Highway to Isolation
David Sunberg/Esto
Multidisciplinary teams are working to rethink the grounds surrounding the Eero Saarinen-designed Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, better known as the St. Louis Arch, to improve its connectivity with the city and the riverfront. An editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is calling on the teams to substantially rework I-70, which creates a barrier along the park’s western edge. Read More
Lange vs Ouroussoff
Ouroussoff of the New York Times, obsessed with curves and starchitects?
Love Nicolai Ouroussoff or hate him, Alexandra Lange’s takedown, “Why Nicolai Ouroussoff Is Not Good Enough” on Design Observer, is a highly engaging read. The design community seems to tire of its most visible critic after a few years, and Lange begins her piece by revisiting Michael Sorkin’s takedown of then Times critic Paul Goldberger from the mid 1980s. Many of us recall a similar fatigue that set in during Herbert Muschamp’s time on the job. Lange, a frequent contributor to AN‘s “Crit” column, hits Oroussoff with a three pronged attack, with sections subtitled, “He Doesn’t Seem To Live in New York City” (a jab at his globetrotting), “He’s Slippery” (on vagueness of his writing), and “He Doesn’t Care” (an accusation that he’s passionless). She is anything but passionless: “When I see a terrible building, or even just one with large, windy, unmanageable public spaces, I get mad,” she writes. The popular press could always use more voices with such informed conviction.
Disappearing Detroit
Walden Street, Detroit by photographer Andrew Moore. An exhibition of his Detroit work will be on display at the Akron Art Museum in June.
The plight of Detroit is a subject of endless fascination for architects and planners and has been irresistible to photographers. Still, the scale of the city’s problems retains the ability to shock. According to the Detroit Free Press, the city is moving to bulldoze between 2500 to 3000 abandoned homes this year—a fraction of the more than 10,000 homes considered dangerous and slated for demolition. Given the fact that it costs approximately $10,000 to demolish a house, the 2500 figure is all the finacially strapped city can afford to take down. Read More
LEEDers in Education
(photos by Cameron Campbell, RDG Planning and Design unless otherwise noted)
It’s official: design students at Iowa State University learn their craft in a LEED Platinum facility. The King Pavilion is the third Platinum building in Iowa, and one of the only design school buildings in the country to reach this highest level of certification. Designed by RDG Planning & Design of Des Moines, the wing features a green roof, extensive daylighting, blue jean insulation and other recycled building materials, among other sustainable strategies. Click through for more photos. Read More
A New Direction for Domus?
The February 2010 cover of the magazine.
The famed Italian architecture and design magazine Domus announced new leadership today, with the reinstatement of former editor-in-chief Alessandro Mendini for an eleven-issue term beginning in April. Joseph Grima, until recently the director of the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, has been brought on to bolster the magazine’s web and international presence and will take over as editor-in-chief following Mendini’s term.
The somewhat unusual arrangement will give Grima time to rethink the magazine’s content across media platforms, while the print edition continues under the steady hand of Mendini, who has previously edited Domus, Modo, and Casabella magazines. Deputy editor Stephan Casciani has also being retained. According to a statement from the magazine, Domus has an international circulation of approximately 51,000 copies. Read More
Piano Bombed
(photos courtesy Fat Caps and Chrome)
Chicago is known for the combination of its excellent architecture and tough, gritty urban life. Both aspects of the city’s personality met briefly yesterday, when two graffiti crews tagged a long wall of the Renzo Piano-designed Modern Wing at the Art Institute. While we would never endorse vandalism, there is no denying the visual power of the bright colors and riotous script dashed across Piano’s formal surfaces. The Art Institute, however, did not ponder the artistic merit of the tags. Read More
Rough Ride on the South Side
(Courtesy Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center)
With project’s like the Gary Comer Youth Center, designed by John Ronan Architects, and the SOS Children’s Villages by Studio Gang, Chicago’s South Side has some of the most exciting non-profit institutional architecture in the country. Chicago Magazine takes an in-depth look at one project that has had a decidely bumpier ride, the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, once planned for Bronzeville in an Antoine Predock-designed building, now destined for West Pullman in a less ambitious piece of architecture designed by Antunovich Associates (above). The piece lays out in detail how in 2004 the project was scuttled when then Alderman Dorothy Tillman vetoed the project, saying she wanted a shopping center on the site. The project was then relocated to West Pullman, with a slightly less expensive design by Murphy/Jahn. Read More
Rail Picking Up Steam
(all images courtesy whitehouse.gov)
California, Florida, and Illinois are receiving the largest pieces of the federal high speed rail pie. According to the a release from the White House, California will receive $2.32 billion for a forked line running from San Diego to Los Angeles and splitting in Northern California with spurs to San Francisco and Sacramento. Florida will receive $1.25 billion for a new line from Tampa to Orlando, with an additional line connected Orlando to Miami as a part of a “long-term vision.”
“By investing in high speed rail, we’re doing so many good things for our country at the same time,” said Vice President Biden, according to a statement from the White House . “We’re creating good construction and manufacturing jobs in the near-term. We’re spurring economic development in the future. We’re making our communities more livable—and we’re doing it all while decreasing America’s environmental impact and increasing America’s ability to compete in the world.”
Illinois will receive $1.13 billion to upgrade its corridor to St. Louis, far less than the $4.5 billion the state sought.
Turning Up Design
(images courtesy of the Volume Gallery)
We have previously reported on Chicago’s burgeoning independent design scene, and now the Windy City is gaining a new venue to see the newest design thinking. The Volume Gallery will serve as a “platform for emerging American designers to engage with an international audience,” according to a statement form the organizers. Their first exhibition on designer Jonathan Nesci, called THE NEW, will be held at the Andrew Rafacz Gallery in the West Loop, and will feature limited editions, including tables, chairs, and pendant lamps. Nesci’s work has been widely published and has been show at Design Miami, ICFF, Design Art London, and the Salone del Mobile in Milan. Read More
New Leadership at AIA Chicago
There’s a new regime in town. AIA Chicago has announced its new board of directors and chapter officers. Walter D. Street III has been named chapter president. He brings a wealth of professional experience and has shown a commitment to expanding diversity and mentorship within the profession. According to a statement from AIA Chicago
Street will lead ongoing efforts for the chapter, which serves more than 3,200 members in Chicagoland. He is currently a senior architect at Johnson & Lee, Ltd. and has been a member of AIA Chicago for many years, previously serving as Treasurer in 2008. Street also regularly participates in the National AIA Grassroots legislative conferences in Washington, D.C., the Illinois Prairie Grassroots conferences in Springfield, and is an active member of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). Street has also served on the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s committee to develop an architecture curriculum for K-12 students.
Read the full list of directors after the jump. Read More
Burj Inaugurated and Renamed
The newly renamed Burj Khalifa under construction. (all images courtesy SOM)
Today marks the official inauguration of the world’s tallest building, the Burj in Dubai. While the opening comes at a rocky time for the emirate and for the global real estate market, it was greeted with great fanfare, including, cannily, renaming the building the Burj Khalifa, after the president of neighboring Abu Dhabi, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The move signaled both Dubai’s gratitude for Abu Dhabi’s recent bailout and the unity of the emirates through the financial crisis.
Advertise on The Architect's Newspaper.
Archives
Categories
Architecture
Design
East Coast
Midwest
National
Planning
Shft+Alt+Del
Sustainability
Transportation
West Coast
