Constructed Objects

Symposium at Yale Looks at Everyday Things Through Architectural Prism Yale University Office of Public Affairs

“Constructed Objects: Design by Architects in the 20th Century,” a symposium taking place November 12–13 at Yale School of Architecture, will explore ways in which architecture and design infuse and inform the everyday objects we use.

-Tanya

Throwing away the Green House

Chase: Throwing away the Green House and sustainability Thomas Chase – Yale Daily News October 27, 2009

Given my work as an ecologist and environmentalist studying environmental impacts and the built environment, that the school’s gallery was hosting “The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture” should have warmed my heart. However, on a routine salvage visit to the loading dock behind Paul Rudolph Hall, I was surprised to find the entire exhibit, eight-foot-tall stands, display boards, tables and all, in a dumpster awaiting its one-way trip to the landfill. So much reusable material was being discarded that an extra dumpster, in addition to the one normally present, was on-site to receive it.

-Tanya

Expansion Plans Put Yale Alums at Odds

Expansion Plans Put Yale Alums at Odds – Architectural Record C. J. Hughes – October 26, 2009

“Bob Stern is a talented architect, and I’m sure whatever he does will be wonderful. But does it require a wholesale bulldozing?” says [William] Moore, adding that saving the buildings would mesh with Yale’s stated eco-friendly mission.

-Tanya

Sol LeWitt @ the new Smilow Hospital

Sol LeWitt’s “Wall Drawing 692″ @ Mass MoCa

Smilow’s interior features modern art – Lauren Motzkin – Yale Daily News – October 22, 2009

In a collaboration between the Smilow Hospital and the Yale University Art Gallery, “Wall Drawing 692” by conceptual artist Sol LeWitt has been installed in the lobby of the hospital, providing patients and visitors with a colorful welcome to the building.

-Tanya

Smilow Cancer Hospital’s design met criticism

Smilow Cancer Hospital’s design met criticism Amir Sharif Yale Daily News October 22, 2009

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Smilow Cancer Hospital Wednesday, nothing about the festive atmosphere and teary-eyed attendants suggested the controversial design process of the building — a process that involved extensive negotiations between hospital administrators, the building’s architects and city officials.

-Tanya

Why Architecture Matters

Amazon

Rhythm and Flow: The New Yorker Mia Reinoso Genoni – October 21, 2009
By Mia Reinoso Genoni New Haven Advocate

Why Architecture Matters is an extended meditation on the deceptively simple three-word phrase, a meditation that allows for rumination, emotion, observation and even contradiction.

Successful architecture, he tells us, “makes life better,” “take[s] our breath away,” “invites belief,” and “evokes indescribable joy.” Architecture is “the making of place and the making of memory,” and a great building “must have a use, it must stand up — and it must be a work of art.”

Paul Goldberger will speak on Public Architecture at 6 p.m. Oct. 28. New Haven Public Library, Main Branch, 133 Elm St. 203-946-8130 ext. 314, newhavenlibrarypatrons.com. Free. No reservations required.

-Tanya

Changes in Yale’s Architecture major

New Blueprint for Architecture – Jennifer Epstein – Inside Higher Ed – October 19, 2009

Yale University’s architecture major is about to experience a shakeup aimed at giving students a broader liberal arts education and better spacing out project-intensive courses….

With the new requirements, “The Analytic Model” has been shifted to sophomore year…making room in the junior year for a two-semester sequence of survey courses on architectural history.

-Tanya

New Haven Through The Architect’s Eye

2 articles on: “Through the Architect’s Eye — New Haven & the World”
On view in the atrium of New Haven’s City Hall until Oct. 23.

Latino architects show off shutter skills New Haven Register October 17, 2009 – Pamela McLoughlin

NEW HAVEN — The first floor of City Hall has never been as architecturally sound as it is right now.

Photographic works of 40 architects from some 20 Latin American countries who have visited, worked or are working in the city are on display until Friday as part of Arte Inc.’s citywide celebration of Hispanic heritage. October is Hispanic Heritage month.

Exhibit Shows View From Architects’ Eyes Allan Appel | October 9, 2009 New Haven Independent

If photography is the art of light, what happens when architects, who trade in solid masses, pick up the camera?

