A/N Blog

What the Dickens! Chuck, 200, Obsessed With Design

The Editors — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:05:12 +0000

Charles Dickens would have been 200 today. Among the bicentennial celebrations of the noted Victorian writer, the Museum of London has been hosting an elaborate Dickens and London exhibition including a Dickensian street scene designed and built by set designer Simon Costin for its City Gallery. The “fantastical wintry vision of 19th century London” made [...]

Five Approaches to Reviving Chicago’s Navy Pier

Alan G. Brake — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:56:02 +0000

Five proposals to rethink the public spaces at Navy Pier have gone on view at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. The finalist teams–AECOM/BIG, Aedas/Davis Brody Bond/Martha Schwartz Partners, James Corner Field Operations, !melk/HOK/UrbanLab, and Xavier Vendrell Studio/Grimshaw Architects–use variety of approaches to revitalize the historic pier, which has long been a favored destination for tourists. Organizers [...]

LPC Approves Plans for Governors Island

Tom Stoelker — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:00:27 +0000

In a unanimous decision, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the first phase of plans by the Trust for Governors Island to restore and revamp the island. The vision includes a paisley-like landscape by West 8 on the terrace in front of McKim, Mead and White designed Liggett Hall. Way-finding by Pentagram and lighting by Susan Tillotson [...]

Giants Madness at 21 Murray

The Editors — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:03:49 +0000

We here at The Architect’s Newspaper always appreciate unfettered access when it comes our way, but today we’re unwitting holders of the hottest ticket in town. This morning you couldn’t get any where near City Hall without a business card that says you work nearby. Turns out we landed front row seats to the ticker [...]

Obit> Yoshiko Sato, 1960-2012

The Editors — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:37:08 +0000

Yoshiko Sato, an architect and educator who was committed to repairing the world through design, died on Sunday in New York City after a battle with cancer. Sato was born in Tokyo to parents who studied engineering and design, which sparked her interest in science and the arts. Following a tour of Europe to study [...]

Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei To Reunite at London’s Serpentine

Alan G. Brake — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:40:14 +0000

Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Wei Wei are getting the band back together for a brief collaboration for the famed Serpentine Gallery 2012 Pavilion. Now in its twelfth iteration, the Serpentine has commissioned temporary structures by some of the world’s leading architects, including Toyo Ito, Peter Zumthor, and Zaha Hadid. The Swiss architects [...]

Book Launch> Four Conversations

Tom Stoelker — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:44:04 +0000

Last Friday night, AN‘s William Menking and Aaron Levy launched their new book Four Conversations on the Architecture of Discourse at the Van Alen Bookstore in Chelsea. The book’s publisher, Thomas Weaver of the Architectural Association in London, and the Van Alen’s Olympia Kazi we on hand to help frame the evening’s discourse on discourse. The [...]

Is Frederick Law Olmsted Bad for Landscape Architecture?

Branden Klayko — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:06:01 +0000

Mark Hough put it bluntly in his latest article from Landscape Architecture magazine reposted on the American Society of Landscape Architects’ blog, “Our preoccupation with Olmsted stems from a chronic, debilitating inferiority complex that plagues our profession. We lament that laypeople confuse us with landscape designers and horticulturists, and we envy the greater visibility that [...]

On View> Jan Staller: Heavy Duty Landscapes

The Editors — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:34:44 +0000

Jan Staller: Heavy Duty Landscapes ISE Cultural Foundation 555 Broadway Through March 2 Jan Staller: Heavy Duty Landscapes, an exhibition curated by Marc Freidus, at the ISE Cultural Foundation, features sixteen large format photographs selected from series completed by Staller during the past seven years. Roadsides, recycling plants, and construction sites like the one featured in [...]

BIG Heart Gets a Second Chance in Times Square

Tom Stoelker — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:11:48 +0000

Last year, BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) got their heart broken by the Times Square Alliance, which chose a hula-hoop happy design by Freecell Studio for its annual Times Square Valentine’s installation. Now a spokesperson from the Alliance admits that they always “loved” BIG’s design and were willing to give it a second chance. This year, [...]