Today’s News - Tuesday, February 28, 2017
• Merkel pens a thoughtful tribute to Abba Tor, "the engineer of the almost impossible" for the likes of Saarinen and Kahn, who has passed away at 93.
• Evans considers what "ingredients" it takes to create "buzzing small business communities without developers or architects": creative vision instead of master planning, and risk-sharing instead of risk-taking.
• GovHack's Keith delves into how "data will become as fundamental to cities as infrastructure."
• Tierney, on the other hand, considers how both urban and software architects share "responsibility for the social and political consequences of their design decisions" when it comes to public space (there's a move to make protest a felony in some states - yikes!).
• Capps reports that almost 200 firms have already expressed interest in building Trump's border wall before the official solicitation goes live March 6, with "concept prototypes" due March 10: "Any company picked for the job faces a sincere reputational risk" (two artists "may be trying to punk the process").
• Vonier and Nadel weigh in on how "architecture is the newest anti-terror weapon" as Paris prepares to build a bulletproof wall around the Eiffel Tower ("it will be an upgrade from the current hideous metal gates").
• The Australian Institute of Architects no longer opposes plans for a security fence around Parliament House in Canberra - a briefing left AIA satisfied that it "will be undertaken in a well-considered matter."
• Birnbaum makes another plea to the powers-that-be to reconsider plans for D.C.'s Pershing Park - it is a poster child for "how first tier works of landscape architecture too often are still treated like second-class amenities."
• Kamin is none too happy that first hints of what the Obama Presidential Library might be were dropped in NYC, "to the frustration of Chicago journalists, me included."
• Lynch reports on what Williams and Tsien said at the NYC event re: the Obama library: "[Obama] looked at what we did and he said, 'I said you could be sort of quiet, but I think you're a little too quiet.'"
• ShoP's winning design for a wooden tower in Manhattan bites the dust ("Talk about logging off.").
• On a brighter note, SHoP, with Hamilton Anderson Associates, has towering plans for the Hudson department store site in Detroit - a "shimmering, futuristic" mixed-use tower that "looks like nothing in Detroit now."
• After some strong criticism, next week, Adjaye will present revised plans (and pix, we hope!) to transform old government property into "luxe condos" in D.C.'s tony Georgetown.
• IBI Group - Gruzen Samton's winning design in the Home Today, Home Tomorrow Design Challenge has been built and donated to a veteran and his family in Memphis.
• Anderson of EduColor considers some "initiatives, both new and established," that are tackling how architecture schools can increase diversity.
• Arch Record has extended its deadline to Friday to respond to a survey re: "attitudes toward climate change" - please respond!
• Addington leaves Yale to head UT Austin School of Architecture.
• One we couldn't resist: a Brixton architect wants "to recreate David Bowie's iconic lightning flash" as a public sculpture.
• Call for entries deadline reminder: 5th International LafargeHolcim Awards for Sustainable Construction ($2 million in prizes!) + Open call for Curator of Stad en Architectuur's "architecture as a laboratory" lecture series in Leuven, Belgium.
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Obituary: Abba Tor (1923-2017), the engineer of the almost impossible: The two most daring architects of the middle of the 20th century, Eero Saarinen and Louis Kahn, both went to [him] when they needed help designing groundbreaking buildings. By Jayne Merkel- The Architect's Newspaper |
Martyn Evans: Successful places need creativity, enthusiasm and collaboration, not money and masterplanners: Buzzing small business communities like the former Old Truman Brewery on London’s Brick Lane have boomed without developers or architects. What are the ingredients of success?- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Kevin Keith/GovHack: Data, cities and a new civic pride: A web of information woven into the very fabric of cities...is providing a living, breathing picture of how we and our cities operate...Data will become as fundamental to cities as infrastructure...the Internet of Things will not change the world, it will enable the world to change.- The Fifth Estate (Australia) |
TF Tierney: Public Space Rewired: Architects, both urban and software, have a shared responsibility for the social and political consequences of their design decisions...It is one thing to collect and model data to understand the complex interactions of a city, it is quite another to see authoritarian regimes use those same methods of data collection to discipline urban residents and silently go forward.- Architectural Review (UK) |
Kriston Capps: Almost 200 Firms Have Bid To Build Trump's Border Wall: More may answer the call when the federal government lists its formal solicitation on March 6...will call for concept prototypes, due March 10...a set of finalists will be required to answer a full request for proposals (RFP), including costs, by March 24...Any company (or companies) picked for the job faces a sincere reputational risk.- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Bulletproof Eiffel Tower Wall Proves Architecture Is The Newest Anti-Terror Weapon: “The real front line becomes the public realm...architects are on the front line"...it will be an upgrade from the current hideous metal gates... -- Thomas Vonier; Barbara Nadel Architect/"Building Security: Handbook for Architectural Planning and Design"- Forbes |
