Muschamp in Arcadia

Herbert's back. And up to his old tricks, spewing ruminations on - of all things - Art Nouveau and the 1960's. Not to mention old favorites like Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid.



A sampling:

Art Nouveau was a protean style. Those tendrils made for excellent shape shifting: flower stems, flowing tresses, sea grass, drapery, smoke, snakes, sonic reverberations, aroma, the emanations of lost souls. . . .

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There were real snakes in Art Nouveau's imaginary gardens. Some of them wanted to be petted. Others could swallow you whole.

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But how great it was to be young and neurotic in the 1960's! Nowadays, just about everyone is an uncontrollable misfit, but around 1960 it was just you, Montgomery Clift and Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. Those were the days.

Oh, Herbert!

Monday, Monday

This week's update:

White Noise / White Light installation in Athens, Greece.

The updated book feature is Time Magazine's Great Buildings of the World.



Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Inside Arch, the inside view into firms and professional culture.



International Dark Sky Association, "to preserve and protect the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through quality outdoor lighting." (via Architectural Matters)



Busan International Architectural Competition, by a team at Texas Tech University

Mark Your Calendar

On Thursday, September 20 and Friday, October 1, a two-day conference will be held at HUB-Center of the Illinois Institute of Technology (3300 South Federal Street in Chicago).

Sustainable Communities, Learning from the Dutch Experience, will highlight innovations in green design; environmental safety; public policy; economic incentives in building sustainable communities; architecture and design. World-renowned speakers from the Netherlands and Chicago will present their views and vision at this groundbreaking symposium.

Additional information and registration is available via the above link.

Kleihues Remembered

Chicago Public Radio features an audio piece on Josef Paul Kleihues, architect of the Museum of Contemporary Art's home, who died recently at the age of 71.



From its August 22 arts show, Hello Beautiful!, host Edward Lifson ends the piece by playing the kid's song "Can We Fix It?", from a Bob The Builder album, with the repeated chorus "Can we build it? Yes we can!" In my opinion a better tune would be Stereolab's "Crest", that has the repeated words, "If there’'s been a way to build it, there’'ll be a way to destroy it." The band is more likely singing metaphorically about political structures, but it comes close to summing up a lot of people's feelings about Kleihues's only Chicago building. But that would be far too negative a commentary on such a sad occasion.

Deerfield Gehry

After Blair Kamin reported (registration req'd) that Deerfield - a suburb located about 25 miles north of Chicago - is pursuing Frank Gehry to design their public library, Pioneer Press's Deerfield Review announces that, "Voters in Deerfield will be able to vote this November in a non-binding referendum on whether to increase their property taxes to pay for a library expansion that could be designed by world renowned architect Frank Gehry."



Although the vote is advisory and a dollar amount won't be known until Gehry submits a proposal - which is promised soon - a positive vote would be a step towards building the library, with further approval by the Deerfield Village Board. If approved, "the village's plan commission, village center development commission and appearance review commission would also have to review any plans."



I witnessed a similar vote in another northern Chicago suburb, Northbrook. With the old, Miesian library in need of expansion and upgrade, a referendum was put to the voters, easily passing. A couple exceptions existed with Northbrook's library, though. From what I remember not only was an architect selected beforehand, but a design was presented to the public at the library before the vote. But mainly, the locally-designed addition was interesting in parts but overall a confused design that added to the existing building with little respect or ingenuity. Regardless, I voted in favor of spending money on the library, the only time I ever voted in Northbrook, for that reason alone.



Deerfield voters will be in a similar situation, but they will be faced with a much more difficult variable: the presence of Gehry. While he is the most popular architect in the world right now, many people are still unfamiliar with his buildings, and may scoff at second- and third-hand stories of cost overruns and wacky designs. With a property tax increase in the future almost certain, the prospect of paying more for a Gehry library may not be appealing to voters. But it will definitely help create a landmark in the rather drab suburb, giving the community something they can be proud of, while also providing a valuable public place.



(via Archinect)

Architecture Book Reviews

NY Arts Magazine features a page of architecture book reviews, including Radical Landscapes: Reinventing Outdoor Space by Jane Amidon, Sprawl by Dolores Hayden with aerial photographs by Jim Wark, and Structures of Utility by David Stark Wilson.

