Final Design Chosen For Black History Museum

Yesterday, April the 15th, a winning design was finally selected for long-awaited National Museum of African American History and Culture to be located across the street from the Washington Monument. The firms of Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup were selected as the winners despite much public sentiment that the Moody Nolan/Predock design was by far the most dynamic and aesthetically pleasing of all submissions. The 5 acre, $500 million project is now set to break ground mid 2012 and be completed in 2015.

"Their vision and spirit of collaboration moved all members of the design competition jury," said the museum's founding director, Lonnie G. Bunch III. "I am confident that they will give us a building that will be an important addition to the National Mall and to the architecture of the city."

Bunch has repeatedly stated that the core theme to be followed by each firm was the African American experience in the United States through slavery and emancipation, to politics, music, sports and spirituality.

The wining design concept was about "celebration and praise" said Adjaye, 42, a Tanzanian-born, London-based architect. "We are celebrating an incredible journey and looking to the future." The 105 foot design shows a square building, held by four columns with an open first floor. Two superstructures, which are shaped like crowns and inspired by an African headdress, top the entry-level porch. Above crowns, that Adjaye described as "Coronas" and where designed to hold most of the exhibition galleries, is a roof garden. The four-story design has several key vantage points and view ports to take advantage of the iconic and historic sights along the Mall.

The entrances are on Constitution Avenue and Madison Drive, on the Mall side, bringing all visitors into the open first floor. On the Constitution side is a canal, representing the Washington Channel, where slaves and supplies were transported.

In my march 30th post I briefly talked about the six designs that were under consideration at the time which included, Foster and Partners/URS, a joint venture, with the Foster firm as architect and URS handling the engineering design. Other teams are: Devrouax & Purnell, I.M. Pei, Moshe Safdie and Associates, Moody Nolan/Predock and of course Freelon Adjaye Bond. At the time, the design by Moody Nolan/Predock was considered by many to be the better design that is why the selection of Freelon Adjaye Bond by the Smithsonian came as such a surprise. I am quite disappointed with this choice as the design seems to be the least interesting of the six but I guess its location does not not exactly allow for very organic forms.




Details of article obtained from Jaqueline Trescott's "Designer chosen for Black History Museum"
Images obtained from: www.washigntonpost.com

Gehry To Design Eisenhower Memorial

Regardless of whatever problems "star architect" Frank Gehry might be having with the Beekman Tower project and constant issues of being over budget, his brand is something that many cities seem to seek out. Washington has recently been added to that list as Gehry was selected from a short list of firms, that included Ron Krueck of Krueck & Sexton, Rob Rogers and Jonathan Marvel of Rogers Marvel Architects, and Peter Walker of PWP Landscape Architecture, to design a memorial to US president Dwight Eisenhower.

The site for the memorial, which will be Gehry's first project in Washington, is a four acre parcel between 4th and 6th Streets along Independence Avenue right by the Smithsonian air and space museum. At a projected budget of $90-120m, the project will consist of a civic plaza that will serve as both memorial to the 34th president and gathering ground for the public.

The 12-member commission, which selected Gehry, was created by Congress in 1999 and includes David Eisenhower, grandson of the president, and its chairman is lawyer Rocco C. Siciliano who who earned a Bronze Star in World War II and was an assistant to Eisenhower in the White House. Siciliano stated last week that, "We were looking for creativity and looking for ingenuity. We wanted a firm that knows how to bring in the public, with an emphasis on young people. We know it wouldn't be a massive facility."He also added that, "It's appropriate to have one of today's most outstanding architects design a memorial for one of our country's greatest leaders."

The use of the land has been approved by Congress, the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission. The project is also being sponsored by the National Park Service, which will maintain and manage the site.

Though I am very excited about all the development going on around the area which includes the proposed Black History museum and would like to see how it all comes together, I'm not sure that Gehry is quite the right choice for Washington. Being true to himself and the way he designs, Frank Gehry finds it hard to relate to site context and the Washington mall area is not the kind of location where you just plop down anything. I fear the memorial will have little to do with Eisenhower and more to do with Gehry trying to put his signature mark on Washington.





