Beijing's MAD Architects have unveiled their preliminary design for Chicago's Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, inspiring no shortage of commentary in the process.
"San Francisco rejected the plan, Chicago officials welcomed it with open arms, and now, mere months later, following promises of organic sponginess from George Lucas himself, Beijing's MAD Architects have unveiled their preliminary design for Chicago's Lucas Museum of Narrative Art," reports Spencer Peterson for Curbed Chicago.
Writing for The Architect's Newspaper, Chris Bentley supplies this description of the proposed design: "Renderings made public Monday show a white, undulating dune of sorts, its stone surface ascending into a metallic 'floating' disc.'" Bentley's coverage is link-heavy, so readers looking to get the complete background on the project should start there.
Curbed staff also gathered a compendium of critical reactions to the renderings, which includes this not-so-favorable Twitter review from Blair Kamin, the Chicago Tribune's Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic (Kamin also gathered reader responses to the design):
FULL STORY: MAD's Lucas Museum is a Moon Mountain with a 'Floating' Halo
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association
