Piano Coverage

For the time being*, the architectural spotlight in Chicago is square on Renzo Piano, who's unveiling his final design for the Art Institute Expansion which has its groundbreaking today, and which also sees an exhibition on the design open at the museum today. If that's not enough, news coverage is rampant:

:: Light and Airiness for Art Institute of Chicago's New Wing (New York Times)

:: A talk with the park (Sun-Times)

:: Museum bridge to connect art, popular park (Tribune - Kamin)

:: Grand transformation at the Art Institute (Tribune)

:: Art Institute to add new wing (Tribune - Kamin, again)

Click image for Chicago Tribune graphic on the expansion.

*Until Thom Mayne receives the Pritzker Prize at Millennium Park this evening.

Sustainable Vision

Archinect links to CNN.com International's Special Report: Vision, which features visionaries like Norman Foster and Will Alsop, among many others.

Foster writes about the importance of building sustainably, the world's population growth, and the importance of living in cities. A sidebar online poll had the following unsettling, though unsurprising, stat when I voted:



I'll admit it's not the clearest question (Who is the we? Our elected officials? The public? Architects/Engineers/Developers? Whoever's voting?), but it definitely points to a lag between knowledge of a problem and application of solutions. In this case, the solutions will potentially take much longer to put into place than the very real impact of the problem.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Paper Temporary Studio in Paris, France by Shigeru Ban.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment - Memorial Day Edition:

Clusterf*ck Nation
James Howard Kunstler gives Americans something to think about as the summer vacation motoring season gets underway this weekend. See also this interview with Kunstler and this Wired/AP article.

Chrysler Building Turns 75
The New York Times Home & Garden section devotes its coverage this week to the world-famous skyscraper.

Bill S 189
A proposed bill to restore the observance of Memorial Day to May 30 instead of "a weekend of Bar B Q's, shopping bargains and beaches".

Pritzker Prize Ceremony
Thom Mayne will be awarded the Pritzker Prize at Millennium Park in Chicago tomorrow evening at 6:30pm, the same day as the groundbreaking of Renzo Piano's addition to the Art Institute and the opening of its exhibition, Zero Gravity: The Art Institute, Renzo Piano, and Building for a New Century. And of course, a companion book will be available.

MAM

Finally visited the Milwaukee Art Museum and its signature addition by Santiago Calatrava earlier today.


The bird-like brise-soleil is especially impressive from the approach via the Calatrava-designed footbridge.


In the space below the brise-soleil, their presence is diminished by the deep mullions of the glass walls.


The long wait in line for admission is lightened by site-specific artwork in the West Galleria, in this case a work of words by Liam Gillick.


One of my favorite's in the Museum's permanent collection is Modernity circa 1952, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely, 2004 by Josiah McElheny.

Two of a Kind

From The Guardian's article on Brad Pitt designing a restaurant and residential penthouse in Frank Gehry's redevelopment of the Hove seafront (my amendments in [brackets]):

Brad Pitt

Born
Shawnee, Oklahoma, US
Age
41
Career highlights
Johnny Suede, Fight Club, Ocean's 11 [Se7en, Twelve Monkeys, Snatch]
Career lowlights
Seven Years in Tibet, Meet Joe Black [Troy, Interview with the Vampire]
Why he matters
'He combines the matinee idol looks of Gary Cooper with the sex symbol loveliness of Marilyn Monroe' [He's one of the most popular actors in the world.]

Frank Gehry

Born
Toronto, Canada
Age
76
Career highlights
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao; Walt Disney concert hall, Los Angeles [DG Bank, Berlin; Cardboard and Bentwood Furniture]
Career lowlights
Experience Music Project, Seattle [American Center, Paris]
Why he matters
'One of the most prominent contemporary American architects with his open, curvilinear, diverse and sometimes playful west coast style'. [He's the most famous living architect in the world.]

Chicago Revealed

Starting June 10, photographs of Terry Evans will be on display in Chicago's Millennium Park. Titled Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait, an online version of the exhibition is up and running already. The well-designed, interactive maps (political, physical, protected lands) stretch from the Kankakee River in the south and Portage, Indiana in the east to Geneva in the west and the Wisconsin border in the north, with an extra downtown blow-up. Thematic galleries (steel mills, neighborhoods, lakefront, suburbs, farming, etc.) provide additional browsing options. Either way, the photographs are especially beautiful, making the site a welcome distraction.

Here's a sampling:


IIT Student Center by Rem Koolhaas


City Farm near Cabrini Green


Metropolitan Correctional Center by Harry Weese


Suburbia

The exhibition is a collaboration between Openlands Project and Chicago Metropolis 2020.

