Good morning, architects. Millions of people on the East Coast will spend this Halloween under supernatural conditions. New York City and its New Jersey suburbs are still underwater, and many more towns beyond are still without power. Last night, arts writer Hrag Vartanian snapped a captivating (and verified) shot of the Williamsburg Bridge, which shows the physical divide between electrified Brooklyn and darkened Manhattan. And @bldgblog’s Geoff Manaugh passes on this striking Associated Press image of a Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel that appears to be entirely filled with stormwater. One new narrative has begun to appear in the press: How to adapt to such storms in the future. CNN’s Tim Lister reports on the problem that extreme weather continues to pose for New York, quoting a 2010 study by architect and structural engineer Guy Nordenson.
HARVARD EDITORS ARE DRY, ALRIGHT. Finding their circumstances relatively dry throughout the storm, the editors of The Harvard Crimson took a moment to pen a paean to architecture. Or to their offices, anyway. “First of all, we must congratulate the Crimson staff of years past for their wisdom in not locating our offices outdoors. The decision to provide housing for our newspaper was a truly wise one,” the editorial reads. “We only regret that our predecessors did not have the aesthetic sensibilities to style our building’s façade in the neo-romanesque fashion.”
VIKING TOWNHALLS. HKS is hitting the road to gather comments and input for the nearly $1 billion stadium the firm is designing in Minneapolis for the Minnesota Vikings (pictured). In November, architects at HKS will host meetings in Rochester, Minn., and Duluth, Minn., to talk shop with local Minnesotans, The Star Tribune reports. I feel that I know these people, as Vikes quarterback Christian Ponder is the backup QB on my fantasy football team. Here’s hoping that HKS has an answer for Christian Ponder.
SOVIET MARKERS. The New York Times Magazine profiles the people behind the Moscow Design Museum, which has hacked off Mark Lamster for some reason or another. Nevermind him: A museum celebrating the work of Soviet designers such as Vera Mukhina sounds amazing. For whatever reason, the Times writer attached to the story sounds disinterested to the point of bothered by the assignment. I would be thrilled to step into a collapsing Constructivist home in Moscow. (Konstantin Melnikov, folks.)
…AND REMAINDERS. Popular Mechanics remembers Lebbeus Woods… Honolulu opens a Center for Architecture… Canadian architect commended for saving historic gas station… Dion Neutra, AIA, to speak in Raleigh, N.C.
