On View> Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928–1939
Bauhaus, March 22, 1929. Photo by Lyonel Feininger.
Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928–1939
Getty Center
1200 Getty Center Drive
Los Angeles, CA
Through March 2012
The American-German artist Lyonel Feininger, famous for his urban and landscape paintings, took up photography in 1928. Already a longtime collaborator with Walter Gropius—Feininger taught printmaking at the Bauhaus for almost a decade while Gropius was director—Feininger turned to the “mechanical” medium to explore the effects of light and shadow, reflections, and night imagery. A majority of his photographs have remained in relative obscurity. The exhibit Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928–1939 at the Getty Center is the first U.S. venue to present a comprehensive collection of his photography.
Zombie Apocalypse Now: Voting Ends on Halloween
There's No Need To Run. (Courtesy Zombie Safe House)
It’s going to happen when you least suspect it: the zombie apocalypse will be upon us and your life will be in your own hands against the living dead (that’s assuming hours behind a studio desk hasn’t already transformed you into a zombie yourself). Luckily, as architecture-types, we possess special skills needed to defend ourselves from those out for our brains. A fantastic display of anti-zombie ingenuity is on display at the 2011 Zombie Safe House Competition, like the above proposal to retrofit existing urban buildings against a future zombie invasion (with a green roof, no less), and you can vote for your favorite. (Here’s last year’s winner: a floating dwelling sailing the Mighty Mississippi.) This year’s voting ends this Monday—Halloween—when you’ll likely encounter a few rogue zombies wandering the streets.
On View> Modernism in Miniature at the Canadian Centre for Architecture
Model of San Remo Apartment, Carlo Mollino and Mario Roggero, 1946. (Courtesy CCA)
Modernism in Miniature: Points of View
Canadian Centre for Architecture
1920, rue Baile
Montréal, Québec
Through January 8
Modernism in Miniature examines the relationship between architectural model-making and photography, spanning the years 1920 to 1960. It posits model photography as its own genre, exploring the evolution and visual methods used to capture these miniature architectural representations. Focusing on the encounter between media and architecture, the exhibition investigates the link between design and mass media with themes such as “Object and Image” and the “Art of Simulation.” Models by architects including Mies van der Rohe, Oscar Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, and Carlo Mollino (his model for a San Remo apartment, above) illustrate the changing architectural expression and visual representation of mid-century modernism.
Stage 1 Finalists Announced for National Mall Design Competition
The National Mall. (Vlasta Juricek / Flickr)
The Trust for the National Mall has announced the finalists for the first round of its National Mall Design Competition. The 700-acres of parkland have been worn down over the years thanks hoards of visitors (25 million a year), marches, and certain bi-annual decathalons. The scope of the competition includes three distinct areas of the mall: Union Square, the Washington Monument Grounds at Sylvan Theater, and Constitution Gardens. Finalists were selected for each area, and will move on to stage two of the competition (team interviews), and then—finally—a selected few will be asked to envision a design for one of the three designated area.
On View> Nancy Holt: Sightlines at the Graham Foundation
Nancy Holt's "Sun Tunnels," 1978. (Courtesy Graham Foundation)
NANCY HOLT: Sightlines
The Graham Foundation
Four West Burton Place
Chicago
Through December 17
Beginning her artistic career in the 1960s, Nancy Holt helped pioneer the Land Art movement alongside artists like Richard Serra and Robert Smithson, who was her husband and occasional collaborator. Nancy Holt: Sightlines at the Graham Foundation presents documentation of over 40 of her monumental and ecologically-focused projects through photography, film, and artist’s books, revealing Holt’s eloquent mode of navigating the intersection of art and nature.
In Sun Tunnels, an installation and 1978 film (above), sunlight interacts with four concrete tunnels in the Great Basin Desert in Utah, exemplifying Holt’s interest in space and time by highlighting how the passage of the sun impacts each tunnel differently and in a way specific to that location. In addition to presenting previously unseen materials from the artist’s archive, the exhibition, which concentrates on the Holt’s work between 1966 and 1980, features the documentary Pine Barrens (1975) about undeveloped land in New Jersey, and documentation of the projects Swamp (1971, in collaboration with Smithson), Boomerang (1973, in collaboration with Serra), and the multi-monitor installation Points of View (1974), a piece that underscores the different perspectives we bring to viewing the landscape.
Bjarke Ingels, WSJ Architecture Innovator of the Year
BIG's concept for the expansion of the National Beaux-Arts Museum in Quebec. (Courtesy BIG)
If Bjarke Ingels‘ ascension into starchitecture hasn’t been dramatic enough, the Danish architect is again moving up in the world. On Friday, Ingels’ firm BIG threw a party to christen their new office space in Manhattan. BIG has expanded its Chelsea presence, moving up from the third to the twelfth floor of the Starrett-Lehigh Building. A press preview of the new space preceded the party a couple floors above. Among those in attendance were Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary of Denmark, who earlier this month awarded Ingels the $90,000 Culture Prize—the MacArthur of Scandinavia—for his emerging work in architecture.
