Delayed Amazon Delivery: HQ2

You know how annoying it is when your Amazon package isn’t delivered on time? Imagine how pissed-off officials in Northern Virginia must be now that Amazon says it will be late in building its big HQ2 development. While the landmark Helix, a 350 foot tower resembling the Poop Emoji with an outdoor spiral of landscaped trees will be built as scheduled, other buildings on the sprawling development are on hold. So much for the vaunted local economic benefits the retail giant promised in return for big tax incentives.

You may recall that saner jurisdictions rejected the HQ2 project. Northern Virginia neighborhoods under the retail behemoth’s footprint are so embarrassed they’re changing their names.

More:

“Amazon says it is pausing construction at HQ2 in Arlington,” Teo Armus and Rachel Lerman, Washington Post

“Amazon pauses construction of 2nd headquarters in Virginia, dubbed ‘HQ2’,” Max Zahn, ABC News

“The Lie Behind Amazon’s HQ2 Sweepstakes Becomes Clear,” Davi Dayen, American Prospect

“Amazon suspends Virginia HQ2 construction in latest cost-cutting move,” Emma Roth, The Verge

Update:

“As Amazon’s HQ2 Stalls, Incentives Have, Too,” Sarah Holder and Linda Poon, Bloomberg CityLab

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Image (“Amazon HQ2 Helix Concept, after Jan Luyken and Willem Goeree, 1682″) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Frank Lloyd Wright’s Doghouse

In 1952, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed one of the most charming buildings of his career: a Usonian-style doghouse. It’s on permanent display at the Wright-designed Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California.

Eddie, the client’s Labrador retriever, preferred to sleep in the main house. Everyone’s a critic.

More:

“A Doghouse Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Is Now on Display,” Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian

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The Evolution of Baseball Stadiums

Architect Michael Wyetzner looks at North America’s baseball stadiums. An Architectural Digest video.

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Glass Houses

Insulated glass changed architecture. A Vox video by Phil Edwards.

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9-11 Urban Legacy: Cities of Bollards

“It used to be that D.C. architecture consisted of graceful Georgetown mansions, neoclassical federal buildings — and, of course, the monuments. When the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts was founded in 1910 to guide Washington’s architectural development, it reviewed designs such as those of the Lincoln Memorial and the Federal Triangle. Over the seven years I’ve served on the commission, however, an increasing amount of time is spent discussing security-improvement projects: screening facilities, hardened gatehouses, Delta barriers, perimeter fences, and seemingly endless rows of bollards. We used to mock an earlier generation that peppered the U.S. capital with Civil War generals on horseback; now I wonder what future generations will make of our architectural legacy of crash-resistant walls and blast-proof glass.”

— Wittold Rybczynski, Meyerson professor of urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania.

Read more:

“The Blast-Proof City,” Wittold Rybczynski, Foreign Policy

“We Built DC Into an Urban Fortress After 9/11. And January 6 Proved It Was Penetrable.” Jane Recker, Washingtonian

“I Came, Eyesore, I Conquered,” Witold Rybczynski, Slate

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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The Chinatown Aesthetic

The architecture of “Chinatowns” around the world have a similar style that can be traced back to the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. A vox video by Ranjani Chakraborty and Melissa Hirsch.

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Amazon HQ2 Helix Looms Over Virginia

After saner jurisdictions rejected the project, Amazon selected Northern Virginia for the site of its HQ2 development. Some neighborhoods under the retail behemoth’s footprint will change their names to protect the innocent.

The flagship of this tax-break-enabled building bonanza will be The Helix, a 350 foot tower resembling the Poop Emoji, with an outdoor spiral of landscaped trees available to hikers who relish a pointless trek to nowhere, very Zen. Suggested seasonal uses of the Helix’s outdoor path include a water slide and ski run, or perhaps it will follow the lead of the 150-foot tall Vessel scultpture at New York’s Hudson Yards and become a world-class suicide swan-dive magnet.

The best views of the giant tower will probably be across the Potomac in DC, where residents can shudder and draw the drapes.

More:

“Amazon’s next headquarters is a glass poop emoji covered in trees,” Jacob Kastrenakes,The Verge

“Soft Serve Cone Or Christmas Tree? Amazon HQ2 Helix Sparks Debate,” Michael O’Connell, Arlington Patch

“The Helix is a distraction. Amazon’s new headquarters will change more than just its Arlington neighborhood.,” Philip Kennicott, Washington Post

Update:

“Amazon’s ‘The Helix’ is too tall for airport standards, officials say,” Kristen Schneider, WJLA-TV 7

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Image (“Amazon HQ2 Helix Concept, after Jan Luyken and Willem Goeree, 1682″) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Skateboarding Architecture: Legendary Skate Spots

Estelle Caswell spoke with skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and Iain Borden (author of Skateboarding and the City) about skateboarding’s iconic spots and how skate architecture has changed over the years. A Vox video.

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Home: Knowledge, Bathing, Drama, Music, and Food.

Architect Takeshi Hosaka built himself a house that would supply the five elements that ancient Romans said were needed for a perfect life: knowledge, bathing, drama, music, and food. He did it in 190 square feet.

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Slide to the flight gate at the airport.

If you spend S$10 a few bucks at the restaurants or businesses at Singapore’s Changi Airport, getting to your flight’s departure gate is fast and easy.  Just take the four-storey-high slide.

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