Archinect - News

Olympic Displacement: Atlanta 1996 to Rio 2016

2013-04-15T17:35:00-04:00

Atlanta and Rio are but two chapters in the long history of displacement that has accompanied mega-events like the Olympics. Similar dynamics reshaped London’s Clays Lane Estate, Beijing’s hutongs, the Marousi Roma settlement in Athens, Barcelona’s Poblenou and Seoul’s hanoks. . . . Today the people of Vila Autódromo are struggling for what housing scholar-activist Chester Hartman has aptly called “the right to stay put.”

As plans unfold for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, MIT's Lawrence Vale and Annemarie Gray consider the case of Vila Autódromo, a former fishing colony on the Olympic site whose residents have organized to resist displacement. They compare ongoing events in Rio to the demolition of Atlanta's Techwood Homes, the first public housing in America, prior to the 1996 Olympics.

Joseph Choma, 2013 Emerging Voices Architect, Exhibits in Atlanta

2013-01-24T17:46:00-05:00

If you're in Atlanta in the next few weeks, make sure to see Joseph Choma's solo-exhibition, Object to Atmosphere, as part of the Young Architects Forum Atlanta Emerging Voices 13 exhibition. Choma is this year's recipient of the AIA Atlanta 2013 Emerging Voices Citation for his research and experimentation in architecture.

Emerging Voices 13 will also feature a composition of the YAF Atlanta 48HRS Design Competition entries and winners.

New Health Center will invigorate one of Atlanta's toughest neighborhoods.

2012-05-14T17:53:00-04:00

This 34,000-square-foot regional health facility located in an under-served neighborhood in southwest Atlanta combines under one roof a primary care clinic, a behavioral health clinic, childcare facilities, a dental clinic and a workforce community center. In doing so, it projects a holistic idea of wellness and a positive self-image for a challenged community. The building is also meant as a catalyst for future growth in the area.

The intention was to create a structure that feels vibrant and alive. The roof was conceived as a dynamic, protective element, a metaphoric blanket, opening upward to welcome in the public. A standing-seam “clamp” folds over the roof to house mechanical equipment, identify major entries and serve as a beacon. Inside, a decentralized, double-height circulation lobby further integrates all the programmatic components.

The notion of co-locating all these functions in a single facility to serve people of varied backgrounds led to consideration of the co...

SEAT Pavilion by E/B Office

2012-03-14T15:11:00-04:00

The pavilion concept SEAT by New York and Portland-based collaboration E/B Office has won the commission for this year's Freedom Park Project at Atlanta. SEAT is a garden pavilion composed of approximately 400 simple wooden chairs arrayed and stacked in a 3-dimensional sine wave surface rising above the ground.

Bank of America Plaza, the tallest building in metro Atlanta, to be auctioned today

2012-02-07T19:59:34-05:00

The foreclosure of Bank of America Plaza comes as delinquency rates for commercial mortgage backed securities, or CMBS, a type of loan for commercial properties, reached an all-time high in metro Atlanta in December, according to Trepp, a real estate research firm.