Today’s News - Thursday, March 1, 2018
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days; we'll be back Tuesday, March 6 (March - already!??!).
● ANN feature: Belogolovsky's new One-on-One: a Q&A with Bassam and Fellows re: the partners' devotion to Modernist architecture, high-level craftsmanship, and the use of beautiful, natural materials.
● Anne Marie Burke pays tribute to Richard Weinstein, whose contributions as a planner in NYC, then as dean of UCLA's Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning were "stunningly impactful" (per an e-mail from a friend).
● Feiden makes an eloquent plea to save the Union Carbide building: "Most troubling of all, it would negate the breakthrough work of a woman pioneer in the old boy's club of post-war American architecture - de Blois not only cracked the glass ceiling, she also built it"; 270 Park Avenue is "a masterpiece both of elegance and restraint."
● Berlinski takes a long (often sly, wry) look at the "architectural sacking of Paris" - some current proposals "call to mind glowing egg cartons, or bathtubs" - the city "must confront these two queer facts: French architects are awful, and French leaders have no taste. This is a dangerous combination" (a must-read!).
● Fishbein, on a brighter note, describes how mostly-forgotten immigrant architects "came to define how New Yorkers lived in the 19th century - and still live to this day" (and she names them!).
● Hassan parses Pakistan's crumbling architectural heritage: Karachi "is mushrooming into a mega-city" with "every inch a valuable commodity for developers - the focus is on tearing down old and building new" (fab/sad slide show).
● Miller takes us down many "roads to nowhere" via America's "long and divisive history" of carving highways "through thriving 'ghettoes' to walls segregating black and white areas - it is only by acknowledging the power of city planning to impact lives that we can hope to prevent the injustices of the past and fix those of the present" (fab/sad aerials!).
● Richardson & LSA graduates tackle London's much-needed "rubbish revolution - the grot is piling up. The way a society deals with its waste says much about its attitude to the future."
● Weder's great Q&A with Douglas Cardinal, who "contemplates the past, present and future. Through dozens of projects of every size and genre, he has embedded his Indigenous values in his work" (his great sense of humor comes through).
● Dunlop talks to Richard Meier re: his firm's 55th anniversary as he "looks back on a career of landmark structures renowned for their beauty, clarity and order" (and how Corbu's "loss became architecture's gain").
● Finch ponders the U.K.'s "tuition fees rethink" that "is an opportunity for architecture schools - as the story of the London School of Architecture shows, Will Hunter's proposition of education, training and a form of pupilage has taken root" (and fears that "Brexit would wreck our university sector turn out to be drivel").
● Fairs reports on fears that the "UK's vibrant design economy is at risk from education policies that undervalue creativity," according to the Design Business Association's Dawton: "we're in the process of designing a generation of young people whose creativity is seen to be valueless - convincing their parents that there isn't a future for them in creativity."
● On this side of the Big Pond (and on a brighter note), the AIA and The National Girls Collaborative are joining forces to encourage creativity and aim for "educational goals that prepare girls for future careers such as architecture."
● A good reason to be in Singapore next week: A stellar line-up of designers, academics and CEOs speaking at Brainstorm Design 2018: How does one get designers to think like business executives, and vice versa? Or what's the difference when designing for cities and countries, rather than companies?"
Weekend diversions + 1 page-turner:
● "Albers, Lustig Cohen, Tissi, 1958-2018" at Pratt Manhattan Gallery explores 60 years of work by three influential women artist-designers whose "overlapping careers span the arc of the Modernist era."
● Eyefuls of collages, encaustics, and silkscreens from "Richard Meier: Artist" at Sotheby's S|2 Gallery in New York (very cool).
● Vallerand (critically) parses "The University is Now on Air: Broadcasting Modern Architecture" at Montreal's CCA that "presents another way of teaching and talking about architecture."
● Anticipation for Kusama's "Infinity Mirrors" at Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario "has been frenzied."
● Robinson's take on Moss's "Vanishing New York: How A Great City Lost Its Soul" is a page-turner (and a must-read) in itself: "Unless and until social priorities change, the City of Mystery will be slowly destroyed, a gleaming, deathly boring City of Wealth rising in its place - we cannot have both."
