Archinect - News

Is the quality of construction drawings 'getting worse' at a critical time?

2025-01-03T15:01:00-05:00

An overreliance on modern BIM software and lack of in situ knowledge on the part of architects may be spurring declines in the deliverability of new structures, says a new post to LinkedIn from designer Igor Goriatchev. The "Speed vs. Quality" debate, rise of remote work, and related declines in in-person mentorships are all factors leading to the conclusion that "[c]omprehensive, integrated drawings have given way to incomplete, conflicting, and fragmented sets" which are in turn affecting construction timelines on new projects, the post states.

This opinion relates to various topics within employment and professional practice that have been highlighted via our Forum threads for several years with the advent of new digital workflows and other realities for architects.

Has this matched your experience with technical drawings for AEC clients in daily professional practice? You can share your thoughts in the comments below.

Former ACHP Chair Sara Bronin shares statement with Archinect after departure

2025-01-03T11:14:00-05:00

Sara Bronin, the Biden Administration's appointee as Chair of the U.S. Federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), recently announced her departure from the agency effective this month. Bronin, who is one of only a few licensed architects to hold the position, mentioned her optimism about forward movement in the preservation field in a LinkedIn post, along with a note about strides made in terms of outreach to Indigenous communities, housing, accessibility, and energy independence.

The most recent AIA Firm Survey Report noted that 45% of all U.S. billings were from renovations, rehabilitations, and retrofits; additions to existing structures; and/or historic preservation activities in 2023.

“I think architects are among those best positioned to help lead this dialogue, working with clients and communities to build a knowledge base and collective will to ch...

Zaha Hadid Architects still wed to costly licensing agreement, UK court says

2025-01-02T13:42:00-05:00

A legal ruling has disfavored Zaha Hadid Architects in their attempt to extract themselves from a licensing agreement with the Zaha Hadid Foundation that dictates the annual payment of royalty fees equal to 6% of the firm's annual net income.

According to the first reports from British outlet The Times, "[Patrik] Schumacher said the agreement was only intended to provide Hadid with an income during her lifetime to regularise a 'rather haphazard system of Dame Zaha claiming remuneration and expenses on an ad hoc basis' which could lead to press scrutiny."

The London-based practice, which is unable to exit the agreement, reported a turnover worth close to $86 million in 2023. Zaha Hadid Architects has paid a total of £21.4 million (appx. $26.5 million USD) to the foundation through the agreement since 2018.

Editor's Picks #566

2024-12-27T12:38:00-05:00

As part of Archinect In-Depth: Visualization, Niall Patrick Walsh explored the impact of two influential schools of architecture, the École des Beaux-Arts and the Bauhaus "both of which dramatically impacted architectural visualization in ways that continue to resonate today." In response Eamez argued

"Bauhaus and early modernism still carried much of the same ethos from Beaux-Arts -- human proportions, rationalism, monumentality. If anything, it was carrying humanism into dialogue with new machine and industrial processes, including glass, steel, elevators and automobiles. Which is why classic modernism is always so much better than what follows."

Left: A Beaux-Arts period architectural perspective (anonymous, 18th century). Right: A drawing by László Moholy-Nagy from 1919, who would join the Bauhaus as an instructor in 1923.

Plus, there were 11 takeaways from the 2024 Mental Health Survey Results. One that jumped out at me was that "48% of survey respondents told us that the COVID...

Yoshio Taniguchi, MoMA's surprise expansion architect, dies at 87

2024-12-26T10:36:00-05:00

Yoshio Taniguchi, the architect of MoMA’s 2004 redesign and expansion, has died at the age of 87. The New York Times reported the news, along with more details about his journey to the surprise 1997 commission win, following his death from pneumonia on December 16th.

Taniguchi was born to a prominent architect father in Tokyo in 1937 and studied at the Harvard GSD before returning to Japan in 1964. Significant museum projects include the Ken Domon Museum of Photography and the Gallery of Horyuji Treasures at the Tokyo National Museum. His only other American work is the Asia Society Texas Center in Houston. Taniguchi was the second Isamu Noguchi Award winner and dedicated the Yoshiro and Yoshio Taniguchi Museum of Architecture in Kanazawa in 2019.

