Grimshaw vs. Stern

John Jourden may have beaten me to the punch, but I still feel the need to compare, and share with everybody, the New York City Department of Transportation's choice for its new street furniture -- designed by Britain's Nicholas Grimshaw -- with Chicago's shelters designed by Robert A.M. Stern, which I posted briefly about a couple years ago.



Grimshaw's design (above) is "made of stainless steel, anodized aluminum, and tempered glass," according to a news brief at Architectural Record. The roof is cantilevered glass, supported by tapered steel sections. A piece of cantilevered glass in the foreground allows for additional shelter from the wind, while the back portion clearly indicates the shelter's location in the city.



Where Grimshaw's design trumpets its better materials (no painted finishes or plastics, which are "less durable over the long term") and neutral impact (it touches the ground at two spots due to a steel plate anchored under the pavement), Stern's bulky shelters are primarily painted steel and aluminum, they touch the ground at six points (sometimes more), and they're bolted through small concrete pads (for leveling) to the sidewalk below, meaning they aren't so much anchored to the ground as set upon it.

Unfortunately, the Chicago image illustrates that the Stern shelters just might be the right fit for a city that requires bulky, pseudo-wrought iron fencing to define parks and other open spaces, and that feels the need to erect badly designed obelisks at every point of entry into a neighborhood, a la Lincoln Square's above.



But more than the design of these things, what's really irked me lately are the free-standing, two-sided billboards labeled "City Information." As of yet have I seen one with any useful information, like a map or a list of places of interest in the immediate vicinity. Instead, we're bombarded with more ad revenue for JC Decaux, in the case via Heineken.

The above image was taken from Hello Beautiful!, where Edward indicates that some actually do have maps. These appear to be the minority in the city's ever-increasing Ad-scape.

(Almost) 2 Years Later

Millennium Park opened on July 16, 2004. At that time the park looked anything but complete, most apparent in two parts: Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" had noticeable seams from the spot welding of the numerous panels and the Lurie Garden's plantings were but a hint of its future growth.

So, now nearly two years later, how are "Cloud Gate" and the Lurie Garden?



"Cloud Gate" was officially dedicated earlier this month, the Mayor declaring May 15 Cloud Gate Day. Of course, polishing out those welds took time, and the process kept the sculpture under wraps for much of the last two years and raised its price tag to $23 million. But, it looks amazing and visitors to the park flock to it, even on gray days, as you can see.



The Lurie Garden, as you can also see, has fleshed out rather beautifully. And thankfully, the city is helping by providing a helpful guide to the plant life of the garden.

(Garden link via Gaper's Block)

Mies-on-a-beam

Walking past the Federal Center in the Loop over the weekend, I couldn't help but notice the vertical scaffold supports that seem to grow from Mies van der Rohe's buildings, faithful to the old rationality in their even spacing and symmetry across the facade. The image below is from a January piece by Lynn Becker where the Dirksen Building was being worked on. Today, the Klyuczynski Building is undergoing the same facade restoration, to bring back the exterior's black beauty.



This photo above looks almost like a realization of Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis' early speculation, Mies-on-a-beam. That project (published in Pamphlet Architecture 21: Situation Normal), "transforms the ornamental curtain wall I-beams into wheel tracks for a pair of mobile grass platforms linked to the window washing hoist."



This speculation proposed to bring the ground floor plaza to all levels, acting like an executive putting green or place for a smoke break. It also creatively envisioned an actual function for the ornamental I-beams, pieces that Mies used to express the structure encased within concrete (for fire reasons) behind the facade, a lie that has not been lost on historians of Modernism. Perhaps this project, if realized, would turn the lie into a sort of truth.



In Chicago, being that these buildings are owned and occupied by the increasingly-secretive and secure US government, a similar vertical replication of the plaza below would probably be unthinkable, but perhaps other uses could be found for this device. Unoccupied, these green platforms could become moving landscapes that give the occupants a slice of landscape for a few minutes each day. Or like Diller + Scofidio's winning proposal for Eyebeam, the platform could double as a surveillance device, giving the public a glimpse into the building's inner-workings, a public relations stunt to raise people's trust in the federal government. Or the platforms could brush water soluble paint onto the exterior as they rise and fall, creating an ever-changing striping on the building that washes off with each rain. Or maybe ...

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Reford Gardens Pavilion by Atelier in situ.

The updated book feature is Openings Spaces: Design as Landscape Architecture, by Hans Loidl and Stefan Bernard.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Lee Bey: The Urban Observer
The new online home of the former Chicago Sun-Times architecture critic, former Deputy Mayor, current director of governmental relations to SOM, writer, lecturer, and man about town Lee Bey. (added to sidebar under chicago)

Two-part interview with Mike Davis
Geoff Manaugh at BLDGBLOG interviews Davis, the author of the most recent Planet of Slums but also the well-known City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear. Part one is above and part two is here.

