Today’s News - Tuesday, March 24, 2009
• April is American City Quality Month to move towards a better coordinated intergovernmental and private sector approach and commitment to better quality city planning and redevelopment (public encouraged to join the discussion - what a concept!).
• Economy vs. environment: "the world's principal source of man-made greenhouse gases has always been prosperity" (a bright spot in hard times?).
• A bureaucratic nightmare (we kid you not!) for two preservation architects trying to restore a New Orleans home for low-income buyers.
• Q&A with McDonough re: Cradle to Cradle thinking and the role that Wal-Mart may play in leading the charge.
• Dangerous building practices in Uganda: unregistered architects designing buildings and qualified architects signing off on dangerous drawings without reviewing.
• Dyckhoff on efforts to landmark 1970s architecture: "Some people, I bet, would rather consign the whole decade to the dustbin...My childhood needs saving!"
• Mumbai preservationists oppose planned infestation of "yellow caterpillars, a.k.a. colored skywalks (maybe Minneapolis has a few for sale?).
• An ambitious plan to fully realize Utzon's vision for the Sydney Opera House: is it worth $1 billion? (who knows - the plan is still under wraps).
• Beirut taps Catalano for its new Arts and Culture House to propel the city "back into the group of important cultural ports" (and described in a post-conflict lexicon, using words like "cuts," "boundary" and "scars" - sorry - no pix).
• Denver taps team for $500 million Union Station redevelopment.
• Gallagher gives thumbs-up to Cloepfil's University of Michigan Museum of Art expansion: the "new wing offers the best of what modernism is supposed to offer" (great slide show).
• Kamin cheers Chicago's "audacious dream" for river walk: it "promises to turn the river from a natural feature that divides downtown into a seam that unites it" (and it will be ready by summer!).
• Rykwert on the "great chainsaw massacre" of London's urban tree canopy: wake up architects! "Tree husbandry is a skill we still need to learn."
• Q&A with Whitechapel Gallery director: she's glad she decided to spend £900,000.
• Calls for entries: Architecture for Humanity's 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom. - "City of Dreams": design one hole on mini golf course on Governors Island. - Temporary Outdoor Gallery Space 2 (TOGS 2) registration deadline extended.
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City Planners Call for Nationwide Urban and Regional Development Plan: Commitment sought during American City Quality Month, April 2009...cities across America will be discussing how quality planning for communities and smart growth will improve cities as well as protect them.- LAND Online / American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
Economy vs. Environment: ...the world’s principal source of man-made greenhouse gases has always been prosperity. The recession makes that relationship easy to see: shuttered factories don’t spew carbon dioxide; the unemployed drive fewer miles and turn down their furnaces, air-conditioners...- New Yorker |
Citizen Recovery Efforts Hit Government Barriers in New Orleans: When architects Anne Van Ingen and Wes Haynes set out to aid the recovery effort by restoring a home in the Ninth Ward for low income buyers, they thought their work would be welcomed. But bureaucratic interference and misguided policies have turned a good deed into a nightmare. By Roberta Brandes Gratz -- Anne Van Ingen; Wes Haynes- PLANetizen |
Bringing Green Design to the Mainstream: Joel Makower sits down with Bill McDonough...to talk about green product design, Cradle to Cradle thinking, and the role that Wal-Mart may play in leading the charge.- GreenBiz.com |
Architects should do their work professionally: We have witnessed a series of building accidents around Kampala City in which many lives have been lost...unregistered architects...draw building plans and only bring to the architects to sign and stamp...much as qualified architects complain, they never stop signing these illegal and dangerous drawings without checking.- The New Vision (Uganda) |
1970s architecture: what would you save from the decade style forgot? The Twentieth Century Society is campaigning to raise awareness of the 1970s architecture...Some people, I bet, would rather consign the whole decade to the dustbin. By Tom Dyckhoff -- Richard Rogers; Norman Foster; Aldington and Craig; Benson & Forsyth; Arne Jacobsen- The Times (UK) |
"Yellow caterpillars" will mar heritage sites: A new species of "pest'' has heritage activists worried about south Mumbai...coloured skywalks...will mar the skyline and obstruct the view of the old architecture...there are those who say that skywalks are required in a city where heavy traffic, poor roads and temperamental monsoon make walking on roads difficult.- Times of India |
High price of the hidden genius within: ...the most ambitious cultural investment in the state since work started on the Sydney Opera House 50 years ago...plan to fully realise Joern Utzon's vision for the building...involves nothing less than a complete rebuilding of the problematic Opera Theatre...- The Australian |
Italian architect to design Beirut's Arts and Culture House: ..."the first component for an urban strategy [that] could propel Beirut back into the group of important cultural ports"... -- Alberto Catalano- The Daily Star (Lebanon) |
Architects named for $500 million Union Station redevelopment: ...envisions the new buildings as being contemporary, but complementing the historic building, and energy efficient. -- Anderson Mason Dale; Semple Brown Design- Denver Business Journal |
An inviting space inside and out at University of Michigan's expanded Museum of Art: ...new wing offers the best of what modernism is supposed to offer...will hardly still the debate over the role of museum design. But it should nudge that debate in the right direction. UMMA's achievement demonstrates that good museum architecture should be visually delightful. By John Gallagher -- Cloepfil/Allied Works Architecture [slide show, links]- Detroit Free Press |
The Chicago river walk: An audacious dream about to take a big step forward...a major upgrade to the public realm...promises to turn the river from a natural feature that divides downtown into a seam that unites it. By Blair Kamin- Chicago Tribune |
The great chainsaw massacre: Our urban tree canopy – once a novelty , now a necessity – needs to be saved from developers, NIMBYs and lesser architects...what is all this to architects? The answer is everything. Tree husbandry is a skill we still need to learn. And who better to teach us than Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn... By Joseph Rykwert- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Interview: Iwona Blazwick: When [she] took up her post as director of the Whitechapel Gallery in 2001, one of the first decisions she had to make was whether to spend £900,000...."It was absolutely irresistible really." -- Potts, Sulman and Hennings (1891); C Harrison Townsend (1901); Project Orange; Robbrecht en Daem; Witherford Watson Mann [images]- Blueprint Magazine (UK) |
Call for entries: 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom: winning school will receive up to $50,000 for classroom construction and upgrading, winning designer will receive a grant of $5,000 to help them do it; registration deadline: May 4- Architecture for Humanity |
Call for entries: "City of Dreams" Mini Golf Course: Design and construct a single hole for mini golf course on Governors Island; deadline: March 31- FIGMENT / Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC) |
Call for entries deadline extension: Temporary Outdoor Gallery Space 2 (TOGS 2) International Ideas Competition; new registration deadline: March 30- Art Alliance Austin/AIA New York Chapter |
When Your New Job is to Find Your Next Job: Some practical suggestions for opening new doors of opportunities in difficult times. By Marjanne Pearson- ArchNewsNow |
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-- Kengo Kuma & Associates: Shiseikan, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto, Japan
-- Splitterwerk: Frog Queen, Graz, Austria |
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