Studio Gang to Reimagine Stalled Lexington Tower
Proposed CentrePointe tower in Lexington, Kentucky (Courtesy Webb Companies)
Studio Gang has been hired to reimagine a stalled mixed-use high-rise in downtown Lexington, Kentucky. Having languishing through the recession and without financing, the development called CentrePointe may now gain momentum thanks to the fresh eye of the Chicago-based firm responsible for the much-praised Aqua Tower. Jeanne Gang, principal, told AN her office will be preparing several concept plans over the next six weeks demonstrating new design strategies that could guide the future project and attract new tenants and financing.
Unveiled> Ryerson University Student Learning Centre
Rendering of the exterior of the Student Learning Centre looking north on Yonge Street. (Courtesy Ryerson University)
Toronto’s Ryerson University announced plans this week for a bold Student Learning Center designed by Oslo-based Snøhetta and Zeidler Partnership Architects of Toronto. The 8-story structure will mix passive and active academic uses with street-level retail and will serve as the university’s front door on busy Yonge Street.
Quick Clicks> Heckling Hadid, HL23 Highlight, Gimme Shelter, and the Ennis House Blues
Zaha Hadid's proposed civic center in Elk Grove, California
Heckling Hadid. The New York Times reports that the city council in Elk Grove, California is reconsidering its Bilbao moment. Once upon a time before the recession, the community hoped a community center designed by Zaha Hadid would bring acclaim to the suburban city. Now as plans are being reconsidered, the council only sees a “squid” or an “animal from another planet.”
LA on HL. Usually found prowling around the west coast, Christopher Hawthorne, architecture critic for the LA Times, has found his way to New York and takes a look at HL23, that condo tower perched above Manhattaned beloved High Line by LA architect Neil Denari.
Gimme (Smartly Planned) Shelter. It turns out that when Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell isn’t rocking out, he’s pondering smart growth. Smart Planet relays a recent event at the National Press Club where Leavell and co-author J. Marshall Craig talk transportation, sustainability, and community growth.
Ennis House Blues. Curbed reports that Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1924 Ennis House in LA just can’t seem to find a buyer since it was put on the market in 2009. Originally listed at $15 million, the price has steadily dropped to its current $5.9 mil.
Happy Birthday, Mies!
Mies standing behind a model of Crown Hall (Courtesy Illinois Institute of Technology)
125 years ago this past Sunday, a newborn Ludwig Mies van der Rohe may have been dreaming up his first glass box, but 125 years later, a party in one of his most famous boxes hopes to rekindle the spirit of the famous architect. The Mies van der Rohe Society will gather in a couple hours in Crown Hall on the campus of the Chicago’s Illinois Institute of Technology for an evening of architecture, history, and, of course, cocktails.
If you can’t make the party, you can celebrate with a rather, well, unique tribute to the architect after the jump.
Quick Clicks> Cabrini Lights Up, Earth Powers Down, Calming Queens, and Starchitect Houses
Chicago's last Cabrini Green high rise will be lit up before demolition (Courtesy Project Cabrini Green)
Cabrini Green Kablooey. This Wednesday, the last high rise tower at Chicago’s Cabrini Green site will be demolished, marking the end of the famous housing project. Polis reminds us that artist Jan Tichy and social worker Efrat Appel plan to mark the occasion with an art installation. Project Cabrini Green translates 134 poems into light and will begin display at 7:00pm tonight. (Also catch a live internet feed here.)
Earth Hour. This past weekend, people, companies, and cities all over the globe celebrated Earth Hour by switching off the lights to spotlight issues of energy consumption. The Boston Globe‘s Big Picture is running a photo essay of some dramatic skylines with and without lights.
Parking lanes planned along 48th Avenue (Courtesy NYCDOT via StreetsBlog)
Calming Queens. StreetsBlog brings news of New York’s latest traffic calming measure proposed for 48th Avenue and 44th Drive in Queens. The block shown above in Long Island City would initially be painted for affordability and eventually transformed into a greenway.
Cribs. Inspired by Philip Johnson’s Glass House, Curbed goes in search of the homes of famous architects. Represented in the list are Alvar Aalto, Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, and Robert A.M. Stern.
Quick Clicks> Vital Arts, Freeway Down, Arguing Art, and Metro Card Art
Dallas Arts District (Photo by Iwan Baan via Cityscapes)
District Review. Blair Kamin reports on the Dallas Arts District – the nation’s largest contiguous urban arts district – and finds the architecture inspiring but the street life a bore. In an area where Pritzker-winning architecture abounds, can a new park and residential development create urban vitality?
Freeway Down. NPR reports on the mainstreaming of highway teardowns across the country. With skyrocketing infrastructure costs, many cities find removing a mega-road is more affordable while preserving neighborhood character and spurring new business.
Public Art Confidential. WNYC takes a look at the story of public art in New York and the controversy that can follow as times and values change. Dueling sides argue the benefits of provoking thought on difficult subjects versus giving artwork an appropriate stage to do so. Among the eight most contested statues in New York is the long-toppled King George III once located in Bowling Green.
Multi-Use Metro Cards. Subway Art Blog has a pair of recent galleries showing how you can reuse your old Metro Cards, either by adding to your wardrobe or creating collage artwork.
