Category: reviews

Monograph or Manifesto? Fernau + Hartman’s Improvisations on the Land

I’m always a little surprised when my free issue of Architectural Record arrives, seeing as I haven’t subscribed to it since I stopped getting it with my AIA membership a few years ago. The final issue of 2015 arrived recently and I flipped through the a short guide to new publications (Monographs in Disguise) penned… Continue reading Monograph or Manifesto? Fernau + Hartman’s Improvisations on the Land

FAT Saturday: Thornton Heath Library & The Museum of Croydon

Thornton Heath Library Facing a weekend with nothing to do for the first time in ages, yesterday I set off to see the newly refurbished Thornton Heath Library by FAT Architects (or, more formally: Fashion Architecture Taste). It was also a good excuse to venture south of the Thames, something I don’t often do. Thornton… Continue reading FAT Saturday: Thornton Heath Library & The Museum of Croydon

Gehry’s Art Gallery of Ontario is Retro Frank Gehry at His Finest

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) completed an extensive renovation in 2008 that transformed its building on Dundas Street in Toronto. Work began in 2004 and cost $276 million. Led by Frank Gahry, Instead of starting afresh, Gehry took the existing building and its somewhat chaotic slew of previous expansions and unified it into a… Continue reading Gehry’s Art Gallery of Ontario is Retro Frank Gehry at His Finest

Book review: Visual Planning and the Picturesque by Nikolaus Pevsner

While not truly a “lost” Pevsner book, this represents a monumental effort by editor Mathew Aitchison to pull together a huge amount of material compiled for a book on Picturesque town planning by Nikolaus Pevsner. While Pevsner intended to publish the material as a book, he never finished the manuscript and much of the material… Continue reading Book review: Visual Planning and the Picturesque by Nikolaus Pevsner

A Seaside Weekend: The Isle of Wight and Portsmouth, in Photos

The first stop on our weekend getaway was the last stop on the National Express coach, Southsea. After a brief stop at Portsmouth (which is only about a 10 minute drive away, at most) where all of the other passengers except for my wife and me disembarked, the coach pulled up in front of a… Continue reading A Seaside Weekend: The Isle of Wight and Portsmouth, in Photos

Brian Sewell: I don’t care what Clement Greenberg thinks about Arshile Gorky

In an article for today’s London Evening Standard titled Mother’s Boy art reviewer Brian Sewell discusses the new show at the Tate Modern, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective. In a review that reveals far more about Sewell’s artistic preferences than the contents of the show, he states that Gorky, who escaped the Aremenian genocide as a young… Continue reading Brian Sewell: I don’t care what Clement Greenberg thinks about Arshile Gorky