Today’s News - Thursday, October 5, 2017
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days. We'll be back Tuesday, October 10.
● ANN feature: Swett, an architect and former Congressman and Ambassador, has a message for the next generation of architects: Leaders with the skills and sensibilities of an architect are needed now more than ever.
● Cramer delves deep into climate change, and how architecture must change as well: "the architecture profession will have to relearn the great joy of doing more with less - and commit totally to mitigation and resilience."
● An entire coastal island community in Louisiana is being relocated inland, with a master plan by Baton Rouge-based CSRS (60 years ago, it was more than 22,000 acres - 320 acres are left).
● Experiments around the world to address affordable housing shortages take an unusual tack: "new housing units are being sold without bathrooms, kitchens, or even interior walls" - buyers decide "whether to opt for more Spartan or luxurious accommodations."
● Moore parses the Bilbao Effect 20 years after Gehry's Guggenheim became "the most influential building of modern times": it had "a wow factor that cities around the globe were soon clamoring to copy," but "its true lesson is that it can't be copied."
● Wainwright finds himself having some serious fun in the "brick-tastic brilliance of the new Lego House" by BIG: "Everything is awesome!" (fab photo gallery by Iwan Baan!).
● On a less cheerful note, Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic have "put the brakes on" plans for the $500 million Geffen Hall renovation, and will "seek less dramatic ways to improve the hall."
● A good reason to head to California next week: the Monterey Design Conference 2017.
● A good reason to head to Montréal at the end of MDC 2017: World Design Summit Congress: "an international incubator or re-thinking the mission" of design.
Weekend diversions:
● Byrnes has a fab Q&A with Lubell and Goldin re: how they turned the book "Never Built New York" into a show at the Queens Museum: "Despite its focus on could-have-been's, they present their research with a genuine enthusiasm for the works without falling into nostalgia traps."
● Gilmartin offers a most excellent round-up of "Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA," and its "far-reaching and ambitious" exhibitions that "offer much to even die-hard architecture wonks."
● There's still time to catch Partisans & Storefront for Art and Architecture's inaugural "EDIT" festival featuring "Letters to the Mayor / Developer: Toronto" - in Toronto (great pix!).
● In Munich, Turkish architect Tabanlioglu "has turned his collective images and travel anecdotes" into the show "Stage 0 - Travelogue."
Chicago Architecture Biennial:
● Kamin x 2: he had his doubts about reviving the Tribune Tower competition: "there was ample reason to wonder whether the third time would be the stale dud," but "Vertical City" is a "visual delight - a heady mix of reality and fantasy."
● He parses six of the Biennial's satellite exhibits that "vary widely in quality," but "taken as a group, the shows can be considered a success."
● Keskeys says "forget esoteric ideas - here's what the Biennial really tells us about architectural practice today: 1) When architects and makers unite, magic happens. 5) Architecture doesn't need to be so serious."
● Mortice cheers "The River Edge Ideas Lab" and its big design dreams for the Chicago River.
Page turners:
● Hall Kaplan ("born and ill-bred in New York") on Moss's "Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul": it is "a polemic, unrelenting in exposing the raw greed that has compromised the once-proud city. However obnoxious his rant may be, you have to pay attention."
● Bellafante, on the other hand, considers "Vanishing New York" a "comprehensive, emotional exploration. The pleasure (or agony, depending on your predilection) of reading Moss is his purity."
● Schwab talks to Doctoroff about "Greater Than Ever: New York's Big Comeback," and the challenges facing every city today: "He sees the smart city as a revolution that's on its way."
● Reston offers a rousing excerpt from his "A Rift in the Earth: Art, Memory, and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial" that delves into "the classroom process that helped refine Maya Lin's submission - its foundation was a brilliantly devastating political commentary on the Vietnam War" (wailing and resentment included).
● Moore gives thumbs-up (and down) to Piesik's "Habitat: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Planet": "This compelling survey of houses doesn't quite meet its lofty aims" - it's more than "a National Geographic romp through the exotic, but it is less convincing when it tries too hard to make its points."
