Today’s News - Wednesday, September 16, 2020
● Bacchi reports on research by the Coalition for Urban Transitions findings: "Investments in climate-friendly infrastructure like rooftop gardens, cycle lanes and renewable energy across world's cities could support 87 million jobs by 2030" - governments should also "invest more in green cities to beat coronavirus slump."
● McGuigan on Gehry's Eisenhower Memorial: "After a decade of contention and adaptation, [it] has finally opened as both a dramatic tribute to the war hero who became President, and as a jewel of public space - the backstage drama isn't evident in the finished memorial, a calm and gracious public space."
● King x 2: He weighs in on new student housing on Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue: "If Harry Potter and Fred Flintstone designed a building together, it might look like this - a McMansion. On acid. It has nutty gravitas. The weird thing is, it works" (despite its "tangled back-story").
● He reports on the "three design contenders to become the city's next official public trash can - all contemporary in appearance, with a distant resemblance to stylish air filters."
● Kamin re: a 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial: "While [it] has often baffled non-architects with jargon-laced wall text - the event, at its best, cements Chicago's identity as a global architectural capital" - but with a curator not yet named and the quandary over its format caused by the pandemic, there are a couple of options on the table.
● Kimmelman's latest walkabout: He "chats about the beloved stretch from Carnegie Hall to Lincoln Center with Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. Along with century-old jewels of Midtown, a crop of supertall, anorexic apartment towers for the ultrarich have lately redrawn the city skyline" (fab photos by Zack DeZon!).
● Brussat x 2: He responds to historic Newport, Rhode Island's recent "moratorium on development in order to suck its elegant thumb about its development guidelines" - it should demand "what the people want, not what the befuddled design elite wants" (w/link to Alex Ulam's in-depth report in Bloomberg CityLab).
● He gives (mostly) thumbs-up to one new and three renovated buildings on Providence, RI's Westminster Street that "mostly improve the city's historical character" - but the upper story of a project up the street "is a clunky chunk of brooding darkness - unremitting schlock" (ouch!).
● Mortice updates the controversy re: Sugimoto's plans for the Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden that tinkers a bit too much with Bunshaft's "single and total work of art," says TCLF's Birnbaum - "absolute fidelity to the relationship between the building and landscape is warranted."
● Hickman brings us the alarming news that a wrecking ball is headed for Paul Rudolph's Burroughs Wellcome HQ in Durham, North Carolina - "what was originally suspected/hoped to be an asbestos abatement-related undertaking" prior to restoration work "has turned out to be site prep for a full demolition."
● In brighter news, after years of controversy, Frank Lloyd Wright's David and Gladys Wright House in Phoenix has a bright future as new buyers, including Taliesin West apprentices and School of Architecture at Taliesin board members, "plan to restore and preserve the spiral house" (lots of pix!).
● Cuozzo: tells us the tale "behind the rise of KPF's 77-story One Vanderbilt - the mighty new skyscraper" next to NYC's grand Grand Central Station - "the design is humanely crafted from an eye-catching steel spire to the new subway and terminal entrances and public plaza at the base."
● Lizzie Crook reports on Foster + Partners' Cairo hospital that "embodies latest research" on biophilic design and "will prioritize connecting patients with nature to boost their wellbeing" (with views of a lake and the Egyptian pyramids, to boot!).
● Lendlease is tapped to design, build Google's new 40-acre, mixed-use development in Mountain View, California, that includes 1.3 million square feet of office space, up to 1,850 residential units (20% affordable housing), lots of retail and event space - and 12 acres of open space.
Winners all:
● Sitz profiles Arch Record's five 2020 Women in Architecture Award winners who are "leaders, innovators, activists, and educators" - our heartiest congrats to Eizenberg, Betts, Dowdell, Gray, and Ponce de Leon!
● Gaze upon the winners of the inaugural Docomomo US I Spy Modernism Architectural Photography Competition and "their personal takes on capturing modernism."
