All posts tagged: Architect

Italian Architect and Designer Gaetano Pesce Has Died at 84

Italian Architect and Designer Gaetano Pesce Has Died at 84

Published by skeptic

The Italian architect and designer Gaetano Pesce, who was known for his often surreal designs that straddled the worlds of art, design, and industry, has died at age 84. His daughter, Milena Pesce, told the New York Times that the artist died from a stroke. The news of his passing was confirmed in a statement from his studio on Instagram early April 4: “It is with a heavy heart we announce the passing of visionary creator Gaetano Pesce.⁠ Over the course of six decades, Gaetano revolutionized the worlds of art, design, architecture, and the liminal spaces between these categories. His originality and nerve are matched by none.⁠”⁠The statement continued: “Despite dealing with health-related setbacks, especially in the last year, Gaetano remained positive, playful, and ever-curious. He is survived by his children, family, and all who adored him. His uniqueness, creativity, and special message live on through his art.”⁠ Related Articles Born in La Spezia, Italy in 1939, Pesce received a degree in architecture from the University of Venice. Between 1958 and 1963, he participated in the …

An interview with architect Clint Nagata, founder of BLINK Design Group

An interview with architect Clint Nagata, founder of BLINK Design Group

Published by Sam

After graduation, Nagata started in WATG after responding to an advertisement. He came to know about the firm after applying for a travel grant. “It was about visiting these exclusive resorts designed by WATG. Maybe I just wanted to go on holiday,” Nagata chuckled. He did not get the grant but he certainly gained much more at WATG. The firm was influential in shaping his philosophy and methodology. In particular, Nagata credits three mentors. “The first, Don Goo, was a really good businessman and presenter. He was very good at the big vision and would come out with these ideas that seemed so out there. My second mentor Kevin Chan, who was also a partner, taught me about design. When I joined the firm, I had just graduated and didn’t understand proportion and space. He would say: ‘Don’t design a column based on it being 600mm in diameter on plan; design it based on the proportions of a space’,” Nagata recalled. From a third partner Eugene Wanatabe, he learnt the technical aspects of architecture. “I …

AOL-Time Warner Architect Was 84

AOL-Time Warner Architect Was 84

Published by Sam

Gerald Levin, the visionary executive in the early days of HBO whose career will be forever marred after he orchestrated the merger of Time Warner and AOL, a debacle that destroyed the value of employees’ retirement accounts and culminated in a historic $100 billion write-down, has died. He was 84. Levin died Wednesday in a hospital, his grandchild Jake Maia Arlow told The New York Times. He had battled Parkinson’s disease since being diagnosed in 2006 and lived most recently in Long Beach, California. Levin was an attorney who worked for a year in Iran before joining HBO at its inception in 1972 as a programming executive. He was promoted to CEO a year later, and a year after that he convinced parent company Time Inc. to take HBO to cable companies nationwide via satellite technology, earning him the nickname of “resident genius.” The Philadelphia native and University of Pennsylvania Law School graduate was elected a Time board member in 1988 and quickly helped arrange the company’s $14 billion acquisition of Warner Communications, bringing Warner …

Architect of failed border deal hits Biden over immigration policy in SOTU

Architect of failed border deal hits Biden over immigration policy in SOTU

Published by skeptic

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) jabbed President Biden over his comments on the failed border bill in the State of the Union address last week. Co-host Jake Tapper played a video of Lankford mouthing, “That’s true,” when Biden said the failed bipartisan Senate deal on the border would have hired more border patrol agents and immigration judges to help speed up the asylum process. Lankford said that while what Biden said was true, he was leaving out some of the executive actions he could take on the border. “I could hear some of my colleagues around me saying none of that’s true. And I was actually listening. The president said. No, that part actually is true. It would have hired all those additional agents, it would have expedited the process, would have also changed the asylum standard so we can go through much faster,” Lankford said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The only way to be able to solve this problem right now legally, is to be able to change the asylum standard, and to …

Legal experts say Trump’s Jan. 6 architect has a “new perjury problem”: His “goose looks cooked”

Legal experts say Trump’s Jan. 6 architect has a “new perjury problem”: His “goose looks cooked”

Published by skeptic

Former Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, one of the architects in the former president’s fake elector plot, may have a “perjury” problem over his testimony to a Nevada grand jury. The Washington Post on Monday reported on a cache of documents in the Nevada grand jury probe of the fake elector scheme, including Chesebro’s statements to the panel. Chesebro told the grand jury that he saw “pending litigation” as pivotal to the plot to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss.  “The whole point of the alternate elector plan that we arrived at in Wisconsin is the idea is we make sure that we have the extra three weeks to try to win the lawsuit,” the right-wing lawyer said, according to a transcript. “If there isn’t any lawsuit then there’s no need for this to be done because there’s no lawsuit that would be won before January 6th.” However, in an email sent in December of 2020, Chesebro alleged, “I think having the electors send in alternate slates of votes on Dec. 14 can pay huge dividends even if there is …

