Today’s News - Friday, January 29, 2010
• Two energy companies are helping to underwrite Oklahoma City's urban ambitions to bring life to downtown (a 70-acre Central Park included).
• Russell on the U.N.'s ambitious restoration plan - big bucks, but is it really all that ambitious?
• Hawthorne gives (mostly) thumbs-up to L.A.'s latest urban planning experiment: "one part Hollywood vanity and one part subway plaza" - "ungainly," but interesting.
• Goldhagen cheers Jerusalem's newest mixed-use complex that "indisputably establishes Safdie as one of today's very best urban designer-architects."
• Meanwhile, his smallest project to date is proposed for Philadelphia: Though "tiny," he called it "very significant."
• An impressive shortlist for V&A expansion.
• Baillieu says the V&A learned a lesson from Libeskind's "ill-fated proposal" by showing "how modern architecture can win support, rather than simply alienating people."
• Sejima's theme for Venice Biennale: "People meet in Architecture" - architects and then some.
• SOM's Saudi Arabia Hajj Terminal takes 2010 AIA Twenty-five Year Award.
• Groves cheers news of new life - and new location - for Santa Monica's last shotgun house after years of bouncing around the city "ducking the wrecking ball."
• On the east coast, a coachman's cottage facing demolition finds a new home "because a passer-by felt sorry for it."
• Call for entries: Greenpeace launches competition to design a "fortress" to beat off bulldozers at site of planned new Heathrow runway.
• Wanted: a (male) architect to travel the world as TV show host.
• Weekend diversions:
• Iovine recommends "China Prophecy: Shanghai" at the Skyscraper Museum: it's "a handy way to get a better grip on the changes under way in this clamoring, glamorous city."
• "Arcadia/Suburbia: Architecture on Long Island 1930-2010" at the Heckscher Museum shows off Modernist masters, and reminds us of the importance of preserving what remains.
• In Wellington, New Zealand, "Bill Toomath: Liberating Everyday Life" explores how his "architectural thinking has left its signature on the city."
• Page turners: "The SANAA Studios 2006-2008" is a slim volume that "may make readers look at the firm's designs a little differently."
• The first issue of the Yale Library Studies journal focuses on Yale's libraries (and Goldberger likes it).
• At the Sundance Film Festival, "The Man Next Door" to an architectural wonder (a Corbu no less) shows "what happens when thou dost not love thy neighbor's window."
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How Sandridge Natural Gas Could Turn Oklahoma City Into an Urban Hot Spot: ...Metropolitan Area Projects Plan (MAPS) to help finance downtown's reconstruction...centerpiece of the plan is a 70-acre Central Park, and $777 million...for a restored trolley network, mass transit hub, new convention center, running and biking trails, and even sidewalks. -- Rogers Marvel [images, video]- Fast Company |
A Downtown Becomes Full of Life Again: Devon Energy is constructing a 50-story tower in Oklahoma City...$140 million makeover of downtown, including new sidewalks, bicycle lanes and two-way streets, also starts in May courtesy of Devon. -- Pickard Chilton- New York Times |
UN Embalms Faded Hopes in $1.9 Billion Restoration of Buildings: ...asserts its singular importance on the skyline without grandiosity, a balance almost never achieved in symbolic public buildings...I continue to hope the UN will someday assemble the best architects and problem solvers to create a forum that is truly capable of taking on the world’s stupefying challenges. By James S. Russell -- Wallace K. Harrison; Le Corbusier; Oscar Niemeyer; Einhorn Yaffee Prescott; HLW; Helpern Architects; Perkins Eastman- Bloomberg News |
The W Hollywood Hotel & Residences: An urban complexity: The new complex is one part Hollywood vanity and one part subway plaza. The results are ungainly, but an interesting experiment in city planning...among the largest transit-oriented developments, or TODs, yet completed in Los Angeles....isn't just an urban-planning experiment...It's something of a sociological one too. By Christopher Hawthorne -- HKS; Designstudio Ltd.; Daly Genik; Rios Clementi Hale [images]- Los Angeles Times |
Moshe Safdie's Mamilla Alrov Center in Jerusalem: ...the last portion of a 28-acre mixed-use development...indisputably establishes him as one of today’s very best urban designer-architects...the rare example in contemporary design in which the “private” in public-private partnerships have not steamrolled over the public good. By Sarah Williams Goldhagen [images, links]- Design Observer |
Human-rights center proposed for Philadelphia: A low-slung, transparent human-rights education center designed by Moshe Safdie has been proposed for a prominent location on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway..."It's going to be driven by the community"...one of Safdie's smallest projects...Though "tiny," he called it "very significant."- Philadelphia Inquirer |
