Bison in Chicago?

Gapers Block reports on Bisonarium, an "initiative by [a] coalition of Chicago artists to convert Northerly island (the former Meigs field) into a park with Bisons [sic]."

It seems that the site (typos and all) exists more to provoke thinking about the site's future than to seriously propose a bison habitat on the island. But maybe it's not such a bad idea...


The future of Northerly Island?

Another High Line Update

A couple High Line-related tidbits hit my Bloglines box today:

:: Cool Hunting reports that Friends of the High Line is holding a t-shirt design competition, to be worn by supporters at an upcoming City Council meeting. Details at the Cool Hunting link. (via Archinect, where somebody jokingly asked if this competition would be similar to FHL's first, where they pick winners but then solicit professionals to design the real thing.)

:: Curbed points to a post by David Galbraith, who says that the plans to renovate the High Line is a "bad idea":

Given the challenges of creating a park where the benefits of it being on a raised deck outweigh the negative aspects of the potentially dank, dreary space beneath, there is another option for the highline, which doesn't result in pretty drawings - Tear it down...And free up another small piece of Manhattan from its curse - shadow.

I understand where Mr. Galbraith is coming from, especially given the current design's emphasis of the upper realm over the lower realm. But if we look at the image below, it's apparent that the underside is conceptualized as a usable, interior environment (in this case a cafe adjacent to an access point to the promenade above), not just the leftover of the Victorian iron structure.



And this is the best and most obvious solution for dealing with the underside of the structure: use it! This is reminiscent of the frequent occupation of the undersides of highways and other public thoroughfares in Tokyo, where land is as valuable and scarce (if not moreso) than Manhattan:



I would propose selectively keeping small sections open and exposed - outside of the already open street crossings - combined with enclosed portions (like above) to add variety along the 1.5 miles of the High Line. To call the renovation a terrible idea and push its demolition rather than its creative reuse seems myopic to me. And sure, this type of "Tokyo reuse" costs money, but if the renovation boosts the appeal of the area as expected, it might just be those patches underneath the High Line that become the most sought after.

Small Apts

This month Apartment Therapy has been searching for the Smallest, Coolest Apartment in a contest voted on by readers. According to their page:

We've never accepted that a lack of space or budget are fatal when it comes to creating an inspiring home...we've learned there are always solutions -- the small, genius improvisations -- that can make even the most modest of real estate lovable...nothing inspires us more than the hand-made home, the stylish studio wedged into some urban crevice...the ultimate achievement in this category: the quintessential New York City apartment masterpiece.

The only guidelines are that the apartments must be under 500 s.f. and be in NYC's five boroughs. Skimming the thirty apartments in the running and looking at the images and the current state of votes, it's apparent that good photography is as important as good design and furnishings. The styles present are varied, definitely illustrating the occupant's tastes, part of the appeal of this competition.



Mine - and apparently many other people's - favorite is Jen and Roy's Minimalist Reno, a 420 s.f., minimalist one-bedroom apt. on the Upper West Side (living area and bathroom above). As you might have guessed, Jen and Roy are architects.

Final 5 will be presented Monday, May 2 with voting for the three winners until the end of that week.

Op Round-Up

Here's a recent smattering of Op-Ed's, Commentaries, and good 'ol architectural Criticism:

Rethinking Ground Zero
New York Times Editorial:

Three and a half years after the attack on Lower Manhattan, too many of the elaborate and even inspiring plans for rebuilding seem frozen on paper...particularly true for the building that the world most connects with the idea of rebirth at the World Trade Center site:...Freedom Tower...a stunning creation forged by the opposing architects Daniel Libeskind and David Childs.

Unfortunately, calling Freedom Tower a stunning creation pretty much discredits any other opinion in the editorial.

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Move the United Nations Downtown
by Fred Bernstein:

By taking space at ground zero [7 WTC & Freedom Tower], the United Nations would solve its space problem, practically overnight. But more than that, it would capture the public's imagination...The Freedom Tower could, in a way no one predicted, become a true symbol of freedom.

I do believe Bernstein proposed this scenario a while ago in his Twin Piers 9/11 Memorial. Moving the UN to the WTC site makes a lot of sense (practically and symbolically) to me, but it's boggling that they apparently aren't even considering it as an option.

