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Kanye West originally planned to move his actual childhood home to Chicago's Soldier Field for DONDA listening event

2021-09-02T14:59:00-04:00

Kanye West built a replica of his boyhood home for his show last week at Soldier Field because the city denied him permission to move the real thing.

For the Chicago stop of his DONDA listening tour, West built a replica of his childhood South Shore home with the addition of a cross on top, that sat in the center of Soldier Field. As reported by the Chicago Sun Times, the home “served as a dramatic centerpiece as dancers dressed in SWAT gear and a lineup of trucks continuously circled its perimeter at one point.”

Regarding the inability to move the original home, Chicago’s Buildings Department said: “Moving a home in Chicago is a very technical process that requires structural engineer reports and multiple city permits. The request to move the house at 7815 S. South Shore Dr. was denied last week because no permit application had been received to excavate and move the vacant property which is also in Demolition Court.”

Last year, West purchased his childhood home, which was abandoned and boarded up, for about $225,000 with plans to renovate it, according to a WGN report.

Stage design firm aids Queen + Adam Lambert in U.S. tour

2019-08-21T20:15:00-04:00

The tour, which plays New Orleans on Aug. 20 and Atlanta on Aug. 22, touched down at the L.A. Forum in July, bringing with it a marvel of technical advances that mix video imagery, lighting and kinetic sculptures to create a three-act narrative.

Stufish Entertainment Architects was "founded in 1994 by rock show visionary Mark Fisher," who was an innovator in stage design. "Fisher, who died in 2013, created the set for several Pink Floyd shows, including The Wall, as well as tours by the Rolling Stones, Madonna and Lady Gaga, among many others," writes Variety.

The current team at Stufish has been on four tours in five years with Queen + Adam Lambert, and continue to work to "create mesmerizing effects" through the use of groundbreaking technologies. After the release of the 2018 film, Bohemian Rhapsody, the band began to attract a younger audience "with video-game expectations," said Ric Lipson, a partner at Stufish.

Frank Gehry's Merriweather Post Pavilion roof collapses during renovation

2018-01-25T13:21:00-05:00

One of architect Frank Gehry’s earliest public buildings collapsed this month as it was nearing the end of a five-year, $55 million renovation, forcing the owners to revise their plans. The roof of the Merriweather Post Pavilion, a 19,000-seat open-air concert venue in Columbia, Maryland, crashed down in the middle of the night on Saturday, January 13, burying the seating below. No one was injured.

The concert pavilion was designed by Frank Gehry, Walsh, and O'Malley in 1967 and is being renovated to maintain presence among other performing arts centers. The design team opted to keep the original roof seeing it as the defining element of Gehry's design and were in the process of raising it 20 feet on hydraulic lifts improving sightlines when it collapsed.

Merriweather Post Pavilion, image via Youtube

So far a cause for the collapse has not been disclosed. This incident marks the concert pavilion as one of the first major Frank Gehry buildings to be considerably lost or modified despite efforts to retain its architectural integrity.

Renovated Merriweather Post Pavilion rendering by JP2 Architects. Image: JP2 Architects.

Gehry Partners is not a part of the renovation design team headed up by JP2 Architects, but was briefed on the project. A new roof will be built in time for this summer's concert season with the first show scheduled for July.

Louis Kahn's floating concert hall, Point Counterpoint II, is facing demolition, and Yo-Yo Ma wants it saved

2017-07-13T16:02:00-04:00

Anchoring in large cities and small towns, in busy shipping lanes and at public parks, the barge opens like a clamshell to reveal a glittering concert stage. Audiences on shore delight in the music, much of it specially composed for Maestro Boudreau and his American Wind Symphony Orchestra

Louis Kahn was commissioned to design Point Counterpoint II, a unique floating concert hall, by conductor Robert Austin Boudreau in the mid 1960s. Launched in 1976, the 195-foot structure carried an orchestra up and down America's waterways for five decades. Robert Boudreau and his wife, Kathleen, have recently decided that they cannot keep running the barge. At the conclusion of the Orchestra's 2017 tour, it will be broken down to scrap in a Louisiana shipyard—despite the owner's best efforts to find a new guardian for the unique, mobile cultural institution.

Drawing of Point Counterpoint II, by Louis Kahn

Point Counterpoint II, Photo courtesy of American Wind Symphony Orchestra

Point Counterpoint II, Photo by josepha on Flickr

Point Counterpoint II, Photo courtesy of American Wind Symphony Orchestra

Yo-Yo Ma, a French-born Chinese American cellist, recently wrote about his admiration for Point Counterpoint II, i...