Perl's Architecture Weblog

2008 Spring Semester

Associate Professor Robert D. Perl, AIA

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The American Institute of Architects Announces the 2008 COTE Top Ten Green Projects

AIA April 22

"The 2008 COTE Top Ten Green Projects program celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology. They make a positive contribution to their communities, improve comfort for building occupants and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality."

The 2008 Top Ten Green Projects (listed in alphabetical order):

A possible antidote? You decide. This time: sustainable, sustainable, and sustainable.
-RDP

Very thorough "project descriptions highlight both the design innovations and sustainable strategies, along with the metrics achieved in terms of reduced carbon emissions, reduced energy consumption and improved building functionality."

Aldo Leopold Legacy Center

The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc., Cedarburg, WI

"The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center is the first building recognized by LEED as carbon-neutral in operation.
Rating: U.S. Green Building Council LEED-NC, v.2/v.2.1--Level: Platinum (61 points)
The ongoing monitoring of building systems and performance is a priority. The commissioning agent is currently engaged in measurement and verification, and the environmental consultant agreed to spend the 2008 academic year in residence at the Legacy Center measuring performance and observing staff interaction with the building. A large number of building and site sensors allow significant data feedback. An on-site weather station; multiple relative humidity, dewpoint, and carbon dioxide sensors; load submeters; and flow meters will allow for subsystem performance evaluation and adjustments. The controls-system consultant developed an archived database of all control and measurement points in the system."

Cesar Chavez Library

Line and Space, LLC, Tucson, AZ 

Discovery Center at South Lake Union

The Miller/Hull Partnership, Seattle, WA

"Several factors drove the selection of materials and design of assemblies, including durability, recycled content, and environmental responsibility. A primary goal was to design assemblies and select materials that would facilitate the required demountable aspect of the project. The steel frames were designed to incorporate shop-welded rigid corner connections with splice plates and exposed bolted connections at the vertical components of the bents. All of the frame components were painted off site, then transported to the site, hoisted into place, and spliced together quickly and efficiently. The roof framing system was designed with glued-laminated beam purlins at 4-feet on center, spanning 20 feet from frame-to-frame, with oriented-strand-board sheathing spanning perpendicularly across the purlins without the need for any intermediate joist framing. Exposed laminated-strand-lumber blocking conceals the sheathing joints and provides the required edge for nailing. This approach allowed the roof system to be fabricated, sealed, and stained off site in 8-foot by 20-foot sections, which were then transported to the site and hoisted into place with a crane."

Pocono Environmental Education Center

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Wilkes-Barre, PA 

Garthwaite Center for Science and Art, Cambridge School of Weston

Architerra, Inc., Boston, MA

"The facility is designed to advance sustainability, creating an exemplar and educational tool through a design process that engaged the entire community. This LEED Platinum design incorporates dozens of green features that students can view as well as measure and manipulate. The result is a compelling model for educational institutions. Fifty-five detailed sustainability goals included renewable energy, no water to be discharged to the local sewer, 100% storm water infiltration on-site, artificial lighting designed to less than one watt per square foot and minimal maintenance for 20 years. Juror Rebecca Henn said, “There is a lot of education here; this is a true teaching tool. The students participated in the design of the building. They treat all their wastewater, and these strategies are integrated into the pedagogy. There are only three small spaces that are conditioned in this building; all other spaces are naturally ventilated.” "

Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life

VJAA, Minneapolis, MN

"Juror Glenn Murcott said, “One intriguing feature of this project was that it has a Punkah, a traditional Indian system to move air.” "

"The existing building was stripped to the concrete frame, expanded by 33% and redesigned with a variety of environmental systems. The hot and humid New Orleans climate is further tempered with strategies for expanding the comfort zone; including programming for thermal zoning, and technically innovative systems for variable shading, moving air and radiant cooling. Despite its high ambitions, the project had a modest budget and was completed for $189/SF, fourteen months after Hurricane Katrina. Since then, Tulane sees the project as a new model for sustainable design in New Orleans."

Macallen Building Condominiums

Office dA Inc. and Burt Hill Inc., Boston, MA 

Queens Botanical Garden Visitor & Administration Center

BKSK Architects, New York, NY

The Nueva School, Hillside Learning Complex

Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, San Francisco, CA

"The design is grounded in the desire to integrate straightforward, appropriate and cost-effective sustainable design solutions within the broader language of contemporary architectural expression. Through a variety of simple, observable systems and strategies, reduce site energy use by at least 65% from the national average for schools and meet the 2030 Challenge.
Several strategies reduce the project's energy use. These include orientation and design for daylighting and natural ventilation; earth sheltering, additional insulation, and high-performance glazing; high-efficiency boilers and radiant hydronic heating; and efficient lighting and occupancy sensors. A 30-kW photovoltaic system provides about 24% of the project's energy needs.
The project team selected materials to protect indoor air quality. Paints, adhesives, and sealants were selected for their low chemical emissions, and insulation and wood products were selected for their lack of added urea-formaldehyde. The team also selected materials for economy, durability, and resource efficiency. More than 80% of all construction debris was recycled."

Yale University Sculpture Building and Gallery

KieranTimberlake Associates LLP, Philadelphia, PA

"The Sculpture Building's aesthetic was derived entirely from the desire for superior environmental performance. As seen against Yale’s gothic structures beyond, the building has an elegant contemporary gothic fenestration that mitigates solar gain. The interior spaces feature utilitarian, unfinished surfaces with exposed steel structures, designed to inspire and support the creative activity demanded by the program. Columns and beams are all narrow eight-inch-wide flange sections, with beams lapping over girders in a simple yet eloquent woven pattern. Flexible light fixtures mounted to continuous tracks and the fire-suppression system piping completes the exposed three-dimensional plaid assemblage of building systems. The sunscreens on the Gallery are made of reclaimed cedar. Measured by cost, 42% of all materials were manufactured within 500 miles of the project site; of these, 93% were manufactured using raw materials harvested within 500 miles of the site. Collection and storage facilities have been provided to facilitate post-occupancy recycling."

