Category: Uncategorized
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Brutalist Theater at Risk

Brutalist Theater in Baltimore Faces Demolition Architect, May 16, 2012 The 1967 Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in downtown Baltimore, designed by Harvard Five architect John M. Johansen, FAIA, may be razed and replaced with two 30-story apartment towers that include retail space, and underground parking. The development firm that owns the theater—which has been shuttered…
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SONG 1 at the Hirshhorn
A few photos from last night’s premiere of Doug Aitken’s video installation at–more properly, ON–the Hirshhorn. I previewed this show in The Architect’s Newspaper a few weeks back, and it did not disappoint. I hope to return soon.
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Looming Large

The Architect’s Newspaper, March 19, 2012 Four months ago, a design for a presidential memorial in Washington, D.C., was wending its quiet way through the federal approvals process. Most of Washington didn’t know or care that architect Frank Gehry—he of Bilbao and Disney and Lady Gaga’s hat—was creating the new memorial, which will commemorate President…
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Surface to Air

The Architect’s Newspaper, Feb. 24, 2012 It has been compared to a doughnut and a UFO, and less charitably (by Ada Louise Huxtable) to a bomb shelter and penitentiary. But Washington, D.C.’s cylindrical Hirshhorn Museum, designed by Gordon Bunshaft, will soon double as something else entirely: a movie screen. Starting on March 22, the Smithsonian’s…
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The Planning of Bournville

The Evolution of England’s First Planned Community The Atlantic Cities, Jan. 12, 2012 In September 1901, 300 men gathered in Birmingham, England, for a conference on the city of the future. Back then, cities of the present left a lot to be desired. Severe overcrowding in urban centers across Britain meant that working-class families often…