Today’s News - Thursday, February 4, 2021
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days - we'll be back Tuesday, February 9. In the meantime: Stay well. Stay safe - and wear a mask!
● A great opportunity! Call for applications: J.M. Kaplan Fund's J.M.K. Innovation Prize to support innovators spearheading transformative early-stage projects in the fields of social justice, the environment, and heritage conservation; 10 Prizes, each totaling $175,000.
● Bozikovic cheers a "sustainable village of 9,000" in Vancouver being developed by the Squamish Nation and designed by Revery Architecture (formerly Bing Thom Architects) - its "compact, green, and dense" (12 buildings on 10% of the 4.7-hectare [11.6-acre] site, and very few cars). "All this makes a powerful and utopian vision."
● Kriston Capps' take on Amazon's conch shell-shaped tower, by NBBJ, on its HQ2 campus in Virginia: "Renderings of the tree-encrusted glass skyscraper seem to glow with the techno-futurist optimism that held sway in The Before Time. America's faith in its urban centers is being tested. Whatever else it is, the Helix is a testament to that conviction."
● Hickman x 2: He reports on SOM's "colossal" 2.2 million-square-foot, 83-story mixed-use tower to replace Trump's Grand Central Hyatt: "Hulking size aside - 175 Park Avenue attempts to play nicely with - and reflect - its stately historic neighbors, including Grand Central Terminal and the Chrysler Building" (Beyer Blinder Belle and James Corner Field Operations are on the team, too).
● He reports that The Cultural Landscape Foundation has launched a campaign to halt "inappropriate" development at the 425-acre "famously sylvan" Weyerhaeuser campus in Washington State (SOM & Petrer Walker, 1972) - the current owner "plans to build over 1.5 million square feet of warehouse space across 132 largely forested acres."
● NYC-based Stephanie Lin, the principal of Brooklyn's Present Forms and a co-founder of the design collective Office III, is named dean of the School of Architecture - formerly the School of Architecture at Taliesin.
● ICYMI: ANN feature: Samuel G. White: The Architecture of Public Buildings: …good design should not be expressed in terms of style. The key difference between good and bad architecture is quality, not whether the cladding is rusticated limestone or perforated titanium.
Weekend diversions + Page-turners:
● The Architecture, Culture and Spirituality Forum is hosting a free film screening of architect/director Nili Portugali's "And the alley she whitewashed in light blue" - followed by a live Zoom Q&A moderated by Michael J. Crosbie.
● Elisia Seeber gets the skinny from curator Hilary Letwin re: "Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: Genius Loci" at the West Vancouver Art Museum: "The remarkable 99-year-old is still consulting on projects - and helped choose what to include" in the retrospective.
● Gabriel Díaz Montemayor cheers Maria Bellalta's "Social Urbanism: Reframing Spatial Design - Discourses from Latin America" - "a welcome addition to the growing number of publications on the social justice-oriented form of urbanism, architecture, and public space - it is not a how-to book," but "proposes social urbanism must transition from model to global movement."
● Linda Poon applauds Arthur Drooker's "City Hall" that "dives into 15 of the most architecturally unique city halls in America - including those whose design deviates from the Greek- and Roman-inspired style of neoclassical architecture [and] the evolution of civic architecture in America."
● Welton talks to photographer Tim Street-Porter re: his latest book, "Los Angeles Today: City of Dreams: Architecture and Design" - Street-Porter calls L.A. a "kind of a cowboy town, with all these quirky wonders - I had a great subject."
