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Today's News - Monday, December 10, 2007

Report rates 56 countries on their commitment to climate control (shame, shame on us, U.S.). -- Maybe the hippies were right re: sustainability, says Boddy. -- For Lewis, closing schools offers other opportunities - if done right. -- Safdie's resignation from MUHC project "is important for several reasons" (not the least of which is design quality). -- Cheek gives Indianapolis a "whoop of joy" for its Central Library expansion. -- Campbell is enthralled with MIT's new "secret garden." -- He finds hits and misses in tour of Boston's new Greenway. -- Kennicott heaps on more praise for New York's New Museum (and why it would never make it in Washington). -- Mamma Mia: a museum of all things ABBA to open in Stockholm (took us a while to find out who's designing it). -- An eyeful of what looks to be a stunning glass cube for a glass company in Westphalia. -- The saga of the pool that (nearly) sank its architect - as explained by the architect. -- Call for entries: 2008 James Beard Foundation Awards for restaurant design. -- A movement afoot to "shake up the architecture of death." -- Kamin finds "Architecture of the Absurd" more rant than reason. -- Prouvé exhibit at London's Design Museum "makes Le Corbusier appear an effeminate dilettante." -- NYT's 7th Annual Year in Ideas includes cardboard bridge, a Murphy balcony, smog-eating cement (and lots more). -- Ouroussoff and others pick their favorite books.

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Comitment to Climate: Sweden First, US almost Last, Says Study: A new report rates the climate-protection performance of 56 countries that account for 90 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. While Germany came in at second best, the US ranked second worst. [links]- Der Spiegel (Germany)

Let's push sustainability from fad to mainstream: Maybe the hippies were right afterall...the best green policy is the shaping of denser, more integrated communities, places where sustainability is a light cloak, not a hair shirt. By Trevor Boddy -- Mike Reynolds- Globe and Mail (Canada)

When Schools Close, Doors Open to Opportunities for Revitalization: ...in collaboration with each community, it should establish property-specific redevelopment goals concerning uses, density, affordability, urban and architectural design, and historic preservation. By Roger K. Lewis- Washington Post

Safdie's resignation is a condemnation of private-public process: Master designer dropped hospital project [McGill University Health Centre/MUHC] because P3 would have reduced his control...resignation from the project...is important for several reasons.- Montreal Gazette

New library deserves a 'whoop of joy': Indianapolis Central Library...the best part of the architecture story here isn't about space or form or style. It's about how the new...wing symbolically engages the outside world instead of forming a refuge from it. By Lawrence W. Cheek -- Paul Cret (1917); Evans Woollen/Woollen, Molzan and Partners [images, links]- Indianapolis Star

A mural creates a secret garden at MIT: Building the Green Center in this cramped area must have been like building a ship in a bottle. But it works like a charm...is doing something thoughtful planners now say we should do with our towns and cities. We should mix many uses... By Robert Campbell -- Sol LeWitt; Payette Associates [image]- Boston Globe

A walk in progress: A tour of the (more or less) finished sections of the new Greenway reveals that intentions have been met - and missed...an instructive little anthology of three different design goals, three different attitudes toward public space in the city. By Robert Campbell -- Carol Johnson Associates; EDAW; Kathryn Gustafson; Ken Greenberg- Boston Globe

Taking Just the Right Angle: Rising Above the Bowery, the New Museum Doesn't Block the View. Rather, Its Blocks Are the View...is too nonconformist to make it in Washington. By Philip Kennicott -- Sanaa- Washington Post

Plans unveiled for Abba 'museum': ...due to open in Stockholm in June 2009... -- Peter Ullstad/Patrick Rehnberg/CO Design- BBC News

One with nature: ...German architect’s 3deluxe’s first permanent building...Designed for Glaskoch, the Leonardo Glass Cube in Bad Driberg, Westphalia, combines architecture, interior design, graphic design and landscape in a single structure. [images]- Building (UK)

The pool that (nearly) sank its architect: In 1996, one of Britain’s hottest young designers was given a £7m leisure centre project in north-east London. Over the next 11 years, it mutated into a £45m disaster...As the Clissold centre finally reopens, Stephen Hodder tells...his side of the story for the first time. [images]- Building (UK)

Call for entries: 2008 James Beard Foundation Awards: Restaurant Design and Graphics deadline: January 31, 2008- James Beard Foundation

Good grief: Must Britain's cemeteries and crematoriums be so drab and dreary? Steve Rose reports on moves to shake up the architecture of death -- Michael Howe/mæ; Haverstock Architects; Erik Gunnar Asplund/Sigurd Lewerentz; Aldo Rossi; Carlo Scarpa; Enric Miralles- Guardian (UK)

More rant than reason in critique of architects: Book's arguments short on evidence..."Architecture of the Absurd: How 'Genius' Disfigured a Practical Art" by John Silber...his case turns out to be more shoddily constructed than the buildings at which he so gleefully takes aim. By Blair Kamin- Chicago Tribune

Factory Man made a weld of his own: The seminal French industrial designer emerges as a figure of power and integrity in a fine UK show...Jean Prouvé...singular individual with a line so hard it makes Le Corbusier appear an effeminate dilettante. This is what industrial design was meant to be: tough and uncompromising. By Stephen Bayley- Guardian (UK)

7th Annual Year in Ideas: 70 of the ideas that helped make 2007 what it was: The Carboard Bridge/Shigeru Ban; The Minimal Chair/Konstantin Grcic; Murphy Balcony/Hofman Dujardin Architects; Smog-Eating Cement; etc. [images]- New York Times Magazine

Critics' Picks: Eye Candy, Noses, Beauty and Ugliness, Illustrated: ..favorite books of 2007...include a collection of essays on the museum in the age of globalization, two pessimistic studies of the modern city, a volume of poetry and an anthology of ugliness. By Nicolai Ouroussoff et al.- New York Times

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