A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist by Jens Hoffmann and Claudia J. Nahson, published by The Jewish Museum / Yale University Press , 2016. Hardcover, 224 pages. ( Amazon ) One of the must-see exhibitions in New York right now is Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist , on display at the Jewish Museum until September 18th. Although known primarily for the more than 2,000 landscape designs he executed in Brazil and beyond, the exhibition "showcases the full range of Burle Marx's output across nearly 140 works, from landscape designs and sculptures to textiles and jewelry," as I wrote in a review at World-Architects . The exhibition is accompanied by a handsome catalog by the show's curators, Jens Hoffmann and Claudia J. Nahson. Like the exhibition, the book is primarily visual, presenting the show's numerous drawings, maquettes, models and photographs in thematic sections: Private Gardens, Tiles and Mosaics, and Burle Marx in Brasília among them. Most in...

Here are some of my photos of Andrés Jaque's Hänsel & Gretel's Arena  now on display (until July 30) at the Cara Gallery as part of the "Relevant Notes" group exhibition. 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

The High Line might be known for, among other things, the seasonal artworks that spring up amongst the plantings, but this morning I noticed a couple buildings that reveal the desire to squeeze art into the spaces beneath the elevated park. The new Lisson Gallery at 504 West 24th Street, designed by Studio MDA: And right across the street from Lisson is Boesky East, an extension of Marianne Boesky's gallery designed by Deborah Berke ...though I'm guessing she did not design Boesky East: Speaking of High Line and art, this weekend is the last one to see Spencer Finch's The River That Flows Both Ways ," which has been on display at the Chelsea Market since the first section of the park opened in 2009:

Here are some photos of Hal Ingberg Architecte 's Chromazone installation inside the New Cultural Centre in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (designed by Atelier Big City, Fichten Soiferman et Associés, and L’ŒUF) in Montreal. (Photos: Steve Montpetit – many more photos can be found in Hal Ingberg's Chromazone Flickr Set ) 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

In architecture school the only projects by Charles Moore that I learned about were Sea Ranch and Piazza d'Italia; the former is a landmark of California regionalism, while the latter is the same for Postmodernism. So it was not until reading, around the time of its 2001 release, Mechanics and Meaning in Architecture by Lance LaVine that I became aware of Moore's own house in Orinda, California. Here is a view of the house that adorns the cover of The Place of Houses  by Moore, Gerald Allen and Donlyn Lyndon: [Photo found at Metropolis ] LaVine's thorough analysis of the house focuses on the interior, where Moore created two aedicules – one for a large bathtub – below skylights: [Drawing found at UTA ] The interior of the house, which receives attention from others addition to LaVine, is also notable for the way the corners slide away to open up the house to the landscape: [Photo found at Archiscorpio ] I'm writing about Moore's Orinda house now beca...

In November 2014 I visited the just-opened Fulton Center in Lower Manhattan, snapping this photo and wondering why Grimshaw, Arup and James Carpenter weren't included on a plaque near the entrance: Sign at one of the entries to Fulton Center...plenty of room to add design team. A photo posted by John Hill (@therealarchidose) on Dec 4, 2014 at 7:17am PST It wasn't long ago that even the least exceptional city building was adorned with the name of the architect, such as this 1973 fire station in Astoria (plaque that includes architect is at bottom-right): So with a $1.4 billion transit center in Lower Manhattan not acknowledging the designers that made it happen, it appears this is the norm in NYC. With that in mind, I was heartened to read this morning that "A new policy prepared by city planners will ensure new buildings over 1,000 square meters include a prominent credit to the architect near the main entrance or on the main facade." Unfortunately, this news ap...

Here are some photos of Walden 7 (1975) in Sant Just Desvern, Barcelona, Spain, by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura . (Photos: Martin Maleschka ) 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

I've been meaning to compile a list of my ten favorite Instagrammers for a while, but when I finally got around to it this morning I could not limit them to ten. So here's my top-18 list, selected based on these criteria: Original photos (ideally taken and posted with a phone, but that's hard to tell sometimes) Public profiles, obviously Fairly regular posts Unpredictable content Less than 100k followers I find myself liking almost every one of their photos that I come across Feed is a document of what they see, not just what they do Little to no selfies (feet are OK) And of course a good eye Here's the list, in order of the number of followers as of today, with some brief commentary and one indicative photo: @cvwphoto (Chuck Van Winckle - 259 followers) NYC architect with access to a lot of rooftops. A photo posted by chuck van winckle (@cvwphoto) on Oct 15, 2015 at 7:20am PDT @carlyostnyc (Carl Yost - 511 followers) NYC writer with a sharp eye. A...

