Construction company bulldozes Mayan temple

Various sources report that a construction company in Belize has razed most of the 2,300-year-old Nohmul temple. Only one small section of the Mayan temple core remains standing (picture at left). The company was apparently gathering crushed rock for a road project.

via 7 News Belize, BBC News, and Huffington Post (with pictures)

New online resource for Gothic architecture

The team at the Media Center for Art  History at Columbia University have, over the past five years, put together a wonderful catalogue of photos, drawings, and plans of French Gothic architecture.  The site, Mapping Gothic France, lets the end user explore the content through the dimensions of Space, Time and Narrative.  The site also includes interactive maps, panoramas, and plans that show the angle and position of each photo.  And – the tools allow the user to do building comparisons (e.g. by nave height, aisle width, floor plan, elevation, and more).   A really wonderful use of new technologies.

The ABC of Architects

Enjoy!

hat tip to archdaily

A digital collection highlighting Schinkel’s creativity

The Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz now hosts an online catalogue of their significant collection of drawings, watercolors, gouaches and prints by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841). The project, Das Erbe Schinkels (Schinkel’s Legacy) contains almost 6,500 entries. Users can search either in English or German, including Iconclass and bibliography keywords. The project, developed in part with the exhibition Karl Friedrich Schinkel. History and Poetry (7 September 2012 – 6 January 2013 at Kupferstichkabinett im Kulturforum, Berlin), also aims to fit works within both a timeline of Schinkel’s artistic techniques and preferred materials as well as the broader issue of long-term user access.

Architect Oscar Niemeyer dies at 104

Brazilian-born architect Oscar Niemeyer died on Wednesday at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, just shy of  his 105th birthday.

via BBC and New York Times; photo and written tributes at ArchDaily

Recent MDID content additions

It’s been awhile since we gave an update of new content in MDID, the IRC’s online image database.  So here’s a summary of some of the great, unique architecture-related content added in recent months:

• UCSB buildings: photos, drawings and plans.  We’ve been working with the Office of Campus Planning and Design (thanks Dennis Whelan!) to build the collection of contemporary and historic material (including this aerial photo, right,  of the campus when it was  a marine air base, taken c. 1948).  So far we have 427 images loaded, and another 250 in the queue.
• Buildings and other projects by Charles Moore (individually and with his various partners).  With a recent infusion, there are now over 380 images of building drawings, plans, interiors and exteriors.  (Right below is a recent photo of UCSB’s Faculty Club.)
• Romanesque and Gothic architecture.  Hundreds of hard-to-find images from our slide collection were scanned and uploaded this Fall.
• Hassan Fathy’s Dar al-Islam in New Mexico, photographed earlier this year.
• Ongoing: we continue to work through our extensive David Gebhard slide holdings.  We have over 400 images loaded in MDID, and several hundred more in the queue.

Palm Springs Modernism Week and Docomomo US Tour Day

Palm Springs Modernism Week isn’t until 2013 (February 14-24, 2013, to be exact), but organizers are offering “an early taste” of the annual event when they announced they’re joining in the 6th Annual Docomomo US Tour Day Saturday, October 6, 2012. In fact, Modernism Week is holding four days of events the weekend of October 5-8, including the popular Double Decker Architecture Bus Tour. Docomomo US is dedicated to the “documentation and conservation…of the modern movement, ” and the tour day is a national event with participation throughout the country by local organizations and enthusiasts of American modern architecture.

Petition: Save a Frank Lloyd Wright house

The Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy has set up an ONLINE PETITION to help urge Phoenix in designating the David S. and Gladys Wright House (Arcadia, 1950) as a historical landmark. A unique residence created for Wright’s son, the house is at risk of demolition by developers. The spiral design predates the Guggenheim by six years and with its “concrete-block detailing, and interior design, the house was (and still is) considered to be one of Wright’s most ‘remarkable and praiseworthy’ efforts since Fallingwater.”

via ArchDaily

UPDATE (25 September 2012): On September 17, the Phoenix Historic Preservation Commission voted unanimously to recommend Landmark designation for the David and Gladys Wright House. More information here.

More Google news: The World Wonders Project

Google’s World Wonders Project, together with partners UNESCO and World Monuments Fund among others, offers armchair travelers an opportunity to experience the built environment in far flung places throughout the globe. The project, once again utilizing Street View, is searchable by location or theme. Additionally, many sites feature videos and user-submitted photography.

The beta SAH Archipedia

The Society of Architectural Historians announced the beta version of its Archipedia site is now available. This digital encyclopedia of American architecture offers only a sample of information, but when it officially launches later in the year, it will be published as two sites: the Archipedia of Classic Buildings (100 of each state’s most representative buildings with teacher guides) and Archipedia, with over 11,000 illustrated building entries from the Society’s award-winning print book series, Buildings of the United States. Once they launch, both sites will be available to individuals with a membership to the SAH.