Building Bits
Article or RSS item submitted by Ty Wenzel • Mar 24th, 2008 • Category: Architecture | 23 viewsHere’s a couple buildings, old and new, in the news this week.
Louis I. Kahn’s Esherick House (1961) in Philadelphia hits the auction block.

[photograph by Ezra Stoller/Esto | image source]
Large for a single-person house (as it was designed), but small by today’s standards, this dignified piece of architecture is supposed to fetch between $2-3 million. While this supposedly happened yesterday in an auction by Wright in Chicago yesterday, I’ve yet to hear or see any news on the sale; I’ll post an update when known. The auction is actually May 18, not March 18. Me bad.

[photograph by Todd Eberle | image source]
Wright commissioned Todd Eberle to shoot photographs for a catalog that also features an essay by Julie V. Iovine. This aspect of the auction reminds me of the catalog I saw at the Maison Tropicale when I visited it on the Queens side of the East River, where a nearly $100 catalog was for sale. Looks like pricey, museum-quality books to accompany the big show aren’t just for museums.
The Ascent at Roebling Ridge by Studio Daniel Libeskind opens on March 26.

[photographer unknown | image source]
Covington, Kentucky’s attempt to upstage its neighbor across the Ohio River, Cincinnati, is a building that looks more suited to Las Vegas than a Midwestern city of roughly 50,000. This trait owes not only to its swooping form but its skin, its solid/void patterning and the mirrored glass.

[photographer unknown | image source]
Libeskind justifies the design as one that “echoes the colors of the [Covington-Cincinnati] Suspension Bridge…[and] mimics the Bridge’s cables…curving to maximize the views of both the river and the surrounding hillsides.” Okay, but that still doesn’t distract me enough from that exterior wall — flat as a curving pancake — with balconies, for the most part, carelessly inserted into it. I just can’t shake that Vegas feeling.

[photographer unknown | image source]
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The Gothick Taste BOOK Gothic Architecture Art HC US $12.76 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 1:24:58 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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ARCHITECTURE BOOK LOT: Frank Lloyd Wright, Gardening US $29.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 3:12:25 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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3 MID CENTURY MODERN ARCHITECTURE BOOK furniture HOW TO US $5.99 (1 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 8:18:14 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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Barns 2-book set architecture design style how-to guide US $9.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 9:11:38 PST Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list |
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Architecture Residential Drawing Design Hardcover Book US $0.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 9:35:34 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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Monuments of Medieval Architecture, Calkins, Good Book US $1.98 End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 11:33:59 PST Buy it now | Add to watch list |
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Vintage Victorian Architecture home plans pattern book US $9.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 11:44:15 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT USONIAN HOUSES NEW ARCHITECTURE BOOK US $10.73 (1 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:07:59 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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DREAM POOLS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE NEW HB BOOK US $15.33 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:08:00 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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THE AMERICAN COUNTRY HOUSE NEW ARCHITECTURE BOOK US $15.33 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:08:00 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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ARCHITECTS+ENGINEERS=STRUCTURES NEW ARCHITECTURE BOOK US $10.73 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:08:00 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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MODERN: MODERN MOVEMENT ARCHITECTURE IN BRITAIN BN BOOK US $23.01 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:08:00 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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COLOURS KOOLHAAS FOSTER MENDINI NEW ARCHITECTURE BOOK US $15.33 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:08:01 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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MEDIEVAL ROMANESQUE & GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE NEW BOOK US $19.94 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:08:01 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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25 HOUSES UNDER 3000 SQUARE FEET NEW ARCHITECTURE BOOK US $19.94 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:08:02 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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NEW SACRED ARCHITECTURE CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS NEW BOOK US $26.08 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:08:02 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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PETER BEHRENS & A NEW C20TH ARCHITECTURE BN BOOK US $18.40 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:08:02 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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AFFORDABLE HOME DESIGN NEW ARCHITECTURE HB BOOK US $15.33 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:08:03 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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NORMAN FOSTER A GLOBAL ARCHITECTURE NEW PB BOOK US $12.26 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:08:03 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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GARRETT ECKBO MODERN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE DESIGN BOOK US $10.73 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 13:08:04 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
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