Archinect - News

One of LA’s top mayoral candidates wants to create a hub for affordable housing with an updated Civic Center development plan

2021-10-04T16:59:00-04:00

A stalled plan that would have added over 3 million square feet of office space to Downtown LA has gotten a second life thanks to a post-pandemic reimagining that seeks to address a statewide shortage of affordable housing.

The updated Civic Center Master Development Plan (CCMDP) proposed by mayoral hopeful Kevin de Leon would reverse the numbers in the previously approved plan from 2017, adding more than three times the amount of housing called for in the original while reducing the amount of planned office space by about two thirds.

California is under the gun to add over 1.8 million new units of housing by 2025 to keep up with demands, which so far have outpaced supply to the point where the state has now moved to ban single-family zoning in an effort to boost higher density development. LA itself has said it wants to add 25,000 units to the city in the same time period, and de Leon’s motion would go a long way in helping to meet those demands while at the same time consolidatin...

Snøhetta's city hall in South Korea connects the government with the people

2020-10-01T11:51:00-04:00

Following an international architecture competition, Snøhetta together with local partner Tomoon Architects and Engineers have won the bid to design the new city hall in Cheongju, South Korea. The new facilities embrace an ethos of community and integration between the government and its citizens.

For smooth operation and open communication between departments, administrative spaces are consolidated under one roof. The design addresses the currently scattered nature of governmental offices by bringing all parties into one holistic space.

The roof and facade are formed with a combination of translucent and opaque panels to convey an ethereal quality that connects the inner-workings of the "machine" to the public on the outside. Moreover, photovoltaics provide a renewable source of energy while the the laminated glazing throughout provides an ample offering of natural light.

The new building wraps around the existing city hall, which...

London to move city hall from Norman Foster-designed tower to Docklands site

2020-06-24T13:02:00-04:00

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced a plan to move London's city hall facilities from their current location within the Norman Foster-designed "glass gonad" building to the Wilkinson Eyre Architects-designed Crystal building in the city's Docklands district.

The Foster building is a privately-owned facility that costs the Greater London Authority, the regional government for London and surrounding boroughs, an estimated £11.1million per year to rent. The building's colloquial name was given to the facilities by former London Mayor Boris Johnson, who is now Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The move comes as the London struggles to pay for essential services, including public transportation and firefighting services, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regarding the move, Khan tells The Huffington Post, “My first priority will always be to protect funding for front-line services, including public transport, the Met Police and the London Fire Brigade,” adding, “Leaving ...

Mecanoo completes Delft City Hall and Train Station

2018-09-28T19:44:00-04:00

Following the construction of the first phase in 2015, the Mecanoo-designed Delft City Hall and Train Station is now fully completed, the Dutch firm recently announced. The 28,320 m2 project sits on top of a train tunnel, which replaced an old concrete viaduct that divided the city since 1965. Now, the project connects Delft's historic city center to the east of the tunnel with the residential neighborhoods to the west.

Photo credit: Mecanoo.

The project's design celebrates the past and present of Delft, Mecanoo describes. As travelers ride the escalators, they can look up to see a gigantic 1877 map of Delft on the ceiling, which Mecanoo designed with Geerdes Ontwerpen. Outside, travelers can see the city and the old station. Walls and columns in the interior are decorated with a contemporary reinterpretation of Delft Blue tiles. The train station also directly connects to the city hall.

Photo credit: Mecanoo.

“Panels of fused glass with len...

Why architects should get involved in local governance

2016-05-10T19:51:00-04:00

“Architecture is one of the most important things that we have to help communities shape themselves, both literally and figuratively,” Treviño says. “However, when we start talking about the leaders of the community, most often you have people without an architectural background.” As local leaders, architects can bring an objective, analytical perspective to the organizations that run their communities. And there’s already widespread interest among practitioners in making a difference.

This month, in line with the ideas behind the upcoming Venice Biennale, Archinect's coverage includes a special themed section, Help, featuring content that focuses on the social and political components of the discipline.

Here's some relevant coverage:

Have projects of your own that are oriented towards creating a more equitable and livable society? Submit to our open call before Sunday, May 22.

Take a look at these bold visions for Downtown LA's next park

2016-02-24T14:26:00-05:00

LA has few corners as prominent as First and Broadway. Directly adjacent to the art deco City Hall and across from the LA Times building, the nearly-2 acre lot stands at the center of an increasingly well-trafficked pedestrian area. Now, some of the biggest names in town are competing to transform the lot into a bold new park.

After a wider call for proposals, the LA Bureau of Engineering, in conjunction with the Mayor's Office, announced a shortlist of finalists late last year: AECOM, Brooks + Scarpa Architects, Eric Owen Moss Architects, and Mia Lehrer + Associates in collaboration with OMA. Each practice was given six weeks to produce a design, which are currently of public view.

Soon, the City will announce the winners of the competition, following input from the public, and then will proceed to finalize the designs.

Since the new park abuts the larger Grand Park (designed by Rios Clementi Hale Studios), it needs to both stand out as a unique design and seamlessly mesh with the exi...

Can beautiful architecture inspire Americans to become good citizens?

2014-11-26T14:04:00-05:00

A hundred and some years ago, an aesthetic force called the City Beautiful movement professed the theory that grand public buildings, lovely civic palaces, could inspire Americans to become good citizens. [...] Since the 1960s, though, it seems as if great civic architecture has become an embarrassment. Politicians who love to cut ribbons find it hard to justify paying for beautiful on top of functional. The result is a style I call Sunbelt Stalinism [...].

Henning Larsen Architects wins Kiruna City Hall competition in Northern Sweden

2013-09-16T14:12:00-04:00

The design entry 'The Crystal' by Henning Larsen Architects in collaboration with Tema Landscape Architects Sweden, WSP Engineers Sweden and UiWE Cultural Designers has scored the first prize in the international competition for the new city hall building in Kiruna, Sweden's northernmost city.