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Today’s News - Tuesday, January 21, 2020

● Lau & Keane pose "8 questions you'll hear when proposing zero-carbon design and tried-and-true responses from seasoned experts who have fielded these FAQS," and "are eager to help you manage the pushback."

● Cuozzo x 2: 2 World Trade Center version 3.0: BIG is out, Foster is back: "Foster's old vision might be too stodgy for today's market. BIG's, meanwhile, may be too esoteric" (no word on when we'll see revised design).

● He takes on "Hudson Yards haters" (including Kimmelman) who "have lost their minds - over a fake wall - there was never the remotest chance of the monstrosity being built. So what's to hate? Ah, 'exclusivity.'"

● The Trump Administration says it will help L.A. with its homeless crisis, but it "may come with strings attached" - what might they be? HUD's Ben Carson "suggested that harsh measures might be needed - officials needed to 'uncuff law enforcement'" (such a humane string).

● Wall x 2: In the U.K., "controversial reforms have led to a flurry of poor-quality office to residential conversions" with developers building apartments with no natural light," which "poses a threat to physical and mental health" ("It feels almost like prison").

● He parses a University College London report that found "serious design flaws in many housing estates" because homebuilders "are not investing enough in good design. 'The cumulative effect makes it a miserable place to try to exist.'"

● Ing parses a Bartlett School of Planning study that found most new housing is "so poorly designed it should not have been built" - planning permits for 20% of 140 developments "should have been rejected outright."

● Betsky surveys "MoMA 5.0," NYC's "temple to high Modernism" and at the same time, "the aircraft carrier of Modernism": It "now actually feels as if it is part of the city," but it's "still a mess of a building. Surprisingly, all of that makes the experience of going to MoMA more fun than it has been in a long time."

● Ryder delves into how, "thanks to architects, designers, and museum curators" from London to California, "children's voices are now a surprisingly strong force in the revitalization of previously dusty institutions."

● Kamin x 2: He reports on the "preservationists trying to save the controversial" Helmut Jahn's Thompson Center, creating a piñata version "stuffed with written memories and impressions of the building many Chicagoans love to hate and probably wouldn't mind beating with a stick" - which will happen Thursday, with comments on view through Friday morning.

● He explains why he hopes a proposed "bird-friendly design law takes wing" but finding "compromises that will satisfy both bird lovers and BOMA - there's plenty of ironing to do."

● Snøhetta tapped "to develop a new visual identity for the Wikimedia Foundation," the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia ("the project can be followed at brandingwikipedia.com").

● Gamolina's fascinating Q&A with Kim Holden, a founding principal of SHoP re: "what she's learned from building a wildly successful practice," and, after almost 30 years, "her transition from architect to doula, advising those just starting their careers to fiercely guard their 'special sauce.'"

● Toronto's Art, Architecture and Design Film Festival kicks off tomorrow and runs through Sunday, and includes post-screening Q&As.

● ICYMI: ANN feature: Building Abundance #6 by Edward McGraw: Q&A with Binghamton University President Dr. Harvey Stenger: "We have the solutions to climate change and they can be implemented right now" - his hopeful prognosis for the climate crisis.

Winners all:

● Brusssat cheers Thai architect Ong-ard Satrabhandhu winning the Driehaus Prize for work that "demonstrates innovation within tradition" (lots of pix!), and Clem Labine, founder of several traditional building publication, taking home the Henry Hope Reed Award.

● Seven take home AIA 2020 Interior Architecture Awards.

● The Royal Academy Architecture Prize 2020 goes to Madrid-based installation artist and sculptor Cristina Iglesias for "work inspires new ways for thinking about architecture" + profiles of the four finalists.

