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Every season has its own set of iconic movies, and within that set, there are those that stick out for their portrayal and elevation of architectural issues. Tim Burton’s 1988 classic, Beetlejuice, is perhaps the fall’s best example — an ever-trendy classic Halloween tale that showcases... View full entry
A key building feature on one of Kevin Roche’s most ingenious New York City designs is under threat of being erased, according to the preservation group Docomomo US. The late Pritzker winner’s 60 Wall Street building is undergoing renovation by Kohn Pedersen Fox this summer, and the group says... View full entry
In a last-ditch effort to save an iconic piece of postmodern architecture from its looming demolition, preservationists in Wrocław, Poland have taken an unconventional, yet jovial approach to protesting. Dancing to hits from the 1990s, clad in that era’s attire, in which there was an... View full entry
The work of architect and designer Aldo Rossi, the first Italian winner of the Pritzker Prize in 1990, will be the star of the new major exhibition Aldo Rossi. The architect and the cities opening on March 10 at MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome. The retrospective features a... View full entry
The former Longaberger basket building on the eastern edge of Newark will be open for business again, although it will be a place to spend the night instead of work in an office.
In a couple years, the seven-story basket building will open as a luxury hotel with 150 rooms, a restaurant and indoor pool.
— Newark Advocate
Formerly the quirky headquarters of The Longaberger Company in Newark, Ohio, the building has been sitting empty since 2016 and was eventually sold to developers in late 2017 (previously on Archinect). Cleveland-based Sandvick Architects will be designing the landmark's transformation into a... View full entry
Fifteen months ago the Miami City Commission shot down a recommendation to make the Babylon, the first multifamily building designed by renowned Miami firm Arquitectonica (and its second project ever), a historically protected building.
As a result, the 37-year-old Babylon [...] will be demolished sometime before July.
— Biscayne Times
Telling the history of the building and Miami's Brickell neighborhood, Biscayne Times senior writer Erik Bojnansky explains that "in 1978, Arquitectonica was still an up-and-coming Coral Gables firm. Babylon was its second building, the first being the 6900-square-foot single-family home known as... View full entry
With more and more buildings of the postmodern school regaining media attention—either by entering the realm of heritage protection or by getting contemporary makeovers (essentially taking the Po out of PoMo)—we've now learned about another threatened structure, designed in the late 1970s by... View full entry
That we are now starting to get to grips with PoMo architecture’s controversial legacy is welcome, not least because other important buildings have already been destroyed, and others are threatened. [...]
Today the worlds of design and conservation are more closely allied than before. But even as this latest batch of postmodern buildings has won protected status, it is worth noting that important brutalist buildings are still excluded from the roster.
— The Guardian
Commentary by Catherine Croft for The Guardian on Historic England's recent selection of 17 postmodern buildings to be listed as heritage without extending the same love to important examples of the brutalist school. Recently received Grade II listed status: Judge Business School, University of... View full entry
The Longaberger basket building has been sold.
The iconic seven-story office building at 1500 E. Main St. in Newark has been sold to Coon Restoration of Louisville, which is near Canton. The developer has an eye toward converting the building and its 21-acre site to a new use, the company said in a release.
— bizjournals.com
Developer Steve Coon, the landmark building's new owner, hasn't revealed specific details about his redevelopment plans for the property but announced Cleveland-based Sandvick Architects as the designers for the job. View full entry
postmodernism can be summed up in a single word: Memphis.
Although architectural incarnations such as Graves’s Portland Building in Oregon and Philip Johnson’s Chippendale-topped AT&T Building (now the Sony Tower) in New York generated heated discussion, it was the spectacle of Memphis objects that catapulted postmodern design into the public eye. [...]
postmodern designs, most often from Memphis affiliated names, are gaining market momentum
— blouinartinfo.com
The cycle continues.Related on Archinect:8 Reasons You Will Also Like Postmodern Architecture In 2016Can Helmut Jahn's Thompson Center be saved?Postmodern No 1 Poultry divides architects in debate over recent heritageMore is more: the gaudy genius of the late Deborah SussmanPortland Building still... View full entry
To those concerned about the renovation of the Hood Museum of Art, the situation is charged with paradox: The architects Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, who protested the Museum of Modern Art’s dismantling of the Folk Art Museum they designed in Manhattan, are now transforming the Hood, an award-winning museum designed by Charles Moore [...].
“It’s almost as if they were getting revenge for what MoMA did to their Folk Art Museum [...] It’s totally insensitive to the Moore building.”
— nytimes.com
Tod Williams and Billie Tsien previously in the Archinect news:"Starts with me, ends with us": A conversation with Tod Williams and Billie Tsien on Archinect Sessions Episode #22Tod Williams and Billie Tsien presented with National Medal of Arts by President ObamaTod Williams & Billie Tsien... View full entry
There is no way back, we are all Postmodern now. Can you stay behind? Do you really care that Postmodernism destroyed the ideals of Modernism? Come on, — Failed Architecture
"If you are reading this, you probably already have a certain interest in architecture, but chances are that you never warmed up to those kinds of buildings from the late 70s, 80s and early 90s, generally classified as ‘Postmodern’. The architecture of these buildings is often based on a loose... View full entry
I confess that I feel the sort of ambivalence toward the James R. Thompson Center as I did toward Prentice Women's Hospital: I do understand why people want to raze it, I don't find it pretty, I understand the functional problems.
But all the same, I believe the Thompson Center should be saved.
[...] Chicago remains full of examples of money and vision coming together to create wonderful buildings.
— chicagobusiness.com
Related Chicago preservation stories:Chicago's iconic Marina City could be headed for landmark statusPrentice Hospital Could Become Modern Architecture’s ‘Penn Station Moment’ View full entry
Aldo Rossi’s addition to the San Cataldo Cemetery is a paragon of postmodern architecture, seeing the cemetery up close exposes some of the style’s major shortcomings.
[...] all you’ve got left is a half-empty, unfinished cemetery with assorted maintenance equipment left lying around. Perhaps you can keep drawing meaning from this decay. But lord knows it’s difficult to sustain a deep engagement with life and death after you’ve tripped over a garden hose.
— failedarchitecture.com
Related on Archinect:How a postmodernist department store is trying to become the youngest monument in PolandPostmodern No 1 Poultry divides architects in debate over recent heritageThey died as they designed: famous architects' self-styled gravestones View full entry
It might be the City’s most contested site. A new call to list No 1 Poultry, designed by architect Sir James Stirling and one of the last monuments of postmodernism, has revived a debate about the position and the protection of recent heritage.
A proposal by Perella Weinberg [...] to make changes to an imperfect building has provoked the Twentieth Century Society to call for its listing at Grade II*, the second highest status available (and the highest possible for such a recent structure).
— ft.com
Related:Robin Hood Gardens residents dare Lord Rogers to spend a night in the blighted estateHow a postmodernist department store is trying to become the youngest monument in Poland View full entry
