Today’s News - Wednesday, May 6, 2020
● ANN feature: The New Norm: A Report by Peter Piven: The results of a survey of firm principals across the U.S. about the differences they envision in technology/working remotely, in markets and marketing, in work life and culture, and in society in our post-pandemic future.
● Keane reports the sad news that Marvin Malecha (only 70!), former AIA President, administrator, educator, architect, industrial designer, and author, died on Monday due to complications from heart surgery: "I see design thinking at the essence of an architectural education."
● Pacheco reports that RIBA is on the hunt for a new president "following the temporary recusal of current President Alan Jones" because of a "serious incident" - a new president to be elected in August.
● Chase Rynd, executive director of the National Building Museum (and one of our heroes), is retiring - his departure "after a fruitful 17-year run comes at a challenging time for the museum" (you can help!).
● Hilburg reports that the "San Francisco Art Institute won't close after all - it looks like reports of the venerable art institution's death were premature."
● Karrie Jacobs takes a deep dive into "the future of megaprojects - and the future of New York City - through the lens of Sunnyside Yard" (now that an optimistic Chakrabarti can talk details) - "it's the perfect launch pad for a 'housing moonshot.' And it may just be the future we didn't know we needed."
● Kimmelman takes us on another one of his fab virtual tours, this time the Brooklyn Bridge and the neighborhoods on either side, with Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi - from Brooklyn Heights to the Hudson River. "New York is a city of horizons" (fab photos by Zack DeZon).
● Q&A with Spirit of Space studio's Adam Goss, RedMike, and Sam Snodgrass re: "their 15-year journey of creating architecture films": "Film is the next best thing for architecture."
● ICYMI: ANN feature: Weinstein cheers Impelluso & Fusaro's "Villas and Gardens of the Renaissance": What better escapist yet relevant book could an architect desire? The splendors of Italian Renaissance architecture illuminate our Dark Age and transform eye candy into brain food.
COVID-19 news continues:
● Raskin: Large and small "firms open up about pandemic-induced layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts - enacting a sweeping suite of cost-saving measures to shore up their businesses" - the "seemingly inequitable distribution" of PPP loans has left some "practices scrambling" (and some things are "a bit of a crapshoot").
● Foreign Policy magazine asks 12 leading global experts across many fields, from Florida, Glaeser, and Doctoroff, to Katz, Kotkin, and Sadik-Khan, for their take on "how life in our cities will look after the coronavirus pandemic."
● Density was going to be "California's cure for the housing crisis. Then came coronavirus. Skeptics of greater urbanization say the pandemic has proved that they were right all along" - but there's lots of "evidence that shows density isn't destiny": "It's not density itself," says urbanist Jay Pitter. "It is the fact that bad density plus social inequality is a deadly mix."
● As if to reinforce his point, Kea Wilson explains why "suburbanization is not the answer to COVID-19. Yes, contraction rates are higher in denser cities. No, that doesn't mean that the burbs are safer - and in many ways, they're worse. Here are a few reminders of why."
● Massengale offers some ideas that are "both radical and common sense - to permanently change the driving culture" in NYC (Milan, Brussels, and Paris are doing it). "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
● Karrie Jacobs at her most eloquent in parsing "how informal networks of architects mass-produced simple yet lifesaving devices - and in the process charted a new course for humanitarian design. The unflashy pragmatism that's hard-wired into the architectural profession has begun to assume unexpected glamour."
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ANN feature: The New Norm: A Report by Peter Piven, FAIA: The results of a survey of firm principals across the U.S. about the differences they envision in technology/working remotely, in markets and marketing, in work life and culture, and in society in our post-pandemic future.- ArchNewsNow.com |
Obituary by Katharine Keane: Former AIA President Marvin Malecha, 70: Administrator, educator, architect, industrial designer, author...died on Monday May 4 ...due to complications from heart surgery...After 20 years at North Carolina State University College of Design, Malecha assumed the role of president and chief academic officer at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego in 2016..."I see design thinking at the essence of an architectural education...We [as architects] begin [solving] problems not just when a client hands us a program, but [also when] we decide on whether the site or the investment is appropriate."- Architect Magazine |
Antonio Pacheco: RIBA sets out to choose a new leader: ...has begun the process for selecting a new president following the temporary recusal of current President Alan Jones...{he] stepped aside from the position in March as news of a "serious incident"...being investigated by the police in Northern Ireland...RIBA is choosing to move ahead with an open call to replace Jones at the scheduled end of his term [August 2021]...Currently, RIBA honorary secretary Kerr Robertson is "overseeing presidential responsibilities"...A new president is set to be elected on August 4th...- Archinect |
Matt Hickman: Longtime National Building Museum executive director Chase Rynd to retire: retirement after a fruitful 17-year run comes at a challenging time for the museum...Facing uncertainty over when the shutdown in Washington, D.C. will end and what the post-shutdown reality will be for large gatherings, the museum has canceled all events and programming into early fall...Since its closure...[NBM] has released some virtual programming including online-only exhibitions and at-home learning opportunities...Rynd also launched [a campaign] with the aim to raise $100,000 in much-needed funding to help keep the 40-year-old museum afloat.- The Architect's Newspaper |
Jonathan Hilburg: The San Francisco Art Institute won’t close after all: ...it looks like reports of the venerable art institution’s death were premature...an April 2 letter signed by over 60 alumni, curators, supporters, and other art world professionals imploring the school to find alternate routes forward, and the media coverage, has reportedly helped spur private donations to keep SFAI alive...it’s still canceling all of its accredited programming...will hold a series of benefit auctions [of] pieces of its collection, including rare works from Robert Mapplethorpe and Wayne Thiebaud...will offer online and in-person art classes (when we can all go outside again)...funded through grants.- The Architect's Newspaper |