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ANN feature: Richard N. Swett, FAIA: Memo to: The Next Generation of Architects. Re: What would I have done differently if I had known then what I know now? Leaders with the skills and sensibilities of an architect are needed now more than ever. I call it Leadership by Design.- ArchNewsNow.com |
Ned Cramer: The Climate Is Changing. So Must Architecture: ...catastrophic scenarios are not hyperbole, but probable consequences of inaction...the current chances of keeping the temperature increase below 3.6 F at a depressing 5%...the profession as a whole will benefit from a concerted effort to forge cross-industry alliances...thrift will inevitably supplant consumption...and the architecture profession, along with the rest of society, will have to relearn the great joy of doing more with less...architects must double down and commit themselves totally to mitigation and resilience...- Architect Magazine |
Planner named for Isle de Jean Charles resettlement: Louisiana named a Baton Rouge architecture and engineering firm to serve as the master planner to design a new community for the resettled residents...project will relocate the coastal island community in Terrebonne Parish about 40 miles north...a federally backed community relocation, triggered by massive land loss...Only about 320 acres are left...was more than 22,000 acres 60 years ago. -- CSRS- Houma Courier (Louisiana) |
Unfinished Homes: DIY Condos Designed to Address Affordable Housing Shortages: Around the world, new housing units are being sold without bathrooms, kitchens...to make housing more affordable...by letting buyers fill in the details...whether to opt for more spartan or luxurious accommodations...As these experiments continue...it may turn out that the ideal solution varies from place to place. -- NL Architects; Naked House; Superlofts; Elemental [images]- 99% Invisible |
Rowan Moore: The Bilbao effect: how Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim started a global craze: ...the glittering titanium museum had a wow factor that cities around the globe were soon clamouring to copy: It revived belief that architecture could be ambitious, beautiful and popular...has become the most influential building of modern times...Yet rarely, if ever, have the myriad wannabe Bilbaos matched the original...Its true lesson is that it can’t be copied. + 5 would-be icons -- Shigeru Ban;Will Alsop; Oscar Niemeyer; MAD Architects; Jean Nouvel- Observer (UK) |
Oliver Wainwright: Everything is awesome! The brick-tastic brilliance of the new Lego House: With its shark-infested rooftops, stomping dinosaurs and build-your-own Lego lunches, this multi-levelled ziggurat is a mind-blowing playground of 25m bricks: Rarely have architect and client been so well matched...The project is a triumph...it is the centrepiece of a wider masterplan, on which BIG is also working, for Billund to become “the creative world capital of children”. -- BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group [images by Iwan Baan]- Guardian (UK) |
Lincoln Center Scraps a $500 Million Geffen Hall Renovation: The center and the New York Philharmonic announced they would seek less dramatic ways to improve a hall...a major setback...new leaders put the brakes on, opting to seek other ways to improve the hall’s bland auditorium, acoustics and common areas...turning point came when the construction and design teams said...they could not guarantee that the work would be done fast enough for the orchestra to lose its hall for only two seasons. -- Heatherwick Studio; Diamond Schmitt Architects- New York Times |
Monterey Design Conference/MDC 2017, October 13-15 at the Julia Morgan-designed Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California- American Institute of Architects California Council (AIACC) |
World Design Summit Congress: an opportunity to take an active part in kickstarting a global initiative...an international incubator for re-thinking the mission of the designer and the design process; October 16-25, Montréal- World Design Summit |
Mark Byrnes: Building "Never Built New York": How Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin turned a book with 200 years of unrealized architectural dreams...into a museum show: ...dizzying amount of grand proposals are thoughtfully spaced out...to a “Never Built” twist on the Queens Museum’s famous city panorama...Despite its focus on could-have-been’s, [they] present their research with a genuine enthusiasm for the works without falling into nostalgia traps; thru February 18, 2018 -- Christian Wassmann [images]- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Wendy Gilmartin: Architecture’s Border Crossings: "Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA," a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles...exhibitions concerned with an architectural scope offer much to even die-hard architecture wonks...the surprises uncovered in "PST: LA/LA" offer insights into individual designers’ approaches to a similar building material, a cultural zeitgeist or mode of political thinking at the time. [images]- KCET.org (California) |
"EDIT": Partisans + Storefront for Art and Architecture invite architects to write "Letters to the Mayor / Developer: Toronto": ...inaugural edition of a 10-day festival dedicated to design, innovation and technology...exhibition invites local and global creatives to address their thoughts about development to elected officials...ideas and reflections travel a mock assembly line across the ‘factory floor’; thru October 8 [images]- designboom |
Zaha Hadid Architects Exhibits Unbuilt Work at Prague Experimental Architecture Biennial