Some article information has been obtained from: www.guardian.co.uk and www.washingtonpost.com

Tiger Woods' New Golf Resort

The world's best golfer just unveiled plans for the $100 million Punta Brava (which means “wild point”) golf resort set to open late in 2011. The project located just south of Ensenada, Mexico will be composed of villas, casitas and a private club all enhanced by a scenic, 264-acre coastal setting that includes a 1,200-foot peak and ragged sea cliffs.

Mr. Woods brought together for this project three notable Mexican firms: project architects Legorreta + Legorreta, ABAX Architecture, and A5 arquitectura. Alejandro Bernardi, an architect with the firm A5, stated that one design consideration was to blend some details of heritage Mexican architecture with a more contemporary environment.

The complex includes 39 estate lots ranging from 3/4 to 3 acres, 99 villa residences from 4,500 to 7,000 square feet, and 14 club casitas for the guests of residents. Residences are perched on the vertical terrain of the site, appearing to slide out of the hillsides in layers. With stonework that matches existing rock and landscaping with native plants, the designs are intended to ease the transition from natural to man-made environments.- www.archpaper.com, "Swinging Design"

Not to be forgotten is the golf course designed by Tiger himself with each hole of the 70 par course giving players a clear view of the ocean including eight shots that require driving the ball over the bay, which I'm sure he threw in just to be mean.

“The merger of traditional Mexican craftsmanship or ‘artesania’ as we call it, with the modern needs of architectural function, has an amazing result,” Bernardi said. This look, he added, is achieved by transposing materials like traditional terra cotta with more contemporary exposed concrete, and recreating traditional Mexican wood details like lattice, shades, and shutters with modern lines.

Another feature of the overall design was to enhance the views and the experience of the occupants by having a seamless transition between indoors and outdoors by blurring interior and exterior boundaries. Showers open to the outdoors, walls seemingly disappear to provide occupants with unobstructed views to the ocean and rooftops planted with indigenous plants provide residents with usable green terraces.

The project also boasts sustainable strategies: thick stone walls to help with thermal massing and tap into passive solar opportunities due to the warmer climate. Also, Punta Brava has been designed to be completely independent from the Ensenada water grid, using an on-site desalinization plant and reusing all wastewater.

I am very pleased with Mr Woods' plans and actually appreciate his decision to have a team of the best local architects who are better able to understand the complexity of the environment and how best to work with it. Also, I'm glad that even though this development is not located in the United States, plans to make it as energy efficient as possible were integrated into the overall scope especially as energy codes are less stringent in Mexico.





Image obtained from: www.archpaper.com
Article details obtained from: Alissa Walker's "Swinging Design"

World's First Flying Hotel!

Modeled on the Soviet Mil V-12, the largest helicopter ever built, this double deck Airbus A380 idea has seemingly set the bar high for luxury accommodation. The Russian Hotelicopter Company purchased one of these prototypes from the Mikhail Leontyevich Mil helicopter plant in Panki-Tomilino, Russia in 2004 and claim to have been working out the kinks in the design ever since.

This contraption boasts 18 luxury rooms, each soundproofed and furnished with a queen-sized bed, fine linens, a mini-bar, coffee machine, wireless Internet access, and all the trimmings one would expect to find in a flying hotel with room service offered half and hour before and after take off.

"The original Mil V-12 was an amazingly large helicopter which absolutely dwarfs any heavy lift Helicopter in use today. Each rotor had a diameter of nearly 115 ft (35m), mounted at the end of a large wing, making the distance from the tips of each rotor blade wider than the wingspan of a Boeing 747. The two Soviet built V-12s did fly and still hold the helicopter heavy lift world record of 44,205 kg (88,636 lb) at a height of 2,255m (7,398 feet) set on August 6th 1969 but were simply too big and difficult to maneuver to be practical so never reached production." - Gizmag, 3/30

Although the company, Hotelicopter has shown very imaginative and innovative images of this design as well as a flight tour, just from the above dimentions and weight, I have my doubts about just how practical these claims might be. For starters, the specified Maximum Takeoff Weight is given at 232,870 lb, the same as the original Mil V-12 helicopter even though three stories of rooms have been added and this really doesn't sound feasible. So although a flight tour has been released, starting June 26th, I think these plans are pretty spurious especially considering that yesterday was April fool's.







