Today’s News - Wednesday, July 31, 2019
● Leading U.K. architects and engineers "call for a ban on glass skyscrapers to save energy in the climate crisis" - a la NYC mayor's call to avoid "excessive use of glass and steel" - London's mayor "has ruled out such a plan."
● Architects Declare Australia launched last week, proclaiming "a climate and biodiversity emergency."
● UNICEF and a Colombian social enterprise are funding a factory in Ivory Coast that will use plastic waste to produce enough plastic bricks to build 500 classrooms by 2021 - the interlocking bricks "require no cement, are fire retardant and stay cool in hot weather."
● In Virginia, the Arlington County planning committee is impressed by the colorful glass facades proposed for Amazon HQ2, but the design is "unambitious" - it needs "to do more to become true landmarks for the Pentagon City skyline."
● Kamin x 2: He's of two minds re: Stern's One Bennett Park, "a building for the 1%": It is "a mixed bag - easily superior to its mediocre modernist neighbors" and "a civilized work of urban design," but "on the skyline, a flawed transformation of tradition" (the interiors are "superior, even exquisite").
● He worries that MVVA's Bennett Park (next to the tower) will "be loved to death" - it's "a welcome addition to the cityscape precisely because it's a public amenity open to all, not a private refuge. It's essential that it stays that way."
● Serenbe, a new development on the outskirts of Atlanta, takes "cues from the canal houses in Belgium and the Netherlands, and minimal wood-clad homes in Scandinavia" to create four different neighborhoods - "an experiment in urbanism and commercial activity."
● In Houston, a proposed mixed-use development on a 17-acre former Exxon Mobil campus is "seeking a building variance to develop the site into a complex of high-end offices, shops and apartments" - and four firms are at the ready.
● O'Sullivan reports that Grimshaw's 1980s grocery store in London is now on the National Heritage List for England - and considers whether Historic England "was right to protect a type of building which it acknowledges is usually 'purely functional and architecturally uninspiring'" (pro-densification advocates are not happy).
● Meanwhile, the Getty Foundation announces $1.6 million Keeping It Modern Architectural Conservation Grants that include the first projects in Argentina, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Lithuania, Mozambique, Spain, and Uganda.
● Brown pens a wonderful profile of Mary Colter and her "gender-busting career" on "the 150th anniversary of the birth of 'one of the world's best-known unknown architects.'"
● Rael San Fratello's Teeter-Totter Wall on the U.S.-Mexico border "was a joy-filled occasion" that, sadly, only lasted about a half an hour.
● Call for entries (deadline looms!): RFQ for the International Design Competition for Ecological and Leisure-cultural Waterfront Space in Seoul International District.
● ICYMI: ANN feature: Duo Dickinson: Lesson Plan #2: A Time of Change: The coming technological changes in architecture will impose a full deconstruction of the way we educate architects, the second in our series on architectural education curated by Salingaros.
Housing, housing everywhere:
● "Ace" Houston breaks down Google's $1 billion pledge to create 20,000 homes to "put a dent in the housing affordability crisis impacting the San Francisco Bay Area" - and finds it doesn't add up.
● In the U.K., Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects has planning permission to develop a low-cost housing scheme on a site currently occupied by garages by building shipping container micro homes with green roofs - "part of a series of regeneration plans for underused sites."
● SO - IL is working pro-bono to build a social housing prototype in the heart of León, Mexico, instead of building "on the outskirts, far from schools, jobs, and services," as is more typical.
● Anderton cheers a charming accessory dwelling unit - "part of an experiment by the City of L.A. to test what's involved in building an ADU as a way of providing more housing," but "at the end of the day, how much can a project like this actually contribute to the housing supply in Los Angeles?" (especially if the rent is $3,450/month).
● AECOM's $788 million project in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, is seeking $80 million in public money: "County leaders called the project 'iconic,' "transformative'" - but "one sticking point: the plans include no provision for affordable housing."