(via Gapers Block)

Le Choix du Public

If you're up for flexing your archi-democratic muscles, point your mouse to the 2005 Prix d'excellence en architecture de l'Ordre des Architectes du Québec. 32 projects are finalists for the award, with voting by the public available - YOU - until July 31.



Finalists include:

:: Anne Carrier Architectes

:: Croft Pelletier Architectes

:: Faucher Aubertin Brodeur Gauthier

:: Dan S. Hanganu Architectes

:: Hal Ingberg/James Aitken

:: Lapointe, Voyer, Lemay et Associés (pictured)

:: Marosi + Troy Architectes/Jodoin Lamarre Pratte

:: Saucier Perrotte Architectes

:: Pierre Thibault

:: And many, many more!

Project pages feature extensive galleries, so even if you aren't voting you should have fun browsing.

Parachute Pavilion Winner Announced

At 1pm EST today, the Coney Island Development Association and the Van Alen Institute announces the winner of the Parachute Pavilion, an open ideas competition for a year-round structure at the base of the famous Parachute Jump. Having registered but not completed the competition, I'm especially eager to see the winning design. I'll post some images and information on the winning entry once it becomes available.

And the winner is...the team of Kevin Carmody, Andrew Groarke, Chris Hardie and Lewis Kinneir, of London, chosen from more than 850 entries from 46 countries. According to Van Alen's press release, "The winning design team receives $10,000 and the opportunity to work with Van Alen Institute to develop a program and a publication that demonstrate the role of powerful design in improving the City...Second prize of $5,000 was awarded to Ramon Knoester and Eckart Graeve of Brooklyn and the Netherlands, and the $3,000 third prize went to Roman Torres, Patrick Stinger, Mayva Marshall and Adam Montalbano of Philadelphia. There were nine Honorable Mentions representing entries from London, Paris, Copenhagen, Athens and the Netherlands, as well as the United States."

Views of the winning entry:





Update 05.27: All the entries can be viewed right here.

LANDed

On display now at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma are various structures scattered across the newly renovated grounds and gardens, as part of the exhibit LANDed: Innovative Garden Structures.


Vines by MADE

In an essay on the exhibition, Brian J. Ferriso asserts "the LANDed structures create a garden experience like no other: a provocative experiential display of creativity that directly addresses the concept of the formal garden, its structures, and their relationship in the future."

The architects in the exhibition:

:: Della Valle + Bernheimer Design, Brooklyn (Butterflies)

:: designsubset, Austin (ROAMroom)

:: Lyn Rice Architects, New York ([AND]SCAPES)

:: MADE, Brooklyn (Vines)

:: Mitnick Roddier Hicks, San Francisco (Split/View)

Thanks to Eric M. for the head's up.

Stanley dot com

Flipping through Surface Magazine's 2005 Design Issue, I discovered a couple unbuilt, single-family house designs by Stanley Saitowitz, featured in an article on dot-com dreams gone awry in and around San Francisco, the epicenter of tech money in the 90s. The Zakin and Davis Houses both feature long, linear bars that bend and overlap each other, ending in dramatic cantilevers that strain towards the ideal vista.


Zakin Residence


Davis Residence

These large houses seem to fall into a series of designs - also including the Kahn and Omega 3 projects - that use linear bars to define outdoor spaces, frame vistas, and instill each house with a unique sequence of movement and spatial relationships, especially when compared to typical residential design. In relation to Saitowitz's previous, built houses, these are extravagant, their expense (both land and building) and failure a product of the dot-com bubble and bust. While this means similar designs, in terms of scale and size, aren't appropriate now, their value in expanding the architect's talents and ways of approaching the single-family house may mean great things are on the horizon.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Tending, (Blue) in Dallas, Texas by James Turrell and Interloop A/D.

The updated book feature is Nasher Sculpture Center Handbook, edited by Steven A. Nash.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

The Straw House Blog
"In 2002 Glen Hunter & Joanne Sokolowski started building a house. It's made of straw, it's off the grid. This is their story."

Chicago's Building Boom
List of tall buildings in Chicago over 300', either recently completed, under construction, or proposed, with images.

BrownLAB - Part I
First in a series of four on Land + Living's coverage of a USC landscape architecture studio.

30 Bridges
Hugh Pearman's introduction to the book by Matthew Wells. (via City Comforts)

Chicago News

Some Chi-town news briefs and happenings:

:: The Chicago Tribune reports that The Fordham Company approached Santiago Calatrava to design a residential high-rise on North Lake Shore Drive. Nothing more is known at this time, though it makes me wonder where exactly this tower would be located, since vacant lots along LSD are scarce (outside of 600 North which is slated for a pair of towers by Pappageorge/Haymes). Fordham Co. isn't exactly known for cutting-edge architecture, so the choice to solicit Calatrava is unexpected, though refreshing. It should be interesting to see what develops.