In memoriam — those we lost in 2024

2024-12-25T08:00:00-05:00

Each year, the passing of an architect offers a moment to reflect on their legacy, revisiting the impact of their work while capturing the essence of their career through the perspectives of colleagues and peers, alongside a record of their achievements.

In reviewing their impact, we (too) often can't resist the push to distill these lives into broad categories—icons, innovators, or pioneers—yet the true depth of their contributions can never be fully captured in simple terms or short paragraphs. Architecture, just as the people who shape it, is an ever-evolving and complex discipline, often too expansive to be contained by a single narrative.

Once again, we honor their legacies, remembering not just their most visible works, but the enduring impact they had on the world of design education and the world beyond. What follows is a recap in tribute to some of the influential architects, landscape architects, theorists, planners, and the other leading figures and familiar faces we sai...

Tales from a toxic superculture: A closer look at the defining architecture controversies of 2024

2024-12-21T08:00:00-05:00

If there is a lesson to be taken from this year, it is that small evils lead to ever-bigger ones. The wrong behaviors and motivations get rewarded until the process capitalizes into a singular upending spectacle. That reality is just as resurgent in professional spheres and does appear likely to retain its dominance over other civic ones. Unethical practices, the influence (good or bad) of politics and public opinion, removal of history, and a culture of dishonesty coursed, as ever, through the domain of architecture in 2024. Inside its ranks, questions as to why the cycle itself is so prevalent continue to go unsettled.

Here, instead, is an impartial breakdown of the year’s most controversial news headlines in architecture. What can be taken from it is a testimony to the ways moral disintegration is both reflected and can be defeated in our built environment. We’ll start with the biggest stories and slowly narrow into a spotlight on the global salients within more limited constrain...

Venice begins glass replacement of Calatrava's slippery Constitution Bridge

2024-12-18T17:19:00-05:00

Santiago Calatrava’s marvelous yet befuddling pedestrian bridge at the Ponte della Costituzione in Venice is now in the process of reconstruction in the wake of the city government issuing fines in response to slip and fall injuries that followed its opening in September 2008. All 284 glass steps are to be replaced with safer stone upgrades, according to The Times’s reporting. The repairs, which were finally agreed to by officials in 2022, will cost approximately €500,000 ($518,000 USD). That's enough for almost 13 of his new Gübelin watches!

Evelyn Lee inaugurated as the 2025 AIA President

2024-12-17T13:54:00-05:00

Evelyn Lee’s ascension to the 101st President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) was capped by her inauguration ceremony last week. The Bay Area-based architect and designer follows Kimberly Dowdell and Emily Grandstaff-Rice to become the third consecutive female architect to hold the position.

The AIA's press release highlighted her "technology-driven focus," along with her involvement in other areas of business as an investor and startup advisor, as professional highlights to coincide with her involvement on the Board of Directors of Shepley Bulfinch and Luckett & Farley.

"The rapid pace of technological and environmental change has created challenges that can feel overwhelming," Lee commented. "But moments of tension and uncertainty—are also opportunities. They call us to come together, collaborate, and remind ourselves...

'E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea' captures the famous architectural drama in a new docufiction

2024-12-16T10:15:00-05:00

A new work of 'docufiction' out this year from the filmmakers Beatrice Minger and Christoph Schaub has captured the creative period surrounding the design and construction of Eileen Gray’s E.1027 villa on the French Riviera.

Central to the film is Le Corbusier’s notorious 1938/39 mural vandalism of the property. Minger previously told Variety, "It is a case of setting the record straight, yes, but it was never about making a 'cancel culture' film about [Le Corbusier]. Of course, emotionally, we are on her side, but we were more interested in the different layers where the violation actually took place."

The later Tempe à Pailla villa made by Gray in 1934 nearby in the Côte d'Azur hit the market this fall for $3.87 million.

Lakisha Ann Woods to step down from AIA post in February

2024-12-10T17:48:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced its EVP/Chief Executive Officer Lakisha Ann Woods will be stepping down from the post in February of next year, following a misconduct scandal that sparked outcries about organizational leadership, corporate spending, and nepotism. Woods was cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent investigation in August, which prompted the AIA Board of Directors to file an ethics complaint against her accusers in September. She has served as EVP/CEO since being named to the position in November 2021.

