At university, students from other courses felt that we in architecture weren’t really studying at all; to them the studio seemed like some kind of uber-kindergarten, legitimated for academic credit.... The architecture profession seemed from the outside, and perhaps even to us on the inside, to promise an idyllic eternal childhood of balsa and glue and gee-whiz drawings on computers. — Places Journal
On Places, Naomi Stead discusses the popular conception of architecture as a kind of "child's play." What do dollhouses and architectural models have in common? Why should we care about Lego Architecture and Architect Barbie and the romantic depiction of architects in Hollywood movies? She... View full entry
Three of the most important modernist houses in the Northeast, including the 1964 house Robert Venturi designed for his mother, have been (or will soon be) put up for sale by their long-time owners, two of them without covenants that would ensure their preservation. — archrecord.construction.com
Venturi's Philadelphia House Louis Kahn’s Esherick House View full entry
Israeli practice JerusaLAB Architecture has sent us a tiny but mighty project titled simply, swing: a seesaw penetrating the massive concrete border fence between Israel and Palestine. "The project claims to portray the possibility for peaceful acts in the Israeli Palestinian environment where... View full entry
Students in the School Architecture, with support of Art and Engineering students respond to Cooper Union Board of Trustees failure to uphold the mission of their school through a collaborative intervention upon the School of Architecture Lobby, a white space famously designed by John Hejduk. The... View full entry
San Diego architect Graham T. Downes died on April 21 from injuries following a late-night fight two days before with an employee outside his San Diego home. He was 55. Downes suffered blunt force head and neck trauma, including numerous skull fractures, from the altercation with Higinio Soriano Salgado, according to the San Diego County coroner's report. — archrecord.construction.com
What a tragic story. Here's a letter from letter from his firm. View full entry
Rather elegant," intoned the white-haired figure at the podium. He was speaking of Adolf Hitler's Reich Chancellery, designed in 1938 by Albert Speer. Up next on the screen was the Nuremberg Party Rally Grounds where brown-shirted Nazis paraded en masse. "I think it is really great architecture," said the lecturer. "You take off the swastikas, and you can admire it without feeling guilty." — Wall Street Journal
As you might expect, "Audience members shifted awkwardly in their seats, and a few walked out to protest the remarks by Léon Krier, opening a conference on Berlin at the Yale School of Architecture in February." Anyone manage to actually be there for this, or have any follow-up? View full entry
His office is in the mythical 80 Wooster Street basement studio of George Maciunas – a location long abandoned after its original incarnation as a hive for Fluxus gatherings with artists like Yoko Ono, Andy Warhol, and Jonas Mekas. For his first full-realized New York building, Sondersen is designing the offices of crowd-sourced fundraising website Kickstarter. — ignant.de
The mosque, which is a Unesco world heritage site, has been in rebel hands since earlier this year but the area around it is still contested. — BBC News
Both the state news agency and footage uploaded on YouTube show the 'disappearance' of Aleppo's Umayyad Mosque. The mosque is a Unesco world heritage site but has been at the heart of bitter fighting for several months as rebels try to oust President Bashar al-Assad. In photos published by AP... View full entry
The off-screen protagonist of Herman's House, Herman Wallace, already has a dwelling for his body: a 6-foot-by-8-foot cell at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, aka Angola. But the documentary's on-screen protagonist, Jackie Sumell, wants him also to have a place for his soul: a dream house for a man who desperately needs dreams. — npr.org
The sixth edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE–, opens in May 2014 in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam. The Dutch landscape architect Dirk Sijmons is the curator and the theme is Urban by Nature. The IABR calls for best practices from... View full entry
Stern's architecture is always steeped in strategic references to past landmarks; there is no doubt he knows how to send, and shape, an architectural message. And the message the front entrance to the Bush Library delivers is clear: This is a building meant to honor a particularly blunt and plain-spoken kind of political power. — latimes.com
The Architectural League calls on the Museum of Modern Art to reconsider its decision to demolish the American Folk Art Museum. The Museum of Modern Art—the first museum with a permanent curatorial department of architecture and design—should provide more information about why it... View full entry
Kowloon Walled City, located not far from the former Kai Tak Airport, was a remarkable high-rise squatter camp that by the 1980s had 50,000 residents. A historical accident of colonial Hong Kong, it existed in a lawless vacuum until it became an embarrassment for Britain. This month marks the 20th anniversary of its demolition. — scmp.com
Over the last week, the architectural community has been all aflutter over the fate of the former American Folk Museum Building. A 12-year-old building that was opened just after 9/11, MoMA snatched it up for $23 million in 2011 and is planning to raze its critically acclaimed sculptural bronze facade. It's inevitable, the modern art juggernaut shrugs, because the floors of the adjacent buildings, plus the rest of MoMA uses lots of glass as its primary material rather than metal. — ny.curbed.com
Over the last week, the architectural community has been all aflutter—and, okay, intensely divided—over the fate of the former American Folk Museum Building. A 12-year-old building that was opened just after 9/11 at 45 West 53rd Street, MoMA snatched it up for $23 million in 2011 and... View full entry
Come to think of it, however, here’s another idea for the folk-art-museum building: maybe it should be used to display a small selection of MoMA’s extraordinary collection, so that people can experience some of its great works in a small-scaled space and have a tiny hint of the intimate, enticing museum that MoMA once was. — vanityfair.com
Come to think of it, however, here’s another idea for the folk-art-museum building: maybe it should be used to display a small selection of MoMA’s extraordinary collection, so that people can experience some of its great works in a small-scaled space and have a tiny hint of the... View full entry
