NEW YORK (AP) Art Garfunkel answered the door to his Manhattan apartment holding a framed black-and-white picture of two smiling men. It was a test.

Correctly identifying Phil and Don Everly in the picture would reveal me as a journalist knowledgeable about music and the roots of Garfunkel's career. Flustered, I failed. It should have been obvious.

The Everly Brothers, who will blend their voices no more following Phil's death at 74 Friday from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, were the architects of rock 'n' roll harmony. Simon & Garfunkel were unimaginable without them. John Lennon and Paul McCartney took their cues, too. Their harmonies (and don't forget George Harrison) formed the bedrock of the Beatles' sound.

Like Garfunkel, Phil sang the high notes. He had the lighter colored hair. He would step away from the microphone, like on "Cathy's Clown," to let older brother Don sing a few lines alone and you noticed how unremarkable Don's voice was unadorned. Only when that voice merged with his brother's as a single, new voice did it become special.

Sweet as they sounded, their hits resonated because they taught a huge post-World War II generation as it was growing up that love wasn't all roses, blue skies and candy. "Bye bye love," they sang. "Bye bye happiness. Hello loneliness. I think I'm a-gonna cry."

In the sumptuous "All I Have to Do is Dream," the romance is frustratingly unrequited. "I need you so, that I could die," they sang. "When Will I Be Loved," they wondered. Even success was fraught with worry: the couple in "Wake Up Little Susie" fretted over whether anyone would believe their excuses when they fell asleep watching a movie.

With their two acoustic guitars and a sound that referenced rock and country, the Everlys would be categorized today and be mostly on the country music charts. Thankfully, things were freer when they were young and their music was heard by everyone.

Phil and Don Everly pioneered another rock staple: feuding partners, often brothers, who were never as compelling apart as they were together. Phil famously threw down his guitar and walked offstage during a 1973 gig in California, prompting Don to tell the crowd, "The Everly Brothers died 10 years ago." Ray and Dave Davies of the Kinks carried on that fractious tradition, as did Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis.

Simon & Garfunkel invited the Everly Brothers to be their opening act for a 2003 tour. Paul Simon, often exasperated by his on-again, off-again partner and quite accomplished on his own, couldn't help but be amused by the irony of two partnerships where real-life harmony didn't match what was onstage. Phil and Don hadn't seen each other for three years before meeting in the parking lot before the first show.

Famous fans paid their debts. Simon and Garfunkel could have invited anyone for that 2003 tour. McCartney opened the door for "Phil and Don" in his 1976 hit "Let 'Em In" and wrote the single "On the Wings of a Nightingale" for their 1984 reunion. Rockpile partners Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe recorded an EP of Everly covers and Edmunds produced the "EB 84" album.

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Phil Everly and brother Don were architects of rock 'n' roll harmony

Information privacy: the architects #39; perception
This talk by Dr. Irit Hadar from the University of Haifa was presented at the IBM Research - Haifa full-day seminar on information privacy on Monday, October...

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Information privacy: the architects' perception - Video

Generally speaking, architects are brilliant and creative people with a wide range of talents. That sort of versatility is part of what makes them good architects in the first place. But let's be honest. Just because some people are good at a lot of things does not mean they're good at everything. Take yachts, for instance.

For whatever reason, architects like to design yachts. It doesn't matter if they know anything about how boats work or what actually makes a vessel seaworthy. They like to design yachtsespecially superyachtsand they like them flashy. What tends to ensue is an elastic set of assumptions about the balance between form and function. Or lack thereof.

Let's look at a few examples, and try to discern the yachts that can actually float from the yachts that look like the architect's design software got a virus and just mashed up a bunch of volumes into a single alien form.

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Here's a great example of a famous architect who likes forms that seem highly incompatible with nautical engineering. Hadid recently designed this "concept superyacht," which, to be frank, looks like a cross between a moth-eaten cigarette and an alien turd. Boatbuilder Blohm+Voss said in a press release that Hadid "created an intense connectivity between the various decks and elements of the design." She created something intense alright.

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It's almost hard to tell if this is even a boat. Shaped like some sort of ray, Timon Sager's futuristic ship, dubbed the Bairim, features a no-resistance design that's meant to let it zip through the ocean with efficiency. The wide open cabin makes for a comfortable living space, with floor-to-ceiling windows on either side and, apparently, a movie theater. Because that's what everybody wants to do with then get on a boat: watch Jaws.

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You probably know Norman Foster's style from "The Gherkin" in London or the Hearst Tower in New York City. Believe it or not, his firm's aesthetic carries over into its nautical work. The 120-foot-long Ocean Emerald was christened in 2009 and is currently shared by a bunch of multi-millionaires. The outside looks like a chrome-plated cocoa bean. The inside looks like a Norman Foster museumsince he literally designed every surface and object on the boat.

