News

 Dave Heller spoke with Inga Saffron about not just architecture but "city life criticism". Evan Chakroff asked for tips "Has anyone compiled a good 'top ten' of her articles?"

 Quondam replied "Links to Saffron's articles appear almost weekly within ArchNewsNow's daily collection of worldwide architecture news. The articles themselves, however, may not have a broad audience appeal because they are, for the most part, very Philadelphia centric. What is significant though, is that a local newspaper still publishes the work of a critic that is so in tune"...

Referring to the Catalog #1 of the Los Angeles Biennale of Architecture/Urbanism Orhan Ayyüce warned interested buyers "for now, the aim is first limited and numbered edition of 100".

The NYT published an editorial by John Freeman Gill, which points out similarities between the fate of the Laing Stores (sometimes called the Bogardus Building) and the current FolkMoMA discourse/proposals. Steven Ward proposed a future PS1 competition "we'd probably never see it because it would get squashed in-house, but wouldn't it be excellent ...what are the requirements?: shade, fountain…"

Forbes trumpeted new data from Sageworks, (a financial information company) that  Business Is Blooming For Landscapers. Meanwhile, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the March ABI score was 48.8, down sharply from a mark of 50.7 in February.

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates

Lian Chikako Chang reported in from East Cambridge for the two day OpenVis Conference hosted by Bocoup, an open web technology company based here in Boston.The conference included talks by Mike Bostok, graphics editor for The New York Times, Jen Christiansen (of Scientific American Magazine) and Mauricio Giraldo (who works for New York Public Library) creator of The Building Inspector, the latest tool by NYPL Labs to extract data from these atlases.

While Konstadina Papagianni worked on Sivota Villas, Greece, Ibrahim Rajah worked on Conceptual Play.

St. Ignatius Chapel in Bluemont, VA by Dynerman Architects pc and Bermondsey Island in London, UK by Urban Salon  are just two of the projects that can be found in the post Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Architect Sure!" Pinterest Board.
 

School/Blogs
This map of Bugis - one of the most diverse and intense areas of Singapore - is a the results of a detailed survey by the City Form Lab at the Singapore University of Technology and Design

Jared Lussier, currently enrolled at University of Maine at Augusta, announced a change to his blog’s focus

"in my last post I said I would be comparing psychological papers/articles to architecture, but I think that is going to change. I would still like to keep the content of this blog related to the world of clinical psychology, but I would also like to spark discussion on architectural theory provoked by thoughts of psychology"
 

Discussions
Donna Sink started a thread - to honor the passing of Austrian architect and designer Hans Hollein, a winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize who passed at 80.

She eulogized "Unfortunately PoMo has become so reviled (due to developer excess, but that's for another time and place) that it's now hard to look at whimsical, referential, sensual work with plain enjoyment.  It's not the kind of work I'm able to do, but I'm glad it exists, and Hollein was a master".

Non Sequitur mourned "This is sad news indeed"  while according to some, danielmunteanu offered up a "fantastic short story/tribute!!"

gruen started a thread to discuss Fees and "how how do you explain value"? chigurh suggested it was simple "Right off the bat, you just have to tell them what design is worth and the time involved".  Similarly won and done williams was clear "Find better clients. Period"!

Finally, chigurh had some questions/thoughts regarding - when clients attack  - quizzical sought to bring up the somewhat "bigger question: "WHY do our clients not always listen to what we recommend?" Gregory Walker shared his "best results happen by trying to re-connect (or connect initially if it's a new person in the mix) the overall vision together...still, in the end, it's their building to fubar". though mightyaa actually marks up fee's 10% (and the CD's are padded too for the extra documentation) "if I know there is a CM onboard for the 'blood money' and 'brain damage' I know I'll face".