The Initiatives for Development of Armenia (IDeA) Foundation launches an open international competition for the development of architectural solutions for the recreational infrastructure of Gyumri Friendship Park. Applications are open on July 1-29, 2020.

The competition makes part of the integrated development and restoration of Gyumri within Armenia 2020 Initiative. The renovated park will not only become a new public venue for the Gyumri people and guests of the city but also a symbol of friendship and gratitude to the countries that have supported the citys rehabilitation after the devastating earthquake in 1988.

The competition is aimed at selecting the best architectural and planning solutions reflecting the citys identity and conveying the idea of international collaboration. The design of the recreational infrastructure elements will help talented architects from across the globe to co-create the modern public venue and diversify the territory of the city.

The competition will be held in 2 rounds. Based on the results of the first round, the jury will shortlist 20 participants for the development of architectural solutions. The participants will get technical task containing the necessary information about the parks design project and the terms of reference for the development of the objectives. Following the second round, the jury will select the finalists of the competition in 3 nominations.

In October 2020, the winners will be announced and the parks final design project will be presented. The finalists will have the opportunity to realize their architectural designs in the new public space in Gyumri.

The jury is comprised of renowned experts, including Andrei Ivanov, architect and researcher, Nune Petrosyan, Deputy Chair for the Urban Development Committee of Armenia, Udo Dagenbach, Landscape architect and Founder of Glaer und Dagenbach GBR office, Fedor Rashevsky, Chief Architect and Partner of OFFCON Bureau, Emma Baghdasaryan, Aide to the Head of Shirak Regional Administration.

The park is located in the northern part of the city, between the historical center and residential and industrial areas. The central street links all the main sights and public spaces of Gyumri. The renovated park will become the first modern green area in the city center on this itinerary, popular among locals and tourists.

The restoration of the Friendship Park is very important for the people of Gyumri. It will become a unique project, fostering the development of the tourism and the citys infrastructure. We are glad that the people of Gyumri have accepted the project and embraced its significance. This project brought people together and this truly will be a park of friendship and gratitude, says Ruben Vardanyan, Co-Founder of IDeA Foundation.

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Competition for the development of Gyumri Friendship Park architectural solutions kicks off in Armenia - Public Radio of Armenia

The archive of the renowned American architect Paul Revere Williams has been jointly acquired by the USC School of Architecture and Getty Research Institute.

The USC alumnus is considered the most significant Black architect of the 20th century, with especially strong ties to Southern California and the city of Los Angeles.

Paul Williams led by example and instilled in his children and grandchildren the importance of excellence, an attention to detail and, above all, family. The collaboration of two such esteemed institutions, the University of Southern California and Getty Research Institute, to preserve and further his legacy would make our grandfather extremely proud, said his granddaughter, Karen Elyse Hudson, who has cared for the archive and published extensively on her grandfathers work.

As the family historian, my journey has been one of awe and encouragement, she added. Never once did I believe my work was my gift to him, for it has been and will always be his gift to us. To others, he is often referred to as the architect to the stars. To his grandchildren, he was simply the best grandfather ever.

Williams started his career doing residential commissions during Los Angeles housing boom of the 1920s, like the 10800 Ambazac Way House in Bel Air, shown in this 1982 photograph. (Photo/Julius Shulman, J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles [2004.R.10])

Although many of Williams business records were lost in a 1992 fire, most of his extensive archive was in a different location and is in excellent condition.

We are honored to accept this archive and synthesize his legacy with the forward-looking vision of the school to produce impactful design and scholarship on the historical and contemporary evolution of the modern city, said Milton S. F. Curry, dean of the USC School of Architecture.

The work contained in this archive tells many stories, he added. It contains the creative expressions of an architect working across many different constituencies in a socially complicated time. It also contains evidence of stunning aesthetic innovations that reimagined the space and program of public housing, hotels and residential design and civic space. Paul R. Williams was an architect who believed that architecture could advance social progress. His work and life as captured in this archive will quickly become an invaluable resource for like-minded students, faculty and the greater public.

Williams was hired to remodel the El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs from 1952-53. (Photo/Julius Shulman, J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles [2004.R.10])

At theGetty Research Institute, the archive will be a cornerstone of its African American Art History Initiative, launched in 2018.

Paul Williams was a trailblazing architect whose long career helped shape Los Angeles and Southern California. His archive essentially tells the story of how the modern Southland was built, said Getty Research Institute Director Mary Miller. Its importance as an aesthetic and educational resource cannot be overstated, and we are pleased to be working with the USC School of Architecture to preserve and share it.

A native Angeleno who was orphaned by the age of 4, Williams contributed greatly to the cultural landscape and design of Los Angeles. Always acutely aware of being African American in a profession that rarely welcomed those of color, he was the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects, its first African American Fellow and ultimately its first African American Gold Medalist.

Segregation often framed the context in which Williams worked. He learned to draw upside down in order to sketch for clients from across the table for the benefit of any white clients who might have been uneasy sitting next to a Black person. He toured construction sites with hands clasped behind his back because he was not sure every person would want to shake a Black mans hand.

