International Architects Call On Milan’s Mayor To Reinstate Stefano Boeri
Stefano Boeri.
Stefano Boeri—the talented architect, politician, and former editor of Domus—was summarily dismissed this week from his position as Councillor for Culture, Fashion, and Design for the city of Milan. Boeri, who for several years has tried to bring architecture and design into official decision making process, has apparently butted heads with Milan’s Mayor Giuliano Pisapia and has been pushed out the door.
He has, according to one observer of Italian politics, clashed with the mayor “over how much he spent on an exhibition,” who may be using the country’s budget woes as an excuse to sack a potential political opponent.
Boeri was coordinating the upcoming Milan Year of Culture and is not gong without a fight. A petition signed by host of major architects, artists, and cultural workers is being distributed to the press to put pressure on the mayor to bring Boeri back into government.
A Spruced Up Central Park Precinct Opens to Public
Exterior of Central Park Precinct (Courtesy of New York City Department of Design + Construction)
Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD gathered yesterday to unveil the newly renovated Central Park Precinct, the oldest stationhouse in the city. According to DNAinfo, the $61 million project included repairs to the crumbling building and a new canopy and glass atrium over the lobby, with the help of Karlsberger Architects.
New Renderings Detail Kohn Pedersen Fox’s One Hudson Yards
Rendering of Extell’s KPF-designed One Hudson Yards tower. (Courtesy One Hudson Yards)
With both the Hudson Yards and Manhattan West mega-developments underway on Manhattan’s West Side, several other projects in the area are coming into closer focus. Among them, Extell’s structurally criss-crossed Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed tower across 11th Avenue from Hudson Yards proper taking the name of its larger neighbor: One Hudson Yards. New York YIMBY spotted a bevy of new renderings of the 877-foot-tall diagrid tower posted to a just-launched project website. At 56 floors, the tower, shown with a wavy ledge peeling up the building’s facade at its main entrance, will front the Michael Van Valkenburgh-designed linear park, Hudson Boulevard, where the new Dattner-designed 7 line subway will emerge through glass canopies.
Future of Gehry’s World Trade Center Performing Arts Center Still Uncertain
Model of a preliminary design for the WTC performing arts center. (Courtesy Gehry Partners via NY Times)
It is not uncommon for projects to change over time, but the performing arts center planned for the World Trade Center site has undergone many iterations. It has been tweaked, downsized, refocused, delayed, and at one point, possibly re-located to another site. Now, the New York Times reported that the center has been whittled down from a four-stage arts complex housing multiple cultural organizations—including the International Freedom Center, Signature Theater, the Drawing Center, and the Joyce Theater—to a multidisciplinary arts space with just one main stage. The Joyce Theater is the only remaining organization that will still be part of the center, though it will not be based at the World Trade Center site as previously planned.
The next step is to find an artistic director who can oversee center and curate its programming. Frank Gehry has been working on the design of the center, but the recent changes have called for him to scale it back. Once costs and programming are nailed down, the preliminary board will move forward with fundraising efforts. Right now, though, it looks like the center won’t open its doors until 2017 or 2018.
IIT Celebrates 75 Years of Mies
To celebrate its perennial master of modernism, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Illinois Institute of Technology produced a video showcasing his work and influence in Chicago. Take a few minutes on the 75th anniversary of Mies’ arrival in the Windy City to watch it.
Look under the arm of just about any architect and you might notice a small black notebook. The popular Italian journal maker Moleskine has just opened its first stand-alone retail store in the United States on Friday inside New York’s Time Warner Center. Like other Moleskine stores, the Columbus Circle outpost features a map on the floor and carries a full line of products including journals, pens, bags, and digital accessories. (Photo: Courtesy Moleskine)
Another Chicago Hospital On Life Support: Cuneo Hospital Threatened
Cuneo Memorial Hospital in Chicago. (Zol87 / Flickr)
The slow and tortured demise of Chicago’s Prentice Women’s Hospital now has an official stamp: according to the Chicago Tribune, Northwestern University was issued a demolition permit for the Bertrand Goldberg cloverleaf last Friday. Wrecking crews will be on site in a few weeks after asbestos abatement wraps up, and there are sure to be protesters around the construction fence.