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Regarding the 180-Degree Turn From a 90-Degree Standard
by Roger K. Lewis:

Strong architectural concepts reflect project conditions as well as the creativity of the designer. But an innovative idea, once executed, can catch the eye of other designers and appeal to them for purely visual reasons. The catchy, aesthetically stimulating idea then begins appearing elsewhere, and before long it has become little more than a faddish, overused motif.

Mr. Lewis argues against angles like it's taking over architecture, though buildings by the likes of Libeskind, Gehry and Morphosis are definitely the exception, not the rule.

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Architecture Elsewhere
by Michael Blowhard:

That Brutal Joint points to the comments on this post, where the neverending tug-of-war between Classicism and Contemporary continues.

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These and similar pieces always seem to remind me of Jean Renoir's classic film The Rules of the Game, specifically a quote by Octave, a character played by the director himself, who says (paraphrased): "All of the world's problems exist because everybody has their own opinion and everybody believes they're right."

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:


Solar Umbrella in Venice, California by Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa of Pugh + Scarpa.

The updated book feature is Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, by Reyner Banham.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Poseidon Undersea Resorts
Yes, a five-star sea floor resort complex, soon to be under construction near the Bahamas and near the United Arab Emirates.

Roadside Architecture
A thorough photographic guide to diners, bunyans, drive-ins, and so forth all over the U.S.

Watts Towers
Page by Friends of the Watts Towers Arts Center on the landmark towers in LA's Watts area by folk artist Simon Rodia.

White Dot
It's International TV Turnoff Week! Celebrate in style.

And Traditional Scores!

Updating a previous post on Thom Mayne's competition-winning proposal for Alaska's State Capitol, the Juneau Empire reports that the project is on hold. Juneau's Mayor Bruce Botelho cited finances and public disapproval of the designs as reasons for this decision.

The article also indicates that the city spent almost a million dollars of state money to fund the competition, money secretly appropriated that Governor Frank Murkowski demanded be given back to the state, which it did.



While the future of the project does not look bright, Botelho is quoted at the end of the article as saying, "...at the end of the day, the project needs to happen." Let's just hope it happens in a more open and honest manner and doesn't end in grumblings over old versus new.

(via Archinect)

Oh My Tengo

Yo La Tengo played a smokin' show at The Vic last nite, with a healthy sampling of covers and their greatest "hits." For a taste of them live, check out Sunsquashed, a good source of news as well as live mp3's.


Yo La Tengo "hatching" at Maxwell's Hoboken. New Year's 2003/04.

Coffee Escalator

Last year Illy and Domus held an international competition to "stimulate ideas capable of identifying new ways of enjoying espresso coffee." From the 740 entries, Break in Movement by Mauricio Bruna Fruns from Santiago, Chile was chosen as the winner.



According to Illy's site, "Coffee is served at the beginning of an escalator and the time it takes to reach the top can be used to savor the cup of coffee...at the top of the escalator the cup is thrown in a dispenser which will press it so as to transform it into a ticket for an exhibition or a show, or into a postcard."

(via WM$NA)

Glass House

Yes, the May 2005 issue of Architectural Digest is on the newsstands! Normally this would be of very little, if any, interest to architects, but this is their "Architecture Issue", featuring in-depth coverage of thirteen houses, ranging from the neo-traditional to the neo-avant garde. The rest of the issue is devoted to residential architecture, its history, and its furnishings (the last being the usual domain of the magazine.)

Two houses by architects in and around Chicago are featured: Margaret McCurry's reinterpretation of the Midwestern barn (House of 5 Gables) and a Modern glass box by Thomas Rosznak for him and his family. Coincidentally a recent condo development by Rosznak is situated right across the street from McCurry's office on North Wells Street.



Reminiscent of fellow IIT-ers Mies van der Rohe and Ron Krueck, Rosznak's design is based on a grid and a series of cubes of differing sizes. The exterior glass walls linking these cubes is setback to help define the forms but also to create vistas that cross small pockets of exterior as one looks across the house. The most surprising - and perhaps successful - feature is the steel structure supporting the second floor and the roof: squarish steel beams running north-south every five feet or so are painted bright yellow, a strong counterpoint to the exposed concrete slabs. According to the article, this gesture was inspired by Shinto shrines, though here it falls somewhere between that ancient practice and the more recent Modern movement, helping to give the house a personality of its own.