Crap Retribution

To follow up on a previous post, the Chicago Tribune reports (registration req'd) that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a civil complaint against Dave Matthews Band Inc and Stefan A. Wohl, the bus driver who, "polluted the river by illegally dumping "liquid waste'' from the septic tank of the bus. Madigan said Wohl flicked a switch behind his seat and unleashed up to 800 pounds of human waste as he drove one of the band's buses over the Kinzie Street bridge."

METAMORPH Peek

Yesterday, Archinect posted a sneak peek of the 9th Venice Architecture Biennale, METAMORPH, running from September 12 - November 7.



Check it out.

Crown Fountain Remade

FARK.com is featuring a contest to redesign the Crown Fountain via Photoshop. Entries range from clever to just plain bad. See for yourself.



via Chicagoist

"Boogazine" of the Moment

A Special Edition of Time magazine has hit the newsstands, titled Great Buildings of the World: The World's Most Influential, Inspiring and Astonishing Structures. Capitalizing on architecture's popularity since Frank Gehry's Guggenheim in Bilbao, the ad-free, $11 magazine is also a good - albeit admittedly limited - primer for the general public on a wide range of buildings, from the pyramids to present day.



I'll have a more in-depth review on my weekly page early next week.

On The Boards

If you've picked up this month's Architecture magazine, you've probably seen this design for the North Air Terminal Traffic Control Tower at O'Hare International Airport by behemoth DMJM.



From Architecture magazine:

The [tower]—a stooped figure inspired by freeway light posts, says lead designer José Palacios—is no exercise in whimsy: it is highly efficient in its use of space, and it maximizes occupant visibility. The bend in the unusual form occurs at the "junction floor," where controllers' break rooms and restrooms are located, creating larger floor plates without much widening of the overall volume.

As with most such towers, the structure includes a concrete shaft to damp wind loads and a steel-framed crown. A panelized ceramic-metal composite clads the form, opening at glazed "zippers" that admit daylight into both sides. At the top, the controller's cab is wrapped in 1.5-inch-thick laminated low-iron glass, tilted 30 degrees to minimize reflection. An air curtain inside prevents condensation from forming on the interior surface; outside, a catwalk allows for frequent cleaning.

While I don't think freeway light posts are the most exemplary design inspirations, the form of this control tower is quite interesting, in a futuristic-via-War of the Worlds way. Unlike most control towers that plop the cab on a concrete shaft, this design makes the two more integral, with the bend in the shaft the clearest aesthetic improvement over previous tower designs.

Monday, Monday

This week's update:

Canyon View Office/guesthouse by Kanner Architects in Los Angeles.

The updated book feature is The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo.



Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Worldview, perspectives on architecture and urbanism from around the globe.



Miss Archy, the place for young women in architecture.



Part, a society for the promotion of interdisciplinary visual culture. The latest issue is Part9 American Modernism, with my favorite article from Part7, "The House at the End of Time: Douglas Darden's Oxygen House".

Safe Return

Got back from the Lake of the Ozarks just in time for Chicago's 46th Annual Air & Water Show. Before I head out the door to catch the action, here's some images from a cave I visited last week in Missouri with absolutely amazing features. Gaudi would be proud.

On Vacation

I'll be on vacation for a week, away from computers and other distractions, where my view will be



I'll resume posts next weekend.

Until then, check out spa.uk's [Vacation] Tips for Architects, including my favorite:

19. Do not arrive too early when catching a train/plane/coach/boat. Remember, you are an architect. It will not leave without you.

Safety First

LOS ANGELES -- Six nails embedded in the skull of construction worker Isidro Mejia, 39, after an industrial incident caused a nail gun to shoot nails into his head and brain on April 19, 2004, are seen in this X-ray image. Five of the six nails were removed in surgery that day and the sixth was removed from his face on April 23, after the swelling went down. (05/05/04 AP photo)

More interesting pictures here.

High Line Winner

As reported in a previous post, the High Line RFQ yielded four finalists for the abandoned, elevated railway's masterplan. Nicholas Ouroussoff reports (registration req'd) in his new post at The New York Times that the team led by Field Operations and Diller + Scofidio + Renfro is the winner.



This is the first article I have seen of Ouroussoff since he replaced Muschamp as The Times's architecture critic. It is an intelligent critique of the winning design, with a concise history of the High Line project, insight into its politics, and words of caution as the project advances. A snippet:

The idea is to create a virtually seamless flow between past and future realities, a blend of urban grit and cosmopolitan sophistication. But it is also to slow the process of change, to focus the eye on the colliding forces - both natural and man-made - that give cities their particular beauty. That vision has a more subversive, social dimension: to offer a more measured alternative to the often brutal pace of gentrification.

