Mr. Stern said the building, which is scheduled to have its groundbreaking next year, was not designed to reflect on Mr. Bush personally. “It’s not a portrait or a defense of his policies,” Mr. Stern told The Morning News. “It is about the presidency, the dignity of the office.” NYT

A shortage of funds has prompted UC Berkeley to abandon its plan to construct a new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive downtown. SF Gate + full entry...

Mimi Zeiger has penned a piece for Metropolis on Thom Faulder's design for a private backyard installation entitled "Deform Courtyard". According to Jeff Dauber, the client (an exec at Apple), "I wanted someone to barf when they look at it". Metropolis

"'This memorial for the fallen haunts me'" Guardian

Lewis.Tsuramaki.Lewis, nARCHITECTS, SCAPE Studio, and Matthew Baird Architects have been selected for a residency at P.S.1 to help address flooding and climate change in New York Harbor. Their job will be to create innovative designs to address issues raised by Guy Nordenson, Catherine Seavitt, and Adam Yarinsky, who have been studying the area for some time and helped coordinate the residency with MoMA. The Architect's Newspaper

"After years of taking a back seat to other long-delayed development projects at ground zero, the performing arts center has suddenly come to the fore, as both a focus of discussion and a bone of contention. The underground work now being done by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center site, is expected to reach the location planned for the arts center in about four months." - NYT

The Danish-Icelandic artist has been commissioned by Copenhagen's mayor to design a pedestrian bridge in the city, to connect an area dominated by office buildings designed by Henning Larsen.

Describing his plans for the bridge, Eliasson said that he wants pedestrians crossing the river to come as close to the water as possible, and that he would like to make the structure partly transparent. - The Art Newspaper

The chief architect for the landmark new headquarters for China's powerful state broadcaster said the part of the complex that burned in a massive fire earlier this year can be repaired and does not need to be torn down. AP

The New York City Council voted to approve the Jean Nouvel-designed skyscraper today, set to build next to the Museum of Modern Art at 53 West 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
The vote comes on the heels of massive discord over the proposed tower, which opponents feel is planned to be too tall for the neighborhood. It's not yet clear whether development group Hines will restrict the height of the structure to 1,050 feet, as had been reported, or whether the tower will extend to 1,250 feet as the Hines group had hoped. TRD/NY & Curbed

From City Beautiful to the arts district in Dallas, Nicolai Ourousoff calls 'em as he sees 'em:

"...The formal dazzle masks a deeper struggle by cities and architects to create accessible public space in an age of shrinking government revenue and privatization. At their most ambitious, they are an effort to rethink the two great urban planning movements that gave shape to the civic and cultural identity of the American city."

In the NYT. Don't miss the slideshow.

The ramps were built by a company accused of having links to the mob, and the concrete mix was designed and tested by a company under indictment on charges that it failed to perform some tests and falsified the results of others. But it is unclear whether work performed by either firm contributed to the deteriorating conditions of the ramps. NYT.

It's not magical, but the new Los Angeles Police Department building downtown is a surprisingly successful piece of urban design. LATimes

The chapel's modest architecture is a refreshing change from the circular museum with its assertive mast. In designing the 2,100-square-foot building, Denver-based Fentress Architects, the same firm responsible for the museum, shelved heroic gestures for a barnlike structure framed in Douglas fir. Washington Times

Norman Fosters new design for Sperone/Westwater gallery near the New Museum, NYC. NYT

Conceptual Design by Fentress Architects/Los Angeles World Airports

The $1.3 billion in contracts was the largest ever awarded for a single project in Los Angeles, city officials said. The project — which will be financed with bonds, not federal stimulus money — will be the first significant renovation of the airport’s international terminal in more than 25 years, officials said. The Los Angeles airport is the world’s fifth busiest. NYT + full entry...