Today’s News - Thursday, March 14, 2019

EDITOR'S NOTE: News is a bit longer than usual today, but you have lots of time to take it all in. We're taking a break, beginning tomorrow, until Tuesday, March 26 (when we'll have lots of catching up to do!).

●  ANN feature: Downtown is for People: We are pleased to present an excerpt from Deborah Talbot's newly released "Who the Hell is Jane Jacobs? And what are her theories all about?"

●  Kimmelman takes us a deep (deep!) dive into the politics and architecture of Hudson Yards: "Architecturally, details deserve shout-outs. But details are details. Over all, it epitomizes a skin-deep view of architecture as luxury branding - architecture without urban design is just sculpture" (MK at his best!).

●  Lusk parses hers and others' studies re: why "bike-friendly cities should be designed for everyone, not just for wealthy. Surveys show that the fastest growth in cycling rates has occurred among Hispanic, African-American and Asian-American riders" (the Harvard research scientist actually responds to some pointed comments).

●  Green x 2: Trump (surprisingly?) signs bipartisan legislation that "permanently re-authorizes the Land & Water Conservation Fund, which finances important and popular conservation and park projects," including "the expansion of eight national parks and the creation of three new ones" (will wonders never cease!).

●  Green reports on the ASLA and EESI's briefing on Capitol Hill "to explain how communities and landscape architects are using green infrastructure to help communities become more climate-resilient" - and points to "helpful organizations for communities seeking to finance their own plans and projects."

●  Klein talks to a number of architects designing schools re: their efforts "to ensure that safety features are behind-the-curtain so that students hardly notice them."

●  NPR's Here & Now hosts Hobson and Bentley take a tour with Kamin of "the architectural giants of downtown Chicago": The Hancock Tower "resembles a 'Prohibition-era gangster wearing a tuxedo'" (and no Chicago-style "macho, muscular expression" in Gang's Aqua Tower).

●  Ditmars takes us on a tour of Vancouver, "one of the world's most liveable yet unaffordable cities - in the midst of a housing crisis, it is seeing a slew of new public projects - as well as some of the world's biggest names in architecture flocking in to build here."

●  Goldberger steps inside Gehry's new Santa Monica "dream house" that has a "sense of being at once unconventional and enthusiastically welcoming - it both celebrates the notion of a traditional villa and subverts it" (lots of pix!).

●  On a bleaker note, Venturi's Abrams House in Pittsburgh "is one step closer to demolition after a City Council preliminary vote went "against designating the property as a city historic landmark. 'Unless, miraculously, someone comes forward to spend money, it's going to fall down eventually'" (the owners oppose the historic designation).

●  Bateman, on a brighter note, tells us how Mies's Toronto-Dominion Centre "sparked an architectural arms race among Canada's major banks. No single development has transformed the skyline quite like" his TD center (critics "thought the design was already passé by the time it was built").

●  Theaster Gates to headline the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial's new list of participating designers that hail from five continents - "many are little known to the broader public. But like him, they focus on socially conscious design."

●  ICYMI: ANN feature: Winner and Finalists Announced in the "rise in the city" Design Competition for Affordable Housing in Lesotho, Africa.

Deadlines:

●  Call for entries: International Architectural Design Competition for the Knowledge and Innovation Center at Oscar Niemeyer's Rachid Karami International Fair, Tripoli, Lebanon - no fee, but March 18 registration deadline looms! (submissions due in June.)

●  Call for entries: 2019 RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship: open to students enrolled in schools of architecture around the world.

●  Call for entries: 11th Edition of Dedalo Minosse International Prize for Commissioning a Building 2018/2019, "honoring the Client's role in the design process along with the architects" (no fee!).

Weekend diversions:

●  Kamin x 2: "7 highlights from Venice Architecture Biennale are now in the soaring Wrightwood 659 gallery in Chicago. 'Dimensions of Citizenship' opens the way for new visions of belonging - a very strong show - compact but intellectually expansive, smart and smartly designed."

●  His take on "The Whole World a Bauhaus," at the Elmhurst Art Museum: "an informative yet overstuffed traveling exhibition - its overabundance of material can be tiresome (did no one get the less-is-more memo?), I'd still recommend that you see it."

●  Mortice offers a closer look a handful of exhibits in "The Whole World a Bauhaus": The "show has the meticulous obsession of a deep dive into the archives - what emerges, once you come up for air, is not a retrospective on the Bauhaus, but a picture of the conflicts and factions that shaped it."

●  Doezema introduces us to a traveling show that "aims to both honor and challenge the Bauhaus legacy" - and "comes in the form of a downsized model - on wheels - of the original Bauhaus school in Dessau" (after Dessau and Berlin, the bus heads to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Hong Kong).