Images obtained from: www.likecool.com
Article details obtained from: www.gizmag.com

Clash of The Subway and Car Cultures in China

Chan Shao Zhang, a 67 year old engineer, is currently supervising an army of workers operating 60 tunneling machines below the metropolis of Guangzhou in Southeastern China. Their goal is to not only build one of the largest and advanced subway systems but to also curb the Country's growing love for the automobile.

The tunneling system is taking hold not only in Guangzhou but all over the country as the Chinese government is pushing local and provincial officials to step up their infrastructure spending to offset lost revenue from slumping exports. Hence, at least 15 other cities are building subway lines with many more planning them in the near future. This is a very encouraging change as in the past, most cities have been discouraged from such alternate transportation planning due to high costs of subway tunneling. For example, only the city of Tokyo currently has a subway system that serves more passengers than city buses. The buses are cheaper and able to serve far more streets but move more slowly, pollute more and contribute to traffic congestion.

The concern now though is that the Chinese populace are purchasing cars faster than the government can build subway systems and car sales have soared ninefold since the year 2000. In the month of February, China surpassed the United States in total vehicle sales for the first time ever. This, combined with the fact that some Chinese policies allow real estate developers to build sprawling new Los Angeles style suburbs, undermine the benefits of the mass transit boom. Shanghai charges a fee of several thousand dollars for each license plate of a newly purchased car to try to discouraging car use and promote more alternative transportation but this has not taken hold in much of the Country.

Despite all this, China is continuing on with the plans of connecting all cities via these subway tunnels that are seen to be a way to jump start the economy again. The city of Guangzhou alone plans to open an additional 83 miles by the end of next year along with an underground tram system and a high-speed commuter rail system. A long-term plan calls for at least 500 miles of subway and light rail routes, and there are discussions on expanding beyond that.

I think this is a very forward thinking plan regardless of the new love for cars in the country. If done right, the subway systems will always be a very convenient way to commute to avoid traffic and parking issues. That is if it is done right and not a pretense of an alternate transport system like what exists in San Diego or Los Angeles. I think New York should watch and see how its done as the long delayed Second Avenue line which is to stretch a mere 1.7 miles still has not been completed.





Image obtained from: www.NewYorkTimes.com
Some article info obtained from: Kieth Bradshaer's "Clash of Subway and Car Culture in Chinese Cultures."

1 World Trade Center

This is the new name for what we once knew as the "Freedom Tower" which was renamed in an attempt to try and remove some of the negative emotions many residents of New York and the families of the 9/11 victims feel with the new building which was designed to replace the WTC Twin Towers.

The SOM designed $3.1 billion project was initially set to topout by the end of 2010 but was pushed back to be completed by 2013 instead and use about 46,000 tons of steel.

Outside of the triangular undulated mass everyone seems to despise, I think the 1 World Trade Center Tower is a well designed building with a lot of innovative designs. The 2.6 million square foot building will consist of office spaces, as well as an observation deck, restaurants with tenant parking and access to subway trains below grade. What is most impressive are the new safety features: three foot thick walls for all stairwells, elevator shafts, risers, and sprinkler systems; extremely wide "emergency stairs"; a dedicated set of stairwells exclusively for the use of firefighters; and biological and chemical filters throughout its ventilation system. Also, "Its structure is designed around a strong, redundant steel moment frame consisting of beams and columns connected by a combination of welding and bolting. Paired with a concrete-core shear wall, the moment frame lends substantial rigidity and redundancy to the overall building structure while providing column-free interior spans for maximum flexibility."

