LECTURE REVIEW: A R O

Tonight, at Tulane University, I attended a lecture given by Stephen Cassell, founding partner of the Manhattan firm, Architecture Research Office. (ARO) Mr. Cassel presented three of the firm's early works - a small Colorado home, a military recruitment office, and a small cosmetic boutique - and three of their more recent works - all educational facilities of some sort. His lecture technique was immediately appealing, and in no way overly pedantic. I'm sure most of us have seen too many lectures where the speaker simply shows photographs of one project after another while giving an almost scientific description of their design. Cassell, however, presented each work from early development to completion, scattering the presentation with humorous personal insight and anecdotes.

ARO doesn't seem to prescribe to one specific design attitude, but rather develop their projects in a manner appropriate for each program and site. The development and presentation drawings he presented ranged from the clean precision of computer renderings to incredibly basic rough sketches and collages. With more emphasis on the latter. It looked like they were still in school - and I mean that in a good way.

I think the strongest of their built work was the Military Recruitment Office. (pictured) Situated in the center of Times Square in New York City, the recruiting station is arguably dismissable as a one-liner - Cassell even admitted this. I don't necessarily think that there's anything wrong with that; Times Square is a one-liner. ARO faced two incredible challenges with this project: The most intensely urban site in the United States and the laughably complicated bureaucracy of the U.S. Military. (The diagram of National offices who had to approve all the drawings was truly terrifying!) Their solution was simple and incredibly effective. A 4-bay structural system and 5-bay glazing system sandwiching color treated flourescent lights arragned as an American Flag. These alternating systems created a dynamic facade perfectly suited for the controlled chaos that is Times Square.

In my opinion, ARO's more recent, larger projects are much less successfull or elegant as their earlier work. I was reminded of Wes Anderson - his early, low budget movies were so amazing, everyone wondered what he could do with a big budget. The answer, of course, was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - not a bad movie by any means - but even most die hard fans will admit that it was lacking the certain magic found in his earlier films. Something got diluted along the way, and this is exactly what seems to happen with ARO. There were some incredible ideas present in each of these works, but the buildings seemed out of scale, the material stretched too thin. They were missing that certain magic. The best of the larger designs was the one that will forever remain unbuilt: Their losing entry to the Vietnam Memorial Museum competition. It wasn't so much the building that was interesting, as the ideas that were addressed in the proposal: how to build on the National Mall? How to react to Maya Linn's memorial? How will the way we view the war change as we move further and further away from it? How does one commemorate the history of such a controversial military action? Without going into detail, ARO proposed a mostly underground building that placed the focus on remembering the individual soldiers and stories they have to tell. Tim O'Brien would definitely approve.

By the way - Last week I saw Hal Foster Lecture, but didn't really feel the need to blog about it. The man is a brilliant writer but an incredibly TERRIBLE lecturer. There was no cohesion to his mumbled, fractured presentation. Plus, some of the girls thought he was sexist.

ARO

Previous Lecture Reviews:
LOT-EK
Winka Dubbledam

Everyday is like Sunday

More weekend randomness...

Chris Johnson's Portraits of American Mass Consumption. - via Future Feeder

Also from Future Feeder - some Links to innovative fabrication materials.

Click here for a brilliant rendition of Brian Wilson's "Surf's Up" performed by Al Pagano. And if you haven't bought "Smile" yet, BUY IT! It's perfect.

This weekend I introduced myself to Herman Hesse by reading his "Journey to the East." If you can get past the mysicism and spritual reflection, I think anyone who has ever worked in any sort of creative profession will be able to relate to the dilemas of Hesse's fictional doppelganger. Plus, you can read it in a few hours. If any of my friends are reading this, I can almost guarantee you'll like it.
...That's not true at all.

Loose Links Sink Ships

Tonight, I'm going to see the INTERPOL + BLONDE REDHEAD show. I'm really looking forward to it. I love Blonde Redhead, and I've recently warmed to Interpol. Until their newest album, they just sort of seemed like a Joy Division (sans authentic melancholy) rip off to me. Actually, I still kind of think of them in that way, but now I've embraced it. Album reviews can be found here and here.

Anyway, today I'll just be listing some links from around the web for your weekend enjoyment.

This Summer, BMW office workers will be cursing the name "Zaha Hadid." Her new BMW building in Leipzig puts blue collar and white collar workers in the same conditions. Travesty! -BD Online

Michael Maltzen exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. I'm not much for L.A., but I have to admit, I love Maltzen's work. -via ArchNewsNow

The Incredible photography of Michael Wesely.

