Archinect - News

Blair Kamin: ‘Writer underwriting writer’

2024-10-24T17:59:00-04:00

The [Chicago] Tribune, which had been reducing staff and budgets for years before Alden Global Capital accelerated the process with its May 2021 purchase of Tribune Publishing, did not replace Kamin, just as it did not replace several other culture writers who left the paper. So the retired critic took matters into his own hands.

We covered the debut of the Windy City’s newest critic Edward Keegan back in August along with the restart of work on 400 Lake Shore Drive. His position is being funded by Blair Kamin after Kamin stepped aside in January 2021. He explains the situation to Northwestern's vaunted J-school's Local News Initiative blog.

"I decided that if initially they weren’t going to make a grant, that I would make a grant myself to do this," he tells of his personal philanthropy. "But it’s complicated, because when you have a so-called donor-advised fund, you can’t give money legally to a for-profit enterprise. So you need to find a nonprofit to give the money to, and they, in turn, will give the money to the for-profit. So it took forever going through a variety of possibilities."

Sean Lally's Night White Skies podcast airs its final episode after 8 years

2024-09-12T11:02:00-04:00

After a run of over 100 episodes, the Night White Skies podcast hosted by Sean Lally is finally coming to an end.

Over eight years, the program sought to engage a diverse range of voices in the design field in order to ascertain a better picture of the scenarios currently unfolding within and surrounding architectural theory and practice.

Guests included philosophers such as Ecology Without Nature author Timothy Morton and Emanuelle Coccia. Other popular thinkers like Catherine Ingraham, Fred Scharmen, Sylvia Lavin, and Rachel Armstrong appeared alongside designers Neil Denari, Rania Ghosn, El Hadi Jazairy, and MoMA curator Paola Antonelli.

In this final episode, Lally summarizes a few of the recurring topics and thoughts that have proved as salients as a means for outlining what he says is a "course forward [...] or at the very least, playing out a hunch on work still to be done."

An archive of all episodes is available at NightWhiteSkies.com for you to search now and in the futu...

Pulitzer Prize-winning architect Alison Killing to join Financial Times visual investigations unit

2023-10-16T18:41:00-04:00

Alison Killing, the British-born and Netherlands-based designer who in 2021 was named the first-ever architect to win the Pulitzer Prize, has been tapped to lead a new visual investigations unit supported by the Financial Times. The paper announced the appointment on Thursday.

Killing will work under the title Senior Investigations Reporter and expand on a body of work that includes the Putlizer-winning investigation for The New York Times into Muslim detention camps operating in China’s Xinjiang province. The published reporting led the country to withdraw from this year’s Venice Biennale while shedding light on the difficulties journalists and human rights advocates face in performing open-source research in authoritarian regimes across the world.

Killing was educated in the UK and later immigrated to the Netherlands to found her practice Killing Architects in 2010. The financial downturn of the time caused her to venture into curation and researching vacant buildings. She would ...

Kate Wagner goes from McMansion Hell to critic at The Nation

2023-07-03T12:41:00-04:00

The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today named Kate Wagner (@mcmansionhell) to its masthead as architecture correspondent. Best known as the brains behind the brilliant and satirical architecture blog, “”McMansion Hell,” and following a wildly successful stint as a Nation guest columnist earlier this year, Wagner will contribute monthly commentary on architecture and the built environment—but not as always conventionally understood.

Wagner succeeds Michael Sorkin, who died in 2020. The new correspondent said the post is “an ideal perch for me to explain how everything we see and everything we build is political.” She is now one of a select coterie of dedicated critics writing for American publications, including Michael Kimmelman, Lee Bey, Carolina A. Miranda, Ingra Safron, and Robert Campbell. Wagner's personal account of her ascent from the widely-acclaimed blog, which she founded in 2016, can also be found here via The Baffler.

Previously on Archinect: Bro, Do You Even Quoin? A conversation with McMansion Hell's Kate Wagner

China exits Venice Biennale over Alison Killing's Xinjiang detention camp investigation

2023-05-26T15:36:00-04:00

Opening week for the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale wasn't short of excitement, reflection, criticism, and social commentary from the architecture community and the general public. With that said, another piece of controversial news was recently reported by the Italian news and analysis website Decode39 on the Chinese Embassy's decision to exit one of the largest international design and culture exhibitions.

