Today’s News - Monday, November 23, 2015
• Pogrebin reports that REX and Davis Brody Bond are the new team now tapped to design the long-awaited (and long-beleaguered) performing arts center at Ground Zero.
• Good news for AIANY/Center for Architecture: Ben Prosky to take the helm as executive director (yay!).
• Betsky, Burdett, Aravena, and Florida weigh in on Paris, Beirut, and even suburban malls of Colorado: "Terror appears where urbanity doesn't work"; "Cities are the solution, not the problem"; "the battle for a better built environment is neither a tantrum nor a romantic crusade"; and "Stronger cities could help fix fragile nations."
• Bozikovic cheers Edmonton, Canada's "unorthodox architect" who is "sending a message: Civic architecture matters - and it is ready to pay for the best."
• Hume x 2: the "wildly ambitious, innovative, even revolutionary" Under Gardiner "shows Toronto at its most enlightened" + His pick of 10 encouraging signs for Toronto: "There's no end to the bad news, but lately there are also reasons for hope."
• Litt cheers Cleveland's framework plan for Canal Basin Park, "a 20-acre collection of landscapes and amenities" (now all the city needs is the political will - and money).
• Furman makes the case for why Po-Mo matters and should be preserved: it's "a race against time to save our exceptional post-modern heritage."
• Olcayto says that despite Scotland's "magnificent" cities' propensity for "self-harm," they still manage to shine.
• Bernstein has issues with plans for a new tower at the U.S. Air Force Academy that "threatens the integrity of Walter Netsch's landmark campus," and "seems more about impressing donors and tourists than about addressing real problems."
• Heathcote offers high praise for the new National Gallery of Singapore that combines the city state's "dour, grey" Courthouse and City Hall, resulting in "something special - the rehabilitation of buildings of political control and their seamless absorption into the sphere of culture."
• Kamin and Channick offer a sneak-peek at Apple's new store hoping to rise on the Chicago River: it "won't be a 2.0 version" of Manhattan's glass cube - it's "more like a high-tech version of Frank Lloyd Wright's quintessentially Midwestern Prairie Style homes, with river views to boot."
• Moore has an interesting conversation with Foster: "'I have no power as an architect.' Advocacy, he says, is the only power an architect ever has."
• Australian architects are being "encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities presented by Free Trade Agreements with Korea, Japan and China."
• Hawthorne gets to tool around town with "Hopscotch," a "wildly inventive, logistically miraculous mobile opera - McLuhan on wheels."
• One we couldn't resist: a Chicago illustrator "reinterprets everyday objects that have become symbolic and, rendered as speculative buildings, could be iconic. Please don't sue her."
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Design Team Named For Performing Arts Center at World Trade Center Site: REX has been selected to reconceive the Performing Arts Center...which was originally designed by Frank Gehry...one of three finalists considered...along with Henning Larsen...and UNStudio... By Robin Pogrebin -- Joshua Prince-Ramus; Davis Brody Bond- New York Times |
AIANY/Center for Architecture Names Benjamin Prosky as Executive Director: With a background in both urban studies and urban planning, he is currently the Assistant Dean for Communications at Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) - a position he will leave to assume his new role early next year.- Contract magazine |
Paris, Beirut, and the Crisis of Cities: Aaron Betsky reflects on the recent attacks in major cities and sprawling suburbs around the world: Today, terror appears everywhere: In music clubs of Paris, in shopping streets of Beirut...and in suburban malls of Colorado...Terror appears where urbanity doesn’t work, either in the countryside or in the city...Our reaction should be to open our cities even more, and to extend the benefits they provide to all...- Architect Magazine |
Cities are the solution, not the problem: Dytopian visions of our urban future ignore the progress being made by well-designed and well-managed cities in tackling social and environmental problems: If cities – of whatever size or shape - are well-designed and well-governed, they can improve the lives of billions of people who will be urban by 2050. By Ricky Burdett/LSE Cities- Icon magazine (UK) |
It's time to rethink the entire role and language of architecture: As director of the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, Alejandro Aravena is on a mission to harness the knowledge of other disciplines, embrace the insights of untrained citizens, and take architecture to new frontiers: We seek to balance hope with rigour: the battle for a better built environment is neither a tantrum nor a romantic crusade.- Guardian (UK) |
How Stronger Cities Could Help Fix Fragile Nations: The most fragile states, which often breed terrorism, are also among the least urbanized: ...part of the long-term strategy to revive these dysfunctional states must focus on city-building and urbanization...But what exactly are the characteristics of the world’s fragile states, and what factors tend to be associated with their instability? By Richard Florida -- Fragile States Index- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Shape of things to come: As the business of architecture consolidates, it becomes harder to create beautiful, challenging buildings...Edmonton is opening its doors to a brighter future: ...city architect, Carol Bélanger...“When you hire architects, you get what you pay for"...sending a message: Civic architecture matters – and it is ready to pay for the best...found a way to account for beauty, and it pays off in subtle ways. By Alex Bozikovic -- Schmidt Hammer Lassen; Dialog; MJMA (MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects); GH3; HCMA; Teeple Architects; Architecture Tkalcic Bengert- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Gardiner Expressway scheme shows Toronto at its most enlightened: Proposal to turn the underside of the highway into a multi-purpose corridor is a potential “game-changer": ...long viewed as a great urban scar inflicted on Toronto by a car-obsessed generation 60 years ago, suddenly finds itself the object of growing civic desire. A wildly ambitious, innovative, even revolutionary scheme...Under Gardiner... By Christopher Hume -- Ken Greenberg; Public Work- Toronto Star |
