Category: visual

“Calling congressional sprawl a visitor center was a con. It also lowered expectations. No need to match the original structure’s aspiration or attempt to invigorate the way Congress works if the thing is just about ticketing and coat checking.”

“The challenge of presenting information clearly has become more difficult as the volume of data has exploded, and new types have emerged. Traditional design formulas, like graphs and pie charts, are fine for interpreting facts, but not for illustrating the complexities of contemporary life such as population shifts or the structure of an online social network. A new type of imagery was needed to depict their subtleties and fluidity. Cue visualization.”

A Miami Herald survey of dozens of exhibitors at the Basel show and surrounding fairs found only 16 percent seeing sales growth, while about a third said sales were flat with two more days to go. Nearly a fifth of the galleries surveyed reported sales down at least 30 percent compared with last year.

Philadelphia’s skyline has always been a slow-developing phenomenon, and every new skyscraper seems to create controversy. The latest proposal “for a 1,500-foot office tower called the American Commerce Center has supporters “behaving like teenage girls at the opening of Twilight… They’re so entranced by the record-breaking stature of the proposed skyscraper that they seem not to have noticed that the object of their affection is a fat, hulking copycat.”

“By putting art ahead of the bottom line, the Museum of Contemporary Art has nearly killed itself… Now the California attorney general has begun an audit to determine if the museum broke laws governing the use of restricted money by nonprofit organizations. And local artists, curators and collectors, including current and former board members, are lobbying to remove the museum’s director, Jeremy Strick, its board, or both.”

“When Libby Lumpkin suddenly resigned as executive director of the Las Vegas Art Museum on Tuesday, some board members were left scratching their heads over what happened… Lumpkin has offered her resignation before when times were tough. This time, board President Jim Zeiter and president-elect Patrick Duffy accepted her resignation.”

“Two of Britain’s most-renowned architects are in the running for the single most audacious renovation in history: the redevelopment of Mecca. Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid are among 18 architects to have been approached about redesigning Islam’s holiest city by building a mosque complex to host the three million Haj pilgrims who visit every year.”

The Maltese government has approved a plan for architect Renzo Piano to undertake a reconstruction that could change the face of Valletta, the country’s capital. While the old walled city is filled with attractive Baroque buildings, the City Gate as it stands now is notoriously rundown and unattractive. Piano is to design a new landmark structure for the City Gate as well as a new Parliament building on the site of the old Royal Opera House.

The apostle of New Urbanism and designer of Seaside, Florida (and, not incidentally, an ally of the famously retro Prince Charles) “flew in from America and yesterday unveiled a 64-point litany of mistakes made by British architects and planners over the last 50 years. He accused architects of being ‘infantile’ in pursuing ego-driven visions and said they were ‘heedless of technical and social dysfunction and widespread lack of popularity’ caused by their designs.”

“Although a national portrait collection was begun 20 years ago, it was housed inadequately at Old Parliament House and has only now found a home built for the job. The 14,000 square metre, $87.8 million[Aus] building, designed by Johnson Pilton Walker, sits on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin, next to the High Court and the National Gallery.”