Today’s News - Tuesday, April 15, 2014
• We just have to kick off the news day with the good news that our colleague and friend Inga Saffron is taking home this year's Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for blending "expertise, civic passion, and sheer readability into arguments that consistently stimulate and surprise" (we couldn't agree more!).
• An in-depth look at how architects and architecture students are helping to reclaim the public realm in Brazil's third largest city (riots not included).
• NYC's Hudson Yards developers and NYU team up on a smart-city project to collect big data to "help it run more efficiently and make it a better place to live and work."
• Palm Beach's Town Council warns the city's Architectural Commission that it better change its attitude, "antagonistic atmosphere," and "the rudeness of members' feedback to applicants."
• Brake's thoughtful take on the MoMA/AFAM debate: the demolition (now underway) "resonates with so many in the architecture community because it underscores how little appreciated architecture is by the public, and how even enlightened institutions see buildings as disposable."
• Hawthorne doesn't have much hope that "design tweaks" will fix some "dramatic flaws" in the Piano/Pali design for L.A.'s new film museum: that "Piano's desire to redeem himself in Los Angeles after his LACMA misadventure is understandable. But it's driven him to produce a misguided attempt at tourist-friendly architecture and one of the more strained designs of his long career."
• A double-dose of bad news for Chipperfield: heritage campaigners decry the firm's winning Nobel Centre proposal as a "monument to themselves, at our expense" - and Stockholm's + Wright & Wright tapped to take over what was his Geffrye Museum project (dang those heritage harpies - again).
• Sacramento's planned downtown arena "looms less large" with a re-design making it "more compact, shorter, and, according to its architect, better."
• A Northeastern Illinois University satellite campus is getting a "traffic-stopping, color-changing" building - "conventional never was the goal."
• LSU picks a team to design the HQ for the Water Institute of the Gulf.
• SCADpad x 2: eyefuls of SCAD students' parking space-sized micro-residence prototypes in an Atlanta parking garage + a first-hand account of actually staying in one (detail photos are amazing!).
• Q&A with Libeskind re: drawing, risks, advice to aspiring architects, and crafting entire skylines.
• Advice to Hadid on her dive into designing swimwear: don't quite your day job - she's already been named "one of Britain's best dressers - so why not just leave it at that?"
• Eyefuls of inspiring winners and honorable mentions in Building Trust International Moved to Care competition for a mobile healthcare facility.
• Two we couldn't resist: Six of Russia's strangest museums (the word "creepy" also comes to mind).
• MakeShapeChange, a new Dublin-based initiative, kicks off with a "charming animation and engaging site" to show kids why design matters (us big kids loved it, too).
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Inquirer's Inga Saffron, critic of the built environment, wins Pulitzer Prize for Criticism: ...her writing "blends expertise, civic passion, and sheer readability into arguments that consistently stimulate and surprise."- Philadelphia Inquirer |
Reclaiming the Public Realm in Belo Horizonte: ...in Brazil's third largest city...different groups of activists that include architects and architecture students, are showing how to use and plan the city’s spaces while adding a political dimension...an interesting moment for the urban development of the city...a new sense of what actually constitutes public space, and its central importance to the democracy of the city, is being articulated. By Jane Hall -- Micropolis; MACh arquitetos; Vazio; BCMF; DOBRA architects [images]- DesignCurial / Blueprint Magazine (UK) |
Hudson Yards to be first 'quantified community': NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress and developers announced a smart-city project that will measure the way New Yorkers interact with their urban environment to make "cities a better place to live."...in the hopes big data collected from the future 28-acre complex will help it run more efficiently and make it a better place to live and work.- Crain's New York Business |
Palm Beach Town Council warns Architectural Commission about its attitude: ...getting numerous complaints of...“unfriendliness” and lack of constructive feedback...troubled by the antagonistic atmosphere on the commission and the rudeness of members’ feedback to applicants.- Palm Beach Daily News (Florida) |
Demolition of the American Folk Art Museum: Rarely has a vacated museum on the site the size of a townhouse been the locus of such intense controversy...has been a public relations calamity for MoMA...The destruction...resonates with so many in the architecture community because it underscores how little appreciated architecture is by the public, and how even enlightened institutions see buildings as disposable... By Alan G. Brake -- Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects; Diller Scofidio + Renfro- Texas Architect magazine (Texas Society of Architects) |
