Archinect - News

Michael Kimmelman on some newer rays of light in NYC’s public housing stock

2022-02-07T11:59:00-05:00

Writing about Twin Parks in 1973, The Times’s former architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, speculated that the project might “turn out to be important in the history of housing design.” [...] design, however compassionate, can mean only so much against the obstacles that make up the housing problem today.” The calculus is the same half a century later. But the South Bronx isn’t. Gradually, it has been remade. Progress isn’t impossible, it’s a process.

Both observed South Bronx developments, 1490 Southern Boulevard and a transformation of the Lambert Houses, are seen as examples of high-quality and effective public housing that offers residents more than just desultory amenities. The Times critic broke down the new-ish developments by Dattner and Bernheimer Architects by first cautioning us with a history lesson about nearby Twin Parks (which Paul Goldberger predicted might “turn out to be important in the history of housing design” at its opening in 1973), adding that, in his view, the pair offer “templates for redoing” many of NYCHA’s 302 other campuses.

“It’s an 18-story building with 163 permanently affordable units and a doorman. The boxy, drab exterior, set a few steps up and back from the street wall, looks almost belligerently banal. But inside the building is comfortable, luxurious even, compared with the deteriorating apartments and hallways I saw in the old buildings. Crucial to the conversion, no tenants are being dis...

Fallen Journalists Memorial: AECOM and Paul Goldberger will help materialize a new site of remembrance to commemorate journalists who made the ultimate sacrifice

2021-07-01T08:00:00-04:00

On June 24th, the Fallen Journalists Memorial (FJM) Foundation announced its partnership with global engineering and infrastructure firm AECOM, Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger, and the Levinson Group on a new site that pays homage to journalists worldwide. The FJM Foundation commits to memorializing and amplifying the work of these individuals whose lives were lost while in service to pursue the truth.

The memorial is "the culmination of dedicated work by the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation to honor the reporters, photojournalists, producers, editors, and others in the field, who have died while performing their jobs as journalists," shared Claire Sale, AECOM's project manager overseeing the memorial project. "We are honored to have a role in bringing this memorial to life."

The initiative stemmed from the Fallen Journalists Memorial Act that Congress passed in December 2020. The bill authorized the planning and development of "a commemorative work...

Penn renames School of Design in honor of footwear designer Stuart Weitzman

2019-10-07T13:45:00-04:00

The University of Pennsylvania's newly-inaugurated Stuart Weitzman School of Design was officially renamed last week in honor or Penn graduate and global footwear designer Stuart Weitzman.

The school, which houses undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and historic preservation, among other subjects, originally announced the name change in February of this year. According to a university statement, "The new name, the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, reflects Weitzman’s enduring influence in the world of design and his extraordinary support of the School."

The renaming will be accompanied by the redesign of a plaza fronting the school's main building. The new Stuart Weitzman Plaza will be redesigned by landscape architecture firm OLIN, whose principal, Laurie Olin, is practice professor emeritus of landscape architecture of the Weitzman School. The initiative also includes additional scholarships for Wei...

In Conversation with Paul Goldberger; On the Impact of the Ballpark in the American City

2019-07-04T14:44:00-04:00

We have a very special July 4th episode for you today.

Today’s show offers an especially American conversation with the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Paul Goldberger. The discussion between myself and Goldberger was recorded live at Archinect Outpost last month for the launch of his latest book Ballpark.

Ballpark takes a deep dive into the history of the ballpark, and the impact it’s had on the evolution of the American city. The book looks at a selection of case studies to arrive at a simple yet compelling thesis: “In the ballpark,” Goldberger writes, “the two sides of the American character - the Jeffersonian impulse toward open space and rural expanse, and the Hamiltonian belief in the city and in industrial infrastructure - are joined, and cannot be torn apart.”

If you’re interested in a copy of the book, we have a few copies available at Archinect, both in our shop in downtown Los Angeles, and online at outpost.archinect.com.

Paul Goldberger

Paul Goldberger began his career a...

Paul Goldberger to present Ballpark at Archinect Outpost, June 1st

2019-05-15T12:20:00-04:00

Join us in celebrating Ballpark, the latest book by Paul Goldberger, at Archinect Outpost on Saturday, June 1st, 5-8pm.

The doors will open at 5 and will close promptly after 6 as the conversation begins between Paul Goldberger and Paul Petrunia, the founder and director of Archinect, on the content on his newest book.

Ballpark can be preordered here for pickup at the event, or shipping immediately after the event. Please go here to RSVP for the event.

1962 view of a completed Dodger Stadium. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive. Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

From Penguin Random House: "From the earliest corrals of the mid-1800s (Union Grounds in Brooklyn was a 'saloon in the open air'), to the much mourned parks of the early 1900s (Detroit’s Tiger Stadium, Cincinnati’s Palace of the Fans), to the stadiums we fill today, Paul Goldberger makes clear the inextricable bond between the American city and America’s favorit...