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Umberto Bacchi: Governments urged to invest more in green cities to beat coronavirus slump: Investments in climate-friendly infrastructure like rooftop gardens, cycle lanes and renewable energy across world's cities could support millions of jobs, researchers say: Spending about $2 trillion a year on green city infrastructure around the world...could support 87 million jobs by 2030...Such investments would pay for themselves many times over...lowering the costs of climate change [and] improving health and quality of life...a few have already enacted green stimulus measures... -- Coalition for Urban Transitions; C40- Thomson Reuters Foundation News |
Cathleen McGuigan: Frank Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial Opens in Washington, D.C.: After a decade of contention and adaptation, the memorial has finally opened as both a dramatic tribute to the war hero who became President, and as a jewel of public space: Monuments breed contention...then came the Memorial, devoted to the undisputed hero of World War II, with a design by America’s most renowned architect. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, it turns out...the design - and Gehry himself - came under fierce attack...But detractors mistook [him] for an inflexible divo, and they underestimated his stamina...the backstage drama isn’t evident in the finished memorial, a calm and gracious public space... -- Justin Shubow.; L’Observatoire International- Architectural Record |
John King: If Harry Potter and Fred Flintstone designed a building together, it might look like this: ...the crazed excess of the newest building on Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue is guaranteed to stop you in your tracks...a McMansion. On acid...Hidden beneath all this...is a fairly conventional 7-story structure called the Enclave that holds 55 student apartments...3 blocks from UC Berkeley...a Moorish-Tudor fever dream...It has nutty gravitas - an affirmation of eccentricity despite a tangled backstory...The weird thing is, it works...off-kilter fun...what I like...is that it’s so engaging. A seven-story double-take. -- Kirk Peterson/Kirk E. Peterson & Associates Architects; Jarvis Architects; LCA Architects- San Francisco Chronicle |
John King: A beauty contest with a twist: San Francisco wants trash cans that are durable and chic: ...three design contenders to become the city’s next official public trash can, replacing the dark green and vaguely historic ones that have been deployed since 1993...But in a city where no decision about infrastructure is too small to stir controversy, the designs...will face months of scrutiny before a selection is made...all contemporary in appearance, with...a distant resemblance to stylish air filters...- San Francisco Chronicle |
Blair Kamin: Chicago Architecture Biennial keeps the city at the forefront of design. But will it be held in 2021? ...[it] brings Chicago to the world and the world to Chicago. It also offers a hint of what’s to come in design and culture...While [it] has often baffled nonarchitects with jargon-laced wall text...the event, at its best, cements Chicago’s identity as a global architectural capital...Yet with a year to go...no curator has been named and no decision has been made about the event’s format...a quandary caused by the coronavirus pandemic...One option...is to postpone the exhibition until 2022...Another option...proceeding with a combination of virtual and in-person events.- Chicago Tribune |
Michael Kimmelman: Carnegie Hall and the Jewels of Midtown: Our critic chats about the beloved stretch from the music hall to Lincoln Center around Central Park with Tod Williams and Billie Tsien: Along with century-old architectural landmarks, a crop of supertall, anorexic apartment towers for the ultrarich have lately redrawn the city skyline...Tsien: "I went to Lincoln Center when I first moved to New York because the Mostly Mozart concerts had air-conditioning." -- Pomerance & Breines; James Stewart Polshek; William Tuthill; SHoP Architects; William W. Bosworth; Edward Durell Stone; Henry Hardenbergh; James E. Ware; Harde & Short; Charles W. Buckham; Wechsler & Schimenti; Carrère and Hastings; Dwight James Baum; Ric Scofidio/Elizabeth Diller/Diller Scofidio + Renfro- New York Times |
David Brussat: More pause please, Newport: ...[city] recently placed a moratorium on development in order to suck its elegant thumb about its development guidelines...In a misguided effort to be all things to all people - and hence satisfy no one - [it] seems willing to sacrifice its quality of life and its economic future to a supposed compromise between its historical character and the tainted character of modern development...Newport should take the bold step of mandating that all new development embrace architecture that reinforces the city’s historical character...by demanding that developers build what the people want, not what the befuddled design elite wants.- Architecture Here and There |
