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Today's News - Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Some California mayors are falling short in their climate protection pledge (for a lot of different reasons). -- Perhaps AIA's "Walk the Walk" campaign will help. -- Add to the lexicon Designers Accord, a "sort of Kyoto Treaty for design and innovation firms." -- King claps for San Francisco's newest sustainable projects. -- Maas on his affordable houses for New Orleans (and how he met Brad Pitt). -- RAIC reacts to roof plans for Vancouver's Robson Square (still a "secret project" - no images). -- Hume on the "horrorchitecture" of the new Toronto Life Square (Times Square it ain't). -- A call for U.K.'s South West to grow some architectural guts. -- A Liverpool conference to show "architects and urban designers of tomorrow what naked commercialism can do - perhaps more of an example of culture of capital, rather than Capital of Culture." -- Is Liverpool worth visiting for its modern architecture? Yes and no. -- Gallagher enjoys seeing Detroit "reinventing itself once more." -- Using a "threatening little acronym," developers with big bucks taking over where environmentalists and NIMBYists leave off. -- Hunt is horrified over plans for National Museum of British History: "a deranged idea that needs to be strangled at birth." -- UNESCO refutes claims of Gazprom tower u-turn. -- Heathcote finds conversation with AOC "coolly refreshing." -- A Nebraska architect becomes a "strip mall maestro." -- A Boston Richardson saved from demolition. -- The next coolest thing since Christo's The Gates: NYC's East River will flow with ecologically-sensitive waterfalls by Eliasson.

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How Cities' Climate-Change Promise Became an Afterthought: ...seven mayors from across the region ...joined more than 600 of their nationwide peers...signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement...But in the time since local mayors made their pledges, few have followed through with concrete action...- SignOnSanDiego

AIA Launches “Walk the Walk” – A New Sustainability Campaign for Green Building Design...an aggressive roadmap for making public buildings carbon neutral and reducing overall fossil fuel consumption. [links]- American Institute of Architects (AIA)

Function Dysfunction: ...recently launched Designers Accord...a sort of voluntary Kyoto Treaty for design and innovation firms focused on working together to create positive environmental and social impact...The good news is that the desire of so many designers to do all that reimagining may have never been this strong. By Allison Arieff- New York Times

I just want to say one word to you: sustainability: Visual drama is no longer enough. Environmental sustainability counts for more than curb appeal. That's why San Francisco's planned Public Utilities Commission building is so much a sign of the times. By John King -- KMD Architects- San Francisco Chronicle

Dutch houses for New Orleans: However much the houses designed by Winy Maas look like the original Lower 9th homes, there are important differences -- MDRVD; Make It Right [images]- Radio Netherlands

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada responds to plan for roof over Vancouver’s Robson Square: RAIC president Kiyoshi Matsuzaki calls for consultation process in open letter to B.C. premier -- Arthur Erickson- Daily Commercial News (Canada)

We don't deserve this horrorchitecture: ...new Toronto Life Square...Big, bulky, busy and boring to the last rivet, it is a building untouched by architecture, or any other civic concern...likes to pass itself off as this city's answer to Times Square...Instead, we get a building so dead and inert, one feels uncomfortable walking past it. By Christopher Hume- Toronto Star

Calls for more architectural ambition in the South West: ...needs to increase its commitment to design quality, according to the South West Design Review Panel (SWDRP)...Better Design, Better Places report...said that the majority of the 70 projects reviewed took the 'soft and easier option'- The Architects' Journal (UK)

Building on experience and trust (Part 1): ...a pioneering conference taking place at Liverpool University’s School of Architecture...Multipli-Cities...If nothing else, it will show the architects and urban designers of tomorrow what naked commercialism can do – perhaps more of an example of culture of capital, rather than Capital of Culture.- Liverpool Daily Post (UK)

Is Liverpool worth visiting for its modern architecture? Yes: The city is being daring again, says Paul Monaghan/AHMM; No: its new buildings are derivative and corporate, argues Tristram Hunt, historian.- BD/Building Design (UK)

Detroit attracts top designers: Outsider architects leave their legacies...Detroit becoming something new is a story that never stops. No wonder talented designers like Anthony Caradonna have found in this city an irresistible canvas. By John Gallagher -- Gordon Lloyd; Albert Kahn; Eliel and Eero Saarinen; Gunnar Birkerts; George Mason; Minoru Yamasaki; William Kessler- Detroit Free Press

Learning to Share the Hard Way: Want to slow down, alter or even thwart a new development in Southern California? The club of choice is a weaponized EIR – the threatening little acronym for "environmental impact report"...not just green advocates or NIMBY activists that like the EIR bludgeon. Established real estate developers and owners...wield it to smash competition, too.- The Slatin Report

Op-Ed: A museum of back-slapping will belittle our island story: The absurd plan for a Soviet-style celebration of Britain's historic glories and empire is no way to forge a sense of heritage...a deranged idea...that needs to be strangled at birth. Downing Street officials are seriously considering gifting £100m to create a National Museum of British History. By Tristram Hunt- Guardian (UK)

Unesco refutes claims of Gazprom tower u-turn: ...meeting concluded with a request to Gazprom that they should review the design of the entire Okhta Centre, the £1.2 billion mixed use development... -- RMJM- BD/Building Design (UK)

‘We design buildings to be misused’: ...a conversation with... AOC (Agents of Change) is far removed from the run-of-the-mill dialogue with architects. It is also coolly refreshing. AOC’s work is an eccentric mix of the intellectual and the everyday, its concerns both high- and low-brow. By Edwin Heathcote- Financial Times (UK)

Strip Mall Maestro: In the humble strip shopping center, Nebraska architect Randy Brown sees a canvas for good design — and a chance to turn a profit. [images]- Architect Magazine

Buyer found for Brookline's historic Henry Hobson Richardson House: ...drew national attention as a threatened site has been saved from demolition. By Robert Campbell- Boston Globe

East River 'Waterfalls' Will Be 'Green': ...project would have minimal ecological impact...will be on display near the southern tip of Manhattan between mid-July and mid-October. -- Olafur Eliasson- New York Sun

INSIGHT: Mod Mods: Manufacturing Markets for Modulars: With market forces finally putting wind in the sails of pre-fab, the promise of sales should finally save industrial production of housing from the utopia to which it has been consigned. By John Newman, AIA- ArchNewsNow

-- Zaha Hadid Architects: Nordpark Cable Railway, Innsbruck, Austria
-- Hotel Burnham/Reliance Building, Chicago -- Burnham and Root (1891); Antunovich Associates; Harboe Architects/McClier; Susan Caruso

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