Ten encouraging signs for Toronto: From the lakeshore to the Aga Khan Museum, lots of things are going right for Toronto: There’s no end to the bad news, but lately there are also reasons for hope...Despite its clunky name, Under Gardiner is the best thing to happen to Toronto in some time. By Christopher Hume- Toronto Star |
City unveils framework plan for Canal Basin Park celebrating history and geography: ...plan calls for a 20-acre collection of landscapes and amenities that would evoke a crucial piece of infrastructure that launched Cleveland's economic rise in 1832: the Ohio & Erie Canal. By Steven Litt -- Environmental Design Group; Stan Allen; Peter Latz [images]- Cleveland Plain Dealer |
We face a race against time to save our exceptional post-modern heritage: Po-mo is threatened by a building boom and its own fleeting unpopularity. But it’s not the first style to face this peril and we need to stop reinventing the wheel: There is a dead zone of unfashionability which it appears styles need to go through before we architects can get over our visceral rejection of them and once again start appreciating the thought processes and historical contingencies that led to their development. By Adam Nathaniel Furman/Farrells- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Despite self-harm, Scotland's magnificent cities still shine: It’s not ‘ye banks and braes’ that define modern Scotland, but its surpassing urban architecture: [It] is defiantly urban and it has four very fine cities to prove it...Sadly, Scotland’s premier cities excel also in self-harm...it’s a Scottish speciality (think of how badly Glasgow treats the legacy of Alexander Greek Thomson). Yet somehow, incredibly, its magnificent cities still shine. By Rory Olcayto- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
What Price Honor? A new tower at the U.S. Air Force Academy threatens the integrity of Walter Netsch’s landmark campus: Center for Leadership and Character Development...is more about impressing donors and tourists than about addressing real problems. Fred A. Bernstein -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) [images]- Architectural Record |
A preview of the new National Gallery of Singapore: The city’s latest cultural centre has been created from two significant former colonial buildings: ...it would be difficult to find a pair of buildings freighted with more history and meaning than the city state’s dour, grey Courthouse and City Hall...their conjoining...has created a cultural megastructure...has managed something special - the rehabilitation of buildings of political control and their seamless absorption into the sphere of culture. By Edwin Heathcote -- Studio Milou; CPG Consultants [images]- Financial Times (UK) |
Exclusive look at new Apple store on the Chicago River: ...won't be a 2.0 version of the famous glass cube that forms...Fifth Avenue flagship in Manhattan. It will be more like a high-tech version of Frank Lloyd Wright's quintessentially Midwestern Prairie Style homes, with river views to boot. By Blair Kamin and Robert Channick -- Foster + Partners [images]- Chicago Tribune |
Norman Foster: ‘I have no power as an architect, none whatsoever’: Ahead of a major urban design conference [LSE Urban Age Global Debates], the architect says we must plan for a more sustainable lifestyle - and discusses his disappointment at the likely rejection of his Thames Hub airport: Advocacy, he says, is the only power an architect ever has. By Rowan Moore [images]- Observer (UK) |
Architects urged to take advantage of Australia China Free Trade Agreement: ...encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities presented by Free Trade Agreements with Korea, Japan and China.- Architecture & Design (Australia) |
Opera-on-wheels 'Hopscotch' drives home the complicated pull of downtown L.A.: ...wildly inventive, logistically miraculous mobile opera...not just enabled by cars. It is also about cars and car culture, McLuhan on wheels. The mode of transportation is the message...Even if the center cannot hold in Los Angeles, it's useful every once in a while to pretend it can, to act as if it might. By Christopher Hawthorne- Los Angeles Times |
Adaptive Practices: Symbols of simplicity never go out of style: Chicago illustrator Lauren Nassef reinterprets everyday objects that have become symbolic and, rendered as speculative buildings, could be iconic. Please don’t sue her. By William Richards [images]- Architect Magazine |
Book Review: "The End of Automobile Dependence: How Cities Are Moving Beyond Car-Based Planning" by Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy: In a tightly packed yet readable marvel of comprehensiveness, Australian transportation scholars crunch the numbers on density and mode choices and come up with surprising grounds for optimism - provided planners get certain critical decisions right. By Bill Millard- ArchNewsNow.com |
Hurricane Sandy Victims Return to Resilient, Sustainable, Affordable Homes on Raritan Bay in New Jersey: The Rebuilding Union Beach demonstration project returns 14 families to new homes, and launches an online Project Guide for other communities needing to rebuild in the wake of a natural disaster. By Scott Lauer [images]- ArchNewsNow.com |
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