A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Installment 8 of the Berlage Institute 's journal hunch was published in late September, exploring the "implications of doubling the Dutch population." Previous issues have analyzed global cities , dealt with September 11 , focused on dreaming , and asked the question of what will architects do in the future . Each issue uses the resources of the Institute, usually featuring symposia from the school, student work, essays by professors, and so forth.

New York-based firm Davis Brody Bond is designing a performing arts center on the south side of Chicago for the Muntu Dance Theater of Chicago . Located at 47th and Greenwood, the project, "will be an important cultural and economic link in a community development effort that already includes revitalized commercial, residential and educational sectors." Muntu's mission is to, "involve and educate their audience and community in the exploration of the African Diaspora...[holding programs with] with local schools." Because of this educational aspect the Center will house classrooms and practice studios, in addition to its 400-seat performance theater. The most distinctive architectural element is the perforated concrete wall, intended to resemble West African textile design, and its relationship to the glass projections that act like windows or stages to the street. These two pieces should give the building a strong presence at night, as the interior gl...

On March 11, 2005, the Illinois Institute of Technology will be hosting Birds and Buildings: Creating a Safer Environment , a one-day conference "for architects, landscape designers, building owners and managers - anyone interested in bird-friendly design solutions." From the conference web page: Over one billion birds strike windows in the U.S. every year...rapidly becoming the most significant contributor to the overall decline in bird populations. Birds don't see or understand windows and reflections. Instead, they see trees and sky -- and fly into the glass...At this conference, speakers and panelists will discuss their experiences designing bird-friendly buildings and retrofitting existing facilities. The event will conclude with a brainstorming session to consider the most common building designs that have the most fatal impact. Ironically, participants need only walk down the street to Helmut Jahn's recently completed campus dormitory . When I walked from 35th...

Yesterday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that, "every time Daley takes a trip, he comes back with a pad full of notes and a head full of ideas. Last week's trip was no different." The trip the newspaper's referring to was a weeklong trade mission to China and Japan, including a visit to Chicago's sister city, Osaka. According to the article Daley returned determined to provide high-speed train service to both airports and improve service on trains, also talking about planting trees in parking lots, a "new type of gas station that averts oil leaks", covering construction sites with tarps to contain debris, and speeding up construction at O'Hare. Each item was in response to something he saw in Japan and China, the last item specifically in reference to the speedy construction of Kansai Airport serving Osaka. After spending a couple in Japan last month, I can sympathize with Daley's situation: seeing the differences between here and there...

After reading Michael Beirut's " What We Talk About When We Talk About Architecture ", the Yale School of Architecture's journal Retrospecta (companion to its more well-known Perspecta ) sounds awfully appealing. The latest issue of the student-edited publication features student work, as always, but highlights the studio reviews by transcribing the crits by notable jurists, like Zaha Hadid and Peter Eisenman. A typical example: Kenneth Frampton: ...These computer renderings produce aesthetic effects very well, seamless, very seductive, but they are not about anything. They are delusions! They are mirages! I'm sorry, it's very aggressive to say this, but aren't we going to start talking? It's just ridiculous to say, "Ok -- individual interpretations," "So on and so forth." One has to talk about something fundamental, otherwise we're never going to talk about anything anymore. Demitri Porphyrios: I'm not sure what you...

Blair Kamin, in a couple articles, takes a stab at the recently-landmarked Michigan Avenue streetwall, from Randolph Avenue south to Roosevelt. In an article published October 8 , Kamin covers the City of Chicago's approval of Krueck + Sexton 's design for the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies . The 10-story building would feature a distinctive folding glass wall overlooking Grant Park that would stand out from its mainly heavy, masonry neighbors. While the approval process is far from complete, Spertus' new home is planned for construction to start next May with completion in 2007. I'm hoping all goes well for the Institute and the architects, since their design seems fresh and appropriate for its highly visible location. Kamin continues his focus on Michigan Avenue, in a longer piece published today on the future of the streetwall. With a helpful graphic , Kamin highlights the new developments that will be fitting into the existing streetwall, spanning th...

