Archinect - News

Graham Foundation announces $507,500 in grants to individuals working to advance the global discourse on architecture

2022-05-24T14:47:00-04:00

The annual round of Graham Foundation individual grants has been announced today in Chicago.

A total of $507,500 was given to 56 different projects, publications, exhibitions, films, and other intellectual endeavors from around the world that expand contemporary understandings of architecture, according to the Foundation.

This year’s projects offered a range of different voices utilizing a variety of new media. Catalina Mejía Moreno and Huda Tayob’s podcast “Architectures of the South: Bruising, Remembering, Repairing” was included along with publications like Lee Bey and Blair Kamin’s excellent new title Who Is the City For? Architecture, Equity, and the Public Realm in Chicago, and Marina Otero Verzier’s Evanescent Institutions: On the Politics of Temporary Architecture, among others.

Albert Brenchat-Aguilar’s exhibition “'As Hardly Found' in the Art of Tropical Architecture” for the Architectural Association in London was one of seven to receive recognition for their incisive an...

Does LACMA have its financial house in order?

2020-02-21T14:37:00-05:00

According to the museum’s most recent 990 tax forms, filed in 2018, LACMA is carrying $331 million in county bond debt that was used to pay for construction of the Resnick Pavilion, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, the Pritzker Parking Garage and other projects. In addition to that debt, the museum has $112 million in other liabilities, such as accounts payable and accrued expenses. This brings LACMA’s total debt to almost $443 million.

Carolina Miranda of The Los Angeles Times takes a hard look at the finances for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) as the institution prepares for the imminent demolition of its legacy William L. Pereira Associates- and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer-designed campus to make way for a $750 million Atelier Peter Zumthor-designed replacement facility.

In the report, Miranda compares LACMA's assets and debts with those of other leading cultural institutions around the country, finding that the Los Angeles museum is carrying an abnormally high debt-ratio. The worrisome financial situation has already lead to a series of revisions for the project, including a one substantial downsizing.

Reflecting on Joseph Giovannini's review of "The Shed" three months after its opening

2019-07-31T10:33:00-04:00

Roughly three months after the opening of Diller Scofidio + Renfro and the Rockwell Group's cultural venue at Hudson Yards, several media publications and critics have voiced their opinions about The Shed. Having received a variety of reviews, some have shown interest and praise of the space while others have addressed the Shed's connectivity to corporate greed, false philanthropy, and inclusion. Despite it all Manhattan's newest cultural hub still stands, hosting performances and other events since its grand opening, as intended. However, a review made by famed architectural critic Joseph Giovannini back in April casts The Shed in a different light.

A prominent figure in architectural writing and criticism, Giovannini has reviewed and shared his thoughts on several projects over the years, including Zumthor's LACMA design, Zaha's Port House, and Ghery's Louis Vuitton Foundation. Pulling from his own experience in professional practice and writing, Giov...