Today’s News - Tuesday, July 12, 2016
• McKnight x 2: exclusive (and sad) news that Architecture for Humanity founders and board members are being sued for mismanaging funds; the good news: many local chapters now carry on as the Open Architecture Collaborative.
• On a brighter note, she reports on how some firms find a payoff in offering pro bono services: it "can be tough, but the benefits make it worthwhile."
• Schumacher sees a silver lining in Brexit: it's a "chance to experiment with new policies - the next prosperity potentials can only be explored and discovered if the straight jacket of the nanny state is gradually loosened and dismantled."
• A look at why some firms who lose their star architects thrive, and others die.
• Case in point: Hadid's 54-story "vase-like" tower in Melbourne gets the green light and is "expected to become a new visitor drawcard" for the city.
• Ayers airs an intriguing opinion re: OMA's master plan to reinvent Paris's longest building, where 15 star architects designed "a cacophony of flashy exteriors all shouting for attention," but ends up as "an exercise in rendering the exceptional banal."
• A fascinating hard-hat walk-through of Amazon's Seattle HQ where high-tech greenhouses create "a kind of Walden Pond under glass."
• Soho House taps Ando to transform one of his own buildings in Tokyo into a co-living space, but the club's in-house team will design the interiors: "We don't want his concrete sofas."
• Some notable names raise concerns about the upcoming Boyd Education Centre competition that "threatens to compromise the landscape of Riversdale and the vision of the architects," Murcutt, Lewin, and Lark.
• Filler finds inspiration in the about-to-open the Hills on Governors Island, "a topographic miracle" that offers "a timely, uplifting, and sobering civics lesson."
• King considers the fragile future of San Francisco's Embarcadero if city leaders don't get serious about finding ways to protect it "while accepting that profound and unstoppable changes lie ahead" as "environmental conditions shift."
• TCLF's Birnbaum sees Denver's historic City Park Golf Course threatened with plans for a massive, 50-acre flood control project - another example of park land "seen as blank space available for whatever other needs arise" - creating "a slippery slope."
• Hawthorne x 2: he challenges Maltzan and Stoss to remake sections of the L.A. freeway that are "prototypes for a new way of thinking about the relationship between the freeway and the public good" (both very cool).
• Walker and Gropman each pen a letter from 2056: one is from a "utopian L.A. is where everyone wants to live"; the other from a "dystopian L.A. that gives you everything you love to hate, only more of it."
• Dalzell is dazzled by the proliferation of urban slides that are "part of a larger urban-design story. Urbanists used to talk about retail and parking - slides add a little playful anarchy."
• Help Wanted: Curator/Director of Columbia University GSAPP exhibitions.
• Call for entries: USITT 2017 Architecture Awards for design excellence of theater projects + Plan B: City Above the City Competition to push the boundaries of wood building design in the urban environment.
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Exclusive: Architecture for Humanity Founders and Board Members Sued for $3 Million: ...accused of mismanaging funds...In the wake of AFH’s closure, dozens of local chapters banded together...to establish a new group that would perform charitable design services...The Chapter Network, which in March was formally named the Open Architecture Collaborative (OAC). By Jenna M. McKnight- Architectural Record |
The Pro Bono Payoff: Providing free architectural services can be tough, but firms say the benefits make it worthwhile: ...offering more than traditional design services. By Jenna M. McKnight -- SHoP Architects; John Peterson; Public Architecture; 1% (now 1+); Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Gould Evans; NBBJ; Mapos; MASS Design Group; John Cary- Architect Magazine |
Op-Ed: Brexit: a chance to roll back the interventionist state and unleash entrepreneurial creativity: I have very little in common with...the Leave Campaign...However, I welcome Brexit as offering...chance to experiment with new policies that dare more economic freedom...the next prosperity potentials of our civilisation can only be explored and discovered if the straight jacket of the nanny state is gradually loosened and dismantled. By Patrik Schumacher/Zaha Hadid Architects- Archinect |
What happens to firms when their star architects die? "There are practices where they don't succeed after the lead goes, because that lead has never acknowledged the others"...The main marker of a business's success after the loss of a star...is the degree of confidence that the lead architect has nurtured in their colleagues and underlings. -- Harry Seidler & Associates; Zaha Hadid Architects- ABC News / Blueprint for Living (Australia) |
Green light for Zaha Hadid tower seen as global drawcard for Melbourne: ...the vase-like tower was expected to become a new visitor drawcard for Melbourne...allowed the developer to breach interim density rules by about 20%...granted on the basis of perceived "public realm benefits" offered by the project... -- Plus Architecture [images]- The Age (Australia) |
