Today’s News - Thursday, August 16, 2012
EDITOR'S NOTE: Just a reminder that we're taking Fridays and Mondays off for the rest of August. We'll be back Tuesday, August 21. Happy Weekend!
• Q&A with Nicole Migeon: a background in fine arts developed into her architectural style of "warm minimalism."
• A look at how burgeoning urban centers are making natural disasters deadlier (a lot of very informative/interesting links).
• Bentley offers an in-depth look at the "Rust Belt rebound" going on in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati - "but is the deck stacked against them?" (hopefully not!)
• Jerusalem approves a cluster of 12 skyscrapers - not all are pleased (and please don't block view of Calatrava's bridge!).
• A long-delayed mixed-use project in Houston is finally underway.
• Chicago taps SOM to explore the redevelopment of the 37-acre Michael Reese Hospital site.
• Mariinsky II in St. Petersburg on track to open next year, though many in the "local architectural community criticized the design for its devastating lack of personality."
• Salt Lake City picks HKS /Pelli Clarke Pelli team for its new Utah Performing Arts Center.
• Altabe minces no words about modern museum design, where "form doesn't follow function anymore" - case in point: Gehry's "newest tin foil-like extravaganza" for Panama's BioMuseo.
• Brussat continues his bravos for Signorelli and Salingaros's tirade about the tyranny of modernism: "My only complaint is that their excellent essay is still far too easy on modernism."
• A report on the "remarkable" Burbank Senior Artists Colony in Los Angeles that combines low-cost housing with serious arts training for the elderly.
• One we couldn't resist: McMansions making their mark atop a shopping mall in China (we kid you not!).
• Weekend diversions:
• WUHO in Hollywood presents a 25-year retrospective of the Los Angeles Forum for Urban Design and Architecture.
• Hanley hails MoMA's "Century of the Child": it is "thoroughly researched and playfully presented...surprising and fun."
• Berger is less impressed with GSD students' proposals to redevelop a segment of the Chicago River: it might be "chock-full of interesting ideas," but you better be "well versed in deciphering the kinds of materials architecture students prepare for their studio projects" to understand them.
• "Horizon" sits on a hill in New Zealand: "a curious mix of expectation, distance, chance and brain circuitry. And, in this case, delight."
• An excerpt from Moore's "Why We Build" deconstructs "the mysterious ways in which buildings shape our lives."
• Lovins/RMI's "Reinventing Fire" may not be a light read, but it is an important one, offering "lots of low-hanging fruits that could be quite lucrative if grabbed, and it tells you where to look for them."
• Dvir finds Peled's "Architecture: The Arab Home as Social Text" an important "architectural study of the extravagant Arab villas in the north of Israel"; their "extroverted design reflects a society experiencing an identity crisis."
• A Toronto artist creates a new board game that "gives you the thrills and chills of urban renewal" (we'll add it to our Christmas wish list!).
| |
|
|
|
To subscribe to the free daily newsletter
click here
|
Q&A with Nicole Migeon - Architect of "Warm Minimalism": Designing places of respite for creative clientele- ArchNewsNow |
Cities Are Making Natural Disasters Deadlier: ...today's burgeoning urban centers will increasingly be on the front lines...Today's pell-mell urbanization - typically "poorly planned and managed" by local authorities - increasingly occurs in peripheral zones...hardly restricted to the developing world... By Stewart M. Patrick [links]- Council on Foreign Relations |
Can the Centers Hold? Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati are rebuilding their urban cores in what could be a sign of a Rust Belt rebound...a flurry of development that has taken off in neighborhoods once considered ghost towns or worse...might not amount to a regional renaissance, but it could mean city living in the Rust Belt is no longer in free fall. By Christopher Bentley [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Interior Ministry approves 12 skyscrapers for Jerusalem: ...a major construction plan for the entrance to the city that will completely change the capital’s skyline...includes a number of 33-story and 24- story buildings... -- Fahri Zafrir Architects [image]- Jerusalem Post |
High-rise kicks off major urban development: A long-delayed residential project near downtown Houston, primarily targeting well-paid professionals with upscale apartments and condos and a cluster of retail, entertainment and offices, is finally under way. -- Ziegler Cooper Architects [images]- Houston Chronicle |
Mayor moving to redevelop Michael Reese Hospital site: ...to turn the 37-acre site into a technology park. The Emanuel administration has awarded an $885,000 contract to Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) for “property redevelopment, strategic planning and consulting services”...The firm could emerge as an investor at the site...- Chicago Sun-Times |