:: The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $11 million for the ailing Chicago Public Schools, specifically for small schools. Given the lack of state and federal funds for education, this is good news, though unfortunately it won't go too far towards improving facilities, constructing new schools, and other physical improvements to the system.

:: The sixth annual Great Chicago Places and Spaces is happening this weekend, kicked off tonight by an "intimate" talk with Bruce Mau, Stanley Tigerman and Lee Bey, according to the City of Chicago's page. It's at 6:30 at the Art Institute, it's free, and it's first-come, first-seated. See the Reader's listings for more information on the plethora of tours over the weekend.

:: On a related note, Metromix compiles a list of places to eat while checking out Great Places and Spaces.

:: The Southeast Environmental Task Force is holding a bus tour of Chicago's Industrial Southeast Side. Check their special events page for details.

:: Have a great weekend!

WTC, Snøhetta Style

A day after Donald Trump unveiled his borrowed design for the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, the LMDC unveils its design for the Cultural Center, by Norway's Snøhetta.



The building is located in the northeast corner of the site, adjacent to each memorial footprint, itself taking on a similar form either dictated by the site or in respect to the voids.

With the recent Trumpian developments in this on-going drama, it looks like Snøhetta's design might be too abstract and impressionistic for most people to understand. Regardless, it might be the most tasteful design that has been presented to the public for the masterplan since the memorial competition.

Yep, They're Twins Alright

Following up on yesterday's post about Donald Trump unveiling his design to rebuild the Twin Towers, NY1 reports that the design is available online. Apparently the design is one that's been on the internet for a while now (linked in yesterday's post), designed by Kenneth Gardner and Herbert Belton. Further it appears that Trump is merely endorsing this design rather than commissioning a designer for something new. No surprises there.


Libeskind/SOM :: Gardner/Belton

If you're a reader of this page, you've probably noticed that I don't think rebuilding the Twin Towers is the right thing to do, even though I'm not in love with Libeskind's master plan and the hybrid Freedom Tower. Instead of rushing into one or the other, perhaps it's time for all interested parties to step back and reevaluate what's going on at the WTC site, so New York doesn't end up with something that hurts the city, and therefore the country. Money, politics and symbolism seem to be overshadowing good urban planning, architecture, and other concerns on a path towards something either chaotic and confused or uninspired and boring.

Update: Newsday.com covers Trump's presentation of the Twin Tower design. In an over-the-top manner, the billionaire describes the winning master plan design "like a junk yard, a series of broken-down angles that don't match each other. And we have to live with this for hundreds of years?...It is the worst pile of crap architecture I've ever seen in my life." What he's not grasping is that the master plan designs aren't set; they'll be designed be individual architects and firms in the future and will much less resemble what's in the master plan much like Freedom Tower doesn't resemble Libeskind's 1,776-foot tower. And although they don't "match each other", the angles are part of a group gesture that creates a focus on the void of the memorial and site of the original towers.

Further, Trump describes the Freedom Tower as skeleton-like, saying "If we rebuild the World Trade Center in the form of a skeleton, the terrorists win." Ironically, Libeskind and Governor Pataki used that very word to describe the THINK team's runner-up bid for the WTC site, the association helping to pave the way for the architect's winning scheme. It looks like Trump is pulling a page from the person he's now trying to destroy. And in another subtle move, Trump will use his TV show, The Apprentice, to further his cause.

Architects Like Paintings, Too

Tyler Green posts both his favorite painting(s) in America and favorite American painting(s) in response to the National Gallery launching a search for Britain's favorite painting.

Throwing some suggestions into the mix, it didn't take long to think of my favorite paintings in America, both by my favorite painter Gerhard Richter and both in the permanent collections of American museums (correct me if I'm wrong).


Betty , 1988
St. Louis Art Museum


Two Candles, 1982
Art Institute of Chicago

Picking a favorite American painting is a bit more difficult, taking my mind back to a university class on Modern American Art. Given that choosing something like this comes down to personal taste, for me that would be mid 20th-century abstract and abstract expressionist art. Which means a favorite wouldn't be a single work but a range of work by individual artists. So, in no particular order:

:: Franz Kline
:: Robert Motherwell
:: Mark Rothko
:: Barnett Newman
:: Helen Frankenthaler
:: Jackson Pollock

WTC = World Trump Center?