Paul Goldberger on the science behind sublime architecture

2017-10-12T19:31:00-04:00

Clearly, Goldhagen is not a writer who approaches her subject with a sense of tentativeness. But once you get a little deeper into this book, it becomes clear that her hubris (if we can call it that) coexists with a sense of earnestness and civilizing intentions. Goldhagen is an engaging and generous writer, alert to the subtleties of human experience, and she has written Welcome to Your World with a desire to genuinely reveal something new to us about how cities, buildings, and places affect us

Paul Goldberger dissects Sarah Williams Goldhagen's book, Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives, itself a dissection of the human mind and how neuroscience can explain our ability to detect when architecture is merely good — and when it is awe-inspiring.

Click here to find more on the topic of neuroscience and architecture.

Paul Goldberger writes on the mysticism of Louis Kahn

2017-07-21T14:07:00-04:00

Kahn led a generation of architects away from the standard-issue modernism of glass and steel boxes, but his route was gentle, thoughtful, philosophical, and sometimes vaguely mystical, which is part of the reason that he never really became famous. Kahn’s semi-obscurity didn’t just extend to the cops at Penn Station: The Times obituary had to be written on deadline the night his death became known, because the obit editors hadn’t considered him important enough to merit one in advance.

In his essay on Kahn, Goldberger examines methodologies of biographical writing, and explores the enigmatic aspects of the architect's identity and work.

"You get his essence almost as much through his words as his buildings. Both are somewhat spare and cryptic, and both are rich in meaning. Who else but Kahn could have said, “A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed and in the end be unmeasurable…. what is unmeasurable is the psychic spirit.” Or, “The sun never knew how great it was until it struck the side of a building.” Or, “I want to give the wall a consciousness.”

Kahn’s writing could dance on the edge of psychobabble, and we almost certainly would have been less forgiving if his architecture hadn’t been as good as it was. But at their most evocative, Kahn’s words don’t give us insight into his buildings so much as they do him and the reasons behind his designs. Kahn spent his life in pursuit of the distinct...

Diébédo Francis Kéré announced as Brunner Prize winner by American Academy of Arts and Letters

2017-03-29T19:20:00-04:00

The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced the recipients of its 2017 architecture awards. Intended to honor architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction, this year's winners were chosen from a group of 27 individuals and practices nominated by members of the Academy. On the jury, were Elizabeth Diller, Henry N. Cobb, Peter Eisenman, Kenneth Frampton, Hugh Hardy, Steven Holl, Thom Mayne, James Polshek, Robert A.M. Stern, Billie Tsien, and Tod Williams.

The top prize, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, is given to a preeminent architect from any country who has made a significant contribution to architecture as art. The 2017 recipient is Diébédo Francis Kéré, who is having quite the year. He was recently announced as this years designer of the Serpentine Pavilion as well. Kéré is known for his socially driven and sustainable approach to architecture. Based in Berlin and Gando, his hometown in Burkina Faso, Kéré has brought his co...

Paul Goldberger on Thomas Heatherwick: "21st-Century Eames"

2016-11-10T19:39:00-05:00

[...] part architect, part furniture designer, part product designer, part researcher, part landscape architect, and part Pied Piper of design, and the things he comes up with manage somehow to be at once charming and brash. [...] shares not only the Eameses’ determination to be wide-ranging but also their fascination with technology, their interest in communication, and, most important of all, their passionate belief in the meaning of actually making things and in using materials in new ways.

Other recent Thomas Heatherwick sightings in the Archinect news:

Blair Kamin's tempestuous relationship with Donald Trump

2016-10-07T17:38:00-04:00

Over the years, Trump has courted me, comforted me, criticized me and sent me a handful of sometimes-fawning letters and notes. I saved the correspondence. Wouldn't you? [...] And the missives are telling. Combined with other things he's said and written, they show that Candidate Trump isn't all that different from Developer Trump. He remains a master media manipulator who can be charming, mercurial and vengeful. Only now he wants to be the most powerful man on earth.

In this relatively personal piece for the Tribune, architecture critic Blair Kamin recounts his tumultuous personal and professional relationship with Trump over 10+ years, talking (as developers and architecture critics do) about buildings.

Kamin explains that there were times when Trump was supportive (regarding a health issue), and praising of his criticism. But whenever the criticism didn't go Trump's way, he bucked at Kamin. Their back-and-forth frothed to a head in 2009, over Kamin's criticism of Trump's condo and hotel tower in Chicago—before it was emblazoned with the "TRUMP" sign:

"It's a good building," I said, praising the tower's glistening exterior but faulting its uninspired spire and riverfront bulk.

There was a pause.

"Good?" Trump said, sounding shocked. He had "sucked up" to me for all these years, he said, "and all I get is good?"

