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Continuing their work on curved-roof atriums, exemplified by the Jewel at Singapores Changi Airport, Safdie Architects has emulated the feeling of a tree canopy in So Paulos Albert Einstein Education and Research Center (AEERC). With state-of-the-art medical research facilities, the project connects to an existing hospital in the citys Morumbi district.

The building will serve the needs of over 2,000 medical and nursing students, containing 40 classroomswith programmatic flexibilityan auditorium, laboratories, and facilities to simulate examination and operating rooms. The building is organized around a tiered central atrium that houses a garden-like space, while also connecting the four primary floors of the building. The central court is shaded by a vaulted glass ceiling, with three structural domes spanning its length. Around the atrium, facilities are grouped in two wings, with the buildings structure embracing the sloping landscape of the 12,000-square-meter (129,167-square-foot) site.

The 3,800-square-meter (40,900-square-foot) ceiling was constructed from 1,854 glass panels, with minimal structural steel in order to reduce weight. The glass is barely reflective, as the architects did not want strong reflections to impact the surrounding environment. It was designed with extensive digital modeling. As Safdie Architects partner Sean Scensor and senior associate Isaac Safdie explained, the aim was to simulate the effect of being outdoors, under the canopy of trees, on a beautiful day with a clear view of the sky above.

Working between offices in So Paulo, London, and Boston, and collaborating with mechanical and environmental engineers, horticulturalists, and landscape architects, the team at Safdie led the modeling of environmental factors that led to the final design and material decisions. Shading was a delicate balance; as Safdie and Scensor explained, they needed to provide enough light for the plants, while limiting the glare of direct sunlight and also keeping electricity usage to a minimum.

In order to sustain the garden, the model tracked optimum light levels20,000 lux for 1,200 hours per yearevapotranspiration rates of the plants, and determined a maximum temperature of 24 degrees celsius (75 degrees fahrenheit) and a maximum relative humidity of 50 percent. With climate data from So Paulo, the team used ray tracing software to model the full range of daylight conditions. Based on this data, the architects selected insulated laminated glass with low emissivity solar coating, high visible light transmittance, and a neutral color. The team also used computational fluid dynamic modeling to map heat and humidity in the space over time maintaining comfort for both people and plants, said Safdie and Scensor.

Safdie and Scensor further explained that the model presented a challenge in that it could not fully model the beneficial effect of the tree canopyrequiring special interpolation and interpretation of the results. The final design of the roof was formed of an outer layer of fritted glass, attached to a steel structure, and an inner layer of a printed acoustic membrane. The outer layer of fritter glass was fabricated with a pattern of translucent ceramic dots, which act as a solar shading mechanism. The inner membrane layer was micro-perforated to absorb sound, and also printed with a pattern of translucent dots for solar shading, though these dots also glow in sunlight. The dots were arranged to be denser as they approached the east and west ends of the building, effectively shading the sun at low angles. The dual layers of dots filter the dappled light, giving the intended effect of the tree canopy.

Sun shading was also a primary consideration on the faces of the building, most of which contain floor-to-ceiling glass. The building is tiered on alternating floors, with the floors that are set back shaded by the overhanging floor above. The floors that are not shaded by the overhang were wrapped in a polymer resin brise-soleil, shading them while still allowing for views of the neighborhood. As Safdie and Scensor explained, the design team primarily used passive solar design principles, placing 40 percent of the program below street level in addition to the daylight from the atrium, which reaches lower levels. The architects opted for triple silver-coated glass, maximizing shading performance and reducing the need for electricity usage during the day.

Using digital modeling, scaled physical models, and full-size mock ups, the design team studied the louvers of the brise-soleil to optimize shading. By spacing the louvers 37 centimeters (14 inches) apart, and tilting them 45 degrees, they were able to optimize shading without blocking views of the exterior. The diagonal louvers were installed on the east- and west-facing facades to shade morning and afternoon sunlight, while the louvers on the north were left horizontal to shade direct sunlight midday.

The louvers were fabricated with polymer resin over concrete, metal, and fiberglass options, for its light weight, tensile strength, and precise tolerances. The pine wood color of the resin was customized to minimize cleaning, but also establishes visual continuity with wood used in the interior. The shape was also customized, which Safdie and Scensor described as winglike, diffusing light by bouncing it between louvers. Rooms are also equipped with operable solar and blackout shades, allowing for adjustment based on occupant needs.

While the design attempted to control environmental needs as much as possible, So Paulos climate did pose challenges during the construction process. The rainy season prolonged the site excavation, but the design team was able to assemble full-scale mock ups on a nearby lot. Representing each significant component of the building, including a full-size classroom, materials and design features were demonstrated to the client. Collaborative work with tradespersons, particularly in custom assembly, was key to saving time and improving quality control.

Refining the exposed concrete was a complex process that required the design team to work with a number of subcontractors to evaluate the formwork, mix, curing time, and sealers that were locally available. Safdie worked with Perkins&Wills So Paulo officethe Architect of Record on the joband the contractor, Racional, to specify domestic suppliers and manufacturers on a range of materials, saving costs by reducing the quantity of imported materials.

The design team worked closely with Seele on the structural design, fabrication, and installation supervision of the glass ceiling. Safdie previously worked with the firm on the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), and encouraged the client to bring on Seele during early phases of the design process, streamlining materials selection, cost, and constructability. The contractors and client were able to tour both the USIP and the Jewel to understand the need for long-term maintenance of the skylight, and to learn from the past construction processes.

Link:
Albert Einstein Education and Research Center emulates a tree canopy - The Architect's Newspaper

The period between 1850 and 1920 was full of colorful neer-do-wells.

Career criminals like Jesse James, John Dillinger, and Butch Cassidy gained infamy for their brazen bank heists. These rebels and rule-breakers were an unsavory byproduct of American individualism, plundering their way to financial success by nefarious means.

But one oft-forgotten man was more productive than them all.

George Leonidas Leslie led a double life: By day, he was a distinguished architect who hobnobbed with New York Citys elite denizens; by night, he was one of historys most prolific bank robbers.