Charles Rennie Mackintosh by Alan Crawford, published by  Thames & Hudson , 1995. Paperback, 216 pages. ( Amazon ) In his World of Art contribution, Crawford attempts to elucidate three problems in his examination of the Scottish architect: the lack of knowledge about the architect's life, the distortion of facts about the architect (what Crawford calls the Mackintosh Myth ), and his collaboration with his wife Margaret Macdonald. The first and last seem the least problematic, the architect's personal life taking a backseat to his body of work in the case of the first, and the author crediting the mainly interior projects in the first decade of the 20th century to the husband and wife team, a...

Phoenix First Assembly Childrens Pavilion in Phoenix, Arizona by DeBartolo Architects, 2004 The following text and images are courtesy DeBartolo Architects for their Phoenix First Assembly Childrens Pavilion in Phoenix, Arizona. The program called for a worship space for 400 children from 1st through 6th grade. The children's church must prove a safe and highly visual environment where elementary-aged children can participate in a uniquely designed church teaching, involving drama, puppets, characters, stage scenes, special effects, music and video. Completed in 2004, the children's pavilion concept began from the idea of providing the children with a shaded porch to meet, register and socialize before entering the building on the North an...

A few months ago I posted an article on the Syndicate Trust and Century Building in St. Louis, a building threatened by demolition. To be built in its place would be, of all things, a parking garage serving the Old Post Office renovation across the street. That sounds like half-assed preservation to me: preserving one landmark at the expense of another landmark. Preservation is full of value judgments, but this one escapes me. Well, following a recent comment on that earlier post, it turns out the Century Building's demolition has begun, "in spite of two remaining lawsuits regarding two different components of the shady deal." Click here for more info.

Labeled a "288-page mojo manual" in a Village Voice review , Daniel Libeskind's Breaking Ground: Adventures in Life and Architecture is sure to become the most popular architect book with non architects since...well, ever. With Daniel is one of the most popular architects in the world - thanks to his appointment as masterplan architect for the World Trade Center site - and amid lawsuits and other messes, this book has masterly timing. Regardless, after reading the above review which points out the parallels between Libeskind and Danny, the little boy in Kubrick's film The Shining (a parallel Libeskind makes in the book), I might just have to venture to the public library and check it out. Update 10.26: A couple audio clips on Libeskind and his book: Libeskind discusses his masterplan on wbur.org , aired September 29, and Libeskind talks on The Leonard Lopate Show , on the same day as above.

The latest residential high-rise to cause a stir in Chicago is 340 East Randolph, aka 340 on the Park . Designed by local firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz , the 62-story building's site is just east of Dirk Lohan's Blue Cross Blue Shield headquarters and is part of the Lakeshore East development (though it is the most removed of the many structures planned, also orienting itself primarily south and away from the rest of the development). Perhaps responding to its neighbor, 340 is a glassy box, though the articulation of its façade recalls multi-story residential structures by Le Corbusier. Via the façade's composition and its materials, 340 separates itself from many recent examples that merely paint exposed concrete and have much less glass on the exterior wall. A multi-story horizontal band at the 25th floor helps to break up the tall elevation, calling out the pool and wintergarden on that floor, duplicated at the top of the building. In Chicago, views predominate when peop...

Archinect has two new features this week, both dealing with the conference held the beginning of this month in Chicago, Sustainable Communities, Learning from the Dutch Experience . Archinecter John Jourden interviews both Aaron Betsky , director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute , and Nathalie de Vries , of the Dutch architecture firm MVRDV .

Light in Japanese Architecture by Henry Plummer, published by  A+U , 2003. Paperback, 399 pages. ( Amazon ) Plummer's long-form essay on Japanese architecture is half visual and half text, the latter serving to frame the former into twelve chapters on different types of light. From "Moonlit Gray" to "Streams of Sun", the images eloquently convey both historical and contemporary ways of responding and manipulating light. Each chapter prefaces the full-color photographs with text that attempts to poetically convey the qualities of light, though the words are most effective when describing a specific building. Naturally, temples and residences of Kyoto predominate, their relationships to natu...

