UnBeige logo design by Kevin M. Scarbrough, as part of our regular <i>design our logo</i> feature
UnBeige logo by Kevin M. Scarbrough, as part of our regular design our logo feature

Receive mediabistro.com's Daily UnBeige Feed via email


Daily Media Newsfeed Click here to receive mediabistro.com's Daily Media Newsfeed via email.

architecture

Thursday Jul 02, 2009

Brad Pitt's Make It Right Organization Releases New Housing Designs

0702makeitright.jpg

Staying on celebrities for a minute, Architectural Digest cover model, Brad Pitt, has released a slew of new house designs for his Make It Right project which builds houses to replace those damaged or destroyed by the flooding in New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina debacle (you might recall our post from a few years ago about the first round). Each of the new designs were created by 14 different firms ranging from Gehry Partners to a collaborator of Make It Right's from the start, William McDonough + Partners. There's information about each of the plans available on the project's site (though most of the firms just provide their bios, a few of links have information about the actual plans you're looking at), as well as a handful of photos and downloadable renderings and plans, to give you a closer look. Here's a quick description of the new buildings from over at Architectural Record:

Most of the new designs feature pared-down geometries that harmonize with traditional regional expression. Exceptions, such as the schematics created by buildingstudio and Graft, another longtime friend of MIR, take on a sleeker appearance, while MVRDV's splayed houses and the angular asymmetry of Pugh + Scarpa's design are more exuberant. For the most part, the designs sport flexible floor plans, forge a close relationship with street life, and integrate outdoor and landscaped spaces with architecture.

Wednesday Jul 01, 2009

Richard Rogers and Other Architects Take Tour of 2012 Olympics Sites

0701archvisit.jpg

Perhaps as a way of gloating in front of Prince Charles by essentially saying there's nothing he can do to touch the 2012 London Olympics' architecture plans, or maybe just to try and patch up some of the "Does the UK have an architectural future?" talk after all the bad blood from that same fiasco, a large group of architects, including the recently-angry Richard Rogers, took a tour of the ongoing construction on the Olympic grounds, resulting in this video and lots of comments about how great architecture in England is right now:

Lord Richard Rogers said: 'The new Olympic Park will be a fantastic place and will help to regenerate east London. The designs show exciting sculptural form and will enhance the landscape.'

Joanna Averley, Deputy Chief Executive of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment said: 'Seeing the project at this stage is an amazing celebration of British engineering, as well as British architecture -- particularly the Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre and Velodrome, which will provide a lasting legacy for London.'

Starbucks Announces Move to Go Green with Company-Wide Redesigns

0701starleed.jpg

Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee chain who has struggled this past little while now that not as many people find spending five dollars every morning on coffee mixed with milk, have decided, along with their recent moves to make their offerings more healthy, to update their image a bit on the aesthetics and ethics fronts by heading in the LEED-certified direction. They'll be redoing many of their company-owned shops with all sorts of green initiatives and building new ones from here on out using these new approaches from the start. We think it's great that they're moving toward being more green and that local contractors will be getting new work, but is a massively expensive undertaking like this the thing for a company during a major financial crisis? We're not economists, so we don't know how to answer our own questions, of course, so while we sit back and try to do the math, here's a bit about the new shops:

While the new store designs are highly interpretive, they share several core characteristics, including use of local materials and craftsmanship, a focus on reused and recycled elements, exposure of structural integrity and authentic roots, a focus on coffee and removal of unnecessary distractions, customer engagement through all five senses, and flexibility to meet the needs of many customer types -- individual readers and computer users, as well as work, study and social groups.

