Today’s News - Friday, September 18, 2009
• Weinstein cheers "Urban Design for an Urban Century" (with just a few caveats).
• Hamburg pins its hopes on HafenCity, "a carefully managed experiment in modern living" that could turn the city into "a cultural and architectural magnet to rival Barcelona."
• Russell gives (mostly) thumbs-up to Mayne's Cooper Union building: its "frozen drama" and "high-wire act may offer an important lesson in creativity for Cooper's students"; and Pasternack offers up an eyeful of the "brazen stair-obsessed marvel...a determined smack in New York's architectural face."
• Ouroussoff gives lukewarm cheers (and jeers) to Dallas Cowboy's new stadium.
• OMA's revised plans for Commonwealth Institute squeak through planning (though things could change - again).
• Will the Tate Modern extension ever happen, or is it "a pipe dream from the boom years?"
• For Scully Prize winner Alexander, the award is "yet another opportunity to teach - and tweak - a profession with which he has had his share of disagreements."
• Weekend diversions: In NYC, "Toward the Sentient City" explores the evolving relationship between ubiquitous computing, architecture, and urban space.
• In Phoenix, "Designing Sustainability" looks to be a catalyst for sustainability dialog among students, faculty, and the community.
• "Portraits + Architecture" at Australia's National Portrait Gallery explores the relationship between creativity and identity.
• Page turners: "Green Metropolis" challenges "many cherished assumptions about easy-on-the-earth country living."
• Speck cheers NYC's ""Street Design Manual": its "very existence is a bit of a miracle."
• An interesting take on Jane Jacobs, "Wrestling With Moses" and a new children's book "Genius of Common Sense": was she right?
• Glancey can't stay cross with "The Secret Lives of Buildings" and its "wondrous stories writ in stone."
• "New York Deco, Photographs by Richard Berenholtz" recalls "a lighter, more joyful time."
• A good reason to head to Vermont next week: Architecture & Design Film Festival 2009.
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Book Review: "Urban Design for an Urban Century: Placemaking for People," by Lance Jay Brown, David Dixon, and Oliver Gillham: To the credit of the erudite authors, their sketch of urban design brings levels of political, sociological, and architectural analysis together in a readable synthesis. By Norman Weinstein- ArchNewsNow |
Can architecture heal a city? Hamburg hopes its new half-a-billion-dollar concert venue, Elbphilharmonie, will help unite the city...HafenCity — a carefully managed experiment in modern living that officials hope will help turn their city into a cultural and architectural magnet to rival Barcelona. -- Herzog & de Meuron; Höhler + Partner- GlobalPost |
Mayne’s Crazy Wave Evokes Lunar Landing, ‘Blade Runner’: This frozen drama heralds 41 Cooper Square...you can see the Hollywood of “Blade Runner” and “Fight Club,” a fascination with the Los Angeles ennui of Joan Didion...high-wire act may offer an important lesson in creativity for Cooper’s students. By James S. Russell -- Morphosis- Bloomberg News |
41 Cooper Square: Thom Mayne's Brazen Stair-Obsessed Marvel Lands in New York: It's a determined smack in New York's architectural face...It may not please everyone, but it's marriage of crazed form and smart function ought to get architecture buffs, designers and -- most importantly -- students, talking about what a green academic building can be. [images, links]- TreeHugger.com |
Supersize Dallas Cowboys Stadium With a Helping of Sprawl: ...design mercifully avoids the aw-shucks, small-town look that has become common in many American stadiums...Still...[it] suffers from its own form of nostalgia...straight out of Eisenhower’s America, with its embrace of car culture and a grandiose, bigger-is-better mentality. By Nicolai Ouroussoff -- HKS [images, video]- New York Times |
Commonwealth Institute proposals scrape through planning: OMA’s revised plans...have narrowly won approval...includes 62 flats and a new home of the Design Museum. -- RMJM (1962); Koolhaas/Office for Metropolitan Architecture; Deyan Sudjic [images, links]- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
The Tate Modern extension – will it ever happen? Nicholas Serota talks of a growing confidence among potential donors and is certain the Government won't renege on its promise of £50m. But it's far from a done deal...A pipe dream from the boom years? -- Herzog & de Meuron- Guardian (UK) |
Alexander the Great: After decades at the edge of the architectural establishment—with much of that time spent sniping at it—Christopher Alexander can at last rest on his laurels as recipient of the prestigious Vincent Scully Prize. -- National Building Museum; Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk (DPZ); Kenneth Frampton; Ned Kramer/Architect magazine- The Architect's Newspaper |
"Toward the Sentient City": An exhibition critically exploring the evolving relationship between ubiquitous computing, architecture, and urban space; at The Urban Center, NYC, through November 7 -- Living Architecture Lab; SENSEable City Laboratory, MIT; Institute for the Future; DEGW; etc. [images]- The Architectural League of New York |
ASU Art Museum becomes catalyst for sustainability dialog: "Designing Sustainability"...a series of dynamic and interactive projects...brings together artists and designers, faculty and students to engage the greater Phoenix community in their creative processes and in conversations about sustainability. [images, links]- Arizona State University |
Portraits of Australian architecture: "Portraits + Architecture": A new architecture exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery is challenging ideas on portraiture. -- CO-AP (Collaborative Architecture Practice); Denton Corker Marshall; Johnson Pilton Walker; Kerstin Thompson Architects; Sean Godsell Architects; TERROIR; Troppo Architects [video]- ABC News (Australia) |
Book review: Urban Is Good: "Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability" by David Owen...challenges many cherished assumptions about easy-on-the-earth country living...almost all of Owen’s potential solutions for treading more lightly on the planet rely on economics...Raise the price of doing bad, while making good more attractive.- New York Times |
Book review: New Words on the Block: New York City's Department of Transportation recently unveiled its "Street Design Manual." Its very existence is a bit of a miracle...Do you need to buy this $35 book? Yes, if you are involved in any way in the design of city streets. Yes, also, if you can plop it on the lap of someone who is. By Jeff Speck- Change Observer |
Book review: Mother Courage: "Wrestling With Moses" by Anthony Flint...and a new children's book "Genius of Common Sense" by Glenna Lang and Marjory Wunsch: A bicycling mother arrested for rabble-rousing, Jane Jacobs has set the agenda for urban planning for half a century. But was she right? Christopher Turner walks down her old street in Greenwich Village- Guardian (UK) |
Book review: "The Secret Lives of Buildings" by Edward Hollis: I nearly got cross with [this] delightful book...because I had the feeling the author was being a bit of a tease...Here are wondrous stories writ in stone, and Hollis has written about them very well indeed. So I can't be cross with him after all... By Jonathan Glancey- Guardian (UK) |
Book review: "New York Deco, Photographs by Richard Berenholtz"...Photos bring into focus contrast between 1920s, present-day NYC...Many of the quotations...add to the sense that the buildings were constructed during a lighter, more joyful time.- The Real Deal (NYC) |
Architecture & Design Film Festival 2009 - September 24 - 27, during the height of fall foliage in scenic central Vermont...over 30 feature-length films, documentaries, and shorts...conversations with filmmakers, architects, and designers...to benefit Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren Vermont.- Bergman Design Team |
INSIGHT: Sustainability -- The Great Divide: Do we nationalize and centralize sustainable policies or do we individualize and decentralize them? By Richard Carson- ArchNewsNow |
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-- Competition winner: BIG: National Library, Astana, Kazakhstan
-- Book: "Le Corbusier in His Own Words" - An introduction for children by Antoine Vigne |
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