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6 Jaw-Dropping Superyachts Designed by Architects

ARCHITECTS OF EVOLUTION - Universe Without Design (OFFICIAL) New Single
ARCHITECTS OF EVOLUTION - Universe Without Design (OFFICIAL) Second Single from upcoming Album "Global" https://www.facebook.com/architectsofevolution Guest ...

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The House Is Free, But You Have to Take It With You
Two architects are giving away their house in pricey Arlington, Virginia, but there #39;s one condition -- whoever takes it is responsible for moving it. Two arc...

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The House Is Free, But You Have to Take It With You - Video

Lack of euro treasury key to crisis and to recovery

Thursday, January 02, 2014

THE architects of the euro knew that it was incomplete when they designed it.

By George Soros

European authorities were confident, however, that if and when the euro ran into a crisis, they would be able to overcome it. After all, that is how the EU was created, taking one step at a time, knowing full well that additional steps would be required.

With hindsight, one can identify other deficiencies of which the euros architects were unaware. The euro was supposed to bring about economic convergence, but it produced divergences instead, because its architects did not realise that imbalances may emerge not only in the public sector, but in the private sector as well.

After the euro came into force, commercial banks could refinance their holdings of government bonds at the discount window of the European Central Bank, and regulators treated government bonds as riskless. This caused interest-rate differentials between various countries to shrink, which generated real estate booms in the weaker economies and reduced their competitiveness.

At the same time, Germany, suffering from the after-effects of reunification, had to tighten its belt. Trade unions agreed to concessions on wages and working conditions in exchange for job security. That is how the divergences emerged. Yet the banks continued to load up on the government bonds of the weaker countries in order to benefit from the minuscule interest-rate differentials.

The consequences of the lack of a common treasury first became apparent after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008, when governments, in order to prevent financial markets from collapsing, had to guarantee that no other systemically important financial institution would be allowed to fail.

At that time, Angela Merkel rejected a Europe-wide guarantee, insisting that each country should guarantee its own institutions. Interestingly, interest-rate differentials widened only in 2010, when the newly-elected Greek government announced that the previous government had vastly understated the true fiscal deficit.

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Lack of euro treasury key to crisis and to recovery

More and more cities are investing in ways to get bikers on the road, but London has been particularly preoccupied with keeping them safe.After a particularly brutal spate of deaths last year, Mayor Boris Johnson drew the ire of cyclists when heinsisted theres no amount of traffic engineering that we invest in that is going to save peoples lives.

Actually, about $360 million of engineering should do it. Thats according to plans for SkyCycle, a 137-mile network of elevated bike paths that would allow Londoners to pull a Mary Poppins by riding above the citys traffic. Unveiled this week by a team of architects including Lord Norman Foster (the guy who designed thatgiant egg-shaped building), the design is two years in the making and would take about 20 years to complete.The Guardian has more:

The project, which has the backing of Network Rail and Transport for London, would see over 220km of car-free routes installed above Londons suburban rail network, suspended on pylons above the tracks and accessed at over 200 entrance points. At up to 15 metres wide, each of the ten routes would accommodate 12,000 cyclists per hour and improve journey times by up to 29 minutes, according to the designers.

Lord Foster, who says that cycling is one of his great passions, describes the plan as a lateral approach to finding space in a congested city.

By using the corridors above the suburban railways, he said, we could create a world-class network of safe, car-free cycle routes that are ideally located for commuters.

As bike enthusiasts andinfrastructure wonks alike keep themselves busy arguing over whether SkyCycle is even a good idea, the design firms still trying to raise money just to study its feasibility. But hey, cities can dream.

Correction 1/2/14 3:45 p.m. ET: A previous version of this story quoted the estimated cost of SkyCycle at $3.6 million. The correct amount is $360 million. Salon regrets the error.

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Architects unveil plan for $360 million bike path in the sky

Alfonso Architects will design the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement (MAACM) in St. Petersburg on behalf of collector Rudy Ciccarello and the Two Red Roses Foundation (TRRF). Scheduled to open in early 2016, the four-story, 90,000-sq.-ft. museum will include rare and one-of-a-kind works by leading craftsmen and artists of the early 20th century. A reference library, furnished with period pieces such as Stickley furniture and Tiffany lighting, will house books and catalogues on the Arts and Crafts Movement and the TRRF collection.

The museums architecture is inspired by the Arts & Crafts Movement in its detailing and customization of materials and joinery, architect Alberto Alfonso said in a statement. The spaces will embrace natural light and respond to the different scales of the objects they hold. It will be a building of our time that celebrates this immensely important period of art, architecture, and American history.

Plans also call for spaces for special exhibitions, events galleries, a small auditorium, restaurant, caf, gift shop, and bookstore.

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Alfonso Architects Selected for Arts & Crafts Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida

Foreign Architects Christmas Challenge
Andrew calls Matt the Grinch after accusing him of having little Christmas knowledge, so the two do battle to test their christmas know how in front of the m...

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Architects - Paul Evans Design Architects

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Architects - Paul Evans Design Architects - Video