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Today's News - Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Happy New Year! We're back - with a lot of catching up to do! ----- A sad note to start: Sudjic's eloquent tribute to Sottsass, who left us New Year's Eve. -- Huxtable on Hudson Yards proposals: how could teams with so much star power "come up with something so awesomely bad" (ouch!). -- Heathcote and Woodman are awed - and dismayed - by the "crushing march of the new" in China. -- Now they've seen the inside, some critics start to soften towards Beijing's National Center for the Performing Arts. -- "Devilish definitions" are blurring the lines between urban and suburban. -- Hume sees Toronto's waterfront plan as a "magnet and, hopefully, model" for the city's future. -- Foster plans Crystal Island, the world's biggest building for Moscow (a.k.a. the "Christmas tree"?). -- Speer, Jr.: one of the world's busiest architects (but we hardly ever hear about). -- When it comes to mosque design, Hawthorne sees architects as "caught in a widening divide," both stylistically and politically. -- Smaller cities using big names for new museums to make their mark; Roanoke, for one (not all are pleased). -- It's tradition: reviews of the year, and just about everyone is chiming in: Glancey takes on the decade; Ouroussoff on NYC's "year of building furiously"; Hume on Toronto's lessening fear of taking chances; Kamin on Chicago's "year full of fabulous form and function"; Campbell; Cheek (there's sure to be more); and Hawthorne's list of "faces to watch."

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Obituary: Ettore Sottsass, Designer, 90: Italian postmodernist designer who brought meaning to everyday objects...reinvented himself as the father of postmodernism in design, by starting the Memphis movement in 1981 - an explosion of colour and energy that was a revolt against complacency and conventional good taste. By Deyan Sudjic- Guardian (UK)

The Hudson Yards Proposals: Plenty of Glitz, Little Vision: It is hard to believe that teams with this much assembled star power could come up with something so awesomely bad. By Ada Louise Huxtable -- Steven Holl; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)/Field Operations; Arquitectonica/Robert A.M. Stern/Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF); Helmut Jahn/Peter Walker- Wall Street Journal

Modernism minus utopia: The world's great architects are queuing to poke the Beijing skyline...The results are good, bad and ugly...This is modernism...with no context...Radical architecture has let itself be used for spectacle and propaganda. By Edwin Heathcote -- Foster & Partners; Paul Andreu; Koolhaas/Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA); Herzog & de Meuron; Ai Weiwei; PTW; Wang Hui; Steven Holl- Financial Times (UK)

2008 Olympics: new towers for a new superpower...China is putting up buildings on an awe-inspiring scale...Architecturally, the mean quality is low, but improving. By Ellis Woodman -- Scheeren/Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA); Arup; Norman Foster; PTW; Herzog & de Meuron [slide shows]- Telegraph (UK)

Chinese Unveil Mammoth National Center for the Performing Arts: ...joins a list of monoliths designed by foreign architects...that have remade the Beijing skyline... -- Paul Andreu; Jean-Marie Charpentier; Zaha Hadid; Carlos Ott- New York Times

Devilish definitions: A polycentric, jargon-generating beast, the indefinable new city is erasing...divide between the urban and the rural...we no longer have to make that big decision – whether to be suburban or urban...In these micropoli, aerotropoli, city-regions and zwischenstadt, we can have it both ways and eat our cakes and ale in peace.- Financial Times (UK)

Waterfront plan: A magnet and, hopefully, model: Toronto's waterfront as a perfect example of the vast potential of the city, but also of how much needs to be done. By Christopher Hume -- Adriaan Geuze/West 8/DTAH- Toronto Star

Foster plans world's biggest building: Moscow's boomtown skyline will be dominated by...a £2 billion "city inside a building"...Reaching almost 1,500ft into the sky and housing up to 30,000 residents, the Crystal Island will contain...27m sq ft of floor space...- The Times (UK)

Albert Speer's Son, Urban Planner: German urban planners have never been as active worldwide as they are today...Speer is the protagonist in the current success story...is preparing a new Olympic bid for Munich, has the ear of Moscow's mayor -- and is designing entire cities for the Chinese. [images]- Der Spiegel (Germany)

Mosque designs frame divide between modern, traditional: Architects are caught in a widening divide between religious traditionalism and modern innovation. Add to that the political and community pressures. By Christopher Hawthorne -- Steffian Bradley; Sami Angawi; Louis Kahn; Paolo Portoghesi; Zlatko Ugljen; Mangera Yvars; Allies and Morrison- Los Angeles Times

Museums making their mark in smaller cities: A signature design is seen as a way to lure tourists and showcase how a community sees its future. (AP) -- Enrique Norten/TEN Arquitectos; Randall Stout; Moshe Safdie- Los Angeles Times

With Bold Museum, a Virginia City Aims for Visibility: ...new $66 million Art Museum of Western Virginia, one of the most expensive and controversial projects in the city’s history...avant-garde architecture is a gamble intended to put Roanoke on the nation’s cultural map. -- Randall Stout [image]- New York Times

Review of the decade: Architecture: ...extravagant city buildings could be exhilarating to encounter...All too often, though, the 2000s saw function following form and the rash of "iconic" buildings screaming for attention on city skylines worldwide was ultimately debilitating. By Jonathan Glancey -- Gehry; Foster; Libeskind; Hadid; Koolhaas- Guardian (UK)

Year in review: Manhattan’s Year of Building Furiously: New York has recently witnessed the unveiling of nearly half a dozen major architectural landmarks, an abundance the city hasn’t seen in decades...embrace of architecture has a dark side. By Nicolai Ouroussoff -- Gehry; Nouvel; Tschumi; Piano; Gordon Matta-Clark; Piranesi; Moisei Ginzburg; Robert Moses [slide show]- New York Times

Year in review: City softens to the sharp edges: We've survived, even grudgingly accepted, leaning walls at the ROM and a `flying tabletop' at OCAD, and the message is clear: It's okay to take chances. By Christopher Hume -- Libeskind; Alsop; Gehry- Toronto Star

From an Olympic stadium to green's new power: A year full of fabulous form and function. By Blair Kamin -- Calatrava; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Ben Wood; Steven Holl; Krueck & Sexton; Solomon Cordwell Buenz; Kulapat Yantrasast/wHY Architecture; Helmut Jahn; Miller/Hull Partnership; David Hovey- Chicago Tribune

2007: Year in Architecture: Showy buildings go up, while MIT sues designer of its own. By Robert Campbell -- Steven Holl; SANAA; Frank Gehry; H. H. Richardson; etc.- Boston Globe

AIA slams Seattle, but we pretty much deserve it: While some good and interesting buildings are rising, one comes away with the feeling that architects are indeed failing to risk and lead. By Lawrence W. Cheek -- Mithun; Jensen/Fey Architecture; Weiss/Manfredi; Cloepfil/Allied Works [images]- Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Faces to Watch: Architecture's newbies: By Christopher Hawthorne -- PTW; Koolhaas/Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA); Ole Scheeren; Wood/AndraosWork Architecture Co.; Prince-Ramus/Ella/REX Architecture; Hodgetts + Fung- Los Angeles Times

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