1. I.M. Pei, Master Architect Whose Buildings Dazzled the World, Dies at
102
The
National Gallery project helped Mr. Pei win the commission to renovate the
Louvre in Paris. The 70-foot-high glass pyramid appalled preservationists, but
the public eventually warmed to it.CreditClaude Paris/Associated Press
The New York Times May 16, 2019
I. M. Pei, who began his long
career designing buildings for a New York real estate developer and ended it as
one of the most revered architects in the world, died early Thursday at his
home in Manhattan. He was 102.
His
death was confirmed by his son Li Chung Pei, who is also an architect and known
as Sandi. He said his father had recently celebrated his birthday with a family
dinner.
Best
known for designing the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in
Washington and the glass pyramid at the entrance to the
Louvre in Paris, Mr. Pei was one of the few architects who were
equally attractive to real estate developers, corporate chieftains and art
museum boards (the third group, of course, often made up of members of the
first two). And all of his work — from his commercial skyscrapers to his art
museums — represented a careful balance of the cutting edge and the
conservative.
Mr.
Pei’s addition to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, known as the East
Building, is made from massive blocks of Tennessee marble arranged around a
triangular courtyard. It was a rare example of a modernist structure that
appeared so permanent and well crafted that even lovers of traditional
architecture were smitten.CreditCarol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge, via Getty Images
Mr.
Pei remained a committed modernist, and while none of his buildings could ever
be called old-fashioned or traditional, his particular brand of modernism —
clean, reserved, sharp-edged and unapologetic in its use of simple geometries
and its aspirations to monumentality — sometimes seemed to be a throwback, at
least when compared with the latest architectural trends.
This
hardly bothered him. What he valued most in architecture, he said, was that it
“stand the test of time.”
He
maintained that he wanted not just to solve problems but also to produce “an
architecture of ideas.” He worried, he added, “that ideas and professional
practice do not intersect enough.”
Mr.
Pei (pronounced pay), who was born in China and moved to the United States in
the 1930s, was hired by William Zeckendorf in 1948, shortly after he received
his graduate degree in architecture from Harvard, to oversee the design of
buildings produced by Zeckendorf’s firm, Webb & Knapp.
At
a time when most of his Harvard classmates considered themselves fortunate to
get to design a single-family house or two, Mr. Pei quickly found himself
engaged in the design of high-rise buildings, and he used that experience as a
springboard to establish his own firm, I. M. Pei & Associates, which he set
up in 1955 with Henry Cobb and Eason Leonard, the team he had assembled at Webb
& Knapp.
In
its early years, I. M. Pei & Associates mainly executed projects for
Zeckendorf, including Kips Bay Plaza in New York, finished in 1963; Society
Hill Towers in Philadelphia (1964); and Silver Towers in New York (1967). All
were notable for their gridded concrete facades.
The
firm became fully independent from Webb & Knapp in 1960, by which time Mr.
Pei, a cultivated man whose understated manner and easy charm masked an
intense, competitive ambition, was winning commissions for major projects that
had nothing to do with Zeckendorf. Among these were the National Center for
Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., completed in 1967, and the Everson
Museum of Art in Syracuse and the Des Moines Art Center, both finished in 1968.
They
were the first in a series of museums he designed that would come to include
the East Building (1978) and the Louvre pyramid (1989) as well as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and
Museum in Cleveland, for which he designed what amounted to a huge glass tent
in 1995. It was perhaps his most surprising commission.
2.
Why the US-China trade war won't last
CNN May 14, 2019
New York (CNN Business)The United States and China don't just coexist. Their
massive economies are deeply intertwined in ways that make the intensifying
trade war unsustainable.
China's
booming middle class is a critical growth engine for Boeing (BA),
Apple, Nike (NKE) and other American
brands. China is expected to keep growing in importance as a buyer. And
America's insatiable appetite for cheap goods has created a Chinese factory
juggernaut that employs millions of workers.
The
world's two largest economies are each other's biggest trading partners. Nearly
$700 billion in goods were sent between China and the United States in 2018
alone. And with $1.1 trillion of Treasuries, China is America's
largest foreign creditor.
The
United States has legitimate complaints about China's trading practices, and
persuading China to open its market to American sellers is an important goal
now and for the future.
But
China and America need one another. The tit-for-tat tariff battle is
threatening one of the world's vital economic relationships — and because of
their size, the global economy. At a time when the two nations should be
forging rules for the next 20 years, they are pointing a gun at one another.
Trade wars are simply bad economics."
,"
DAVID KELLY, CHIEF GLOBAL STRATEGIST AT JPMORGAN FUNDS
"We
have to learn how to live with each other," said Keith Lerner, chief
market strategist at SunTrust.
For
good reason, the breakdown of the US-China relationship is spooking investors
and economists alike.
The Dow plunged
617 points, or 2.4%, on Monday after China retaliated against tariffs
announced last week. Beijing vowed to impose higher levies on $60 billion of US
goods, everything from cotton and aircraft parts to wine and machinery.
"The
risk of a full-blown trade war has materially increased," Tao Wang, chief
China economist at UBS, wrote in a report to clients on Monday.
