Google NY by ToastyKen

The new corporate? It’s about the mix.

High tech in the city: Google's New York campus dwarfs its neighbors. Photo by ToastyKen

A standing-room-only crowd turned out for SPUR’s January 11 program on “The Not So Corporate Campus.” The program promised to reveal the “future of work,” with a panel including Alexa Arena, Forest City’s vice president in charge of the groundbreaking 5M Project, John Igoe of Google, Everett Katibak of Facebook, and moderator Laura Crescimano of Gensler. While the discussion highlighted three campus projects that are trying to go beyond the typical speculative development of office parks, it posed unanswered questions about the importance of diversity and flexibility in sparking innovation. > Read More

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Bryant Rice

Contributor Profile: Bryant Rice

 

Bryant Rice, AIA, LEED AP is Vice President of Strategic Accounts with SideMark. He has over 25 years experience in commercial interiors and workplace strategy and most recently served as a director at DEGW.

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Mash-up at Right Angles

Randel Farm Map no. 55, vol. 1, p. 16, showing 101st to 109th Streets, from Third Avenue to the East River, July 21, 1820. Used with permission of the City of New York and the Office of the Manhattan Borough President.

 

The 1811 plan mandating an orthogonal street grid helped make Manhattan a paragon of urban form. Today we take rectilinear New York for granted, and love its vitality. An exhibition reveals both prescience and problems in the grid’s rich history.

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Contributor Profile: Jonathan Lerner

 

Jonathan Lerner is a writer and editor whose principal interests are architecture, urbanism, design and visual arts. > Read More

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MY POSTMODERNISTS

Minoru Takeyama: Number 1 Building, Tokyo. Photo courtesy of the architect.

 

Postmodernism is enjoying a modest revival, with a retrospective exhibit at the V&A, a conference in New York, and several new books that reassess its past and present claims. Postmodernism emerged here in the late 1970s as serious competition for the corporate modernism and bay regionalism predominant earlier in that decade, but my personal encounters with postmodernists began slightly earlier. This short essay recounts them.

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Contributor Profile: John Parman

 

John Parman is an editor and writer, based in Berkeley (www.j2parman.com; j2parman@yahoo.com). He co-founded and published Design Book Review and is an editorial adviser to Architect’s Newspaper, CA edition.

SNØHETTA DESIGNS THE SFMOMA EXPANSION

View from Yerba Buena Gardens. Image courtesy Snøhetta.

 

Compared to the existing San Francisco Museum of Modern Art building, the new addition designed by Craig Dykers of Snøhetta looks, well, very new. This is not stating the obvious; it seems as if the museum itself is about to change into something completely different. > Read More

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1.5.12 at swissnex san francisco: 17 Stories on Architecture

Image source via amazon.com

 

This Thursday evening at swissnex san francisco, Marc Angélil and Sarah Graham, of Zurich- and LA-based agps.architecture and the Harvard GSD, will be debuting a comprehensive survey of the firm’s multi-disciplinary body of work entitled Another Take: 17 Short Stories on Architecture. The book will be available for purchase and signing. Registration is free but required.

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Cities and Spacesuits: An Interview with Nicholas de Monchaux

Under-utilized parcels of city-owned land in San Francisco, re-imagined by Nicholas de Monchaux as part of his Local Code / Real Estates project, 2009. Image: Courtesy Nicholas de Monchaux


Nicholas de Monchaux
is an architect, urbanist, writer and Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at UC Berkeley. His recent book, Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo, unearths the truly fascinating story behind the design of the Apollo spacesuit, which has surprising relevance to architectural and planning discourse, particularly in the Bay Area. > Read More

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Strange Atlas 01: Get Lost

Photo by Mallory Scott Cusenbery


“That thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you is usually what you need to find, and finding it is a matter of getting lost.”
     — Rebecca Solnit [1] > Read More

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Renzo Against Corbu

Aerial photo of Ronchamp today. Photographer: Iwan Baan (Bauwelt)

When Renzo Piano was commissioned to make some additions and adjustments to Le Corbusier’s iconic Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp, it caused an uproar. Now that the scaffolds have been removed, Richard Ingersoll wonders what the controversy was about.

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Richard Serra: A Retrospective

Picture 1: Richard Serra, Abstract Slavery, 1974; paintstick on Belgian linen; 114 x 212 inches; collection of Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands; © 2011 Richard Serra / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York; photo: Robert Mates and Paul Katz

 

Richard Serra is the quintessential modern artist. The exhibition Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art makes obvious that he’s immune to convention, a follower of no movement, and firm against authority—occasionally even his own. > Read More

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Random Selection, or Intelligent Design?

1020 Pine, Kennerly Architecture; Photo Tim Griffith

 

Kennerly Architecture’s 1020 Pine, San Francisco, received a Merit Award for Architecture from the AIA California Council this fall. Justly so: it’s a handsome project. > Read More

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Working in San Francisco & Hawaii: An Interview with Craig Steely

Lavaflow 2. Photo: JD Peterson

 

Earlier this year I went to the big island of Hawaii to see the lava landscape and the houses that San Francisco and Hawaii based architect, Craig Steely has put down on them. > Read More

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Contributor Profile: Craig Steely

 

Craig Steely is a San Francisco- and Hawaii-based architect. He received his architecture degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. While there, he was awarded a scholarship for international study and spent his thesis year in Florence, Italy studying with Cristiano Toraldo di Francia formerly of SUPERSTUDIO.  > Read More

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Contributor Profile: Paolo Polledri

 

Paolo Polledri is a writer and designer. He worked at the Getty Center and was the founding Curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. > Read More

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Contributor Profile: Mallory Cusenbery

 

Mallory Scott Cusenbery, AIA, is the design principal at RossDrulisCusenbery Architecture, Inc., a mid-sized firm specializing in justice, public safety and community projects. > Read More

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Contributor Profile: Erin Hyman

 

Erin Hyman is an independent writer and editor, who has contributed to a forthcoming book surveying architecture installations worldwide over the past forty years. > Read More

Contributor Profile: Kenneth Caldwell

 

Kenneth Caldwell is a Bay Area based writer and communications consultant. He can be reached at Kenneth@KennethCaldwell.com.  His blog can be found at www.designfaith.blogspot.com

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Contributor Profile: Nicholas de Monchaux

 

Nicholas de Monchaux is an architect who works at the intersections of urban ecology and infrastructure. He is the author of Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo (MIT Press, 2011), an Architectural history of the Apollo 11 Extra-vehicular garment.

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