A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

An online version of the National Building Museum's exhibition Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete is available and is very well done and worth checking out. 29 projects are featured, broken up into four categories: Structure, Surface, Sculptural Form, and The Future of Concrete. The wide range of projects displays the almost endless possibilities of concrete as a contemporary building material, from simple and orthogonal designs to sculptural forms and treated surfaces. Many are obvious, such as any building by Tadao Ando, Simmons Hall by Steven Holl, and the Tenerife Opera House by Santiago Calatrava. But others aren't so obvious, like Alberto Kalach's GGG House and the Big Belt House by Massie Architecture , making it a learning experience as much as looking at pretty pictures. ...... White Temple in Japan...Mexican Embassy in Berlin Thanks a lot to Eric M. for the head's up on this link.

To be published in the fall, Taschen's Architecture Now! series continues with installment number three. Again written by Philip Jodidio, the nearly 600-page, $40 book will once again feature "many new and exciting names as well as recent projects by perennial favorites." Sample page; larger and more available at above link.  ( via RE.Design News )

Today's Chicago Tribune lists the " beauties and beasts " as part of their week long coverage on the Loop and its history. Patrick T. Reardon and Blair Kamin weigh in with the following top fives: LOVELIEST: 1. Monadnock Building , 53 W. Jackson Blvd. -- An unadorned wonder, with thick brick walls that curve inward and upward to suggest an Egyptian pylon. 2. Carson Pirie Scott & Co. , 1 S. State St. -- One of the great Louis Sullivan's greatest buildings, its lush, nature-inspired ornament designed to beautify the street and draw in customers. 3. Chicago Board of Trade Building , 141 W. Jackson Blvd. -- The summit of Art Deco elegance, complete with a pyramidal roof crowned by an aluminum statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture. 4. Richard J. Daley Center , block bounded by Washington, Randolph, Dearborn and Clark Streets -- Perhaps the finest Mies van der Rohe-style building not designed by Mies himself. The chief architect? Jacques Brown...

Forbes.com features the Most Expensive Homes in the Midwest , concluding that the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin) is the place to buy luxury estates at rock bottom prices. Compared to the Most Expensive Homes in the Northeast , the Midwest is a bargain, with the price range of the top ten from $10-25 for the Midwest, while the Northeast ranges from roughly $30-75 million. Not surprisingly, the majority of the houses are located in Illinois, either in Chicago or the city's North Shore suburbs. The Chicago houses tend to be large but notable for their architects ( Frank Lloyd Wright , David Adler ) while the suburban houses are much larger with acres and acres of land, typically on Lake Michigan. ( via Archinect )

The Archeworks Papers , edited by Stanley Tigerman Archeworks, 2004 Paperback, 44 pages The first installment in Chicago school Archeworks's eponymous Papers features a lecture given by Victor Margolin at the school in October, 2003 titled, "Healing the World: A Challenge for Designers." Responses to the text are given by Douglas Garofalo and co-founders Eva Maddox and Stanley Tigerman. Margolin argues that in order for design to make a difference socially it must address five forms of capital: human, social, financial, institutional, and physical. By demonstrating that market economies derive success by doing the same, he also cites social programs that use one or more of these capitals successfu...

Ini Ani Espresso Bar in New York, NY by LTL Architects,   Occupying a 350 s.f. storefront on Stanton Street in Manhattan's increasingly-trendy Lower East Side, the Ini Ani Espresso Bar posed an interesting design problem to architects Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis . With only $40,000 for the budget (approx. $115 per s.f.) and three months for design and construction, the local three-person firm designed and built all of the finishes, including "the cardboard and cast plaster walls, lights, curtains, door handles, cor-ten door and window frames, front sign and all the furniture," according to the firm's web page. Like most coffee shops, Ini Ani caters to both "for here" and "to go" customers. Th...

My friend Eric posted an image of a woodblock by artist Shiko Munakata, but enlarged in a rice paddy in Inakadate to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth. About 600 of the villagers participated in the evolving land-art, made from variously-colored rice plants. The aerial view reminds me of the work of Kansas artist Stan Herd , who uses crops to create images ideally viewed from an airplane. Like the Munakata work in Japan, Herd's pieces are large scale, temporal, agrarian, colorful, and collaborative, requiring more than one individual for their fruition. They are also reminiscent of ancient earthworks by Native American cultures, making each timeless regardless of their temporary nature.

