Today’s News - Friday, April 20, 2012
• Sunday is Earth Day! Volner offers an in-depth report on how "national and grassroots initiatives open the door for reuse to have a greater role in sustainable design."
• Hanscom has a Q&A with Hayes "best known as the guy who coordinated the first Earth Day, back in 1970," and now building an oh-so-green HQ for his Bullitt Foundation.
• How could we resist "The weirdest, worst PR crap we've seen this Earth Day": a very funny round-up of some of the more bizarre Earth Day marketing (dare we say) stunts.
• Yglesias and Jaffe are on opposite sides of the debate re: height restrictions in Washington, DC: they're "bad for the nation's capital and terrible for America"; or it's "not about architecture or affordable housing or spreading development. It's about greed."
• A green light for Melbourne's second tallest tower sparks a debate about the future of the city's skyline.
• Brussat tells the tale of two plans for Providence that "offer a stark contrast: how to do it and how not to do it."
• Santa Monica College to get a stylish new performing arts center.
• Rose's lively review of the week in architecture includes "a few collisions of architecture and cinema" and "the last word in celebrity design: shoes by John Malkovich. No, really."
• Greenberg looks at the possibility of the happiness factor becoming a serious business for cities.
• The Earth Institute issues the first World Happiness Report that "reflects a new worldwide demand for more attention to happiness and absence of misery as criteria for government policy.
• Hampson has a chat with de Botton re: how space and architecture influence happiness.
• The inaugural AJ Woman Architect of the Year honors two + the AJ Emerging Woman Architect of the Year named.
• Weekend diversions:
• Hawthorne hails "a rich, deceptively simple-looking" Cliff May exhibition at the UC Santa Barbara Art, Design and Architecture Museum.
• Maya Lin launches the second stage of "What Is Missing?," the fifth, and last, of her memorial projects (intriguing homepage!), along with a "stirring" sculpture exhibition in Pittsburgh.
• In L.A., Okun's "Dreamscapes" photographically rearranges building parts to better see the whole (great pix).
• "Twentieth Century Architects: Ahrends, Burton and Koralek" tells the tale of the firm that got "both with barrels" from Prince Charles with his notorious "monstrous carbuncle" tirade.
• Victoria Newhouse narrates an audio slideshow of highlights from her new book, "Site and Sound: The Architecture and Acoustics of New Opera Houses and Concert Halls."
• Mays has high praise for "Concrete Ideas: Material To Shape A City": it is "something that many people would have thought impossible: a cheerful book about concrete."
• Happy Earth Day!
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Architecture’s Afterlife: We recycle everything from newspapers to automobiles, and yet we continue to pile obsolete building materials into landfills. Recent national and grassroots initiatives open the door for reuse to have a greater role in sustainable design. By Ian Volner -- Construction Materials Recycling Association; Ballinger; BNIM; El Dorado Architects; PlanetReuse; Public Architecture; Loading Dock; Deconstruction & Reuse Network- Architect Magazine |
Earth Day revisited: An environmental patriarch on keeping the dream alive: Denis Hayes is best known as the guy who coordinated the first Earth Day, back in 1970...talks about the big day, green building, and his prognosis for the planet. By Greg Hanscom- Grist Magazine |
The weirdest, worst PR crap we’ve seen this Earth Day: Oh, Denis Hayes and Gaylord Nelson, what hath ye wrought. Though Earth Day was founded with good intentions, the holiday has long since been co-opted by flacks from all trades as another great opportunity to sell sh*t.- Grist Magazine |
Legalize Skyscrapers: Washington, D.C.’s height restrictions are bad for the nation’s capital and terrible for America. By Matthew Yglesias- Slate |
Tall buildings in nation's capital built on greed: The relatively low skyline has been a benefit to all, especially developers...has kept the price of real estate precious and high. It has forced development out of downtown and into the neighborhoods...The incentive to raise building heights is not about architecture or affordable housing or spreading development. It's about greed, period. By Harry Jaffe- Washington Examiner |
Melbourne's next tallest tower approved - signals new era of skyscrapers: The 71-storey Bates Smart-designed tower...will be the second tallest building in the city sparking debate about the future of the skyline. [images]- Architecture & Design (Australia) |
A tale of two plans for Providence: As Providence ponders how to fill the land vacated by the relocation of Route 195, two new plans have emerged that offer a stark contrast: how to do it and how not to do it. By David Brussat [images]- Providence Journal (Rhode Island) |
