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Today's News - Monday, June 9, 2008

-- ArcSpace takes us to Ankara and Los Angeles.
-- Plan to spend some time with NY Times Magazine Architecture Issue, The New, New City" (a must-read in our book).
-- One of the best in-depth looks at the battle for the world's skyline (another must-read).
-- India's new "cities": self-sustaining gated enclaves (servants included - in slums next door).
-- Who isn't on Design for London's Urban Design Framework Panel? (only a few notables notably missing).
-- Heathcote on the holy grail of urban planning, and a project that just about hits the mark.
-- Rochon is dismayed by the value engineering of a Foster tower that will undoubtedly be a blow to Calgary's downtown.
-- One of the more in-depth looks at the battle to save Rudolph's Riverview High from becoming a parking lot (will it be "another example of Florida as haven for philistines in flip-flops"?).
-- Charlie Rose in conversation with 4 (count 'em!) Pritzker winners.
-- Filler on Piano's Whitney: "among the architect's strongest outings of late" (but will it break the bank?).
-- Three takes on Libeskind's Jewish Museum in San Francisco: King: is it great architecture? "No. But it's a great addition to the neighborhood. And a gentle nudge telling the rest of us to lighten up." is mostly thumbs-up; Rothstein: self-conscious symbols make the building "not particularly comfortable or reassuring...more vertiginous than harmonious." -- Calys: it has "has powerfully raised the bar of modern architecture and design" in S.F.
-- Boddy both pleased and disappointed in Governor-General's awards: "Vancouver architects still need nurturing."
-- Kamin visits Haworth's very green "machine for selling" (leave the flip flops at home).
-- Saffron on Philadelphia's new Center for Architecture: not only long overdue, but with "design elements are all frugal, functional and beautifully crafted."
-- Big plans to "wash away" London's former Guardian building with "The Wave" (see Heathcote above re: paper's new digs).
-- New NZIA president wants to take on "compliance creep" that's hindering architectural creativity.
-- In Kenya, more women taking on architecture's glass ceiling.
-- Move over Golden Gate: bigger plans for Palm Jumeirah bridge (click every page to see all images).

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-- Tabanlioglu Arhitects: Dogan Medya Center, Ankara, Turkey
-- Installation: Greg Lynn/FORM: Blobwall Pavilion, SCI-Arc Gallery, Los Angeles

The Next City: "The New, New City: ...can an instant city ever feel like the real thing?" by Nicolai Ouroussoff; "A Lot-Ek Solution" by Pilar Viladas; "The Exigent City: refugee camps have become de facto cities, and cities have become extended refugee camps. Is there a place here for architects?" by Jom Lewis -- Koolhaas/Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA); Reiser + Umemoto/Reiser + Umemoto; Steven Holl; Zaha Hadid; Wenyi Wu/Urbanus; Maas/van Rijs/de VriesMVRDV; Front Inc.; Bernard Tschumi; Tolla/Lignano/LOT-EK; Enrique Peñalosa; Hassan Fathy; Architecture for Humanity; Teddy Cruz; Jaime Lerner [images, slide shows, links]- New York Times Magazine

The Battle for the World's Skyline: A building frenzy is raging in Asia, Russia and on the Persian Gulf. And cities like London and New York don't have the money to compete. Will Western urban landscapes soon look outdated? -- Koolhaas; Holl; Foster; von Gerkan, Marg and Partner; Peter Schweger; Gehry; Hadid; Léon, Wohlhage, Wernik; Herzog & De Meuron- Der Spiegel (Germany)

Inside Gate, India’s Good Life; Outside, the Servants’ Slums: ...exclusive gated communities that have blossomed across India in recent years...enclaves have emerged on the outskirts of prospering, overburdened cities... [slide show]- New York Times

Design for London Urban Design Framework Panel revealed: David Chipperfield, Foster & Partners, Caruso St John and Studio Egret West are among the 26 firms named...choosing the architects which best answered the question: "If I could design London, I would..." -- dRMM; Stanton Williams; East; Mark Brearley; Allies and Morrison; EDAW; Marks Barfield; Sarah Wigglesworth; etc. [links to images]- BD/Building Design (UK)

