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May 26, 2005
Kids, Gas, and Coney Island
"No combination of alternative fuels is going to allow us to run the U.S. the way we're running it or even a substantial fraction of it. We will see the use of some alternatives, but on a very local basis. We're not going to be running biodiesel in Wal-Mart's warehouses on wheels." Inverview with James Kunstler
"Retail sales in China have jumped nearly 50 percent in the last four years..." China, New Land of Shoppers, Builds Malls on Gigantic Scale.
"And I ask, you know, why as a society would we want to subsidize McMansions and provide incentives for people to build bigger and bigger houses, second homes, large lots, if we know that we have an energy problem and we have a housing problem?" Interview with Dolores Hayden
"San Francisco has the smallest share of small-fry of any major U.S. city. Just 14.5 percent of the city's population is 18 and under..."We are at a crossroads here," said N'Tanya Lee, executive director of the nonprofit Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth. "We are moving toward a place where we could have an infrastructure of children's services and no children." Child Population Dwindles in San Francisco
Goldberger, Why We Should Build Apartments at Ground Zero.
The Van Alen sponsered Parachute Pavilion design competition winners were announced today. View all eight hundred some odd entries here. The winning entry is pictured below. Its difficult to get the whole program from these photos, but I really do like this bit of boardwalk showiness: "a pavilion with a matrix of light bulbs rising 30 feet from the ground"... and who doesn't love that well placed sky light and the most appropriate pink skin job, but I have to say, I wanted more. I expected more elements and cues from the whole Coney Island/Amusement Park/Boardwalk bit, in addition to the well chosen skylight, light bulbs, and pink skin job... little to Miesy for me. Suspended box with three cues? Oh no, I mean this IS Coney Island. Americas first amusement park. I guess thats what you get when you let a London based firm win. Oh, I'm just being a grump. Congrats to all.
Posted by jmarston at 05:44 AM | Comments (1)
May 25, 2005
Attack of the Awning Pt. 4
You could say, at least these awnings are functional, and hell, they're not covered in gaudy advertisements - but damn, these are gruesome all the same.
Posted by jmarston at 05:45 PM
Modernist Rowhouses
Midtown Manhattan Modernism
Is glass brick really that cool?
Posted by jmarston at 04:12 PM | Comments (1)
Random
image from Looking at Los Angeles (Metropolis Books, May 2005).
Police say a man in his 40s was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver Wednesday morning on Fifth Avenue in the second hit-and-run in three days, and the fifth since Saturday.
“I love New York so much still,” she said. “But the traffic is the worst I’ve ever known it to be.” -- Jane Jacobs in New Yorker.
Sales of existing homes swelled 4.5 percent to a record in April, and prices climbed at the fastest rate in almost 25 years, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.
New 100,000-sq.-ft $10 million Home Depot retail store at 585 DeKalb Avenue, completion of the location is expected this summer. addendum -> New York Construction News
URLs from the fantastic (in house favorite) the Architect's Newspaper, Issue 8, which had an excellent feature on new materials research, design, and application...
Material Connextion
Materials Monthly
Transstudio
Research Directors Association
Inventables
Posted by jmarston at 10:16 AM
May 24, 2005
The Anti-Sit: Double Duty & Plaza Edition
An additional, somewhat unconventional addition to the Anti-Sit campaign, the all new Anti-Sit: Plaza Edition. Snapping New York's least favorite plazas, during the lunch rush... As you can see here, No Rush Whatsoever. Can we get this greened, at least?
Posted by jmarston at 03:46 PM | Comments (1)
Alcove Studio on Madison
Ever wonder how long it would take for the city to realize you really weren't a utility company? In this ridiculous market, you can never stray too far from imaginative solutions!
