A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Sunday is the lat day to vote for the Building of the Year 2015 at American-Architects. The Building of the Week is a feature I curate for the platform, and for 2015 the theme was overseas buildings by US architects with some of the inverse: buildings in North America by foreign firms. Easier said than done: the criteria made it hard to fill 50 slots, so there are only 36 (37 with a Barcelona project that was put in for the launch of Catalan-Architects). Regardless, its'a solid selection of buildings, with big names (Renzo Piano, Bernard Tschumi, Richard Meier SANAA, David Adjaye) balanced by lesser-known architects (Zoka Zola, Sharon Davis, Biber Architects, SsD) and plenty in between. Below is a screenshot of the buildings in the running; click on the image or here to go vote for your favorite. The winner will be announced online Monday and in the eMagazine that lands in inboxes on Tuesday.

Here are some photos of the Cemetery Building (2010) in Erlenbach, Switzerland, by AFGH / Andreas Fuhrimann Gabrielle Hächler , photographed by Trevor Patt . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

Yesterday the New York Times reported on MoMA's latest renovation plans, something that has been on my radar for about two years, when they put their foot down on demolishing the Folk Art Museum. The most unfortunate news is that the most interesting – and public – components in Diller Scofidio + Renfro's schematic plans (the "Art Bay" and the public sculpture-garden entrance) are gone: This news should hardly come as a surprise to anybody following MoMA's latest renovation, which kicked off with the demolition of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects' 2001 American Folk Art Museum next door. Sure, DS+R tried to save that contemporary gem  (and then explained to a packed house whey they couldn't), but with MoMA's concerns focused squarely on dealing with the hordes of ticketed museum-goers generated by, but not adequately addressed in the 2004 Yoshio Taniguchi expansion, there's just no room for publicly inviting gestures. In the case of the ...

Here are some photos of Bunker 599 (2010) in the Netherlands by RAAAF and Atelier de Lyon , photographed by Maurice Tjon a Tham . And the making of Bunker 599 from RAAAF: To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

Dallas Modern: Volume 1, Residences  by Dallas Architecture Forum, published by  Visual Profile Books , 2014. Hardcover, 216 pages. ( Amazon ) Minnesota Modern: Architecture and Life at Midcentury  by Larry Millett, published by  University of Minnesota Press , 2015. Hardcover, 400 pages. ( Amazon ) Last week I reviewed Virginia Savage McAlester's updated Field Guide to American Houses , which devotes numerous pages to modern houses and other recent styles of residential architecture in the United States. It seems natural to follow up that review with one devoted to modern houses in two parts of the country: Dallas and Minnesota. The names and covers may indicate that the books are fairly similar, but, as will be seen, Dallas Modern is a survey of the city's notable houses from the 1950s to the present, while Minnesota Modern  is a history of all sorts of architecture in the state in the middle of the 20th century, yet with a special emphasis o...

Here are some photos of a couple of the resorts Michael Graves designed for Orascom Development in El Gouna, Egypt, photographed by W. Scheuer . Sheraton Miramar Resort : Steigenberger Golf Resort : To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

Recently I was reminded via some LinkedIn connections that I started my first Archidose website 17 years ago this month. (Indeed, it has been that long!) This month also marks the one-year anniversary of my Tumblr blog Slat Happy , which collects projects that prominently include slats and bring a smile to my face. Slat Happy is a nice five- or ten-minute diversion on some mornings, though not as often recently as in the beginning. It reminds me how much other architects like this architectural element as much as I do – slats aren't going away anytime soon! To mark the one-year anniversary, here's a screenshot of what I've posted to date:

A Field Guide to American Houses, The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture  by Virginia Savage McAlester, published by  Knopf , 2015 (second edition). Paperback, 880 pages. ( Amazon ) My high school offered drafting and architecture classes, something I took for granted at the time but realized later was quite exceptional, especially given the fact that every other year our class would design a house that would be built by the building trades class. Much of the class focused on single-family houses, not surprising given the suburban location outside Chicago. One class assignment that springs to mind as I hold Virginia Savage McAlester's weighty guide to American houses in hand was a study of a particular style: mine was Colonial Revival (super-abundant in the area), but every student had a different style. To carry out the assignment, I researched the traits of the style – side-gabled roof, dormers, symmetrical front with...