"When KieranTimberlake embarked on the design, the firm determined that the program did not meet the client's requirements, so it undertook a programming study during the design phase. This structure's exceptional environmental performance resulted from the fully integrated design process, which took the project all the way from programming through occupancy in only 22 months, less than half the time of a typical university project. Although the client aspired to a LEED Silver rating, the project ultimately achieved a Platinum rating. The higher rating arose from the integrated process, not from exceptional expenditure for high-performance systems. The entire design team met with the client weekly for several months at the project's outset. All members present discussed the options as the team developed the program, site orientation, massing, landscape, structure, and curtainwall."

"There has been significant post-occupancy testing of the façade for thermal performance. Temperature, humidity, and solar radiation monitors were installed within the rooms and on the roof. Within the wall structure, the temperature of the cavity between the translucent insulation panel and the one-inch insulated glazing unit was analyzed."

Record Houses 2008

Architectural Record April

"For more than 50 years, RECORD has presented an annual collection of projects from around the globe that represent exemplary residential design. For our 2008 Record Houses awards program, we took a new approach: we looked for built, single-family dwellings that not only were aesthetically striking, but also employed innovative strategies for achieving environmental sustainability. In selecting this year’s nine winners, our jury evaluated criteria such as water efficiency, energy consumption, and indoor air quality."
Editor-in-chief Robert Ivy, FAIA, writes in an editorial, "April 2008 counts as a transformative moment. In less than a year, oil, which had hovered around $60 per barrel in 2007, has broken the $100 ceiling and is still climbing. Global warming continues to wreak immense consequences on the planet. After more than 50 years of Record Houses, the time has come to consider how the individual house can help mitigate, if not solve, the problems it unwittingly helped to create.
Still, we wondered, in focusing so intently on sustainability, would we be promulgating houses that violated our traditional notions of the beautiful? Or would we make unanticipated discoveries, such as houses that explored unique approaches to the vernacular? On this side of the process, we can admit that our own preconceptions shifted like a riverbank, away from assuming that we would be embracing houses shaped like yurts to a more sophisticated position—structures that combine sustainable characteristics within the fabric of real architecture. Ecohouses, if you will.
Record Houses began its own adventure more than 50 years ago in high optimism. We have been reenergized to think of alternative ways of living for a new generation that will enhance health, provide security, offer constant delight, and spark the joy of living, while leaving a minimal footprint on planet earth."
Guest editor Christopher Hawthorne writes of the difficulty in precisely defining "green" architecture, but identifies four general approaches to sustainable houses:
"The first makes a point of turning compactness to architectural as well as ecological advantage.
The second strategy answers sustainability’s challenge with technical innovations.
The third approach has its roots in organic architecture and the Arts and Crafts movement: It’s powered by old-fashioned, low-tech solutions like siting, passive heating and cooling, local materials, and general economy.
The fourth and final approach focuses on preservation and community."

Unbuilt Houses 2008

Architectural Record April

"Keeping in line with the sustainability theme of our 2008 Record Houses, these unbuilt houses all include “green” features. Some take sustainable design to the extreme. The façade of the C2C house, for instance, contains tiny spinach cells that generate power and move with the sun. The building foundation of the zeroHouse touches the ground at only four points, meaning minimal disturbance to the earth. Some of these projects may remain speculative, while others will rise this year."

Architectural Record has UNBUILT HOUSES 2008 online only. I felt two projects were especially noteworthy.
-RDP

Make it Right, New Orleans, Louisiana

Adjaye Associates, Billes Architects, BNIM, Concordia, Constructs, Eskew Dumez Ripple, Graft, John Williams Architects, KieranTimberlake, Morphosis, MRVDV, Pugh + Scarpa, Shigeru Ban, and Trahan Architects

"In an effort to help rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward, an area of New Orleans ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, actor Brad Pitt commissioned 14 architects to design sustainable homes for his “Make It Right” project." The initiative will build 150 sustainable and affordable homes for Lower Ninth Ward residents. "The resulting models incorporate green features, such as passive solar design strategies, natural daylighting and ventilation, and use of recyclable materials. Many draw upon Southern architecture traditions, like the shotgun house, camelback house, and Creole cottage, but with a green twist.
The designs also meet standards to help prevent future flood damage; all are raised at least 5 feet above ground. Morphosis took further safety precautions: it designed a home that can float. And BNIM's home comes with a portable solar energy pack."

zeroHouse, 36 N to 36 S latitude for year-round occupancy

Specht Harpman

"The zeroHouse by Specht Harpman, a New York City and Austin-based firm, is deliberately placeless. It could be erected in Vermont or in Texas, where its unbuilt design won the 2007 Studio Award from the Texas Society for Architects. A slew of high-efficiency techniques afford the house its full energy independence: solar panels store and produce power, allowing a fully charged zeroHouse to operate continuously for up to one week with no sunlight; a rainwater collection plane gathers and diverts water into an elevated 2200-gallon cistern; gravity-fed plumbing fixtures eliminate the need for power-consuming pumps; a compost unit beneath the house processes organic waste and converts it into clean, dry fertilizer that needs to be removed only twice a year; and a high-efficiency heating and air-conditioning system is separately zoned for sleeping and living areas.
The structure of the house contributes to its low environmental impact. Made from prefabricated components, the walls, roof, and floor are all insulated with closed-cell structural foam and achieve a thermal resistance rating of R-58. The full-wall windows in each room are triple-insulated and fabricated from low-e heat-mirror glass. Exterior doors feature vacuum-sealed aero-gel panels to maintain maximum thermal performance. Last but not least, zeroHouse employs a helical-anchor foundation system that touches the ground at only four points and requires no excavation, meaning minimal disturbance to the earth."
Sept/Oct 2007 Texas Architect

Pioneering Minneapolis architect Rapson dead at 93

Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal March 31

"Renowned Minneapolis architect Ralph Rapson, a pioneer in modernist architecture style and creator of the original Guthrie Theater, has died. Rapson began his studies in architecture in 1930, at the University of Michigan, which was at the time considered pioneering in its offering courses in modernist ideas. He then went on to study at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and began his career practicing architecture before World War II. After the war, Rapson's son explained, " He was really captivated by post-war ideas of new construction, using new materials, and new building techniques, and rethinking ideas of how space is used were his passions." His company has recently developed a line of prefabricated modern houses called Rapson Greenbelt, based on one of his original 1941 designs."

