Today’s News - Tuesday, November 3, 2020
EDITOR'S NOTE: If we don't post the newsletter tomorrow, it's because we're either out dancing in the street or crying in our beer.
● Trevor Boddy pens a thoughtful and touching tribute to Peter Cardew, 81, who "became Canada's definitive 'architect's architect' - he was the closest we have to a Sir John Soane for our times, and if a fanfare is played in his honor, it should be Elgar's 'The Enigma Variations' - that, or a skiffle band - where would we be without such dreamers?"
● The kind of news no one should have to be reporting - sadly, Alissa Walker does: "Cities are preparing for election night protests - boarding up windows, locking down, and anticipating an unsettled outcome. Here's what's happening" across the country (sigh).
● Kimmelman's conversations with Julián Castro, former mayor of San Antonio and former HUD Secretary, about the housing crisis and the role cities play + Janette Sadik-Khan, former Commissioner of NYC Department of Transportation, about how public transit can drive economic recovery in cities + Link to transcript of this episode.
● Marcus Fairs reports on Richard Florida's lecture at the (virtual) Utopian Hours conference: There's "'no evidence' that urban density helps spread of coronavirus. 'The gloom and doom prognostications are overblown. We are going through a great urban reset'" - dependent on "young creatives" (comments are not kind).
● Camilo José Vergara documents how NYC "street artists are depicting the terrible power of Covid-19: their fear of infection, the sadness of loss, and anger at having to quarantine."
● Betsky minces no words about Google's $20 billion "surprisingly safe foray into city making" in Mountain View, California - there's "little to complain about, other than we would expect something more creative and daring - Google should be able to do better."
● Conor Dougherty reports on plans for a car-free neighborhood "near Phoenix, perhaps the most auto-addicted city in America - the car-addicted reality makes the architectural renderings both intriguing and a little hard to believe" (but possibly "eerily prescient" for a post-pandemic world).
● Moore cheers Adam Khan's Plot 10, an "inspired reinvention of an inner London children's play project - light and jaunty" with "bouncing brick arches" that "shouldn't be a rarity, but it has been hard to achieve.".
● Just when you think you've seen it all: Ravenscroft reports on Jean Nouvel's hotel in Saudi Arabia's AlUla desert "that will be carved into a sandstone hill" near a UNESCO World Heritage site, part of the country's Vision 2030 "to encourage global tourism in the area" (no comment).
● 2016 Pritzker laureate Alejandro Aravena is named chair of 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury, and Manuela Lucá-Dazio, head of the Venice Biennale visual arts and architecture sector, is named advisor and executive director when Martha Thorne steps down (after 15 years!).
● ICYMI: ANN feature: Dave Hora kicks off a new ANN series: Nature of Order: Christopher Alexander's work and its importance in shaping a healthy, living world (based on a program by Sorrento, Italy-based Building Beauty).
Deadline + Winners all:
● Call for entries: YAC - Young Architects Competitions: FITT Group Future Headquarters in Vicenza, Italy; cash prizes.
● Camden Highline names 5 (impressive) international teams as finalists in the competition to design "1.1km of disused railway into a new green link, bridging Camden Town and King's Cross" (scroll down for images & full teams).
● Eyefuls of Architecture MasterPrize (AMP) 2020 Winners, with Tadao Ando, Vo Trong Nghia, and Landprocess taking top honors (great presentations of miles of category winners!).
● Some preliminary images of Adjaye Associates' competition-winning design for a new 80,000-square-foot student center at Rice University in Houston.
● Three "exemplary" winners of the inaugural 2020 ULI Europe Awards for Excellence hail from the Netherlands and South Africa (alas - no images, as of now, anyway).
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Obituary by Trevor Boddy: In Memoriam: Peter Cardew, 1939-2020: For good, and sometimes for ill, Vancouver’s Cardew has become Canada’s definitive ‘architect’s architect’ over the past several decades...chosen as the RAIC’s Gold Medal winner for 2012...But the discipline and focus needed to pull of being an architect’s architect also comes at a price...[he] sometimes shared Arthur Erickson’s disdain for the money side of architecture...While mouthing admiration [for his "pioneering experiment" False Creek], architects, developers and especially planners seemed threatened by his innovations...he was the closest we have to a Sir John Soane for our times, and if a fanfare is played in his honour when conditions permit, it should be Elgar’s “The Enigma Variations” - that, or a skiffle band...where would we be without such dreamers? -- Rhone & Iredale; David Miller/Miller Hull; Marc Boutin; Richard Henriquez; Russell Acton/Acton Ostry- Canadian Architect |
Alissa Walker: Cities Are Preparing for Election Night Protests With Curfews and Plywood: Boarding up windows, locking down, and anticipating an unsettled outcome: ...a majority of Americans are expecting Election Day demonstrations...Here’s what’s happening in L.A., New York, and beyond [Chicago, Portland, Oregon, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C.]- Curbed |
The World As You'll Know It: ...after COVID-19: Michael Kimmelman speaks to Julián Castro, former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, about the housing crisis and the role cities play in national politics + Janette Sadik-Khan, former Commissioner of New York City Department of Transportation, about how public transit can drive economic recovery in cities + link to transcript of this episode.- Aventine Research Institute |
Marcus Fairs: "No evidence" that urban density helps spread of coronavirus says Richard Florida: Cities will bounce back as young creatives take advantage of lower rents and dense urban areas prove better at mitigating the coronavirus pandemic...While some families and older people may leave city centres...in the wake of the pandemic, their departure will create opportunities for younger people..."The gloom and doom prognostications are overblown"...Reduced demand for office space will "driving down rents"...Covid-19 will lead to changes in the way cities are configured...The rise of remote working will make cities more, not less, important..."We are going through a great urban reset."- Dezeen |
