When it started preparing for the 2012 Summer Games, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) put two key items on its agenda: contribute to East London’s ongoing revitalization in a sustainable way, and avoid “white elephant” venues that would not be used after the Games end. As part of that vision, in March it announced that American landscape architects Hargreaves Associates and London-based LDA Design will design the Olympic Park.
Part promenade, part amphitheater, Frank Gehry’s summer pavilion for London’s Serpentine Gallery, due to open in June, looks set to be one of the more elaborate and vivacious commissions in the gallery’s annual series. It marks Gehry’s first project in London and the first time he has collaborated with his son Samuel, who is part of the Gehry Partners design team. Arup will review the design, materials, and structure.
The Serpentine Gallery, in London, has chosen Frank Gehry to design this year’s summertime pavilion. Gehry is the first American to be commissioned to design the structure, which he will realize in four months for a June launch.
The British architectural profession has had a largely negative response to plans for London’s 80,000-seat Olympic stadium, which were unveiled last month. Critics say that the design, by HOK Sport and architect Peter Cook of HOK, lacks the flair of conceptual images shown during London’s bid to host the 2012 Games. But the city’s Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) defends the stadium as an adaptable and practical structure that can be re-used. Images: Courtesy Team Macarie Critics have panned designs for the 2012 Olympic Stadium in London, an 80,000-seat arena created by HOK Sport and architect Peter Cook of HOK. The
Boots Motel along Route 66 in Carthage, Missouri Photo: Courtesy Jim Ross/National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation released its 2007 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Places today. It includes everything from individual buildings, such as the abandoned Brookline, Massachusetts, residence of the 19th century architect H.H. Richardson, to entire landscapes threatened by the construction of new power transmission lines in seven Mid-Atlantic states. Since initiating the list of Endangered Places in 1988, the Trust has successfully worked to save 52 percent of sites from destruction. A few of the places on this year’s
Paul Rudolph’s 1960 Blue Cross/ Blue Shield Building in Boston broke aesthetic and technical ground while respecting the scale of a historic streetscape. But the developer of a proposed new skyscraper has sketched it out of the picture, and the building’s fate is now uncertain. In Cleveland, meanwhile, county commissioners approved plans this spring to demolish Marcel Breuer’s 1971 Cleveland Trust Tower. Although these buildings have their admirers, they challenge entrenched notions of historic preservation and highlight an ongoing debate about saving Modern buildings. They also serve as reminders of lingering hostility toward much postwar architecture. “It’s difficult for people
RMJM, an Edinburgh-based architecture firm with 700 employees and 11 international offices, is set to acquire Hillier Architecture, based in Princeton, New Jersey, reliable sources tell Debra Rubin, of RECORD’s sister magazine, Engineering News-Record. RMJM says that it has projects in more than 15 countries worldwide in a wide range of industry sectors, including education, commercial, industrial, residential, scientific research, healthcare, and public buildings. Hillier, which had $69 million of revenue in 2006, declines to confirm the transaction—but sources tell Rubin that it has been on the block for some time. The deal is set to be announced June 19.
Preservationists in Great Britain are backing stronger planning powers that would affect the look—and height—of London’s future buildings. In March, the government released its White Paper on Heritage, which called for creating development buffer zones around 27 World Heritage sites, including the Tower of London and the Houses of Parliament. It followed closely on the heels of calls from UNESCO to prevent skyscraper construction near heritage sites that are at risk from rising sea levels and other effects of climate change. Image: Courtesy English Heritage English Heritage’s interpretation of Rafael Viñoly’s looming Walkie-Talkie. Among the towers that could be affected