Issue 2
The latest newsletter for Architecture 2030.org, its biggest news being the upcoming vote by the US Conference of Mayors on a resolution calling for cities to adopt the 2030 Challenge (PDF link) for all city funded buildings.

International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens
This year's prize is given to Val Bavona, "a short, rugged valley high in the mountains of Canton Ticino, Switzerland, an 'awesomely beautiful' place, gouged by the glacier, shaped by water and stone, in which a community (about a thousand people) has come to terms with the power and harshness of nature and over time has developed the ideas, the attitudes, the actions and the artefacts of human life when pushed to its limits." (via Pruned)

AMBITIOUS MAN WANTED

What better way to spend your Memorial Day holiday than writing a 100-word essay on why you're an ambitious architect.

Men's Health is looking for a few hard-charging career guys to be our poster boys for a three-part article about the sacrifices men make on the job, and how those impact their homelife and health. He should be an MH guy, fit and ambitious, who's willing to allow our photographers track him literally everywhere for a few days and record his hectic work life, and then hang with him in his interactions with family and/or friends; we'd print a selection of photos as a kind "24-hours in the life" essay to run with the articles. If you fit the bill, please e-mail your name, address, e-mail, age, and 100-word essay with a recent photo of yourself to MHonline@rodale.com with the subject line AMBITIOUS GUY. Or you can snail mail it to AMBITIOUS GUY, C/O MEN'S HEALTH, 33 E. MINOR ST., EMMAUS, PA, 18049. Immortality awaits (at least for the three months this fall).

Wind and Earth

Over at Design Observer, Justin Good waxes philosophical about beauty and the Aesthetics of Wind Farms, while over at Subtopia, Bryan Finoki draws our attention to the United States Capitol Bunker Visitors Center now under construction. Seemingly opposites -- the former above ground the latter below, one an object the other a space, the first in nature the second in a city, etc. -- these physical constructions embody two of the biggest issues today: energy and terrorism, respectively.


Middelgrunden Wind Farm in Denmark

As Dr. Good argues for the objective beauty of wind turbines and wind farms, he links to an article on the battle over a proposed wind farm off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Cape Wind's website contends that, "Miles from the nearest shore, Cape Wind will use the clean, inexhaustible power of wind to provide three-quarters of the Cape and Islands' electricity." The main issues delaying or potentially killing the plan are environmental, like impacting bird migratory routes, and cultural, particularly affecting beachgoers ocean views.

To me, part of the problem is that these residents affected by the wind farm are so rich that they will be able to deal more easily with the soaring energy costs that will afflict everybody in the coming years. But they're potentially squashing a project that could, if successful, be an incubator for other similar projects all over the country that could help people beyond New England.

Ironically, environmentalists are pitted against each other as they try to determine if the farm would have adverse effects on birds. All the usual activists are there, but on both sides of the fence: "On the anti-wind-farm side, you have the Humane Society, Massachusetts Audubon Society, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the International Wildlife Coalition; on the pro-side, Greenpeace, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Conservation Law Foundation."

This wind farm would go a long way to reducing carbon emissions, so I'd rather see the project go ahead than not. Of course, global warming could potentially affect birds as well as humans (and lots and lots of other species), so if we take global warming seriously it points towards a decision that would have the most longterm impact.


Image from Subtopia post

Further down the coast, "the Capitol building in Washington is getting a 500 million dollar bunker installed at the foot of it's front entrance." I'm amazed that I haven't heard of this project before today, something that's been in the works since 1991. But at the same time, I'm sure that's no accident.

While the official website says the Visitors Center will "provide visitors shelter from the unpredictable D.C. weather," others believe, "It’s not being done for the visitors. It’s being done for the members," to shelter them from a terrorist attack.

Terrorism is one of those issues that is more emotional than intellectual for me, so I try not to say much about it here. Bryan does a good job summing things up on his page, quoting from "Survival City", but I would add that the deeper and stronger we build, the further we are from addressing the reality of terrorism, of why it's a problem and why we're a target.

Update 05.26: Just found this well-timed post over at Google Earth Blog, where somebody has modeled the Cape Wind Project and set up views from the shore to see the impact of the project. This sort of thing could be a great tool to getting the project approved as the impact doesn't appear to be nearly as bad as they think.

Chicago Square

Back in June last year I mentioned a couple projects planned for Hamburg, Germany's waterfront: a concert hall by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and apartments spanning the Elbe River by local architect Hadi Teherani. These projects are part of HafenCity (harbor city), Europe's largest urban planning project taking shape south of the city center.

