A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Here are some photos of the Mirador del Río (1974) in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain, by  César Manrique . (Photos: Ximo Michavila ) 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 Structure of Design: An Engineer's Extraordinary Life in Architecture by Leslie Earl Robertson, published by  The Monacelli Press , 2017. Hardcover, 336 pages. ( Amazon ) Earlier this month structural engineer Leslie E. Robertson spoke to a packed house at the Skyscraper Museum (a video of the talk is embedded at the bottom of this post). The talk focused on his recently published book, The Structure of Design , which is made up primarily of highlights from his long career and structured as collaborations with architects. Among them are Minoru Yamasaki, Gunnar Birkerts, Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, and KPF; these are the architects Robertson spoke about during the talk, on such projects as the World Trade Center in New York, the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, Puerta de Europa in Madrid, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, and the Shanghai World Financial Center. It goes without saying, from this short list alone, that Robertson has been involved in many of the mo...

It's not often that architects put working drawings on their website – for good reason, since they are only legible to other architects, engineers, contractors, and others trained in deciphering the notes and symbols layered over the basic plans, sections, and elevations. Therefore I was plenty surprised to find some on Edwin Chan's website ; these are for the Mulholland Drive Residence in Los Angeles. [All images of the Mulholland Drive Residence nabbed from EDWINCHAN.US ] Chan explains in the Design Journal section of his website: "The general Public tends to associate architecture in terms of its formal and sculptural attributes. ... EC3 prioritizes documenting the interaction between clients, the design team, and the public. The resulting design journals provide a glimpse of the process of how ideas are transformed into formal solutions." The architect reveals the process for the Mulholland Drive Residence in two parts: the first with site photos and mod...

Check out my article at World-Architects, "Making New History in Chicago," on the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, curated by Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee under the theme Make New History .

This year, the 150th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright's birth, has yielded plenty of publications, exhibitions, and other events about the world's most famous modern architect. A few of them -- a book, an exhibition and a related symposium -- are centered at Columbia University, whose Avery Library co-owns the Wright archive with MoMA, which is exhibiting (until October 1) the must-see Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive . BOOK Wright's Writings: Reflections on Culture and Politics 1894-1959 by Kenneth Frampton Columbia Books on Architecture and the City , 2017 Paperback, 144 pages ( Amazon ) When MoMA curator and Columbia professor Barry Bergdoll gave comments during the opening of Frank Lloyd Wright at 150 when it opened back in June, one statement that stuck in my memory is that Wright is one of the few architects as well known outside academia as within. One side effect of this fact is that Wright has not been as large an influence in architec...

Earlier today I went to Cooper Union for the Storefront for Art and Architecture's five-hour-long event,  Architecture Books / Yet to be Written / 1982-2017-2052 . Participants were asked to "present an architecture book published in the last thirty five years that they consider to be fundamental to the understanding of contemporary architecture culture, as well as a 'book yet to be written'." Below is a selection of some of those choices, in order of the short presentations. Update 09/26: Those willing can watch a video of the whole 4 hour 45 minute event, embedded at the bottom of this post. [Storefront's Eva Franch i Gilabert kicking off the event and launching the forthcoming New York Architecture Book Fair.] Anthony Vidler Past: Against Architecture: The Writings of Georges Bataille by Denis Hollier (1990) Future: Mannerism Is (Not) a Joke: Architectural Wit in the Age of Anxiety Sanford Kwinter Past: Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observa...

Here are some photos of the Central Mosque Cologne (2017) in Cologne, Germany, by Architekturbüro Paul Böhm . (Photos: Chris Schroeer-Heiermann , who has a  Flickr set  with construction photos of the building.) 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

Fables for the Drone Age by Richard Goodwin N Editions, 2017 Paperback, 50 pages This book can be purchased from Idea Books . Even though I cover architecture for a living, every now and then I come across architects who have been practicing for a while but for some reason I'm unaware. One such architect/artist whom I should have known about much sooner is Richard Goodwin;  according to his website  he has been practicing for 42 years. Quick glances at the Australian's work, both on his website and in this new book coinciding with an exhibition at London's Betts Project earlier this year, brings to mind the work of Lebbeus Woods, Kaplan and Krueger, Wes Jones, and other architects whose practices veered into art and confronted technology head-on. Fables for the Drone Age , produced by N Editions , was inspired by Grodon Matta-Clark's artist book, Splitting , from 1974. Although I wasn't familiar with that book, a quick Google search yields immediate si...

Last week I was in Chicago for a preview of the Chicago Architecture Biennial and for part of this week I'm attending a conference. So posts will resume later this week or early next week once things have gotten back to normal.

Before heading to work this morning I caught a glimpse of a commercial on TV for LG Signature. What stood out was the way the LG products – refrigerator, television, washing machine, air purifier – were positioned in front of some fairly notable, if not all widely known, works of architecture. There's Johan Otto Von Spreckelsen's La Grande Arche in Paris: Fumihiko Maki's Four World Trade Center in New York: James Stirling's State University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart: And Norman Foster's 30 St. Mary Axe in London: The commercial ends with the lines, "All great things are alike. They are built on essence." More than other spot covered in my architectural advertising posts, this commercial explicitly equates the products being sold with the architecture on display; the latter are not merely backdrops. Unfortunately, the comparisons are strictly formal, geometric; such as with the round openings of Stirling's building and the...

Yesterday the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) announced it will be moving about seven blocks from its longtime digs at 224 South Michigan, across the street from the Art Institute, to 111 East Wacker, facing the Chicago River. The move, which will take place next year, is a logical one, given that CAF is known best for its architecture river tours. The Chicago Architecture Center, as it will be called, is being designed by AS+GG . Containing a shop, gallery, lecture hall, and design studio, the Chicago Architecture Center will sit right across the street from the dock for the Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise aboard Chicago's First Lady Cruises (its official name) and across the river from the new Apple Store designed by Norman Foster. [Rendering courtesy of CAF] The move, though logical for CAF's operations and visibility, is evident of a shift in Chicago's downtown toward the river. 111 East Wacker sits near the earliest stretch of the Chicago Rive...

Here are some photos of Feltrinelli Porta Volta (2016) in Milan, Italy, by Herzog & de Meuron . (Photos: Frank Dinger , who has a Flickr set with many more photos of this building.) 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

Structural engineer Leslie Earl Robertson will be talking at the Skyscraper Museum on Thursday about his book recently published by Monacelli Press, The Structure of Design An Engineer's Extraordinary Life in Architecture . Details from the Skyscraper Museum are below. Leslie Robertson Book Talk The Structure of Design: An Engineer's Extraordinary Life in Architecture The Monacelli Press, 2017 Thursday, September 7, 2017 6:30-8:00 pm In The Structure of Design , Leslie Earl Robertson offers a personal and accessible chronicle of the partnerships and problem-solving that forged so many classics of modern architecture. He recounts his famous collaborations with architects, including Minoru Yamasaki, Philip Johnson, and I. M. Pei, among many others, and his delight in working with leading sculptors such as Richard Serra and Beverly Pepper. Join us for an illustrated talk that combines personal refections and professional insights on "An Engineer's Extraordinar...