Piu Kapoor

Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate has received nearly unanimous praise since it was unveiled for Millennium Park's opening this summer. For those curious about the artist and his other works, the Galleria Massimo Minini in Brescia, Italy is hosting a one-man show on Kapoor.



The image above shows an installation made especially for the show, similar to Cloud Gate in its large size and the viewer being able to walk under the sculpture. Each piece also affects the viewer's perception of their surroundings as they move around and under it. Looking at the image of the large artwork in Italy, it is refreshing to think that Chicago has received a sculpture that is specific to its location - the skin reflecting and warping its context and the sky - something that might not be as effective elsewhere. Kapoor's ability to find an appropriate expression for each installation's context makes him a very important artist today.

For those able to make it to Italy, Kapoor's one-man show runs until December 23.

Events Galore

A few end-of-week events in Chicago of note:

Sustainable Communities: Learning from the Dutch Experience, highlighting "highlight innovations in green design; environmental safety; public policy; economic incentives in building sustainable communities; architecture and design." Speakers include Aaron Betsky (NAI) and Nathalie de Vries (MVRDV), though Ben Van Berkel (UN Studio) has cancelled. The symposium is taking place today and tomorrow at the HUB-Center of IIT at 3241 South Federal.



Designight 04, AIA Chicago's "festive evening celebrating architecture and the 49th Annual Design Excellence Awards" for AIA Chicago members. Festivities are in the Grand Ballroom of Navy Pier with special guest speaker Aaron Betsky making his rounds while in town. I will post news on the winners early next week after they are made public.



And if you're not affiliated with the AIA, check out:



Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art Friday for members and Saturday for the public. "This major traveling exhibition provides the first comprehensive, interpretive examination of contemporary photography from China produced since the mid-1990s."

ArchiRaid

Browsing through the News section over at Archinect, I came across these links of interest:

Let It Be, Philip Nobel's critique of the four High Line finalists, from Metropolis Magazine. Nobel's stance that architects rely too much on buildings, even though they have created a situation where they have responsibility for everything from "the spoon to the skyscraper", is reinforced by three of the four finalists' entries, one being the winner. He argues that in this case the appropriate solution should have valued landscape over building, as in the TerraGRAM entry.



Built to thrill (classic) and Built to thrill (new), travel suggestions for the architourist. Capitalizing on a renewed interest in architecture, much like Time magazine's Great Buildings of the World, Budget Travel magazine picks twelve buildings in each category, all obvious to architects and students of architecture, but many new or unknown for the general public. Not surprisingly, all the names in the new section (outside perhaps Taniguchi) are big: Calatrava, Gehry, Libeskind, Hadid, Foster, Piano, Herzog & De Meuron; or at least they're getting big as their designs push public architecture in new and interesting directions. Of the 24 structures, I've yet to visit only eight of them (four in each section), though given the chance to catch up I would opt for visiting ones on the classic list over the new, particularly Park Guell, Fallingwater, and Mesa Verde.



and



Open access vs. donors' influence, an article in the Christian Science Monitor about the private money in the public Millennium Park. As public space in the US is becoming more and more privatized, the actual definition of "park" is changing, as is the role of public bodies in the creation and upkeep of parks. Witness not only the design of Millennium Park and its various features named after donors (Pritzker Pavilion, BP Bridge, SBC Plaza) but more importantly the closing of the Park to the public a week after its opening for a donor party. While no similar closing is anticipated in the future, it's clear that it could happen. Makes me wonder if a truly "public space" should ever be closed to the public, or is a new hybrid public/private space created?

The Price of Viewing Art

The Museum of Modern Art recently announced that admission to its downtown location, to be reopened on November 20, will be a whopping $20 (an increase of eight dollars over its current admission price), making it the most expensive art museum in the country. Citing higher insurance and security costs, decreased tourism since September 11, higher employee salaries, and costs related to its expansion, most likely the cost increase will work, at least for a while, with Yoshio Taniguchi's addition the star of its reopening. Also, MOMA's yearly membership will become more enticing ($75 individual and $150 family) since admission would be free for members. And, as the New York Times points out, the expansion will allow more of MOMA's collection to be displayed, making a day at the museum more worthwhile.