Unlike other heisters of his time, Leslies approach was academic rather than brutish. He studied the anatomy of locks, drafted up blueprints of banks, and invented mechanical safe-breaking devices.

During his career, authorities estimated that his exploits accounted for 80% of all bank robberies in the entire US during his active years of 1869-78.

Altogether, he stole at least $7m ($200m in todays money), much of it pilfered from the bank vaults of Americas wealthiest titans.

The final bank heist he orchestrated is still, to this day, the largest in US history an astounding $81m haul, adjusted for inflation.

But a mysterious murder would prevent him from ever seeing it play out.

Born in 1842 to relative wealth, Leslie enjoyed a much different upbringing than most outlaws of his time, according to biographer J. North Conway, who explored Leslies life in the book The King of Heists.

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When the Civil War broke out, Leslies father, a successful brewery owner in Toledo, Ohio, paid a sum of $300 (~$10.7k today) to relieve his son of his military obligation.

Instead, Leslie enrolled at the University of Cincinnati, graduated with high honors from the architecture program, and opened his own successful firm.

No known photographs of Leslie exist, so heres Cincinnati, his college city, in the 1840s (NYPL Digital Collections; John Caspar Wild, Henry Robinson)

By all accounts, Leslie was a bright, upstanding businessman with a promising future in legitimate enterprises.

But after his parents died, he had a sudden change of heart.

In 1869, he sold the family home and his architecture firm and set off for New York City. Before leaving town, Leslie explained his motive to friends: He wanted to pursue easy money.

Once in New York, Leslie wasted no time falling in with an impressive cast of characters.

He took up residence at the prestigious Fifth Avenue Hotel a gathering place for the ultra-elite of the Gilded Age, including shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt and then-president Ulysses S. Grant.

Though he wasnt a millionaire himself, Leslie ingratiated himself into the high-status world, donning the finest suits, attending theater openings, and collecting rare books.

His apparent wealth and pedigree gained him the friendship of robber barons like Jim Fisk (a millionaire who cornered the gold market and orchestrated Black Friday), Jay Gould (a railroad magnate), and Boss Tweed (a corrupt politician who embezzled millions from taxpayers).

These men, and other members of high society, saw Leslie as a bon vivant of the highest order and accepted him with open arms.

Jim Fisk (left) and Jay Gould (right) were robbers of their own kind, amassing extraordinary wealth by sometimes ruthless means (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress)

But Leslie had an ulterior motive.

As Conway wrote, the 27-year-old gentleman was secretly obsessed with pulp Western novels and the hijinks of outlaws like Jesse James.

Hed come to New York City not to hobnob with pin-stripe bankers, but to rob the very banks where they were housing their riches.

And before long, he began to seek out a second, much different social group one that could bring his vision to life.

Leslie, of course, faced a problem.

Robbing banks wasnt exactly the kind of profession one could learn from books. It required a strong connection to the criminal underworld. And he found just that in a woman named Fredericka Marm Mandelbaum.

Mandelbaum was New Yorks greatest fencer.

Working with an expansive band of criminals and pickpockets across the city, she housed and resold millions of dollars of stolen goods largely with impunity. Like Leslie, she was in with the elites, whom she hosted at extravagant parties in a home appointed with ill-gotten luxuries.

Introduced through Fisk, Leslie and Mandelbaum hit it off in grand fashion.

Top left: Marm Mandelbuam(Sins of New York: As Exposed by the Police Gazette; Edward Van Every); Top right: Mandelbaums residence; Bottom: A depiction of a typical Mandelbaum dinner party (Recollections of a New York Chief of Police, George Washington Walling; 1877)

At the time, modern bank vault locks were thought to be unbreakable. Most bank robbers relied on explosives to break into vaults a loud and messy affair. A few others tried, mostly without success, to crack safes by listening to tiny clinks in the lock with a stethoscope.

Leslie had a different proposal that intrigued Mandelbaum:

After a few months of feeling out the newcomer, Mandelbaum decided to give Leslie a shot at his first bank robbery.

She assigned him a crew of accomplices, including Tom Shang Draper, a con artist and lifelong crook; Red Leary, a towering, redheaded enforcer; and Johnny Dobbs, a notorious safecracker.

Leslie selected his first target Ocean National Bank in New York City and began a laborious, three-month-long planning process.

His preparations entailed the following:

A typical bank vault in the late 1800s (Recollections of a New York Chief of Police, George Washington Walling; 1877)

His men were not happy with the slow process. They just wanted to blow stuff up.

But Leslie instructed them to do nightly rehearsals for weeks using his replica, playing out various scenarios in a dark warehouse.

In June 1869, Leslie made his move.

First, the planted employee let him in at night, after the guards had gone, and he installed his little joker device, a tiny tin wheel with a metal wire around it that went behind the combination knob of the vaults lock.

When the tellers used the vault the next day, the little joker, hidden behind the dial, would get etched with deep cuts where the three numbers of the code were, limiting the combination to just a few possibilities.

Several nights later, Leslie and his crew entered the bank again, removed the little joker, and used the etches to crack the lock.

This only gained them entry through the first door: The safe had three of them, each built of thick iron. And inside the vault the safes had to be opened, too.

For this, the crew relied on a bevy of ingenious tools jimmies, wedges, sledges, nippers, and drills.

Tools of the bank robber trade, as coiled by a police chief (Recollections of a New York Chief of Police, George Washington Walling; 1877)

The following morning, bank officials arrived at a chaotic scene: floors strewn with coins, bank notes, and drill bits. But the main door to the vault was intact, which stumped investigating police officers.

The New York Herald declared it a masterful bank job pulled off by one very special bank robber. A report in The New York Times remarked that a robbery of this type was a thing never heard of before.

In sum, Leslie and his crew made off with $768,879.74 (~$27.5m today) a record-setting sum.

And that was just the beginning.

Over the following years, Leslie employed similar tactics in a torrent of robberies across the East Coast.