King's Cross departure set to music: "Mixed-use" has become the holy grail of contemporary urban planning....seen as the universal panacea, the great hope of inner cities. And it would be hard anywhere to find a single building more mixed in use than Kings Place, which also embraces London's newest concert hall. By Edwin Heathcote -- Dixon Jones- Financial Times (UK)

So many promises: Were they just a tall tale? A skyscraper that Norman Foster promised would deliver innovation and urban vitality to Calgary's downtown has suffered some serious blows...key innovative features of the 58-storey [EnCana] tower have been compromised, delayed or cancelled...the savings gained...are adding up to a city's losses. By Lisa Rochon -- Foster + Partners; Zeidler Partnership- Globe and Mail (Canada)

A key deadline looms for the aging vision of a famed architect: The building may or may not be a masterpiece, but the debate over demolishing Riverview High School has become a classic...Next week, the Sarasota County School Board says it will deliver its final decision on the fate of the old school, acknowledged as an architectural work of some importance, yet scheduled to be paved over next year for a parking lot. -- Paul Rudolph; Diane Lewis Barger and Dean/BMK Architects [links to images]- Herald- Tribune (Florida)

Charlie Rose in conversation with Pritzker Prize Winners Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Renzo Piano [video]- CharlieRose.com

Martin Filler Strikes Again: Renzo Piano breaks out of the box with his latest Whitney encore, but will it break the museum's bank account too? [images, links]- ArtsJournal

Museum's bold design vibrantly blends old, new: ...there's no mistaking the cocky fusion of brick and steel, right angles and sloped lines...It's not an easy balancing act...So is the museum a great work of architecture? No. But it's a great addition to the neighborhood. And a gentle nudge telling the rest of us to lighten up. By John King -- Daniel Libeskind; WRNS Studio; Architectural Resources Group [images, links]- San Francisco Chronicle

Museum’s Vision: West Coast Paradise: San Francisco’s new Contemporary Jewish Museum ...building is not particularly comfortable or reassuring. Its skewed geometries are unsettling; the effect is more vertiginous than harmonious...despite the self-conscious symbols being grasped at...they are so abstract as to be invisible. By Edward Rothstein -- Daniel Libeskind [slide show]- New York Times

Stone Upon Stone: The Contemporary Jewish Museum: ...has powerfully raised the bar of modern architecture and design...blending of an historic industrial building and a new, bold addition will impact Bay Area design for years to come, perhaps altering San Francisco’s parochial view of modern architecture. By George Calys -- Daniel Libeskind [images]- FogCityJournal.com (San Francisco)

Making a mark on the trophy circuit: Governor-General's awards recognize their projects, but Vancouver architects still need nurturing. By Trevor Boddy -- Patkau Architects; Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden; LWPAC/Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture Culture- Globe and Mail (Canada)

Haworth headquarters revamp is a model transformation: Holland, Mich., has something unmistakably modern to celebrate: the artful transformation of the once-drab headquarters...into a light-filled, energy-saving machine for selling...part office, part showroom, part laboratory and part museum. By Blair Kamin -- Ralph Johnson/Eva Maddox/Perkins+Will; Peter Schaudt [images]- Chicago Tribune

Architecture institute finally adds gallery: ...despite being the second oldest AIA chapter in the country...Philadelphia has lacked its own showplace...new Center for Architecture...design elements are all frugal, functional and beautifully crafted... By Inga Saffron- Philadelphia Inquirer

HKR Architects' wave set to wash away the Guardian building: ...has unveiled its £45 million plans to replace the Guardian newspaper building...central London, with an office development...dubbed the nine-storey, 20,000m2 development, currently awaiting a planning decision, the 'Wave', claiming it will be 'ultra sustainable'. [images]- The Architects' Journal (UK)

Better buildings and more talking: Challenging "compliance creep" in the building design sector is one of the main aims of Richard Harris, the new president of the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA)...unnecessary levels of paper shuffling and red tape, meaning their design flair could be severely compromised. -- Jasmax- New Zealand Herald

Kenya: Women Scale New Heights in Architecture: ..."We need to see more of the way women look at things" -- Triad Architects; Jerry Magutu; Sylvia Kasanga/Sycum Solutions; Kigara Kamweru- Business Daily (Nairobi)

Bridging the Palm: Royal Haskoning Architects unveils its designs for a project that will put Palm Jebel Ali on the map. [images]- ArabianBusiness.com

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