Quick Clicks> Frank′s Party, Little Cooper, Gaudi′s Church, and Carnegie Saved
Frank Gehry with his birthday cake.
Happy Birthday, Frank! Over the weekend, Frank Gehry celebrated his 82nd birthday on top of New York. New York by Gehry, that is. The penthouse unit on the 76th floor of 8 Spruce Street, Gehry’s first skyscraper, was filled with celebrities (think Bono) and starchitects (Robert A.M. Stern and more). Check out a gallery after the jump.
Little House on the Bowery. Fred Bernstein writes for Design Observer about a little brick house at the center of a giant preservation fight along New York’s Bowery. The demolition has been stopped for now, but Bernstein argues that the building’s real value is in the present, not in its history.
All in the Familia. Oscar Tusquets Blanca writes for Domus about Antoni Gaudí’s under construction Segrada Família in Barcelona. Blanca recalls, interspersed with some amazing photography, when he once advocated abandoning the project decades ago but points out how is opinion has changed today.
Carnegie Wrecking Ball. Ephemeral New York reminds us of a one-time plan to raze the famed Carnegie Hall for a bright red skyscraper set behind a sunken plaza. The March 31, 1960 wrecking date was averted at the last minute by the efforts of the Committee to Save Carnegie Hall.
Video> Subterranean City of Ants Unearthed
Unearthing a giant ant colony (Still from video)
Architecture built by other species can be just as fascinating as our own. Take this excavation of a giant ant colony covering 50 square meters and descending 8 meters into the ground. Researchers filled the (hopefully abandoned) insect city with ten tons of cement and proceeded to excavate the surrounding dirt, revealing hidden tunnels and fungi farms. According to the film, the ant colony was also designed with good ventilation in mind. In all, it’s estimated that the ants moved some 40 tons of earth to create their metropolis. (Via Swiss Miss.)
Quick Clicks> Coops, Help Japan, Sidewalk Dining, and Rooftops
Chicken Circus by Studio H via Jetson Green.
Coop Moderne. Urban agriculture is all the rage lately, and with the backyard gardens come the chickens. Jetson Green offers a few examples of high-design chicken coops made of reclaimed materials by Studio H, a design-build program for high-school students in North Carolina.
Aid. Architecture for Humanity is working on plans to provide relief to victims of the Sendai earthquake and tsunami. The post-disaster reconstruction group is asking for donations now to they can build later. If you would like to support Japan more immediately, the Japanese Red Cross Society is also a good choice.
Al Fresco Forward. As the weather begins to warm, the New York DOT has announced that it’s pop-up cafe program is moving forward. Modeled after pop-up sidewalk cafes in San Francisco and other cities, New York tried out its first model in the Financial District last year. The planter-lined sidewalk extensions project six feet into the street and are paid for by sponsoring businesses. The Post has the list of DOT-approved restaurants in Soho, the Village, and elsewhere.
Rooftop Remix. Web Urbanist put together a collection modern rooftop additions from around the world by the likes of MVRDV, Coop Himmelb(l)au, and others. As Web Urbanist points out, the juxtapositions of the additions against their host structures is quite striking. (Via Planetizen.)
Swooping Bridges of Google Earth
Millau Bridge (Google Earth via Clement Valla)
Brooklyn-based architect and designer Clement Villa has collected a series of Google Earth views of bridges that appear to have melted, succumbing to gravity, and hanging languidly across their respective terrains, offering a surreal nod to Dali’s Persistence of Memory. (Via Notcot.)
Quick Clicks> Floating, Ethics, Mansard Roofs, Transit Saves
A recreation of the Pixar film Up (National Geographic)
Up, Up & Away. My Modern Met has a photo set from National Geographic‘s recreation of the Pixar movie Up. With the help of 300 colorful weather balloons, a team of engineers and pilots sent a 16′ square house skyward in LA, setting a world record in the process. (Via Curbed.)
Archi-Ethics. Mark Lamster is leading this week’s Glass House Conversation. He’s discussing the ethics of client selection: “How do we balance commercial imperatives with a desire for a moral practice?”
Mansard Mania. The New York Times has a feature on Manhattan’s Mansard roof heyday between 1868 and 1873, spotlighting some of the best examples of the French-style roof.
Transit Saves. As civil unrest continues in the Middle East, oil prices have risen to near record levels. Reuters brings us a study from the American Public Transportation Association that finds transit riders are saving over $800 a month with the elevated gas costs, and projects nearly a $10,000 savings annually if gas maintains its high price tag.
A Pictorial Description of Broadway in 1899
Broadway, East Side. Wall to Liberty St. (Courtesy NYPL)
Last week, we came across illustrator James Gilliver Hancock’s series of playful block elevations titled “All the Buildings in New York.” It turns out this impulse to sketch block upon block of New York’s architecture has been around for quite some time. In 1899, the Mail & Express newspaper company published a graphic journey down Manhattan’s Broadway in a book called A Pictorial description of Broadway now archived at the New York Public Library.
The stroll down Broadway 112 years ago reveals just how much New York has evolved over the past century. As the NYPL says, “The result, as you can see here, is a 19th century version of Google’s Street View, allowing us to flip through the images block by block, passing parks, churches, novelty stores, furriers, glaziers, and other businesses of the city’s past.”
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