At a time when the average annual wage in New York was <$1k/year, Leslies heists often pulled in five- or six-figure sums in one night:

Leslie began to gain recognition in criminal circles around the country and was soon enlisted as a bank robbery consultant, charging a fee of $20k (~$500k) to look over other outfits plans and make suggestions.

In the meantime, he continued to charade as an upstanding member of society, socializing with well-respected members of the gentry class.

He married a woman in Philadelphia, under the auspices that he was an IRS detective. The couple moved into a 10-room, $100k ($2.5m) house in New York, which he furnished with a grand piano, a library, croquet grounds, and imported carpets.

Leslies biggest bank heists were yet to come (various newspaper clippings from the 1870s)

In 1876, Leslie chose his next big strike: Northampton Bank, situated in a quiet town in upstate New York.

Several years earlier, the bank had decided to install a supposedly invincible new lock that required both a key and a combination.

Leslie had a trick up his sleeve.

He tracked down the lock salesman whod installed the new system and bribed him with a cut of the action. The employee, William Edson, made a copy of the keys and gave them to the banks cashier.

After weeks of staking out the location, Leslies men kidnapped the cashier and forced him to relinquish the key and the combination.

The robbers made off with $1.6m ($39m) in loot but there was a serious problem. Most of the haul was in nonnegotiable bonds, which could only be cashed in by the person whose name was on the slip; only $12k was cash.

The heist ended up being mostly a bust and led to the arrests of several of Leslies henchmen.

Two years later, Leslie hit another snag: A similar botched bank robbery in Dexter, Maine, left an uncompromising cashier dead.

Beyond the failed robberies, things were beginning to turn sour between Leslie and his fellow delinquents particularly, Shang Draper.

Draper didnt like that Leslie took 50% of the cut for himself and delegated the other 50% to the rest of the group. He also began to grow suspicious that Leslie was having an affair with his wife.

But Leslie was singularly focused on one thing: the biggest bank heist hed ever planned.

For three years, hed been meticulously mapping out a hit on the Manhattan Savings Institution, the largest and most formidable bank in the city.

It was, by all accounts, a ponderous labyrinth of bolts, locks, and seemingly impregnable doors, wrote Conway in King of Heists.

Top: A depiction of the formidable Manhattan Savings Institution (Recollections of a New York Chief of Police, George Washington Walling; 1877); Bottom: A diagram of the banks second story (The Hustle, via news archives)

Leslie had done all of his regular due diligence:

Except this time, he had a different plan: Hed turn his back on his gang at the last minute and work with another gang on the crime. After this one, he planned to bow out of the robbery game and resettle in another city.

The bank Premises were as accurately surveyed by Leslie as they would have been had a professional architect been employed, New York police chief George Walling wrote later.

Everything was in place. But Leslie never got a chance to pull it off.

In October 1878, Leslies gang used the architects plans to break into the Manhattan Savings Institution.

The crew made off with $2,747,700, ~$81m in todays money an inflation-adjusted figure never matched even today.

Zachary Crockett / The Hustle

New York reports at the time dubbed the heist the most sensational in the history of bank robberies in this country.

But its mastermind a man who police say was involved with more than 100 bank robberies through his nine-year career wasnt there to see it happen.

On June 4, 1878, several months earlier, Leslies decomposing body had been discovered near Yonkers along the Hudson River.

Hed been shot dead at the age of 36.

While the murder was never solved, there was a strong suspicion that Leslies colleague Draper was the culprit.

Leslies funeral was a curious affair. A mishmash of crime lords, cops, and financiers, it was the perfect manifestation of his dual existence.

In obituaries, he was at once described as a man of refinement and culture, a skillful mechanic, and someone whose aid and advice was secured in every one of the larger robberies that have been committed for the past 10 or 12 years.

The nations most notorious bank robber was buried in an unmarked grave under his real name, George Howard a fitting conclusion to the life of a man who lived in the shadows.

Note: For more on Leslies life and heists, check out King Of Heists (J. North Conway), A Burglars Guide to the City (Geoff Manaugh), and this incredible 1887 memoir from a NYC police chief.

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Original post:
The architect who became the king of bank robberies - The Hustle

On late Tuesday, Patrick Reed filed a defamation case against Golf Channel and analyst Brandel Chamblee, alleging that theyhave conspired as joint tortfeasors for and with the PGA Tour, its executives and its Commissioner Jay Monahan, to engage in a pattern and practice of defaming Mr Reed. misreporting information with falsity and/or reckless disregard for the truth.

The lawsuit, filed by attorney Larry Klayman, is looking for more than $750 million in damages.

Amongst the court documents, it is claimed thatChamblee and Golf Channel have indeed engaged in a longstanding pattern and practice of maliciously defaming Mr. Reed.

The document cites examples where Chamblee has accused the former Masters champ of cheating at the 2019 Hero and quotes from the analyst suggesting that Reed has engaged in improper and misconduct in his past college days, to which both examples Reeds camp call false and malicious.

The lawsuit claims that the defendants, acting in concert with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour and their commissioners, have created a hostile work environment for Reed and that the abuse has harmed his performance at tournaments.

Per the document, the personal attacks at events include but are not limited to:

You suck!, You f____ng suck!, You jackass!, You coward!, Shovel!, Why dont you dig a grave and bury yourself in it!, You piece of sh_t!, No one likes you!, Everyone hates you Reed, Good look digging yourself out of this one!, Where are your parents coward!, You cheater!, Cheat!, Everyone hates you cheater!, Youre going to miss this you cheater!, You cheat in college and on Tour and youre a piece of sh_t!, Beat the cheaters ass!, Sorry Webb for having to play with the cheat! Who did you pi_s off!?, Why dont you introduce your children to their grandparents you ungrateful bit_h!

The suit accuses Chamblee of not heading a cease and desist letter sent previously. Its also claimed that due to Chamblee and Golf Channelsbizarre fixationwith destroying Reeds character by fabricating the story that he is somehow a cheater', the family have been victims of abuse, with even their kids being tormented and bullied.

The court documents also get personal, with Chamblee called a disciple of the Skip Bayless school of sports analysis, where it is more important to be loud than it is to be correct.

