Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
Federal legislation to make Cahokia Mounds part of a new national park could soon be introduced in Congress, according to proponents of the plan.
The Cahokia Mounds and Mississippian Culture National Historic Park would also include ancient mounds in St. Clair and Madison counties and Sugarloaf Mound in St. Louis, the last remaining mound in the city.
— St. Louis Public Radio
If the proposed Cahokia Mounds and Mississippian Culture National Historic Park is approved, the thousand-year-old pre-Columbian Native American historical site, which includes mounds in southern Illinois and outside St. Louis, would be the second new national park created in Missouri in two... View full entry
Platform, a new website dedicated to hosting conversations, writings, and perspectives on the built environment, has taken off. The venture, billed as an "open digital venue for exchanging ideas about working with, researching, teaching, and writing about buildings, spaces, and landscapes,"... View full entry
Municipalities, in the interest of preserving open space, could once be counted on to take over troubled courses. But subsidizing golf has become a toxic political issue in most places. — chicagobusiness.com
Are the days of America's golf clubs numbered? Reading the news, it doesn't look too good. A recent Crain's report chronicling the ailing state of suburban Chicago golf clubs points out that while business was booming for the region's country clubs just a decade ago, the game has fallen flat in... View full entry
The widest open space of the High Line opened [...], marking the completion of the wildly popular elevated park. A 16-foot bronze sculpture by Simone Leigh anchors the new section, called the Spur, which offers vistas in every direction.
The Spur is a 420-foot section that extends over the intersection of 10th Avenue at West 30th Street.
— Gothamist
"The design of the Spur has gone through many iterations over the years: from theater, to garden, to woodland, to event platform, to an immersive ‘bowl,’ among others," said James Corner, who led the design of the Spur, as well as other sections of the High Line, in collaboration with Diller... View full entry
The world’s greatest rainforest – which is a vital provider of oxygen and carbon sequestration – lost 739sq km during the [month of May], equivalent to two football pitches every minute, according to data from the government’s satellite monitoring agency. — The Guardian
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has accelerated at a drastic clip since far-right Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was inaugurated in January 2019. The Brazilian government takes monthly satellite observations to survey the deforestation, and it found that logging rates increased... View full entry
University of Southern California School of Architecture appointed associate professor Alison Hirsch as the new director of the Master of Landscape Architecture + Urbanism program, effective August 2019. As a landscape theorist, designer, and historian, Hirsch’s work focuses on how the... View full entry
The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts was designed by architect Harry Weese, with the surrounding landscape by Dan Kiley, and was completed in 1969. [...]
In December 2018, the Center announced an overhaul of the cultural venue, the culmination of a months-long strategic planning process. However, the proposal drew backlash for its insensitve treatment of the Dan Kiley-designed landscape.
— Docomomo US
At the center of the historic designation discussion is the planned replacement of the 36 horse chestnut trees in front of the Marcus Center with a lawn bordered by 18 honey locust trees. "Preservationists said removing the trees would harm the legacy of grove designer Dan Kiley, whose other... View full entry
The crowded field of competitors who’ve proposed solutions for the ailing Brooklyn-Queens Expressway has gotten another entrant: Bjarke Ingels Group, which has unveiled a proposal that it calls “BQP.”
The “P” stands for park, and in BIG’s plan, green space takes center stage. [...] the vehicles that use the BQE would be moved to a roadway that would be covered and topped with as much as 10 acres of new parkland.
— Curbed NY
"Though a cost and time estimate for BIG’s plan has not yet been made public, the firm claims it will be less expensive, and less time-consuming, than what the DOT has proposed," reports Curbed NY (click here for their detailed explainer of what the massive Brooklyn-Queens... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. (Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!)... View full entry
Today at Nvidia GTC 2019, the company unveiled a stunning image creator. Using generative adversarial networks, users of the software are with just a few clicks able to sketch images that are nearly photorealistic. The software will instantly turn a couple of lines into a gorgeous mountaintop sunset. This is MS Paint for the AI age. — Tech Crunch
The GauGAN image creation system Nvidia presented this week is an impressive foreshadowing of AI's rapid advancement into creative fields, like art and architecture—and a frightening example of the increasing ease of producing (nearly) photorealistic inauthentic imagery. Screenshot of the... View full entry
The recent Pritzker Prize winner was never shy to show his bold and unapologetic design aesthetic, pulling from various architectural practices. Using large forms and volumes, Arata Isozaki works with his environment to create seamless spaces. During a trip to the desert to visit his long-time... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. (Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!)... View full entry
It’s not necessarily that conservatives rip out their lawns for economic reasons and liberals do so for environmental ones. Fresno is located in one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world, so living here brings a consciousness of water issues, as well as a pride in the region’s miles of fields. “My Job Depends on Ag” is a common bumper sticker about town. — City Lab
The EPA estimates that a third of the water used by American households goes to watering lawns and gardens, and Californians have long made up a significant portion of that statistic. State-wide aridity lends California a unique thirst for water, especially after several droughts within the last... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. (Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect... View full entry
Nearly 16,000 structures have been destroyed in the Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive fire in the history of California. (The next nine worst blazes in the state together destroyed 20,500 structures.) The devastation is in part a story of how climate change–induced “boom and bust” cycles of rainfall and drought have made firetraps of California forests. But it’s also a story about the way we build. — Slate
In lieu of recent events, California has been hit with a wave of wildfires. Affected in both the Southern and Northern areas of California, the recent months have left many Californians with nothing. Areas have been reduced to ash, leaving homeowners to evacuate the area. The blame can be pointed... View full entry