New York's
Center for Architecture has come out with a list of the 10 "great buildings to see in NYC." Of course, you could come with a list of hundreds, and certainly those lists
already exist. But this selective list does a good job of including the relatively new (SoHo's Apple store, the Conde Nast building, the Rose Center), along with the classic (the Seagram and Chrysler buildings, for instance). But no Empire State Building — you're going to go see that anyway, right? [
CNN]
Ever wondered what San Francisco will look like in the year 2108? So has the History Channel. That's why they sponsored the "City of the Future" contest. The challenge asked architects to imagine San Francisco a century from today. IwamotoScott Architecture took home the $10,000 prize, with a "Hydro-Net" design that includes underground tunnels, hydrogen-fueled hover cars, and hilltop steam baths boasting unbeatable views. [
Popular Science]
The
Los Angeles County Museum of Art reveals its new
Broad Contemporary Art Museum — an addition intended to refine the cultural center's overall appearance. Unfortunately, the
New York Times finds it too pragmatic, and goes so far as to call it "remarkably uninspired" and "
architecture without conviction." Essentially, by the end of the article, architect Renzo Piano's designs have, save for his use of light, been more or less sent down the shitter (perhaps a result of Piano being forced to try and fill the very large shoes of LACMA's first choice for architects, Rem Koolhas). [
NYT]
Following in the wake of Hollywood releases like
Cloverfield and
I Am Legend, the winners of NYC's Office of Emergency
post-category 3 hurricane design competition have been
announced. The $100,000 open design competition, which bore the unimaginative title "What if New York City...", asked international architects and designers to "generate solutions for
post-disaster provisional housing." Of the top ten winners, designs include Eric Ripert-ready living quarters — Boston's Mathew Francke introduced Mobile Emergency Relief Ports (or MERPs) complete with "a
mple closet space, stainless appliances and natural stone countertops" — while Carsten Laursen of Copenhagen created "easy-to-assemble hexagonal housing units [that] could be the basis of a
new urban grid, transcending the traditional street grid of long thin blocks." Take that, Robert Moses! [
NYT]
The
weather and air quality in Beijing are horrible, so a pair of Beijing architects designed "Linked Hybrid," a real estate development featuring luxury apartments, stores, and restaurants
accessible by a system of interconnected skyways so residents will never have to leave their homes. The complex includes eight 21-story buildings, skateboard parks, and tai chi platforms. [
Wired]
Influential architect Jean Prouvé built the
Maison Tropicale to serve as a headquarters for French foreign legion troops in the Congo, in 1951. For the next 49 years, the house was sun baked and shot full of bullet holes, but in 2000 it was
taken apart and moved back to France where it was fully restored. The journeys of the
Maison Tropicale didn't end with that transcontinental trip. Last June, hotelier Andre Balazs bought the house and had it
installed at the Tate Modern in London. The
Tropicale's residency at the Tate is slated to last until April 13th, then Balazs says he plans to use the house as the centerpiece of a planned resort in Central America. (
via)
Major League Baseball hopes to build a
21-story headquarters on 125th Street and Park Avenue in Harlem. The design for the baseball building is
described by the
New York Times as an "interlocking set of
luminescent glass cubes"; the project would be the first major office tower to be built in the neighborhood since the 1970s. It will not however, be the first development planned for the site. Three years ago, a major hotel and retail project was announced for the same corner, but plans fell through. [
NYT]
NEW YORK Tonight at a secret Williamsburg location (find out when you buy tickets) you can see the annual
architect duel presented by
LVHRD. This year architects from FXFOWLE (they did the new New York Times building) and KONYK compete in a live model building contest with the theme involving the Alaskan wilderness in the year 2029.
Audience members are asked to dress as lumberjacks or bears and free Dewars will be available all night. [
NYC Agenda]
Purdy cool —
Digital Urban is creating a
scale virtual model of London using the graphics engine for the video game Crysis. They seem to be making excellent progress; check out the
screengrab of their
London Eye. [
via]
Observe the
polar city — an escape hatch for a world
overwhelmed by global warming, and/or rising oceans as a result of global warming, or something. In the future, we will all live in a vaguely rendered environment
reminiscent of Second Life, just without the purchasable penises.
Or will we?!? Supposedly meant to be under construction for a 2015 opening, though no details on who would fund or even allow such a Blofeldian complex. [
via]
Not long after the bed was invented, people discovered eating in bed. The custom of bed AND breakfasts (not sold separately) goes back to fair England, where B and B's still offer an affordable alternative to pretentious, overpriced, impersonal hotels. Like so many British things (e.g. the Spice Girls), Americans have turned one more working-class tradition into something deluxe and Victorian. Today, Washington, D.C, is dotted with charming B and Bs that look like a ladies' sewing circle threw up (did you want frills with that?). Better leave such haunts to the bridge clubs that inspired them — the rest of us want to sleep and eat like the gods, escaping into a refined world of top-notch design and glossy magazine values. Here's where to find just that—if you're in the capital on business and can't stand another night at the Mariott, if you're the Governor of New York but want to stay anonymous, or if you've got cousins coming to town and there just ain't no way you can squeeze them into your studio. Rates range from $160 to $300 a night. (photo: DC Guesthouse) More » 