The lawsuit claims that Chamblee has fabricated a feud with an athlete at the top of their game, first with Tiger Woods and then Patrick Reed, in order to leach attention, notoriety, and fame from those who were able to achieve far more than he ever did as a golfer, which is probably the driving force behind his bitter personal animus and bias leveled against Mr. Reed.

Its another dramatic twist in the LIV-PGA Tour saga. Last week a federal judge denied LIV Golf players Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones a temporary restraining order to play the PGA Tours FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Following that result, Chamblee tweetedGolf won today. Murderers lost., a comment which Reeds lawsuit claims viciously defamed Patrick Reed as a murderer simply because he now plays on the LIV Golf Tour.

Next fall will likely see the larger antitrust lawsuit filed by 10 LIV players against the Tour.

More:
'I don't think that makes any sense' Patrick Cantlay calls out golf course architects - GolfWRX

With his distinctive aquiline nose and magnificent flowing beard, Albanias national hero, Skanderbeg, has long been a familiar presence in the countrys streets and squares. The 7ft warrior king known as the Dragon of Albania, slayer of the Ottoman Turks, is celebrated in numerous monuments and reliefs, his imposing stature and fiery eyes keeping watch over the territory he fought for in the 15th century.

Now his face will loom larger over the capital than ever before. Construction has begun on an 85-metre-high block of apartments, offices and shops in the centre of Tirana, designed in the shape of Skanderbegs head. Images of the project depict an amorphous white tower ringed with balconies that ripple in and out to form a lumpy approximation of the heros features, imprinting his profile permanently on the skyline in concrete and glass. Wealthy future residents will be able to look out from the warriors eyes, hang out on his ears or dine alfresco on the end of his nose from which greenery will dangle in an unfortunate snot-like drip.

The surreal vision is the work of Dutch architects MVRDV, who are no strangers to concocting buildings shaped like supersized novelty objects or figurative sculptural projects, as they prefer to call them. Their disastrous Marble Arch Mound in London, which arguably cost the Conservative council its leadership of the local borough, was merely the latest in a long line of cartoonish creations that seem to have been plucked from the depths of a joke shop bargain bin. The architects have designed a museum in the form of gigantic comic speech bubbles, an art storage depot in the shape of an Ikea salad bowl and an apartment complex that spells out the word HOME in the form of its blocks. But it seems they have saved their most banal metaphors for the Balkans, perhaps assuming that fewer of their clients and critics will ever see the buildings in person.

A short distance from where the giant Skanderbeg head is planned to rise, there already looms another tower designed by MVRDV, named Downtown One. Topping out last year, its 140-metre concrete frame makes it the tallest building in the city, and it continues the pop-nationalist theme. Rather than a face, this hefty slab of luxury flats and offices features a pixelated map of Albania protruding from its facade although the form is so indistinct, it looks more like the concrete formwork slipped on the way up, leaving a wonky mess in its wake. The dramatically carved volumes imagined by MVRDV appear to have been value-engineered into more shallow dimples, giving the impression that the building is prematurely eroding.

These days, cities around the world increasingly look like each other, says Winy Maas, founding partner of the Dutch architecture firm. I always encourage them to resist this, to find their individual character and emphasise it. Tirana has the opportunity of a blank canvas for high-density structures. It can be progressive in that sense and build up character and a sense of place.

But many local residents arent so sure about the sense of place being created by Maas, and the roster of other international architects who have been flown in to reshape the city. A handful of towers are rising around Tiranas central Skanderbeg Square, with four already complete and at least another six in the pipeline. There have been vocal protests against the destruction of Ottoman-era villas to make way for the slew of high-rise developments, with critics bemoaning the loss of heritage and rocketing property prices, and accusations that the projects are being used as money laundering schemes for organised crime.

Two historic villas were demolished to make way for the Skanderbeg tower in May 2020, when the city was in pandemic lockdown. At the same time, the citys cherished National Theatre, dating from the 1930s, was also bulldozed to make way for a project by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, to widespread condemnation.

The future of Tirana will be full of ghost skyscrapers, says Vincent WJ van Gerven Oei, a Dutch writer who has lived in Tirana for the last 12 years and closely tracked the citys development. I love MVRDV the things they build in the Netherlands are among my favourite buildings but then they come to Albania and become lousy assholes. They think they can get away with crappy design, checking off all the stupid nationalist tropes you can think of.

In a 2018 lecture, when the two towers were in development, Maas addressed the overt nationalist symbolism of designing a building in the shape of the countrys map. I had a discussion with some of the European politicians about that, he said. Because, can you do that? Is nationalism good or bad? But Albania needs it, to show its sexy and that its actually quite cool.

Dashing back and forth on stage, speaking like a hyperactive child who had consumed too many E-numbers, Maas rhapsodised his love affair with Albania. He described it as a country with no money, that drinks only coffee, and where there is nothing to do the perfect blank slate for his outlandish ideas, like a mini-China with bountiful opportunities for architects. Developers are getting richer, he said excitedly, but made no mention of where the money might be coming from to build such heady visions, given the countrys impoverished economy.

A 2020 report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime noted that the Albanian construction industry had become a popular hotspot for international criminal gangs to launder money, primarily from drug trafficking. It estimated that 1.6bn worth of dirty money had been laundered through the Albanian real estate sector in the previous three years, with 60% of project funding coming from illicit sources. Albanias own Office of the General Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering said that it observed considerable real estate investments with unknown source of funds, which it classified as suspicious.

Last year, anti-mafia prosecutors in Italy found that the Ndrangheta crime syndicate had identified Tiranas new high-rise developments as a prime opportunity for laundering their cash. In one wiretap, two of those arrested were heard discussing a building constructor in Albania who held three building permits for buildings worth 180m, but had only 10m to hand. The new skyscrapers are to be sold for 3,000-4,000 per square metre, one of the suspects says. And do you know how much it cost to build? 510. MVRDV says that, in accordance with Dutch law, it runs background checks on its clients using a third-party company that scans for criminal activity, among other things, and there is no suggestion of illegal funds. A spokesperson for the city of Tirana said: The duty of the municipality is to ensure that construction plans, aesthetics, architecture rules and mobility plans are respected. We understand we live in a toxic political environment in the Balkans and have repeatedly asked opposition leaders to point out: which one of these towers is suspect of such [criminal] activity? To date, we have no response and there has been no official claim with the Tirana prosecution.