In my post of 3/25, I talked about deceased architect, Herbert Belton and Ken Gardner plans to do away with the Freedom Tower, or should I say the 1 Trade Center, and replace it with the Twin Towers II which have exterior elevations identical to the original towers but completely redesigned interiors and structural system. I got a bit of feed back from that post which seemed to underscore the sentiment of New Yorkers who really do not want to see the 1 Trade Center built. But what is being done about all this other than having a few petitions floating around online? I mean, just on February 11th, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey posted images showing that construction on the 1 World Trade Center Tower has risen above grade to a height of 105 feet. So did that signal the end of the Twin Towers II proposal?

I know the sentiment among all the supporters of the Twin Towers II feel that it is not too late to change the design and that the current foundation pylons of the 1 World Trade Center can be used as is for the Twin Towers II without having to be modified but after looking over them, I really don't see how that would work. I do think that it would be nice to see the old Twin Tower masses standing in the New York skyline but until some kind of official announcement is made to abandon the 1 World Trade Center, I don't think this will ever become a reality.





Image obtained from: SOM.com

Design For New Black History Museum

On Jan 30th, I posted an article on the design of the National Museum for African American History on the mall of the Washington Monument. During that time, the design review had only six teams from the original twenty-two who had submitted their RFP documents. These included, Foster and Partners/URS, a joint venture, with the Foster firm as architect and URS handling the engineering design. Other teams are: Devrouax & Purnell, Freelon Adjaye Bond, I.M. Pei and Moshe Safdie and Associates. Though currently, the jury process has not narrowed the selection past these six firms left since January, conceptual designs have been unveiled on Friday, of the various teams' proposed conceptual design of the Museum.

It was the first opportunity to see what the physical structure might look like and themes which look like they might be found in the final design include water features and music halls, evocations of slave ships and the African past, and vistas acknowledging its important, monumental neighbors. The models of the museum, set to topout in 2015, are on display at the Castle Building for public comment until April 6 and mirrored elements of other familiar museums. Some of these are the circular paths of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the wetlands and water movement of the National Museum of the American Indian, the open floor of the National Museum of American History and light that cascades into interior and underground spaces, as at the Pyramid at the Louvre.

The museum will occupy a five-acre plot near the Washington Monument and the National Museum of American History. It is one of the last open spaces on the Mall, and the museum's founders have specified that the building must respect the history and visage of the monument. As part of their proposals, the architects were asked to acknowledge their own understanding of the importance of the African American experience.

Lonnie G. Bunch, the founding director of the museum and the chairman of the jury that will select the wining design among other things asked the teams for a clear expression of "the dark corners" of the African American experience in the United States. "We want a building that is worthy of a rich cultural heritage," Bunch said, "and we want it to work as a museum." The conceptual designs, he continued, were requested to "give us enough so I know you are the team I want to dance with."

Officials with the Smithsonian, which will oversee the details of construction and exhibition content, said they didn't expect the building to be very tall, but it would cover 300,000 to 350,000 square feet. The submissions are:

-- Devrouax & Purnell and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners envision a seven-story structure (with two of the floors below ground) that features a circular interior within a box shape. It would have a roof garden with landscaping inspired by a pattern on one of the architects' grandmother's quilt. Pei, a recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, designed the East Building of the National Gallery of Art. Devrouax & Purnell did Nationals Park.

-- Diller Scofidio and Renfro, in association with KlingStubbins, submitted a table-shaped building wrapped in glass. The renderings show a place featuring billboard-size photographs of famous black figures and moments, and where jazz musicians might perform. One image depicts slaves in a ship in a huge Middle Passage Gallery. The plans feature an amphitheater facing the Lincoln Memorial.

-- The Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates and Davis Brody Bond designed a museum with two of the above-ground stories shaped like wide baskets. The exterior is covered with copper screens that change color during the day. At various points inside the museum, there are stopping places that look to the Capitol and other landmarks.

