Designed to continue the momentum of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980, last year’s sweeping initiative that included exhibitions and programs at 60 arts institutions across Southern California, Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A., will be smaller in scope, comprising nine exhibitions and accompanying programs and events in and around Los Angeles slated for April–July 2013. — news.getty.edu
The Future of Architecture, an overnight exhibition led by the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA), looks into the city’s future and explores different architectural visions as to how Toronto may evolve and transform in the coming years. — designbuildsource.ca
Mayor Bloomberg today will unveil plans to transform Staten Island’s waterfront by building the world’s largest Ferris wheel along with a new retail complex and hotel on sites adjacent to Richmond County Bank Ballpark in St. George. The New York Wheel will be built just to the north of the ballpark and be 625 feet tall – 84 feet higher than the Singapore Flyer, currently the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. — mikebloomberg.com
Citing serious concerns, a group of high-profile architects advising Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the downtown football stadium is recommending a redesign of the Los Angeles Convention Center hall that is part of the project.
Several members of the "Vision Team," a group of eight architects assembled by Villaraigosa to consult, believe the plan has major flaws, including having visitors enter the new hall through a dark, unsafe space created by stretching the building over Pico Boulevard.
— dailynews.com
An architecture buff himself with an interest in skyscraper designs, Villaraigosa formed the eight-member Vision Team, which includes Hitoshi Abe, chairman of the Department of Architecture & Urban Design School at UCLA, architect Scott Johnson of Los Angeles firm Johnson Fain, and Paul... View full entry
In a telephone interview, Mr. Meier said he was “open minded” about the aesthetic of the new crossing, and said that he hoped the final product would be “something people think of in a positive manner.”
“When you think of the great bridges in New York City, you think of the Brooklyn Bridge, right?” he said. “From any point of view, it’s a beautiful bridge, and one would hope that what happens here is of that quality.”
— The New York Times
Architect Richard Meier, Jeff Koons, and the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas P. Campbell are some of the six experts whom New York State Governor Cuomo has named to review the design elements of the three bids the state received for the Tappan Zee bridge project. View full entry
Surrounded by a reflecting pool dotted with floating lanterns, the six-story “Golden Moon” is the creation of Hong Kong-based architects Kristof Crolla and Adam Fingrut, who won a design contest to build the work. Constructed from bamboo and steel, it incorporates golden yellow and flame red fabric as well as 10,000 LED lights that illuminate it from within. The structure took 11 days to complete. — blogs.wsj.com
On Tuesday at Google’s headquarters, the governor of California, Jerry Brown, signed into law a bill to legalize driverless cars. The bill had overwhelmingly passed the State Legislature. Google, which has been building the cars, says they are safer because they nearly eliminate human error. They could also be more fuel-efficient, the company says, and place California and the United States at the forefront of automobile innovation. — bits.blogs.nytimes.com
Bud Goldstone (1926-2012), a former aerospace engineer who worked for over 50 years to save Watts Towers, has died at the age of 86.
In 1959 he devised the test to prove the Towers were structurally sound and stopped the City of Los Angeles from demolishing them. He was a founding member of the Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts, Inc., which successfully sued the city in 1985 to save the Towers from the city's neglect.
— kcet.org
The root cause of diminishing public resources and the privatization of urban public space today is precisely the privatization of our political system — a crisis that cannot be addressed simply by creating more public spaces or by making these public spaces more inclusive and accessible. This deeper crisis requires the attention and intervention of a much more active and engaged public, a public willing and capable of speaking up and mobilizing politically to change the system. — Places Journal
The recent wave of citizen protests — from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park to the streets of Athens — has brought renewed attention to the role of public space in democratic society. In an essay on Places (excerpted from the new book Beyond Zuccotti Park, by New Village... View full entry
“The image was a publicity effort by the Rockefeller Centre,” Corbis’s chief historian Ken Johnston told the Independent. “It seems pretty clear they were real workers, but the event was organised with a number of photographers.” — blogs.artinfo.com
Product simulations are prohibited. Projects cannot simulate events to demonstrate what a product might do in the future. Products can only be shown performing actions that they’re able to perform in their current state of development.
Product renderings are prohibited. Product images must be photos of the prototype as it currently exists.
— kickstarter.com
Last night, in a blog post titled "Kickstarter Is Not a Store", Kickstarter announced that it will no longer accept renderings of products or projects seeking funding. What do you think about their decision to enforce realistic proposals by limiting virtual representation? View full entry
Frieze announced details of the architecture that will house the inaugural edition of Frieze Masters. Employing a design that aims to both literally and figuratively show art in a new light, Frieze Masters is designed by New York-based Selldorf Architects. Frieze Masters will take place 11–14 October 2012 on Gloucester Green, Regent’s Park, London. — artdaily.org
Smith is one of 20 landscape architects who have helped create a new online guide to the city’s important outdoor spaces, some world famous, others, such as the Civil War memorial at U and Vermont Avenue NW, not as well known. The Web site, The Landscape Architect’s Guide to Washington, D.C., was launched Sept. 13 by the American Society of Landscape Architects, and there is a version for mobile devices. — washingtonpost.com
For his latest project, he enclosed Gaetano Russo’s 1892 statue of Christopher Columbus at Columbus Circle within a living room on a scaffold more than 70 feet up. Visitors will be admitted into the 810-square-foot space for a carved-marble-eye view of Central Park. — nytimes.com
The 11 floors tower of the HESAV (Health High School Vaud) has been animated as a rudimentary screen whose pixels are, in fact, all the windows and shutters that students, staff and friends shake for hours. This project announces the celebration "HESAV fait ses 400 coups!" from 1rst to 8th of November 2012 // — youtube.com