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Today's News - Thursday, July 3, 2008

EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow we'll be celebrating the 4th of July with family and friends...we'll be back Monday, July 7.
-- A stellar shortlist going for the "soul of Seoul" (and getting a pretty penny to do so).
-- For Gardner, new Stern on East 86th St. brings pre-war elegance to "one of the more dispiriting stretches of Manhattan" - a bit like "Lady Astor among a bevy of scullery maids."
-- Foster takes on the Rimini waterfront.
-- H&deM takes on cricket. -- Rios Clementi Hale transforms a strip mall into their own "little bit of an odd office."
-- In Wales, a new visitors center on Snowden mountain to be eco-friendly - sort of.
-- Princeton wins big donation for new energy and environment research center.
-- Simon Jenkins to chair U.K.'s National Trust; Stonehenge will be on his plate of contentious issues.
-- Weekend diversions: Viñoly's Cleveland Museum of Art ready for its close-up, and Litt likes what he sees.
-- NYC's P.S.1 urban farm by WORK opens for the summer (veggies for sale).
-- Rybczynski and McGuigan on Bucky at the Whitney: "something of a flimflammer" and even a bit "nutty," but inspiring nonetheless.
-- Lots from London: Glancey is quite amusing in a video where he explores "whether the capital's waterlogged past holds the key to its future."
-- Londoners explore Vancouverism: it may be a model for the future city, but its "progressive planning is not well served by its often dull, cookie-cutter towers of glass."
-- We couldn't resist: the sound of jelly wobbling will be the soundtrack for tomorrow's "bizarre architectural jelly banquet" in London; and a video of sonic architecture in Lower Manhattan.
-- Page turners: Heathcote finds "Architectural Voices: Listening to Old Buildings" an "architecture book of rare depth and a delight." -- "Exit-Architecture - Design between War and Peace" examines how paranoia, as a cultural force, shapes architecture. -- Brussat says Kunstler's fiction "World Made by Hand" could "be the New Urbanism on steroids."

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Star architects bid to design new center for South Korean capital as 21st century model city: ...given US$1 million each to propose a master plan for the 28 trillion won (US$27 billion) Yongsan business district..."It is the soul of Seoul"... -- Libeskind; Jerde Partnership; Asymptote Architects; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Foster + Partners (AP)- International Herald Tribune

Stern's Brompton Is Pre-War Elegance, Newly Minted: ...86th Street between Lexington Avenue and 2nd Avenue has been one of the more dispiriting stretches of Manhattan...Suddenly into their dreary midst the Brompton descends like Lady Astor, bedizened in pearls and furbelows, among a bevy of scullery maids. By John Gardner -- Robert A.M. Stern [image]- New York Sun

Foster + Partners reveals Rimini waterfront design: ...unites town centre and seafront in historic Italian city celebrating tradition of green boulevards [images]- Building (UK)

Herzog & de Meuron wins contract to develop a masterplan for Lords cricket ground: ...beat competition from BDP, David Chipperfield Architects, Dixon Jones and Hopkins Architects.- BD/Building Design (UK)

Rorschach Test: Taking a derelict strip mall and transforming it into new office space gave Rios Clementi Hale an opportunity to practice what it preaches. [images]- Metropolis Magazine

Tough at the top: Prince Charles called the old visitors' centre on the peak of Snowdon 'the highest slum in Wales' - and now its eco-friendly replacement is proving just as controversial. -- Clough Williams-Ellis (1930s); Furneaux Stewart- Guardian (UK)

Princeton gets a $100 million gift: ...will establish a major new engineering center to tackle the issues of energy and the environment, with a strong focus on climate change.- Philadelphia Inquirer

Writer Simon Jenkins to chair National Trust: ...[his] admiration for the trust has often been barbed...Among contentious issues which will turn up on his watch is Stonehenge.- Guardian (UK)

New era for an institution: After 3 years, see what’s become of the Cleveland Museum of Art. By Steven Litt -- Benjamin S. Hubbell/W. Dominick Benes (1916); Marcel Breuer (1971); Rafael Viñoly [images, links]- Cleveland Plain Dealer

WORK Architecture Company Plants an Urban Farm in Queens: “Public Farm 1” installation at P.S.1, transforming the contemporary art museum’s two adjoining courtyards into a community agricultural project—and an imaginative architectural composition. [images]- Architectural Record

Buckminster Fuller: Inventor, tireless proselytizer, inspirational cult figure, something of a flimflammer. It is tempting to see Fuller, with his emphasis on maximizing resources and reducing waste, as a harbinger of green architecture, but he was less interested in environmentalism than in efficiency. By Witold Rybczynski [images, links]- Slate

Bucky’s Very Large Dome: "Buckminster Fuller: Starting With the Universe" is a chance...to assess the surprising shelf life of his ideas...The Whitney show dips a toe into very deep and swirly waters...The limitlessness of his thinking can sometimes strike you as kind of arrogant or even nutty, but it's inspiring nonetheless. By Cathleen McGuigan- Newsweek

Liquid economy: To mark the London Festival of Architecture, Jonathan Glancey explores whether the capital's waterlogged past holds the key to its future [video]- Guardian (UK)

The architecture of Vancouverism: A London exhibition showcases Vancouver's celebrated architecture. Modernist, sustainable and performative, is this a model for the future city? ...can a city be over-designed? Vancouver's progressive planning is not well served by its often dull, cookie-cutter towers of glass... Trevor Boddy; Dennis Sharp; Arthur Erickson; Bing Thom- Guardian (UK)

Sound of jelly wobbling recorded for architects' competition: ...a soundtrack that will be used at the end of the week in a bizarre "architectural jelly banquet"...entries will be judged on innovation, aesthetics and "wobble factor"... [link to audio]- Telegraph (UK)

Video: David Byrne's Sonic Architecture: "Playing the Building"...in Gotham's battered Battery Maritime Building through August 24.- Wired

Book review: "Architectural Voices: Listening to Old Buildings" by David Littlefield and Saskia Lewis ...an exploration at once on the margins of architecture yet also at its very heart...Beautifully written and intricately explored, this is an architecture book of rare depth and a delight... By Edwin Heathcote- Financial Times (UK)

Book review: "Exit-Architecture -- Design between War and Peace" maintains Stephan Trüby's obsession with "anti-panic design" and examines how paranoia, as a cultural force, shapes architecture and ultimately entire societies. [links]- C/Net

Book review: Back to buildings made by hand: James Howard Kunstler’s "World Made by Hand"...a page-turner of considerable philosophical depth...wonders whether rolling time back to the pre-modernist era would be good or bad...could almost be the New Urbanism on steroids... By David Brussat- Providence Journal (Rhode Island)

-- Under construction: Asymptote: Strata Tower, Abu Dhabi, UAE
-- JKMM Architects: Viikki Church, Helsinki, Finland

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