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ANN feature: Vladimir Belogolovsky: One-on-One: Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows: "If a product is designed and crafted well, it should not go out of fashion." BassamFellows' "Craftsman Modern" is based on the partners' devotion to Modernist architecture, high-level craftsmanship, and the use of beautiful, natural materials. [images]- ArchNewsNow.com |
Obituary by Anne Marie Burke: In memoriam: Richard Weinstein, 85, former dean of UCLA’s Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning: “Everything good about the department of architecture and urban design is good because of Richard...said Sylvia Lavin...From 1968 to 1974 he was director of New York City Mayor John Lindsay’s Office of Planning and Development...helped transform the way cities manage development, insisting that public benefit had to be identified as a fundamental principal of zoning variance.- UCLA Newsroom |
Douglas Feiden: “Save the Union Carbide building!”: A mega-bank and its ally at City Hall want to tear down a classic of Park Avenue corporate modernism: Most troubling of all, it would negate the breakthrough work of a woman pioneer in the old boy’s club of post-war American architecture...Natalie Griffin de Blois...helped make midtown midtown...she not only cracked the glass ceiling, she also built it...270 Park Avenue...a masterpiece both of elegance and restraint - that JPMorgan Chase wants to disassemble. -- Gordon Bunshaft; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)- Our Town (NYC) |
Claire Berlinski: The Architectural Sacking of Paris: Proposed developments in the French capital will continue the ongoing ruination of its classical beauty: Mayor Hidalgo invited architects to submit additional plans to “reinvent” the capital...Many...share a similar aesthetic: they call to mind glowing egg cartons, or bathtubs...Paris is still beautiful, but God knows the architects are doing their best to ruin it...No architect working since the end of World War II has added to the city’s beauty...Paris must confront these two queer facts: French architects are awful, and French leaders have no taste. This is a dangerous combination. -- Herzog & de Meuron; Jean Nouvel; Le Corbusier; I.M. Pei- City Journal/The Manhattan Institute |
Rebecca Fishbein: The immigrant architects who built New York City: How immigrants shaped the city’s buildings and streetscape: ...ones tasked with the most high-profile projects...were often highly trained...But untrained immigrant architects had even more of a hand in shaping how residents lived...Most...have been largely forgotten...the tenements, rowhouses, and apartment buildings that came to define how New Yorkers lived in the 19th century (and still live to this day) came from these relative unknowns. -- Richard Upjohn; Griffith Thomas; Leopold Eidlitz; Detlef Lienau; William Jose; William Graul; Louis Berger; Julius Boekell; Gaetan Ajello; Rosario Candela; Emery Roth; Israel Crausman; Boris Dorfman; Poy Gum Lee- Curbed New York |
Syed Raza Hassan: Pakistan's crumbling architectural heritage: ...architectural gems have been torn down and many are either crumbling or under threat from real estate developers in Pakistan’s commercial capital which is mushrooming into a mega-city...every inch of Karachi has become a valuable commodity for developers...drafting plans to alter the city’s skyline with new skyscrapers...the focus is on tearing down old and building new...Rapid urbanization has ensured large-scale destruction, particularly in the old city areas... [images]- Reuters |
Johnny Miller: Roads to nowhere: how infrastructure built on American inequality: From highways carved through thriving ‘ghettoes’ to walls segregating black and white areas, U.S. city development has a long and divisive history: As the U.S. gears up for its biggest infrastructure revitalisation project in decades, it is only by...acknowledging the power of city planning to impact lives that we can hope to prevent the injustices of the past and fix those of the present. [images]- Guardian Cities |
Vicky Richardson & Studio 8Fold: A rubbish revolution: London must find new ways to deal with the waste crisis to meet 2026 recycling targets: ...while individual awareness of environmental issues has increased greatly, the same can’t be said about our institutions and public services...The grot is piling up...there is no overall blueprint for how it should be done...The way a society deals with its waste says much about its attitude to the future. To take London into the 22nd century, we need an ambitious approach worthy of Joseph Bazalgette, whose sewers allowed for more than a century of urban growth.- Evening Standard (UK) |
Adele Weder: Q&A: Douglas Cardinal: Canada’s lead architect at the 2018 Venice Biennale contemplates the past, present and future: ...while Canada’s pavilion in the Giardini nears the end of its reconstruction, the Canadian team, led by Cardinal...will install its exhibition "UNCEDED: Voices of the Land"...Through dozens of other projects of every size and genre, he has embedded his Indigenous values in his work..."the Biennale will be very important, because I think the world needs our values of balance, harmony, respect for the environment and for people."- Canadian Architect |