During a period of de jure segregation, Paul R. Williams mastered architecture, a public art form, and was as prolific as he was persistent. His legacy is therefore as much about the character of the man himself as it is the scale, variety and ambitions within a professional practice wed to realizations of perpetual excellence, said LeRonn P. Brooks, associate curator for modern and contemporary collections at the Getty Research Institute. His career and life invite new histories to be written by the countless scholars who will have unprecedented access to this tremendously important archive.

Williams designed the Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz House in Palm Springs (photographed in 1954-55. (Photo/Julius Shulman, J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles [2004.R.10])

His early work was primarily residential, designing legendary homes for leaders in business and entertainment such as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Bill (Bojangles) Robinson, Frank Sinatra, the E. L. Cord and Paley families, and Cary Grant. Though his later career included commercial, institutional and public building projects, residential design was a perennial element of his work.

Williams worked on a large number of national and international projects, which notably included the design and construction of the Hotel Nutibara in Medelln, Colombia, the United Nations Building in Paris and Langston Terrace in Washington D.C., the first federally sponsored public housing in the country. However, Southern California was always his chief building ground.

The Los Angeles cityscape is a testament to Paul R. Williams lasting impact on Southern California and modern architecture in general, said Maristella Casciato, senior curator of architecture at the Getty Research Institute. This rich, comprehensive archive is one of the most significant acquisitions of 20th-century architecture that Getty has worked on.

Williams worked on an addition to The Beverly Hills Hotel in 1949-50. (Photo/Julius Shulman, J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles [2004.R.10])

Williams also was the chief architect for the Pueblo del Rio neighborhood at 52nd Street and Long Beach Avenue in South Los Angeles, which was built to house Black defense industry workers in 1940.

Williams retired in 1973 having received numerous accolades, including AIAs Award of Merit for the MCA Building and the NAACPs Spingarn Medal for his outstanding contributions as an architect and work with Los Angeless Black community. In 2017, he was posthumously awarded the USC School of Architectures Distinguished Alumni Award. He died in 1980 at 85.

The USC School of Architecture and the Getty Research Institute are co-owners of the archive and will work together to extend the legacy of Williams through research and scholarship as well as exhibitions and programming. The archive will be housed at Getty, which will oversee the processing and conservation of the materials. An extensive digitization effort will take several years and ultimately make most of the archive accessible to scholars and others.

More stories about: Architecture, History

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Paul Revere Williams' archive acquired by USC, Getty Research Institute - USC News

This green retreat brings the Australian beach house to California

A Californian beach house, inspired by Australian seaside retreats and infused with a contemporary aesthetic and an environmentally friendlyapproach, is the latest residential completion by the US architecture studio of Alec Petros

Perched on the Solana Beach hillsidein the regionscoastal landscape, the Seaside Reef House is defined by a subtle combination of elegance, conviviality, and domestic comfort. Designed by American Alec Petros, this Californian home serves as a shaded, versatileretreat for both leisure and day-to-day activities.

Inspired by the Australian beach house vernacular, the residence offers great flexibilityof space;it comprises an oak wood floor lined, openplan living space framed by oversizeddoors, allowing for cross-ventilation to be implemented while unveiling outstanding ocean views. The development of deep roof overhangs (7ft each) that cantilever out over terraces below adds to this concept, and aclever floor-to-ceiling door system blursthe separation between indoors and outdoors.

Dissolving boundaries that typically separate spaces helped tremendously in gaining the flexibility that we wanted, says Petros. This idea initially emerged from the architects desire to include a covered porch in the design.A wrap-around porch has such a nostalgic feel that connects people with the outdoors, and their neighbourhood, he adds.

Located within walking distance from expansive beaches, the Seaside Reef House also features a series of sustainable systems, creating a green and long-lasting habitat for its occupants. Made of FSC-certified cedar boards, the externalcladding is connected to a sleeper wall andenabling air to effectively pass through, while creating a filtering process that prevents the regions high temperatures from affecting the interiors.

Using this passive energy technique allows the home to reduce its energy demand, especially in warmer seasons, says Petros. On the plus side, the wood that constitutes the exterior skinis a durable material that will age gracefully in this humid-coastal environment.

With Seaside Reef House, Alec Petros - with the help of Nielsen Builders -has brought a stylish, convenient and eco-friendly design to the residential neighbourhood of Solana Beach.

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This green retreat brings the Australian beach house to California - Wallpaper*

BRECKSVILLE, OHIO-- Perched in the middle of the Cuyahoga River in his 80,000-pound excavator, Andy Bennett, a machinery operator with Kokosing Construction, plucks pieces of the Pinery Dam from the river with surgical precision. The large timbers that made up the dam have been submerged under the swirling waters of the Cuyahoga River for 193 years, and he takes care to preserve as many as possible for purposes of historical documentation. He cant really see what hes picking up, as the water flows all around him impeding his view, so he must feel the river through the giant arm and bucket of the excavator.

