Moving House

For the next few days it's moving time. Posts will resume early-mid next week.


Image found here

2 Openings

Two buildings have opened their doors, as reported by World Architecture News:


Coop Himmelb(l)au's Munich Academy of Fine Arts.


Norman Foster's Leslie L. Dan Building for the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto.

Yes we are

Don't know where or when this originated, but I couldn't resist passing it along (text version here). Thanks to Scott P. for sending me this.

Sprawl-orama

Above is a section of a suburban sprawl panorama by Matt Jalbert. More photos at his web page, Exuberance.

(via RUT)

2,000' Sisters

Not to be outdone by Christopher Carley's Fordham Spire, the Chicago Tribune reports that Paul Beitler and LR Development are proposing "a futuristic, tweezer-shaped broadcast tower looming 2,000 feet over the lakefront...At the top would be several floors for restaurants and an observation deck, and at the base would be a 400-car garage." Designed by supertall maestro Cesar Pelli, the design "isn't Buck Rogers architecture. It's Duck Dodgers design, utterly daffy, a cartoonish version of tomorrow," according to Blair Kamin.

As I posted about months ago, the Fordham Spire is within spitting distance of my office window. Now if I walk to the other side of the office, the broadcast tower would grace that northerly skyline. These two proposals are less than one city block away from each other. Notably, the broadcast tower (aka the "Tweezer" and officially called "Tall Tower" by the creative powers that be) sits directly west of Lake Point Tower across Lake Shore Drive. Lake Point Tower is such a beloved building that until these two proposals, no tower in the Streeterville area could break that building's height. At 645', each tower would more than triple it.

Pardon the crudeness of this graphic, but I couldn't help but fashion a photomontage envisioning these two 2,000 ft neighbors. My eyeball guesswork may even err on the shorter side when compared to this official photomontage. Click image for larger size.



Update: Lynn Becker raises some good points.

Mark Yr Calendar

How to Build a "Loopscraper"

Just follow Ove Arup's helpful assembly instructions:

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

LVMH Osaka in Osaka, Japan by Kengo Kuma.

The updated book feature is The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture, by Wendell Berry.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Stories in Practice
"Bridging architectural education and practice [by] experimenting with the Blog as a new medium for exploring issues in the practice of architecture." Click on Class Blog-Links for individual pages. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Inventioneering Architecture
"A showcase for Swiss architectural teaching and contemporary Swiss architecture," with audio and video clips. Ongoing.

onesmallproject
Web page of the forthcoming book Building More, Wanting Less, "inspired by living conditions in the working class neighborhoods of Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Colombo, Delhi, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Mumbai, St. Petersburg, and Singapore."

housingfinance
"The latest news, analysis, thoughts and trade secrets from the editors and readers of Apartment Finance Today and Affordable Housing Finance." (added to sidebar under blogs::urban)

Measuring Design Excellence

At the 2005 AIA Chicago Design Excellence Awards Friday night, one name stood out more than Brininstool + Lynch, David Hovey, Krueck + Sexton, Perkins + Will, and John Ronan (all multiple winners that night): photographers Hedrich Blessing. As each winning project was displayed on the projection screen at the end of the ballroom, The 75-year old Chicago institution's name accompanied most of the slides, right below the name of the architect. This says two things: most Chicago architects come to Hedrich Blessing for the documentation of the final product, and architectural photography is an important element in the deciding of architectural prizes.

Focusing on the second, photographs are usually required for this sort of prize, given the fact that each jury member could not possibly visit every building submitted. In the case of AIA Chicago, all projects are by local architects but the buildings themselves can be anywhere. While a dream jury might be flown to every submission wherever it may be, the money doesn't exist for such an endeavor. So color-saturated photographs, usually devoid of any human presence, are used to persuade the jury that what they're looking at is a winner.

For the sake of comparison, let's look at one winning building -- the Perspectives Charter School by Perkins + Will -- with an image by a professional photographer and one by yours truly.


Image by Steinkamp/Ballogg Photography


Image by me

Many things are apparent here:

:: The professional composition is more dynamic, especially in terms of the canopy, whose tip appears angle liked the prow of a ship. Definitely this is achieved by the choice of lens, though notice how each image is roughly the same from the angled line in the double-height glass area to the left.

