A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Yesterday Queens Library held a topping-out ceremony at the Hunters Point Community Library in Long Island City, Queens. Designed by Steven Holl Architects, the library is set to open in summer 2017, seven years after it was unveiled. Below are a half-dozen photos, but to see more shots and find out what exactly is going on inside this block of concrete, check out  my post at World-Architects .

From September 28 to October 2, the Architecture and Design Film Festival is taking place in New York City. I haven't seen any of this year's 30+ films, but based on what I know and have heard, these sound the most promising: Bowlingtreff Design that Heals Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall: Five Seasons with Piet Oudolf Making Carmel Place Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer's Journey Peter Behrens - A Pioneer in Architecture Talking House: Eileen Gray & Jean Badovici Workplace

Here are a couple photos of the Young Workers' Hostel  (2015) by Stéphane Maupin , part of the Entrepôt Macdonald  in Paris. (Photographs:  Julianoz Photographies ) 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

Austere Gardens: Thoughts on Landscape, Restraint, & Attending by Marc Treib, published by  ORO Editions , 2016. Paperback, 108 pages. ( Amazon ) Treacherous Transparencies by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, published by  Actar /IITAC Press, 2016. Hardcover, 96 pages. ( Amazon ) Does architectural theory – the definition of principles that can be applied toward architectural projects – still exist? Or has it been replaced by longform articles that expound on an author's take on something: history, current events, technology, practice, whatever they fancy? One could argue that architectural theory, in the 1990s sense of the term, died with the shuttering of Assemblage  in 2000 , which also coincided with the last ANY conference  (during the conference Peter Eisenman stated "Theory is dead" ). Of course, the esoteric, post-structuralist strand of theory isn't the only one out there, so proclaiming theory as dead is a bit like saying TV is dea...

To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture , MoMA and the University of Pennsylvania are holding a three-day symposium  taking place from November 10th to 12th in New York and Philadelphia. Details on the events that are free, open to the public, and don't require advance registration are below. The event also includes a $45 bus tour on the 12th and a conversation with Denise Scott Brown on that evening, which is free but requires an RSVP; details on those can be found on MoMA's website . From MoMA's website : To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), The Museum of Modern Art and the University of Pennsylvania have co-organized a three-day symposium bringing together international scholars and architects to discuss the significance and enduring impact of this remarkable book, published by MoMA 50 years ago. It is gener...

Today Santiago Calatrava unveiled a new office building for Zurich: [All images via Haus Zum Falken ] Fans of the architect/engineer/artist may recognize his earlier Stadelhofen rail station on the left, with its steel canopy visible in the image above. Calatrava's remodeled Stadelhofen station, which he built after winning a competition in 1983 (his first win), is one of his best projects – I included it in my 100 Years, 100 Buildings coming out soon. The site is a tapered lot near the southern end of the station, which is now occupied by a building with a cafe and shops. With the new project for AXA, the site would go from this: To this: Although the project required a variance from the City of Zurich to "allow for the construction of an avant-garde building," it's a pretty conservative design by Calatrava's standards. Maybe that's the point – it doesn't compete with his earlier masterpiece right next door.

The Shinshoji Zen Museum and Gardens opened on the campus of Tenshinzan Shinshoji temple in the hills of Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture on September 11, 2016. Here are some photos of the museum's KOHTEI Art Pavilion by artist Kohei Nawa . (Photographs: Ken Lee ) 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

My new book, 100 Years, 100 Buildings , is coming out on October 6. The book features, as the title indicates, 100 buildings built over the last 100 years, with the gimmick that there is only one building per year based on completion or some other important milestone. Each building is extant and public to some degree, so it makes sense that the photographers in my archidose Flickr pool have visited a bunch of them. Here are some recent photos culled from the pool (more 21C buildings than earlier ones, naturally) to give a taste of what's in the book. For more information on 100 Years, 100 Buildings , which is published by Prestel, check out the page I set up for the book. Click the photos below to see who photographed each building. 1931 Villa Savoye | Le Corbusier | Poissy, France: 1951 Farnsworth House | Ludwig Mies van der Rohe | Plano, Illinois, United States: 1955 Notre Dame du Haut | Le Corbusier | Ronchamp, France: 1956 S. R. Crown Hall | Ludwig Mies van der...

Manual of Section by Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki and David J. Lewis, published by  Princeton Architectural Press , 2016. Paperback, 208 pages. ( Amazon ) Vertical Urban Factory by Nina Rappaport, published by  Actar , 2016. Hardcover, 460 pages. ( Amazon ) It must seem odd to see these two books together in one post. One is a book on an architectural drawing – the section – and its role in architectural production. The other is a book on a particular strand of industrial buildings: factories in cities. Yet when we consider one important aspect of sections – the stacking of floor one on top of the other – it makes sense to put these books together. After all, what is a "vertical urban factory," as Nina Rappaport calls it, but a large horizontal factory cut up into smaller floors and stacked upon each other? Further, although the folks at LTL Architects include all sorts of different project types in their section manual, most of the buildings are in urban areas...

Last week when I visited the Glass House in New Canaan to see Yayoi Kusama's red polka dots on Philip Johnson's iconic building from 1949, I was also able to get my first peek inside his Studio. For a bibliophile like me, it was a real treat. The Studio was completed in 1980 and therefore exhibits some postmodern tendencies that are at odds with the Glass House proper: brick instead of glass; a jumble of forms instead of one Platonic form; and references to old buildings in the cone and chimney. Here is the approach to the Studio from the direction of the Glass House: Up the hill from the Studio is "Da Monsta," the last building that Johnson completed on the property (1995). Each building Johnson peppered across his land follows from some stylistic preoccupation at the time. In this case, it's Deconstructivism, which makes sense considering he co-curated an exhibition on the "movement" at MoMA in 1988. The narrow window in "Da Monsta"...