The L.A Times lists its Top 10 Theater/Art/Architecture/Classical/Jazz of 2010

The L.A. Times has its Top 10 lists up for the The Year in The Arts, 2010. Each are listed/linked below by medium. Happy New Year! -- Leif

Top 10 / Theater

Top 10 / Art

Top 10 / Architecture

Top 10 / Classical Music

Top 10 / Jazz

No Typical Texas Church // Philip Johnson's Interfaith Peace Chapel

Full Article Here // Excerpt Below

by Willard Spiegelman

Located near, if not exactly on, the buckle of the Bible Belt, Dallas has always boasted more than its fair share of religious organizations and buildings. Highway billboards along the adjacent interstate highways feature pictures of smiling preachers with pressed hair, and names like Reverend Jim and Pastor Joe Bob, urging people to come to Sunday worship.

It's perhaps no surprise, then, that Dallas should also be home to the country's largest gay congregation. What is a surprise is that the Cathedral of Hope—formerly the Metropolitan Community Church, but since 2006 a member of the United Church of Christ—should have, as of November, a handsome chapel designed by Philip Johnson (1906-2005), whose career had a six-decade tie to the Lone Star state.

Architects are not noted for their modesty, but Johnson famously always worked with his clients rather than imposing—think of Frank Lloyd Wright—his demands and his vision upon them. Of the chapel (which went through many iterations, after back-and- forthing with the church officials) he said: it "will be built of simple and common materials, which I understand God is rather fond of." Keep Reading...

Decolonizing Architecture

Full Article Here // Excerpt Below

In a new exhibition at the Gallery at REDCAT in Los Angeles, the Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (DAAR) looks at ways to use architecture to investigate and speculate about the future of sites that have been evacuated, or decolonized, by Israel in Palestine’s West Bank.

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Living in Art // At the Met "Big Bambu: You Can't, You Don't and You Won't Stop"

Full Article Here // Excerpt Below

by Robin Pogrebin

Take 6,800 bamboo poles, seven miles of colorful cord and plans for an art installation that will change every day over a six-month period and ultimately grow to 50 feet high. Add two artists and a bunch of rock climbers who like to listen to the Rolling Stones while they add to the piece, and drink pilsner when they’re done working. And then stick the whole thing on the roof of the esteemed, establishment Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was bound to be a combustible mix.

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First Look Inside Proposed NYC Islamic Center // A high profile meeting of architecture and religion

Full Article Here // Excerpt Below

by Anne Barnard

Visitors to the upper floors of the Muslim community center planned for near ground zero would walk through lofty spaces — for art exhibitions, for contemplation and prayer, for programs on interreligious dialogue, for a 9/11 memorial — as sunlight streams through irregularly shaped windows between white crisscrossing beams. That is the image presented in the tentative architectural renderings that the planners of the center, called Park51, have been showing at community meetings in recent weeks, and which were revealed to the wider public for the first time last week.

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"Unpacking Imagination" // The Future of Playgrounds

Full Article Here // Excerpt Below

by David Rockwell

In an age of childhood obesity and children tethered to electronic consoles, playgrounds have rarely been more important. In an age of constrained government budgets, playgrounds have rarely been a harder sell. Fortunately, the cost of play doesn’t have to be prohibitive. In creating the Imagination Playground in Lower Manhattan — a playground with lots of loose parts for children to create their own play spaces — we realized that many of the elements with the greatest value to children were inexpensive and portable.

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In Jerusalem // Designs unveiled for Museum of Tolerance

Full Article Here // Excerpt Below

by David Ng

Years in the works, a planned Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem took a significant step forward this week when the Simon Wiesenthal Center unveiled new architectural designs for the structure, saying that the museum is likely to be completed in four years. The complex is expected to feature exhibition space, a theater, an educational center as well as an outdoor sunken area in front of the building with a garden and amphitheater.

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At London Design Festival // John Pawson's "Plain Space" opens

Full Article Here // Excerpt Below

by Pilar Valadis

Today, the exhibition “John Pawson: Plain Space” opened at the Design Museum. (It runs until Feb. 27, 2011.) Pawson, a master of minimalism who is designing the museum’s new home, has — strange to say — never before had a major exhibition of his work in Britain. This one covers his 30-year career, with material on projects ranging from Calvin Klein’s New York flagship store to the sublime Cistercian monastery of Novy Dvur in the Czech Republic.

[ Read a Q/A with Pawson in this previous New Creation post from September 9, 2010.]

Muslim Mason Immortalized at Catholic Cathedral in Lyon, France

Full Article Here // Excerpt Below

by The Associated Press

A Muslim stonemason who spent nearly four decades helping to restore a Roman Catholic cathedral in France has been immortalized as a winged gargoyle peering out from its facade — with the inscription "God is great" written in French and Arabic. It was conceived as a symbol of inter-religious friendship that reflects the city of Lyon's links to its large Muslim population.

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An Architecture of Social Justice // "Humanitarian Design" continues to grow in popularity

Even before the economic collapse of 2008, architects -- and young architects in particular -- had turned away from designing splashy new icons and toward anti-poverty projects, disaster relief and other kinds of community-minded work. Now that financing for the architecture of spectacle has all but disappeared, that alternative grassroots approach, broadly known as "humanitarian design," has found itself in an increasingly bright spotlight. It will get even brighter on Oct. 3 when the Museum of Modern Art in New York opens an exhibition called "Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement."