AIA President Kimberly Dowdell, lauded her tenure in saying: "[The] AIA is losing an incredible talent in EVP/CEO Woods, but we were so fortunate to have benefited from her leadership for three years. She is a leader among leaders, and those who have had the opportunity to collaborate with her understand how much of a loss this is to our organization and the pr...

Martha Schwartz on the challenges of designing urban green space in a changing climate

2024-12-10T10:26:00-05:00

The biggest challenges, especially as I’ve encountered while developing the Linear Urban Forest, are the upfront costs, the inconvenience factor of construction and retrofitting older infrastructures with technologically innovative features. There is also a lack of awareness about using the landscape to lessen the damage of climate change.

Schwartz worked for SWA Group in the 1970s and early 80s before launching her own practice in New York in 1983.

She says she chose landscape architecture principally because "I didn’t have enough money to buy a tract of land where I could create land art projects" (a movement her contemporaries like Michael Heizer had begun pioneering around the same time) and then gradually grew into the realization that it would be applied in urban contexts to combat against climate change. Of late, she been at work developing her Linear Urban Forest model, which is supported by a Harvard University Climate Change Solution Grant and recently completed its first pilot test in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Notre Dame's restoration architect on the five-year path to reopening

2024-12-09T16:30:00-05:00

"That’s success,” Villeneuve said. "If I can make (cathedral visitors) doubt there was ever a fire, then I’ve erased the horror.”

The landmark reopened over the weekend to cap a headline-grabbing year for the French capital. Archinect has followed the process of recovery and restoration since the first reports of the fire broke on April 15th, 2019. Villeneuve told reporters: "This wasn’t about me, but I’ve left my mark in my own way." The $800 million restoration is not expected to be fully completed until late 2025 or 2026 to allow for the return of all prior public and liturgical activities.

Here's some highlights from the past few years:

Former acting Architect of the Capitol sues for employment discrimination

2024-12-06T16:05:00-05:00

Chere Rexroat, the ex-acting Architect of the Capitol who replaced Brett Blanton after a scandal involving personal misuse of the office and title, has filed suit against the agency alleging that she was unfairly passed over for a permanent Deputy Architect role during the new candidate search process this year.

According to Bloomberg Law's reporting, "The suit brings claims of retaliation, intimidation, sex discrimination, and sex plus age discrimination under the Congressional Accountability Act. In addition to seeking retroactive selection as deputy [architect], the complaint asks for backpay, damages, attorneys' fees, and costs."

The outlet also reported that Rexroat is involved currently as a defendant in a separate piece of of employment litigation pertaining to her time in office. Rexroat was replaced by the former Director of Engineering at Arlington National Cemetery, Thomas Austin, in June of this year.

New documentary captures Eliot Noyes' profound influence on American corporate life and design

2024-12-05T14:12:00-05:00

Fans looking for a better grasp of Eliot Noyes' impact on modernism and corporate America should not miss their chance to stream the new documentary 'Modernism, Inc.: The Eliot Noyes Design Story' which came out last year and has gained in popularity thanks to wider release in select U.S. markets throughout 2024.

The Harvard Five architect’s comprehensive work for IBM is presented in what Film Threat calls a "Well-researched, well-crafted and fascinating" 89-minute film directed by Jason Cohn. The film is now available to stream via Amazon, Apple TV, and other services. We included a link as part of our 2024 Holiday Gift Guide. Cohn is also the director of the popular biographical sketch 'Eames: The Architect and the Painter' from 2011.

Celebrate John Portman's 100th birthday with an exclusive film screening

2024-12-04T14:07:00-05:00

Today, December 4th, would have been the 100th birthday of architect and developer John Portman. For fans of the hotel atrium grandmaster who died in 2017 at 93, Chicago-based MAS Context has arranged a digital screening of John Portman: A Life of Building, a film directed by Ben Loeterman.

"The film captures Portman’s approach in an intimate portrait that, by turn, assesses and appreciates Portman’s work," their site explains. "Dramatic time-lapse footage shows off Portman’s buildings at their best—often in moving sunlight that washes over his facades and spaces."

