Blair Kamin is the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic at the Chicago Tribune and author of Why Architecture Matters: Lessons from Chicago and Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age, both published by the University of Chicago Press.
By Camilo José Vergara. University of Chicago Press, December 2013, 364 pages, $55. The City Observed The sociologist, photographer, and MacArthur Fellow Camilo José Vergara, known for his website Invincible Cities and his heartfelt documentation of devastated urban neighborhoods, says in this, his ninth, book that there are many Harlems he has been photographing since 1970. While that could mean the various populations he mentions—the early Jewish and Italian immigrant Harlemites, the big wave of African-Americans, the nearly as big influx of Latin Americans, the recent Senegalese and Malians—the pictures are primarily of built Harlem, its street life (concentrating on
By Russell Fortmeyer and Charles D. Linn. Images Publishing, April 2014, 224 pages, $78. Smart Skins Despite its title, Kinetic Architecture is not a book about buildings with components that literally move. Instead, its authors, Russell Fortmeyer and Charles D. Linn (both former editors at Architectural Record), investigate projects with envelopes that dynamically respond—in ways both visible and invisible—to their surroundings in order to modulate the interior environment, conserve energy, and enhance the comfort of occupants. Linn, an architect and director of communications for the University of Kansas School of Architecture, and Fortmeyer, an electrical engineer and sustainable-technology specialist at
By A+T Research Group (Aurora Fern'ndez Per, Javier Mozas, and Alex S. Ollero). A+T Architecture Publishers, June 2013, 496 pages, $53. European Lessons for Living This handsome and valuable compendium of social housing projects in Europe is actually three books: a chronological presentation of 10 projects tracing the development of architectural concepts for collective housing from 1919 to about 1970; a superlative example of how well-organized and stunning graphics can allow for comparisons between projects; and a manifesto for promoting humane high-density living. The authors, who are also the publishers, are members of a group formed in Spain in 1992
The success of a building is not often measured in quantifiable terms. But when Aaron Miscenich, the executive director of the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, embarked on a new building laden with energy-intensive labs on a former brownfield site in a depopulated area of the city's downtown, he needed hard numbers to make the gamble pay off. Begun in 2007—two years after Hurricane Katrina—the center was conceived as an incubator for biotechnology start-ups. “There was a stigma to the city,” says Mark Ripple, partner at New Orleans–based Eskew+Dumez+Ripple. “It was seen as contaminated goods, both literally and figuratively. Graduates from
Asked to describe what his company was like 15 years ago, Marc Jacobs International president Robert Duffy says breezily, “It was teeny.” Today the fashion powerhouse is heading toward $1 billion in annual sales, with two flagship stores and an IPO. “I just say the most important thing is that everybody remain calm,” says Duffy. Remaining calm in an industry where “in” can be “out” in a blink involves partnerships—partnerships that Duffy and designer Marc Jacobs have carefully cultivated for years. Back in the late 1990s, when the company was just a 10-person team and beginning its first foray into
Despite legend, the orange drink Tang is not among NASA innovations that benefit life on earth. But the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has pioneered such technologies as high-efficiency solar cells to support life in space. So when its Ames Research Center received a grant to build a new facility, NASA seized the opportunity to showcase its state-of-the-art sustainability achievements. “We wanted to build the greenest building in the federal government and create a unique demonstration of NASA technology in the built environment,” says Steve Zornetzer, NASA Ames's associate director. The Center, located in the San Francisco Bay area, found
How does a building improve the life of a whole neighborhood? This was the challenge for the architects of Daniels Spectrum, a 58,000-square-foot cultural center at the heart of the Regent Park district in Toronto. The area, a previously blighted late 1940s public housing complex, is in the middle of a revitalization: Toronto Community Housing and Daniels Corporation, a private developer, are replacing the old apartment buildings for the tenants, and adding market-rate housing and community facilities. Diamond Schmitt Architects designed the Spectrum, which is run by Artscape, a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization, to house seven local performing and visual arts
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