Today’s News - Wednesday, September 23, 2009
• Hess pays tribute to Morris, a "little-known California modernist who leaves a big impact."
• Heathcote looks at lost opportunities for good design in social housing by leaving it up to "grudging developers" (a history lesson here).
• A battle between "old school" and "new school" at Cornell: "Pick now or forever hold your peace: Are you going to draw by hand or on the computer?" (isn't there a third way?)
• An eyeful of Venturi, Scott Brown's decorated shed for the Lincoln Highway Experience in Pennsylvania.
• An Italian architect (not Piano) has a different vision for rebuilding the Royal Opera House in Valletta, Malta.
• Once-threatened French-colonial villas in Vietnam to be protected - and restored.
• Now that the lost stones from London's Euston Arch are being recovered from River Lea, the lost landmark might just get rebuilt (nightclub included).
• Arieff cheers cities' innovative efforts to turn empty urban spaces into "public spaces, created on the cheap, and full of heart" (great pix, links).
• Howeler & Yoon offer up their own solution for empty construction sites in Boston.
• Rael San Fratello's Bay Line proposal for a disused part of Bay Bridge could be San Francisco's answer to NYC's High Line.
• The recent New Amsterdam Bike Slam was "part infrastructure symposium and part reality television show competition" (and definitely sounded like fun; spoiler: Team Amsterdam won).
• NJIT team proposal for a network of floating docks with river turbines that would harness clean energy and create new public spaces draws interest from all over.
• Newark visitors center competition plagued by some "unfortunate blunders" (but no one has been disqualified or dropped out).
• The KPF "breakaway five" unveil new practice name (an alphabet soup...what else?).
• A great presentation of Fast Company's pick for Masters of Design 2009.
• We couldn't resist: Greer and Bayley go at it over his new book, "Woman as Design"; and Calatrava's new digs in Connecticut: a mere $5.5 million (pix included - we bet the furniture goes).
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Obituary: Allyn Morris, 1922-2009: A little-known California modernist leaves a big impact...[his] passing reminds us just how much more inventive California architecture was than we have even realized...Morris stretched our expectations about Modernism. By Alan Hess [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Design sidelined: Virtually every big development in the form and architectural language of modern housing has emerged from the drive for social housing...in delegating the provision of housing...to grudging developers there might be big opportunities being lost. By Edwin Heathcote -- Edwin Lutyens (1920s); Powell & Moya (1947); FAT; De Metz Forbes Knight; AHMM; Cartwright Pickard; Feilden Clegg Bradley; Ian Ritchie; Sergison Bates; Herzog & de Meuron; Foreign Office Architects (FOA); etc.- Financial Times (UK) |
A House Divided: Bridging Architecture's Culture War: ...there you are at the abyss...full of dreams about architecture saving the world, and they’re saying: “Pick now or forever hold your peace: Are you going to draw by hand or on the computer?”...The divide between “new school” and “old school”...makes both sides close-minded...every day, it’s getting more and more uncomfortable. By Ann Lui- Cornell Daily Sun |
Venturi, Scott Brown Designs Decorated Shed for Lincoln Highway Experience: ...a new museum and visitors center [in Ligonier, Pennsylvania] that will celebrate the first road in the U.S. that stretched from coast to coast. -- Maude Group; Kissiloff Planning & Design [slide show]- Architectural Record |
Passion for a project: What if somebody turned up and offered to rebuild the Royal Opera House in Valletta for €15 million in two years? It should be tempting; particularly so since some such amount would barely cover the architect’s fees in the Renzo Piano proposal. -- Giovanni Trevisan- Malta Today |
Historic French-style villas in Vietnam to be saved after state agrees not to sell them: Concerns about the 600 villas in old Hanoi had spread around the world...at least 260 are expected to be protected. -- Viet Nam Architecture Association- Property Week (UK) |
Euston Arch may rise again as lost stones are recovered: ...new plans for the forgotten landmark, including a nightclub, as lost stones are raised from an East London river. -- Dan Cruickshank [image, videos]- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Pavement to Parks: Cities are trying innovative new approaches to turning empty space into park space...short on cash but long on ingenuity...Programs like Pavement to Parks and Green Light Manhattan have an irresistible immediacy to them...entering into the global conversation... By Allison Arieff -- Park(ing) Day; Jane Martin/Plant*SF; REBAR; Public Architecture; Field Operations [images, links]- New York Times |
Eco-pods for stalled construction sites? Howeler & Yoon has proposed plans to fill a stalled construction block with a series of eco-pods capable of being moved by robotic arms in its home town of Boston. [images]- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Architects propose building neighborhood on disused part of Bay Bridge: Abandoned portion could be turned into urban housing and parks...‘The Bay Line’ would feature neighborhoods hanging on the underside of the bridge, topped with a series of public parks. -- Rael San Fratello [link to images]- Mother Nature Network |
Concepts Run Wild at Dutch-American New Amsterdam Bike Slam: ...a four-day conference that was part infrastructure symposium and part reality television show competition...brainstorming to create a vision to spur a million more cyclists onto New York’s streets... -- Transportation Alternatives; Velo Mondial [images, links]- New York Times |
Powerful Ideas: River Turbines Could Electrify New York City: A network of floating docks could harness clean energy...and provide new space for parks. -- New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT); Richard Garber/GRO Architects [image, links]- LiveScience |
Gaffes galore for Newark visitor centre contest: A number of unfortunate blunders have left hundreds of entrants taking part in a competition to design a new visitor centre for Newark, New Jersey, ‘annoyed’, bemused and ‘disappointed’...No contestants have been disqualified from the contest and...none have dropped out.- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
The KPF 'breakaway five' unveil new practice name: Five former partners of Kohn Pedersen Fox’s London office, who walked away following a failed management buyout, have re-emerged as PLP Architecture (PL Partnership: Polisano Leventhal Pilbrow Cook Bakker)...will have an ‘anticipated initial team of 80-100 architects.’- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Masters of Design 2009: Lisa Strausfeld/Pentagram; David Rockwell; David Adjaye; Alberto Alessi; David Butler [slide shows, videos]- Fast Company |
Women everywhere – please send a picture of your unsupported breasts to Stephen Bayley: ..."Woman as Design" is not so much mysterious as meaningless...seeks to answer the question: if woman was designed then what exactly was the brief? By Germaine Greer- Guardian (UK) |
Steven Bayley: Why my book is not sexist: "Woman As Design" has infuriated feminists including Germaine Greer, who attacked it on these pages last week. Here, the author defends it- Guardian (UK) |
Wall Street's Robinson Sells To Architect Calatrava: Former American Express Co. Chairman and CEO...has sold his 35-acre Warren, Conn., estate to architect Santiago Calatrava for $5.5 million... [slide show]- Wall Street Journal |
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 |
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-- Gehry Partners, LLP: Counceling Center (Hejmdal), Danish Cancer Society, Aarhus, Denmark
-- Sparch: Vision City, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
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