Beth Dunlop: Light Fantastic: As his firm celebrates its 55th anniversary, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier looks back on a career of landmark structures renowned for their beauty, clarity and order: ...in almost every case, you can look at his work and know that it is his.,...I asked [Le Corbusier] for an internship.” Meier’s dreams were dashed when Le Corbusier explained that because of disappointing experiences with the United Nations building and the Museum of Modern Art, he wouldn’t have an American in his office...[Corbu's] loss became architecture’s gain. -- Richard Meier & Partners Architects- American Way magazine |
Paul Finch: Tuition fees rethink is an opportunity for architecture schools: A change to university funding could provide the chance to implement initiatives that maintain standards while staying internationally competitive: ... innovation and high standards are perfectly compatible, as the story of the London School of Architecture shows. Will Hunter’s proposition of education, training and a form of pupillage has taken root...- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Marcus Fairs: "Paintbrushes are being snatched out of children's hands" says Design Business Association head: The UK's vibrant design economy is at risk from education policies that undervalue creativity, according to Deborah Dawton..."we’re in the process of designing a generation of young people whose creativity is seen to be valueless...And we've also done a great job of convincing their parents that there isn't a future for them in creativity"...government education policies are leading to a fall in the number of students taking creative subjects.- Dezeen |
New partnership announced to advance educational pathways to architecture for girls: The American Institute of Architects and The National Girls Collaborative are joining forces...to achieve educational goals that prepare them for future careers such as architecture...The Connectory...free online resource helps families connect children to inspiring STEM learning opportunities...part of the organization’s commitment to advancing diversity and equality in the architecture field.- American Institute of Architects (AIA) |
Brainstorm Design 2018, Singapore, March 6-8: Leading designers, academics and CEOs will speak on topics from design thinking to public policy. How does one get designers to think like business executives, and vice versa? Or what’s the difference when designing for cities and countries, rather than companies? Organized [by] Fortune, Time, and Wallpaper* magazines. -- Mark Dytham/Klein-Dytham Architecture; Norihiko Shinya/Super Potato; Kashiwa Sato/Samurai; Charles Hayes/IDEA; Harry West/frog; Christian Bason/Danish Design Centre; Tom Dixon; Thomas Heatherwick; Agnes Kwek/DesignSingapore Council; Ole Scheeren; Patricia Urquiola; etc- Fortune magazine |
"Albers, Lustig Cohen, Tissi, 1958-2018": ...explores 60 years of graphic design and art work by three influential women artist-designers...each is a 20th century woman connected to a well-known male artist or designer and business partner...overlapping careers span the arc of the Modernist era - from the Bauhaus, to mid-century Pax Americana, to Postmodernism, and into the present. Pratt Manhattan Gallery thru April 28- Pratt Manhattan Gallery |
"Richard Meier: Artist": Discover his artistic side. Sotheby’s S|2 Gallery in New York is pleased to present an exhibition of collages, encaustics and silkscreens; thru March 29 [images]- Sotheby’s S|2 Gallery |
Oliver Vallerand/1×1 Creative Lab: Architecture for the Masses: The CCA explores a groundbreaking architectural education mode: How to engage people with buildings? In the early 1970s, this question guided a team of architectural historians and educators to devise a pioneering program for the U.K.’s Open University, an experiment with mass education that is still ongoing...the question is still relevant..."The University is Now on Air: Broadcasting Modern Architecture"...presents another way of teaching and talking about architecture, but also an alternative history of the modern movement. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, thru April 1- Canadian Architect |
Yayoi Kusama’s "Infinity Mirrors" exhibit coming to AGO: Making its only Canadian stop in a much-anticipated - and enormously popular - global tour...exhibit comes to Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario...anticipation for the exhibit has been frenzied. March 3 - May 27 [images]- Canadian Architect |
Nathan J. Robinson: Everything You Love Will Be Eaten Alive: The Efficient City’s war on the Romantic City...: "Vanishing New York: How A Great City Lost Its Soul" by Jeremiah Moss...is about a city losing its “soul” rather than its “past"...The great contribution of [the book] is in showing what will continue to happen in a highly unequal world that places more value on innovation than romance. Unless and until social priorities change, the City of Mystery will be slowly destroyed, a gleaming, deathly boring City of Wealth rising in its place. We can have one of these, or the other, but we cannot have both. And I know which I’d rather live in.- Current Affairs magazine |
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