Minneapolis architect Ralph Rapson dies at 93

Star Tribune March 31

"Rapson, 93, was one of the world's oldest practicing architects and one of the most prolific. His defining work was the former Guthrie Theater building across from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
Rapson, who worked mostly in the modernist style, also designed furniture and accessories for Knoll Furniture in the 1940s and had his own furniture line in the 1950s. Among his most noteworthy pieces was the Rapson Rocker."

The Guthrie's first drama was about how the theater was to be designed

Guthrie's historic designation won't stop [tear-down] plans

"State Historic Preservation Office says the Guthrie Theater building is eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places." 

French Architect Wins Pritzker Prize

New York Times March 31

"Jean Nouvel, the bold French architect known for such wildly diverse projects as the muscular Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and the exotically louvered Arab World Institute in Paris, has received architecture’s top honor, the Pritzker Prize.
In extending that vocabulary Mr. Nouvel has defied easy categorization. His buildings have no immediately identifiable signature, like the curves of Frank Gehry or the light-filled atriums of Renzo Piano. But each is strikingly distinctive, be it the Agbar Tower in Barcelona (2005), a candy-colored, bullet-shaped office tower, or his KKL cultural and congress center in Lucerne, Switzerland (2000), with a slim copper roof cantilevered delicately over Lake Lucerne.
“Every time I try to find what I call the missing piece of the puzzle, the right building in the right place,” Mr. Nouvel said this month over tea at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo. Yet he does not design buildings simply to echo their surroundings. “Generally, when you say context, people think you want to copy the buildings around, but often context is contrast,” he said. “The wind, the color of the sky, the trees around — the building is not done only to be the most beautiful,” he said. “It’s done to give advantage to the surroundings. It’s a dialogue.”
Before dreaming up a design, Mr. Nouvel said, he does copious research on the project and its surroundings. “The story, the climate, the desires of the client, the rules, the culture of the place,” he said. “The references of the buildings around, what the people in the city love.” “I need analysis,” he said, noting that every person “is a product of a civilization, of a culture.” He added: “Me, I was born in France after the Second World War. Probably the most important cultural movement was Structuralism. I cannot do a building if I can’t analyze.” "

Jean Nouvel Wins 2008 Pritzker Prize

Architectural Record
March 31

"This era, Nouvel believes, is preoccupied with the relationship of light and matter, and how one renders the other invisible. “The paradigm of modern architecture is simplicity and complexity: the more it seems simple, the more it’s complex,” he explains. “The best engineer a few decades ago was someone who could create the most beautiful beam or structure; today it’s to do a structure you cannot see or understand how it’s done. It disappears and you can talk only about color, symbols, and light. It’s an aesthetic of miracle.”
Nouvel hopes that his structures will disappear through a trick of the light, and he likewise creates buildings that evade easy characterization in terms of their typology, such as the Musée du Quai Branly."

New Seven Wonders of the World

Conde Nast Traveler

"A good building provides shelter, storage, housing. But a great building? Well, there's no limit to what it can do. This year's class of wondrous structures are responsible, variously, for transforming a neighborhood (just look at the New Museum, which towers over its gritty corner of Lower Manhattan like some fabulous spacecraft), revitalizing a landmark (see the exuberantly beveled extension to Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum), and breaking all limits of what a building can be (for proof, see Dubai's still-in-progress Burj Dubai, which, once completed, will be the world's tallest tower, with 160-plus stories). Collectively, they're proof not only of the golden age of architectural ingenuity in which we currently find ourselves but also of our desire to be dazzled, to be made to look again at a place we thought we knew."
Conde Nast's other picks: Cumulus Building, Danfoss Universe, Nordborg, Denmark; Burj Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Wembley Stadium, London, England; New Museum, New York City; Kogod Courtyard, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Red Ribbon, Tanghe River Park, Qinhuangdao, China.

Magazine considers Crystal a global gem National Post March 27
"The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, the ROM's steel and glass addition that has won more acclaim internationally than at home, has been picked as one of the seven new wonders of the architecture world by Conde Nast Traveler.
Thomas Payne, founding partner at Toronto architecture firm KPMB Architects, was surprised the Crystal made the list. "My list wouldn't include it," he said. "This is the commodification of architecture, where the expression of the architect dominates all. It's not about an architecture that's struggling to deal with its context."
The Crystal is the creation of New York-based architect Daniel Libeskind, who sketched the early concept on a napkin after seeing the gem and mineral collection during a family wedding at the ROM. Mr. Payne believes it happened in the opposite way. "Libeskind knew what he wanted to do," he said. "He actually had this concept and then he went to look for the crystals. He found them and that's how the crystal metaphor was created, I believe." " 

Libeskind Loses Ground Zero Battles, Remakes Skylines Worldwide

Bloomberg March 24

"Though little of the power of Daniel Libeskind's original vision for the World Trade Center site has survived, he has skillfully leveraged his moment in the global media spotlight. His Studio Libeskind is remaking skylines worldwide -- from Korea to Las Vegas to Milan -- using many ideas deemed too radical or too expensive for Ground Zero. Architectural genius or canny marketer? Libeskind showed some of both in a recent interview in his Lower Manhattan office.
In his early projects, especially the moving Jewish Museum in Berlin, his sharp-edged, menacing imagery was intrinsically tied to the building's difficult subject matter. It was a risky venture because emotionally charged architecture usually fails. In the Jewish Museum, it succeeds unforgettably. Now the same visual gestures are applied to shopping centers and college buildings. If they don't usefully transform what goes on inside, aren't they just jazzy visual gestures?
"It's my language," he responded. "It's people identifying with my language and seeing it as meaningful." "

Nice Tower! Who’s Your Architect?

