Today’s News - Wednesday, January 23, 2013
• Giovannini pays tribute to Putman, who "all but invented the boutique hotel genre...Whatever her role, she believed that good design should come at accessible prices."
• Szenasy remembers Korab: as a young editor, "I did not know that we shared a homeland and were both shaped by the cold war."
• Huxtable loved Boston City Hall: "she was right that ambivalence about the building surely hasn't helped with its preservation. But it's also worth considering her larger argument about its place in the Boston landscape."
• Hawthorne tackles the tricky topic of projects built after an architect dies (Louis Kahn and Raimund Abraham are cases in point): it "is not that they will be horribly compromised. It is that they will never be completed."
• Betsky takes on "tall elephants in the room" when it comes to adding to historic buildings: "If additions preserve the original buildings but aren't attractive or fitting, we might as well tear down the originals."
• Architects and preservationists say Kansas City shouldn't be so quick to write Jahn's 1975 Kemper Arena's obituary; the architect himself suggests that, "with a little ingenuity and at minimal cost, it could be put to good use for many more years."
• Olcayto and Pratt mince no words about the George Square "debacle": "Once again, a mendacious explanation has been rolled out" + the "U-turn represents a catastrophic loss of nerve and a failure in civic leadership: It needn't have been this way," but "Glasgow doesn't know how to do this sort of thing well" + McAslan is "determined to salvage the project."
• Goldberger offers a thoughtful (and most amusing) take on a different kind of preservation: American Airlines' "disastrous" decision to dump its Vignelli-designed "magnificent, time-tested logo" for "a set of clichés": "Talk about fixing what wasn't broken."
• Wainwright x 2: he tours "brilliant new schools" in Birmingham that may be the last of their breed with the cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) program: "sadly these are not the future" (and "the profession will be paying for being the target of Gove's tirade for a long time").
• He ponders whether 3D-printed houses will "stand up as architecture": is touoch-of-abutton construction "a welcome change?"
• Chaban cheers the winner of the adAPT NYC competition to design a modular micro-apartment building in Manhattan: "prefabricated construction may indeed take hold as a new model for housing development in the city."
• The second edition of the Re-imagining Winnipeg project produces "wild and daring ideas" for the city's transportation: "there can be no great advance in architecture or planning without bold and sometimes impractical thinking."
• AIA ABI shows growth in the design and construction industry for the fifth straight month (fingers crossed it continues!).
• Desimini presents luscious eyefuls of "mapping and data visualization" that has "changed the way architects, landscape architects, and urban designers communicate ideas about buildings and landscapes."
• Call for entries: Global Green USA's Green School Makeover Competition for U.S. K-12 schools (with $75,000 in funding).
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Obituary: Andrée Putman, Global Interior Designer, 87: The picture of a chic Parisian intellectual, she all but invented the boutique hotel genre when she designed Morgans in New York in 1984...Whatever her role, she believed that good design should come at accessible prices. By Joseph Giovannini- New York Times |
Remembering Balthazar Korab: As a young design magazine editor I was drawn to his crisp, moody, beautifully framed black and white images of the built environment...But I did not know, until that morning, that we shared a homeland and were both shaped by the cold war. By Susan S. Szenasy [images]- Metropolis Magazine |
Editorial: Ada Louise Huxtable was the architecture critic who loved Boston City Hall: ...she was right that ambivalence about the building surely hasn’t helped with its preservation. But it’s also worth considering her larger argument about its place in the Boston landscape...Understanding City Hall isn’t quite the same as loving it. But it’s hard to deny that, as she wrote, it was built with a vision, and is true to it throughout. -- Kallmann, McKinnell & Knowles- Boston Globe |
A Vision Deferred: When an architect dies, it takes special circumstances for the projects left on the drafting board to be realized. But as Kahn’s FDR memorial [Four Freedoms Park] shows, the results can be well worth the wait...what I’ve learned—particularly in studying newly built projects by Louis Kahn and Raimund Abraham—is that the chief danger...is not that they will be horribly compromised. It is that they will never be completed. By Christopher Hawthorne -- Gina Pollara; Mitchell/Giurgola; Villa/Sherr; Harriet Pattison [slide show]- Architect Magazine |
The Tall Elephants in the Room: If additions preserve the original buildings but aren't attractive or fitting, we might as well tear down the originals...When conditions change so much that the building can only continue to exist as a relic with impaired use, what’s the point? By Aaron Betsky -- Minoru Yamasaki; Pei Cobb Freed; Marmol Radziner; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); REX; Bertram Goldberg; Cyril Marsollier/Wallo Villacorta; Studio Gang [images]- Architect Magazine |
