The Architect's Newspaper September 2022
A remembrance of Claes Oldenburg resurfaces the tale of an early monument page 16
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Mauricio Rocha extends Museo Anahuacalli using volcanic stone page 20
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In San Francisco, AN checks in with Jensen Architects page 22
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Gehry Partners completes a boxy campus in Watts for Children’s Institute page 24
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Open In Construction Case Studies Marketplace Highlights
Endurance & Change in California As California goes, so goes this issue of AN. Through the four articles in this feature section, we traverse Los Angeles’s new 6th Street Viaduct, eyeball the insufficiency of tiny home villages, feel out the robust constructions of wildfire country, and revisit the eminently topical work of architect Gregory Ain. Read on page 31.
The past few years have demonstrated Big Tech’s desire for brand-new “Big and Loud” buildings. Thankfully, Chicago has remained relatively immune to the trend: Unlike Norman Foster’s Apple Park in Cupertino or Amazon’s “Helix” headquarters in Arlington, Virginia (known for its “poop emoji” helical form), tech companies in Chicago have maintained a conservative architectural footprint that, surprisingly, has relied on existing building stock. Google, the most prominent of those tech giants, landed in Chicago’s West Loop in 2015 after rehabbing a modest cold storage building into an unshowy office loft that inspired less “architectural marvel” than it did property value growth in the surrounding neighborhood. But in July, Google announced that it will expand its offices into the James R. Thompson Center (JRTC)— launching its own local “Big and Loud” presence through adaptive reuse. Designed by Helmut Jahn and built in 1985 to house State of continued on page 13
On Bramante
BAS PRINCEN
On Bramante is a dense, rich, strange, and provocative book. Written in Italian and translated into English before the Italian edition has been released, the book runs to more than 205 pages of intense prose with an additional 66 pages of often-lengthy footnotes. The main text is divided into 49 sections, often short, accompanied by a set of 35 images. An additional 32 beautiful photographs of Bramante’s work by Bas Princen bracket the book in a perfect symmetry of two blocks of 16. Unfortunately, these images, which were made during an excursion organized by San Rocco and led by Tamburelli eight years ago, receive little commentary in the text. (Full disclosure: I was one of the 70 architects on that initial 2014 bus tour around Italy in search of Bramante’s work.) Princen’s images highlight the proportional logic that governs the book and express the “rationalist” position of the author. The first half of Tamburelli’s book addresses that aspect of Bramante’s work that the author, borrowing from Giorgio Grassi, calls “logical,” while the second half addresses the aspect of his work that Tamburelli labels “political.” Throughout, the reader is presented with a feast of theoretical ideas, ideological continued on page 62
Three Women Deans Three women deans recently departed their posts: Eva Franch i Gilabert of the Architectural Association (AA), Lesley Lokko of the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York (CCNY), and Harriet Harriss of the Pratt School of Architecture. It’s risky to write about these events as linked happenings, as the circumstances are varied enough that any generalization threatens to flatten the particulars of each context. Nevertheless, not making general observations avoids the significance of these departures and the institutional lessons that might be learned. Prior reporting in AN about Franch i Gilabert, Lokko, and Harriss, in chronological order, among other publications, established the facts of each dean’s situation. The departures are very different personally—especially along the fired/resigned axis—and institutionally: The AA is private, tuition-driven, and a continued on page 10
Technology The Architect’s Newspaper 25 Park Place, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10007
Better than a Poop Emoji?
JOE FLETCHER
The latest in software and solar, plus a Tech+ preview. Read on page 41.
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