A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Reading Kevin Nance's PR-piece about SOM's Adrian Smith and his designs for Trump Tower in Chicago and Burj Dubai in, well, Dubai (both set for completion in 2008), my mind wandered to a film I saw recently: Code 46 , directed by Michael Winterbottom. The "sci-fi love story" is set in the not-too-distant future, taking place primarily in Shanghai. The story centers around two characters played by Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton. Robbins uses "empathy drugs" to find people that are taking advantage of his clients, while Morton plays a worker that Robbins finds out but falls in love with. It's a time when genetic decoding influences choices more than human will. I enjoyed watching the movie, though more for the visuals than the story. From the very beginning, it's apparent the film uses existing locations to convey this not-too-distant but also not-too-far-fetched future. For the approach to Shanghai from the airport, Winterbottom uses the highway nea...

Unbeknownst to me until today, this little page has been nominated for not one, not two, but three Urbs! What's an Urb, you ask? Well, it's an Urban Blogging Award that's run by Gridskipper and features multiple categories that cover the gamut of urban life. This page has been nominated for World's Best Urban Architecture Blog, World's Hottest Urban Blogger (!?), and World's Best Urban Blog. Thanks go out to whoever nominated me and, needless to say, I'm in great company in each category. So head on over to Gridskipper (before Dec. 7) and nominate like crazy, as "only those top blogs with the most total nominations will make it into actual voting."

Referring to the Trenton Jewish Community Center , Louis I. Kahn said, "I discovered myself after designing that little concrete block bathhouse in Trenton." While the small structure hasn't received as much recognition or attention as the architect's other buildings, such as the Kimbell Art Museum or Salk Institute, this quote illustrates that these later masterworks owe a lot to the ideas initially fleshed out in New Jersey. To monitor the fate of the Bath House and later Day Camp by Kahn, the Friends of the Trenton Bath House was formed just this month, chaired by Susan G. Solomon . The organization's web page indicates that the "current owner...is planning to relocate to a new facility outside of Princeton. It is unknown who will purchase the property, which includes the Kahn buildings, and whether or not there will be a commitment to preservation." Membership is free and will help the organization raise attention to the buildings' "fragil...

A View from the Campidoglio: Selected Essay 1953-1984 , by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, published by  HarperCollins, 1984. ( Amazon ) A friend once said the following in reference to Aldo Rossi: "He may be a genius, but I don't like his buildings." The same quote can be used to sum up my feelings towards Robert Venturi and his domestic and professional partner Denise Scott Brown. But after attending a lecture by Venturi a few weeks ago, I decided to finally break open their collection of essays that spans their most influential and popular period and see if it could sway my opinion of their work. Needless to say it didn't, even though Venturi and his wife have ...

Maag Recycling in Winterthur, Switzerland by Open Operating System Photos copyright architekturbild For Maag Recycling's facilities in Winterthur - a relatively small town northeast of Zurich - architect Open Operating System (OOS) and landscape architect Rotzler Krebs Partner envisioned the building in a multitude of ways beyond its intended function as a recycling center. Sitting on the roof of the facility is parking. A curb cut at the street leads to the ramp that leads to the roof. One cannot miss it as the concrete is colored a bright green. Without cars the parking lot resembles an American football field. While this may seem like a shallow gesture, it's one of the approaches that coincides with the client's role as a positive force in society. A da...

It's time for a brief Thanksgiving break. Posts will resume on Sunday or Monday. Image found here

Gregory Crewdson is all over the place these days. An exhibition of his latest series, "Beneath the Roses", at White Cube earlier in the year. Part of the "The New City: Sub/Urbia in Recent Photography" exhibition currently at the Whitney . Part of "the real ideal: Utopian Ideals and Dystopian Realities" exhibition at Sheffield Galleries and Museum Trust . And articles all over the place . His surreal, David Lynch-esque photographs are cinematic undertakings, usually requiring multiple bodies for extensive and elaborate staging (especially with lighting) and just as much time and effort with computers during "post-production". For me, the payoff is worth it. Not all of his series appeal to my senses, but this latest series hits me just right.

Just in time for the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year in these old United States, Oprah Winfrey told millions of people what to buy for the Holidays. For those of you residing in the States - though this might apply much elsewhere - you've probably been bombarded one way or another by holiday consumer hype much earlier than usual this year, as companies try to make for anticipated drops in consumer spending caused by higher energy costs and such. Personally, I'm aiming to make my gift-giving (and receiving) this year less about material goods and more about life's intangibles, such as donations to public radio, music classes, etc. This approach is more difficult than procuring "stuff" but ultimately a bit more rewarding, if not initially appealing to people. The opposite end of Oprah's spectrum, though, is Buy Nothing Day , taking place on Friday in the States and Saturday in the UK . Billed as "a day where you c...

