Today’s News - Monday, May 23, 2011
• ArcSpace offers an eyeful of Foster + Partners' winery embedded in a Spanish landscape.
• Glancey's take on the week in architecture includes "over-reaching ambition" and "over-the-top Blingitecture."
• Moore bemoans the demise of BBC's dreams of Medici munificence in so many instances of visionaries vs. bean-counters, though at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays, "the visionaries got further before the bean-counters chopped their legs off."
• Kennicott is more than a bit disappointed with Safdie's U.S. Institute of Peace in D.C.: it "sits on the Mall like it just blew in from Brussels: smart, clean and bland...This is the Valhalla of Think Tank Architecture."
• On brighter notes, Bey cheers Jahn's Mansueto Library in Chicago as "a kick-ass piece of architecture and engineering" with "one of the most breathtaking interior spaces in the city" (with cool video of the "real marvel" most will never see).
• Dunlop x 2: she offers up "out-of-the-way places, unexpected spaces...that you might miss if you didn't glance up, or down, if you didn't turn a corner" in South Florida.
• She cheers the Miami Marine Stadium Floating Stage Competition: "The energy that radiated from the 90 entries...should tell us just how unimaginative we've been toward our public waterfront" for much too long.
• New Zealand's newest piece of "wow" architecture shows up in an unexpected place in the form of a new visitors' center for the Waitomo Glowworm Caves: "not something you expect to find turning right at Otorohanga."
• James Corner offers Seattle some mighty big ideas to re-center the city around its waterfront: "this stage of the project is about vision and ideas, not potential constraints" (we hope to hear that plans will go forward one of these days).
• We couldn't resist: Goldberger, Ouroussoff, Davis, and Sutton offer some very different, thoughtful, argumentative (and amusing) takes on Koolhaas's tackling (attacking?) preservation in his "Cronocaos" exhibit at the New Museum (read the headlines at least).
• An Italian architect says the time is ripe for China's talent to shine with "designs that combine art, craftsmanship and philosophy" to win the hearts and minds of the masses.
• Architecture and design are celebrated mightily this week in Vancouver and Clerkenwell (London) + Architecture Canada/RAIC present the 2011 Prix du XXe siecle awards to four projects that have "stood the test of time."
• ULI hands out ten 2011 Awards for Excellence in The Americas Competition + St. Louis's Citygarden named 2011 winner of ULI Amanda Burden Urban Open Space Award (Houston and Portland, OR, score well, too) + ANN's Citygarden feature with lots of pix (just to remind you how cool it is).
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Foster + Partners: Bodegas Portia, Ribera del Duero, Spain |
Constructive criticism: the week in architecture: Over-reaching ambition is the order of the week as Liverpool tries to outshine Shanghai [over-the-top Blingitecture], an ex-footballer plans to outdo the Teletubbies and Shoreditch lands a shiny skyscraper. By Jonathan Glancey -- Amanda Levete; Make Architects; Norman Foster; Stephen Lawrence [images, links]- Guardian (UK) |
BBC North: MediaCityUK, Salford Quays: The BBC has long been bipolar when it comes to its buildings. The balance of power has long swung between its visionaries and bean-counters...This time the visionaries got further before the bean-counters chopped their legs off. By Rowan Moore -- Norman Foster; David Chipperfield; Richard MacCormac; Foreign Office Architects (FOA); Wilkinson Eyre Architects; Chapman Taylor; ID:SR- Observer (UK) |
Not at peace with building’s style: Coming and going, there’s no escaping the work of Moshe Safdie...U.S. Institute of Peace...sits on the Mall like it just blew in from Brussels: smart, clean and bland...marks yet another low point in Safdie’s long descent into repetitive corporate architecture...This is the Valhalla of Think Tank Architecture. By Philip Kennicott- Washington Post |
University of Chicago's futuristic new Mansueto Library is definitely one for the books: ...a kick-ass piece of architecture and engineering...one of the most breathtaking interior spaces in the city: a soaring, airy space that ennobles the disciplines of study and research...the building's real marvel is the one most people won't see. By Lee Bey -- Helmut Jahn [images, video]- WBEZ Chicago Public Radio |
Hidden gems: Art and design excellence is all over South Florida . . . you just have to look: There are out-of-the-way places, unexpected spaces and subtle touches that you might miss if you didn’t glance up, or down, if you didn’t turn a corner. It’s the byways that reap the rewards. By Beth Dunlop -- Rene Gonzalez; Chad Oppenheim; David Mann/MR Architecture + Décor; Edouard Duval-Carrie; Rafael de Cardenas- Miami Herald |
A design competition sets dreams and imaginations swirling over long-neglected Miami Marine Stadium: ...Floating Stage Competition...could teach us lots of lessons about ideas and dreams. The energy that radiated from the 90 entries...should tell us just how unimaginative we’ve been toward our public waterfront in the past two decades, or longer. By Beth Dunlop -- Hilario Candela (1963); DawnTown; Abingo Wu Studio; Pink Cloud.DK.Design Group; Igor Reyes biuro architektoniczne SCOLIOSIS; Roco.Co [images]- Miami Herald |
