sint-Lukas in Brussels, the departments NARAFI, Sint-Lucas Architecture in Brussels, Sint-Lucas Visual Arts in Ghent, the Lemmens Institute in Leuven and the Media and Design Academy of the Catholic Hogeschool in Limburg are going to merge into a single new art and architecture school.- Expatica (Belgium)

Boulevards of unbroken dreams: Take a promenade round Paris and you'll drink in the essence of the French capital...Stephen Bayley is your guide... -- Manuelle Gautrand; Georges-Henri Pingusson; Jean Nouvel; Henri Labrouste (1851); Chareau/Bijvoet (1931); Breuer/Nervi/Zehrfuss (1958); Jacques Garcia; etc.- Observer (UK)

Green, not red, in every brick: With the sort of realty boom in the Indian market...Biley E Menon’s casual remark is shocking...."We have completely stopped doing commercial work"...The current portfolio for Idea Design includes an ecological park coming up in Kochi and another bio-conservation project in Chennai.- Business Standard (India)

The square route of 31 million — that's some critical mass: For now, with its first half-decade behind it, fans of Federation Square are just content that critics appear fewer than on opening day.- The Age (Australia)

God's architects: Gavin Stamp salutes the quiet revolutionaries who built their reputation by reimagining how churches should look: The story of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia is one of tragedy as well as of triumph. -- Andrew MacMillan; Isi Metzstein- The Scotsman (UK)

Landscapes transformed within living memory: Roy Arden at the Vancouver Art Gallery...has a point of view — generally against new cities and social institutions growing away from the real needs of their citizens — but this does not blind him to the savage beauty of it all. By Trevor Boddy [image]- Globe and Mail (Canada)

For a Lasting Impact, a Fleeting Experience: Bon Appétit, the food and entertaining magazine...hired David Rockwell to transform the former site of a Hard Rock Cafe...into the Bon Appétit Supper Club & Café. This is a temporary restaurant, scheduled to last only two weeks. [image]- New York Times

Dawn of a new era: The 2050-passenger Pacific Dawn is Australia's first superliner, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.- Sydney Morning Herald

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

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

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