Code Warriors
The joys of syntax: Casey Reas' and Ben Fry's Processing. (Courtesy MIT Press)
On September 28, the first round in a series of debates on the future of computational design kicked off at Columbia University’s GSAPP. Under the heading Post-Parametric, the first debate was co-chaired by David Benjamin, partner at The Living design studio and director of GSAPP’s Living Architecture Lab, and Michael K. Reed of Columbia’s Department of Computer Science and Blue Sky Studios. Focusing on the subject of data, the event brought Casey Reas to the table with Chuck Eastman, and the result, one might say, was a technical knockout. Read More
Feasibility is the Essence of Design
This innovative British firm is on the shortlist for the 2010 Stirling Prize. The building they’re brainstorming is the firm’s first U.S. commission. The site is somewhere on Cooper Square. Morphosis is the architect of record.
Their work is the focus of a new book, Feasibility: The New Polemic (The Too Little Too Late Press, 2009).
Water Water Everywhere
Kurt Russell surfs on the LA River in Escape from LA. Could be in California
With its economy in the toilet and its legislature stuck in gridlock, California is .. hurting. But there is one area where the Golden State is still a leader. It’s one of the few states in the country to be developing an actual plan for rising sea levels: the California Climate Adaptation Strategy Draft. This, and other very relevant topics will be discussed tomorrow at a UC Berkeley symposium tomorrow called Battling The Sea Level Rise: Climate Adaptation Plans in California & Lessons for Developing World Cities. Read More
Man of Metal
Moneo
Last night Rafael Moneo, Madrid-based architect and Harvard Graduate School of Design professor, kicked off Columbia’s third annual conference on architecture, engineering, and materials with a keynote lecture on his Northwest Corner Building, a new interdisciplinary science facility between Chandler and Pupin halls.
This year’s conference is titled Post Ductility: Metals in Architecture and Engineering, and though Moneo’s building isn’t scheduled to be completed until the fall of next year, there may not have been a better time to discuss its materials or its contribution to the campus. Unfinished, the building can be seen as the engineering marvel that it is, with 300 tons of structural trusses enabling it to float above the gym beneath it. (Here’s a video we posted of them being installed.) Read More
Als Well With Alsop
Will Alsop with his new boss, Peter Morrison of RMJM. (Courtesy RMJM)
As suspected, Will Alsop wasn’t out of the game for long. The foul-mouthed StirlingPrize winner announced less than two months ago that he was leaving Archial, né SMC, the British architectural conglomerate that had bought up his smallish practice but three years earlier. Now BD reports that Alsop has teamed up with RMJM, and he will launch an atelier within the international powerhouse based in Battersea called Will Alsop at RMJM. “I like the overall vision they have for the future and the fact that it’s really global,” Allsp told BD. “In Archial, the only international bit was me.” Read More
Julius on Camera
Shulman, in a more expansive mood. (Courtesy Arthouse Films)
In the first months of The Architect’s Newspaper, more than five years ago, we were preparing a story on the possible demolition of a Richard Neutra house in Los Angeles. We figured that Julius Shulman, the famed photograper and chronicler of modern California, would have an image of the project. At the time, I called and spoke with Shulman, whose name was listed in the Los Angeles phone directory. He naturally had several images of the house, and when I asked if we could use one of them for the story, he said, “Sure—it will be $700!” I mentioned that we were a poor startup, and asked if he might cut us a deal. “No,” he said, and promptly hung up. Well, now there is a film, Visual Acoustics, that details just why Shulman was such a commanding figure in American architecture. The film receives its New York premiere on October 5 in the Cooper Union’s new Thom Mayne–designed theater. Director Eric Bricker will introduce the screening, which is a fundraiser for Open House New York, and will be followed by a private reception.
Correction: An earlier version of this post said the movie was screening October 7. It is screening this coming Monday, October 5.
Eavesdrop CA 07
Johnston Marklee designed this pop-up shop at Collette in Paris for Justin Timberlake's clothing line. Brick-and-mortar stores are coming soon.
BRINGING SEXY BACK
Johnston Marklee was already one of the hippest architecture firms in LA. But now they’ve catapulted several spots up the ranks. How, you ask? By designing new stores for Justin Timberlake’s clothing brand, William Rast, that’s how. The firm has already designed pop-up stores in London, Paris, and New York (to a chorus of screaming girls when Timberlake came by) and is designing more in Palm Springs and San Jose. And in November, the firm will open the brand’s flagship store in the Century City Westfield Mall. The architects haven’t met Timberlake yet, but will finally see him at the Century City opening. “I hear he’s very nice,” said principal Sharon Johnston, coyly concealing any desire to start screaming and desperately trying to rock JT’s body, as she darn well should. Read More
Senate Seeks Sustainability
Barbara Boxer and John Kerry introduced climate legislation in the Senate today that does much to promote green building standards. (SenatorMarkUdall/Flickr)
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released its energy bill today. The main talking point is that the bill sponsored by Barbara Boxer and John Kerry takes a tougher stance on emission reductions than the House bill, shooting for 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, as opposed to 17 percent. But the bills share some comforting similarities, at least for architects. Just like the house bill, which we wrote about in July, the Boxer-Kerry bill includes important measures targeted at buildings, among them stricter building codes and retroactive efficiency standards for retrofitted buildings. Along with the bill passed by the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee in June, which called for other efficiency standards, Andrew Goldberg, the senior director for federal relations at the AIA, said the Senate stands to create strong, architecturally intensive standards Read More
Redeveloping Round 2
For the time being, redevelopment funds are flowing once again from Sacramento.
Yesterday, the California Redevelopment Association celebrated another victory, as the state decided against pursuing its appeal of an April decision in Sacramento Superior Court that kept the Legislature from seizing $350 million from the association’s 397 member agencies. That money was meant to cover a shortfall in the 2008-2009 state budget, but at the cost of the agencies operations. As we reported early last month, however, the state has done it again this year, attempting to tae $2.1 billion from the various redevelopment agencies, which work on economic development projects, affordable house, and, as Cecilia Estolano explained last week, brownfield remediation. Association president John Shirey hopes yesterday’s victory is a sign of continued success. “One down, one to go,” he said in a release. But according to the Contra-Costa Times, the state remains undaunted, believing it has crafted this years bill in a way that avoids the constitutional pitfalls of the previous effort.
Architects as Music Prodigies
If you thought architects had no other talents outside of making shop drawings, you were wrong. But don’t take our word for it, check out “Unfrozen Music: Architects in Concert,” a show taking place in downtown LA this Saturday night with the talents of John Friedman Alice Kimm’s Alice Kimm (classical piano prodigy), NBBJ’s Jonathan Ward (Jazz legend), Landry Design Group’s Dan Murphy (guitar hero), and a bunch of others playing genres as varied as rock, country, and some form known as “Boogie.” (What exactly is Boogie?) The event will take place at 7:30 pm at the Colburn School’s Zipper Concert Hall, 200 South Grand Avenue. Tickets are $15, and all proceeds will benefit Habitat for Humanity. The host will be our good friend, KCRW’s Frances Anderton.
Emile Norman, 1918-2009
Emile Norman in his element.
California designer, spirited artist, and inventive mosaicist and sculptor, Emile Norman died in Monterey on September 24. Norman, who lived in a house of his own design in Big Sur, was an inspiration to artists of all kinds. His large-scale public work was known for being integrated with its architecture, an approach seen most vividly in the recently restored mural at the California Masonic Temple on Nob Hill in San Francisco. Read More
Bloomy: Paint It White
Al Gore, Mayor Bloomberg, and others put a final coat on a new white roof for a warehouse in Long Island City. (Courtesy Office of the Mayor)
New Yorkers, grab your paint brushes and rollers. That’s the message from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as he and Mr. Global Warming himself, Al Gore, kicked off NYC Cool Roofs, part of the city’s new service program that gets volunteers to paint city roofs white. A cheaper and less intensive alternative to green roofs, white roofs help keep buildings cool by reflecting the suns rays back from whence they came—though they don’t address stormwater issues like their verdant cousins. Read More
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