Tuesday Jun 30, 2009

Prada Transformer Successfully Transforms into Film Festival

prada transformer.jpg
(Photos: Prada)

If you were growing concerned that Rem Koolhaas' Prada Transformer would suffer at the hands of the economic collapse, resulting in it having to be renamed the Prada Just Sit There, you were foolish to worry. Following all the buzz from its opening back in April, the building has successfully undergone its first shift, moving from a place to exhibit Miuccia's skirts and into a screening hall where a two week film festival entitled "Flesh Mind and Spirit" started this past Saturday. Curated by director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and the NY Times' film critic, Elvis Mitchell, the festival will screen 14 wildly different films until July 9th, three times per day and all for free (if you're in Seoul right now, here's where you can get tickets). As for moving Koolhaas' structure, Wallpaper has some terrific photos of the big move, which required a couple of cranes and (we're hoping) some careful planning.

Friday Jun 26, 2009

AIA's Billing Index Levels Out, Stays Flat

0626aiabillings.jpg

Still not a lot to stand up and cheer about with the American Institute of Architects' monthly release of their Architecture Billings Index. Following some slight ups and downs of late, the latest report (always showing the month prior) found everything staying relatively flat in May. The numbers had bumped up since April, but at a number hardly worth mentioning, moving from 42.8 to 42.9. And while it seems as though the major bloodletting that occurred this winter has finally stopped, the index is still below 50, which means the industry of building is still in decline. The Architect's Newspaper has this great, quick piece, breaking down all the data by region and on charts and graphs, if you're interested in seeing where we're at and what it all means from a few different perspectives.

Thursday Jun 25, 2009

Robert A.M. Stern on Starchitects, Limestone, and Life without a Computer

bob stern.jpgFront-page headlines such as "All about survival" and "High-end stores suffer" are the order of the day at The Real Deal, New York's real estate bible, but the June issue ends on an up note, thanks to the charming Robert A.M. Stern. Interviewed by Candace Taylor for the magazine's back page, "The Closing" (get it?), the superenergized architect, teacher, writer, and dean of the Yale School of Architecture opines on everything from his inspirations (which include Paul Rudolph and Robert Venturi) and his love of limestone ("It takes the light very beautifully") to his favorite travel spots (London, Paris, Rome, and this summer, he's off to Vienna, which is "kind of on [his] B-list") and his thoughts on the Best Buy that occupies the ground floor of his buzzed-about 15 Central Park West. "I've never been in a Best Buy," notes Stern. "It looks nice to me. Every shop in New York cannot be Tiffany's." So, what does he think of the term "starchitect"? Read on!

continued...

Wednesday Jun 24, 2009

LEGO Makes Child's Play of Frank Lloyd Wright Icons

FLWlego.jpgAs we struggle to keep abreast of the flood of Frank Lloyd Wright-related news, contests, vintage game show clips, and egregious puns that have accompanied the outstanding Guggenheim exhibition of the architect's globe-spanning projects, we had to make sure that you had heard the glad tidings that LEGO, too, has caught the FLW fever. In a licensing coup, LEGO's Brickstructures partner (helmed by architectural artist Adam Reed Tucker) has struck a deal with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to produce Frank Lloyd Wright Collection LEGO Architecture sets, which allow kids of all ages to build their own Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Fallingwater. Accompanying the sets are booklets that feature traditional LEGO building instructions as well as "exclusive archival historical material" and photographs of each building. It's DIY FLW!

continued...

A Look at SANAA's Relationship as They Ready the Serpentine Pavilion

0402serpent.jpg

Earlier this month we checked in on the progress with SANAA's much-anticipated Serpentine Pavilion in London, which is set to open in less than a month in it usual location at Kensington Gardens, on July 12th. And now, because it's too cool to resist, we make the jump across the pond once again and visit the Times' architecture critic Tom Dyckhoff who files this great report, complete with a great slideshow interview, about the pavilion. Although clearly still feeling angry about the recent Prince Charles debacle and starting his first few paragraphs with things like "It says something about the state of British architecture when the highlight of every year is a small pavilion in a park," Dyckhoff quickly moves on from there and gets into a great discussion with the SANAA team, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, largely (and refreshingly) focusing on their relationship and how they've been able to work together for so long.

