A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Dear readers, In exactly four weeks I start school again. Yes, after nearly ten years in professional practice, I'm heading back to school for a Master's degree, specifically the Master's in Urban Planning at City College's Urban Design Program, headed by Michael Sorkin and located in the great city of New York. What brings this on, you ask? Well, going back to school for a Master's degree (I have a five-year Bachelor's degree from Kansas State) has always been on my mind, though in varying degrees since starting my first job. I've seen it as a way to pursue something more defined than undergrad, more personal, and reflecting some experience with practice and "how the world works." Now with marriage and the prospects that that brings, this might be the last chance I have to pursue this goal. But more importantly, the Urban Design Program's focus on sustainable and pedestrian-oriented planning is something I feel strongly about and feel is time...

Stumbling about ARCOweb , I came across this project by the current Pritzker laureate, Paulo Mendes de Rocha (with Metro Arquitetos) for a rather brazen addition to the Museu Nacional de Belas-Artes in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It's in Portuguese, so I'll let the images speak for themselves.

Tadao Ando: Complete Works by Philip Jodidio, published by Taschen , 2004. ( Amazon ) If there's an architect worthy of a gargantuan coffee table book, slightly smaller than the Phaidon Atlas , it's Tadao Ando. One of the most consistent architects in terms of quality of output as well as in his use of materials and geometry, the large-format photographs and drawings here are a suitable expression of his buildings, outside of the possibility of seeing them in person. Ando is known for his reliance on concrete, a heavy and thick material that he is able to manipulate in unfathomable ways. As a bearer of light, the concrete surfaces don't so much call attention to themselves as the space they contain, an indication ...

Mountain Retreat in Kerhonkson, New York by Resolution: 4 Architecture Text and images are courtesy Resolution: 4 Architecture for their Mountain Retreat in Kerhokson, New York. The Mountain Retreat lies at the southern edge of the Catskill mountains on a remote, forest site two hours north of New York City. The client expressed his desire for a “big boy treehouse.” The home serves as a weekend retreat away from the city that includes two bedrooms, large entertainment areas and outdoor space. Large amounts of glass were utilized to take advantage of mountain views. A seamless indoor/outdoor living space highlights these sightlines. A wood-framed modular construction was used. This includes 2x6 walls, wood open-web joists and stee...

Ibirapuera2 by digdoi Auditorium of the Ibirapuera Park by Oscar Niemeyer, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Sundial Bridge by informedmindstravel Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA by Santiago Calatrava . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Get an inside look at Steven Holl's Simmons Hall dormitory at MIT in this cool short film by redbucketfilms . (Thanks for the head's up, Josh!)

The seemingly impossible (or unpossible , as Ralph Wiggum would say) just might happen. Commercial Property News confirms a rumor I've heard, that Blue Cross Blue Shield will expand its headquarters in Chicago's East Loop by adding 24 stories on top of its current 30 floors. That's right, on top of its current building. Completed in 1997, the building by now defunct Lohan Associates (apparently attributed to James Goettsch via inclusion on his firm's web page and not Lohan Anderson's) was actually designed to be expanded vertically, an intelligent but far-fetched approach. Considerations include leaving some space in the core empty in anticipation of a new bank of elevators for the addition, space that can be used for the tower crane during construction; and creating a large plaza to the north that can be used for staging during that time. Regardless of these and other measures, now that that time has almost come, it should be interesting to see just how smooth th...

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Muirhead Farmhouse, Hampshire, IL by Karla's The Muirhead Farmhouse by FLLW, now a bed and breakfast. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

About 180 degrees from the Tate Modern Extension posted earlier today is UC Berkeley's Chang-Lin Tien Center , designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects . Yep, them. While it may not resemble other projects by the New York-based architects -- the Neurosciences Institute , the Folk Art Museum , the Cranbrook Natatorium -- it clearly exhibits their thoughtfulness and sensitivity to site, client, and program. And compared with the Herzog & de Meuron design for the Tate, this project is much more clear on what's happening inside. (via Javlog )