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Wanda Lau & Katharine Keane: Eight Questions You’ll Hear When Proposing Zero-Carbon Design: And, more importantly, tried-and-true responses from seasoned experts who have fielded these FAQS: The time to design carbon-neutral or carbon-positive architecture is now. But change is tough, and any tweaks...will invariably drum up concerns from your clients or supervisors...environmentally oriented designers and firms are eager to help you manage the pushback. -- Stephanie Carlisle/KieranTimberlake; Tenna Florian/Lake|Flato Architects; Marsha Maytum/Bill Leddy/Gwen Fuertes/Leddy Maytum Stacy- Architect Magazine

Steve Cuozzo: 2 World Trade Center getting revamped Norman Foster design: Get ready for Two World Trade Center, Version 3.0...Foster’s old design was scrapped in 2015 for an edgier one by Bjarke Ingels...when it appeared that two media companies...would become the anchor tenants...But now that BIG’s quirky tower of stacked boxes has no takers...if Silverstein wants a tenant first, a new Foster design might be just the thing to land one. Foster’s old vision might be too stodgy for today’s market. BIG’s, meanwhile, may be too esoteric. -- BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group; Foster + Partners- New York Post

Steve Cuozzo: Hudson Yards haters have lost their minds - over a fake wall: Absent any sensible reason to condemn Hudson Yards...innumerable detractors came up with a laughably hypothetical one...Photos of a model surfaced...which indeed included a wall...That didn’t stop...Michael Kimmelman from inveighing against it. But, in fact, there was never the remotest chance of the monstrosity being built...So what’s to hate? Ah, “exclusivity.”- New York Post

Trump officials say they’ll help on homelessness. But only if L.A. meets these conditions: A sweeping proposal...may come with strings attached...raised advocates’ hopes that federal aid is on its way. However...the government expects changes...some fear that demands to alter policing policies to clear more encampments...could run afoul of several legal settlements and federal court rulings. It also could anger local leaders. If L.A. loosens rules around the construction of affordable housing, neighborhood groups or unions also are likely to push back...Ben Carson suggested that harsh measures might be needed, saying officials needed to “uncuff law enforcement"...- Los Angeles Times

Tom Wall: 'It feels almost like prison': the developers building homes with no natural light: Planning reforms have allowed developers to create housing in spaces that might not previously have been permitted - but at what risk to tenants’ health? ...under controversial reforms...to convert offices to flats without full planning permission...have led to a flurry of poor-quality office to residential conversions across the country...developers are taking advantage of the lack of controls to build flats in basements...inadequate natural light poses a threat to physical and mental health. -- Julia Park/Levitt Bernstein- Guardian Cities (UK)

Tom Wall: Serious design flaws in many housing estates, University College London report claims: New developments lack basic amenities such as shops and playgrounds: ...housebuilders are not investing enough in good design...unconnected to surrounding areas, with few public transport links...The architecture is standardised and undistinctive... “The cumulative effect...make it a miserable place to try to exist"...Local planning departments don’t always have the resources to challenge the worst schemes...badly designed schemes should not be getting through the planning system... -- Mark Pearson/Pearson Lubbock Architects; Architecture Centre Devon and Cornwall- Observer (UK)

Will Ing: Most new housing so poorly designed it should not have been built, says Bartlett report: The vast majority of new housing developments should not have been built due to their shoddy design, according to an audit by the Bartlett School of Planning: Damage is being done to the environment and to residents’ health and quality of life through some of the poor schemes being built...study looked at 140 developments across England built since 2007 and found that 20% should have been rejected outright by planning authorities. A further 54% should have been rejected...and only built if the developer came back with ‘significant improvements’ in the design.- The Architects' Journal (UK)

Aaron Betsky: Building on MoMA's Bones: the revamped version of the museum improved but still fundamentally flawed: The best thing about the Museum of Modern Art 5.0 is what is around it...the place now actually feels as if it is part of the city, while the experience of viewing art now has spaces and mechanisms for the social act it is. Having said that, this is still Mother MoMA...remains...a place of confusion. Put simply, this is still a mess of a building...There are now so many circulation routes...that the place makes no sense. Perhaps that is deliberate...Surprisingly, all of that makes the experience of going to MoMA more fun than it has been in a long time...the new mix offers surprises and aperçus. -- Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R); Gensler; Cesar Pelli- Architect Magazine

Bethan Ryder: ‘Part-science lab, part-playground’: how kids made museums take fun seriously: From London to California, architects are helping museums provide interactive learning experiences that can’t be found on screen: Thanks to architects, designers and museum curators, children’s voices are now a surprisingly strong force in the revitalisation of previously dusty institutions. -- Geoff Shearcroft/AOC Architecture; Rafael Viñoly Architects; Liza Fior/Muf; Alan Maskin/Olson Kundig; Dinah Bornat/ZCD Architects; Andrés Ros Soto; Ken Kirton/Hato- Observer Design (UK)

