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Last week marked the opening of starchitect Zaha Hadid's Maxxi, a museum housing contemporary art, in Rome. The NY Times resident critic, Nicolai Ouroussoff decided to open his recent (and glowing) review of the new building, "What would Pope Urban VIII have made of Maxxi....? My guess is that he would have been ecstatic." Funny that he should mention popes, because while Hadid couldn't go back in time to meet Urban VIII (she doesn't want to reveal that her spaceship has a time machine just yet), she is set to join a delegation of 262 artists to meet Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday in the Sistine Chapel. Granted, given the size of the visiting party (other participants in this very mixed bag include Andrea Bocelli and Salieri himself, F. Murray Abraham), Hadid and his holiness probably won't get to speak much ("Hey, I dig your building!" "Thanks, man!"), but it's still a nice mental picture to carry with you this weekend. For more reading, we recommend checking out the Providence Journal's David Brussart's anti-modernism screed against Hadid and her ilk, wherein he asks the pope "to not fall victim to the smooth rhetoric of modernist propaganda."

Sad news to start off the day with. Late yesterday, it was reported that Jeanne-Claude, the French artist who was married to and collaborated with Christo on a wide-variety of massive projects that largely involved huge installations, like "The Umbrellas" in Japan and "The Gates" in New York's Central Park, has passed away due to complications from a ruptured brain aneurysm. Although frequently controversial, the pair showed incredible perseverance with their projects against what always seemed like insurmountable odds, and in the end were often rewarded with praise, even if not everyone passing by fully understood what they were going for (it wouldn't seem like it, but for some nice remembrances, check out their "Common Errors" page and read through the pages of misconceptions). On the artists' site, Christo has said the couple's work will continue, which we can assume he's referring to their planned work in the UAE and in Colorado. The Washington Post has put together this slideshow, taking a look at Jean-Claude's life. Here's a bit from the NY Daily News about Michael Bloomberg's response:

Mayor Bloomberg said Thursday he offered his condolences to Christo in a phone call. He praised them as visionaries who brightened the city and showed the world how art can transform an everyday view into something magical.

"It gave New Yorkers a whole different view of the city, of themselves. It helped tourism, but more than anything else, it expanded our minds and gave all of us for a number of days a chance to think about how big the world is, and Jean-Claude and Christo have really always thought bigger than the rest of us," Bloomberg said.

Hot off the heals of designing this summer's well-received Serpentine Pavilion, the firm SANAA has continued their efforts to conquer Europe, checking off individual nations as they go. One of the two founders of the company, Kazuyo Sejima, has been named as next year's director of the Venice Biennale's 12th Annual International Architecture Exhibition. Sejima is not only the first woman selected to lead the famous annual event, she's also the first in almost a decade to be running a shop simultaneously:

In picking Sejima, the Biennale has chosen a practicing architect for the first time since Massimiliano Fuksas in 2000. The Biennale has also announced that the exhibition will open on August 29 (with previews starting on August 26) and run through November 21. Traditionally, the Biennale opening date has been mid September; an earlier date should allow many more people to attend the event.

Egyptian archeologist Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, is part cultural guardian, part Indiana Jones. No television program remotely concerned with the ancient world can resist him. In a fact piece in the November 16 issue of The New Yorker, Ian Parker excavates the man, the myth, the stetson.

"Hawass's task—in effect to Egyptianize Egyptology by means of a personality cult—is not an easy one," writes Parker, before going on to demonstrate the complicated mix of archeology, show business, and politics that occurs daily at Hawass's office in downtown Cairo. It's a two-part setup, with an outer office staffed by Egyptians and an inner sanctum (the "foreign office") focused on his English language output, including books, a website, and a newspaper column. It is there where he "likes to take phone calls while simultaneously signing handwritten invoices and rebuking subordinates."

While I was at the office, a Zahi Hawass Day plaque arrived from Indianapolis, and a European delegation tried to close a deal for a Tutankhamun exhibit. A graphic designer showed Hawass possible jackets for a new book of his, The Lost Tombs of Thebes. (He has published more than a dozen books.) After quickly approving one of the designs, Hawass noted, in the pleasant tone of a person forced to say something crushingly obvious, "I think you have to enlarge the name."

(Fantastic illustration by Floc'h for The New Yorker)

While we went to a really great lecture last week, unfortunately everyone was entirely civil and friendly, which was a shame, as it seems like we're never luck enough to be at one where the guest speaker goes ballistic. Such was the case late last week when designer Michael Wolff spoke at the D&AD President's Lecture in the UK (no, not that Michael Wolff, the other one). His chief complaint was over the branding of cities, but he stopped from time to time to get in some other digs too. He complained that city branding was simply "an illusion of an easy win for cities, without actually making them any better to live in." And you know how everyone was up in arms about the 2012 Olympics branding back in late 2007? The work designed by Wolff Olins, Michael Wolff's former branding firm? Well he doesn't like them either:

He also slammed his former branding consultancy Wolff Olins, saying "the group's boldness has turned to arrogance, which has not a trace of humility in it."

However, Wolff apparently does still like Crocs, as Design Week mentions that he wore a pair to the event. We're guessing because he understands their great impact on in the humanity.

