Daniel Burnham's 1905 Wanamaker’s building reflected in the facade of Fumihiko Maki's new 51 Astor Place. The base of Gwathmey Siegel's 2005 Sculpture for Living is visible on the right. New York City is reaching a tipping point, architecturally. The city has the chance to go the way of London and Paris, where carefully chosen bits of contemporary architecture enliven an urban fabric that remains largely intact, or the way of Shanghai and Dubai, where relentless repetition of glass facades leads to a numbing sameness. Several recent developments suggest that New York, for all its attention to the built environment—and
Running through July 7 at SCI-Arc's downtown Los Angeles space, the show—part of the Getty-sponsored Pacific Standard Time series—highlights the pivotal role of the temporary gallery that Thom Mayne ran out of his home for a few weeks in the late 70s. Zago Architecture, the exhibition designers, wrapped the entry zone in skewed, blown-up reproductions of Morphosis' mock postage stamps – a clever riff on Graphic Wrap, one of the six spatial strategies the curators identified in the featured work, most notably Eric Owen Moss' Fun House. In the fall of 1979, Los Angeles’ first gallery for architecture came into
Image courtesy Davidson Rafailidis/Storefront for Art and Architecture MirrorMirror, reflective tents by Davidson Rafailidis, will be on view in front of the New Museum beginning May 4. New York’s answer to London Design Week, a festival called NYCxDesign (pronounced “NYC by Design”) will run from May 10 to 21, coinciding with and building on the Frieze New York art fair (May 10-13) and the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (May 18-21). The brainchild of city council president and New York City mayoral candidate Christine Quinn, NYCxDesign won’t be creating events so much as positioning them under the new umbrella. “In the
On May 9, Architectural Record and The Architectural League of New York will present a panel discussion about the latest innovations in the design of modular multi-unit housing. Time & PlaceThursday, May 9, 20137:00 p.m.McGraw Hill Auditorium1221 Avenue of the Americas, Second FloorNew York, NY 10020Purchase Tickets SpeakersThomas Gluck is Partner at GLUCK+, which is the architect, construction manager, and co-developer of The Stack, a 7-story residential building that uses modular, off-site construction to offer “an accelerated [building] schedule and shorter financing period, turning sites that might otherwise be considered risky [to develop]…into opportunities.”Mimi Hoang is Partner at nARCHITECTS, winner
While battles over the fate of Tod Williams Billie Tsien’s American Folk Art Museum and other public buildings make headlines, the architecture world also faces a much bigger, but far less visible, challenge: preserving private homes when families who have protected them—sometimes for four decades or more—decide to sell.
This story originally appeared on ENR.com. San Diego architect Graham T. Downes died on April 21 from injuries following a late-night fight two days before with an employee outside his San Diego home. He was 55. Downes suffered blunt force head and neck trauma, including numerous skull fractures, from the altercation with Higinio Soriano Salgado, according to the San Diego County coroner's report. Image courtesy Graham Downes Architecture Graham T. Downes Salgado was a development manager since 2008 with Blokhaus, a leasing and development firm affiliated with Graham Downes Architecture.Police found Downes unconscious in the street in front of his
New York set designer Christine Jones has turned heads with her evocative rendition of Las Vegas in the new Met Opera production of Rigoletto. George Gagnidze as Rigoletto and Vittorio Grigolo as the Duke of Mantua in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Rigoletto. The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto premiered this this winter to rave reviews—including its set design by Christine Jones, known for her Broadway shows Hands on a Hardbody and the Tony award-winning American Idiot. Rigoletto’s director Michael Mayer has placed the staging of the opera in 1960s Las Vegas, rather than late Renaissance Mantua as
A Copenhagen duo adds contemporary furniture to a restored Finn Juhl interior at the United Nations. The renovated Trusteeship Council Chamber at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon spoke, as did the crown princess of Denmark, but at a grand opening for the renovated Trusteeship Council Chamber at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday morning, all eyes were on the ceiling. Danish master Finn Juhl designed the meeting hall with Lego-like metal boxes hanging overhead. They conceal the chamber’s lighting and ventilation systems behind brightly colored panels that interrupt the spindles in
Michael Green Architects' Wood Innovation Centre in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, breaks ground in May. Known for its investigations in building with wood, Vancouver-based Michael Green Architecture (MGA) has announced plans to break ground in May on what will be North America’s tallest wood structure. The Wood Innovation and Design Centre (WIDC) in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, is a roughly $24.5 million (U.S.), 90-foot-tall building that showcases the latest in wood construction. Owned by the city, it will also be the home to the University of Northern British Columbia’s new masters of engineering program in tall wood design.
Officials at New York City's Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art announced today that the school, famously free to students, will begin charging undergraduate tuition next year. The highly selective art, architecture, and engineering college has faced numerous financial challenges in recent years, amounting to a $12 million annual deficit, even after leasing a nearby parcel to a developer who is building a soon-to-be-complete Fumihiko Maki project on the site. The school had previously covered the cost of student tuition with scholarships. It announced last year that it would begin charging tuition for graduate students. Cooper Union's
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