Boathouse in Amsterdam, Netherlands by Eindhoven Architecten BV, 2004 The following text and images are by Robert Beelen of Eindhoven Architecten BV (now BEELEN CS architecten bv ) for their design of a boathouse on a canal in Amsterdam.   The boathouse of Rob van Hemert and Anneke Nieuwenhuis is situated in the Schinkel canal in Amsterdam, near the Olympic Stadium. It measures 17 by 6 meters (56 by 20 feet), with a total height of 7 1/2 meters (24 feet) from which 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) are below the water-surface. Vertically, the ark is divided into three zones. The bottom zone is situated in the concrete hull below the water-surface. This zone contains some service-rooms and guestrooms. A window in the terrace supplies fresh air and daylight into the guestrooms. In the central zone the main living rooms...

My weekly page is changing servers Saturday night (CST) and should be back up and running Sunday morning at the latest. The new server will have much more disk space and allow for larger images and the potential for additional content. Also, the performance should improve overall. Thanks for your patience during the switch when the weekly page is down. Update 10.17: Success! The server switched worked and the weekly page is up and running again.

Margaret Throsby, on ABC FM Australia, talks with architect Glenn Murcutt. You can listen in both Real Audio and Windows Media formats. Thanks to Samuel B. for the link.

Today I discovered Wikipedia . I'm probably extremely late in coming across this amazing site, which allows any user to add content with the added benefit of that content able to be edited by other users. After registering, I looked around, naturally heading over to the Architecture category, where I happened across a list of casinos . Thinking all the way back to yesterday's post, I wondered what guise might a Loop casino take? Could this be it? Casino Lisboa in Macau, China. Probably not, but the collision of forms is indicative of a multi-use project: the slab in the rear with octagonal bays probably a hotel, a mid-rise component on the right-hand side another use, and the base taken up by the casino itself. Not too far off from Block 37, just physically half a world away.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports the City of Chicago is selling the infamous Block 37 property to Mills Corp., the latest in a string of developers attempting to build on the prominent Loop site, for $12.3 million, about $20 million less than what the city paid for the land two years ago. According to the article the, "difference amounts to a subsidy that...is justified because of 'extraordinary costs' faced by Mills in accommodating the CTA project [underground station for airport shuttle trains] and in building underground pedways." The subsidy appears to be taking a place of a TIF, the usual method of using future taxes now to aid in construction, though it remains to be seen if a TIF is given anyways. The most shocking tidbit refers to the possible addition of a casino in the mixed-use project. Both the city and the developer asserted vaguely, "It could [be possible], if it's done correctly" and, "We've agreed to agree there might be a ...

Tate Modern's web page has a virtual exhibit of Bruce Nauman's Raw Materials , a sound installation in the London museum's main turbine hall. Naturally it won't substitute for the real thing, but it's a clever way of trying to replicate the experience. Cool stuff. For those of you living in Chicago who can't make it to London, you're in luck. The MCA exhibit Stalemate (running until January 2, 2005) has as its centerpiece Nauman's 1985 work Chambres d'Amis (Krefeld Piece) . It features three small rooms, each in a different medium with the last being sound. Two speakers in the far corners of the small space spew forth dialogue that is also used at the Tate. (via Archinect )

The Philosophy of Symbiosis by Kisho Kurokawa, published by  Wiley , 1994. Paperback, 293 pages. ( Amazon ) The expression of my own will is...the transformation of Western domination and logos. This quote comes in the last chapter of Kurokawa's philosophical treatise, though by this time the reader is well aware of the author's will. His philosophy is not merely a reaction to western dualism as much as it is a proponent of the symbiotic ideals: pluralism, cultural diversity and appreciation, ecology, and what Kurokawa calls a shift to the age of life principle. This symbiosis is based on the philosophy of Consciousness Only, a major support of Mahayana Buddhism which occupies an important place for ...

