With the future of a Lucas Museum on Chicago's lakefront in doubt, the city of Waukegan is asking the organizers to look a little to the north.
Waukegan Mayor Wayne Motley reached out to Mellody Hobson, a Chicago financial executive and the wife of "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, about locating the proposed museum featuring digital, traditional and narrative art on Waukegan's lakefront, a city spokesman said on Wednesday.
— Chicago Tribune
After a shake-up Tuesday wherein Chicago-based Friends of the Parks (which was taking a 30-day break from suing to prevent the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art from being built) announced that it wasn't going to budge on its anti-LMNA position, George Lucas announced that he was seriously... View full entry
A brick is an obdurate object of ambiguity that hovers between idea and matter, between life and death. Its texture can be smoothed to glide our touch or left rough and abrade. It can be molded into even shapes for consistent construction or made uneven, presenting individual challenges each time one is laid in a course. But while it can come close to an ideal oblong shape, it never attains perfection, and it can as much be said that it approaches perfection as it resists it. — Numéro Cinq
I have revisited my piece on the Mies van der Rohe Brick County House that appeared at Archinect. It is a literary essay that I hope adds some extension and insight. It looks back to the Greeks and forward to recent architecture, adding reflections on Modernism and current work. Many questions... View full entry
Earlier this year, photographer Baker took us on an odyssey through two icons of Modernism in the UK by Wells Coates: London’s Isokon building and Brighton’s Embassy Court. Now he’s teamed up with director Alex Simpson to create a mini-documentary, The Legacy of Wells Coates.
The Isokon was once home to Soviet spies, Agatha Christie and Modernist émigrés including the founder of Bauhaus school, Walter Gropius.
— thespaces.com
Find more tales of form following function here:A 'hidden' Mies van der Rohe masterpiece receives funding for renovationA tall order? Wooden skyscraper could become Britain's second tallest buildingWorking Out of the Box: Jader Almeida"African Modernism: Architecture of Independence" showcases a... View full entry
And so I seek out the airport chapel, interfaith space, prayer room, or meditation center, and see how each country’s particular tics and prejudices play out as spiritual architecture in technopolitical space. I rarely see other people in my visits to these places. — Witte De With Review
James Bridle wrote a short piece concerning one of his perennial obsessions: airport chapels, and the strange interactions of iPhones and prayer mats, and technological and spiritual spaces. View full entry
A study commissioned by the developer indicated that total economic output of the companies projected to occupy Hudson Yards will contribute $18.9 billion to the city's gross domestic product. [...]
Many projections in the report are also contingent on a host of economic indicators in the city, including demand for Class A office space. Out of the 10.4 million square feet Related will have to lease up, so far it has locked in commitments from tenants for 4 million square feet.
— crainsnewyork.com
The Hudson Yards project previously in the Archinect news:Welcome to the Hudson Yards, c. 2019: the world's most ambitious "smart city" experimentBIG's concept for a spiraling-landscape tower in NYC's Hudson YardsA Plan to Build Skyscrapers That Barely Touch the Ground View full entry
Wilmington officials say the cancellation of an architect business conference due to HB2 will cost the city nearly $1 million.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced Monday it will nix its three-day conference scheduled for later this fall at the Wilmington Convention Center. AIA officials cited the passage of HB2 as the reason for the cancellation.
— WETC
Being a bigot isn't just ridiculous—it's costly! Supposedly pro-business Republican senators in North Carolina have managed to drive away Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, and now the AIA thanks to their passage of HB2, which Towelroad describes as a bill that "bans all local LGBT rights ordinances... View full entry
While not open to the public until May 14, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has officially unveiled its completed redesign to the press: a massive, iceberg-like addition by Snøhetta, conjoined to the original Mario Botta pomo building.The redesign is a boon to exhibition space in the... View full entry
Cancer survivor Lord Norman Foster gave HRH Duchess of Cornwall a tour of his newly completed Maggie's Center in his hometown of Manchester at the cancer facility's official opening April 27th, showing her a design that emphasizes natural light and a connection to nature. This has lead to numerous... View full entry
A boxy steel and glass building standing just three stories tall, the Catholic Pastoral Center at 601 Grand Ave. doesn’t command a lot of attention. But among local architects and history buffs, it has a cult following.
