(Photos: UnBeige)

It was back in the summer of 2008 that we told you about Tom Sachs's delightful—if deliberately rough-hewn—sculptures of Hello Kitty and friends that until this morning had upped the whimsy factor at Gordon Bunshaft-designed Lever House in Manhattan. Created in 2007 and 2008, the works are made of bronze but painted white to highlight their humble origins: as toys scaled up using foam core, glue guns, and elbow grease—as opposed to 3-D prototyping and chromium steel.

"I try to show flaws because flaws are human," Sachs has said. "It is sculpture, because it's talked about, sold, and shown as such. But to me it's really bricolage, which is the French term for do-it-yourself repair. Bricolage comes from a culture that repairs rather than replaces—American culture just replaces." Alas, the time has come for Lever House to replace Hello Kitty. This morning, while strolling up Park Avenue, we happened upon the deinstallation of the monumental bronzes, as a team of workers forklifted Hello Kitty, My Melody, Miffy, and company onto flatbed trucks, bound perhaps for other glass-walled International Style office buildings in need of cheering up.

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Ah ha! We were right! Just a couple of weeks back, we were talking about Prince Charles' right hand man, the architect and fellow modernism hater, Leon Krier, and how we thought maybe his speaking engagement in San Diego might be "the first step toward getting Prince Charles' over in the US to start messing with our architecture." At the time, we jokingly assumed that was just our paranoid xenophobia talking, but now we've been vindicated. Krier has popped up again in California, moving up the coast to Pasadena, where he gave a talk and then invited people to walk around that city's city center while he picked apart what was so wrong about it. On his talk, as relayed by reporter Larry Wilson, Krier said this:

"Most avant-garde architects not only live in traditional buildings themselves -- they go on vacation in traditional buildings, they send their children to school in traditional buildings. It's good enough for them, but not for the masses."

Let's get things straight. We agree with lots of things Krier says, particularly when it comes to city planning and building efforts, and we generally like the guy, even if he openly despises things that we like. But a statement like this is just absurd. Unlike he and Prince Charles, we'd wager that none of these "avant-garde architects" deal in such absolutes. It does not make someone a hypocrite to live or work in a building that isn't exactly the same as the kind they're design. If anything, it's whatever the opposite of hypocrisy is (honesty?) -- it's an acknowledgment that architecture of all ages can be appreciated. To follow Krier's logic: if you're a rock musician, enjoying classical makes you the definition of a hypocrite.

Modern architects don't want to tear everything down so they don't have to engage with anything other than "avant-garde architecture." They want cities and towns to be the living, breathing things they are, not the staid, lifeless, uniform dullness he and Charles would like them to be. Sure there are some bad apples in every city, but they're as likely to come from 1885 as they are from 2005. And isn't that what makes a city great?

We don't get to point to any of those "can you believe how stupid this law breaker was?!" stories very often because, well, this design field of ours is relatively sane. The worst that usually happens is the occasional copyright infringement case or someone taking advantage with spec work. But finally we've got our chance. The LA Weekly reports that designer Ronald Hunt had filed for disability several years ago, claiming he'd been injured on a job and could no longer work. Over those years, he'd racked up thousands upon thousands of dollars, which would have been all well and good and probably would have continued had he not been lured into television by HGTV. Hunt wound up appearing on a program on the home improvement network, hard at work without any sort of debilitating disability in sight. An employee at his insurance company saw the program, turned Hunt in, and now he's just been sentenced to pay back more than he made and serve time on probation. Lesson learned: if you're doing something wrong, don't do it on HGTV. It's a more popular network than you'd think.

Back in early October, we were getting a little worried about Oscar Niemeyer, the world's oldest starchitect (I.M. Pei ranks second), who at 101 had undergone two major surgeries, one planned, one not. But like we said back then, "if there's one thing we can say about Niemeyer, he's a fighter." And how right we were. A Brazilian newspaper is reporting that his recovery has gone well and, surprise surprise, he's back to work:

The daily newspaper O Globo reports that Niemeyer is working on a collection of buildings in the city of Niteroi, outside of Rio de Janeiro.

Here's to fifty more years of productivity, Mr. Niemeyer.

"I cannot count the number of clients who hae marched in and said, 'Give the next iPod.' But it's probably close to the number of designers I've heard respond—under their breath—'Give me the next Steve Jobs.'"

