We’ve always been fans of architecture around here and in life, generally. We’re used to looking at houses and marveling at their livability; at skyscrapers and feeling awe at their immense strength; at office buildings and relishing their floor area ratio. What we are not used to, however, is looking at a building and feeling, kinda, like it just might be able to destroy us. We’re not talking about an Insidious/Paranormal Activity/The Shining kind of destroy, not thinking of a slow, creeping end, but rather, what we’ll look at today, are structures where visiting them is kind of the equivalent of running with scissors. Just a bad idea, and physically so. Click through for our list of ten buildings most likely to destroy you, and let us know about your brushes with architectural death in the comments! Read More »

1. There are some troubling rumors that Amy and Rory (played by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill) will be leaving Doctor Who at the end of the current season. More details (along with a few spoilers) here.

2. A slightly squashed down version of famous French architect Jean Nouvel’s hotly-debated MoMA tower has been approved, and construction on the project — which is 1,050 feet, 200 feet shorter than the original design — is expected to start soon. [via The Measure]

3. The lineup for this year’s New York Comedy Festival has been announced, and it includes big names like Louis C.K., Tracy Morgan, Sarah Silverman, Ricky Gervais, Bill Maher, Wanda Sykes, Russell Peters, Kathy Griffin, and Norm Macdonald. Schedule information and locations are still TBD, but mark your calendars for November 9 to 13. [via ArtsBeat]

4. Stay classy: According to The Sun, Amy Winehouse’s former husband Blake Fielder-Civil — who is currently serving a two-year prison sentence in Leeds for armed robbery and firearm offenses — is planning to write a tell-all book about his relationship with the singer. [via NME]

5. If the original cut of Drew Barrymore’s video for Best Coast left you wanting more Donald Glover, you can check out the 10-minute extended version of “Our Deal” here.

Bonus Buzz: 25 Reasons Your Childhood Self Hates You

With the news of Walmart heiress Alice Walton preparing to open her massive Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas in November and California’s billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad set to build The Broad, a stunning Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed museum that will open in Los Angeles in 2013, we thought it was time to take a look a how wealthy art collectors are promoting their prizes. From the edgy Rubell Family Collection, housed in a former Drug Enforcement Agency storage site in Miami and Francois Pinault’s coveted contemporary art on view in historic buildings in Venice to a Sheikh’s rich collection of Arab art exhibited in a converted school in Qatar and Korean national treasures shown at Samsung’s masterfully designed Leeum in Seoul, here’s a glimpse at some of our favorite private museums around the world. If there are others that you think we should know about, please share.

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With the rise of starchitect culture in recent decades, there has been a subsequent rise in the number of museums designed by celebrity architects. (It was believed that if a big name was behind a building, it would attract more attention, and in turn, visitors. Makes sense.) Click through to check out 10 of the most eye-catching modern museums on the planet — including a few that are still currently in progress — and we think you’ll see why it works.

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Nothing screams the hubris of urban life like a giant building. And while for some cities a skyscraper is just another building, plenty peg their self-worth on mammoth projects, designed to serve as iconic credentials of progress. However of those planned, only a handful ever result in a shovel in the ground — and even then their completion remains uncertain, held hostage by economic and technical realities. Chicago and Dubai, while already boasting some of the world’s tallest buildings, suffer such disappointment on a regular basis. In the grim midst of the Great Recession, not even the best laid plans of city or architect are safe. After the jump, check out some prime examples of the Tower of Babel’s modern heirs.

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1. James Franco will not be stopped at a double masters; after he finishes at NYU and Columbia, he’s reportedly heading to Yale to pursue a Ph.D. For a taste of Franco’s English mastery, read his short story from this month’s Esquire magazine. [via The Daily Beast]
2. Serpentine Pavilion’s latest starchitect pick Jean Nouvel gets snippy when asked about that MoMA project and declares that Abu Dhabi “doesn’t even know there is a financial crisis.” [via Bloomberg]
3. A New York dealer is hawking what he claims is the last privately held copy of “Schindler’s List,” a manuscript typed by German industrialist Oskar Schindler, whom you may recall from a little 1993 indie movie of the same name. [via Reuters]
4. At the Movies — the show that made Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert into household names — is being canceled after almost 25 years in national syndication. [via Variety]
5. Back issues of SPIN magazine are now available to read via Google Books. [via Fimoculous]

Bonus link: watch the (mock) trailer for the forthcoming Weird Al biopic.

London’s 40-year-old Serpentine Gallery may have housed works by Man Ray, Andy Warhol, and Jeff Koons, but the gallery’s most impressive feature is its summer Pavilion series, which was created in 2000 by gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones. What started with Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid’s steel structure became an annual invitation from the gallery for an architect to design an outdoor pavilion on its lawn.

The Pavilion project has attracted some of the most world renowned architects, none of whom had designed a building in England before (yes, that’s the one stipulation). With the financial backing from various sponsors (the gallery lacks any budget for the pavilions), these architects have been able to exert their creative freedom into a project that is completed in a mere six months, and on display for an even slighter 100 days. But no matter — roughly 250,000 visitors come each year, making the installation more than twice as popular as the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Today it was announced that controversial French architect Jean Nouvel is on board for 2010′s installation. Images from the past ten years of Serpentine Pavilions, plus a closer look at Nouvel’s mock-up, after the jump.

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According to the press release that accompanied this image, Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan was inspecting a prototype of the dome for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which is expected to open in 2013. Jean Nouvel, Pritzker Prize-winning architect for the project, smiles to his left. Give us your best caption. Our favorite response will win a copy of Photo:Box, a collection of 250 photographs by 200 of the world’s most prominent photographers.

Have you seen the “Say No to the MoMA” ad? It makes Jean Nouvel’s proposed MoMA Tower look like a rabid King Kong, casting ominous shadows across midtown Manhattan. It also suggests that this building — unlike the scores of skyscrapers that have gone up over the past century — will block the entire skyline. It would be rather funny if the alarmist attitude wasn’t holding up progress on what is such a bold, exciting design. Read More »

The Prince of Wales is a study in contrasts: Britain’s first in line to throne after QE2 and tabloid target; simultaneously a proponent of organic farming and avid preservationist. Now Bonnie Prince Charlie is once again ruffling feathers by asserting his authority over two high-profile public building projects in the UK. What would Obama say?* Read More »