Today’s News - Tuesday, April 22, 2014
EDITOR'S NOTE: We will be getting ready for the AIANY Awards Luncheon tomorrow, so will not be posting. We'll be back Thursday, April 24.
• Happy Earth Day! So, why is it we celebrate on April 22? (It launched in 1970, but actually dates back to 1872.)
• Litman lauds new (and useful) research on the benefits of smart growth that "has important implications for planners."
• Chakrabarti explains why the future "is centered in the urban core," and why "we have an unsurpassed opportunity to transform the U.S. into a more prosperous, sustainable and equitable country by encouraging a more urban America."
• Brussat takes a "walkabout" in Providence with "Dr. Street" Massengale, "a card-carrying contrarian" who explains that "even the best cities can be made better with better streets."
• Corey Freed minces no words about why he thinks too many architects are "wimps" and "frozen in fear" when it comes to discussing sustainable design solutions with clients.
• Meanwhile, younger architects in L.A. are redefining the green movement, "going beyond the advertising argot and energy-efficient appliance add-ons to embrace sustainability in innovative ways."
• Goodyear ponders whether Manhattan is becoming too "Manhattanized": "with one luxury tower after another replacing older buildings, what's being lost?"
• Hatherley has no doubt that "London's skyline needs more tower blocks, not more luxury flats" in towering skyscrapers.
• Mount has a most interesting conversation with Gehry re: his Battersea project, working with Foster ("Brits talk a lot while they're working"), why he doesn't like London's new skyscrapers, and why "starchitect is a stupid word."
• Wainwright visits a charming "modernist gem" of a 1970s housing project in Lambeth with its architect and residents "to find out why it's worth saving" (we wouldn't want to be moved to "extra care" housing either!).
• Hecht reports on the continuing RIBA/IAUA debate: "The Israeli association has a good relationship and a lot of joint activity with its Palestinian counterpart."
• Horton x 2: Qatar has canceled four of 12 planned World Cup stadiums: "speculation that exploding costs and construction delays are to blame. But, there are human costs above and beyond the financial ones. Can Zaha Hadid still look the other way?"
• He still thinks it's time to do away with the title "intern" - "not simply because it is demeaning and diminishing, but because it makes the profession look antiquated" (an AIA survey may just prove his point).
• Farrow offers a fascinating, in-depth look at "moveable architecture" and the architects and engineers who "are experimenting with structures that focus on lightness, mobility and transience."
• Eyefuls of Niall McLaughlin Architects and landscape architect Kim Wilkie's winning design in the Natural History Museum Civic Realm Competition.
• Heatherwick explains how he designed his first university building "on a car park budget" (though it may not meet the part of the brief to make it increase Singapore's birth rate).
• Winners all: Center for Active Design first annual Awards of Excellence + AIA 2014 COTE Top Ten Green Projects (great presentation!) + 2014 Berkekey Prize Essay Competition winners focused on The Architect and the Healthful Environment.
• Call for entries: transform Central Square in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, into an actively functioning, attractive, and distinctly contemporary space.
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Why celebrate Earth Day on April 22? The first Earth Day – April 22, 1970 – marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Approximately 20 million Americans...participated... [images]- EarthSky |
New Research On Smart Growth Benefits: ...indicates that smart growth helps residents become wealthier and healthier..."Measuring Sprawl 2014" has important implications for planners. It is our job to help communities understand trade-offs between conflicting objectives...Solid, detailed research like this can provide useful guidance. By Todd Litman [link to study]- PLANetizen |
Op-Ed: America’s Urban Future: Cities were once cast as dying places in contrast to the glowing suburban future; today, the future...is centered in the urban core...we have an unsurpassed opportunity to transform the United States into a more prosperous, sustainable and equitable country by encouraging a more urban America. By Vishaan Chakrabarti/SHoP Architects- New York Times |
Dr. Downtown’s stroll with Dr. Street: ...a “walkabout” with the author of "Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns" John Massengale... a card-carrying contrarian, and not just on streets. As he showed again in Providence, even the best cities can be made better with better streets. By David Brussat [images]- Providence Journal (Rhode Island) |
The Green Building Reality: Why Two-Thirds of the Profession Are Cowards: Architects tend to be wimps...Sustainability Directors...said they were powerless to create any meaningful change, and were only allowed to discuss sustainable design solutions when the clients requested it...No amount of new technology or education will help if the architects are frozen in fear, afraid to push their clients to build better buildings. By Eric Corey Freed/organicARCHITECT- Architizer |
Sustainable housing an evolving term for architects: Designing multiuse spaces and upcycling urban buildings for loft dwellings are among growing trends in the green movement...younger architects today are redefining it — going beyond the advertising argot and energy-efficient appliance add-ons to embrace sustainability in innovative ways. -- Steve Glenn/Living Homes; Simon Storey/Anonymous Architects; Michael Maltzan; Rachel Allen; Daveed Kapoor- Los Angeles Times |
