After a slowdown caused by the bursting of the housing bubble and the financial crisis of 2008, architecture and urban design activity should be picking up, if only slightly, in 2012. Here are stories to watch for:
The Old Town School of Folk Music will open its new home, designed by Chicago architects VOA, in the 4500 block of North Lincoln Avenue on Jan. 9. Here Tribune rock critic Greg Kot preview of the new building.
Rush University Medical Center will open its new hospital, designed by Chicago architect Ralph Johnson of Perkins+Will, on Jan. 9. Here my first take on the building, posted earlier this Graham Foundation opens the Chicago showing of the Stanley Tigerman retrospective, "Ceci n pas une reverie" ("This is not a dream") on Jan. 26. The show runs through May 19. Pier officials will exhibit five designs for remaking the pier's public spaces on Feb. 2 and select a winning team (or teams) in midFebruary. Here my take on the five finalist teams participating in the competition.
A Lake Forest house by Chicago architect Frederick Phillips is among the winners of the American Institute of Architects annual housing awards. AIA says: "Built in the historic district of Lake Forest, Illinois, and subject to strict municipal review, this house mediates between the common and the unexpected. In a community where large traditional houses prevail, this house seeks a return to simple agrarian forms, colors, and textures typical blackfridayuggbootsus.com to the region, but lost long ago."
The news release follows:
When I caught up with this year's Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, Peter Zumthor, last Thursday, I could hear the wind whipping in background. wasn't in his office, which can be found the village of Haldenstein in central Switzerland. He was outdoors, with clients for two houses in a little village near Vals, the site of his bestknown project, the Thermal Baths.
He was talking on his cell phone and he quickly made a Midwestern flatlander, jealous with his description of
I'm out here on the mountainside high in the Swiss Alps. High up. I'm looking at a beautiful chain of mountains. Blue sky. You should be here. Tell me about your office.
This office is in the Swiss Alps and we are 20 people from six or seven nations. It's a limited number of peoplenot more than 20 because we're working in a familiar kind of situation, like in a farmsted in a village. We have a couple of buildings devoted to me and that is where we are working. Life and working are closely connected.
Compared to many of today's "starchitects," you've taken an unconventional career path. Do you feel vindicated by this award?
Oh yes, it's great that you can sort of pursue your thing. Do your thing. It gets recognized. I'm not so keen on publishing. I'm not a networker. It's great that if you do good work, it gets recognized.
Architecture's top prize often goes to a buzzgenerating star designer like Rem Koolhaas or Zaha Hadid. But on Monday, a Swiss architect who quietly goes about his business in a remote village in the Alps will be named this year's winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
While little known to the public, 65yearold Peter Zumthor (left) is a legend within the profession, renowned for his reclusive, monklike image and for buildings, mostly small in scale, that are filled with spiritual overtones even if they aren't overtly religious.
Among them: an art museum in Cologne, Germany that gracefully incorporates the ruins of a Gothic church destroyed by Allied bombs during World War II (below, left), a tiny field chapel in the Black Friday UGG Boots German countryside and a popular thermal bath house in Zumthor's home Swiss canton of Graubnden.
"In paring down architecture to its barest yet most sumptuous essentials, he has reaffirmed architecture's indispensable place in a fragile world," reads the citation of the eightmember Pritzker Prize jury, which includes 1998 winner Renzo Piano.
The prize, bestowed annually by Chicago's billionaire Pritzker family for "significant contributions to humanity," comes with a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion.
Zumthor is the second Swiss recipient, following design partners Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, who shared the award 2013 Black Friday UGG boots sale with big discount and best customer service in 2001. European architects have dominated the Pritzker in recent years, winning seven of the last 10 times.
A lot of traditionminded architects will be in Chicago today for ceremonies involving the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture. Besides the bestowing of the award on Egyptian architect ElWakil, they will have something else to celebrate: The state of Virginia is targeting the culdesac.
The culdesac, in case you didn know, has long been anathema to neotraditionalist urban planners, who argued (rightly, in my view) that it bred both traffic congestion and social isolation. And now they have a friend where it counts: In the Virginia governor mansion.
As the Washington Post reported last Sunday: The state has decided that all new subdivisions must have through streets linking them with neighborhood subdivisions, schools and shopping areas. State officials say the new regulations will improve safety and accessibility and save money: No more single entrances and exits onto clogged secondary roads. Quicker responses by emergency vehicles. Lower road maintenance costs for governments."
Could that also happen in Illinois? Don bet on it. Unlike most other states, Virginia maintains almost all roads within its borders. That gave it the political and financial muscle to take aim at the culdesac. Read the Post story here.
Chicago architects Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge continue to rack up awards for their bigboned border crossing station in Raymond, Mont. General Services Administration Design Awards. It was the only project by Chicago architects to be honored.
Located in the rolling prairie of Montana upper plains, border crossing station contrasts vividly with its natural setting and suggests a gateway with its monumental canopy. parts cut down on construction time during the short building season.
The jury commented: "A very clean, straightforward design that was carried out impeccably well. The remoteness of the site was brilliantly considered in both the design parti the fabrication and construction scenario. The large frame is a clear visual icon on this flat expansive landscape, and the insertion of two cubesone solid and one transparent for the condtioned administration and support spaceis extremely clean and crisp."
The American Institute of Architects has just announced that 112 of its members, including eight from Chicago, been named to the College of Fellows. The honor is to members who have made conributions to the profession," the AIA in a news release.
Here are eight, in alphabetical order, followed by category which they are being recognized: Steven Burns, alternative career; Walter Eckenhoff, service to society; George Efstathio, practice; Fischel, led the Jeanne Gang, design; Louis Garapolo, service to society; Joseph Gonazlez, design (left); and Patrick Loughran, research.