According to Decode39, China withdrew from the event due to an installation titled Investigating Xinjiang’s Network of Detention Camps. Created by architect and urban designer Alison Killing of Killing Architects, the project aimed to explore and investigate the "network of detention camps built by the Chinese government in Xinjiang for the mass detention of Muslims."

Previously on Archinect: Architect Alison Killing has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her Chinese internment camp investigations

In 2021, Killing was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in the International Reporting cat...

Forensic Architecture has been named a 2022 Peabody Award winner

2022-03-30T18:30:00-04:00

The activist community can rejoice today on the news that groundbreaking London-based collective Forensic Architecture (FA) has been given an Institutional Peabody Award for its continued public service and contributions to electronic media.

The group was cited for their work documenting the use of Israeli spyware called Pegasus, the ongoing exhibition Cloud Studies, and myriad investigations into police brutality, war crimes, surveillance culture, environmental racism, and the illegal occupation of Palestine.

FA’s use of various forms of data, 3D visualization technology, photogrammetry, lidar, and citizen videos was likewise commended for its innovation and incorporation into what the awards jury deemed “sophisticated architectural techniques.”

The twelve-year-old group founded by Israeli academic Eyal Weizman is coming off of another banner year in which its pursu...

Kristen Richards, founder of architecture online news source ArchNewsNow, has passed away at 69

2021-07-02T17:29:00-04:00

For those who knew Kristen Richards, her presence within the architecture industry was a primary example of an individual who championed architecture. As a renowned writer, editor, photographer, and architecture advocate, she's responsible for creating ArchNewsNow (ANN) as its Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief. While she's attributed part of ANN's success to the collaborative efforts of her husband, software engineer George Yates, ANN has served as a website dedicated to delivering "the most comprehensive coverage of international news, projects, and events in the world of architecture and design." This morning Richards' husband shared with Fred A. Bernstein of the Architectural Record that the cause of her passing was due to cancer.

From February 2002, when the platform first launched, Richards dedicated her time reading and collecting architecture news, projects, and resources from various AEC platforms to curate a "daily dispatch" described by Bernstein. After learning of her passi...

Fallen Journalists Memorial: AECOM and Paul Goldberger will help materialize a new site of remembrance to commemorate journalists who made the ultimate sacrifice

2021-07-01T08:00:00-04:00

On June 24th, the Fallen Journalists Memorial (FJM) Foundation announced its partnership with global engineering and infrastructure firm AECOM, Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger, and the Levinson Group on a new site that pays homage to journalists worldwide. The FJM Foundation commits to memorializing and amplifying the work of these individuals whose lives were lost while in service to pursue the truth.

The memorial is "the culmination of dedicated work by the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation to honor the reporters, photojournalists, producers, editors, and others in the field, who have died while performing their jobs as journalists," shared Claire Sale, AECOM's project manager overseeing the memorial project. "We are honored to have a role in bringing this memorial to life."

The initiative stemmed from the Fallen Journalists Memorial Act that Congress passed in December 2020. The bill authorized the planning and development of "a commemorative work...

Architect Alison Killing has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her Chinese internment camp investigations

2021-06-29T15:14:00-04:00

This year’s Pulitzer Prize committee has named an architect a winner in its International Reporting category, marking the first time someone in the field has won the prestigious journalism award in an area outside of criticism.

Alison Killing has been awarded the prestigious prize for an ongoing project using satellite imagery to track internment camps in China’s Xinjiang region. The sites are said to be harboring up to a million Muslim detainees made up of Uyghur and other minority groups that have been subject to brutal government repression for decades. Killing has been featured in Archinect before for a related project exploring a dialogue between death and architecture.

Related on Archinect: The architecture of death and dying

Killing was cited alongside BuzzFeed staffers Megha Rajagopalan and Christo Buschek to orchestrate a hunt for physical evidence of the camps using a Google Earth-like Chinese search engine called Baidu. Using the search engine, Killing’s team was able to...