Posted by jmarston at 12:40 PM | Comments (1)
The Anti-Sit: Curls and Angles
Posted by jmarston at 12:36 PM
May 23, 2005
Rem & Wal-Mart
Looking back on all the haters fastidious vitrol for 'star architects' like Koolhaas, and their buildings, like the Seattle Public Library, it seems a year later the numbers will bring the real heat to their position: "Daily visits have doubled, circulation is up more than 50 percent, and 26,000 people have lined up just to tour Seattle's new flagship library since it opened a year ago tomorrow." -Seattle Times
Wow - I guess this is good news (good PR for sure), its surely the first fine thing Wal-Mart has ever done for architecture since their insipid takeover of all things localized. They've released designs for their 100,000-SF, $50 million Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, in Bentonville, AK. They've enlisted Moshe Safdie to build their homage to American Art and these spiffy new renderings look good - following Moshe's extremely good intuition for site needs, (yea, thats right you modernists, site matters!) ecology, and context.
[via Archinect]
Posted by jmarston at 05:06 PM
Candyland, Now!
Sometimes its nice to forget about David Child's Faustian pact with Silverstein, to forget about sweetheart deals and taxpayer financed football/basketball stadiums, to forget about Bloomany hall and you know, that awful image of Trump's mouth gaping over 'his' WTC model...
To remember the glory days of glossy Daily News spreads on sweltering proposals from Hot looking Euro architects for, yes, the Olympic Village in LIC. Yes folks, its time to relish in those innocent, halycon days, of Slick Master Plans and unperturbed optimism at New York's ability to rebuild without Political Impotence, Developer Greed, and good ole' PowerBroker Ignorance.
SO - Lets relish in Candyland Dreamtime and leave all our Bags back at SOM's place...
Fact is, beyond the sheer escapism of this, I really want MVRDV to build something in New York... Really. So, hey Rich Developer Dude, Put up a MVRDV building and I guarntee it will sell out quicker then windowless box in Dumbo, or at least a leaky cement one on a highway in the West Village.
Posted by jmarston at 03:55 PM
May 20, 2005
AT&T Building Needs New Toe Ring
Philip Johnson's dearly loved AT&T building has got to ditch those gaudy toe rings at her base.... Maybe the Lipstick building has some advice?
Posted by jmarston at 11:15 AM
The New Pimp of 8th Ave
05/19/05
Norman Foster's first building in New York...Struttin' into the kitchen with a fur coat.
Posted by jmarston at 10:31 AM | Comments (3)
May 19, 2005
Attack of the Useless Awning, Pt. 3
Part 1 & Part 2, were crassly commercial, this installment is just phugnny.
Posted by jmarston at 03:16 PM | Comments (5)
Midtown Aztec
Posted by jmarston at 11:58 AM
DDC
New York City's Department of Design & Construction has this image next to their job postings, I'm sort of confused here. My innter Barthes says the lasers represent United Homes applications, and those (should be)the fear less warriors of quality Design and Construction. Battling insipid developer shortcuts & their Jobian architects, wherever duty calls!!
Posted by jmarston at 10:51 AM
May 18, 2005
Big Dogs Barking!
Excitement... As the big dog iron cranes saddle up at the 8th ave (btw 40/41st) site of Renzo Piano's (in collab with Fox&Fowle) beautifully designed NYTimes Head Qtrs, now set for early 2007. The lady was on full display at MoMa's Tall Buildings Exhibit and the green engineered double layer sheath that curtains the structure is real wow. 1,140 ft addition - 50 stories - to the square that owes it's name to our Gray Lady. This will surely, Represent.
more images & renderings available here...
Posted by jmarston at 02:20 PM
Most Dangerous Pedestrian Intersection in Manhattan
Watch Yourself... Who would have thought its vicinity to one of Hatin's biggest and baddest slabs, 3 Park Avenue?
Posted by jmarston at 11:55 AM
Greening Grating Apartment Blocks: Pt 1
One way to alleviate the brutal coldness of 60's slabs. Green Em!
Posted by jmarston at 10:25 AM
Utopian Architecture: Auroville
I stumbled across this entry, by Chris Sattinger (Timeblind), on the 'utopian' compound Auroville, in India. Fascinating first person account of his stay, and some interesting photos of the very modern architecture thats been built there. Like he says, "These are big budget hippies." First came across Michael Sorkin's article on Auroville in Metropolis Magazine...