Niklaus Wirth, Visionary Software Architect, Dies at 89

Niklaus Wirth, Visionary Software Architect, Dies at 89

Published by skeptic

In 1999, an up-and-coming software engineer in Switzerland was preparing for a conference in France when he learned that the Swiss computer scientist Niklaus Wirth, a pioneer in the field, was also attending and would be on the same flight. The engineer, Kent Beck, had never met Dr. Wirth. But, he recalled in an interview, upon arriving at the airport he told the gate agent: “My colleague Professor Wirth and I are flying together. Would it be possible for us to sit together?” Mr. Beck, who would eventually become a well-known programmer in his own right, said that sitting next to Dr. Wirth and talking shop was comparable to a young singer getting the chance to perform with Taylor Swift. Among other feats in computer history, Dr. Wirth had created Pascal, an influential programming language in the early days of personal computing. “It was out of character for me to be that bold,” Mr. Beck said of his duplicity, “but I would have regretted it the rest of my life.” The agent assigned him the …

Architect Embraces Indigenous Worldview in Australian Designs

Architect Embraces Indigenous Worldview in Australian Designs

Published by Sam

Jefa Greenaway will never forget the first time he heard his father’s voice. It was in 2017, when he was watching a documentary about Indigenous Australians’ fight to be recognized in the country’s Constitution. “It was poignant, surreal,” Mr. Greenaway recalled. “In one word: emotional.” In the film, his father, Bert Groves, an Indigenous man and a civil rights activist born in 1907, recounts how he was prevented from pursuing an education because of the size of his skull, a victim of phrenology, the pseudoscience that lingered in Australia into the 20th century. Now 53, Mr. Greenaway was just a baby when his father died, leaving him to be raised in Australia by his German mother. Yet his father’s values — like championing Indigenous rights and valuing education — were inculcated in the young boy. Mr. Greenaway is today one of what he estimates to be fewer than 20 registered Indigenous architects in Australia. He’s also a leading proponent of what is known as “Country-centered design,” which brings an Aboriginal worldview to building projects. “People …

Architect Breaks Down the Design Of Four Iconic New York City Museums: the Met, MoMA, Guggenheim & Frick

Architect Breaks Down the Design Of Four Iconic New York City Museums: the Met, MoMA, Guggenheim & Frick

Published by José

Con­text may not count for every­thing in art. But as under­scored by every­one from Mar­cel Duchamp (or Elsa von Frey­tag-Lor­ing­hoven) to the jour­nal­ists who occa­sion­al­ly con­vince vir­tu­oso musi­cians to busk in dingy pub­lic spaces, it cer­tain­ly counts for some­thing. Whether or not you believe that works of art retain the same essen­tial val­ue no mat­ter where they’re beheld, some envi­ron­ments are sure­ly more con­ducive to appre­ci­a­tion than oth­ers. The ques­tion of just which design ele­ments make the dif­fer­ence has occu­pied muse­um archi­tects for cen­turies, and in New York City alone, you can direct­ly expe­ri­ence more than 200 years of bold exer­cis­es and exper­i­ments in the form. In the Archi­tec­tur­al Digest video above, archi­tect Michael Wyet­zn­er (pre­vi­ous­ly fea­tured here on Open Cul­ture for his exege­ses of New York’s apart­ments, bridges, and sub­way sta­tions, as well as Cen­tral Park and the Chrysler Build­ing) uses his expert knowl­edge to reveal the design choic­es that have gone into the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art, the Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, the Solomon R. Guggen­heim Muse­um, and the Frick Col­lec­tion. No two of …

‘I didn’t feel like I was supporting a regime’: architect David Chipperfield on working for China | Architecture

‘I didn’t feel like I was supporting a regime’: architect David Chipperfield on working for China | Architecture

Published by skeptic

A young woman wearing a short pleated skirt and a white bobble hat is posing for photos on a street corner in Shanghai, telling her friend to ensure that a red brick, colonial-era building features in the background. Nearby, a woman in stilettos and fur coat is being photographed in an arched doorway framed by classical mouldings, while another perches on a windowsill, coffee in hand next to a carved column. The alleyways behind are filled with similar scenes: people posing on steps, next to lampposts or in front of plain brick walls. This surreal swarm of influencers is now a daily sight at Rockbund, a $1bn mixed-use development that includes the restoration of a dozen 1930s buildings, led by the British architect David Chipperfield. It seems an unlikely place to have become a social media sensation: a row of vaguely classical brick frontages now occupied by restaurants, boutiques and coffee shops, with office and apartment blocks rising behind. But a quick look on social media – Douyin (TikTok) and Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book, an …

Gareth Jenkins, architect of Post Office scandal, demands immunity

Gareth Jenkins, architect of Post Office scandal, demands immunity

Published by Sam

Gareth Jenkins has twice had his appearance at the inquiry postponed – Jeff Gilbert for the Telegraph The architect of the faulty Horizon IT system, who gave evidence used to convict sub-postmasters, has demanded immunity before agreeing to appear at the public inquiry. Gareth Jenkins, who is understood to have been instrumental in developing the software as a senior computer engineer at Fujitsu, is under police investigation over his role in the Post Office scandal. His testimony given in court cases that the Fujitsu IT system was working correctly was central to convictions and repeatedly used by Post Office lawyers. Tracked down by The Telegraph to his home in Berkshire, Mr Jenkins, 69, said, when asked if he was sorry for what had happened: “I don’t want to talk. I don’t have anything to say to you.” Cannot be used against him Mr Jenkins has twice sought a guarantee that any testimony he gives to the inquiry cannot be used against him in any possible prosecution and his testimony has also been delayed twice. On …