Architecture
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Berlin's Jewish Museum By Daniel Libeskind
A Flawed Museum in A Deconstructivist Masterwork
By: - Jun 15th, 2009One of the first major buildings constructed after German reunification, the Jewish Museum (Judisches Museum Berlin), was, after winning a competition, designed by prominent and often controversial architect Daniel Libeskind. One of the foremost proponents of Deconstructivist theory, Libeskind illustrates this design approach by the museum's architecture. The museum exhibits are underwhelming and somewhat confusing, but the museum structure is daring and compelling.
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Peter Eisenman's Provocative and Thoughtful Memorial To The Murdered Jews of Europe
Public Art As Ambiguous Guilt and Redemption
By: - Jun 12th, 2009A few years after the Berlin Wall fell, American architect Peter Eisenman was chosen to create a Berlin memorial to the 6 million murdered Jews of Europe. As with many public art pieces, there was controversy, debate and even anger. These elements were added to by public shame, national guilt and community remorse. The result is still not championed by all, but it certainly is a provocative, thoughtful and rather wonderful piece of civic design.
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Frank Gehry's Dancing House in Prague
An American/Czech Architectural Masterpiece
By: - Jun 08th, 2009Throughout his career, architect Frank Gehry has been a practitioner of building as sculpture. His efforts often result in debate, heated arguments and civic tumult. This building was the first major introduction of American global culture to Prague after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. Today, the Dancing House is an integral part of Prague's 1200 year urban history. This internationally recognized structure began in a not surprising state of intellectual and design controversy.
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Czech Cubism: A Prague Architectural Treat
Early Elegant 20th Century Design Style
By: - May 31st, 2009Prague is one of the oldest continuous cities in the world. Its architecture ranges from Romanesque to Gothic to Baroque to Art Nouveau and Art Deco. However, a rather special architectural design took roots there during the first two decades of the 20th Century. It is distinctive and abstract. The mystery includes why it took form there and did not proliferate.
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Unique Rietveld-Schroeder House in Utrecht
Only De Stijl House Ever Built
By: - May 04th, 2009In 1924, a widow, Mrs. Truus Schroeder-Schrader adventurously commissioned a young architecturally trained furnituremaker to design a special house for her three children and her. The result was an amazingly austere yet sculpturally beautiful edifice that she lived in for over 40 years. The young architect was Gerrit Rietveld who was a member of the Dutch The Stijl art and design group. The impact of the house was clear. Two of Mrs. Schoeder's children became architects, and the house is one of the world's legendary structures.
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Richard Meier Exhibition at Provincetown Art Association and Museum
Lecture and Reception with the Architect June 6
By: - Apr 24th, 2009The Pritzker Laureate architect, Richard Meier, will lecture on his work at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum on June 6. A cocktail reception at the museum will be followed by a private dinner at the home of the late Norman Mailer co sponsored as a benefit for the PAAM and the Norman Mailer Writers Colony.
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Boston City Hall: Brutalism at 40 Plus
Contempt For An Outmoded Aesthetic
By: - Mar 20th, 2009Boston's City Hall is the most hated building in the city, perhaps in New England. Not only do tax bills, parking tickets and political hot air come out of the structure, it is not visually friendly or tactilely comforting. Mayor Tom Menino wants to sell it or tear it down. At one time, it was an architectural jewel considered one of the greatest buildings in the world. Now it is an example of a rejected style. Literally it is a piece of architectural history.
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Brookline's Gibbs House A Modernist Archetype
Samuel Glaser's Stunning 1936 Rare Residence
By: - Mar 16th, 2009Snuggled among Tudor Rival brick houses in the elegant Cottage Farms neighborhood in North Brookline, MA is the Bauhaus inspired stunning residence at 6 Chilton Street. This regionally unique and brilliant structure was designed by a less than prominent architect, Samuel Glazer. Alas, as special as the Gibbs House is, he never designed another building like it during his career.
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The Women: By T.C. Boyle
A Novel on Architect Frank Lloyd Wright's Loves
By: - Feb 21st, 2009T.C. Boyle fictionalizes the great architect's incredibly unacceptable personal life in a provocative, sometimes revelatory, and occasionally scandalous narrative. It's not only illuminating about the day to day life of the great architect but it is a fascinating and fully embracing read.
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Ada Louise Huxtable's Eloquent On Architecture
Her Collected Reflections On A Century of Change
By: - Dec 31st, 2008Arguably the greatest architecture critic of the last half century, Ada Louise Huxtable is as iconic as some of the buildings that she has superbly written about over the years. Her new book, On Architecture, is a joyful guide through the last five decades of design and construction of our urban environment. This is a must read for anyone interested in architecture, cities or contemporary culture.
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Boston Neighborhood Architectural Details
A Portfolio of Elegant Design Delights
By: - Dec 14th, 2008By the late 1870's, scores of European skilled craftsman had immigrated to the United States in general and to Boston in particular. This pictorial survey shows the craft and elegance of some of their handiwork on residential buildings in a compact several small blocks area in Boston and Brookline.
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Geometric Jewel on The Charles in Cambridge
784 Memorial Drive is Art Moderne Masterwork
By: - Dec 06th, 2008Set overlooking the Charles River is the 1937 elegant former headquarters of the Polaroid Corporation. This wonderful edifice is emblematic of the dynamic 1930's architecture and design style Art Moderne. It somehow survived while few other examples did. Few recent buildings exhibit the style, grace and thoughtful comprehensive design approach of this elegant period structure.