Looks like Donald Trump is going to follow through on his words from a couple weeks ago when he panned Freedom Tower and pushed for rebuilding the Twin Towers "only stronger and a little bit taller, even if it's only one story taller."

"They should...not build something that looks like an empty skeleton...The design for the Freedom Tower is an egghead design, designed by an egghead, which has no practical application and which, frankly, didn't look very good. I've gotten great reviews on my buildings. I'm somebody who believes strongly in great architecture and [Freedom Tower]...is just not a good design." (my italics)

It's obvious Trump isn't enamored with Libeskind and thinks very highly of his own taste, though I can't recall much positive praise for his buildings, which tend to be unexceptional at best. Ironically his Trump Tower in Chicago, which has received some good words in print for its design (though countered by criticism of its mass and siting), is designed by the same behemoth as the majority of Freedom Tower, SOM.



Now the New York Post reports that Trump will unveil "his own design for a rebuilt 111-story 'World Trade Center' at Ground Zero at a press conference tomorrow." The billionaire explains that they

"took the original World Trade Center design, brought it into the modern age, made it more beautiful than ever before, made it one story taller, made it higher lined, and took out the architectural weaknesses that were there...We also strengthened the building internally so that what happened on 9/11 could never happen again...Some people thought [the World Trade Center] was too monolithic. We've put on a higher lined curtain wall, which will make the exterior much more vivid and beautiful."

I'm not exactly sure what he's means when he says "higher lined", though we will know tomorrow when the model is unveiled. There's no mention of the architect designing this tower or if Team Twin Towers - a group pushing for the towers' reconstruction since their destruction - or any like-minded contemporaries are involved. Stay tuned.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

B House in Portland, Oregon by Architecture W.

The updated book feature is Dark Age Ahead, by Jane Jacobs.

Here's some unrelated links for your enjoyment, after catching up on things from the last few days:

Encyclopedia Chicago
Online version of the book. Very thorough and well done. (Thanks to B.T.)

Chicago's Steel Heritage Project
The group responsible for pushing the preservation this part of Chicago's history has unveiled plans for a museum at the Acme Coke Plant by none other than Studio/Gang. I'll post images once I find some.

WTC Memorial Mock-up
At least one thing is running smoothly for the WTC site.

Architecture 2005
Special New York Times coverage.

Slicing and Dicing the Past to Get to the Future
Lynn Becker's latest.

On the Road

I'll be away from home and work for a few days, resuming posting on Monday. In the meantime here's a stumper for ya:



Where is this sculpture?
Bonus: Who is the artist?

The winner gets a lollipop.

Stelae!

The opening ceremony of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Germany is being held today, open to the public two days later.

Peter Eisenman's competition-winning design features a gridded field of approximately 2,700 concrete slabs (stelae - a usually carved or inscribed stone slab or pillar used for commemorative purposes) of varying height and an Information Center underneath. The design was approved in June 1999, almost six long years before its opening.



According to Eisenman,

The enormity and scale of the horror of the Holocaust is such that any attempt to represent it by traditional means is inevitably inadequate ... Our memorial attempts to present a new idea of memory as distinct from nostalgia ... We can only know the past today through a manifestation in the present.

In the past couple days, much has been written about the design, either praising or criticizing its abstraction and its author.


Image found here (via Gravestmor).

Grounded in the Maya Lin School of Memorial Design, Eisenman's non-representational design opts for mood over symbolism, striving to impress emotions on the visitor. The difficulty - and popularity - of this method is apparent in the WTC Memorial and other memorials designed since Lin's Vietnam Memorial in D.C., completed over twenty years ago. I like to separate Lin's "School" into two camps: the object and the field camps. Clearly, the Memorial in Berlin falls into the latter, where emotion is derived from the overwhelming number of stelae (similar to many WTC entries that used a large quantity of candles, trees, etc., to achieve the same end) and the visitor's movement across the field. Here that movement is affected by the varying heights of the slabs, at one moment low enough to act as a bench, at other moments towering over the visitor. The combination of regular grid and irregular, undulating tops is an effective combination; one can imagine the endlessly-different routes and sensations as one moves through the grid, glimpsing Berlin's modern context just beyond the memorial's edges.

But ultimately, like Lin's memorial in D.C., Eisenman's memorial must be experienced to be fully appreciated. Only then can one say if it is an effective memorial to the Holocaust and not (also) something else, arising from its abstraction and its concomitant ambiguity.

Update 05.16: Nancy Levinson at Pixel Points weighs in on the memorial design, with her always intelligent criticism as well as some fascinating alternatives proposed for the site.