HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ARCHITECTUREWEEK

All of us at ArchitectureWeek wish you a joyful Solstice, Ramadan, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanza, and a Happy New Year for 2001.

In observance of winter holidays, ArchitectureWeek No. 31 is a two week jumbo issue. ArchitectureWeek No. 32, including the articles previewed here, will be released in the first week of January, 2001.

GreatBuildings.com Photo © Howard Davis

A FIELD GUIDE TO META-NARRATIVES

How do you explain puzzling, off-kilter modern architecture to the lay public? While architectural intellectuals may be satisfied with terms like "post-structural," "deconstructed," or "otherness," clear explanations are less easy to come by. Now Brenda Case Scheer has come to the rescue with her practical approach to introducing inexplicable architecture to visitors. An architect and University of Cincinnati professor, Scheer has come up with tongue-in-cheek "meta-narratives" to explain the Aronoff addition to the UC College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, designed by Peter Eisenman.

RANCHES, ROWHOUSES, AND RAILROAD FLATS

During the first decades of the twentieth century, new rowhouses reflected many of the same popular concerns that underlay the design of their detached counterparts. At the same time that the bungalow craze was sweeping the country, for example, rows of small homes known as "porch houses" were built along the trolley lines now extending outward into new sections of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. In our next issue, Christine Hunter traces the history of rowhouses and other residential forms in an excerpt from her new book, "Ranches, Rowhouses, and Railroad Flats: American Homes—How They Shape Our Landscape and Neighborhoods."

ELEGANT EFFICIENCY AT ZION CANYON

The new Zion Canyon Visitor and Transportation Center, in Springdale, Utah, is one of the National Park Service's most efficient complexes. The Visitor Center incorporates daylighting, Trombe walls for passive solar heating, downdraft cool towers (pictured) for natural ventilation, energy-efficient lighting, and advanced building controls. A roof-mounted photovoltaic system provides backup electrical power. As a result of these features, the new building saves money and reduces the building's impact on the park's fragile environment.