A decade of green growth celebrated at CitiesAlive!
(Courtesy LiveRoof)
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 10 years since the first green roof gathering in Chicago, when 400 green roof enthusiasts came together from around the world to share their passion and knowledge of green roofs. Since then, we’ve laid some very important foundations for the industry, which enjoyed an amazing 115% growth rate last year.
On October 17-20 at CitiesAlive, we will gather at the Congress Plaza Hotel in Chicago once more, to celebrate all that we have accomplished together, and lay plans for the future growth of this industry. Performance is the unifying theme for programming that features the best and brightest in green roof and wall design, research, policy. ’On the roof with’ conversations feature examples of what green infrastructure is best at – stormwater management, urban agriculture, increasing biodiversity, energy efficiency, job creation and more. Together, we’re building a legacy of outstanding performance!
Unveiled> Abu Dhabi’s Second CBD?
Goettsch Partners designed the Al Hilal bank flagship office tower for a new business district planned in Abu Dhabi. (Courtesy Goettsch Partners)
Abu Dhabi’s dizzying building boom slowed down somewhat after the 2008 financial collapse dried up the liquidity that inspires big projects. The damage appears not to have been permanent, however, as the UAE capital will forge ahead with a 24-story speculative office tower—part of a new central business district on Al Maryah Island.
On View> Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School
Utagawa Hiroshige’s Sparrows and Camillia in Snow from 1831. (Courtesy Art Institute of Chicago)
The Formation of the Japanese Print Collection at the Art Institute:
Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School
The Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Through November 4
Frank Lloyd Wright visited Japan for the first time in 1905, inspired by the country’s pavilion at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. He lived in the country while working on Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel, soaking in Japanese art and culture. It had a lasting impact on his own work, especially the development of the Prairie Style as well as his renderings and presentation drawings. During his time in Japan, Wright became a pioneering collector of Japanese prints, and often supported himself as an art dealer. Clarence Buckingham purchased numerous prints from Wright in 1911 (including Utagawa Hiroshige’s Sparrows and Camillia in Snow from 1831, above), which became the foundation of the Art Institute’s print collection. This exhibition is composed of prints purchased by Wright, photos of an exhibition of his collection he staged in 1908 at the Art Institute, and drawings from Wright’s studio.
Construction Fully Funded for St. Louis’ Loop Trolley Project
One of the vintage trolley cars that will eventually traverse St. Louis’ Delmar Loop. (Claudia Daggett/Flickr)
Plans for a fixed-track trolley system in St. Louis got a $22 million infusion last week, when the Federal Transit Administration followed through with plans to fund construction of the city’s long-awaited Loop Trolley system.
The Loop Trolley Transportation Development District would administer a 2.2-mile track from the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park to the University City Library—part of a regional plan for more sustainable transit. Three hybrid electric trolleys will make nine stops along the way, offering connection with the existing light rail MetroLink system.
Prentice Preservationists Doubt Northwestern Survey Results
(TheeErin/Flickr)
Even after several Pritzker-winning architects signed onto the preservation campaign last week, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks again omitted from its meeting agenda the embattled Old Prentice Women’s Hospital. Then, noting the recent flurry of media coverage, commission Chariman Rafael Leon announced at the top of Thursday’s meeting that the commission would address the issue before the end of its fall season.
Let There Be Light: Cleveland Museum of Art’s New Atrium Open
A view of the skylight that defines Cleveland Museum of Art’s new atrium. (Courtesy Bruce Kratofil via Flickr.)
After seven years of construction, during much of which visitors were sent on an underground detour, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s expansive atrium opened in late August.
The 39,000-square-foot Rafael Viñoly-designed atrium is essentially a massive skylight, which arcs from 55 to 66 feet in height across a space nearly as large as a football field. Planting beds complement the granite floor, anchoring an airy space that houses a second floor mezzanine and could seat upwards of 700 people for events.
