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Today's News - Wednesday, January 30, 2008

High times in Denver's LoDo. -- Plans for a $2 billion extreme makeover for a historic enclave in L.A. -- Are home building ambitions in U.K.'s South East going to be an "environmental disaster"? -- Zaha's human rights row in Azerbaijan; and just where do you draw the line on human rights? -- Meanwhile her Olympic aquatic center sprouts water wings. -- Stern takes on Lower Manhattan with an 80-story hotel/condo tower. -- Russell has high praise for Viñoly's new Bronx courthouse (the lobby alone is "Piranesi on mood elevators"). -- King bemoans a new San Francisco tower that "has the soul of a background building in a foreground location." -- Litt lightens up at the prospect that Breuer's Ameritrust tower might not bite the dust after all. -- Campbell croons over a new chapel that "takes its place among the small gems of recent New England architecture." -- Koolhaas takes on the Hermitage again (no new architecture involved). -- Ito's Taichung opera house gets underway. -- Two British firms with global goals. -- Reports from Yale: no words minced at University as Architectural Patron symposium; and advice from its "three amigos." -- Hume hopes Toronto decides to "help rather than hinder" Ryerson University. -- Interior design schools are becoming ubiquitous in Israel (and to us, some questionable approaches). -- Gensler loses RK Stewart to Perkins+Will; and a Q&A where he calls for tens of thousands of "green" buildings.

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High Times in LoDo: As it approaches its 150th anniversary, Denver has become a "Great City" with substantial new housing downtown -- 4240 Architecture; David Adjaye; HOK Sport; ArchiDenver; Arup [images]- ArchNewsNow

Stealth Growth for LA?: ...$2 billion makeover of the 70-acre Wyvernwood Garden Apartments, east of downtown...Breathtaking in scale, the extreme makeover of a historic middle-class enclave would enlarge the compound from 1,187 units to 4,400 units... -- Torti Gallas and Partners [images]- The Slatin Report

The government's home building ambitions in the South East of England could be an environmental disaster despite the Code for Sustainable Homes, according to a new report from University College, London.- Green Building Press (UK)

Zaha in human rights row: Soviet experts have criticised a cultural centre designed by Zaha Hadid Architects in memory of a former KGB chief and ruler of Azerbaijan; Sharks lurk in ethical waters: Artistic freedom, at a profit, can be a powerful pull over principles on human rights. Where do you draw the line? [images]- BD/Building Design (UK)

Hadid's Olympic aquatic centre sprouts water wings: New images reveal temporary seating stapled onto each side of Zaha Hadid’s landmark 2012 venue [images]- Building (UK)

A Tall Order: A newly unveiled 80-story hotel/condo tower by Robert A.M. Stern Architects to rise at 99 Church Street seeks to form a counterpoint to the glassy modernism of the World Trade Center towers. [image]- The Architect's Newspaper (NYC)

In Fort Apache Territory, Vinoly Courthouse Leads Bronx Renewal: ...imaginatively mixes dignity and welcome...generous lobby balloons upward...It's Piranesi on mood elevators. By James S. Russell -- Rafael Viñoly Architects [images]- Bloomberg News

SoMa tower: Grand it ain't: ..."containerization" ...describes what's happening in more and more cities as the landscape gets cluttered with buildings that contain housing but otherwise just sit there, static and squat. By John King -- AI [images]- San Francisco Chronicle

Ameritrust developer wants to hire Cleveland architect to design new downtown tower: The purchase - if completed - would mean that someone who cares about preserving...the only tall office building ever completed by Modernist pioneer Marcel Breuer, would take it off the hands of the county, which wanted to raze the structure... By Steven Litt- Cleveland Plain Dealer

Chapel weds diversity, transparency: Theological school in Newton builds a 'meeting house for the 21st century'...Andover Newton is a case where the tougher the problem, the more elegant the solution...Wilson Chapel...takes its place among the small gems of recent New England architecture. By Robert Campbell -- Donham & Sweeney- Boston Globe

Rem Koolhaas to Redesign Hermitage Museum's Art Displays: No new structure will be put up, nor will any part of the existing architecture be modified. -- Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA); AMO- Bloomberg News

Construction begins on Taichung Metropolitan Opera House: ...will be considered on a par with the Sydney Opera House...providing optimum settings for traditional Eastern and Western types of performances, the design moves beyond the constraints of a traditional opera house. -- Toyo Ito- China Post

It pays to make the connections: The same ambition that inspired Graham Cartledge to transform an obscure provincial practice into one of commercial architecture’s A-list is also seen in his ventures overseas...Benoy and Start Creative have ambitious growth plans.- Financial Times (UK)

British firm to design few Indian cities: Building Design Partnership (BDP)...has already secured a contract...to prepare a masterplan for a 300-acre township project in Kolkata, its foray into Bangalore and Mohali will be disclosed soon...- The Economic Times (India)

At Yale, Architects Consider Universities as Patrons: ...“mindless commodity architecture” should be no more acceptable on college campuses than “second-rate physics or banal history.”...institutions like MIT and Yale should be held to high architectural standards... -- William J. Mitchell; Frank Gehry; Steven Holl- The Chronicle of Higher Education

'Three Amigos' Advise Yale U. President on Building Matters -- Robert A.M. Stern; Tom Beebe; Cesar Pelli- The Chronicle of Higher Education

Toronto must help Ryerson, not hinder it: Despite being an enormous asset to the city, the campus has always been a blight on the urban landscape. The school deserves some blame for this, but one can only wonder how much better the campus could be if the civic powers-that-be were to decide to help rather than hinder it. By Christopher Hume- Toronto Star

Ubiquitous by design: ...interior design schools have recently become as ubiquitous in Israel as Philippe Starck lamps...The demand for practical training and a shorter program dictates a focus on practical applications, while theory falls by the wayside...breeze through the histories of architecture and design and completely omit psychology, sociology and economics.- Ha`aretz (Israel)

RK Stewart Leaving Gensler for Perkins + Will: ...the most-recent past president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)...says opportunity was the most enticing...expanding his sustainable design focus.- Architectural Record

Architect calls for tens of thousands of 'green' buildings: Q&A with R.K. Stewart [audio link]- Earth & Sky

-- Asymptote Architecture: Penang Global City Center, Penang, Malaysia
-- Erick van Egeraat: A.A. Hijmans van den Bergh Medical Faculty, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands

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