November 12th, 2007 

LTL Architects : Building 82%
By architecture.MNP
So for the first time ever on architecture.MNP an architecte de la semaine is spilling over to a second week. Oddly enough, we’ve really only featured one project by LTL Architects [hence the feature carrying over]. So enjoy a few more projects by Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis - and check in with us on Wednesday for a review of their new book. Here we have Building 82% [or, the West Avenue Lofts] a feasibility study that LTL took through SD’s [presumably for some developer] for a mixed-use development in Miami Beach. The project gets its name from the local zoning requirements, which states that no more than 82% of the available volume on the site could be built, per the site’s FAR requirements. This project serves as a good example of the firm’s playful + accepting approach to design, utilizing the ‘limiting’ conditions found in a project to their advantage - designing ‘opportunistically‘...

Raising the Bar on Green Business
By Emily Gertz in WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future
Alex will be featured in CNN's documentary 'Just Imagine.', which premieres towards the end of November. In 'Just Imagine,' hosted by UK designer Ross Lovegrove, Alex discusses the future of traditional media, with WorldChanging as an example of how people are gathering online in ever greater numbers to share information and create a better world. In addition to Alex, featured experts range from Sakyo Yasuaki, dean of the Shibuya University in Tokyo -- a placeless university where anyone can teach and classes can take place anywhere -- to Naomi Halas, Professor of Chemistry and Bioengineering at Rice University in Texas, who discusses the impact nano-technology based treatments may have on health care in the developing world. "What will life be like in 2020? Guided by some of the world's leading visionaries, Just Imagine takes a look at the possibilities of tomorrow..."

Louis Sullivan: Under Construction
By Lynn Becker in ArchitectureChicago PLUS
Last November, we were covering the destruction of the 1888 George Harvey House, the last of no less than three rare, irreplaceable Adler & Sullivan designed structures to be destroyed by fire in a single year. 2007 comes to close on a more positive note. This time it's not destruction, but construction that's going on at another three of Louis Sullivan's designs. Last year, Sullivan's ornate long-lost cornice for his 1899 Carson Pirie Scott store was beautifully reconstructed under the direction of preservation architect Gunny Harboe, just in time for the century-old department store to announce it would be closing its doors early in 2007. The new owner, Joseph Freed & Associates, is in the process of converting most of the structure to office space, and is still seeking tenants for retail on the lower floors.

November 11th, 2007

Today's archidose #153
By John in A Daily Dose of Architecture
New Museum, originally uploaded by archidose.
The New Museum of Contemporary Art by SANAA in New York City, opening on the first of December.

Theatre of the water
By Young in Architecture
My friends told me the eye of Malaysia is closing year end, just before it closes, I dropped by for a look at night and discovered something more interesting~! The theatre of the water. Despite the dancing water, the stunning visual effect of the laser beam on water screen is the most fasinating attraction there~! Take look if you are in Malaysia, 8pm/9pm 15mins water screen show. "Rising mystically from the placid lake surface, the many engaging facets and wondrous delights of Malaysia materialize each evening in a kaleidoscope of amazing images and colourful lighting effects. The world’s largest and most powerful screens of water come to Malaysia to create Theatre of The Waters – a visually stunning, living tapestry around Lake Titiwangsa’s shoreline, presenting the people, places and achievements of Malaysia. Each of the four screens of water is a massive 40 metres wide and 15 metres high, artistically enhanced with colour laser beams and high-lux projectors. Theatre of The Waters premieres Saturday 3 February and screens each night through 2007." to find out more...

Farewell to Norman
By Lynn Becker in ArchitectureChicago PLUS - November 11, 2007
Brooklyn, however, beautiful Brooklyn, grew beneath the skyscrapers of Manhattan, so it never became a great city, merely an asphalt herbarium for talent destined to cross the river. Chicago did not have Manhattan to preempt the top branches, so it grew up from the savory of its neighborhoods to some of the best high-rise architecture

Networks for Change
WorldChanging Team - November 11, 2007
By WorldChanging Chicago blogger Jason Diceman There is no shortage of articles about how social networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook can be used to support grassroots and progressive campaigns and professional networking sites like Linkedin and XING can help you get connected in your sector, but what about the networking sites specifically created to support social and environmental causes?

Secret Gardens: Making City Blocks Green to the Core
WorldChanging Team - November 11, 2007
By WorldChanging New York guest blogger Adam Brock Sometimes Manhattan can feel like an uninterrupted smear of asphalt, stone and concrete. If your daily routine doesn't happen to take you through a park, the occasional street planting might be the only flora you see on a given day. But that urban wildlife corridor might be closer at hand than you think: a quick Google Earth survey of the city reveals that most blocks are, in fact, donut-shaped, with apartments ringing the street and a substantial chunk of open space...

That ZENN Moment
WorldChanging Team - November 11, 2007
One way to enter the electric car market, is through the high end, as Tesla or Venturi have done: offer high-performance vehicles with a high-end price tag -- EV as status symbol. Another way to enter is through the low end. Offer an inexpensive, low-speed vehicle that is good for lugging groceries. The ZENN (Zero Emissions No Noise) car is one such offering, and it's made in St. Jerome, Quebec, by Feel Good Cars of Toronto. There aren't many Canadian designed and built cars, let alone Canadian designed electric cars. The ZENN is considered to be a success story for ITAQ (the Québec Advanced Transportation Institute). ITAQ and Feel Good Cars won a prestigious international award for sustainable mobility in June (the Gold medal in the urban vehicle category at the Michelin Bibendum Challenge).