The appointment signals the start of implementing the Menil’s master plan for its “neighborhood of art,” which consists of six buildings devoted to art spread across several blocks, as well as outdoor sculptures, green spaces and bungalows. — artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

The multidisciplinary design team led by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and Thomas Phifer & Associates was recently named winner of Design Waller Creek: A Competition. Organized by the Austin, TX-based Waller Creek Conservancy, this international design competition called for ideas to revitalize a 7-mile stretch of Waller Creek, a neglected Austin urban ecosystem, and thus turning a "currently fragmented and undervalued section of the city into a vibrant, livable, and workable district." — bustler.net