Archinect - News

V&A faces pressure to return donations from Sackler family, tainted by role in opioid epidemic

2019-03-12T14:04:00-04:00

The V&A Dundee is facing mounting pressure to return philanthropic donations tainted by opioid profits. The museum has reportedly received a £500,000 grant linked to the Sackler family, who, as the owners of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, have been embroiled in controversy for their role in fueling the opioid crisis.

The Sacklers have been active philanthropic donors, giving hefty financial support to a number of prominent art institutions such as the Met, the Guggenheim, the Louvre, the Tate, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, and now the one in Dundee as well.

Debates on how organizations should handle donations have escalated in recent months with many beneficiaries feeling the pain. Last month, protests were held at both the Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museum of Art demanding the institutions distance themselves from questionable funding sources and remove the Sackler name from their buildings.

The V&A Dundee is among the list of high-profile institutions to be met with simi...

Anti-opioid activists protest Guggenheim's ties to Sackler Family, the prominent art donors making billions from OxyContin

2019-02-11T17:27:00-05:00

Over the weekend, a group of more than 100 protestors demanded that the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum refuse further funding from the Sackler Family. Led by the American photographer Nan Goldin and her organization PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), the activists have been targeting the billionaire dynasty and its pharmaceutical company for promoting the use of OxyContin, a highly addictive, narcotic painkiller that is widely considered to be one of "the most dangerous products ever sold on a mass scale."

The demonstrators took over the museum's iconic atrium on Saturday night, dropping thousands of fake prescription notes from the six-story building while others handed out pill bottles to confused museum-goers. As Goldin staged a die-in on the lobby floor, banners hung from the spiraling hallways with messages such as "SHAME ON SACKLER," and "400,000 DEAD." Afterwards, the protest moved onwards to the Metropolitan Museum, where one of the wings is paid for and named aft...

NY Construction Alliance pushes for mandatory drug/alcohol testing on all NYC construction sites

2017-05-11T13:06:00-04:00

The New York Construction Alliance is urging City Council to consider mandatory drug and alcohol testing on all New York City construction sites.

NYCA president Kenneth Thomas recently made the following statement:

“New York Construction Alliance (NYCA) is committed to worksite safety and our members take proactive steps to prevent substance abuse-related incidents. In fact, our members already engage in proactive random drug tests on sites. Industry stakeholders such as the Associated Builders and Contractors and the Building Trades Employers Association have already expressed strong support for addressing the problem of drug and alcohol in the construction industry.

The City Council should consider how mandatory drug and alcohol testing could increase construction safety on New York City worksites. We look forward to discussing this issue with city officials and how a drug and alcohol testing mandate could help make our industry safer for all workers.”

The Associated Builders and Co...

What could go wrong? North Korean construction workers are being given crystal meth to finish projects faster

2016-08-12T14:13:00-04:00

project managers at a building site in North Korea’s capital Pyongyang are openly supplying their exhausted work force with powerful methamphetamines called “ice,” North Korean sources say. [...] Officials in charge of the project are pushing workers hard to finish frame construction on the buildings, which include a 70-story high-rise apartment building and at least 60 other structures, before the weather gets too cold, sources said.

The construction project in question appears to be Ryomyong Street, a so-called "Pyonghattan" for its giant scope and reportedly the country's tallest apartments. According to a report in Foreign Policy, the spread of methamphetamine (aka "ice") first began in North Korea during the 1990s, when it was being produced and sold as a medication.

Breaking CAD: from meth house to Ball State studio project

2016-04-06T18:17:00-04:00

A group of fourth-year Ball State architecture students are refurbishing a former meth house in the Thomas Park-Avondale neighborhood in Muncie as a studio project. The studio class is working with ecoREHAB, a local nonprofit that provides sustainable rehabilitation of housing and neighborhoods. “The whole goal is to revitalize the community more so than to earn money,” said Taylor Sheppard, a senior architecture major.

For more on drugs in architecture:

Narquitectura: Inside the Fortified Palaces of Mexico's Drug Lords

2012-10-23T13:59:00-04:00

A gangster lives a fast, dangerous life — especially Mexico's brutal narco-chieftains. Just look at their houses. With the prospect of death never far away and plenty of money to burn, it makes sense to spend lavishly on a mansion — especially a fortified one. The locals have a term for the style: narquitectura.

Powering Mumbai with Magic Mushrooms

2012-07-18T14:52:00-04:00

... a cache of biological samples appeared through the criminal networks of Mumbai, in the vain hope that it might provide new marketable narcotic opportunities. The collective drive and expertise of the refugees managed to turn theses genetically-engineered fungal samples into a new type of infrastructure - providing heat, light and building material for the refugees. Dharavi rapidly evolved it's own micro-economy based around the mushrooms.