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Call for entries: J.M. Kaplan Fund's J.M.K. Innovation Prize: to support and elevate innovators who are spearheading transformative early-stage projects in the fields of social justice, the environment, and heritage conservation; 10 Prizes, each totaling $175,000; deadline: April 30 (informational webinar: March 30)- J.M. Kaplan Fund |
Alex Bozikovic: Senakw: In Vancouver the Squamish Nation shapes a sustainable village of 9,000: It will be the largest and most prominent example yet of Indigenous city-building in North America, and its urban design breaks dramatically with convention...compact, green and dense...4-million-square-foot complex will occupy a three-pointed, 4.7-hectare fragment of traditional Squamish land...now consists of 12 buildings ranging from 17 to 59 storeys...will include low-emissions construction and energy-efficient architecture, very few private cars...buildings will cover only 10% of the site...All this makes a powerful and utopian vision... -- Venelin Kokalov/Revery Architecture (formerly Bing Thom Architects)- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Kriston Capps: Does Amazon’s ‘Helix’ Reflect the Shape of the Post-Pandemic Office? The e-commerce company’s HQ2 campus in Arlington, Virginia, is both a statement about the future of cities and a throwback to pre-Covid techno-optimism: ...350-foot-tall [370,000-square-foot] tower shaped like a conch shell...stands on an 11-acre development...National Landing...Renderings of the tree-encrusted glass skyscraper...seem to glow with the techno-futurist optimism that held sway...in The Before Time...aims to deliver an urban sublime experience...PenPlace...will include some 2.8 million square feet of office space...America’s faith in its urban centers is being tested. Whatever else it is, the Helix is a testament to that conviction... -- NBBJ; Kate Orff/SCAPE- Bloomberg CityLab |
Matt Hickman: SOM reveals 83-story tower to replace Trump’s Grand Central Hyatt in Midtown Manhattan: ...colossal tower...2.2 million square feet of mixed-use space including a new 500-room Hyatt property, the 83-story skyscraper located adjacent to - and above - Grand Central Terminal will reach 1,646 feet...Beyer Blinder Belle and James Corner Field Operations joining SOM on the design... a trio of elevated terraces will bring 24,000 square feet of multifaceted public space...Hulking size aside...175 Park Avenue...attempts to play nicely with - and reflect - its stately historic neighbors including Grand Central and the Chrysler Building. -- Skidmore Owings & Merrill- The Architect's Newspaper |
Matt Hickman: The Cultural Landscape Foundation launches campaign to halt “inappropriate” development at historic Weyerhaeuser campus: When 121-year-old timberland and forest products company...decamped from its longtime corporate home...for more modest digs...in downtown Seattle in 2016, the preservation alarm bells went off almost immediately - and haven’t stopped, only growing louder with time....[TCLF] aims to halt...development at a famously sylvan site...425 acres...campus has been likened as a sort of super-sized, arboriculture-focused Disneyland...plans to build over 1.5 million square feet of warehouse space across 132 largely forested acres...letters [have] come from...prominent landscape architects and architects...design leaders, historians, and scholars... -- Peter Walker/Sasaki, Walker and Associates (SWA; Edward Charles Bassett/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)- The Architect's Newspaper |
Stephanie Lin named dean of the School of Architecture: A year after the School of Architecture (formerly the School of Architecture at Taliesin) announced it would be closing, then wouldn’t, and then ultimately departed Taliesin for Cosanti in Arizona in June of 2020, a permanent dean has been selected...Lin will replace Chris Lasch...Lin is currently the principal of Brooklyn’s Present Forms and a co-founder of the design collective Office III...most recently taught at the Cooper Union... -- Aaron Betsky- The Architect's Newspaper |
ACSF Event Invitation (free): Film Screening and Live Zoom Q&A with architect/director Nili Portugali re: "And the alley she whitewashed in light blue"; February 13, 2:00-3:00pm (NYC time - "Zoom doors" will open at 1:45pm); moderated by Michael J. Crosbie- Architecture, Culture and Spirituality Forum (ACSF) |
Elisia Seeber: West Vancouver Art Museum opens exhibition on eminent landscape architect: ...curator Hilary Letwin has long been fascinated and inspired by the work of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. Now, she gets to share that passion with the wider community through..."Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: Genius Loci." The remarkable 99-year-old lives in Vancouver and is still consulting on projects...While this isn’t the first exhibition to feature Oberlander’s work, it is the most retrospective - and she also helped choose what to include.thru March 13 -- Arthur Erickson- Canadian Architect magazine |
Gabriel Díaz Montemayor: Social Urbanism: From the Medellín Model to a New Global Movement: "Social Urbanism: Reframing Spatial Design - Discourses from Latin America" by Maria Bellalta, dean of the School of Landscape Architecture at the Boston Architectural College, is a welcome addition to the growing number of publications on the social justice-oriented form of urbanism, architecture, and public space...point to the value of complex solutions that include multiple stakeholders and interests. But the results are not without shortcomings...This is not a how-to book...proposes social urbanism must transition from model to global movement. -- Jaime Lerner; Gloria Aponte; Juan Camilo Jaramillo; Jorge Perez Jaramillo;d Alejandro Echeverri Restrepo- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
Linda Poon: The City Halls That Defy Stereotypes About Mundane Local Government: "City Hall" by Arthur Drooker explores how civic buildings deviated from neoclassic architecture, and what they say about their cities at the time of construction: ...dives into 15 of the most architecturally unique city halls in America - including those whose design deviates from the Greek- and Roman-inspired style of neoclassical architecture [and] the evolution of civic architecture in America. -- Thomas Mellins- Bloomberg CityLab |
J. Michael Welton:"Los Angeles Today: City of Dreams: Architecture and Design": Photos by Tim Street-Porter: A native of Great Britain...Frank Gehry helped [him] get a green card, so he could stick around in the place the photographer calls “kind of a cowboy town, with all these quirky wonders...I had always been a natural documenter and architectural photographer and here I had a great subject"...new book is 256 pages of the city’s spectacular architecture...- Architects + Artisans |
ANN feature: Samuel G. White, FAIA: The Architecture of Public Buildings: The aspirations of a program that encourages good design should not be expressed in terms of style. The key difference between good and bad architecture is quality, not whether the structure is clad in rusticated limestone or perforated titanium.- ArchNewsNow.com |
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