Today’s News - Friday, December 21, 2012
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the last newsletter of 2012 - we're taking a break until Wednesday, January 2 (or maybe January 3 - with undoubtedly lots of catching up to do!). We'd like to thank our faithful readers, tipsters, and mentors for your continued support, and wish everyone the merriest of Merry Holidays and the happiest of Happy New Years!
• Ten Years and Counting: yours truly reflects on ArchNewsNow's first decade (we'll be adding pix and captions later today).
• Goldberger and Lamster weigh in on Foster's plan for NYPL: "If he could bring himself to make this design a little sharper, even tougher, it might end up being a lot easier to feel good in" + "For something so long promised...it is surprisingly lacking in architectural ambition and imagination" (both reference Barnes & Noble).
• Murg reports that the Gates Foundation is backing a scientific study of urban slums worldwide.
• BD's World Architecture 100 survey indicates some architects are heading to war-torn countries; some "to boost flagging workloads"; others because they're "simply more adventurous."
• The Zambia Institute of Architects appoints a new council to put the profession back on course: the "relevance of the architectural profession to national development has of late been heavily questioned."
• Eyefuls of the winner and runners-up in the competition to rebuild Haiti's Notre Dame de l'Assomption Cathedral.
• Rosenbaum relishes the news that FLW's endangered Phoenix house has found an anonymous white knight (with link to Kimmelman's report - with a gentle scolding).
• Cary lines up 10 Notable Developments and Top 10 Public Interest Design Milestones of 2012: it's been a "banner year for do-good design!"
• Hume lines up his faves of 2012: "it's the public sector that gave the city its most compelling architecture this year."
• Lange and Lamster hand out their 3rd Annual Year-End Awards: including the OMG Do We Really Have to Like It Award and The Golden Blowtorch for Poor Community Relations (thoroughly entertaining!).
• Top 50 Films for Architects: #10: "Apocalypse Now."
• Lubell and Goldin kick off a Kickstarter campaign for their "Never Built: Los Angeles" show at L.A.'s A+D Museum next year (be sure to catch the video that "offers the first glimpse of some of the truly ambitious and even outrageous proposals of yesteryear").
• Weekend diversions:
• Arieff reads cities by walking and through books: Smith's "City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age" is "original and inventive"; Speck's "Walkable City" is "delightfully acronym- and jargon-free" with suggestions that are "revolutionary in their simplicity."
• Lasner's "High Life: Condo Living in the Suburban Century": the "subtitle might suggest a story of determined residential heterodoxy...the real story is nowhere near as simple, and a good deal more interesting."
• Hatherley 's "A New Kind of Bleak" rains down "on everything he encounters that he believes to be shoddy, privatized, timorous or banal."
• Q&A with Speck re: "Walkable City."
• Campoli's "Made for Walking: Density and Neighborhood Form" is a "richly illustrated book that "identifies essential ingredients of sustainable urbanism" and great neighborhoods.
• One we couldn't resist: "Gangnam-style" Christmas lights we can't get out of our head (please get this out of our head!).
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Ten Years and Counting...: Reflections on the year, ArchNewsNow's first decade, and our 10th ANNiversary Fête: If you’re reading this, it means the Mayans weren’t wrong (but the End-of-Timers were) – Happy Winter Solstice! By Kristen Richards- ArchNewsNow.com |
Norman Foster’s New York Public Library Re-do: Building a Better Barnes & Noble? ...plan seems cautious, as if it were trying too hard to get along with the original building...If he could bring himself to make this design a little sharper, even tougher, it might end up, paradoxically, being a lot easier to feel good in. By Paul Goldberger -- Carrere and Hastings (1911); Foster + Partners- Vanity Fair |
Norman Foster's NYPL: Not Good Enough: ...while they are not as catastrophic as they might have been, and while there are aspects that are appealing...the new design is underwhelming. For something so long promised and delivered with such great fanfare, it is surprisingly lacking in architectural ambition and imagination...it looks like a bloated Barnes & Noble. By Mark Lamster- Design Observer |
Gates Foundation Backs Scientific Study of Urban Slums: Researchers at the Santa Fe Institute...to undertake a scientific study of a urban slums worldwide...a collaboration with the nonprofit Slum Dwellers International (SDI)..."the project will help create standards through which informal communities can collect and use data about themselves and develop economic models to sustain these efforts." By Stephanie Murg- UnBeige |
Architects head for war-torn countries: ...to boost flagging workloads elsewhere, according to this year’s WA100 [World Architecture 100] survey...some architects were simply more adventurous...getting paid was a bigger concern than safety...motivation for working in such countries was as much about being able to make a difference as it was about money. -- Aecom; Broadway Malyan; Woods Bagot; Pringle Brandon Perkins & Will; Morphogenesis; GMW Architects; LCE Architects- BD/Building Design (UK) |
