Pretty Goes with Pretty

Yesterday's News—Today! (Architecture Edition)

Bldgblog has a great post about “pedestrian nostalgia”:

[S]omething I think about more and more lately is the possibility that Americans get as nostalgic as they do about college—identifying themselves as graduates of certain universities to a degree, and with a passion, that I genuinely think is alien to most cultures—whatever that means—not simply because college represents the only four years in which they might have pursued their real interests, but because, in the United States, college is a totally different lifestyle.
You walk everywhere.

Meanwhile, tomorrow night at the Arts Center College of Design in Pasadena, Bldgblog and Materials & Applications are sponsoring a film fest dedicated to science fiction and architecture. It’s free and open to the public. More details at Bldgblog.

Gravestmor has a post up about OMA’s current project: building the Death Star in Dubai (or is it a giant radio?).

Also in Dubai, Alec Soth has an image up of the collection of man-made islands created in the form of a map of the world. Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson just bought Greece.

Wallace Neff's Airforms

Wallace Neff is known more for his classic California-style homes (as illustrated in this book), but late in his career he really took the modernist ball and ran with it, in the form of his Airform homes. They could be confused for Fuller’s geodesic designs, but not quite. Steve Roden, he of Airform Archives (among many other pursuits), lives in the last of Neff’s airform homes (originally built for Neff’s brother Andrew, and the only airform house that has not been razed). Recently he wrote a short article about the home for msn. Do read it. And if you’re not checking Airform Archives regularly, I don’t know what to do with you. I can only tell you so many times before I have to come over and click the mouse for you.

A Different Kind of Starchitects

The San Fransico Chronicle has an article today looking into why so many movies make their leading men architects. Adam Sandler, Keanu Reeves, and Luke Wilson all played architects this summer, and (thankfully without seeing the movie) I know that Mark Ruffalo played a landscape architect in last year's Just Like Heaven. I hadn't noticed this trend until just a year or two ago, but the Chronicle's Ruthe Stein takes us in the wayback machine to show us just how cliche it is—right up there with the leading women working as journalists. Both careers have the same thing in common—the implication of creativity and the plausability of a high salary, to justify the inevitable to-die-for apartment and pricey wardrobe.

Robert Osborne—of  my one true television addiction, Turner Classic Movies—had this to say (surely walking toward Stein as he was speaking to her):

There are very, very few professions that still have a ring of heroism about them, and architecture is one of the few that does. If an architect is portrayed going off the deep end, it's always because they are so committed to what they're doing and that's an honorable thing. And it's one of the last manly professions—you are building something outdoors.

Of course, if you've ever encountered an architect, you know they're often not the most heroic sorts. [See here, on a daily basis.] Will Peter Cook kill Hollywood's untarnished vision of architects? I guess we'll have to wait for the next cycle of romantic comedies to find out.

[via ArchNewsNow]

Rem Koolhaas's Serpentine Gallery

Two weeks ago I was in Seattle for just a day, but thankfully I managed to find time to tour Rem Koolhaas’s Seattle Public Library, which opened last year. This is the second Koolhaas building I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing. The other was the Prada store in New York’s SoHo, which is truly a stunning piece of work, with its dramatic “wave” cascading down the middle of the store. It was such a fun space to experience that anytime a friend or family member came to visit, I’d take them there, regardless of their feelings on fashion or architecture. Now that I’ve seen the Seattle Public Library, I recommend the same for anyone headed to Seattle.

I was not terribly enthused about the building based on the photos of the exterior, which I find a bit gawky. But like the Prada store, it is the interior that really stuns you—the “book spiral,” hidden artworks in the escalators, ceilings made of fabric.

Ultimately it was, for me, the exact opposite of experiencing Frank Gehry's Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. That building is breathtaking from the outside—the best moment for that building is when you are approaching it by car. Inside, most of it is rather ho-hum (though the auditorium itself is quite nice).

Now Koolhaas is in the news as he prepares to unveil this year’s Serpentine Gallery in London. For the last six years, the gallery has commissioned an architect (always in collaboration with the engineer Cecil Balmond) to build a summer pavilion. Last year was Alvaro Siza, and before that, Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid, among others.

