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
The U.S.-born, London-based architect pursued a contextual modernism that smartly bridged different eras. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (with SMBW), Richmond, Virginia, 2010 Rick Mather’s death on April 20 from mesothelioma (caused by exposure to asbestos) was especially unexpected because, although approaching his 76th birthday, he always had a youthful air about him. Born in Portland, Oregon, a distant descendant of Puritan minister Cotton Mather of Salem Witch Trials notoriety, he moved to London in 1963 to study urban design and stayed. Having a strong interest in history, he found himself attracted to studying and working in the older European
Cass Gilbert’s Gothic masterpiece, once the tallest building in the world, celebrates its centennial year. Image courtesy Architectural Record The Woolworth Building opened to much fanfare on April 24, 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson famously pressed a button to illuminate the tower for thousands of onlookers. Hailed as New York’s "Cathedral of Commerce," at a 792-foot height, Cass Gilbert’s Gothic-style tower held the title of tallest building in the world until the Bank of Manhattan Trust, designed by H. Craig Severance, and the Chrysler Building, by William Van Alen, were completed in 1930. For the Woolworth’s 100th birthday, Architectural Record
Founded in England in 1980, Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, known for sleek buildings like London's first Eurostar terminal, opened a New York office in 2001.
A slew of high-profile architects and critics, including Annabelle Selldorf, Steven Holl, Wendy Evans Joseph, Thom Mayne, Richard Meier, Michael Sorkin, and Robert A.M. Stern, have joined the campaign to save the American Folk Art Museum building.
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