Came across this picture over at City Comforts , taken as the eight-story building in Manila on the left - leaning precariously for days - decided to collapse, damaging the building across the street (from The Seattle Times ).

According to an article published in yesterday's Chicago Tribune (registration req'd), The National Park Service on Tuesday sent its recommendation to withdraw landmark status, the highest honor the government bestows on buildings and places, from the Chicago Park District, which owns the structure. Federal officials also recommended removing the venerable stadium from the National Register of Historic Places. The incompatibility of the new stadium design by Wood + Zapata and local architect Dirk Lohan is the main source of contention in the report, which will go the Advisory Board Landmarks Committee and then make a recommendation to the full board in September, eventually forwarding its recommendation to the U.S. secretary of the interior. This final decision will most likely remove the Landmark status, but the Mayor's spokesperson, Jacquelyn Heard is optimistic that Soldier Field may keep its designation, believing it was the preserved colonnades that were important fo...

This month's issue of the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) newsletter, Making Places , takes aim at celebrity architects and architectural criticism. July's feature on the Seattle Public Library by Rem Koolhaas not so much critiques the buildings as it critiques critiques of the building, from Herbert Muschamp to Paul Goldberger and online bloggers. Benjamin Fried's article talks about architecture "critics' unbridled enthusiasm for elite designers," contending that "readers must sift through the hype and hyperbole that saturate the bulk of today's criticism," eventually coming to the conclusion that "critics...are failing to hold architects accountable for the impact of their designs on the public realm," and that there exists a need "to introduce new standards for excellence in public architecture." As you can surmise, the author doesn't believe that the Library is a positive addition to downtown Seattle, particula...

nARCHITECTS has an image diary for their urban beach project built in the courtyard of P.S.1 for this summer. Scroll way down to the bottom, wait for all the images to load, then scroll up and see the bamboo canopies take shape. ( via RE.Design News )

The Illegal Architect by Jonathan Hill, published by  Black Dog Publishing , 2000. Paperback, 64 pages. ( Amazon ) At about only fifty pages, The Illegal Architect is a slim book, even more so by the fact that the book is half text and half illustrations, each page of the former facing a page of the latter. Intended as a parallel journey, the text is a criticism of the architectural profession, the images are a hypothetical project for the Institute of Illegal Architects. The text resonates much more than the images, perhaps because the words are a biting, focused critique of licensure and professional organizations, entities that serve to perpetuate the profession while having the adverse effect of...

Kam L. Liu Building in Chicago, Illinois by Studio Gang/O'Donnell, 2004 Approaching the Kam L. Liu Building of the Chinese American Service League from the Chinese Gate and other familiar parts of Chicago's Chinatown, one notices three things: the building's titanium-cladding, a decorative sunshade and balcony on the west exposure, and the lift bridges and their massive counterweights to the north. Designed by local firm Studio Gang/O'Donnell (now Studio Gang ), the east-west oriented three-story building accommodates numerous programs in its 38,000 s.f. for the Chinese-American population, especially recent arrivals. The image at left illustrates the proximity of the lift bridges - just past the "L" ...

Here's some photographs from last night's opening festivities at Chicago's Millennium Park. Although gray at times, luckily the weather didn't give way to rain, though not making for the best photo weather. Nevertheless, enjoy. Reference map for image locations. BP Bridge (Frank Gehry): 1 - View from across Columbus Avenue, looking west 2 - View from across Columbus, with Sears Tower in the background 3 - Detail of landscape between snaking portions Pritzker Pavilion Trellis (Gehry): 1 - View from the BP Bridge, looking west 2 - View looking southwest from stage left 3 - View looking southwest from under trellis Pritzker Pavilion Bandshell (Gehry): 1 - View looking north before Orchestra performance 2 - Close-up view before performance 3 - View looking north during performance 4 - Detail of bandshell structure "Cloud Gate" (Anish Kapoor): 1 - Overall view from the northeast 2 - View on axis from the south 3 - View of the underbelly Crown Fountain (Jaume Plensa...