-Tim Brown, CEO and president of IDEO, in his new book, Change by Design (HarperCollins)

When The Diving Bell and the Butterfly began its rounds in American theaters, one of the final directorial details attended to by Julian Schnabel was selecting—and then fine-tuning—the typeface and hue of the English subtitles (the film is in French). Hearing Schnabel thoughtfully discuss the merits of pale yellow text versus the usual white left us wishing that more visual artists and designers were at the helm of feature films. It also made us acutely aware of subtitles wherever they appeared. In this month's issue of Opera News, writer Matthew Gurewitsch takes on opera captions, which usually appear as supertitles projected on a screen above the performance or (as at New York's Metropolitan Opera) on tiny LED consoles embedded into the back of each patron's seat.

Despite their drawbacks (drawing the eye away from the stage, undermining the illusion that the actors are real people acting on their own impulses, in real time), titles "have become as integral to an opera production as sets and costumes, wigs and makeup," writes Gurewitsch. "Yet most designers and directors give them scant attention, taking the titling systems of the houses they work in pretty much as they find them." [Translation: graphic design opportunity alert!] He goes on to offer examples of creative titling, including performances that have experimented with non-standard typefaces and excerpted longer stretches of text at a time, allowing the viewer to refer back to previous lines. Then there are the times when titles go beyond translation:

...Titles have been known to mutate into commentary, marginalia, or even hypertext, as in a rare revival of André Grétry's Zémire et Azor at Houston Grand Opera in the early 1990s. In particular, I remember an aria di bravura in which the heroine had a great many more runs and roulades to toss of than thoughts to pin them on. "Neat, hunh?" one title read, when the steeplechase was at its dizziest.

(Courtesy The Empty Quarter, Dubai)

'Tis the season for Paris Photo, where 102 galleries and publishers from 23 countries are taking part in the world's leading photography fair. This year's fair, which runs through Sunday at the Carrousel du Louvre, spotlights Arab and Iranian photography with a three-part project curated by Catherine David. Among the first orders of business was the announcement of the winner of the BMW - Paris Photo Prize for contemporary photography, a $15,000 award given annually to an artist whose work best embodies a given theme. The 2009 theme, tied to BMW France's ad campaign, was "When was the last time you experienced something for the first time?"

The winner is Karijn Kakebeeke, a Dutch photographer who is represented by Dubai gallery The Empty Quarter. Kakebeeke, 35, is known for photojournalistic images like "Khadija's Dream" (2006, pictured above), her prizewinning work that records the moment when a girl named Khadija first played with a soccer ball. Today Khadija is a member of Afghanistan's first female soccer team. For Matthias Harder, curator at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin and a member of the 2009 BMW - Paris Photo Prize jury, the image shows "a glimpse of happiness," he said in a statement. "Kakebeeke's genre scene convinced the jury owing to the controversial nature of the topic chosen and its relevance to the given theme."

Way back when in 2007, we were one of the first outlets to tell you that Robert A.M. Stern had been hired to design the George W. Bush Presidential Center, then again earlier this year about its sudden increase in size and Laura Bush finding a landscape architect for the project (who, while we're mentioning Michael Van Valkenburg, was also just hired to work on Chicago's Grant Park). But other than those little bits and pieces, there hasn't been much news coming out of Southern Methodist University, where the center will be built. But now you can expect a lot more talk in the coming years, as this week Mrs. Bush revealed the plans for the new building and its surroundings. Personally, our review of Stern's work is that, well, it's fine. Perfectly pleasant, but likely nothing that future generations will be studying or getting excited about. That seems to be the consensus among most professional critics too. Christopher Hawthorne starts his review "George W. Bush was a lightning rod of a politician. His presidential library is meant to be anything but" and seems to keep to that theme throughout. Here in Chicago, Blair Kamin reports mostly on the news of the release, but does offer some small bits of evaluation, saying that the plans are slightly less than traditional, but "they are by no means as boldly modern as the bridge-inspired William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum in Little Rock, Ark." We're not anxiously awaiting its completion, like we are with some projects, but we'll hold off on any complete judgment until the building is finished, which is currently projected to be around 2013.

