The Auckland Art Gallery

If you're in Auckland anytime soon, it's worth taking a walk up Kitchener Street to see the final touches being put on the refurbishment of the Auckland Art Gallery. There was some consternation when the refurbishment was first announced, mostly because the competition for the commission was won by Sydney architects FJMT, but our guess is that public opinion is now swinging in behind this alluring addition to the city's heart. The refurbished gallery is due to open in August. There's a webcam following the development on the gallery's website which you can access at the link here.

Did architecture kill the museum?

There's an interesting debate going on at New York Magazine's website at the moment, where the closure of the American Folk Art Museum, housed in a much-admired building by Williams Tsien, has the magazine's art critic Jerry Saltz blaming the architecture for the museum's demise. Read Saltz's rationale and architecture critic Justin Davidson's rebuttal at the link here. There are many New Zealand admirers of Williams Tsien's work - the couple gave a talk here only a few years ago - and James Timberlake named them as some of his favourite architects, so you can understand some of the vehement disagreement with Saltz's finger-pointing.

James Timberlake in the Dominion Post

Phew! We're back from our very busy week-long Home of the Year judging tour, with our visiting US architect James Timberlake (below) and New Zealand architect Patrick Clifford. We saw a great diversity of homes, and our thanks go out to the architects and owners of the homes on our shortlist for helping to arrange our visits. The finalists and winner of the Home of the Year award will be revealed in our August/September issue, out August 4.

While we were on the road, James gave talks in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to a total of around 1,000 people, so thanks to all of you who came along. Highlights of his Auckland presentation will be posted online soon at eboss - we'll let you know when they go live.

In the meantime, James' interview with Hank Schouten of the Dominion Post is online now at the link here. Thanks again to Altherm Window Systems for making James' visit possible.