No I'm not referring to the Yo La Tengo song. Today is the opening of Millennium Park in Chicago. On this splendid occasion, I thought I would compile a list of links, resources if you will, for further information, images, etc.: The official Millennium Park web site , with an interactive map and other goodies. The Public Building Commission of Chicago's page with a map and links to construction photos. Another City of Chicago page on Millennium Park, with information on the different attractions, as well as practical advice, like how to get to the park via public transportation. NewCity Chicago's Best and Worst of Millennium Park . MillenniumPark.net , lots of images at this page. The Heritage at Millennium Park's live webcam of the Park, requires Java. Millennium Park Imagexlposion at Archinect. Panoramic before photos of the Park site, by Thomas Yanul. The Chicago Sun-Times special section on Millennium Park, with many, many articl...

A while ago, this page featured a post on the High Line, the unused, elevated railroad tracks in the Chelsea/Meatpacking area of Manhattan. After an open design competition and money and the general OK from the city, Friends of the High Line picked four finalists (Field Operations w/Diller + Scofidio + Renfro, Zaha Hadid, Steven Holl, TerraGRAM) after an RFQ for the eventual redesign of the Line as a park. Domus online (registration req'd) features images of the four finalists, which are currently on exhibit at the AIA New York's Center for Architecture to inform the late summer final decision. TerraGRAM entry I'm excited that things are moving ahead for the High Line's reuse, though I'm also disappointed that a 720-strong design competition yielded a shortlist with the usual names. Surely, the competition achieved its primary result, to raise interest in the creative possibilities for reuse and drum up support and money for the cause. But the process gave way ...

This Friday starts the Opening Weekend Events for Millennium Park 's Grand Opening. Even though all parts of the park won't be complete, the line-up of events is impressive. Here's some highlights (full schedule here ): Fri, 10pm - Redmoon Theater illuminates the park with a dramatic installation of lanterns, fire and film. Sat, 3:30pm - Over 40 musical performances over four hours at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and throughout the park. Sat, 10:45pm - Ira Glass of " This American Life " with the visuals of Chris Ware . Sun, 10am - " Wait, Wait ... Don’t Tell Me ", Test your news savvy during a live taping of NPR and Chicago Public Radio’s oddly informative news quiz. Update: This image gallery at Archinect has a good selection of Millennium Park images to get your juices going.

The Slatin Report features a piece on a recent development in the Uptown area of Chicago. Called Uptown Square, the development is about a block south of Lawrence and Broadway, the nexus of Uptown, with the Riviera, Aragon, and Uptown Theaters located around the intersection, as well as the well-known jazz club Green Mill . As the image above illustrates, Borders is the main retail tenant of the development - renovated by architects Hartshorne + Plunkard - which also features market-rate condos and affordable units. The article is a good lesson in the real estate/developer decisions driving the economic regeneration of parts of the city, as well as the political steps along the way. With Uptown's illustrious history between the wars, it was only a matter of time before its built environment found new life, evidence of the cyclical nature of city neighborhoods.

Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings , edited by Jack Flam, published by  University of California Press , 1996. Paperback, 385 pages. ( Amazon ) Jack Flam's collection of writings by artist Robert Smithson , who died in a plane crash in 1973 at the age of 36, separates the writings into three categories: published writings, interviews, and unpublished writings. Presented in chronological order, the published writings trace the evolution of the artist's brief career, from his early geometric, gallery works to his penultimate earthwork Spiral Jetty . The interview portion is highlighted by one conducted with Paul Cummings for The Archives of American Art/Smithsonian Institutio...

Holy Rosary Church Complex in Louisiana by Trahan Architects, 2004 The Holy Rosary Church Complex, outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is composed of five parts: an administrative block, two linear classroom bars, a religious education bar, and a square chapel in a courtyard formed by the first four. Trahan Architects designed this last part as the focus of the orthogonal composition, itself skewed towards an opening that links the chapel to the community beyond. Rotating the chapel in plan from the other, ordered campus elements, activates the spaces between the chapel and the courtyards edges. These spaces take on different characteristics as the distance between the chapel and these elements changes from near (intimate) to distant ...

The northeast corner of Chicago and State Streets, about a quarter mile west of the Magnificent Mile and the Water Tower , has been home to a McDonald's for quite a while. The location has also existed as an overlap between the affluence and consumerism to the east and the grittier area to the west, with YMCA residents and other "undesirables", to use Jane Jacobs's term, frequenting the McDonald's and other nearby establishments. The recently-opened makeover of the McDonald's, in tune with the adjacent subway renovation with its neo-traditional canopies, threatens to destroy this unique clashing of class and race, or does it? The above view is the approach from the east on Chicago Avenue. Two drive-thru lanes are off camera to the right. An entry is under the second of four golden arches from the right, under a canopy highlighted with more golden arches. Beyond the overly-large, cantilevered sign is a fenced-in, corner park, visible below. The buildin...

