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Forget Retirement&mdash;Old Architects Make Masterpieces
Forget Retirement—Old Architects Make Masterpieces
COMMENTARY

Forget Retirement—Old Architects Make Masterpieces

(Newser) - Thinking of early retirement? Not if you're an architect, writes Witold Rybczynski in Slate. Few architects achieve greatness before middle age and many do after, such as Frank Gehry, Louis Kahn, and Le Corbusier, who all designed masterpieces in their sixties. "I want to spend whatever time I have...

Berlin Opens Hitler's 'Future City' Tunnels

Network provides glimpse of megalomaniac's plans for world capital

(Newser) - Berlin has opened three vast tunnels under the city built as part of Adolf Hitler's vision of a grandiose Nazi capital, Reuters reports. The tunnels were to house a transit system beneath planned boulevards, squares, and huge buildings, including a Great Hall with room for 180,000 people. The Albert...

Sacred History Resonates in Kathmandu
 Sacred History
 Resonates in
 Kathmandu
GLOSSIES

Sacred History Resonates in Kathmandu

Traditional building practices coexist with global trade in Nepal's capital

(Newser) - Decades of restoration have kept up the medieval splendor of a region long hidden from the world: Kathmandu Valley. Started by Germany in the 1960s and later spearheaded by a Harvard professor, the repairs have maintained many of the area's stupas and pagodas, Lucinda Lambton writes for Vanity Fair—but...

Retro Park West Defines Luxe Living

1920s-style condo building has sold $2 billion in units

(Newser) - In a condo market full of colorful towers, 15 Central Park West appears 80 years out of date—and is the best-selling apartment building in history. Its 19-story limestone exterior, graced with terraced setbacks and a 20s-style tower, may seem "severe," Paul Goldberger admits in Vanity Fair—but...

Architect: China Stadium Is 'Trojan Horse' for Liberty

Herzog defends decision to design for China

(Newser) - There’s no shame in designing a cultural icon for China’s government, says Jacques Herzog, the man behind the already famous “Bird’s Nest” Olympic stadium in Beijing. Though he deplores the regime’s political record, Herzog saw taking the project as a way to change more in...

Green Housing: From Good Idea to Good Business

Architects, not automakers, have the power to halt global warming

(Newser) - With US homes on average twice as large as they were 50 years ago—and, of course, dwarfing those in all other developed countries—rethinking our idea of "home" is as crucial to cutting global warming as switching to a smaller car, says architect Edward Mazria in Fast Company....

New York Times Dismantles Rods After 3rd Climber

Newspaper building has become a hot spot for daredevils

(Newser) - After the third man in 5 weeks scaled the facade of the New York Times building, the newspaper has begun removing dozens of the distinctive horizontal rods that sheathe the new skyscraper. Opened last year and designed by Renzo Piano, the building has attracted death-defying climbers who have ascended all...

Dubai High Rise Would Add Novel Twists

Revolving floors just one of 80-story tower's planned innovations

(Newser) - If heights make your head spin, a planned 80-story tower in Dubai might not be the place for you. Set to be the "world's first building in motion," David Fisher's design features doughnut-shape floors that rotate 360 degrees around a fixed cement core, the AP reports. It would...

Daring Architecture Energizes Beijing
 Daring Architecture 
 Energizes Beijing 
glossies

Daring Architecture Energizes Beijing

Some buildings work, some don't, but overall vibe among residents is a good one

(Newser) - Some of the world’s most adventurous architects have found a gung-ho partner in Beijing, the most noticable payoff being the soon-to-be completed CCTV headquarters—"a dazzling reinvention of the skyscraper," writes Paul Goldberger in the New Yorker. Other creations, such as an ovoid peforming arts center dismissed...

McMansions Make Way for Green Pads
McMansions Make Way for Green Pads

McMansions Make Way for Green Pads

Smaller homes built to strict LEED specs are all the rage

(Newser) - When it comes to building green, a LEED rating is the ultimate cachet-- but they're tough to get, the New York Times reports. And homes approved by the Leadership in Energy and Evironmental Design council tend to be small and pricey, with one platinum-certified four-bedroom house in California on the...

Iconic Sign Is Fabulous Indeed
 Iconic Sign Is Fabulous Indeed 

Iconic Sign Is Fabulous Indeed

Nearly 50 years later, designer discusses her creation

(Newser) - It's been nearly a half-century since the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign went up on the Strip, and Betty Willis is still as sharp as she was when she designed it, Las Vegas Weekly reports. Willis created the neon design back when the Strip still intersected dirt...