Posted by jmarston at 10:03 AM
May 17, 2005
Thanks!
Miss Representation said it, and we'll repeat it, Donald Trump - Fuck Off, no one gives a shit about your Twin Towers design. Take your ass back uptown, and leave architecture to the "eggheads".
Posted by jmarston at 12:17 PM
New Construction on Flatbush
think they'll move that Pam Grier billboard?
This is perhaps the newest building to go up on Flatbush (the section I care about - the slow climb leading to Grand Army Plaza), since that arrogant dump that houses Applebees, in Downtown Brooklyn, rose in the 1980's. Its the newest residential building, east of Prospect Park, Flatbush has witnessed in at least a generation. This portion of Flatbush is a commercial strip I'm extremely fond of, and use quite often, architectually it has some of the finest gems Brooklyn has to offer, along with some real hideous sliders. The surrounding blocks are filled with some of the Best 19th century rowhouses in America, along with downtowns faded Dept store glories led off Flatbush to Fulton Mall. Flatbush meets all of its intersecting streets at an angle, creating quite the show for buildings that line up the Ave. Flatbush even boasts 2 two beautiful street clocks. So, with a watchful gaze, 145 Park Place has been rising - across the street from City Lighting - and in the heat of reinvigorated Flatbush (its proximity to 7th Ave is not lost on the choice of this site).
Architects Lauster & Radu used an existing brick frontage on Park Place, and built out the Flatbush frontage, creating some serious angles. Honestly, the renderings are, well, I'm reluctant to comment too honestly... But, the brick work on Park Place is looking interesting, and I'm trying to stay positive about new construction in this part of Brooklyn - staying hopeful... Here are some very recent photos I snapped of the construction, which doesn't say much with all the scaffolding, but the peaks I did make, looked nice on the Park Place frontage...
You can be sure I'll be tracking this suckah...
Posted by jmarston at 11:05 AM | Comments (3)
The Anti-Sit: Edgy!
Posted by jmarston at 10:44 AM | Comments (1)
The Anti-Sit: Jobby
Posted by jmarston at 10:36 AM
May 11, 2005
The Anti-Calatravas & Mandeville Place
Choice quotes from MVRDV, who were profiled in Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel after winning the Marcus Prize, from Milwaukee's Marcus Corporation Foundation. You may wonder, how does Milwaukee Wisconsin, with a beautiful museum of art by Santiago Calatrava, and other forward thinking sites and buildings, get such plum international projects? Their former Mayor (1988-2004), John Norquist is now President and CEO of the Congress for New Urbanism, has a hellva lot to do with it. But on with MDRDV's great interview moments...
"We see architecture as a device, an instrument that shows the direction a city should go to. Architecture needs to be very clear, on the edge of populistic, to make itself visible and understandable to others, not just to architecture critics. It claims an urban agenda, and it must consider ecological impacts."
"Maas said the firm stands at the opposite end of the design spectrum from Santiago Calatrava, "We are the anti-Calatravas," he said, laughing. "I admire his aesthetics, but he can almost be considered one of the 'hairdressers' of architecture, like (Frank) Gehry - they are doing coiffures."
Bold BOLD BOLD!! Those Dutch...
So, Richard Meier is continuing his domination of hi res hi profile uppity upscale downtown living, with, an admittedly attractive and Tall - 45 story - mixed use hi-rise, slated for downtown Philadelphia. Mandeville Place. Although it hasn't passed the zoning variances, I do hope it gets built. Its tough to admit I like any descendent of Le Corbusier, or one of the originating New York Five. But hey, we gotta embrace Hard Modernism sometimes. Discussion brewing on a Philly board, one poster makes an interesting note: "It really isn't about Philadelphia but rather the Wilmington-Philadelphia-Princeton-North Jersey-New York City market. On the Mandeville Place website, it was mentioned that the building is 100 miles from New York City, as if that were a major selling point and it is...as New York gets more expensive and overcrowded, you will have people who want to live the city lifestyle but do it at a cheaper price and/or at a slower pace. Add to that the fact that Philadelphia is only an hour's train ride away, thus making the travel less time consuming that going to many parts of Long Island and Connecticut, and the fact that you've got a 10-year tax abatement, and it makes Philadelphia very attractive to New Yorkers...Alan Heavens of the Inquirer did a story on 10 Rittenhouse and had surveys and statistics showing 1/3 of the high end condo buyers in Philadelphia come from NY/Wash, 1/3 coming from the suburbs, 1/3 from the city."
rendering below...
