Today’s News - Tuesday, November 17, 2020
● Doug Saunders delves into how cities, from Lisbon and Victoria, BC, to Paris, Montreal, and Istanbul, are seizing "opportunity from the pandemic crisis to change how they operate for the better," with mayors "implementing more fundamental changes to education, housing and infrastructure" (great read!).
● Alasdair Lane delves into why "biodiversity activists in the U.K. are calling for a new urban-planning designation - 'rewilding'" - and highlights "something remarkable - a 1,200-home community on the outskirts of Cambridge" that is "an oasis of nature."
● Alex Bozikovic offers a visually fascinating presentation of PUBLIC WORK's proposal to "convert 9.5 acres of asphalt into green space" on Toronto's University Avenue that "could be Toronto's equivalent of La Rambla in Barcelona. The impact on vehicle traffic would be near zero. But the effect on the city could be enormous."
● Syrian architect and author Marwa Al-Saboun talks about how "French colonial design segregated Syria's cities and laid the groundwork for division and civil war. The future of the country may depend on how it decides to rebuild" (audio).
● Kriston Capps brings us some unsettling news: Trump never signed the "controversial 'Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again' executive order" - but "without any authorization - the GSA appears to have adopted a modernism ban" with RFQ's that include language from the EO."
● Saffron considers three projects that "tell us a lot about what urban offices will look like when the pandemic finally ends" in Philly - they "are likely to be short, stout - with lab spaces for scientists - these innovation districts can help the city weather this difficult time. It's more important than ever that their architecture reflects that important role."
● Nate Berg parses how, "as office buildings empty out," architect Danish Kurani "has developed a specialization in converting commercial buildings into innovative new educational facilities. Adapting a former office into a learning environment isn't a huge stretch, he says."
● William Morgan cheers "Brown University's new policy toward old houses" by offering to sell five for $10 each and offering to help with relocation costs to make way for two new dorms - "evidence of a new chapter in town and gown relations - we are seeing a happier way to planning College Hill's future."
● Ravenscroft brings us eyefuls of MAD Architects' conversion of an 18th-century courtyard building in Beijing into a new kindergarten for 400 - topped with a (fun-looking!) red rooftop playground.
● A gallery of buildings designed "for the new climate reality - using sustainable materials and innovative techniques' (and not all the usual suspects!).
● A museum kind of day: Kennicott: "Smart, clear and a little institutional, SOM's National Museum of the United States Army is far more than an exercise in institutional hagiography - this is a professional museum, full of revelatory and emotionally powerful objects" with "carefully parsed language aimed at getting most of the story correct."
● Hickman x 2: The National Native American Veterans Memorial "Warrior's Circle of Honor" on the National Mall just opened. "It is the first national landmark in the U.S. capital to pay tribute to the countless American Indians, Alaska Natives, and native Hawaiians who have served in the U.S. military throughout the decades."
● He parses Reed Hilderbrand and Trahan Architects' vision for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in Washington, DC: "The concept design is the first major project within Reed Hilderbrand's master plan update for the 109-acre core landscape of the U.S. National Arboretum."
● ICYMI: ANN feature: Artist Gordon Huether: "Amid Social & Economic Uncertainties, Major Public Art Welcomes & Elevates. We are in difficult times, and cost concerns may affect plans for site-specific art. Yet, if there was ever a time that art mattered, when art could unite us, this is that time" (his installations for the Salt Lake City Airport prove it).
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Doug Saunders: The urban cure: How cities seize opportunity from the pandemic crisis to change how they operate for the better: More bike lanes and sidewalk dining are obvious changes...But many mayors are implementing more fundamental changes to education, housing and infrastructure...pandemic has...forced them to forge new institutions that are likely more effective, and lasting, than the old bureaucracies...Some changes...mutating from impromptu jury-rig innovations into lasting fixtures...larger changes...will be driven not by inventive opportunism but by difficult force of circumstance. -- David Miller/C40 Cities; Mary Rowe/Canadian Urban Institute; Brent Toderian- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Alasdair Lane: Biodiversity activists in the UK are calling for a new urban-planning designation: "Rewilding" places nature at the centre of urban development: On the outskirts of Cambridge, England...oasis of nature is Trumpington Meadows, a 1,200-home community where wildlife protection meets something rather surprising: city expansion...something remarkable...Efforts to rewild cityscapes haven’t always been popular...Yet there is clear evidence that nature can coexist harmoniously with urban life...harder to reconcile is the urgent need for new affordable housing...With both camps eyeing scarce inner-city "brownfields"...housing and environmental imperatives might clash the most.- City Monitor |
Alex Bozikovic: Rebirth of the promenade: Post-pandemic cities will need more open space. Landscape architects PUBLIC WORK say we can find it by remaking streets - starting with Toronto’s University Avenue: ..could get an overhaul on a grand scale...plan would convert 9.5 acres of asphalt into green space, creating a larger network that could be Toronto’s equivalent of La Rambla in Barcelona...The impact on vehicle traffic...would be near zero. But the effect on the city could be enormous + Remaking streets around the world. -- Dunington-Grubb & Stensson (1960s)- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Marwa Al-Sabouni: How Can The Architecture Of A City Play A Role In War? Syrian architect and author says French colonial design segregated Syria's cities and laid the groundwork for division and civil war. The future of the country may depend on how it decides to rebuild.- NPR / National Public Radio / TED Radio Hour |
