Today’s News - Thursday, November 16, 2017
● We lose Ledner, an FLW apprentice "who went on to design modernist marvels including the National Maritime Union HQ in NYC: "the implicit humor of this unorthodox trio (of buildings) transgressed mightily against the dead-serious modernism of the period," wrote Christopher Gray.
● Schneider ponders whether Jahn's "red, white, and blue elephant" (a.k.a. Thompson Center) is worth saving: the "boundary-breaking structure captured Chicago's imagination, if not its heart. Will ordinary citizens fight for a quirky civic space?"
● Dickinson considers Stern and Saarinen at Yale, and "what the old 'modern' and the new traditional' dormitories say about style, architecture and the zeitgeist."
● Kolson Hurley considers "the weird, wooden future of skyscrapers," and Lever Architecture's towering ambitions on Portland, Oregon, that will be "the country's tallest human-occupied all-wooden structure."
● A proposed wooden skyscraper for Chicago, the result of a collaboration between Perkins+Will, Thornton Tomasetti, and the University of Cambridge, is a "magnificent design - long live the wooden revolution."
● Scheeren's 88-story "Sky Forest" will bring "leisure and landscape design to the skies" of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
● SOM's 56-story tapering skyscraper in London will be subjected "to wind tunnel testing and 'extensive analysis' of how it will interact with sunlight so as not to overshadow other buildings - or produce a dangerous solar glare" (no melting Porches here).
● Litt x 2: he cheers "a brilliant lakefront project" in Euclid, Ohio, that "offers a snapshot of an attractive, working-class Cleveland suburb addressing its future proactively. Kudos all around."
● He also cheers the Cleveland Museum of Art's Doan Brook project that "blends art and environment," and is "a gesture of outreach to the surrounding city."
● TVS Design is leading the team for the $1.4 billion expansion and renovation of the Las Vegas Convention Center that will make it the second-largest in North America.
● Two Cornell alumni help renovate Upson Hall.
● Nine projects show "the diversity and architectural possibilities that come from repurposing things like old factories, wharfs, and power plants in new ways" (alas, not all architects are credited).
● Wainwright reviews Seoul's first (now ended) architecture biennale that used "giant blobs and floating parks to look to the future - and atone for the costly sins of the past.'
● Weder weighs in on MoMA's (now closed) Frank Lloyd Wright extravaganza "Unpacking the Archive": "He was wrong about a lot of things. But both his triumphs and his mistakes have taught us much - and for that we might be grateful."
● Five quirky solutions to open office woes (we'll take the nap nook, please!).
● Eyefuls of the four 2017 Curbed Groundbreakers winners.
● Maria Nicanor named Executive Director of the Rice Design Alliance, after stints at the Norman Foster Foundation, the Guggenheim, and the V&A.
● A wonderful round-up "weird and wonderful" Soviet sanatoriums that "challenge the standard notion that architecture under communism was unsightly and drab."
● One we couldn't resist: "14 impossibly chic cat houses designed for a fundraiser for Architects for Animals and FixNation.