Judging by the rendering at the Serpentine Gallery’s website (shown above), the airy cloudlike structure looks phenomenal. Of course, renderings are supposed to be grand and gorgeous. Here are a couple photographs of the actual structure (first, via the Telegraph; second, via the Londonist).

Not as interesting. Nonetheless Koolhaas has proven to me that his structures are well worth investigating up close, and he’s just about the last person who should be casually dismissed just because his building looks like a boring hot air balloon.

The pavilion officially opens next week, July 13. Anyone in London out there? Do report back if so. Meanwhile the Times and the Telegraph have some interviews with Koolhaas about the building.

Architecture Events this Weekend

Thanks to the AIA convention, Los Angeles is postively bubbling over with architecture-related events this weekend!

Friday:

First, the AIA/LA Design Awards Exhibit opening reception at SCI-Arc. The opening runs from 6:00-10:00 pm. Concurrent exhibits on Coop Himmelb(l)au and Moule & Polyzoides will also be open, so there’s plenty to take in. In addition, at 7:30 there will be a panel discussion, “Who Says What Architecture Is?” moderated by Eric Owen Moss, with panelists Thom Mayne, Frances Anderton, William Fain, Jeffrey Inaba, and Wolf Prix. And while it’s easy to go gooey for heavyweights like Moss and Mayne, I want to shout out that Jeffrey Inaba and his firm HOLA are fascinating—somehow blending architecture and branding in a very casual and natural way. I saw him as part of a panel at MOCA last year and he was great. (Though ever since I’ve tried searching for HOLA on the web and I just can’t find them anywhere.)

Meanwhile, over at Miracle Mile, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Design Guide is hosting a traveling to-do. The event begins at LACMA at 5:30, where you can take in the Ettore Sottsass exhibition and a little jazz; at 7:30 the party moves to the ACE Gallery, where Dennis Hopper’s photographs are on display; the party wraps at the newly reopened A+D Museum, where you can take in their inaugural exhibition New Blood: Next Gen, plus DJs and other entertainment.

Obviously you can’t do everything—in fact there is something else happening in Pasadena and an opening at the Schindler House, too! Unfortunately this town is too spread out and I'm not gonna drain an entire tank of gas just to make the scene. Seems like the smart thing to do is take in SCI-Arc first and try to catch that panel (though I’m sure it’ll be crowded), then head for the A+D Museum (since you’ve already seen the LACMA show anyway… right? It's okay; I haven't either).

Saturday:

The AIA/LA isn't finished with you yet: the opening reception for 2x8: Swell , featuring student work from architecture schools all over Souther California. The opening runs from 6 pm to 9 pm, with live DJ, cocktails and refreshments (and raffle for a Vespa).

Historic Gas Company Lofts
810 S. Flower Street
Downtown Los Angeles

If you can't make the opening, the exhibition went up yesterday and will close on June 14. It's open from 11am-6pm daily.

Yesterday's News—Today!

—Great Literary Taunts [courtesy the Elegant Variation]

—Bldgblog had a great interview with the urban critic Mike Davis: part one, part two.

—And speaking of urbanism, here’s one for the architecture geeks: the Landscape Urbanism Bullshit Generator.

—I saw X-Men 3 over the weekend and geeked out about it. I thought it was great, despite the lukewarm/harsh reviews the papers are giving it (I suspect most of these critics did not grow up on the comics, or are too snobby to admit it). More geeks weigh in over at Cinematical.

—Finally, the newest issue of Seed is out now; what are you waiting for? I never thought I’d buy a science magazine on a regular basis—and I still have no urge to pick up any others—but Seed is hands down the best magazine (of any genre) on stands right now. It is such a smart mag. And this issue is the fiction issue, no less.

New York Design Week

New York Design Week begins today, running until the 26th.  The big gorilla is the  International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Javitz Center from May 20–23. I've been for the last three years and it is always fun to browse around and lust over all the wonderful objects I'll never be able to afford. Additionally there are a ton of ancillary exhibitions and other events happening all around the city. Core77 has the full rundown.

(Meanwhile, in conjunction with Design Week, the newest issue of Artkrush is all about contemporary design.)

Not to be outdone—okay, they're totally gonna be outdone, but I live here now, so I've got to be loyal—Los Angeles has its own design happenings. June 1st, the long-awaited/delayed reopening of the Architecture and Design Museum finally arrives.  It has moved to a new location on Wilshire, right on Miracle Mile, across the street from LACMA. They were originally supposed to reopen last year some time with a Richard Meier exhibit, but better late than never. The Meier exhibit will open in the fall of this year, while the new inaugural exhibition is New Blood: Next Gen—"groundbreaking work of some of LA's most talented new architects and landscape architects"—which will run from June 1 through August 18. The list of participants is yet to be announced—and let's see, there's just two weeks until opening; I hope that's not a sign of the A+D Museum still scrambling to get their house in order...

June 9th, DesignGuide presents "A Night on Miracle Mile," with happenings at LACMA, the Ace Gallery, and A+D Museum. LACMA currently has an Ettore Sottsass exhibition running, and the A+D Museum will have music courtesy DJ Tom Schnable and the Viver Brazil Dance Company. The night begins at 5:30 at LACMA and ends at 11:30 at the A+U Museum. More info at the DesignGuide website.

Yesterday's News—Today!

Short takes today:

—Elizabeth Mossop, head of the department of landscape design at Louisiana State University, talks about rebuilding New Orleans. [via ArchNewsNow]

—Zoilus responds to David Hajdu’s article in The New Republic: How MySpace is Killing Music.

—Nobel Intent highlights a pair of stars, one of which is “slightly more massive than the sun, [and] rotates so quickly that it has flattened out from a sphere and created a belt of gas.”

—Ever heard of bacterial landscapes? Me neither, but Pruned has them, and they’re purty.

—Pruned also points to a nice-looking blog, Critical Spatial Practice, which shows us Invisible-5, a two-CD guided audio tour of the interstate between Los Angeles to San Francisco. If any of you have ever tried that drive, you know you need something to listen to once you’ve left the excellent radio stations of Los Angeles behind.

Blog in Landscape

Ken Smith, plan for Orange County Great Park

If I had college to do all over again, I might have foregone my aimless English/philosophy degrees and extracurricular punk rock distractions—all of which was great fun and even led to some sort of career path—and instead I would have tried my hand at becoming a landscape architect. Not that the thought even crossed my mind back when I was eighteen. But all these years later I am fascinated and bewildered by the whole idea. Years ago I thought “landscape architect” was a euphemism for “well-paid gardener,” but in fact it occupies the intersection between architecture, urban planning, environmentalism, and art. 

The more I read about landscape architects, the more I can discern just how different an animal the field attracts, compared to its more vertical cousins. Whereas architects tend to invoke to other architects—Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, etc.—when citing their inspiration, landscape architects are just as likely to call out Robert Smithson as they are Frederick Law Olmsted. In the latest issue of Metropolis, Michael Van Valkenburgh even gives a shout to organic foods pioneer Alice Waters and the playwright Tom Stoppard! And Ken Smith, who filled MoMA’s rooftop garden with fake boulders and plants, is quick to call Andy Warhol an influence.

As it happens, there’s a slew of interviews and profiles with a variety of landscape architects in the news these days. The LA Times [via Terra Non Firma] has a profile of Ken Smith, who is about to take on the Orange County Great Park (as mentioned here a couple of weeks ago); the Sydney Morning Herald [via ArchNewsNow] profiles contemporary landscape pioneer Martha Schwartz; and Metropolis talks to Michael Van Valkenburgh about his planned design for the Brooklyn Bridge Park (to be completed in 2012), and a smaller article on German landscape designer Herbert Dreiseitl, who peeled away  a block of Portland’s Pearl District to reveal the area’s original wetlands.

[EDIT: Looks like the MVVA article is for subscribers only. Sorry.]

Finally, at the top of my wishlist right now is Ultimate Landscape Design, by Alejandro Bahamon. 528 pages and tons of the most significant landscape projects of the last  few years. And only $40!

Ariel Photography is Destroying My Sense of Reality

Bldgblog is quickly gaining ground on Pruned as my favorite blog out there right now. The latest includes this image:

No, it's not a screenshot from Sim City; it's a low-income housing development in Mexico City. The photo was taken by a helicopter pilot whose got plenty of other wonderful (if not faux-digital) shots at his own site.

This is my second post in a week on aerial photography that looks positively unreal. Who knew it was a genre?