New York Times March 23

"The HL23 tower, planned for a site on 23rd Street in Chelsea, is the kind of commission Neil Denari has being waiting for his entire working life. Mr. Denari, a Los Angeles architect who once ran the Southern California Institute of Architecture, has labored on the profession’s periphery for decades. But because of a recent demand for name-brand residential architecture in New York, he is finally getting a chance to test his ideas in the real world.
And Mr. Denari is not alone here. His building is part of an eruption of luxury residential towers already constructed or being designed by the profession’s most celebrated luminaries. In the last five years more than a dozen have been completed; maybe a dozen more are scheduled to break ground this year. They range from soaring, elaborately decorated towers by international celebrities like Jean Nouvel and Frank Gehry to smaller but equally ambitious architectural statements by lesser-known talents like Mr. Denari.
Bold and formally elaborate — some would say showy — they reflect a mix of attitudes and styles that the city has never seen. They also reveal an unmistakable shift in the appetites and aspirations of an elite group of New Yorkers for whom an apartment’s architectural pedigree has become a new form of status symbol. Rather than disappear behind the shielding bulwark of Park Avenue apartment houses or into anonymous loft buildings as previous generations of wealthy New Yorkers did, these residents want to live in structures that telegraph their wealth and uniqueness."

Motel 6 parent company Accor unveils new hotel prototype

Dallas Morning News March 12

"The design dubbed “Phoenix” trades bland, off-white walls and standard-issue carpet for brighter hues, wood floors, flat-screen TVs and a console for plugging in gadgets like MP3 players and laptop computers.
John Keeling, a senior vice president for PKF in Houston, said the designs launched by boutique hotels during the 1990s have become mainstream, with contemporary decor cropping up in more traditional hotels. He compared the trend to designers developing retail lines at lower price points."

"The Carrollton-based hotel chain ... unveiled a contemporary prototype design Tuesday."

A Sneak Peek at JetBlue’s Saarinen Project

New York Times March 10

"Understatement has been a hallmark of the project from the inception, since it was designed not to overwhelm the T.W.A. building. Last week’s visit disclosed another benefit of Terminal 5. It affords vantages of the landmark from the airfield side that no member of the public has ever enjoyed, except briefly through a plane window."

"A brand-new 26-gate, $750 million terminal — designed from the ground up to serve a post-9/11 world and 44,000 JetBlue Airways passengers daily by year’s end — would be a high-profile project anywhere else. But at the corner of Kennedy International Airport where Eero Saarinen’s Trans World Airlines Flight Center has captured the imagination of generations of travelers, JetBlue’s enormous new terminal has a remarkably low profile, by necessity and design."

Debunking a myth about museums that pay for themselves

Architectural Record March

"It may not have been cause and effect, but the 10th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao late last year coincided with the opening of several new museums that seem intent on being everything Frank Gehry’s Basque bombshell is not. Let’s call it the rise of the Quiet Museum. Among them is Rafael Moneo’s low-key addition to the Prado, which has earned praise for giving precedence to the works on display rather than upstaging them with architectural bravura. But one man’s deferential is another man’s dull. Art critics seem to like the Moneo wing more than their architectural counterparts, some of whom have deemed the expansion deficient in duende. It’s not that Moneo is incapable of the grand gesture, as proven by his majestic National Museum of Roman Art (1986) in Merida, Spain. But as his countrymen say, “Otros tiempos, otros gustos.” Other times, other tastes.
Today’s architectural post-traumatic-stress syndrome—call it Bilbao Fatigue—was brought on by a glut of increasingly outré museums calculated to attract media attention, rather than enhance understanding of art. Copious evidence confirms the folly of overspending spurred by the premise that extravagant museum expansions will pay for themselves with increased attendance and tourism revenues.
Several institutions that dreamed of Bilbao-like bonanzas have had rude awakenings. Santiago Calatrava’s bird-shaped Quadracci Wing for the Milwaukee Museum of Art so exceeded cost estimates that municipal authorities were forced to bail out the city’s foundering cultural system. Big budget overruns have compelled the Denver Art Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto—both designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind—to lay off large numbers of employees.
I applaud cities that subsidize museums rather than stadiums, but officials should just level with taxpayers, admit that spending on culture is a noble thing, and forget the sham rationale of financial return from what ought not to be touted as an “investment.” "

What Price an Authentic Louis Kahn House?

New York Times March 13

"The Esherick house stands as one of the most important houses realized by Kahn throughout his luminous career, and is the first residence to illustrate his mature architectural ideals. As one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, Kahn created a distinct style that was rigorous yet transcendent, geometric yet sensuous.
With an estimate of $2–3 million, the Esherick House is a true collectible work of art: smart, conceptual, serene, and transcending."
"Kahn’s principles of geometry, light and materiality are clearly expressed in the Esherick house, imbuing the intimate residence with a sense of monumentality. The material nature of the house — what it is and how it is made — is apparent at first glance: a private, contemplative building simply constructed of warm beige concrete and natural Apitong wood. Clarity and tranquility characterize the whole of Kahn’s work, and the Esherick house is no exception."

May 18, 2008 Auction website

"What is most remarkable about the work of Louis Kahn is his achievement of perfect harmony through geometry and natural light. His regrettably few projects transcend the divisions of mass and scope: from the monumental Salk Institute and the incredible government buildings in Dacca to the house he built for Margaret Esherick, a single woman in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, his buildings are imbued with the deeply felt spirit of place."
-Richard Meier
"Kahn’s play of light and exploration of space continues to inspire new generations of architects."
-Zaha Hadid
"For any architect educated in the latter half of the 20th century, Louis Kahn was in the pantheon of great architects. His manipulation of primary forms using fundamental mathematics transcended the limits of categorization in a timeless way."
-Richard Glickman

"In the American mind, the architectural photographer Julius Shulman's endlessly reproduced twilight image helped shape a vision of California as a healthful paradise of informal living. (Shulman, still active at 97, is the subject of an exhibition, including the Kaufmann House image, at the Palm Springs Art Museum through May 4.)"
See also: A Landmark Modernist House Heads to Auction NYT

Neutra home expected to sell for millions

International Herald Tribune March 5
"In one of the most remarkable architectural photographs ever made, the 1946 Kaufmann Desert House, all horizontal planes and thin supports, glows against a backdrop of mountains at twilight. The photo - taken a year after the Richard Neutra masterpiece in Palm Springs, California, was built for a department-store tycoon - shows the house in pristine condition. Yet over the years, it slipped into disrepair and not long ago was considered a teardown. In May, Christie's International hopes it will command as much as $25 million at auction. Christie's is gambling that the house's extraordinary pedigree will move it into the realm of art rather than real estate. Otherwise, its tract-house size (five bedrooms, 3,200 square feet) and unglitzy appointments (small bedrooms, ranch-house-style closets) would preclude such a stratospheric valuation."