The radical reshaping of the Albanian capital over the last two decades can primarily be credited to Edi Rama, who served as its mayor from 2000-2011 and has been the countrys prime minister since 2013. Rama was a professional basketball player and artist in the 1990s, and Maas says in his lecture: I know Edi from Paris, when he was a painter. Rama returned to Albania to become minister of culture in 1998, and embarked on a radical clean-up operation when he became mayor. He made headlines with his policies of painting grey soviet buildings in bright colours to liven up the city, planting trees, creating bike lanes and holding international architectural competitions reforms that landed him the inaugural World Mayor prize in 2004.

One of the first projects MVRDV scooped under Ramas reign was the Toptani shopping centre in 2005, which was conceived as a hollowed out pixelated mass covered in giant LCD advertising screens. Having won the competition, Maas heard nothing until a few years later, when he realised the building had in fact been built by other architects, and drastically watered down in the process. The digital facade was exchanged for standard grey cladding panels, while his vision for an open arcade became a generic closed-off mall.

Projects here are often realised in a totally different way to how the architects originally intended, says Van Gerven Oei. Theres the reality of the digital render, always beautiful, brilliant and groundbreaking, and then the reality of Albanian construction companies, who want to do the easiest, fastest thing at the lowest possible price.

Not to be dissuaded by the Frankenstein mall, MVRDV continued to seek work in Albania. Several unrealised projects followed, from a colossal pile of oblong apartment blocks planned for a lakeside site in 2008, dubbed Tirana Rocks, to a coastal resort for a Russian client designed as an artificial hillside that would glow eerily at night better than any James Bond movie, Maas promised. He explains how Downtown One began as a three-dimensional Albania-shaped building, but proved too expensive, so they decided to imprint the shape of the map on a simple rectangular tower instead. A further commission came in 2018 to transform the striking marble-clad Pyramid of Tirana built in the 1980s as a museum to celebrate the countrys former communist dictator which had become a popular place for the citys youth to scramble up and slide down. MVRDV were appointed, without a public competition, to transform it into a tech hub smothering the sloping sides with concrete steps in the process. Finally, when it comes to the Skanderbeg tower, the origins are as blunt as you might expect. As Maas recalls: Then Edi said: I want to do something with history. And so the giant head was born.

Local people have joked that, as Rama cultivates an elder-statesman look his 6ft 6in frame and growing beard giving him an increasingly Skanderbeg-esque appearance the head-shaped building may end up looking more like a lasting monument to the artist-politician who reshaped the capital, forever gazing out over his vision of empty towers.

See the article here:
What the Marble Arch Mound architects did next: a skyscraper shaped like Albanias national hero - The Guardian

Introducing Rakewell, Apollos wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories.

Rakewell is interested to note that not only is Keanu Reeves confirmed to star in his first leading role in a television series, but that he will be playing an architect. And not just a fictional architect, of which there many examples in cinema. For The Devil in the White City, Reeves has been cast as Daniel H. Burnham, who, as the co-designer of the worlds first building with an all-steel frame, was a pioneer of skyscraper architecture and who, as head architect of the Worlds Fair of 1893 in Chicago, had a hand in making the city what it is today.

Chicago, you say? But hasnt Keanu played an architect in the Windy City before? He certainly has, although your roving correspondent with something of a thing for ridiculous films wouldnt call it the most authentic depiction of the profession on screen. But if you like lakes and houses, baffling time-travel scenarios, and Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves starring in the same film but not stuck on a bus, then The Lake House (2006) is unmissable, mystifying fun. The premise is that Keanus architect and Sandra Bullocks doctor live in the same North Shore lakeside house on stilts only they are in the property two years apart, in 2004 and 2006, respectively. With the help of a magic mailbox, the determined couple send each other letters, fall in love and wonder how they can beat the pesky time-space continuum that is keeping them apart. Reevess character is working on suburban condominiums instead of starting a firm with the unpromising name of Visionary Vanguard with his younger brother, also an architect. Both are cowed by their rather more visionary father who is youve guessed it another architect, played by Christopher Plummer (hooray!) as a charismatic cross between Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. As the one decent architect in the family, it is he who designed the titular house. Rakewell cant quite remember if the ending makes any sense, but Chicago comes out of the picture with great credit.

The Devil in the White City, on the other hand, is an adaptation of Erik Larsons true-crime thriller of 2003, which also deals with the murderous exploits of the serial killer H.H. Holmes, who despatched his victims during the Worlds Fair. Although the book is just as preoccupied by Burnhams masterminding of the event, Rakewell wonders how much screen time Keanu Reeves is really going to share with a slide rule. Still, it has to be an improvement on Knock Knock (2015), in which the actor again played an architect. This time, he is a married man left in the house on his own; a married man who unwisely opens the door to two attractive passing strangers. Lets just say that sexy times lead to harrowing times and let us hope for more, both for Keanu and for ourselves, from the real-life tribulations of Daniel H. Burnham.

Got a story for Rakewell? Get in touch atrakewell@apollomag.comor via @Rakewelltweets.

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Is Keanu Reeves about to become the architect of his own destiny? - Apollo Magazine

The following editorial from Aki Ishida kicks off the Focus section of the July/August 2022 edition of The Architects Newspaper, which showcases the latest and greatest innovations in glass. You can view the entire section, complete with product roundups and case studies, in full here.

In recent decades, technological advancements in chemical coating, structural engineering, and fabrication methods have altered architectural possibilities for the use of glass. As new techniques expand the range of effects and performance of clear glass, glass transparency has become increasingly multivalent and complexit is blurred, both materially and metaphysically. Historical associations of glass with exclusivity and exquisiteness have resulted in todays predicaments of excessive consumption, as evidenced by all-glass iPhones, the curtain walls of luxury high-rises, and other glass buildings and products. At the same time, when we spend more than 90 percent of our day indoors, glass that connects us to the outdoors remains indispensable to architecture.

