Today’s News - Wednesday, June 27, 2018
● It's a mince-no-words kind of day: Architectural historian Blasius minces no words about what she thinks of proposed addition to Chicago's Union Station, likening it to "a self-inked address stamper - it's also condescending to the station itself, the architectural equivalent of a head patting, or worse - this is new bullying old."
● Wainwright minces no words about "the faceless managers" of a London estate paving over a "little trickle" of water "that livened up this bleak place" as a way "to tackle the scourge of smart phone zombies - health and safety concerns finally seem to have trumped any desire for delight in the public realm."
● Kamin minces no words in his warning to Evanston, IL, leaders considering "a still-vague, privately funded plan" for parkland to replace a lakefront landmark: "How can a left-leaning town that has shot down skyscraper proposals on the grounds that they would wipe out historic buildings be contemplating the destruction of an official city landmark?"
● The Architecture Lobby and ADPSR call on "all architects to reject projects relating to immigrant detention. 'We will not design cages for people.'"
● A growing trend in "tiny home communities": are they a "housing solution or gentrified trailer parks? Can the burgeoning Instagram- and tech-friendly tiny home movement help solve" the affordable-housing crisis?
● Sisson reports on an initiative led by a team of local community organizers, architects, and designers in Portland, Oregon: the "community-created plan offers a blueprint for pushing back against displacement and disinvestment" that could "serve as a model to help reinvest in and restore" other communities "feeling under siege."
● OMA's revised design for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery expansion "would spare a beloved 1962 building by Buffalo-born Gordon Bunshaft," and seems to have put preservationists' and architectural historians' concerns about the original "controversial concept" to rest.
● Hadid's Morpheus hotel in Macau, "notably different from much of her signature curvaceous, sculptural designs," is ready for its close-up: "Is it an example of the 'weird' architecture" that the Chinese president "railed against?" It "shares the appearance of the grandiose architecture that so irked the Chinese leader" ("solutions to an unusual set of challenges" included).
● A first look at AD EX, the Dallas Center For Architecture's new downtown digs on the edge of what will be the city's next major park - "with that new identity comes a fresh new look."
● Mike Ford of Hip-hop Architecture Camp fame gets a royal Rolling Stone magazine treatment: He "sees his teaching as a way to counter the troubled history of urban planning in America."
● Sisson parses the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2018 List of 11 Most Endangered Places, which includes "historic homes, iconic city squares, and the roadside wonders of Route 66."
● Brussat reveals the identity of his favorite modernist architect (gasp!): "I must tentatively conclude that Carlo Scarpa is my favorite. At least he thought sensible thoughts, if not quite enough of them - but enough to qualify as the least displeasing among the practitioners of modern architecture."
Winners - and one shortlist - abound:
● Six (impressive!) international teams in the running to win the Future Campus - University College Dublin International Design Competition.
● Litt reports that SO-IL + Kurtz has won the competition to design Martin Luther King Jr. branch for Cleveland Public Library: "the vote left members of the public and the [shortlisted] design team of MASS Design Group/LDA Architects sounding miffed."
● Martin "takes a look at the innovative and imaginative designs among the winners of this year's Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland Architecture Awards."
● Cheers to the ASLA 2018 Honors recipients, including Linda Jewell (ASLA Medal), and Andropogon Associates (Firm Award).
● The 2018 North American Copper in Architecture Awards go to 15 projects.
● Winners of Latvia's Pape Nature Park Gateway competition hail from Belgium, U.S., and Ukraine.
