File Under: Vertigo

In 1996, Las Vegas businessman David Jin dreamed up the idea of "walking out over the Grand Canyon and staring 4,000 feet down into the Colorado River -- while standing on four inches of glass." On January 1, believe it or not, it will become a reality.


Image from MRJ Architects

The horseshoe-shaped walkway that juts 70-feet out into the canyon is "part of the Hualapai Tribe's $40 million effort to turn 1,000 acres of reservation land into a tourist destination that will also feature an Indian village and Western-themed town."


Image from MRJ Architects

Regardless of the questionable nature of the walkway and the theme park (ideas actually opposed by about half the tribe's elders initially), it is quite a feat of engineering. It is designed, with the help of Lochsa Engineering, to support 72 million pounds, to withstand a magnitude 8.0 earthquake centered 50 miles away, and to withstand winds in excess of 100 mph.

But will people spend $25 to feel their stomachs in their mouths? We won't know until Grand Canyon Resort Corp., the tribal-owned company that is overseeing the project, finds an insurer for the project, probably not an easy task.

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

"...And I Approved This Ad"

Looks like Ralph Johnson of Perkins + Will is looking to join the ranks of celebrity architects, alongside Daniel Libeskind and Richard Meier with Signature Place in St. Petersburg, Florida. Or is he already there?



Like David Childs, Johnson's role as a lead designer at a large corporate firm actually precludes him from being seen like Frank Gehry, Santiago Calatrava, and other "singular voices" of celebrity in contemporary architecture. Though unlike David Childs, Johnson is a very capable designer who produces excellent buildings of different types and scales.



Thanks to Jeff S. for the head's up.

Katrina & Her Waves

Of course, the big news is Hurricane Katrina's havoc on Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana, in particular New Orleans, where 80% of the city is under water.


Reuters photo

Some related links:

:: Architecture for Humanity is taking donations for rebuilding efforts. I've also added a link to the sidebar for this great organization.

:: Fellow blogger and N.O. resident Jimmy is safe and exiled in Texas.

:: Coverage at Metroblogging New Orleans.

and

:: Some news coverage at Archinect.

On the Road Again

I'm hitting the road for about a week, so this blog will be on hiatus until next Wednesday. Here's some things to entertain/educate y'all in the meantime:

:: Made in the USA. Karim Rashid dons his purple specs as a judge in the soon-to-be-smash hit "reality competition" series on USA Network. I'd say he's sold out, but I think he's already done that. (via Improvised Schema)

:: Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music. Don't know the difference between Ambient House and Ambient Trance? Or don't know what the hell Buttrock Goa or Musique Concrete are? This Flash-based site will teach you everything you need to know. With lots and lots of samples.

:: The State of Affairs: "Perimeter security is ugly and may not keep us safe," "Lockheed Martin Is Hired to Bolster Transit Security in N.Y.," and "Do fast-food chains cluster around schools?"

Half Dose #13: Noguchi Museum

An early and probably unintentional member of Long Island City's popular art scene, the Noguchi Museum opened in 1985 in a factory building converted by the artist. It reopened last year after a 2.5-year renovation by Sage and Coombe Architects that added an education center, cafe & bookstore, made the galleries and garden accessible, and improved the HVAC system in order to keep the museum open year-round.


Area 1

"Area 1" is the first space encountered after admission and is architecturally one of the most striking spaces at the museum. The corner light well above is one of the three tips of the triangle that the museum and garden occupy, perhaps accentuating this fact for the visitor inside the space. Not being fully enclosed, Area 1 exhibits a pleasing ambiguity -- between outside/inside, art/architecture -- that is definitely appropriate for Noguchi.


Area 9

Above Area 1 are the upper floor galleries called Area 9 & 10, now accessible via a new ramp by the renovation architects. Unlike the area below, the enclosed galleries aren't as rough, opting for wood and plaster over CMU and in-situ concrete.


The Garden

If there were only one reason to visit the Noguchi Museum, it would definitely be the garden. Walled off from the two adjacent streets, it is a quiet space of contemplation and repose. In many ways, it is Noguchi's interpretation of a traditional Japanese rock garden. The artist's sculptures take the place of boulders, a la Ryoanji, and the trees become elements within the sea of rocks alongside the art. The changing character of the space across the seasons is what draws people back for multiple visits.

Links:

:: The Noguchi Museum
:: Sage and Coombe Architects
:: Architectural Record article
:: American Masters

Chi-town Roundup

Busy weekend for architecture news in the Windy City.

:: Martha Thorne, currently associate curator of architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago, has been named executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Story at the Sun-Times and Tribune.

:: Frank Gehry buys the "Building formerly known as Inland Steel."

:: Crown Hall "dazzles" before its official reopening this Saturday.

and

:: It might be old news now, but Hello Beautiful's one-hour show devoted to Calatrava's Fordham Spire is now online.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Isokon Flats in London, England by Avanti Architects.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

"The Breaking Point"
Peter Maass's article on Peak Oil in The New York Times (non-subscription version available at V&V).

