A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Although I've lived in Astoria, Queens, for twelve years and worked in nearby Long Island City for a few years, I'd never been to Brooklyn Grange until earlier this month. Although the name points to that hipper borough to the south, the Grange's first rooftop farm is located in Queens, specifically on Northern Boulevard, a car-oriented thoroughfare that leads to and from the Queensboro Bridge. I work on Northern Boulevard and frequent the coffee shop in the base of the building where the Grange has its one-acre farm. Faced with a cold- or allergy-related sore throat that wouldn't go away, I headed to the Grange on one of its open Saturdays in June to buy some honey – what turned out to be the most delicious honey I've ever eaten. [Photos from my visit to the Brooklyn Grange] I'm bringing up Brooklyn Grange here, in the context of AB's Food issue, because it is a trailblazer of sorts, at least in regards to urban farming in New York City. Created eight...

Dream the Combine's 2018 YAP-winning Hide & Seek opened today at MoMA PS1 . I work a few blocks away, so I went there at lunch to see what it's like and take some photos. Here's a slideshow from my Flickr album : And here's a video, necessary given the way the mirrored planes move and create some awesome effects:

Here is a photo of Frank Gehry's LUMA Arles under construction in Arles, France. (Photo: Jacqueline Poggi ) See also Today's archidose #915 from August 2016. An aerial rendering (screenshots via luma-arles.org) of what the completed project, which also consists of five industrial buildings being restored by Selldorf Architects, will look like: 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'm still catching up on things after the AIA Conference on Architecture last week and a walking tour over the weekend. The latter, of Brooklyn Bridge Park, led me to take the East River Ferry home. On the ride I noticed the second phase of Hunters Point South Park was open, so I hopped off the ferry and took a few photos of the park designed by ARUP, Thomas Balsley, and Weiss/Manfredi. A post shared by John Hill (@therealarchidose) on Jun 24, 2018 at 11:18am PDT

I'm still swamped with the AIA Conference on Architecture being in town this week, so here's something to tide people over until I'm able to post about it or something else. Here are some photos from the opening of Architecture Books – Yet to be Written at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. Exhibition design is by Abruzzo Bodziak Architects and Pentagram. A post shared by John Hill (@therealarchidose) on Jun 19, 2018 at 3:31pm PDT Although the shelves – some of them attached to the Storefront's iconic pivoting panels – are empty, they should fill up a bit between now and the installation's closing in late August.

In September last year I attended the Storefront for Art and Architecture's  Architecture Books / Yet to be Written / 1982-2017-2052 at the Cooper Union. The five-hour-long event marked the beginning stages of Storefront's New York Architecture Book Fair , which takes place this week and consists of numerous components, such as Book Salons, a Bookstore Network, and an exhibition in Storefront's distinctive space. The last, called  Architecture Books – Yet to be Written opens tomorrow evening and runs until late August. Details are below. Description from the Storefront website : April 19th Exhibition Opening: 6 – 7 pm: Press and Members Preview 7 – 9 pm: Public Opening As part of the first edition of the New York Architecture Book Fair, Storefront for Art and Architecture presents Architecture Books – Yet to be Written , an exhibition that invites us to reflect upon the cultural contribution of architecture through the medium of the book from 1982 to today. Wi...

This week I'm busy with, among other things, preparing for a "critic's tour" of Barnard College and Columbia University that I'll be giving during next week's AIA Conference on Architecture. With that, here are some photos I took last week of the newest building on the two campuses: Barnard's Milstein Center, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill . The building is set to open in October. Photos from a hard-hat tour of Barnard College's Milstein Center by @skidmoreowingsmerrill, set to open in October. A post shared by John Hill (@therealarchidose) on Jun 8, 2018 at 11:35am PDT

Every time I fly — which amounts to three or four round trips per year — I think about how much fuel planes use to transport people and/or goods from one place to another. Combined with the fact that one plane takes off somewhere in the world once every second, I can only shake the thought out of my head lest I get paralyzed by in considering how many gallons of carbon being spewed continuously into the atmosphere. Ditto when I eat a banana — which happens most days of the week — and the thought of huge cargo ships bringing my breakfast from South America all the way to New York City. At least I know I'm not alone. The Architectural League is putting on two "Transportation: Connection and its costs" discussions this week as part of its The Five Thousand Pound Life initiative. Both events are moderated by designer Jesse LeCavalier (author of The Rule of Logistics ) and sociologist Daniel Aldana Cohen. Below are details on the two discussions. Aviation and Climate C...

Cook's Camden: The Making of Modern Housing by Mark Swenarton, published by  Lund Humphries , 2017. Hardcover, 328 pages. ( Amazon ) Back at the end of 1999 I took a trip with my family to London for the millennium festivities. Each day I would venture around the city looking at architecture and then join my family for dinner at a pub near the hotel. Most of my day outings focused on newer buildings, such as the Jubilee Line stations and Future Systems' Natwest Media Center , but one of the older buildings I went to see was Alexandra Road Estate , a housing project designed by Neave Brown and completed in 1979. (It's near Abbey Road, making it a two-in-one visit for architects that are fans of the Beatles.) The project is most noticeable for the long, curving concrete terraces facing a pedestrian walk, depicted on the cover of Cook's Camden , an impressive history of modern housing projects built in that corner of London under Camden borough architect Sydney Cook. ...

Below is a slideshow of 234 photos from my trip to Venice last month for the 2018 Biennale. The photos move from the International Architecture Exhibition, FREESPACE , in the Arsenale to the same in the Central Pavilion, the national pavilions in the Giardini, some collateral events, and finally the first Holy See participation in the form of chapels on San Giorgio Maggiore. (If you're reading this in your inbox and the images don't appear, click here .)

"Book Briefs" are an ongoing series of posts with short first-hand descriptions of some of the numerous books that make their way into my library. These briefs are not full-blown reviews (though some might go on to get that treatment), but they are a way to share more books worthy of attention than can find their way into  reviews on this blog . This installment features a half-dozen books I picked up at the Venice Biennale last month. Architectural Ethnography  edited by Momoyo Kaijima, Laurent Stalder, Yu Iseki | Toto | 2018 |  Amazon I'm a big fan of the books of Momoyo Kaijima and Atelier Bow-Wow. I came across Made in Tokyo and Pet Architecture Guide Book many years ago and have since been lucky enough to obtain  a few of their monographs and their amazing Graphic Anatomy . One thing linking much of their printed output is drawing, which is most pronounced in the guidebooks and in Graphic Anatomy . The thinking of Made in Tokyo  — understanding a...

Last month I went to Venice for the Vernissage of the Venice Architecture Biennale. I've been covering it for World-Architects (the output of myself and my fellow editors can be found on the Italian-Architects platform ), though below is a smattering of my impressions, mainly of the exhibition and national pavilions but occasionally venturing beyond the Biennale venues. A=Argentina and Australia Both national pavilions consisted, in part, of indigenous landscapes transplanted to Venice, Argentina in the Arsenale and Australia in their pavilion in the Giardini. Pictured is the latter, whose plants from around Melbourne were grown in the pavilion from seeds brought to Venice eight months ago. B=Bar The Biennale Vernissage is full of parties, but give me a relatively quiet bar that spills out onto the street, such as this one near the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, the venue of the US Pavilion's typically packed party, instead. C=Corderie Curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley ...