A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Posts will be light to non-existent for the next two weeks as I head out of town, taking a little summer break. Happy Summer!

The year 2013 is a good one for architecture exhibitions, and a few of them are highlighted below through their companion books. Two of the exhibitions are on 20th-century masters, one is on contemporary architecture in a specific region, and one is on an artist who is greatly appreciated by architects. It's close to impossible to attend every architecture exhibition of worth, but these catalogs remind us that their impact extend beyond the short months (or years, depending on if they travel) the shows exist. James Turrell: A Retrospective By Michael Govan, Chrisine Y. Kim Prestel , 2013 Hardcover, 304 pages ( Amazon ) Fans of James Turrell are being treated this year with three major exhibition on the artist: “ James Turrell: A Retrospective ” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), “ James Turrell ” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and “ James Turrell: The Light Inside ” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. To accompany the show at LACMA, curator Michael ...

Here are a bunch of photos recently added to the archidose flickr pool . They all have one thing (hint) in common. What is it? (Mouseover the photos for information on subject and photographer.) To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

I never thought I'd be posting a photo of somebody taking a shower, but Architect Magazine's item about a soap commercial with "the Worst Architect in the World" prompted me to do just that. I'll admit that for most of the 18-second commercial the guy is more of a contractor than an architect, but by the time we see why he's the worst, it goes by so quickly it's hard to see just how many screwy things are going on. So here's a screenshot: [Screenshot via YouTube ] Check out the commercial via the links above and comment below why this guy might be the worst architect in the world.

A Weekly Dose of Architecture Updates: This week's dose features Four Chesapeake Energy Buildings in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, by Elliott + Associates Architects: The featured past dose is the 3D Athletics Track in Alicante, Spain by Subarquitectura: This week's book review is The Images of Architects: The Visible Origin of Architecture edited by Valerio Olgiati (L): (R): The featured past book review is Architects' Sketchbooks by Will Jones. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : **NOTE: The next doses on my weekly page will be 2013.08.12.** : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : American-Architects Building of the Week : Red Rock Canyon Visitor Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, by Line and Space, LLC:

Here are two buildings designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects and photographed by Ken Lee . Kulturbau Forum Confluentes (2013) in Koblenz, Germany: Fletcher Hotel (2013) in Amsterdam: To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

The Images of Architects: The Visible Origin of Architecture edited by Valerio Olgiati, published by  Quart Verlag , 2013. Hardcover, 424 pages. ( Amazon ) How does one "read" a book entirely of images? It may not be such a hard question when it comes to an artist's monograph or a photographic essay , but this book of "44 collections by unique architects" does not offer similar formulas for interpretation. With typically 10 images per architect, there isn't enough information to make conclusions about each architect or see a consistent strand in the images selected. But this does not stop the book from becoming a joy to look at and attempt to understand. Even though images are everywhere these days, the ones collected here are, at their heart, images of inspiration, not those devoted to marketing or advertising; which, if you think about it, is what the architectural imagery in publications (print and online) are ultimately about: selling...

[Chesapeake Finish Line Tower] Four Chesapeake Energy Buildings in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, by Elliott + Associates Architects, 2011 All photographs are by Scott McDonald/Hedrich Blessing, courtesy of Elliott + Associates Architects. While formed less than 25 years ago, Chesapeake Energy bills itself today as "the second-largest producer of natural gas, 11th largest producer of oil and natural gas liquids and the most active driller of new wells in the U.S." (Texas's ExxonMobil is the one ahead of Chesapeake in the first case.) The company is headquartered in Oklahoma City and is in the midst of adding considerably to their 111-acre (45-hectare) campus north of downtown, just off of I-44. Each building on the new campus has been designed by Elliott + Associates Architecture , also based in Oklahoma City; three of those buildings are discussed here as well as a building on the banks of the Oklahoma River closer to downtown. [Chesapeake Finish Line To...

Over at World-Architects is an eMagazine Insight feature I just wrapped up, compiling some sketches after combing through the W-A profiles: " Hand Drawing in the Age of Computers ." [Photo: John Hill/World-Architects] The intro: Inspired by a recent Alvaro Siza lecture, in which the architect traced the design process of one of his buildings through a myriad of ever-more-refined sketches, we've combed through the profiles on World-Architects to find sketches and other hand drawings—not an easy feat, considering the ubiquity of CAD drawings, computer renderings, and photographs for documenting projects. Nevertheless we've compiled a rich sampling of drawings to illustrate the value—even necessity—of hand drawings in the age of computers.

'Tis the season for James Turrell, with three major exhibitions this summer (at the Guggenheim, LACMA, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston). Recently I wrote about the catalog to the LACMA show for Designers & Books , so, like everybody, I'm on a Turrell kick. Here are a few videos to satiate anybody's interest in the artist of light. James Turrell on June 27 episode of Charlie Rose (skip ahead to ~28 minute mark): " James Turrell's Roden Crater " from LACMA (click image to watch video at Vimeo): James Turrell in conversation with LACMA Director Michael Govan at the Guggenheim on June 21:

Here are some photos of the Ortiz de Zarate in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by Arqtipo , photographed by Federico Kulekdjian . See more photos of the building on Federico Kulekdjian's Facebook page . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

On Wednesday the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) celebrated the opening of two exhibitions, both curated by Pedro Gadanho : Cut 'n' Paste: From Architectural Assemblage to Collage City on the third floor and Young Architects Program (YAP) 2013 in the lobby. Below are some photos and impressions on the former. The first line of the exhibition's text asserts: "The ethos of collage shapes every aspect of contemporary culture, from the glut of signs and images to the many layers of digital information to the art of sampling." So it's fitting that the visitor is first confronted with projected images of digital renderings before going back in time to the early 20th century and artists, like Kurt Schwitters, who cut and pasted various media. The layout of the exhibition recalls Gadanho's 9+1 Ways of Being Political , with its diagonal walls, reddish-orange color scheme, and clear directionality through the spaces. Here there are basically two rooms with ...