James S. Russell

Architecture Critic, Journalist and Consultant

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Historic Preservation: Fighting the Wrong Battles?

by James Russell on June 16, 2015 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

The Frick Collection’s formality is as astringent as a dry martini. We marvel at the works of great art hung within rooms of impersonal splendor. Yet the Frick is rather contrived, an elegant knockoff of a French country seat, by Thomas Hastings, of Carrère and Hastings, carefully re-proportioned to fit on a New York City block. Its horizontality and stiff front garden set it defiantly in contrast to the much larger buildings that surround it. Does it lose its relevance if it can’t evolve and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile City, Architecture, Arts Architecture, Cities

Sprawling Atlanta Tries to Be a City

by James Russell on May 10, 2015 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

Along Atlanta’s potholed Howell Mill road, sagging sheds of metal salvagers, brake liners, and security-gate fabricators are rapidly giving way to Texas donuts: faux-loft apartment buildings wrapping parking structures. Amid the light-industrial detritus can be found a contemporary-art incubator and the White Provisions development, a huge residential/commercial loft complex that anchors a wildly popular restaurant  and retail scene. It’s a real-estate wild west, as Atlanta tries on the idea of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile City, Architecture, Cities

Facebook, Whitney Museum, Eli Broad, Merging Architects

by James Russell on May 7, 2015 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

I would like to think I am a writer adept enough to tie together the assorted items in the headline. I'm not. These are simply several writing projects that have stretched over months but which coincidentally  appeared almost at the same time. They are collected here for your convenience. I have had a long fascination with architecture that helps organizations reach their aspirations. This would seem like a no-brainer except that architecture that deeply explores and expresses work culture … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Arts Architecture, Celebrity architecture

Enough of Bogus “Placemaking”

by James Russell on April 8, 2015 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

Is this placemaking? The Campbell Fitness Center at Columbia University's sports complex at the northern tip of Manhattan looks strange to a lot of people. But the more you know the context--an elevated train rattles past it; industrial uses collide with with residential and institutional ones—the more you appreciate why its unconventional form is so right for its place. The building, on paper, could have been a windowless box, walling off Columbia's athletic complex from the residential … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile City, Architecture, Cities, Parks

Chipperfield is Game Changing Architect for Met Museum

by James Russell on March 21, 2015 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

An extraordinary transformation of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art could happen now that the museum has selected the London architect David Chipperfield to redesign its massive Modern art wing. It’s a dramatic new direction for the museum, which I wrote about in The Economist. The Met has worked with a single architecture firm over 40 years: Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates. That in itself is extraordinary. It built out the firm's 1970 master plan over 20 years in beefy ranges … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Arts Architecture, Cities

Rudolph’s Government Center Matters. Save It

by James Russell on February 12, 2015 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

  Looking straight at architect Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center, in Goshen, N. Y., you may fear that its herd of concrete boxes atop concrete-brick piers are ready to stampede. It’s no longer obvious, but Rudolph designed his strangely aggressive exterior in service to a humanist idea. Buildings aren’t simply containers, those jostling boxes argue, they house civic life: executive functions, legislating, adjudicating.  In his idiosyncratic way, Rudolph built a living … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile City, Architecture, Cities

Why Did Nouvel Whine While Paris Mourned?

by James Russell on January 19, 2015 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

In photos from opening night last week, the exterior of the Philharmonie de Paris looked truly terrible, with construction debris littering the plazas and trusswork poking through unfinished outside walls. Reviewers spoke of traipsing through an unfinished lobby across chipboard temporary floors. The orchestra prepared to play in an auditorium they had barely set foot in, designed with a radically new acoustical concept. Jean Nouvel, France’s most celebrated architect, was justifiably furious … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Arts Architecture, Celebrity architecture, Cities

The Struggle for Architecture’s Soul

by James Russell on December 27, 2014 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

  In 2014, Frank Gehry’s upraised middle finger went round the world. So did Zaha Hadid’s apparent dismissal of horrific construction working conditions in Qatar, where her design for a World Cup stadium will be built. Prominent architects have become whipping boys and girls in anger about concentrated global wealth. Architects are drawn into the battles because they are seen as serving wealth that’s sometimes ill-gotten, while ignoring those who need to be housed, educated, and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture

Five Cheap Oil Myths

by James Russell on December 9, 2014 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

Clap your hands for cheap gas. Everyone else is. Allow me to prick the happy oil-price balloon. Prices have declined rather quickly from well over $4 a gallon last summer to—supposedly—$2 somewhere. (I am never where super cheap gas is.) But don’t cheer too hard. The “good” news is hype. Myth 1: Lower oil prices boost the economy Dropping oil prices are described as a “windfall” and a “stimulus package” for American consumers in stories like this one. This is exactly the language that oil and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile City, Architecture, Cities, Sustainability, Transportation

Sometimes You Don’t Know Where a Story Will Take You

by James Russell on November 15, 2014 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

Occasionally I embark on a project that sends me straight down the rabbit hole. That turned out to be the case with my story just-published in the New York Times, “On Elite Campuses, An Arts Race.” For a “trend” piece, this one is fairly short (not all readers agree…) , but I ended up interviewing people in seven states ranging across most of the country. And though most of the projects I had in mind initially made it into the story, I found out just how big the trend is—I didn’t understand the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile City, Architecture, Arts Architecture, Celebrity architecture

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About James Russell

James S. Russell is an architecture critic, journalist, teacher and consultant. He's the author of the book, The Agile City, and has written for publications like Architectural Record, Bloomberg News, NY Times and more. Continue reading

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