Design tweaks can't overcome Academy Museum's dramatic flaws: ...the disconnection that radiates from the clumsy domed exterior of the academy's planned film museum...Piano's desire to redeem himself in Los Angeles after his LACMA misadventure is understandable. But it's driven him to produce a misguided attempt at tourist-friendly architecture and one of the more strained designs of his long career. By Christopher Hawthorne -- Renzo Piano; Zoltan Pali- Los Angeles Times |
Heritage row erupts over Chipperfield’s Nobel Centre: Heritage campaigners have branded David Chipperfield Architects’ Nobel Centre proposal a ‘monument to themselves, at our expense’...If built the structure will replace an 1876 customs house by Axel Fredrik Nystrom – the architect of Sweden’s Old National Archives. Two wooden warehouses from 1910 will also be cleared... [images]]- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Wright & Wright wins Geffrye Museum job: ...chosen to replace David Chipperfield Architects on the controversial museum revamp job in Hackney, east London...scheme, which retains the threatened pub was one of 140 entries...- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Sacramento’s planned downtown arena looms less large: ..got more compact, shorter, and, according to its architect, better..."the personality of the building has not changed"... -- AECOM- Sacramento Bee (California) |
Juan Moreno's traffic-stopping building for NEIU: ...will be the new home of El Centro, a satellite campus of Northeastern Illinois University...Placing a color-changing building on a site that an estimated 325,000 cars pass each day was an intentional choice to raise the university's profile...conventional never was the goal. -- JGMA [images]- Crain's Chicago Business |
Architects chosen for Water Campus between downtown and LSU (Louisiana State University): ...will be headquarters for the Water Institute of the Gulf, and a research and interpretive center...site is the historical Baton Rouge City Dock, completed in 1926. -- Coleman Partners; Perkins+Will [image]- The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) |
SCAD Students Transform an Atlanta Parking Garage into Ecologically Responsible Micro-Housing Community: ...what if the micro-housing trend could also be combined with adaptive reuse to solve the shortage of urban housing? ...SCADpad, a community of three micro-residence prototypes. No bigger than the footprint of a parking space... -- Savannah College of Art and Design [images]- Inhabitat |
A SCADpad of one's own: Inside a parking space-sized micro-dwelling: ...micro-housing magic that students at the Savannah College of Art and Design have worked on an underused campus parking structure...an exploration of how redundant parking garages in urban areas — and there are many of them — can be repurposed into affordable, sustainable micro-home enclaves. [images]- Mother Nature Network |
Q&A: Daniel Libeskind on Drawing, Risks, and Living Michelangelo's Legacy: took a moment to reflect on his career, offer advice to aspiring architects, and illuminate the processes of designing iconic cultural buildings and crafting entire skylines.- Architizer |
In at the deep end: Zaha Hadid takes the plunge into swimwear: As the award winning creator of the London Aquatics Centre dips her toe into the fashion pool, Albert Hill asks whether architects should stick to the day job...She is well known for her ability to pick out an outfit...so why not just leave it at that? ...other architects who have recently turned their hand to fashion. -- Richard Meier; Frank Gehry [images]- Telegraph (UK) |
Moved to Care international competition for mobile healthcare facility in Southeast Asia winners + Honourable Mentions from around the world. -- Patrick Morgan/Jhanéa Williams/Simon Morgan; Christopher Knitt (University of Wisconsin) [images]- Building Trust International (UK) |
Cult of the weird: six of Russia’s strangest museums: Russia may be home to some of the world’s most pre-eminent museums...but it also has its fair share of weird and wonderful gems...From death to delinquency, and sex to sin, these are some of Russia’s darkest museums.- The Calvert Journal (UK) |
Delightfully Simple Animation Shows Kids Why Design Matters: A new Dublin-based initiative called MakeShapeChange aims to get young people interested in design - but this charming animation and engaging site appeals to all ages.- Fast Company |
ANN Feature: Crowdsourcing Design: The End of Architecture, or a New Beginning? Why the criticism that crowdsourcing design sites like Arcbazar are taking jobs away from architects doesn't wash. By Michael J. Crosbie- ArchNewsNow |
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-- Gehry Partners: Biomuseo, Panama City, Panama:...a new and architecturally spectacular museum...conceived...like a piece of "California funk art" from the 1960s, in which "form does not follow function." By Ulf Meyer -- Bruce Mau Design
-- "Our House in the City: New Urban Homes and Architecture" by Sofia Borges, Sven Ehmann, Robert Klanten: an explosion of stories, dreams and strategies that showcase the best and brightest designs for contemporary city living... |
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