Fountain Precedent: Lincoln Center’s Revson Fountain by DSR, WET

I am looking Lincoln Center’s new fountain in New York as a precedent for the Frick Park Environmental Center project.  Designed as a replacement for the 1964 fountain by Philip Johnson, Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s fountain lifts the seating edge off the ground.  WET Design, famous for the Bellagio Hotel’s fountains in Las Vegas, designed the water feature.

There was some backlash to removing the Johnson fountain as many found sentimental value in it.  It was featured in The Producers (1968) and Sweet Home Alabama (2002) to name a few.  Critics of the new DSR fountain have dubbed it a “smoldering ashtray”.  Others found issue in the fact that the water jets and tubing are visible through the gap underneath the granite seating.

While whether or not the Philip Johnson fountain needed to be entirely replaced is debatable, Diller Scofidio’s replacement is masterpiece unto itself. The new design is dynamic and brings energy into a formerly static space in a breathtakingly innovative way. By lifting the granite edge off of the ground, they activate a key part of the fountain both visually and audibly.

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Images from various internet sources.

More about the Revson Fountain renovations:

Article by The American Society of Cinematographers

Article on Gothamist.com

Article in the New Yorker

[posted by elijah hughes]

Fractile Garden of Cosmic Speculation

http://reckon.posterous.com/the-garden-of-cosmic-speculation

 

I found this on a website and I thought it applied to our semester about landscape design. The garden is in Scotland and it is totally based off parametric and mathematical execution.

President Obama’s speech at the Pritzker reception for Souto de Moura

 

The public opinion of architecture?

Peter Zumthor to Design 2011 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion

“Hortus conclusus”

 

 

Peter Zumthor was recently chosen to build this year’s pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery in London. As you may know, the Serpentine Gallery annually commissions a world-renowned architect to create a structure in London’s Hyde Park as their first built work in the United Kingdom. Past pavilions have included designs by Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, and Rem Koolhaas.

Read more on Architizer.

 

Rem Koolhaas, 2006 with Cecil Balmond (Ove Arup).

 

Frank Gehry, 2008.

SANAA, 2009.

 

Jean Nouvel, 2010.

 

Souto de Moura Wins 2011 Pritzker Prize

Casa de Històrias, Cascais, Portugal

“Eduardo Souto de Moura, a Portuguese architect whose work combines the abstract minimalism of Mies van der Rohe with a preference for local materials and building techniques, has been awarded the 2011 Pritzker Prize, architecture’s highest honor.”

Read more here.

Japan Earthquake

Here is a video of Toyo Ito’s Mediatheque in Sendai weathering the earthquake in Japan.

As a reminder, the Mediatheque is this building:

INCEPTION at 100 11th Avenue

Sidewalk Chalk Guy

I felt that this was too cool not to share. Check out the one where he’s “testing the water” in the pool.

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http://gprime.net/images/sidewalkchalkguy/

[posted by elijah hughes]

SAIT Parkade by Bing Thom Architects

So this project seemed to be similar to what a lot of people in our studio were trying to do with the Harvard Square project: blend architecture into the landscape to downplay the statement it makes.

This project does this but is, as Projessor Ficca said, “not shy about being a building.”

“By siting the building carefully, we were able to preserve a critical landscape and visual relationship between the campus and downtown Calgary while respecting the historic heart of the SAIT Polytechnic campus,” said Bing Thom of BTA.

Here are the pictures, discuss away. Source link at the bottom.

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http://www.indesignlive.com/articles/projects/project-news/sait-parkade-by-bing-thom-architects

http://www.bingthomarchitects.com/

[posted by elijah hughes]

Beauty and the Book | Libraries in the digital age raise questions about the place of books. | | Building Types Study | Architectural Record

Beauty and the Book | Libraries in the digital age raise questions about the place of books. | | Building Types Study | Architectural Record.