Upcoming exhibition: Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture for the 21st Century

“Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture for the 21st Century” runs Feb. 12-May 15 at the Milwaukee Art Museum. For more information, visit www.mam.org

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 Read more about Frank Lloyd´s Wright: 

http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/article-13738-frank-lloyd-wright-for-the-21st-century.html

Beekman Tower Frank Gehry's Rippled New York High Rise

Gehry Technologies near the top of what--at some 867 feet high--is New York's tallest residential building to discuss how the design team produced the tower's distinctive, wavy skin with a cost-efficient and easily constructible process.

Earthquake in New Zealand

Christ church

¨At 12:51 p.m. on Tuesday, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island, near the country's second-largest city, Christchurch. It is an aftershock of a massive, deeper earthquake that hit New Zealand last September, and has already caused more damage, injuries, and fatalities than the earlier quake. Hundreds of structures in Christchurch have now been severely damaged or collapsed completely. At the moment, at least 65 deaths have been confirmed, hundreds have been injured, and many are still missing.¨

From The Atlantic. See a gallery of 54 so sad pictures:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2RB1Cm/www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/02/earthquake-in-new-zealand/100013/

Murturm Nature Observation Tower

Godorf, Austria
Germany-based architecture firm terrain:loenhart&mayr modeled their 80-foot-high observation tower in southern Austria after the steps of a nearby castle built in 1499. The Murturm Nature Observation Tower’s double-helix design provides a striking contrast to the surrounding woods and a place for hikers to observe the Mur River.
Read the article by Laura Raskin
http://archrecord.construction.com/features/snapshot/2011/murturm_nature_observation_tower/default.asp
Photos by Hubertus Hamm

A video about Frank Gehry's New World Center

A new concert hall by Frank Gehry opens on January 25, 2011, in South Beach, Miami. Howard Herring, president of the New World Symphony, takes us on a tour of the building.

ULI Awards for excellence in Downtown revitalization

Los Angeles Downtown. Development strategy in the area of Staples Center. From http://www.migcom.com/

Three 2010 ULI Awards for Excellence winners—Sundance Square: Fort Worth, Texas; the Columbia Heights revitalization in Washington, D.C.; and L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles. Theodore Thoerig makes a brief explanation of the before-and-after look at each city’s downtown.

I copy here the paragraphs about Los Angeles, as this is the most interesting for me. See the link below to read the article in Urbanland.uli.org:

South Park, Los Angeles, late 1990s. The South Park neighborhood is dominated by industrial uses and automobile dealerships. The struggling Los Angeles Convention Center is in the red, costing the city more than $20 million a year. Despite its location next to the central business district and at the confluence of two major freeways, the area remains unnoticed and underdeveloped—a place no one would think to go.

http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/2011/Feb/ThoerigAwards

The Chinese conception of a house

Traditional Chinese house. From http://dreamhouse.onsugar.com/I

" The Chinese conception of house and garden is therefore determined by the central idea that the house itself is only a detail forming a part of the surrounding country, like a jewel in its setting, and harmonizing with it. For this reason, all signs of artificiality must be hidden as much as possible, and the rectilinear lines of the walls must be hidden or broken by overhanging branches.

A perfecdy square house, shaped like a magnified piece of brick, is justifiable in a factory building, because it is a factory building where efficiency is the first consideration. But a perfectly square house for a home to live in is an atrocity of the first order. The Chinese conception of an ideal home has been succinctly expressed by a writer in the following manner:

Inside the gate there is a footpath and the footpath must be winding. At the turning of the footpath there is an outdoor screen and the screen must be small. Behind the screen there is a terrace and the terrace must be level. On the banks of the terrace there are flowers and the flowers must be fresh. Beyond the flowers is a wall and the wall must be low. By the side of the wall, there is a pine tree and the pine tree must be old. At the foot of the pine tree there are rocks and the rocks must be quaint. Over the rocks there is a pavilion and the pavilion must be simple. Behind the pavilion are bamboos and the bamboos must be thin and sparse. At the end of the bamboos there is a house and the house must be secluded. By the side of the house there is a road and the road must branch off. At the point where several roads come together, there is a bridge and the bridge must be tantalizing to cross. At the end of the bridge there are trees and the trees must be tall. In the shade of the trees there is grass and the grass must be green.

Above the grass plot there is a ditch and the ditch must be slender. At the top of the ditch there is a spring and the spring must gurgle. Above the spring there is a hill and the hill must

be deep. Below the hill there is a hall and the hall must be square. At the corner of the hall there is a vegetable garden and the vegetable garden must be big. In the vegetable garden

there is a stork and the stork must dance. The stork announces that there is a guest and the guest must not be vulgar. When the guest arrives there is wine and wine must not be declined. During the service of the wine, there is drunkenness and the drunken guest must not want to go home." 

FROM: The Importance of Living. By Lin Yutang. P.267/268 New York, 1937

A Skyscraper Brings Danish Urbanism to Manhattan

From Good Design Daily:

It's impossible not to be downright envious of Denmark, what with their bike superhighways and a harbor so clean you can swim in it. But now the United States will get a little slice of Copenhagen with West 57th, a new residential tower planned for Manhattan's Upper West Side that promises to bring the Danes's appreciation for green urbanism to New York.

The building is designed by BIG, where principal Bjarke Ingels has become a poster boy for groundbreaking sustainable architecture, including plans for a ski run that doubles as a waste treatment plant. West 57th will have more of those dramatic sculptural qualities BIG is known for, plus it will transform an underdeveloped industrial site adjacent to the Hudson River into a verdant architectural destination.

Keep on reading the article by Alissa Walker:

http://www.good.is/post/good-design-daily-a-skyscraper-brings-danish-urbanism-to-manhattan1/