Samuel Jacobson

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Video: Ole Bouman, "Broadcasting Architecture"

In this earnest and insightful video, NAi director Ole Bouman lectures on our shared need to “celebrate architecture’s glory.” The lecture was recorded in June 2011 at the International Architecture Festival (“FESTARCH“).

Blast from the Analog Past! Physicist Identifies First Protractor

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Egyptian artifact recently identified as world's first known protractor, via www.newscientiest.com

And now a controversial look back… way back.

Physicist Amelia Sparavigna recently identified an artifact in a Turin museum as the world’s first known protractor. Sparavigna argues that the artifact’s ornate decoration, which resembles a compass rose with 16 evenly spaced petals surrounded by a zigzag with 36 corners, was used in combination with a plumb line to measure the slope angle of an object beneath it.

Vietnam Heats Up: New Developments

Vietnam Heats Up: New Developments - Featured Image
Green Tech City, Courtesy SOM.

As billings continue to decline in the US, the nation of Vietnam is quickly emerging as a hot spot for Western architecture firms seeking new work. About two dozen North American and European firms now have projects in the Southeast Asian country, including Foster + Partners, HOK, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Some are even reportedly opening permanent offices there.

Neutra House Temporarily Spared by Community Action

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The Kronish House in Beverly Hills, California. From Mark Angeles via Unlimited Style

A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image.

Joan Didion

Community pressure has swayed the owners of Richard Neutra‘s Kronish House to postpone plans for demolition, and has also prompted the city of Beverly Hills to draft legislation to preserve its architectural history. The house been spared until at least October 10 in order to give community activists time to devise a plan for its restoration. In a related, ground-breaking action the Beverly Hills City Council has asked the city’s Planning Commission to enact a first-ever historic-preservation ordinance.

Ten Ways to Redesign Design Competitions

In his forthright and insightful essay, designer/author/Doors of Perception director John Thackara discusses problems with today’s design completions and offers up some compelling suggestions for change.

Complaints range from moralistic, “competitions are too often staged for wrong or unclear reasons;” to humanistic, “attention is usually focused on the thing rather than on the person or team behind the thing;” to mundane, “there is seldom enough time in the judging process to assess entries adequately.” I assume such complaints are obvious to anyone on the judging-side of the design competition world, and that saying all this out loud might come off as obnoxious, but as a recent architecture school graduate I appreciate Thackara’s full disclosure. Knowledge is power, y’all. Likewise, Thackara’s proposed redesigns range from pragmatic, “get real: Insist on external partners and a live context,” to idealistically postmodern, suggesting competitions “ask entrants to create platforms and contexts in which diverse groups of people may co-design the systems, institutions and processes that shape our daily lives.” As reasonable as the suggestion may be, allusions to leftist, Los Angeles School-style activism might cause some readers to lose interest.

SC Johnson to Exhibit Frank Lloyd Wright Wright Artifacts

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Johnson Wax Headquarters (exterior), Racine, Wisconsin. Photo by Jack E. Boucher, National Park Service,August, 1969.

SC Johnson and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation entered into a long-term loan agreement on July 14, allowing the company to display artifacts highlighting Wright’s impact on families and the home. The agreement is an exciting addition to the wealth of Frank Lloyd Wright-related sites around Chicago, but raises questions about Wright’s place in popular conceptions of architectural history.

Why Politics Matter: Le Corbusier, Fascism, and UBS

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Le Corbusier on the Swiss 10 franc banknote, © Will's Online World Paper Money Gallery

Le Corbusier’s politics are a divisive issue for architects and rightly so: his work is still highly influential, in both adoration and enmity, and his expressed political views are at odds with contemporary western democratic values.

It’s easy for the discussion of those views to lapse into a sort of ethical debate by-proxy, devolving into a discussion about whether or not Le Corbusier should continue to be included in the canon of twentieth century architects considering his apparent anti-Semetism and sympathy for the Nazi party. Such narrow and moralistic inquiry negates other issues pertinent to Le Corbusier’s place in history. It is possible to both be aware of Le Corbusier’s political affiliations and to discuss his work as an architect, urbanist, and designer for its own merits. By way of explanation, I would like to revisit a recent controversy concerning Le Corbusier.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Expansion / Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Opening in 2012, the $118 million steel, glass, and copper-clad expansion to Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum by Renzo Piano Building Workshop will more than double the size of the current facility. Included in the project are a new entrance, music hall, gallery space, and other amenities for an institution that has remained largely unaltered since opening in 1903.

Not Dead Yet! Developer Files Plans for Nouvel "MoMA Tower"

Not Dead Yet! Developer Files Plans for Nouvel "MoMA Tower" - Featured Image
Torre Verre, Atelier Jean Nouvel

Developer Hines “quietly filed” plans for a shortened, 1050 foot-version of Jean Nouvel’s “Torre Verre” earlier this month. The tower, on 53rd St. in Midtown Manhattan, will be located on land sold to Hines by the Museum of Modern Art in exchange for$125 million and three floors of new gallery space. Originally designed in 2007, the tower has seen numerous setbacks including a 200-foot “haircut” by the City Planning Commission in July 2009 in response to its impact on views from the nearby Empire State Building. The plans are compliant with two special permits filed in fall 2009. According to a department spokesperson the application is “chair certification,” which doesn’t require public approvals.