Also, Architecture Digest is sponsoring Architecture Days, featuring tours and lectures in three cities, including Chicago (from May 4-10). Unfortunately all events have a fee, with most at $25.00!

Staybridge

Here's an interesting-looking project by Valerio Dewalt Train, a hotel titled Miglin Staybridge.


Click here for a larger image.

As described in the News portion of the architect's web page:

"Chicago’s LaSalle Street starts at the Board of Trade in the heart of the City’s modern financial district and ends at the Lakefront in Lincoln Park, one of its most historic residential districts. The Miglin Staybridge Suites, a two hundred room extended stay hotel is a marker on the skyline, separating these two very different areas. It is the last landmark of the city’s modernist core, reveling in the messy vitality of the urban core, before the more restrained fabric of Lincoln Park begins to dominate."

For reference, the new McDonald's is a block or few south (right on the rendering). Thanks to Karen for the head's up.

High Line Update

Friends of the High Line has launched a new web site devoted to the preliminary designs by Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. This new site features a slide show, text on the project's goals, informative maps on different aspects of the High Line, and a detailed view of the Gansevoort access point.



The presentation of this material online is timed to an exhibition opening tomorrow at MoMA.



Check out this NYT article for more information on this "urban oasis 30 feet up."

Advertising Architecture

It seems like architecture is taking a more prominent role in advertising these days. Specifically sexy, photogenic architecture by the likes of Frank Gehry, Morphosis, or Rem Koolhaas. And specifically car commercials, where the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Caltrans HQ, or the Seattle Public Library - by these architects, respectively - sit in the background as this year's model zips by in the foreground.



This above print ad for Volkswagen is a good example, especially given that advertisers strive for consistency across different media (TV, print, internet, radio, etc) in their ad campaigns to create an image in the consumer's mind. In terms of print area, the car that's being "sold" takes up less room in the ad than OMA's Public Library in Seattle (in fact, it takes up less area than the pavement or the people's silhouettes, for that matter, showing that these days quantity isn't as important as quality, or more specifically mood). Basically VW is taking a trendy piece of architecture and using it to add appeal to what looks like a run-of-the-mill, four-door sedan. Take the building out and what do you have? A car that looks like many other cars on the market these days. The architecture helps to create an identity for the car with the consumer.

I'm sure this isn't a new thing, but the more I see TV commercials of cars whizzing by the latest curvaceous or jagged building, the more these commercials seem the same, to the point where the distinction or identity that the advertisers are aiming for isn't working anymore.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:


Cradle to Cradle House by Matthew Coates and Tim Meldrum, with Brendan Connolly, Ron van der Veen, Kristine Kenney, Julie Petersen, and Richard Franko.

The updated book feature is The Slow Food Guide to Chicago, edited by Kelly Gibson and Portia Belloc Lowndes.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Invisible Hotel
Web page on the exhibition opening tomorrow at the DESTE Foundation’s Centre for Contemporary Art in Athens, featuring ten avant-garde architects proposals of what a future hotel could be.

Schizophrenic Architecture
Gallery of buildings that "no longer resemble what they started out as, showing quite visibly the different intentions of different people". (via the SCD)

Core77.com
Industrial design online resource, or "supersite."

Smashy, smashy!

On May 17, 2005, The Mies van der Rohe Society is offering to the winning bidder the opportunity to break the first 10-foot window of S.R. Crown Hall. The glass breaking will kick off the façade restoration of this Modernist masterpiece and National Historic Landmark. This event – “Smash Bash” – not only launches the building’s restoration, but also Crown Hall’s 50th anniversary. You are bidding on the chance to be part of architectural history.

Yes, it's true. At the time of writing this, the high bid is $510.00 with 4 days 15 hours to go. I wonder if winner gets the choice of how they smash the glass?

Update 04.25: The auction closed on April 22 with a winning bid of $2,705.00 by miesenkel. INTBUA has a story on the renovation and auction.