The New York Times R+D team dives into photogrammetry

2020-07-28T19:50:00-04:00

Visual journalists are always searching for new technologies to help them capture more detail and get the news out faster. But they’ve operated within the constraints of a camera lens, a two-hundred-year-old technology that gives readers a single, 2D representation of an event. What if we could break free of the rectangle and let readers experience a setting the same way the journalist did? Instead of just looking at a photo of a space, what if we could move through it?

The New York Times shares its research using photogrammetry for journalistic purposes. Dovetailing on the sophisticated and exacting approaches employed by investigative groups like Forensic Architecture to reconstruct contested and often tragic events, the NYT team instead harnesses the power of 3D-scanning to convey the spatial qualities of their stories, in this case, the destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Dorian and the interiors of an artist's residence, among other examples.

Urban journalism dealt another blow as Guardian Cities ends its six-year run

2020-01-13T16:02:00-05:00

City-focused reporting has suffered another setback this week as news that the Guardian Cities initiative at The Guardian will be shuttering has been made public.

In a farewell letter published in The Guardian, Guardian Cities editor Chris Michaels writes, "Since its founding six years ago, Guardian Cities has grown from a small experiment into a huge community," adding, "We have tried to shape how the world understands urbanisation: namely, as one of the truly transformative global phenomena of the 21st century." Regarding the end of the vertical's run as a leading source of global urbanism in-depth reporting, Michaels added, "Now, however, it’s time for a change. After many years of renewed generosity from the Rockefeller Foundation, whose arms-length support meant that we retained full editorial independence in every way, Cities is closing its doors."

No specific reason was given for the end of the initiative, though online commentators were quick to point out that the end of Gu...

How do you critique a city? What is city criticism, and why is it important?

2019-10-29T11:18:00-04:00

Criticism: Everyone in architecture experiences it regularly. The importance of this consistent facet of the profession provides ongoing possibilities for discourse and improvement. However, like other areas where criticism plays a necessary part of establishing a significant impression or progression within society, it’s not always easy to have others detract or contradict the ideas embodied by your work.

Colin Marshall of the Guardian brings up a specific category within criticism that has particular relevance today, "the city critic." Marshall argues, "In our increasingly urban world, perhaps city criticism should be recognized as distinct and necessary." So, where does "city criticism" differ from "architecture criticism," and why should it be recognized as an integral part of understanding the built environment?

Jane Jacobs. Image via Wikipedia Commons.

Marshall speaks with critics and editors alike to help further understand and decipher what this distinct subject of criticis...

Archinect Sessions: Live Panel on The Current State of LA's Architecture Student Publications

2019-10-28T16:36:00-04:00

On this episode of Archinect Sessions we’re sharing the recording of a panel discussion I moderated last weekend at the A+D Museum, as part of the current exhibition The Los Angeles Schools. The panel brought together five students and three faculty members representing student-led publications from LA’s architecture programs. Rayne Laborde and Phoebe Webster represented UCLA's POOL; Marcelyn Gow represented SCI-Arc’s Offramp; Richard Mapes, Corie Yaguchi and Irvin Shaifa represented SCI-Arc's Underscore; Alvin Huang represented USC’s Supertall; and Stephen Phillips, Cal Poly LA Metro’s Director, represented their program’s hardcover publication LA Ten.

From L to R: Richard Mapes, Irvin Shaifa, Alvin Huang, Rayne Laborde, Phoebe Webster. Photo by Lena Pozdnyakova

Our talk covers a lot of ground, exposing the inner-workings of editing and producing publications in today’s unique and highly transformative media landscape. Our conversations cover issues of editorial decision-making, de...

A Conversation with Alex Baca on City Engagement

2018-11-26T19:14:00-05:00

On this episode of Archinect Sessions we're joined with Alex Baca, a Washington DC-based journalist focused on smart cities, planning, bike advocacy and urban mobility devices. Recent news, and related controversy, surrounding Amazon’s newly announced move into New York City and Washington DC is what initially motivated us to bring Alex onto this show.

Listen to episode 133 of Archinect Sessions, “A Conversation with Alex Baca on City Engagement”.

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Tom Wolfe, innovative journalist and critic of modern architecture, dies at 88

2018-05-16T15:31:00-04:00

“From Bauhaus to Our House,” Mr. Wolfe attacked modern architecture and what he saw as its determination to put dogma before buildings. Published in 1981, it met with the same derisive response from critics. “The problem, I think,” Paul Goldberger wrote in The Times Book Review, “is that Tom Wolfe has no eye.”

