Ada Louise Huxtable
by Michael J. Crosbie

When she died on January 7, Ada Louise Huxtable, America's first full-time architecture critic to write for a newspaper, went out the way she came in. She joined the New York Times in 1963 and a half-century later she continued to write intelligent and at times lacerating architectural criticism for the Wall Street Journal. In her last published piece, she heaped scorn upon architect Norman Foster's scheme to gut the stacks of the landmark New York Public Library. It was published three weeks before her death at the age of 91.

Huxtable made architecture a household word. While earlier writers had written about architecture on an occasional basis in newspapers and in elite outlets such as the New Yorker, Huxtable made it part of daily conversation.

In the decade following her arrival at the Times, newspapers around the country began to hire their own full-time architecture critics—such as Paul Gapp at the Chicago Tribune. In 1970, Huxtable won the first Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism, and went on to win a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship in 1981.

Huxtable viewed architecture not just in terms of style and aesthetics, but as a living, breathing manifestation of what a culture valued. No single building really mattered to Huxtable — she was interested in how groups of buildings, urban spaces, street life, neighborhoods, sunlight, air, and materials came together to create a place. She wrote about how politics and money shaped architecture. Huxtable approached architecture not as a refined art above the fray of the everyday, but as the spice that gave the built environment its flavor.   >>>

2013 - Year of Climate Decision
by Kevin Matthews

Either by action, or by inaction, it's most likely that the climate decision will be made this year.

The decision, simply put, is whether to step aside from business-as-usual, and fully mobilize, or to generally continue business as usual, and condem humanity to a thousand years of torture.

The decisiveness of this particular historical moment is highlighted by an important new paper in Nature (with the classically obscure name, Probabilistic Cost Estimates for Climate Change Mitigation) which finds first, that when we start serious change is the most important factor in limiting the damage from climate change, and second, that we have to start serious change now, with policy shifts comparable to an international carbon price of $60 a tonne by 2015, to, essentially, save the day.

The study further finds that if we wait until 2020 to make our pivot to serious change, the effort would have to be equivalent to an international carbon price of $150 per tonne.

If we wait until 2025, then there's no realistic level of effort modeled by the researchers that would have a reasonable likelihood of preventing devastating (and multiplying) impacts.   >>>

Staying Put in Style: Baring All
by Duo Dickinson

Most American suburban homes have more walls than people want. There are two types of walls in most homes: those that carry weight (bearing walls) and those that don't (nonbearing walls).

Removing walls that carry weight means that you have to have beams and columns to carry that load down through the home to the ground. Walls that act only as curtains can simply be pulled back and removed.

In this typical small suburban Cape, there were a few walls too many, so those were removed to fully connect the living spaces.

In the living room where an existing column had to be pulled back to accommodate a new entry path, the end of the existing beam was left to cantilever to carry the load above but its underside was cut to a gentle curve to make a potentially awkward element a visual feature.

Similarly, a staircase that divided the two social areas of the house had been enclosed by two walls and those two areas were further separated by a door.

By leaving the stairs in place, removing all the walls above the stringers (the diagonal trim on either side of the steps themselves) and the door, and adding an open railing, maximum visual connection was achieved   >>>

People and  Places
by ArchitectureWeek

AIA New Hampshire Design Awards — Richard Meier & Partners in Hamburg, Germany — Balthazar Korab - 1926 to 2013 — Foster + Partners in New York City — AIA National Design Awards — Ratcliff in Cupertino, California

AIA New Hampshire Design Awards - Nubanusit Lakehouse
"The jury enjoyed how this house grappled with the topography and found opportunities to take advantage of the steeply sloping site to provide outdoor living spaces and amenities for the home.

"The simple, covered connector between the two primary volumes addresses a functional need while framing the uphill edge of an outdoor room that brings together the entire composition. The jury found the materials and forms well suited to the site and local building traditions.

"The home is modest in scale but entirely livable. Through thoughtful detailing and engineering, the house achieved remarkable energy efficiency, being heated by a single air-to-air heat pump. In its elegant balance of scale and amenity, this residence is a refreshing take on the traditionally grandiose lakeside home."   >>>

Flexible LED Module The new GE Infusion™ LED module offers a flexible, long-lasting, energy-saving lighting solution for commercial environments. Available in a range of lumen packages with high CRI and color temperature options, the modules provide consistent, stable, dimmable white light. Easily maintained and upgraded, with a simple twist-and-lock fit.  More info, photometric files, and CAD drawings

 

 

Five years ago in ArchitectureWeek:

    Aldo Leopold Legacy Center, by ArchitectureWeek

 

    Climate Findings Update, by ArchitectureWeek

   "The world is changing today in a way that has never happened before in the history of architecture."

 

    David Chipperfield Stirling Prize, by ArchitectureWeek

 

    Milwaukee's Urban Ecology Center, by Kevin Matthews

 

Ten years ago in ArchitectureWeek:

    IKEA Threatens Breuer Icon, by ArchitectureWeek

 

    Housing by Holl, by James McCown

 

    Patterns of Home, by Max Jacobson, Murray Silverstein, and Barbara Winslow