Today’s News - Monday, December 10, 2012
• ArcSpace 2.0 (launched last week!) brings us luscious eyefuls of H&deM's Parrish Art Museum (with art on the walls, no less), Diamond Schmitt's Ryerson Image Centre, and Kiser's own photo essay of riding the L.A. Metro.
• Sorkin looks at some of the lessons we need to take away from Sandy: "we must ask whether working-class shore communities have become our Lower Ninth Wards" that "will surely demand serious, even radical, thinking about a broad range of protective tactics."
• The State of Australian Cities 2012 report is a wake-up call to governments "that planning and funding the infrastructure our cities need to grow and prosper is not a luxury to be indulged only during a budget surplus."
• Florida digs even deeper into NYT stats re: the $80 billion annual "boondoggles" that economic development incentives really are.
• Hume reports on Toronto's new city planner's plans: she will "start humbly" and "forego the big moves for the time being and focus on small steps" (requiring no small amount of "Solomonic wisdom").
• Saffron appreciates Philly's Mural Arts Program, but calls for "a little reality, please" when it comes to a (very expensive) painting over of a "depopulated blightscape": "It's a feel-good strategy being passed off as an economic development one."
• Goldberger, Sudjic, and Moore offer eloquent - and very different - tributes to Niemeyer: "an extraordinary blend of passion, arrogance, and naivety"; Brasilia survives as "a lesson in the political uses of design and architecture"; "he was far more than an image-maker" + revisiting Franklin's most amusing 2008 GQ interview with "the outspoken old master."
• Heathcote says the Louvre-Lens's "understated beauty is mesmerizing": "as an attempt at regeneration, it might be a failure," but as "a museum of sublime, sparkling beauty, it is a stunning success."
• Wainwright is also wowed by the "shimmering apparition" of the Louvre-Lens: "its combination of industrial utility and fragility is an apt reflection of the surrounding context - at once rugged and vulnerable."
• Glasgow-based Dunlop urges architecture graduates and young firms to look to the Far East for work rather than be stuck "stacking supermarket shelves" in Scotland: there is "nothing for them here."
• Time is running out for Moscow's Melnikov House as a "bitter family row" continues to stand in the way of its restoration.
• Crosbie uncovers the softer side of the Modernist Franzen, mostly remembered for his Brutalist style: "He also created delicate, crystal-like houses that show a lighter, more human touch."
• Our heartiest congrats to the inaugural Public Interest Design 100: "Together, they are re-imagining the world" (and we're very proud to count so many as friends!).
• The 2012 Curry Stone Design Prize recognizes 5 social design pioneers (five $25,000 purses can go a long way).
• 1st Edition of the IS ARCH Awards for Architecture Students winners announced + Call for entries for the 2nd edition.
• One we couldn't resist: In Israel, Technion students and faculty build a Rube Goldberg machine that lights the Chanukah menorah (nitroglycerin and a donut included).
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-- Herzog & de Meuron: Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York -- Douglas Moyer Architect; Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architects
-- Diamond Schmitt Architects: Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, Canada
-- Riding the Los Angeles Metro: Architects and artists have collaborated on turning the new LA Metro Stations into exciting, colorful spaces that reflect a community of culturally diverse people. By Kirsten Kiser -- The Tanzmann Associates; Siegel Diamond Architecture; Dworsky Associates; Miralles Associates; Escudero-Fribourg Architects; Diedrich Architects & Associates; Ellerbe Becket; Anil Verma Associates; Arquitectonica; etc. |
Learning the Hard Way: What are some of the lessons that Sandy teaches us about the way we build? ...New York was less prepared...than New Orleans was for Katrina...we must ask whether working-class shore communities...have become our Lower Ninth Wards...will surely demand serious, even radical, thinking about a broad range of protective tactics, from massive Dutch-style defenses to softer forms of naturalization to strategic withdrawal. By Michael Sorkin- Architectural Record |
Urban design protocol outlined in State of Australian Cities 2012 report: ..."underscores the need to refocus policy...77% of Australians live in cities...cities produce 80% of our national wealth..."Governments must wake up to the fact that planning and funding the infrastructure our cities need to grow and prosper is not a luxury to be indulged only during a budget surplus."- Architecture & Design (Australia) |
The Uselessness of Economic Development Incentives: States, cities and counties give away $80 billion per year, but that doesn't seem to create stronger economies or lower unemployment...The Times should be commended for...shining a public light on this incredible economic development boondoggle. By Richard Florida [data, links]- The Atlantic Cities |
City planner elects to start humbly: As befits a self-described “baby chief planner,” Jennifer Keesmaat will forego the big moves for the time being and focus on small steps...Toronto’s senior building official also talked about trying to manage a “very, very hot market"...requires Solomonic wisdom at the best of times, let alone in an era of unprecedented growth. By Christopher Hume- Toronto Star |