●  In Berlin, "Two Sides of the Border: Reimagining the Mexico-United States Region: A collective academic initiative led by Tatiana Bilbao, Mexico City" presents "architectural and urban concepts of 13 architecture studios from universities across Mexico and the U.S." that "focus on one common region rather than two nations."

●  In Boston's BSA Space, "The Reasons Offsite" focuses on "prefabricated and modular building systems presented in a 3D virtual reality environment and viewed on Oculus headsets and projected" (cool!).

●  For "Because It Rains" at the Seattle Center for Architecture and Design, Laura Bartunek's explorated Florida, New Mexico, Hawaii, London, and Norway to consider: "Can we design not just around the rain, but with it?"

●  In Prato, Italy, "Green Prato. Urban experiments between ecology and reuse" explores "the actions and strategies implemented in recent years to define the new instrument for the Tuscan city's urban policies."

●  An abandoned 1950s Modernist mansion in Mexico City, with "blood-red walls, heavy drapes, and deep pile carpets," is "a dramatic backdrop" for "Collective/Collectible" showcasing "Mexican makers who explore the cusp between architecture, art, and design."

●  At A/D/O design center in Brooklyn, NY, "Neotenic Design" highlights the trend "whose objects feature anatomical associations and soft, exaggerated proportions: Blobby. Pudgy. Zoomorphic" (talk about "cute factor" - The Baby Bear Chair!).