Colonie in Paris, France by BOB 361 Architects This project consisting of 26 apartments and four townhouses sits in Paris's 13th Arrondissement, a district characterized by its narrow lanes and residential character, though it's also home to the Bibliotheque National de France along the River Seine. Designed by BOB 361 Architects , the residences are blessed with a unique site backing a park. Needless to say, the design takes advantage of its location. The street frontage is predominantly a gray brick, punctuated by small openings and a few asymmetrically-placed terraces, including large ones for penthouse units. Two large windows reveal the vertical circulation behind, acting as beacons when illuminated at night. A long, glazed lobby opening and a parking garage entry comprise the remaining openings on the street side, a restrained but not uninteresting public face. The opposite side of the buildings, the south side, is altogether different, where the apart...

A Guide to Contemporary Architecture in America: Volume 1, Western U.S.A.   by Masayuki Fuchigami, published by Toto . ( Amazon ) Coming after the author's three-volume guide to contemporary architecture in Europe, this first of three for the United States tackles these western states in three separate sections: California and Hawaii; Washington, Oregon, and Nevada; Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Given the wide expanses and few metropolises, California makes up a great deal of the book, the Los Angeles area in particular comprising a good chunk. Using LA as an example, the selections included in this travel guide are a mix of the obvious (Gehry's Disney Concert Hall) and the lesser-kn...

Competition: Burnham Prize 2006 "Learning from North Lawndale: Defining the Urban Neighborhood in the 21st Century" is the title of this year's Prize, whose winner will receive an extended fellowship at the American Academy in Rome in Fall 2006. Conference: Tropical Green Taking place February 9-10 in Miami, "learn how to design and build sustainably - and profit from it." Award: CAF Patron of the Year Winners Da Bears, Da City, Crate & Barrel and so forth.

This 80-room hotel, located on the Champs Elysees and set to open in 2006, is designed by Edouard Francois for the Groupe Lucien Barriere. The corner addition connects to its neighbors to create a unified hotel, while also linking aesthetically between the two. This last is accomplished by copying a Hausmanian building on the Champs Elysees and creating its replica in a moulded concrete facade. Given that this articulated facade doesn't relate to the interior rooms, openings are punched into the concrete wherever necessary, creating a mash of (traced) old and new. This concept is a very intriguing approach for relating to, and integrating with, historical buildings. It falls somewhere between contemporary buildings that strive for contrast and neo-traditional buildings that use less-literal means of copying. Reminiscent of artwork by Rachel Whiteread , it's a design that I hope receives widespread press when complete, as it's an idea ripe for discussion if not replication. ...

In last Sunday's Chicago Tribune, Blair Kamin argues for "a need for the city [of Chicago] to develop a planning framework that offers specific guidelines about where tall towers should go, how they can be placed so they block as few views as possible, and how they should behave at ground level." This article is definitely responding to the Spire-Tweezer one-two punch levied in the last couple months. Below's "composite photo prepared for this story," illustrates the crowding of the two towers and their proximity to Trump's tower down river (though this view is slightly misleading, as was mine in the link above, as it's a view that will rarely be experienced, except as one flies by in a plan or sails by in a boat). Elsewhere in the article, Kamin uses Park Tower and the Peninsula Hotel as an example of "a growing movement in the design community to educate the development world that tall, slender buildings are not bad things," in a qu...

American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space , by Susan G. Solomon, published by University Press of New England, 2005. ( Amazon ) Having worked on public schools, I have seen firsthand how playgrounds are typically an afterthought. Admittedly an important element within the child's daily experience, they are usually off-the-shelf, plastic monstrosities exhibiting little creativity or relationship to the school and community. This disappointing state of affairs may have been one of the impetuses for Susan G. Solomon's American Playgrounds . As its subtitle suggests, she focuses not so much on playground design but on its role in community space. The book is split into two halves: past and present. ...

Simons Sauna in Sipoo Mölandet, Finland by Heikkinen Komonen Architects The recently competed Simons Sauna on the island of Mölandet near Sipoo, Finland by Heikkinen Komonen Architects raises a couple interesting points: the appeal of small buildings and the Finnish duo's varied output. Sipoo is located east of the Scandinavian country's capital, Helsinki, as are some of their other projects, including the Vuosaari Gateway . Comparing a small sauna on the shores of the Gulf of Finland to the Vuosaari Gateway, "132 light torches mounted on posts on both sides of the Vuosaari Road" illustrates the duo's wide-ranging work. Early projects included government and cultural buildings and interiors, but since their inception in the early 1990's, they've also worked extensively in the eastern African country of Guinea. While the differences between Guinea and Finland may seem great (climatically, culturally, etc.), Heikkinen & Komonen manage...

Mount Tindaya is located on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. It was chosen by artist Eduardo Chillida, after a long and exhaustive search, as the location for a large-scale sculpture, a carved space of roughly cubic proportions (50m per side) inside the mountain that would be capped by two skylights. Mount Tindaya Ove Arup Engineers began work in 2003, performing a feasibility study and mapping the geology of the location. The most difficult aspect of the design's carved void is the flat ceiling that Chillida desires, given that the weight above would best be transferred to the "walls" via an arched, or similar ceiling. Since the project's inception, in the form of small-scale models as shown here, the Canary Islands has been enthusiastic about realizing it full-size in Mount Tindaya. The three-phase project (I-feasibility, II-drilling, III-construction) is expected to be completed in 2010, according to Arup's page. Check out the highly informative Mount Tinda...