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Leading architects and engineers call for ban on glass skyscrapers to save energy in climate crisis: Air conditioning is used to avoid greenhouse effect but cooling buildings adds to carbon emissions: ...mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, said he would ban all-glass buildings and force developers to retrofit existing buildings to make them more energy-efficient, although the “ban” was later clarified to mean excessive use of glass and steel. Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has ruled out such a plan for the British capital, but Simon Sturgis believes the American is on the right lines...new version of the London Plan...will require construction firms to make an assessment of a building’s energy use across its whole life-cycle.- Observer (UK) |
Australian architects declare a climate emergency: ...have joined Declare Australia to declare a climate and biodiversity emergency. The Architects Declare Australia website was launched July 25...Australia is the third country in the world to launch Architects Declare and the first to include reference to Indigenous peoples. Architects Declare was first launched in the UK- Architecture & Design (Australia) |
Inna Lazareva: Flip-flops to building blocks: Ivory Coast uses plastic waste to build classrooms: The factory will be the first of its kind in Africa and aims to produce enough plastic bricks to build 500 classrooms by 2021: ...funded by UNICEF and a Colombian social enterprise...engineers and architects are coming up with novel ways to make use of the durable commodity...The interlocking bricks...require no cement, are fire retardant and stay cool in hot weather...Most existing schools are built from mud brick, which erode in the sun and rain.- Thomson Reuters Foundation |
Amazon HQ2 Designs Are Colorful But Unambitious: ...designs for a new headquarters need to do more to become true landmarks for the Pentagon City skyline, say members of an Arlington County planning committee...consists of a pair of buildings with outward-facing retail and restaurants, and the Amazon headquarters portion...facing inwards towards a central park...mainly impressed with the polychrome glass...with colors ranging from fuchsia to teal across the buildings. --- ZGF Architects- ARLnow.com (Arlington, Virginia) |
Blair Kamin: A celebrated New Yorker’s new Chicago tower: The height of urban living, but not the peak of skyscraper style: ...One Bennett Park...a building for the 1%...We may not like them or wish they incorporated affordable housing, yet we ignore them at our peril... the first Chicago high-rise [by] Robert A.M. Stern emerges as a mixed bag...easily superior to its mediocre modernist neighbors...But [it] doesn’t match the skyline elan of the Art Deco and classically influenced skyscrapers that inspired it...a civilized work of urban design. That makes it an exception among the clunky modernist and postmodern high-rises around it...beautifully furnished, city-friendly, and, on the skyline, a flawed transformation of tradition. -- Michael Van Valkenburgh; GREC Architects- Chicago Tribune |
Blair Kamin: The dull blocks west of Navy Pier get an engaging park: Will it be loved to death? Bennett Park...alongside the new One Bennett Park skyscraper, aims to enliven this sorry stretch. And there is good reason to think it will succeed...Indeed, I worry that this little park will succeed all too well...replaces an open space that...was ignored to death...The park tweaks the skyscraper’s formality...a welcome addition to the cityscape precisely because it’s a public amenity open to all, not a private refuge. It’s essential that it stays that way. -- Michael Van Valkenburgh- Chicago Tribune |
Steve Nygren integrates European housing typologies in new Atlanta neighbourhood: Residences that take cues from the canal houses in Belgium and the Netherlands, and minimal wood-clad homes in Scandinavia feature in this new development...called Serenbe...an attempt to save the area from cookie-cutter houses on large plots...Four different neighbourhoods...Each...designed with a different architectural style...an experiment in urbanism and commercial activity... -- Reed Hilderbrand; Phil Tabb; Serenbe Planning and Design- Dezeen |
Plans emerge on redevelopment of former Exxon Mobil campus: New details have emerged on a proposed mixed-use development planned on nearly 17 acres inside the Loop....seeking a building variance from the city of Houston to develop the site into a complex of high-end offices, shops and apartments...referred to in documents as River Oaks Green but has also been marketed as The RO... -- Pickard Chilton; Michael Hsu Office of Architecture; OJB Mayfield and Ragni Studio; Preston Partnership- Houston Chronicle |
