Archinect - News

General Motors mulls major Renaissance Center demolition in Detroit

2024-12-06T10:33:00-05:00

Multiple Detroit news outlets are reporting about the controversy swirling around a potential demolition of the city’s downtown Renaissance Center five-tower block as General Motors looks to secure public funds needed for a renovation. The company is apparently pursuing an all-or-not approach to its plan, which would author a pair of large-scale office-to-residential conversions while creating new public spaces. John Portman was its original designer.

Craig Wilkins of the University of Michigan told the Detroit Free Press: "The idea of 'if you don’t go with this, then we’ll just tear it all down; seems like extortion to me, and I don’t think the public should allow itself to be extorted."

The design of the complex has been criticized as being "anti-urban" and caustically apart from the life of the city since it first opened in 1977.

Celebrate John Portman's 100th birthday with an exclusive film screening

2024-12-04T14:07:00-05:00

Today, December 4th, would have been the 100th birthday of architect and developer John Portman. For fans of the hotel atrium grandmaster who died in 2017 at 93, Chicago-based MAS Context has arranged a digital screening of John Portman: A Life of Building, a film directed by Ben Loeterman.

"The film captures Portman’s approach in an intimate portrait that, by turn, assesses and appreciates Portman’s work," their site explains. "Dramatic time-lapse footage shows off Portman’s buildings at their best—often in moving sunlight that washes over his facades and spaces."

The screening is available here until December 31st.

Want even more Portman birthday exclusives? Check out the photo essay Capturing the Feeling of John Portman photographer and filmmaker Phil Donohue created for MAS Context.

And if you've got $40 million burning a hole in your pocket, consider splurging on Portman's sn...

John Portman's personal Sea Island retreat for sale for $40 million in Georgia

2024-11-22T10:48:00-05:00

This house from John Portman has hit the market in coastal Georgia for $40 million. The Peachtree Center architect’s vacation home from 1986 until his death in 2017, Entelechy II is a 13,000-square-foot design with seven bedrooms and eight full baths. The Robb Report says it "represents an apotheosis of the innovative (if sometimes underappreciated) architect and developer’s dramatic signature style."

Sotheby's International Realty has the listing with a special video tour. Another beloved architect's home, George Homsey’s Third Bay Tradition style former personal residence in San Francisco's Liberty Hill Historic District, hit the market recently for $2.45 million. Writer Colin Marshall's 2020 dive into the legacies of Portman and fellow neo-futurist Syd Mead can be found here.

Image courtesy Bartolotti Media

Architect John Portman III has passed away

2020-09-01T14:49:00-04:00

Architect John Calvin "Jack" Portman III has passed away at age 71.

Jack, who passed away from natural causes, led Portman Architects following the death of his father, John Portman, in 2017. Jack earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design before beginning to practice at his father's firm in 1973.

An obituary on the Portman Architects site commemorating Jack's life explains, "While exceedingly successful as a real estate developer, Jack was passionate about being an architect, particularly the creation of meaningful architecture with a focus on culturally sensitive design. He once said, 'The challenge of the architect is to do something that seems to belong where it is situated.'"

Portman helped lead the international expansion of his father's firm over his nearly 50-year career with the Portman Companies, particularly after the resumption of diplomatic relations between ...

Revisiting John Portman's design legacy in his hometown of Atlanta

2018-10-22T14:46:00-04:00

Portman was a pioneer of the devices with which somber modernism was given glitz: mirror-glass, wall-climbing glass lifts, sky bridges, swooping curves. He described some gaudy candelabra he put around a piano stage in the Atlanta Marriott Marquis as a “homage to Liberace”. His buildings became known for their “Jesus moments”, those times when, emerging from a deliberately understated entry into some architectural emulation of the Grand Canyon, a visitor would reliably exclaim, “Jesus!”

Rowan Moore pens a piece on the lasting impact of the late John Portman's other-worldly buildings in Atlanta, which were known for eliciting “Jesus moments” from surprised visitors and also described as “Disneyland for adults” by less-impressed critics.

