A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Here are some photos of the  Jan Michalski Foundation  in Montricher, Switzerland. The canopy and offices were designed by  Mangeat Wahlen Architectes Associés  and completed in 2013, with various "treehouses" – residences for writers – added later beneath the canopy by other architects. See also photos of the Foundation's library  by Mangeat Wahlen. (Photographs:  Trevor Patt ) Treehouse by Rintala Eggertsson Architects : Treehouse by Elemental with +2 Architectes : 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

Three years ago I posted about the Aronson Fine Arts and Education Center , which was under construction at Laumeier Sculpture Park. At the time I found it curious how a rendering of the project did not match the Brooks + Scarpa design I knew of ; turns out their project was put on hold in 2008 (when lots  of projects were put on hold) and was subsequently abandoned. This information is per a St. Louis Public Radio piece from July 2015, when the building opened. The new building is by Trivers Associates, a local firm that appears capable of turning out a fine building , if not one as exciting as its predecessor. The other day, when in Missouri on vacation, I stopped by and snapped a few photos. Like the rest of Laumeier Sculpture Park , the Adam Aronson Fine Arts Center is free and open daily. The building is located adjacent to the main parking lots, just west of Laumeier's Estate House (now Kranzberg Education Lab, renovated by Trivers). The building provides int...

Here are some photos of La Granja Escalators (2000) in Toledo, Spain, by  José Antonio Martínez Lapeña & Elías Torres Architects . The project is one of one hundred featured in my forthcoming book 100 Years, 100 Landscape Designs . (Photographs:  Ximo Michavila  – see his Flickr album for many more photos of the project.) 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

Magnetic City: A Walking Companion to New York by Justin Davidson, published by Spiegel & Grau, 2017. Paperback, 240 pages. ( Amazon ) Walking tours and New York City go together as books. Amazon brings up nearly 250 titles in a search for "New York Walking Tour" and I have at least a half-dozen such books in my library. Although there exists such walking tours as Radical Walking Tours of New York City , Beat Generation in New York: A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac's City , and Touring Gotham’s Archaeological Past: 8 Self-Guided Walking Tours through New York City , the format lends itself best to architectural tours. The Municipal Art Society put out 10 Architectural Walks in Manhattan in 2009, for instance, and even the AIA Guide to New York City – albeit hardly convenient to carry at 1,088 pages and 2-1/2 pounds – includes numerous walking routes for people to navigate the city while they look at old and new buildings of note. Magnetic City  by Justin Davids...

Just a heads up on a couple books I wrote that are coming out this fall. I'll post more about these books in the coming weeks/months. First is  100 Years, 100 Landscape Designs (Prestel), a companion to last year's 100 Years, 100 Buildings . It has the same year-by-year format as that book but with a focus squarely on the outdoors, be it parks, gardens, plazas, campuses, or even land art. Per the publisher's website, the book will be out on September 15 in the UK and US. Pre-order from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com . Second is How to Build a Skyscraper (Rotovision), which "reveals how the world’s most iconic skyscrapers were built." It includes information on 46 skyscrapers – from such early 20th-century masterpieces as the Flatiron and Woolworth buildings to recently completed supertalls such as Lotte Tower in Seoul – with specially commissioned illustrations as well as photographs. Per the publisher's website, the book will be out on September 28 ...

Like E. Fay Jones's famous Thorncrown Chapel from 1980, the Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel is fairly easy to find, given that the building has its own website with directions, the state has historical-marker signs along the roads leading to Bella Vista, Arkansas, and the chapel has even more signs pointing people in the right direction once visitors get closer. Completed in 1988, the Cooper Chapel is tucked behind a strip mall in a wooded area above the shores of Lake Norwood. [The approach to Cooper Chapel at 504 Memorial Drive | Photo: Google Maps ] Comparisons to Jones's Thorncrown Chapel, his masterpiece completed in 1980, are bound to happen, especially with a building of almost the same size, serving a similar function, also located in Northwest Arkansas, and expressing many of the same formal characteristics (delicate structure, pitched roof, framing of wooded surrounding through glass walls, etc.). As at Thorncrown Chapel, one passes an office building before ...

Posts have been a little slim lately, owing to being on a family vacation. This week I managed to drag a few non-architects to see two renowned chapels by Arkansan E. Fay Jones, one completed in 1980 and one in 1988. The first is, obviously, Thorncrown Chapel, located in Eureka Springs, Arkansas (the second, Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel, will be the subject of my next post ). It's a building I included in last year's  100 Years, 100 Buildings , but I didn't get the chance to see it in person until just the other day. [Spread from 100 Years, 100 Buildings ] Finding the chapel is pretty easy, given that the building has its own website and there explains that "Thorncrown Chapel is located a mile and a half west of Eureka Springs on Hwy 62 West. GPS often does not show the correct location of the chapel. For an accurate map click here ." With a smartphone, that Google Maps link makes navigation easy, as do the historical-marker signs along 62. I'll adm...