On the Boards

Earlier today I stumbled across a project by local firm Valerio Dewalt Train, an office building in Madison, Wisconsin for developer Urban Land Interests, where my friend Brandon works, after a stint in Chicago.

33 East Main Street (pdf link) is part of Block 89, a multi-phase development near the Capitol, Lake Monona and Monona Terrace, a relatively cutting-edge development with architectural designs by VDT.



33 East Main is a cube of cubes, sitting within a regular frame that is randomly expressed with exterior masonry, in a manner similar to the smaller glass cubes. It makes for a design that will definitely rely on good detailing and materials, especially the glass skin and masonry frame. It should also make for an exciting addition to the area when it is completed next year.

Comics on the Verge

If you're an architect, you probably read books with lots of pretty pictures. And if you read books with pictures, you probably love comics, too. No, not Archie, Jughead and the Gang, but the comics of Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, and others.

The growing appeal of comics, graphic novels, and the like is witnessed in the recently published McSweeney's Issue 13, devoted to comics in all shapes and sizes, and edited by Chicago's own Chris Ware; and the new exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center, "Raw, Boiled and Cooked: Comics on the Verge". Inspired by Raw, the 1980's magazine, the exhibit includes co-founder Spiegelman, and about 40 other comic artists, pushing the boundaries of the comic medium.



The exhibition will be on display at the Cultural Center until October 3, with various programs along the way, including a concert by local musician/cartoonist Archer Prewitt (with Mark Greenberg) and screenings of "Hooked on Comix".

Thanks to Brandon P. for the head's up on this exhibition.

This Just In

On the disgusting side of the news:

An architecture tour along the Chicago River turned ugly as 120 passengers aboard a yacht were bombarded with human waste. The waste was released from a "large black coach bus," as it crossed the bridge at 430 W. Grand Av. and "kept on driving" around 1:20 p.m. Sunday, police News Affairs Officer Alice Casanova said.

Read the whole story here.

Update:

Here's a pic from the Chicago Tribune:



And more goodies at Archinect.

Update 08.11: According to NBC5.com, Mayor Daley "wants answers about bus's falling gunk," and he is urging anybody with any information to come forward.

Monday, Monday

This week's update:
Beekpark multi-purpose Building by Meyer & Van Schooten.
Updated book feature is Japan Towards Totalscape.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

"Building a Bad Reputation: Sloppy American Construction" article in the New York Times (registration req'd) about the gap in construction quality between the United States and Asia/Europe.

Chicago Tribune has a photo gallery and article by Blair Kamin (registration req'd) on the rejected designs for the McDonald's in River North. (via Chicagoist)

Buy your own cloud, direct from Finland for only $5,900. (via Chicagoist)

Update 08.10: Click the image below for project information on a McDonald's Drive-thru in Maribor, Slovania (2000) by njiric+njiric arhitekti. Thanks to Eric M. for the link.

Olympics Countdown

With five days until the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, it's time to take a look at some of the venues and see how they're shaping up. The official page features slide shows of the Olympic venues, including the following:

Olympic Velodrome, by Santiago Calatrava



Olympic Tennis Center



Olympic Stadium, by Calatrava



The area surrounding the Olympics Sports Complex, including the Agora by Caltrava



Aerial views of the Athens Olympics Sports Complex



and the Ancient Olympia Stadium.

Market Daze

This weekend is the 23rd Annual Northalsted Market Days, one of the most popular block parties in the city of Chicago. A mention is warranted since donations will be accepted for the Center on Halsted, which will "offer a gym, resource library, performance space, meeting space, voicemail and mailbox services for smaller organizations, as well as a home for Horizons Community Services and their health services, GLBT helpline, Anti-Violence Project, and support programs. (link)"



Designed by Gensler, the $20 million design is scheduled to break ground later this year.

Virtual San Fran

I've only been to San Francisco once, about five years ago to visit some friends. I remember it as one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen, a graceful balance of the natural and the man-made. I was even fortunate enough to experience an earthquake without injury or damage, though Napa Valley wasn't so lucky.



San Francisco 3958 Picture Virtual Tour is a well-done site with over 60 virtual tours, from the Embarcadero to the Pacific Ocean coast. Check it out.

Thanks to Igor for the link.

kyocera, Go Away.