:: The professional shot involves the context more, setting the school apart from its surroundings.

:: The otherwise gray exterior takes on a dramatic purple glow in the dusk-time professional shot, though I don't know if it's a natural, on location effect or an effect achieved in the processing.

:: The choice for a dusk-time shot also helps add some vibrancy to the shot, whose glass reflections add to the grayness in my shot.

Does this mean that if the jury only saw my photographs they wouldn't have given it an award? Without knowing for sure, I'd say it's a possibility. Let's say that were the case, what does it say about architecture awards? How does a jury judge a building if not by photographs?

In this case, the awards focus on members of the local AIA Chapter who are responsible for submitting works for consideration. The awards give recognition to those members doing quality work. If those awards are highly influenced by imagery over substance or experience, it lessens the meaning of them.

On the other hand, the Mies van der Rohe Awards for European Union and Latin American Architecture varies in a few ways. Selected "experts" choose the projects for consideration. A jury then selects finalists (around 30), after which they visit as many as possible before making their choices for awarded work and special mention. Extensive documentation is required at each level, including not only photographs but also initial sketches, a complete set of drawings, and explanatory text. Given the responsibilities of the jury, both in dissecting each entry's documentation and visiting the projects, and the biannual nature of the prize, naturally this award carries more weight than the AIA Chicago award.

Architecture + Foam = GRANNY

Dutch newspaper de Volksrant reports that Dutch publisher PCM's new headquarters in Amsterdam is being designed by OMA. Running the article through the always-reliable Babelfish, we learn what PCM wants: "It must become a bldg. of which says people: look, there sits them, there something is going." But looking at the pile of foam below, I can't help but wonder "where something is going?"



Later in the article we learn, "It is a preliminary draft. The actual design must be still developed, in association with the project developer, political and the buurt." Certainly that's true. But what's up with the clunky, tabletop form? Further deciphering of the translation reveals the base is a two-story plinth devoted to public activities; above are the stacked, traditional functions of the PCM; then there's the cantilevered top where "those logos would be appropriate sticking out. You can present see you that you 'breaking news' on the bldg. late." In other words, Times Square in Amsterdam?

Even with a functional basis for the tripartite divisions, I can't help but think OMA either pulled in the C-team for this job or maybe the design hit the presses a bit too soon. After their Seattle Public Library design furthered the gap between Modernists and Traditionalists, OMA seems to be straddling that line. And I gotta say it doesn't work.

(via Archinect)

Separated at Birth?

Just discovered this Archinect discussion (via Design Observer) that had me laughing out loud.

It started with:


Jean Nouvel and Dr. Evil

But then...


Daniel Libeskind and that guy from There's Something About Mary

and...


Frank Gehry and Gonzo the Great

and...


Sanford Kwinter (right, with Rem) and Sideshow Bob

speaking of rem...


Rem Koolhaas and Daniel Emilfork (from City of Lost Children)

but lest we forget the Pritzker Prize winners...


Thom Mayne and Bill Murray

and...


Zaha Hadid and Ursula from The Little Mermaid

and my favorite...


Stanley Tigerman and an Ewok

and finally my contribution...


Carol Ross-Barney trying really hard to look like Isabella Rossellini

Check out the discussion for bigger images and for many more architects separated at birth.

2 Blogs

A couple architecture blogs that just came to my attention, both worth checking out and both added to my sidebar links (under blogs::architecture):

:: mirage-studio
Eclectic blog by an architecture student, with items on Calatrava, anti-smoking ads and even AutoCAD pointers.

:: Architecture Sketches
Just like the title says, sketches from Botta to Utzon.

Which Way to Build?

The New York Times covers both ends of the spectrum with articles on mega suburban developer Toll Brothers and Shanghai's high-rise building boom.

A visual comparison of the two illustrates China's and the US's apparent dichotomy in viewing land and habitat.



