December 6, 2011
[Insert joke about decorated shed here].
Sir Norman Foster and his wife, Lady Elena Foster, have purchased the Martha’s Vineyard farm where the Obama Family has vacationed for three summers past, for $21.9 million.
According to the Vineyard Gazette, Blue Heron Farm includes “two full-sized homes, a boathouse, a 150-year-old barn that was brought in from Pennsylvania and reassembled, a riding ring, tennis and basketball courts, multiple gardens and an apple orchard. A white clapboard farmhouse on the property was inspired by the home in the Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams.” Continue.
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July 7, 2011
There’s no shortage of conjecture about why we gawk. Scientists say we enjoy watching people more successful than us because it satisfies an ancient neurobiological instinct. Others claim that a recession necessitates escapism, i.e., we’re living in the TMZ age. For designers, celebrity-home-porn has more of a conciliatory effect: “Well, Putin might have great pecs, be a friend to all animals, and an oligarch — but man, he has awful taste.”
In that smug spirit, we surveyed a bunch of vacation homes frequented by world leaders, tech giants, and investment bankers, organizing them into a series of summer roundups. We’re starting with world leaders, and all in all, it’s a banal affair: it seems like politicians generally just want to be “alone” in order to “pursue” their “personal hobbies” when they’re on vacation. Look out for next week’s much more rococo installment: the tech world.
Berlusconi’s weird fake volcano, Putin’s hideous “cottage,” and Obama’s totally neutral Hawaiian bungalow, after the jump.
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June 22, 2011
Fulfilling a long-time fantasy of many architecture students (and Colbertophiles), Stephen Colbert recently had his head 3D-printed during an interview with MakerBot founder Bre Pettis. FYI, it’s now available on MakerBot‘s open source network. Use this information only for good, guys. Nothing creepy. [via Core 77]
White House facepalm: they’ve failed to install solar panels on the 220-year-old structure by a deadline they themselves set. Although, we’d argue that the very vague deadline of “by spring” doesn’t necessarily make them beholden to “June 21st.” Does someone over at Inhabitat have a bone to pick with Obama? [via Inhabitat]
In genuinely sad news, a long-fought battle to preserve Gordon Bunshaft’s 1954 Manufacturers Hanover Trust on Fifth Avenue has been (mostly) lost. [via Biber Architects]
20 Chinese officials paid a visit to tony, loafer-ed Connecticut this week to figure out how to emulate the Greenwich community outside of Shanghai. The seven-square-mile zone is an attempt to consolidate hedge funds into one rich (and easily stereotyped?) neighborhood. [via Business Insider]
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June 3, 2011
“I expected to be more creative than I turned out, so I turned to politics instead,” said POTUS in his Pritzker Prize ceremony speech, after commenting that he once dreamed of being an architect. Let that be a lesson to us all: scorn architecture, become the leader of the free world.
More on last night’s Priztker ceremony, Eduardo Souto de Moura, and duh, what M.O. wore!
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February 15, 2011
Image (c) The Guardian.
As China plans to circumvent the Panama Canal with a Pacific/Atlantic railway, Obama plans to link up the states with high speed rail. Today’s transport-centric Brew, after the jump.
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January 31, 2011
Model of Steven Holl’s plans for the Hunters Point community library in Queens, (c) Steven Holl Architects.
Welcome back y’all. Today: Holl’s plans for Queens, Obama’s plans for the future, and the New Urbanists’ plans for suburbia (and the landscape architects who disagree). Click through.
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June 3, 2010
Fresh off a Biennale, John Pawson was selected as the architect for the new iteration of London’s Design Museum, currently houses in a (dare we say) awesome location on the Thames and soon relocating to a 1962 Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington. Pawson triumphed over David Chipperfield, a handful of other British firms, and Dutch outfit Claus en Kaan for the commission. [via Building Design]
Former Bronx Borough pres Adolfo Carrión is moving back to New York City bureaucracy after Washington’s federal red tape proved too sticky; he was appointed head of the Office for Urban Affairs fifteen months ago when architects and city planners were still starry-eyed over the new presidential administration. [via Architect's Newspaper]
The 2010 Buckminster Fuller Award has been granted to Operation Hope, a non-profit strategizing the transformation of “parched and degraded Zimbabwe grasslands and savannahs into lush pastures with ponds and flowing streams, even during periods of drought.” The prize comes with a $100,000 stipend for continuing good works. [via Bustler]
In techie news, Integrated Environmental Solutions has paired with Google SketchUp for a supercharged combo of early-stage design work and “strength in performance analysis and simulations.” IES is also offering a 60% discount in celebration of the deal. [via ArchDaily]
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December 17, 2009
As President Obama arrives in Copenhagen to discuss the pressing issue of climate change, we hope he takes a minute or two to survey the architecture on offer. Below, find the projects on Architizer that can be found in this Danish Mecca of design, starting with MAPT’s COP15 Pavilion.
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