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To subscribe to the free daily newsletter click here ANN feature: Deborah Talbot: Downtown is for People: An excerpt from Talbot's "Who the Hell is Jane Jacobs? And what are her theories all about?"- ArchNewsNow.com Michael Kimmelman: Hudson Yards Is Manhattan’s Biggest, Newest, Slickest Gated Community. Is This the Neighborhood New York Deserves? ...it has materialized almost like a mirage...The largest mixed-use private real estate venture in American history...at jaw-dropping magnitudes you can’t begin to grasp until you are actually standing there...a version of a 1950s towers-in-the-park housing complex, except designed by big-name architects...lacks any semblance of human scale...Architecturally, details deserve shout-outs...But details are details. Over all, [it] epitomizes a skin-deep view of architecture as luxury branding...architecture without urban design is just sculpture. -- Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF); Elkus Manfredi; Norman Foster/Foster + Partners; Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo & Associates; David Childs/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Rockwell Group; Thomas Heatherwick; Frank Gehry; Herzog and de Meuron; Santiago Calatrava; Robert A.M. Stern; Nelson Byrd Woltz [images]- New York Times Anne Lusk: Bike-friendly cities should be designed for everyone, not just for wealthy...: Designing for bikes has become a hallmark of forward-looking modern cities worldwide...But...investments tend to focus on the needs of wealthy riders...even though the single biggest group of Americans who bike to work...earn less than US$10,000 yearly...In lower-income neighborhoods...the majority of bicyclists were non-white...Surveys show that the fastest growth in cycling rates...has occurred among Hispanic, African-American and Asian-American riders. But minority neighborhoods have fewer bike facilities, and riders there face higher risk of accidents and crashes.- The Conversation Jared Green: Trump Signs Major Public Lands Bill, Ensuring LWCF’s Future: ...bipartisan legislation permanently re-authorizes the Land & Water Conservation Fund, which finances important and popular federal and state conservation and park projects. The legislation puts into law the Every Kid in a Park program...also protects an additional 1.3 million acres of wilderness...through the expansion of eight national parks and the creation of three new ones. -- KMS Design Group; Anderson Land Planning; Dana Brown & Associates [images]- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Jared Green: Faced with Climate Impacts, Communities Turn to Green Infrastructure: ...on Capitol Hill, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and Environment and Energy Study Institute (EESI) hosted a briefing...to explain how communities and landscape architects are using green infrastructure to help communities become more climate-resilient...in the report "Smart Policies for a Changing Climate"...Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange and Earth Economics are helpful organizations for communities seeking to finance their own plans and projects. -- Mark Dawson/Sasaki; Jalonne White-Newsome/Kresge Foundation- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Alyson Klein: Making School a Safe Haven, Not a Fortress: With deep concerns about safety, schools look for ways to blend security features that students hardly notice with welcoming learning environments for them: ...members of the AIA have been working for years with school districts...architects try to ensure that those safety features are behind-the-curtain so that students hardly notice them. -- Jenine Kotob/Hord Coplan Macht; Karina Ruiz/BRIC Architecture; Jay Brotman/Svigals+Partners; Jim Determan/Craig, Gaulden, Davis [images]- Education Week Touring The Architectural Giants Of Downtown Chicago: Blair Kamin talks to Here & Now hosts Jeremy Hobson and Chris Bentley: Aqua Tower "departs from the kind of macho, muscular expression that’s typical of Chicago"...Hancock Tower...resembles a “Prohibition-era gangster wearing a tuxedo"...While many of Kamin’s favorite buildings celebrate common people, there is one standout...that draws on the old palaces and cathedrals of Europe: the neo-gothic Tribune Tower...symbolizes the evolution of Chicago’s skyline. -- Anish Kapoor; Jeanne Gang; George Schipporeit [images]- WBUR Boston Public Radio/NPR Hadani Ditmars: Scale meets ambition in Vancouver’s architectural future: ...faces growing pains as it grapples with being one of the world’s most liveable yet unaffordable cities...in the midst of a housing crisis...Yet at the same time, [it] is seeing a slew of new public projects emerge, as well as some of the world’s biggest names in architecture flocking in to build here....But projects by the city’s patron saint of modernism...Arthur Erickson...still hold their own. -- Herzog & de Meuron; Gregory Henriquez; WonderWall; Piero Lissoni; Kengo Kuma; Büro Ole Scheeren; Francl Archietcture; Perkins+Will; Shigeru Ban; Patkau Architects; Moshe Safdie Architects; DA architects; Cornelia Oberlander; BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group; DIALOG; MJMA & Acton Ostry Architects; DSAI/Diamond Schmitt Architects; Michael Green [images]- Wallpaper* Paul Goldberger: Step Inside Architect Frank Gehry's Santa Monica Dream House: Nearly four decades after creating a still-astounding, statement-making home in Santa Monica...helped make his reputation as one of the most potent creative forces in 20th-century architecture...was intrigued by the notion of being his own client again...sense of being at once unconventional and enthusiastically welcoming...As architecture, it both celebrates the notion of a traditional villa and subverts it...this house refuses to choose between comfort and challenge, and seems intent on offering both. -- Sam Gery [images]- Architectural Digest Historic Venturi house is one step closer to demolition after City Council preliminary vote: ...voted against designating the property as a city historic landmark....“Unless, miraculously, someone comes forward to spend money, it’s going to fall down eventually...I don’t see anyone stepping forward to save the house, unfortunately"...[owners] oppose the historic designation. -- Robert Venturi/Abrams House- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Chris Bateman: An Old Mies For a New Toronto: How Ludwig Mies van der Rohe...sparked an architectural arms race in downtown Toronto among Canada’s major banks: No single development has transformed the skyline quite like the Toronto-Dominion Centre...in the late 1960s signaled a dramatic and permanent change in the city’s prevailing architectural style...It was also the first time a star international architect...had turned an eye to Canada’s second city...