Broad Stage Expansion in Santa Monica: DLR Group WWCOT design a to compliment its neighbors...The new building helps to shape a new plaza for Santa Monica College. -- Renzo Zecchetto (2008) [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Constructive criticism: the week in architecture: A new proposal aims to save Battersea Power Station (Pink Floyd reunion gig, anyone?), the Metropolitan Arts Centre opens in Belfast and Avengers Assemble shows how not to do architecture...a few collisions of architecture and cinema...the last word in celebrity design: shoes by John Malkovich. No, really. By Steve Rose -- Allies & Morrison; Terry Farrell; Hall McKnight; KPF/Kohn Pedersen Fox [images, links]- Guardian (UK) |
Happiness: A Serious Matter for Cities: When the international community gathers to focus on sustainable development this June in Rio de Janeiro, it will take up many daunting challenges...if trends continue, GNH could emerge as the most coherent challenger to GDP in a long time. Should that happen, the pursuit of Gross National Happiness will turn into serious business indeed. By Jon Greenberg- Citiwire |
First World Happiness Report Launched at the United Nations: ...reflects a new worldwide demand for more attention to happiness and absence of misery as criteria for government policy. [link to report]- Earth Institute / Columbia University |
How space and architecture influence happiness: The influence a space can have on our happiness explains the popularity of shelter magazines and designer porn...If architecture is a tool for mental health, then why isn’t there more of the happiness-producing kind? Well, that is a modern dilemma. By Sarah Hampson -- Alain de Botton/The Architecture of Happiness- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Michál Cohen and Cindy Walters have together won the inaugural AJ Woman Architect of the Year prize: The duo – who founded the UK’s only predominantly women-led studio, Walters & Cohen in 1994 – have been recognised for design excellence, thought leadership and being role models for aspiring architects. [images]- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
John McAslan + Partners director Hannah Lawson has been named AJ Emerging Woman Architect of the Year. RARE Architecture’s Nathalie Rozencwajg was commended [images]- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
"Carefree California: Cliff May and the Romance of the Ranch, 1920-1960": May's complicated relationship with the forms and dogmas of modern architecture stands at the center of...a rich, deceptively simple-looking Pacific Standard Time exhibition...at the UC Santa Barbara Art, Design and Architecture Museum. By Christopher Hawthorne- Los Angeles Times |
Maya Lin invites and challenges visitors to her website to help improve Earth's well-being: www.whatismissing.net...launches its second stage Sunday. Follow up by going to the stirring exhibition of her sculpture in the Heinz Architectural Center, Carnegie Museum of Art....she conceived "What Is Missing?" as the fifth, and last, of her memorial projects...- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
'Dreamscapes' And Impossible Architecture: Jenny Okun's 'Dreamscapes' Descend On Craig Krull Gallery, Los Angeles: ...takes multiple exposure photographs of architectural forms, transforming them into kaleidoscopic dreamscapes...Like a Cubist portrait, she rearranges the building's parts to better see the whole. [slide show]- Huffington Post |
"Twentieth Century Architects: Ahrends, Burton and Koralek" by Kenneth Powell: The modern men of ABK who upset Prince Charles...the work of the trio is celebrated – and the story of the Prince’s attack is recalled...ABK got it both with barrels, with their design being called “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”...- Camden New Journal (UK) |
The Future of Concert Halls: architectural historian Victoria Newhouse spent four years researching her new book, “Site and Sound: The Architecture and Acoustics of New Opera Houses and Concert Halls"...she explains how radical, ambitious designs are altering and deepening the experience of attending live performances. -- Jean Nouvel; Hans Scharoun; Herzog & de Meuron; Wallace K. Harrison; Frank Gehry; Snøhetta; Christian de Portzamparc; Zaha Hadid; Toy Ito; Rem Koolhaas/OMA [audio slide show]- New Yorker |
Concrete looks to shed a bad rep: "Concrete Ideas: Material To Shape A City" aims to excite professionals and savvy amateurs about Toronto’s built legacy from yesteryear, but also about advances in concrete technology and formal manipulation...This publication is something that many people...would have thought impossible: a cheerful book about concrete. By John Bentley Mays -- Pina Petricone; George Baird; Charles Waldheim; Graeme Stewart; Mark West- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
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Moshe Safdie & Associates: Khalsa Heritage Memorial Complex, Anadpur Sahib, Punjab, India |
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