Today’s News - Friday, May 9, 2014
• Davidson x 2: Bloomberg Associates' first client is Mexico City, but suggests the team "ought to study what's already been accomplished," and check out "an area that has out-Bloomberged Bloomberg."
• He weighs in on the now-defunct plans for the New York Public Library renovation: "A chorus of writers is celebrating a disaster averted; I'm mourning a missed opportunity."
• A look at five ways H&deM "will rock Vancouver" with what is very likely to make the VAG a "downtown icon."
• Plans are underway for a "Russian Tate Modern" in Moscow with "Melnikov's iconic Bakhmetevsky bus garage tipped as the most likely location."
• Plans are underway for a 36-house enclave of RSH+P's Y: Cube prefabs: "It's taken a long time to get it simple."
• A new documentary is in the works that looks at what happened after Atlanta tore down all of its public housing projects: "the ambitious goals of the demolitions and policy reforms haven't all been met."
• Kamin takes a long look at the sad state of grand plans for pedestrian bridges in Chicago: "The big questions are: Who gets what and when do they get it [and] does politics distort planning?"
• A look at how and why the "up-and-coming" Green Globes rating system is gaining ground on LEED.
• Hales digs deep into the growing trend in "trophy gardens": MoMA "has acquired the model for the High Line, securing the walkway's claim in the art world. But are landscapes art?" (some say yes, some say no).
• Weekend diversions:
• Wainwright says "The Competition" documentary "exposes the world of iconic architecture at its worst" - but "makes for compulsive viewing" ("structures that resemble fossilized turds" and a "Pritzkerless but plucky Perrault" included).
• Zara offers a great round-up of the best of NYCxDESIGN that kicks off today.
• Steinhauer cheers "Letters to the Mayor" at NYC's Storefront: the 50 letters by architects, critics and curators to mayors around the world may not be much to look at, "but it aggregates and articulates important points about contemporary architecture and urban development."
• "Chicagoisms" at the Art Institute of Chicago is "a call for architecture and urbanism to once again dream big, even if those dreams turn into nightmares."
• "The Landscape Architecture Legacy of Dan Kiley" at the National Building Museum offers "45 examples of his work at its best, bringing stunning greenery to modernist structures" (great pix!).
• Welton is wowed by Jolley's "Cycle of Life" at the Knoxville Museum of Art, "what may be the finest museum in the career of Edward Larrabee Barnes."
• Transit activist Ross's "Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism" is a "provocative new book on the historical roots and eventual demise (he hopes) of suburban sprawl" ("snooty country club" included).
• Teodorovici's "George Matei Cantacuzino: A Hybrid Modernist" puts a long-overdue spotlight on Romania's forgotten Modernist.
• Jodidio's "Small Architecture Now!" offers "architects' tiny triumphs," where "small is big, although the trend is one born out of necessity" (fab photos).
• Heller cheers a luscious tome dedicated to Hildreth Meière, "the best Art Deco designer who almost no one remembers" (luscious pix included).
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What Bloomberg Associates Can Learn From Mexico City: [He] might fantasize about cleaning up the chaos, but he ought to study what’s already been accomplished...at the center of the megalopolis is an area that has out-Bloomberged Bloomberg. Much of it is virtually the private fiefdom of his fellow plutocrat Carlos Slim Helú... By Justin Davidson -- Amanda Burden; Janette Sadik-Khan; Kate Levin- New York Magazine |
The Much-Hated New York Public Library Renovation Is Dead — But That’s Not Good News: A chorus of writers is celebrating a disaster averted; I’m mourning a missed opportunity...We’ll never know whether a truly worthy design — by Norman Foster or anyone else — for a circulating library inside a great historic building might have closed the deal. By Justin Davidson -- Foster + Partners- New York Magazine |
5 Ways Herzog & de Meuron Will Rock Vancouver: ...bound to create a cutting-edge building for the Vancouver Art Gallery that will become a downtown icon...1 They appreciate art...3 They bring poetry to the building envelope...5 They champion urban design that puts people first.- Azure magazine (Canada) |
Plans to open “Russian Tate Modern” underway: Moscow will soon have its equivalent of London's Tate Modern art gallery with Constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov's iconic Bakhmetevsky bus garage tipped as the most likely location...already been dubbed the "Pushkin Modern."- The Calvert Journal (UK) |
Home in a Box: With the prefab Y: Cube, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners hopes to finally make a dent in London’s housing problem...Each £30,000, 280-square-foot studio unit is fabricated and furnished in a factory...“It’s taken a long time to get it simple"...The big test will come later this year...plans to build a small enclave of 36 container houses in the Mitcham district of London. [images]- Metropolis Magazine |
By 2011, Atlanta Had Demolished All of Its Public Housing Projects. Where Did All Those People Go? A new documentary "The Atlanta Way" looks at what happened after the city tore down 14,000 units of public housing...the ambitious goals of the demolitions and policy reforms haven't all been met.- The Atlantic Cities |
Pedestrian bridges leave dots unconnected: 35th St. span nearing contract approval, but other projects aren't getting off ground...The big questions are: Who gets what and when do they get it? Who's first in line for infrastructure that improves the quality of life and who has to wait? ...does politics distort planning? By Blair Kamin -- Teng & Associates (now exp); Cordogan Clark & Associates- Chicago Tribune |
