Month: May 2001

Christophe Cornubert’s PUSH LA is featured in the new issue of Architectural Record.

The above image from Push LA’s “Gucci Urbanism” project.

Poaching from archinect.com again, here’s a web site that purports to be a documentary tribute to the first built works of the so-called “blobmeisters”: digital | real What we are left wondering is… just because you can design a blob, why would you want to? More importantly, just why would you want to build one? The answer escapes us. The fact that it’s 2001, not 1996 makes everything even more confusing. Oh well, to each his own.

It’s still a big secret but Form Zero Architectural Books is open again, next door to SCI_Arc.

A New York Times article reports that it’s no longer just the major nodes of the global city that actively recruit transnational migrants. Left behind second-tier cities such as Pittsburgh are trying to deal with declining populations by encouraging immigrants to settle there. See To Fill in Gaps, Shrinking Cities Seek a New Wave of Foreigners

SCI_Arc undergraduate director Gary Paige led a tour of the school’s future home today. He explained that work is going well and we are still on target for an August 6 completion.

Workmen pouring one of five sheer walls that will support the building in case of earthquake.

A view of the other side of the wall.The left side is open, ensuring that it will be possible to see quite a distance within the building. Relentlessness is preserved, as much as possible. Note the deep excavations for the sheer wall.

Finally, this is the future library space on the second floor. Fittingly, it’ll be the nicest space in the building. The library will end roughly where the stairs (intrusion on the left) are and administrative offices will occupy the rest of the floor. Maybe students will finally begin to get just why I am still interested in Rossi? For more on the tour and on the construction process, visit John Southern’s website.

The SCI_Arc tent is finally gone, leaving only a white stain on the ground as evidence of its presence.
The trailers remain but define the absence rather than resist it.The scene was eerie, as if a UFO had landed and abducted the school. A few students milled around. Then the ice cream man came.

During boom periods, architects and urbanists inevitably focus on the city. During the inevitable lulls and recessions, attention again shifts to the countryside. If the early 90’s were marked by the architecture community’s utter ignorance of the vast changes in the contemporary city, the early 00’s are marked by ignorance of the changes in the hinterlands. To get you started on what’s out there, check out this Sunday’s New York Times article
As Others Abandon Plains, Indians and Bison Come Back

Will the Diller + Scofidio Blur project work? See what the New York Times has to say in Diller +Scofidio: Architects Building Castles in the Clouds

The Concord, a Morris Lapidus hotel in the Catskills faces the wrecker’s ball. See the New York Times article Resort Is to Rise on Concord Site but Without the Concord Name.

Greg Ercolano’s cryptically titled Friends Of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures (FOVICKS) page is actually a closely detailed photo essay on the so-called L.A. River. In a refreshing change, Ercolano likes it the way it is. The photo essay should explain why.