-- Foster and Partners/URS foresee a circular building. Visitors enter a ramp and descend to a lower level to start the museum experience, which begins with slavery and winds through the stories of freedom, sports and the arts. At the top of the four stories, visitors enter an area of "celebration" and face a huge window, looking out at the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. As with the other architecture collaborations, this one includes African American partners. In this case it's Blackburn Architects and Harry Robinson, former dean of the Howard University architecture school. Foster designed the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian's Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture.

-- Moody Nolan, in association with Antoine Predock Architect, envisions a building made of natural materials, rising as of out of bedrock and muck. Along one side runs a wetlands scene, a nod to historic Tiber Creek that ran through part of Washington. Its glass roof features etchings echoing Yoruba ancestral arts, and it also has an outdoor amphitheater facing Constitution Avenue.

-- Moshe Safdie and Associates in association with Sulton Campbell Britt & Associates submitted a four-story concept that features a lot of natural light. A towering ship's hull marks the entrance. In a section labeled "The Door of No Return," the museum would have exhibition and contemplative areas dealing with slavery and segregation stories; a section called "Freedom Bridge," on the top level, would include exhibits on music and sports. The proposal features a web-like facade, behind which is a series of pedestrian walkways.

An 11-member jury will make its selection next month, but Bunch stressed this would be an independent decision arrived at without public comment. Final approval would come from the Smithsonian Board of Regents.

The 350,000 square foot, $500 million project is being funded 50-50 by private and congress.

Image obtained from: www.washingtonpost.com
Details obtained from: Jaqueline Trescott's "Black History Future"

Los Angeles' Continued Signage Debate

The controversy over the size and effects of signage in Los Angeles is still raging on as many residents are angered at what public officials have allowed opportunistic billboard companies to get away with and have defined the situation as an "urban mess" and L.A's version of the AIG scandal.

The city has put itself in a difficult position anyway as city Hall lawyers signed off on a 2006 legal settlement allowing more than 800 billboards to be turned into digital signs, and separately has been mostly powerless to slow the growth of supergraphics, those gigantic wraparound advertisements that are capable of mummifying entire pieces of architecture. As parts of the battle play out in court, complicated by free-speech questions, billboard companies have rushed to put up as many new signs as they can.

This issue has been on for a while as Dennis Hathaway, leader of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight claims, as he wrote in a Times op-ed last year, that billboards are "degrading aesthetically as well as socially" and this was reiterated a few weeks ago by former Planning Commission President Jane Usher as she argued that, that "the city of Los Angeles is suffering from a disease called sign proliferation."

I am a little amused at what seems to enrage the average LA resident. The unacceptable level of auto pollution still remains, gang violence is as high as ever, or even higher, and schools are being built right next to the freeway even after the tests show a link between highway pollution and stunted lung growth in children. Yet, this has not generated the level of interest or outrage that the signage debate has.

Los Angeles has always been a city where signs have have been geared to be large, dominating and recognizable enough to become landmarks, defining their location. From the Hollywood sign to signage on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood and the 32-foot-high illuminated letters, spelling out LAX, marking the entrance to the Los Angeles International Airport all reflect this culture. So if there is a reasonable regulation of signage in Los Angeles, I think that they might actually enhance the city and help in wayfinding to a certain extent without negative effects such as nighttime sky pollution.




Image obtained from:www.LATimes.com
Info obtained from christopher Howthorne's "LA's Signage Debate"

Sacramento Tent City For The Homeless To Come Down

The problem of homelessness is one that is apparent in almost every city of the world and nowhere is this more visible than Sacramento, California. Just a few miles from the State Capitol, by the American River, a large cluster of homeless men and women have settled in what's been dubbed "Tent City."

Hundred of make-shift tents have created an image to stark to what we expect to see anywhere in the United States. No running water or bathrooms, and trash strewed everywhere has added to the stunning scene so much so that it garnered attention from Oprah Winfrey last month. With this, as to be expected, came a a crush of national and international media coverage.

