• current hEadlines
• more HEADS and LINES in recent exhibitions
• more HEADS-on-LINE   > >   a r c h i t e c t u r e   i s
• (continued from ... previous -- hEadlines)

on screens
new projects - on the drawing boards

b l i p s

• ( ? )____

n e w   A r r i v a l
new commissions  for mass media consumptions

[]

(*****) contested projects in general press

[]

d e p a r t u r e   L o u n g e
p r e m a t u r e   b i r t h

[]

d e - i c e d ------ F I R S T   P R I Z E
w i n n e r s   under construction

b a g g a g e   c l a i m -- have won & still waiting ...

n o w   s h o w i n g

• X - Cité ;

  v a c a n t  s p a c e -
   mini E-board for your latest & greatest - display your projects here.

  
  

recently opened, opening soon

t a k i n g - o f f  -- (un-?-remarkable)
p r o j e c t s   n o t e d
-- currently under construction/recently completed

(*****) in-prints a n d  being built
(propaganda machine$ at work ...)

-
[The Kingdom Centre, Riyadh]

• slingshot restrictions
  "Saudi Arabia's most famous billionaire investor plans to circumvent the height restrictions by topping his creation with a 394-ft-tall sculptural crown that will make it look like a space-age slingshot, with a hole big enough to fly his own Boeing 727 through." (wsj_97.12.18)

• basket competition
  "By early 1996, the six North American architectural firms competing for the job ... had produced so many models and renderings that the only room big enough to hold them all was the prince's private basketball court. There were buildings that resembled rockets, chisels, even an inverted hypodermic needle." (wsj_97.12.18)

• might as well
  "At 984 ft tall -- 40% of it purely for show -- the skyscraper will be precisely the height of the Eiffel Tower ... the city's tallest building -- 'If you are going to go 30 floors, you might as well go high-rise, have a landmark ... It adds value.'" (Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, in Pacelle M, wsj_97.12.18)

-
[Gajah Tunggal, Jakarta]

• delicate nepotism
  "At this stage, we have not specifically requested Mr. Pei's participation. But he and his sons are very close. We understand Mr. Pei will look over the design." (Vincent Chiu, project manager of Gajah Tunggal Group, in Pacelle M, "Pei's Stature Shadows His Architects Sons" wsj_97.07.02)

i n a u g r a l   s p i n s
after the fact / better late than ...
opening ceremonies/company press releases

[FORE Systems Headquarters, Pittsburgh)

• snowball
  "right down to the outdoor basketball and sand volleyball courts outside the cafetaria ... even if beach volleyball in Warrendale in January is unlikely." (Newman M, ppg_97.10.07)

 
[IBM Corporate Headquarters, Armonk]

• Louis V's prize
  "But Mr Gerstner, who has sold billions of dollars worth of IBM real estate since his arrival, was not interested in winning design awards. ... 'This is a building for IBM and its customers,' he said ... 'It's not a building for architects.' " (Zuckerman L, nyt_97.09.17)

[Kansai International Airport, Osaka Bay]

• cut grass
  "I refuse [to chop off the building] ... I cut the grass for making a building that is the full size. I do not even accept this is as a question." (Renzo Piano when asked about the "solution" to reduce the 33 planned boarding gates to just 16 to cut cost, in Sterngold J, nyt_91.07.03)

 
[Tokyo Forum, Tokyo]

• sour
  "(***The final cost was almost twice the $960 million announced at the time of the competition.) ... Such structure cause me to envisage the death of the decade of Big Architecture, like the dinosaurs which could not adapt to a changing environment. Who will look after obsolete dinosaurs in the future in Tokyo anyway?" (A Letter to the Governor of Tokyo, blp132_Oct96)

D u s t   J a c k e t
( G R E A T )   E x p e c t a t i o n   G a m e

g o n e ________________
s t e a l t h ____________
c o n s p i c u o u s l y   m i s s i n g

• progress report / status info ( ? )___

i.E. famous w o r k i n g d r a w i n g s

• progress report / status info ( ? )___

c o v e r t   c o n s t r u c t i o n s
s u b m e r g e d

[Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing]

• "Progress ... was badly hit when one sub-contractor ended up in court on fraud charges and then went bust ... Then supplies of another building component mysteriously dried up. The reason was that the supplier's wife ran off with his accountant, and both ran off with his company's money." - (blp135_Jan 97)

• undetected others: f l y i n g   low and (or too) s l o w ?
  high-profile low-visibility works under construction - ANY tips anyone ?

 
[Reichstag conversion, Brandenburg Gate, Berlin]

 

• Sylvester Abend
  "The Reichstag is open to the public from 8 a.m. until midnight, and there is usually a long line waiting to get in. Visitors take an elevator up to roof level (where there is a pricey restaurant with a terrific view) and then walk up a spiraling ramp around the inside of the dome, which is situated directly over the parliamentary chamber." (William A Davis, bg_99.12.26)   *** hEadlines   + more

• multi-party hats
  "In response to the whims of political heads, diverse solutions were envisaged for the [dome] roof: flat terrace, glass cylinder, small cupola ... " [26 at last count] (aa297_95.xx)

 
[Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur]

• race
  "To speed up construction ... two international consortia -- one led by Japan's Mitsubishi Corp, the other led by South Korea's Samsung Engineering & Construction Co -- split up the towers after the foundation had been completed." (Wong Y, wsj_97.12.10)

• direct service
  "... 'They do not have observation decks.' Instead, Petronas Chairman Tan Sri Datuk Azizan Zainul Abidin will have the best view all to himself from his 86th-floor office, the highest in the towers with direct elevator service from the garage." (Wong Y, wsj_97.12.10)

m o r e   C E L E B - A R C H
feed the masses . . .

 
 
 
 
r e a l   e_s t a t e
i n   a l t e r e d   s t a t e s

(*****) back in the news

[Boston City Hall, Boston]   *** hEadlines

• architectural hubris
  "It was ugly when Mayor John Collins first unveiled the scale model in 1962 - and reportedly gasped in horror - and Boston City Hall is even uglier today after years of lax maintenance." (McNamara E, bg_98.04.15)

• effusive meshuggene
  "In an effusive review of the building when it opened in 1969, the architecture critic of The Washington Post praised 'the brawny, ebullient structure,' from his perch in a window seat at the Union Oyster House, noting derisively that his opinion was not shared by 'the gruff old Italian who meticulously shucks oysters' or 'his Irish helper' or the taxi driver who dismissed the building as 'a meshuggene fortress.' ..." (McNamara E, bg_98.04.15)

   
  

• lust fad
  "I won't deny for a moment that City Hall is depressing, with its overbearing muscularity and its grim concrete interiors. I just think those are qualities that could rather easily be transformed. A little TLC, a little paint, a little ivy: It doesn't take a lot of imagination to envision this same muscular architecture wearing a far more congenial outfit." (Campbell R, bg_98.04.10)

   
  

• gene
  "We all have a tough time throwing stuff away in our house. The past always resonates for us and the future is always scary ... We have a gene that makes us love older things, maybe because of the stability they represent. ... Fenway Park is another story ..." (Alex Krieger of Chan Krieger & Associates in Cambridge, also a professor of urban design at Harvard University, advising the Red Sox on new stadium plans, in Flint A, bg_98.04.10)

 
[Renaissance Center, Detroit]

 

• skywalk
  "GM two years ago purchased the Renaissance Center ... for a cheap $72 million.

  GM keeps buying. The auto maker recently purchased the Millender Center, which is connected via skywalk to the Renaissance Center across the center. GM plans to spend $25 million upgrading the Millender Center ..." (Martinez B, wsj_98.08.12)

• bargain basement
  "opened in 1976 at a cost of $357 mil. It would take at least $750 mil to replace it today. So what is the sprawling, five-tower office-and-hotel- complex worth to a buyer? $73 mil is what General Motors Corp agreed to pay in a deal completed last week." (wsj_96.11.10)

(*****) much hyped projects in general press

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