Andy Bennett, a machinery operator with Kokosing Construction, removes the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827, from the Cuyahoga River.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Piece by piece, he moves the black, sediment-saturated beams to the shore where they are measured and cataloged by Scott Heberling, who is in charge of documenting the Pinery Dam.

Andy Bennett, a machinery operator with Kokosing Construction, places a piece of the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827, on the shore of Cuyahoga River for measurement.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Heberling, a historical archaeologist and historian with Heberling Associates, Inc., measures each beam and sketches on paper what the Pinery Dam looked like. As each piece comes ashore, his drawing takes shape.

Scott Heberling, a historical archaeologist and historian with Heberling Associates, Inc., measures beams from the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Wednesday marks the final day of dam removal from the river, a project that began just over a month earlier with the removal of the concrete Brecksville Dam. The Brecksville Dam was built in the 1950s, but served no purpose since the 1990s. It also posed hazards for recreational users and negatively impacted water quality and the wildlife habitat up stream. Another week or so of cleanup is needed to remove steel rebar and concrete along the shore.

You can read more about the Brecksville dam removal effort here.

Scott Heberling, a historical archaeologist and historian with Heberling Associates, Inc., shows what the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827, looked like based on the beams recovered. Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Phil Rhodes, who operates Rhode2Compliance, LLC., is working with Friends of the Crooked River to oversee the removal process.

He explained that the goal is to get rid of dam pools where stagnant, low-oxygen water has accumulated with a lot of sediment. The dams also restrict fish movement up and down the river.

Youre getting improved water quality and youre restoring the stream to where the fish can move without the impediment, Rhodes said. So its a win-win for the environment.

The Cuyahoga River was not meeting water quality standards above the dam.

Phil Rhodes, with Rhode2Compliance, LLC.,watches Andy Bennett, a machinery operator with Kokosing Construction, remove the Pinery Dam from the Cuyahoga River.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Also working on the removal process, alongside Friends of the Crooked River, is the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Northeast Ohio Four County Regional Planning and Development Organization.

It takes years of planning to remove a dam like this.

Andy Bennett, a machinery operator with Kokosing Construction, removes the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827, from the Cuyahoga River.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Kim Norley, a National Park Service landscape architect, said, Its an exciting project. Weve been trying to get the river flowing for years, and allow for a free-flowing river through the 82 corridor. Its a great day for the Cuyahoga.

She noted theres still a low-head dam in Peninsula, so its not yet completely free-flowing through the park.

To read more about what went into the Brecksville and Pinery Dam removals, and for more history on the dams, visit the National Park Service website.

Continue scrolling to see more photos of the Pinery Dam removal process.

The Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827, is removed from the Cuyahoga River.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Andy Bennett, a machinery operator with Kokosing Construction, removes the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827, from the Cuyahoga River.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Detail of steel spike and beam from the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Scott Heberling, a historical archaeologist and historian with Heberling Associates, Inc., measures beams from the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Scott Heberling, a historical archaeologist and historian with Heberling Associates, Inc., measures beams from the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Andy Bennett, a machinery operator with Kokosing Construction, removes the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827, from the Cuyahoga River.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Detail of a beam from the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Andy Bennett, a machinery operator with Kokosing Construction, removes the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827, from the Cuyahoga River.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Scott Heberling, a historical archaeologist and historian with Heberling Associates, Inc., and Phil Rhodes, with Rhode2Compliance, LLC., study beams from the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Andy Bennett, a machinery operator with Kokosing Construction, removes the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827, from the Cuyahoga River.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Andy Bennett, a machinery operator with Kokosing Construction, removes the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827, from the Cuyahoga River.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Andy Bennett, a machinery operator with Kokosing Construction, places a piece of the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827, on the shore of Cuyahoga River for measurement.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Andy Bennett, a machinery operator with Kokosing Construction, removes the Pinery Dam, constructed in 1827, from the Cuyahoga River.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

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Pinery Dam removed from Cuyahoga River after standing 193 years - cleveland.com

Symbiosis of Room and Nature: Solarlux

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With its moveable glass facades, German family-owned company Solarlux is blurring the lines between outside and in seamlessly merging the outdoors with indoor living spaces.

As far back as Roman times, windows have been used as an architectural design element and light source. Over the course of time and due to the evolution of technology, small panes of glass have given way to the desire for larger, movable glass facades. It stands to reason that the greater the proportion of glass, the more daylight can enter the interior. This is most desirable due to how natural light increases the feeling of wellbeing within the home and provides both positive physical and psychological effects. So, its no surprise that the illumination of rooms using daylight is a fundamental element of new buildings and renovations.

The surrounding external space becomes part of the interior - shaping and creating a seamless link between architecture and nature.

Bright rooms are not only healthier, visually they also appear larger. This is because large area window and facade solutions remove spatial boundaries between inside and outside. So the surrounding external space becomes part of the interior and helps to shape it creating a link between architecture and nature. This effect is further enhanced by movable glass elements, which offer not only boundless views, but also open up space across broad areas.