Has Manhattan Become Too 'Manhattanized'? Midtown is a hive of construction, with one luxury tower after another replacing older buildings. What's being lost? "There won't be anything left to love if we don't stop this kind of development"... By Sarah Goodyear- The Atlantic Cities |
London's skyline needs more tower blocks, not more luxury flats: The capital's new towers give to the private rental market something the public sector so desperately needs. By Owen Hatherley- Guardian (UK) |
Frank Gehry: meet the starchitect transforming Battersea Power Station: The ‘King of Crumple’ just hit town...[his] blocks bend over and practically kiss...Foster’s Skyline...Architecture’s big beasts do not normally collaborate..."Brits talk a lot while they’re working"...He doesn’t like London’s new skyscrapers..."I don’t think anybody’s handled skyscrapers well recently"..."Starchitect is a stupid word. Journalists invented it, and then they damn you for being one." By Harry Mount -- Foster + Partners- Evening Standard (UK) |
The battle to save Lambeth's modernist sheltered housing: Designed by celebrated architect Kate Macintosh, 269 Leigham Court Road is a modernist gem, but Lambeth council wants to sell it off to fund the construction of "extra care" housing elsewhere. Oliver Wainwright meets the architect and residents to find out why it's worth saving. [images]- Guardian (UK) |
U.S. Architects Criticize RIBA for its Stance on Israeli Counterpart: Israel Association of United Architects wrote to...RIBA that the IAUA “has no political agenda [and] no impact on personal stance"...Resolution 13 “was never meant to be a tool to be used against architects or associations of architects under the aegis of the UIA"...The Israeli association has a good relationship and a lot of joint activity with its Palestinian counterpart... By Esther Hecht- Architectural Record |
In the Midst of Controversy, Qatar Cancels Four 2022 World Cup Stadiums: ...speculation that exploding costs and construction delays are to blame...But, there are human costs above and beyond the financial ones...Is it time for global architects to collectively speak out to help bring the construction sites where their visions are currently being built up to international standards? Can Zaha Hadid still look the other way? By Guy Horton- Metropolis Magazine |
The Intern Issue, Revisited: ...I wrote about doing away with the title “intern"...I still think we should get rid of it - not simply because it is demeaning and diminishing...but because it makes the profession look antiquated...Now the AIA’s Center for Emerging Professionals has set up a quick survey – it looks like even the people at the AIA’s highest levels have been discussing the issue at length. By Guy Horton- ArchDaily |
Just passing through - moveable architecture: ...architecture is questioning its relationship to materiality and nature. A growing number of architects and engineers are experimenting with structures that focus on lightness, mobility and transience. By Clare Farrow -- Renzo Piano; Shigeru Ban; Daiken-Met Architects; Alain-Charles Perrot and Florent Richard; Arata Isozaki/Anish Kapoor [images]- DesignCurial / Blueprint Magazine (UK) |
Niall McLaughlin Architects with Kim Wilkie Win Natural History Museum Civic Realm Competition: ..saw off rival bidders including BIG/Bjarke Ingles Group/Martha Schwartz Partners; Grant Associates/Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios; Land Use Consultants/Design Engine; Stanton Williams Architects/Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape Architects Partners [images]- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Thomas Heatherwick: 'How we designed a university without corridors on a car park budget':"Your project is to increase Singapore’s birth rate.' This was the unconventional brief given...by Singapore’s education minister...for the designer’s first university building...at Nanyang Technological University...his Juliet balconies are "too visible to increase the birth rate." [images]- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Center for Active Design announces first annual Awards of Excellence: ...recognizing the role design plays in addressing the ongoing obesity and chronic disease epidemic by encouraging physical activity through the design of buildings and public space. -- Blue Sea Development; VMDO Architects; BKSK Architects; Design Workshop; Taniguchi & Associates; GGLO; BIG/Bjrake Ingels Group; Gensler [images]- Center for Active Design |
AIA Selects the 2014 Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Green Projects -- BNIM Architects; Behnisch Architekten/Ayers Saint Gross; Holst Architecture; Lake|Flato Architects; Cutler Anderson Architects/SERA Architects; EHDD; Kiss + Cathcart, Architects; Architerra; Mithun; Beck Group/Westlake Reed Leskosky; Julie Snow Architects [links to images, info]- American Institute of Architects (AIA) |
2014 Berkekey Prize Essay Competition Winners, Travel Fellows Competition, and the Teaching Fellowship Competition Announced: focuses on the topic: The Architect and the Healthful Environment- Berkeley Prize / Department of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley |
Call for entries: Central Square in Plovdiv, Bulgaria: provide a strategy for an actively functioning, attractive and distinctly contemporary space (international); no fee; cash prizes; deadline: June 20- Municipality of Plovdiv / One Architecture Week |
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