Today’s News - Wednesday, April 25, 2018
● Jessel parses U.K.'s gender pay gap data, "the blunt instrument that could smash architecture's glass pyramid," though "the apparently dispiriting figures have been sidelined by a wider debate focusing more on what the data does not tell us - the government's 'name and shame' approach does not reflect the wider issues in the industry."
● Brown, Pojani & Wardale, from Down Under, parse "sexism and the city, and how urban planning has failed women" and "affects all other 'vulnerable group' considerations": "Patriarchy in city planning is not just a failure of society - it is a failure of the imagination - we need to imagine entirely new ways of ordering our cities."
● Cooke delves into how Mexico City's urban innovation lab tackles the "impossible possible" city's challenges: "the Laboratorio has rounded into its final year of existence," and "its sprawling initiatives are bearing concrete results."
● On a less optimistic note, "pedestrians are dying in Phoenix; advocates blame city's street design - a series of bureaucratic hurdles have stalled the implementation of 'Complete Streets' design guidelines" approved last July, but never enacted.
● On a brighter note: six firms offer redevelopment concepts for 40 acres in Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley that could "make the Menomonee River a recreation destination," and provide a link to "the buzzing 3rd Ward neighborhood."
● Hume cheers plans by the Royal Ontario Museum to "take community engagement to the street" and "do its bit for Toronto's public realm."
● It looks like Heatherwick's Pier 55 in NYC is back on track, "after a year of feuds, cancellations, and dramatic revivals" - and "last-minute mediation," though "outside factors might still be able to throw the Pier's construction off track yet again."
● Nemo reports on new research intended to "make green roofs more biodiverse" by "choosing unpredictability - it may be more ecologically rewarding than plopping down proven species" (with some useful links).
● Rinaldi offers a rave review of H3/ Semple Brown's "shiny new" arts center in Colorado Springs that "arrives with all the optimism that forward-thinking architecture can deliver" - it is "the revolution that architects can start when they understand their job is to lead clients to create audacious buildings that act out, sing loud and show off."
● Sisson says MASS Design Group's new National Memorial to Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, "reach for truth and reconciliation" and "show architecture's power to confront, and learn from, the past."
● McKnight walks us through KPMB's update of a gothic-style academic building at Princeton University.
● New images of RSH+P's 3 World Trade Center that will be ready for its close-up in June.
● Pittsburgh architect Roth pens a plea to the Post-Gazette to "credit the architect when writing about buildings and development. Buildings don't design themselves. The public needs to be educated about what we do and how it impacts daily life" and "readers deserve to know who is shaping our built world."
● Piedmont-Palladino is struck by an ad showing "an aspirational view into a starchitect-designed residence" with "the fine print in the corner of the page: 'This is an actual photograph'" - should we be troubled to learn it's a photo and not a rendering or "troubled because we cannot tell the difference?" (great read).
One we couldn't resist:
● Wainwright has a barking good time parsing the "mutts-have pooch palaces concocted by dog-loving architects" for tomorrow's BowWow Haus pet charity auction (you're mutt-see of the day!).
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Ella Jessel: Gender pay gap data: the blunt instrument that could smash architecture’s glass pyramid: While some have rushed to discredit the newly published pay gap data, others welcome the way it has got men talking about the issue in the boardroom: ...the apparently dispiriting figures have been sidelined by a wider debate focusing more on what the data does not tell us...if the data does not shine a true light on pay discrimination, what does it tell us? ...the government’s ‘name and shame’ approach does not reflect the wider issues in the industry.- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Kerry Brown, Dorina Pojani & Dorothy Wardale: Sexism and the city: how urban planning has failed women: Gender affects all other “vulnerable group” considerations in the cities: What urban amenities and services are provided for women? Unless she belongs to the upper-middle class, a woman is more likely than not to live in a food desert...Childcare facilities are...physically inaccessible [and] too expensive...Green space is inaccessible...especially for low-income women living on the wrong side of town....women have to do it all on our own - in cities that are not designed for us. That’s because our cities are not designed by women...Patriarchy in city planning is not just a failure of society - it is a failure of the imagination...we need to imagine entirely new ways of ordering our cities...- The Conversation (Australia) |
Julia Cooke: The impossible possible city: How Mexico City’s urban innovation lab tackles the city’s challenges: Like the city...the lab is sprawling, difficult to pin down....Gabriella Gomez-Mont...and architect and lab co-founder Clorinda Romo looked to established models for urban innovation...after five years, the Laboratorio has rounded into its final year of existence...its sprawling initiatives are bearing concrete results...it is in good company...Mexico’s challenges force the Laboratorio to differentiate itself from its peers. Its home city is significantly larger and poorer than cities...where design-forward urban labs tread similar ground.- Curbed |
Pedestrians are dying in Phoenix; advocates blame city's street design: Advocates warn the deaths will continue until streets are designed in a safer way - something Phoenix officials were supposed to commit to more than two years ago. But a series of bureaucratic hurdles have stalled the implementation of "Complete Streets" design guidelines...City Council approved the policy in July 2017, but the design guidelines were never enacted,...without the guidelines, the policy has no teeth and won't accomplish anything.- Arizona Republic |
