December 6th, 2007

urban weehouse
Justin in materialicious
The first Weehouse built in a major city is for sale. It’s located on a mature wooded lot in Linden Hills, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, a heated tuck-under garage, and many floor-to-ceiling windows. A terrific example of green prefab architecture.
There will be a Holiday Open House on December 14, 2007, 4pm to 7pm - address is 4221 Ewing Avenue South in Minneapolis. For more info, contact owner/realtor Brian Oeschger.

INTERVIEW: Serge Appel on One Bryant Park
Jill Danyelle in Inhabitat
One Bryant Park is the first LEED platinum “skyscraper”; what is your favorite LEED aspect of the project? Aside from LEED, what was the most interesting or exciting part of the project for you?
For me, the best part of this project isn’t a single element or technology but rather the chance to work with an incredible team of dedicated professionals all driven by the same goal. Having the backing of the Bank of America and the Durst Organization has made a tremendous difference in setting the bar high in terms of sustainable design. On top of that, each consultant on the team is top notch and fully engaged with the project.

Report from the field: Hindu Temple Charrette
Colin in blog like you give a damn
AFH MN member and charrette participant Maureen Ness has this report for us:
Members of AFH MN and members of the Hindu Temple of Minnesota convened on the evening of October 12th and morning of October 13th to engage in a design charrette for a Garden of Remembrance for the burial of the icons damaged by vandalism last year. On Friday evening, AFH MN toured the temple and met with the priest to learn more about the Hindu religion and appropriate guidelines for the burial of damaged statues.

A Second Look at the City's Courtyard Housing Competition
Brian Libby in Portland Architecture
Today, 1:27 PM
Last month when I wrote about the City of Portland planning department's Courtyard Housing competition, it was mainly to announce that winners were about to be announced, as well as to look at the role such a housing type could play in the city's ongoing densification. Today I decided to have a closer look at the competition winners and to go back and look at the comments to my own post after the winners were announced. The biggest question mark, both for the competition and for the city itself as courtyard housing potentially goes forward, is what the shared open space is really for. Is it a place for people to park their cars, and then for kids to play on as an afterthought?...

Neighborhood in Transition
As density increases, Parker Gray struggles with violent crimes and a troubled elementary school.
By Michael Lee Pope
Nowhere in the Parker Gray neighborhood is the pace of change more palpable than the corner of Pendleton Street and North Henry Street. As the daily crush of Route 1 traffic whizzes south along Henry through the regional traffic corridor, an ultra-modern looking six-story tower is rising on the southwest corner of the intersection. On the other side of the street, as if stuck in a time warp, is a two-story townhouse from the early 20th century. Its subtle detailing is all but lost in the rush to modernize the neighborhood with large-scale condominiums.

Sustainable tourism: must tourism damage the toured?
WorldChanging Team in WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future
Wouldn't it be great if... we had more examples of sustainable tourism on which to build? Radical ideas, real locations This international design camp, led by Steve Messam, brought together teams of young designers, senior students, visual artists, architects and young professionals to develop sustainable tourism ideas for (and with) specific North East locations and communities. Participants came from eight different countries and spanned many disciplines. Their projects looked at everything from urban camping to the structures that are likely to emerge with the advent of geothermal energy, and the decoration of landscape using the tools and patterns of agriculture.

GAP's Donald Fisher Unveils Presidio Museum Plans
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
One of the biggest stories in museum-ery came out this week, as the plans for the Contemporary Art Museum...

Winner Electrolux Design Lab '07
Frame Magazine
Hungarian design student Levente Szabó wins the [link=http://www.electrolux.com/designlab/]Electrolux Design Lab 2007[/link] award with his washing machine.

Matthew Lenning Gives Bon Appétit a New Look
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
By way of Crit, we learned that Bon Appétit magazine is in the middle of a big rebranding/redesign effort,...


SYDNEY PLANS TO GREEN THE CITY’S ROOFS
Jeremy in Inhabitat
If Sydney-based architect Tone Wheeler gets his way, the Australian metropolis will soon be sporting brand-new rooftop playgrounds and open space areas as a means to green the city. How? By greening every single roof in Sydney! (more…)

 
Still Time to Give WC Book as a Holiday Gift
WorldChanging Team in WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future
A little more than a year ago, we asked for your help in putting the Worldchanging book at the top of the Amazon.com charts, explaining that a big, optimistic book on serious subjects from a smaller publisher was unlikely to survive long enough to make a difference unless readers showed that the book had an audience. Together we succeeded. We didn't just put it on the best-seller lists: over the last year, the book has really taken off, garnering hundreds of rave reviews, being adopted as a textbook in college classes, being translated into other languages...