"When I first saw Sejima-san [they use each other's surnames despite sitting beside one another and sipping each other's glass of water], I thought, there's someone interesting," he says. "She'd come in to the office wearing this green golden dress with an Arabian Nights hat in rainbow colours. Totally crazy. I thought, she looks kind of nice. I felt she must become very great."

Despite having read a couple of very negative things about how it is to work for SANAA, this piece at least comes across as very incredibly sweet and makes us even more eager to check out the finished pavilion. In the interim, we'll have to settle for this small new batch of construction photos posted by Olll.

Monday Jun 22, 2009

Guggenheim Launches Online Design Forum

guggforum.jpgJust in time for the release of Gloria Vanderbilt's steamy novel about the widow of a Frank Lloyd Wright-like architect (warning: it involves a discovered cache of letters wrapped with a magenta ribbon), the Guggenheim today launched an online forum that will address the subject of how design can enhance or detract from everyday life. "Between the Over- and Underdesigned," which runs through July 2 on the museum's website, is the first in a series of moderated online discussions on the arts, architecture, and design. Leading the inaugural forum is journalist and critic Aric Chen, who is virtually joined by panelists Sarah Herda, executive director of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts; Arjo Klamer, professor of the economics of art and culture at Erasmus University in Rotterdam; Ellen Lupton, curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum; and David van der Leer, assistant curator of architecture and design at the Guggenheim. The forum encourages visitors from around the world to submit comments and questions for consideration by the panelists and to participate in two live chat sessions scheduled for this Thursday (with Chen) and next Tuesday (with van der Leer). Lupton has already gotten things off to a rousing start:

Imagine walking into a brand-new public building—let's say it's a museum, a campus student center, or a mental-health clinic. Every detail has been designed, from the drop ceiling to the polished floors. But taped to the security desk is a paper sign, printed out in all-caps Times Roman, that says Restrooms Are Downstairs in the Basement Behind the Boiler Room or Don't Even Think About Asking Me Where the Elevator Is. These homemade signs boil over with irritation, directed at a clueless public who don't know how the building works. What's happening here is not a failure of the public, however, but a failure of design.
Are we overdesigning our homes, our cities, ourselves? Or are we not designing them enough? How do we now define "good design"? Would you ever band together a stack of racy letters with a magenta ribbon? Join the conversation here.

New Jersey Nets' CEO and Ellerbe Becket Principle Respond to Atlantic Yards Critics

1222gehryshut.jpg

After all the cries of "You're making Brooklyn bland!" after the Atlantic Yards project recently switched from Frank Gehry to Ellerbe Becket, the developers and designers for the new New Jersey Nets stadium have started moving on the PR front. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be doing themselves any justice. Thanks to a tip from our friend Kristen Richards over at ArchNewsNow, we found our way over to this extended piece where Brett Yormark, CEO of the Nets and Bill Crockett, Ellerbe's principle on the project, were busy defending the decision and the new plans, explaining how great this all will be for Brooklyn in the end and Yorkmark saying things like "We're going to brand Brooklyn in a big-time way." Though outside of naming the two levels in the building "Brownstones" and "Lofts" (ugh), moving the entrances to street level, and building a practice facility next door, there's not a lot of explanation as to why this is going to be so great for the area -- it seems like just coasting on enthusiasm and hoping no one catches on. Ooh, maybe they could paint a couple of quick murals showing Brooklyn's famous moments in history? Or have "authentic New York hot dogs"? That stuff always works in every single other city in the world. Here's a little more Brett Yorkmark:

"The biggest change is that the building is now going to evoke Brooklyn like never before," he said. "There's such a legacy there. Wherever I travel, it is an international brand. They wear it on their hats and on their chests. We're going...to brand Brooklyn in a big-time way, and it will start with the look and feel of the building."