“This is a building that appears in architecture textbooks,” said Jennifer James, an architectural historian...
Now, the building is poised for a $10 million renovation that Catholic Diocese of Des Moines officials say will extend its life another 50 years.
— Des Moines Register
The building in question, now known as the Catholic Pastoral Center, was designed by none other than Mies van der Rohe. One of the first steel and glass modernist buildings in Des Moines, it was originally known as the Home Federal Savings and Loan building and opened in 1962.The building... View full entry
Lisa Anne Auerbach created a ‘megazine’ of structures reminiscent of shopping malls or warehouses, hidden away from city centers, where thousands of people worship every week [...]
The conception of the cathedral is not only where one goes to be spiritual or commune with God, but to feel awe through the grandeur of the architecture [...] the US megachurch buildings are stripped wholesale of that sense of wonder and connection to the past; they are also far from the focal point of a city.
— theguardian.com
Related news stories on Archinect:Ancient Italian church comes back to life – built in wire meshOmaha is building a Tri-Faith campus with a church, a mosque and a synagogue (no joke)Why Modern Architecture Struggles to Inspire Catholics View full entry
Nestled within an industrial patch of warehouses in the Danish city of Roskilde stands the golden-studded, newly inaugurated Ragnarock, a museum where rock, pop, and youth culture are housed under one roof. COBE and MVRDV joined forces to design the new museum, which is part of the larger ROCKmagneten masterplan that the architects won in 2011. — Bustler
Head over to Bustler for more details.Previously:ROCKmagneten: MVRDV and COBE Win Danish Rock Museum Competition in Roskilde View full entry
[Friends of the Park] said in a news release that the stay "gives all parties the opportunity to have a more direct and productive dialogue to reach a potential solution about a museum site." [...]
The move marks the latest twist in a controversy that began in 2014 when Lucas shifted the museum's location to Chicago... It gives momentum, if only momentarily, to a compromise plan for the museum that Emanuel floated last month.
— chicagotribune.com
Get caught up on prior news on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, designed by MAD Architects:The Lucas Museum may have found a new location – but is it "a trap"?Even after improved plan, Lucas Museum still mired in legal and financial problemsChicago City Council approves construction of Lucas... View full entry
In addition to housing for low- and moderate-income households, the mixed-use and mixed-income development will include a supermarket with healthy food options, a charter school, a medical facility, cultural and community spaces, a social services facility, and a rehabilitated playground that is currently closed. [...]
The 24-story building is expected to be the largest residential Passive House built in New York City and use 70% less energy than conventional buildings.
— housingfinance.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:Michael Kimmelman on the state of affordable housing in NYCLessons learned: The complex realities when designing communal social housingThe Bronx’s once celebrated Lambert Houses face an unclear fate View full entry
“There’s a whole bunch of wonderful aspects of it,” Mr. Cheramy said, noting Vertical Harvest’s tall and narrow greenhouse design and its hiring of people with disabilities. “But it also makes good fiscal sense.” — NYT
Claire Martin profiles Vertical Harvest, an urban/vertical farm which will begin churning out a projected 100,000 pounds of fresh produce a year. The firm was started by Penny McBride and Nona Yehia (co-founder of the local architecture firm E/Ye Architects).Learn more about Vertical Harvest View full entry
In an order that sends a strong message against corruption, the Bombay High Court on Friday ordered the Union Environment Ministry to demolish 31-storey Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society. [...]
The society, originally meant to be a six-storey structure to house Kargil war heroes and war widows, was converted into a 100-metre-tall building with politicians, bureaucrats and army officers allegedly conspiring to get flats allotted to them in the cooperative society at below-market rates.
— The Times of India
Click here to learn more about the Adarsh Housing Society scam and corruption scandal.Related stories in the Archinect news:Top 13 floors of India's tallest skyscraper were built illegally, High Court saysIndia on the brink: what's in store for the country's architectural futureWorld's first Slum... View full entry