Julia Ingalls almost had a hat-trick, publishing the finale to her Material Witness: exploration, this time on apocalypse & columns and reviving Archinect's UpStarts: (seen last in 2012) with a look at Paul Michael Davis Design out of Seattle, WA. Was I the only one who didn’t get the... View full entry
An illegally built corridor connecting two high-rise buildings in a residential area on Dongge Road of Nanning, Guangxi has become a cause for concern after images of the thing were posted online. The corridor joins two separate apartment buildings and was constructed and used by only one tenant. — shanghaiist.com
The American Museum of Natural History, a sprawling hodgepodge of a complex occupying nearly four city blocks, is planning another major transformation, this time along Columbus Avenue: a $325 million, six-story addition designed to foster the institution’s expanding role as a center for scientific research and education... — New York Times
The distinctive BOBO building by New York-based SOMA Architects will be the new kid on the block in Beirut's Mar Mikhael district. The design SOMA came up with for the residential building, which recently began foundation work, consists of a steel exoskeleton tied to a concrete core that will... View full entry
“They don’t want a foreigner to build in Tokyo for a national stadium. On the other hand, they all have work abroad. Whether it’s Sejima, Toyo Ito, or Maki or Isozaki or Kengo Kuma.”
Last month Isozaki, 83, wrote an open letter to the Japan Sports Council, the government body in charge of plans for the 2020 Games, in which he attacked the “distorted” process that has led to “a dull, slow form”.
— theguardian.com
Previously View full entry
Ancient Egypt endured plagues of locusts. Seattle has its tunnel, which over the last year has featured a series of setbacks and fiascos that, depending on one’s outlook, can be the setup for a punch line, or an eye-rolling narrative of put-upon endurance.
In the latest blow, project engineers said this week that 30 or more buildings in the historic Pioneer Square area [...] had unexpectedly settled, possibly because of water pumping related to the project.
— nytimes.com
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) selected 3XN to design its new headquarters after a multi-stage, international architectural competition that concluded earlier this year. The IOC and 3XN have now released the first renderings of the project, which is located on a 24,000sm site on the... View full entry
Critics have argued that big arts-building investments are vanity projects, or that private donors should finance community arts organizations or scholarships instead. — NYT
James S. Russell digs into the building boom on college campuses, where museums and arts centers are opening and expanding. Mostly an elite phenomenon (Stanford University is constructing a $235 million arts district), few state/public schools are able to afford the costs. View full entry
Out of a super-star list of competitors, a team led by Steven Holl Architects won the competition to design the North Wing -- or the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum -- of the Mumbai City Museum in India. The museum is one of India's leading cultural institutions and is undergoing a renewal process to establish itself as a cultural destination. The new 275 crore (approx $44.3 million) building will include new galleries and facilities. — bustler.net
The Steven Holl Architects team included local architects Opolis Architects, Guy Nordenson & Associates as structural engineers, and Transsolar as sustainability consultants.Learn more about this project on Bustler. View full entry
After a $91m, three-year renovation, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is due to reopen on Friday, 12 December.
[...] the firms Gluckman Mayner, Beyer Blinder Belle and Diller Scofidio + Renfro—moved the museum’s offices and research library, previously on the third floor, into the adjacent Miller-Fox townhouses, which had been used for storage. In the offices’ place, they built the Cooper Hewitt’s first open-plan galleries.
— theartnewspaper.com
Previously: Cooper-Hewitt Selects DS+R as Exhibition Designer and Local Projects as Media Designer View full entry
According to a press release issued last week by Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman & Associates, principal Gene Kaufman has submitted a proposal to buy the Orange County Government Center (Goshen, NY), which has been closed since 2011 due to storm damage. Designed in 1967 by Paul Rudolph, the building... View full entry
The Galapagos Art Space, a performance center and cultural staple in Brooklyn for nearly 20 years, will close this month, another casualty of rising rental prices that its founder says are making it difficult for independent arts organizations to survive in New York ... Galapagos helped put Williamsburg on the art map when it opened there in 1995 ... Although the last night of programming is likely to be Dec. 18, the center will have a second life — more than 600 miles away, in Detroit. — nytimes.com
During its time in Brooklyn, Galapagos Art Space produced more than 7,500 shows. Hopefully, its legacy of progressive programming – from films to musical events to visual art exhibitions to burlesque – will continue after the space moves to Detroit. The new home of Galapagos Art Space includes... View full entry
It's not going to look like 'Apocalypse Now' by any stretch of the imagination.
The Marine Corps has held similar training in recent years in Atlanta, Memphis and other cities. The military worked closely with the Los Angeles Police Department and notified property owners so no one will be caught off guard
— CBS
Message and the purpose is clear. US Government is training for urban warfare and large cities are the training grounds. Once we are done with foreign urban centers perhaps the idea is to "bring it on home."Of course, it's all under the disguise of fighting terrorism (or is it... View full entry
“When they came out of the quarters they could see it was fully engulfed,” fire department spokeswoman Katherine Main told the paper. “It was a building under construction in the framing phase. Almost 1 million square feet and a city block.” — RT
Freeway signs melt and windows in adjacent buildings burst in the intense heat. Two buildings near the burning construction site are damaged and freeways are closed for hours.The fire which burned down an unpopular (among the architects) apartment complex a 7 storey wood construction in its final... View full entry
“I think it’s definitely derivative of the Gardens by the Bay concept,” Chris Wilkinson, one of the British architects responsible for the “super-trees” in Singapore’s Marina Bay, told The Daily Telegraph.
“You’d have expected them to have come up with something a bit more original.”
— telegraph.co.uk
"Super Trees", Singapore, designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects View full entry