Out of the ashes, a cave of light: The brief was every architect's dream: make an iconic building. Easier said than done...iconic tends to indicate having an eternal "wow" factor...It's not something you expect to find turning right at Otorohanga...the Waitomo Glowworm Caves Visitor Centre does indeed elicit a "wow" -- Christopher Kelly/Architecture Workshop [image]- New Zealand Herald |
'Big ideas' aired for making waterfront Seattle's hub: James Corner presented his teams' "big ideas" to re-center the city around Elliott Bay, create opportunities to experience the views and to touch the water...this stage of the project is about vision and ideas, not potential constraints..."Right now, we're not thinking about budgets, we're thinking about solutions." -- James Corner Field Operations [image]- Seattle Times |
Rem Koolhaas at the Festival of Ideas for the New City: He took as his theme the idea of historic preservation...and complained that contemporary culture has become so obsessive about preserving the past that we risk denying the fundamental premise of architecture, which is to build for the future...envisioned a time when the zeal for preservation would outpace the creation of new architecture. By Paul Goldberger -- Office for Metropolitan Architecture/OMA- The New Yorker |
An Alarmed Architect’s Complaint: Preservation Distorts the Past: Has preservation become a dangerous epidemic? Is it destroying our cities? That’s the conclusion you may come to after seeing “Cronocaos” at the New Museum...challenges the rush to preserve sites deemed historic, suggesting that it often is an excuse for gentrification that erases history. By Nicolai Ouroussoff -- Rem Koolhaas/Shohei Shigematsu/Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) [slide show]- New York Times |
Can Rem Koolhaas Save Architecture From Preservation? Kicking off the New Museum's Festival of Ideas for the New City earlier this month...speaking about the concept of "heritage"...and the way that it can come to choke off the vitality of the present...proposed — at least semi-seriously — that UNESCO create a "Convention Concerning the Demolition of World Cultural Junk" to complement its "Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and National Heritage."- ArtInfo |
Is Conservation Killing Contemporary Architecture? "I had never pronounced the word 'preservation' until eight years ago...Now preservation is outpacing us." By "us" he meant architects, but the accompanying displays, artifacts and installations [of "Cronocaos" at the New Museum through June 5] reinforce to what extent the profession's arrested development affects the rest of us too. -- Rem Koolhaas/OMA- The L Magazine |
Marco Piva: Innovative architecture will shine as China comes of age: "designs that combine art, craftsmanship and philosophy are able win our hearts and minds"...With China's growing economy, the time is ripe for Beijing's artists to embrace modern functionalism and find a way to connect their designs with the masses...- Xinhua News (China) |
Embracing Architecture Week in Vancouver and a west coast perspective: ...will coincide with the 2011 Festival of Architecture...theme "Architecture on the Edge." Not only does this play upon the unique architectural perspective from Canada’s west coast, it also acknowledges the pivotal role that architects play in driving change in our communities...May 24-27. By Pierre E. Gallant/AIBC -- Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC); Architecture Canada (formerly Royal Architectural Institute of Canada/RAIC)- Journal of Commerce (Vancouver) |
Architecture Canada/RAIC will present its 2011 Prix du XXe siecle awards for four buildings that have stood the test of time: Vancouver’s Robson Square, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), the heating and cooling plant at the University of Regina and the Ottawa train station. -- Arthur Erickson; Cornelia Hahn Oberlander; John B. Parkin & Associates (successor firm, NORR)- Journal of Commerce (Vancouver) |
Clerkenwell Design Week: cultural hub is the perfect location to host an international festival that celebrates all disciplines of design; London, May 24-26- Clerkenwell Design Week |
“More Than Just Bricks And Mortar”: ULI Announces Ten Winners for the 2011 Awards for Excellence: The Americas Competition -- Pickard Chilton; Cavenaugh+Cavenaugh; The Design Alliance; Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects; Sasaki Associates; Glassman Shoemake Maldonado Architects; Gehry Partners; Design Workshop; RTKL/Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF)/ka- Urban Land Institute (ULI) |
St. Louis' Citygarden Chosen as 2011 Winner of ULI Amanda Burden Urban Open Space Award -- Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects; studio|durham architects; ZGF Architects; Peter Walker and Partners; Thomas Phifer and Partners- Urban Land Institute (ULI) |
A City's Artful Heart: Citygarden, St. Louis, Missouri: Two formerly vacant downtown blocks have been given new life as a serene urban oasis in the heart of the city. -- Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects; studio|durham architects [images]- ArchNewsNow.com |
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