A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Tampa Museum of Art in Tampa, Florida by Rafael Viñoly Architects, 2004 A major element in Tampa, Florida's new Cultural District - 28 blocks of art, history and performing arts - will be the new Tampa Museum of Art, to be finished in 2006. The existing museum will be demolished after the completion of the new design by Rafael Viñoly Architects of New York, creating space for a new waterfront park and subsequently opening views to the building from Hillsborough River. At over 150,000 s.f. the new museum's home will more than triple the space of its existing facilities, while also creating outdoor space for leisure and art display. Viñoly's design sites the mass of the building close to Ashley ...

Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis by Harold M. Mayer and Richard C. Wade, published by  University of Chicago Press , 1969. Hardcover, 522 pages. ( Amazon ) Covering the prairie city's growth from 1830 until the book's initial publication in 1969, the authors tell the story of Chicago in illustrations, maps and photographs. Through the first we see the small seaport's early growth and through the last we see the seaport boom into the most important city in the Midwestern United States. Each chapter cover roughly twenty years, the first two leading up to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, where photos can most dramatically show both the prosperity of the city and its subsequent destruction. The rebu...

Starting from Zero: Reconstructing Downtown New York by Michael Sorkin, published by  Routledge , 2003. Paperback, 144 pages. ( Amazon ) Compiling articles from Architectural Record , Metropolis , Slate , a chapter from 2002's After the World Trade Center , and new material, Zero criticizes not only the designs for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site (common in the mainstream press), but also the process leading up to the designs (uncommon in same). Mostly, Sorkin questions the commercial drive to replace ten million square feet of office space and the public's acceptance of this architectural program for the site's reconstruction. Rather than solely feature Sorkin's ramblings on the business-as-usual undertakings, we are also treated to the writer/practitioners own plans for the area, not limited to the immediate World Trade Center site. His ideas use the opportunity of rebuilding to affect greater change, imbuing downtown with green...

100 Seeboth in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Associates, 2004 A mixed-use development in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is the first commission for a developer by the celebrated firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Associates . The New York firm typically works with institutional clients, from university clients to a science institute and an art museum. But Weas Development Co. has successfully lured the couple to design eight condominiums, a restaurant and offices in the Walker's Point neighborhood south of downtown Milwaukee. Even with the shift from institutional to development, the design bears the stamp of Tod and Billie. A six-story glass box, typical of Midwestern urban construction, is shielded by an asymmetrical precast concrete scree...

Log edited by Cynthia Davidson, published by  Anyone Corporation, 2003. Paperback, 152 pages. ( Amazon ) In Davidson's introduction to the latest publication venture by Anycorp (publisher of 27 Any journals and sponsor of ten conferences over ten years), she explains the reason behind its existence: "what is needed is a distance from the immediacy of the image that has taken place of critical time." While she refers to the predominance of images and lack of discussion regarding the designs for the WTC site, it might as well be a general statement about architecture and culture today. Log is an attempt to create a critical context for writing about architecture in the present and maybe defining architecture's ...

New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, NY by SANAA, 2003 In May 2003, Japanese architects SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa) were announced as the winner of a limited competition to design the New Museum of Contemporary Art 's new home on the Bowery in New York City. Located at 235 Bowery opposite the terminus of Prince Street, the structure will be the Museum's first freestanding building (it currently occupies three floors in the historic Astor Building in Soho) and downtown's first art museum in recent history, upon its completion in Spring 2006. Founded in 1977, the New Museum has grown to become one of the leading contemporary art institutions in the city (if not the United States). Since its inception it has changed ...

Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Conspire to Limit What Films We Can See by Jonathan Rosenbaum, published by  Chicago Review Press, 2002. Hardcover, 240 pages. ( Amazon ) As head film critic for the alternative weekly paper the Chicago Reader , Jonathan Rosenbaum is in a position where his taste dictates the majority of the films he reviews rather than an editorial staff (heavily influenced by Hollywood studios and popular media), typical of the mainstream press. This fortunate position informs much of his criticism and the theme of this book, a collection of essays centered around the public's access to films. The most blatant example of censorship by Hollywood that Rosenbaum exposes is Miramax's purchase of distribution ...