A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Posts will resume mid next week.

It was announced today that the 107-year old Berghoff on Adams in Chicago's Loop will be closing its doors at the end of February.

A collection of both my and your (via # comments) favorite posts from this page in the year of 2005: February :: The Torii at Central Park - Christo and his (potential) influences :: Universal Tourist - Exhibition at the MCA in Chicago, in two parts :: Our Surreal World - In photographs :: Hardblog Tactics - David Shuster and the Twin Towers March :: The Holl Truth - Controversey over his Nelson-Atkins design :: Being Mayne - Background on the Pritzker winner :: Traditional vs. Progressive in Alaska - More Mayne, plus update April :: What's a MoMo? - A distinctive Chicago condo tower :: Does Chicago Wanna Be NYC? - The rise of sidewalk studios :: Bad Building Roundup - With more on the 50th anniversary McD's here :: Whales in Chicago? - Well, a mural of whales May :: Fun with Google Aerials - Plus some Renzo Piano sites :: Stelae! - Peter Eisenman's Holocaust Memorial in Berlin opens :: WTC = World Trump Center! - The Donald weighs in, pushing to rebuild the ...

Glenn Murcutt: A Singular Architectural Practice , by Haig Beck and Jackie Cooper, published by  Images Publishing , 2002. ( Amazon ) Glenn Murcutt is an anomaly of architecture: a celebrated and internationally well-known architect who eschews style and size in favor of functionalism and the level of control that comes from a "singular practice." His relatively solitary ways, deliberate process, and exceptional buildings earned Murcutt the Pritzker Prize in 2002. This monograph illuminates his working method and ideas about architecture while also dispelling some myths, mainly that he only builds remote, bush houses and only designs with linear plans. The book is broken into three sections: the fi...

Quincho in Rosario, Argentina by Rafael Iglesia Regular readers of this web site know that I have a weak spot for small structures, be they houses, spas, pavilions, or even installations. This quincho, or place of eating, and pool in Rosario, Argentina by Rafael Iglesia definitely falls into that category of small. While it can be seen solely as a floor, a couple porous walls, a roof and a table, it is also a rich meditation on nature and materials, elevating the small shelter beyond its function. The most obvious relationship to nature in the design is the tree trunk supporting the flat roof. This gesture reaches back to the roots of architecture, the primordial hut, if you will, where natural materials are reconstituted to suit the inhabitants, though in a manner recalling the natural thing - in this case a tree's canopy. ...

Posts will resume Monday.

Wow, this site brought back a lot of memories! The days of laboring over a drafting table and parallel bar, sharpening the lead after every few letters or lines, dipping the tip in that dirty foam thing to get the excess off the tip, switching between leadholders or changing out the lead to go from 2H to 2B to HB and back again. Today's reliance on computers for drafting means the mouse has replaced the leadholder, but at leadholder.com: The Drafting Pencil Museum , it's alive and well. This slightly obsessive page features just about every leadholder, drafting pencil, lead pointer and lead box ever made, as well as historical documents and advertisements, a history of the leadholder and descriptions of its mechanics. Who ever thought a site on this topic would exist, much less be so thorough? If you've ever used one, you need to check it out. I found some of my old college gear, most of which I still have but haven't picked up in years. From top to bottom: Staedtler Ma...

Some links for ya this fine Tuesday: :: Beirut: a crossroads in the levant Archleague's latest Worldview feature that includes the architect of last week's dose and a hell of a lot more. (via Archinect ) :: "America's Worst Catastrophe" Gray Line Tours does the unthinkable. (via Archinect ) :: Union's Made Libeskind's design for a condo tower in Union City, New Jersey. (via The Gutter ) :: Frank Gehry in the Simpsons Looks like the episode finally made it to Australia. A transcription by David Teoh with visuals much sharper than mine . :: Conceptual Forms Hiroshi Sugimoto's photographs of plaster models of mathematical algorithms. :: Javlog Archinect editor Javier Arbona "shares a few web clippings, flickr findings, del.icio.us tags, occasional rants and raves, gossip and curio around post-urbanism topics." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Quonset Hut: Metal Living for a Modern Age , edited by Julie Decker and Chris Chiei, published by Princeton Architectural Press , 2005. ( Amazon ) Today the Quonset hut is more an idea than a thing. Sure one sees in their mind its unmistakable half-cylinder form and corrugated metal siding, but one also thinks of it as cheap, ugly, rugged, and temporary. And really those descriptions are not wholly inaccurate. But in this book, a companion to an exhibition now at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art , the editors and authors involved focus on the positive qualities of what began as a response to military need in World War II but persevered as housing and other uses for years after t...