In comparison with other museums:

$20 - MOMA, New York (flat fee, free on Friday evenings)

$12 - Art Institute of Chicago (suggested admission, free on Tuesdays)

$12 - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (suggested admission)

$10 - MCA, Chicago (free on Tuesdays)

$0 - Tate Gallery, London (admission fee added for special exhibitions)

$0 - J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles ($5 fee per car for parking)

Genius Carpenter

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, today announced that James Carpenter is the recipient of one of the 23 MacArthur Fellowships this year. Carpenter, "an artist and sculptor with a strong background in developing new and emerging glass and material technologies," will receive $500,000 in five equal installments over the next five years, to do with whatever he pleases, no questions asked, one of the perks of winning the prestigious award.

Monday, Monday

This week's update:

Ceramics Park MINO in Tajimi, Gifu, Japan by Arata Isozaki.

The updated book feature is Made in Tokyo and Pet Architecture Guide Book by Atelier Bow-Wow and others.



Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Architectural Styles of America. Get educated on American architectural styles, especially everybody's favorite, Postmodern Commercial Architecture. (Thanks to Jim K. for this link)



School Blog Project, Kansas State University. Occasional posts on Brad Kingsley's fifth year of architecture school at my old school; part of Archinect's School Blog Project.



Green Day. Unleash the punk inside you with Green Day's latest, American Idiot. I am.

Sickening Sprawl

Today, the Chicago Sun-Times reports that, "Suburban sprawl [is] sickening". While this may not come as a surprise to many readers, a study by Rand Corp. found that, "people in high-sprawl regions have more health problems such as diabetes, breathing difficulties, migraine headaches and high blood pressure...[and] that living in a high-sprawl area has the equivalent effect on your health as aging four years."

While the study does not determine the causes of these results, researchers, "cited an earlier study that found people who live in high-sprawl areas walk less, weigh more and have a higher rate of high blood pressure."



Additionally, the author of the Sun-Times piece puts his spin on the findings, indicating that Chicago has an above-average "sprawl index",* with areas like Atlanta, Detroit, West Palm Beach and San Bernardino suffering the worst sprawl.

Regardless, Chicago's outer suburbs are sprawling and alternative developments, growth regulations/restrictions, or some other mechanism may need to be enforced to help in what is now being told to the public is a health problem. Hopefully this study will be a slap in the face for developers, the local governments, and other parties who perpetuate sprawl and will be a step towards creating healthy and sustainable communities for those who choose to live outside cities.

*Update 09.28: Chicago's sprawl index, according to the article, is 121.2. A higher number indicates less sprawl than a lower number.

The First Insurrection

Invisible Insurrection, The Magazine of Speculative Nonfiction, recently launched its first issue, Architecture, Technology & Surveillance After 9-11. Various articles are available in .html format, with the whole issue available as a PDF.



For editors Karrie Higgins and Alan Murdock, "speculative art & writing is contemplative in nature. It speculates about possibilities and imagines the unimaginable...takes risks in content [and/]or form...pushes boundaries and raises questions...[and]steps outside the purely personal and ventures into science, news, history, and other fields."



Future issues include The Stilletto in Her Back: Women Oppressing Women and Bankrupt. Anybody is welcome to submit articles, photos, videos, etc.

70 Years Later

Yesterday saw the opening of the Chicago Architecture Foundation's exhibit, A Century of Progress: Architecture and Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair, on view until November 21. "Architectural renderings, souvenirs, and never-before-seen photographs recall" the typically overlooked of the two Chicago Fairs, the 1893 Columbian Exposition taking precedence in people's minds and history books.

From the press release:

Even though the city?s economy suffered during the Great Depression, Chicago?s leaders decided to celebrate the city?s centennial year by building a colossal World?s Fair to be designed by some of the country?s most prominent architects. The exposition highlighted the scientific, industrial and technological advances that had occurred during the last hundred years, including many avant-garde ideas in architectural design. This exhibition, presented in partnership with the Chicago Park District, looks at the Century of Progress?s historical legacy and shows how the design innovations it presented played a major role in popularizing modern design in Chicago.

All About Parks

This month's Project for Public Spaces newsletter is dedicated to parks, the good, the bad and the in-between. Features include:

The World's Best and Worst Parks

It appears that one variable that makes a park great is time, as the worst parks and squares tend to be newer than the greats, needing time to evolve and hopefully grow as public spaces.



Five Parks that Need a Turnaround

Including Pershing Square in Los Angeles, designed by Ricardo Legoretta with his trademark splashes of color and water. Having stayed at a hotel next door, I was witness to the complete lack of use of the park, outside of the skating rink(!), that is.