One ingredient in the plan is Chicago Square, so named as Hamburg is one of Chicago's sister cities and because, "in May 2005, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg invited five renowned architectural firms from Chicago to put forward their blueprint ideas for Chicago Square, which is situated at the eastern end of Baakenhafen harbour."


The five renowned architects

"The idea of creating a Chicago Square with a high-rise skyline as the eastern entrance to HafenCity at the head of Baakenhafen harbour, and of using American architects’ know-how to achieve it, was proposed to mark the 10th anniversary of two sister cities, Hamburg and Chicago." The five designs were presented on March 1, 2006, though it's not clear if one has been selected yet or when one will be selected as the winning design.


The Chicago Square site

It's hard to say anything about the designs, as only small model images are available at the moment. It appears that each scheme uses one or two towers as focal points for the project -- most notably in Jeanne Gang's and Helmut Jahn's designs -- combined with low- and middle-rise buildings arranged on the rest of the site.

Here's the five designs (slide show link):


Dirk Lohan (Lohan Anderson)



Jeanne Gang (Studio/Gang Architects)


Helmut Jahn (Murphy/Jahn)


Mark Sexton (Krueck & Sexton Architects)


John Ronan (John Ronan Architect)

(Thanks to Antonio C. for the head's up!)

Bara Pacis

Newsweek reports on Richard Meier's Ara Pacis Museum becoming "a lightning rod for protest against war and America." Notable as "the first modern building project in the historical center since the...1930s," it has drawn criticism, been beset by delays periodically ever since it broke ground, and is only half-finished. Nevertheless, "Visitors have taken to expressing their dissatisfaction in graffiti."



The above image, taken from the Newsweek piece, appears to be a rendering of the complete project, probably incorporated into the construction fence and a welcoming surface for graffiti. I'm guessing security makes defacing the actual building impossible.

While Newsweek makes a point of mentioning anti-war and anti-American protests, the article is more about the non-contextual design of Meier's -- its alien white presence in the travertine, Baroque surroundings -- than these larger issues. Not surprisingly, since not only is it the first building in Rome's city center in 75 or so years, it also houses one of the most important pieces in Roman history, Emperor Augustus's Altar of Peace.

Meier deflects criticism of the design with the oft-repeated and now tired mantra of "life in Rome moving on into the 21st century." (See also Frank "we're not riding around on horseback anymore" Gehry's retorts to criticisms of his Atlantic Yards project) Surprisingly, Meier's website puts a different spin on things (my emphasis):

The location of the site has particular characteristics due to its outstanding historical, archeological and architectural values, and requires a process of enhancement and a level of quality that will ensure the approval from the Italian and the international architectural communities, as well as from the general public.

Ensuring this approval was former Mayor Francesco Rutelli, who picked Meier and pushed the design through the appropriate channels. His successor does not share Rutelli's seemingly blind allegiance to Meier and his design. Instead now Mayor Walter Veltroni is more aligned with Italian art historian Vittorio Sgarbi who burnt a model of project at its opening in April and who says Meier, "[knows] Rome the way I know Tibet."

(via Veritas & Venustas)

Blackhawk Down

Who woulda thunk the developer capable of this:



is also capable of this:



Well, Structured Development is extending its role in the North and Clybourn retail district (what I like to call Chicago's "outdoor mega-mall") with this even larger mixed-use project, designed by Valerio Dewalt Train Associates. Refreshingly, in addition to the expected retail and parking uses is a school component, probably responding to the changing character of residents in the area as the Cabrini-Green housing projects fall by the wayside.



The first phase of the project is slated for completion in about a year and a half. To see bigger images of what's above, check out the project PDF. Thanks to BK for the head's up!

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

FLaTPak House by Charlie Lazor.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Danda
A well done online architecture journal with reviews, galleries and links. (added to sidebar under online journals)

Architecture 2006
This weekend's special section of The New York Times with articles on Bernard Khoury, Richard Rogers, building in China, and much more.

Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space
A blog that "focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging." (added to sidebar under blogs::urban)

Weekly Aerials

I apologize for the three-day drought in posts on this page, though I assure you it was for good reason. After months of procrastinating, I finally got around to creating Google Earth links for (a lot of) my weekly doses.

For your globe-surfing pleasure, I've created one .kmz file with locations for (as of today) 142 of the buildings featured on my weekly page. The link to this file will be located in this page's right sidebar (under My Links) and will be updated as new pages are added; the date of the last update will be indicated. For each location in Google Earth, a thumbnail image and link to the dose are included.

Here's an example of what you'll see:



The next step will be to incorporate individual Google Earth links into each featured weekly page, as well as appropriate Archi-Tourist pages. If you can help with any of the missing buildings, please don't hesitate to let me know.