Starchitect, tough talker and suspected-fixer of Super Bowl XLII, Peter Eisenman, has been named the first Charles Gwathmey Professor of Architecture at Yale. The title was bestowed upon him thanks to a donation by fashion icon Ralph Lauren (estimated to have cost around $3 million), who had been a friend and admirer of the late architect who passed away in early August, shortly after completing his mixed-review restoration of Paul Rudolph's Art and Architecture Building on Yale's campus. Eisenman, who was already teaching at the university under visiting status, will now enter into a five-year position there as was stipulated in the Gwathmey Professorship:

Eisenman said he is honored to be appointed the Charles Gwathmey. "I was always a Jiminy Cricket on Charles's shoulder, telling him 'Charlie do this' or 'Charlie don't do this,' Eisenman said. "But now that I'm carrying his name, he's sort of become my conscience."

Walking through the corridors of Loria Center, Eisenman said he felt at once sorrow and joy at the announcement of the position.

Speaking of Yale and architecture, we should mention another visiting professor, Leon Krier, might start popping up here and there. Krier, who has served as Prince Charles' right hand man in hating on modern architecture (he was also the master planner for the crumbling, dangerous Poundbury development), will be traveling to San Diego this week to apparently tell the city what it's doing wrong, likely complaining about all the modernism and skyscrapers. This is the first stop on what could become Krier hitting the lecture circuit, following the publication of his recent book The Architecture of Community. Could this the first step toward getting Prince Charles' over in the US to start messing with our architecture? Our paranoid xenophobia says "Yes."

While President Obama was busy rocking it with his new Google Glasses on, we assume one of the things he got up to while looking so nerd-cool was selecting the members of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, the list of whomhas just been released. And what an odd list it is. The ones the celebrity watching outlets will pick up on are Yo-Yo Ma, Vogue's Anna Wintour, Edward Norton, and Sarah Jessica Parker (no doubt for her efforts pitting artists against one another). For those whose interests lie elsewhere, you'll be pleased to hear that starchitect Thom Mayne also made it in, as did designer/architect Christine Forester. It's a strange group of people, for sure, and if you're a little unclear as to how they'll all be working together (we'd like to see a Norton vs. Wintour argument the most), here's a brief synopsis of the committee:

Our committee focuses on arts and humanities education, cultural diplomacy, economic revitalization through the arts and humanities and special events dedicated to recognizing excellence in these areas. Since our members include government agencies and private individuals, we provide a dynamic link between the public and private sectors. All of our efforts are collaborative, and we work primarily with the White House and our cultural partners, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Update: The LA Times' Christopher Knight has a few more things to say about the group's makeup, like why aren't there any visual artists included?

Thanks to a tip from Art Info, we can now start living vicariously through Nancy Spector. The Guggenheim Museum's Chief Curator for the past two decades, Spector has crafted loads of exhibitions (of course), worked with nearly every big name in the industry, from Matthew Barney to photographer (and U2 favorite) Hiroshi Sugimoto, and worked in organizing things like the Venice and Berlin Biennials, as well as art programing for the Olympics. And now she's on Twitter, allowing us into her world, albeit it briefly, with messages like "On my way to Frieze. Looking forward to Pop Life at the Tate to see Spiritual America's absence" and "Balka turns Tate's Turbine Hall into a dark abyss. Children laughing and playing anyway." She doesn't have many followers yet, so here's your chance to lock on, to later be able to brag that you were there first. And while you're there, you know that we're on Twitter too, right?

Over the years of working here at UnBeige HQ, we've come to realize that, if there was to be a ranking of the most controversial architecture critics, the NY Times' Nicolai Ouroussoff would likely top that list. He regularly writes exactly what he feels, without censoring himself or blunting his negative critiques, and as such, has caught the ire of many an architecture buff. But did you know that Ouroussoff also spends his time spreading "liberal paranoid social policy"? We had no idea either until we read this post on the blog Times Watch (dedicated itself to "documenting and exposing the liberal political agenda of the New York Times") which focused on the critic's recent dabbling into this bit of left-heavy fear mongering. So there you have it, dear readers. And now you'll be better prepared to read for the next time Ouroussoff praises a billionaire's project he/she has hired a starchitect to build for them, because it's likely chock full of liberal paranoia.

Designing Davids dominate this year's Fast Company Masters of Design, an annual salute to design visionaries. The magazine's October issue spotlights a mix of legends and legends in the making: David Butler, vice president of global design for Coca-Cola; architect David Adjaye; creator of immersive enironments David Rockwell (who we learn is the son of a vaudeville dancer); Pentagram information architect Lisa Strausfeld; and Alberto Alessi, who helms the eponymous factory of shiny design covetables and has recently taken up winemaking [cut to shot of him patiently pressing grapes individually using a Philippe Starck-designed Juicy Salif].

The profile of Butler offers details on Coke's new Pininfarina-styled Freestyle fountain. Developed in a top-secret project (codename: Jet) led by Butler, it dispenses "more than 100 different Coca-Cola variants, including exotic hybrids such as Minute Maid Raspberry Lemonade, Caffeine-Free Diet Coke With Lime, Orange Coke, and Fanta Peach." Fanta Peach!? Be still our hearts. "It's an audacious move for Coke, representing the largest investment in equipment innovation in the company's history—hundreds of millions of dollars—and a big bet by CEO Muhtar Kent," writes Linda Tischler. "Kent, a Formula One fan, not only approved the project but also urged the team to make the machine look 'like a Ferrari.'"