Log 37: cataLog Spring/Summer 2016 Paperback, 240 pages ( Amazon ) MAS Context 27: Debate Fall 2015 Paperback/ PDF , 288 pages Log 37 In June 2015, the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, with curators Cynthia Davidson and Monica Ponce de Leon, were selected to organize the U.S. Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. Ponce de Leon was dean of Taubman at the time (now she's dean at Princeton ) and Davidson is best known as the director of the Anyone Corporation , which hosted and published the ANY symposia and books back in the 1990s, and now publishes Log . Therefore it's not surprising that the official catalog of the U.S. Pavilion is published by Anycorp and playfully worded as  cataLog . In addition to presentations of the twelve projects that make up "The Architectural Imagination" – the pavilion's attempt at sparking debate around the future of Detroit through speculative architectural projec...

Here are some photos of Herzog & de Meuron's Tate Modern Project , which opens to the public tomorrow in London. (Photos:  GethinThomas ) 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

The other day I saw a commercial for An Act of God , a "critically acclaimed production" on Broadway that stars Sean Hayes. What caught my attention was the set: As described at The Hollywood Reporter , and with my emphasis, "Designer Scott Pask might have been inspired by light-and-space artist James Turrell in creating God’s foyer, a staircase ascending through arcs of pastel shades ... to a circular opening on brisk-moving clouds against a crisp blue sky." There's no might about it! The set is a blatant rip-off of Turrell's East Portal at Roden Crater : This borrowing of Turrell's distinctive melding of space and light without any apparent credit (none that I can find at least, though most articles mention the similarities to the set and Turrell's work) is part of a larger trend of the artist's imagery being co-opted by others. Remember, just last year the internet asked if Turrell designed the sets for Drake's "Hotline Bling...

Here are some photos of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group's "Unzipped Wall" Serpentine Galleries Pavilion (2016) in London's Kensington Gardens, on display until October 9th. (Photos: Iqbal Aalam ) 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 of my photos of Escobedo Solíz Studio's Weaving the Courtyard installation at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens. 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

Curious as to the construction progress of the CityArchRiver project in St. Louis, designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, I grabbed this screenshot yesterday from the panoramic web cam that extends from the Arch on the east to the Old Courthouse on the west: As is evident, a good deal still needs to be done on the landscape and museum/visitor center below and adjacent to the Arch, but the generous land-bridge over Interstate 44 is already done. [Link to construction schedule ] The latter is arguably the most important part of the project, since it improves the pedestrian link between the Arch and downtown. Hopefully this crossing will entice people visiting the park to see parts of downtown, such as the Gateway Mall, the Wainright Building, and the Old Courthouse. For more information on the project, watch KMOV's 2014 documentary Reimagining the Arch :

The other day I posted a new page to the menu bar of my blog: The Deans List . As the name should make clear, it is a list of the deans of architecture schools in the United States, a list I was spurred to make upon realizing so many deans were switching jobs in the last few years. It's an incomplete, ongoing list, so please contact me (comment here or email me via The Deans List page) for additions and/or corrections. [Results from Google Image Search for "dean architecture school"]

The most intriguing thing about the winning design in Gensler's in-house ideas competition on what to do with the site of the Chicago Spire – the ill-fated Santiago Calatrava-designed tower in Streeterville – is the way the Gateway Tower , as it's called, touches DuSable Park to the east of Lake Shore Drive. [Rendering of Gensler's Gateway Tower seen from the east] Although the Spire's hole has been sitting empty since 2008, DuSable "Park" – 3.3 acres of inaccessible, undeveloped lakefront land – has been empty for much longer, since at least 1987 or 1988 when it was dedicated as the future park: [Photo of existing condition of DuSable Park from the same view | Photo source ] As part of the Chicago Spire's construction, DuSable Park would have been used as staging for the 2000-foot-tall tower's construction and then turned into a park per a design by Calatrava – though not a very inspiring design based on this model photo and plan: [DuSable ...