Earlier today when I took a train into the Loop I looked down after exiting through the turnstiles to see a large, colored circle on the floor with the words "kyocera" inside. I've never seen the word before, but I figured it was an advertisement for some product. Mainly I was wondering to what extent is the CTA willing to go for advertising, and is advertising going to help avoid another fare increase, one that has been mentioned by the CTA, even though earlier this year the fare climbed to $1.75 with a $.25 transfer, the same price as New York City which has free transfers on a $2.00 fare.

Later, as I sat on the "L" platform outside the James Thompson Center, I looked up and across the tracks to see billboard after billboard of kyocera ads. Typically advertising on train platforms is limited to designated displays, the ads rotating every month or so. So it was quite a surprise to see about twenty ads extending to the left and the right of the picture below:



Now, I don't know how recently this happened, or if this is a new trend, or if this is only a special advertising campaign for some new-fangled phone, but I hope it doesn't become the norm. We have advertising on every new bus stop in the city, courtesy of JC Decaux, and have train cars and buses emblazoned with corporate logos; just what we need is more advertising on the CTA.

Hard Rockin' in Chicago

This month's Architectural Record features hotels in their Building Types Study, including the Hard Rock Hotel (registration req'd) in Chicago by Lucien Lagrange Architects with interiors by Yabu Pushelberg.

The Hard Rock Hotel is a renovation of the 1929 Carbide and Carbon Building by Daniel Burnham's sons, a dark green and gold leaf, art-deco tower. I always thought the building was clad in black stone, but that impression was due to years of dirt build-up, now restored to its original finish. Located on Michigan Avenue about halfway between the Chicago River and Millennium Park, the hotel sits in an area once reserved for offices but now the growing domain of hotels and residences. A four-story addition north of the hotel tower contains a restaurant, ballroom and other amenities. Here, the architects contrasted the existing tower design with a clean and contemporary, mainly glass design.



The interiors by Yabu Pushelberg seem to be a continuation of the exterior, in terms of color and tone, with dark leather and other materials. Reflective surfaces actually hark back to the Art Deco style, though their stylishness seems very "LA" to me. Pushelberg is quoted in Record saying it's, "almost a Playboy Club vibe," definitely an appropriate analogy in the city that's the corporate home to Hef's magazine.

Sunrise

Over the weekend I saw one of the great silent films, "Sunrise" by F.W. Murnau, playing at the Music Box in Chicago. In fact, it may be one of the greatest films of the 20th century.

Roger Ebert rightly includes this film in his list of "Great Movies" for its camera movement, special effects and other achievements of cinematography. It's not so much the simple story of a man and his wife falling in love again that impresses, but the way the camera tells the story. Ebert talks about audio commentary on the yet-to-be released DVD of the film, facts that illuminate the otherwise hard-to-believe effects on the screen, considering the film was made in 1928, well before optical printers and other contemporary methods of special effects.

Watching the film, one sort of special effect or camera trick comes after another, but none are superfluous; each helps to tell the story and illuminate the psychological struggles of the characters, especially the man. Images are layered on top of each other in various ways, the camera glides in ways it never could before, even the titles (very few overall) contribute visually, particularly when the word drown seems to run like water.



It's one of the most visually stunning movies I've ever seen, even though it's not as technically fluid as today's big-budget movies. I highly recommend seeing the digitally remastered version at Music Box if you have the chance.

Monday, Monday

This week's update:

The new Management Headquarters for Ferrari in Maranello, Italy by Massimiliano Fuksas.

The updated book feature is Forgotten Chicago by John Paulett and Ron Gordon.



Some unrelated links for you enjoyment:

MID-TOKYO MAPS, 24 maps illustrating the problems and potential of re-making Tokyo into a thriving, attractive and internationally competitive city.



Spring 2004 issue of Nexus Journal of Architecture, Design and Mathematics.



Frank Gehry and his new Pritzker bandshell, Lynn Becker's photo essay on the bandshell and other parts of Millennium Park.

Woods in PA

One of the most unique voices in experimental architecture, Lebbeus Woods has a show of his projects at the Carnegie Museum of Art's Heinz Architectural Center. Naturally titled "Lebbeus Woods: Experimental Architecture", the exhibit is the largest domestic show on Woods and will feature a site-specific installation described as drawing in space.



I remember Woods being a highly influential architect and delineator when I was in college, though his drawings and projects were so unique that replication was near impossible. An old classmate, Dwayne Oyler, actually worked for him after graduation, with the difficult task of transcribing Woods's drawings and ideas into model form.

The exhibition runs until January 16 (via Archinect).