New Zambia Institute of Architects Council Assigned to Bring Back Profession On Course: ...relevance of the architectural profession to national development has of late been heavily questioned...has also been apportioned blame for the environmental mess...even though close to 80% of applications to develop...are made by persons or organisations not registered with the ZIA as required by law.- Times of Zambia |
Notre Dame de l'Assomption design competition winners announced: to rebuild cathedral in Port-au-Prince...Bring back to life a building that has been a source of national pride and inspiration for Haiti. -- Segundo Cardona/SCF Arquitectos; Diego Ramos Cerdeira/Estudio Kaleido; Steven Fett/Monteleone Research and Design; de la Guardia Victoria Architects & Urbanists [images]- Notre Dame de l'Assomption (Haiti) |
Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Engineers Rescue of Phoenix’s David Wright House: ...succeeded with its sale to an undisclosed preservation-minded benefactor..."The new owner will request that the City of Phoenix grant landmark designation to the house." By Lee Rosenbaum [images]- ArtsJournal |
A Banner Year For Do-Good Design! 10 Notable Developments In 2012 + Top 10 Public Interest Design Milestones of 2012! By John Cary/PublicInterestDesign.org- Architizer |
The best architecture of 2012: It wasn’t as exciting as some years, but the best...was distinguished by its extreme urbanity...it’s the public sector that gave the city its most compelling architecture this year. By Christopher Hume -- RAW Architects; Peter Clewes/architectsAlliance; James Cheng; Daniel Libeskind; Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB); Edward Durell Stone; Diamond Schmitt Architects; Turner Fleischer Architects- Toronto Star |
Lunch With The Critics: Third-Annual Year-End Awards: Biased? Definitely. Parochial? Perhaps. Entertaining? Naturally...OMG Do We Really Have to Like It Award, etc. By Alexandra Lange and Mark Lamster -- Esther McCoy; "Imperfect Health"; Gae Aulenti; Charles Birnbaum/The Cultural Landscape Foundation; M. Paul Friedberg; Richard Rogers; Zaha Hadid; Rem Koolhaas; Bjarke Ingels; Frank Gehry; Andrew Blum; Louis Kahn; Thom Mayne; Alissa Walker; John Johansen; Gerhard Kallmann; Oscar Niemeyer; Lebbeus Woods [links]- Design Observer |
Top 50 Films for Architects: #10: "Apocalypse Now" (1979)- BD/Building Design (UK) |
"Never Built: Los Angeles" Hopes to Inspire Design Ambition: A+D Museum’s upcoming exhibit...a Kickstarter campaign...provides a video that offers the first glimpse of some of the truly ambitious and even outrageous proposals of yesteryear, assembled by the exhibit’s organizers, Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin. -- Clive Wilkinson Architect [link to images, video]- FORM magazine |
Reading the City: Finding out what makes cities smart, through books, conferences and hitting the pavement...P.D. Smith’s “City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age”...original and inventive..."Walkable City" by Jeff Speck...delightfully acronym- and jargon-free...suggestions are revolutionary in their simplicity..."Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies: Lafayette Park, Detroit”; “Architectural Inventions” by Matt Bua and Maximilian Goldfarb; "Torre David"... By Allison Arieff- New York Times |
Condo Living: "High Life: Condo Living in the Suburban Century" by Matthew Gordon Lasner explores the long and checkered story of conjoined living...The subtitle...might suggest a story of determined residential heterodoxy...the real story is nowhere near as simple, and a good deal more interesting. By Anthony Paletta [images]- Metropolis Magazine |
"A New Kind of Bleak" by Owen Hatherley: ...he leaves his critical footprint as he treks through Britain raining down curses on everything he encounters that he believes to be shoddy, privatised, timorous or banal...a rousing defence of infrastructure, public investment and British provincialism... By Sukhdev Sandhu- Icon (UK) |
How American Cities Can Thrive Again: Cities can thrive again by making their downtowns more pedestrian friendly. Q&A with Jeff Speck re: "Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time"- U.S. News & World Report |
A Visual Guide for Great Neighborhoods: "Made for Walking: Density and Neighborhood Form" by Julie Campoli: Author of "Visualizing Density" identifies essential ingredients of sustainable urbanism...richly illustrated new book...- Lincoln Institute of Land Policy |
'Gangnam Style' Christmas Light Show: Watch A House Blink To This Year's Mega-Hit...a light show you'll never forget.- Huffington Post |
Best Architecture Books of 2012: 10 books reflect the changing climate - in every sense - of the profession. By Norman Weinstein- ArchNewsNow |
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-- Daniel Libeskind: Academy of the Jewish Museum, Berlin
-- "Coop Himmelb(l)au: 7+ Projects," Aedes Gallery, Berlin., through January 24, 2013 |
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