Jewish Museum in SF Unsettles
 Jewish Museum
 in SF Unsettles 
ARCHITECTURE REVIEW

Jewish Museum in SF Unsettles

But architect too distracted by secret signs, allegories, writes NYT critic

(Newser) - Architect Daniel Libeskind won worldwide acclaim for his stark, unsettling Jewish Museum in the heart of Berlin. Now the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco has moved into a new Libeskind-designed building. But as a critic for the New York Times observes, the Bay Area institution shies away from the...

Architects Vie for Best Wobble
Architects Vie for Best Wobble

Architects Vie for Best Wobble

Abandoning profession's firm foundations, designers cook up gelatin gems

(Newser) - Don’t accuse them of playing with their food; the finalists in the 2008 London Festival of Architecture’s Jelly Design Contest aren’t fooling around. Using what Americans would call gelatin, “a vast range of architectural motifs and techniques have been used to spectacular effect,” an event...

Damn Straight! Leaning Tower Stabilized

Tower shored up for at least another 300 years

(Newser) - Italian engineers have stabilized the leaning Tower of Pisa, safeguarding it from toppling over for at least another 300 years, the Times of London reports. The famously off-kilter tower began tilting shortly after construction started in 1173, and was in danger of falling. Engineers didn't try to straighten it completely,...

China's Olympic Wonders Dazzle&mdash;at First
 China's Olympic Wonders Dazzle—at First
OPINION

China's Olympic Wonders Dazzle—at First

Beijing tried to impress, not deal with deeper issues

(Newser) - Beijing's new Olympic buildings will impress the world at first glance, Paul Goldberger writes in the New Yorker. The National Stadium boasts a lattice of crisscrossing beams, and the blue-gray Aquatic Center seems underwater with its translucent plastic pillows. But peel back the paint, and see evidence of what enrages...

Guggenheim Vegas Failure a Rare Stumble
Guggenheim Vegas Failure
a Rare Stumble
ANALYSIS

Guggenheim Vegas Failure a Rare Stumble

Starchitect Koolhaas bears some blame for museum's woes: critic

(Newser) - Now that the shutdown of the Guggenheim Museum's Las Vegas satellites is complete, many in the art world are faulting museum leaders in New York for not understanding the realities of the Strip. But for one LA Times critic, it's not just the Guggenheim that misread Vegas. Rem Koolhaas, the...

Capital Ambition Feeds Beijing's Building Boom

China developing reputation as architectural showcase

(Newser) - The new Terminal 3 at Beijing airport—the largest building in the world—is not only the gateway for visitors streaming into the Chinese capital for this summer's Olympics. It's also the capstone for an unprecedented building program that has transformed Beijing into a world-scale architectural showcase. The New York ...

Rome's New Mayor Vows to Raze Renowned Museum

'Post-Fascist' Alemanno wants to destroy Meier building

(Newser) - Only a few days into his mandate, Rome's new right-wing mayor has sworn to dismantle a state-of-the-art museum designed by American architect Richard Meier, reports the Times of London. Gianni Alemanno called the Ara Pacis museum, built 2 years ago to house a peace altar from the Augustan period, "...

Jean Nouvel Wins Pritzker Prize
 Jean Nouvel Wins Pritzker Prize 

Jean Nouvel Wins Pritzker Prize

Pritzker jury praises Guthrie designer Jean Nouvel's 'inquisitive mind'

(Newser) - The French designer of the Arab World Institute in Paris and Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater has won architecture's top award, the Pritzker Prize, reports the New York Times. Jean Nouvel’s projects "greatly expanded the vocabulary of contemporary architecture,” the Pritzker jury noted. “His inquisitive and agile mind...

10 Must-See Big Apple Buildings
10 Must-See Big Apple Buildings 

10 Must-See Big Apple Buildings

There's plenty of NYC beyond the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty

(Newser) - Headed to New York for a burst of sightseeing? Trade the Statue of Liberty for a tour of the Big Apple’s 10 must-see buildings, as compiled by the Center for Architecture:
  1. Conde Nast Building
  2. Brooklyn Museum
  3. Prada New York
  4. Rose Center For Earth And Space
  5. Apple Store Soho
 

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