Today’s News - Tuesday, September 13, 2011
• New Jersey's 9/11 memorial is "modest compared with the memorial and stage-setting at Ground Zero, but achieves an elegant quietness because of that."
• An interesting look at how Yamasaki's 1962 science pavilion that still "stands triumphant in Seattle" got him the WTC commission.
• Glancey's take on why Britain's cities started reaching for the sky, and bemoans that the U.K. "preferred bling to true aesthetic and structural adventure" and left a lot of talented people out of the running.
• Zeiger's Interventionist's Toolkit, Part 3 looks at the difficulties and challenges in rating a diversity of DIY urbanist projects seeking to remake our cities.
• WSJ special section looks at how to build greener cities, suburban Edens ("Agriculture is the new golf"), and much more.
• Moore takes on what's wrong (and right) with Europe's largest shopping center, a "consumerist city on a hill" that is "a glittering gateway to the London 2012 site - but does it have to act as if it owns the whole place?"
• Russell is skeptical of the results of "buying architectural apples and financial oranges" when it comes to the new (and newly-named) La Maison Symphonique de Montreal: perhaps its "underpowered urban presence" was one of the tradeoffs.
• Hawthorne finds Apple's new Cupertino campus "will be a retrograde cocoon": even if it "has a futuristic gleam...in many ways it is a doggedly old-fashioned proposal, recalling the 1943 Pentagon building as well as much of the suburban corporate architecture of the 1960s and '70s."
• Rosenbaum offers up a video tour of Koolhaas' Milstein Hall at Cornell: it is "a muscular yet engaging building, boldly and inventively contemporary with unexpectedly elegant touches."
• Waite offers a first look at the "extreme" restoration of Newcastle's Theatre Royal that "signifies a fundamental shift in how we approach conservation in the 21st century."
• Infrastructure reborn: Milan's Memorial of the Shoah in what was a "grim, cavernous" train depot has been at least nine years in the making.
• Becker on the 8-year saga of transforming a parking garage into Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications (it's looking good).
• King on the design for a subway entrance on San Francisco's Union Square: "don't look for a grand statement" (but that's not necessarily a bad thing).
• Big plans to turn 26 unused London subway stations and bomb shelters into shops and tourist attractions.
• We couldn't resist photographer Christian Widmer's "Non Zero Sum" series in which "the future became a ruin of the past."
• A good reason to head to Harvard for the next couple of days: the Roadmap to Sustainable Infrastructures & Green Cities Conference.
• Eyefuls of ASLA's 2011 Student Award winners (great presentation!).
• Call for entries: National Mall Design Competition for three key areas.
• EDITOR'S NOTE: Apologies for missing yesterday and late posting today - the internet gods have been very unhappy with us for some reason.
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In N.J., a More Modest Memorial: ...Empty Sky in Liberty State Park...is modest compared with the memorial and stage-setting at Ground Zero, but achieves an elegant quietness because of that... -- Frederic Schwartz Architects [image]- Wall Street Journal |
A dark day for gleaming visions: Minoru Yamasaki's science pavilion [1962] at the Century 21 world's fair got him the commission to design the World Trade Center. Its ruins are resonant still, in part because of the ideals he brought from Seattle...[his] vision tumbled down in New York, but stands triumphant in Seattle. By Knute Berger- Crosscut (Seattle) |
Towers of power: why Britain's cities reached for the sky: Architecture from the 1980s became about power and ambition...The talk among all too many architects was no longer about public spiritedness, but marketing and branding...Britain had gone wild, in architectural terms, but preferred bling to true aesthetic and structural adventure. By Jonathan Glancey -- Herzog & de Meuron; Richard Rogers Partnership; Foster + Partners; Zaha Hadid; David Chipperfield; Charles Barclay; 6a Architects- Guardian (UK) |
The Interventionist’s Toolkit, Part 3: Our Cities, Ourselves: Mimi Zeiger looks at a range of DIY urbanist projects, from community gardens and food trucks to pop-up markets in shipping containers to small business incubators in an old steel city...and asks...How to rate the diverse architectural actions and urban interventions that seek to remake the city? -- Marjetica Potrc; Wilde Westen; Rockwell Group; Archeworks; NextGen; Project for Public Spaces; Youngwoo & Associates; Renew Newcastle (Australia) [images, links]- Places Journal |
How to Build a Greener City + An Apple Tree Grows in Suburbia: The hot trend in the suburbs is to mix homes and agriculture..."Agriculture is the new golf"...Suburban Edens, however, aren't always easy to build + The Urban Quest for 'Zero' Waste + Building Owners Want Water That Never Leaves; etc. -- SWA Group; KMD Architects- Wall Street Journal |