50 Years Ago Today

Yes, on April 15, 1955, Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's in Des Plaines, IL. The first day's take was $366.12, an amount the franchise probably takes in every fraction of a second. To commemorate this milestone date, their River North "flagship" opened today. I strolled over at lunch to check it out (though I have to admit that I ate elsewhere).

Also, Lynn Becker's review of the building is featured on his site. Titled "Schlock Corridor", the piece gives some insight into the context that this building fits into, with a photo portrait of the area and a solicitation for a "Schlock Corridor Concept."


How many arches do you count?


I just don't know what to say about this thing.


The glass wall opts to reflect the street and sidewalk.


Velvet ropes at a McDonald's?


Yes, that's an ambulance at the drive thru, and no, it's not ordering lunch.

Update 04.16: Some gratuitous night shots:

Walker Expansion

Sunday sees the opening of the new and improved Walker Art Center with its Herzog and De Meuron-designed expansion to its existing facilities by Edward Larrabee Barnes. The Swiss duo - known for their simple, yet graphically and texturally rich exteriors - will also see its design for San Francisco's de Young Museum open later this year. They - along with Renzo Piano - seem poised to take over the U.S. market on cultural facilities, specifically art museums. While a building by H&DM would probably not be confused with one by Piano (and vice-versa), what they have in common is a respectful approach to designing spaces for art, a trend in architecture that goes against buildings and spaces that tend to compete or upstage the art within, as in Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao.


Image from The New York Times

Tyler Green's review of the expansion states that "While the [Milwaukee Art Museum by Santiago Calatrava] relied on its building to attract an audience, the new Walker plays it safe and relies upon its collection," referring to the debt incurred by MAM in the wake of its signature building, a bird in flight on Lake Michigan's shore. Is this experience, as well as the closing of Steven Holl's Bellevue Art Museum shortly after its unveiling (it's set to reopen this year...but for how long?), telling museum director's that the "Bilbao effect" has run its course?


Image from The New York Times

While Nicolai Ourousoff thinks the Walker Art Center's expansion could be more striking and sophisticated, his review is positive, stating "Instead of a monumental object, the architects have fashioned a building that hovers at the intersection of urban and suburban cultures - no small feat in a country that seems to be dividing more and more along those lines."

Christopher Hawthorne's take is more about decoration than the museum's fit into the American context (via): "It will be fascinating to judge the results...when a prominent architect grows bold enough to put ornament back on a facade, where it is still pretty much taboo. For all their architectural daring, Herzog and De Meuron still weren't willing to go that far in Minneapolis."

But it seems like the lack of ornament on the exterior isn't the architects choice so much as a necessity given the budget and its inherent focus on the art over the architecture. Herzog and De Meuron are probably the most overtly ornamental architects in contemporary practice, embedding images in concrete and glass, elevating gabions to the status of architecture (and maybe even art), and generally pushing materials and technology to find new avenues of expression for architecture. Their aluminum-clad tower and simple interiors in Minneapolis sounds like a compromise, but definitely not a bad one.

Whales in Chicago?

Continuing the last post's theme of BAD - and picking up on Bryan's comment about lack of contextuality - I thought I would post this image of the Hotel InterContinental's east facade, a mural of whales both over and underwater.



Originally, I took the photo to capture a moment in the slow demolition of the building in the foreground, but I turned my camera vertically to fit in this odd wall painting. Someone like me can't help but think this mural is strangely out of place. As I saw it take shape many years ago on my walks to and from work, I wanted to believe it was temporary. But, alas, it's become a beloved part of Streeterville, though beloved mainly by tourists on their ride from Navy Pier back to the Magnificent Mile.

This just goes to show that even good, old architecture - in the wrong hands - can spawn something as tasteless as the new McDonald's.

Bad Building Roundup

Lots of crappy architecture making headlines these day. Here's a sampling:

Blair Kamin pans the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum in Springfield, IL, designed by HOK and set to open this weekend. (alt. link for Kamin article and more news at the Chicago Tribune)


Get your appetites ready. McDonald's new two-story "flagship" in Chicago's River North opens for business Friday. Would you like a clunky building with that?


James Howard Kunstler's latest Eyesore of the Month is a lesson not only in bad architecture, but also extremely bad circulation.


And Design Observer tackles the latest unfortunate trend in Southern Californian residential design: Tuscan.