WHEN I SHOWED A TRANSFORMATION FOR QUEENS BOULEVARD that included trees over the subway beneath the wide street, some people naturally had some doubts about how well the trees would grow. But look at these trees above the similar “cut and … Continue reading
“Shared space schemes labelled ‘dangerous’ in Lords report” “A new House of Lords report has called for a moratorium on any new ‘frightening and intimidating’ shared space schemes” — Architects Journal WE GAVE Exhibition Road a mixed review in Street … Continue reading
THERE’S STILL no resolution to the war in Washington over Frank Gehry’s design for a memorial to General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Many who love Gehry’s work hate the memorial design,* which the Eisenhower family rejected. But Kansas Senator Bob Dole and … Continue reading
POSTSCRIPT: When the highest profits in a market like New York’s come from 1) converting affordable rental housing into housing for sale that buyers use for investment and speculation, and from 2) building housing for the rich and the super-rich, there is … Continue reading
VESTER VOLDGADE, KØBENHAVN (“West Rampart Street, Copenhagen”) is interesting both for its current condition and and its original state. It’s called “Voldgade” because like the boulevards of Paris, it was built where the old city wall stood (the French word “boulevard” … Continue reading
No this one:
Click on the image for a larger view Vive la France!
I WENT TO BILBAO just to see the Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum. I’m glad I did. Gehry may be our greatest living architect, and the Guggenheim is the best of the 6 or 7 of the buildings designed by him … Continue reading
I’VE NOTICED this new building a few times from the Hudson River Greenway. It always gets an automatic, “Oh, that’s pretty good.” Other architects have told me they’ve had similar “blink” reactions. Why? It’s well proportioned, it has pleasant massing, … Continue reading
MANY ARCHITECTS will call this design “kitsch,” “pastiche,” or “nostalgic.” Pastiche means “an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period,” so it’s not really a criticism, although they mean it to be. For that matter, … Continue reading
OVER AT CURBED—or after the jump—you can see these with sliders that go between the new and the old:
UPDATE: I rode a bike from Lafayette Street to the Hudson River today. At the beginning of the ride I looked up Broadway and saw the top of the Chrysler Building. At Fifth Avenue the Empire State Building came into … Continue reading
UPDATE: The good news is that this has been to the Community Boards, which endorsed the plan—I don’t know why I didn’t find that in my searches or calls around this morning. It is good that there is some public … Continue reading
More proof, if proof were needed, that Starchitects are very good at that.* Daniel Libeskind is even better than Ingels—although Ingels is obviously great at it too. “Seven Leading Architects Defend the World’s Most Hated Buildings”
“This book should be mandatory reading for anyone entrusted with the design of outdoor public space.” Download the Review (PDF)