Furniture designed by architects: Pricey, impractical and very desirable

International Herald Tribune March 2

"What are the classic chairs of the 20th century? Mies van der Rohe's opulent Barcelona chair? Le Corbusier's boxy Le Grand Confort club chair? Or one of Alvar Aalto's sleek wooden Paimio day chairs?
Mies, Le Corbusier and Aalto designed those chairs because they felt compelled to. They were modern movement pioneers, who defined a new architectural style by experimenting with innovative materials and construction techniques to create light, open-plan buildings. Yet most furniture was still made by hand in the dark, ornate 19th-century aesthetic. Unable to find furniture that suited their architecture, the early modernists designed their own.
A new generation of architects is now designing furniture, but for very different reasons..." 

"The furniture is typically expensive, and neither practical nor comfortable, but it is striking in shape and luscious in its use of materials. This "excess" is seen in the chairs called "Duke and Duchess," designed by Greg Lynn that are covered in plush, shamelessly impractical fur."

Measuring, Drawing, Making:
Process of Architectural Design and Construction

Measuring, Drawing, Making is a three-part show of work by the Texas Tech University College of Architecture faculty in the Christine DeVitt Exhibition Hall at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (LHUCA).
EXHIBITION 1: MEASURING February 1-23
EXHIBITION 2: DRAWING February 29-March 20
EXHIBITION 3: MAKING March 27-April 15
The adaptive reuse/new construction Underwood Center building was designed by Holzman Moss Architecture, a successor to Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates. Doug Moss, one of the founders of Holzman Moss, is a 1990 graduate of the TTU College of Architecture.
Pictured here are some of the First Friday Art Trail crowds at the show opening on February 1.

Behold, the tiny, beguiling future

Las Vegas Sun February 15

"I have seen the future of Las Vegas and it smells good. You can walk right into it. It’s surprisingly close, just behind New York-New York and the Monte Carlo. This is the CityCenter Sales Pavilion, boasting a suite of architectural models the size of dump trucks. A marketing tool as work of art, as ambitiously, aesthetically grandiose as any outre installation by Matthew Barney, this is Disneyland for the competitively acquisitive. The Cirque du Soleil of open houses. Architects Gone Wild. It stands as a substantial Strip attraction in itself, a thrill ride for grown-ups, who are visiting in throngs. Those who are addicted to weekend walk-throughs, glossy “shelter porn” magazines and TV design shows (you know who you are) are in for the time of their lives.
The allure is finally irresistible and every day, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., people cluster around an oval table, mesmerized by a miniature city illuminated from within, sheathed in shimmering, translucent skin, complete with a bite-size Bellagio flanked by a teeny tiny 215.
The beautifully detailed, laser-cut and hand-assembled scale models inside this $250,000, 1,850-square-foot showroom at the Bellagio (there are smaller showcases at the Mirage, the MGM Grand and the Monte Carlo) are only the first hill of this real estate roller coaster. Helplessly hooked after a free taste of travertine and silk, several hundred people each day take the plunge and visit the nearby Residential Sales Pavilion. This is a $24 million, 29,000-square-foot state-of-the-art Ozymandias, where master planners and marketing Rasputins have seen to every detail — visible and invisible — to sell the $7.8 billion, 76-acre, vertical CityCenter being developed by MGM Mirage, the largest landholder on the Strip and the world’s leading developer of destination resorts."

Broad Contemporary Art Museum

Los Angeles Times February 7

"You know that well-worn architectural saying: A great building requires a great client. In the case of Renzo Piano's extension of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which opens Feb. 16, the equation isn't quite so straightforward. To begin with, LACMA has added substantially more than a single building. Though the 60,000-square-foot Broad Contemporary Art Museum, or BCAM, is getting most of the attention, Piano's changes to the sprawling museum campus also include a new entry pavilion and covered pedestrian walkway set back from Wilshire Boulevard, along with a reconfiguration of the ground floor of the 1965 Ahmanson Building to the east. More to the point, it's a little hard to tell exactly who Piano's client is. Is it Eli Broad, the billionaire LACMA trustee and donor who flew to Europe to recruit Piano personally after a bolder, more expensive expansion plan by Rem Koolhaas fell through? Or is it Michael Govan, who took over as LACMA director two years ago, assuming responsibility for a design by an architect he likely would never have chosen himself? The answer, of course, is both: Each man has a legitimate interest in even the most minor details of the expansion plan. ...
In the latter stages of his career, the 70-year-old Piano has evolved into a kind of surgeon. Instead of architectural fireworks, what he offers his museum clients is coherence, largely unadorned: strong axes sliced confidently across a site; substantial materials; the accomplished manipulation of shadow and light. Those skills are all in evidence in the LACMA expansion, particularly in BCAM's top-floor galleries and in the new pedestrian walkway, which offers a clear connection between the May Co. building, on the western edge of the museum campus, and the Ahmanson to the east. Thanks to Govan, they share space with -- and cede ground to -- some other, very different attitudes about what a museum in 21st century Los Angeles ought to be."

Art Museum Mixes Pomp and Hint of Pop

New York Times January 15

"... But architecture is about more than the quality of light. It’s where our dreams collide with practical realities, which makes it perhaps the most difficult of arts. As a monument to the civic aspirations of Los Angeles, Mr. Piano’s design is remarkably uninspired. There is little of the formal freedom that is at the heart of the city’s architectural legacy; nor is there much evidence of the structural refinement that we have come to expect in Mr. Piano’s best work. The museum’s monumental travertine form and lipstick-red exterior stairways are a curious mix of pomposity and pop-culture references. It’s an architecture without conviction."