Beginning in the late 1990s, I worked for four years at the office of glass artist/technologist James Carpenter when glass knowledge was still exclusive relative to today, as now many architecture offices have their own glass and curtain-wall experts. At the time, Carpenters studio worked at the forefront of experimenting with reflective coating (including the polychrome effects of dichroic glass that characterized much of Carpenters early work) and the first use in the United States of cable-net glass walls, designed in collaboration with German engineering firm Schlaich Bergermann Partner.

Building on my professional experience as an architect, in my book Blurred Transparencies in Contemporary Glass Architecture (2020), I examined the intertwining of material, culture, and technology through six case studies and argued that readings of transparent glass are increasingly blurry.

Glasss fragility, which intensifies its exquisiteness, has challenged architects and captured their imagination. From the 11th to the 16th centuries, the secrets of glassmaking were highly coveted by the Venetians until three glassmakers were smuggled in by King Louis XIV of France to realize Versailless Hall of Mirrors. Crystals, glass slippers, coffins, and mirrors often appear symbolically in fairy tales, which describe the collective dreams of a culture. In modern architecture, glass is a material imbued with idealism, symbolism, and utopian vision. Walter Gropius, for example, referenced crystals in the Bauhaus manifesto, writing that the new structure of the future [] will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the crystal symbol of a new faith. It was thought that in early modern sanatorium buildings, including the Zonnestraal (1931) in the Netherlands, solar transmission through the glass walls would heal sick patients, transforming them into healthy workers. Today, these historical examples continue to affect meanings associated with glass.

Following the financial fallout of 2008 and amid increasing concerns about global warming, glass came under attack for being environmentally irresponsible and unaffordable. Bird lovers villainized New Yorks Javits Center as a hazard for birds that flew into its reflective glass walls. In 2014, FXFowle replaced I.M. Pei and Partners (now Pei Cobb Freed & Partners) original glass with fritted glass that is more visible to birds; avian fatalities dropped by 90 percent. In 2019, in response to a surge of glass skyscraper construction in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio alarmed architects and developers by hyperbolically claiming that steel and glass have no place in our city or on our Earth anymore, although what he meant was that the energy code requirements should become more stringent, not that glass would be banned. Architect and academic Andres Jaques 2021 performance Being Silica was a critique of ultra-clear, low-iron glass made with a white sand extracted from a few exclusive locations around the world; the same sand is also used in fracking. Jaque remarked that low-iron glass, which costs three times as much as regular glass with a green tint, has become the material of choice for high-profile glass architecture, including Apple stores and the supertall luxury apartment towers on New York Citys Billionaires Row. In other words, ultra-clear glass symbolizes excessive wealth and environmental exploitation.

Despite the negative attention given to glass in recent years, much of which is based on valid societal concerns, most people would agree that a world without glass would be unimaginably grim and dull. Responding to the climate crisis shouldnt require a ban on glass, but rather more thoughtful applications instead of draping every face of the building with the material, top to bottom. Architects can educate their clients and the public to no longer associate floor-to-ceiling glass with the good life. Excessive fritting, coating, and tinting needed to meet the energy codes defeat the purpose of having glass in the first place.

Architects can also consider smarter couplings of building function and location with the material of glass. For example, SANAAs Glass Pavilion (2006) in Toledo, Ohio, is an all-glass building that recirculates the heat generated by the furnace in a hot glass shop to heat the gallery and office spaces in the winter. As Michael Na Min Ra of facade consulting firm Front shared in my book, this innovative approach to heating and cooling made an all-glass building sensible in the cold climate of Toledo.

Moreover, as architects such as Lacaton & Vassal have shown, transparent walls and windows can be made operable and adjustable, thus offering the occupants a sense of agency in managing their own environment.

Even though glass is no longer specified for its curative effects as it was for tuberculosis sanatoriums a century ago, transparent glass continues to capture our imagination and remains vital to our cities. As advancements in glass surface treatments and engineering continue to alter glass as a material, its visual perception will become further blurred, along with its cultural symbolism.

Aki Ishida is an architect, educator, and writer currently serving as interim associate director of Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Originally posted here:
Advances in technology shape contemporary glazing applications - The Architect's Newspaper

Like the Brutalist-style home that Volpato proposed for furniture company owner Nick Scali, his designs were booted by councils because they didnt conform with a neighbourhoods character. They stand out in the drab crowd like the Sea Princess amid a fleet of tankers, reported the Herald in 1982 reporting on Haberfield Councils rejection of another Volpato plan.

Decades before the idea of indoor/outdoor living took off in Australia, Volpato argued that British architecture was too influential, and irrelevant in the Australian climate.

His was a Mediterranean vibe: One of fun and openness with indoors and outdoors merging Id like to see the square massive style typical of Australian architecture disappear, he told Australian House & Garden in 1973.

Other than his familys archives of drawings and records, details of Volpatos work are scant.

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He was typical of many post-war European designers who often worked in obscurity, said Hawcroft. They worked as furniture or industrial and architectural designers when they didnt qualify with the Architects Registration Board. Volpato was self-taught, and though he enrolled in architecture in Australia, his English wasnt proficient enough to continue.

Their name is never really on [the plan], she said. They had to work within a bigger organisation, and so their design work was never attributed ... They dont get known in the same way as people like Harry Seidler, said Hawcroft, the author of the 2017 book, The Other Moderns: Sydneys Forgotten European Design Legacy about these migrants who arrived in Australia up to 1960.

These emigre architects and designers like Volpato were doing their thing, and out of sync with the rest, she said. Many people would say his houses are ugly because they are over the top. They appealed to a cultural group that was not the majority.

Clients either loved him or hated him. But the father of six was unfazed. His son Marco Volpato said his father always broke the norm. He had no fear in expressing his own designs, and turning heads.

Marco Volpato, an architect working in Switzerland and Australia, said the public was now more open to different and fluid styles like his fathers. I often catch myself saying, Hey thats one of Dads designs. Its easy to spot them around Sydney, they are unique and stand out in the crowd.

Gino Volpatos granddaughter Sara Iarossi, and daughters Liris Iarossi and Paola Candi go through some photos of his designs at the family home in Marrickville.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Volpato was indefatigable. When a Sydney council rejected a house saying it conflicted with the areas red brick character, he doorknocked 150 homeowners for their thoughts. They loved it. Volpato won. The council changed its mind.

His daughter Liris Iarossi said her father never stopped. He designed and made the mural at Munmorah Power station, a shopping trolley with a brake, an electric scooter, a tape dispenser for 3M, mausoleums, aged care facilities, and modern office furniture in marble, glass and granite.

When married in the 1950s, he created a sleek modern gown for his wife Adelia, who would have preferred something traditional. And like architects Mies van de Rohe, Marcel Breuer and Harry Seidler, Volpato also designed interiors and furniture.

Working for Sabemo, he designed Wollongongs Sacred Heart Chapel and Italian Centre. Iarossi said her father also designed the pews, the Stations of the Cross and the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary. My father was a hands-on person. He was there day and night, said Iarossi.

In the weeks before he died in 2008, he completed a self-portrait, dictated to-do lists of unfinished designs and artwork for his six children, patents that needed lodging and wrote extensive instructions for his funeral.

He also came up with a design for a floating building, suspended from above, that he instructed his children to pursue.

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Iarossi said her father never wasted a minute. He used to say, You know that minute that just went past? You will never get it back.

His extended family is enjoying the interest in his work. It makes me so happy knowing his legacy lives on and people are appreciating his work, said his granddaughter Sara Iarossi.

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Why is he only a thing now?: The Italian-born architect finding a new audience - Sydney Morning Herald

By: Zephyr Melton August 17, 2022

Gil Hanse is one of the most renowned course architects in the world.

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PARAMUS, N.J. Gil Hanse is a busy man.

The 59-year-old is one of the foremost golf-course architects in the world, and his fingerprints are everywhere in the game. From Olympic Club to Southern Hills to The Country Club (among many others), Hanse has left his mark.

This weeks U.S. Amateur host, Ridgewood Country Club, is no exception. Hanse led a restoration of the classic A.W. Tillinghast design back in the 90s, and three decades later, the course is as good as ever.

And despite the U.S. Amateur being one of the most hectic weeks in golf, Hanse made sure to carve out some time in his schedule to pop over to Ridgewood this week to take in a little of the action. On Wednesday, we found him following along early in the evening as Gordon Sargent and Ford Clegg battled into extra holes.

Hanse might be the busiest man in golf, but he was gracious enough to take a few minutes to chat about his favorite hole on property, the challenges of restoring classic courses and more.

Zephyr Melton: How do you feel the course is holding up so far this week?

Gil Hanse: Its great so far. I think its presenting a really great challenge for these guys the rough is thick and youve got to hit it straight. And I think for a U.S. Amateur thats a great test. I think the thing thats been interesting is that these greens have so much slope in them, that not only from a putting standpoint, but also from an approach standpoint, youve got to hit the ball to certain spots to get it to feed to where you want it to go. Thats been interesting to watch. The subtleties of the greens have been a challenge Im sure.

ZM: Do you ever get nervous watching players compete on courses that youve had a hand in shaping?

GH: Not in this format, because its match play. No one is focused on what they shot its just whoever wins, wins and youve got to get the ball in the hole. Thats a lot easier on the architect, because when you put score into the equation, then not only do you have your own expectations, but also the expectations of the members and if they think its playing too easy or too hard.

ZM: Whats your favorite hole out here on this championship routing?

GH: Well I always get the composite numbers wrong, but Id say its No. 13, the par-5. I love that hole. Every once in a while, youll get a magazine or a book ask you, If there was a hole that you didnt design that you wish you had, which would it be? Ive picked that hole a couple times. Just because of the beauty of it, the way the cross hazard comes into play. The mounds and the way they diagonally set. And with your second shot, if you play it close to the boundary, you open up the angle into the green, but if you play away from the trouble, youve got to come into the green with trouble. And the green in that little bowl I think is a beautiful setting. Id definitely say thats my favorite.

ZM: What are the challenges with restorations in keeping the essence of a course while also challenging the modern player?

GH: I think a lot of what challenges these guys is baked into the original design. Its greens and contours of slopes and rough, of course. But I think where we have to reposition fairway bunkers, we would tend to do that if the topography allows us to shift them downrange to challenge the modern player. And with tees, well extend them too, but not in a way that we would perceive as disconnecting holes like if you had to walk 90 yards back and then walk the same 90 yards back to the fairway. That takes away the essence of these great old golf courses.

But one of the things that Jim Wagner and I have learned, is that if we trust Tillinghast and Donald Ross and George Thomas, 99 percent of the time, they got it right, and its still relevant to todays player. So we try to keep as much of that as we can.

ZM: What makes a great golf hole?

GH: Its having options. What makes a great golf hole in strategy is that the level of precision required to just go play is fairly low, with wide fairways and generous landing areas. But the level of precision required to score meaning accessing hole locations and getting close and making birdies means that youre relying on angles and hazards and theres a thought process to that. And thats not easy to do, but its what we try to accomplish.

ZM: Last question whats harder: playing golf, or designing golf courses?

GH: Playing golf. (laughs) I seldom get frustrated designing golf courses, but I definitely get frustrated when playing.

Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com where he spends his days blogging, producing and editing. Prior to joining the team at GOLF.com, he attended the University of Texas followed by stops with Team USA, the Green Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all things instruction and covers amateur and womens golf.

