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Today’s News - Thursday, July 30, 2015

EDIOTR'S NOTE: Tomorrow is this week's "floating" no-newsletter day. Monday may be next week's - we'll be back either Monday or Tuesday.

•   Harner offers a totally fascinating look at "Tokyo's Olympic stadium fiasco": the politics, the architects, Hadid's design, and why a Japanese architect should get the job: "there is not and I believe cannot be found anywhere outside Japan a substitute for the marvelously unique visual, dimensional, chromatic, and spatial sensibilities of the Japanese."

•   Another take on Helpern's proposal for expanding the Frick Collection - without destroying the treasured Page Garden: "Offering alternatives has become more common as preservationists and neighborhood organizations that once simply said 'no' now seek to influence what may be built."

•   In the U.K., a new House of Lords report calls for a moratorium on any new "frightening and intimidating" shared space schemes, and brands such projects as "architectural conceits."

•   Perhaps the Lords should take a look at "Cities Safer by Design," a new report that "offers urban design best practices and real-world case studies cities can use to put an end to traffic deaths and injuries."

•   Hawthorne is more than disappointed in the design "mash-up" of L.A.'s newly expanded 405 freeway that already looks "haggard and disjointed - a sad reversal of infrastructural fortune. A region once synonymous with freeways no longer builds them with much confidence or skill" (blame it on the current "piecemeal political process").

•   On a brighter note, Johnson delves into the details of the "sorely needed" restoration of FLW's Unity Temple: "this is the deluxe rehabilitation package, a stark contrast to the mostly emergency work that's been done through the years to keep the building grunting along."

•   Saffron tackles the difficulties of adapting aging religious buildings to new uses, and a new study that "offers evidence that the most crucial factor in repurposing a house of worship is not money, but imagination."

•   Zeiger's Q&A with Scheeren re: his first North American project and how "lessons drawn from his global skyscrapers might impact Vancouver's skyline and the city's urban landscape."

•   Q&A with Busby re: his new book, "Architecture's New Edges" that offers "an inspirational message" about sustainable design. "Yet focusing on his portfolio is missing perhaps his greatest strength as an architect: his conscience."

•   A fascinating look at how university presses "play a pivotal role in publishing game-changing work about cities, underscoring their audacity in believing that every city deserves the best ideas possible. We need that. And that's why their tenuous future is so alarming."

•   NEA's new report "How Creativity Works in the Brain" explores "links between arts, learning, and neuroscience."

•   One we couldn't resist: Kapoor's "opinion-splitting " ArcelorMittal Orbit tower "to be turned into £1m wonder-slide" (we can only wonder about that price tag).

•   Call for entries: Dry Futures: International ideas competition for design responses to California's drought + ARTS THREAD x DESIGNERSBLOCK for London Design Festival 15 (international).

•   Weekend diversions:

•   "New Monuments Forget the Future" in Toronto draws on architecture's increasing "sense of impermanence" with "artworks that reference architecture in varying degrees of flux."

•   Lamster cheers "Dan Kiley Landscapes" at the Dallas Center for Architecture that hopes "to create awareness that might stave off continuing threats to his work. Even his most prominent works are not safe."

•   Philly-based Leshko uses paper to "meticulously" recreate buildings in his Fishtown neighborhood as "a way to preserve Philly's historic fabric before the wrecking ball hits": "New construction is paper thin, kind of like my sculptures are."

•   Russell says Sherman's "Patience and Fortitude" chronicles "the unraveling of the New York Public Library's unholy deal. The story is not so much about power as the hubris of wealthy trustees."

•   Silverstein says that while the amount of detail in Reid's "Roads Were Not Built for Cars" might become "tedious" for the average reader, "for students, researchers, practitioners, it's a worthwhile reference."

•   Hill hails "Out of the Loop: Vernacular Architecture Forum Chicago" - it "offers something for everybody."

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