Chyutin Architects is threatening to resign after the Wiesenthal Center withheld a scheduled payment over what center officials say is the architect’s failure to meet certain contractual obligations on the $100-million project, according to Wiesenthal spokesman Lior Chorev in Jerusalem. — latimesblogs.latimes.com
Last Saturday, October 1, the Royal Institute of Architects, RIBA, not only awarded the 2011 Stirling Prize to Zaha Hadid Architects for the best new European building built or designed in the United Kingdom—the office's second consecutive Stirling Prize win—but also presented this... View full entry
Suzanne Labarre of Fast Company uses the term "Lady Parts" in a review of the self-designed Shanghai studio by/for Taranta Creations. Liebchen correctly points out "When its vaginal, its a "design crime." But Philip Johnson gets to hold his little Johnson/model of the AT&T building on the cover of time magazine and everyone's fine with it? http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1979/1101790108_400.jpg"
In the third part of the CONTOURS: feature Sherin Wing, talks about urban justice. Specifically the needs of those impoverished, living in our own urban centers often in what Sherin describes as "Segregated urban centers". Drawing on the work of Edward Soja, Distinguished Professor... View full entry
A design competition opened in December 1860 with a month's deadline; it drew 171 submissions. The winning architect, Garnier, was a blacksmith's son who had studied at the École des Beaux Arts, taking its Grand Prix de Rome for architecture in 1848. — online.wsj.com
The Evelyn Grace Academy, a cutting-edge new secondary school in Brixton, south London by Zaha Hadid Architects has won the prestigious £20,000 RIBA Stirling Prize 2011 for the best new European building built or designed in the United Kingdom. This is the second year running that Zaha Hadid Architects have won the RIBA Stirling Prize; last year they won the award for their MAXXI Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome... — RIBA
The results of the 2011 Solar Decathlon has just been announced, and the winner is University of Maryland WaterShed house! The beautiful water-conservation themed house has been leading the competition pretty much since the first day that the Solar Decathlon kicked off, taking first place in the architecture contest and scoring in the top five in almost every contest; from engineering to communications. — Inhabitat
The new library across from the Pacific Design Center strikes an appealingly upbeat tone, borrowing from various architectural influences to become one of the most impressive public pieces in the region in a decade. — Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times
The MVRDV and COBE scheme for the transformation of a former concrete factory into a multifunctional creative hub was chosen winner of an international design competition. The master plan proposes an informal transformation of the 45,000m2 site into a dense neighborhood, incl. 8,000m2 existing factory halls, organized around a plaza for events. — bustler.net
Matthew Marks arrived at Ellsworth Kelly’s studio in Columbia County, N.Y., last year with an architectural model of his new Los Angeles-area gallery. It was meant as both visual aid and inspiration. Mr. Marks was hoping to entice Mr. Kelly into creating something for the building’s facade. — NYT
The NYT discusses the future West Hollywood Matthew Marks Gallery, designed by ZELLNERPLUS, with Ellsworth Kelly sculpture-embellished façade. Location: West Hollywood, California. 2011 Design Architect: ZELLNERPLUS Structural Engineer: Gordon Polon SE MEP Engineer: Creative Engineering... View full entry
An unprecedented architectural public education event is going to take place in New York. After Rome, Moscow, Terni, and St. Petersburg, VELONIGHT, the unique project by professor Sergey Nikitin, founding director of Moskultprog, is inviting to explore the postwar cultural and architectural history of New York City on bicycles in the night between October 1 and 2. — VELONIGHT
Architects and cultural historians, including Rem Koolhaas, Guy Nordenson, Jean-Louis Cohen, Peter Eisenman, Ken Jackson, Tony Fletcher and others, will narrate the moonlight bike tour that will take participants from the Guggenheim Museum to Downtown Manhattan, riding past icons (and failures)... View full entry
Just two more days, and New Yorkers get to celebrate - for the first time ever - a very special month in their city: Archtober, a month-long festival of architectural design activities, programs and exhibitions. Presented by the Center for Architecture and many, many other collaborating... View full entry
The building’s exterior was made a landmark in 1997. The interior, which had come to public attention after a signature metal screen by the sculptor Harry Bertoia was removed, was not given landmark status until February. Two months after the interior landmark designation, the commission granted the new owner, Vornado, permission to make changes to the building. — NYT
Designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill the former Manufacturers, the former Hanover Trust building located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, is considered a Modernist landmark. Robin Pogrebin examines the ongoing court battle between preservationists and... View full entry
For his thesis project at the University of Toronto, Clint Langevin, in collaboration with Amy Norris, proposed "repurposing abandoned mines as renewable energy infrastructure in the U.S." — bldgblog.blogspot.com
Check out more of Clint's work on his profile. View full entry
A complex scale model of Tokyo is on view by appointment at Tokyo's Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills. The model was built in 2003 by 30 Mori employees over approximately 17 months. All streets and buildings were photographed at street level and from above via helicopter. They were then adjusted in Photoshop and glued to polystyrene models. — thepolisblog.org
German firm kadawittfeldarchitektur has sent us fascinating first photographs of the recently completed new adidas research and development building "adidas Laces". The new structure houses 1,700 working places at the adidas World of Sports campus in Herzogenaurach, Germany. — bustler.net
