The sky is falling! Weekly News Round-Up for January 12, 2015

2015-01-19T18:05:00-05:00

Friday, January 16:

Architecture for Humanity to shut down: The San Francisco HQ has laid off all employees and will file for bankruptcy, however it's unclear how this will affect operations of the many national/international AfH outposts that function through volunteers.
Work at Manhattan's 432 Park Ave tower ordered to stop after pipe falls from 81st floor: The latest in a recent series of similar incidents, including a bolt falling from London's cheesegrater, falling art in Mons, the 2015 European Capital of Culture, and concrete panels dropping from Zaha Hadid's library in Vienna.

Thursday, January 15:

Norm's Coffee Shop, an LA Googie icon, is temporarily saved from demolition: Along with the first Taco Bell being in peril of demolition, part of southern California's architectural heritage is being considered.

Wednesday, January 14:

Jean Nouvel boycotts opening of his Philharmonie de Paris: Despite the restaurant and exhibition space not being fully complete, Nouvel's Philharmonie hel...

Jean Nouvel boycotts opening of his Philharmonie de Paris

2015-01-14T20:03:00-05:00

Hours before the official inauguration of the Philharmonie de Paris concert hall on Wednesday, its architect, Jean Nouvel, declared his intention to boycott the gala because he said the towering, 386 million euro (about $455 million) building is not ready to open. [...] Mr. Nouvel wrote a column that appeared on the website of the French daily Le Monde denouncing the “contempt” of the concert hall managers for “the architecture, the work of the architect and the architect.”

Construction escalated in the days preceding the opening but large parts of the Philharmonie are still not complete, including the restaurant and exhibition space. The inaugural concert will feature the Orchestre de Paris, with dignitaries and French president François Hollande among the attendees, and "will be dedicated to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack and related killings."

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The sky is falling! Weekly News Round-Up for January 12, 2015

Jean Nouvel boycotts opening of his Philharmonie de Paris