Today’s News - Thursday, April 13, 2017
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days. We'll be back Tuesday, April 18. Zissin Pesach and Happy Easter!
• The Garden Bridge Trust's Davies hits back at Hodge's report, "stopping short of accusing her of bias" - and Hodge responds (succinctly).
• Buday bursts a few theoretical bubbles re: architecture being able to change behavior: "Architects may soon need a better value proposition - or go extinct" (you be the judge re: reference to Goldhagen's book - excerpt below).
• Zieger zings around Vegas to determine if starchitecture can survive in Sin City: "The celebrity factor of Gehry or Koolhaas can't outpace a reunion tour by the Backstreet Boys at Planet Hollywood."
• Flatman explains "why we should appreciate London's success while it lasts": it "might be struggling to accommodate its burgeoning population - but that's surely better than the Detroit-style decline it once faced."
• Kamin x 2: He has high hopes for the latest phase of Wrigley Field's renovation (a side that once looked "ragged as an old, dog-bitten blanket"), though "nothing is ever easy at Wrigley."
• He parses Landmarks Illinois' latest list of the Chicago's most endangered places.
• Wainwright wanders the newly opened Leaway path along London's once-forgotten river of "fridge mountains, distilleries, and scrap yards," now "a green playground."
• Saffron takes issue with Philly's City Council "effectively" killing the city's the 10-year-old electric-car program (and spots for the 56 electric car owners): "The real driver of this moratorium is parking envy."
• Waite parses AJ's 2017 Life in Practice survey that "shows a profession under pressure - it makes for a sobering read."
• Weekend diversions:
• On a brighter (with a touch of sad) note: watch the AJ documentary "Zaha: An Architectural Legacy."
• Mural Arts Philadelphia exhibition "Park Powers & Trash Academy" showcases the investigation into Philly's aging Mifflin Park, spearheaded by Damon Rich.
• Budds cheers Pentagram's construction wall around the Philadelphia Museum of Art "that's actually beautiful. This is one wall that earns our seal of approval."
• Hawthorne hails Sutton's "When Ivory Towers Were Black": it is "most valuable as an instruction manual for a new effort to diversify the field. If we can only show the resolve to follow it, the road map is there."
• Goldhagen offers us two meaty chapters from "Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives."
• Cipriani cheers Al's "The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream," an "entertaining, muscular, often funny book" that chronicles the "seven aesthetic waves in the city's history of tourist-driven architecture," that is "exuberant, embarrassing, sometimes hideous, sometimes fabulous."
• Davidson takes us on a tour of Manhattan's 42nd Street, yesterday and today, "where fine instincts and modern technology fuse into a boulevard of noble ambitions."
• Budds cheers Fynn's effort to document the complexities of Corbu's Chandigarh, 70 years later.
• Lasky talks to "The Gargoyle Hunters" Freeman Gill: "Did you mean to make baby boomers weep with nostalgia?" + "Encounters with Gargoyles as They Gobble Up Buildings."
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Hodge report was 'skewed', says Garden Bridge boss: Mervyn Davies accuses MP of mainly speaking to opponents of project: Stopping short of accusing her of bias..“It is a shame that [she] has shown disregard for the facts and been selective in her use of evidence to support her own opinions"; Margaret Hodge responds. Heatherwick Studio- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Richard Buday: We Shape Buildings, But Do Buildings Really Shape Us? Most of the societal problems architects would like their buildings to shape are behavioral, not architectural...there is a difference between a building triggering a physiological response and architecture changing behavior...Architects may soon need a better value proposition than their current services, or go extinct. -- Archimage; Bob Borson; Sarah Williams Goldhagen- Common Edge |
Mimi Zieger: Starchitects in Sin City: Can high-profile architecture survive in Las Vegas? The celebrity factor of Frank Gehry or Rem Koolhaas can’t outpace a reunion tour by the Backstreet Boys...The most important piece of architecture to come out of Las Vegas was...a research-heavy book that taught architects to find meaning in the decorative and ordinary. "Learning From Las Vegas"... -- Paul R. Williams (1961); Robert Venturi; Steven Izenour; Denise Scott BrownOMA; Jerde Partnership; Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn (EE&K); Helmut Jahn;, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF); Pelli Clarke Pelli; Rafael Viñoly; Foster + Partners; Daniel Libeskind; David Rockwell/Rockwell Group- Curbed |
Ben Flatman: We should appreciate London’s success while it lasts: The capital might be struggling to accommodate its burgeoning population - but that’s surely better than the Detroit-style decline it once faced: ...with far fewer opportunities for architects...The turn-around has been impressive, but it’s easy to forget that London’s population is still only really the same size it was 80 years ago...- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Blair Kamin: New plaza connects Wrigley to its neighborhood - most of the time: Wrigley Field and its neighborhood have come up winners in the latest phase of the...multiyear $600 million renovation...the worst fears for the project - that it would produce a visually toxic combination of theme-park nostalgia and rampant commercialization - have not been realized. At least not yet...nothing is ever easy at Wrigley. -- Stantec [images]- Chicago Tribune |
Blair Kamin: Thompson Center among Illinois' most endangered places, advocacy group says: Landmarks Illinois...also cited potential danger to buildings at O'Hare International Airport and the former Michael Reese Hospital... -- Helmut Jahn (1985); Gertrude Kerbis/Naess & Murphy (later C.F. Murphy & Associates) (1960s); Walter Gropius; Loebl, Schlossman and Bennett (1951)- Chicago Tribune |
Oliver Wainwright: The river London forgot: how the Lea is being reborn: For years...a place of fridge mountains, distilleries and scrapyards, but now there’s a fresh plan to turn this ancient valley back into a green playground. We walk the newly opened Leaway riverside path...a project that’s been 74 years in the making...has been an uphill struggle. -- Patrick Abercrombie (1944); Tom Holbrook/5th Studio; Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects [images]- Guardian (UK) |
Inga Saffron: Killing exclusive electric-car parking spots is 'a bait-and-switch': Philadelphia’s City Council...voted to approve a bill that would...effectively kill the 10-year-old electric-car program...Since 2007...precisely 56 people have qualified...The real driver of this moratorium...[is] parking envy...early adopters were mocked as wealthy takers who “steal spots” from everyday folks.- Philadelphia Inquirer |
Richard Waite: Stressed and overworked: AJ’s 2017 Life in practice survey shows a profession under pressure: ...shines a light on the daily worries...gives more evidence of the pay gap between men and women...paints a worrying picture...where architects regularly struggle with heavy workloads, long hours and maintaining their own mental health... it makes for a sobering read.- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
AJ documentary - Zaha: An Architectural Legacy: One year after she died, this film takes a look at her career, and legacy, through five stages which signal significant progressions in her work. -- Patrik Schumacher; Eva Jiricna; Nigel Coates; Ricky Burdett; Christine Murray; Hanif Kara- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Taking an Investigative Approach to Park Design: ...every design decision “is imbued, especially in civic and public projects, in this infinitesimal fracturing of politics.” This idea is at the center of a Mural Arts Philadelphia exhibition "Park Powers & Trash Academy"...part of an investigation into an aging public park [Mifflin Park] in one of city’s most diverse census tracts... -- Damon Rich/Hector- Next City (formerly Next American City) |
Diana Budds: Pentagram’s Latest: A Construction Wall That’s Actually Beautiful: While the Philadelphia Museum of Art undergoes a three-year expansion, it’s putting some of its favorite pieces outside for the public to enjoy...This is one wall that earns our seal of approval. -- Paula Scher; Frank Gehry [images]- Fast Company / Co.Design |
Christopher Hawthorne: Challenging the whiteness of American architecture, in the 1960s and today: ...Sharon Egretta Sutton’s “When Ivory Towers Were Black,” an unusual hybrid of memoir, institutional history and broadside against the entrenched whiteness of the architecture profession...most valuable as an instruction manual for a new effort to diversify the field...If we can only show the resolve to follow it, the road map is there.- Los Angeles Times |
Sarah Williams Goldhagen: Excerpts from "Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives": A new account of cognition is emerging from the combined fruits of many research fields. -- Louis Kahn- Architectural Record |
Christine Cipriani: The Architecture of the American Dream: The Vegas Strip is exuberant, embarrassing, sometimes hideous, sometimes fabulous: “The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream" by Stefan Al...in this entertaining book he creates a taxonomy, identifying seven aesthetic waves in the city’s history of tourist-driven architecture...a muscular, often funny book...Sometimes he succeeds too well...- Wall Street Journal |
Justin Davidson: Avenue of the Idealists: A Walking Tour of 42nd Street: This has long been New York’s most idealistic street, where fine instincts and modern technology fuse into a boulevard of high-minded civic aspiration. Even its roster of vanished landmarks is a testament to loftiness...a boulevard of noble ambitions. (from "Magnetic City: A Walking Companion to New York") [images]- New York Magazine |
Diana Budds: Life In Le Corbusier’s Utopian City, Photographed By A Resident: Shaun Fynn documents the complexities of Chandigarh, 70 years later: He hopes his series sparks more curiosity and introspection about Chandigarh and a deeper understanding of Le Corbusier’s vision. "Chandigarh Revealed: Le Corbusier's City Today" [images]- Fast Company / Co.Design |
Julie Lasky: Hunting Gargoyles and Other Architectural Treasures: “The Gargoyle Hunters” author John Freeman Gill...spoke about this curious form of preservation and where to spot a good gargoyle today...Did you mean to make baby boomers weep with nostalgia? + Encounters with Gargoyles as They Gobble Up Buildings [images]- New York Times |
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Grafton Architects: University Campus UTEC, Lima, Peru: Universidad de Ingeniería & Tecnologia...a "vertical campus," an "arena for learning," and a "man-made cliff"...stands boldly in the middle-class Barranco district...redefining the dramatic edge of the city... -- Shell Arquitectos [images] |
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