Archinect - News

Finalists Announced for Breathe, The New Urban Village Project in New Zealand

2013-03-05T16:50:00-05:00

Four finalist entries have been unveiled in the Christchurch, New Zealand urban design competition, Breathe - The New Urban Village Project. The brief called for innovative medium-density housing development designs from collaborative groups containing a designer and a property developer.

Massive mixed-use project in Hollywood clears a hurdle

2013-02-20T16:47:00-05:00

A proposal for two skyscrapers that would flank the Capitol Records tower in Hollywood gained the approval of the city's planning department Tuesday despite push-back from dozens of disgruntled residents. The Millennium Hollywood plans are the most ambitious in a string of revitalization projects in the area, including the W Hotel and the Hollywood & Highland Center. The $664-million mixed-use development could include more than 1 million square feet of apartment, office and retail space.

Previously: First Plans Released For Huge Towers Next to Capitol Records

Developer Unveils New Plan for Grand Avenue, sans Gehry

2013-01-18T19:47:00-05:00

Developer Ditches Gehry Mega-Project for Phased Approach, Starting With Second Residential Tower The real estate development firm Related’s long-delayed plan to build a $2 billion Frank Gehry-designed hotel, housing and retail complex on Grand Avenue has been off the table for several years. Now, a new proposal is finally coming into focus.

The emergence of architect-branded property development

2012-11-27T11:34:00-05:00

Like Gehry, Ingels relies on the expertise of Packes, SLCE and Durst in his quest to rethink a played-out product. Design, Ingels said, is more than “coming up with stuff. We translate specific expert knowledge into a response that addresses given conditions in a new way.” That ought to be an obvious approach. I hope other developers take notice.

A Michigan City Bets on Food for Its Growth

2012-11-15T18:22:00-05:00

The Downtown Market, in effect, is the newest piece of civic equipment built here since the mid-1990s to leverage the same urban economic trends of the 21st century — higher education, hospitals and health care, housing, entertainment, transit, and cleaner air and water — that are reviving most large American cities.

Building up, not selling out: Can denser cities save family farms?

2012-10-23T21:49:00-04:00

In 2006, the developers of Olive 8 — a swanky hotel/condo complex planned for downtown Seattle — were looking for a way to build beyond the 300-foot height limit that zoning allowed. Doing so required some compromises — but not the kind of backroom deal residents of Chicago or Baltimore might assume.

Phoenix rising as Beijing builds

2012-10-18T17:49:00-04:00

“China is evolving into a construction superpower,” says Fang Zhenning, a scholar who lectures at the architecture school of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. The country is expected to account for one-fifth of worldwide building by the year 2020, Fang says. In the battle to build ever-faster, some architects have resorted to digitally cloning designs that can be replicated time after time.

Dublin Ohio Plans 1000-acre Urban Development in the Heart of Suburbia

2012-02-04T15:26:00-05:00

The City of Dublin, Ohio is an affluent Columbus suburb typically known for it’s good schools, easy access to jobs, and low density housing and retail developments that have rapidly sprawled outward over the past forty years. Fast forward another forty years and things may look drastically different. Officials with the city’s planning department have been steadily working on the Bridge Street Corridor plan, which calls for the redevelopment of 1,000 acres located at the core of Dublin.

One of the largest suburbs of Columbus, Ohio is planning to give itself an urban face lift with a new long term redevelopment plan. In addition to increase residential density to over 5000 people per square mile, the plan calls for the eventual installation of light rail light to serve local and regional commuters.

Visions of LoLo, a Neighborhood Rising From Landfill

2012-01-23T15:15:00-05:00

LoLo, which stands for Lower Lower Manhattan, is one of the first proposals from the Center for Urban Real Estate, a new research group at Columbia University. The neighborhood would be created by connecting Lower Manhattan and Governors Island with millions of cubic yards of landfill, similar to how Battery Park City was born in the 1970s. Over 20 to 30 years, the center estimates, LoLo would create 88 million square feet of development and generate $16.7 billion in revenue for the city.

Treasuring Urban Oases

2011-12-04T22:45:19-05:00

...the city should reverse its approach, zoning neighborhoods like Midtown, Lower Manhattan and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, by thinking first about the shape of public space instead of private development.