Onishi Hall in Onishi, Japan by Kazuyo Sejima & Associates Photographs copyright Satoshi Jo Both in her solo firm of Kazuyo Sejima & Associates and her collaborative practice with Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA), a common thread can be found in Sejima's buildings: an artistic balance and investigation of minimalism and skin/transparency. In the latter's more high-profile commissions, such as the completed Dior building in Tokyo and the New New Museum now under construction in New York, simple boxes are divided and stacked in unique ways and then veiled in a soft skin that gives them an ethereal quality. In this civic project in Onishi, Japan, transparency reigns, as does an organic plan. Similar to other recent projects b...

Just found out about the urban-open: competition "for Chicago's Legacy of Sustainable Communities." It is a "two-phase, open international design competition for the design of a indoor/outdoor facility in ChicagoÂ’s economically challenged East Garfield Park neighborhood." Registration deadline is March 15, 2006 and the submission deadline is April 15, 2006. Lots of information at the urban-open: web site . (via theArchitectureRoom.com )

Last month I posted about Robert Venturi's appearance at IIT's Crown Hall, as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival, in a lecture aligning Mies with Venturi and his wife and professional partner Denise Scott Brown. I ended the post by saying, "the duo's updating of their theories to the signs, symbols, and iconography of the digital age is unfortunately just as off-putting [as the rest of their oeuvre]," but without any evidence to back up that opinion. Well, Mr. Becker helps me out by including a slide (below) of their Shanghai towers in his article on the lecture . A severely-truncated version of the article as it appears in this week's Chicago Reader is also available in PDF format.

Zaha , that is. These renderings are her design for the Department of Islamic Art at the Louvre in Paris. According to the institution's web page, "The Louvre's collection of Islamic art is currently displayed on the lower ground floor of the Richelieu wing, but will be transferred to newly created display areas in the Cour Visconti (Denon wing) over the next five years." This design is sure to be controversial for the way it forces itself into the classically-scaled and proportioned courtyard, as well as for its neo-Islamic / neo-Escher / neo-Libeskind's-vetoed-Victoria-and-Albert-Museum-ish skin. But I.M. Pei's glass pyramid caused quite a stir late last century and it has grown to be an accepted part of the Louvre and the city of Paris. Perhaps this won't be as controversial, given its secluded site. I actually find it rather appealing, if a bit arbitrary. The fluid, bending form creates an always-varying interstitial space in the courtyard as it rises...

Browsing through the Chicago section of SkyscraperCity Forums , I came across a thread compiling non high rise (read: non office and residential) projects either under construction or in the works. The list (with images and links) includes museums, stadiums, community centers, religious buildings, educational, and other projects. It's nice to see a grouping of these types of projects, beyond the already well-known Art Institute Expansion by Renzo Piano and the Spertus Museum by Krueck + Sexton. Projects include the Museum for Broadcast Communications by Eckenhoff Saunders Architects , the Center for Jewish Life (image above) by Daniel P. Coffey & Associates , and the SOS Children's Village Community Center by Studio/Gang Architects .

Inspired by Fimoculous's undertaking ( Lists:2005 ), I've decided to keep track of "Best of" and other year-end lists and awards that pertain to architecture. If you don't subscribe to this site's feed, bookmark this page and check back every now and then. And if you know of something that should be listed here, simply post a comment or e-mail it to me . The list (updated Dec 19): new :: 2005 - another fantastic year for architects! (SPA.uk) new :: AAI Awards 2005 (Architectural Assoc. of Ireland) :: AIJ Prizes 2005 (Architectural Institute of Japan) :: American Architecture Awards (The Chicago Atheneum) :: Andrew Doolan Award for Architecture (RAIS) :: AR Awards for Emerging Architecture (Architectural Review) :: CNU Awards 2005 (Congress for New Urbanism) :: Design Excellence Awards (AIA Chicago) :: Design Vanguard 2005 (Architectural Record) :: Die Besten 05 (swiss-architects.com) :: Driehaus Preservation Awards (LPCI) :: Possible Futures (Bie...

Deconstructing the Kimbell: An Essay on Meaning and Architecture , by Michael Benedikt, published by Lumen, 1992. ( Amazon ) In 1991 - the heyday's of architecture's borrowing of themes from Jacques Derrida's Deconstruction and early 20th-century Constructivism - Benedikt published a long form essay deciphering some of the philosopher's ideas and interpreting and applying them towards architecture. But instead of looking at projects by architects most overtly influenced by Derrida (Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind, Bernard Tschumi), the author steps back and applies Deconstruction to Louis I. Kahn's Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. By doing this, he attempts to see if the philosophy is a ...