No Small Plans

Archinect points us to local architect Zoka Zola's proposed reworking of the Chicago Zoning Ordinance for a 21st century plan of the city.

Zola focuses on the ubiquitous Chicago lot: 25' wide, 125' deep, with a street in the front and an alley in the back. Her thoughtful, well-researched and thorough recommendations include:

:: Responding to site orientation,
:: Eliminating side yards,
:: Reducing front yard setback and requiring larger landscaped rear yards,
:: Allowing greenhouses on top of garages (off of alley),
:: Raising the required basement depth.

These recommendations are targeted towards reducing energy consumption, reducing heat loss, increasing air quality, and ultimately creating better living conditions in Chicago's neighborhoods.



Zola frames her research and proposal within Daniel "make no small plans" Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago and the Commercial Club of Chicago's Metropolis 2020 Plan. Even though she admits that her plan isn't as broad as these, I think its impact could be just as great if enacted. In the meantime, her firm is working with the city on a pilot project on ten city lots. They are also looking for grants for further research and for developers interested in their plans.

Border Issues

In last night's address to the country on immigration President Bush spoke of "recognizing the problems with our immigration system...[which] puts pressure on public schools and hospitals, strains state and local budgets, and brings crime to our communities." Naturally, since "we are a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws...the United States must secure its borders...[by] calling on Congress to provide funding...[to] increase the number of Border Patrol officers by an additional 6,000...construct high-tech fences in urban corridors, and build new patrol roads and barriers in rural areas."

Given that it will take time to train an additional 6,000 officers, the President proposes, "to use the National Guard...up to 6,000 Guard members...for a period of one year." He further states, "It is important for Americans to know that we have enough Guard forces to win the war on terror, respond to natural disasters, and help secure our border." Yet somehow he rationalizes, "The United States is not going to militarize the southern border."

Bush proposes further initiatives in his suggestions for an immigration reform bill (temporary worker program, holding employees responsible for hiring illegal immigrants, etc.), though none has a more immediate physical presence or mental image than the border and its enforcement.



The above image is one of many over at Polar Inertia of William Howard's us-mexico border survey, a project that "surveys the visual drama of the border, the way it marks the land, and also the human drama, politics, economics and history embedded in a barrier, the way a person's geographic position a few yards one way or the other can provide them with a profoundly different life experience."

Howard explains, "As I photographed the border from the Mexican side I tried to imagine how it must look to immigrants from the south, arriving there for the first time and being able to peer beyond the walls into the United States. What are their hopes and expectations? I would be terrified to cross the border without documents, yet thousands of people do it every day."

When I read Bush's transcribed address, it's this sort of compassionate thinking embodied in these images that is missing. In its place is even more military use, the strengthening of the prison-industrial complex, and a whole lot of distraction from more important issues.

Crossing Through Colors

At lunch today I strolled over to the Arts Club of Chicago with my camera to snap some pictures of Daniel Buren's installation, Crossing Through Colors. Situated in the Club's lobby and ground floor gallery space, the full-height, colored plastic panels were a bit disconcerting when I first saw them a couple weeks ago, but on this trip I moved slowly, took my time, and found the effect of colored light extremely powerful and the perfect antithesis of Vinci Hamp's dignified building design and the iconic lobby stair by Mies van der Rohe, salvaged from the Club's previous home.

Click the image below for my Flickr set and slideshow of Crossing Through Colors. See also Edward Lifson's post on the installation.

Culver House

Metropolis Magazine has a story on a sustainable condo development breaking ground in Chicago's Gold Coast by Dirk Denison Architects. Culver House is "part of a pilot program that expedites permits for buildings aiming for LEED certification." (PDF link)



Chicago is known for its push towards being the greenest city in the United States through such initiatives as City Hall's green roof, the Center for Green Technology, tree plantings with all new developments, and LEED requirements for all new public buildings.



Culver House pushes these green initiatives into the private sector, something that needs to happen for Chicago to not only reach its goal, but for it to have any sort of realistic long term impact.



Not only does Denison's design cleverly put the greenery on display, via planted terraces, it also, "incorporates louvered shading devices that assist in regulating radiant heat gain, reduce the need for artificial lighting, and conserve energy. Operable windows, vents, and doors promote airflow through the exterior and interior layer of the double-glazed curtain wall." These are a few of the many sustainable practices in the design, according to the Big & Green exhibition literature.



Its site across from Washington Square Park should give the project a highly visible presence as it rises and after it's complete, perhaps helping green thinking's extension into larger speculative private developments.



(via Coudal)

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Little Black Pearl in Chicago, Illinois by K2 Architects.

The updated book feature is