Dr Peter Kuczia is an architect who, in many of his projects, creates a connection between inside and outside using movable glass facades. A perfect example of his work is the Wormhouse a detached house in Zablocie, Poland, for which he won the German Design Award. The avant-garde exterior of the building opens up completely to nature. The environment outside enters the interior, thus visually expanding the living space. This was made possible by the folding glass wall from Solarlux.

The flexible, bi-folding door can be unfolded across the entire width of the room, with the connected glass elements stowed away neatly and narrowly on the side. Even with the glazing in a closed position, spatial conventions are dissolved, creating extraordinary, almost limitless spatial impressions. This is because the filigree aluminium profiles with a face width of only 99 mm offer maximum transparency.

As an architect, it is fascinating to see how a room changes, whose glass wall can be simply folded away completely without frames or posts.

Peter Kuczia: With Solarlux, you simply have great technical parameters from sound insulation and burglary protection to very good energy efficiency. But as an architect, it is fascinating to see how a room changes, whose glass wall can be simply folded away completely without frames or posts. The effect is huge, even for me as a professional. The landscape, the forest are brought into the house.

Solarluxs wide range of movable window and facade solutions has also convinced other well-known international architects such as Foster + Partners. They designed the new Ocean Terminal in Hong Kong a glazed extension to a shipping terminal that also attracts people due to the unique views of the city it offers visitors. The architectural concept allows visitors to experience the unique atmosphere of the surroundings inside the building itself. The interior-exterior relationship was implemented with the aid of the large sliding window cero. Extremely narrow profile views of only 34 millimetres, a daylight component of 98 per cent and elements up to six metres high create maximum transparency and make for generous views.

Glass facades and energy efficiency need not be a contradiction in terms. With well-thought-out technology, they can be highly thermally efficient all the way up to passive house level such as the bi-folding door and the sliding window cero. And they can even serve to optimise the energy efficiency of a building. For example, Solarlux balcony and facade glazings full-length transparency makes room boundaries disappear, but also acts as an additional outer shell and thus as a heat buffer.

Internationally active and based in Melle, Lower Saxony, Solarlux have been pursuing their mission for over 35 years. All products are developed in-house, manufactured with passion and precision, and meet the Made in Germany quality standard. As a partner in the planning and implementation of construction projects, this German, family-owned company specialises in providing comprehensive support to architects. Care and inventiveness are skilfully combined always with the aim of developing the optimum solution for every project, no matter how demanding.

Read more about Solarlux on Architonic.

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Symbiosis of Room and Nature: Solarlux - ArchDaily

For about the past year and a half, the Rothko Chapel has been closed for a $16 million restoration ahead of its fiftieth anniversary, in 2021. Those involved with the project are careful to call it a restoration, not a renovation, because the goal is to realize painter Mark Rothkos original intentions for the space, which were never properly executed.

Completed in 1971 and located on a tree-lined block in Houstons Montrose neighborhood, the Rothko Chapel is a modernist icon that is on the short list of any tour of must-see art or architecture in Houston. But describing the structure itself is oddly difficult. Its a stand-alone octagonal building whose one room houses a permanent collection of paintings created specifically for the space. But its not exactly a chapel, a gallery, or a museum, although its partly all of those things.

So why all the fuss? To its devotees, the chapel is sublime: a darkened cosmos that facilitates powerful spiritual experiences. The space, which features fourteen dark paintings by Rothko, is famous for being dim and moody. Its a sensory deprivation chamber that also functions as a theological deprivation chamber. Many customary signifiers of religionstatues, altars, stained glasshave been stripped away. It is, as Houston architectural historian Stephen Fox puts it, a space that seems sacred for a post-religious world.

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Enthusiasts have long described how, if given a chance, the chapels stark minimalism can pull you out of your day-to-day mundanity and force you to turn inward. As Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, a conservator for the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York, wrote in 2007, The Chapel . . . leaves you alone with yourself, your thoughts, your emotions, your vulnerabilities. . . . The artist did not want the paintings to come out to you; he wanted them to draw you in.

The idea underlying Rothkos art, especially the chapel, is that you sit and stare and stare and stare, and after a while you enter a heightened state ofhallucination? Soul-baring interiority? Boredom? Or all of the above, because no two single experiences of the chapel are the same. The nature of every encounter with the chapel, its supporters say, depends on what you bring to it.

But the same minimalism that some people love has also made the chapel an easy punching bag for critics. The space is dark. It has a facade only a mother could love. It offers nothing to hang on to beyond inchoate experience, which could also be said about a lot of pretentiously vacuous art made in the decades since. Texas artist Seth Alverson bluntly said of the chapel, Its a place where art and life and imagination go to die. Even New York art critic and artist Brian ODoherty, who was a great defender of Rothko, referred to it in 1973 as at worst a well-designed crematorium.

The critique often extends to the paintings themselves. Gallons of ink have been spilled about their color subtleties and their many restorations. But regardless of how perfectly lit they are or how well theyve held up over the decades, the fact remains that they are essentially black monochromes. Dominique de Menil, who, along with her husband, John, commissioned Rothko to create the chapel, reportedly said of her first impression of the paintings, Frankly, I expected color. Rothko, for his part, noted that it had taken him a year to decide what he wanted the paintings to be: something you dont want to look at.