The result: a vision of the world and the city filled with design and drama.

-Tanya

NY Times review of “The Green House”

Buildings Easy on the Earth, and the Eyes FRED A. BERNSTEIN September 18, 2009 New York Times

Building a green house is about as easy as unfrying an egg. One goal is to reduce “indoor air pollution” — fumes from paints and other possibly hazardous materials. Another is to minimize energy expended on heating and cooling. The first goal requires that the house have lots of ventilation; the second requires it to be tightly sealed.

“It’s a conundrum,” said Alanna Stang, a writer who helped create “The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design,” an exhibition at the Yale School of Architecture.

-Tanya

As Heroes Disappear, the City Needs More

James Barron/The New York Times

The death of Charles Gwathmey early this month has provoked a lot of nostalgic reminiscence in the New York architecture world: not just about Mr. Gwathmey himself, but also about the New York Five, a group of influential architects of which he was part.

As Heroes Disappear, the City Needs More Nicolai Ouroussoff NYT 8/23/09

-Chris

The Green House: upcoming exhibit

Yale University: Yale School of Architecture Announces Exhibitions for Fall Term of Academic Year
New Haven, Conn., Aug 11, 2009 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) –[found @ Zibb]

Exhibitions showcasing the latest innovations in green residential architecture and the groundbreaking Las Vegas Studio of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown in addition to the work of their firm will be on view at the gallery of the newly renovated Paul Rudolph Hall, 180 York St., during the first term of the coming academic year.

The first exhibition, ‘The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture,’ opens on August 24. A traveling exhibition that originated at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. it draws on designs of internationally celebrated architects and features new trends, materials and technology in sustainable construction to raise awareness that a healthy and environmentally friendly home can be aesthetically dynamic and physically comfortable too, say the show’s organizers.

-Tanya

The ‘New York Five’ is shrinking

Gwathmey’s Death Further Diminishes ‘New York Five’
ROBIN POGREBIN New York Times August 10, 2009 New York Times

…The group, long known as the New York Five, is shrinking: After losing its first member, John Hejduk, in 2000, a second, Charles Gwathmey, died last week….he group was also known [as The Whites] because of its proclivity for white buildings inspired by the purist forms of Le Corbusier. Along with Mr. Gwathmey and Mr. Hejduk, the group included Michael Graves, Peter Eisenman and Richard Meier.

-Tanya

R.I.P. Charles Gwathmey

Charles Gwathmey, Modernist Architect, Dies at 71 FRED A. BERNSTEIN New York Times August 4, 2009

Charles Gwathmey, an architect who turned his love of Modernism and passion for geometrical complexity into a series of compelling houses and sometimes controversial public buildings, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 71 and lived in Manhattan.

Gwathmey recently renovated Paul Rudoph Hall and designed the Jeffrey H. Loria Center for the Arts.

Mr. Eisenman said that Mr. Gwathmey deserved more credit than he got for making sure that his [Jeffrey H. Loria Center] didn’t overpower its neighbors. “Charles was able to sublimate his ego and produce really sophisticated solutions to plan problems, to circulation problems — but those aren’t the kinds of things that make headlines,” [Peter] Eisenman said.

-Tanya

Yale’s Rustic Kroon Hall Fits Carbon Neutral Technology

The new Kroon Hall at Yale University strikes a rustic note with its barn-like form and thick vaulting roof, as if made of thatch. It’s not about quaint, since it is among the few buildings in America that can claim to be almost carbon neutral — the Holy Grail in the battle against global warming. That “thatch” supports photovoltaic panels.

Yale’s Rustic Kroon Hall Fits Carbon Neutral Technology: Review James S. Russell Bloomberg 7/20/09

-Chris

Learning from the Glass House

Susan S. Szenasy and Belinda Lanks report on a two day retreat at Philip Johnson’s Glass House: A Day at the Glass House July 13, 2009 – Metropolis

A small cadre of design professionals came together last Wednesday at Philip Johnson’s Glass House to discuss the thornier issues of Modern preservation….Among the compelling questions raised were: What steps should be taken to ensure the survival of important postwar structures, and how can architects find new lessons in those buildings while respectfully moving beyond them?

-Tanya