So I guess the negative media coverage has something to do with the plan to now close down the encampment within the next few week. This decision was made by Sacramento Mayor and former NBA star, Kevin Johnson who I'm sure doesn't want this for the image of his city in his first few months in office. "We're not going to go in and sweep them out of there," Johnson said at a news conference. "We've got to have tough love, but we've got to be compassionate."

Some stories portrayed Tent City as a modern day Hooverville, a reference to the shanty towns built by homeless men driven into poverty during the Great Depression. With foreclosure rates in the Sacramento region among the highest in the nation, the ragtag camp has been depicted as a symbol of the economic meltdown — people who'd lost their homes and were suddenly pitching tents along a riverbed but the truth is less dramatic.

Loaves & Fishes, a homeless facility about a 10-minute walk from Tent City, has provided meals and showers for the encampment dwellers. And in recent weeks, shelter officials have assumed the additional duty of ushers to news reporters and TV crews. "What's different about the Tent City is that so many people are gathered in such a visible site," said Joan Burke, Loaves & Fishes' director of advocacy. "I think the media attention is a positive because it lets the public know there are people actually living in Third World conditions."

Though the plan is supposed to move residents to shelters and apartments, this will not do anything to solve the problem, just make it less visible which is all officials really care about anyway. Another "Tent city" is bound to spring up somewhere else (probably somewhere less visible) as a federal lawsuit filed last year on behalf of the homeless against the city and county, combined with the media attention, caused law enforcement to ease up on enforcement of the city's anti-camping ordinance.





Images obtained from: gettyimages.com
For more info checkout: http://www.mercurynews.com/video?bcpid=1578089393&bctid=17029093001

Vertical Farming In Dubai

Yes, Dubai is at it again! The next challenging and seemingly unfeasible project to add to the skyline is a vertical farm that uses seawater to cool and humidify greenhouses and to convert sufficient humidity back in to fresh water to irrigate the crops.

This concept, proposed by the Italian firm, Studiomobile, was developed from the idea that the world's population continues to grow just as the available arable land continues to be deforested causing global warming. So with minimal farm land, the only other option is to build farms vertically and where better to test this than in Dubai.

The vertical farm features a soaring spire with pod-like ‘sky-gardens’ branching off to give it an organic feel in keeping with designers aims to create a clean, green, sustainable source of food for a more self-sufficient Dubai. The concept makes use of the Seawater Greenhouse process, which uses seawater to cool and humidify the air that ventilates the greenhouse and sunlight to distill fresh water from seawater to enable the year round cultivation of high value crops that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to grow in hot, arid regions such as Dubai. This is in stark contrast to costly and energy intensive desalination plants that rely on boiling and pumping to produce fresh water.

The concept works by continually cycling through three phases. In the first phase the air going into the greenhouse is first cooled and humidified by seawater, which is trickled over the first evaporator to provide a fresh and humid climate for the crops. Then in the second phase as the air leaves the growing area it passes through the second evaporator, which has seawater flowing over it. The humid air mixes with the warm dry air of the ceiling interspace making the air much hotter and more humid. The third and final phase sees the warm air forced upward by the temperature induced stack effect. In the central chimney the warm and humid air condenses when it comes in contact with plastic tubes that contain cool seawater. The drops of fresh water that appear on the surface of the condenser fall into a collection tank to be used to water the crops and for other uses.

The idea of vertical farming in the absence of farm land is a pretty good idea and I would like to see more details on just how this could be achieved. Nonetheless, I am not impressed with Dubai undertaking this project. If they had focused a bit more in the past on farming and actually trying to grow some crops for themselves instead of building on every available scrap of land and even creating more land for construction to cater to tourists, they might have had space to farm like "regular folk." If one of those ridiculous man-made continents had been dedicated to producing some cash crop, then maybe their economy would be in better shape than it is. So I guess now that building all manner of absurd highrises has failed, they want to try something new. I think this is more for the publicity and rep than for actual need.





Image obtained from: www.gizmag.com
For more info, check: www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/vertica-farm-dubai-seawater.php