Category: visual

London’s historic rail station at Paddington has gotten a reprieve from the train company that planned to demolish it to make way for an office development. “The proposed demolition… had approval from Westminster council and English Heritage, but was fought passionately by architectural historians. If it had gone ahead it would have been the most extensive destruction of a Grade I structure” since historical listing of buildings began in the UK.

“Thieves have stolen more than 200 items – with an estimated value of $5m – from Russia’s prestigious Hermitage art museum in St Petersburg.” Most of the stolen goods are thought to be jewelry and other enameled objects, and the theft was discovered after museum officials performed a routine check of their inventory over the weekend.

“Is the tableau vivant passé? Not for the 155,000 fans who flock to this beachside town each summer for the pageant. For them, the two-month extravaganza — a $4.1 million production that includes sets and lighting for nearly 40 art pieces on eight staging areas with live narration and orchestra — weaves a magic that is a welcome palliative to the freneticism of modern-day entertainment… The pageant sells out all of its 61 shows and generates about $1.8 million for local arts programs, exhibitions and scholarships.”

Robert Mapplethorpe is best remembered for photos that were calculated to shock: who can forget the famous bullwhip photo? But there was so much more to Mapplethorpe’s work, and a new exhibit in the UK aims to highlight the softer side of the controversial photographer. “He helped create a look as well as commenting on it. Or perhaps it wasn’t so much a look as an atmosphere: cool, dark, edgy, dangerously sexy, horrifically hip, hard and brittle.”

The London Eye (it’s that giant Ferris Wheel on the bank of the Thames) is one of the city’s most identifiable landmarks, and over the years, it has stood the test of time as a brilliantly designed urban feature. Now, the husband-and-wife architectural team who designed the Eye are planning a “sleek new observation tower” and several other high-profile projects.

“In a move sure to please all who crave details from lifestyles of the rich and tax-exempt, the J. Paul Getty Trust has followed through on its pledge in June to add a boatload of public disclosures to its website… Many of the figures were already part of the trust’s mandated annual tax filings. But these disclosures, more detailed than those offered by any other Los Angeles arts organization, mean an inquiring Web surfer, having found and learned the details of Rubens and Brueghel’s 17th century friendship from the Getty’s “exhibitions” pages, can then click on “about us” and “governance” and dive into deep numbers or such fanciful reading as the 53-year-old fine print on the trust indenture by which oil billionaire J. Paul Getty created the institution.”

Rome’s ancient monuments are crumbling, and as best anyone can tell, the Italian government isn’t doing a thing about it. “Everyone has heard of sinking Venice, but only a restricted circle of academics wring their hands over crumbling Rome. Yet, for lack of funds, the city’s ancient centre is inexorably deteriorating.” Recent torrential rains have brought the situation to a head, with experts fearing the worst if something isn’t done to stabilize the monuments soon.

“This June, after winning two U.S. prizes, Bruce Kuwabara received the prestigious Royal Architectural Institute of Canada gold medal at age 57, becoming the first of his generation to join the ranks of Jack Diamond, Arthur Erickson and Moshe Safdie… Kuwabara has made it his challenge to build harmonies in the cacophonous cityscape, but his interests are now moving in new directions. [Lately,] he has been reconsidering Toronto’s peculiar challenges.”

Workers in France are putting the finishing touches on a massive church designed (but never completed) by architect Le Corbusier. “Completed by [Corbusier] protégé José Oubrerie, who has tinkered with many elements of the original sketches, the Church of St. Pierre has stirred debate among Parisian academics about the ethics of finishing a work left behind by a legendary architect.”

The expansion plan for London’s Tate Museum unveiled this week is “a powerful, memorable project, that would have seemed inconceivable when the new Tate was first mooted. Without being showy for the sake of making a spectacle, it takes the form of a glass mountain rearing up behind Giles Gilbert Scott’s brick cliff and clearly visible from the river and St Paul’s.”