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Elizabeth Blasius: Will a proposed addition turn Chicago’s Union Station into the new Soldier Field? In 2004, Chicago watched historic Soldier Field become a toilet bowl. In 2019, Union Station will become a self-inked address stamper...If approved...could cause a paradigm shift in the way Chicago Landmarks are approached...broadcasting a message that cultural and architectural resources are only of value if they are monetized to their fullest extent...addition is not only an imbalance in terms of design, it’s also condescending to the station itself, the architectural equivalent of a head patting, or worse...this is new bullying old. -- Graham, Anderson, Probst & White (1925); Solomon Cordwell Buenz [image]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Oliver Wainwright: Smartphone use blamed as water feature is bricked up: The Rill...falls victim to health and safety for people on phones: The More London estate...has always been an apt symbol of the London’s creeping privatisation....Now one of the few features that livened up this bleak place of grey paving, smoked glass and CCTV is being bricked up. A 260-metre long...little trickle added interest and an unlikely frisson of danger as you walked the tedious gauntlet...But health and safety concerns finally seem to have trumped any desire for delight in the public realm...Other cities have taken more extreme measures to tackle the scourge of smartphone zombies...More London could have done well to learn from, before burying one of the few moments of joy in their corporate campus. -- Townshend Landscape Architects- Guardian (UK) |
Blair Kamin: Wake up, Evanston leaders. You've got a treasure on your hands. Don't demolish the Harley Clarke Mansion: City Council authorized the city manager to look into a still-vague, privately funded plan to scrap the mansion and turn its lakefront site into parkland...How can a left-leaning town that has shot down skyscraper proposals on the grounds that they would wipe out historic buildings be contemplating the destruction of an official city landmark? ...[it] is a precious, irreplaceable architectural and cultural resource. Instead of exploring how to get rid of it, the city should be redoubling its efforts to save it...Keep the mansion on life support until it can thrive. -- Richard Powers (1927); Jens Jensen; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates- Chicago Tribune |
Architecture Lobby and ADPSR call on AIA and all architects to reject projects relating to immigrant detention: In their statement, both groups unanimously call for the federal government to end the militarization of the border and for architects to refuse to take on work that would further human suffering..."We will not design cages for people.” -- Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR)- The Architect's Newspaper |
Tiny home communities: housing solution or gentrified trailer parks? Like many US cities, Austin, Texas, is facing an affordable-housing crisis. Can the burgeoning Instagram- and tech-friendly tiny home movement help solve it? Constellation ATX is the first US tiny home community to offer residents a 99-year leasehold estate...overcomes a common problem associated with tiny homes - namely, where to put them...biggest selling point is the way it is integrating community into the development...are tiny homes really all that affordable? ...like a car, a tiny home is a depreciating asset... -- Urban Design Group [images]- Guardian (UK) |
Patrick Sisson: In Portland, a neighborhood designs its own solution to displacement: Right 2 Root, a community-created plan, offers a blueprint for pushing back against displacement and disinvestment: A team of local community organizers, architects, and designers believe the Albina neighborhood can serve as a model to help reinvest in and restore communities feeling under siege...community-led design proposal wants to help provide Portland’s black community with..."opportunities to make our lives better"...proposes solutions beyond ones that rely on the market...envisioning a more holistic fix for Albina. -- Center for Public Interest Design; Portland State University Center for Urban Studies; Alex Salazar/Salazar Architect- Curbed |
Albright-Knox Art Gallery expansion preserves Bunshaft building, adds glass gallery building: ... a new design...that would spare a beloved 1962 building by Buffalo-born Gordon Bunshaft...transparent ziggurat of a building...announcement follows months of silence...during which the Albright-Knox worked with Shigematsu, preservation consultants and others to develop an alternative to the controversial concept it released last summer...criticized by preservationists and architectural historians...This plan seems to have put those concerns to rest. -- Shohei Shigematsu/OMA; Preservation Studios; PBDW [images]- Buffalo News |
How the Zaha Hadid-designed Morpheus hotel in Macau found solutions to an unusual set of challenges: ...futuristic-looking design - which boasts the world’s first free-form exoskeleton - has carved out its own distinctive visual identity: Is [it] an example of the “weird” architecture that Chinese President Xi Jinping railed against in 2016? The monolithic 40-storey structure, wrapped in a gleaming aluminum exoskeleton, shares the appearance of the grandiose architecture that so irked the Chinese leader...notably different from much of [Hadid's] signature curvaceous, sculptural designs... -- Viviana Muscettola/ZHA; Peter Remedios [images]- South China Morning Post |
