Archinect - News

Queer Spaces, Intersections, LGBT Historic Sites: Urban Omnibus launches new series

2018-02-22T14:32:00-05:00

As designers and urbanists engage with LGBTQ+ identity, what role do gender and sexuality play in the preservation, design, and management of urban space today? [...] Marginalization means invisibility, both in history and space. New efforts seek to reclaim and preserve queer histories inscribed in sites across the city.

Urban Omnibus, a publication of the Architectural League of New York, recently launched its new series Intersections: Surfacing (guest-edited by Jacob R. Moore), allowing a more informed look at issues of gender and sexuality in the context of design & urban history.

Kickstart this! Façadomy: a new journal that looks at gender and identity through architecture

2016-05-05T20:41:00-04:00

Façadomy is new publication that looks at contemporary identity through the lenses of art and architecture. Façadomy's inaugural issue, Gender Talents explores the landscape of self-determined gender. It builds off the work of progressive sexologist Esben Esther P. Benestad, who has observed seven distinct genders in their practice as a therapist in Norway. Three prominent voices in contemporary art and architecture reflect on these seven themes...

Conversations around gender and identity – long excluded from the "gentleman's profession" of architecture – are seeping more and more into architectural discourse.

For example, the AIA announced recently that they would cancel their conference in North Carolina because of the passage of HB2, a bill widely described as transphobic, exclusionary, and bigoted. And, while the number of women in architecture remains low (with a high dropout rate post-college), and the way female architects are treated remains poor (if not violent and illegal), at least the conversation seems to have picked up in recent years.

But there's so much more to be said about the relationship between architecture and identity-formation than can fit into a crisis management-oriented footnote. The built environment both mirrors societal norms about identity and reinforces them. It's the ground on which we learn, perform, enforce, resist, or trouble gender norms.

Enter Façadomy, a new publication that looks squarely a...

Obama administration to designate Stonewall as America's first LGBT memorial

2016-05-05T18:41:00-04:00

New York's iconic Stonewall Inn, where the modern gay rights movement took root, will become the first national monument honoring the history of gays and lesbians in the U.S. under a proposal President Barack Obama is preparing to approve. Designating the small swath of land will mark a major act of national recognition for gay rights advocates and their struggles over the last half-century.

Originally built as stables in the 1840s, the Stonewall Inn was the site of historic riots after police raided the LGBT bar on June 28, 1969. While such raids were then common, that night the bar-goers fought back – in the process helping to catalyze the LGBT liberation movement.

The news was timed to coincide with LGBT Pride month, which is held in June each year in commemoration of Stonewall. While the article specifies the monument as honoring the history of gays and lesbians, it's important to note the pivotal role transgender individuals played in the uprising.

According to AP, the Obama administration is considering including nearby Christopher Park in the historic designation.

In related news:

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Nation's first combined housing complex for LGBT youth and seniors coming to Hollywood

2016-03-30T16:45:00-04:00

A first-in-the-nation complex to be built in Hollywood would house about 200 LGBT seniors and young adults on the same campus. Lorrie Jean, CEO of the the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which is building the $100 million complex, calls the two generation groups "the two most vulnerable parts of our community."

As "gayborhoods" gentrify, LGBTQ people move into conservative America

2016-03-10T20:03:00-05:00

Despite skewing Democrat, LGBT people are flocking to red states. It’s a sign that cities in the center of the country are becoming more accepting, but it’s also an indication that traditional LGBT safe havens are prohibitively expensive. ConsumerAffairs.com analyzed U.S. Census data and Gallup polling information to model the movement of the LGBT community from 1990 to 2014. The overall trend is striking.

"In 1990, the LGBT population was concentrated in coastal metropolitan areas and other safe havens—cities like San Francisco, New York, Seattle, and Atlanta. By 2014, LGBT hot spots cropped up in some seemingly unlikely places: Salt Lake City, Louisville, Norfolk, Indianapolis, and other red state cities."

ConsumerAffairs collected an impressive body of research on the demographic patterns of the LGBTQ community, which you can check out here. For more LGBTQ-related coverage, take a look at these links: