A Daily Dose of Architecture

Today's archidose #368

2009-11-08T08:15:00.002-05:00

DSC08689, originally uploaded by hellothomas.

Hawaii Gateway Energy Center in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii by Ferraro Choi and Associates, 2004.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Half Dose #70: East Village Penthouse & Rooftop Garden

2009-11-07T23:00:00.002-05:00

New York's Pulltab Design recently sent me some images of a rooftop project that features a little bit of "urban rust." Situated atop a 1900's walkup in Manhattan's East Village, the design is "a space for both reading and entertaining," consisting of a penthouse and garden.

[photo by Elizabeth Felicella | courtesy Pulltab Design]

The penthouse and garden are two projects for the previous and current owners. The former encompasses a single room and adjacent outdoor space, and the latter creates more outdoor space in an area to the left of the below diagram.

[exploded aerial view | image source]

Materials were selected for their changing qualities over time. They are primarily teak, bronze, zinc and Cor-ten steel. The first is used for the single-room penthouses's columns, windows and doors; custom bronze brackets were created for the space; zinc lines the steel used to collect rainwater from the roof; and Cor-ten steel guardrails follow the old building's parapet and defines the small outdoor room adjacent to the penthouse. These guardrails of "urban rust" recall the sides of dumpsters, though I'm guessing this is a comparison neither architect nor client would want to acknowledge. Nevertheless the top image illustrates how well this material works in its location, anchoring the otherwise lightweight addition.

[photos by Elizabeth Felicella | courtesy Pulltab Design]

Beyond the Cor-ten steel guardrail lies the project's second phase (below), created for the succeeding owner. A palette of wood and metals with active patina prevails again, but the latter is used sparingly, defining a small lily pool. Plantings are used with partial height walls and a trellis to create a sense of privacy and provide shade.

[photo by Bilyana Dimitrova | courtesy Pulltab Design]

But the focus of this second rooftop intervention is the hand-carved block of white oak with its keyhole-shape, stainless steel fountain. Like the metals used throughout the roof, this block is intended to weather over time, marking the seasons and the years.

[photo by Bilyana Dimitrova | courtesy Pulltab Design]

Today's archidose #367

2009-11-06T23:15:00.002-05:00

Here are some photos of 4143 Buena Vista in Dallas, Texas by Ron Wommack Architect, 2009. Photographs are by fake_plastic_earth.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

NYC Guide RFB (Request for Buildings)

2009-11-05T10:30:00.002-05:00

As indicated in my announcement about A Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture, a book I'm writing, to be published by W. W. Norton, I'd like to solicit opinions as to what projects should be included in the book. If you'd like to help, read on for some selection criteria before sending me your suggestions.

Projects in the book will fall into two broad categories:

1. Those completed between 2000-2010
2. Those planned for completion after 2010

I'm interested in both, but primarily the first, as they will make up the bulk of the book. Those in the second category, which I will include in an "On the Horizon" appendix, should be actual projects that have a good chance of realization, not hypothetical or speculative ones never to go beyond renderings. Given that my research to date has yielded a lot more buildings than can fit in the book, it is not necessary to send me obvious choices, like 40 Bond by Herzog & de Meuron, IAC HQ by Frank Gehry, the Cooper Union Academic Building by Morphosis, or any other NYC building on the Archi-Tourist, for that matter. I'm looking for "under the radar" buildings, quality architecture that has not clogged the airways of the architectural media. That said, below are my criteria for what is included in the book.

Projects for consideration:

:: Buildings (all types highly visible in the public realm)
:: Accessible interiors (museums, community centers, libraries, etc.)
:: Landscapes (parks, plazas, recreation, etc.)
:: Monuments (memorials, etc. with architect involved)

Projects NOT for consideration:

:: Storefronts (restaurants, shops, galleries, etc.)
:: Inaccessible interiors (offices, residences, schools, etc.)
:: Rooftops (residential penthouses, etc. without visibility or access)
:: Temporary structures (installations, showrooms, etc.)

If you'd like to send me a project you think should be in the book, please copy and paste the information below into an e-mail to me, filling in as many blanks as possible:

Project: ______
Architect: ______
Location: ______
Year of completion: 20__

Thank you!

Architize Me

2009-11-05T00:00:00.001-05:00

Monday was the official beta launch* of Architizer, "a new way for architects to interact, show their work, and find clients...an open community created by architects for architects." Developed by Marc Kushner, Matthias Hollwich (both of HWKN), Ben Prosky (Columbia University) and Alex Diehl (KREATIVEKONZEPTION*), the site is being referred to as "Facebook for architects" by many, what with its social networking framework, but it's actually closer to LinkedIn's focus on professional relationships. Comparisons aside, at first glance Architizer is a sharp-looking page that is almost guaranteed to be popular with its intended audience.

The three main categories on the page are Projects, People and Firms. Just about every architectural publication, blog, etc. is focused on projects, and architecture offices are listed on sites like world-architects.com, where I work, and others. But the inclusion of "people" between these two is where the novelty and potential of the site exists. Returning to LinkedIn, one could say that people already have a networking tool describing their positions in firms, but Architizer does this and combines pretty pictures with it, linking individuals to the projects they worked on.

But will Architizer be the exclusive domain of OMA, other well-known architects and their former employees? Or will it embrace the diversity of architecture all over the world, even projects produced by more lackluster firms? Too much of the latter runs counter to the high-quality projects and name-brand architects that stocked the site before its launch (guidelines for the direction of the site?), but the opposite condition would turn the site into just another page where architects can look at cool projects.

Most likely the site will evolve into something between these two extremes, full of all shades between the good and the bad, though the former will rise to the fore in the mix. This will happen via the filters for each of the three main categories, mainly "featured" and "most viewed." The first is the default, which I'm guessing is controlled by the administrators, and it's pretty much a sure bet that the most viewed projects, people and firms will be the best of the bunch; no painted concrete condos or suburban strip malls at the top of these lists.

Architizer also features Schools, Jobs, Competitions and a Blog. These are certainly secondary to the main bread and butter of the site, though the school feature has great potential, visually exhibiting the strengths of alumni, and therefore the school, more directly than anywhere else. It also looks like the $$ will come from "the window manufacturer [that] sponsors a page for their product used in [a] project" and advertising, though I think the latter will run the risk of cluttering the site, which has a nice legibility to it, rounded corners and all.

*Check out Guest of a Guest for photos from the beta launch party at Storefront for Art and Architecture on Monday.

NOV Events

2009-11-04T10:30:00.006-05:00

Some ongoing and upcoming events of note in NYC worth highlighting. And don't forget tomorrow is the Design Trust for Public Space's annual benefit and Saturday is the Institute for Urban Design's Arrested Development symposium at Cooper Union. 'Tis a busy month.

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PERFORMA 09

The third edition of the internationally acclaimed biennial of new visual art performance, will be held in New York City from November 1–22, 2009, showcasing new work by more than 150 of the world’s most exciting contemporary artists.

Here are some architecture-related programs with snippets; click the links for more information.

Performa Hub
Biennial Headquarters
41 Cooper Square
Sunday, November 1 - Sunday, November 22, Open 10am-8pm
Located in the latest architectural gem on the Bowery, the brand new Cooper Union building, the Performa Hub will function as our headquarters during the biennial.

The Public School (for Architecture)
Van Alen Institute & nyc.thepublicschool.org
30 W. 22nd Street, #6
Sunday, November 1 - Sunday, November 22, times vary
Performa is pleased to collaborate this November with The Public School (for Architecture) New York, a project by Van Alen Institute New York Prize fellows common room and Telic Arts Exchange.

Pre-enacting the Now and Future City
City of Tomorrows
Storefront for Art and Architecture
97 Kenmare Street
Saturday, November 7 3:00pm
A playful tour of the New York City of the future that merges urban geography, science fiction and guerilla street theater. Four short sci-fi scenes about New York City's political, spatial, and social futures...

Actions Propaganda
Performa Hub
41 Cooper Square
Saturday, November 7 11:00am
Performa teams up with Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, on a workshop laboratory inspired by Actions: What You Can Do With the City, a CCA exhibition with 99 actions that instigate positive change...

Ten Days for Oppositional Architecture: Towards Post-Capitalist Spaces
An Architektur
Gair Building No 6
81 Front Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn
Thursday, November 12 - Saturday, November 21, times vary
The transformation of the urban landscape within the last decades has increasingly been dominated by the demands of capitalist utilization. Due to the current crisis, however...

Sirens Taken for Wonders
Paul Elliman
Performa Hub / Van Alen Institute
41 Cooper Square / 30 West 22nd Street, 6th Floor
Friday, November 20 - Saturday, November 21, times vary
“Sirens Taken for Wonders” takes the double form of a workshop (Nov. 20, 10 pm) and a panel session with Arline Bronzaft (Chair of Noise Committee, Mayor’s Committee on the Environment of New York City), Laura Kurgan (an architect and artist), and Raviv Ganchrow (architect and sonologist) (Nov 21. 4 pm) to explore the coded languages of sirens and the different connotations we attach to them...

P.A.
Marina Rosenfeld
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue
Sunday, November 22 7:00pm
A sound art performance by Park Avenue Armory artist-in-residence Marina Rosenfeld, "P.A." uses the massive airspace and complex social function of the Armory drill hall as both a reflecting and distorting structure...

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UIWe: Culture Designers

Thursday, 11/5, 6:30pm
Self-described "cultural designers" JACOB BLAK and CHRISTIAN PAGH discuss their Copenhagen-based practice, UIWe, with DOMINIC LEONG, Partner, LEONG LEONG ARCHITECTURE.

Free and open to the public
RSVP: gdb2106[@]columbia[dot]edu

Studio-X
180 Varick Street, STE 1610
Between King and Charleton Streets
212 989 2398

[Studio-X is a downtown studio for experimental design and research run by the Graduate Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University.]

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RIGHTS OF WAY
A New Politics of Movement in New York City?
A PANEL DISCUSSION WITH DAVID SMILEY, CIVIC LEADERS, ACTIVISTS, AND CITY PLANNERS

Thursday, 11/12 6:30 PM

The James Room
4th Floor Barnard Hall

With the recent turn to pedestrian zones, bike lanes and greenways in New York and in many cities around the world, there is a growing sense that a new kind of urbanism is possible, one no longer dominated by the culture and politics of the automobile. “Rights of Way” will examine the issues surrounding bikes and pedestrianization, and will explore sustainability, finance, public health, and the ways in which the street can serve as a fulcrum in debates about public space and urban life.

MODERATOR
David Smiley, Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies at Barnard College

PANELISTS
Noah Budnick, Transportation Alternatives
Richard R. Gonzalez, Urban Design Lab at The Earth Institute
Margaret Newman, NYC Department of Transportation
Linda Pollak, Marpillero Pollak Architects
Sheila Somashekhar, Sustainable South Bronx

Sponsored by the Department of Architecture and the Urban Studies Program

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Paris/New York: 2 Metropoles—Policy for Urban and Social Space

Monday, November 16, 2009 6:30-8:30pm Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, New Academic Building, The Cooper Union For The Advancement of Science and Art, 41 Cooper Square

Discussion with Mireille Ferri (Conseil Régional d’Ile de France, Vice President), Pierre Mansat (Deputy Mayor in charge of the Paris Metropole project, Mairie de Paris), Christian de Portzamparc (Architect, participant to the Grand Paris competition, President of the Association des Architectes pour le Grand Paris), and Amanda Burden (NYC Planning Commission, Chairman). Moderated by Jean-Louis Cohen (New York University Institute of Fine Arts, Professor), with introductions by Anthony Vidler, Assoc. AIA (Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, Cooper Union, Dean & Professor) and Kareen Rispal (French Embassy, Cultural Counselor).

Paris/New York: 2 Metropoles—Planning for Sustainability, Density, and Inclusion

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 9:00am-6:00pm Center For Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets

A day of lectures and panel discussions will present strategies of French and American urbanists in addressing challenges in transportation, densification, social housing and open space. The morning session will be dedicated to issues in Paris arising from the Grand Paris challenge. After a welcome by Sherida Paulsen, FAIA (AIANY, President), urban designer and architect Alexandre Chemetoff will give the opening keynote, introducing a discussion between Emeline Bailly (Chef de projets, Délégation à la Politique de la Ville, Mairie de Paris), Catherine Barbe (Institute for the Sustainable Metropolis, Mairie de Paris) and architects/professors Djamel Klouche (School of Architecture, Versailles) and David Mangin (School of Architecture, Marne-la-Ballee). The afternoon will focus on New York with a panel including Rohit Aggarwala (NYC Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability), Rick Bell, FAIA (AIANY, Executive Director), Adrian Benepe (NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, Commissioner), Alexandros Washburn, AIA (NYC Department of City Planning, Chief Urban Designer), and Thomas K. Wright (Regional Plan Association, Executive Director). Alexander Garvin (Yale University, Professor) will give the closing keynote. A reception to follow.

Issuu Ruummage

2009-11-03T02:45:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago I discovered Issuu -- "the leading digital publishing platform delivering exceptional reading experiences of magazines, books, catalogs, reports, and more" -- when I was separately sent a preview of a magazine and a new book. Issuu's interface allows one to flip pages, zoom and pan, and download as a PDF file, among other features. At the time I did not explore the rest of the site, though revisiting Issuu recently I clicked on the "Related" sidebar and searched around, finding some decent architecture selections, presented below. In general, though, the architecture-related titles tend to be individual and firm portfolios, with some catalogs, and magazine and book excerpts too. The titles below are full-length books and magazines, a mix of student and professional publications.

[Architectural Design Research, Vol 3, No. 1]

[b>magazine n°13]

[Canadian Architect October 2009]

[Geometry of Design]

[Urban Planning]

Monday, Monday

2009-11-02T11:15:00.001-05:00

My weekly page update:

Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England by Rick Mather Architects.

This week's book review is Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture by Paul Goldberger.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Architizer
"A new way for architects to interact, show their work, and find clients. It is an open community created by architects for architects." (added to sidebar under blogs::sustainability)

Bronx Architecture
"An online guide to the architecture of the borough developed by Lehman College Art Gallery/CUNY" (added to sidebar under architectural links::new york city)

Le territoire des sens
"A research blog which proposes a reflexion on the links between real and imaginary territories." (added to sidebar under blogs::art)

spatial breakbeat research
"Mixing > architecture.breakbeats.fiction.graphics.urbanism."

12th & Main
Urbanism blog by "a concerned citizen who wants to help in whatever way to keep tabs on our local elected officials. " (added to sidebar under blogs::urban)

Today's archidose #366

2009-11-01T20:15:00.003-05:00

Here are some photos of the Wales Millennium Centre (Canolfan Mileniwm Cymru) in Cardiff, Wales (completed in 2004) by Jonathan Adams of Capita Architecture. Photographs are by wojtek gurak.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Jean Tschumi, Bernard Tschumi & DOCOMOMO

2009-10-31T22:00:00.001-04:00

On Wednesday evening I attended a party at Vitra celebrating the publication of a long overdue monograph on architect Jean Tschumi, written by Jacques Gubler and published by Skira. Jean Tschumi: Architecture at Full Scale documents the brief career of the Swiss architect who eschewed his Beaux Arts training in favor of "the polemical field of modernity and its technological expression." In the US, the name Tschumi is more well known prefaced by Bernard, rather than Jean, who died in 1962 at the age of 57, when his son was only 18 years old. His early death may have cut his architectural career short, but the quality of the architecture that he produced is evidenced in the pages of this monograph and in the Archizoom exhibition last year, curated also by Gubler.

I'm especially taken by the image on the party invitation of the Aula de Cèdres, a conference center and auditorium at HEP Lausanne:

On Wednesday Gubler spoke of Tschumi's architecture relative to color (embraced by the architect, but rarely captured in documentation of buildings) and scale, referring to the book's subtitle and the architect's consideration of design from furniture to the city. The book offers an in-depth exploration of Tschumi's career, which includes a number of office headquarters, for Nestlé, La Mutuelle Vaudoise, and the World Health Organization. (This blog post at New Switzerland gives a decent overview of the qualities of Jean's architecture.)

One is tempted to break down how the father's architecture influenced Bernard Tschumi's, though if an influence on the latter is evident, it is in the year's since his father's passing. Some brief words on Wednesday by the architect of the new Acropolis Museum pointed to little discussion between the two regarding architecture. In fact Bernard admits that he didn't decide to pursue architecture until a trip to Chicago, only a few weeks before his father died. But with time to study his father's buildings, and a role in Architecture at Full Scale, it would be difficult not to find Jean's influence on his son.

[new Acropolis Museum | image source]

Looking at the two buildings shown above, I would say the influence of Jean on Bernard happens primarily with thinking about site. The above clearly illustrates how the new Acropolis Museum's top relates to the distant Parthenon, while the lower floor contends with the ruins preserved below. In between, the museum is all about movement and the clarity of the exhibition, but it can be seen as the byproduct of contending with the site below and distant. The elder Tschumi's HEP building skillfully addresses the site's topography (as can be seen here) and adjacent buildings, standing out formally but fitting into the multi-faceted landscape.

In the Wednesday-night party's introduction by Nina Rappaport, Chair of DOCOMOMO-New York/Tristate, the preservation of Jean Tschumi's architecture in Switzerland was commended, an unspoken difference between an appreciation of Modernism's gems and the demolition of the same in part or in full an ocean away. The US chapter of DOCOMOMO (international working party for DOcumentation and COnservation of building sites and neighborhoods of the MOdern MOvement) includes ten regional chapters (all tolled the international DOCOMOMO is 53 chapters strong), but fights for preservation seem to be lost more often than won.

While this fact points to a limited appreciation in this country for architecture produced in the middle of last century, I can't help but wonder if this situation is more about ideology than taste. Modernism was predicated on progress and responses to the changes sweeping across the developed world from industrialization and world wars, so the preservation of the movement's buildings seems anithetical to their origin. That people equate modern architecture with the tabula rasa clearing of neighborhoods, towards the erection of towers in the park in that time does not help matters.

A couple issues further complicate matters: how many modern buildings were not built with the longevity of buildings centuries before; the open plans and platonic forms of modernism did not turn out to be as flexible as envisioned. These point to the necessity of preservation less than 75 years after many buildings of the era were completed and the creativity needed by architects to propose and carry out the adaptive reuse of modernist structures. I think the latter is key in efforts to preserve modern architecture, especially when faced with opponents arguing that demolition and new construction is cheaper and therefore better. The fact that many modern buildings are ingrained and important elements in their neighborhoods (ironically, like the older buildings many modern structures replaced) is perhaps the strongest argument for DOCOMOMO's continued relevance today.

Today's archidose #365

2009-10-29T20:30:00.001-04:00

Here are a couple recent buildings in London photographed by z.z.

[10 Hills Place by by Amanda Levete Architects, 2009]

[Reiss HQ by Squire and Partners, 2008]

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Sketchbook of the Moment

2009-10-28T16:00:00.001-04:00

Earlier today I was speaking with my publisher about the impact of digital technology on good-old-fashioned books, after which I saw the Sentient City exhibition. Needless to say I was feeling awash in the technology that is changing the way we absorb information, interact with each other, and encounter the city. So I felt a tinge of sentimentality when I came across The Hand of the Architect, a "limited edition Moleskine book filled with [378] drawings from 110 internationally renowned architects." Flipping through the pages, for a few moments the rush of the digital (if only in my head) gave way to a calm and slowness that hand drawings seem to embody.

[The Hand of the Architect | image source]

Of course hand sketches in their various media (graphite, ink, wash, crayon, marker, etc.) are good for much more than perspective in today's get-carried-away-with-technology world. They convey thoughts and ideas in particular ways that are much freer than any digital counterpart. Unencumbered by the need to learn software, the hand-brain connection allows the latter to figure things out as the former touches pen (or brush or quill or whatever) to paper. In other words, making a drawing by hand forces one to confront what one is drawing, thinking and understanding what each line, stroke, dot, field of color describes.

Books like this one from Moleskine are timely reminders of how digital tools can't replace all traditional ones, particularly pen and paper. For example, the research for my book is documented via a mix of spreadsheets, digital map overlays, digital photos, and a notebook (a Muji, sorry Moleskine). The last is a collage of notes, sketches, and pasted images, an ideal canvas for me for jotting down ideas at home, on the train, in front of a building, wherever I may be. But my research cannot exist without the digital components, and I'd also have a hard time limiting myself to just the bytes and bits.

So it should not come as a surprise that in addition to the "glimpse into the sketchbooks of visionaries like Michael Graves, Zaha Hadid, Piero Lissoni, Kengo Kumo, Mario Botta, Tadao Ando, and many more" is a "companion special edition blank journal" for budding architects and others to fill up.

or

Today's archidose #364

2009-10-28T14:15:00.000-04:00

IMG_0996, originally uploaded by jim_malone.

Guerrero Street Mixed-Use Development in San Francisco, California by Kennerly Architecture & Planning.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Pike Loop Inauguration

2009-10-27T11:15:00.000-04:00

Since world-architects.com is the media partner for the Storefront for Art and Architecture and Pike Loop (featured previously) I was able to get a sneak peek last night at the completed installation, snapping the photos below. Tonight at 7pm is the inauguration of Pike Loop, which will be in place at Pike Street between Division Street and East Broadway until the middle of January, 2010. The exhibition on the installation's architects, Gramazio & Kohler, is on display at the Storefront until November 14, 2009.

[Pike Loop installation | photo by archidose]

[Pike Loop installation | photo by archidose]

[Pike Loop installation | photo by archidose]

[Pike Loop installation | photo by archidose]

[Pike Loop installation | photo by archidose]

[Pike Loop installation | photo by archidose]

[Pike Loop installation | photo by archidose]

Monday, Monday

2009-10-26T11:30:00.001-04:00

My weekly page update:

Grid House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Moto Designshop.

This week's book review is Subnature: Architecture's Other Environments by David Gissen.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Abitare
The Italian magazine's web page is redesigned. (linked in sidebar under architectural links::publications)

Architectural Record
Another redesigned web site for an architecture magazine. (linked in sidebar under architectural links::publications)

AJ Notebook
"Design inspiration. Selected by you, curated by the Architect's Journal." (added to sidebar under blogs::aggregate)

Buildings: The Plan
Ian Volner's contributions for The Faster Times, "a new type of newspaper for a new type of world." (added to sidebar under architctural links::news)

Buildings: The Section
Eva Hagberg's contributions for The Faster Times, "a new type of newspaper for a new type of world." (added to sidebar under architctural links::news)

Today's archidose #363

2009-10-23T11:45:00.002-04:00

Here are a number of prefab residential projects in Minnesota (unless noted otherwise) by Hive Modular. Check out their PDF catalog (10mb) for more information on the different lines. All photographs are by HiveModular.

[B Line Medium 001 in Minneapolis | Flickr project set]

[B Line Medium 002 in St. Paul | Flickr project set]

[B Line Medium 003 in Minneapolis | Flickr project set]

[B-Line Small 002 in Minneapolis | Flickr project set]

[X-Line 001 in New Brighton | Flickr project set]

[X-Line 002 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin | Flickr project set]

[X-Line 002 in Vadnais Heights | Flickr project set]

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Weekly Subscription Problems

2009-10-22T20:00:00.001-04:00

Dear readers,

Almost exactly three years ago I was having problems sending out update notices for my weekly page, related to my move to NYC and ISP incompatibility. The solution I went with, NotifyList, has turned out to be far from ideal, as now I'm hearing more and more from many of you that updates are not being received, even though I'm sending them. After repeatedly contacting NotifyList with the problem and getting nowhere, I've decided it's time to find another way to deliver my weekly subscriptions, though at the moment I'm not sure what that is.

In the meantime I'm going to suspend new subscriptions via NotifyList, though I'll continue to send them out, hoping they still reach a few people. People interested in e-mail subscriptions to my daily and weekly pages can sign up via Feedburner on the sidebar at right. Hopefully I'll find a solution and migrate the current list of subscribers before the end of the year. Please bear with me as I figure out how to deliver these weekly updates to you.

It seems appropriate to copy the last paragraph from my post three years ago:

If anybody has any advice on mailing lists and the like, I'm open to just about anything that doesn't cost money. That probably doesn't give me too many options, though I'm pursuing just about all of them. As of yet I haven't found the right solution for the weekly subscriptions.

Thanks,
john

Half Dose #69: Wasted

2009-10-22T00:00:00.001-04:00

Back in undergraduate architecture school, for a studio in which we were given liberty over the site of a US Embassy, I chose London and buried the building underground, linking it directly to the nearby subway. The excavated building was an extreme form of security, but it also acknowledged the importance and convenience of the London Underground. With that old project of mine in mind, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about Wasted, a project curated by Arts Co that was part of this year's London Design Festival and was located in the tunnel connecting the Underground to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).

[photo courtesy Ian Douglas-Jones]

Architect Ian Douglas-Jones and designer Ben Rousseau lined the tunnel with the foil-lined paper sacks that tea to Britain from other countries, such as Argentina. As the architect explains, "Wasted showcases the throw away by-product of our penchant for tea, recomposed along with other disposables to form an immersive and jewel-like, semiprecious environment."

[photo courtesy Ian Douglas-Jones]

The "other disposables" include fire-hoses that droop down the center of the space and help define a seating area; the tunnel becomes a space to sit and contemplate, not just a conduit for movement.

[photo courtesy Ian Douglas-Jones]

But lest the project exist solely to make visitors question their drinking habits and the waste created from partaking in afternoon tea, it also "forms the launch of E&K Arts, a range of everyday, beautiful products created in collaboration with artists from waste."

[photo courtesy Ian Douglas-Jones]

It's pretty easy to see how this environment crafted from tea sacks is fitting for the launch of "chic, environmental products from reclaimed materials." It utilizes a portion of the waste product unseen (foil liner) so that the origins of it are basically unknown. Douglas-Jones and Rousseau take their medium and sculpt an enchanting space that elevates the mundane into something special.

[photo courtesy Ian Douglas-Jones]

This subterfuge of a sort raises questions about luxury goods and their relationship to art and design. Elvin & Kresse's (the E&K in E&K Arts) saddle bag -- made from old fire hoses -- goes for £99.00 ($165), hardly an inexpensive item but less than a comparable Louis Vuitton or Dior bag. Nevertheless, will cheap, recycled materials become the next mark of luxury, for their design as much as for their eco-sensitivity? Will the LV and Dior stamps lose favor to Freitag, E&K and others opting for recycled rubber over calfskin? In time perhaps, especially if their designs are as striking as Wasted.

[photo courtesy Ian Douglas-Jones]

Links:

:: London Design Festival (project page)
:: Ian Douglas-Jones
:: Ben Rousseau
:: Arts Co
:: E&K Arts

Arrested Development

2009-10-21T13:15:00.001-04:00

Just received word about the Institute for Urban Design's upcoming symposium, Arrested Development: Do Megaprojects Have a Future? The free day-long event will be held at Cooper Union's Great Hall on November 7, 2009, starting at 9:30am. Schedule is below.

Saturday, November 7th, 2009
The Great Hall, The Cooper Union
Free admission

9:30 am
Welcome: Olympia Kazi, Executive Director, Institute for Urban Design
Opening Remarks: Anthony Vidler, Dean, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, The Cooper Union

10:00 am – 11:30 am
MEGAPROJECTS IN SUBURBS
Lawrence Levy, Executive Director, National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University
David Manfredi, Principal, Elkus Manfredi Architects
Myron Orfield, Professor of Law; Executive Director, Institute on Race & Poverty, University of Minnesota
Tom Suozzi, Nassau County Executive (TBC)
Moderator: June Williamson, Associate Professor, Spitzer School of Architecture, The City College of New York / CUNY

11:30 am – 1:00 pm
MEGAPROJECTS AS NEW TOWNS
Chris Corr, Regional Chair, Planning, Design and Development, AECOM, Florida
Tom Jost, Director of Urban Planning, ARUP, New York
Emily Talen, Professor, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University
James von Klemperer, Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects
Moderator: Robert Fishman, Professor, School of Architecture and Planning, University of Michigan

2:00 pm – 4:30 pm
MEGAPROJECTS IN THE METROPOLIS
Keynote: Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President

Vishaan Chakrabarti, Marc Holliday Professor of Real Estate Development; Director, Real Estate Development Program, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Columbia University
Susan Fainstein, Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Design, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
Jeff Madrick, Senior Fellow, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, The New School
Thom Mayne, Founder, Morphosis Architects
Moderator: Peter Grant, The Wall Street Journal

Traveling

2009-10-18T23:00:00.001-04:00

Traveling for a few days, so posts will resume in the middle of the week.

Today's archidose #362

2009-10-17T10:30:00.001-04:00

Galeria Adriana Varejão / Inhotim, Brumadinho, MG, originally uploaded by pedro kok.

The Galeria Adriana Varejão in Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil by Rodrigo Cerviño Lopez, Fernando Falcon and Eduardo Chalabi, 2008. Visit Dezeen for information on the building.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Announcements

2009-10-15T13:30:00.007-04:00

Like many architects, this year has been quite a doosey for me, up and down...and down. Thankfully things are up this autumn. After dozens of resumes sent in response to job ads went unanswered the first half of the year, I decided to see if my previously extra-curricular activities (my web pages) could somehow lead to opportunities related to architecture but outside architectural production. This experiment of sorts yielded some freelance writing gigs, which continue to this day, but a couple recent developments are more exciting, announced in some detail below.

Near the end of summer I started as the Representative for american-architects.com, part of the world-architects.com platform that features profiles of selected archtitects. The U.S. sites also include newyork-architects.com and california-architects.com, the two areas that predominate in the sum total of the American profiles of architects, landscape architects, engineers and photographers. As well, the agenda and job posting reflect this coastal bias. One of the goals in my new role at world-architects is to make the site more representative of the United States, reflective of the diversity found between NY and CA. A large part of achieving this goal is adding more firms to the listings, so if you're interested in being considered for a profile on american-architects please drop me a line at jh[at]world-architects[dot]com. My contact information can be found here.

The second bit of good news is that I just signed a contract with W. W. Norton for my first book, tentatively titled A Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture. Most likely the name will change to something like the mock-up above that reflects the book's focus on 21st-century architecture, featuring notable buildings in New York City from the building boom that occurred in the first decade of the new century. Look for the book to publish sometime in the winter of 2011. The guide will cover all five boroughs, featuring some obvious buildings like SANAA's New Museum above but also lesser-known gems by local and not-yet-name-brand architects. Like my approach to american-architects.com, in this guide I'm trying to present a diverse array of the city's new architecture, not just attention-getting designs by well-known architects in Manhattan.

My job at world-architects.com and book deal with Norton are both suitable extensions of my daily, weekly and archi-tourist web pages, which over the years have allowed me to keep abreast of new architecture and selectively present buildings, architects and books I appreciate. I'm excited about both and am optimistic as I move forward with each. You'll hear more about these undertakings off and on in the months and years to come, particularly for the latter, when in a forthcoming post I'll ask for your assistance in finding buildings for inclusion in the book.

Today's archidose #361

2009-10-13T14:15:00.001-04:00

Here are a handful of shots of the Simcoe Wavedeck, part of the "first phase of implementation of a strategic masterplan for the Toronto Central Waterfront prepared by West 8 + DTAH." Photographs are by picturenarrative.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Monday, Monday

2009-10-12T01:00:00.002-04:00

My weekly page update:

Classroom Design Competition in Delavan, Wisconsin by Built Form.

This week's book review is Growing Urban Habitats: Seeking a New Housing Development Model by William R. Morrish, Susanne Schindler & Katie Swenson and HoCo: Density Housing Construction & Costs by Aurora Fernandez Per, Javier Mozas & Javier Arpa.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Archivias
"A travellers smart way to find today's architecture." (added to sidebar under architectural links::guides)

Boid.us: Blogs
Part of Boidus, which offers "a platform for showcasing fresh new talent and the latest news across the design industry." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Chris Heathcote: anti-mega
Blog that is a mix of gonzo interaction design, mobile phones, buildings, signs, art, food. (added to sidebar under blogs::design+technology)

Terragrams
"A podcast series disseminating discussions about the landscape." (added to sidebar under architectural links::audio/video)

Urban Sketchers
Urban Sketchers (USk) is a network of artists around the world who draw the cities where they live and travel to. (added to sidebar under blogs::art)

AE18: Urban Rust

2009-10-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

Walking around the Lower East Side last week, this Orchard Street residential development designed by Ogawa/Depardon Architects struck my fancy, mainly for its bold use of Cor-ten steel on the party wall facades.

[Orchard Street project by Ogawa/Depardon | photo by archidose]

Thinking of the use of Cor-ten steel -- weathered steel alloy with a protective layer of rust -- in architecture, what comes to mind more often than not are single-family houses and other buildings in desert and other rural locations. (This excellent post by BUILD attests to these qualities.) What does not come to mind are urban structures like the Orchard Street project or Matthew Baird's Town House (part of the BUILD post), though there are examples to be found.

[Orchard Street project by Ogawa/Depardon | photo by archidose | inset rendering by architects]

Ogawa/Depardon's design is an excellent place to start some sort of investigation on "urban rust." Here its use in the nearly completed building is relegated to the primarily solid sides that follow the property lines, shared with the neighbors to the north and south. It's interesting to note how the initial design (inset) not only featured openings projecting over the adjacent building (via air rights, I'm guessing) but also covered more faces with the Cor-ten steel. An almost homogenous wrapper became two parallel planes that strongly demarcate the zoning profile. Nevertheless this material is a big improvement over similarly scaled "pencil" buildings in the area that use less inspiring materials.

[Kavel 37 by Heren 5 architecten, 2000 | screenshot from architect's web page]

Heren 5's Kavel 37 (Plot 37, above) in Borneo, Amsterdam is an infill building that composes the whole front face in Cor-ten steel. But where the Orchard Street project is less than subtle, the perforated sheets here give a lightness to a material that typically feels heavy, especially when one thinks of Richard Serra's thick-walled sculptures. These sheets allow light to filter inside, and the operable facade allows the material do disappear in some areas.

[CaixaForum by Herzog & de Meuron, 2008 | photo by m_granados]

Herzog & de Meuron's design for CaixaForum in Madrid, Spain can be seen as a melding of the above two projects. The use of Cor-ten steel is both monumental and perforated, heavy and light, wrapping multiple sides to become a counter-intuitive gesture: a steel box (apparently solid the way it is carved) sitting on an existing building that appears to float above the ground. Its contrast with the Patric Blanc wall is also worth noting, given that most photos present this plaza view as the image of the building. Where the first two pieces of architecture are buildings, this design comes across as monumental sculpture, though I'd be surprised if Serra appreciated it.

To find urban buildings clad in Cor-ten steel, not surprisingly one of the best sources is flickr, particularly COR-TEN Steel pool. Many artworks populate the now 1,700 photos, and a few buildings are featured repeatedly, such as CaixaForum and Steven Holl's 2006 School of Art & Art History at the University of Iowa. Many new-found gems are to be found, like CUBO's extension of Odense Universitet beautifully shot by cphark. The buildings that follow were discovered via the COR-TEN Steel pool.

[Gazzano House by Amin Taha Architects | image source]

Amin Taha -- who apparently really likes Cor-ten, according to recent news -- designed the award-winning Gazzano House for a Conservation Area with warehouses and offices in London's Farringdon area. The six-story building takes advantage of its corner location, wrapping these two faces in a Cor-ten rainscreen facade that is punctuated by random vertical and horizontal openings.

[Parkway Gate by Ian Simpson Architects, 2008 | image source]

Also in England, in Manchester, is Parkway Gate by Ian Simpson Architects. Three towers for student housing exhibit similar forms and facade patterns, but each uses different materials in the solid areas to create a unique identity for each and for variety on the skyline. Not surprisingly the Cor-ten-clad tower exudes a particularly strong presence, especially when it is reflected in the glass of the other towers.

[Performers House Folk High School by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, 2007 | photo by martin8th | image source]

Finally, the Performers House Folk High School in Silkeborg, Denmark by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects benefits from an urban site open on all sides. Located in the town's historic and revitalized Paper Mill industrial area, allusions to warehouses, single-room schoolhouses and other typological buildings abound in the gable form rendered in perforated Cor-ten panels. At night, light ekes out through the holes in panels covering windows as well as, of course, any open windows.

Examining the buildings above, a few qualities about the use of Cor-ten steel in urban settings come to the fore: the material does not influence the form of the architecture; treatment of the material is limited to the orthogonal, sometimes cut for access of light and air; monolithic appearances prevail; the material is popular with the trend of random opening compositions; and the consistent finish is what binds these otherwise dissimilar buildings. Ultimately, I think the use of Cor-ten -- popular for a little while in corporate architecture in the late 1960s -- is seeing a resurgence because of Richard Serra sculptures (and maybe other artists producing works in Cor-ten, none I know about) and the desire of architects to align themselves with art, if unspoken or unconscious. I'm drawn to these buildings because they allude to an insusceptibility to the urban condition, to the dirt, wear and violence of the city that is more extreme than weather, to which the material is already protected from.