Menomonee Valley redevelopments: Milwaukee...owns about 10 acres on the north bank of the Menomonee River...it is among six properties that were recently included in a design charrette that recommended redevelopment concepts. Those sessions have proven effective in inspiring development in other areas...40 acres [could] make the Menomonee River a recreation destination [and] link to the buzzing 3rd Ward neighborhood. -- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Community Design Solutions; Quorum Architects; Zimmerman Architectural Studios; HGA; Engberg Anderson Architects; Korb and Associates; Uihlein/Wilson - Ramlow/Stein Architects [images]- Milwaukee Business Journal |
Christopher Hume: ROM takes community engagement to the street: Plans for a stage and gardens outside the Royal Ontario Museum are certainly ambitious, but that underused sidewalk on Bloor St. W. could be animated with something as simple as tables, chairs and an espresso machine: In Toronto, where many confuse public space with empty space, the temptation is to fill it. Whether that’s with objects or programs doesn’t matter...Now ROM wants to do its bit for Toronto’s public realm....Though it doesn’t quite add up to a full-fledged square...[it] comes close enough make the difference irrelevant. -- Daniel Libeskind- Toronto Star |
Construction at Heatherwick’s Pier 55 is back on: After a year of feuds, cancellations, and dramatic revivals, the Thomas Heathwick-designed Pier 55 is making real progress...2.75-acre park “floating” in the Hudson River off of West 13th Street in Manhattan...was to sit on a jumble of sculptural concrete pilings...last-minute mediation...guaranteed ecological protections for the [river] and state funding for the unfinished 30% of Hudson River Park...Outside factors might still be able to throw the Pier’s construction off track yet again.- The Architect's Newspaper |
Leslie Nemo: Can We Make Green Roofs More Biodiverse? A study of decades-old German green roofs found that they don’t support a wide range of animal and plant life. But researchers and designers are trying to change that: The German model was dependable and low-maintenance. Why start from scratch...Developers could follow the German method, stick hardy plants in a roof, and walk away...[study] makes a case for breaking with tradition and investing more resources in green roofs...Going with native plants means choosing unpredictability, because little of this work has been done before...it may be more ecologically rewarding than plopping down proven species.- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Ray Mark Rinaldi: Shiny new piece of architecture means a fresh opportunity for the arts in Colorado Springs: The new Ent Center for the Arts [University of Colorado]...arrives with all the optimism that forward-thinking architecture can deliver...an investment in things real and symbolic...a series of undulating bands of steel that layer together to form its facade...pulse unpredictably...giving it...a perpetual, in-and-out breath. [They] are showy but they’re not all show...it is also the revolution that architects can start when they understand their job is to create opportunities, and lead clients to create audacious buildings that act out, sing loud and show off. -- H3 Hardy Collaborative Architecture; Semple Brown Design [images]- Denver Post |
Patrick Sisson: New memorial for lynching victims reaches for truth and reconciliation: How the new National Memorial to Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration show architecture’s power to confront, and learn from, the past: ...these twin institutions...ask how design and architecture can bear witness and wrangle with issues of justice and reconciliation...in Montgomery, Alabama, the museums stand at a crossroads of American history. -- Equal Justice Initiative; Michael Murphy/MASS Design Group [images]- Curbed |
Jenna McKnight: KPMB updates gothic-style academic building on Princeton University campus: ...entailed the renovation of a 1929 gothic-style building...designed by American architect Charles Klauder...The building's concrete frame and masonry facades were retained, as was a rectilinear volume...added in 1964 by New York studio O'Connor and Kilham...On the roof, the team added glazed pavilions...Within the building, two new atria were created. -- Beatrix Farrand (1929); Minoru Yamasaki (1960s); Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates [images]- Dezeen |
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners' 3 World Trade Center Nears Completion in New York: The building achieves several milestones, being the only building in the world to have a three-sided cable net wall and the first in the world to have an annealed glass exterior...consists of 80 floors, creating a gross floor area of over 2.8 million square feet (260,000 square meters)... [images]- ArchDaily |
David J. Roth/The Downtown Design Company: Credit the architect when writing about buildings and development: Buildings don’t design themselves. However, reading the Post-Gazette, who would know that? I am an architect. The public needs to be educated about what we do and how it impacts daily life...readers deserve to know who is shaping our built world. Is a building environmentally responsible? Is it an economic generator, providing jobs for both the designers and builders?- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
Susan Piedmont-Palladino: Into the Uncanny Valley: It is disconcerting when we can’t quite sort out the relationship of an image to the world: a full-page spread...an aspirational view into...[a] starchitect-designed residence...the fine print in the corner of the page: "This is an actual photograph"...The image was so perfect and pristine, so devoid of the blemishes of everyday life, that the creators of the advertisement feared it was not credible...Photographs look like digital renderings; digital renderings look like photographs...Credible people make imaginary spaces credible...For all too often the rendering is making a promise that the building cannot redeem; that visitors will be happy, that surfaces will be clean and shiny, that the sky will be cloudless and clear. [images]- Places Journal |
Oliver Wainwright: Mutts-have: architects create luxury kennels for pet charity auction: ...turn their hand to producing pooch palaces: A jewel-encrusted canine castle, a velvet-lined golden egg and a floating doghouse...are just some of the elaborate kennel designs concocted by dog-loving architects and designers to be auctioned off [BowWow Haus auction, April 26] in aid of the pet charity Blue Cross and the US-based Outdoor Arts Foundation. -- Zaha Hadid Design; Spark Architects; Studio Shaw; Russian for Fish; Condy Lofthouse Architects; Green Tea Architects; Studio Octopi [images]- Guardian (UK) |
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