Tear down Kemper Arena? Not so fast: ...a growing chorus of architects, preservationists...say Kansas City shouldn’t be so quick to write it’s obituary....It’s a shame to so cavalierly proceed...to knock down a 38-year-old building...Jahn suggested that, with a little ingenuity and at minimal cost, it could be put to good use for many more years. -- Helmut Jahn (1975)- Kansas City Star |
George Square debacle has roots in 80s 'City of Culture' campaign: Glasgow’s failure to embrace bold, imaginative urban design led to this: Once again, a mendacious explanation has been rolled out...yet another embarrassing U-turn by Scotland’s biggest city. By Rory Olcayto -- John McAslan & Partners- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
The George Square U-turn represents a catastrophic loss of nerve and a failure in civic leadership: It needn’t have been this way...resulting designs were disappointing...a weary sense of deja vu...Glasgow doesn’t know how to do this sort of thing well... By Christopher Platt/studioKAP architects/Mackintosh School of Architecture -- John McAslan & Partners; jmarchitects/Graeme Massie Architects [images]- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
John McAslan battles on for George Square: Scheme was axed following competition win...has demanded a meeting with the leader of Glasgow City Council after he canned the competition...determined to salvage the project and will hold a public meeting to persuade Glaswegians of his scheme’s merits.- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Something Lousy in the Air: Analyzing American Airlines’ Disastrous Redesign: Talk about fixing what wasn’t broken...I don’t recall any company that has ever tossed aside a magnificent, time-tested logo, one that was the best in its industry, in favor of a set of clichés. By Paul Goldberger -- Massimo and Lella Vignelli; Future Brands- Vanity Fair |
Birmingham's brilliant new schools – but could they be the last? They are big, bright, bold, and their loos are cutting edge. But sadly these are not the future – thanks to the government...has put a halt to anything more than the most basic of shoeboxes, beckoning in a grim future of standardised flat-pack sheds...good design and careful planning proved no more costly than bad – the vast waste was in the procurement process. By Oliver Wainwright -- Haworth Tompkins architects; Penoyre & Prasad; Cottrell & Vermeulen; dRMM [images]- Guardian (UK) |
Will 3D-printed houses stand up as architecture? Janjaap Ruijssenaars' design can be printed from sand 'just by pressing enter'. But is this high-speed construction a welcome change? "The human limitations of master builders and bricklayers will no longer hamper architects' visions." By Oliver Wainwright -- Universe Architecture; Enrico Dini; Andrea Morgante/Shiro Studio- Guardian (UK) |
Would You Live in One of Mayor Bloomberg’s 300-Square-Foot Micro-Apartments? "My Micro NY" the winning entry in adAPT NYC competition...to create a miniature housing model...will also be the first modular development in Manhattan...prefabricated construction may indeed take hold as a new model for housing development in the city... By Matt Chaban -- nARCHITECTS [slide show]- New York Observer |
Architects go bold in re-imagining Winnipeg transportation: ...transportation is the focus of the second edition of the Re-imagining Winnipeg project...to conjure wild and daring ideas for changing this city and how it functions...there can be no great advance in architecture or planning without bold and sometimes impractical thinking. -- Smith Carter Architects; James Hutchings Architect; David Penner Architect [images]- Winnipeg Free Press (Canada) |
ABI Continues to Grow for Fifth Straight Month: The AIA’s Architecture Billings Index shows continued strength in the design and construction industry.- Architect Magazine |
Cartographic Grounds: Projecting the Landscape Imaginary: The ascendance of “mapping” and data visualization in design culture has changed the way architects, landscape architects and urban designers communicate ideas about buildings and landscapes... By Jill Desimini -- Bernardo Secchi/Paola Viganò; Stoss Landscape Urbanism; Aaron Straup Cope/Stamen Design; Alison and Peter Smithson; OPSYS/Landscape Infrastructure Lab; Future Cities Lab; Architectural Research Office (ARO); dlandstudio; James Corner Field Operations; Bureau Bas Smets; Zaha Hadid; etc. [slide show]- Places Journal |
Call for entries: Green School Makeover Competition: K-12 schools across the U.S. invited to enter for a chance to win $75,000 in funding, along with Global Green USA’s technical assistance; deadline: March 31- Global Green USA |
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-- BIG/Bjarke Ingles Group: The Grove at Grand Bay, Coconut Grove, Florida
-- Kengo Kuma & Associates: Même Experimental House, Hokkaido, Japan
-- Sadar Vuga Arhitekti: Vander Urbani Resort, Ljubljana, Slovenia |
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