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Architectural experts are to meet in Venice to discuss the restoration of Glasgow School of Art's (GSA) Mackintosh library, which was destroyed in a fire in May.
The art school will host two meetings to explore key questions around the rebuilding of the unique library, one in the Italian city in October and the second in Glasgow next spring.
— telegraph.co.uk
Previously: Glasgow School of Art fire View full entry
Built in 28BC as a suitably glorious tomb for Augustus and his relatives, with pink granite obelisks, golden urns and a bronze statue of the emperor on top, it has suffered innumerable indignities ever since the sack of Rome.
Now, fenced off and often used as a dumping site for litter, and even as an unofficial public lavatory, it goes almost unnoticed by the diners who crowd into the restaurants of the square around it.
— theguardian.com
Previously: Saudi royal family could pay for restoration of Roman monuments View full entry
Sited at the heart of France's main business district at La Défense, the enormous and impressive Grande Arche was always more than a monument to the triumph of humanitarian ideals over military glory. [...]
A quarter of a century on, however, the crumbling state of La Grande Arche de la Défense might be a metaphor for France's struggling economy. [...]
The government has now promised €200m (£160m) worth of "important renovation work" [...] to begin in October and last for two years.
— theguardian.com
"The people of Glasgow and many people far beyond were horrified when a few weeks ago fire ripped through the Art School, gutting its priceless library.
The UK government has already made a £5m contribution to the Mackintosh Appeal to help ensure that the building is restored to its former glory.
And we are today making an additional £5m contribution to support the School's new Graduate and Research Centre." — UK Chancellor George Osborne
— bbc.com
This past May, a fire destroyed much of the historic Mackintosh library at the Glasgow School of Art, a modern masterpiece by Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Now, as part of an increase in the UK's funding of Glasgow's life sciences, business and arts sectors, the School has the... View full entry
More than 150 cracks have been repaired, rainwater leaks have been sealed, and the 130-year-old Washington Monument is set to reopen Monday for the first time in nearly three years since an earthquake caused widespread damage.
The memorial honoring George Washington has been closed for about 33 months for engineers to conduct an extensive analysis and restoration of the 555-foot stone obelisk that was once the tallest structure in the world.
— blogs.wsj.com
Neo-Classicism as a style made its real debut in the 1760s after several stillbirths...By the late 1770s, neo-Classicism had evolved into the graceful iteration we see in the Salon, and with its references to the classical world acquired a new and somewhat unanticipated meaning in the bargain: — NYT
David Netto examined what the restoration of a storied French neo-Classical salon reveals about polite society and high design. Spearheaded by curator Martin Chapman with help from Andrew Skurman Architects, the Louis XVI period room has been reinstalled.For more information visit The Legion... View full entry
A training barracks used by Roman gladiators and the 2,000-year-old mausoleum of the Emperor Augustus could be restored with money from the Saudi royal family, in the latest effort by Italy to secure funding for its crumbling cultural heritage.
In a deal brokered by Ignazio Marino, the mayor of Rome, the Saudi royals are to provide millions of euros to pay for the restoration of some of the capital's neglected monuments.
— telegraph.co.uk
Related: Greece protests over government plans to sell off historic national buildings View full entry
Since the Civil War, the majestic dome of the U.S. Capitol has symbolized the unity of the United States, despite the discord in the government it overlooks. [...]
But the dome has lately grown as fractured as the federal government, and Tuesday the Architect of the Capitol announced that a $59 million project to save it would begin next month. [...]
There are now hundreds of cracks and deficiencies, and water already has stained parts of the Capitol’s interior.
— The Washington Post
So continues the battle of saving neglected pavilions from their ultimate fate of destruction. MODERN RUIN: A World's Fair Pavilion by filmmaker and film educator Matthew Silva tells the eventful tale of Philip Johnson's New York State Pavilion in the last 50 years.The film starts with the... View full entry
The winners of the international 2013 Faith & Form/IFRAA Awards Program restored and remodeled religious spaces that can indeed be deemed worthy of praise.
Founded in 1978 and co-sponsored by Faith & Form Magazine and the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA), the annual awards program recognizes the best in architecture, liturgical design, and art for religious spaces.
— bustler.net
Here's a selection of the winning submissions: Find more winning submissions and other competition details on Bustler. Images courtesy of 2013 Faith & Form/IFRAA Awards Program. View full entry
Nuremberg plans to spend up to 70 million euro restoring the sprawling complex used by Adolf Hitler for his mass rallies, as debate continues in Germany over what to do with Nazi-era architecture.
“This is a job of national importance, we cannot take it on alone,” said Ulrich Maly, the Social Democrat mayor of the Bavarian city, who added he would ask for federal funds to complete the project.
— rt.com
The Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand opened its doors to the public for the first time on August 6. Designed by Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, the cathedral is a temporary replacement of the original Christchurch Cathedral, the city's symbol that was destroyed by a 6.3-magnitude... View full entry
The opening of Work Towards Fairness by architect Eric Moed signifies the first step towards the restoration of Casa do Passal in central Portugal. The Casa do Passal was formerly inhabited by Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat who helped around 30,000 people escape into neutral... View full entry
Lawrence Kocher and Albert Frey built the Aluminaire House in 1931 for an exhibition in New York City mostly out of mass-produced building materials donated by manufacturers. The project became recognized as an exemplary prototype of modern building forms and techniques at the time, while also... View full entry
Balance. For decades we’ve had an art culture that tries to wow us with too muchness — blockbusters, biennials, bank-breaking museum buildings no one needs — and that ends up delivering way too little. Could it be that the day of just enough is upon us, and that Yale’s just right museum is a bellwether? — NYT
Holland Cotter reviews the final results of the $135 million renovation and expansion of Yale’s museum complex. The entire refurbished complex — a block-and-a-half-long stretch that is itself a museum of changing architectural styles — officially re-opened two weeks ago... View full entry