Admittedly, it may be facile to draw a direct correlation between light colors and happiness and dark colors and sadness. But many people find the chapel to be depressing. Personally, I have visited the chapel many times since I was a child, and I have yet to be transported by it. Whats interesting is that Rothko himself probably would have been unhappy with the way the chapel has looked all these years. Although he envisioned the space as muted and meditative and made paintings to achieve that effect, it has never looked as he imagined it.

The chapel interior restoration in progress, including its new skylight.

Photograph by Arturo Olmos

In the sixties, Houston art patrons John and Dominique de Menil offered the New Yorkbased Rothko the opportunity to design a chapel for the citys University of St. Thomas, a private Catholic college. A Russian Jew by birth, Rothko did not practice religion in any conventional sense. But he jumped at the chance to design a Catholic chapel with modernist sensibilitiesnot another church filled with crucifixes, as his son Christopher says, but something that would speak to a contemporary mind and a contemporary spirit.

The project encountered difficulties from the start. The architect Philip Johnson was initially commissioned to design the chapel where Rothkos paintings would be installed. But the chapel wasnt big enough for those two colossal egos, and Johnson walked off the project early on when it became clear that Rothkos ideas for the building had no room for Johnsons. (Looking at Johnsons design now, its hard to imagine the triumphal building with its sixty-foot spire as the Rothko Chapel. Johnson wanted showy architecture, which could not be further from the low-ceilinged brick structure that Rothko envisioned.) Rothko now had total design control over the chapel, which is exceedingly rare for artists.

Rothko rented a large carriage house in New York City where he could experiment with a scale model of the room. The building had a big skylight that he loved, and he decided his chapel would have one, too. He had regarded the studio as a place to model the chapel, and he ended up modeling the chapel on the studio: it would be an octagonal space with a single large skylight, its most important architectural element and the primary source of light. His dark paintings would exist in a soft glow of natural light that would reflect the changes in season, weather, and time of day.

It was beautifulin theory. But there were practicalities to work out, and in early 1970, three years after completing the paintings but before construction of the chapel began, Rothko committed suicide. In the wake of his death, the de Menils were left to parse out his intentions: What Would Rothko Do? Dominique de Menil must have keenly felt the onus to fulfill the late artists wishes, given the monumental solemnity of the chapel, his final commission. To further complicate things, the de Menils had a falling-out with the University of St. Thomas, moved the chapel off campus, and made it nondenominational, with an interfaith mission of uniting people from different religions. (Its unclear if Rothko ever knew that the chapel would not be Catholic. After his death the de Menils stuck to his design as envisioned, which is why the chapel retains echoes of Catholicism: its fourteen paintings likely correspond to the number of the Stations of the Cross, and one of its triptychs has a raised central panel that plainly suggests an altarpiece.)

Barnett Newmans Broken Obelisk, outside of the Rothko Chapel, during renovations in Houston onMay 18, 2020.

Photograph by Arturo Olmos

Finally, construction moved forward. When the chapel was completed, however, a new problem emerged: the skylight. Rothko never visited Houston, but Philip Johnson knew Texas light, having already designed the de Menil house and other buildings in the state. Hed warned that a large skylight in Houston wouldnt achieve the soft, ambient, Upper East Side light that Rothko wanted. He was right.

People who visited the chapel when it first opened, in 1971, spoke of a column of light that blazed into the room, simultaneously damaging the paintings and obscuring them, cast as they were in relative darkness around the perimeter of the space. All the subtleties of the paintings vanished in the intense Texas sun.

And so began years of attempts to try to get the lighting right. First, the curators installed a scrim over the ceiling. This proved insufficient, and in 1976 the decision was made to install a giant baffle that blocked much of the skylight. The baffle worked, sort of, in that it successfully dimmed the light. But it also exacerbated the chapels gloominess. Most visitors have never seen the chapel without this black spaceship (as Christopher Rothko puts it) hovering above their heads. Many people dont even realize the chapel has a skylight.

The baffle didnt just lower the ceiling and darken the space excessively. It also meant that the windowless chapels single connection to the outside world, its pressure valve, in the words of Christopher Rothko, was gone. Ancient sacred buildings often had an aperture in the roof that could symbolize a connection to the transcendent (think of the Pantheon in Rome). Perhaps because we think of Rothko as a gloomy figure, we assume that he intended for the chapel to be an intensely somber space. But while he meant for it to be dark and contemplative, he surely didnt want it to feel like a cave of despair.

Blue tape outlines where Rothkos paintings will be rehung after the restoration is complete.

Photograph by Arturo Olmos

A detail of the new skylight.

Photograph by Arturo Olmos

Blue tape outlines where Rothkos paintings will be rehung after the restoration is complete.

Photograph by Arturo Olmos

A detail of the new skylight.

Photograph by Arturo Olmos

Given the skylights importance to the chapel, no effort has been spared to get it right. The new skylight was designed by the Washington, D.C., lighting firm George Sexton Associates, which has worked on prominent museums and houses of worship around the world. The skylight it created is made up of multiple layers of UV-resistant glass screened by louversessentially large venetian blindsto mitigate Houstons harsh daylight.

