Reference Page: February 2006

Shanghai Surprise
Sustainability is probably the last thing you think of in relation to China, but thanks to its enlightened governor and the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Chongming Island is on the road to becoming a model of green planning. The firm provides its own overview of the mammoth project at www.som.com along with a collection of sketches and maps. Check out a brief but thorough summary of the history of Shanghai—which appears to be sinking, possibly due to an overabundance of skyscrapers—on the site of the PBS show “Frontline”: www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/china/facts.html. But for true immersion in the city’s local culture and day-to-day events, try www.shanghaidaily.com, an English-language newspaper that offers an in-depth look at Shanghai’s quotidian life.

Flex Space
Kudos to Moore Ruble Yudell, designers of the Glorya Kaufman Hall, who were recently awarded the 2006 Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects, “the highest honor the AIA bestows on an architecture firm,” according to the press release: www.aia.org/press2_template.cfm?pagename=release_120805_firm. For more examples of the firm’s campus projects, including an addition to the UCLA law library, log on to www.mryarchitects.com. The philanthropist Glorya Kaufman, for whom the hall was christened, was twice named Brentwood Citizen of the Year. Other highlights from her biography, such as her dedication to the role of women at UCLA, can be found at www.wac.ucla.edu/kaufman.php. Read more about the African dance troupe Compagnie Jant-Bi and L’Ecole des Sables, located south of Dakar, at perso.wanadoo.fr/jant-bi.acogny/ecoledesablesE.pdf.

Clean Water Act
Lucy Orta holds the first Rootstein Hopkins chair at London College of Fashion, a part of the University of the Arts London. Aside from gawky yet functional water-purification machines created with her husband, she has also designed prophylactic clothing built for two, featured prominently on studioorta.free.fr/lucy_orta.html. For a more detailed sampling, pick up her book Lucy Orta (Phaidon, 2003), which includes interviews, essays, and process photos of her projects. A top contender for the most fanciful is Nexus Architecture/Collective Wear, a series of shiny, interconnected head-to-toe suits that force their wearers to travel in a pack. Orta’s site describes them as “more symbolic than potentially ‘useful,’” but it’s still funny to see a photo of a group wearing the suits emerge from New York’s Prince Street subway station.

Grand Planner
Google Edmund Bacon and the first reference that pops up is his foray into skateboarding at the age of 92. While this was hardly Bacon’s most distinguished accomplishment (it’s a good rule of thumb that the closer you are to 100 the less likely you are to make any real progress on a skateboard), it gives a taste of his indomitable spirit. For more on his character and its impact on Philadelphia, try www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/special_packages/society_hill/8202461. htm; the page from the Philadelphia Inquirer has a good backgrounder on Society Hill, arguably the first intentionally gentrified district. The site for the Ed Bacon Foundation, edbacon.com, has links to 15 obituaries under its “In the Newspapers” link. And finally, don’t miss the documentary My Architect, available for order at amazon.com; Bacon’s rant will undoubtedly become Exhibit A for anyone building a case on architects’ egomaniacal tendencies.

Shelter from the Storm
The Buddhist nonprofit Prajnopaya Foundation, www.prajnopaya.org, is working in tandem with the Harvard-based Tsunami Design Initiative, projects.gsd.harvard.edu/tsunami, and Carlo Ratti’s SENSEable City Laboratory, senseable.mit.edu, to build safe and efficient housing for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Another project by Ratti, a civil engineer and architect who teaches at MIT, is the exhibition No Blobs! How to Be a Digital Architect Without Making Funny Shapes, opening this month at the school. Mobile Landscape, which pictorially maps out cities’ heartbeats using cell-phone technology, is also coming to MIT this year. More information on both projects can be found on his Web site: www.carloratti.com.

The Power of Modernist Thinking
Many architects and planners have a vision, expressed or not, for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. Sadly for them, Andrés Duany got there first. Take a look at drawings for the proposed “charming” and “authentic” new buildings at the Mississippi Renewal Forum’s site, www.mississippirenewal.com/info/plansArchitecture.html, and note the refreshing contrast of Allison Anderson’s angular mixed-use residential buildings with the otherwise quaint historical structures.

A Valentine to Place
Utopias and dystopias and artificial islands…Oscar Hammerstein III would have hated them, but these are a few of Philip Nobel’s favorite things. A Web site devoted entirely to gonzo director Michael Bay (that’s michaelbay.com, of course) contains the complete shooting history of The Island, including the tidbit that in the film, L.A.’s future was played by Detroit. Moving from scary future to improbable present, go to osb.oeresundsbron.dk and click on “The Bridge” and “The Link” to learn more about the man-made Peberholm (“Pepper Island”)—located not far from Saltholm, naturally—and its creator, the Oresund Bridge Consortium. Or if you prefer fantasy, research the roots of Austin Tappan Wright’s Islandia in the collection of Harvard’s Houghton Library, lib.harvard.edu, which holds Wright’s correspondence and carbon manuscripts of the book, purportedly written by Jean Perrier, first French consul to Islandia.

The Ethics of Rugs
It seems obvious: if you have the means to buy oriental carpets and the slightest knowledge about the use of child labor in the industry, you should have the sense to ensure that the carpets you buy were not made by small children. Any excuse not to take such a precaution is rendered null and void by Rugmark Foundation USA, www.rugmark.org. The site provides a list of child-labor-free companies under the “Purchase a Rugmark carpet” heading, along with stores, organized by state, where Rugmark-certified products can be found. Still not convinced that shopping Rugmark is the way to go? Well, keep this in mind: these people have met the Dalai Lama, and he called their endeavor “wise.” So you can have a rug endorsed by the Dalai Lama or not. Your call.

From the Ashes
SFMOMA’s 1906 Earthquake: A Disaster in Pictures, www.sfmoma.org, is one of many activities planned in the Bay Area to commemorate the tremor’s centennial. The 1906 Earthquake Centennial Alliance, www.1906centennial.org, helpfully gathers together a full slate of lectures, performances, exhibits, and more for the seismically minded. Eadweard Muybridge, the oddly named, pioneering nineteenth-century photographer, is celebrated for more than just his brilliant 1878 panoramic photos of pre-quake San Francisco—shot using a kite-suspended contraption he called a “captive airship”—which are displayed in the form of 13 expandable thumbnails at www.americahurrah.com/SanFrancisco/Muybridge/Muybridge.html. He is also responsible for a series of groundbreaking motion studies, such as the 1878 images proving Leland Stanford’s theory that a horse’s hooves are suspended above the ground for a brief moment while trotting. The UCR/California Museum of Photography has lovingly animated 100 of these fascinating studies: photo.ucr.edu/photographers/muybridge. Note to the prurient or easily offended: some of the pages contain Victorian-era nudity.

Slim City, Mexico
Fundación del Centro Histórico founder Carlos Slim Helú has pumped millions of his billions into the revitalization of Mexico City’s downtown district: www.viveelcentro.com/docs/index.php. But no one reaches the gilded aerie of global moneymakers without making a few hard-nosed bargains. In particular, critics suggest that he got a sweetheart deal on Telmex when it was privatized in 1990. Forbes magazine, which lists Slim as the richest man in Latin America, recently outlined his role in Verizon’s bid to take over MCI: www.forbes.com/business/2005/04/11/cx_de_0411vz.html.