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Obituary: Albert C. Ledner, who peppered New Orleans with modernist marvels, 93: ...an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright who went on to design modernist marvels...designed...a series of futuristic meeting halls around the country for the National Maritime Union...his trio of buildings for the union's headquarters in Manhattan catapulted him onto the national stage, raising eyebrows and earning him accolades..."Even in the permissive '60s, the implicit humor of this unorthodox trio (of buildings) transgressed mightily against the dead-serious modernism of the period," wrote Christopher Gray.- The Times-Picayune (New Orleans) |
Benjamin Schneider: Is This Red, White, and Blue Elephant Worth Saving? Illinois politicians agree that Chicago’s Thompson Center should be replaced. Architects and preservationists beg to differ, and a new documentary presents their case.: ...boundary-breaking structure...captured Chicago’s imagination, if not its heart...could be repurposed for a new use, the critics and designers in the film say...Will ordinary citizens fight for a quirky civic space...? -- Helmut Jahn (1985); Nathan Eddy/“Starship Chicago: A Building on the Brink” [images, video]- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Duo Dickinson: Stern and Saarinen at Yale: What Architectural “Style” Reveals: What the old “modern” and the new “traditional” dormitories say about style, architecture and the zeitgeistFor Saarinen, the 1962 Morse and Stiles Colleges followed the "new-new-new" mid-century...[Stern's] 2017 Franklin and Murray Colleges manifest an intentional manipulation of sentimentality and memory...Side by side these efforts have clashing...in the end, beauty is found in both surprise and memory, not in any "style." -- James Gamble Rogers; Eero Saarinen (1962); Robert A.M. Stern Architects- Common Edge |
Amanda Kolson Hurley: The Weird, Wooden Future of Skyscrapers: A change to the urban skyline that could make a big dent in carbon emissions: ...Albina Yard...only four stories, but it's the prelude to a more ambitious project: Framework, a 12-story mixed-use tower...When it's finished...it will be the country's tallest human-occupied all-wooden structure. -- Thomas Robinson/Lever Architecture; Michael Green Architecture [images]- The Atlantic |
Perkins+Will’s proposed wooden skyscraper is exploring timber’s potential: With proposals for timber skyscrapers becoming more prevalent around the world, [P+W] oin forces with Thornton Tomasetti and the University of Cambridge to develop plans for The River Beech Tower, Chicago...magnificent design from three significant collaborators certainly poses an exciting question for the future of timber structures - long live the wooden revolution. [images[- DesignCurial (UK) |
Ole Scheeren reveals design for vast 'Sky Forest' towers open to the public: ...bringing leisure and landscape design to the skies of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with an ambitious new development formed of three high-rise towers...Empire City...main structure called Empire 88 Tower in reference to the number of floors...to be topped by a large public observation deck, called 'Cloud Space'...a large scale terraced public space with restaurants and commercial facilities will form a “mountain-shaped, garden-like podium"... -- Büro Ole Scheeren [images]- CLAD (Community of Leisure Architects & Designers) |
SOM designs tapering skyscraper that would dwarf neighbouring Cheesegrater: ...56-storey skyscraper in London...keen to learn from the mistakes made in the designs of the area's existing skyscrapers...subjecting their new tower to wind tunnel testing and "extensive analysis" of how it will interact with sunlight so as not to overshadow other buildings - or produce a dangerous solar glare. -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill [images]- Dezeen |
Steven Litt: Euclid, Ohio, close to building lakefront trail that could set a precedent in Great Lakes: ...a brilliant lakefront project...Kudos all around..."This has the opportunity to be a proof-of-concept for other communities"...offers a snapshot of an attractive, working-class Cleveland suburb addressing its future proactively at a time in which it is becoming a majority black community challenged by higher levels of poverty. -- SmithGroupJJR [images, video]- Cleveland Plain Dealer |
Steven Litt: Cleveland Museum of Art, sewer district launching $5M Doan Brook project that blends art, environment: ...to reduce flooding and erosion, and to improve natural habitat...museum envisions creating a sculpture park and an event space...a gesture of outreach to the surrounding city...project is closely related to the $15 million Nord Family Greenway, a 15-acre rectangle of grass, trees and walkways... -- Sasaki Associates [images]- Cleveland Plain Dealer |
