 Groupe Moniteur is a French company which helps
establish links between the construction &
development industries and the communities in
which they work. They are also the owner of
Librairie Le Moniteur - a highly specialized
bookstore a stone's throw away from the
Jardin du Luxembourg
and Théâtre du Odeon.
Filled with books on architecture, urbanism,
landscaping and interior design, Librairie Le Moniteur
is one the largest specialized bookstores in Paris
(and certainly the largest bookstore on the topic
that I've seen)...
Read the rest of: "Le Moniteur Bookstore"»  The Montreal Jazz Festival 2008 has just finished
and the city is already fevereshly preparing for the 2009 edition. You might think this is an overstatement - after all, there's almost a year left! But in fact, in this short year, one of the most important concert spaces, the plaza between Place des Arts and Rue de Bleury will have to be completely redone.
The models and renderings for the new Place des Festivals were
made public a few days ago and the city's mayor took the opportunity to
assure everybody the project is "on schedule, on budget"...
Read the rest of: "Montreal to Get New Plaza in 2009"»  Few makeover projects have been handled with such a degree of
architectural audacity as the recent transformation of a disused
electric station in Madrid's Las Huertas district into a cultural center
La Caixa Forum - Madrid.
Swiss architects
Herzog
&
de Meuron
not only gutted the building,
removing most of its interiors and changing its shape and size by
conspicuously adding a layer of several floors, they also literally
lifted it from its foundation, giving the whole structure a tense
“suspended” look.
The resulting space now houses a cultural center with its own exhibition
space, a large auditorium, a bookstore and a top-floor café...
Read the rest of: "Caixa Forum - Madrid"»  Retractable roofs have been architects' idée fixe for decades.
Moshe Safdie once wrote up an idea for
entire neighborhoods shielded by such roofs during the harsh season and
open to the elements when it's nice outside.
The path to these dreams' realization has been fraught with difficulties,
from budget overruns to full-blown engineering disasters like
Montreal's Olympic Stadium (after a decade of efforts to fix it, the
city finally gave up and installed a fixed roof in its place. It won't
be moving any time soon).
Nevertheless, projects like that pop up again and again. And so do the
difficulties. The latest example is Santiago Calatrava's project for the
Lower Manhattan Transportation Hub. Among the project's many innovative
features was a retractable roof. But will there be one in the final
implementation?
Read the rest of: "Calatrava's Transit Hub Roof Gets Stuck"»  A few weeks ago, l'EPAD - the government body
responsible for developing Paris' La Défense
district, announced the completion of an
international tender for the construction of
a new high-rise tower (La Tour Signal). The project went
to Ateliers Jean Nouvel.
The revered French architect (who is the
winner of this year's Pritzker Prize in architecture)
beat several well-known colleagues including
Jacques Ferrier Architectures,
Foster+Partners, Studio Libeskind,
and Wilmotte et Associés...
Read the rest of: "Jean Nouvel Will Build La Tour Signal"»  As many press outlets have reported, the Waldorf=Astoria
hotel will open a Montreal outpost some time in 2011.
A 250-room, 76-residence monster (officially named
The Waldorf=Astoria Hotel & Residences Montreal) will rise
a few blocks west of the Montreal Museum of Fine Art...
Read the rest of: "Waldorf=Astoria Hotel to Open in Montreal"»  I generally dislike articles that sound like advertising,
especially when they are written about foreign cities. You
know the type? Like, how everything is good in XYZ and people
are nicer and girls/boys are prettier and
things are cheaper and nobody works and everybody's happy.
A couple of years back I felt it was appropriate to
comment
on the much promoted virtues of Buenos Aires.
Right now, I feel the same
way about Berlin, except I can not claim to have lived there
myself, so I only have my scepticism to go by...
Read the rest of: "If At First You Don't Succeed, Try It Again In Berlin"» The writers' strike may be over, but not everything is going
well in Hollywood, I read in yesterday's Corriere della Sera (Milan).
The latest trend of shows and movies abandoning the city for cheaper
locales leaves the film industry capital increasingly isolated.
And if things continue down the same path, soon nobody will be filming
there (that prediction is courtesy of Carsten Lorenz who made it
in an interview with the Financial Times)...
Read the rest of: "Frankie Goes To... New York?"»  |