Last week marked the opening of starchitect Zaha Hadid's Maxxi, a museum housing contemporary art, in Rome. The NY Times resident critic, Nicolai Ouroussoff decided to open his recent (and glowing) review of the new building, "What would Pope Urban VIII have made of Maxxi....? My guess is that he would have been ecstatic." Funny that he should mention popes, because while Hadid couldn't go back in time to meet Urban VIII (she doesn't want to reveal that her spaceship has a time machine just yet), she is set to join a delegation of 262 artists to meet Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday in the Sistine Chapel. Granted, given the size of the visiting party (other participants in this very mixed bag include Andrea Bocelli and Salieri himself, F. Murray Abraham), Hadid and his holiness probably won't get to speak much ("Hey, I dig your building!" "Thanks, man!"), but it's still a nice mental picture to carry with you this weekend. For more reading, we recommend checking out the Providence Journal's David Brussart's anti-modernism screed against Hadid and her ilk, wherein he asks the pope "to not fall victim to the smooth rhetoric of modernist propaganda."

Sad news to start off the day with. Late yesterday, it was reported that Jeanne-Claude, the French artist who was married to and collaborated with Christo on a wide-variety of massive projects that largely involved huge installations, like "The Umbrellas" in Japan and "The Gates" in New York's Central Park, has passed away due to complications from a ruptured brain aneurysm. Although frequently controversial, the pair showed incredible perseverance with their projects against what always seemed like insurmountable odds, and in the end were often rewarded with praise, even if not everyone passing by fully understood what they were going for (it wouldn't seem like it, but for some nice remembrances, check out their "Common Errors" page and read through the pages of misconceptions). On the artists' site, Christo has said the couple's work will continue, which we can assume he's referring to their planned work in the UAE and in Colorado. The Washington Post has put together this slideshow, taking a look at Jean-Claude's life. Here's a bit from the NY Daily News about Michael Bloomberg's response:

Mayor Bloomberg said Thursday he offered his condolences to Christo in a phone call. He praised them as visionaries who brightened the city and showed the world how art can transform an everyday view into something magical.

"It gave New Yorkers a whole different view of the city, of themselves. It helped tourism, but more than anything else, it expanded our minds and gave all of us for a number of days a chance to think about how big the world is, and Jean-Claude and Christo have really always thought bigger than the rest of us," Bloomberg said.

If we weren't saving up all of our spending money (in a Harry Allen-designed piggy bank, naturally) for Art Basel Miami, we would be snapping up one of those freshly discounted airfares to London. Once deposited across the pond, we'd head straight for the Ed Ruscha retrospective at the Hayward. After stopping off to check out the Glenn Brown show at Gagosian and a tour of Gensler-designed Horseferry House (Burberry's new global headquarters), we would repair to our hotel for a scone or two. That hotel, of course, would be Claridge's, and not just because it is home to a sublime set of suites designed by David Linley. The hotel has signed up Christian Dior creative director John Galliano to work his magic on its Christmas tree. He is the first fashion designer to get the gig.

Upon hearing the news, we wondered if Galliano would return to one of his great themes of seasons past: pirates, geishas, toreadors, Joan Crawford? He's elected to go tropical by way of the orient, with a papier-mâché tree adorned with crystals, sparkling leaves, and orchids. The shimmery blue and white palette recalls that of the Empress Josephine-inspired gowns he sent down the runway for the spring 2005 Dior couture collection. "I hope to bring a twist to the traditional tree," said Galliano in a statement. "I want to combine the festive with the innovative, the spirit of Dior with the beauty of Claridge's, and create something spectacular that will inspire the perfect start to the season!" The tree will be unveiled in the lobby of Claridge's on December 1.

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High-flying advertising executive turned author James Othmer's new book, Adland: Searching for Life on a Branded Planet (Doubleday), offers an inside look at the past, present, and future of the ad industry. His tales of the wild and morally questionable ride from the days of Mad Men to branded iPhone apps have proved to be a hit with readers, and AgencySpy editor Mathew van Hoven recently caught up with Othmer for an illuminating chat. In addition to revealing that he parted ways with one of his first literary agents when she quit to enroll in clown school, Othmer offers this tantalizing synopsis of his next book, a novel called Holy Water that will be out in June from Doubleday:

It's about a water-filtration salesman who gets transferred to a third-world nation to open up a back office in a drought-plagued nation. His wife has thrown him out of the house because he lied about his vasectomy. It's one of those books. But he's vice president of Underarms and Sweat at a P&G Colgate-like multinational. It's this kind of droning job. It touches upon globalization, consumerism, 'What are we doing with our lives?'