San Francisco Project: Inhabiting the Quake, Quake City, 1995; graphite and pastel on paper; 14.5 inches by 23 inches by 0.75 inches; Collection SFMOMA. — Wired

Woods belonged to a small group of architects, including Peter Eisenman, and Daniel Liebeskind, working in the 1980s and 1990s who questioned the relevance of the utopian modernist architecture in the late twentieth century. Woods deferred from his colleagues, however, in that with one exception, his buildings were never constructed. — cooperhewitt.org

Woods’s work goes far beyond its influence on his more actively building contemporaries and disciples. His thin portfolio has unduly sidelined him from popular discourse, sequestering him from the more audible dialogues concerning contemporary architecture. To consider Woods a mere inspiration to others, a teacher and an enabler, is both deferential and reductive. — artinfo.com

Deeply sorry to have just heard that Lebbeus Woods, a true visionary architect and astonishing draftsman, died this morning. A great loss. — michael kimmelman

Your message is really a philosophical message to architects. You’re trying to show us how we can build cities and break out of the old modes of urban planning and urban design.

And even thinking about or imagining cities that we have had for the past few hundred years, you’re offering a new way. I don’t know anyone else that’s done that today. Maybe someone will say Colin Rowe. OK—Collage City, but this goes far, far beyond Collage City and any urban theory of Corbusier or anyone else. — lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com

... one the most gifted architects of my time has been reduced to wrapping such conventional programs of use in merely expressionistic forms, without letting a single ray of her genius illuminate the human condition. Am I being pretentious and overly demanding? Of course. But that’s the way disappointed lovers behave. Exaggerated emotions. Absurd demands. Anger that transgresses all reason. She has let me down, and what makes it worse is that she apparently couldn’t care less. — Lebbeus Woods

The marriage of light and geometry does indeed find its consummation in architecture, but for me it did not come about so easily. At age eighteen I entered a fine school of engineering, then transferred to a fine school of architecture, finishing there when I was twenty-four. After ten or so years of working in corporate offices, learning what it meant to build—and leading a rather turbulent life—I went out on my own. — lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com

I would like to tell a short story—or perhaps not such a short story—about the reasons why I chose to become an architect. Exactly why this blog’s readers should be interested in my recollections about such a matter I cannot say, and perhaps I am mistaken in spinning out such a story here. Still, I feel compelled to do so and can only hope for the readers’ tolerance. — lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com

Human beings and their communities are fragile because they are sustainable only within a narrow range of conditions and possibilities. It is the main task of architecture to maintain this range or to create it where it has not existed before. To some extent it is also architecture’s responsibility to expand this range when people require it not only for survival but also to flourish within the demands of change brought on by catastrophic events such as earthquake and tsunami. — lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com

If firmness, utility, and delight are the enduring pinnacles of architectural achievement, then it would appear architecture’s moral destiny is a foregone conclusion. But is it possible that opportunities for valuable cultural insight are being lost out of deference to this legacy? We examine forces, trends, and ideas that enhance the significance of the built environment despite, or due to, their deviant nature. — MAS CONTEXT

Marking the decade since the attacks of September 11, 2001, Lebbeus Woods offers reflections on the context for the tragedy, and the reconstruction's bitter sense of business as usual — domusweb.it

So the summer is here and it's been raining all week in NYC. I'm off to DC for the weekend!
As I promised, photos from the GSAPP 2011 End-of-the-Year Show. Are you excited?

I am particularly proud of all the work everyone at our school produced. Architecture is alive and kicking. — Columbia University GSAPP (Anthony)

Place: Living Room Studio
Time: 12:18 PM

Photos from the final! — Columbia University GSAPP (Anthony)