Mies, Ahoy!
(Courtesy Chicago Architecture Foundation)
The Chicago Architecture Foundation’s boat tours begin tomorrow, and they’ve added two evening “date night” cruises on Thursday and Friday evenings, beginning at 5:30. The hour and a half long tours highlights 53 architecturally significant sites. All Chicago Architecture Foundation cruises depart from the lower level and southeast corner of the Michigan Avenue Bridge at Wacker Drive. The 2010 Tour Schedule runs through November 21. Tickets are $32 and are available at www.architecture.org or
1-800-982-2787.
Welcome to Chicago, Darling
(photo: courtesy MCA)
Today, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago announced the appointment of Michael Darling as the James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator. Darling is currently the modern and contemporary art curator at the Seattle Art Museum and was previously an associate curator at LA MOCA. “Michael Darling is the perfect creative leader to evolve the MCA as a preeminent contemporary art destination in terms of reputation, influence, relevance and visibility,” said Madeleine Grynstejn, the Prtizker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, in a statement.
Darling replaces Elizabeth Smith who stepped down last year. 
Under Smith, the MCA organized or hosted numerous architecture exhibitions and programs including Sustainable Architecture in Chicago, Garofalo Architects: Between the Museum and the City, as well as serving as the Chicago venue for Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe. Darling is well positioned to continue MCA’s architecture and design programming. While at MOCA he co-curated the exhibition The Architecture of R.M. Schindler.
Spare Land-Use Change?
Community groups and unions protest the Kingsbridge Armory, a project that died in part because of its CBA arrangements—or lack thereof. (Matt Chaban)
Yesterday, the Times ran an interesting story about the potential illegality of Community Benefit Agreements, as determined in a report by the New York City Bar Association. The report argues such agreements should not be fostered by the city, even if there is nothing that can be done to stop a developer from negotiating with local community groups—something the bar believes can lead to corruption—and, failing that, not to allow the agreements to have a bearing on land-use decisions. The Times’ article concludes with a note of resignation, though, that CBAs are here to stay, so deal with it. What a capital idea! In fact, the reason this story rang so true with us is that it sounds a lot like one of the issues that came up while working on our piece on the Charter Revision Commission. Herewith is yet more reason to take a serious look at land-use issues and not just term limits.
Rockin Neutra
The magnificent Neutra VDL House on the Silver Lake Reservoir is one of our favorite places in Los Angeles. Now we like it even more, thanks to its first ever concert series, inspired by Richard Neutra’s love of music (Neutra played piano throughout his life). Small groups of students from Cal Poly Pomona (which owns the home) will be performing works from Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Ravel, and Mozart on May 8 and May 22. All proceeds will go toward restoration of the VDL House, an ongoing effort that has included roof, window, and electrical repairs and work related to long term water damage.
The A+D House Party
There was quite a crowd gathered at the new A+D Museum last night. CLICK TO LAUNCH SLIDESHOW
As promised yesterday, we are going paparazzi. We have pix of the architecture event of the week: the opening of LA’s A+D Museum. (See Slideshow Here). The event drew hundreds into the museum’s brand new space, a beautiful white jewel box located on the ground floor of a midcentury office building. Guests were treated to tunes from KCRW DJ Tom Schnabel, and bid on works of art and sculpture created by some of LA’s biggest architects and cultural icons. Big names contributing work included Bruce Mau, Max Neutra, Lorcan O’Herlihy, Thom Mayne, Richard Meier, Hitoshi Abe, and many more. And so it begins for a museum that has for years been known for not having its own space. Welcome home.
MoMA Gets Social
Quinta Monroy Housing Project, Iquique, Chile (2003-2005), by Elemental. (Photo: Tadeuz Jalocha)
AN has a first look at MoMA’s upcoming architecture exhibition, Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures for Social Engagement, which will include eleven projects from four continents. The show examines how architects working on small budgets can “bring a positive impact to social conditions,” according to curator Andres Lepik. All the included projects are exemplary for their level of community engagement, which often includes developing the skills of local people. For Lepik, this level of community engagement sets these projects apart from what he calls “charity architecture” or “parachute architecture.” While the American architects are fairly familiar, among them Michael Maltzan, the Rural Studio, and the Estudio Teddy Cruz, many of the international examples will be new to the MoMA audience. Read More
Home Movies at Tribeca
Susan Morris sends along her recommendations for the Tribeca Film fest, which ends Sunday, including her favorite, My Queen Karo, above.