Westfield Stratford City, the largest shopping centre in Europe, will provide a glittering gateway to the London 2012 site – but does it have to act as if it owns the whole place? ...consumerist city on a hill, this great engine of aspiration and envy, set amid unredeemed tower blocks and shards of streets, is precisely the sort of thing that, post-riots, we should not be building...It was not originally supposed to be like this. By Rowan Moore- Observer (UK) |
For $261 Million Montreal Hall Has Quebec Beech, Bland Shell: La Maison Symphonique de Montreal is a Kimmel descendant...restraint pays off in an informality that invites the audience to listen...I’m skeptical of buying architectural apples and financial oranges...If the proposed cost looks good while the architecture is only so-so, guess what wins. So I am left wondering if the building’s underpowered urban presence may be one of the tradeoffs... By James S. Russell -- Diamond and Schmitt; Artec; Sound Space [images]- Bloomberg News |
Apple's new campus will be a retrograde cocoon: The proposed headquarters wraps its workers in a suburban setting, removing the feeling of a collective metropolitan realm...Though the planned building has a futuristic gleam...in many ways it is a doggedly old-fashioned proposal, recalling the 1943 Pentagon building as well as much of the suburban corporate architecture of the 1960s and '70s...a classic example of what Louise A. Mozingo...calls "pastoral capitalism." By Christopher Hawthorne -- Foster + Partners- Los Angeles Times |
First Look: Rem Koolhaas’ Architecture for Architects at Cornell University: Milstein Hall...is part of a sudden burst of starchitects on the Ithaca campus...Milstein is a winner: a muscular yet engaging building, with a glorious open, sun-filled "studio plate"...with unexpectedly elegant touches...Boldly and inventively contemporary... By Lee Rosenbaum -- Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA); I.M. Pei; Richard Meier; Thom Mayne/Morphosis [images, video]- ArtsJournal |
Revealed: 'extreme' restoration for Newcastle's Theatre Royal: ...has been hailed as "one of the biggest and most meticulous theatre restorations in recorded history"..."signifies a fundamental shift in how we approach conservation in the 21st century." Thomas Matcham (19091); RHWL (1988); Sansome Hall Architects; Charcoalblue; Theatresearch [images]- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Memory in the Making: For nine years, a foundation and a pair of Milanese architects have been working to transform the grim, cavernous depot — all but abandoned after the war — into the Memorial of the Shoah..."We had to try to bring to the surface some sign of something that was absolutely invisible in Milan"... -- Morpurgo de Curtis Architetti [images]- New York Times |
From Parking Garage to Museum of Broadcast Communications in just Eight Easy Lessons/Years: ...a funny thing happened on the way to the Museum...the hope is now to get the thing opened in time for the Museum's 25th anniversary next year. We'll see. But even now...it's a fairly handsome transformation. By Lynn Becker -- Eckenhoff Saunders Architects; Helen Kessler- ArchitectureChicago Plus |
Union Square portal to subway designed to blend in: ...don't look for a grand statement...the result of nearly a year of architectural debate is a design with no higher aesthetic aim than to keep a low profile...This is contextual design of the most literal sort..."where you're putting infrastructure into an existing park, you can't expect a masterpiece"... By John King -- Robin Chiang [images]- San Francisco Chronicle |
Underground and under planned: Architects protest big void in Barangaroo...have questioned the decision-making process behind plans for a large shell, which is without any assigned purpose, to be built above a two-storey underground carpark...it “would be nonsense to construct a space without knowing what you are going to put inside it." -- Peter Webber- Architecture & Design (Australia) |
London Entrepreneur Sees Gold Mine in Unused Subway Stations: A former JPMorgan Chase executive aims to turn 26 unused London subway stations and bomb shelters into shops and tourist attractions...Ajit Chambers, chief executive officer of Old London Underground Co., met Mayor Boris Johnson to discuss the plan.- Bloomberg News |
"Non Zero Sum": Photographer Christian Widmer's series examines the residue of the earlier dreams by focusing on the promises, anxieties and ambiguities of the first decade of the new century, during which, as Widmer puts it, "the future became a ruin of the past."- Places Journal |
A Roadmap to Sustainable Infrastructures & Green Cities Conference: Making a Case for Green Infrastructure Projects; Linking and Leveraging Sustainable Infrastructure Development with Integrated Community Planning; and more; September 14-16, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA- Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) |
ASLA Announces 2011 Student Awards: ...jury of landscape architects, academics and press selects 40 projects for recognition [links to images, info]- American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
Call for entries: Rethink. Restore. Rebuild. National Mall Design Competition for three key areas; registration deadline: October 8- Trust for the National Mall (Washington, DC) |
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