buildings news
Neutra Unsold
Richard Neutra’s house for Edgar Kaufmann in Palm Springs was auctioned at Christie’s in May (here’s the PDF flyer ), sandwiched between other modern painters and sculptors. Bidding started at $9.5M. and it sold for US $16.8M. Phew – though they were expecting up to $25M. The Art Newspaper revealed last week that a week after the auction, it all came unstuck. They quote Christie’s as saying, “the Kaufmann House contract has been terminated by the seller by reason of a breach of its terms by the buyer.” They must be worrying about their $1.8M commission…
12.08.08 in buildings
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Sydney Opera House #1 wonder
The Brits apparently think the SOH is it in terms of modern wonders. A survey of 2000 Britons by a travel insurance company rates SOH at #1 ahead of worthy wonders the Eiffel Tower (#2) and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio (#3). The only other building down this end to make the list is the Petronas Towers at 6th equal with the Kremlin. The Ground Zero hole makes #8.
12.08.08 in buildings
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Klein Bottle House
McBride Charles Ryan’s twisted Klein Bottle House in Rye won the top 2008 Residential Award at the RAIA state awards.
10.07.08 in buildings
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Comment [1]
Wellington airport
Studio of Pacific Architecture and Warren and Mahoney have designed the new extensions to Wellington’s boxy old airport. Architect elder, Russell Walden, isn’t pleased with the new look, variously described as rock-like, pumpkin-like, and Flintstones-like.
The vox pop is predictably anti. My snobby favourites on the first of 17 pages are, “Avant Guard naivety” and “it looks hence”.
21.02.08 in buildings
Fat scraper
Lord Norman has just received planning approval for “Crystal Tower” in Moscow. The 500m tall building has a pretty wide base of 620m, and has been likened to a transparent wigwam. Some local architects weren’t too hot on it – Yuri Bocharov complained: “This idea of Foster’s has been wandering all over the world. Why does it have to settle on us?
05.01.08 in buildings
Sydney Opera House
SOH – The Guardian (UK) had a major feature on Sydney’s Opera House last week, as part of it’s Great Modern Buildings series. It includes Utzon’s first interview after his departure from the project, and a short homage by Thomas Keneally.
20.10.07 in buildings
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Great modern buildings
A Guardian special, with an introduction by Jonathan Glancey. An unlikely bunch of famous names write about the buildings – Germaine Greer on Notre Dame du Haut:
13.10.07 in buildings
Opera House ups and downs
30.06.07 – The Opera House has just made it onto the World Heritage List, so that’s good.
30.06.07 in buildings heritage
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