“Musings about a Brutalist building’s friendliness quotient are a distraction” - Anthony Carfello, artist — LA Forum Architecture / Urban Design
Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design Summer 2015 Newsletter surveys and critiques LA's own collection of high-quality brutalist buildings in a 'must be collected" issue that grew out of its own google map “Brutalism Los Angeles” and other resources. The Newsletter features a... View full entry
The Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth, Taranaki in New Zealand stands as an emblem of the sculptural works and philosophy of acclaimed artist Len Lye, who was a prominent figure in the kinetic sculpture and experimental film movements throughout the 20th century. Celebrating its grand opening late... View full entry
This week, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London announced that “the world’s longest and tallest tunnel slide” will wrap around Anish Kapoor’s “ArcelorMittal Orbit.” When the sculpture went up in 2009 after winning a design challenge, it proceeded to receive mostly scathing reviews — and a spot on the shortlist of the 2012 Carbuncle Cup [...]. Today, Kapoor revealed that the slide is actually a work of art, designed by none other than Carsten Höller at Kapoor’s own invitation. — hyperallergic.com
In other artsy-slide-related news on Archinect:Artist Carsten Höller to install massive slides on London's Hayward GalleryCarsten Höller Is Installing a Slide at New Museum View full entry
ThyssenKrupp's MULTI elevator test tower is happening, indeed — and at a seemingly impressive rate. Less than 10 months after starting construction, the currently 232-meter structure in the German city of Rottweil recently celebrated its topping out. ThyssenKrupp is aiming to have the tower... View full entry
You can still call it the John Hancock Tower, but the company that paid $930 million for New England’s tallest building can’t.
Now that John Hancock’s last lease in the office building has expired, owner Boston Properties Inc. can no longer use the financial services company’s name on the property.
— The Boston Globe
Related:Boston’s tallest new skyscraper in 40 years breaking ground todayBoston’s John Hancock Tower Receives the 2011 AIA Twenty-Five Year Award (on Bustler) View full entry
Architect Frank Gehry has often talked about the influence artists have had on his building designs. [...] An early work from the 1960s by sculptor Larry Bell in the Frank Lloyd show offers a partial template for a Gehry design built three decades ago in Toluca Lake.
Gehry's World Savings and Loan branch at Riverside Drive and Mariota Avenue is a sky-lighted, one-story hall framed by tall facades out front and in the back, as if a full second story had been planned but never built.
— latimesblogs.latimes.com
this is the deluxe rehabilitation package, a stark contrast to the mostly emergency work that's been done through the years to keep the building grunting along. [...]
“It's one of Frank Lloyd Wright's greatest works, and it's a masterpiece of modern architecture ... It's a building that changed a lot of architects' ideas about what architecture could do.”
The $23 million comes from a variety of sources, including part of a $1.75M Getty grant to fix compromised concrete in "Important Modern Buildings", and $200K in federal funds for general repairs. Unity Temple is also one of ten FLW buildings recently nominated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. View full entry
'We are transforming LaGuardia into a globally-renowned, 21st century airport that is worthy of the city and state of New York. It’s the perfect metaphor for what we can achieve with the ambition and optimism and energy that made this the Empire State in the first place, and I want to thank our many partners for joining us to build the airport that New York deserves.' — Gov. Cuomo — governor.ny.gov
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo alongside Vice President Joe Biden officially unveiled the proposed design for the new LaGuardia Airport earlier this week. The $4 billion revamp will transform the airport into a single, structurally unified main terminal, including expanded transportation access... View full entry
You’ll will still be able to gaze lovingly upon the ultra-sleek new Cupertino “Spacehip” campus — no drones required.
Buried in city documents filed this spring are previously unreported plans for a new visitor’s center — complete with a store and viewing platform. Apple’s 2013 approvals for the massive project included the ability for Apple to build a visitor’s center, but a detailed project description had not been submitted until April.
— bizjournals.com
Related: Apple's spaceship campus being built to iPhone standardsApple under fire for not hiring construction workers with past felonies for their new campusDrone footage shows the latest construction status of the Foster-designed Apple campusApple CEO Tim Cook says new spaceship campus will be... View full entry
Non-profit North Carolina Modernist Houses has announced the six winners – three Jury awards and three People’s Choice awards – of the 2015 George Matsumoto Prize for Modernist residential design. The winners were announced on July 16 during a special event at McConnell Studios in... View full entry
At what cost? The LAVA plan could be difficult to manage structurally, cost a significant amount of money and see Sirius occupants relocated anyway. But it could also be a more sustainable option than knocking down and rebuilding. — architectureanddesign.com.au
SIRIUS in 2014.Alas, the curse of the "brutalist eyesore" continues with the historic SIRIUS apartment building in Sydney, designed by architect Tao (Theodore) Gofers in 1978-79. Adding a third option to the demolish-preserve debate that typically ensues, local architecture firm LAVA proposed the... View full entry
Dedicated to traditional climbing, the museum is first of all an extraordinary overlook: the volumes that protrude from the ground, like four large eyes wide open on a majestic landscape, seem to emerge from the earth’s bowels to invite us to admire the Alpine chains around, from the Zillertal to the Ortles to the Dolomites. — inexhibit.com
A tip of the hat to Riccardo Bianchini, who posted in the forums earlier this week some photos from the press opening of Zaha Hadid's Messner Mountain Museum in Plan de Corones, Italy. Named after the famous mountaineer, Reinhold Messner, the museum is the final of six museums planned by... View full entry
Ever since Mies Van Der Rohe's groundbreaking designs popularized the deceptively simple glass facade, architects have experimented with the incorporation of the material in their designs. Some, such as PLP Architecture, have opted to create commercial buildings that utilize an almost entirely... View full entry
one of the city’s better-kept secrets is how often these places occupy structures that could easily be counted among the more significant examples of mid-20th century architecture in the country. That is, if anyone were bothering to look. — NYT
Guy Trebay sings the praises of Tuscon for architectural tourism: from the Arizona Inn (listed on the National Register of Historic Places) to the iconic buildings and glowing signs of "Miracle Mile”. Or for the many examples of midcentury Modern architecture adapted to the local... View full entry
Music venue National Sawdust, formerly OMW workshop, slated to open this fall, hopes to revive, even temporarily, the thrill of ‘90s and early 2000’s Williamsburg, a time when anything felt possible and artistic collaboration ruled supreme. The [13,000 sq.foot] space will offer a rare outlet for musicians of lesser appreciated art forms, from opera to experimental jazz, the opportunity to study, practice, perform, and receive mentorship through an in-venue, non-profit program. — GOOD
Fresh faces for new spaces. Non-profit arts group National Sawdust collaborated with architect Peter Zuspan — founding principal (and classically trained opera singer) of local emerging practice Bureau V — in designing the group's upcoming music performance space. While Brooklyn has become a... View full entry