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Amanda Burden often said that, thanks to Bloomberg, "we are building and rezoning today once again like Moses on an unprecedented scale, but with Jane Jacobs in mind." That's oxymoronic. You can't do both. As for who's winning the future of New York, it's clearly the followers of Moses. The preservationists are the underdogs here. — nymag.com
This modernist villa on the Côte d’Azur, designed by Irish architect Eileen Gray, has witnessed wartime shootings, murder and vandalism by Le Corbusier. Now, at last, it has been brought back to life [...]
Le Corbusier visited and, apparently outraged that a woman could have made such a significant work in a style he considered his own, assaulted it with a series of garish and ugly wall paintings, which he chose to execute completely naked.
— theguardian.com
Arts patrons continue to support the restoration of the Painted Hall at the Christopher Wren-designed Old Royal Naval College at the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London. Over the next three years, the ORNC's three-stage conservation project would clean and restore the... View full entry
New plans for the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Arcadia has neighbors riled up.
Owners of the 1952 house want to turn it into more than just a home, but those living in the wealthy neighborhood aren't too happy about it.
[...] said the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house is "an example of what I consider to be an architecture embodiment of Arizona exceptionalism."
However, this landmark home now finds itself in the middle of controversy.
— azfamily.com
Prolific Los Angeles Modernist Rudolph Schindler designed dozens of timeless duplexes, apartments, houses, and office buildings, but he only ever designed one church. Bethlehem Baptist Church in Central-Alameda was built in 1944 for a small, black church congregation. Now, just after a much-needed restoration to what was for many years a pretty rough-looking building, the architecturally significant church—an official Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Landmark—is up for sale. — la.curbed.com
Beginning as the New Bodleian Library, the Weston Library at Oxford University was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and constructed in the 1930s. Although construction finished in 1940, wartime purposes delayed the building's official opening in 1946. For the most part, the building remained... View full entry
After almost a year of impassioned debate, the Glasgow School of Art’s Director has announced that its Library will be restored to its original state. [...]
In response to Professor Inns' statement, Professor of Architecture Alan Dunlop asserts below that Mackintosh himself sought new forms in architecture and that there are architects capable of designing a new Library to live within his original masterpiece.
— bbc.co.uk
Previously: Five firms shortlisted for Mackintosh Library renovation after devastating fire View full entry
Nicholas Korody profiled the Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND). jla-x was excited as has "been looking for a way to get involved with something like this". News - The world lost visionary Frei Otto and his death moved up the announcement of his winning the 2015 Pritzker Prize. Plus, the... View full entry
As buildings from the postmodern eon continue to age with their residents, questions about historic significance and aesthetic relevance start to surface, leading to often heated debates whether the structures we used to love so much already merit magisterial protection or should give way for the... View full entry
Let me share a secret with you. Even those who love the Gothic extravagance that is the Victorian Palace of Westminster know that great swaths of it are out of date. [...]
In 2015 the urgent question is again what to do about it. [...] options ranging from staggering on as usual with make-do-and-mending to a new 21st-century building on a new site, possibly far from London.
— theguardian.com
Islamic State militants ransacked Mosul’s central museum, destroying priceless artefacts that are thousands of years old, in the group’s latest rampage which threatens to upend millennia of coexistence in the Middle East.
The destruction of statues and artefacts that date from the Assyrian and Akkadian empires, revealed in a video published by Isis on Thursday, drew ire from the international community and condemnation by activists and minorities that have been attacked by the group.
— theguardian.com
The Chinese government has promised to protect a rural mountain village that contains some of the country’s oldest temples and residences. [...]
Despite designating Banpo as a protected heritage site in 2007, the Jincheng city government nonetheless allowed the Shanxi Jincheng Anthracite Mining Group to displace the village later that year. [...] Nearly every building was destroyed and those that remained were left in ruins.
— theartnewspaper.com
“Corporations are people, my friend.” View full entry
On December 21, 2014, the Berkeley Art Museum permanently closed its iconic Modern building in preparation for a move to a nearby new building in 2016. Considered by many to be the Bay Area’s most remarkable example of Brutalism [...]. Although the building is a local landmark and listed on the National Register, its intricate concrete forms pose seismic safety risks, leaving a future for the building unclear. — docomomo-us.org
It’s easy enough to blame economic forces for the postwar destruction of slave markets, but not for the persistent concealment of their history. One hundred and fifty years after the Civil War, the South has no shortage of memorials to the Lost Cause, while memorials to the slave trade remain few and far between. [...]
After the Civil War, Johnson says, “the price of moving forward for the white United States was the forgetting of slavery.”
— citylab.com
The United States is pleased to announce the nomination of a group of 10 buildings in seven states designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for inclusion on the World Heritage List. The UNESCO World Heritage List recognizes the “outstanding universal value” of the most significant cultural and natural sites on the planet. — U.S. Department of State
The nomination of ten buildings by the influential architect represents the first World Heritage nomination by the U.S. of works of modernist architecture. Entitled "Key Works of Modern Architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright," the list includes:Unity Temple in Oak Park, IllinoisFrederick C. Robie... View full entry