First Look At Center For Architecture's New Downtown Dallas Digs, New Name: ...has rebranded itself as AD EX, and with that new identity comes a fresh new look for its downtown space in Republic Center...the public outreach arm of AIA Dallas...new space on the edge of Pacific Park Plaza, the city's next major park. -- OMNIPLAN; Perkins+Will (formerly lauckgroup); Aurora; Better Block; RSM Design; Studio Outside; etc. [images]- Bisnow.com |
How One Man Is Using Hip-Hop to Diversify Architecture: Armed with a master's degree in architecture, decades of hip-hop fandom and rapper teachers, Mike Ford is quickly getting kids into building: Ford sees his teaching as a way to counter the troubled history of urban planning in America. ..."There are a limited amount of people at the table to advocate for our communities." Hip-hop Architecture Camp attempts to correct that representational imbalance, using rap as a hook to introduce young minority students to a field they may not otherwise encounter. [images, videos]- Rolling Stone |
Patrick Sisson: National Trust for Historic Preservation’s List of 11 Most Endangered Places includes Route 66, Mount Vernon: Historic homes, iconic city squares, and the roadside wonders of Route 66 are all at risk: Some sites have been ignored and require patronage and preservation, while others...just require additional government action to realize a unique preservation opportunity.- Curbed |
David Brussat: Carlo Scarpa’s modernism: The identity of my favorite modernist architect has always eluded me...modern architecture is by its nature inferior to traditional architecture...After lifelong contemplation, I must tentatively conclude that the Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, who said, “I have always had an immense desire to belong to tradition, but without having capitals and columns,” is my favorite modernist architect...At least [he] thought sensible thoughts, if not quite enough of them - but enough to qualify as the least displeasing among the practitioners of modern architecture. -- Martin Filler; Louis Kahn; Frank Lloyd Wright; George Ranalli; Paul Goldberger- Architecture Here and There |
Competing visions for University College Dublin’s Future Campus revealed: a digital gallery of the six shortlisted teams’ design proposals in the Future Campus - University College Dublin International Design Competition...teams’ urban design visions for an Entrance Precinct Masterplan and concept designs for a new circa €48m Centre for Creative Design...Each finalist team will receive an honorarium of €40,000 for their competition work... -- Diller Scofidio + Renfro/Scott Tallon Walker Architects/Sasaki Associates/GROSS MAX landscape architects/Arup/Atelier Ten/etc.; John Ronan Architects/RKD Architects/CLUAA/BSM Landscape/Michael Boucher Landscape Architecture/etc.; O’Donnell + Tuomey/Allies and Morrison/Arup/Hargreaves Associates/Superposition/Plattenbau Studio/etc.; Steven Holl Architects/Kavanagh Tuite Architects/Brightspot Strategy/Arup/HarrisonStevens/Transsolar; Studio Libeskind/BDP/!melk/NRB/Dcon/Arup/etc.; UNStudio/MOLA Architecture/Arup/REDscape Landscape & Urbanism/fwdesign [images]- Malcolm Reading Consultants / University College Dublin |
Steven Litt: SO-IL + Kurtz wins competition to design Martin Luther King Jr. branch for Cleveland Public Library: ...the vote left members of the public and the design team of MASS Design Group/LDA Architects, who spoke at the meeting, sounding miffed...design prevailed in part because the library's advisory and selection committees agreed it hued most closely to criteria established for the competition. Then too, an independent cost estimator ranked it the cheapest of the three designs... -- Jonathan Kurtz; Bialosky Architects/Vines Architecture [images]- Cleveland Plain Dealer |
The top designs from the Irish Architecture Awards: Rose Martin takes a look at the innovative and imaginative designs among the winners of this year’s Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland Architecture Awards: ...there’s always an outright winner and this year the list is long... -- O’Mahony Pike Architects; Heneghan Peng architects/Blackwood Associates Architects; Bucholz EcEvoy Architects; Shaffrey Architects; SJK Architects; Henry J Lyons; etc. [w/link to RIAI w/images]- Irish Examiner |
ASLA Announces 2018 Honors Recipients: Linda Jewell, FASLA/Freeman & Jewell, to receive ASLA Medal, Andropogon Associates wins Firm Award -- Mikyoung Kim; Patrick Miller; Scott Bradley; David Archambault; Forterra- American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
15 Copper Buildings Receive Architectural Honors: 2018 North American Copper in Architecture award-winners include educational, residential, government and religious structures. -- Gensler; SHoP Architects; CollinsWoerman; Flansburgh Architects; GEC Architecture; Zimmerman Workshop Architecture + Design; Humphries Poli Architects; Jan Hird Pokorny Associates; +VG Architects - The Ventin Group; Arcop/Fournier Gersovitz Moss Drolet Architects [images]- Copper Development Association/Canadian Copper & Brass Development Association |
Pape Nature Park Gateway competition winners announced: ...tasked participants with envisioning iconic and creative entranceway into the park in Latvia. -- Arthur Schoeler & Corentin Dalon (Belgium); Jeffrey Clancy (U.S.); Bondarenko Group (Ukraine) [images]- Bee Breeders (formerly HMMD/Homemade Dessert) / Pasaules Dabas Fonds / World Wide Fund for Nature |
Nuts + Bolts #18: Brad Feinknopf: More Than Meets the Eye: The Value of Architectural Photography: When you have a great project with equally great photography, the possibilities - and the pay-offs - can be endless.- ArchNewsNow.com |
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