When Kamin did criticize the TRUMP signage in 2014, Trump called Kamin "dopey" and "a lightweight". Trump lumps Goldberger and Kamin to...

Paul Goldberger, advisor for the Obama Presidential Center, says Obamas prefer "modern and refined" over a "traditional" building

2016-02-10T13:38:00-05:00

MCP: How would you characterize the President and First Lady’s architectural taste, as best as you can tell up to this point? PG: Modern and refined. They like modern things quite genuinely. They do not want a traditional building... there’s a certain kind of, let’s say tailored modernism, that they respond best to. But they’re interested in a range of things, and they’re also very interested, as they should be, in somebody who they will feel comfortable talking to.

Paul Goldberger was first offered to advise the Obama Foundation in the selection of the Presidential Center's architect by Penny Pritzker, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, who also happens to be the niece of Jay Pritzker – founder of the Pritzker Prize in 1979.

Get caught up on the selection process for the architect of Obama's Presidential Library:

Paul Goldberger cements Frank Gehry's narrative at The Getty Center

2015-09-30T14:24:00-04:00

In a lecture hall that sat a third empty due to the eclipsed "super blood moon" transpiring outside, Paul Goldberger discussed his new biography of Frank Gehry, "Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry" with J. Paul Getty Trust C.E.O. James Cuno at The Getty Center.

Goldberger spent the first part of the evening recounting of the well-known narrative of Gehry's life: a Canadian Jewish working-class boy, Gehry moved from chilly Toronto with his ailing father to the warmer climes of Los Angeles, eventually becoming the city's, if not the world's, most iconic architect. After paying the bills in his early adulthood by driving trucks, Gehry enrolled at USC and then on to Harvard, where he completed his studies in architecture. He went on to work for a variety of architects including Victor Gruen, and on projects including 1961's so-called "futuristic building" at LAX (although, Goldberger was careful to note, in a purely junior capacity). Goldberger framed Gehry's existence not...

Archinect's critical round-up of Los Angeles' Broad Museum

2015-09-23T15:50:00-04:00

From a super-sized cheese grater, to a contraceptive sponge, to an inadvertent fun house ride, the critics have thoroughly analogized the new Broad museum in mostly positive (if occasionally biting) reviews. To follow up with Amelia's review, published earlier today, we offer some other critical perspectives on LA's latest architectural landmark.

The L.A. Times' Christopher Hawthorne frames the museum's relative success principally in terms of the political and physical struggle it took to realize it (Broad is currently suing the structure's skin fabricators for what he claims were costly, time-delaying fabrication errors). "It wouldn't be fair to say that the museum, which has moments of real charm, buckles under the burden of those expectations and conflicts. But in a number of places, including its surprisingly punchless facade, it shows the considerable strain of holding up that weight."

Hawthorne also reflects on the building in terms of Diller Scofidio + Renfro's overall body of...

Archinect's round-up of the week's architectural critiques

2015-09-16T13:36:00-04:00

What is the role of creative exploration in architecture? From the L.A. Times to The New Republic, this question is very much on critical minds. In a piece entitled "How to Make Architecture Human," Anna Wiener reviews Witold Rybczynski's latest collection of essays, Mysteries of the Mall, which sets out to explore the "mundane" locales of architecture and quickly proclaims a distaste for the avant-garde in favor of lasting value.

Wiener notes that "Rybczynski is right to call out architects who submit designs for cities they have little relationship to, but work that favors experimentation—in aesthetics, in use, in design process—occupies a valuable space in the culture, too. 'Lasting value' is subjective and arbitrary; it serves a culture well to explore its desires and curiosities, however eccentric, and expand beyond the mainstream comfort-zone." Her review delves further into the problems of outdated and out of touch criticism: many of the essays contained in the book were origi...

Archinect's critical round-up of BIG's Two World Trade Center Design

2015-06-10T16:40:00-04:00

Taken out of its high-profile context, the BIG design for Two World Trade Center initially appears to be a graduate school placeholder: here are the initial seven blocks of program, with a light dusting of foliage on the exposed step-backs. The internet's critical reaction to the renderings released to WIRED has been heated: it's the New Museum without the ingenuity, it's a brilliant melding of memorial gravitas and client-driven-design, it's nothing but spoon-fed media hype taken to a 1,300 foot extreme. Of course, this is a building that can't be taken out of its context, not only in terms of being a new icon of Manhattan, but also because it is something of a sequel: its unabashed boxiness and new media savvy presentation clashes with Foster + Partners' previous svelte, slanted diamond-topped design. A little more than 24 hours after the renderings were released, we've rounded up the most compelling critical and forum-based reaction:

In Vanity Fair, Paul Goldberger confronts the c...

Too Rich, Too Thin, Too Tall?