Blair Kamin: A piñata version of the Thompson Center is coming, but don’t expect candy to fall out: ...a building many Chicagoans love to hate and probably wouldn’t mind beating with a stick...three historic preservationists trying to save the controversial state office building [opened] an exhibition...that actually presents it as a piñata...Instead of being filled with candy...[it is] stuffed with written memories and impressions of the center...preservationists are using humor to draw attention to their cause...Despite the whimsy of the exhibition...the preservationists are deadly serious...Aiming to make the building a protected city landmark... -- Helmut Jahn; Elizabeth Blasius; A.J. LaTrace; Jonathan Solomon; Chelsea Lombardo- Chicago Tribune

Blair Kamin: Chicago’s skyline is beautiful but it’s killing birds. New York has taken action. So must we: I’m 100% behind the drive to mandate bird-friendly building design in Chicago, but I’m also frustrated by the lack of progress...proposed Bird Friendly Design ordinance...has yet to emerge from the City Council’s zoning committee. It still requires compromises that will satisfy both bird lovers and...Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago [BOMA]...there’s plenty of ironing to do...Let’s hope the bird-friendly design law takes wing. I can see the benefits right in my backyard.- Chicago Tribune

Snøhetta to develop a new visual identity for the Wikimedia Foundation: The collaboration will examine how strategic branding and digital design can influence engagement and promote cross-cultural knowledge sharing...the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia...The project can be followed at brandingwikipedia.com.- Archinect

Julia Gamolina: Doula x Design: Kim Holden on Her New Practice, Birth Empowerment, and Advocating for Women and Girls: ...one of the founding principals of SHoP Architects...After almost 30 years in the design world, Kim switched careers, founded Doula by Design...Q&A re: what she’s learned from building a wildly successful practice, and her transition from architect to doula, advising those just starting their careers to fiercely guard their “special sauce.”- Madame Architect

Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, Toronto, to Host Art, Architecture and Design Film Festival, January 22 - 26: The inaugural Festival will screen 11 documentaries celebrating the contributions of world-renowned architects, artists and designers. It will feature post-screening Q&As with special guests and directors. "City Dreamers"/Phyllis Lambert; Blanche Lemco van Ginkel; Cornelia Hahn Oberlander; Denise Scott Brown; "The Maestro and The Master: Building the New Mariinsky"/Diamond Schmitt Architects; etc.- Canadian Architect

David Brusssat: Driehaus Prize for Thai architect: “The work of Ong-ard Satrabhandhu demonstrates innovation within tradition"...That he was able to reach classicism from his modernist initiation bespeaks an independence of mind that...distinguishes the architecture school of Notre Dame...Henry Hope Reed Award...was bestowed upon Clem Labine, the founder of several influential journals dedicated to traditional building. -- Ong-ard Architects; Old-House Journal; Traditional Building; Period Homes magazines- Architecture Here and There

AIA selects recipients for the 2020 Interior Architecture Awards: ...program celebrates the most innovative interior spaces...based on...sense of place and purpose, ecology and environmental sustainability and history. -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Thomas Phifer and Partners; Gensler; ZGF Architects; Bruner/Cott Architects; LMN Architects- American Institute of Architects (AIA)

Royal Academy Architecture Prize 2020: Cristina Iglesias: ...she invites us to look, not just at buildings, but at the spaces between them...Her work inspires new ways for thinking about architecture...jury recognised the vital tradition of public art in enhancing the quality of open civic spaces + Four finalists: RA Dorfman Award honoring an emerging architect, practice or collective... -- AAU Anastas (Palestine); AOR Architects (Finland); BCKJ Architects (China); WHBC Architects (Malaysia)- Royal Academy of Arts (U.K.)

ANN feature: Building Abundance #6: An Interview with Dr. Harvey Stenger, President of Binghamton University: "We have the solutions to climate change and they can be implemented right now." So says Stenger. Read on to learn more about his hopeful prognosis for the climate crisis. By Edward McGraw, AIA, LEED AP BD+C- ArchNewsNow.com

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