Archinect - News

Take a virtual look at the Tenement Museum thanks to this new photogrammetric tour from The Washington Post

2021-12-09T17:14:00-05:00

Step into its cramped spaces to follow this brick structure along the y-axis of time, as landlords and residents grappled with such diseases as tuberculosis, cholera and influenza, — and as the fear of fire and bad air, even immigrants themselves, left indelible marks on its design and structure.

New York City's Tenement Museum itself has undergone severe financial strain dating back before the pandemic and was rumored to be closing its doors permanently after 33 years in operation before reopening to tourists again in mid-June.

Located at the edge of the Bowery along Orchard Street, the two buildings were home to at least 15,000 mostly immigrant inhabitants before 1935. The fascinating tour is the vision of the Washington Post’s new Lede Lab and their own Pulitizer-winning art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott.

“At The Post we are constantly experimenting with the latest innovative technology to help enrich The Post’s storytelling,” Jenna Pirog, deputy editor of strategic initiatives, said in an update. “How 3D immersive spaces can be presented on the web continues to evolve, and this project was a great way to use this tool to let readers see and explore the Tenement Museum space from their homes.”

Bjarke Ingels shouldn't be proud to have the Washington Redskins as a client, according to critic Philip Kennicott

2016-01-22T20:04:00-05:00

To understand how strange this pairing of client and architect is, you have to contemplate two things: the deeply embedded social progressivism that has become the standard worldview of international architectural firms such as BIG; and organizations such as the NFL, a private club for 1 percenters that bullies municipalities and treats its own players’ health with indifference. Can this marriage last? Is BIG motivated by naivete or cynicism?

WaPo's art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott discusses the oddities of BIG's recent commission to design a new stadium for the Washington Redskins — and the team's problematic name is just the tip of the iceberg.

A glimpse at Havana's rooftop dwellers as urban landscape transforms

2015-03-19T20:19:00-04:00

In overcrowded Central Havana and in the historic quarter, the shortage of places to live and play and find much-needed privacy pushed the city upward, spilling onto the rooftops.The technical term for it is 'parasitic architecture.' The Cuban government doesn’t encourage the practice, but in the city’s oldest and most dilapidated neighborhoods, longtime roof-dwelling families...were usually allowed to stay. The parasites became permanent.

Havana's rooftop-dwelling communities brace for more change -- at least in tourism -- in the bustling city below, as Cuba and the U.S. re-establish relations.

Art/Architecture critic Philip Kennicott wins Pulitzer Prize for criticism

2013-04-17T19:42:00-04:00

Kennicott’s entry included several pieces published in the Style section last year. One was a review in June of an exhibit of creations by the architect Kevin Roche at the National Building Museum.

Assessing Roche’s work, Kennicott wrote, “In the end, Roche’s reputation will rise or fall depending on what becomes of the corporate world he served. If the end of corporate America is a dystopian hell of environmental catastrophe, vast economic inequity and social instability, the corporate architects of our age will not be remembered fondly. But if our age yields to a better one, just as the tyrannies and kleptocracies of past centuries sometimes yielded (perhaps temporarily) to more enlightened, democratic societies, then Roche’s work might have the charm of baroque palaces, Egyptian pyramids and Parisian avenues.”

Washington Post Co. hires architecture firm Gensler to design new offices

2013-03-22T18:33:00-04:00

The Washington Post Co. has hired the architecture firm Gensler to plan and design the company’s future workplace as it considers selling its downtown headquarters and relocating. Based in San Francisco, Gensler is one of the largest global architecture firms and has done extensive work in Washington for law firms, universities and think tanks. Spokespersons for the Post and Gensler confirmed the partnership.