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Gil Hanse Q&A: Renowned course architect talks the U.S. Amateur, his favorite hole at Ridgewood and more - Golf.com

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percentPlayed = Math.round(currentTime / duration * 100); for (percent = _i = 0; _i = percent && __indexOf.call(playerState['PERCENTS_TRACKED'], percent) 0) { playerState['PERCENTS_TRACKED'].push(percent); } } } }); //player.off('ended'); player.on('ended', function(){ console.log("ended"); playerState.IS_PLAYING = false; WVM.sendbeacon("complete", true, playerState.VIDEO_ID, playerState.VIDEO_TITLE); var currId = playerState.VIDEO_ID; var newMediaId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currId); //if(playerSettings.autoplay_next && newMediaId){ if(newMediaId){ WVM.load_video(newMediaId, true, playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); }else{ console.log("Playlist complete (no more videos)"); } }); //player.off('adserror'); player.on('adserror', function(e){ //$('#ima-ad-container').remove(); WVM.lastAdRequest = new Date().getTime() / 1000; console.log(e); console.log("ads error"); var errMessage = e['data']['AdError']['l']; playerState.AD_IS_PLAYING = false; playerState.IS_PLAYING = false; // && errMessage == 'The VAST response document is empty.' if(!playerState.AD_ERROR){ var dTime = new Date().getTime(); WVM.firstPrerollTagUrl = WVM.getFirstPrerollUrl(); console.log("calling backup ad tag url: " + WVM.firstPrerollTagUrl); WVM.activePlayer.ima.changeAdTag(WVM.firstPrerollTagUrl + "?" + dTime); WVM.activePlayer.ima.requestAds(); //WVM.activePlayer.src({ // src: masterSrc, // type: 'video/mp4' //}); //WVM.firstPrerollTagUrl = ""; } playerState.AD_ERROR = true; }); //player.off('error'); player.on('error', function(event) { if (player.error().code === 4) { player.error(null); // clear out the old error player.options().sources.shift(); // drop the highest precedence source console.log("now doing src"); console.log(player.options().sources[0]); player.src(player.options().sources[0]); // retry return; } }); //player.off('volumechange'); player.on('volumechange', function(event) { console.log(event); var theHeight = $('#media-container-' + playerState.ORIGINAL_ID + ' .vjs-volume-level').css('height'); var cssVolume = 0; if(theHeight){ cssVolume = parseInt(theHeight.replace('%', '')); } var theVolume = player.volume(); if(theVolume > 0.0 || cssVolume > 0){ $('#media-container-' + playerState.ORIGINAL_ID + ' .mute-overlay').css('display', 'none'); }else{ $('#media-container-' + playerState.ORIGINAL_ID + ' .mute-overlay').css('display', 'block'); } }); WVM.reinitRawEvents(playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); setInterval(function(){ WVM.reinitRawEvents(playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); }, 2000); } if(!WVM.rawCompleteEvent){ WVM.rawCompleteEvent = function(e){ var playerState = WVM['player_state193440']; console.log("firing raw event due to all other events failing"); var currId = playerState.VIDEO_ID; var newMediaId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currId); //if(playerSettings.autoplay_next && newMediaId){ if(newMediaId){ WVM.load_video(newMediaId, true, playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); } }; } if(!WVM.rawTimeupdateEvent){ WVM.rawTimeupdateEvent = function(e){ var playerState = WVM['player_state193440']; var rawVideoElem = document.getElementById('html5-video-' + playerState['ORIGINAL_ID'] + '_html5_api'); var fullCurrent = rawVideoElem.currentTime * 1000; var fullDuration = rawVideoElem.duration * 1000; var current_time = Math.floor(rawVideoElem.currentTime); console.log("raw timeupdate: " + fullCurrent + " out of " + fullDuration); if ( current_time > 0 && ( fullCurrent >= (fullDuration - 50) )){ var currId = playerState.VIDEO_ID; var newMediaId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currId); if(newMediaId){ console.log("loading new video from rawtimeupdate"); WVM.load_video(newMediaId, true, playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); } } if(!$('.vjs-loading-spinner').hasClass('badspinner')){ $('.vjs-loading-spinner').addClass('badspinner') } }; } WVM.reinitRawEvents = function(playerId){ var playerState = WVM['player_state' + playerId]; var rawVideoElem = document.getElementById('html5-video-' + WVM['player_state' + playerId]['ORIGINAL_ID'] + '_html5_api'); //COMPLETE EENT if( WVM['player_state' + playerId].COMPLETE_EVENT){ rawVideoElem.removeEventListener('ended', WVM.rawCompleteEvent, false); } rawVideoElem.addEventListener('ended', WVM.rawCompleteEvent, false); //TIME UPDATE EVENT if( WVM['player_state' + playerId].TIMEUPDATE_EVENT){ rawVideoElem.removeEventListener('ended', WVM.rawTimeupdateEvent, false); } rawVideoElem.addEventListener('ended', WVM.rawTimeupdateEvent, false); WVM['player_state' + playerId].COMPLETE_EVENT = true; WVM['player_state' + playerId].TIMEUPDATE_EVENT = true; };

CEDARBURG, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Discovering large-scale problems, that could cost thousands of dollars.

Why some new homeowners are regretting their decision to skip an inspection.

More:

Home inspection expert explains why you'll regret skipping a home inspection - WDJT

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Whether you've just inherited a property, going through a messy divorce, or can't meet with the challenges of maintaining a house any longer, the idea of having to sell can be overwhelming... plus this fast-changing market has would-be sellers on pause.

At Sell Your House Direct, they're in the business of putting home sellers first by bringing control, convenience, and certainty to the process.

"Sellinga house the traditional way is a lengthy process with hidden costs like home inspection reports, repairs, and agent fees," explains CEO Blake Soreano. "We strive to be the protector for our clients, putting them first, so they can have a more positive experience."

Their unique service connects sellers with a roster of vetted buyers so they can sell exactly when and how they want, making it as stress-free as possible.

Sell Your House Direct Highlights:

Sell Your House Direct makes it fair, easy and fast to sell!

For more information, please visitsellyourhousedirect.com.

AboutSell Your House Direct is a nationwide service and online marketplace, specializing in selling homes throughout the west and southeast United States. They connect sellers and brokers to thousands of vetted iBuyers, resulting in a home sale at the best possible price and terms.

SOURCE Sell Your House Direct

Read the original:

This Company is Taking the Stress Out of Home-Selling - PR Newswire