Although I couldn't find anything on MoMA's web page , Gothamist mentions that Rachel Whiteread's long gone Water Tower has been resurrected on MoMA's inaccessible roof, visible from its garden. Water Tower in its original location About five years ago I featured the installation on my web page. And even though I heard about it too late to see it in person, I have mixed feelings about its resurfacing at MoMA. While this does enable me and many other people to see the resin tank -- which I described as "a quiet glimmer in the city's visual cacophony" and as simultaneously an object and non-object -- its removal from its original context is ultimately disappointing. Visible from the corner of West Broadway and Grand in Soho, its initial incarnation sat in an area not only dotted with functioning water tanks but an area partly defined by this presence, almost as much as the landmarked cast-iron facades. By putting it in an area with fewer (visible) tanks,...

Since my recent move, I've seen this from the "L" station every morning: When I previously lived near that station I remember the building's unfinished facade and empty interior, awaiting a fit out to be turned into condos, I assumed. It sat that way for years, not surprisingly since it sits five feet from the tracks. Now the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, who occupies the building's storefront, has installed The Facade Project: A commemorative work in progress . Each window on the upper three floors of the Collaborative building contains the faces of 9 of the US soldiers who have died in Iraq. Altogether, the piece shows the faces of 648 of the troops as a tribute and reminder. I usually don't get into this sort of thing, but the interaction of the faces with the unfinished building -- as well as the sheer number of faces -- make it a powerful statement. From the photo above, it seems like the Collaborative should open the space to visitors to heighten th...

Last night, a packed house crammed into IIT's Crown Hall to listen to Robert Venturi talk about Mies van der Rohe and himself, who he called Bob. As part of the Chicago Humanities Festival's recent embrace of architecture, Venturi was a natural choice to shake things up at the bastion of Mies's preaching. Mies Brief history: Mies coined the phrase "Less is more". In reaction to that, and pretty much all of Modernism, Venturi countered with "Less is a bore". (Late in Venturi's talk he mentioned a twist on his quote that somebody coined, one I actually prefer to the original: Mess is More) Bob Thus Bob, the "Anti-Mies" spoke last night about classicism, symbolism, and mannerism. In the first case, he stated that Mies was a classicist, because his buildings and spaces were stripped-down renditions of what came before; in the second case, he attested that Mies used symbolism, most apparently in the non-structural, applied steel sections on the ...

When I'm asked to describe Manhattan or other parts of New York City by Chicagoans who have yet to visit, I usually start by saying, "They don't have any alleys." It's only a few words but it says a lot, about both the physical and the active make-up of the city. Physically, while the blocks in Chicago are broken up by alleys, Manhattan features impenetrable blocks filled with buildings, with the occasional pocket park or through-block connection. Services like trash, utilities, and loading that are relegated to alleys in Chicago are on the street in Manhattan, adding to the already bustling roads and sidewalks another layer of activity. So alleys help to give each city its character: Chicago is less dense and vibrant than Manhattan, but it's also cleaner and more pedestrian and car friendly. To me, there's no good or bad about either. I love either city for what it is, knowing that alleys -- or lack thereof -- are only one defining feature. Well, all that...

Just stumbled upon the above blog -- what I'll call modernarchitecture , based on its address -- a daily image of modern/contemporary architecture, sometimes with map links. Worth a look.

Transitioning my home ISP during my recent move proved much more difficult than expected, so much so that my service is now disconnected and I'm awaiting a new provider. So in the meantime (at least until next Monday), I can't send out any subscription notices for my weekly page. Things should be back to normal with that in a couple weeks. Thanks for your patience. (Image found here )

New York Changing: Revisiting Berenice Abbott's New York , by Douglas Levere, published by Princeton Architectural Press , 2004. ( Amazon ) The titling of Berenice Abbott's classic 1939 book Changing New York almost screams for what Levere accomplished sixty years later, a rephotographed update that documents the changing fabric of Manhattan and the other boroughs. In fact Abbott attempted that very thing in 1954 but gave up, complaining of increased traffic. While the fifties did see Modernist skyscrapers rise across Manhattan, it may have been too soon for change to be readily apparent. Spending his free time from 1997-2002 documenting this change, Levere's 81 photographs (about 25% of Abbott's original) ...

Sterling Ridge in Scottsdale, Arizona by David Hovey One of the multiple winners in this year's AIA Chicago Design Excellence Awards is David Hovey (of Optima, Inc. ) for his Sterling Ridge residence in Scottsdale, Arizona. Winning an Interior Architecture Award and a Divine Detail Award, the jury noted "the interior is being about outside," while appreciating the use of photovaltaic cells to enhance the beauty of the house. Sterling Ridge is one piece of The Saguro Forest at Desert Mountain , a collection of four houses designed by Hovey and developed by Optima that sit in the high Sonoran desert within the natural scenery of the Desert Mountain Golf Community. While natural scenery and golf community might seem like oxymorons, the landscape uses natural plants and materials, rather than attempting to transplant non-native species or aesthetics into the harsh desert climate. The surrounding cacti, brush and other vegetation become important elements in...