The Rupp Arena, Arts and Entertainment District Task Force hired Gary Bates and his firm, Space Group, as master planners for the district. The group's final report to the Urban County Council and Lexington Center Board is scheduled for the end of January.
The initial results from Space Group's study are compelling and should be implemented. How that might happen, and more importantly, how the proposals will be funded, are questions now on the table.
— kentucky.com
UK/CoD Dean Michael Speaks discusses the value of Space Group's Rupp Arena proposal. Previously: Arena master planner: Rupp could be renovated if convention center moved View full entry
Guy wrote “why, when the evidence is out there, were a number of architects so defensive about the “Don’t Major in Architecture” article? Why are they whining? My conclusion, so far, is that this touched a nerve precisely because this isn’t new information to architects.” In response emergency exit wound asked, “And the assumption that 'an informed public makes the space for architecture more possible' is based on what exactly?
In the latest edition of the CONTOURS feature The Divisions that Bind Us, Guy Horton, analyzed the online commentariat’s response to Catherine Rampell, an economics reporter for The New York Times, article “Want a Job? Go to College, and Don’t Major in... View full entry
Even though Özcan’s photographs do not contain a single human figure, we cannot talk about the absence of the subject. All these images are stamped by the shadow of the subject who has temporarily or permanently left. -Özgür Özakın — Istanbul Fading
Photographer Metehan Özcan captures the fading feeling of the city from his highly poetic viewfinder. Photographer's other work and articles about them can be seen in his website. metehanozcan.com View full entry
Nearly 40 years after its destruction, the people interviewed for the film continue to wrestle with Pruitt-Igoe's legacy and its place in their lives. They love it and hate it, but don't resent it. Despite the piles of trash, mountains of drugs, and preponderance of crime, this was their home. For some, it was their first proper dwelling. — Dante A. Ciampaglia
This morning, the jury at the international St. Petersburg Pier competition announced "The Lens" proposal as the winning entry. Designed by Los Angeles firm Michael Maltzan Architecture in collaboration with landscape architects Tom Leader Studio, the scheme proposes a network of looping walkways and sweeping bridges which will add a landmark to the waterfront of St. Petersburg, Florida. The jury, three architects and two elected officials, selected the concept unanimously. — bustler.net
Academic institutions have a mandate to contribute to public knowledge, but the structures that support the transfer and dissemination of research, and the application of research within urban design practice, are often weak. There is a widening gap between what happens within the academy and what happens on the ground in cities — often a retrograde, generic and ad hoc agglomeration of politically or financially motivated initiatives. — Places Journal
Places interviews Ila Berman, director of architecture at the California College of the Arts, and Mona El Khafif, project coordinator of URBANlab, about research + design initiatives at the lab. The feature includes a slideshow of faculty and student work, including design proposals for... View full entry
The Laurelwood Apartments, designed by R.M. Schindler in 1946, recently underwent a complete exterior restoration after years of neglect and disrepair. The 22-unit hillside housing complex, located in Studio City California, is Schindler’s largest completed work and a designated Historic... View full entry
The Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has won an international competition to design Greenland Group Suzhou Center, a 358-meter supertall landmark tower, in Wujiang, China. This is SOM Chicago’s sixth project with the Greenland Group. — bustler.net
BEST RANKED TERMINALS:
1. Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) Hajj Terminal
2. Leifur Eriksson Air Terminal, Keflavik, Iceland
3. Seoul (South Korea) Incheon Airport
4. Wellington (New Zealand) “Rock” Terminal
5. New York JFK Airport Terminal 5
6. Singapore Changi International Airport Terminal 3
7. Marrakech (Morocco) Menara Airport Terminal 1
8. Madrid (Spain) Barajas Terminal 4
9. Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay
10. Bilbao (Spain) Airport Main Terminal
— dailymail.co.uk
We reported over the summer about the unveiling of the East River Waterfront Esplanade and mentioned plans to further extend it in coming years. Only six months later, Pier 15 just south of South Street Seaport, is now open. Designed by SHoP Architects, with help from Ken Smith Landscape Architect, the new two-story section features sharp angles, a colorful red roof, native flora, and a design that expands upon the existing esplanade. — InhabitatNYC
Finnish architects Kouvo & Partanen have just recently been chosen to design a hotel residence for the astronomers, engineers, and other observatory staff working at ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. At 2,900 meters above sea level, the hotel residence will be built at the ALMA Operations Support Facility in the Atacama Desert, in the foothills of the Chilean Andes. — bustler.net
Following last year’s nuclear disaster in Fukushima, there has been a great deal of public concern over the contamination of local food sources and water and now, newly constructed buildings can be added to the list of radiation fears in Japan. A three-month long survey of students in Nihonmatsu City turned city officials onto the presence of high levels of radiation in one recently built three-story apartment complex. — Inhabitat
BOARD's Europan 11 entry for the Dutch city of Deventer suggests abandoning the idea of agriculture in cities. — http://www.b-o-a-r-d.nl/projects.htm
The Europan 11 entry of the Rotterdam based Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design (BOARD) entitled "Cell Division", suggests giving the spatially magnificent cells in Deventer's famous silo over to apartments containing all the service and facility rooms, such as toilets, bathrooms... View full entry
A Michigan native who as a boy played with Legos and wrote a fifth-grade essay titled "Why I Want to Be an Architect," Ronan wears the black-on-black palette that is a modernist uniform and goes well with his fluffy gray hair. The recognition for the Poetry Foundation headquarters is his second national Honor Award from the AIA. The first, given in 2009, was for the brightly colored Gary Comer Youth Center in the South Side's Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood. — Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune
Our friends at Wallpaper* yesterday announced the winners of their 2012 Design Awards. The international panel of judges, this year comprising Grayson Perry, Rafael Vinoly, Simon de Pury, Gerd Bulthaup, and Jean-Paul Goude, selected the top entries in eleven major design categories. Many more awards in highly specialized design categories were chosen by Wallpaper* editors and contributors. — bustler.net
For the complete list of this year's winners, please visit wallpaper.com or pick up the new issue of Wallpaper* at your trusted newsstand. View full entry