For those interested in films that include architecture, a number of entries in the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival may be of perplexing interest. Striking, in particular, is the number of films where homes are the sights of hothouse mayhem. Here’s my guide to who did what to whom and, above all, where. Read More
Walmart? Fugedaboutit!
The stores of Gateway Center 1. Might the second phase include a Walmart? (Courtesy Related)
In the last Midwest issue, we recounted Walmarts struggles to infiltrate urban centers, notably in Chicago. But the world’s largest retailer and the nation’s largest employer has also been eying New York for years, and the Daily News reports that it is making a new push in Brooklyn, which has already met resistance from locals and labor without even being officially announced. The weird thing, though, is how eerily similar there approach is in East New York as with the Pullman project on Chicago’s Far South Side. Both are meant to be the anchor tenant in a larger mixed-use development that involves affordable housing (the former is part of Gateway II, the latter Pullman Park) located in the fringes of their respective cities, places that have been historically economically depressed. This puts Walmart in a better position of arguing that the area is in need of jobs, any jobs, not to mention affordable housing, so how dare politicians and unions try to stop it. Whether it works in Brooklyn or the Far South Side, only time will tell, but if Kingsbridge is any indication, it probably won’t happen in the Five Boroughs any time soon. Pullman, however, might be an entirely different story, as Mayor Daley continues to agitate for the project’s approval.
Workshopping Venice
The U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, shown in 2007. (Photo: Charles Giuliano)
The U.S. Department of State has announced that Workshopping: An American Model of Architectural Practice will represent the United States at the 2010 Venice Architecture biennale, opening on August 29. The State Department selected the exhibit, organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and co-curated by the museum’s principal curator Michael Rooks with Jonathan D. Solomon, founding editor of the series 306090 Books, in an open competition following the recommendation of the Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions, convened by the National Endowment for the Arts. Read More
24 Rooms, 344 Square Feet
And you thought your apartment was small. Gary Chang, a Hong Kong architect, has outdone us all, managing to cram 24 “rooms” into his 344-square-foot box apartment through the clever use of movable walls, murphy beds, and other various architectural tricks. As he explains in the Reuters video above, it’s the perfect bachelor pad. “I realized that at one moment, I’m performing only one task, so the ideal thing for me is, I don’t have to move, I’m quite lazy, but the place changes for me,” Chang explains. It’s a far cry from his upbringing in the space, however, when he shared it with his parents, three sisters, and a tenant. Should he ever get a girlfriend, he’ll surely find a way to manage.
Regional Rebound?
For the forth month straight, billings for firms in the Midwest are showing the strongest uptick of the four regions tracked by the AIA. And for the first time since the recession, in March billings in the Midwest have moved into positive territory, breaking the 50 mark, making it the first region to do so since the recession began. (Anything below means billings for work are falling, above rising.) In the graph above, the Midwest region is represented in red, the East in blue, the West in green, and the South in orange. According to the numbers, the recovery has arrived. Read More
Playboy Saves The Day?
The Trust For Public Land today announced that it successfully wrapped up its down to the wire save of Hollywood’s Cahuenga Peak, the 138-acre swath of land behind the Hollywood Sign that had once been slated for development (one of many pleas included red letters over the sign reading “Save The Peak”). The final donor: none other than Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who chipped in $900,000 to complete the $12.5 million needed to finalize the purchase. The Trust had missed its original April 14 deadline, but were granted an extension until April 30. Hefner, who had helped raise money back in the 70s to rebuild the sign, back when he was dating a whole other set of playmates, was joined by other LA stars, philanthropists, and companies. These included Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Aileen Getty, Norman Lear, CAA, LucasFilm, Walt Disney Company, CBS, NBC, Sony Pictures, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and many others. Really a historic Hollywood collaboration.
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