Of course, as seems all too common, the city is also busy readying soldiers for the next preservation battle. The 1957 Edo Belli-designed Cuneo Memorial Hospital is targeted for demolition, but Uptown residents have reached out to Preservation Chicago for support seeking landmark status. The group listed the building on its 2012 list of seven most-threatened structures in the city. Add this to what happened to Prentice and it isn’t a good year to be a midcentury modernist hospital in Chicago.
With Casino Licence Up For Grabs in Philly, Developers Betting On City Center
The proposed Market 8 in downtown Philly. (Courtesy Market East Associates)
After a Foxwoods casino went bust in Philadelphia, an elusive casino license has been up for grabs, and proposals for a new facility have been pouring in over the Philly region. Six developers are competing for the city’s second casino license, and two of the proposals are betting on Downtown. Curbed reported that while the majority of the proposed developments are planned for the outer edges of Philly, two proposals intend on building right in the heart of the city.
Thomas H. Beeby Presented The 2013 Driehaus Prize
Harold Washington Library Center in downtown Chicago, designed by 2012 Driehaus laureate Thomas H. Beeby. (Courtesy of University of Notre Dame)
Thomas H. Beeby, designer of Chicago’s postmodern Harold Washington Library, became the first Chicagoan to accept a Richard H. Driehaus Prize over the weekend.
Beeby is one of the “Chicago Seven” (Stanley Tigerman, Larry Booth, Stuart Cohen, Ben Weese, James Ingo Freed, and James L. Nagle round out the group) who split with modernism in one of its key proving grounds during the 1970s. His postmodern historicism relies on representational imagery and ornamentation, which won him high praise from the committee that awards the top prize for traditional and classical architecture.
Selldorf Architects To Restore Grand Reading Room at Brown University
The John Hay Library at Brown University. (Mr. Ducke / Flickr)
While some of the new architecture at Brown University is distinctly modern, Manhattan-based Selldorf Architects has been selected to bring back the historic charm of the circa 1910 English Renaissance John Hay Library. According to the Brown Daily Herald, the project was jumpstarted in February following an anonymous $3 million donation, plus another anonymous $6 million donation for the renovation from 2011. The Hay Library, which houses the university’s rare books collection, archives, and other special collections, will be reconfigured to open up the grand 4,400-square-foot reading room to its original design by Boston architects Shepley Rutan & Coolidge. The room is currently divided into parts to securely store sensitive books. The larger space will allow more access to the public and can play host to larger university-related events.
First Lexus Design Award Winners Reimagine Motion
“INAHO” lighting concept by Tangent. (Hideki Yoshimoto and Yoshinaka Ono)
Have you ever found yourself thinking: “If only they had invented a/an—insert really clever device here—my life would be so much better?” For instance, a “clam kayak” that you could serenely float along in after a long week at work, or a “slide bridge” that offered the option to well, slide, rather then walk down a flight of stairs. It sounds too good to be true, but these inventive concepts were just two out of the twelve winning submissions of the first Lexus Design Award competition.
On View> MOCA Cleveland Presents Kate Gilmore: Body of Work
(Courtesy MOCA Cleveland)
Kate Gilmore: Body of Work
MOCA Cleveland
11400 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH
Through June 9
Through performance-based art, Kate Gilmore presents her body battling through strenuous physical absurdities while wearing whimsical feminine outfits, like fitted dresses and high heels. Her clothing makes the chaotic and messy actions all the more uncomfortable and comical. Gilmore’s performances reexamine the feminist performance art that became popular in the 1970s. By injecting humor into her work alongside visible awkwardness and distress, she explores the female identity while breaking down accepted masculine art practices found in modernist history. Her aggressive movements against feminine tones make the performance visually interesting. For her first solo show, the artist will display ten years of video works. The exhibition will also feature a recently commissioned performance in the form of a sculpture and video.
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