A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

LOT-EK: Objects + Operations by Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano with Thomas de Monchaux, published by  The Monacelli Press , 2017. Hardcover, 400 pages. ( Amazon ) [Cover via LOT-EK ] If one architecture firm deserves credit for sticking to its guns, it's LOT-EK. The duo of Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano has incorporated industrial detritus – primarily shipping containers – into their built and unbuilt projects for around a couple decades. Other architects have exploited the potential of inexpensive shipping containers, but none have done it so thoroughly and repeatedly. Projects like the 2008  Wiener Townhouse  in the West Village, which I included in my book  Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture , look to have abandoned the reuse of industrial parts, only to subtly reveal they are built with truck containers and ducts. About ten years later, LOT-EK has just completed Drivelines  in Johannesburg, a live-work building made from dozens of "u...

Here are some black-and-white photos of UNStudio's Central Station (2015) in Arnhem, the Netherlands. (Photos:  Marc Lankhorst ) 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

Just a heads up on a trio of New York-centric events taking place next month. Descriptions are courtesy the respective venues. November 9 at the Architectural League of New York at 7:00pm: All the Queens Houses Photographs by Rafael Herrin-Ferri Rafael Herrin-Ferri in conversation with Joseph Heathcott All the Queens Houses is an ongoing photographic survey by architect/artist Herrin-Ferri of the (in)formal qualities of the borough’s attached, semi-detached, and detached houses and small apartment buildings. The survey explores the themes of identity, differentiation, and adaptation in the low-rise housing stock of Queens, often regarded as the most ethnically and linguistically diverse place in the world. To celebrate the installation, The Architectural League will host a reception and discussion on Thursday, November 9. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., followed at 7:00 p.m. by a conversation on the changing residential landscape of Queens and the appeal of the spectacular vernacul...

I couldn't help being drawn to the fact that a note written by Albert Einsten in November 1922 that just sold at auction for $1.56 million  is on Imperial Hotel letterhead. Architects know the Imperial Hotel was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who boasted about it surviving an earthquake in 1923, the year it opened. Even with those "strong bones," the building was demolished in 1968 to make way for a larger building for the hotel. A portion of Wright's Imperial Hotel sits in the Meiji Mura Architecture Museum in Nagoya: But Einstein wrote the note in November 1922, the year before Wright's hotel opened in September 1923. So what building was Einstein staying in, and why does the letterhead look very "Wright"? I'm guessing that Einstein stayed in an annex that Wright designed in 1919 to replace the old Imperial Hotel that was destroyed in a fire that year. The annex opened in May 1920 but then  burned down in fires brought on by the 1923 earth...

Just a smattering of recent photos from my archidose Flickr pool that share an emphasis on the color blue. Mouseover/click photos for subject and photographer information. 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

Today the Apple Michigan Avenue store opens to the public. Designed by Norman Foster, the store replaces the older Bohlin Cywinski Jackson store a few blocks up Michigan Avenue. Like other recent Apple stores around the world, this one is more lightweight, transparent and outwardly simpler than older stores. [All photographs courtesy of Apple] The store is also a symbol of Chicago's move toward the river, something it has been doing with the Chicago Riverwalk (south side of the river, roughly between Michigan Avenue and Lake Street) and projects like this one on the north side of the river and the new CAF location opening across the river from Apple next year. Although I've yet to see the completed store in person, these photos give the impression that the building is a good neighbor, both in the way it knits and visually connects the plaza at Pioneer Court to the riverwalk below, and in the way the construction fits into the Miesian tradition in Chicago. The latter i...

Here are some photos of the exhibition Arniches y Domínguez: La Architectura y la Vida  at ICO Museo (until January 21, 2018) in Madrid, Spain. (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

Next week I'll be giving a talk at the Skyscraper Museum on one of my new books, How to Build a Skyscraper . It will take place on Tuesday, October 24 at 6:30pm. More details below the book cover. From the Skyscraper Museum : In How to Build a Skyscraper , John Hill examines 45 noteworthy skyscrapers from across the decades and around the world – from our hometown Flatiron Building to the world's current tallest, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE – and highlights unique characteristics of their history, design, construction, and function. Each iconic building is described in concise text, beautiful photography, and bespoke drawings that reveal the tower's internal structure. Join us as Hill discusses selections from a book that promises to be a best-seller in The Skyscraper Museum's book store! John Hill is an architect, editor-in-chief of the Daily News section of World-Architects.com, and founder/editor-in-chief of the popular blog A Daily Dose of Architecture, w...

The 15th anniversary Open House New York (OHNY) weekend took place Saturday and Sunday, October 14 and 15. I was giving a walking tour for the 92Y on Saturday, so Sunday was the only day for me to get out and see some OHNY sites. I decided on one — well actually a few, all in one location: the buildings of McKim, Mead and White, Robert A.M. Stern, and Marcel Breuer on the campus of CUNY's Bronx Community College. (It was originally New York University, who sold the campus to CUNY in 1973.) Here's a scan of the site plan provided by OHNY, showing the MMW and Stern buildings symmetrically facing a large quadrangle, and the Breuer buildings informally peppering an area to the south. (Only Meister Hall is labeled, but Breuer designed all of the dark buildings in that area, including, east to west, Carl Polowczyk Hall, Begrisch Hall, and Colston Hall.) Here is a view of McKim, Mead and White's Gould Library on the left and Stern's North Hall, which serves as BCC's ...