Guggenheim Plays It Safe on Wright Show

Pittsburgh's Armstrong heralds new direction for museum

(NEWSER) - The Guggenheim Foundation has chosen Richard Armstrong, the head of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, as the museum's new director. He succeeds Thomas Krens, who established the Guggenheim as a global brand with branches in Europe and more planned in Asia and the Middle East. But Krens' commercialism and expansionist ambitions antagonized many in the art world, not to speak of donors, and the choice of Armstrong seems to herald a new direction. More»

It's on list of endangered landmarks

(NEWSER) - The suburban Chicago house where Cameron killed his dad's Ferrari in Ferris Bueller's Day Off is on a list of endangered Illinois landmarks, the Chicago Tribune reports. The Highland Park home is on the market for $2.3 million and is at risk of being torn down. The preservation group Landmarks Illinois says it hopes a public outcry will save the house. More»

(NEWSER) - Charles Gwathmey, who died of esophageal cancer at 71 this week, began his architectural career as a steely, pared-down Modernist and never wavered from his style over decades of work, writes the New York Times. His larger buildings, such as an extension to Frank Lloyd Wright's landmark Guggenheim Museum, were often controversial. But it was in residential architecture that he most excelled—one 1,200-square foot house, designed for his parents while still in his 20s, became an instant classic. More»

(NEWSER) - A fixer-upper is on the market in Los Angeles, but it will still set you back $15 million. Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House, which he built in 1924 and nicknamed the "temple on the hill," is for sale, reports NPR. The architectural gem boasts magnificent views of the city and an impressive Hollywood resume, with guest spots in movies such as Day of the Locust and Blade Runner. The drawback is that heavy rains a few years ago left their mark on its concrete-block exterior. More»

(NEWSER) - Architectural photographer Julius Shulman has died at the age of 98, the Los Angeles Times reports. In a career spanning two-thirds of the 20th century, Shulman became the premier photographer of modernist architecture and worked with the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright and Eero Saarinen. But his most famous shot is a photo of Pierre Koenig's Case Study House #22 in LA, which one critic called “one of those singular images that sum up an entire city at a moment in time.” More»