NY Times obit, here. NY Times story about the genesis of the New York Five, here:
Charlie Rose interview from 2000, here. Starts at minute 24:00.
Top: Gwathmey Residence and Studio – Amagansett, NY 1967
Middle: Cooper Residence – Orleans, MA 1968
Bottom: Solomon R. Guggenheim Renovation and Addition – New York, NY 1992
This past weekend I visited the PA Technology Center (PAT Center) in Princeton, NJ. It’s an R&D building by architect Richard Rogers that was completed in 1982.
The high tech architecture movement had a period of popularity between the 1960’s and 1990’s. Of the architects who practiced (and continue to practice) this genre, five are mentioned most often: Norman Foster, Nicholas Grimshaw, Michael Hopkins, Renzo Piano, and Richard Rogers. All except Renzo Piano are Brits. Because of this, the movement is often called “British” high tech.
Every year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation publishes a list of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places”. A “Place” is broadly defined enough to include whole communities and towns, districts, individual buildings, and nature sites. Places of all ages and styles are given consideration. Making it on the list raises awareness of a place’s plight, with the hope that activism will lead to a happy ending, though it often doesn’t.
This year’s list includes Frank Lloyd Wright’s century old Unity Temple in Oak Park, IL (rendering pictured above). The building is endangered due to massive deterioration of the structure and interiors. Besides being the only surviving example of public architecture from Wright’s Prairie period, it is also recognized as the first building in the world built from steel reinforced poured in place concrete – a pioneering technique that is now de rigueur in modern architecture. Unfortunately, the experimental construction did not include the use of expansion joints to relieve pressure from movement in the building shell. Hence, the intense cracking and crumbling the building is now a victim of.
Other places on the list include the 12,000’ tall Mount Taylor in New Mexico, which sits on the largest uranium deposit in the country.
Plus, Miami Marine Stadium that was built in 1963 using an innovative folded plate concrete structure. The stadium was damaged by Hurricane Andrew in 1998 and has sat unrepaired ever since.
The current complete list can be found at the NTHP’s website, or concisely at the AIA.
Do you live near one of these or past places from the list and want to share your thoughts? Is there value in the preservation of historic places, and how do we reconcile it with the drive to move forward?
“Star Trek” of course features numerous speculative renditions of a future Earth and far away planets. But, amidst all the space age imagineering were a few scenes that featured a little chapel from present day Whittier, California – used as the setting for the Vulcan High Court.
Skyrose Chapel by E. Fay Jones & Maurice Jennings, built in 1997:
E. Fay Jones is perhaps best known for another earlier work, Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, built in 1980:
Here’s a story with a CMU connection published in this month’s Architectural Record:
With Jobs Scarce, Will Young Architects Flee the Profession?
A fair weather lakeside dwelling with minimal protection from the elements for a contemplative president of a university? Sound a little far fetched?
Three projects that might make you think otherwise: two of which are completely off the grid and constructed for less than the cost of a new Toyota.
Writing Studio for an Art Historian
‘Watershed’ Sustainable Writer’s Retreat
As mentioned today in Blue: The line drawings and paintings of Ben Nicholson.
Ben Nicholson: 10 November 1951, 1951
Ben Nicholson: 2 Bottles & Glass, 1967
Ben Nicholson: 27 July 1953 (ivory), 1953
Here’s a nice little essay about Ben Nicholson, written by the artist’s friend, David Lewis, FAIA, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus of Urban Design in the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon.
During the review in Blue Studio on Friday, juror Kai Gutschow mentioned the super-scaled work of Étienne-Louis Boullée.
Bibliothèque Nationale
Newton's Cenotaph: For scale, notice that those are full grown trees, not shrubs, in this elevation drawing.
Newton's Cenotaph: Section drawing showing how daylight was to penetrate the shell to simulate a moonlit starry night sky. Newton's sarcophagus was to be centered under the dome.
On Wednesday we were discussing Maya Lin’s series of topographical constructions called the Wave Fields.
Here’s a little video about her, and the three Wave Fields in New York, Michigan, and Florida.
Wave Field, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
You may also know her as the designer of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, D.C.; a commission she won when she was only 21 years old. Read about her and the design competition for the memorial here.
Vietnam Veteran's Memorial
Assignment brief: Make a device that displaces one US quart of water into another container, condition, state, or location.
“DROPS”
Jordan & Aaron
“ENTHALPY”
Dan & Sandra
“SECRET GARDEN”
Zac V. & Andreea
“TANGLED”
Noelle, Jessica & Wei-Li
“THE NEW STOREFRONT”
Joe & Lynn
“FOUNTAIN ARC”
Frank & Johnson
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“CURRENT”
Leto, Aswin & Adriel
“DICHOTOMY”
Zach W., Dmitry & Rain
A building with constantly changing interior and exterior walls made from digital water, and a roof that raises and lowers, dependent on use and weather.
The DWP was the brain child of a team of architects and engineers at MIT, lead by Bill Mitchell, who will be here on April 20th as part of the SoARCH Spring 2009 Lecture Series.
How about a ship that can change from floating horizontally to floating vertically? All without spilling a drop of coffee in the ships galley.
FLIP: the FLoating Instrumentation Platform
See videos of FLIP in action at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Question: What do you do when you need to link canal boats on the Forth & Clyde Canal with the Union Canal, despite a 115 foot difference in elevation?
Answer: The Falkirk Wheel
Falkirk Wheel: Falkirk, Scotland
This isn’t a new idea either:
The Anderton Boat Lift in England was built in 1875 to lift boats 50 feet from the River Weaver up to the Trent and Mersey Canal.
CMU Architecture 2013 
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