The exhibit features unreleased projects by the firm: “ZHA: Unbuilt"...part of the third annual Prague Experimental Architecture Biennial...features projects from buildings to fashion in a series of workshops, a pavilion, and film screenings; thru October 26 [images]- Architect Magazine |
TA_’s "Stage 0 - Travelogue" explores collective memories of the architect as a profound backdrop; Turkish architect Murat Tabanlioglu, founder of Tabanlioglu Architects (TA_), has turned his collective images, travel anecdotes into a new exhibition at Munich's Architekturgalerie; thru November 11 [images]- World Architecture |
Blair Kamin: Could you build this? New ideas for Tribune Tower once again surprise, delight and provoke: ...when the curators of the Chicago Architecture Biennial announced that they would undertake yet another Tribune Tower competition, there was ample reason to wonder whether the third time would be the stale dud...It is a welcome surprise, then, that the new version of the contest breaks fresh conceptual ground and is, in the bargain, a visual delight..."Vertical City"...is a heady mix of reality and fantasy.- Chicago Tribune |
Blair Kamin: Bite-sized Biennial shows give the big exhibit a Chicago focus: There's a new wrinkle to this year's edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial: Six satellite exhibits, spread around the city...vary widely in quality. Some succeed at fleshing out the biennial's aspirational title, "Make New History." Others simply revisit old histories. Taken as a group, however, the shows can be considered a success...capsule reviews:- Chicago Tribune |
Paul Keskeys: Forget Esoteric Ideas - Here’s What Really Matters at the Chicago Architecture Biennial: “Make New History” works on so many levels...it is immediately clear that today’s architects are...focusing on constructive ways in which history can help inform a better future for urban populations...here’s what the Biennial really tells us about architectural practice today: 1. When architects and makers unite, magic happens. 5. Architecture doesn’t need to be so serious. -- Sharon Johnston/Mark Lee/ Johnston Marklee [images]- Architizer |
Zach Mortice: From Filth to Fun: Big Designs for the Chicago River: Invited to dream up the future of the Chicago Riverwalk, designers imagine everything from lush wetlands to a filtered “swimming bowl": "The River Edge Ideas Lab"...a slick, developer-focused counterpoint to the wild flurry of normcore imagery and models at the Chicago Cultural Center...There is no money to build these plans. The goal is to gather public feedback...that can be incorporated into formal river design guidelines. [images]- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Sam Hall Kaplan: Tough-Love Urbanism: On Jeremiah Moss’s “Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul”: ...the change in his beloved city over the last several decades has been decidedly and depressingly convulsive, if not worse...Think of [this] as a dispatch from the front lines of a war zone, where the resident population is losing badly and the cityscape is being ravaged...Labeling [it] a lament would be too kind...a polemic, unrelenting in exposing the raw greed that has compromised the once-proud city...However obnoxious his rant may be, you have to pay attention.- Los Angeles Review of Books |
Ginia Bellafante: Tracking the Hyper-Gentrification of New York, One Lost Knish Place at a Time: In “Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul,” Jeremiah Moss laments the transformation of a city into a place that no longer accommodates failure: ...comprehensive, emotional exploration of the historical, economic and social forces that have permitted and in many cases encouraged things to play out so dismally...The pleasure (or agony, depending on your predilection) of reading Moss is his purity.- New York Times |
Katharine Schwab: How the Chief Architect of 21st Century New York Envisions the Future of Cities: Former N.Y.C. deputy mayor and current Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff talks about the challenges facing every city today: Under his leadership, the landscape of New York...has radically changed..."Greater Than Ever: New York’s Big Comeback" documents every step of these now controversial development decisions...He sees the smart city as a revolution that’s on its way...- Fast Company / Co.Design |
James Reston, Jr.: How Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial broke the competition’s biggest rule: Go inside the classroom process that helped refine Lin’s submission...the origin of the most successful, all-inclusive war memorial in American history was...certainly not non-political...its foundation was a brilliantly devastating political commentary on the Vietnam War...But what were these slabs? What was their purpose? Did they not make a pointedly political statement that was forbidden by the competition organizers? -- Paul Spreiregen [excerpt from Reston's “A Rift in the Earth: Art, Memory, and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial”]- Salon |
Rowan Moore: "Habitat: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Planet," edited by Sandra Piesik: This compelling survey of houses built in harmony with their natural surroundings is inspiring but doesn’t quite meet its lofty aims...a catalogue of beautiful and unexpected structures created by addressing necessity with grace...It helps the book that it has a cause, which keeps it from being a National Geographic romp through the exotic, but it is less convincing when it tries too hard to make its points. [images]- Observer (UK) |
rise Inaugurates "rise in the city" in New York City on October 25: The non-profit is hosting an art-filled fundraiser, auctioning 100 works of art by architects, designers, and artists for the organization's inaugural project: expanding and upgrading of an orphanage in Lesotho, Africa.- ArchNewsNow.com |
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