Hasta La Ideas

Over the summer when Chicago’s Navy Pier announced that it was planning a redesign with the hopes of making the place less of a notorious tourist trap, we were interested, but not entirely enthusiastic, despite some big design and architecture names being thrown around. It was one of those “we’ll see it when we set it deals.” That changed, however, when the shortlist composed of 11 teams was released and was filled to the brim with notables-upon-notables. Now, like so many Agatha Christie novels, that cast of characters has been whittled down to just five (though with far less foul play and mystery than something from Ms. Christie). AECOM, Aadas Architects, Imelk, Xavier Vendrell Studio and James Corner Field Operations have made the cut, each serving as the lead firm behind a veritable army of fellow firms and designers in their respective teams (which include the likes of HOK, Arup, Bruce Mau, and Pentagram, among dozens of others). The Chicago Tribune‘s Blair Kamin has filed this great report about the updated shortlist, including how many starchitects surprisingly didn’t make the cut, and some more info on what the teams and developers have in mind. He’s a little harsh in the beginning on local architecture celebrity Jeanne Gang because her team didn’t wind up making it to round two, but unless you’re Ms. Gang yourself, don’t let that dissuade you from catching up on where the competition is now at.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The British may soon have better looking electrical pylons than we do, but we’re going to have way more attractive scaffolding, at least in New York anyway. You might remember some talk way back in January of last year when Mayor Bloomberg announced that a winner had been crowned in a hunt for a redesign of one of the city’s most ubiquitous eyesores, the sprawling scaffold. While it’s taken a while to get winning design firm Agencie Group‘s Urban Umbrella out into the wild, the NY Times reports that the far more aesthetically pleasing system will debut this month, “when it is installed in front of 100 Broadway, a 24-story office building in Lower Manhattan.” Assuming it works as advertised, it’s still sure to be something of a tough sell to both construction companies and developers who already own miles upon miles of the old stuff. However, it sure seems like it would make a site under construction a lot less horrendous and intimidating, which perhaps building owners and businesses with leases therein will take note of, considering an unhindered, regular flow of traffic for businesses is generally considered a good thing.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

While the American architecture and construction businesses might be on something of an emotional roller coaster over the past few years, with massive dips in billings met with occasional, but unfortunately never very lasting, boom periods (we remind you of the latest numbers from the AIA‘s Architecture Billings Index), the one thing the industry might have to hold on to is that Porsche will just keep building more and more massive projects. Just a few days after the automotive company announced that it would be building a large complex and test track for itself in Los Angeles, as well as a huge new headquarters in Atlanta, its been unveiled that its Porsche Design Group arm will be building, with developer Gil Dezer, a new residential tower in the Miami area, in Sunny Isles Beach. The Miami Herald reports that the 57-story building will cost an estimated $650 million to build, with each unit coming in somewhere in the neighborhood of $9 million. What does that amount get you, and why is a firm who is most well known for designing consumer goods now behind a large architectural project? Two words: glass elevators. The tower is set to feature lifts that will not only take them to their condos, but do so while they’re sitting in their cars. Here’s a bit:

Here is how it will work: After the resident pulls over and switches off the engine, a robotic arm that works much like an automatic plank will scoop up the car and put it into the elevator. Once at the desired floor, the same robotic arm will park the car, leaving the resident nearly in front of his front door. Voila, home!

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Share this:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Email

It’s already been a red letter year for the world’s favorite (and only) architecture-themed ice cream company Coolhaus, but 2011 isn’t quite over just yet. Back in May, when we’d told you that the popular truck-based company was branching out to open a new New York branch (after moving into Austin the year before), there was also news that their very first storefront shop would be opening in LA sometime over the summer. Unfortunately, like nearly any construction project, things got delayed. Fortunately, the shop finally opened just this past Friday in Culver City, a locale where ice cream can be served without it being absurd (like it would be here in Chicago). Eater LA has a first look at the shop, as well as a handful of great photos of the new digs. If you’re in the area, it certainly looks worth stopping by. And if you happen to be in Miami, they’ve also rolled out new truck service there as well. What’s next for 2012, given how they’ve quickly they’ve grown over just these past couple of years? We’d be fools to rule out global domination, that’s for sure. And we, for one, welcome our new architecture-themed-ice-cream overlords.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Back in early 2009, when the financial tidal wave really started giving everyone a soaking, it seemed like we were reporting on a starchitect losing yet another massive multi-million dollar project, usually involving a skyscraper of some sort. Sure, there are still things happening like Frank Gehry‘s troubles with the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and the perpetually-doomed fate of Norman Foster‘s Las Vegas hotel, but it doesn’t seem to carry the same “the sky is falling!” feeling that these sorts of things used to just two years ago. Whatever the case, we’re not sure whether to feel strangely fondly about this resembling the past, or view it as another loss for architecture (it’s an emotional roller coaster), so we’ll let you decide what to do with the information that Richard Rogers has seen his plans for a skyscraper above New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal disappear. Though on and off again since 2007, the NY Times reports that the project seemed to be moving forward earlier this year, with developer Vornado saying it had put together a deal with a Chinese company that would give the building the $600 million it needed. Over the last couple of months, that plan seems to have now gone astray, with the investors having taken their money to Park Avenue Plaza instead. As the paper reports, this is the second attempt Vornado has tried putting a tower atop the busy bus terminal, the first in 2000 when it tried to “build a headquarters for Cisco Systems,” but was ultimately thwarted “with the collapse of the dot-com boom.” However, this may not mean that a tower will never find itself on top of the depot, as the Port Authority has said that it will continue to review the skyscraper idea.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.