Stanford Med School Gets Alternative Remedy
A modern interpretation of red-tile roofs and limestone masonry.
Stanford University has been commissioning a storm of new buildings, and it just opened the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge, the centerpiece for its med school. The $90.2 million project squeezes in a range of programs, including a mock operating theater for training purposes, a 350-seat conference hall, and the student center. Visually, the building needed to be the “greeter” for Stanford Medical School, which previously had no architectural focal point. San Francisco firm NBBJ went for a touch of the neoclassical, with a deep overhang anchored by columns. Read More
High Speed Railing in Anaheim
One of China's many High Speed Rail trains
More than 300 architects, planners, and developers had their minds blown and their ambitions frustrated at last week’s California High-Speed Rail TOD Marketplace in Anaheim, produced by the Urban Land Insitute’s California District Councils. Read More
Come Party for a Cause with CUP
Drink up with CUP!
The Brooklyn-based Center for Urban Pedagogy is a unique organization that brings real meaning to the often overused word “design.” Founded in 1997 by Damon Rich, the organization has evolved to engage art and design professionals—artists, graphic designers, architects, and urban planners—with community-based advocates, researchers, and policymakers. Tomorrow night, CUP is once again hosting an annual benefit party that is always one of the best celebrations around. It only costs $35, and, as CUP says, offers “good people, food, music, fun, and a great cause.” You’ll also get acquainted with CUP’s recent projects like the Sewer in a Suitcase, the Affordable Housing Toolkit, and more. This year, the party will be held at the Old American Can Company at 232 Third Street near the Gowanus Canal.
Hypothetical Buildings Coming to New Orleans
Every building tells a story of its past. But sometimes, with a little prompting, a building can also tell the story of its future. At least that’s what the Hypothetical Development Organization hopes. The group, created in 2010 by author and New York Times Magazine columnist Rob Walker, examines what the future might hold for some of the hidden, and underused, architectural gems in New Orleans by creating renderings of what the buildings could be, you know, hypothetically. Read More
Sad Pictures of Lautner Loss in LA
©Mark Haddawy
It’s been three weeks since John Lautner’s sleek and gently curving Shusett House (1950), which Frank Escher calls one of the two major houses of Lautner’s early career, was torn down. Sadly the owner, Enrique Mannheim, refused the overtures of the John Lautner Foundation, while the Beverly Hills City Council refused to issue a stay of execution. Our friends at Architizer were able to obtain pictures of the demolition, taken by photographer Mark Haddawy. Contrasted with images of the house still standing the shots—of the house in shambles, with wood members scattered on the ground and windows and walls gone— are a painful reminder that LA’s preservation movement still lacks the muscle it should, while citizens and municipalities stand idly by. Read More
LA Has An Archi-Sukkah Too!
Much has been made of New York’s architectural Sukkahs, unveiled in Union Square a couple of weeks ago as part of Joshua Foer’s Sukkah City competition. But LA is celebrating the Jewish harvest holiday in style as well. Earlier today the Skirball Cultural Center hosted a Sukkot Family Celebration exhibiting a structure created by Culver City-based wHY Architecture, with consulting from Skirball staff. Read More
Celebrating Bruce Graham
(courtesy SOM)
Recently deceased and much respected Chicago architect Bruce J Graham, the man behind the Sears (now Willis) Tower and Hancock Center, will be honored with a special tribute Thursday, October 14 at the Art Institute of Chicago. The event, hosted by the Graham family and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, will begin at 5:30 pm in the Rubloff Auditorium. Graham also brought the Inland Steel Building to Chicago, the Business Men’s Assurance Company Headquarters to Kansas City, Missouri, and the recently demolished Upjohn Headquarters to Kalamazoo, Michigan, among many other significant projects.
LACMA as Musical Instrument
Buildings, of course, have acoustic properties. But what about acoustic potential? Musician and recent high school graduate Ben Meyers has carved himself a niche by using buildings and their various surfaces and surroundings as musical elements. His most recent performance: a song performed with his mallets and drumsticks on Renzo Piano’s new Resnick Pavilion at LACMA, which opens to the public early next month. A video of the piece, called Playing LACMA, was commissioned by the museum. Read More
Vermont Town Seeks to Reconnect To Waterfront
(courtesy Battleboro Museum and Art Center)
Residents of Brattleboro, Vermont want a say in what happens to a strip of waterfront and they’re voting with… stickers. Visitors to Renewing the Riverfront at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center can post a small round sticker next to their favorite proposals, which line the walls of the gallery. Just in case they don’t find one they like, there are plenty of blank note cards on hand where a resident can throw his or her own idea into the mix. Read More
Gehry Supports Israeli Settlement Boycott
(Photo: Courtesy Inhabitat)
According to the group Jewish Voice for Peace, Frank Gehry has signed a letter supporting an Israeli settlement boycott. Gehry is among an international group of artists and performers who have signed a letter supporting a group of Israeli actors and playwrights who have refused to play at the new theatre in Ariel, a large Jewish settlement in the occupied territories. Gehry, who previously withdrew from the commission to design the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, joins pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, composer Stephen Sondheim, actors Julianne Moore and Cynthia Nixon, film director Mira Nair, playwright Tony Kushner and many others. Gehry’s office confirmed his support of the boycott.
McMansion Town USA
This story is part of A/N’s new blog series dedicated to exploring neighborhoods around the country
El Monte, CA, about 20 minutes east of Los Angeles, is a gated community. Wonky chain-linked fences and rusty metal gates keep the residents in and the criminals out. Some say El Monte is an up-and-coming city. After all, the proof is in the posh homes popping up throughout the city. “El Monte … encourages quality housing developments through well thought-out architectural designs, use of high quality materials, and enhanced landscaping,” says the city’s official website. However, a walk through the city gives another impression. Many of the city’s new housing developments look like slightly fancier versions of mobile homes parked on mounds of land, with little thought given to landscaping and aesthetics. Read More
Canvassing for Votes With NYC Construction Fence Finalists
"...of Special Concern," by Chris Shelley
If a whole flock of ghostly animals starts appearing in downtown New York this fall, don’t panic. It’ll just mean that the public picked Chris Shelley’s design “…of special concern” as a winner in the Buildings and Cultural Affairs Departments’ urbancanvas competition, which solicited ideas for decorating the construction fences, sidewalk sheds, scaffolding and cocoons that act as eyesores on seemingly every New York City street.
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