ArchNewsNow

Home Yesterday's News Calendar Contact Us Subscribe

Today's News - Monday, November 19, 2007

ArcSpace brings us Meier and MAD. -- An eyeful of Beijing's Olympic flying saucers, melting golf balls, and China's first great gift to the world in the 21st century. -- UAE developers are buying into green in a big way (we can hope, anyway). -- There's some inspiration - and some disappointment - in proposals for U.K. eco-towns. -- What makes one British housing estate a success and another a mile away a failure. -- Towering plans unveiled for Manhattan's Hudson Yards. -- Watch out, Burj Dubai - Kuwait has taller/bigger plans (and a pix to prove it). -- British government calls on architects to "design out" terror threats. -- Bayley calls it "architecture of paranoia... We might live in dangerous times, but they don't have to be ugly ones too." -- Crosbie gives (mostly) thumbs-up to West Hartford's Blue Back Square (just get rid of some of those planters!). -- In Las Vegas, 117-acre open-air Town Square has - count 'em - 70 different building facades "to give it an authentic urban feeling" (!??!). -- Whitney Gould's eloquent parting words in her final column (a sad day for us): in the "tension between continuity and change lies the seedbed for enormous creativity." -- Ouroussoff and Kennicott find that continuity in Foster's glass pavilion for the Smithsonian: he "embraced his task with fetishistic glee" and didn't dress it up in "historicist frippery." -- Dublin gives go-ahead to his/U2's Clarence Hotel plan (not all are pleased). -- Rose is wrapped in "mystery and awe" in Zumthor's old/new Cologne museum. -- A new masterpiece for L.A.'s Grand Avenue is almost ready to "sing, dance and inspire." -- The new Rural Studio is starting to think big. -- Call for entries: Quebec's Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens international competition. -- Of note: Wal-Mart's report on environmental efforts: some good, some could be better.

To subscribe to the free daily newsletter click here

-- Richard Meier & Partners: Arp Museum, Remagen-Rolandseck, Germany
-- Exhibition: MAD in China, Danish Architecture Centre, Copenhagen
-- Latest News: arcspace Second Life Virtual Community

Beijing Is Ready for the Olympics: The message...is clear: Nothing about the 2008 Olympics has been left to chance...Many of the new buildings are reminiscent...of flying saucers...of melting golf balls...stadium is the first of China's great gifts to the world in the 21st century. -- Paul Andreu; Schürman; Koolhaas; Herzog & de Meuron/Ai Weiwei [slide show]- Der Spiegel (Germany)

Green city: How and why the major UAE real estate developers are using green design for their latest projects. -- Atkins; Glen Howells Architects; HOK- ArabianBusiness.com

Take one RAF base, add a line of wind turbines et voila, an eco-town: 57 proposed schemes have now been lodged with the government...some of the designs have been praised as imaginative, others have been condemned for simply “bolting on” green features to proposals for conventional housing estates that have previously been thrown out by local councils.- The Times (UK)

Live and learn: The government wants 3m new homes by 2020. But will they be user-friendly houses or soulless boxes? Patrick Barkham visits two estates less than a mile apart - one branded a failure, the other a resounding success - to discover what works...at Ingress Park and Waterstone Park- Guardian (UK)

In Railyards, Seeing a Blank Canvas on the Hudson: Five developers...have submitted billion-dollar offers and elaborate development plans for what would be the largest project in Manhattan, on 26 acres...overlooking the Hudson River. -- FXFowle/Pelli Clarke Pelli; Helmut Jahn/Peter Walker; Kohn Pedersen Fox/Robert A.M. Stern/Arquitectonica; Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM)/Thomas Phifer & Partners/SHoP Architects/Diller Scofidio + Renfro/Sejima + Nishizawa/SANAA/Handel Architects; Steven Holl Architects [images]- New York Times

Kuwait Burj-beater plans get green light: Madinat Al-Hareer, or City of Silk, is expected to take around 25 years to build and cost an estimated $86 billion...At its centre will be the Burj Mubarak Al-Kabir, a tower soaring 1,001 metres into the air - almost twice the height of Taiwan's Taipei 101... -- Eric Kuhne & Associates/Civicarts; Atkins [image]- ArabianBusiness.com

Ministers call for anti-terror design: The government has called on architects to help “design out” the terrorist threat to crowded places such as shopping halls and sports stadiums.- BD/Building Design (UK)

From car bombs to carbuncles: And so the oft-repeated prime ministerial vision of the future is suddenly expressed as the architecture of paranoia...Talk about handing an aesthetic victory to the bad guys...We might live in dangerous times, but they don't have to be ugly ones too. By Stephen Bayley -- Libeskind; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Rogers Marvel; Thomas Heatherwick- Observer (UK)

Blue Back: Promise And Problems: Too much, not enough? Too suburban, too citified? Too many big stores, too few shops? That's Blue Back Square...major moves are right, and most of its mistakes are correctable. West Hartford Center will be all the more vibrant... By Michael J. Crosbie -- Street-Works- Hartford Courant (Connecticut)

Town Square makes its south Strip debut: $750 million mixed-use...smorgasbord of retail, entertainment and office spaces...117-acre open-air complex...70 different building facades...in styles as diverse as Post-Modern, Art-Deco, Beaux Arts and Mission Revival. -- Development Design Group [images]- Las Vegas Business Press

Retiring, not tiring of quality design: I hope that we can save reminders of where we came from even as we create memorable, 21st-century architecture. In that tension between continuity and change lies the seedbed for enormous creativity. By Whitney Gould- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A Delicate Glass Roof With Links to the Past: Norman Foster’s renovation [Kogod Courtyard] shows how an architect can respect the past without dressing it up in historicist frippery...Rather than lock horns with preservationists, he embraced his task with fetishistic glee. By Nicolai Ouroussoff [images]- New York Times

Seeing the Light at Last: Museums' Courtyard Canopy Splendidly Rebuts Concerns That Shadowed It: There's so much serenity to be had here...it's hard to remember all the stress it took to get it built...Not to have built it would have been an embarrassment. By Philip Kennicott -- Foster + Partners; Kathryn Gustafson- Washington Post

Planners backed U2 bid 'out of deference': ...€150m planned revamp [of Clarence Hotel]...Dublin City Council's own city conservation architect, Clare Hogan, had advised a refusal in her report... -- Foster + Partners [image]- Irish Independent

The perforated palace: A magnificent art gallery with a ruined gothic church in the basement? Only one architect could have pulled it off...Cologne's new Kolumba art museum is a place of mystery and awe. By Steve Rose -- Peter Zumthor- Guardian (UK)

Making a School a Masterpiece: Grand Avenue Arts Academy Aims to Sing, Dance and Inspire: $232 million High School for the Visual and Performing Arts is 70% complete...location on...a street that contains structures designed by some of the world's most prominent architects - has raised expectations. -- Wolf Prix/Coop Himmelb(l)au- LA Downtown News

The New Rural Studio: Still true to Samuel Mockbee's social ideals, Rural Studio is starting to think big under director Andrew Freear...less about folk art and more grounded in pragmatic concerns such as longevity and livability. By Vernon Mays [images]- Architect Magazine

Call for entries: Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens: create temporary gardens for the 2008 International Garden Festival (Québec); deadline: November 30 [pdf]- Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens

At Wal-Mart, 'Green' Has Various Shades: Environmental Push Earns Mixed Results- Washington Post

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window.
External news links are not endorsed by ArchNewsNow.com.
Free registration may be required on some sites.
Some pages may expire after a few days.

Yesterday's News