Of note: this writer remains completely impartial to this whole thing with Ellerbe Becket vs. Frank Gehry and whether or not Brooklyn will be bland or not. We just dislike empty PR.


Previously

MIT Developing Super Concrete That Lasts 16,000 Years

Richard Rogers' Call for Investigation Into Prince Charles' Abuse of Power Likely Not to Get Too Far

Santiago Calatrava to Design 'Cornerstone of New Campus' at USF Polytechnic

Checking in on the Building of MOS's P.S.1 Courtyard

George Lucas Planning to Build a Very Heart Mansion-Like Compound

Norman Foster Loses Russia Tower Project

Clark Manus Named 2011 President of American Institute of Architects

Prince Charles Wins the Anti-Modern Battle, Gets Richard Rogers Removed

Introducing 'The Rubble Club' a Support Group for Architects

William Morrish Appointed Dean of Parsons' School of Constructed Environments

Steve Jobs' House Demolishing Battle Must Return to Court

Atlantic Yards' Gehry Dumping Leads to Kansas City vs. New York Brawl

Guggenheim Teams with Google on Shelter Design Contest

AIA Gets the Green Light to Green Their Headquarters

It's Official (and Surprising to No One): Frank Gehry is Off Atlantic Yards

The Battle Over Mies van der Rohe's 'Test Cell'

Suspect Architect Opens Up Shop in UK, While India Relaxes Strict Requirements for Architecture Schools

A Mixed Review of Central Los Angeles Area High School #9

Atlantic Yards Rumors Appear True as Ellerbe Becket Steps in to 'Reevaluate' Frank Gehry's Plans

Thoughts on China: Seeing the Mandarin Hotel's Burns Up Close

Hauser & Wirth to Open NYC Gallery

Architect Arthur Erickson Dies at 84

Aaron Betsky on Prada Transformer: 'This Is Event Architecture'

Zaha Hadid Designs 'Undulating, Radiating' Boots for Lacoste

AIA's Billing Index Dips, But New Project Inquiries Get Stimulus Boost

Inside David LaChapelle's L.A. Home

Friday Photo: Frank Lloyd Wright on Piano

Peter Morrison Plans How to Steer RMJM Safely Through Economic Peril

Havana's Aging Architecture Continues to Crumble

Rem Koolhaas Talks Sustainability in Front of His Temporary Building

A Look Inside the House Steve Jobs Hates

First Look: Rem Koolhaas-Designed Prada Transformer Lands in Seoul

AIA's Billing Index Continues to Move Upward

When Buildings Quit Being Built or 'Accidental Architecture'

A Thorough Explanation of 'Prince Charles Vs. The Starchitects'

Starchitects Form Alliance to Battle the Anti-Modern Prince Charles

Freelon Adjaye Bond and SmithGroup Win Commission to Build National Museum of African American History and Culture

Venturi's House Finally Safe; Designer Pays $15k to Keep Boston Bridge's Lights On

Earl Santee and the Birth of Populous' Monopoly

AIA, Architects, Local Fans Join Fight to Save Portland's Memorial Coliseum

Peter Zumthor Wins Pritzker Prize

Frank Gehry Psychoanalyzes Architecture for Michael Eisner

Prince Charles' Hatred of 'Modern' Costs Charity Its New Building

Boston Globe's Scott Van Voorhis Responds to Critics Over His 'Anti-Architect' Piece

Reviewing New York's New Stadiums

A Sneak Peek at SANAA's Serpentine Pavilion

Bacardi's Miami Headquarters Building in Jeopardy as Company Moves Out

PR Teams Work Hard to Patch Up Frank Gehry's Atlantic Yards 'Misquote'

AFL-CIO May Bail Out Long Dormant Chicago Spire

Yum!: Thomas Schlesser, Philippe Starck among James Beard Award Finalists

AIA's Billing Index Rises a Bit, Followed by Lots of Caution

Frank Gehry's Beekman Tower Cut in Half

More Information on Frank Gehry's Leaking Art Gallery of Ontario

Pizza Goes Green at World's First LEED-Certified Pizzeria

Questions, Theories and Answers Come from Mandarin Oriental Burning Investigations

