Piano Coverage

For the time being*, the architectural spotlight in Chicago is square on Renzo Piano, who's unveiling his final design for the Art Institute Expansion which has its groundbreaking today, and which also sees an exhibition on the design open at the museum today. If that's not enough, news coverage is rampant:

:: Light and Airiness for Art Institute of Chicago's New Wing (New York Times)

:: A talk with the park (Sun-Times)

:: Museum bridge to connect art, popular park (Tribune - Kamin)

:: Grand transformation at the Art Institute (Tribune)

:: Art Institute to add new wing (Tribune - Kamin, again)

Click image for Chicago Tribune graphic on the expansion.

*Until Thom Mayne receives the Pritzker Prize at Millennium Park this evening.

Sustainable Vision

Archinect links to CNN.com International's Special Report: Vision, which features visionaries like Norman Foster and Will Alsop, among many others.

Foster writes about the importance of building sustainably, the world's population growth, and the importance of living in cities. A sidebar online poll had the following unsettling, though unsurprising, stat when I voted:



I'll admit it's not the clearest question (Who is the we? Our elected officials? The public? Architects/Engineers/Developers? Whoever's voting?), but it definitely points to a lag between knowledge of a problem and application of solutions. In this case, the solutions will potentially take much longer to put into place than the very real impact of the problem.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Paper Temporary Studio in Paris, France by Shigeru Ban.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment - Memorial Day Edition:

Clusterf*ck Nation
James Howard Kunstler gives Americans something to think about as the summer vacation motoring season gets underway this weekend. See also this interview with Kunstler and this Wired/AP article.

Chrysler Building Turns 75
The New York Times Home & Garden section devotes its coverage this week to the world-famous skyscraper.

Bill S 189
A proposed bill to restore the observance of Memorial Day to May 30 instead of "a weekend of Bar B Q's, shopping bargains and beaches".

Pritzker Prize Ceremony
Thom Mayne will be awarded the Pritzker Prize at Millennium Park in Chicago tomorrow evening at 6:30pm, the same day as the groundbreaking of Renzo Piano's addition to the Art Institute and the opening of its exhibition, Zero Gravity: The Art Institute, Renzo Piano, and Building for a New Century. And of course, a companion book will be available.

MAM

Finally visited the Milwaukee Art Museum and its signature addition by Santiago Calatrava earlier today.


The bird-like brise-soleil is especially impressive from the approach via the Calatrava-designed footbridge.


In the space below the brise-soleil, their presence is diminished by the deep mullions of the glass walls.


The long wait in line for admission is lightened by site-specific artwork in the West Galleria, in this case a work of words by Liam Gillick.


One of my favorite's in the Museum's permanent collection is Modernity circa 1952, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely, 2004 by Josiah McElheny.

Two of a Kind

From The Guardian's article on Brad Pitt designing a restaurant and residential penthouse in Frank Gehry's redevelopment of the Hove seafront (my amendments in [brackets]):

Brad Pitt

Born
Shawnee, Oklahoma, US
Age
41
Career highlights
Johnny Suede, Fight Club, Ocean's 11 [Se7en, Twelve Monkeys, Snatch]
Career lowlights
Seven Years in Tibet, Meet Joe Black [Troy, Interview with the Vampire]
Why he matters
'He combines the matinee idol looks of Gary Cooper with the sex symbol loveliness of Marilyn Monroe' [He's one of the most popular actors in the world.]

Frank Gehry

Born
Toronto, Canada
Age
76
Career highlights
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao; Walt Disney concert hall, Los Angeles [DG Bank, Berlin; Cardboard and Bentwood Furniture]
Career lowlights
Experience Music Project, Seattle [American Center, Paris]
Why he matters
'One of the most prominent contemporary American architects with his open, curvilinear, diverse and sometimes playful west coast style'. [He's the most famous living architect in the world.]

Chicago Revealed

Starting June 10, photographs of Terry Evans will be on display in Chicago's Millennium Park. Titled Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait, an online version of the exhibition is up and running already. The well-designed, interactive maps (political, physical, protected lands) stretch from the Kankakee River in the south and Portage, Indiana in the east to Geneva in the west and the Wisconsin border in the north, with an extra downtown blow-up. Thematic galleries (steel mills, neighborhoods, lakefront, suburbs, farming, etc.) provide additional browsing options. Either way, the photographs are especially beautiful, making the site a welcome distraction.

Here's a sampling:


IIT Student Center by Rem Koolhaas


City Farm near Cabrini Green


Metropolitan Correctional Center by Harry Weese


Suburbia

The exhibition is a collaboration between Openlands Project and Chicago Metropolis 2020.

(via Gapers Block)

Le Choix du Public

If you're up for flexing your archi-democratic muscles, point your mouse to the 2005 Prix d'excellence en architecture de l'Ordre des Architectes du Québec. 32 projects are finalists for the award, with voting by the public available - YOU - until July 31.



Finalists include:

:: Anne Carrier Architectes

:: Croft Pelletier Architectes

:: Faucher Aubertin Brodeur Gauthier

:: Dan S. Hanganu Architectes

:: Hal Ingberg/James Aitken

:: Lapointe, Voyer, Lemay et Associés (pictured)

:: Marosi + Troy Architectes/Jodoin Lamarre Pratte

:: Saucier Perrotte Architectes

:: Pierre Thibault

:: And many, many more!

Project pages feature extensive galleries, so even if you aren't voting you should have fun browsing.