Results tagged “herbertmuschamp”

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a confined space rescue at The Beverly Hotel on 50th St. in Manhattan, a pedestrian struck on West 145th St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan, and a fall victim on West 24th St. in Manhattan.
• Former NY State chief judge Sol Wachtler got his law license back, 14 years after pleading guilty to being a stalker.
• Some Jewish leaders are angry that Mayor Bloomberg met with London mayor Ken Livingstone, who Councilman Dov Hikind calls an anti-Semite racist. If it's any comfort to critics, it looks like taking a public bus ride with a mayor nicknamed "Red Ken" was Bloomberg just being a gracious guest.
• Herbert Muschamp, the architecture critic for The New York Times between 1992 and 2004, passed away yesterday
• Two Brooklyn parents were killed in a car accident upstate when the driver overcorrected after losing control and he crossed into oncoming traffic on a highway near Goshen, NY. Their four-month-old child and two friends survived the crash.
• Fishing for sport or fishing for dinner? Some argue that eating reel-caught fish is fine, which worries some lawmakers.
• Brooklyn Heights Blog features a report (with pictures) of George Clooney shooting a film on Middagh St. today.
• The two cops injured in a shootout in the Bronx this morning had to go undergo alcohol testing––the first time it's happened since the department's new policy was implemented. A union official said that giving a "Breathalyzer" to shot cops was demoralizing and degrading.

Gothamist gets what Pederson is saying, but U.F.O.'s aren't bad: Think about the Guggenheim, both in NY and Bilbao. Another urban building that looks like nothing else around it might seems amazing: The new Seattle Public Library, which Rem Koolhaas and OMA designed. If you're in Seattle after the opening (May 23), architectural tours start on June 5. Check out Herbert Muschamp's review of the building that breaks greg.org's streak of hating Muschamp, for crying out loud.

See the proposed designs here, or go to Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central, where you can view them over the next two weeks. Gothamist likes the twisted towers, pictured above, from (corrected) Henning Larsens Tegnestue. Dutch firm MRVDV also has a designed; we've loved their pig farm design. Other designers include Zaha Hadid, Thom Mayne (LA), and Smith-Miller & Hawkinson (NY).

Herbert Muschamp it: "The tower is effervescent, lighter than air. Yet its impact on the skyline is likely to be profound, not merely as an individual work of genius but as an example of what can be achieved when a city rediscovers the quality of delight." (The building reminded him of Warhol's Silver Clouds.) Muschamp also gives Calatrava a reading list.

How unlikely is it that after the public fuss of choosing a new building and complex for the WTC site and a WTC memorial, the Port Authority now seems like the smartest city agency for simply choosing a brilliant designer to design the new transit hub? Daniel Libeskind seems like a tyrant, David Childs is Silverstein's man, the LMDC seems hopelessly caught between a number of constituents. Whereas Santiago Calatrava swoops in and proposes a transit hub that might be the most magical and rapturous structure that breathes life and brilliance into the WTC site. Maybe that's why Gothamist likes the transit hub better than Freedom Tower: It's at street level, where you can appraise it better, versus a tall building you just see from afar; it's for everyday use as a commuter station, versus an office building we may never work in. Thank you, Santiago Calatrava and Port Authority. And thank you, Daniel Libeskind, for graciously working with Calatrava to make sure his design fit in your master plan.

The design, Reflecting Absence, by Michael Arad and new collaborator, Peter Walker, was selected to be the WTC Memorial. This design incorporate two submerged pools in the space where the towers once stood. Arad, an architect with the City Housing Authority, worked with Walker, a landscape architect who formerly headed the Harvard Landscape Architect Department; the Times has more about both designers. Mayor Bloomberg is especially proud that Arad is a city employee.

The billion dollar Brooklyn dreams of developer Bruce Ratner were unveiled yesterday, with the centerpiece being the Frank Gehry designed arena. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said, "Forget the Dodgers – Brooklyn’s future is the Nets." He added, "We are on the threshold of restoring Brooklyn to its rightful place on the national sports stage. Brooklyn, as everyone knows, is a world class city, and it deserves a world class team playing in a world class arena designed by a world class architect." Our man Marty, once you same world class for the third time, it loses meaning, though we get your point.

The unveiling of the eight finalists for the WTC Memorial was met with a range of reactions, from inspired and pleased to underwhelmed and disappointed. The NY Times has had excellent coverage of the competition and they have a special section on the Memorial. Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp gives his assessment both in print and in an audio slide slow: Muschamp credits the WTC memorial competition staff for running the competition well and the jurors for not only insulating themselves from the heated politics, but also for choosing young designers. However, he feels the designs are "overproduced," but there is potential in a few designs, it would be better to err on the side of simplicity. He suggests that we're still too close to September 11 to really digest what a memorial should be like. His favorites, though both are busy, are Suspending Memory and Reflecting Absence, which both use water but in inverted ways.

The Port Authority announced that Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava will be designing the transit hub at Ground Zero, in association with NY engineering firms DMJM + Harris and STV Group Inc. Newsday says that Daniel Libeskind (who did not apply for the project) approves, calling Calatrava's work "outstanding." Herbert Muschamp is ecstatic about Calatrava: "The choice of Mr. Calatrava is the clearest sign yet that the rebuilding of ground zero will be an achievement of cosmopolitan dimensions." Muschamp also calls him "the greatest living poet of transportation architecture" and after looking at Calatrava's website, Gothamist agrees his work is majestic.

Last week, Herbert Muschamp went ga-ga over the new street lighting fixtures downtown, which were designed Cooper, Robertson and Partners. Muschamp goes on to say that he "usually resists" beautification projects and distrusts business improvement distracts, but he's extremely taken by the Alliance for Downtown NY's efforts with these street lamps, which he calls "lights at the end of my tunnel."

New Yorkers for Parks, a watchdog group for New Yorkers and their Parks, issued their Report Card on Parks, last week. Newsday analyzed the information and says that 40% of the parks flunked, but adds that the report card only looked at small and medium sized parks and might have been extremely tough with its grading.

According to this NY Times article, at least some members of the LMDC are leaning towards the THINK design for ground zero. Apparently the final showdown is tomorrow. I, of course, am for Liebeskind. [Jen]: I actually like the Think Design proposal. More about the PR craziness that has come with the design finalists, and final comments from Herbert Muschamp.