Frank Gehry Discovers He Has a Leak Problem in Another Building

Multiple Looks at the (Successful!) Moving of Robert Venturi's House

Rem Koolhaas' Prada Transformer Set to Launch Next Month

Robert Venturi's Lieb House Finally Hits the Water

Barbie's Birthday: How They're Celebrating in Paris and Shanghai

Jonathan Glancey Tries to Look Past Recession Toward Future of Architecture

AIA Awards Best-Designed Libraries

Jan Kaplicky's Prague National Library May Get Built After All

In the Kitchen (and Bathroom) with Ron Radziner

Parsons Brings Venice Biennale to New York

Sanaa Selected to Design This Year's Serpentine Gallery

Starbucks Coffee Now LEED-Certified

Robert Venturi's 1969 House Saving Plan Slowly Coming Along

AIA's Billing Index Continues Downward

George W. Bush Presidential Library Balloons Into Even Larger Size

Blair Kamin Doesn't Think Too Highly of Chicago 2016 Architectural Plans

Norman Foster Lays Off 300+ Employees

Paul Goldberger Gets Deep on the Meaning of Koolhaas' Burnt Hotel in Beijing

Rem Koolhaas' Mandarin Oriental Hotel Burns Down

Norman Foster's Harmon Hotel Gets Chopped in Half Due to Major Mistake and Financial Woes

Oscar Niemeyer Gives Up Fight in Brasilia Over Changing Its Skyline

Rounding Up all Socially Responsible Housing Projects

Oscar Niemeyer in Battle Over Niemeyer-Designed Skyline

High-Speed Ticket To Ride? Columnists, Architects Debate Federal Transportation Part of Stimulus Plan

AIA Lobbies Congress for $100 Billion to Help Struggling Architecture Industry

MOS Wins MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program

The New Yorker's Paul Goldberger Takes a Walk Around the New Alice Tully Hall

Meeting the Glass House's Neighbor

Robert Venturi Struggles to Save House From Wrecking Ball in Just 10 Days

Zaha Hadid to Design Port Authority...in Belgium

AIA's Billing Index Inches Up Slightly

LAMoCA Savior Eli Broad Picks List of Architects to Compete Over His New Museum

Architect Jan Kaplicky's Final Project May Get Built After All

An Inside Look at Rem Koolhaas' First Residential Building in New York

A Sneak Peek at Frank Gehry's New Headquarters

Calvin Klein Battles Preservation Board and Neighbor Over Design of His Future Southampton Home

Farnsworth House Threatened by Flooding Again, Preservation Group Vows to Fight Back in '09

Frank Gehry May Lose Entire Atlantic Yards Project

Jean Nouvel's Los Angeles Project Abruptly Put on Hold

Blair Kamin Picks Reasons Why Chicago Should Be Optimistic About Architecture in '09

AIA's Billing Index Continues to Fall Through November

AIA Diagrams the Quick Rise of Architects' Salaries (Before the Financial Fall)

Did You Like What You Saw at the Venice Architecture Biennale?

Green Architecture Has Become a Nightmare for Birds Everywhere

Plans Unveiled for LAX Redesign

Read more on UnBeige >

Interested in advertising on UnBeige?

Where Designers
Read Design

Our Blog Network

BayNewser

WebNewser

PRNewser

TVNewser

MediaJobsDaily

FishbowlNY

FishbowlDC

FishbowlLA

AgencySpy

GalleyCat

MobileContentToday

UnBeige

UnBeige Staff

Co-Editors:

Steve Delahoyde

Stephanie Murg

Contact Us

About Us


• Check out UnBeige
in The New York Times

  UnBeige twitter feed loading...