Town Square

Jay Walljasper's review of Millennium Park in Chicago (with photos by yours truly), which rightly points out that the continued success of the park will be attributed to its public spaces rather than the architectural and artistic objects within the park.

Game of the Moment

Prestel has released The New York Architecture Game, billed as a winning combination of fun and learning.

"Conceived by the world-renowned game designer Thomas Fackler, The Prestel New York Architecture Game challenges players as it explores the architectural feats that went into constructing twenty-four New York City landmarks such as the Empire State Building, the Guggenheim Museum, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Brooklyn Bridge...this game will give even the most jaded New Yorkers a new reason to fall in love with the world's most exciting city."

Motels on Lincoln

On WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight, Ed Keegan takes the listener on a tour of Lincoln Avenue Motels (Real Audio link), finding merit in their architecture, signage and urban design, and arguing the City of Chicago shouldn't target them for demolition.



Built at a time when the main automobile access to the city from the north was Lincoln Avenue, these motels are very appealing to me, and many other people, relics from a different era (the 1950's), but also interesting pieces of design at the varying scales that Keegan talks about.

Back Home

Got back home from Japan last night, so posts should resume regularly starting today/tomorrow, perhaps including a story or two from overseas.


Window seat view over Alaska

More Japan Pics

More photos from Japan, this time from a road trip to Kyoto, Nara, Toyama and other areas west of Tokyo.


Shinmei-gu Shrine near Matsumoto


Horyuji Temple in Nara


Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto


Nanzenji Temple in Kyoto


A portion of Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel, at the Meiji-Mura Village Museum


Church of the Light by Tadao Ando


Inami Woodcarving Museum by Peter Salter


Mountain Pavilion near Kamiichi by Peter Salter


Ceramics Park MINO by Arata Isozaki


Glass Temple near Kyoto by Takashi Yamaguchi

Japan Pics

A bunch of images from my visit to Japan so far.


The Great Buddha in Kamakura


Meiji Jingu Shrine


The "Golden Gai" area of Shinjuku in Tokyo


Shinjuku at night


Tadao Ando's La Collezione


Toyo Ito's Tower of Winds


Yoshio Taniguchi's Gallery of Horyu-ji Treasures


Jun Aoki's Louis Vuitton store


Kazuyo Sejima's Christian Dior store


FOA's International Ferry Terminal in Yokohama


One Omotesando


Klein Dytham's Undercover Lab

Overseas

During my trip to Tokyo, posts will be occasional to rare for the next two weeks, though I will try my best to post some images while in Japan. Regular posts will resume upon my return.

Monday, Monday

This week's update:

Mawson Lakes School in Australia by Russell & Yelland Architects, in association with Guida Moseley Brown Architects.

The updated book feature is Japanese Architecture as a Collaborative Process: Opportunities in a flexible construction culture by Dana Buntrock.



Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

School Blog Project at Archinect, featuring students "documenting their experiences and discoveries from [various] institution[s] during the fall 2004 semester."



Ben Katchor Picture Stories, the homepage of the comic artist known for his monthly strips in Metropolis Magazine.



Invisible City Productions, "a collective of artists, writers, game designers, and zine editors...as a space for the creators of secret media to come together and touch antennae."

Book of the Moment

September 7 sees the release of Art Spiegelman's first book since his Pulitzer-prize winner Maus about 15 years ago. In the Shadow of No Towers finds Spiegelman graphically describing, "the unfathomable enormity of the event itself, the obvious and insidious effects it had on his life, and the extraordinary, often hidden changes that have been enacted in the name of post-9/11 national security and that have begun to undermine the very foundation of American democracy."



Portions of the new book can be found in McSweeney's Issue 13, and have appropriately been run in the Chicago Reader, since the book's format echoes early newspapers, according to the publisher. If No Towers follows the precedent of Maus, it should a moving illustration of how one man coped with tragedy while also resonating with the reader.

Down With the Hype

Check out Lynn Becker's "Millennium Park - After the Hype", published in this week's Chicago Reader.



Another intelligent critique from Becker, it also has a good timeline of the decision-making process before Millennium Park became what it is today.

Save the Date

Next Thursday, September 9, is Chicago magazine TENbyTEN's release party for their new issue, the Romance issue.