In addition, the spaces glass doors, added to the interior of the chapel in 2000 to ward off excessive humidity that damaged the paintings, have been removed; this restored an entry foyer that feels more spacious and elegant. Theres also a smart new visitors center across the street. In a second phase of construction (the timing of which has been thrown into uncertainty by COVID-19), a new archive building and a programming center will also be built, allowing for more events and for the memorial services, weddings, receptions, and bar and bat mitzvahs the chapel has always hosted.

Perhaps the most significant change for some visitors will not be the chapel itself but the area outside. The Houston office of the Virginia-based landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz has taken a forgettable patch of landwho knew the Rothko Chapel had a side garden?and made it inviting, with long, pleasant alles of birch trees. Theyve also replaced the forbidding wall of bamboo around the chapels reflecting pool with a more porous and attractive border of tall Savannah holly.

Enormous thought, effort, and money have gone into this project. The chapels many fans should be pleased. But will the changes also change the hearts and minds of its critics?

I recently visited the chapel, still under construction but with the skylight installed, on an overcast afternoon. The light in the room was more even, ambient, and brighter than I remembered. It was still gloomy, but more pleasantly sopensive, rather than melancholy.

Stilland with the caveat that I have not seen it with the paintings reinstalledI remain unmoved by the chapel. While I have grown to appreciate the sincerity of Rothkos ambition, which I think was to deliver no less than the experience of a different plane of existence, two things prevent me from joining the ranks of worshippers: my personal taste and my approach to faith. To love the Rothko Chapel, you have to love modernism, a historic movement that pushed abstraction, both in art and architecture, to its logical dead end. The modernist architect Le Corbusier said that a house is a machine for living in, and I think the Rothko Chapel is a machine for worship. I have always found it to be a little too dry and puritanical, although perhaps its not the sparseness I object to so much as the zealous sanctimony it inspires in some people.

As for faith, there is the art of religion, and there is the religion of art, and the Rothko Chapel aspires to embody both. With the art of religion, you dont have to buy into the religion to love the art. By contrast, the chapel is a religion unto itselfit demands that you believe in it. Without any theology at its core, however, that belief is unfixed and open-ended.

To put it another way, all religions tell stories, and the Rothko Chapel has no stories to tell. Whether this is an asset or a flaw depends on your point of view. Like any religion, the chapel comes down to a question of faith. You either believe in it or you dont.

The Rothko Chapel is scheduled to reopen in mid-July with a limited capacity, timed tickets, and visits limited to thirty minutes. It will remain free.

This article originally appeared in the July 2020 issue of Texas Monthlywith the headline Let There Be Light. Subscribe today.

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Critics of the Rothko Chapel Say Its Too SomberWill a Pricey Restoration and Skylight Change That? - Texas Monthly

What has changed and what has Covid taught us about public realm?

It has taught us that public realm can be reconfigured quickly. In London, the GLA Streetspace initiative has rapidly and radically changed the way we use and interact with public open space. It has also taught us that this change is easy to enact and well supported when the purpose of the change is very clear; replacing the sometimes confusing jargon of the landscape architect and the town-planner with simple, clear messages like easier, safer cycling and walking, improved air quality and better public health.

Covid has also shown us that public realm does not have to be dominated by cars and other motor vehicles. Currently temporary measures to make roads shared space have captured imagination and demonstrated the possibility of more engaging, more inclusive and genuinely less polluted urban areas. There is a tension however as appetite for convenience re-asserts itself over these less easily defined benefits and we would be unwise to write the motor vehicle out of the public realm script just yet.

Covid has also taught us that it is easy to genuinely engage the community in defining what public realm it wants. It has rapidly accelerated the transformation of community engagement from a dreary and formulaic ritual, all-too-often mistrusted by communities and distained by authorities to a rich, multi-faceted relationship that jointly defines need, shapes designs and curates outcomes. There is still a long way to go on this journey but Covid has accelerated us along the way.

As well as faster change, the challenging of transportation shibboleths and better engagement, there are encouraging signs that public realm design is becoming more bold, more willing to experiment and less bound by convention. Fail Fast Fail Often is more normally associated with tech innovation than in public realm design but we are seeing promising indications that public realm can be experimental, temporary and intuitive to very rapidly changing community needs. We can expect to see public realm become progressively less monolithic and more pop-up, using richer community engagement to flex and adapt to community needs

Public realm will be a key component in a post-Covid green recovery. Even before the crisis, more and more organisations declared climate emergencies and, with them, ambitious commitments to de-carbonising our communities. Putting public realm at the heart of this is simply too good an opportunity to miss.

There are already great examples of this globally from Bostons Big-Dig (pictured) to New Yorks Dryline to Amsterdam and the Randstats focus on polycentricity; the use of imaginative public realm as part of a placemaking strategy to create a multitude of self-sustaining, 20-minute communities, rather than one urban centre, surrounded by residential dormitories. Already we are seeing an increasing appetite for zero-carbon master-planning which quantifies and codifies the net carbon position of place.