Mural Arts: ...the Mural Arts Program has always yearned to work on a larger canvas. Now it's found a way...As big as this project is...the claims for its transformational powers are even more outsized...Ahem. A little reality, please...it's naive to think that painting over this depopulated blightscape [Germantown Avenue] can do anything more than mask the avenue's failure. It's a feel-good strategy being passed off as an economic development one. By Inga Saffron [image]- Philadelphia Inquirer |
Remembering Oscar Niemeyer: The Architect Who Gave Modernism a Little Samba Flair: ...still giving direction to employeesin Rio in his final days. His commitment to the notion that modernism could make life richer, freer, more spirited, and more meaningful also remained fully intact...an extraordinary blend of passion, arrogance, and naivety, seasoned, I suspect, with more than a little craftiness...nothing in his career equaled Brasilia... By Paul Goldberger -- Lucio Costa; Le Corbusier- Vanity Fair |
Oscar Niemeyer had the vision our leaders lack: ...the long and inspired career of the great architect, and...reasons to be immensely thankful: ...the last survivor of the heroic age of modern architecture...Brasilia...survived...to become an enduring and powerful symbol of Brazil...a lesson in the political uses of design and architecture... By Dejan Sudjic/Design Musem- Independent (UK) |
Oscar Niemeyer: an appreciation: the Brazilian architect who did so much to shape his nation's capital...a true visionary...[He] was brilliant, energetic, ruthless, by all accounts charming...As an image-maker of genius, he came with the common downside of sometimes sacrificing use to look..."like everything he did, it's good for taking pictures, but lousy to live in"...But he was far more than an image-maker. By Rowan Moore- Observer (UK) |
The man who saw the future: Following the death of the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer...GQ revisits an interview with the outspoken old master on the eve of his 100th birthday [2008]...the man who "turned his back on right angles"...what many people miss when they see Niemeyer's swirls and futuristic designs - the social commitment behind the art. By Jonathan Franklin -- David Adjaye; Lucio Costa; Ubirajara Brito [images]- GQ UK |
The Louvre comes to town: The Paris museum has opened its first outpost in Lens...Its understated beauty is mesmerising...ethereally modern, shimmeringly transparent and placed in a landscape of post-industrial desolation...one of the most beautiful and most satisfying exhibition spaces I have seen. By Edwin Heathcote -- SANAA; Imrey Culbert [images]- Financial Times (UK) |
Louvre-Lens: helping a mining town shed its image: SANAA's shimmering apparition of a building provides a radical new space for the display of six millennia of art...It is as close as you could get to a building made of cling film and tin foil...its combination of industrial utility and fragility is an apt reflection of the surrounding context – at once rugged and vulnerable... By Oliver Wainwright -- Catherine Mosbach; Imrey Culbert [images]- Guardian (UK) |
Go to China, top architect tells Scots graduates: Architecture graduates are stacking supermarket shelves because there is “nothing for them here”...Glasgow-based Alan Dunlop said a stagnant building sector, lack of commercial projects and red tape meant small Scottish firms had a better chance of winning contracts in the Far East than at home.- The Scotsman (UK) |
Moscow's art house goes to ruin: A bitter family row is preventing an iconic piece of Russian architecture from being restored: The Melnikov House...has been at the centre of a bitter dispute for years, and with no resolution in sight, preservationists fear that time to save the building is running out. -- Konstantin Melnikov (1929)- Independent (UK) |
Franzen's Glass House Reflects On History: When Modernist architect Ulrich Franzen died recently at the age of 91, he was mostly remembered for his...Brutalist style. But he also created delicate, crystal-like houses in and around Connecticut that show a lighter, more human touch. By Michael J. Crosbie [image]- Hartford Courant (Connecticut) |
Inaugural Public Interest Design 100: ...to honor 100 people and teams working at the intersection of design and service...Together, they are re-imagining the world.- PublicInterestDesign.org |
2012 Curry Stone Design Prize Names 5 Winners: celebrates social design pioneers and the power of design as a critical force for improving lives and strengthening communities...each recognized with $25,000 for their work as social design pioneers. -- Center for Urban Pedagogy/CUP (Brooklyn, NY), Liter Of Light (Manila), MASS Design/Model of Architecture Serving Society (Boston), Riwaq (Ramallah, Palestine), and Jeanne van Heeswijk (Rotterdam) [links to images, info]- Curry Stone Design Prize |
1st Edition of the IS ARCH Awards for Architecture Students winners announced [images]- ISARCH |
Call for entries: 2nd Edition of the IS ARCH Awards for Architecture Students; cash prizes; earlybird regiatration deadline (save $$$): January 6, 2013- ISARCH |
Hanukkah 101 - Rube Goldberg Machine - Technion Israel: Technion students and faculty...take on the challenge to build a Rube Goldberg machine that lights the Chanukah menorah using a robot, helium ballons, nitroglycerin... [video]- YouTube |
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