A couple images of Cloud Gate , by artist Anish Kapoor , were sent around the office where I work. The sculpture is part of a raised garden east of the skating rink in Chicago's Millennium Park . According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the sculpture will be concealed again (after months being constructed under a vaulted tent) around the end of the month with its final unveiling in September. Yet the "official" opening of the Park is July 16. The park won't be completely done until some time in 2005. Looking at the sculpture from the southwest. Looking at the sculpture from the north. I don't know who took these pictures, so if you did let me know and I'll give you credit.

An interesting quote I read while riding the train into work today: What kind of building is this which is so strategically located, so very tall, so elegantly built, and which not only overwhelms its own micro-environment but which alters the profile of the city itself?...It is unmistakably a Chicago building, more easily attributable to the place than to its particular author...It is not so much the building's great height which is troubling. Rather, it is the image of teams of process-oriented silent technicians, calculating the most profitable use of land, materials, strategies of investment, producing an architecture - received Miesian aesthetic aside - which lacks vision and refuses to comment on the general problems of our time Although written in 1970 Alvin Boyarsky for AD , it sounds equally valid today, especially in the much-loathed high rises of River North. Certainly today the scope of his statement could even extend beyond Chicago.

According to Architectural Record 's July 2004 print magazine, Daniel Libeskind has been named the United States Cultural Ambassador for Architecture by the U.S. State Department. What's that, now? He's been named what? By who? Or is it whom? Searching around the internet, I wasn't able to find anything to corroborate this statement. Nothing at Google news . Nothing at Archinect . Nothing at the US Department of State . Now I don't necessarily doubt Record , I'm just wondering why something like this isn't news elsewhere. I figure that Record 's deadline for the print issues creates a lag behind news that would be reported online, so basically this story has been news to them since about a month ago, I would guess. So why can't I find any information beyond that one sentence?

Click on the image below for a 12-panel art piece by R. Crumb, titled "A Short History of America", available in both animated and non-animated versions.

The Architect's Newspaper features an article on the popularity of shipping containers, from disaster-relief housing to a media school. Costing around $1,500 to $2,000, they are economical, structural, mobile, and increasingly more aesthetic ways to design. ( via Archinect ) Anybody know who designed this? Update: For a good source on shipping containers used for architectural purposes, check out the Shipping Container Architecture Information Database .

Recently the Chicago Architecture Foundation announced that it would be adding another architecture prize to the mix, but instead of awarding architects, as is the norm, their Patron of the Year Award will focus, naturally, on the client. Intended to boost the quality of buildings in Chicago by getting the attention of developers and other clients, winners will be chosen in three categories: Commercial, Governmental, and Institutional building types. The award reminds me of the RIBA Client of the Year award, of which the British organization describes, "Unless the people who commission buildings have vision and faith, there can be no good architecture." Nominations (pdf link) can be submitted by anybody and are due July 31.

GSW Headquarters Berlin by Sauerbruch Hutton Architects, published by  Lars Müller Publishers , 2000. Paperback, 256 pages. ( Amazon ) Completed in 1999, British architect Sauerbruch Hutton's GSW Headquarters is composed of five distinct volumes: the "baguette", the "baguetttini", the "pillbox", the existing tower, and the high-rise. Typically the high-rise portion gets the most attention, its south-facing facade a random layout of colored shades, ranging from white to maroon with pinks, oranges and reds in-between. But reading this book, one realizes that the design's interest doesn't stop there. For example, the "baguette", a low-rise retail and office space, ...

Elbberg Campus in Hamburg, Germany by BRT Architects, 2003   Hamburg-based Bothe Richter Teherani (BRT) has created a consistent body of work since the firm's inception in 1991, primarily office buildings. Formed by partners Jens Bothe, Kai Richter and Hadi Teherani, who all attended school at the Technical University in Braunschweig, their work is characterized by a contemporary aesthetic that expresses their main idea of wholeness, the integration of function, cost-efficiency and sustainability. The Elbberg Campus strives to create wholeness from new and existing buildings in the Altona area of Hamburg. Consisting of office space and two types of living space (apartments and lofts), the mixed-use development places the...