Today’s News - Friday, October 22, 2010
• In "The Architecture of Patterns" Lui finds "the Modernist adage 'form follows function' has stuck around in a whole new guise."
• Why Brisbane's "startling cultural renaissance has Melbourne's arts mandarins worried": could it become Australia's new cultural capital?
• Melbourne can cheer itself up with it National Architecture Week: "Your City, Your Home, Your Architecture" starting this Sunday.
• Move over Burj Khalifa: it looks like Jeddah's $26.6 billion "mile-high" Kingdom Tower is moving forward (designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill - who else?).
• Bunshaft's landmarked Manufacturer's Hanover Trust Bank building being transformed into a "landmark only your high school daughter could love: a Forever 21. But wait, it gets worse" (just where did the Bertoia go?).
• Vancouver's 1983 Terry Fox monument to be replaced - and its architect is none too happy.
• Good architecture is not hard to find in Singapore, "but along with the stunners are a handful of...certified duds" (lots of pix, but only architects of the "stunners" are named).
• Sydney architects name their favorite buildings.
• BIG wins big with the 2010 European Prize for Architecture by breaking "Denmark's good-old boy network challenging a constipated establishment to think outside a boring box" (that line should win a prize!).
• Weekend diversions:
• Russell cheers MoMA's "Small Scale, Big Change" and its several projects "of surpassing beauty" and others showing "marvelous inventiveness," but while they "are tiny forays into massive problems, they raise sticky questions."
• Davidson finds the show "especially trenchant in an environment as ornery and pragmatic as New York's" because "it shies away from grandiose arguments or rhetorical generalizations."
• Vernon Mays looks at the legacy of Paul Revere Williams who became "became the go-to designer of Hollywood's Golden Age" at a time when many said: "Whoever heard of a Negro being an architect?" as the architect takes center stage in Memphis (terrific slide show).
• Kennicott cheers Palladio show now at the National Building Museum: "If nothing else, he gave America a neatly simple-minded vocabulary for making buildings, a tool kit of mostly interchangeable parts that limited the chances for monstrous abortions of taste."
• Two Q&A's with Kamin re: what it means to be a critic today are most timely considering his newly released "Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age."
• "Light Color Sound: Sensory Effects in Contemporary Architecture" highlights 30 projects in all shapes and sizes with one thing in common: "they interact with passers-by in a new and exciting way."
• "Hart Wood: Architectural Regionalism in Hawaii" is "a valuable addition to the rather thin selection of volumes about Hawaii architecture."
• Walker cheers "Handcrafted Modern: At Home With Mid-Century Designers": it shows how some of the greats "were content to live comfortably and sensibly in their own private lives."
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Book Review: "The Architecture of Patterns" by Paul Andersen and David Salomon...considers how the Modernist adage "form follows function" has stuck around in a whole new guise. By Ann Lui [images]- ArchNewsNow |
Is Brisbane Australia's new cultural capital? ...startling cultural renaissance has Melbourne's arts mandarins worried...has discovered the advantages of "lifestyle" and urban "renewal"...seems to have taken to it with a gusto...consistent with its can-do, "frontier" approach...optimistic, don't-look-back attitude comes from that rejection of the bad old days of bigoted, bulldozing Brisbane.- The Age (Australia) |
National Architecture Week Melbourne: Your City, Your Home, Your Architecture; October 24-30- Australian Institute of Architects (formerly RAIA) |
Tallest tower plan in Jeddah on track: ...1.6-kilometre-high Kingdom Tower...tallest tower in the world when completed, already informally dubbed the mile-high tower, will be double the height of Dubai's Burj Khalifa...a city to be constructed around the tower will sprawl over an area of 23 million square metres at a total investment of $26.6 billion...to accommodate 80,000 people [and] up to a million visitors. -- Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture- Gulf News (UAE) |
Bunshaft Goes Big-Box While Bertoia Goes Missing? The rumors about Gordon Bunshaft’s landmarked Manufacturer’s Hanover Trust Bank building being transformed into a big-box retail store have been flying around...3-D illustration...showing the building as the type of landmark only your high school daughter could love: a Forever 21. But wait, it gets worse. [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Architect of Terry Fox monument upset about plan to tear down memorial at BC Place: "I am very hurt about this. I feel bad that the public didn't really get it. But I don't really like the idea that it is being destroyed"...hired Vancouver writer and artist Douglas Coupland to design a more representative memorial to the one-legged runner. -- Franklin Allen (1983) [image]- Vancouver Sun |
The best and worst buildings in Singapore: Good architecture is not hard to find...but along with the stunners are a handful of eyesores we'd rather do without...clear that this is a country that’s unafraid to speculate and tinker. Quite often, the results are spectacular...but equally, there have been certified duds. -- Moshe Safdie; DP Architects; Paul Rudolph; I.M. Pei; WOHA Architects [images, links]- CNN Asia |