The screening is available here until December 31st.

Want even more Portman birthday exclusives? Check out the photo essay Capturing the Feeling of John Portman photographer and filmmaker Phil Donohue created for MAS Context.

And if you've got $40 million burning a hole in your pocket, consider splurging on Portman's sn...

Portland's Linden, Brown Architecture rebrands as Observation Studio (and is currently hiring)

2024-12-03T12:53:00-05:00

Portland-based architecture firm Linden, Brown Architecture has rebranded as Observation Studio, marking a new phase in its evolution. Regular Archinect readers may remember our interview with the firm earlier this year, where they shared insights into their design process and the influence of the Pacific Northwest on their work.

The rebranding follows the end of a five-year partnership between co-founders Brent Linden and Chris Brown, who launched the firm to collaborate on projects such as Sequitur Winery. Brown will now lead the practice independently. “Observation is in honor of the slow, careful work of looking that is required to do the kind of architecture I produce,” Brown shared with Archinect. “Studio is in honor of the collaborative spirit that drives the heart of our practice.”

4015 House & Studio by Observation Studio. Photography by Jeremy Bittermann.

The firm’s focus on cultural, hospitality, a...

Editor's Picks #565

2024-12-02T00:55:00-05:00

The latest entry in the Deans List series, with USC Architecture Dean Brett Steele generated some discussion with Thayer-D and Will Galloway both ultimately agreeing that "North America cities are not being built in the nicest way right now. Lots of...car-dominated planning in general that does not compare well with what we did in the past…Somehow we seem incapable of that kind of outcome with our current planning laws and economy."

Plus, in celebration of International Coffee Day Archinect picked a few favorite examples of new café designs. Bench appreciated the "breadth of projects shown here across cultures. Really lovely work happening in far flung corners of the world that i never would have seen otherwise. Awesome article, more of this".

Mamonaku Kohi in Quezon City, Philippines

News

The new NCARB Competency Standard for Architects outlines 16 key competencies. Donna Sink felt "These all seem reasonable". For their part bennyc thought "16 is a big change and valuable addition"...

Archinect入驻微信，小红书平台 / Archinect launches on WeChat and RED in China

2024-11-27T19:35:00-05:00

Archinect is thrilled to announce our official debut on two of China’s leading social media platforms—WeChat and RED (Xiaohongshu). This milestone marks an important step in Archinect’s 27-year mission of connecting the global architecture community. With an official presence on these platforms, we aim to establish closer connections with Chinese-speaking architects and design enthusiasts.

Since its founding in 1997, Archinect has been dedicated to fostering meaningful connections among architects worldwide. By launching on WeChat and RED, we’re excited to bring Archinect’s distinctive voice to China’s thriving architecture and design scene while introducing exclusive content tailored for our growing audience.

Follow Archinect on WeChat

WeChat is China’s premier all-in-one platform for messaging, digital publishing, and social media, with over 1 billion active users. Through our official WeChat account, we’ll deliver the latest architectural news, interviews, and updates, tailored t...

Harvard GSD online survey seeks architecture graduate visa holders to create snapshot of professional practice

2024-11-20T15:10:00-05:00

This semester, a group of students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design is taking a survey of U.S. architecture graduate visa holders in the workplace for a research project that's part of their coursework for assistant professor Jacob Reidel's "Frameworks of Practice" seminar.

They are inviting participants to answer a series of anonymous questions related to their experience as workplace visa holders. The aim, they say, is to produce a snapshot of how immigration status affects both entry-level career choices for architecture graduates and long-term career planning.

The students share: "The original idea came from conversations with peers about how, in the field of architecture, visa status makes workers feel like they are in a precarious position and our preliminary qualitative interviews have supported this. We hope that this research can draw attention to the situation and offer both workers and employers new statistics to work towards compassionate decision-making in offic...

'Schindler Space Architect' documentary premieres in Los Angeles

2024-11-19T16:20:00-05:00

Here's a heads-up for L.A.-based fans of Rudolph Schindler. Do not miss tonight’s premiere screening of Valentina Ganeva’s new documentary Schindler Space Architect at 7:30 p.m. in Beverly Hills.