Delusion and the Media
Kunstler's commentary on Maass's article, and others.

Eye Candy
"A pic a week from [the] weekly e-zine: eye candy"

Freakonomics
Blog by the authors of the bestselling book of the same name.

Preservation Directory
"Online resource for historic preservation, building restoration and cultural resource management in the United States & Canada."

Receptacle for the Recyclable

Lynn Becker has the lowdown on AIA Chicago's Young Architect's Forum's competition for a recycling receptacle in Chicago. I strolled over to Daley Plaza after work to check out the 25 finalists. My favorite:



Sure, it's goofy and looks like something out of a Pixar film, but it also integrates itself with the existing trash cans (some around the Loop and other parts of the city are different - nicer - but this scheme could be modified to fit onto those, too) and proposes reusing newspapers, over just recycling, their bundled masses poking from the green orb for easy grabbing. These are a couple good ideas that set it apart from the other schemes, ones that tended to be from the ground up and lacking in a sense of humor.

CTA Ugly

Brian at Gapers Block is more than correct when he points out that Chicago's subways stations are in need of some beautification, especially as a means to increase ridership. Of course we're also talking about the CTA, an organization riddled with money problems as they strive to first, upgrade one of its lines to handle unprecedented ridership and second, replace all of its front- and back-facing cars with ones that have bench seats perpendicular to the line of travel to allow for more standing room, a la New York City. Anyways, let's take a look at a couple of Metro Arts and Architecture's beauties and Chicago.

Moscow:



Munich:



Chicago:



No, the GG doesn't stand for Good God! For frame of reference, the Chicago station shown is one of the recent overhauls (click here for its previous state). Well, at least we have the "L".

KC Sprint

Yesterday the final design for downtown Kansas City's Sprint Center Arena was unveiled, "a glistening jewel in the revitalization of downtown...[that represents] Kansas City's honesty, clarity, vision and the Midwestern values we all cherish." The "we" refers either to Kansas Citians in general or the Downtown Arena Design Team, made up of HOK Sport+Venue+Event, Ellerbe Becket and 360 Architecture.



The design is envisioned as an "arena in the park with fountains and outdoor gathering space," with these elements visible across the street from the arena. A connected piece in the arena's foreground is the National Association of Basketball Coaches'’ College Basketball Experience. Together these three elements (arena, covered open space, NABC) attempt to define the entry for the Sprint Arena. It's difficult to ascertain, but it appears the outdoor space across the street actually sits atop a structure, perhaps a parking garage. Ideally the "arena in the park" would not be separated from the park by a street or a one- to two-level grade change. But people gotta park their cars and buses, right?

This view also shows the immense opportunity for a Sprint logo to land upon the smooth and empty white roof of the arena. The airport can even reroute planes over the arena for even more corporate exposure!



The biggest criticism of the design has been the sharp turn-of-face from the previous design towards an Allianz-esque exterior design. The simpler, and probably cheaper, design is actually an improvement over the fussy and flashy early design, though the articulation and detailing of this wall is going to make or break the arena's appearance. Renderings of the NABC component, though, already make that piece look dated, like it's a hold over from the 1960s.



Although floor plans aren't available, it appears that the concourse will be pushed to the exterior, along the "jewel-like" glass wall. This should help to activate the facade, at least on game days, and help achieve the views in and out of the arena that the designers desire. This rendering shows a pretty run-of-the-mill circulation space, jazzed up by random strip lighting and populated by the same old RPC people in just about every interior rendering these days.

Ultimately, Kansas City is a city in need of some revitalization. Is an arena the means to this? I don't think so. In my book, they're like casinos: seen as that "magic solution" by local governments for their taxes, jobs, and activity, but when done they actually drain vitality from the city, either by keeping people indoors (casinos) or being used for only a few days or weeks a year (sports stadia). But it looks like it's past the time to criticize the validity of the development. We can only hope that other public developments follow in its footsteps.

(Thanks to Eric M. for the heads up)

Culture in Progress

Remember this project?



Yep, the City of Culture of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela, Spain by Peter Eisenman.



Well, it looks like it's under construction.



After the lukewarm reception of his Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, this huge landform just may be the architect's legacy. Or it may end up like the Wexner Center (undergoing a $15 million renovation only 15 years after completion) or the Columbus Convention Center (ugly). My bet's riding on the legacy.

Images found at arqa.com, via Archinect.

Great Idea*

Even though I consult Galinsky just about every time I take a trip and have included it in my sidebar since the beginning of this blog, I've never noticed the Travel Packs.

Galinsky travel packs are condensed versions of the galinsky building pages for a particular area, collected together in an easily printable pdf format with accompanying map, for use when traveling. Currently we offer travel packs for Paris, New York, London, Japan and Switzerland.

