Tim Maly reviewed Google Engineering's new London offices designed by PENSON., which he finds to be a "giddy exercise in science fiction set decoration". Eric Chavkin, commented "The Kubrick set design allusion is to his long time collaborator Ken Adams (Dr. Strangelove, etc)...Adams declined to work on 2001but his influence here is clear. The interior design references watered down NASA enlivened with 60's disco sci-fi camp. This has all the warmth of a sperm-donor clinic."
For Archinect’s latest In Focus feature we talked to Australian photo artist Ward Roberts. He noted that a lot of his own work "is photographed in Hong Kong as the colors and repletion in architecture has always fascinated me." Also, Sherin Wing dissected the reasons why there are... View full entry
Working with the actual drawings for the project’s underground and infrastructure work, done by the architecture firm HOK, the students said they were consistently struck by the complexity of the site’s context and underpinnings. “It just seemed like a big mess,” Mr. Cencer said. “You couldn’t just place what you thought was going to be beautiful. It made so much more sense why it was taking forever. — NYT
This past semester students from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the University of Utah College of Architecture and Planning were tasked with designing a performing arts center for the Joyce Theater, to be located near One World Trade Center. Although architect Frank Gehry had... View full entry
Putting aside the legal and constitutional issues that have been the focus of the Zuccotti debate, design really can help balance the competing imperatives of openness and order. And in fact Zuccotti Park’s particular design manages this relatively well—it certainly can’t be faulted for having made the recent situation any worse. — The New York Observer
In light of the recent attention paid to the concept of POPS and the struggle over the usage rights of public space, Thomas Balsley (one of the foremost landscape architects in NYC, who happens to have designed more Privately Owned Public Spaces, than anyone else) shared his thoughts on the... View full entry
Koolhaas, who once proposed his own unrealized plans for the Secretariat building decades ago, will be joining 3-D designer Hella Jongerius, graphic designer Irma Boom, and artist Gabriel Lester on a team selected by the Dutch government to redesign the North Delegates' Lounge, an informal meeting space where major policymakers and representatives go for a drink at the end of the day. — artinfo.com
Charles and Ray Eames, designers of the classic Eames lounge chair and major contributors to 20th century architecture and furniture designs, also dabbled in the mediums of film and animation. The Information Machine, sponsored by IBM, attempted to explain how and why the computer revolution was occurring and how it benefited regular people who, at that time, may not have ever even seen one in person. — gizmodo.com
Last quarter a group of Cal Poly Pomona architecture and structural engineering students with professors Axel Schimitzberger and Dr. Mikhail Gershfeld conducted a multi disciplinary studio to design prototype tsunami evacuation facilities. The purpose of the studio was to design a temporary... View full entry
Snøhetta has released a virtual tour exploring their proposed expansion/redesign for SFMOMA. SUVERK noted that he spends a lot of time walking through that hood and argues "the new Snohetta design is very stealthy...The surrounding towers St. Regis(SOM) and the W Hotel(Hornberger and Worstell) dominate the skyline to the point that one would not right away notice the SFMOMA expansion- (which is the same size as Botta's).- It will sneak up on you and then you will be curious -WTF is that?
Archinect’s most recent ShowCase feature highlights VLP Chapel in Grand-Bigard, by tcct, a firm based in Bruges, Belgium. News Portuguese collective DOSE sent us images and a fascinating time-lapse video of their project BLUETUBE BAR, a temporary bar to operate at the annual... View full entry
This crazy building is a real live structure and it's also Australia's very first carbon neutral building. Recently completed, the Pixel Building is an office building located on the former CUB Brewery site in Melbourne. — Inhabitat.com
“These churches must become not only a decoration of our city, but truly a phenomenon of civic and church art of our 21st century,” said Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, the executive secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, at a news conference. “They must become a kind of pearl of ancient tradition, uniting historic Moscow with its new districts and buildings.” He said the terms of the competition would be announced by the end of the year. — theartnewspaper.com
The new Rush hospital is already a major success as a work of architecture and urban design. It reminds us that a hospital needs to be designed for two sets of clients: Those who use it and those who simply pass by. The best-designed hospitals heal scars in the cityscape as well as patients. We'll know next year if the new Rush does both. — Blair Kamin
Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the first model of "Urban Umbrella," a beautiful new design for the city's scaffolding structures, in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday.
The design was the winner of the urbanSHED competition which sought to revamp the city's current scaffolding designed more than 60 years ago. Project Engineer Sarrah Khan, Architect Andres Cortes, and Designer Young Hwan Choi who all helped bring the structure to life were also present for Wednesday's unveiling.
— huffingtonpost.com
Previously: 'Urban Umbrella' Wins urbanSHED Design Competition View full entry
The Recording Academy has announced its selection of world-famous architect and multitalented artist Frank Gehry to create the official artwork for the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards. The work integrates traditional GRAMMY iconography with Gehry's unique architectural style in a piece that mirrors The Recording Academy's commitment to celebrating excellence and diversity in art and culture year-round. — grammy.com
It will be used as the official artwork for the world's premier music event and will grace the cover of the GRAMMY Awards program book, telecast tickets and promotional poster. "We are thrilled to announce our collaboration with world-renowned architect Frank Gehry on our official artwork for the... View full entry
For if there is one abiding historical certainty it is that, eventually, things change. And they can be made to change. There is no such thing, however, as a revolutionary architecture. Nor does history ever simply start from scratch. Instead, post-revolutionary questions can be posed in advance to infrastructures that already exist.... to reinvent what used to be called housing, schools, hospitals, factories, and farms in a way that asks: What else must change for these changes to be possible? — Places Journal
Reinhold Martin argues that architects must plan for post-revolutionary conditions. A follow-up to his earlier essay for Places, "Occupy: What Architecture Can Do." View full entry
Architects, your lesson is simple: you have nothing to lose. But don’t expect to gain much on the royalty end unless you’re a one-in-a-million talent or a household name. In any case, get as big an up-front payment as you can for your ideas. — smartplanet.com
We already suspected the Starbucks of the future might be serving a whole lot of juice. Now, it looks like tomorrow’s Starbucks cafes might be rectangular and metal — and look suspiciously like shipping containers. — blog.seattlepi.com