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Today's News - Monday, February 4, 2008

ArcSpace brings us Foster in Siberia and a stunning law court in Italy. -- Thinking big smart transportation and smart cities in the 21st century. -- Hawthorne on the "lack of street smarts" near LACMA; Piano: "They do love to take out traffic lights, don't they?" -- Hume quite happy that Yonge-Dundas Square isn't Times Square; but plans are less sweet for Toronto's Sugar Beach -- Bayley takes on Prince Charles, taboos, and why the smoking ban is an opportunity for architects. -- Campbell offers his take on why we don't get better architecture. -- Kamin on a poster child for vulnerable buildings. -- But things are looking up (one hopes) for L.A.'s elegant movie palaces. -- For King, a glass-and-vine covered building "has the potential to be the most exquisite addition" to San Francisco's waterfront. -- Jacobs has high hopes that Philadelphia just might get homes that are both green and affordable. -- U.K.'s 93 BoKlok homes from Ikea just about ready for their close-up. -- OMA's "pile of fat gastro-pub-style chips" housing scheme for Singapore. -- SOM cathedral "completes an architectural trinity." -- Move over world's tallest tower - Dubai to get world's longest arch bridge. -- A new museum in Phoenix right on Target to hit all the right notes. -- Ando's Tokyo jewel box. -- SBIC hands out 2007 Beyond Green High Performance Building Awards. -- How's this for homework: U.K. students asked to design torture device "based on ergonomic principals" ("stark raving bonkers" and "pretentious tosh!" says Ferguson).

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-- Foster + Partners: Khanty Mansiysk, Siberia, Russia
-- Manfredi Nicoletti: Arezzo Law Court, Arezzo, Italy

Meeting of the Minds Redux: How do the leading voices in transportation and sustainable cities envision our future? At the Urban Age Institute’s Meeting of the Minds conference...urban planners and transportation innovators...had one big question: If we build it, will they come? [links]- Metropolis Magazine

A lack of street smarts near LACMA: ...an example of the left hand of the city's officialdom not knowing -- or caring -- what the right hand is up to...Renzo Piano sounded resigned to the changes. Of the DOT, he said, "They do love to take out traffic lights, don't they?" By Christopher Hawthorne- Los Angeles Times

Iconic Yonge-Dundas Square a major city asset: The 24-hour electronic pandemonium that is Times Square and the non-stop neon-architecture of Tokyo have no equivalents in Toronto. Thank God ...The most engaging aspects...aren't those it has in common with Times Square, but those that make it different. By Christopher Hume [links, video]- Toronto Star

What's not so sweet about new Sugar Beach: Everyone loves a beach, of course, but what a strange place to put one...a beach-of-the-future where bathers splash about in the oil slick and dodge cargo ships. Sounds like fun, in a grim post-apocalyptic way. By Christopher Hume -- Claude Cormier- Toronto Star

Never mind the height of a building - feel its intelligence: The right sort of contrast between high and low, old and new, is enriching: [Prince Charles] credentials as a critic of modern architecture would be more impressive had he been a better patron. By Stephen Bayley- Observer (UK)

The case for better buildings: Keys to future structures: care, cash, and consensus: Why do so many new buildings look as if nobody...has poured any love or pride into them? They're aloof, they're oversized, and they're so under-designed they look like the carton the real building came in. By Robert Campbell- Boston Globe

Why the Navy should act to save this 'box': Building 521 priceless relic of naval, Chicago history: The saga of the now-empty Gunner's Mate School reveals a far-more-discomforting reality: The battle to save these vulnerable buildings has just begun. By Blair Kamin -- Bruce Graham/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill [slide show]- Chicago Tribune

Palace Revival: New Hope for Broadway’s Old Movie Palaces: ...downtown Los Angeles has been sitting on an existing cultural (and perhaps economic) gold mine...amazing historic theaters...hailed by many as the greatest collection of classic movie palaces in the country. -- G. Albert Lansburgh (1926); A.C. Martin (1918); S. Charles Lee (1931); Fisher Sehgal Yanez Architects; Kelly Architects; David Gray Architects; Donald Barny [images]- The Architect's Newspaper (Los Angeles)

A beautiful green building for Embarcadero: ...a glass office building scaled by vines that change color with the seasons...has the potential to be the most exquisite addition to the waterfront since the Embarcadero Freeway came down in 1991... By John King -- Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects [images]- San Francisco Chronicle

From the Betsy Ross House to Your House: Philadelphia, a city of tiny row houses, might be just the place to build a new version of the American dream: green and affordable. By Karrie Jacobs -- Interface Studio Architects [images]- Metropolis Magazine

First glimpse of flat-pack Ikea homes: ...93 BoKlok timber-framed homes are being built opposite Gateshead International Stadium...Live Smart @ Home is just weeks away from finalising a deal to build more BoKlok homes in the North East... [video link]- Evening Chronicle (UK)

OMA unveils 'fat chip' housing scheme for Singapore: Rem Koolhaas' Office for Metropolitan Architecture has unveiled a 32-block residential development...will house 1,000 apartments on an 8ha site... -- Ole Scheeren [images]- The Architects' Journal (UK)

Medieval Modern: Christ the Light Cathedral completes an architectural trinity in downtown Oakland. By Lauri Puchall -- Craig Hartman/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Peter Walker Landscape Architects- The East Bay Monthly (California)

World's longest arch bridge in Dubai: ...unique structure that will include massive archways that will tower 205 metres above 12 lanes of traffic and two railway lines carrying Dubai Metro... -- FXFowle Architects [images]- XPRESS (Dubai)

If It’s Hit, Strummed or Plucked, It’ll Be Here: ...Musical Instrument Museum, which is expected to open in 2010 on the northern edge of Phoenix...will be the country’s only free-standing museum devoted to instruments of world cultures. -- Rich Varda; RSP Architects [slide show]- New York Times

Tokyo Jewel Box: A Surprising Modern Design Blends Ornament and Restraint -- Tadao Ando [slide show]- Architectural Digest

2007 Beyond Green™ High Performance Building Awards: Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC) gave awards in two categories: High Performance Buildings and High Performance Initiatives. -- SmithGroup; Dattner Architects; Lucchesi Galati; Lord, Aeck, Sargent Architecture; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Lehrer + Gangi Design + Build; etc.- Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG)

University of Kent's School of Architecture students asked to design torture device..."based on ergonomic principals"...former RIBA president George Ferguson, described the course as "stark raving bonkers...pretentious tosh!" [link]- The Architects' Journal (UK)

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

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