Ganeva recently spoke to KCRW about some of its insights, including the overlooked feminist design considerations present in the Schindler House on North Kings Road. Narrated by Meryl Streep and Udo Kier, the film features commentary from Steven Holl, Ray Kappe, Thom Mayne, and Frank Gehry, among others. Ganeva says their critique of Schindler's "spirit of innovation" is still important for today's architects to imbibe. The ticketed screening takes place at the Writers Guild Theatre on 135 S. Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills and will be followed shortly afterward by a Q&A.

Pioneering UC Berkeley professor Sim Van der Ryn dies aged 89

2024-11-18T16:06:00-05:00

Dutch architect Sim Van der Ryn, a pioneer of green architecture and a longtime professor at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design, has died at age 89 according to the San Francisco Chronicle. He will be remembered for his experimental teaching methods and approach to designing buildings as ecological systems, both of which later became widely accepted as either field looked to embrace sustainability as its new baseline standard.

Van der Ryn's memorial page on the CED's website also credits his work with Murray Silverstein as leading the way for post-occupancy user studies. Dean Renee Y. Chow added her own context to his legacy at the school, saying: "Sim was one of the people who laid the foundation for CED’s ongoing commitment to resilience and environmental equity. He was focused on how to build in environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, socially just ways long before 'sustainability' was even a term in the architectural lexicon. His influence, on Berkeley and beyo...

Bjarke Ingels talks Bhutan smart city development with CBS' '60 Minutes'

2024-11-18T14:09:00-05:00

"If we succeed, we can show that you can create a city that does not displace nature, that is anchored and rooted in the local heritage and culture, and that still allows for prosperity and growth to happen."

The ever-popular Ingels sat down with Lesley Stahl to go over his team's vision for the project they first unveiled with Arup almost a year ago. The 386-square-mile master plan's design features many public buildings and other important infrastructure that double as bridges, unfolding in the shape of a Mandala flower, which hosts 11 neighborhood-scale developments rendered with increased density as they cascade in ribbons down to a low-lying southern terminus.

Bhutan, a nation of under 800,000 people, is struggling to retain skilled young professionals. A public bond campaign worth $100 million USD has just been launched for the project. According to the South China Morning Post and other outlets, the new 'Gelephu Mindfulness City' will be developed in phases over 21 years.

Bjarke Ingels reiterates interest in 3D printing lunar architecture

2024-11-15T18:15:00-05:00

Bjarke Ingels recently divulged his intentions to build on the moon by 2032. In a new interview with Fortune, Ingels talked about his firm’s involvement with ICON on the NASA-funded Project Olympus, saying "solar-powered lasers" will be used to "essentially melt moon dust into a sort of lunar obsidian" for later use as a 3D printed building material.

This is seemingly in reference to the next generation of 3D printers made by ICON, which Ingels discussed as part of our in-depth conversation on the topic in March. (He also said: "Technologies that are developed for the difficulty of building on the Moon and Mars actually end up necessitating innovations that are useful here on Earth.")

BIG is using a similar process for the astronaut base in the Mars Dune Alpha—another project partner Jakob Lange talked about with Archinect in detail in December of 2021.

Watch Riken Yamamoto's remarks from the 2024 Pritzker Prize ceremony

2024-11-14T15:35:00-05:00

Video from this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Riken Yamamoto’s May lecture and award presentation ceremony in Chicago has been shared with Archinect to celebrate the 46th edition of architecture’s most important individual honor.

The documentary-style film provides a behind-the-scenes look at the festivities, featuring commentary from Norman Foster and Yale School of Architecture dean Deborah Berke, among several others.

Berke tells us "I think the most important thing about it is how subtle it is and how willing he is as an architect to let the buildings be background in order to foreground human interaction" in deference to Yamamoto's deep understanding of both relational aesthetics and the art of the urban form.

Video courtesy of The Hyatt Foundation/The Pritzker Architecture Prize

More commentary from jurors Barry Bergdoll, Stephen Breyer, André Corrêa do Lago, Kazuyo Sejima, and Wang Shu provided an additional spotlight on Yamamoto’s legacy of social advocacy th...