Mariinsky II to Open in 2013: ...second stage of the world-famous Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg will receive its first spectators...People in the local architectural community criticized design for what they described as a devastating lack of personality. -- Diamond Schmitt Architects [image]- The Moscow Times (Russia) |
HKS Architects/Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects apped to design Salt Lake City downtown theater: How will $110M Utah Performing Arts Center look? It will be the jewel of Main Street but nobody knows what it will look like — yet...input from user groups and the public is essential to the design.- Salt Lake Tribune (Utah) |
Form doesn’t follow function anymore: Museums today come in civvies – boxy, bare and bald. Call it the sarcophagus style made modern...An exception to the rule is Frank Gehry’s museum architecture...newest tin foil-like extravaganza is Panama’s BioMuseo, a museum intent on raising awareness of our degrading natural environment, which makes the Gehry brand the worst choice. By Joan Altabe [image]- Examiner |
"The Tyranny of Artistic Modernism": Signorelli and Salingaros paint the truth in blacks and whites, pulling no punches whatsoever. My only complaint is that their excellent essay is still far too easy on modernism. By David Brussat- Providence Journal (Rhode Island) |
For Healthy Aging, A Late Act in the Footlights: A Los Angeles area program for the elderly combines low-cost housing with serious arts training...the Burbank Senior Artists Colony is remarkable...a mix of market-rate and low-income apartments...looks like an upscale hotel but is built for the arts... By Tina Rosenberg -- EngAGE; Mark Scheurer Architect (2005)- New York Times |
Chinese Home Builders Find Great Location: On Top Of A Shopping Mall: ...McMansion-style housing atop a five-story shopping center in the central district of Zhuzhou...Now that’s mixed-use development. [images]- Architizer |
"Unfinished Business: 25 Years of Discourse in Los Angeles": Currently on view at the WUHO Gallery in Hollywood is a retrospective...held in honor of...The Los Angeles Forum for Urban Design and Architecture, known simply as “The Forum”... [images]- Urban Omnibus |
Child’s Play: The Museum of Modern Art charts 100 years of design growing up in "Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000" ...thoroughly researched and playfully presented...keeps it feeling surprising and fun. By William Hanley [slide show]- Architectural Record |
Big Ideas, Murky Presentation: Philip Berger deciphers proposals to redevelop a segment of the Chicago River..."Waterline" is chock-full of interesting ideas. But unless you’re well versed in deciphering the kinds of materials architecture students prepare for their studio projects, you might have some difficulty discovering them. -- Philip Enquist/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Giant Crumpled Paper Drops From The Sky, Lands On Hill In New Zealand: The 118-foot-long sculpture looks like it might catch a breeze and just blow away...."Horizon" is a curious mix of expectation, distance, chance and brain circuitry. And, in this case, delight. By Robert Krulwich -- Neil Dawson [images]- National Public Radio (NPR) |
The inescapable power of architecture: In an extract from his new book "Why We Build," Rowan Moore deconstructs the mysterious ways in which buildings shape our lives...If there is truth in architecture, its shape is not immediately obvious.- Observer (UK) |
"Reinventing Fire" by Amory B. Lovins and the Rocky Mountain Institute: ...even the most optimistic future scenario is mostly based on things that are possible with current technology...lots of low-hanging fruits that could be quite lucrative if grabbed, and [it] tells you where to look for them...it's all about solutions! [images, links]- TreeHugger.com |
An Israeli Arab's home is his castle: An architectural study of the extravagant Arab villas in the north of Israel finds that they reflect more than just personal taste: "Architecture: The Arab Home as Social Text" by Kobi Peled...an important document...about the development of the Arab home in the 20th century...extroverted design reflects a society experiencing an identity crisis. By By Noam Dvir [images]- Ha`aretz (Israel) |
New Board Game Gives You The Thrills And Chills Of Urban Renewal: Toronto-based artist Flavio Trevisan debuted his board game The Game of Urban Renewal...simulates the fate of Toronto’s Regent Park neighborhood, an intense locus of the city’s urban renewal efforts since 1947.- Architizer |
|
PLANT: Bazaltbor Winery, Badacsonytomaj, Hungary |
|
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window.
External news links are not endorsed by ArchNewsNow.com.
Free registration may be required on some sites.
Some pages may expire after a few days.
© 2012 ArchNewsNow.com