Australian Institute of Architects accepts Parliament House security fence plans: ... has retreated from its position of opposition...satisfied that it "will be undertaken in a well-considered matter, and with minimal visual impact." -- Guida Moseley Brown; Romaldo Giurgola- Architecture & Design (Australia) |
Charles A. Birnbaum: Pershing Park and the World War I Memorial: Moving Beyond an Accumulation of Pieces: One of the most important parks on the most significant stretch of America’s Main Street - Pennsylvania Avenue...remains under threat...an example of how first tier works of landscape architecture too often are still treated like second-class amenities. -- The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF); M. Paul Friedberg; Wolfgang Oehme/James van Sweden/Oehme, van Sweden & Associates [images]- Huffington Post |
Blair Kamin: Obama's reaction to architects' first design for his library: "He said it was too unflashy": ...it would be reasonable to think that the first hints about the project's design would be dropped somewhere in Chicago...To the frustration of Chicago journalists, me included, who've been denied interviews...hints were divulged last week at an event [in New York]. -- Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects- Chicago Tribune |
Patrick Lynch: Tod Williams + Billie Tsien Win 2017 LongHouse Award, Discuss Design Ideas for Obama Presidential Library: In a lively discussion with...Paul Goldberger, the architects revealed the nature of their working relationship with the President and First Lady...“He looked at what we did and he said, ‘I said you could be sort of quiet, but I think you’re a little too quiet.'"- ArchDaily |
Deadwood: Plans for SHoP Architects’s Chelsea wooden tower scrapped: Ownership team dissolves partnership at 475 West 18th Street. Talk about logging off...project, which was awarded $1.5 million from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in 2015 for research and development, would’ve been the first of its kind - a 10-story building constructed of mass timber.- The Real Deal (NYC) |
Tallest building in Detroit planned for Hudson site: The project for the empty Woodward Avenue block where the J.L. Hudson department store once stood is one of the most expensive and ambitious plans introduced in a decade...looks like nothing in Detroit now...shimmering, futuristic 734-foot [mixed-use] tower... -- SHoP Architects; Hamilton Anderson Associates [images]- Detroit News |
David Adjaye: Beyond the Monumental: He Has Turned His Eye Toward Georgetown, Designing a Residential Building That Could Change How We See the Town: Four Seasons Residences...old government property to become luxe condos...latest version...is said to return to a partial-preservation approach. -- Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup; William Dewey Foster (1941); Paul Goldberger; Deborah Berke; Robert A.M. Stern; Laurie Olin- The Georgetowner |
The Winning Vision From a Universal Design Competition Is Brought to Life For a Veteran: After months of planning and construction, the Memphis house that's been renovated as a result of the Home Today, Home Tomorrow Design Challenge is being...being donated to a veteran and his family. -- Home Matters/AARP/AARP Foundation/Wells Fargo Housing Foundation; IBI Group – Gruzen Samton [images]- Dwell |
Melinda D. Anderson/EduColor: How can architecture schools increase diversity? Solving the pipeline problem is the key to a less homogenous architecture industry: ...initiatives, both new and established, share one vital aspect: They attempt to create a new generation of architecture students from diverse backgrounds.- Curbed |
Survey: Attitudes Toward Climate Change: Help Architectural Record with research on understanding attitudes toward climate change by completing this survey; deadline: March 3- Architectural Record |
Michelle Addington to Fill Dean Vacancy at UT Austin [University of Texas at Austin]: ...will fill the position left vacant by Frederick Steiner, who resigned last year due to a Texas law that allowed for people to conceal and carry weapons on the campus.- Architectural Record |
Brixton architect plans Bowie bolt from blue: Zac Monro unveils plans to recreate David Bowie’s iconic lightning flash from his 1973 Aladdin Sane album as a sculpture a stone’s throw from the legendary musician’s birthplace in Brixton, south London. [images]- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Call for entries (deadline reminder): 5th International LafargeHolcim Awards for Sustainable Construction 2016/2017: ideas with the highest potential to tackle today’s challenges to increasing urbanization and to improve quality of life; $2 million in prizes; no fee; deadline: March 21- LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction |
Call for entries: Open call for Curator of Stad en Architectuur's AUDITORIUM 17/18 lecture series in Leuven, Belgium: propose a program that treats "architecture as a laboratory" - looking at architecture from an experimental viewpoint; deadline: March 27- Stad en Architectuur (Belgium) |
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