Camilo José Vergara: Spray-Painting Through the Pandemic: Since the start of the pandemic, I have been walking the streets of the communities hardest hit by the virus...street artists are depicting the terrible power of Covid-19: their fear of infection, the sadness of loss and anger at having to quarantine. My aim is to document these graphics before they are painted over by other street artists or erased by building owners...following selection of images were taken in and around New York over the last 8 months.- Bloomberg Opinion |
Aaron Betsky: Google's Urban Ambitions: the tech giant's surprisingly safe foray into city making: You would think they would be more innovative...building its own signature office space, which looks to be a mash-up between a 1970s suburban terrace office structure and a big-top tent...with more than $20 billion in construction. The results leave little to complain about, other than we would expect something more creative and daring...Middlefield Park...nothing glaringly wrong...other than the fact that Google should be able to do better...it looks reasonably, well, reasonable...Development plans by Google shouldn’t just be OK. We deserve more from the Empire of Search. -- SERA, Hassell; Kristen Hall City Design; Sidewalk Labs/Daniel Doctoroff; SiteLab; Heatherwick Studio; Grimshaw Architects; Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF); Fougeron Architecture; Solomon Coldwell Buenz; SHoP Architects; Architectural Resources Group; West 8- Architect Magazine |
Conor Dougherty: The Capital of Sprawl Gets a Radically Car-Free Neighborhood: On an empty lot near Phoenix, perhaps the most auto-addicted city in America, a start-up is betting $170 million on a more walkable future: Culdesac Tempe is a 17-acre empty lot...will eventually feature 761 apartments, 16,000 square feet of retail, 1,000 residents - and exactly zero places for them to park...contractually forbidden...car-addicted reality of the area makes [the] architectural renderings both intriguing and a little hard to believe...came the pandemic...Culdesac pitch - a Sun Belt development that caters to people who work remotely and middle-class refugees from the expensive and crowded coasts - started looking eerily prescient.- New York Times |
Rowan Moore: Plot 10, Somers Town, London - an object lesson in child's play: Adam Khan's inspired reinvention of an inner London children’s play project is an example to all our cash-strapped councils: Really, this shouldn’t be a rarity: a public building, providing a much-needed service to local children...with some new social housing forms part of a larger ensemble...new project...is in fact unusual...Outside...is light and jaunty...an inverted castle...Inside it is high-ceilinged, solid and calm...a big room for small people...Interior and playground and roof become an interconnected landscape of play...Next door is a new block of 10 flats...none of this should be abnormal, but it has been hard to achieve. -- Axel Feldmann/Objectif- Observer (UK) |
Tom Ravenscroft: Jean Nouvel reveals cave hotel in Saudi Arabia's AlUla desert: ...a subterranean hotel that will be carved into a sandstone hill...Named Sharaan by Jean Nouvel...resort was informed by the nearby UNESCO World Heritage site where the remains of a Nabataean city can be found...[with] 40 rooms and three resort villas that will be cut into a cliff face...rooms will be arranged around a central 80-metre high lift shaft...The development...forms part of The Royal Commission for AlUla's plan to encourage global tourism in the area.- Dezeen |
Alejandro Aravena Named Chair of 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury: Manuela Lucá-Dazio, head of the Venice Biennale visual arts and architecture sector, has been tapped as advisor and executive director...will assume her new role in March 2021 when Martha Thorne - the current executive director since 2005 - steps down...continuing as dean of IE School of Architecture and Design in Spain thereafter. -- ELEMENTAL- Architectural Record |
Call for entries: YAC - Young Architects Competitions: FITT Group Future Headquarters in Vicenza, Italy; cash prizes; early bird registration (save money!): November 29 (submissions due January 27)- YAC - Young Architects Competitions |
Five Finalists Revealed for Camden's New Park in the Sky: Camden Highline charity is searching to find the studio that can realise their ambitious vision of converting 1.1km of disused railway into a new green link, bridging Camden Town and King’s Cross. -- Agence Ter (France); Benedetti Architects (UK); Feilden Fowles & J&L Gibbons (UK); James Corner Field Operations with Piet Oudolf (USA); We Made That & Hassell (UK)- Camden Highline |
Architecture MasterPrize (AMP) 2020 Winners: ...honors designs in the disciplines of architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture. -- Architectural Design of the Year: Tadao Ando - He Art Museum; Interior Design of the Year: Vo Trong Nghia - Nocento Cafe; Landscape of the Year: Landprocess - Thammasat Urban Farm Rooftop- Architecture MasterPrize |
Rice University to build new student center, selects Adjaye Associates to lead design: Houston-based Kendall/Heaton Associates will serve as executive architect...Rice plans to retain a few elements of the Rice Memorial Center, such as the chapel and the cloisters, but most of the RMC will be demolished...three-story, 80,000-square-foot structure incorporates the functions of the RMC and adds a multicultural center and a rooftop auditorium.- Houston Business Journal |
Three Exemplary Real Estate Projects Announced as Winners of 2020 ULI Europe Awards for Excellence: ...inaugural awards recognize outstanding urban development projects in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, honor two projects in the Netherlands and one in South Africa. -- de Architekten Cie; Mei Architects and Planners; Boom Architects- Urban Land Institute - ULI Europe |
ANN feature: Dave Hora: Nature of Order #1: Christopher Alexander's work and its importance in shaping a healthy, living world: There is an undercurrent of the idea that architecture, when carried out with processes that Alexander presents in "The Nature of Order," can indeed lead to a more whole and humane society.- ArchNewsNow.com |
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