Los Angeles Times interactive features 

Against Interpretation: Robert Bruno’s house of welded steel conjures up many meanings, but it arose without any of them

AIArchitect

"The steel house artist and sculptor Robert Bruno has created is a non-conceptual piece wholly informed by Bruno’s own aesthetic choices and direction. Its spontaneous, unplanned complexity hints at the future, the past, and (according to Bruno) calls to attention the scalar distortion and prevalence of conceptual rhetoric in modern architecture."
I missed this when it was published a few months ago. I'm including it now because Bob Bruno recently told me this article captures his intentions much better than most. -RDP

HGTV Video 5min 47sec
(after 30sec commercial)

Solving an identity crisis

Boston Globe February 10

"Harvard Law School looks like a little village of buildings of different sizes and kinds. Some are quite good, but they all seem to be trying not to look at one another, and they're dwarfed by the bulk of the school's one large building, a pompous pile known as Langdell designed in 1906. There's nothing you could call an outdoor gathering place, like Harvard Yard or Harvard's many other green quads. Outdoor space is a confusion of asphalt roads and paths. In this situation, a successful new chunk of architecture must do more than accommodate the functions it's being built for. It must also gather itself and its surroundings into a coherent whole, giving the law school what it's never had: a campus with a sense of place and a visual identity.
The architect is Robert A.M. Stern, a New York practitioner who is also dean of the Yale School of Architecture...
Stern is sometimes called "the Ralph Lauren of architecture;" at least he was so named in a recent headline in a New York newspaper. He's long been known for building mansions for the rich in a variety of what you might call "preppie" styles - well-mannered and traditional. Recently he was selected as the architect of the George W. Bush Presidential Library.
It's nice to report that Stern doesn't do a Georgian building, thus adding one more ingredient to this mixed salad of styles. Nor has he done anything flashily contemporary. He's done the kind of building that we don't see enough of in this age of so-called "starchitects." It's a background building, not an architectural adventurer strutting on a stage. It's a building that's devoted not to impressing you, but rather to housing a very diverse set of interior functions and, at the same time, organizing the campus around it."

Driehaus winner points way with solid design principles

Chicago Tribune February 10

"This being political season, let's take a poll. An archi-poll. The benefits of architecture most often go to A) the rich or B) the poor.
You answered "A," of course, and you're right. Which is too bad, because design affects everybody, regardless of race, gender or tax bracket. For 11 years now, Chicago philanthropist Richard Driehaus has been fighting the idea that good design should mainly benefit the wealthy -- or that it could be found only amid Chicago's downtown. Driehaus was hardly the first to think along these democratic lines, but he had the megamillions to do something about it. So he endowed what I admiringly call the Poor Man's Pritzker Architecture Prize: the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Excellence in Community Design.
This year's three winners, which were announced Thursday, come with an unexpected twist. The first-place award and $15,000 didn't go to Stanley Tigerman's boxy, courtyard-enhanced Pacific Garden Mission at 1458 S. Canal St. That came in second. Nor was the top prize bestowed upon Helmut Jahn's sleek, bread loaf-shaped single-room occupancy building in the 1200 block of North Clybourn Avenue. It finished third.
The big winner was an unpretentious three-story building at 3507 W. North Ave. in Humboldt Park. It goes by the unwieldy name of the Solid Ground Supportive Housing Facility. The Chicago firm of Landon Bone Baker turned the building into a home for 16 formerly homeless men, some of whom have been physically abused or sold themselves for sex. It's not a homeless shelter. It's "transitional housing," a place where these men can regroup and maybe even thrive. And it's a first-rate example of architecture's social promise."

American Architecture Today: Six critics examine the state of American architecture from their hometowns

Architectural Record February

"Christopher Hawthorne is the architecture critic of the Los Angeles Times.
Blair Kamin is the architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune.
Paul Goldberger is the architecture critic of The New Yorker.
Catherine Fox is the art and architecture critic of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Robert Campbell, FAIA, is the architecture critic of The Boston Globe.
David Dillon is the architecture critic of The Dallas Morning News. Lately, the headlines have been filled with the starry names of the architects for the Dallas Arts District—an opera house by Norman Foster, a theater by Rem Koolhaas, and a science museum by Thom Mayne will soon join the existing sculpture museum by Renzo Piano and symphony hall by I.M. Pei. “It’s important to set the bar high, to have the chance to see good work built in your home city,” Dillon says.
The selection of Robert A.M. Stern to design the George W. Bush Presidential Library at Southern Methodist University does not surprise Dillon. “It was a foregone conclusion that there was not going to be any adventurous architecture—Gehry or Libeskind, no way,” he says. “It’s a conservative institution with a very conservative architectural culture. The list of firms considered was farcical—there was not a great deal of interest or expectation among Texas architects that they would want that job or even get that job.”
Dillon sees the continuance of a regional tradition in Texas, particularly in the work of Lake/Flato Architects in San Antonio and Max Levy Architects in Dallas. Lake/Flato is known for its embrace of sustainable design, reusing scrap materials in projects like the World Birding Center, from 2006. Max Levy is known for designing elegant, contemporary houses that rely on traditional formal responses to Texas weather. “Like [the late] O’Neil Ford in the 1950s and 1960s, people have a similar philosophy of wanting to design buildings that are appropriate and acknowledge the climatic conditions and materials of the place,” he says. “Lake and Flato, both of whom used to work for Ford, have carried on that sophisticated vernacular tradition and have jumped in scale, from houses to office buildings.” "

In Moscow, Norman Foster's Crystal Island is a towering ode to the moneyed class

Los Angles Times February 10

"Moscow's $4-billion Crystal Island development won preliminary planning approval during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, just as Russians were beginning to need a glittering distraction from short, bleak winter days. Eye-popping images of the hugely ambitious project, designed for a site on the Moscow River by the British architect Norman Foster, more than fit the bill.
Essentially a city unto itself, Crystal Island would rank, if completed, as the biggest building in the world, with a total floor area of 27 million square feet, or about four times the size of the Pentagon. Its sharply peaked, tent-like form is designed to hold 900 apartments, 3,000 hotel rooms, an international school for 500 students, a shopping center, offices, a museum and a large sports complex.
Foster, whose 900-person firm has designed a number of expensive mega-projects in recent years, including Beijing's new international airport and a 500-foot-high, climate-controlled dome planned for Kazakhstan, has said that Crystal Island is symbolic of a resurgent, newly confident Russia. He points to its many green-design features, including wind turbines and a massive array of solar panels, which he says will make the building a model of eco-efficiency.
Stripped of that press-conference rhetoric, though, the design itself says something entirely different -- something richly suggestive, in fact, about the kinds of buildings we can expect to see as political and financial leaders in rising authoritarian countries continue to seek out architecture's most recognizable names. As a monument to the petro-wealth sloshing across much of the world, and of the stark gap between rich and poor in post-Soviet Moscow, Crystal Island could be hardly be more perfect."