Light Is the Theme: Louis I. Kahn and the Kimbell Art Museum , words by Louis Kahn, compiled by Nell E. Johnson. ( Amazon ) Featuring "Comments on Architecture" by Louis Kahn and beautiful black and white photographs of the building under construction and after completion, Johnson's short book is a great companion to the building (and Michael Benedikt's essay Deconstructing the Kimbell ). Years after the building's completion, and the death of its architect, the Kimbell has become one of the greatest singular achievements of 20th-century architecture. Kahn's poetic and "roots" sensibilities find a clarity of purpose in the Kimbell, though it has persevered for so long also ...

Black Box Aizone in Beirut, Lebanon by Bernard Khoury For "a hip new restaurant inspired by Aïshti’s trendy clothing chain Aïzone" situated next to a department store on the northbound highway of Greater Beirut, architect Bernard Khoury made up for the building's unfortunate 20m (65') setback by creating an armature for imagery that attracts attention more than its neighbor's billboards and signage-drenched exteriors. The Black Box Aizone , excluding its armature, is just that, a metal-clad black box emblazoned with super-graphics much like its neighbors. The entry to the black box is signaled by openings lined with bright red padded walls and sills, an opportunity to engage the architecture directly as a so...

This week's Chicago Reader includes a review (PDF) of UIC professor Robert Bruegmann 's potentially controversial book Sprawl . While not a polemic for sprawl, the "compact history" is much more kind to the phenomenon than texts by the likes of James Howard Kunstler that paint it as a purely destructive force. In addition to Harold Henderson's review in the Reader, Witold Rybczynski wrote this review for Slate published a month ago.

About a year ago I featured on my weekly page Minotaur , an art installation located in the Kielder Water and Forest Park in England near the Scottish border. Well, today brings news that Charles Barclay Architects have won a Kielder Partnership/RIBA competition for the Kielder Observatory, beating nearly 230 other entries in the two-stage competition. According to the architects, The Kielder observatory is to be a democratic observation platform for amateur astronomers, with two permanent a stelescopes and space for individuals to set up their own personal telescopes. The building typology is the timber pier or bridge, that is usable both as an observatory at night and as a viewing platform during the day. In addition to the Minotaur , the Kielder Park also includes a Skyspace by James Turrell, a Belvedere by Softroom , and a sculpture trail with numerous pieces of art. This latest component in their embrace of art and architecture is set for completion next year.

Tonite at the Cultural Center in beautiful downtown Chicago, a panel discusses the social commentary, philosophy, history and politics of, yes, The Simpsons. Titled "The Simpsons: Cultural Criticism and America's Favorite TV Family," the discussion starts at 6pm in the first floor Garland Room. (A lollipop to anybody who gets this post's title reference) Thanks for the head's up, Sis!

Anti-architecture and Deconstruction , by Nikos A. Salingaros. ( Amazon ) In this collection of essays, mathematician and scientist Salingaros criticizes deconstructivist architecture and the philosophy that influenced it, Jacques Derrida's Deconstruction. This well-known philosophy is known more for its difficulty and its creator than the ideas it presents. Salingaros admits as much, so his critique centers more on architects' interpretations of Deconstruction, though he takes the existence of both to be a breakdown of traditional ways of thought and existence. Throughout the collection, the author many times states his goal: being alive to the maximum extent possible via the shaping of our surroundings. ...

Conversation Piece in Toronto, Ontario by PLANT Architect Inc. Recipient of an Honor Award by Wood Design & Building this year, Conversation Piece was an installation that was part of the 2004 Interior Design Show in Toronto, Ontario. PLANT Architect Inc. responded to the show's theme "What makes you wealthy?" with the answer, "When we derive joy from what and who is around us, we achieve true wealth." The physical embodiment of this response is Conversation Piece, a dining pavilion, among other things. Visitors approach via a ramp with a wall on one side and a tall space fitted with suspended chiffon curtains on the other side. These soft curtains contrast sharply with the wood that makes up the majo...

Mon ami Frank tagged me with a meme that asks people to let Google tell you what you need. So you type in "(your name) needs" and let Google do the rest... So, according to everybody's favorite search engine/most powerful entity in the land (of which I must obey), I need... :: to look at the process used by the City of Onkaparinga to construct a skate park in a heritage zone. :: people to repair old sewing machines and tools and ... to find someone who can sharpen drill bits. :: to resign for suggesting a radioactive waste storage solution that is not legal. :: to lay off the tanning booth. :: to explain to the parliament why he is not reading his briefing papers and, as a result of that, why he is not giving accurate information to the parliament. Ok, Google. But I can't possibly do all those, so how 'bout I just tackle the first one? Well, consulting the City of Onkaparinga's web site , I found a document that includes recommendations from the Local Herita...

Click image for an architecture school (Harvard?) spoof of MTV's Pimp My Ride . Thanks for the link, Patrick! 5 minutes later update: Just noticed this video is the product of frequent commenter bryan boyer, also the author of remTV News , another MTV spoof.