Renzo Piano has been awarded the highest honor of the Architectural League of New York, the President's Medal. The prize is bestowed annually on individuals in recognition of extraordinary body of work in architecture, urbanism, or design. — bustler.net

The four firms — Santiago Calatrava, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, SHoP Architects and SOM — will have until May 29 to propose new designs that will be unveiled to the public that day at the TimesCenter on West 41st Street. “We’re really trying to unlock people’s imaginations about the very real potential of a new arena and of a new Penn Station,” said Vin Cipolla, the society’s president, in an interview. — artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

Whole Foods is teaming up with rooftop garden company Gotham Greens for its next New York location. When the lettuce only has to come down a staircase from the roof, that’s about as local as you can get. — fastcoexist.com

The Skyhouse, which occupies four stories of an early skyscraper in Lower Manhattan, shows architect David Hotson manipulating the available space to include features such as a climbing column and tubular metal slide with which inhabitants can move between levels. The living space rises through all four stories and can be accessed with the climbing pole — safety ropes included — while the huge German-constructed slide takes you down from the attic right to the entrance. — theverge.com

It's the first official day of spring, and that means this year's crop of new developments is about to start hitting the market. They'll have a lot to live up to, because the season is starting off with a big one: 432 Park Avenue! The city's—nay, the western hemisphere's—future tallest residential building is now available. Or at least, two-thirds of the units are. — Curbed

While the old-school images might seem odd, the new production method and a barrage of features both seen and unseen will make the licenses, officials say, virtually impossible to forge. — nytimes.com

and I watch everybody, every move. It's nerve-wracking, your blood pressure goes up ten points going through the door... - Jim Fahey (Assistant Chief in the Operation Control Center) — Charlie Rose

In our last post, we published the six finalists and category winners of New York City's ambitious Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge. Here is now the award winner in the "Creativity" category, the concept "NYC Loop" by New York architects FXFOWLE, in more detail. — bustler.net

New York City leaders have announced the winning prototypes from the Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge which launched last December. [...] The competition had invited architects, students, urban designers, planners, technologists, and policy experts to create physical and virtual prototypes that imagine the future of NYC’s approximately 11,000 public pay telephones. — bustler.net

The City of New York invited students, urban planners, designers, technologists and creators to build physical and virtual prototypes imagining the payphone of the future. Judges selected the top six designs, now you get to decide which design will receive the Popular Choice Award. — NYC Gov Facebook

Nick Lembo, the president of Monadnock, recruited nArchitects for the competition. “Some architects shy away from modular construction, and some are intimidated by micro-units,” he said. “But Mimi and Eric were excited by the creative challenges. They created an incredibly space-efficient unit with an open design that will make it feel larger than its square footage.” — nytimes.com

The MAS report, “East Midtown: A Bold Vision for the Future,” provides a plan for how to develop a stronger and more vibrant neighborhood in response to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed major zoning changes, announced last summer, to spur the modernization of East Midtown. MAS fears that in the absence of a careful and comprehensive vision, the City’s proposal will fall short. — mas.org

The long-stalled Tribeca building announced its comeback in October, only a week before resuming construction. Now the Herzog & de Meuron-designed tower is officially on the market. Nine listings have popped up on StreetEasy, ranging in price from a 2BR for $3.625 million to a 4BR penthouse for $24 million. — Curbed NY

Winning projects in three categories have been announced in Gowanus by Design's latest competition, WATER_WORKS. The brief called for solutions specific to Brooklyn's Gowanus area that simultaneously explored the role of water in recreation, quotidian uses, and in contaminated urban environments, and demonstrated how a redesigned community center and retention facility represent a more progressive view of the city's infrastructure. — bustler.net