Since today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, here are some photos of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library - Central Library (1972) in Washington, DC, by Ludwig Mied van der Rohe. Mecanoo is renovating the landmark library per a 2014 design competition. A photo posted by John Hill (@therealarchidose) on Jan 22, 2015 at 12:32pm PST A photo posted by John Hill (@therealarchidose) on Jan 22, 2015 at 9:34am PST To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

Here are some photos of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (1995) in Paris, France, by Dominique Perrault Architecture , photographed by August Fischer . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

Recently, the Chicago Humanities Festival has been posting videos of fall 2015 lectures to its YouTube channel. Below are a few, as of today, architecturally relevant highlights, with text descriptions courtesy of the festival. Building Art: Paul Goldberger on Frank Gehry "For many, Frank Gehry is considered the most important living architect. To Chicagoans, his undulating Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park is at the very heart of our city. Paul Goldberger, a contributing editor on architecture at "Vanity Fair" and author of Why Architecture Matters , finds that understanding Gehry’s work and personal story holds undeniable appeal. In Building Art , Goldberger looks to the man’s immigrant grandparents, two marriages, and even his longtime therapist, to provide a context for his audacious and impressive structures. Architecture critic Lee Bey joins him for a conversation." Office Space: The History Behind our Modern Workaday Existence "As any wor...

As most architects know – even in today's digital age – an integral part of getting a job is a print portfolio. When it came time for me to look for a job right after graduating from architecture school, I modeled my portfolio on Marcel Duchamp's famous "Boîte-en-valise" (Box in a Valise), which the artist assembled in the late 1930s as a suitcase with "the sum of his artistic work." It included miniatures of Fountain , Nude Descending a Staircase  and Large Glass , among other works. I loved the way it opened, sat upright, and had its contents spill out. I tried to make my portfolio a similar voyage of discovery, though I wasn't nearly as successful in terms of craft and mechanics (nevertheless, it did help me get me a job fairly quickly). I bring this up now because earlier this week I learned the exciting news that publisher Walther König is putting out a reproduction of the Box in a Valise in a limited edition of 1,500 copies – five times as many ...

[Photo: Cristobal Palma] Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena has been named the 41st recipient – and fourth from Latin America – of the Pritzker Architecture Prize . Here is the announcement video from the Hyatt Foundation: In addition to the prestigious prize, Aravena is directing this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, which goes under the theme, "Reporting from the Front." Needless to say, he's having a good year. First things first, though: Aravena was far from the top choice in the poll that was on this blog for the last three weeks. The results of the poll (which, as a test, allowed voters to choose more than one architect) are as follows: 1: Steven Holl, with 819 votes 2: David Chipperfield, with 781 votes 3: Bjarke Ingels, with 744 votes T4: Kengo Kuma, with 736 votes T4: Tod Williams Billie Tsien, with 736 votes . . . T13: "Other," with 718 votes . . . T19 (with Bijoy Jain): Alejandro Aravena, with 711 votes With the abil...

This post is just a reminder that my Pritzker Architecture Prize poll is online until 10am on Wednesday. Details are below. Vote now! I'll post on the winner later in the day Wednesday. : :  : :  : :  : :  : :  : :  : :  : :  : :  : :  : :  : :  : :  : :  The  Pritzker Architecture Prize website  indicates that the announcement of the 2016 recipient will happen on Wednesday, January 13 at 10am EST, much earlier than normal. So with just over a month until the announcement, who do you think should win the Pritzker? I've set up a poll in the right column (mirrored at the bottom of this post) to see how well this blog's readers know their stuff. I've expanded the list over previous years, so now it's packed with 30 names, but it allows multiple votes, so you don't have to just pick one – you can pick your top 5 choices, for example. If you disagree with my choices vote "other" and please comment ...

Back in 2008, Ordos 100 – 100 villas in Inner Mongolia designed by 100 architects –  was unveiled . Master planned by Ai Weiwei and curated by Herzog & de Meuron, the project was a mix of American suburbia and avant-garde architecture: [Interior spread from exhibition pamphlet for the Architectural League's "13:100 | Thirteen New York Architects Design for Ordos (Mongolia)" exhibition ( hi-res )] I've been under the assumption that the project basically died without any of the houses realized. I knew the surrounding "city" saw a museum and the usual brand of Chinese housing erected, yet the city and the Ordos 100 project were white elephants, plain and simple. But it turns out that some of the houses were built, at least to some degree, as some photos by Raphael Olivier ( found at Dezeen ) indicate: [ Ordos Art Hotel by EXH Design] ["An abandoned building from Ai Weiwei and Herzog & de Meuron's Ordos 100 Project," per Dezeen...