Kriston Capps: Trump’s Defeat Didn’t Stop His ‘Ban’ on Modern Architecture: [He] never signed a controversial “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” executive order. But a neoclassical-only building mandate is still happening...The GSA appears to have adopted a modernism ban, without any authorization in place...now looks like procurement policy at the federal agency...Design is already underway in Alabama for what might be Trump’s first mandatory classical courthouse...The country builds plenty of classical courthouses, AIA's Robert Ivy says. But they shouldn’t be mandatory. -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Hartman-Cox Architects; HBRA Architects; Jenkins-Peer Architects/Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Payne Design Group; National Civic Art Society; Kian Goh; Witold Rybczynski- Bloomberg CityLab |
Inga Saffron: Don’t count out office buildings yet. Philly developers push ahead with new, pandemic-resistant designs: A growing number of lab buildings are becoming oases of activity when traditional offices are empty: Together, these three designs tell us a lot about what urban offices will look like when the pandemic finally ends...Instead of soaring trophy towers...new workplaces are likely to be short, stout...most new buildings will be laid out with lab spaces for scientists...these innovation districts...can help the city weather this difficult time. It’s more important than ever that their architecture reflects that important role. -- PAU Studio (Practice for Architecture and Urbanism; Gensler; ZGF Architects; HWKN; KieranTimberlake- Philadelphia Inquirer |
Nate Berg: As office buildings empty out, here’s one creative use for all of that space: Office buildings can be turned into schools pretty easily, as one project in the Bay Area shows: The office-to-school conversion was designed by architect Danish Kurani, who has developed a specialization in converting commercial buildings into innovative new educational facilities...converted a vacant office building in the San Francisco suburb of Livermore into the new home of Acton Academy East Bay...Adapting a former office into a learning environment isn’t a huge stretch, he says.- Fast Company / Co.Design |
William Morgan: Brown University's New Policy Toward Old Houses: [Its] offer to sell five houses...for $10 each may mark a welcome change in the school's attitude towards neighborhood expansion. That Brown is actively searching for someone to move the dwellings that stand in the way of two planned dormitories, and offering money to help the relocation is further evidence of a new chapter in town and gown relations...it is unrealistic to expect an unblemished record...But let us assume that this time is different, and that we are seeing a happier way to planning College Hill's future. -- Antoinette Downing; KieranTimberlake Architects; Toshiko Mori Architect; Deborah Berke Partners- GoLocalProv.com (Providence, Rhode Island) |
Tom Ravenscroft: MAD Architects tops Beijing kindergarten with red rooftop playground: ...converted an 18th-century courtyard building in Beijing into the YueCheng Courtyard Kindergarten...topped with a playspace...wrapped the new kindergarten...around a traditional courtyard building that was originally constructed in 1725...new structure completely surrounds the historic buildings, which have been converted to become part of the kindergarten...historic buildings contain enclosed art and dance classrooms, as well as a teacher's office and lounge, the new structure contains an open-plan teaching space for 400 children. -- Ma Yansong- Dezeen |
Aaliyah Harris: Building for a flooded future: Architects are designing for the new climate reality: Using sustainable materials and innovative techniques, these designs from across the world could be increasingly important in a future where flooding might be widespread. -- Heatherwick Studio; Snorre Stinessen Arkitektur; Baca Architects; BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group; Aldayjover Arquitectura y Paisaje; SLA; Marlies Rohmer Architects; Grimshaw Architects; KCAP Architects&Planners; Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners; NLÉ; BillionBricks- CNN Style |
Philip Kennicott: Trump has tried to coopt the Army. This new museum shows why that won’t be easy: Smart, clear and a little institutional, the National Museum of the United States Army at Fort Belvoir...is far more than an exercise in institutional hagiography or...a mostly theme-park recruitment experience...this is a professional museum, full of revelatory and emotionally powerful objects...shining, steel-clad pavilions [are] trim and efficient and perhaps intentionally bland in a corporate way, but manicured like a well-pressed uniform...Carefully parsed language aimed at getting most of the story correct...the tone, the clarity and temperance of its message, gives one hope that it will indeed support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. -- Colin Koop/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Christopher Chadbourne & Associates; Eisterhold Associates- Washington Post |
Matt Hickman: National Native American Veterans Memorial opens on the National Mall: ...on the grounds of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. It is the first national landmark in the United States capital to pay tribute to the countless American Indians, Alaska Natives, and native Hawaiians who have served in the U.S. military throughout the decades...designed by Harvey Pratt, a multimedia artist, Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, and member of the Arapaho and Cheyenne Tribes of Oklahoma..."Warrior’s Circle of Honor"...selected from a shortlist of six concepts...by the competition jury. -- Butzer Architects and Urbanism- The Architect's Newspaper |
Matt Hickman: Reed Hilderbrand and Trahan Architects reveal their vision for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in Washington, DC: The concept design...is the first major project within Reed Hilderbrand’s master plan update for the 109-acre core landscape of the U.S. National Arboretum...446-acre botanical research complex...Established in 1982 as the world’s first public bonsai museum...also home to a collection of viewing stones, an art form related to bonsai, which populates its own pavilion..."it’s really rare that we get a design team that isn’t thinking about the building on one drawing and the landscape on another drawing."- The Architect's Newspaper |
ANN feature: Gordon Huether: Amid Social & Economic Uncertainties, Major Public Art Welcomes & Elevates: Tripling value of 1% for Art: We are in difficult times, and cost concerns may affect plans for site-specific art. Yet, if there was ever a time that art mattered, when art could unite us in inspiration, nature, and beauty, this is that time.- ArchNewsNow.com |
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