ICON's February issue is online. Great Articles! I don't know how I didn't check this sooner. This issue looks like it was tailor made for me. A discussion of the work of Lacaton + Vassal If you read this site, you know I love their work. Guerilla Design! Get dressed up in your orange-vest camo. The modernism of Disney's Incredibles. The architecture in that movie really stands out. Perfectly exaggerated 1960's superheroic idealism.

A Mad Dash Through Europe

Some Aussie propagandists spent a week sprinting through Europe to see to see one "masterpiece" per day. Their unique brand of reviews and photos can be found at Gravestmor.com. They did pretty well for one week: Zumthor's Baths, Chapel of San Benedetg, Heidi Weber Pavilion, Ronchamp, La Tourette, Casa del Fascio, and The Last Supper. On Zumthor's baths in Vals:

The flower pool has extraordinary acoustic qualities; lush and reverberent. Perfect for the complex vocal range of real and imaginary Australian feral animals.

This is exactly the kind of review I think more magazines need to be publishing.

Also from Gravestmor: What's happening while the fashion-savvy denizens of Milan hustle from boutique to boutique?

Hit Parade

Wow. I just checked my stats, and I've gotten more hits so far today than I did in the entire month of November. I'm not sure if that's exciting or depressing. Many thanks to Wonkette, DCist, and Archinect for the links! I hope some of you new readers will visit again. Or better yet, subscribe! Tune in tomorrow to see what the grand total is...

About as legit as the war

So I got this email yesterday, and I at first dismissed it as spam. It still might be spam, but it's worth taking a look at. It seems that there is another preemptive American action - the competition to design an Iraq War Memorial. The entries thus far are ridiculous highly conceptual and intellectually provacative - George Bush Standing on a thousand copper skulls, for instance. They range from the sarcastic to the sacrilegious, and If one certain entry wins, there'll definitely be no argument over whether or not the new memorial is a piece of shit.

The deadline for this *ahem* "competition" is March 23rd, so get cross-eyed drunk, let out your inner Maya Linn, and see what happens...

National Iraq War Memorial Council

Foster's got Boullee on the mind

Nursultan Nazarbayev is the President of Kazakhstan. He has more money than he knows what to do with and no political opposition, so naturally, he decides to build a new capital - Asanta. The centerpiece for Asanta will be a monumental center of religious understanding, a pyramid designed by Norman Foster where representatives from all major world religions will meet every three years to foster (no pun intended) religious understanding.

With this rendering, Foster must be consciously evoking Etienne Boullee, and I think the comparison is indeed apt. Like Boullee's design, Foster's pyramid is formally and ideologically epic. It includes an opera house "to rival Glyndebourne or Covent Garden," a national museum of culture, a new center for Kazakhstan's ethnic and geographical groups - and in order to secure its status as a new wonder of the world - hanging gardens. Oh yeah, and it's fast-tracked to be done before the end of 2006.

But the big question is "what will Borat think?"

via Gabion
Foster and Partners

Room at the top?

In another article from BD, Catherine Croft looks at the progress woman architects have made thirty years after Scott Brown's "Room at the Top." Sadly, it still seems like the most succesful woman architects still have to dodge prejudice by hiding behind ambiguous firm names. Included in this group is Kazuyo Sejima, under her own name only “used to do very small housing projects by herself.” Now, all her projects are as part of her firm, SANAA, and she doesn't want these labelled as being “buildings by women”. (note: my home town, Toledo, Ohio gets mentioned!)

Denise Scott Brown herself, although a partner of Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates since 1969, didn't get the proverbial "name on the door" until 1980. Other architects discussed in the artidle are Anne Lacaton of my recent favorite firm, Lacoton + Vassal, Lise Anne Couture of Asymptope, Kerstin Thompson of KTA, and Marie-José van Hee.

BD

Europanned

The Europan Competition, which helped launch the careers of S333 and MVRDV, offers young architects the chance to win their first big commission. In Britain, however, the winning designs have never been built. This year, however, the competition is being run by a new organization who "promise" that the winning architects will get to build. A spokeswoman offers assurance: "(we can) not offer a cast-iron guarantee that the winning designs would be built," but added: “The people who win the sites will build something with that client group.” yeah. That's reassuring.

BD Online

Spain's block by block Renaissance

In an article on the chromatically agressive msnbc.com, ( I think I'm allergic to that blue!) Leigh Newman considers Spain's embrace of contemporary architecture as a means for the country to reinvent itself. Recently, the Spanish government has been "pouring money into cutting-edge museums, performing-arts spaces, and convention centers." As a result, once neglected areas of smaller cities are now booming, and more importantly, "hip." Gehry and Bilbao get the obligatory mention, but the article focuses more on the recent developments in Barcelona and other smaller cities throughout the country. It's great to see modern architecture not only attract tourists, but also inspire locals. Architects of note currently building in Spain include Herzog & de Meuron, Peter Eisenman, Jean Nouvel and architect du jour Santiago Calatrava. The article goes into a lot more detail concerning the projects by these guys, so just go read it.

*Included is a "rip-and-go guide" on "how to do the new Spain," and convienently "including affordable hotels" step 1: get her drunk on sangria...

sometimes the (bad) jokes write themselves.

MSNBC.com via Archinect

Daily Show does the Gates

I missed this on Monday's episode of the Daily Show. Thanks to From the Floor for bringing it to my attention.
John Stewart and The Daily Show's "Senior Conceptual Art Correspondent" Stephen Colbert critque The Gates.

like all great art, it challenges what we thought we knew about the world. For instance, I used to think that $21 million could be used to achieve something noble, like build a hospital. But The Gates has forced me to recontectualize my notion of what $21 million can be used for. In this case, to redecorate a bike path.

photo via The Loraine

For all the punk rock urbanists out there

While cruising the blogosphere during lunch, I found this - which just makes me once again wish I was in New York. If anyone sees this, i'd really love to hear about it. ( I'm talking to you Mark, Dan, and Ari!)

The Freedom Tower? The West Side Stadium? New York architecture needs a swift kick in the ass.

This February, Les Freres Corbusier finally puts the punk rock back into urban planning: Amidst a blaze of streaming media, ridiculous choreography, and dozens of live fornicating rabbits, a desperate battle is waged over the creation of New York's bridges, highways, and public housing.

Boozy: The Life, Death, and Subsequent Vilification of Le Corbusier and, More Importantly, Robert Moses tracks the life of Robert Moses, from idealistic youth to unstoppable power broker, able to turn parched land into glorious bridges, highways, and public housing with a mere flick of the wrist. With guest appearances by Benito Mussolini, Joseph Goebbels, and the ghost of Baron von Haussmann, Moses learns from the greats until true power is finally his.

Freemasons dance, FDR levitates, and Daniel Libeskind silently weeps. None shall be spared.

Performance times and details can be found on the website: Les Freres Corbusier

via The Real Janelle

From around the web

Metropolis Magazine conducts a short interview with Santiago Calatrava. He briefly talks about his work in Manhattan and waxes poetic about his favorite bridges.

"Another one I like very much is the Brooklyn Bridge, because it’s so heroic. It has a quality--maybe it’s not as supreme in the landscape as the Golden Gate--but it started the whole idea of heroic bridges. It was a fight to build it, a tremendous effort. People died. It has this rich dimension of drama. Looking at it you understand a whole city, even a whole country. It belongs to the dreaming. And then up at the very top, a small American flag. It’s a sign of conquest, getting beyond limits. It’s so moving. It touches your heart. It’s a bit naïve, you understand?

We understand, Santago. We understand.

Slate writer, Witold Rybczynski, wonders if Olmstead would apprciate Christo's Gates.

From the beginning, Olmsted and Vaux strenuously opposed all attempts to introduce art into the park. In their Greensward Plan of 1858, they wrote that while it would be possible to build elegant buildings in the park, "we conceive that all such architectural structures should be confessedly subservient to the main idea, and that nothing artificial should be obtruded on the view."...The aim was to limit the visual impact of the artworks on their natural surroundings... "The idea of the park itself should always be uppermost in the mind of the beholder," [Olmstead and Vaux] reminded the park board.

Moshe Safdie receives Canadian Honors

Today, Governor General of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson, appointed architect Moshe Safdie Companion to the Order of Canada. "The Order of Canada was established in 1967 to recognize outstanding achievement and service in various fields. Three different levels of membership - Companion, Officer and Member - honour people whose accomplishments vary in degree and scope. "

Safdie was born in the town of Haifa in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1938 and emigrated to Montreal.

Canadian Architect

February 13th, 1945

On this date, 60 years ago, the German city and capital of The Free State of Saxony, Dresden, was firebombed by British and American aircraft. The resulting devastation left one third of the population dead and over seventy-five percent of the city destroyed; essentially reducing the “Florence of the Elbe” to little more than smoldering ash and brick.

Today, the skyline of Dresden has almost returned to its former glory. The city commemorated the event with 50,000 people lighting candles in an evening rally in memory of victims. The events centered around the Frauenkirche- the Church of Our Lady- which was almost completely destroyed in the raid and has acted as not only the symbol of the city, but also the signifier of tragedy. The decision to rebuild the church was controversial because for many, the remains of the Fraunekirche were a memorial more powerful than anything that an artist or architect could ever hope to design.

Dresden truly is an incredible city. With Baroque theatres and palaces by Gottfried Semper & others, Government offices in a Socialist 1960's and 70's style, and new buildings by Coop Himmelblau and Norman Foster, the architecture of Dresden is incredibly rich and diverse. I've spent two of the best weeks of my life in Dresden and recommend it as a must-visit to anyone travelling through Germany.

BBC News

Christo's Inspiration?

A Daily Dose of Architecture has some great photos comparing Christo and Jean-Claude's "The Gates" with the Fushimi-Inari Shrine in Kyoto, Japan. The similiarities are striking. Check it out!

another picture of the Highrise of Homes

This picture does a better job of showing the individual residences within the greater frame.

Townhouses in the Sky(line)

Today, Santiago Calatrava's proposal for a new residential tower ( left photo) was approved by the New York City Department of Buildings. The tower, consisting of only 10 townhouses, has always seemed like the building equivalent of a concept car- I want it to be built, but I know it never will. This time, however, it looks like the concept will become a reality. A very expensive, very elite, reality. The New York Post reports that each townhouse will cost $35 Million. It's going to be exciting to see something new and unconventional in the Manhattan skyline. In the wake of the watered-down WTC plan, I hope the city will take more chances like this.

I couldn't help but wonder if this project was at all inspired by S.I.T.E's 1981 unbuilt project, "The Highrise of Homes." (pictured at right) More neighborhood than penthouse, the Highrise of Homes consists of a structural frame that supports independently constructed suburban-style homes, complete with fence, yard, and neighbors. I'm personally a huge fan of S.I.T.E's early work, and I've met James Wines; he's a funny, smart guy who believes himself to be one of the most influentital yet under-appreciated architects in the last 50 years. He might be right. I'm sure that somewhere, in the near future, he'll give a lecture and show these projects side by side, trying to convince the crowd that if not for his "Highrise of Homes," Calatrava's project would never exist.

Post Gras Depression has taken hold...

My thoughts are foggy, my reflexes are slow, every muscle in my body hurts, and New Orleans stinks more than usual... Mardi Gras must be over. I'm told that I had a great time over the last 5 days, but now its time to begin the mental trudge back to productivity. So without further ado...

It's That Time of Year Again...

It's Mardi Gras time here in New Orleans. For the next 5 days, working, blogging and sobriety will be discontinued in favor of drinking, debauchery, and general merry-making.

Life Without Buildings will resume sometime in the middle of next week with a special hangover edition. Don't miss it!

Gehry-Hardy Build in Brooklyn

Yesterday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled plans for the for Theatre for a New Audience's new home in Downtown Brooklyn. The design, a collaboration between Frank Gehry and Hugh Hardy, is essentially the acoustically perfect shoebox (loved by producers and loathed by architects) with a glass front and scattered gehry-esque sinews. The theatre is known for its Shakespeare productions and Milton Glaser was commissioned to create large scale images of the Bard, visible just behind the facade. I'm no fan of Frank Gehry, but this looks like a nice, simple design...except for that damn purple ribbon on the side stuck on the side. That's hideous. It looks like Gehry was whining about the design and Hardy said "fine! you can have your little curvy form. but just one!" The building will be Gehry's first built commision in New York.

Mr. Hardy emphasized yesterday that the theater had been a full-fledged collaboration with Mr. Gehry. "It's not important who did what," he said. (but we all know that's loser talk.) In a phone interview, Gehry said, "It's mostly Hugh's building. They didn't really need me." I can't believe the ego on that jerk...

The rest of the site will be occupied by the Brooklyn Visual and Performing Arts Library, designed by Enrique Norten.

