Steven Holl released the first image for his new Maggie’s Cancer Care Center in London (pictured left); the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, led by John Palmieri, is planning a mixed-use development project for Atlantic City’s blighted South Inlet; Linda Pollak’s firm celebrated the ribbon-cutting of a new pavilion and outdoor performance space at the Staten Island Children’s Museum.
We’re excited to introduce a new Fellow to the Institute: Markus Dochantschi, founder of studioMDA in New York. Dochantschi (pictured at left) was trained in Germany, where he graduated in 1995. Before founding studioMDA in 2002, he worked with Arata Isozaki and Fumihiko Maki in Tokyo, and from 1995 to 2002 with Zaha Hadid in London.
In other good news, as the Venice Biennale and Spontaneous Interventions approach, we’re pleased to report that tactical urbanism leads Planetizen’s list of the ‘Top Planning Trends of 2011-2012′. As they explain, “The topic will be explored in depth later this year at the Venice Biennale as the focus of the U.S. pavilion being organized by the Institute for Urban Design.”
Curbed included Board Member Winka Dubbeldam’s 597 Greenwich Street on their list of Innovative Residences You Need to Know Right Now; Mayor Dave Bing announced the re-launch of the Detroit Works program, with Board Member Toni Griffin heading up the development of a long-range development plan for the troubled Rust Belt city; Mary Margaret Jones (whose Olympic Park in London, pictured at left, was just completed) has been selected to design a new public entertainment waterfront attraction in Corpus Christi, Texas; Bill Kelley is leading the charge to add more sidewalk cafe space to Greenwich Village’s West 8th Street; good news came for two skyscrapers designed by Daniel Libeskind: the developers of his Zlota 44 building in Warsaw secured financing to complete construction, while his Eden Center in Jerusalem received official approval to move forward; Anne Locke spoke to WestfairOnline about the recent boom in medical facilities construction; “The Mobius,” Michael Manfredi’s entry to the Portal to the Point ideas competition in Pittsburgh, was featured on ArchDaily; Moshe Safdie released renderings for a massive $3.1 billion, six-tower, 10 million-square-foot mixed-use complex planned for Chongqing, China; a course designed by NJIT’s Darius Sollohub in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity was featured in a round-up of innovative and unconventional college courses around New Jersey; and Robert A.M. Stern was interviewed about his skyscraping One Horizon Center project in Gurgaon, India.
In a co-authored NY Times op-ed that cites cuts to government-funded social programs as an underlying cause of the recent UK riots, Board Member Saskia Sassen and Fellow Richard Sennett caution that “Americans ought to ponder this aspect of Britain’s trauma. After all, London is one of the world’s wealthiest cities, but large sections of it are impoverished. New York is not so different.” In responding to a young woman’s question about whether or not to take time to work between receiving her undergraduate degree in environmental science and returning to school to pursue a graduate degree in architecture, Galia Solomonoff noted that “One of the benefits of working in between careers is understanding the life applications of a given practice.” And while being interviewed about his role in shaping Postmodernism by filmmaker John Thornton, Patron Robert Venturi (pictured at left) advised that: “Modernism is about space. Postmodernism is about communication. You should do what turns you on.”
The Vanishing City, a new film on the gentrification of Manhattan, featuring interviews with Tom Angotti and Board Member Saskia Sassen, opened the Staten Island Film Festival; Angotti also spoke to the NY Daily News about his new research project at Hunter College trying to repurpose vacant residential units to shrink rates of homelessness; Mimi Zeiger profiled Thomas Balsley in the latest Landscape Architecture Magazine [PDF]; Jim Dart wrote briefly about progress on the Great Falls Arts + Revitalization Initiative at the Great Falls National Park in Paterson, NJ, a project that also involves Darius Sollohub and Claire Weisz; in nearby Nutley, NJ, Ken Drucker is designing a new pedestrian bridge at the Hoffman La Roche corporate campus; the Museum of Fine Arts Houston announced a shortlist of three firms for its planned expansion: Craig Dykers’ Snøhetta, Patron Steven Holl’s eponymous firm, and Board Member Thom Mayne’s Morphosis; hot off an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Ken Greenberg penned a requiem for a pedestrian bridge proposed in Toronto; Matthias Sauerbruch’s design for an office building on London’s Old Bailey (pictured at left) has been approved; and the Drawing Center has just launched a capital plan for their Claire Weisz-designed expansion.
DNAinfo.com spoke with Stephanie Gelb about a recent tussle over the use of recreational space in Battery Park City; eOculus recapped a recent panel discussion, featuring Beth Greenberg, on the extension of NYC’s #7 subway line; Kenneth Greenberg compared his plans for client Ryerson University’s bid to establish a face on Toronto’s famed Younge Street to NYU’s presence on Washington Square Park; Inhabitat explored Board Member Thom Mayne’s new campus for Giant Interactive in Shanghai (pictured at left); Herbert Newman’s firm was announced as the winner of a design competition for the Slover Memorial Library in Norfolk, VA; Architectural Record reviewed Board Member Enrique Norten’s renovation of the Chopo Museum in Mexico City; Land Securities released new designs by Matthias Sauerbruch’s for an office complex on London’s Old Bailey, and the Guardian profiled the architect’s recently-completed renovation of the Turkentor Gallery in Munich; and William Ryall’s Harlem loft is featured in the February issue of Dwell.
Patron Steven Holl has been announced as the winner of the 2010 Jencks Award, which is given annually to an individual that has recently made a major contribution simultaneously to the theory and practice of architecture internationally. The award will be presented at the RIBA on November 30, 2010, followed by a public lecture by Holl, chaired by Charles Jencks.
Theo David will be featured in the film Encounters as part of Cyprus’ participation in the 2010 Venice Biennale, which runs through 11/21/10; concept designs and models for the Victoria and Albert Museum’s new Exhibition Road building from eight firms, including Craig Dykers’ Snøhetta, are on display at the London museum now through 9/19/10; the National Gallery of Canada’s exhibition Global Citizen: The Architecture of Moshe Safdie will be on view in Ottawa from 10/6/10 through 1/9/11; and an exhibit on Matthias Sauerbruch’s design for the Brandhorst Museum is on view at the Royal Academy of Arts in London now through 11/7/10.
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