Exasperation is running high when demolition is broached as a way to deal with an unused historic building. When demolition is actually supported by both public officials and a plurality of citizens, despite the building’s decent condition and exceptional architectural character, you can fairly assume frustrations are approaching absurd levels. Case in point: St. Paul’s School in [...]
Ambassador, you are spoiling our view of the Thames with this boring glass cube.
Is Kieran Timberlake’s winning design for the new American embassy in London really as bad as Lord Richard Rogers thinks? Even though the public only has access to a few renderings of each proposal (and as a judge in the competition, Rogers [...]
Thanks to the efforts of a few groups and many volunteers, Detroit just completed what is surely a prerequisite to crafting a coherent plan of urban rejuvenation: it took an inventory. Specifically, volunteers combed Detroit’s streets to determine and document the condition of Detroit’s nearly 350,000 residential parcels (not including buildings w/ more than 4 [...]
In light of the fact that Chicago (well, the Chicago region) is first among cities that can boast as backdrops for Frank Lloyd Wright’s legacy, I thought it only appropriate to take inspiration from him for fixing Chicago’s most recent, ill-fated, act of architectural braggadocio.
Among the thousands of real-estate developments that fell victim to changing economic [...]
To the good fortune of many, no. Ten years after being founded on a shoe-string with an insurgent ”design like you give a damn” mentality, Architecture for Humanity’s relief efforts in Haiti suggest that AFH is no longer a humanitarian group working on the fringes of disaster response. And even if it was never completely accurate [...]
Here is Part III in our 7-part series on architectural renaissance-ready American cities. Previous entries: Buffalo, New York and Detroit, Michigan.
It would be easy to discuss the city of New Orleans without reference to its history prior to 2005; after all, it’s streets were so thoroughly soaked from just three days of water, wind, and [...]
As arresting as the ruins of Sutton Scarsdale Hall are, I suspect that were they at risk of being torn down to make way for a couple condominiums, the mere mention of their age - 286 years - would go a long way to preserving them without the aid of photography. (Sutton Scarsdale Hall is no [...]
When Buffalo made the cut as one of seven cities that are primed for an architectural renaissance, it was understood that isolated instances of demolition would inevitably play a role in its rebirth. Abandoned homes, obsolete institutional and commercial buildings, that sort of thing. But it was not anticipated that rebirth would happen due to addition by subtraction [...]
Possibly. Mattel is holding an on-line vote (here) to determine what profession Barbie will try out next. The choices: architect, environmentalist, surgeon, news anchor, and computer engineer.
And it turns out that there are many people in western New York who think the contest is an excellent opportunity to attract girls to the architecture profession. At [...]
Apart from delivering the welcome news that Manhattan’s West-Park Presbyterian Church was recently awarded landmark status, ArchPaper’s review about how the building averted demolition also alludes to a interesting - but by no means unprecedented - strategy for generating public support to destroy (inconveniently) historic structures.
Back in 2003 (before being landmarked), the West-Park congregation proposed replacing the 1880s church [...]