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Friday, February 10, 2012

Click here to see today's news:
Jose delves into NYC's efforts "to gird for the '100-year storm,' if it's not already too late": new developments "are supposed to factor in sea-level rise. For the most part, they haven't." -- Hanscom looks at some of the hurdles The Nature Conservancy faces with decision to go urban. -- Berg looks into B.C.'s Tsawwassen First Nation's plans for "a massive exurban shopping mall": critics say it will encourage "more sprawl in this exurban part of greater Vancouver" (does the area really need another mall?). -- An imam slams plans for East London mega-mosque "as 'smoke and mirrors' designed to 'dupe' the local authority into granting planning permission" rather than "a golden opportunity for a fusion of the best of British indigenous architecture fused with eastern design." -- Q&A with Herzog: "Architecture as a way of thinking is more relevant than ever" (long, but interesting read). -- Shuttleworth urges engineers to "find a new Brunel" if they want to regain their role as engineer as "king" and get beyond architects dominating with their "orgy with glass." -- Q&A with HWKN re: exactly how their MoMA/P.S.1 party pavilion, "Wendy" is supposed to work ("a kind of architectural Swiss Army Knife"). -- An eyeful of MVVA's makeover for Grant Park North in Chicago. -- An eyeful of some very cool street furniture you wish your city had (or maybe it does!). -- Mather offers a video tour of Touraine Richmond's Pavilion Dans Les Arbres in California's San Bernardino Mountains. -- The SCAD Art Museum in Savannah "lifts history alongside contemporary design as an equal." -- Viladas visits the Lieb House at its new home in Glen Cove, NY; Venturi and Scott Brown are pleased: "It lost its context, so there's no point grieving for the fact that it had to move. It's now a temple of contemplation on a very serene site." + A look back at the little beach house's big journey up the East River. -- Corbu's Cité Radieuse damaged by fire (no word yet on how badly). -- Weekend diversions: -- "Reconstruction" on view in Canterbury "spans the mundane to the most monumental" of post-war reconstruction in Picardy, France (fabulous pix!). -- RIBA's "A Place to call Home" is "a romp through the history" of the British "obsession with owning property and deep love of houses." -- In Prague, "Block City" offers "the good, bad and ugly sides of mass housing (and the potentially beautiful)." -- Lamster lobs high praise for Koolhaas's "latest doorstop" - "extraordinary book. I feel somewhat churlish to say it is not absolutely perfect." -- Q&A with Siry re: his tome on FLW's Beth Sholom Synagogue. -- Two plays in Philly and San Francisco put architects center stage: one stars a starchitect "who prefers the high paying clients of Dubai ("Billionaires without boarders")"; the other has an architect "suffering through an artistic slump" in a Perry Street aerie.

"Writing about Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities" - use it often and you'll never think of the word "critic" pejoratively again.

 
by Norman Weinstein

January 26, 2012