As Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s drawings go on display at the RIBA, the search is on for the architect who might best restore the glory of his fire-damaged masterpiece, the Glasgow School of Art. [...]
But the list seems to have been compiled too much on the basis of who has been there and done what when it comes to restoring historic buildings, rather than a real desire to find architects with the right sensitivity for the job.
— theguardian.com
Previously: Five firms shortlisted for Mackintosh Library renovation after devastating fire View full entry
Increasingly, in the US at least, central cities are all becoming more or less the same...Meanwhile, the suburbs are becoming more diverse. Not just in terms of ethnicity as growing numbers of blacks, Asians, and Hispanics pour into the suburbs from central cities and abroad. But also in terms of winners and losers — csen
Last year following visits to Chattanooga, Knoxville, Lexington, Cincinnati, Columbus, csen proposed four basic city/neighborhood archetypes for thinking about a non-dystopic 2030. He also wrote about Central City Homogenization and Suburban Diversification and argued for why The Sun Belt... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.(Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect... View full entry
For months, three architects would meet at the waterfront of Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city. [...] Eventually it came to them – if you really wanted to bring people in Izmir together, transform the waterfront. But the very idea was daunting: Turkey’s bureaucracy is infamous, and a large-scale project to redevelop the waterfront seemed impossible.
So the friends [...] built eight floating docks out of plywood.
— theguardian.com
Julia Ingalls argued for The Genius of David Byrne who she likens to "the deadpan docent of the infrastructural realm". vado retro dropped by and chimed in "most of these lyrics were written before i ever attended architecture school and that was a very long time ago. i read a similar essay... View full entry
Princeton University’s campus is, in Rick Joy’s words, “a beautiful sculpture garden of famous architects’ buildings.” Now Joy, the Tucson-based architect, has added his own sculpture to that garden, in the form of a train station made of blackened stainless steel and precast concrete. — Architectural Record
Renown critic and photographer Fred Bernstein and Jeff Goldberg tag-team a first look at Rick Joy's built foray into public architecture and it's a real treat. View full entry
The neoclassical monument designed by Henry Bacon has become an iconic piece of architecture, but had one of the designs from the other competing architect been selected, the familiar Lincoln Memorial would have looked jarringly different—perhaps in the form of a ziggurat, Mayan temple or Egyptian pyramid. — history.com
Construction work on 'Aladdin City', a project inspired by the tales of Aladdin and Sindbad, will start next year, Dubai Municipality chief told Emirates 24|7. [...]
The project, which was announced in April 2014, will have three towers, comprising commercial and hotel space, with the towers spread over a distance of 450 metres on Dubai Creek. The total cost has not been revealed.
— emirates247.com
Gimme Shelter has learned exclusively that developer The Related Companies has hired Rem Koolhaas to design their new High Line project on W. 18th St. — nypost.com
Thirty-seven years after Delirious New York, Koolhaas may finally have a building in New York City. While OMA has worked on a variety of commercial interiors in NYC before, as well as being a part of HUD's Rebuilding by Design, the High Line residence will be the firm's first "ground-up" building... View full entry
When it opens next month in Boston, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate will be aiming to restore respect for Congress at a time when rancor and partisanship have seriously damaged its reputation. [...]
The 68,000-square-foot institute, designed by the architect Rafael Viñoly, is on the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts and has a 99-year lease on the site.
— nytimes.com
A grand lobby of walnut-paneled walls and Corinthian columns will be lit from above by massive Art Deco chandeliers, and almost 4,000 feet of newly woven gold and scarlet carpet — reconstructed from a remnant discovered beneath an old candy counter — will stretch underfoot. — NYT
Feb 3rd - Opening night at the newly renovated Kings Theater featuring Diana Ross, followed a $95 million renovation. One of five "Wonder Theaters" built in the New York area by the Loew’s Corporation in 1929 and 1930, the building was designed by architect George Rapp. View full entry
The opening art display in September will offer an array of greatest hits from the more than 2,000 pieces the Broads have amassed. The show will range through some 60 years of post-World War II art, arranged in "predominantly chronological" order from the 1950s to a recently acquired massive video installation created in 2012. — Los Angeles Times
For $10, you can get a one-day not-so-sneak preview in the museum on February 15.Previously:Is The Broad Museum's newly unveiled facade living up to its renderings?The Broad Kinda Sorta Has an Opening Date: Fall 2015Los Angeles cultural boom gives city’s artists spaces they can call homeEli... View full entry
Assembling those paper cutouts from the back of the cereal box is a delightful childhood memory for many. Poznan-based design studio Zupagrafika brings back that pastime with their "Brutal London" paper cutouts that would look good on any shelf or desk. Following the Warsaw-inspired "Eastern... View full entry
“San Francisco is really focused on getting things right on the ground, creating a rich fabric,” said Gang... “You have your own ecosystem.” [...]
She’s at work here on a 40-story tower proposed at Folsom and Spear streets, one block in from the Embarcadero. The form would be simple, a lean rectangle, but the silhouette would be a ripple of angled bay windows, jagged and subtle at once.
“Some designers focus on the profile. We’re looking more at the elements, starting from the inside out,”
— sfchronicle.com
The Dr Chau Chak Wing building, which will house a new business school in the inner-city campus, is being hailed as a masterpiece to rival the Sydney Opera House [...]
Traditional lecture halls have been replaced with undulating walls, circular classrooms and a grand chrome-silver staircase. [...]
“The 19th-century buildings in Sydney are the most accessible. They have a humanity while the modern buildings tend to be cold and off-putting,” Gehry said.
— theguardian.com