Posted by jmarston at 04:56 PM | Comments (2)
Sirens
Richard Florida is still squawking away about the creative class, although his newest tome is about the global competition places like Estonia will give places like Pittsburgh, in their jockeying of the VW/MAC class... heres a nice substitute for the book, which would be a collosal waste of time, as it continues the Mislead notion that a creative class will somehow bring renaissance to Omaha. The other side of this equation, usually represented by Joel Kotkin, is finely tuned in his newest linguistic flip, the 'ephemeral city', and San Francisco, Kotkin claims, represents it best. The long dormant marxist in me finds Kotkin's bemoaning of the dividend dweller and service industry hangers, not too mention Florida's creative class (who reign supreme in our costal cities) a most appealing affront - as is his true love for the City... Although in many ways Florida and Kotkin are talking about two different TYPES of cities, and two totally different types of problems. So as much as Kotkin can get under my skin for some of his politics on sprawl, as well as his right of center pronunciations (denunciations) of left of center policy, his latest piece asks some real questions, and has some tough words for other cities seemingly following SF's lead. "...great artistic centers usually arise not from conscious promotion of bohemianism but as the result of a vibrant commercial culture and an invigorated middle class." Where are the Families? Where are the working and middles class homesteads? Where is the diversity? What are the parameters of a truly great metropolitan center? Some good things to chew on. Local blogger BK Squeeze has his own great rant on the 'Ephermalation' of Brooklyn..."Families started moving back into many of overlooked Brooklyn nabes in the 70's, 80's and 90's, reversing the urban flight trend. Now those same kinds of families could not settle in those neighborhoods even if they tried..." Another recent article by Joel Kotkin in The Next American City.
Big interview with Eco-Conscious architect William McDonough, via Land+Living... choice quote: "Why take something as exquisite as a tree and knock it down? Trees make oxygen, sequester carbon, distill water, build soils, convert solar energy to fuel, change colors with the seasons, create microclimates and provide habitat."
Anxiously awaiting the announcement of the winners in Parachute Pavillion competition sponsered by the Van Alen Institute.
National Trust for Historic Preservation recently announced their 2005 Dozen Distinctive Destination Winners... Among the winners, Helena MT and Bisbee AZ.
Transportation Alternatives crash maps... Hightest incident locations 1995-2001. Manhattan: E 33rd St @ Park Ave, 118 Pedestrian Injuries; Ave A @ E Houston St, 3 Fatalities. Brooklyn: Utica Ave @ Eastern Pkwy, 4 Fatalities.... Eastern Parkway is New York's most dangerous road for pedestrians, more dangerous then the Media hyped, Queens "BLVD of DEATH". UPDATE: Gothamist is reporting that a sweet 21 year old girl was killed Sunday night at, you guessed it, Houston and A. Sad...
Interesting video of a "straw bale and adobe house design and construction with green building materials for the home, passive solar, rainwater cisterns, earth plasters, and photovoltaics."
AIA is holding their annual conference in Las Vegas this year. How wonderfully fitting...
Fascinating piece on modeling The Gherkin, in ArchitectureWeek.
