Today’s News - Wednesday, December 11, 2013
EDITOR'S NOTE: Apologies for not posting yesterday - we woke up to no power for several hours (oh joy).
• We are saddened to learn we've lost Eskew much too soon: "He probably had more influence on the rebuilding of New Orleans than any other architect."
• Quirk tackles a fascinating question: "What will be Mandela's spatial legacy?" One answer: "Until his words...find themselves touching ground...urging new, meaningful icons to grow, the reality will never live up to the rhetoric."
• A great take on the "struggle to predict - and preserve - the architectural landmarks of tomorrow" - their "best shot at success may simply be to survive their first half century."
• Two new reports find that walkable cities are good news for small business, people's health, and property values.
• USGBC's new "LEED in Motion: Impacts and Innovation" report "looks at the impacts of LEED through the lens of both business and human health."
• Filler finds the Kimbell's Piano Pavilion "is far from the disaster feared by many. There is no bad news, only mild regret that the new building is not very distinguished."
• Dunlop and Platt offer two very different and very thoughtful critiques of Holl's Reid Building for the Glasgow School of Art (they both seem to like the interior).
• Betsky weighs in on the brouhaha swirling around Hadid's Qatar World Cup stadium: "Cultural and sexual biases have become tied up in a way that defies political correctness and common sense."
• A developer gives 10 notable architects carte blanche to design an enclave of vacation homes in Spain: "The results are as inventive as they are eccentric" (we'll take one!).
• Morgan offers a most thoughtful cheer to Finland's Helsinki Library competition - and winner and runners-up: "It says much about this small but vibrant Nordic country that its official centennial project" is a library.
• Eyefuls of schmidt hammer lassen's winning design for a new central library in Ningbo, China.
• Bey parses Northwestern's pick of P+W to design the Prentice replacement: "Will Chicago get great architecture out of this? ...the fight for good architecture on that site might not yet be over."
• Royal Adelaide Hospital design competition winner and finalists announced (with link to lotsa pix).
• Ito "urges developing Asian cities to remember their roots," and "laments missing out on designing M+ museum" to H&deM: "it seemed the curators had a preconception of how museums should be."
• Call for entries deadline reminder (deadlines loom!): Living Cities Design Competition: Residential Towers for the 21st Century + ENYA 2014 Biennial Design Ideas Competition: QueensWay Connection: Elevating the Public Realm.
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Obituary: Allen Eskew, noted New Orleans architect, 65: One initiative involved the post-Katrina rebuilding..."He probably had more influence on the rebuilding of New Orleans than any other architect"... -- Eskew+Dumez+Ripple- The Times-Picayune (New Orleans) |
What Will Be Mandela’s Spatial Legacy? It is in the physical, spatial dimensions of South Africa’s towns and cities that we can truly see Apartheid’s endurance, and consider: to what extent have Nelson Mandela’s words of reconciliation and righteous integration, truly been given form? Despite its good intentions and sound urban strategy, the post-Apartheid government lacked the cunning, the bravado of its Modernist predecessors... By Vanessa Quirk [images]- ArchDaily |
Can buildings be too young to save? The struggle to predict — and preserve — the architectural landmarks of tomorrow: To the average person, newer buildings often don’t look special, just ugly, or at best unremarkable...For most buildings, the best shot at success may simply be to survive their first half century...“It’s not so much driven by ‘This is a fantastic building'...and more about admitting we don’t know.” -- Bertrand Goldberg; Michael Graves; Paul Rudolph; Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles; Recent Past Preservation Network; Docomomo- Boston Globe |
Walkable Cities are Good News for Small Business: ...shops are frequented more often and do far better...Business Performance in Walkable Shopping Areas by Gary Hack issued by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that “businesses appear to do better in a walkable commercial areas than in areas attracting mainly drive-to patronage.” -- Jeff Speck [link to report]- GOOD Magazine |
Walkable Cities Make for Better Cities: Walkable cities and neighborhoods improve people’s health, support greater property values, and improve economic growth, recent Harvard study shows.- Sourceable |
USGBC’s New Report Demonstrates Impact, Transformative Power of LEED Green Building Rating System: "LEED in Motion: Impacts and Innovation"...looks at the impacts of LEED through the lens of both business and human health.- U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) |