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Le Corbusier's Carpenter Center at Harvard
Master Architect's Only North American Building
By: - Nov 29th, 2008The Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier is an icon. He was the personification of the modern architect. His concepts, theories and ideas were influential throughout the 20th Century. He had a love/hate thing with the United States. His only structure ever built in the US was the Carpenter Center for Visual Studies at Harvard University. He visited the construction site once, but never saw the building completed.
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Museum of Arts and Design at 2 Columbus Circle
Controversial NYC Building Renovated
By: - Nov 08th, 2008On September 27, 2008, the often controversial building at Two Columbus Circle reopened to the public as The Museum of Arts and Design. This building not only celebrates the best craft, studio furniture and object design, but it also marked the end of a truly contentious and hard fought battle about architectural styles, historical preservation and politics.
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John Silber's Architecture of the Absurd
How Genius Disfigured A Practical Art
By: - Oct 26th, 2008Perhaps one of the most volatile, argumentative, contentious and dictatorial long-term leaders during the Cold War was John Silber. He was the extremely highly paid, all-knowing and rather controversial president of Boston University from 1971 until 1996. In retirement, he has written a book about what he calls the Architecture of the Absurd. Here, he states that a large number of celebrity architects care little for their clients' needs and are actually creating sculpture rather than true architecture. Still contentious, Dr. Silber's argument leaves out a lot of imagination and creativity.
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Boston's Logan Airport's 9/11 Memorial
A Reflective Structure to a Tragic Memory
By: - Sep 11th, 2008We all remember where we were on September 11, 2001 due to a terrorist attack that shook our nation's soul. Seven years later our country has marked the date. The winning design of a competition has been completed at Boston's Logan Airport. Does it serve as a serious symbol of remembrance or simply a structure of obligation?
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North Adams' Stunning Architectural Details
Design Elements Hidden in Plain Site
By: - Aug 24th, 2008Besides the various mill building re-uses, nondescript chain stores and undistinguished houses, there are many notable and beautiful architectural structures, facades and details throughout the former mill town of North Adams, Massachusetts. This photographic portfolio is a glance at a few often overlooked details of architectural beauty.
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Renzo Piano Designing Gardner Expansion
Massachusetts Museums Expand and Renovate (III)
By: - Aug 16th, 2008Of the several prominent museum projects underway throughout Massachusetts, none is more unique than the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. This mansion museum is being changed for the first time in over 100 years. Mrs. Gardner stipulated in her will that nothing be changed from the day she died. Now, changes are occurring. Like its namesake owner, the changes have not come without a bit of controversy. An architectural star is designing the project. Part III.
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Massachusetts Museums Expand and Renovate
Designing Institutional Images of the 21st Century
By: - Aug 03rd, 2008In the last decade, universities and museums have had star architects create and renovate. Several prominent projects are now underway with high expectations. They stretch from Boston to the Berkshires. Like the Field of Dreams film axiom, "if you build it, they will come," apparently, museums feel the same way. Part I of three parts.
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Massachusetts Museums Expand and Renovate
Star Architects Designing Institutional Images Part II
By: - Aug 03rd, 2008In the last decade, museums have had star architects design their renovations and new buildings. Massachusetts is blessed to have an abundance of museums. Several prominent projects are now underway with high expectations. Stretching from Boston to the Berkshires, art and architecture intertwine. This makes sense as architectural stars create buildings as art objects. Part II.
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Frank Lloyd Wright's Stuff
Architect Was Less Or More Than He Boasted
By: - Jul 28th, 2008Frank Lloyd Wright is synonymous with brilliant architect. However, besides being gifted and a genius designer, he was also quirky, rather eccentric and an egomaniac. His life was full of ups and downs from great acclaim to a has-been status, acts of bigamy to a murder of his mistress at his home. Yet, he died at age 92 or 94 (people were not really sure because he lied about his age) at the top of his profession. Frank Lloyd Wright's name now means great American architect.
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Beautiful Stone Hill Center at Clark Art Institute
Phase One of Museum's Master Plan By Tadao Ando
By: - Jul 23rd, 2008Since opening in 1955, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute has been distinguished by its quality collections, the depth of its research programs, and the natural beauty of its rustic setting. Working with Pritzker Prize–winning architect Tadao Ando to develop a campus plan that enhances the Institute's setting, expands facilities and reconfigures its galleries, the Clark has recently introduced a star museum building by a star architect.
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The Mount: Writer Edith Wharton's 1902 House
An Elegant Lenox Edwardian Estate
By: - Jul 21st, 2008The Mount was the home of the writer Edith Wharton. It was built in the Berkshire Mountains to escape what she referred to as an overstuffed and suffocating life in New York and Newport, RI. It's where she wrote some of her classic books like "The House of Mirth," where she hosted distinguished friends like Henry James, and where she put into practice her sophisticated ideas of home d�cor and garden design. It is a special place created by a special American artist. It is currently in need of creative help.
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Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
An American Masterpiece by a Founding Father
By: - Jun 06th, 2008Our visit to Monticello, a masterpiece of American architecture in Charlottesville, Virginia evoked troubling thoughts about its creator, Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father, Third President, Man of the Enlightenment, and owner of slaves.
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Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania
Frank Lloyd Wright's Masterpiece Kaufmann House
By: - May 30th, 2008Fallingwater, by Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely considered as one of the greatest private residences of the 20th century. During the Great Depression is was built as a weekend retreat by the Pittsburgh businessman, Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr. Today, the home and woodlands are owned and open to the public by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Mill Run is located some 50 miles from Pittsburgh.
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