The Toll Brothers view land (what they call "ground") as an investment to be bought up insatiably. If there's a market for real estate, they'll buy the land and develop it. A desirable Toll Brother situation might be covering the remaining buildable land in New Jersey with variations on the Estates at Princeton Grove, pictured above, which is not too far-fetched. The Times piece focuses on the economics, politics, and personalities at play as the Toll Brothers snatch up more and more land for more and more profit, at the expense of any critical thinking (or apparent mention) about long-term energy (covered by Kunstler) or house sizes, among the many questionable concerns with sprawl.



In sharp contrast to the American trend is China's vertical housing developments, the Skyline Mansions in Shanghai pictured here. With an additional 1,000 skyscrapers anticipated beyond its current crop of 4,000 by the end of the decade, China actually shares a similar delusion regarding energy and scale as the US. While many anti-sprawl people might advocate building vertically, the environments created with this method don't appear much of an improvement over suburbia.

What the US and China also share are completely blind, financially-driven developments that ignore quality of life and the environment at community and regional scales, in favor of cushy private realms. McMansions -- be they on a 1/2-acre patch of grass or 40 stories in the air -- serve the individual and family at the expense of these shared realms. My view isn't optimistic though, because both countries are feeding each other along the way, be it through cheap consumer goods or the model of Western society. But rather than contemplating when either bubble will burst -- a fascination of the Times in both regards -- I'm more concerned with the long-term effects of each type of development, from the environment on down to the individual. Which way to build? Neither.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Marrom House in São Paulo, Brazil by Isay Weinfeld.

The updated book feature is The Architecture of Modern Italy: Volume 2, Visions of Utopia, 1900-present, by Terry Kirk.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

The Place Where We Live
"Buildings, Trees, Sidewalks, Glue...A Chicago, IL Blog Dispatched from the 43rd Ward on the Near North Side".

Preservation Institute Blog
A blog about the limitations of modernism, an ever-so-popular topic these days, though I can't say I agree with his reading of the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for additions to historical buildings.

Villard
Appunti di architettura (in Italian).

This Old (Modern) House

Last week saw the beginning of This Old House's latest project on PBS, "a mid-century Modern house for biotech bachelor, George Mabry" in Cambridge, Mass. Though I missed last week's episode, I did catch today's show, where architect Will Ruhl presented a model and some elevations that add to and renovate the existing house. A tour of the Pilot Hill House in Vineyard Haven, also on the show, indicates the architect is skilled in bridging traditional and Modern forms.


Pre-This Old House state


Proposed front and rear elevations

Ruhl's design tastefully adds a third and forth floor, while improving the unexceptional design of the house with a layered complexity that is popular today. The rear elevation's generous glazing will be one of the few pieces preserved, at least visibly, from the old house.

Regardless of the quality of the new and old house designs, it should be an interesting season, as the crew of the TV show educates the viewers on the Modern movement, especially in terms of residential architecture, the most successful and lasting influence of a movement loved by many but abhorred by many, many more. While the show may not convert everybody who watches, it will hopefully give them the knowledge to understand the appeal of Modern and contemporary architecture, beyond merely aesthetics.

Inbox Overflow

Some selections from my ever-expanding inbox:

2005 Innovation Conference
An impressive line-up for McGraw Hill's conference on innovative building materials, digital fabrication, and their effects on architecture.

Material Skills: evolution of materials
Further exploring new techniques and materials and architecture, the exhibition makes its way to Paris next month.

Solar Decathlon
Designed by students, powered by the Sun (Thanks Eric M.)

Projects on ceramics and architecture
.ekwc's latest call for architects to investigate the "creative potential in the relationship between ceramics and architecture" has a deadline of December 1.

Extreme Makeover, Japanese edition
Not the name of a Japanese TV program where an architect renovates a lucky owner's house - in Japanese, but click on faces for before-and-after pics. (thanks Leslie)

and


Variable Geometry Acoustical Domes
You've got a little under two weeks to catch architect David Serero's installation at the Villa Medici in Rome (above).

Groundbreaking Follow-up

Both Curbed and The Gutter have photographs from last Sunday's New Museum of Contemporary Art groundbreaking, mentioned here last week (unfortunately no exciting photos found for the Spertus groundbreaking).


Yep, that's a Shinto Priest.

Check out The Gutter link for a caption contest, one not nearly as ripe for commentary as this unrelated one at Archinect.