David Brussat: New and old on Westminster: Several years in the making, renovations on downtown Providence’s Westminster Street ...are almost done...one new building and three renovated buildings mostly improve the city’s historical character...they are traditional rather than modernist in style. Traditional architecture always tends to feed historical character; modernist architecture always tends to starve it...four buildings...a feast for the eye and balm for the future of Providence. -- Union Studio; Site Specific- Architecture Here and There |
Zach Mortice: Tinkering with a "Total Work": At the Hirshhorn Museum, a preservation row tests the bounds of unity between building and landscape: ...Sculpture Garden is a cloistered 1.5-acre art landscape...a definitive change of pace from the broad civic expanse of the National Mall...new plan by Hiroshi Sugimoto is drawing the attention of landscape advocates...Gordon Bunshaft famously conceived the Hirshhorn as piece of functional sculpture itself, and because the landscape and the building are a “single and total work of art,” says Charles Birnbaum [TCLF], absolute fidelity to the relationship between the building and landscape is warranted. -- Lester Collins (1981); The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF)- Landscape Architecture Magazine |
Matt Hickman: Paul Rudolph’s Burroughs Wellcome headquarters building in Durham, North Carolina threatened with demolition: ...what was originally suspected/hoped to be an asbestos abatement-related undertaking...has turned out to be site prep for a full demolition...by the end of the year...no evidence of restoration work or United Therapeutics' larger intention to save/reuse the building has publicly come to light...Sadly,[it] s is not the only Rudolph-designed building that is currently endangered... -- Docomomo US; Kelvin Dickinson/Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation- The Architect's Newspaper |
Frank Lloyd Wright David and Gladys Wright House in Phoenix sells for $7.25M; new owners plan to save home: ...buyers plan to restore and preserve the spiral house...built in 1950...This should be a relief for preservationists...group including architect Bing Hu and businessman Jim Benson purchased the house...plans include adding a copper roof...part of FLW’s original plans. Both...are on the board the School of Architecture at Taliesin...concrete block house...sits on 5.9 acres...new ownership group also includes Wenchin Shi who, with Hu, was an architectural apprentice at...Taliesin West.- Arizona Republic |
Steve Cuozzo: Behind the rise of the 77-story One Vanderbilt: Creation of the mighty new skyscraper...started with the almost incidental purchase of an obscure old office building 19 years ago. The project negotiated a treacherous development labyrinth...Justin Davidson...described it as “...that rarity, a civic-minded Goliath"...$3.3 billion...1.7 million-square-foot tower designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF)...The design is humanely crafted from an eye-catching steel spire to the new subway and terminal entrances and public plaza at the base....an observatory on the 57th to 59th floors...will have its own grand unveiling some time in 2021.- New York Post |
Lizzie Crook: Foster + Partners' Cairo hospital embodies "latest research on biophilia": Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Centre Cairo will prioritise connecting patients with nature to boost their wellbeing...300-bed hospital will...nestle within a "lush, verdant landscape" that offers views of a lake and the Egyptian pyramids...will provide free treatment for underprivileged people living in Egypt. It is being built adjacent to Zewail City of Science and Technology university to create an "integrated health and medical research zone"...- Dezeen |
Lendlease to design, build Google's new 40-acre, mixed-use development: ...in Mountain View, California...includes 1.3 million square feet of office space, up to 1,850 housing units, 30,000 square feet of retail, 20,000 square feet of event space and 12 acres of open space...In 2019, Lendlease landed a $15 billion contract with Google...to develop and build 5 million square feet of residential, retail, hospitality and other projects in the San Francisco Bay Area...Both projects are aimed at increasing housing options for middle-class workers in a state that's known for its exorbitant cost of living...20% of them set aside for affordable housing.- Construction Dive |
Miriam Sitz: 2020 Women in Architecture Awards Recognize Five Leaders: Leaders, innovators, activists, educators...represent the best of the profession. -- Design Leader: Julie Eizenberg/Koning Eizenberg Architecture; New Generation Leader: Stella Betts/LEVENBETTS; Activist: Kimberly Dowdell/HOK/National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA); Innovator: Lisa Gray/Gray Organschi Architecture; Educator: Monica Ponce de Leon/MPdL Studio/Princeton University School of Architecture- Architectural Record |
Announcing the winners of the inaugural Docomomo US I Spy Modernism Architectural Photography Competition: Out of the many images submitted, the jury selected 12 winning photographs, taken by students, amateur photographers, and professionals, which displayed their personal takes on capturing modernism. -- Joy Mullapally; Tiecheng Chen; Julio Alberto Cedano; Serhii Chrucky; Geoff Goddard; James Haefner, Robert Meckfessel; Steven Lawrey; Adam Reynolds; Carmen Soubriet- Docomomo US |
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