Entrepôt Macdonald: Under OMA’s masterplan, 15 star architects have reinvented Paris’s longest building as a gargantuan groundscraper...a riot of competing facades...a cacophony of flashy exteriors all shouting for attention...Despite the squabbling showiness of its exterior, [it] is actually an exercise in rendering the exceptional banal. By Andrew Ayers -- Michel Desvigne; Kengo Kuma; Odile Decq; Julien De Smedt; Christian de Portzamparc; Stéphane Maupin; Habiter Autrement [images]- Icon (UK) |
Forget Beanbag Chairs. Amazon Is Giving Its Workers Treehouses: ...building a complex at its Seattle headquarters where employees can sit by a creek, walk on suspension bridges and brainstorm in the boughs...high-tech greenhouses...a kind of Walden Pond under glass. By Nick Wingfield -- NBBJ [images]- New York Times |
Soho House considers move into co-living market and hires Tadao Ando for Tokyo members club: ...will be a conversion of an existing concrete building that Ando designed...Soho House's in-house team will design the interiors..."We don't want his concrete sofas."- Dezeen |
Forthcoming Boyd Education Centre competition lacks “respect”: Brit Andresen, Richard LePlastrier, Peter Stutchbury and Lindsay Johnston claim that the Bundanon Trust’s masterplan to expand Riversdale - home to Glenn Murcutt, Wendy Lewin and Reg Lark’s [centre] - threatens to compromise the wishes of [the Boyds], the landscape of Riversdale and the vision of the architects.- ArchitectureAU (Australia) |
A Miracle in New York Harbor: ...High Line...was such a departure from business-as-usual land development...it seemed a rare fluke...Now, a new and in some respects even more extraordinary landscape on Governors Island...adding another major enrichment to the metropolis...the Hills, a 10-acre park...a topographic miracle...brilliant architectural transformation...a timely, uplifting, and sobering civics lesson. By Martin Filler -- Adriaan Geuze/West 8; Mathews Nielsen [images]- New York Review of Books |
Shoring up the city’s edge: History, the future and politics collide as bay waters, aged seawall threaten SF's Embarcadero: City leaders need to get serious...They must also decide which aspects...are worth preserving no matter what, and what is expendable as environmental conditions shift...finding ways to protect our most valued resources while accepting that profound and unstoppable changes lie ahead. By John King- San Francisco Chronicle |
The Cultural Landscape Foundation says City Park Golf Course is threatened. Denver says it’s not: ...wants to use [golf course] as the site for a 50-acre detention area as a part of a massive flood control project...Charles Birnbaum...said that, too often, park land is seen as blank space available for whatever other needs arise...creates a slippery slope.- Denverite |
How to remake the L.A. freeway for a new era? A daring proposal from Michael Maltzan: Can you picture a freeway that’s good for the environment? That stitches a neighborhood together instead of slicing it apart? ...two design proposals...prototypes for a new way of thinking in Southern California about the relationship between the freeway and the public good. By Christopher Hawthorne -- Stoss Landscape Urbanism; Arup [images]- Los Angeles Times |
Imagine if the 2 Freeway spur ended in a brilliantly colored, eco-smart park: Stoss Landscape Urbanism's proposal...includes paths for pedestrians and bicyclists and a rain capture system...elevated park is a sort of fantasia - in shades of orange and fuchsia - on the classic Los Angeles themes of water, sunshine and the infrastructural sublime. By Christopher Hawthorne [images]- Los Angeles Times |
Op-Ed x 2: A letter from 2056: Utopian L.A. is where everyone wants to live. By Alissa Walker + A letter from 2056: Dystopian L.A. gives you everything you love to hate, only more of it. By Adam Gropman- Los Angeles Times |
Cities seen slideways: Much more than a cheap thrill, the urban slides opening around the world are part of a trend to make cities more playful...slides have appeared in public and private spaces...part of a larger urban-design story...Urbanists used to talk about retail and parking; now “active design” is all the rage...Slides add a little playful anarchy. By Rebecca Dalzell -- Carsten Höller; Anish Kapoor; Adriaan Geuze/West 8; Playable City [images]- The Economist / 1843 (UK) |
Help Wanted: Curator/Director of GSAPP Exhibitions: will assume a full range of curatorial responsibilities for the School's core exhibitions program in the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery, as well as all spaces of the School - from the central floor of Avery Hall to various global sites.- Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) |
Call for entries: USITT 2017 Architecture Awards (international): recognizing excellence in the design of theatre projects completed within the past decade; deadline: September 1- United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) |
Call for entries: Plan B: City Above the City Competition (international): push the boundaries of modern wood building design in the urban environment; cash prizes; deadline: September 30- Metsä Wood |
ANN feature: Return of the Broken Pediment: A review of three recent books involving the life of Philip Johnson: "Architecture's Odd Couple: Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson" by Hugh Howard; "Partners in Design: Alfred H. Barr Jr. and Philip Johnson" by David A. Hanks (ed.); "1941: Fighting the Shadow War: A Divided America in a World at War" by Marc Wortman. By Christian Bjone- ArchNewsNow.com |
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