Impressive V&A extension shortlist: Victoria & Albert Museum has unveiled an exciting 10-strong shortlist for a new £28 million underground addition to its West London home -- David Chipperfield; Tony Fretton; Sutherland Hussey; SANAA; Jamie Fobert; Heneghan Peng; Snøhetta; Amanda Levete; OMA; Francisco Mangado; Daniel Libeskind- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Everyone loves a good story: In developing the site of Libeskind’s ill-fated proposal, the V&A wants to ensure that this time it wins broad public support...People are not more distrustful of modern architecture, but they are fed up with only being told half the story...can show how modern architecture can win support, rather than simply alienating people. By Amanda Baillieu- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Theme for Venice architecture biennale announced: ...will take place under the motto of 'People meet in Architecture'..."The idea is to help people relate to architecture, help architecture relate to people and help people relate to themselves." -- Kazuyo Sejima/SANAA- Independent (UK) |
SOM’s Saudi Arabia Hajj Terminal is Honored with 2010 AIA Twenty-five Year Award: Perhaps no other airport terminal in the world is as defined by cultural and religious traditions... -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill [images]- AIArchitect |
Santa Monica landmark gets good shot at secure future: The city's last shotgun house, once on the verge of demolition, will become the headquarters of the Santa Monica Conservancy...the fourth location for the building, which has bounced around the city, ducking the wrecking ball. By Martha Groves -- Mario Fonda-Bonardi- Los Angeles Times |
Moving House: A century-old 1,500-square-foot cottage is about to be moved not for those kinds of reasons, but because a passer-by felt sorry for it...once the home of a coachman..."one of the few relics of the ordinary people who once lived on the estates in New Castle." [image]- New York Times |
Call for entries: Architects asked to design Heathrow 'fortress' against third runway: Greenpeace launches competition to design iconic and 'impenetrable' stronghold to beat off bulldozers at site of planned new runway; deadline: April 23- Building (UK) |
Wanted: Experienced Architect to Travel World and Host TV Show: ...an experienced male architect, architecture expert, or educator...Personality and communication skills are critical.- AIArchitect |
The City of the Future Echoes the Past: "China Prophecy: Shanghai" at the Skyscraper Museum draws parallels between the booming Chinese city of today and New York's own 1930s skyscraper surge...400 skyscrapers rising...since 1990...The relentless escalation seems daunting, even a little scary....[exhibit] is a handy way to get a better grip on the changes under way in this clamoring, glamorous city. By Julie V. Iovine [slide show]- Wall Street Journal |
In Suburban Houses, Roots of Modernism: “Arcadia/Suburbia: Architecture on Long Island 1930-2010"...A remarkable exhibition at the Heckscher Museum of Art...reminding us not only of the need to raise awareness about Modern architecture on Long Island but also of the importance of preserving what remains. This show is a great start. -- Frank Lloyd Wright; Philip Johnson; Marcel Breuer; A. Lawrence Kocher; Albert Frey; Edward Durell Stone; Ezra Stoller; George Nemeny; Herbert Beckhard [images]- New York Times |
Bringing Modernism Home: "Bill Toomath: Liberating Everyday Life" at City Gallery Wellington, 29 January –14 March 2010...His architectural thinking has left its signature on the city...- Scoop (New Zealand) |
Book review: "The SANAA Studios 2006–2008: Learning from Japan: Single Story Urbanism" edited by Florian Idenburg/SO-IL...focus is not so much what the Princeton students learned...or how they learned it, as what the rest of us can learn from the firm’s work and Japanese architecture in general.- Metropolis Magazine |
Yale librarians debut new journal: The first issue of the Yale Library Studies journal...This year’s theme is the architecture of Yale’s libraries . “We’ve already heard from...Paul Goldberger with words of high praise"...- Yale Daily News |
Film review: "The Man Next Door": ...a successful industrial designer, lives...in an architectural wonder, a midcentury Le Corbusier home...one man’s light is another man’s blight...offers a biting critique of moral shallowness—and what happens when thou dost not love thy neighbor’s window.- Sundance Film Festival |
Market Research Strategies in Uncertain Times #5: Market Research on Shoestring Budgets - 10 Tips for 2010: Firms operating on shoestring budgets can still create positive change if they follow the mantra of THINK. By Frances Gretes- ArchNewsNow |
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-- Tabanlioglu Architects: Astana Arena, Astana, Kazakhstan
-- Whitearchitecture: Southport Broadwater Parklands, Southport, Australia |
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