Booming real estate pushes up salaries of architects, even expats are in demand

Economic Times (India) February 8

"Kolkata: The corporatisation of the realty sector has come as a windfall for young architectural grads who are reaping the dividends of an unprecedented demand from the industry. Freshers today are commanding salaries at least 3-4 times of their predecessors while hiring volumes too, have gone up manifold. In fact, so great is the demand that even expats are being wooed by the top guns of the industry...
“Today realtors consult professional architects for all their projects which has created huge scope in this profession,” said Kolkata-based architect J P Agrawal."

Building the Modern Cathedral

Architect Magazine February 1

Rather than erect a new edifice in stone, architect Craig Hartman of SOM proposed replacing the damaged cathedral with a building crafted of light. Invited to interview for the job just as he was completing work on the celebrated International Terminal at San Francisco International Airport, Hartman expressed his desire to “create a place that could inspire wonder.” Following a preliminary screening process, SOM was commissioned—along with Ricardo Legorreta and Santiago Calatrava—to produce a schematic design. Ultimately SOM won the job.
Hartman's inspirations for the building were many and included advice from Walter Netsch, a stalwart at SOM for decades and designer of the famed U.S. Air Force Academy Chapel, in Colorado. Netsch steered Hartman to the seminal book The Church Incarnate, by German theorist and architect Rudolf Schwarz. In it, Schwarz advocated arranging parishioners in a circle around the altar to create a sense of community and inclusion, a concept that was later adopted as Catholic doctrine. Hartman was attracted to the idea and used it as an organizing feature of SOM's three-way competition entry, which was remarkably close to the final design. “Conceptually, it was identical,” he says, “the notion based upon making a wood sanctuary and enclosing it in veils of glass, and [making] a building that is about extraordinary lightness and luminosity.” "

Construction photo timeline

Flaws on Display at High-Profile Buildings

NPR Weekend Edition January 26

"Problems have emerged with recent marvels of modern architecture, from mold at Frank Gehry's Stata Center at M.I.T. to shattering glass windows at the New York Times building. What's behind the problems? Robert Ivy, editor-in-chief of Architecture Record magazine, offers his insights in a conversation with Scott Simon."

Scott Simon asks, "Are innovations in architecture outpacing our ability to maintain these new creations?"
Audio 5min 19sec 

Polishing the Brand in a Cathedral for Cars

New York Times January 23

"... But then the glittering forms of the BMW Welt building appeared, and immediately rekindled my faith in architecture’s future. Set against a backdrop of hulking factory sheds and 1970s office towers, the building weaves together the detritus of a postwar industrial landscape, imbuing it with a more inclusive spirit. Its undulating steel forms, suggesting the magical qualities of liquid mercury, may be the closest yet that architecture has come to alchemy. Designed by Wolf Prix of the Vienna-based architectural firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, BMW Welt — or BMW World — joins an impressive list of high-profile architecture projects by German car companies in recent years, including Zaha Hadid’s BMW factory in Leipzig and UNStudio’s Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Whether from a passion for well-built machines or a more self-serving interest in architecture’s ability to promote an aura of technological sophistication, the auto companies are underwriting buildings that combine a stunning level of structural refinement with a flair for formal experimentation. Of these recent German buildings, BMW Welt, which opened in the fall, is both the most blatant as corporate self-promotion and the most exhilarating as architecture."

55th Annual P/A Awards 2008

Architect Magazine

"The P/A Awards are designed to change over time. Every year for the past 55 years, a jury of architects and architectural experts has accepted the herculean task of reviewing hundreds of submissions of unbuilt building projects to identify a handful that together embody the term “progressive architecture.” No juror ever serves twice, new projects get submitted every year, and architecture itself is in a constant state of evolution, so each jury inevitably arrives at a different definition of progress."

• Tighe Architecture
  Nodul(ar) House, Prototype
  P/A Award article

• Himma Architecture Studio/Office dA
  Obzee Fashion Headquarters, Seoul, Korea
  P/A Award article

• SHoP Architects
  East River Waterfront Esplanade and Piers Project, New York
  P/A Award article

• Brian Healy Architects
  Children's Chapel and Community Center, Boston
  P/A Award article

• Weiss/Manfredi
  Barnard College Nexus, New York
  P/A Award article

• Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
  Al Sharq Tower, Dubai, UAE
  P/A Award article

• Anmahian Winton Architects
  Community Rowing Boathouse, Cambridge, Mass.
  P/A Award article

• Stan Allen Architect
  Taichung Gateway Park, Taichung, Taiwan
  P/A Award article

2008 Honor Awards for Architecture

AIArchitect

"A lucky 13 projects received 2008 Institute Honor Awards for Architecture. The projects touch a swath of building types, from trend-setting residential projects, to international headquarters buildings, to museums and arts centers, to public education facilities for learning and living. These projects, which span the U.S., and represent Canada, the U.K., and South Korea, spotlight sustainable building practices and distinguished architecture."

• Griffith Observatory Renovation and Expansion, Los Angeles
  Pfeiffer Partners Architects with Levin & Associates, Architects

• Heifer International World Headquarters, Little Rock
  Polk Stanley Rowland Curzon Porter Architects

• Loblolly House, Taylors Island, Md. 
  KieranTimberlake Associates LLP

• 26th Street Low-Income Housing, Santa Monica, Calif. 
  Kanner Architects

• Liberty Memorial Restoration and Museum, Kansas City, Mo. 
  ASAI Architecture

• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo. 
  Steven Holl Architects

• Delta Shelter, Mazama, Wash. 
  Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

• Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle 
  Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism

• Residence Halls Units 1&2 Infill Student Housing, Berkeley, Calif. 
  EHDD Architecture

• Shaw Center for the Arts, Baton Rouge 
  Schwartz/Silver Architects Inc., with Eskew + Dumez + Ripple, and Jerry M. Campbell & Associates

• Thomas L. Wells Public School, Toronto 
  Baird Sampson Neuert Architects

• TRUTEC Building, Seoul, South Korea
  Barkow Leibinger Architects

• Unilever House (100 VE), London 
  Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