2014-04-21T20:32:00-04:00

These days, it is not just a woman who can never be too rich or too thin. You can say almost exactly the same thing about skyscrapers, or at least about the latest residential ones now going up in New York City, which are much taller, much thinner, and much, much more expensive than their predecessors. And almost every one of them seems built to be taller, thinner, and pricier than the one that came before.

Did Paul Goldberger just say that women can never be too thin?

New Condo Towers Are Racing Skyward in Midtown Manhattan

2014-04-09T17:39:00-04:00

Ever taller, ever thinner, the new condo towers racing skyward in Midtown Manhattan are breaking records for everything, including price. Sold for $95 million, the 96th floor of 432 Park Avenue will be the highest residence in the Western world. As shadows creep across Central Park, Paul Goldberger looks at the construction, architecture, and marketing of these super-luxury aeries, gauging their effect on the city’s future.

Goldberger on Architectural Criticism in the Age of Twitter

2012-11-29T14:56:00-05:00

Goldberger addressed the disappearance of journalistic hegemony and the advent of electronic media. While mainstream publications with an ongoing commitment to architecture criticism continue to possess a degree of authority, they are struggling to make themselves heard in this noise. It is clear to Goldberger that “the playing field may be level, but the players are not equal.”

National Building Museum Names Paul Goldberger as the Fourteenth Laureate of the Vincent Scully Prize

2012-08-29T20:54:00-04:00

The National Building Museum presents its fourteenth Vincent Scully Prize to Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger, for his lifetime work of encouraging thoughtful discourse and debate about the importance of design.

Paul Goldberger on the Fight to Save Chicago's Prentice Hospital

2012-08-15T17:07:00-04:00

Why bother, then? It’s a key building in the history of structural engineering, and its unusual form, a poured-concrete cantilevered shell, has few if any equals in modern engineering. Almost nothing else looks like this building, and in a world of carbon-copy architecture, its loopy, futuristic curves are unique: a concrete rocket ship amid Chicago’s glass boxes. A little weird, yes, but the more you look at it, the more you like it.

The New Barnes Foundation Building: Soulful, Self-assured, and Soaked with Light

2012-05-07T14:18:00-04:00

Beginning on May 19th, people will see the Barnes collection not where Barnes intended it to be seen, but in a new building designed by the New York architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. This building won’t please the absolutists, the people we should probably call Barnes fundamentalists, because nothing would please them short of a return to the way things were. But it really ought to please everybody else, because—to cut to the chase—the new Barnes is absolutely wonderful.

Gehry and Goldberger, live discussion from Yale

2012-04-12T19:27:00-04:00

Check out the live stream of the discussion between Paul Goldberger and Frank Gehry at Yale.

Which is it, both? Meanwhile...

2012-04-09T21:30:00-04:00

It is still far and away the greatest memorial of modern times—the most beautiful, the most heart-wrenching, the most subtle, and the most powerful. It’s also the most abstract, which makes it even more miraculous that it was built in a nation that generally prefers symbols more along the lines of the Lincoln Memorial.

Reacting to the news that The New Yorker's influential architecture critic Paul Goldberger, was moving to another magazine (although both are owned by Condé Nast) Vanity Fair, some have wondered whether Eulogies For Architecture Criticism (are) Not Far Behind. Meanwhile, others have seen it as a sign The Architect Critic Is Dead and confirmation that in this era of digital abundance, in which the profession has witnessed a "'sea change' in the conception of architecture", the new critic "must be a reporter. And an activist one at that."

Meanwhile, Paul Goldberger found the time to contribute a short and thoughtful piece on the Reflected Grief of Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, for the April 2012 Issue of Vanity Fair.

Previously on Archinect: Paul Goldberger Leaves New Yorker for Vanity Fair, Will Not Be Replaced

Paul Goldberger Leaves New Yorker for Vanity Fair, Will Not Be Replaced

2012-04-02T12:33:00-04:00

But like so many landmarks, from the Parthenon to Penn Station, few endure. Starting today, Mr. Goldberger will board the notorious Condé Nast elevator, but instead of getting off on the 20th floor, he will report to work two floors up, where Graydon Carter has finally poached Mr. Goldberger for Vanity Fair.

Paul Goldberger leaves The New Yorker, partly to have more time to work on a biography of Frank Gehry, partly because he was not given enough chances to write for the magazine anymore. At Vanity Fair, he won't just be writing on architecture, but also "design-related" stories, too.

Michael Kimmelman Will Not Play Your Architecture Games

2012-03-09T14:14:00-05:00

Michael Kimmelman is not a very good architecture critic, at least that is what some of his critics would have you believe. As invigorating as his first few columns championing urbanism and public design were, the whole thrust has devolved into a sort of schtick, whereby every article is about the greatness of cities, and barely about architecture. Michael Kimmelman knows this.

What, exactly, should the Times' new architecture critic be writing about? Something, his fellow critics agree.