[Mies] paid careful attention to the proportions of the towers and their positioning in relationship to each other and the surrounding streetscape...Critics...thought the design was already passé by the time it was built. -- John B. Parkin Associates; Bregman and Hamann; Gordon Bunshaft/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Phyllis Lambert; John B. Parkin Associates; I. M. Pei- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) Blair Kamin: Theaster Gates headlines 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial's new list of participating designers: they hail from five continents. Unlike Gates...many are little known to the broader public. But like him, they focus on socially conscious design. -- “&hellip and other such stories"; MASS Design Group (Boston & Rwanda; Wolff Architects (Cape Town, South Africa); Forensic Architecture (London); Invisible Institute (Chicago); City of Detroit Planning and Development Department; Yesomi Umolu- Chicago Tribune Call for entries: International Architectural Design Competition for the Knowledge and Innovation Center at Oscar Niemeyer's Rachid Karami International Fair, Tripoli, Lebanon; cash prizes; endorsed by the Union of International Architects (UIA), and supported by Union of Mediterranean Architects (UMAR); registration deadline: March 18 (submissions due June 17)- Tripoli Special Economic Zone/TSEZ / Lebanese Federation of Engineers and Architects Call for entries: 2019 RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship: open to students enrolled in schools of architecture around the world; deadline: April 26- Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Call for entries: 11th Edition of Dedalo Minosse International Prize for Commissioning a Building 2018/2019: ...honouring the Client's role in the design process along with the architects; no fee; deadline: May 25- ALA - Assoarchitetti / Regione del Veneto Blair Kamin: 7 highlights from Venice Architecture Biennale are now in the soaring Wrightwood 659 gallery in Chicago: “Dimensions of Citizenship: Architecture and Belonging from the Body to the Cosmos"...a bravely forward-looking exploration of how architecture can express the abstract concept of citizenship...opens the way for new visions of belonging...a very strong show - compact but intellectually expansive, smart and smartly designed... thru April 27 -- Niall Atkinson; Ann Lui; Mimi Zeiger; Studio Gang; Estudio Teddy Cruz/onna Forman; Diller Scofidio + Renfro- Chicago Tribune Blair Kamin: The Bauhaus at 100: Deep dive into German design school that sought to remake world: ...[it] helped change the way the world looks and...made an enormous impact on Chicago...an informative yet overstuffed traveling exhibition, “The Whole World a Bauhaus,” at the Elmhurst Art Museum...its overabundance of material can be tiresome (did no one get the less-is-more memo?), I’d still recommend that you see it. thru April 20 -- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Marcel Breuer- Chicago Tribune Zach Mortice: "The Whole World a Bauhaus" Reveals a Movement’s Fault Lines: An exhibition at the Elmhurst Art Museum shows how [it] was defined by its conflicting ideologies: ...show has the meticulous obsession of a deep dive into the archives...what emerges, once you come up for air, is not a retrospective on the Bauhaus but a picture of the conflicts and factions that shaped it, both within and outside the institution...[its history] is messier, in retrospect, than a single set of ideas uniformly adopted. And that messiness necessitated endless dialogue that kept the school alive... thru April 20 -- Boris Friedewald [images]- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) Marie Doezema: A Bus for Learning and Unlearning the Bauhaus Legacy: With their traveling project, the Savvy Contemporary collective hopes to examine power relations in the context of globalization and the impact of these on design and ideas: “Spinning Triangles"...aims to both honor and challenge the school’s legacy...comes in the form of a downsized model - on wheels - of the original Bauhaus school in Dessau... -- Walter Gropius; Hannes Meyer; Mies van der Rohe- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) "Two Sides of the Border: Reimagining the Mexico-United States Region: A collective academic initiative led by Tatiana Bilbao, Mexico City": Interdisciplinary architectural and urban concepts of 13 participating architecture studios from universities across Mexico and the U.S...The approaches explore numerous topics...with a focus on one common region rather than two nations. Aedes Architecture Forum, Berlin, thru April 25- Aedes Architecture Forum/Aedes Architekturforum (Berlin) "The Reasons Offsite": ...focuses on prefabricated and modular building systems, referred to throughout the exhibition as “offsite architecture”...presented in a 3D virtual reality environment and viewed on Oculus headsets and projected. -- SUMMARY studio- BSA Space / Boston Society of Architects/AIA A Seattle architect embraces the rain in AIA exhibit "Because It Rains": Can we design not just around the rain, but with it? Rain does more than just fall...Bartunek visited...Florida, New Mexico, Hawaii, London, and Norway. Each place not only had a different kind of rain, but a different design language...“When architects or designers talk about rain, we typically use really defensive words. We’re taught to approach rain like an adversary"... Seattle Center for Architecture and Design, thru May 25 -- Laura Bartunek/Olson Kundig- Curbed Seattle "Green Prato. Urban experiments between ecology and reuse": ...will set the stage for the Piano Operativo (the Urban Regulation) of the Municipality of Prato and the actions and strategies implemented in recent years to define the new instrument for the Tuscan city’s urban policies...exhibition covers 3 thematic areas: Ecology, Re-Use and Going Public. Prato, Italy, thru April 11 -- Fosbury Architecture collective- Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci (Prato, Italy) A New Exhibition Celebrates Mexican Design in an Abandoned Modernist Mansion: "Collective/Collectible," mounted by...Masa, aims to promote collectible design in Mexico City: ...’50s-era mansion...fortressed by gates...might indicate impenetrability, the show’s intent is quite the opposite: to...showcase Mexican makers who explore the cusp between architecture, art, and design...The house, which hasn’t been occupied since the 1970s, is a time capsule..blood-red walls, heavy drapes, and deep pile carpets...a dramatic backdrop... thru April 13 [images]- Architectural Digest Joseph P. Sgambati III: Minimalism’s Softer Side: "Neotenic Design" highlights the neotenic design trend, whose objects feature anatomical associations and soft, exaggerated proportions: Blobby. Pudgy. Zoomorphic...describe the childlike, inorganic furniture and objects...the human response to such soft, thick, warm, and mono-material compositions could also be simply summarized as the “cute factor.” A/D/O design center, Brooklyn, NY, thru March 28 [images]- Metropolis Magazine ANN feature: Winner and Finalists Announced in the "rise in the city" Design Competition for Affordable Housing in Lesotho, Africa: The competition brief sought sustainable designs for a home that could be scaled up so that one family could add extensions, or be replicated as row housing. [images]- ArchNewsNow.com

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