Construction begins on Atlanta's largest public park by John Portman & Associates

2018-09-10T15:49:00-04:00

Construction has begun on Atlanta's soon-to-be largest park by John Portman & Associates. The repurposed quarry pit will not only provide an outdoor recreational area but also create 2 billion gallons of emergency drinking water for Atlanta, increasing the city’s emergency water reserves from 3 to 30 days.

The first phase of Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry includes constructing a signature gateway for the park's entrance. Once completed, the new green space will be 100 acres larger than Atlanta’s currently largest park.

Mohsen Mostafavi on John Portman

2018-03-05T14:41:00-05:00

He was very focused on the consequences of ideas. In his own work he was trying to create a sense of totality. He’s doing the hotel, the sculpture, and the furniture. He’s choreographing—it’s like a stage set and he’s staging the whole experience.

CityLab chats with GSD Dean Mohsen Mostafavi about John Portman's relationship with the school, the professorship he created at Harvard, and their book collaboration, Portman’s America & Other Speculations.

Ed Soja discusses John Portman's postmodern Bonaventure Hotel

2018-01-02T15:25:00-05:00

The Bonaventure has become a focal point for the debate on Postmodernism, ever since its discovery as a Postmodern hyperspace by [cultural theorist] Fredric Jameson some years ago…It’s a landscape that’s highly fragmented. It’s a space that de-centers you, makes you feel lost. And in this feeling of being lost and dislocated, you feel that your only recourse is to submit to authority. You’re helpless, you’re made helpless, you’re peripheralized, you’re lost in these spaces.

In light of John Portman's passing, here is a 6 minute clip with urban theorist Ed Soja discussing the postmodern nature of the infamous architect's Bonaventure Hotel located in downtown Los Angeles.

h/t to Orhan from this thread.

John Portman, architect, developer and master of the mega-atria, dies at 93

2017-12-31T18:44:00-05:00

Architect John Portman, often credited as the father of the massive hotel atrium, has passed away in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. No cause of death has been announced.

His firm, John Portman & Associates, has released the following statement, along with a website celebrating his legacy:

Atlanta lost one of her greatest champions with the passing of John C. Portman, Jr. on Friday, December 29, 2017 at the age of 93. The leadership and vision of Mr. Portman were instrumental in moving Atlanta from a gracious Southern city into a vibrant world capital. As an architect, entrepreneur, artist and altruist, John Portman had a dramatic impact on Atlanta's success and growth as a major international city, and he was instrumental in having similar impact on other cities throughout the world.

A little over a year ago David Cole penned this love letter, in the form of an Archinect forum thread, "You never forget your first love: An ode to John Portman"

My youth was pretty sheltered, archi...

John Portman's Inadvertent Dystopian Fortresses

2015-04-08T16:54:00-04:00

“[Directors are] projecting a future by imagining how it would look in ruins,” said Michael Hays, a professor of architectural theory at Harvard. “All the flesh has been removed and you just see the architectural bones. I’ve always thought Portman’s buildings would make very beautiful ruins, because the essence of them is so powerful and so direct.”

In this larger piece about how Atlanta has become a favored setting for dystopian cinema, Harvard professor Michael Hays shares an unusual perspective on the work of John Portman as cinematic harbinger of doom.

BIG & Design Partners Propose Miami Beach Square as Massive Convention Center Redevelopment

2013-05-14T19:09:00-04:00

BIG together with West 8, Fentress Architects, John Portman & Associates (JPA), Revuelta Architecture International and developers Portman-CMC have unveiled the urban planning proposal Miami Beach Square, the centerpiece of a 52-acre Miami Beach Convention Center District development. Portman-CMC is one of two development teams currently in the race for the project.

UPDATE: OMA Wins Miami Beach Convention Center Competition

John Portman, Symphonic Architect

2011-10-20T01:41:57-04:00

Now 86 and still running his Atlanta-based firm, John Portman & Associates, the architect is the focus of a new documentary, “John Portman: A Life of Building,” which premieres tomorrow at the Architecture & Design Film Festival in Manhattan. Mr. Portman recently spoke with a reporter about his career.

And for more information about the film go to www.johnportmanfilm.com