View twitter directly

Follow UnBeige on Twitter

Anonymous Tips


Topics

7 Questions

about

About Us - Logo Module

About Us - Modules

About Us - Subheader Module

ads/mktg

AIGA NEXT

animation

architecture

art

art basel design miami

aspen design summit

awards + competitions

beta

blogs

books

branding + identity

business

collaboration

compostmodern

conferences

consume

contests

crafty

dwell on design

education

events

exhibitions

fashion

feedback

field trip

film + video

friday photo

funny

furniture

gaming

general

graphic design

HOW 2006

icff

ideas

illustration

interiors

jobs

lexicon

magazines

museums

music

news

off topic

parks + public spaces

parties

people

photo

popularity contest

preservation + restoration

print

product design

professional associations

quote of note

radical craft

rumors

stimulation

sxsw

technique

teevee

The Revolving Door

tools

typography

urbanity

web

y conference

Forum

Designers' Corner 44 topics
What if your client has no taste? (11) 6/23/2009
Freelance fees (4) 6/19/2009
Resume Keywords (1) 6/13/2009
more... - post new topic

Links

Sites of Interest

A Brief Message

Adaptive Path

Adrants

Ads of the World

Airbag Industries

A List Apart

Andy Rutledge

Apartment Therapy

Archinect

ArchNewsNow

Be A Design Group

BLDGBLOG

Bluelines

Boxes and Arrows

Core77

Cool Hunting

Coudal

CR Blog

Creative Bits

CRIT

The Curated Object

Curbed

Daily Heller

Design Addict

Designboom

Design Is Kinky

Design Matters

Design Observer

DesignSessions

design*sponge

Design Your Life

Design Writing Research

The Designers' Lunchbox

Dexinger

Good Experience

Graphic Design Forum

Graphics.com

Homebodies

ideasonideas

IDFuel

Inhabitat

Jason Kottke

Land+Living

Liquid Treat

LVHRD

MoCoLoCO

murketing

NOTCOT

Poynter (Design & Graphics)

Reluct

Remodelista

Signal vs. Noise

Speedbird

Subtraction

SwissMiss

The Moment

Things Magazine

Typographica

Speak Up

Viewers Like You

Voice AIGA

W Editors' Blog


Magazines

The Architect's Newspaper

Architecture Week

BusinessWeek

Communication Arts

Creative Review

Dwell

Dynamic Graphics

Eye

ID

Interview

HOW

Metropolis

Ping

Print

ReadyMade

STEP Inside Design

W

Archives

July 2009

June 2009

May 2009

April 2009

more...

Recent Posts

Fred Tomaselli's Read, White, and Blue

Spend the Holiday Weekend with Nazi Scrapbooks from Hell

David Tristman Puts the 'Fun' Back in 'HTML Fundamentals'

Subscribe

Click here to receive the Daily Media News Feed by email.

Job Listings

Featured Listings

Photo Editor/Picture Editor
National Celebrity Photo Agency
Los Angeles, CA

CREATIVE DIRECTOR
The Berman Group
New York, NY

Avid Technician / Post Production Facilities Engin
Rockstar Games
New York, NY

Senior Designer
Conde Nast Publications
New York, NY

ADVERTISEMENT


mediabistro.com l Member Benefits l Jobs l Freelance Marketplace l Courses l Events l Forums l Content
mediabistro Blogs: Media News l TVNewser l GalleyCat l UnBeige l FishbowlNY l FishbowlLA l FishbowlDC l PRNewser l AgencySpy
MobileContentToday l WebNewser l BayNewser l MediaJobsDaily l mbToolbox
Site Map l Advertising/Sponsorships l Partners l About Us l Contact Us/Help

internet.commediabistro.comJusttechjobs.comGraphics.com

Search:

WebMediaBrands Corporate Info

Legal Notices, Licensing, Reprints, Permissions, Privacy Policy.
Advertise | Newsletters | Shopping | E-mail Offers