Inbuilt pleasure: It’s not all about the Opera House....architects name their favourite Sydney addresses. -- Tamara Donnellan/Terroir; Tonkin Zulaikha Greer; Howard Smith/Howard K. Smith & Associates; Emil Sodersten; Tone Wheeler/Environa Studio; John James; Kim Crestani/Order Architects; Architectus/Ingenhoven Architects; Sam Marshall/Architect Marshall; Harry Seidler; Mark Szczerbicki- The Age (Australia) |
Bjarke Ingels receives the 2010 European Prize for Architecture: He advocates for architecture to be taught in public schools alongside science and mathematics. He has broken Denmark’s good-old boy network challenging a constipated establishment to think outside a boring box. He is challenging Europe’s mundane status quo. -- Bjarke Ingels Group/BIG- Chicago Athenaeum/European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies |
Bangladesh's Bavarian, IPad Apps Spread Smart Buildings: “Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement” at Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art...Several are of surpassing beauty...Others show marvelous inventiveness...projects are tiny forays into massive problems, they raise sticky questions. By James S. Russell -- Anna Heringer/Eike Roswag; Diebedo Francis Kere; Alejandro Aravena/Elemental; Teddy Cruz; Urban-Think Tank; Michael Maltzan; Architecture for Humanity; Open Architecture Network [images, links]- Bloomberg News |
Good Buildings: Post-boom, helpful architecture: If ever architecture needed a shot of altruism, it does now. The boom seduced many excellent architects into turning out ever-pricier baubles and feats of vertiginous engineering...What makes MoMA’s "Small Scale, Big Change" especially trenchant in an environment as ornery and pragmatic as New York’s is that it shies away from grandiose arguments or rhetorical generalizations. By Justin Davidson -- Alexander Gorlin; Grimshaw/Dattner; Anna Heringer; Teddy Cruz; Urban-Think Tank- New York Magazine |
Mr. Williams: From an early age, Paul Revere Williams wanted to design buildings. His high school guidance counselor was skeptical: “Whoever heard of a Negro being an architect?"...became the go-to designer of Hollywood's Golden Age. Now, he stands as a role model for the next, more diverse generation of architects..."Paul Revere Williams, American Architect" opening Oct. 23 at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis... By Vernon Mays -- AIA Memphis; Paul R. Williams Project; National Organization of Minority Architects/NOMA [slide show]- Architect Magazine |
"Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey" at the National Building Museum...best appreciated as a survey of [his] drawing, rather than for the blindingly obvious fact of his "transatlantic legacy"...If nothing else, he gave America a neatly simple-minded vocabulary for making buildings, a tool kit of mostly interchangeable parts that limited the chances for monstrous abortions of taste. By Philip Kennicott- Washington Post |
Architecture's Terror and Wonder: A Conversation with Blair Kamin...about architecture as a social art, the importance of enlightened leadership, and about the critic as a tie-wearing "street fighter."..."What we really need is a better intellectual infrastructure, one that continually thrusts architecture and its impact on the public realm into the public conversation." By Guy Horton- Huffington Post |
Blair Kamin, on Criticism: ...Pulitzer Prize–winning architecture critic from a town blessed with some of the best buildings in the world...passing unflinching near-daily judgments on the great designs of our time..."Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age"...[talks] about what it means to be a critic today..."I’m interested in how architecture hits you in the gut, not just the brain." By J. Michael Welton- Dwell |
Book Excerpt: Buildings as Total Sensory Experiences: "Light Color Sound: Sensory Effects in Contemporary Architecture" by Ana Maria Alvarez and Alejandro Bahamon...30 projects highlighted in the book...vary in shape, size and location...But they all have something in common: they interact with passers-by in a new and exciting way.- The Atlantic |
The art of architecture in Hawaii: "Hart Wood: Architectural Regionalism in Hawaii" by Don J. Hibbard, Glenn E. Mason and Karen J. Weitze explores the evolution and unique traits of architecture during the early part of the 20th century...a valuable addition to the rather thin selection of volumes about Hawaii architecture. [images]- Honolulu Star-Advertiser |
Inside the Homes of the 20th Century's Most Famous Designers: "Handcrafted Modern: At Home With Mid-Century Designers" by Leslie Williamson...No matter how grandiose or elegant the buildings and accessories that these designers were busy creating for the public...[they] were content to live comfortably and sensibly in their own private lives...real people living creatively in real homes. By Alissa Walker -- Walter Gropius; Charles and Ray Eames; Albert Frey; Russel Wright; architect David Leavitt; Eva Zeisel; George Nakashima; J.B. Blunt [slide show]- Fast Company |
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Exhibition & Symposium: "Image. Architecture.Now," Julius Shulman Institute, Woodbury University
Burbank, California: Photographer Iwan Baan was presented with the 1st annual Julius Shulman Photography Award. [images] |
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