December 5th, 2007

Back Alleys Up Front
Chris in Brand Avenue
The City of Chicago has unveiled a far-reaching and thoughtful plan to "green" its back alleys--all 1900 miles of them. Overlooked but essential components of the city's urban grid, the soon-to-be transformed alleys constitute one of the biggest streetscape overhauls in the country, ever: If this were any other city, perhaps it would not matter what kind of roadway was underfoot in the back alleys around town. But with nearly 2,000 miles of small service streets bisecting blocks from the North Side to the South Side, Chicago is the alley capital of America. In its alleys, city officials say, it has the paved equivalent of five midsize airports....

dairy house, charlotte skene catling
Justin in materialicious
Dairy House, Somerset, England. Winner of an award from the Royal Institute of British Architects for regional architecture in 2007: This architectural delight involved the creative conversion of an old rural dairy into a five bedroom house. Using local labour and materials, the house is clad in estate oak, stack-dried in the farmyard: a technique that suggests the design, raw planks separated by spacers allowing air circulation. The structural expression between old and new creates a 2-storey steel and glass threshold up to the roof valley gutter. It is only as the visitor climbs the stair into the extension that the sectional manipulation of the house on the side of a hill is apparent; the first floor landing expands through a glass wall to an indented court holding a rock enclosed spa-pool.

floating boathouse and sleeping cottage, mos office
Justin in materialicious
Floating Boathouse and Sleeping Cottage, on an island in Lake Huron, Ontario, Canada. Back in June I wrote a post on this floating boathouse, and I was lamenting that I had no idea who designed and built it, nor even where it was. Troll around the Interweb long enough, it’s amazing what you’ll find…. Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample of MOS designed this floating boathouse and the sleeping cottage as part of a ‘master plan’ - not shown is the existing (?) main house. I’ve been up in that area before - it’s gorgeous!
First up is the boathouse, then the sleeping cottage, then the photos from the original post. All links are included at the end of this post, including the link to the Flickr slideshow detailing the build of the boathouse. Lots of photos…. Enjoy.

SOLARA: CA’s First Solar-powered Apartment Community
Ali in Inhabitat
A new apartment community in San Diego County is proving that green is both beautiful and affordable. SOLARA is a part of a mixed-use development from Community Housing Works that includes 56 fully solar-powered homes. Sun power is only a part of this smart green growth development which also features energy-efficient designs, healthy materials, water conserving equipment, and high recycled content throughout - even in the community art installations.

AIA Center Opens With Yeon Exhibit
Brian Libby in Portland Architecture
After a series of delays that saw its original early-fall opening pushed back, the new AIA/Portland Center for Architecture is throwing open the doors of its new Pearl District home at NW 11th and Flanders. The first exhibit will be a retrospective on John Yeon, who ranks with Pietro Belluschi, A.E. Doyle and John Storrs among the top Portland architects of the 20th Century. Unlike those designers, however, Yeon's principal focus was houses. But Yeon certainly made his mark there. Throughout Portland and the Oregon coast are several gems he designed. Organized by Randy Gragg, the former Oregonianarchitecture critic and founding editor of the new Portland Spacesmagazine making its debut in January, this AIA/CFA exhibit is based largely on Yeon's 1977 retrospective at the Portland Art Museum. (Wow, they used to do exhibits on design at PAM?)

Auralab gets Labtop-Rendering and Luxigon.
Christoph, anArchitecture in anArchitecture
Auralab has done visualizations for OMA, HdM, Rex and many more. They are famous for their gloomy but poetic style.
After seven years of fruitful collaboration, Thomas Series and Eric de Broches des Combes, cofounders of the architectural-rendering firm Auralab, decided to go separate and open two new offices, Labtop and Luxigon....

The Space of the Book
Geoff Manaugh in BLDGBLOG
A bookshop constructed inside a converted Dominican church in Maastricht has won an architectural interiors prize. The project, by Merkz+Girod Architects, places "a two-story structure in black steel on one side, where the books are kept." This "combination of book complex and church interior [was] deemed particularly successful" by the competition jury.

Can Africa’s Sun Provide Power for Europe?
Emily in Inhabitat
Proving that we really are all in this together, Europe is considering plans to spend more than £5 billion on a system of large solar power stations in North Africa. This proposed solar power plan could provide the EU with a sixth of its electricity needs, and, as a bonus, provide fresh water to African nations. Though Europe would be the beneficiary, the panels and power stations would be placed along the Mediterranean desert shores of northern Africa and the Middle East, with the electricity transmitted via underwater cables to EU nations.

Eye Candy: The City Shrinker
architecture.MNP
So be honest, my ninjas - how many of you had to take a second look to be sure that this wasn’t a photograph of a model? Pretty siiick, right? Welcome to the world of Ben Thomas, AKA the City Shrinker - a photographer who’s goal is to force you to question the way you perceive your surroundings. My aim is to give that feeling of newness with each shot I take. My method is to take what was once large and shrink it down to model size. To take the familiar and get you thinking even if for a second “wait a minute, is that…”

Big Wheel thrills
Catriona Potts in CONTINUITY IN ARCHITECTURE
The post millennium trend for erecting a big wheel in the centre of provincial towns has finally reached Preston. This one is positioned on the Flag Market, immediately in front of the Harris. It provides spectacular views across the city on the way up and on the way down, an intimate examination...

Building Smashes Wrecking Ball: Jarvis Hunt's 1927 Lake Shore Athletic Club Survives
Lynn Becker in ArchitectureChicago PLUS
In a signature victory for preservationists and independent 42nd ward alderman Brendan Reilly, both Crain's Chicago Business and the Sun-Times David Roeder are reporting that Northwestern University has struck a deal for Integrated Development Group LLC to acquire the former Lake Shore Athletic Club, a 1927 work of architect Jarvis Hunt. Back in April, the University had filed for a permit to demolish the building, in order to sell the cleared site, for a reported $40 million, to Fifield Companies, for the construction of a Lucien Lagrange highrise. The proposal drew the opposition of local community groups SOAR (Streeterville Organization of Active Residents) and the Lake Shore Preservation Group.