A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

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...

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 )

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 envisione...

Reford Gardens Pavilion in Grand-Metis, Quebec by Atelier in situ Chosen as one of the 2006 Governor General's Medals in Architecture by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, Atelier in situ's Visitor's Center at Reford Gardens is praised as "a modestly scaled building complex that successfully commands the large territory of the garden festival site for which it provides amenity and support accommodation." Although the gardens are located in far northern Quebec, they are extremely popular, both for their historical importance and their annual International Garden Festival that features many one-of-a-kind installations and temporary gardens by local and international designers. This Visitor's Cent...

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 mo...

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. Middelgrun den 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 ...

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 architectsÂ’ know-how to achieve it, was proposed to mark the 10th anniversary of t...

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 build...

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!

FLaTPak House by Charlie Lazor This week's CBS Sunday Morning devoted itself to design in its many forms: architecture, industrial design, fashion, jewelry, prosthetics, toilets, even dogs. In one of the segments focusing on architecture, two architects presented their designs for prefabricated single-family homes. Missouri-based Rocio Romero is already well known for her small and affordable LV Series dwellings. Charlie Lazor might not yet be a household name, but his attractive, and slightly pricier prefabs offer a striking alternative to site-built homes. Lazor's house is called FLaTPak , "a 'system' of pre fabricated components designed to yield unique solutions." The kit ...

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 .

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...

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."...

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 .

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. Opera...

Edge City: Life on the New Frontier by Joel Garreau, published by Doubleday, 1991. ( Amazon ) From the very beginning of Washington Post editor Joel Garreau's popular and influential account of the edge city phenomenon, he explains that the book is an act of reporting, not criticism or polemics. This distinction allows the author to present other people's stories -- a la Studs Terkel or Haruki Murakami -- in addition to the presentation of facts that explain the phenomenon. These stories help give the book a personal flavor that make it more understandable to more people. The most interesting aspect of the book is the variety of voices and approaches to what is in effect a homogenous ...

Little Black Pearl in Chicago, Illinois by K2 Architects Chicago's South Side is undergoing something of a mini arts renaissance. The over 60-year-old Hyde Park Arts Center recently opened its expanded space, designed by Garofalo Architects . In nearby Kenwood, the Muntu Dance Theatre is in the early stages of constructing its new Performing Arts Center, designed by New York's David Brody Bond . And right across the street from Muntu sits the Little Black Peark Art & Design Center . What's so great about these South Side institutions -- apart from their proximity to each other -- is their community focus, their ability to function not only as places to see art but as places to learn about and create art. Little Bla...