The Society of Architectural Historians will induct Barry Bergdoll, Diane Favro, Richard Longstreth and Therese O’Malley as SAH Fellows at its 2016 Annual International Conference in Pasadena. Fellows of the Society of Architectural Historians are those individuals who have distinguished... View full entry
Given the threat of ongoing lead exposure and the community’s well-founded mistrust of government, should families be offered at least temporary resettlement while upgrades, repairs and enhancements are made to Flint’s badly contaminated water infrastructure?
I ask this fully aware of how unprecedented and complex such a policy would be. After all, some 9,000 young children may have been exposed to contaminated water.
— Washington Post
For more articles on urban health issues like the ongoing crisis in Flint, check out these links:America has an infrastructure problem – and it's getting criticalThe crisis in Flint and why architects should care about decentralizing our water systemsMore and more people are dying as a result of... View full entry
In December, Airbnb released a trove of data that showed about 95 percent of its hosts in New York City were playing by the rules. But an independent report released Wednesday cast a shadow on that rosy picture, claiming that the company “misled the media and the public” by removing more than 1,000 listings from its site in November before making available the data
[...]
The report portrays the December release as a cynical attempt to garner good press...
— New York Times
“Airbnb continues to show a blatant disregard for New York laws designed to protect the rights of tenants and prevent the proliferation of illegal hotels," said Matt Mittenthal, a spokesman for New York’s attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman.For more on the "disruptive" influence of Airbnb... View full entry
Adorned with gold and marble, [the Trump Tower] looks like Saddam Hussein went on a shopping spree with Liberace.
To make way for its construction, Mr Trump demolished the handsome Art Deco Bonwit Teller department store. He promised to donate its bas-relief carvings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but it turned out they were too expensive to remove so they were smashed to pieces on site instead.
— Financial Times
Loud, pushy, indifferent to anything but self-touted glamour: Donald Trump's politics and his buildings share a great deal in common. In this piece, The Financial Times' reigning design critic Edwin Heathcote briefly touches on the repugnant qualities that the Donald's politics and his buildings... View full entry
In a filing Tuesday, the city asked the judge in the case to lift an order barring Lucas from starting construction before the legal fight is resolved. The city argues the order "puts the entire project at risk" because the museum "may choose to leave Chicago and relocate to another city." A status hearing is set for Wednesday. — Chicago Tribune
Will Los Angeles be the ultimate destination for George Lucas' museum? It's a possibility if the Chicago legal battles drag on, which makes one wonder: what would be the easiest, hassle-free site? Downtown? The Westside?In the meantime, here's a recap of the history of the Lucas Museum... View full entry
“Practicing” architecture is moving from a profession that focuses on building buildings as its highest calling, to a lifestyle that appreciates the beauty of architectural design, real or fantastic. This shift has two underlying realities. Just like the musician who lives his art, or the athlete who loves her sport, there are people that love architectural design, deeply, but fewer architects are needed to create buildings in this generation. — Common Edge
"The lack of need is based on less construction activity (a normal cycle, but now longer than any living architect has experienced) and the fact that technology has pre-empted the body count necessary per building design."For more on the current status of the profession, check out these... View full entry
I want the house to be an educational tool for young architects, and I want to inspire good architecture for Los Angeles - James Goldstein — LATimes
In a most generous move, public in Los Angeles is assured to have access to a masterpiece designed by legendary architect and maintained by its colorful owner Jim Goldstein who dedicated a good part of his living to the healthy survival of the house."Even though he had the Concannon Residence... View full entry
Amnesty International and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, recently presented reports on the vulnerable position of women refugees and the dangers they face.
Europe is failing to provide basic protection for them, the Amnesty report stated.
This problem is now all the more critical because the percentage of women among the refugees who travel through Europe has risen dramatically.
— Al Jazeera
"All the women interviewed for the Amnesty report said that they felt unsafe and threatened during the various stages of their journey. Women are at greater risk of becoming victims of violence, robbery and extortion... There is also the threat of rape and sexual assault by smugglers, security... View full entry
On March 18, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens an annex at Madison Avenue and 75th Street in Manhattan, it will be attempting to shrug off the ghost of a museum past.
The specter is the Whitney Museum of American Art, which called the iconic Marcel Breuer building on that corner home for nearly five decades. In an eight-year deal, the Met is leasing the Breuer building from the Whitney— which relocated to its dazzling new Renzo Piano–designed home last year...
— Architectural Record
The Breuer-designed building will house some of the Met's modern and contemporary collection. But shrugging off the association between the Brutalist masterpiece and its former tenant may prove a tough task. For many, nothing say's "the Whitney" more than those protruding windows... For related... View full entry
A handful of scientists and policy makers are...grappling with the long-term environmental effect of an economy that runs increasingly on gotta-have-it-now gratification [...]
The environmental cost can include the additional cardboard — 35.4 million tons of containerboard were produced in 2014 in the United States, with e-commerce companies among the fastest-growing users — and the emissions from increasingly personalized freight services.
— NY Times
As internet retailers compete to provide as-close-to-instant services to satiate our increasing desire for rapid gratification, our collective ecological footprint grows. The problem isn't just the cardboard boxes piling up on your doorstep, but also the carbon emissions required to get that... View full entry
American infrastructure is deferred home maintenance on a massive scale. We just keep putting it off until something major — and often catastrophic — happens, and then it ends up costing twice as much [...]
A century later, we’ve lost our collective faith in the power of great projects like the Golden Gate, not to mention our trust in the government to fix a pothole on time and on budget, let alone create an inspiring bridge. How can we restore that faith in possibility?
— mobile.nytimes.com
Allison Arieff, editor and content strategist for SPUR (and former judge for Archinect's Dry Futures competition), pens this piece for the Times calling for infrastructure to reprioritize the "bold and courageous," with a look at a few awe-inspiring urban infrastructure projects around the... View full entry
The letters are written to Aline Bernstein Louchheim, who became Saarinen's second wife in 1954. The Archives of American Art have an impressive collection of photos and letters from Eero and Aline, which you can view here. View full entry
dying online is open to anyone willing to share his or her end with the blogosphere. [...]
This dissolving of the barriers between the public and the intimate is death’s vital new upgrade... death has acquired a “neurotic separation” from daily life, and this separation has been identified as part of the “malaise of the late twentieth century.”
But thanks to the internet, death might be losing some of its pariah status.
— designobserver.com
Prompted by the recent mass internet-public mourning of David Bowie, as well as a few agencies that offer post-death social media updates to perpetuate the online persona of your late loved-ones, Adrian Shaughnessy (graphic designer at the Royal College of Art) reflects on how a death shared... View full entry
The NYPD has used cell-site simulators, commonly known as Stingrays, more than 1,000 times since 2008, according to documents turned over to the [NYCLU]. The documents represent the first time the department has acknowledged using the devices.
The NYPD also disclosed that it does not get a warrant before using a Stingray, which sweeps up massive amounts of data. Instead, the police obtain a “pen register order” from a court... [which] do not require the police to establish probable cause...
— theintercept.com
Stingrays operate by imitating cell phone towers, sweeping up massive amounts of user data without their knowledge or permission. They force cell phones to connect to them and then track the user's location. Originally a military technology, they have been increasingly bought and used by local... View full entry
What can architects learn from an award-winning producer and actor whose Netflix Original Series made appointment TV obsolete?
A lot.
— AIA Convention 2016 Press Announcement
Kevin Spacey will be the keynote speaker for the upcoming 2016 AIA Convention in Philadelphia, partly because he is described on the AIA's website as having a "talent for disruption and drive to challenge the status quo." Disruption seems to be trendy in the architectural community of late... View full entry