With Powerful Backing, Green Globes Standard Advances at LEED’s Expense: ...the up-and-coming green building rating system that is supported by the timber, chemical, and plastics industries, has recently seen several favorable government decisions...GSA determined that Green Globes is slightly better for new construction, while LEED is slightly better for projects on existing buildings. -- Jerry Yudelson/Green Building Initiative (GBI)- Sourceable |
Aspiring to the Trophy Garden: Museum of Modern Art has acquired the model for the High Line, securing the walkway’s claim in the art world. But are landscapes art? Walker believes so. von Gal differs...with prices for fine art reaching records, investing in earth begins to appear sensible. By Linda Hales -- Peter Walker/PWP Landscape Architecture; Edwina von Gal; Charles Birnbaum/The Cultural Landscape Foundation; Charles Jencks; Garrett Eckbo; Dan Kiley; Laplace & Co.; Piet Oudolf; Kathryn Gustafson; Terry Guen- New York Times |
"The Competition": a documentary that exposes how 'starchitects' really work: Sleepless nights for interns, tearful tantrums, and structures that resemble fossilised turds. A new documentary by Spanish architect Angel Borrego Cubero exposes the world of iconic architecture at its worst...makes for compulsive viewing. By Oliver Wainwright -- Norman Foster; Zaha Hadid; Frank Gehry; Jean Nouvel; Dominique Perrault- Guardian (UK) |
New York City Celebrates Design May 9-20: NYCxDESIGN, the city-backed initiative...in its second year, the lineup is a little more robust... By Janelle Zara -- International Contemporary Furniture Fair/ICFF; Collective Design Fair; Sight Unseen OFFSITE; Brooklyn Designs; WantedDesign; Industry City; Reclaim NYC- Architectural Record |
Exhibition Review: "Letters to the Mayor": New York’s Storefront for Art and Architecture asks the architecture world to petition its political leaders...50 letters to mayors of various cities by...architects, critics and curators. It’s not much to look at...but it aggregates and articulates important points about contemporary architecture and urban development. By Jillian Steinhauer [images]- Architectural Record |
Radical Old, Futuristic New: 9 Visions For Chicago: "Chicagoisms" at the Art Institute of Chicago explores the city's progressive urban experiments, both successful and unsuccessful...and enlists architects' riffs on the city's future..."a call for architecture and urbanism to once again dream big, even if those dreams turn into nightmares"... -- Alexander Eisenschmidt; Jonathan Mekinda; Bureau Spectacular; DOGMA; MVRDV; Organization for Permanent Modernity; PORT; Sam Jacob; UrbanLab; Weathers; WW [images]- Fast Company |
Remembering Modernism's Go-To Landscape Architect: "The Landscape Architecture Legacy of Dan Kiley" at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C...45 examples of Kiley's work at its best, bringing stunning greenery to modernist structures. By Mark Byrnes -- The Cultural Landscape Foundation [images]- The Atlantic Cities |
Richard Jolley: "Cycle of Life": Up-and-coming Knoxville, Tennessee, is striving mightily to prove that great art doesn't grow only out of provincial urban Meccas...the jewel that will crown that assertion....in what may be the finest museum in the career of Edward Larrabee Barnes...Given carte blanche to re-imagine the space in the 1990 museum, Jolley's transformed it from a public space to an art-filled one. By J. Michael Welton [images]- Huffington Post |
Ben Ross blames suburban sprawl on status-seeking: “Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism"...prominent local transit activist’s provocative new book on the historical roots and eventual demise (he hopes) of suburban sprawl has its origins in a missing sidewalk and a snooty country club in Montgomery County.- Washington Post |
Romania's Forgotten Modernist: Every article on the Balkans seems obliged to start with a commentary on the region’s tangled past. Dan Teodorovici's "George Matei Cantacuzino: A Hybrid Modernist" is no exception...an architect of great consequence in Bucharest but of little note elsewhere. He is also an overdue beneficiary of a revived interest in that jumbled set of states and histories. By Anthony Paletta [images]- Metropolis Magazine |
Architects’ tiny triumphs: the small buildings with a big impact: In architecture today, small is big, although the trend is one born out of necessity...“small buildings often provide architects a degree of freedom that cannot be obtained in gigantic public or corporate projects." "Small Architecture Now!" by Philipe Jodidio. -- Arata Isozaki; Crosson Clarke Carnachan Architects; Sou Fujimoto; Jo Nagasaka/Schemata Architects; SCADpads; Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners; Olson Kundig Architects [images]- Financial Times (UK) |
The Best Art Deco Designer Who Almost No One Remembers: Hildreth Meière's huge mural commissions were rare for a woman in her day, but it was her fusion of classical and mid-century style that brought her fame..."The Art Deco Murals of Hildreth Meière" by Catherine Coleman Brawer and Kathleen Murphy Skolnik...spotlights some of her astounding decorative works in danger of being orphaned, despite her renown when she was alive. By Steven Heller [images]- The Atlantic |
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Interview: Patrik Schumacher: Zaha Hadid Architects' director talks about the global rise of parametric design, the advent of robotics in architecture, and the influence of 'The Matrix' on creating intelligent buildings. By Kevin Holden Platt [images] |
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