Reaching the stars

Financial Times January 18

"Architects such as Koolhaas soared to fame in the past decade by designing beautifully modern cultural institutions and huge skyscrapers but a growing number is now accepting more residential commissions. They’re being persuaded to accept such projects by an expanding set of the global wealthy that increasingly sees great architecture as a collectable art similar to painting and sculpture. The trend accelerated during a property boom in many world capitals that saw more star architects taking on luxury condominium projects. These heavily marketed commissions helped elevate their profiles among homebuyers, making them status symbols for moneyed property investors who already filled their homes with A-list contemporary art and modernist furniture. “Architects have reached unheard of heights in the public consciousness,’’ says Joseph Rosa, chief curator at the Art Institute of Chicago’s department of architecture and design. “As more people recognise their names and their work, it’s only natural that some individuals, particularly the affluent, would want them to design their homes.”
Residential projects have long served as labs for new ideas for top architects. Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe built their reputations on cutting-edge home designs. More recently, Charles Gwathmey, designer of the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art and the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter tower in New York City, created a modern, 33,000 sq ft house in Austin, Texas, for Michael Dell, founder and chief executive of Dell."

Why Foster’s Hearst Tower is no gherkin

Architectural Record January

"Now that it has been there for a year and I’ve had my chance to learn to love it, maybe it’s a good time to say why I dislike the Hearst Tower in Manhattan so much. The Hearst, which of course was designed by Foster + Partners, looks like a misplaced missile silo. It’s as if the Pentagon, with its usual deftness of touch, had confused its maps and located this chunk of military hardware in Manhattan instead of Florida.
It’s an office building, folks. People work there. But nothing about the Hearst, as seen from outdoors, suggests the possibility of human habitation. It appears to be a cage for a single massive object. I don’t apologize for the image. One of the problems with Modernism, as a stylistic method, is that it tends to ignore the fact that buildings look like other things. And that’s how most people understand them. People say the abstract boxlike shapes of Modernist office towers look like the cartons the real towers came in. The world we live in is a world of resemblances. That’s why the Brits call Foster’s London tower the “the Gherkin.” But there’s a difference. “Gherkin,” which of course means “pickle,” is an affectionate name that humanizes the building. I haven’t yet heard an affectionate nickname for the Hearst."

Rediscovering a Heroine of Chicago Architecture

New York Times January 1

"If women are underrepresented in the architecture profession in 2008, a century ago they were hardly represented at all. Which makes Marion Mahony, the first woman to obtain an architecture license in Illinois, seem all the more remarkable. By 1908, she had been working for Frank Lloyd Wright for a decade. Mahony (pronounced MAH-nee) had developed a fluid style of rendering derived partly from Japanese woodblock prints, with lush vegetation flowing in and around floor plans and elevations. Her masterly compositions also made the buildings appear irresistibly romantic...
But in determining her contribution to American architecture, there is no more confounding figure than Mahony herself. In 1911 she married Walter Burley Griffin, a Prairie School architect five years her junior, and began devoting the bulk of her efforts toward furthering his career. That required both beautiful renderings and — any time his talent was questioned — self-effacement. That self-effacement may also have served the purposes of Wright, who more than most architects cultivated the image of the lone genius; he never acknowledged Mahony’s contributions and dismissed her and her husband as imitators...
In her manuscript Mahony depicts herself as indissolubly fused with her husband. The memoir is divided into four sections, each casting the couple as champions of a cause... The final section is “The Individual Battle,” which describes the couple’s struggles within American society. Mahony rails against class structure, imperialism, environmental degradation and of course Wright, whom she never names but refers to as “a cancer sore” who “originated very little but spent most of his time claiming everything and swiping everything.” "

"Until a few months ago, anyone longing to read Mahony’s memoir, “The Magic of America,” had to visit the Art Institute of Chicago or the New-York Historical Society, where Mahony, unable to find a publisher, deposited copies of the manuscript before her death in 1961. Each consists of 1,400 typed pages and nearly 700 illustrations, making the book at once too unwieldy — and too precious — for general distribution. But in August the Art Institute made a facsimile of the manuscript available at www.artic.edu/
magicofamerica."

Bauhaus Launches Social Housing Architecture Award

Spiegel January 11

"Given all the fuss about luxury and esthetics, an initiative that has been launched in a small city in eastern Germany -- and, if its organizers have their way, will reach out into the world -- seems downright provocative. In January the Bauhaus-Dessau Foundation launched its latest biennial competition, and this year the title is: "Housing shortages: The minimum subsistence level housing of today." Indeed, what could be more provocative than the notion of designing more attractive living spaces for welfare recipients and slum dwellers? The 2008 Bauhaus award is part of the ambitious vision of Omar Akbar, 59, the foundation's executive director. He wants to place architecture, design and his own organization back into the social and political landscape. In the 1920s, the Bauhaus School was considered a leading authority on design, architecture and urban planning. Today the foundation, which still bears the school's famous name, wants to revive the missionary zeal of the school's heyday."

INTERNATIONAL BAUHAUS AWARD 2008

"With the 5th Bauhaus Award, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation continues its research into “Updating Modernism”. In doing so, a central topic of the historical Bauhaus is taken up and put into the context of a contemporary discourse: solutions are sought for the subsistence level housing of today...
Individuals or groups may tender entries of work developed in the last five years – design outlines, plans, research projects, films, concepts, etc."

High Design for Low-Income Housing

Wall Street Journal December 28

"Public housing used to mean fortress-like blocks and soulless rows of cheaply built townhouses. But now there's a new model: privately developed homes and apartments that are well-designed, well-built and attractive enough to win over wary neighbors. A growing number of architects, from established stars to ambitious up-and-comers, are looking to such projects as an opportunity to do innovative work.
A single-room-occupancy building that opened in Chicago in March was designed by Helmut Jahn, internationally known for his glass-sheathed skyscrapers...
And in Santa Monica, Calif., a recently completed 41-unit apartment building, designed by Pugh + Scarpa Architects, incorporates green design elements. It is partially clad in blocks made of recycled crushed aluminum cans and has a sail-shaped metal screen that helps shield the building from the sun."

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