'Monstrous' risk
Tariffs
are the weapons of choice as both sides attempt to improve their negotiating
leverage. Consumers and businesses find themselves caught in the crossfire. The
levies will increase costs, muddle supply chains and drive up debilitating
uncertainty.
UBS
cut its 2019 GDP growth forecast for China from 6.4% to 6.2%. While Beijing
will try to soften the blow with stimulus, UBS said growth could slip below 6%
in 2019 and 2020 if the trade war deepens.
"The
risk is monstrous. It's very troubling," said David Kotok, chairman and
chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors.
The
interconnectedness of China and the United States has been driven in part by
the millions of people in China that have been lifted out of poverty.
"You
have an expanding middle class wealth effect," said Kotok, who also serves
as director of the Global Interdependence Center, an organization advocating
for the expansion of free trade.
Sneakers, iPhones and LNG
China's
customers are using their newfound wealth to buy more cars, iPhones and
sneakers. That's a massive growth opportunity for General Motors (GM), Apple and Nike.
"A
lot of China's rising middle class loves US brands," said SunTrust's
Lerner.
And
China's consumers are flying more, making the country Boeing's most important
export market. But there's growing fear that Boeing could be used as a
bargaining chip in the trade battle.
The
United States sent $120.3 billion of goods to China in 2018, making it the No.
3 market behind only Canada and Mexico, according to the US Census
Bureau.
America's
energy boom makes it a great fit to help solve China's pollution problem. The
United States is the world's fastest exporter of liquefied natural gas, a
cleaner fuel that can help countries transition away from coal.
However,
China's purchases of LNG have slowed during the trade war. And that trend may
continue because Beijing on Monday raised tariffs
on LNG from 10% to 25%.
China's
transition to a consumer-led economy creates massive opportunities for foreign
companies, especially US ones.
By
2027, rapid income growth will lift about 180 million low- and
lower-middle-income households to a higher income bracket, according to a study by Bain
& Co.
Much
of the focus during the trade war has been about the goods exchanged between
both nations. But American businesses are already cashing in by providing
services to China's masses — and they're eager to sell even more as China
matures.
While
the United States has long had a goods deficit with China, it ran a services
surplus of $40.5 billion in 2018. Leading services exports to China include
travel, computer software and trademarks, according to the Office of the
US Trade Representative.
China
has long been a tantalizing
place for American banks and investment firms. Financial services
companies, hungry to lend to businesses and provide investment banking
expertise, are pushing for greater access to China's underserved market.
China reliant on American consumers
At
the same time, American companies have relied on China as a source of
relatively affordable labor and parts. Retailers import merchandise from
China. Apple (AAPL) imports iPhones
that are assembled in China by manufacturers like Foxconn.
All
told, the United States imported $539.5 billion of goods from China in 2018,
according to the Census Bureau.
3.
DEADLY GERMS, LOST CURES
Citrus Farmers Facing Deadly Bacteria Turn to Antibiotics, Alarming
Health Officials
In
its decision to approve two drugs for orange and grapefruit trees, the E.P.A.
largely ignored objections from the C.D.C. and the F.D.A., which fear that
expanding their use in cash crops could fuel antibiotic resistance in humans.
Supported
by
May 17, 2019
ZOLFO
SPRINGS, Fla. — A pernicious disease is eating away at Roy Petteway’s orange
trees. The bacterial infection, transmitted by a tiny winged insect from China,
has evaded all efforts to contain it, decimating Florida’s citrus industry and
forcing scores of growers out of business.
In
a last-ditch attempt to slow the infection, Mr. Petteway revved up his
industrial sprayer one recent afternoon and doused the trees with a novel
pesticide: antibiotics used to treat syphilis, tuberculosis, urinary tract infections
and a number of other illnesses in humans.
“These
bactericides give us hope,” said Mr. Petteway’s son, R. Roy, 33, as he watched
his father treat the family’s trees, some of them 50 years old.
“Because right now, it’s like we’re doing the doggy paddle without a life
preserver and swallowing water.”
Since
2016, the Environmental Protection Agency has allowed Florida citrus farmers to
use the drugs, streptomycin and oxytetracycline, on an emergency basis, but the
agency is now significantly expanding their permitted use across 764,000 acres
in California, Texas and other citrus-producing states. The agency
approved the expanded use despite strenuous objections from the Food and Drug
Administrationand the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, which warn that the heavy use of antimicrobial drugs in
agriculture could spur germs to mutate so they become resistant to the drugs,
threatening the lives of millions of people.
The E.P.A.
has proposed allowing as much as 650,000 pounds of streptomycin to be sprayed
on citrus crops each year. By comparison, Americans
annually use 14,000 pounds of aminoglycosides, the class of
antibiotics that includes streptomycin.
An
infected piece of fruit with signs of citrus greening disease. Its
bitter-tasting juice made it unsellable.
Roy
Petteway spraying orange groves with bactericides on his farm in Zolfo Springs,
Fla.
The
European Union has banned the agricultural
use of both streptomycin and oxytetracycline. So, too, has Brazil, where orange growers are
battling the same bacterial scourge, called huanglongbing, also commonly known
as citrus greening disease.
沒有留言:
張貼留言