Experiences of lockdown have made communities more aware of their relationship with and reliance on public realm. More than ever, people realise that public realm done well supports their health and well-being, focuses their communities and improves their quality of life. We can expect that public realm design can no longer be a semi-detached afterthought to master planning or a stand-alone transport strategy divorced from the place it supports. We can expect to see greater integration than ever of public realm and transportation design into placemaking including in the development of the benefits-case for place.

In 1665, Sir Isaac Newton had his Year of Wonders when, isolated from all distractions on his family estate in Lincolnshire due to the plague epidemic of that year, he used the time to revolutionise humankinds understanding and application of science. Will 2020 represent a Year of Wonders for designers of public realm, with similar revolutionary advancement? The opportunity is there...

Peter Hogg is UK cities director at Arcadis UK

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Changing the face of public realm design post-Covid - LocalGov

The weather is getting warmer, and youve been dreaming about creating that backyard oasis for some time now. You want to know where to start, who to call, and how to make your vision a reality.

Look no further.

Coastal Custom Builders, Coastal Land Design, and Islands Pool Cape Cod are the three remarkable brain children of landscape architect, Tim Klink, founder and CEO of The Coastal Companies.

Im a landscape architect by schooling. Thats where I started my career 20-plus years ago, said Klink. When I started that, I had all intentions of having a landscape design/build firm. Over the years, weve gotten more involved in actual home construction and, now, with the trend in resort living, people want bigger, better outdoor areas and back yards. And thats where he comes in.

Looking at the demographic of Cape Cod, he said, there was a real need for an in-house firm that can do everything from designing the home to doing landscape, to building the pools. The Coastal Companies three divisions offer everything you need in one place.

Starting back several years ago, we noticed people were traveling less. But those who did were doing a cruise, for example, or going to resorts that were all-encompassing that had an outdoor bar and a pool and a fire pit and thats how families would vacation, Klink said.

What weve seen is that, now, as they choose their summer homes, theyre coming to the Cape more, and they want to re-create that resort feeling. So, were finding that, in lieu of putting on big additions with multiple bedrooms and multiple bathrooms, people are choosing to remove the deck off the back of the house, put some stairs in, built a patio, build a fire pit and then do something with a water feature, be it a pool or something else, and add an outdoor kitchen. They want to really create that resort feeling at their own house.

Klink and his team are seeing the trend in backyard pools rise even more as the sharks have become more prevalent.

Believe it or not, the sharks are having a positive impact on the pool business! Its their home. People feel safe, theyre protected, and they have some space from their neighbors, versus going to hotel. Especially with the unknowns about going to the beaches (thanks to the COVID-10 pandemic), theres even more of a push to do the resort living at home.

Hes also seeing that parents want to be able to control what theyre kids are doing. In lieu of kids going to the beach with their friends, having a pool at home allows your kids friends to come over and the parents can be present and keep an eye on them. It can become a social time for the parents, as well as a playtime for the kids, he added, saying that getting a quote for land design or for a pool is no problem for The Coastal Companies.

Weve always been proactive, since were a young firm, with over 20 years of business, Klink said. Weve a very tech-heavy business, and a lot of our business is done with iPhones and iPads and via the Internet. We were already set up for this situation. I dont need to meet you in person give you a quote for a pool. I can go over and take a walk around your yard, take a look at it, come up with some drawings and set up a (Go to Meeting) meeting. We can go over the pictures with the clients and walk them through, from their couch, everything were going to do.

Whether your needs are such as installing a new lawn or putting privacy plantings in place, to larger jobs such as creating and installing your new landscape, pools, stonewalls we are equipped for all phases. The Coastal Companied will work from your plans or, if you like, from plans created by its experienced design staff.

We do everything in-house. We have our own licensed employees, Klink said. We have employees and divisions and managers in all three groups, ready to help.

To get your estimate on land design, building, or installing an amazing pool, visit buildwithcoastal.com or call 508-240-2114 today.

Sponsored Content

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Homeowner's Headquarters: A Discussion With The Coastal Companies on Outdoor Living - CapeCod.com News

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In 1979, author Joan Didion wrote that shopping malls are toy garden cities where no one lives but everyone consumes.

That was when malls and their role in American culture were at their pinnacle.

The 1985 blockbuster hit Back to the Future repurposed a shopping mall parking lot into a time-travel launch point between past and present. What could be a better symbol of American destiny in the affluent 80s?

Now, decades later, hundreds of malls nationwide are closing or contracting. Now, as the shelter-in-place orders are being loosened and malls are starting to reopen, its clear that a few powerhouse malls in the Twin Cities will continue to evolve and thrive.

Well-located and managed by savvy owners, malls such as Ridgedale Center in Minnetonka and Rosedale Center in Roseville are reinventing themselves as experiential, mixed-use destinations where shopping is just one of many reasons to visit.

We are way over-retailed when it comes to built space, said Joan Suko, Ridgedales senior general manager, adding that the United States has more retail square footage per capita than any other country.