From World Architecture News : Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron have today revealed plans for their £215 million iconic extension to the former power station on the south bank of the River Thames. The new 7,000 m² extension will be built on land to the south of the Tate Modern reclaimed from EDF energy networks. A new entrance and piazza to the 4 million visitor/year venue will allow north-south pedestrian passage through the complex. Ten new galleries will be provided in the 10 stories above ground and a performing space will be created within the former oil tanks, once used to feed the power station located below ground. The Mayor of London today pledged £7 million pounds towards the project through the London Development Agency. Completion is scheduled for 2012. Kinda makes Steven Holl's addition to the Nelson-Atkins look sensitive. More at Google News . Update: The image below and more, with commentary by Hugh Pearman, at Gabion . Update 07.26: The Tate's official...

duomo di milano by twoeightnine A detail of Milan's Cathedral. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Peter Walker and Partners: Nasher Sculpture Center Garden edited by Jane Amidon, published by  Princeton Architectural Press , 2006. ( Amazon ) The third installment in Amidon's Source Books in Landscape Architecture series focuses on the garden of the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas. Home to an amazing collection of indoor and outdoor sculpture indicative of a lifelong love of art, the Center is a rare balance of inside and out, where the building and the garden work together for the sake of the art. While the building design by Renzo Piano drives much of Peter Walker's garden design, the process involved a respectful back and forth, apparent in the interviews between the editor ...

Halmstad Library in Halmstad, Sweden by Schmidt Hammer Lassen For their competition-winning design for the Halmstad Library along the Nissan River in Halmstad, Sweden, the Danish firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen created a building that interacts with the historical city through its siting, form and facades. Perhaps the most overt gesture of the three-story, 8,000 sm (86,000 sf) building is the way it reaches out and actually sits above the water, rather than sitting back from its shoreline. This decision achieves a few things: it allows pedestrian movement along the edge of the river to continue under the library unobstructed; it gives visitors a unique vantage point on a deck at the building's tip; and it elevates the library's status in Halmstad by...

Originally uploaded by gac . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

An anonymous tipster has sent us some photos of the Steven Holl-designed addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. The Bloch Building was first featured on this page back in March 05 and most recently with some pics in January of this year. The apparent split over the merits of the addition probably won't be remedied by these photos, exhibiting both the good and bad qualities of the design. The addition is scheduled to open June 2007. Thanks anonymous!

According to its web page, "a House of Sweden is being erected outside Sweden [for the first time], to be home to the Swedish embassy and representatives of Swedish commerce. The building will form a new Swedish arena in the United States. It is an unusual embassy building, housing a secretariat, 16 apartments and an Event Center." Designed by Sweden's Gert Wingardh, the building's exterior is a banded composition of various materials, predominantly glass but also wood and stone. In the middle bands, a blond maple is covered in fritted glass below a laminated glass printed with a wood grain. Ironically perhaps, the latter has a stronger impact, though the faux wood grain appears almost comic. This horizontal banding reflects the variety of uses within the House of Sweden: basement event center, ground floor public areas, 2nd floor Embassy, 3rd and 4th floor apartments, and finally roof terrace. Most likely intentional is the ground floor's transparency, featuring ...

IMG_0790 by newmanrp20 The recently-opened Musee du quai Branly by Jean Nouvel . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

A couple projects at opposite ends of the size and scale spectrum are getting quite a bit of attention these days. So here's more. The big one is Kanyon , a massive mixed-use project (179 luxury residences, 26 stories of offices and nearly 40,000 square meters (430,000 sf) of commercial space, according to Cool Hunting ) in Instanbul by Jon Jerde , the go-to guy for huge, money-making, shopping-oriented developments. In plan, the development recalls other projects by Jerde -- specifically Canal City in Fukuoka, Japan -- where a pedestrian-only, curving spine focuses traffic and activities. In Istanbul, Jerde "leaps directly into space-station fantasy urbanism," as described by Tropolism , although similar was probably said about Canal City when it opened in 1996. A lot of the attention given to Kanyon must be spurred by the image below, an angle that makes the complex resemble the Death Star . Like that Star Wars satellite, this section of Kanyon is an intensifier. Wher...