Hotel Made from Shipping Containers Planned for Detroit’s Eastern Market
Collision Works would be a boutique hotel made from shipping containers in Detroit’s Eastern Market area. (Courtesy Detroit Collaborative Design Center.)
Following the many interesting developments in Detroit these days, one gets a sense that the city’s post-industrial landscape is fertile ground for innovative design. A boutique hotel made of shipping containers seems to back up that trend.
Collision Works, as the project is called, touts the structural merits of shipping containers. “Shipping containers are considerably more durable than standard construction, can cost less, and most importantly are about 30 percent faster to build,” writes project founder Shel Kimen.
On View> Grete Marks: When Modern Was Degenerate
(Courtesy Milwaukee Museum of Art)
Grete Marks: When Modern Was Degenerate
Milwaukee Art Museum
700 North Art Museum Drive Milwaukee, WI
Through January 1
Grete Marks was born in Cologne in 1899 to an artistic Jewish family, and she enrolled in the ceramics program at the Bauhaus School in 1920. In 1923 she left the school to marry a young industrialist with whom she founded the Haël Factory for Artistic Ceramics to produce her designs. These works are composed of simple geometric shapes, glazed with striking colors and patterns in the style of Soviet Constructivist painters and showcasing the Bauhaus ideal of uniting industrial mass-production with Modernist aesthetics. Marks’ legacy as a potter was cut short by the Nazi party when in 1935 they declared her artwork “degenerate,” and her avant-garde pottery career ended with the onset of World War II. This will be the first American exhibition to explore Marks’ work and the circumstances that have prevented her name from entering the list of Bauhaus greats.
Five Pritzker-winning architects join “Save Prentice” campaign
Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital in Chicago. (ChicagoGeek/Flickr)
Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Hospital has become the cause célèbre for architectural preservationists from across Chicago and beyond, now garnering five more Pritzker-toting allies amid mounting pressure for demolition.
Robert Venturi, Tadao Ando, Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, and Eduardo Souto de Moura added their names to a letter sent to Mayor Rahm Emanuel last month from more than 60 architects, including Frank Gehry. Dan Coffey and Jack Hartray of Chicago, George Miller of New York City, Denise Scott Brown of Philadelphia, and Bjarke Ingels of Copenhagen also joined the chorus of designers calling on Chicago city officials to grant the iconic cloverleaf structure landmark status.
Cincinnati Close to First New Masterplan in 32 Years
Downtown Cincinnati. (Firesign/Flickr)
Cincinnati, a city on the move, released a draft of its first master plan since 1980 in anticipation of approval by the planning commission August 30. The 222-page draft identifies five “initiative areas,” dubbed Compete, Connect, Live, Sustain, and Collaborate. Each contain tasks for growth over approximately ten years, according to the plan, although the document will receive annual budget reviews and will be officially updated every five years.
New Life Comes With New Name for Purple Hotel
Lincolnwood’s Purple Hotel, celebrated in a mid-century postcard. (Courtesy Koo & Associates)
A rose by any other name may still smell as sweet, but what about a violet? Suburban Chicago’s Purple Hotel, rescued this Spring from dereliction and impending demolition, may change its name to complement its transformation under architects Koo and Associates. The firm solicited name suggestions via Facebook, looking for “something mid-century and fresh.” One early commenter declared, “Renaming the Purple Hotel will go over about as well as renaming the Sears Tower.”
Mies better have a big old casket, because he’s undoubtedly been doing a lot of rolling over lately. First, the project to convert the lower floors of the IBM building into an eye-rolling five-star hotel called the Langham Chicago is back on. And now the city of Detroit and HUD are fighting over the fate of the foreclosed Lafayette apartment buildings. Let’s just hope they end up in the hands of a preservationist. (Photo: Courtesy Langham Chicago)
Advertise on The Architect's Newspaper.
Archives
Categories
Architecture
Design
East Coast
Midwest
National
Planning
Shft+Alt+Del
Sustainability
Transportation
West Coast
