Two Recent News Items

image is from Norberg-Schulz: Sverre Fehn : works, projects, writings, 1949-1996 (1997)

Sverre Fehn Passes Away at the age of 84


Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn died on February 23rd, 2009. A New York Times article of February 27th details his career.

Fehn's architecture is well represented in the VRC's digital image database and in the 35mm slide collection. His Archaeological Museum in Hamar (1967-79) is a favorite of professors teaching design and studio in the College of Built Environments.

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image is a Peter Cohan original

Archives Building Collapses in Cologne, Germany

The city archives building in Cologne experienced extreme structural failure on March 4th, collapsing into a heap of rubble that includes the minutes of all Cologne's town council meetings held since 1376, personal papers of world-famous authors, philosophers, and historians, and a half a million photographs.

The six-story concrete building was constructed in 1971 and was considered state-of-the-art at the time. Ominous cracks were noticed by staff in the cellar of the structure last year, but there was no warning of the building's complete collapse on March 4th.






Read more about the collapse in the London Times Online, Spiegel Online International, and the BBC News.

Oregon State University archives online

Mt. Hood and Timberline Lodge, 1943

"In an effort to broaden access to its image archives, Oregon State University has become the first university to join Flickr Commons, a section of the popular photo-sharing service devoted to making historic images available to the public."

(Read more of this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education)

Flickr Commons was launched in January 2008 and its first partner was the Library of Congress. The goals of Flickr Commons are "to increase access to publicly-held photography collections, and to provide a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge."

The Commons is a really useful and interesting repository of images that Flickr members can download, comment on, and tag.

Other contributing organizations to Flickr Commons include the Brooklyn Museum, the Powerhouse Museum (Sydney, Australia), and the Library of Congress.

Paris Exposition: Salle des Fetes, Paris, France, 1900

A man and a woman outside a bush hut

"Lower N.Y. from Coenties Slip"

Flickr Commons is a great resource and contains lots of useful images !