Austin Theater in Austin, Texas by Miró Rivera Architects, 2000 When Miró Rivera Architects approached the renovation of the Old Austin Theater (1939) from an adult theater into office space for a software company, rather than obliterate any sign of the site's previous incarnation they chose to keep one unmistakable element, the marquee. Projecting like an alien appendage, the blank marquee, with lights, gives the design a touch of whimsy that would otherwise be missing. According to the architect's web page, the other goal in the design, besides keeping a defining characteristic of the previous use, was to, "engage the building in its prominent urban condition through the creation of a strong, copper-clad corner...

Back in July, I groaned on this page after reading in the print version of Architectural Record that Daniel Libeskind was named Cultural Ambassador for Architecture for the U.S. Department of State. My bewilderment had to do with the timing of the appointment and the complete lack of coverage by anybody outside Record . It seemed to me like it was very news-worthy, but nobody was carrying it as news. Until now. Archinect reports that Libeskind announced at the Venice Biennale that he received the appointment. OK. Now what exactly does he do as Cultural Ambassador? Well, visiting his page at CultureConnect , we see that Libeskind is one of thirteen Cultural Ambassadors. He's in the company of singer/dancer Debbie Allen , cellist Yo-Yo Ma , basketball player Tracy McGrady , jazz musician Wynton Marsalis , actor/producer Ron Silver , and actress Doris Roberts (of Everybody Loves Raymond ). That's quite a diverse group, though I still don't get it. Perhaps Patricia S. Harri...

Walking around Lincoln Park on a beautiful fall day yesterday, I snapped these photos of the Cenacle Retreat and Conference Center . The complex is one of my favorite "anonymous" pieces of architecture in the city. Actually, according to the AIA Guide to Chicago , the complex was built in 1967 and designed by Charles Pope. The Guide goes on to say that the Cenacle is, "an example of the warm side of clean, quiet modernism in brick." The building complex is set back from the east-west street Fullerton, the parking lot located between the sidewalk and building's main entry. While this decision can be seen as unfortunate, it does lessen the impact of the two tall and long brick volumes (as the AIA Guide proclaims). The setback also puts the complex on display, an unencumbered view available with the open expanse of parking. The two housing blocks are oriented perpendicular to each other, each short end a blank wall that finds relief through brick patterns. These tw...

Archinect reports , in a press release from the architect's office, that Philip Johnson, at 98 years of age, is retiring from his practice Philip Johnson/Alan Ritchie Architects . Johnson has been in practice about sixty years, roughly since the International Style exhibition he co-curated in 1932. Johnson has been a proponent of architecture styles, from Modernism and Post-modernism to Deconstructivist, the last via another MOMA exhibition in the late 1980's. Famously calling himself a whore, Johnson has always been able to shake things up, something he may likely do even after stepping down from practice.

It looks like the AIA Chicago 2004 Design Excellence Awards had some obvious choices: Contemporaine by Perkins and Will Starlight Theater and Kam L. Liu Building by Studio Gang/O'Donnell, and Marble Curtain by Studio Gang ) Factor 10 House by EHDD and Herman Miller Building C1 by Krueck & Sexton (both winning 2004 National AIA/Committee on the Environment awards already) Soldier Field by Lohan Caprile Goettsch with Wood + Zapata Lipson Alport Glass Associates by Valerio Dewalt Train State Street Village by Murphy/Jahn Oklahoma City Federal Building by Ross Barney + Jankowski and also some relatively unknown gems: Doblin Residence by Valerio Dewalt Train In this "house for a solitary person", VDT located the residence behind a simple facade that's made up of two galvanized steel, scissor doors. One side opens to a garage; the other side opens to a garden. Reminiscent of an early warehouse project by Santiago Calatrava, in this case the doors refer to th...