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Blair Kamin is the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune. He is the author, most recently, of Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age. We recently engaged in an email discussion about architecture as a social art, the importance of enlightened leadership, and about the critic as a tie-wearing “street fighter.”

GH: Whenever sites like ground zero come up, or New Orleans, architecture takes center stage for a brief moment. Park51, the so-called “ground zero mosque,” is also a good example of catalyzing architectural concern through controversy or trauma. When this happens the symbolic or political aspects of architecture get emphasized over everything else. This contributes to the notion that architecture is removed from day-to-day issues, that it is special, exotic, not next door. Do you think such architectural controversies help create more awareness of architecture and its day-to-day importance or do they ultimately make the public wary of “architecture” and architects?

See the complete discussion after the break.

When I visited Chicago, I had to visit one of the key actors on shaping a city that breaths architecture, from big part of the skyline to the Millenium Park: SOM.

I have visited SOM before, to interview Craig Hartman at the San Francisco office, but Chicago was were it all started back in 1936 with Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings, and John O. Merrill who joined in 1939.

This time I interviewed Philip Enquist (FAIA), the partner in charge of urban design and planning. Philip has been involved in development and redevelopment initiatives for college campuses, existing city neighborhoods, new cities, rural districts, downtown commercial centers, port areas and even in a master-plan for the entire nation of Bahrain.

It was amazing to hear from him on different processes that have been shaping the most important cities in the world, such as Beijing’s Central Business District or the master plan for the Millenium Park. But I was also surprised about a project we presented to you earlier, the vision for the Great Lakes area, a project that shows a lot of responsibility as an architect and an example that we still have a very important role in our society.

After the break, the usual questions a bonus with what’s a good city, and some photos of the office.

A lot of amazing projects are designed now with green roofs. And for our 5th selection, we even have a Building of the Year 2009 by ACXT. Check them all after the break.

BTEK – Technology Interpretation Center / ACXT BTEK is an interpretation centre for new technologies, aimed at student visitors. The site’s location, on one of the highest points of the Vizcaya Technology Park and close to the Bilbao airport’s flight path for takeoffs and landings, helps with the aim of making the building a landmark in its landscape (read more…)

Dutch architecture offices Global Architects and Bloot Architecture cooperated in an international team of architects and became third in the Vertical Spa in Rome International Architectural Competition. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Project Umbrella by architects Constantin Boincean, Ralph Bertram and Aleksandra Danielak has been awarded first place in the LA Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition, presented by SCI-Arc and Architect’s Newspaper in partnership with the Office of the Mayor of Los Angeles, the Community Redevelopment Agency, along with other public and private sponsors.

More images and descriptions after the break.

This past July Philip Enquist of SOM spoke to the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota as a part of TEDxTalks Mill City series. His focus was to raise awareness and also challenge the Great Lake and St. Lawrence watershed residents to “imagine there are no borders”. This video hits close to home, as I grew up in the Great Lakes watershed region. His lecture is informative and revealing of the responsibility there is to utilize and protect this great resource of the United States.

At the end of the video you find yourself wondering why haven’t we already created a plan for the Great Lakes region.  Possibly the size of this region or the international boarder running through it has failed to put it on many people’s radar screens.  Either way Enquist lays out an achievable ten point plan (overview after the break) to focus on where this 100 year vision could be a global example of human balance with nature, beyond two nations.

Following Enquist’s lecture the mayors of the Great Lake and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative voted to approve a regional sustainability program.

Paris based LAN Architecture has shared with us their winning design for the competition organized by SAEM EURALILLE to design an office building for Sogeprom / Projectim in Lille, France. Additional images and insight from the architects after the break.

The project transforms a picturesque urban pond from the 19th century into an ecological habitat buzzing with life. With the design’s improvements to water quality, hydrology, landscape, accessibility, and shelter, the site is able to function as an outdoor classroom in which the co-existence of natural and urban surroundings is demonstrated.

