The New York Times has detailed accusations of sexual harassment made by five women against architect Richard Meier. The allegations have been made by four women who have worked with Mr. Meier, including two women describing incidents which have occurred over the last ten years. A fifth woman, who did not work at the firm, details an incident with Mr. Meier in the 1980s.
In response to the allegations put to Mr. Meier by the New York Times, the 83-year-old architect has said he will take a six-month leave of absence from his firm, and issued the following statement:"I am deeply troubled and embarrassed by the accounts of several women who were offended by my words and actions. While our recollections may differ, I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my behavior."
https://www.archdaily.com/890682/richard-meier-accused-of-sexual-harassment-by-5-women-temporarily-steps-down-from-firmAD Editorial Team
The idea for the vessel came from feeling that we shouldn’t just make a sculpture or a monument – it felt to us that rather than building a sculpture, it would be great if something was creating more public space.
In the latest in their Daily360 series, the New York Times takes us inside BIG's recently completed TIRPITZ museum, located within a former Nazi bunker on the west coast of Denmark. The video gives a panoramic tour of the museum's light-filled subterranean spaces, along with commentary from museum curator Anne Sofie Vemmelund Christensen, who notes the most transformative changes from the spectacular renovation.
During the year of the 150th anniversary of his birth, Frank Lloyd Wright is having another glorious moment in the public consciousness. While many of Wright’s structures, including Fallingwater, the Guggenheim and Taliesin, are staples of the architectural canon, this renewed interest has given some of Wright’s other 380 remaining buildings the chance to step out into the sun.
Many of these other still-standing buildings are houses, and while some have been converted into museums, many remain on the market for prospective homebuyers with a knack for preservation – but not necessarily exorbitant wealth (according to the New York Times, the 1917 Prairie-style Meier House sold in 2013 for just $125,000). In total, 45 Wright properties have been sold in the last five years alone.
Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier are both architects who were known for their grand and innovative ideas—as well as for their high esteem for their own opinions. The two did not, however, see eye to eye in their visions for the future of American cities and civilization. Both architects had utopian, all-encompassing plans for their ideal American city, combining social as well as architectural ideas. In 1932, both described these ideas in The New York Times; in these two articles Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier made their differing beliefs perfectly clear to the public.
The architectural legacy of the Rockefeller family in Manhattan is well-known, most obviously demonstrated in the slab-like Art Deco towers of the Rockefeller Center and the ever-expanding campus of the MoMA. But in a city that is filled with landmarks and historic buildings, it's easy for even the most remarkable projects to go unrecognized. Philip Johnson's Rockefeller Guest House in Manhattan was completed in 1950, just one year after the construction of his better known Glass House in New Canaan. The Glass House is an obvious cousin to the later guest house: both feature largely empty glass and steel boxlike forms, where structural work is exposed and celebrated.
The New York Times has published an in-depth article entitled ‘How China Built iPhone City With Billions in Perks for Apple’s Partners’, revealing a treasure chest of public benefits for the world’s biggest iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, China. In a city of six million inhabitants in an impoverished region of China, the local government has contributed $1.5 billion to Foxconn, Apple’s supplier of iPhones. The money is used, in part, to improve local infrastructure, reduce Foxconn's export costs, and build housing for the factory’s 350,000-strong workforce (five times the number of people employed directly by Apple in the United States).
https://www.archdaily.com/803865/want-to-understand-the-inner-workings-of-chinas-iphone-city-start-hereNiall Patrick Walsh
Chilean architect Alejandro has been selected as one of "28 creative geniuses who defined culture in 2016" by the New York Times, in a list that includes personalities such as First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, singer Lady Gaga, photographer William Eggleston and designer Junya Watanabe.
Clockwise from top left: Rosemary Park, Rebecca G. Barnes, Amity Kurt, Patricia Galván, Farida Abu-Bakare and Claire Weisz, women who responded to the survey. Image via The New York Times
Gender inequality in the architecture profession has continued to be a cause for concern, with a recent survey from the AIA showing that women feel that little to no progress has been made with overcoming gender obstacles. Following the recent passing of Zaha Hadid, a powerful pioneer and role model for female designers, The New York Times launched an online survey asking women in architecture about their experiences in the profession. Read some of the excerpts from the two hundred responses they received after the break.
Graphic designers are the masked superheroes of the design world. They shape the way people interact with everyday objects, often at a subconscious level, and create identities for events, services and businesses. Michael Bierut, with his familiar designs for Saks 5th Avenue, New York City parking signs, Verizon, Billboard, and most recently, Hillary Clinton’s much talked-about campaign logo, is a prime example of a man looking out for public aesthetic good. Now, with the release of his book, "How To use graphic design to sell things, explain things, make things look better, make people laugh, make people cry, and (every once in a while) change the world," and a retrospective exhibition of his works coming to a close this weekend at the School of Visual Arts, Bierut’s mask has been lifted.
Karim Rashid, internationally renowned for his work in industrial design, has recently shifted his focus towards real estate. Alongside his team of nine architects, the New York-based designer is currently working on 11 buildings worldwide, including four in New York. With extensive knowledge in product design and no formal architectural education, Rashid believes designing architecture isn’t out of his realm:
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Bolling Municipal Center - Roxbury, Boston (MA). Image Courtesy of Mecanoo / Sasaki Associates
In an article for the New York Times, Alexandra Lange discusses a number of US projects which are "transforming, but not disrupting," their respective communities. In this vein, she cites Mecanoo and Sasaki Associates' new Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building in Roxbury, Boston, as a prime example of a new kind of architecture which "comes from understanding of past civic hopes, redesigning them to meet the future." Examining some of the key concepts that make for successfully integrated community buildings, such as the creation of spaces that actively forge personal connections, Lange concludes that perhaps it is now "time for strategic architecture."
In an article for the New York Times Rachel Donadio examines Masterworks vs. the Masses. From the Louvre in Paris to London'sBritish Museum, Florence's Uffizi to the Vatican Museums, the increasing surge of visitors to these international cultural nodes "has turned many museums into crowded, sauna-like spaces." Balancing everyone's right to be "nourished" by cultural experiences with protecting and preserving the works of art in question is a very real problem. According to Donadio, "even when the art is secure, the experience can become irksome." With some museums seeing annual visitors of up to 6.7 million visitors (British Museum), addressing the issues faced by institutions that are a victim of their own success is becoming more and more pressing. Read the article in full here.
When one thinks of the stereotypical "American" life, images of Suburbia, of small homes with white picket fences, immediately come to mind. But beyond the stereotype is the lived experience of millions of Americans, who have grown up in cities across the country, and indeed, the world.