UPenn Weitzman School extends dean Fritz Steiner's tenure to 2027

2024-11-11T08:00:00-05:00

The University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design has announced it will be extending the tenure of dean Frederick "Fritz" Steiner for two additional years through June 30th, 2027.

He joined the school early 2016 in part a protest of the controversial "campus carry" weapons policy that was enacted at the University of Texas at Austin. Since that time, Steiner has been credited with improving the school financial position and bolstered DEI efforts for both students and faculty.

Steiner, who also holds a prestigious Paley Professorship and teaches in the departments of city and regional planning and landscape architecture, said: “I couldn’t be prouder of the work that our faculty, students, and alumni are doing to build a better future. When you bring artists, designers, planners, and preservationists together, the possibilities are thrilling.”

Victor Lundy, famed modernist and key Sarasota School figure, dies at age 101

2024-11-07T10:32:00-05:00

Victor Lundy, the renowned modernist architect whose work leaned on fine art and espoused a more humane form of architecture for the masses, has died in Texas at the age of 101, the Sarasota Observer is reporting.

A true man of his times, Lundy served in the U.S. Army’s 26th Infantry Division during World War II (his sketches from the war are considered important) before returning home to complete his B.A. and eventually matriculate into the Harvard GSD, where he studied for his master’s degree under Walter Gropius.

Lundy’s religious commissions—including the First Unitarian Church in Westport, Connecticut, and the St. Paul Lutheran Church in Sarasota—are, perhaps, his best-known projects alongside the United States Tax Court Building in Washington, D.C. Lundy was considered one of the leading figures of the Sarasota School. His watercolor practice was another important aspect of his approach to designing. Docomomo US thanked him for his “optimistic spirit" in a commemorative post ...

Editor's Picks #564

2024-11-05T12:29:00-05:00

As part of the Archinect In-Depth: Licensure series, Niall Patrick Walsh gathered perspectives from Mike Armstrong, CEO of NCARB, Pascale Sablan, President of NOMA, architect and author Melvin L. Mitchell, writer and editor John Parman, architect and Professor Emeritus at George B. Johnston and Peggy Deamer author and Professor Emerita at Yale University.

Later, Kate Wingert-Playdon, Senior Associate Dean and Director of Architecture at Temple University, made the case for "always working in collaboration. That is a strong theme here at Tyler...so many good results in the built environment rely on good relationships, including well-conceived contracts…Respect is a big piece of collaboration. This is not to say that all design comes down to a contract; it is still about creative thinking. But a good contract isn’t just about business and law".

News

The_Crow felt the Snøhetta-led expansion for The Joslyn Art Museum was "pretty corporate tbh". What’s your take?

RIBA’s President-elect Chris Williamson pens defense of architectural competitions

2024-11-04T13:36:00-05:00

I find that competitions are stimulating, exciting and keep up the momentum of thinking and exploring. [...] I have often had difficulty convincing my Partners who are much less supportive of the competition process and much more prone to the disappointment of not winning. For me not winning is not taking part. Losing is learning. And I’ve learnt a lot.

Competitions are an essential part of professional practice and academia, dating to antiquity and counting even the Acropolis in Athens as one of their numerous contributions to at least Western culture and society. Williamson mentions his participation with the Norman Foster Foundation on the new Rebuild Kharkiv competition, saying it was a valuable learning opportunity. The post nonetheless garnered a considerable amount of backlash online—including a comment from popular UK architect Sarah Wigglesworth—who criticized their role in perpetuating a bad architectural culture and usury relationship with clients.

Farshid Moussavi one of ten appointed to Mayor of London’s new Town Architects committee

2024-10-29T15:53:00-04:00

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced the appointment of Harvard GSD professor and architect Farshid Moussavi to a new two-year pilot program to improve public space and high streets in the city.

The Town Architects program includes ten total names and is meant to "support the creation of safe, inclusive and sustainable neighbourhoods and economic growth by ensuring that boroughs" by augmenting the planning process in unison with Chief Placeshaping Officers and Design Champions. Each architect was chosen from the existing Design Advocates pool. Joining Moussavi are Jas Bhalla, Adam Khan, Ken Okonkwo, Holly Lewis, Hilary Satchwell, Paul Monaghan, Tom Holbrook, Alice Fung, Julian Lewis.