Karrie Jacobs: What does a good megadevelopment look like? Considering the future of megaprojects - and the future of New York City - through the lens of Sunnyside Yard: The first of my recent conversations about megadevelopments with Vishaan Chakrabarti...took place...when the world was a different place...On April 1, we spoke again. what was striking...was [his] optimism...Imagining a better future with as much detail as possible is both an exercise in sanity and a necessary political strategy...Hudson Yards...does everything wrong...made me start thinking that it might be possible to build a megadevelopment that makes New York a better city...Nothing about the future, near or far, is clear. What happens when [pandemic] is over? ...it’s the perfect launch pad for a “housing moonshot.” And it may just be the future we didn’t know we needed. -- Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU); CookFox; SHoP Architects- Curbed New York |
Michael Kimmelman: Brooklyn Bridge, Star of the City: Our critic explores the bridge and the neighborhoods on either side with Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi: They like to walk to work...they start out along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, jog through Cadman Plaza Park and stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge...The [virtual] walk also takes in City Hall Park and Duane Park, the Woolworth Building, [Frank Gehry's] 8 Spruce Street...the former Western Union Building...a few blocks from the Weiss/Manfredi offices and the Hudson River. -- William M. Kendall/McKim, Mead & White; Cass Gilbert; John Kellum; Leopold Eidlitz; Ralph Thomas Walker- New York Times |
"Film is the Next Best Thing for Architecture": Interview with Spirit of Space: ...some architects choose to invite viewers...to experience the building and its surroundings immersively...The studio...has combined visuals with customized soundtracks...turning it into a multi-sensory experience...Adam Goss, RedMike, and Sam Snodgrass...discuss their 15-year journey of creating architecture films; from storytelling to exceptional music compositions, to cultivating empathy for people and places.- ArchDaily |
Laura Raskin: Firms Open Up About Pandemic-Induced Layoffs, Furloughs, and Pay Cuts: ...firms large and small have been enacting a sweeping suite of cost-saving measures to shore up their businesses. While some firms have received short-term loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the seemingly inequitable distribution has left other practices scrambling. -- Hugh Hochberg/Coxe Group; Gensler; Grimshaw Architects; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Lisa Matkovic/Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Kirstin Sibilia/Dattner Architects; Frederick Bland/Beyer Blinder Belle; Daniel Simons/David Baker Architects; Michael Chen/MKCA- Architectural Record |
How Life in Our Cities Will Look After the Coronavirus Pandemic: The pandemic will change urban life forever. We asked 12 leading global experts in urban planning, policy, history, and health for their predictions. -- Richard Florida, Edward Glaeser, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Kiran Bedi, Thomas J. Campanella, Chan Heng Chee, Dan Doctoroff, Bruce Katz, Rebecca Katz, Joel Kotkin, Robert Muggah, Janette Sadik-Khan- Foreign Policy magazine |
Building dense cities was California’s cure for the housing crisis. Then came coronavirus: Skeptics of greater urbanization say the pandemic has proved that they were right all along...there’s lots of evidence that shows density isn’t destiny...the state’s march toward densification had been cast as the safest way forward...Calls for greater density have only escalated as massive, wind-driven fires have rampaged through suburban and urban locales...longtime opponents [of measures] will use the pandemic as another reason to attack them...“It’s not density itself,” Jay Pitter said. “It is the fact that bad density plus social inequality is a deadly mix.”- Los Angeles Times |
Kea Wilson: Suburbanization is Not the Answer To COVID-19: Yes, contraction rates are higher in denser cities. No, that doesn't mean that the burbs are safer - and in many ways, they're worse: ...suburbs are isolated, radically unsustainable places that are home to a public health crisis even in the best of times, because of their epidemic levels of traffic violence caused by the excessive driving suburbanites are forced to do because of bad urban planning. And all three things are going to make it that much harder for suburban Americans...to weather this storm. Here are a few reminders of why...- Streetsblog.org |
John Massengale:‘Open Streets’ Must Lead to Permanent Changes in Our City: Milan, Brussels, and Paris are all using Open Street experiments during the pandemic to permanently change the driving culture in their cities. Here are some ideas to do that [in New York City]. The ideas are both radical and common sense - “radical” because everyone reading this has grown up in the age of King Car...There are ways to change the car culture and make city life healthier and more pleasant...This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; we see a glimpse of a better future.- Streetsblog.org |
Karrie Jacobs: The Power of the Printer: How informal networks of architects mass-produced simple yet lifesaving devices - and in the process charted a new course for humanitarian design: In the unprecedented chaos of the moment, the symbol of architectural activism has quickly become the face shield...working together - more or less anonymously - as a loosely knit collective to produce a modest, lifesaving object...conversion of the ExCeL center [and] Javits Center...is precisely the kind of architectural thinking that’s necessary right now...The unflashy pragmatism that’s hard-wired into the architectural profession has begun to assume unexpected glamour. -- Jenny Sabin; KPF; Studio V; Gensler; Weiss/Manfredi; BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group; Grimshaw; 3DVerkstan; Alvin Huang; Perkins and Will; BDP; V. Mitch McEwen; Geoff Manaugh; Nicola Twilley- Architect Magazine |
ANN feature: Norman Weinstein: Book Review: "Villas and Gardens of the Renaissance" by Lucia Impelluso with photography by Dario Fusaro: What better escapist yet relevant book could an architect desire? The splendors of Italian Renaissance architecture illuminate our Dark Age and transform eye candy into brain food.- ArchNewsNow.com |
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