LVCVA OKs design team for convention center expansion: ...$1.4 billion expansion and renovation of the Las Vegas Convention Center... includes the development of a 600,000-square-foot exhibition hall within 1.4 million square feet of new space...will make the convention center the second-largest in North America... -- TVS Design; TSK Architects; Simpson Coulter Studio; Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto Architects; KME Architects- Las Vegas Review-Journal |
Two Cornell alumni help transform Upson Hall with $74.5M renovation: ...design changes to the engineering building include maximizing interior space...The changes to the building help "bring engineering from enclosed spaces to the more public realm"... -- Rob Goodwin/Perkins+Will; David Lewis/LTL Architects- Ithaca Journal |
9 projects that reimagine old buildings, from factories to firehouses: What’s old is new again: ...this list shows the diversity and architectural possibilities that come from repurposing things like old factories, wharfs, and power plants in new ways. -- McIntosh Poris Associates/Simeone Deary Design Group/Foundation Hotel, Detroit; Lake/Flato/Shepley Bulfinch; James Mituzas; (fer) studio; Richard Haag [images]- Curbed |
Oliver Wainwright: Giant blobs and floating parks: Seoul's first architecture biennale shakes up the city: From Zaha Hadid’s bulbous plaza to a ‘library’ of flora planted across a skygarden, the South Korean capital is using its architecture festival to look to the future - and atone for the costly sins of the past: The true power of what the Seoul biennale might be is found less in the content of these exhibitions than in the wider role it can perform for the city. -- Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism; Kim Swoo-geun; Chang Yong-soon; Hyungmin Pai; We Made That; Alejandro Zaera-Polo; Kim Young-Joon [images]- Guardian (UK) |
Adele Weder: Frank Revelations: How Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Archives carry new meaning for our era: “Unpacking the Archive” suggests that while Wright may have offered few enduring solutions, he tackled important questions, including those that still resonate today...He was wrong about a lot of things...But both his triumphs and his mistakes have taught us much about the way homes, traffic, cities and human beings operate as part of larger systems, and for that we might be grateful. -- Barry Bergdoll; Jennifer Grey [images]- Canadian Architect |
Five quirky solutions to open office woes: From Plexiglas bubbles to little nooks for naps, we consider design solutions that help make an open office space feel more enclosed. -- Christian Pottgiesser; Ralph Meury/Meury Architektur; Verda Alexander/Studio O&A; Bart Lens/Lens Ass Architects; Samu Hällfors/Vesa-Matti Marjamäki/Framery [images]- BBC |
Introducing: 2017 Curbed Groundbreakers: Four architecture firms snagged this year’s awards: Abruzzo Bodziak Architects has an eye for detail and a heart for the city; Bionic forges lush landscapes and public spaces in the dense Bay Area; SCAPE, the architects designing urban landscapes to stand the test of time; LA-Más is building a more equitable Los Angeles.- Curbed |
Rice Architecture appoints Maria Nicanor as Executive Director of the Rice Design Alliance: Until recently, Nicanor served as the Director of the Norman Foster Foundation in Madrid and was previously an architecture and design curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.- Rice Design Alliance |
Holidays in Soviet Sanatoriums: The weird and wonderful wellness palaces of the USSR: ...among the most innovative, and sometimes most ornamental, buildings of their time - from Kyrgyzstan's Aurora, designed in the shape of a ship, to Druzhba, a Constructivist masterpiece...that sparked rumours that a flying saucer had landed. Such buildings challenge the standard notion that architecture under communism was unsightly and drab...they survive in varying states of decay, with relatively few still in operation. [images]- The Calvert Journal (UK) |
14 Impossibly Chic Cat Houses: Architects take on an industry that believes the pinnacle of design is wrapped in leopard print and topped with a pink feather: Architects for Animals...enlisted architecture firms...to design a series of outdoor dwellings for cats. -- Abramson Teiger Architects; d3architecture; DSH Architecture; Formation Association/Terremoto Landscape/Arktura; HOK; Lehrer Architects; NAC Architecture; Perkins+Will; Pfeiffer Partners Architects; RNL (now Stantec); CallisonRTKL; Space International; Standard Architecture | Design; Wolcott Architecture | Interiors; HKS; HLW; Knowhow Shop; Kollin Altomare Architects; ES-EN-EM [images]- Fast Company / Co.Design |
ANN Feature: Stormy Weather: Landscape Design Responses for a Changing Climate: As designers and engineers move forward to adapt communities to changing weather patterns, providing flood protection while integrating social and ecological benefits will generate value and multi-functional infrastructure. By Steve Albert, PE, CFM, Josiah Cain, ASLA, Prentiss Darden, MLA, and Jim Remlin, PE, LEED AP/Sherwood Design Engineers- ArchNewsNow.com |
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