Kurisu Does the Contemporaine

Few people would deny the power of Japanese gardens; their calm and tranquility, their beauty and symbolism. But fewer people would probably think of putting a Japanese garden on the roof of a 15-story apartment building. And that's just what Hoichi Kurisu has done at the Contemporaine in Chicago's River North neighborhood.


Before; Kurisu at work


After

As featured in this month's Architecture:

On one of the upper, sculptural floors, a terrace garden designed by Hoichi Kurisu provides contrast and some relief to the memorable rooftop tableau of post and folded plate. The plantings and rocks belong to one of four formally interlocking penthouses...occupied by a collector of Neil Goodman's rustbelt-inspired sculpture. "As soon as I stepped out of the elevator, I said, 'That's it, I have to build a Japanese garden,'" the emphatic owner recalls.

Book of the Moment

Yes, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown are back!

Venturi and Scott Brown have devoted their professional lives to broadening our view of the built world and enlarging the purview of practitioners within it. By looking backward over their own life work, they discover signs and systems that point forward, toward a humane Mannerist architecture for a complex, multicultural society.

Ess You Are

The sixth of P.S.1's Young Architects Programs, won by Hernan Diaz Alonso's Xefirotech, has taken over the museum's signature courtyard. The installation is properly titled Sur, probably as in Sur-face. My trip to the museum to see Sur came a day after the big public soiree, so the bright red and gray creature was off limits, cordoned off by those ubiquitous, retractable guardrails.


My first impression was that the life-sized, physical installation lacked the metallic glossiness of the renderings, one of the persistent problems with computer-generated architecture. The fabric "canopies" and painted styrofoam "benches" looked too much like fabric and painted styrofoam, their clumsy detailing and execution distracting from a greater appreciation.


A series of urethane-coated pieces did capture that sparkle of the renderings, though in relation to the rest it was too little.


In an interview, Alonso says, "the project has much more to do with this moment where the grotesque and the horrific...become codified and known." Again, the execution falls short of the design's ambition, the grotesque and horrific becoming spindly and leaf-like.


A review in NY Arts Magazine describes that Sur, "seems to be more about itself than about offering an inviting place to relax and cool off." While this appears to be accurate, those requirements seem to be secondary to the Young Architects Program which aims to "identify and provide an outlet for emerging young talent in architecture."


That Brutal Joint contends, "The installation seems decidedly too small in the courtyard of P.S.1, more like an object than a spatial construction of cells."


With this last point I would agree, illustrated by the above view which also illustrates the installations strong point: its alien, scorpion-like, parasitic presence. Though it does extend into an adjacent, smaller courtyard, perhaps if it took over more of the courtyard - or even reached into/above/around the museum it would be more powerful. But just like Doug Garofalo's installation at the MCA's plaza in Chicago - reduced from its original scope that engaged the museum and the city to an equally spindly presence - the budget ($60,000 at P.S.1) probably dictated the extents of this installation. Of course, that's just another lesson for a young architect to learn.

Big Bottoms

A Test of Will has beaten me to the punch (via Curbed), but here's some pictures of 7 WTC's base, anyways. As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, Freedom's Tower's latest redesign features a base that echoes its neighbor under construction, thereby creating a consistent, windowless street presence of "shimmering steel."


At 7 WTC, the "shimmering" facade covers a ConEd substation, while at Freedom Tower its existence would be for safety...and paranoia.


On an overcast day, the exterior doesn't shimmer so much as emit a dull thud.

U.S.S. Mall

Artist David Odyke's contribution to the Greater New York 2005 exhibition at P.S.1 is a witty, yet political sculpture called U.S.S. Mall. The piece resembles a scale model of an aircraft carrier with two differences: the underside is more rock than smooth, manufactured steel and the top is comprised of parking lots with big-box retail, hence its name.



It's not difficult to decipher the work's meaning, though the relationship between our war efforts and our way of life is something that definitely needs to be spoken about more than it is. This artwork is perhaps a start.

Inversion

Just saw this impressive installation in the new issue of Texas Architect. Inversion is by sculptors Dan Havel and Dean Ruck and is (was) located in Houston's Montrose neighborhood.


Photos by Justin Braswell

Art League Houston owns the two houses that were transformed by the artists before their eventual demolition, at the request of the non-profit arts organization. The properties will be used for a new Art League building.


Images found here

The installation is reminiscent of Gordon Matta-Clark's "archaeological excavations" of old buildings, Anish Kapoor's large-scale vortexes, and a now-forgotten (to me) installation where wood members wrapped a street corner in a European (Japanese?) city. (Anybody know what I'm talking about here? I would love to know who did it and where.) Regardless of these comparisons and possible inspirations, this installation is definitely inspired - and created - by its site, becoming a show- and car-stopper for its short tenure.

Update: Some great images over at Archinect.

Relaxin'

Forgot to mention that I'm out of town this weekend and won't be posting until Tuesday. But since I'm posting this late reminder I'll point out an interesting tidbit I saw in the Tribeca Trib:

The first 10 floors of the [7 World Trade Center] tower are occupied primarily by a Con Ed substation. The windowless base of the building will be clad in a shimmering steel.

Since an image does not accompany the online article, you'll have to take my word that the base's facade resembles the same firm's proposal for Freedom Tower. Looks like Silverstein and Childs envision a lower Manhattan full of office buildings on mammoth, solid bases. Quite a streetscape, indeed.