The PDF files enable the traveler to print out the sheets (usually about twenty per city/country) and carry them along. Handy maps, directions and images make finding the buildings a breeze.



Not to criticize them, but from my standpoint, most of the buildings are a bit obvious and a number of them can be found pretty easily with other means. For travelers who have less familiarity with Modern architecture but a strong curiosity and willingness to visit canonical buildings, they're perfect. But they make me think a guide to the more obscure, the more contemporary architectural sites around the globe would be just as interesting. Maybe something between the Galinsky Travel Pack and Atelier Bow-Wow's Made in Tokyo/Pet Architecture Guide Book.

Sounds like fun to me, so I'll put one together for New York City, a place I've visited enough to see places of unique interest, while knowing where they actually are and how to get there. It'll feature some or all of the NYC/Manhattan weekly doses but also much more. Stay tuned.

*And by Great Idea I mean Galinsky's, not mine. I'm just borrowing the idea.

Triple A

In its news on The Chicago Athaneum's 2005 American Architecture Awards, Artdaily.com is both overly generous - "The American Architecture Awards has quickly become the nation's most prestigious awards program for new commercial, institutional and residential design" - and slightly mistaken - "[the awards] draw significant international attention to new buildings and planning projects being built and designed in the U.S." Though not as prestigious as the AIA Awards (that's my opinion, but how does one rate which or what is the most prestigious award?) - the "Triple A" is nevertheless an important award that draws attention to buildings and projects with a now rather tenuous relationship to American architecture overall.

33 projects received awards, exhibiting the following traits (with some overlap):

::7 are located overseas
::4 are by foreign architects
::5 are on the West coast
::9 are on the East coast
::11 are in-between

So even though the Athaneum says the Awards are "dedicated to the recognition of excellence in architecture in the United States," I hope the inclusion of foreign projects and architects isn't due to a shortage of quality in the submitted American projects. Outside of this little gripe, though, it's refreshing to see a majority of the awarded projects in the U.S. fall between the two coasts.

A handful of highlights:


The Porter House by SHoP, also featured on my weekly page


Holy Rosary Complex by Trahan Architects, also featured on my weekly page


222 Residence by Elliott + Associates


Belvedere Gardens by SMBW Architects, featured at Architecture Magazine


Children's Museum of Pittsburgh by Koning Eizenberg, featured at Metropolis (PDF link in new window)

(via Archinect and AIArchitect)

Raab Rant

"As public broadcasting goes, so does Esquire -- to the far Right. Please cancel my subscription."

This disgruntled reader was referring to this month's issue of the men's magazine that featured Donald Rumsfeld as one of ten "inspiring profiles of extraordinary lives." If not for the fact that my subscription is a gift that will be expiring shortly, I'd be apt to join him (her?) after reading the September issue's article on the rebuilding efforts at ground zero by Scott Raab.

This piece is the "first in a years-long series of articles by Raab on the Freedom Tower's construction" (my italics) and is titled "The Foundation."* (Can you just guess what the next article will be called?) This above quote from the contributor page pretty much signals (for me) the direction that Raab is heading, as he focuses on the construction of Freedom Tower: 1. He will not be critical of the tower's design, and 2. He will focus on the players (contractors, construction workers, architects, engineers, clients, etc) that will make it happen. Had I read the contributor page first I may have skipped the article. Instead I dove right into all eleven pages.

From the beginning Raab is siding himself with the working man, the men that built the Twin Towers and the men that will build Freedom Tower (never a doubt in his mind that it will be built). About half the article is devoted to these construction workers and the contractor hired for the job, Tishman Construction. The rest paints pretty pictures of Larry Silverstein and David Childs and derides Daniel Libeskind for, well, being Daniel Libeskind. Without ever saying a bad word about Freedom Tower's current design, Raab attacks Libeskind's winning masterplan as an "utter botch" with a "cockamamie tower." This opining is fine, if it's tempered by opinions and criticism about other WTC designs, developments, players, but it's not. Most everything else (up to the end, which I'll get to) is "reporting" that looks favorably upon those presented, and in this light the comments about Libeskind's design fit right in.

Much like the Republican party's ability to impress both rich people and the working class (previously a group that sided with Democrats) these days, Raab dotes on both, without stepping on either's toes or pitting one against the other. He summarizes this first article by saying "We build buildings. That's what this is about." And of course, it takes both money and a work force to do that. But obviously Raab likes the former, also saying in his conclusion that "...freedom without money is a dirt sandwich," and "we work to make the things that make us human -- love and children, money and art." Whatever you say, Mr. Raab.

*This article is only available online to paid subscribers. If you'd like the text, please e-mail me and I'll forward it to you.

Links

Some links I've added to the sidebar:

:: World Architecture News (under news)

:: AIA Journal (under online journals)

:: BLDGBLOG (under blogs::architecture)