Feargus O'Sullivan: A 1980s Grocery Store Is London’s Latest Protected Building: T...designed by Nicholas Grimshaw...first-ever supermarket to appear on the National Heritage List for England: The U.K. already has a track record of preserving fairly recent, humble buildings, but even so, a newish outlet of a chain (the grocer Sainsbury’s) is a departure. So was Historic England right to protect a type of building which it acknowledges is usually “purely functional and architecturally uninspiring”? It arguably strikes the viewer as a work of engineering first and architecture second...There have nonetheless been some grumbles about its preservation...from pro-densification advocates.- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Getty Foundation Announces $1.6 Million Keeping It Modern Architectural Conservation Grants: New grants include the first projects in Argentina, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Lithuania, Mozambique, Spain, Uganda.. -- Stoilov; Pier Luigi Nervi; Paulo de Melo Sampaio/João A. Garizo do Carmo/Francisco José de Castro; Eileen Gray; Eero Saarinen; Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis; Ernst May; Osvaldo Bidinost/Jorge Chute/José Gassó/Mabel Lapacó/Martín Meyer; Fernando Moreno Barberá- Getty Foundation |
Curt Brown: St. Paul architect Mary Colter 'ahead of her time': It's the 150th anniversary of the birth of "one of the world's best-known unknown architects": Despite her gender-busting career in the male-dominated architecture field, Colter never found much fame during her lifetime.- Minneapolis Star Tribune |
Artists Briefly Bridge the US-Mexico Border With a Heartwarming Seesaw Linking Kids in Both Countries: The installation...lasted a half hour: In contrast to heart-wrenching scenes at the border that have filled the news in recent years, the unveiling of Teeter-Totter Wall was a joy-filled occasion...families on both sides gathered to play during the temporary installation, which lasted about a half an hour...The architects have also devised other border wall interventions... -- Ronald Rael/Virginia San Fratello/Rael San Fratello; Taller Herrería- artnet News |
Call for entries: Request for Qualifications (RFQ): International Invited Design Competition for Ecological and Leisure-cultural Waterfront Space in Seoul International District along Tancheon Stream and Han River; deadline: August 23- Seoul Metropolitan Government |
Andrew “Ace” Houston: Does Google’s $1 Billion Housing Pledge Add Up? ... pledging...to create 20,000 homes. This effort was lauded for its intent to put a dent in the housing affordability crisis impacting the San Francisco Bay Area...the belief that this $1 billion will create 20,000 new homes is patently false...let’s break down their $1 billion pledge. -- House Cosmopolitan- Next City (formerly Next American City) |
Shipping container micro homes with green roofs planned for UK: Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects has obtained planning permission for a development...in Aylesbury, England. Gatehouse Road is a low-cost housing scheme that is part of a series of regeneration plans for underused sites...Currently the site is occupied by garages...a 26.2-square-metre home that can fit inside each container...will be rented out as social housing or student accommodation.- Dezeen |
SO - IL is building a social housing prototype in the heart of Mexico: The Municipal Housing Institute (IMUVI) of León...invited [the] Brooklyn firm...to collaborate...Instead of building more units on the outskirts, far from schools, jobs, and services, IMUVI has committed to densifying the city center...“Affordability should not go against quality,” said Florian Idenburg...SO - IL worked pro bono...he hopes Las Américas can become a model for social housing in city centers and inspire projects in developing economies facing similar conditions.- The Architect's Newspaper |
DnA/Frances Anderton: At long last, an ADU is born in Highland Park: ...an accessory dwelling unit...was part of an experiment by the City of LA to test what’s involved in building an ADU as a way of providing more housing across the region...The house is adorable, but it went through a long and painful gestation that has taught all involved some lessons about how to ease the process of building ADUs moving forward...So at the end of the day, how much can a project like this actually contribute to the housing supply in Los Angeles? -- Elizabeth Timme/LA-Más- KCRW (Los Angeles) |
RiversEdge project in downtown St. Paul to cost $788 million, developer seeking $80 million in public money: If built, the development...would re-sculpt St. Paul’s skyline...ambitious plans, which call for building a terraced, concrete lid that turns the nearly 5-acre site into a 10-acre canvas for AECOM...That extra acreage would provide room for outdoor public space, including a “river balcony” with prime [Mississippi River] views...County leaders called the project “iconic,” “transformative”...One sticking point: the plans include no provision for affordable housing...- Minneapolis Star Tribune |
ANN feature: Duo Dickinson: Lesson Plan #2: A Time of Change: The coming technological changes in architecture will impose a full deconstruction of the way we educate architects.- ArchNewsNow.com |
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