The proposal would replace a parking lot and a low building near the northwest corner of Market and Van Ness with a 34-story, 400-foot residential tower designed by New York's Richard Meier & Partners. — San Francisco Chronicle
Things are changing enormously in almost every sense. The effects of globalization have been positive and negative. My generation of architects is the first that could work almost anywhere in the world. We had the option to repeat the same building everywhere or to push ourselves forward, to create an encounter between ourselves and the local culture. — americancity.org
Your message is really a philosophical message to architects. You’re trying to show us how we can build cities and break out of the old modes of urban planning and urban design.
And even thinking about or imagining cities that we have had for the past few hundred years, you’re offering a new way. I don’t know anyone else that’s done that today. Maybe someone will say Colin Rowe. OK—Collage City, but this goes far, far beyond Collage City and any urban theory of Corbusier or anyone else.
— lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com
Excerpts of a Candid Conversation between Thom Mayne and Lebbeus Woods Recorded in the privacy of LW’s studio, transcribed by Dave Irwin View full entry
“One of the things that may come out of the study is that the design of those cones [the north-facing oculi] may have inadvertently or in some other way, you know, turned out to actually have reflections coming in when Renzo sold you a bill of goods that said it wouldn’t.”
That’s how Criswell remembers the exchange weeks later.... He is clearly proud that he stood up to Strick, a man who, he says, isn’t accustomed to having people talk back. And he’s proud that he insulted Renzo Piano."
— D magazine
Great story on the creation of the new Museum Tower in Dallas, which is baking the very district it's meant to be an anchor for... View full entry
In anticipation of the Publish Or... bracket [GOES SOFT] event at WUHO Gallery this past Thursday, April 19, Archinect showcased a few select projects from the book including GROUNDING: Landslide Mitigation Housing Jared Winchester / Viktor Ramos. Orhan Ayyüce opined “Let the earth slide. don't build in land slide areas. another anology to this is seminal article by mike davis, ‘let malibu burn’ meaning don't build in areas where nature has a way of acting up."
For current feature 525 Golden Gate Seismically and Systematically Sustainable I spoke with architect David Hobstetter, of the San Francisco firm KMD Architects. David made the case for seismic resilience as a key factor in discussing his building’s sustainability. Particularly, within... View full entry
The breakthrough, he said, would be a brand-new city and maritime port on the coast, 18 miles away — an idea now common in China...“This idea came to us — why can’t we do that in Georgia?” he said. “We looked out and we saw there is free space on the Black Sea coast.” — NYT
Ellen Barry covers Georgian plans for a new city of half a million people, on a stretch of marshy land near the Black Sea. The first building, a futuristic Public Service Hall for the new city has already begun construction. However, a host of practical considerations from financing, to... View full entry
The rural as a strict counterpart to the urban appears to be a condition of the past. — http://www.monu-magazine.com/news.htm
The rural as a strict counterpart to the urban appears to be a condition of the past. At least, this is what Kees Christiaanse posits in an interview with us entitled "The New Rural: Global Agriculture, Desakotas, and Freak Farms". He points out that, today, non-urban spaces interact so... View full entry
The Trust for the National Mall exhibited the final design concepts of the National Mall Design Competition last week....Orhan Ayyüce, argued "It is really deplorable when all the renderings are depicting entertained crowds and happy go around shopping mall like experiences. The National Mall is much more meaningful when it houses 'people' voicing something in masses.
Terri Peters offered up a report from SmartGeometry 2012 in Troy, New York. SmartGeometry is an international community of academics and professionals who hold annual workshops and conference days at academic institutions around the world and the theme for this year (it’s ninth)... View full entry
In the international design competition for Yenikapı Transfer Point and Archaeo-Park Area in Istanbul, Turkey, three First Prizes have been announced this week. The jury selected the top project teams Eisenmann Architects/Aytaç Architects, Atelye 70/Francesco Cellini/Insula Architettura E Ingegneria, and Cafer Bozkurt Architects/Mecanoo Architects from nine shortlisted teams, including MVRDV and other international firms. — bustler.net
The people who run the Swedish home-furnishings behemoth are launching a bold push into the business of designing, building and operating entire urban neighbourhoods. Where once they placed a couch in a living room, the Swedes now want to place you and 6,000 neighbours into a neglected corner of your city, design an entire urban world around you, and Ikea-ize your lives. Their bold, high-concept notion of an urban ’hood could be an important solution to the housing-supply shortages... — theglobeandmail.com
Medellín has turned itself into a model Latin American city, with good transport, dynamic public spaces, new schools and a culture of civic architecture. The real design project, however, was one of social organisation, with a section of society grouping together and deciding to rewrite their city's story. — Guardian
Justin McGuirk analyzes the "social urbanism" of Medellín's "self-consciously iconic" architecture. Efforts by politicians such as Sergio Fajardo and architects like Giancarlo Mazzanti to focus on public space and civic architecture, were he finds part of a larger program of... View full entry
Chicago Past collects large photos of historic Chicago. — chicagopast.tumblr.com
This is a great tumblr blog to follow if you're feeling Chi-town nostalgic. View full entry
Because towers take so long to plan and construct, the current crop reflect a vision up to a decade old, reckons Nick Offer of Arup, an engineering firm. Economic conditions and the scale of such projects mean that only the very brave will invest now... In 2010 the coalition scrapped the previous, Labour government’s density targets, which were designed to encourage developers to build more units. Instead it has endorsed “garden cities” — economist.com
Related: Just climbing the shard, whatever... View full entry
“Both L.A. and Mexico City have improved but in Mexico City, the change has been a lot more,” said Luisa Molina, a research scientist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has done extensive pollution comparisons. Mexico “is very advanced not just in terms of Latin America, but around the world. When I go to China, they all want to hear the story of Mexico.” — nytimes.com
This week, the Trust for the National Mall opened the exhibition featuring the twelve final design concepts of the National Mall Design Competition in Washington, D.C. [...]
The submissions, created by ten of the country’s design heavy hitters, re-envision three prominent National Mall locations: Union Square, Sylvan Theater on the Washington Monument Grounds, and Constitution Gardens.
— bustler.net