Now it looks like Ingels’ October has just been getting started. The Wall Street Journal Magazine will declare the Danish architect among its inaugural Innovators of the Year. Read More
Saturday in Santa Monica: Architects Make Music
Unfrozen Music, Architects in Concert, on October 22. (Courtesy Shimihara)
Unfrozen Music: Architects in Concert
Santa Monica Main Library
Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 7:00 PM
Tomorrow night a few talented Los Angeles architects—several featured on the pages of AN over the years—will be showing off their skills at the third annual Unfrozen Music, a concert at the Santa Monica Library‘s MLK Auditorium. Emcee’d by AN West Coast Editor Sam Lubell, the lineup ranges from chamber music to jazz to indie rock. And here’s a secret—they’re all really good.
Ice Cube, the Architectural Draftsman and Eames Enthusiast
Ice Cube celebrates Ray & Charles Eames.
Since an unofficial concept ad was leaked (above, left) in September proclaiming “Ice Cube celebrates Ray & Charles Eames,” the web has been abuzz about the rapper’s upcoming film on the architects’ influence on his life, part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time series of exhibitions in Los Angeles. For the exhibition on Ray and Charles Eames, Ice Cube recreated an old ad (above, right) from the 1950s, complete with a pipe and a 1953 DAT Chair. Cube, it appears, studied architectural drafting, although he never got his degree. He joins LA stars like Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis and actor Jason Schwartzman in promoting the epic series, which continues through next year.
A Peek Inside A Noise Within
Interior of theatre; with architectural detail over walkway to seats (Michael Gutstadt)
Longtime repertory company A Noise Within (ANW) will complete its move to Pasadena at the end of October. Formerly located inside an old Masonic Temple in Glendale, it now calls Edward Durell Stone’s midcentury modern Stuart Pharmaceutical Company home. The project was carried out by John Berry Architects, Robert J. Chattel, and DLR Group WWCOT. You might remember back in May when we showed you the project still under construction. ANW staffers have now started to move in and perform technical runs for their inaugural showing of Shakespeare’s The Twelfth Night.
On View> Detroit Disassembled, Photographs by Andrew Moore
Facade, Michigan Central Station, 2009. (Andrew Moore)
Detroit Disassembled:
Photographs by Andrew Moore
Queens Museum of Art
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Queens, NY
Through January15
The Queens Museum of Art (QMA) presents the powerful photography of Andrew Moore from his three-month visit to Detroit from 2008 to 2009. Moore’s photographs are a tragic yet beautiful glimpse into the decline of a city that was once the twentieth century industrial heart of America. Michigan Central Station (above) stands empty, the organ screen at the United Artists Theater is crumbling, and bright green moss covers the floor of the former Ford Motor Company Headquarters. “Moore’s exquisitely realized visions of architecture overtaken by vegetation remind contemporary viewers that our own familiar culture is subject to the forces of entropy and the eternal strength of nature,” says a statement from QMA.
On View> Unnatural Spaces: The Photography of Richard Barnes
"Revel Casino Construction" from Atlantic City. (Courtesy OSK Studio)
UNNATURAL SPACES:
PHOTOGRAPHY OF RICHARD BARNES
The Julius Shulman Institute at Woodbury
7500 N Glenoaks Blvd.
Burbank, CA
Through October 22
In Unnatural Spaces, co-curators Emily Bills and Eve Schillo present the featured work of photographer Richard Barnes at the Julius Shulman Institute at the Woodbury University School of Architecture. Showcasing highlighted works from his Unabomber (1999) and Animal Logic (2009) series, the exhibit suggests that architecture is both a willing participant in, and also an unknowing target of, presentation. The show encompasses commissioned works of Barnes ranging globally from Los Angeles to Kazakhstan, and new work such as “Revel Casino Construction,” from Atlantic City (above). Barnes is a Rome Prize recipient for photography and was featured in the 2006 Whitney Biennial for his work documenting the cabin of Ted Kaczyinski. The venue, the Julius Shulman Institute, was established as a cultural destination dedicated to the promotion of photography and understanding the built environment.
Quick Clicks> Brick Bane, Old School, The Digitals, & the Juried Judge
White bricks in Manhattan. (Barbara L. Hanson / Flickr)
Not so Clean. White brick buildings, once favored in the 50s and 60s for their shiny glaze and supposed waterproofing and self-cleaning benefits, are now a costly headache for New York City, reported the NY Times. The glaze, it turns out, actually traps moisture and causes cracks and deterioration, with repairs climbing into the millions of dollars.
Back to Basics. While architects nowadays can get away with their shaky doodles (of the physically impossible buildings and cartoonish people with disproportionate heads) as long as they prove their CAD proficiency, the just-launched Beaux-Arts Atelier feels differently– only when you master the basics can you be freer to do crazier, modern things with more creative control. More on The Wall Street Journal.
The Digitals. Architecture historian and journalist critic Alexandra Lange critically compares the content and design of four new digital interior design magazines and discusses the merits of blogs. Read her thoughts on Arch Record.
Juried Judge. The NY Times ran a story about Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s selection to join the Pritzker Prize jury, citing AN‘s report from September. The move looks to be a good one for architecture, as Breyer, a fan of Gothic and Beaux-Arts architecture, has pushed for better design of federal buildings.
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