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A conversation with the father of Modern Architectural Minimalism // Q & A with John Pawson

Full Interview Here // Excerpt Below

by Penelope Green

Green: You have designed two Trappist communities, as well as an abbey, a church and a private chapel in Europe, and I know you had thought to join a Buddhist order when you were in your 20s. I’d like to hear about your night in the monastery.

Pawson: I’d seen a documentary of Zen Buddhist monks practicing martial arts in a temple, so, of course, being 24, I thought, “Oh, I’ll go and be one of those.” I flew to Japan. It was a very pleasant flight. It was Christmas Eve, and snowing. And a friend, my Japanese contact, took me to a monastery in northern Japan at my request. I knocked on the door, they said: “Fine, come in. Here’s a mop. Polish the floor.” At 4 a.m.

I got a bowl of rice or something, and I suddenly woke up and left. Luckily, my friend was waiting for me in a hotel in the town. When he had dropped me off, he’d told me he’d wait. And I said: “Oh no, I’m here for a year. I’m waiting for enlightenment.”

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"People Meet in Architecture" // Diversity and Imagination abound at the Venice Architecture Biennale

Full Article Here // Excerpt Below

by Roderick Conway Morris

VENICE — Kazuyo Sejima won the Golden Lion at the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale for her design for the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, and she is back this year to curate the 2010 Biennale, the first Japanese and first female curator of the event, now in its 12th edition. Her choice of nearly 50 architects, engineers and artists, whose presentations fill the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in the Biennale Gardens and the Corderie, or Rope Walk, at the Arsenale, is above all marked by its diversity, unified under the usefully unspecific overarching title of “People meet in architecture.”

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Information as Architecture // Lincoln Center in New York continues to kick aside formulas as dazzling renovations are further unveiled

Full Article Here // Excerpt Below

by Robin Pogrebin

Elizabeth Diller would seem to have her hands full. Even as work winds down on its redesign of Lincoln Center, the architecture firm in which she is a partner, Diller Scofidio & Renfro, has just won two major commissions — a new museum in downtown Los Angeles for the financier Eli Broad and a new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive for the University of California.

Yet the other day Ms. Diller was scrutinizing L.E.D. modules in a sign at Lincoln Center. Such small details are commanding Ms. Diller’s attention because what she refers to as Lincoln Center’s electronic infoscape — the final elements of which are being installed this week — amounts to a great deal more than just signs. As Ms. Diller and her partners see it, the media elements are not just finishing touches: they are an extension, and in many ways the ultimate expression, of a wholesale reimagining of the complex as more porous, inviting and immediate.

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"Dreaming of Architecture" // The Venice Architecture Biennale Report, from T Magazine

Full Article Here // Excerpt Below

by Felix Burrichter

Now that the three-day frenzy of the Venice Architecture Biennale opening weekend is over, and all the journalists and big-name architects have left the lagoon, it’s time to take a closer look at the exhibition and this year’s winners — and to let the general public cast their vote.

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Free iPhone App Helps You Explore Local Architecture // Buildings, by Despark Ltd.

From GOOD

Buildings, a new free iPhone app by Despark Ltd., the people behind the great Open Buildings site, allows you to find, learn about, and share the architecture in your local area and around the world. Like a Wikipedia for architecture, Buildings has a user-generated database of structures. [...]

You can download the free app and start engaging with your city's buildings here.

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Mumbai Restoration Includes Art // Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Vikas Majaj

When terrorists stormed this city nearly two years ago, killing at least 163 people, they also dealt a blow to the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, an architectural landmark that has played a critical role in nurturing and housing Indian art.

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Israel Museum to Unveil New Look After Major Expansion and Renovation // LA Times' Culture Monster

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Suzanna Muchnic

The Israel Museum -- home of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the world’s largest trove of Biblical and Holy Land archeology and a broad collection of fine art and Judaica -- will dedicate a $100-million expansion and renovation project Sunday and unveil its new look to the public on Monday.


[...]

Beyond providing more room for the 500,000-piece collection and better accommodations for the public, the project enhances the museum’s original design by Israeli Modernist architect Alfred Mansfeld and associate Dora Gad, which had been compromised over time.

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MICD 25 Spotlight on Winston-Salem, North Carolina // The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County

Full article here // Excerpt below

The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County in North Carolina, incorporated in 1949, was the first locally established arts council in the country. Once of its goals is to make the city of Winston-Salem a “City of the Arts.” We spoke with Randall Tuttle, Chair of the Creative Corridors Coalition about Winston-Salem’s MICD 25 project.

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Adding to the Quality of Life // The Denver Art Museum

Full article here // Excerpt below

John Hickenlooper, mayor of Denver since 2003, has been using the arts to increase the city’s livability since he took office (and even before). In 2004, he participated in the NEA’s Mayors’ Institute on City Design, using the session to discuss the design of Denver’s Union Station Plaza with design and architecture professionals. Over the last seven years, he has championed arts-related projects, such as the opening of the Frederic C. Hamilton Building of the Denver Art Museum. In an excerpt from this week’s Art Works podcast, Hickenlooper discusses an innovative approach to supporting the arts in Denver.

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Solomon's Temple in Brazil would put Christ the Redeemer in the shade // Huge Replica Planned for Sâo Paulo

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Tom Phillips

One of the world's largest and most controversial Pentecostal churches has been given permission to build a $200m (£130m) replica of Solomon's Temple in Brazil's economic capital, São Paulo.

The 10,000 capacity "mega-church", which is the brainchild of Brazil's Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, will also house a replica of the Ark of the Covenant and be built according to "biblical orientations".

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Here's a question many churches today need to answer: where is the line between being good steward of worship spaces/honoring God and falling into ostentation? -- Sarah