Happy Friday! Here’s all the architecture, art, and design news to make you the most interesting person at the party this weekend:

Studio One Eleven to design amphitheater for Los Angeles’ West Harbor development

The Port of Los Angeles is reviewing plans for a waterfront amphitheater with abundant outdoor space as part of its public-private-partnership almost-under-construction West Harbor seaside development. Local firm Studio One Eleven produced renderings in the report.

The complex, at the southernmost area of West Harbor, would contain a 40-foot-tall, 10,000-square-foot bandshell facing at 23,000-square-foot lawn and a 28,000-square-foot terraced seating area. It is all part of The Ratkovich Company and Jerico Development’s West Harbor, a plan that will bring 335,000 square feet of retail, restaurants, and entertainment to the area.

Urbanize LA reported that the environmental review discusses another fun project adjacent to the amphitheater: a gondola tower that would ferry up to 15 passengers at a time 115 in the air to take in a birds eye view of North America’s largest port. 

H/t to Urbanize LA

Six finalists announced for Block 2 development in Ottawa

This week Public Services and Procurement Canada (PWGSC) released six finalists for Block 2, a major development across from the Parliament Hill in Ottawa. A longlist of contenders was revealed last June. 

Canadian Architect said that “[the] renewal of Block 2 is a critical piece of PSPC’s Long Term Vision and Plan for the Parliamentary Precinct. The goal is to transform this mix of buildings into an innovative complex that will meet the needs of Parliament and the public now and into the future.” The six finalists are:

• Zeidler Architecture Inc. in association with David Chipperfield Architects
• Diamond Schmitt Architects in joint venture with Bjarke Ingels Group, KWC Architects, and ERA Architects
• Provencher Roy + Associés Architectes Inc.
• Watson MacEwen Teramura Architects in a joint venture with Behnisch Architekten
• Wilkinson Eyre in association with IDEA Inc.
• NEUF Architects in joint venture with Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Renders and proposals for each of the six finalists can be found here. The winning project will be selected at the end of April, but before then, the finalist video presentations will be available on PWGSC’s YouTube. 

H/t to Canadian Architect

Formafantasma-meets–Russel Wright coming to the Hudson Valley

Cold Spring, New York’s Magazzino Italian Art, a museum and research center devoted to exhibiting postwar and contemporary Italian Art, is collaborating with Manitoga / The Russel Wright Design Center to present Formafantasma at Manitoga’s Dragon Rock: Designing Nature. 

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin’s Formafantasma, a research-based design studio based in Milan and Rotterdam, will present work that engages Manitoga, the modernist Hudson Valley home, studio, and landscape of American designer Russel Wright. The show focuses primarily on Formafantasma’s early works and is the first site-specific show for the studio in the United States. The exhibition opens May 13 at the Design Center and runs through November 14, 2022.

More information can be found here.

This year’s Met rooftop installation postponed

Since 2013, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has commissioned an artist for an exhibition on its outdoor Roof Garden. However, this years’ commission, from Los Angeles artist Lauren Halsey, has been postponed due to “logistics issues.”

“It is a large and ambitious project, and we are all in a logistically challenging time,” the museum said in a statement reported by the New York Times. “As partners we agreed that the best approach is to give the project the time it needs and to postpone it until next spring.”

Halsey said that she and the Met decided together to move the installation to next year because “this additional time will allow me to do this project in the fullest way possible.” (“I’m a maximalist,” she added.)

The installation was slated to open in May and run through October 23. The roof will still be open for visitors to take in the sunshine and expansive views over Central Park. 

H/t to the New York Times

The Mass Timber Design Manual gets a second edition

Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Woodworks ­– Wood Product Council and the Think Wood communications campaign have released a follow-up to the Mass Timber Design Manual, an 80-plus-page interactive guide published last March featuring details on the newest mass timber products and information on a range of related topics, including tall wood construction and best design practices. It was downloaded more than 16,000 times last year alone. The second edition debuted earlier this week at the International Mass Timber Conference in Portland and includes 30 pages of additional content including ten new case studies, technical resources, Q&As with experts, and more.

The 2022 Mass Timber Design Manual can be downloaded for free here.