No Harm to the Kimbell: The good news is that the Renzo Piano Pavilion...long-awaited addition to Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum of 1966–1972 in Fort Worth, is far from the disaster feared by many...There is no bad news, only mild regret that the new $135 million building is not very distinguished... By Martin Filler [images]- New York Review of Books |
Two invited critiques of Steven Holl’s Seona Reid Building, Glasgow School of Art: Poetics and ruthless pragmatics by Alan Dunlop/Alan Dunlop Architect + Three Places, Two Buildings, One Street by Chris Platt/studioKAP/Head of the Mackintosh School of Architecture, The Glasgow School of Art [images]- arq: Architectural Research Quarterly |
Constructing Sexuality in Architecture: The uproar over Zaha Hadid's Qatar World Cup Stadium will dissipate once it has been built, but as a "feminine structure," it must prove its success...Cultural and sexual biases have become tied up in a way that defies political correctness and common sense. By Aaron Betsky- Architectural Record |
Architect's dream For his Solo Houses project, developer Christian Bourdais gave 10 architects carte blanche to create whatever they wanted. The results are as inventive as they are eccentric...A newly planned collection of second homes in...Matarranya...two hours south of Barcelona, in a national park... -- Pezo von Ellrichshausen;Didier Faustino; Michael Meredith/Hilary Sample/MOS; Johnston Marklee; Office Kersten Geers David van Severen; Sou Fujimoto [slide show]- Telegraph (UK) |
A Library as Ultimate Building Block: The Helsinki Library Competition: It says much about...this small but vibrant Nordic country that its official centennial project is not a trade center, a convention hall, an arena, or a war memorial...Even better, this most architecturally astute nation has chosen the designers...from an international open competition. By William Morgan -- ALA; VERSTAS Architects; Playa Architects; Huttunen-Lipasti-Pakkanen; Henning Larsen [images]- Competitions |
schmidt hammer lassen Wins Competition to Design Ningbo, China’s New Central Library: Situated on the edge of a new ecological wetland area, the proposal will also form a new cultural hub within the city. [images]- ArchDaily |
Northwestern University picks architects for building to replace Prentice Women's Hospital: ...Perkins+Will got the nod late last week to design the biomedical research facility...What did the design have that the others didn't? ...Will Chicago get great architecture out of this? ...the fight for good architecture on that site might not yet be over. By Lee Bey [images]- WBEZ Chicago Public Radio |
Royal Adelaide Hospital design competition winners revealed: ...top prize of $200,000 awarded to Slash Architects with Phillips/Pilkington. -- Nice Architects/Mulloway Studio; Bonhag and De Rosa/Taylor Cullity Lethlean; Nice Architects/Mulloway Studio [link to images, details]- Australian Design Review |
Toyo Ito urges developing Asian cities to remember their roots: ...says culture and history must not be lost as he laments missing out on designing M+ museum...he wanted to create something that went beyond today's understanding of what a museum was..."it seemed the curators had a preconception of how museums should be". -- Herzog & de Meuron- South China Morning Post |
Call for entries (deadline reminder!): Living Cities Design Competition: Residential Towers for the 21st Century (international); proposals must use a steel structural system, be 30 to 40 stories, and be sited within the five boroughs of New York; prize: $10,000; no entry fee; deadline: January 3, 2014-- Metropolis Magazine / Steel Institute of New York / Ornamental Metal Institute of New York |
Call for entries (deadline reminder!): ENYA 2014 Biennial Design Ideas Competition: QueensWay Connection: Elevating the Public Realm (international): envision this vertical connection as a community hub which extends the street activity up to the future park; cash prizes; deadline: January 6, 2014- Emerging New York Architects (AIANY ENYA) |
INSIGHT: The Place of Architecture as an Art Form in the Changing Cultural Landscape: The fine arts today do not have the shared social purpose they once did. But the built environment is different. Architecture is a collective art form and a collective endeavor. By Peter Gisolfi, AIA, ASLA, LEED AP- ArchNewsNow |
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-- Tadao Ando: Asia Museum of Modern Art, Taichung City, Taiwan. By Ulf Meyer
-- Eduardo Souto de Moura combines the abstract minimalism of Mies van der Rohe with a tactile sensitivity and the use of local materials and building techniques.
-- "Elmgreen & Dragset: Tomorrow" at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. By Martin Søberg |
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