Here's the lowdown:

- Listen to LOVE BALLADS by THE ALUMINUM GROUP, PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE SOUND, and PRINCESS!
- Dance to the PULSE-QUICKENING BEATS of DJs TOUCHMASTER INFINITY and BEN FASMAN!
- Play PUTT-PUTT GOLF at a course designed by CHICAGO ARTISTS!
- Watch ROMANTIC FILMS selected by RUSTY NAILS of MOVIESIDE FILM FESTIVAL!
- Make out in our PHOTO BOOTH!
- Enjoy HEART-STOPPING HI-JINXS by COLLABORACTION!
- Lower your inhibitions with limited COMPLIMENTARY COCKTAILS by TANQUERAY No. TEN and CIROC from 8:00 - 10:00!

$15 subscribers
$20 general admission
$25 day of the event

To BUY TICKETS IN ADVANCE or SUBSCRIBE, call 312.738.2990 or go to http://www.tenbyten.net/shop.html

Cover price includes COPY OF ROMANCE ISSUE, TONS OF ENTERTAINMENT, and limited COMPLIMENTARY DRINKS from 8:00 - 10:00!

First 200 guests receive $50 GIFT CERTIFICATES to a secluded romantic getaway!

Block 37, Phase 20

Crain's Chicago Business reports on the latest in a long string of proposals for Block 37. Previous schemes by Helmut Jahn, KPF and Solomon Cordwell Buenz have faded away, but that's not stopping Perkins & Will (according to ArchNewsNow) from taking a crack at it.

The multi-purpose development would be made up of retail, restaurants, office, hotel, and residential, within a podium (with green roof) and three towers. The scheme relates directly to significant uses across each street, so retail is across from Marshall Field's on State, restaurants are across from the Oriental Theater on Randolph, an indoor space would extend Daley Plaza, etc.



This should all sound (and look) familiar, as the basic formula of a mixed-use development on the site with towers has been a consistency with each scheme over the years. The major differences tend to be the developer, the main tenant, and that "special something." In the latest scheme, by Virginia-based Mills Corp., Channel 2 may be the main tenant (the previous attempt had Harrod's). But my favorite element would be the CTA's planned "super station" underneath the whole development, the "special something". It would provide high-speed access to O'hare and (I believe) Midway, a long overdue convenience for both the business traveler and locals.

From the Crain's article:

Now that City Hall has had a chance to see the renderings, the planning department will take a look. By the end of the year, the planning commission and zoning department are expected to vote on the plans. City Council will have the final say...If all goes well, Mills hopes to break ground early next year.

Update 09.03:

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

WHAT'S IN IT

• 400,000 square feet of retail, dining and entertainment space.
• 400,000 square feet of office space in a high-rise.
• Additional high-rises for a hotel and 300-unit condominium tower.
• CTA hub for express trains to O'Hare and Midway.
• Five-story open-air atrium for shows and community events.
• Digital art shown on a display that wraps around the complex.
• "Giant obelisk'' projecting news and travel information.

WHAT'S NOT IN IT

• Confirmed tenants.
• Assured financing.
• Developers for high-rises.

EARLIEST POSSIBLE COMPLETION: 2007

Source: Mills Corp.

Sacred Ground

PBS's FRONTLINE will devote its next hour to the first year of rebuilding at the World Trade Center site, focusing on the role of Daniel Libeskind and his conflicts with Larry Silverstein and David Childs. Airing Tuesday, September 7, at 9pm, "Sacred Ground" will "[offer] a unique glimpse inside the architectural process."


"Harumph"

If previous FRONTLINE reports are any indication, the upcoming show should be an illuminating look into this first year, especially since the show had exclusive access to the architect over that time.

I highly recommend the show's "The Jesus Factor", which chronicles how "George W. Bush became a born-again Christian -- and the impact that decision has had on his political career." Definitely a timely report.

Book of the Moment

Lloyd Kahn published his now-classic book Shelter in the year of my birth - 1973. Thirty-one years later, his sequel Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter follows the example of the original, featuring "new and even more imaginative ways to put a roof over your head."



From the book description:

For many, modern life has created a physical and spiritual detachment from the earth. Home Work shows the ingenious ways people from around the world have plugged back in, providing ideas, drawings, tips and inspiration for builders, designers, artists, homebuilders and dreamers alike to incorporate into building their own personalized shelter, wherever their home is. More than simply a house design book, Home Work is about being in touch with one's nature and nature itself, and in doing so, satisfying basic needs from survival to self-expression.

(via kegz.net)