The American Institute of Architects Ι Aug. 21, 2019 In the pantheon of Frank Gehry buildings, his American Center in Paris, completed in 1994, was a decidedly transitional artifact. Gehry was rebuffed from using steel on the building by planners with context-attuned designs for its newly redeveloped district on the banks of the Seine, so instead… Continue reading How a Gehry building came back ready for the spotlight
Tag: Zach Mortice
Bamboo Transcends the Tropics for Carbon-Negative Construction
Autodesk’s Redshift Ι Aug. 7, 2019 It can be argued either way: Bamboo is a building material that’s criminally underused in construction or one destined to remain a quirky, regional curio. Long ignored beyond the developing world, bamboo (a grass, not a tree) has the compressive strength of concrete and the tensile strength of steel. Unlike… Continue reading Bamboo Transcends the Tropics for Carbon-Negative Construction
Virgil Abloh’s MCA Exhibition Reveals the Power—and Limits—of Design Disruption
Metropolis Magazine Ι July 15, 2019 Architecture is an attractive medium for the trendsetter-turned-multidisciplinary designer and artist Virgil Abloh. Because buildings are often the face of the establishment, they are ripe targets for subversion—Abloh’s calling card. So it’s no surprise that bits of buildings are strewn throughout Figures of Speech, Abloh’s first solo museum exhibition now… Continue reading Virgil Abloh’s MCA Exhibition Reveals the Power—and Limits—of Design Disruption
New Composite Building Materials Are Redefining Modernism at Exhibit Columbus
Redshift Ι July 2, 2018 Since the advent of modernism, architects have dreamed of the perfect material to unify structure and surface. Steel beams and glass windows were the 20th century’s solution, combining the elements holding up buildings and the elements covering buildings into one tidy duo. This century, academic researchers are throwing out this… Continue reading New Composite Building Materials Are Redefining Modernism at Exhibit Columbus
In Detroit, Empty Lots Become Parks, Helping to Rebuild Lost Social Equity
Metropolis Magazine Ι June 24, 2019 Stephanie Harbin has lived in the Detroit neighborhood of Fitzgerald since 1969, and is president of the San Juan Drive block club. When she was a child, she remembers, there were 75 houses packed onto an extraordinarily long block of San Juan. And in a story that’s been repeated across… Continue reading In Detroit, Empty Lots Become Parks, Helping to Rebuild Lost Social Equity
A One-Stop Shop for Affordable Backyard Homes Advances in L.A.
The Atlantic’s CityLab Ι May 1, 2019 Looking at the pressing shortages of low-income housing in each and every state in the country, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that NIMBY homeowners are winning the fight against new housing, and especially against affordable housing. But there’s one potential foe that reactionary homeowners are ill-equipped… Continue reading A One-Stop Shop for Affordable Backyard Homes Advances in L.A.
Proposals for New Building at UIC Contend with Walter Netsch’s Brutalist Campus
Architectural Record Ι April 8, 2019 Last week, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) unveiled three short-listed proposals for a performing arts center. Two of the finalist designs, by OMA and Johnston Marklee, take strong cues from Walter Netsch’s arch-Brutalist UIC campus—one of Chicago’s least understood bits of architectural history. The third, by Thom Mayne’s Morphosis,… Continue reading Proposals for New Building at UIC Contend with Walter Netsch’s Brutalist Campus
Sunlight and Landscape Views Shape Studio Gang’s Latest Chicago Tower
Metropolis Magazine Ι April 16, 2019 Solstice on the Park, the new Studio Gang–designed rental apartment tower in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, doesn’t want for inspiration. The building is within spitting distance of Lake Michigan and Frederick Law Olmsted’s Jackson Park, where the Obama Presidential Center may soon rise (pending the outcome of a lawsuit). The… Continue reading Sunlight and Landscape Views Shape Studio Gang’s Latest Chicago Tower
Obama Presidential Center Lawsuit Will Proceed, Slowing Progress of Construction
Architectural Record Ι February 20, 2019 A federal judge’s decision yesterday to allow a lawsuit against the City of Chicago and the Chicago Parks District to proceed will delay the progress of the Obama Presidential Center (OPC), which has been designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburg Associates. Controversially sited… Continue reading Obama Presidential Center Lawsuit Will Proceed, Slowing Progress of Construction
Can Artist Theaster Gates Help Bridge a Town-Gown Divide?
The Atlantic’s CityLab Ι April 5, 2019 The newly renovated Keller Center, home to the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy on Chicago’s South Side, is crafted from a 1963 building designed by the architect of New York’s Radio City Music Hall and D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Edward Durell Stone. On the outside is a… Continue reading Can Artist Theaster Gates Help Bridge a Town-Gown Divide?