Thats why Suko sees the loss of anchor stores, such as a Sears or a Herbergers, not as harbingers of doom for brick-and-mortar retail, but as opportunities to reinvent shopping centers for the next generation as community hubs.

Architect Bill Baxley, who heads the Minneapolis office of the international architecture firm Gensler, led the recent conceptual revisioning of Rosedale. Like Suko, he sees department store closings as creating new options for 24-hour activities including health clubs, shared-work spaces, theaters and restaurants.

We approach it as a planning process in reverse, Baxley said. Rather than building from the ground up, we start with an existing property and rethink it to relate back to the community that surrounds it today.

The former J.C. Penney footprint at Edinas Southdale, another mall on the remake, has become a 204,000-square-foot Life Time fitness facility, where guests can exercise, play indoor soccer and even work in the shared office environments on-site. Soon, a new Southdale Library will open, connected to the mall.

By the end of this year, Ridgedale will have three major multiunit residential projects right next door. This is the kind of density and mixed uses long advocated by Julie Wischnack, Minnetonkas director of community development.

The Avidor Minnetonka apartment project is a pioneering example of how Minnesota is rethinking shopping malls. Scheduled to open this fall, the 168-unit Avidor, marketed to ages 55 and over, shows how buildings can bring walkability to places long dominated by the car.

Opening directly onto the new 1.8-acre Ridgedale Park and parkway boulevard, Avidor is a city-scaled building that frames the space around it rather than standing alone. The Ridgedale Library is just across the boulevard and a nearby bike trail will connect to Crane Lake Park (just to the east of Ridgedale) and all the way south to the Minnetonka Mills Park and Minnehaha Creek. New roundabouts and trees will calm traffic and introduce a green buffer on the malls southern edge.

Rethinking Rosedale

Built in 1969 as one the original dales shopping centers, Rosedale Center is still thriving. Its also evolving into a walkable village center with outdoor streets, a new grocery store and perhaps even a hotel.

According to plans drawn up in 2019, the center will have a new entry plaza along a curving boulevard. There also will be a pedestrian street slicing through the old Herbergers, which will essentially create a distinct stand-alone building where Kowalskis Markets is slated to open. The revamped structure will also house other retail and entertainment businesses on the street level along with apartments and, possibly, a hotel above.

We are still planning for a green space near restaurant row [the plaza near AMC] and pedestrian connections along the south side of the current mall, says Lisa Crain, Rosedales senior general manager. The improvements are expected to be made in the next three to five years.

In the post-quarantine years, such schedules may change. But a new generation of mixed-use community centers is coming possibly even more alluring now, as we rediscover the healthfulness and value of being outside.

Frank Edgerton Martin is a landscape historian who has written for Landscape Architecture magazine, Architecture Minnesota, Fabric Architecture and co-authored a book, The Simple Home.

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The Twin Cities leads the way in tranforming malls into town centers - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Progress continues on the extension of the Glacial Drumlin Trail in Cottage Grove to the Capital City Trail in Madison, but bike riders hoping to make the trek this year will have to wait a little longer.

While village officials are moving ahead with its portion of the project, thanks to a $554,800 Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grant, Dane County is a little slower on its end.

We are currently working on design and engineering for the segment of trail between the interstate (39/90) and Buckeye Road, and are at about 60 percent completion, said Chris James, senior landscape architect with Dane County Land and Water Resources-Parks Division. We are also working with the DOT (Department of Transportation), DNR (Department of Natural Resources) and Wisconsin and Southern Railroad on negotiating terms of the shared right of way for both the trail and railroad to co-exist through the corridor under the interstate. My best estimate now is we should be finalizing plans and approvals by early 2021 for the segment between the interstate and Buckeye Road, with construction potentially in 2022 pending available funds.

The connection between Buckeye Road and Cottage Grove is possibly even farther down the road.

We are still trying to acquire lands necessary for the trail between Buckeye Road and Cottage Grove, James said. Timing for that segment is uncertain.

In Cottage Grove, officials will begin work this year on connecting the trailhead in the village with a point that will become the east end of the Dane County portion.

The off-road path will run along the east end of Clark Street, replacing the sidewalk that currently exists on the south side of the street, according to a May 15 memo from JJ Larson, director of public works, to the Cottage Grove Village Board. As it heads west, the path will move through Bakken Park, utilizing some of the existing path there.

During the initial application and concept planning, there was no plan to have real estate work needed, as the project will stay entirely inside the right-of-way of Clark Street. However, now that officials are into the design aspect of the project, it has become clear there will be some real estate work required.

Specifically, we will need to have temporary limited easements from the property owners along two blocks of Clark Street, Larson said. These allow work on private property, in order to match grade of existing driveways for the most part, while not needing a permanent easement granted, as the finished project still remains entirely in the existing right-of-way.

Larson said the village is working on a three-party contract with the DOT and MSA (village engineering firm) the engineering and design of the project.

Because this real estate work is not eligible for funding through the TAP grant, the village will pay MSA for the work, estimated at $45,850.

Larson said the costs will be covered by the village planned project borrowing in 2021.

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Village to begin work on bike path extension - HNGnews.com