A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

It occurred to me after I posted earlier today on the planned high-rise Aqua that perhaps my impetus for the post partially stemmed from the recent passing of Australian architect Harry Seidler, whose numerous apartment towers in his home country share more than a passing resemblance to the new Chicago project. Seidler " passed away peacefully the morning of 9 March 2006 at his Sydney home after a long illness, following...a severe stroke on 25 April 2005." Things Magazine links to some recollections from the Australian press who refer to him as the "country's most celebrated architect." Internationally, he is known most for his gently-curving apartment plans, setting a precedent for projects like Renzo Piano's Aurora Place development. A side-by-side comparison of a couple of Seidler's high-rises illustrates the creative use of curving terraces and steady balance of solid and void in the exterior wall that elevates an otherwise mundane building type...

New York may be getting BLUE but Chicago is entering into the realm of AQUA. Studio Gang's foray into high-rise architecture -- part of the Lakeshore East development -- goes by the monicker Aqua, though its concept is less about the word in a color sense as it is about waves and their appearance. Take a look (model images found here ). While the accuracy of the images circulating the internet has been both debunked and thoroughly debated , the concept is clear: a glass box with cantilevered terraces of varying depths and shapes. By varying the curves gradually up the building, a vertical "terrain" is created, or more accurately a stop-motion of the tides (perhaps a more appropriate name for the building but one taken by James Loewenberg on another piece of the Lakeshore East puzzle). Given that this model is paper and the real thing will be concrete and glass, the evocative image echoing Lake Michigan should be strong. This concept of repeated and varied par...

If you've followed this site for a while, you're probably familiar with the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany by Herzog & De Meuron. The Michelen Man-looking building features inflated ETFE panels that appear opaque white during the day but glow different colors at night, usually programmed to the jersey colors of the home and away teams. By now you've probably realized this isn't the real arena, as in fact it's the building made out of legos, at Legoland Deutschland . It was unveiled in December , though I just found about it today from a friend. As someone who grew up with legos, I gotta say this is impressive, especially the cut-away section and the attention to detail throughout. And I have no idea how they get it to glow...I'm assuming that happens where the wall is only one block thick to allow some light through the plastic. Lot's more images here and thanks to Jeff S. for the images and the head's up!

My return from Pittsburgh segued into an achy sinus cold, so - with an all-day conference tomorrow - that means I won't get around to posting until probably Friday. In the meantime, check out some of the fine blogs listed in the sidebar. Or if you want to be entertained, check out this real-life Simpsons intro ( via kegz.net ).

Off to Pittsburgh for a few days. Posts will resume Tuesday or Wednesday.

The Get in Their Shoes Campaign is a call to action by successful business leaders, athletes, entertainers, and politicians to rally youth and aspiring leaders to lift themselves out of their limiting circumstances by proactively interviewing successful professionals within their own communities. Some of the most successful professionals in the world have donated a pair of their actual shoes and a 30-minute phone mentorship to be given-away or auctioned-off as part of this campaign. And whose shoes boots do we have here? None other than Daniel Libeskind , "architect for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center Site in New York." As I'm writing this, the ebay auction's high bid is at $100.00, with 2.5 days left. If you've used ebay before, you probably know that all the real action takes place at the wire, so who knows how much these boots (made for walkin') will go for? Probably not as much as Spiderman creator Stan Lee's New Balance walking shoes...

According to The Gutter , everybody's second favorite network, ABC, is searching for "a 27-33 year old single, handsome, successful, charismatic guy who would like to be whisked away to an exotic, tropical location dating 25 beautiful girls" for the television show The Bachelor . For this casting call they "are interested in finding an architect." Curious about what exactly a "single, handsome, successful, charismatic" architect is, I naturally consulted Google. An image search for that term resulted in zero matches. But a broader web search yielded a previously tried-yet-unsuccessful TV show, 2000's Madigan Men , starring Gabriel Byrne as "Benjamin Madigan, a handsome, successful and charismatic architect in New York City." I never saw this show but it appears to be a reworking of Frasier, cute dog and all, but with the potential for some Irish 'tude and the occasional AutoCAD joke or reference to Vitruvius. This page on TV singl...