Posted by jmarston at 09:57 AM
May 10, 2005
Dispensed From Above II
Posted by jmarston at 12:38 PM
Dispensed From Above
Posted by jmarston at 11:42 AM
May 09, 2005
P5: Plasma Force
The U.S. General Services Administration awarded 16 winners for buildings that "creatively meet everyday functional needs and address the challenges of providing a quality federal work environment at the best value to the taxpayers". Well, you can almost smell it, the likely winner, yes, this years loverboy, Thom Mayne from Morphosis, won for his Federal Building in San Francisco. The real hilarity begins when you notice that the World War II Memorial didn't win, but the book about the memorial won. Ohhhhh, the 21st century Irony. The lovely category, 'first impressions', awarded the Richard Bolling Federal Building in Kansas City, for updating this "1960s bunker-style federal building... [with] two airy, glass entrance pavilions [that] project from the building in an open, welcoming gesture." Welcome to Federal Government USA!
Uraban Land Institute announces their 11 winners for the 2005 Awards for Excellence. Although, you wonder how One Beacon Court is the best "use of land in order to enhance the total environment" -- Time Warner Center was NYC's other winner.
Embrace your sense of disgust and check the CNN/Money Best Places to Live.
Comparing the proposed West Side Stadium, Brooklyn Nets Arena, and new Yankee Stadium against similar projects... Ready, Set, DEBT!
Longtime Red Hook developer gets interviewed by the Center for an Urban Future. Choice snip: "The first building I bought was in 1982...When I advertised it in the Times, people would see the ad and call up. I’d tell them all about the property and then they’d ask me where it was. I’d say Red Hook, and then it was conspicuously silent on the phone...I don’t do any advertising now. We’re 98 percent occupied and my rental basically is by word of mouth. For the last 10 years, I have two signs I leave on the building. That’s all I do."
Time's 5 Best Big-City Mayors. "Baltimore residents, who sometimes jokingly call themselves Balti-morons for living in a city so grim...Drug use and crime in general are down, although O'Malley has only slightly dented the murder rate, which is five times New York's."
CNN & WSJ are reporting that "U.S. antitrust regulators are preparing to sue the National Association of Realtors (NAR)" for the "NAR bylaw would allow its more than 1.2 million members to withhold property listings from online brokers." Blam.
Jean Nouvel's nearly completed, 31-storey, 144m, Torre Agbar in Barcelona, gets inked by the Guardian: "Gherkin on Holiday"
The Editorial in today's New York Times spells out Bush's commitment to leaving a legacy of environmental destruction and despair. Bravo to the board for splashing about at least once in while about our blase nose dive into environmental winter.
Posted by jmarston at 10:34 AM
May 06, 2005
Top Shot!
Metropolis announced its 2005 Next winners the other day... Biothing won, although the website screams 'oblique strategy' when clicking it, according to Metrop, "software system that can convert dynamic sound patterns into structural fields to produce complex surfaces at various scales." The possibilities are endless. In my own simulated test of the software I found Celine Dion resulted in a rendering of 1 Penn Plaza. Kenny G produced Worldwide Plaza. Smashing!
The AIA recently honored some of the Best & Brightest green buildings of late. Arkin Tilt, whose choice of materials and leadership in ecodesign have always appealed to me (although their volumes always seem a bit off..) Congrats... Also, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson whose Mission Modern vernacular has been steadily appealing to alot of people. Meiers fetish of components with a Greene & Greene SoCal sensibility. They did Bill Gates crib. Hmm.
In related news, the AIA also launched its Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) community assistance program... "a collaborative SDAT brings together design and planning professionals, assembled from across the country, to provide a road map for communities seeking to improve their sustainability"... Nice start.
So, 50 Madison has been partly peeled of its scaffolding, and well, surely the Italianate base holding this addition would like to know why it now looks like a conservative with no money - which is always funny - amongst the titans of Madison Sq Park. Platt Byard Dovell White are your friendly drafters for this one. These are 3 br 3.5 bath units, so you may legally and loudly scoff at the prices, once they hit Curbed. First, the base that is now visible, the Madison Ave frontage...
Learning from Los Vegas has only sold 73,000 copies in its lifetime. -via Archinect
Miss Rep gives anyone not following the "Freedom Tower" (I loathe to use such a word, but it seems fitting for a situation that deserves such loathing) WTC rebuilding debacle, a wonderful smack down on what has came, and what might follow. Cooking with gas again in Lower Manhattan.
Excellent article by Susan Fainstein in the Harvard Design Magazine on New York City's 'mega projects'... a broad look at the Westside Plan/Bronx Terminal Market/Downtown Brooklyn for the less obsessive followers of New York building.
City Comforts has been haggling over the terms used to describe camps of buildings, and camps of builders, I came across this quote just the day I read his post, from Landscapes: Selected Writings of J. B. Jackson, his early stuff, 50's 60's, "The houses on the four sides of the square are of the same vintage (and the same general architecture) as the monument in their midst: mid-nineteenth-century brick or stone; cornices like the brims of hats, fancy dripstones over the arched windows like eyebrows; painted blood-red or mustard-yellow or white; identical except for the six-story Gaffney Hotel and the classicism of the First National Bank." Its fairly clear to me that in most circumstances Classicism should be used in reference to the vernacular of the architecture (as opposed to Traditionalism in reference to planning) and implies just the same thing as saying Classical Philosophy. It would NOT mean you were talking about Nietzsche or Kierkegaard, it implies the ancient western tradition, Roman and Greek expressions.
Posted by jmarston at 04:35 PM
May 05, 2005
I See You
Posted by jmarston at 04:14 PM
Horses of Egypt
Posted by jmarston at 10:52 AM | Comments (1)
May Flowers
Miami's mighty building orgy just got a little bit more extravagant, as plans to build the largest residential tower - 110 stories (1200ft) - have been unveiled by developer Larry Cohen. Although still unapproved, you can bet the chances of it passing through are best in Miami's Sun-Sensational bubble of hi-rise lux living. Although, get this, it will be Concrete. Yes, indeed, I wonder what a 1200ft concrete hi-rise will look like. Can we get Safdie on the scene? Speaking of which, a documentary, Moshe Safdie: The Power of Architecture, will be making the rounds... I look forward to that, he had a wonderful cameo in that fantastic film, My Architect. Interesting link, via Brownstoner, about the upcoming NYC tree inventory. The choice quote comes mid-article: "Last year, for example, the Office of the New York Attorney General mandated $47,000 worth of tree planting in a January, 2004, settlement with four school bus companies accused of excessive idling, one of the first attempts by a government agency to include trees in the bargaining process on air pollution." Dats what I'm talkin' bout!
Posted by jmarston at 10:03 AM
May 04, 2005
Broadway Heroes
Posted by jmarston at 12:58 PM
7th Ave Army
Posted by jmarston at 10:33 AM
The Anti-Sit: Triangulate My Posterior
Posted by jmarston at 10:28 AM
May 03, 2005
More Famous Faces
Posted by jmarston at 02:52 PM
Skirts & Skins Gone Awry
This Sullivanesqe 5th Ave Madam is nothing to really hoot about, but it is a nicely set and wonderfully sized against the CUNY Grad center down the street. But like many other buildings, e.g. here, the lower three floors are insulted and insulated by bad modern. Cheap modern.
Modern that seems to change its mind as it wraps around the cross street facade. Confused, its not sure how to deal with the columns. And the neo-classicalists say we aren't postmodern. How many bad pastiches do we need to show you?
Our next tasteless mini-skirt takes another 5th Ave gem and squares its lovely curves... Oh its street frontage is so sexy, until you see its legs have been squared in some sick retail joke. Poor thing.
But its so Edgy? No. No.
Posted by jmarston at 02:39 PM
Decrepit & Marginal
"The parts of Manhattan I have loved—the dirty, decrepit, marginal zones where anything goes—are going the way of the meatpacking district. Which is to say they are being developed into detestable orgies of luxury condos, boutique hotels, stores that sell four things, and curiously uninteresting “hot spots.” In a Manhattan where there was once a nightclub called Paradise Garage, which was exactly what it sounds like, there is now Bungalow 8, also exactly what the name suggests. Exclusivity has become so exclusive that Paris Hilton may soon be the only person who goes out, dancing on a table in a nightclub-for-one, like a plastic ballerina spinning inside a cheap jewelry box." -NYMagazine...amen.
Posted by jmarston at 10:17 AM