Architect: Studio Gang Architects Client: Lincoln Park Zoo Project Area: 4 acres Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Beth Zacherle and Studio Gang Architects

Creating an anchor to the urban development of Edmonton, Canada, the collaboration of architects Group2 Architecture Engineering Ltd. and Shore Tilbe Perkins + Will created a harmonious synthesis with the site, its natural landscape and the needs of the community with their Meadows Community Recreation Centre & Edmonton Public Library. Their project is to begin construction in January of 2011. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Architects: P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S & Maxi Spina Location: Rosario, Argentina Principals: Marcelo Spina and Georgina Huljich (P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S), Maxi Spina (msa) Project Team: Rick Michod, Nathaniel Moore and Giuliana Haro, Assistants (P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S) Structural Engineer: Orengo & Associates Construction Company: D.R.S. Construcciones S.A. Project Management: Maxi Spina (msa) and Marcelo Spina (P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S) Project Area: 1,350 sqm Project Year: 2007-2011 Photographs: Courtesy of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S & Maxi Spina

Enota has been awarded first prize for the renovation of the Dominican Monastary into a Performance Center located in the western most part of the historical center of Ptruj, Slovania on the embankment of the Dvara River.

More images and description after the break.

The 32,000 sqf Los Angeles’ Holocaust Museum, designed by Belzberg Architects, has just opened. Sitting across from the Holocaust Memorial, the museum is the new face of the LAMH, the United States’ oldest holocaust museum which dates back to 1962. To the unknowing passerby, one may not even notice the museum as Belzberg has decided to bury the museum underground – a move that not only preserves the parkland above but also creates a dynamic circulation route bringing people beneath the earth to remember those who experienced the Holocaust.

More images and more about the museum after the break.

Here is a video about one of Zaha Hadid‘s latest project, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSRC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This project has a holistic approach unifying architecture and engineering, landscape and building artist expression and environmental responsive design. It is intended to not only be a leading research facility, but also a LEED Platinum certified building upon its completion.

Roma-based OFL Architecture shared with us their winning proposal for the Silk Road Map International Competition. See more images and architect’s description after the break.

This video is just a sneak peak of the exterior projections to be expected on the facade of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York this evening. It will be a full live streamed event 8pm ET where 25 videos selected by the jury for YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video will be featured. This is the inaugural event held by YouTube Play: Live from the Guggenheim.

Sliced Porosity Block, CapitaLand China’s new Raffles City in Chengdu, is a hybrid of different functions like a giant chunk of a metropolis. It will be located just south of the intersection of the First Ring Road and Ren Min Nan Road. Its sun sliced geometry results from required minimum daylight exposures to the surrounding urban fabric prescribed by code and calculated by the precise geometry of sun angles.

Architects: Steven Holl Architects Location: Chengdu, China Design Architect: Steven Holl, Li Hu Associate in Charge: Roberto Bannura Project Architects: Lan Wu, Haiko Cornelissen, Peter Englaender, JongSeo Lee Project Designer: Christiane Deptolla, Inge Goudsmit, Maki Matsubayashi, Sarah Nichols, Martin Zimmerli Project Team: Justin Allen, Jason Anderson, Francesco Bartolozzi, Guanlan Cao, Yimei Chan, Sofie Holm Christensen, Esin Erez, Ayat Fadaifard, Mingcheng Fu, Forrest Fulton, Runar Halldorsson, M. Emran Hossain, Joseph Kan, Suping Li, Tz-Li Lin, Yan Liu, Jackie Luk, Daijiro Nakayama, Pietro Peyron, Roberto Requejo, Elena Rojas-Danielsen, Michael Rusch, Ida Sze, Filipe Taboada, Manta Weihermann, Ebbie Wisecarver, Human Tieliu Wu, Jin- Ling Yu Model Photographs: Iwan Baan Under Construction Photographs: Steven Holl Architects

We received Detail Magazine‘s 6th issue of this year. Check the review after the break.

[blip.tv ?posts_id=4142907&dest=-1]In front of the Mediterranean Sea and with close proximity to the Peñíscola Castle, a National Heritage Monument and a park, architects Paredes Pedrosa decided to focus on providing visual connectivity between all inner spaces to both the park and sea in front of it. The result is a building that displays an open front face towards the park, allowing views of the sea from the upper level. Meanwhile, the rest of the perimeter isolates the building from its surroundings.Video: Studio Banana TV