Beginning Today, an exhibition on the new theatre with models and renderings will be on display at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place in Manhattan.

related links for your enjoyment and edification:

• Playbill
• NY Newsday
• New York Times

Hadid "Backs the Bid"

Just after winnign the commision for the London Architecture Foundation building, Architectural Record reports that Zaha Hadid has been chosen to design the Aquatic Center for London's 2012 Olympic Bid. The 20,000 seat venue, located in the Stratford area of East London will be built regardless of London's success in winning the Olympics. The buildings form is reportedly inspired by "the flow of water prevalent on the building’s riverside location." (groan) If Zaha Hadid was a band, (The Zaha Hadids) I think she'd be running the risk of over-exposure. Admittedly, she does great work, I loved her Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, but for some reason, I'm kind of turned off by her recent designs and they seem to just keep coming...

Lecture Review: Winka Dubbeldam

Last night I attended the Winka Dubbeldam lecture at Tulane University. Dubbeldam is the founder and principal of Archi-tectonics, a firm that considers itself as much research laboratory as design studio, and relies heavily on computers as generators of form.

Unfortunately, what I found to be some of the most compelling ideas presented were not discussed in much detail. For example, an unbuilt proposal rethinking the urban scheme for a medieval city in The Netherlands. In an effort to preserve what little nature is left in the Netherlands, these cities are no longer permitted to grow outward, so they must grow from within. A compelling idea when one considers the possible urbanistic implications. The scheme she briefly showed was no less than a complete rethinking of the spaces that make up a city, but she never discussed the concept or design process. Another urban project that she did present in detail was their post 9/11 scheme for lower Manhattan. Commisioned solely for exhibition purposes, the firm designed an interactive "game," instead of presenting a building scheme. Users adjust political, social, and economic factors, and watch a 3D model of a proposed Lower Manhattan scheme react according to the user input and parameters established by the architects.

The buildings she presented were designed around basic programmatic elements. Walls and ceilings were "wrapped" around the program and folded inward or outward reacting to the presence of specific elements. I think it's a great technique, but sometimes the resulting spaces weren't exactly appealing. In particular, there was a private residence where the folded, angular walls created a space that just seemed to aggressive for a vacation house.

The project whose form generation I found to be the most interesting was an installation in a New York Gallery. The pavillion-type space was composed of organic concrete forms derived from a designed sound frequency spectrum.

Overall, the presentation was pretty good. Computer animations helped show the development of their projects and the design concepts behind them. I'm not yet sure how I feel about relying so heavily on the computer as a design tool. I'm a sucker for the Human Touch, and I know it's a cliche to say so, but I really think the comptuer representations made the projects look lifeless and overly analytical. Although I suppose that's appropriate for a firm whose name literally means "the science of architecture."

Archi-tectonics' Web Environment

I Didn't Know People Walked in L.A.

I think this is a really great idea. If you're in the LA area, it sounds like this might be a fun way to spend an afternoon.

via Insurgent Muse:

“For the perfect flâneur, for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy to set up house in the middle of the multitude, amid the ebb and flow of movement, in the midst of the fugitive and the infinite.” - Charles Baudelaire

A Walk to Remember, a project organized by Jens Hoffmann, Director of Exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, invites a seminal group of Los Angeles-based artists—including John Baldessari, Jennifer Bornstein, Meg Cranston, Morgan Fisher, Evan Holloway, Paul McCarthy, Allen Ruppersburg, Ruben Ortiz Torres, and Eric Wesley—to conceive and carry out guided tours through neighborhoods and areas of Los Angeles with which they have a particular relationship or affinity and which deal specifically with the rich cultural history of the city. Every walk will to some degree mirror the particular artistic approach of the artist that conceives it, while at the same time tell the audience something about the artist’s own history in relation to Los Angeles. Each member of the audience taking part in a walk will be given a disposable camera to document their individual impression of the artist’s walk from their distinct perspective. In effect, the walks will form a hybrid between a performance and a guided sightseeing tour, between a work of art and an anthropological experience inside an urban space. Participants’ cameras will be collected at the end of the walk and the resulting photographs shown onsite at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions will comprise another important facet of the exhibition. Thus, "A Walk to Remember" creates a situation in which the artists and the audience can initiate an ongoing process that values the role of artists as "translators" and inspires the audience to take part in the creation of art.

Opening reception: LACE, Wednesday 9 February, 2005 7-9 pm

To sign up for the walks, please call 323.957.1777 x12. As space is very limited, tickets must be purchased in advance: $20 / $15 for LACE members and students with valid ID.