Tom Wolfe, an innovative journalist and novelist, died on Monday in Manhattan at the age of 88. Wolf lived in New York since joining The New York Herald Tribune as a reporter in 1962, and went on to influence what is known as New Journalism. Inciting hostile reactions to some of his work, Wolf notably condemned modern architecture receiving harsh backlash from critics.

Where journalism neglects, public space suffers

2016-03-09T15:42:00-05:00

“Shady,” “unethical,” “secretive,” “robbed of our due process” — these were just a few of the choice terms used by angry residents this past week at a packed City Council meeting about the selling of Pine Tree Park [in Kent, outside of Seattle, WA]. Longtime Seattle land-use attorney Rick Aramburu has another term for what happened: illegal. It’s also a growing trend in the swath of cities around Seattle, places that no longer receive much scrutiny from the press. “It’s becoming a cancer"

More on recent (legal) park development:

Clickbait is making affordable housing even more of an uphill battle

2016-03-08T13:50:00-05:00

when media outlets report cost of materials as being some $13,000, I want to know what was donated in terms of materials, too. Were permit fees waived? There are many times when you need a licensed architect or engineer for certain permits, and that’s not likely in these totals. It is completely fine to get around having to do that stuff, but it’s not truthful to report the results without the real numbers as a part of the story. These kinds of things get shared around...

Related on Archinect:

FIU Considers Merging Journalism and Architecture

2015-12-08T15:34:00-05:00

FIU is now considering a merger between its journalism school and College of Architecture + The Arts. The new combined college would probably get a new name (such as adding “communications” somewhere in the title), and journalism would continue as a “school” within this larger umbrella college. Journalism would still be an available degree track, as would the school’s other offerings in broadcast media, public relations, and advertising.

Architectural Record has been sold, again

2015-06-24T12:54:00-04:00

Record and other publications aimed at architects are not immune from the struggle of condescendingly termed “legacy” publications that teeter in the face of punishing economics. Does the fate of Record, founded 1891, matter to readers who now have so many ways to access information? [...] Record editors visit the projects they write about. Setting and context really matter as anyone who takes architecture seriously knows.

BBC journalists arrested for reporting on Qatar's World Cup laborers

2015-05-19T14:00:00-04:00

We were invited to Qatar by the prime minister's office to see new flagship accommodation for low-paid migrant workers in early May - but while gathering additional material for our report, we ended up being thrown into prison for doing our jobs. Our arrest was dramatic.

Previously:

Vincent Scully Prize 2014 awarded to journalist and TV host Charlie Rose

2014-09-12T18:45:00-04:00

Talk show host and journalist Charlie Rose has been announced as the 2014 recipient of the esteemed Vincent Scully Prize. Established in 1999 by the National Building Museum and named after Professor Vincent Scully to honor his legacy and work, the prize recognizes exemplary practice, scholarship, or criticism in architecture, historic preservation, and urban design.

Widely known as the anchor and executive producer of Charlie Rose and co-anchor of CBS This Morning, Rose will receive the prize in recognition for his insightful interviews with the world's leading thinkers that explore the value of good design as well as the growth and shaping of the urban cityscape.

A gala celebrating Rose and the award will take place at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. this November. Notable guests include architect Frank Gehry who will offer remarks on Rose. Mr. Rose will also present a special lecture during a public awards ceremony.

Previous recipients include High Line Co-Founders Joshua David & Robert Hammond, Paul Goldberger, Robert A.M Stern, and Phyllis Lambert.

Find out more on Bustler.

Guggenheim Bullies Journalist

2014-08-08T17:22:00-04:00

On Monday, artist Molly Crabapple published “Slaves of Happiness Island,” a firsthand report of the slave-like worker conditions on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island; the Guggenheim, Louvre, and NYU are all building enormous new enterprises there [...] These conditions violate local and international labor laws. We have now received leaked email correspondence between the Guggenheim and Crabapple ... [that] reveal a shocking unwillingness to provide any statement to journalists [...]

Miami Herald obituary writer pens a farewell to the Miami Herald building

2013-05-17T13:52:00-04:00

One Herald Plaza, the bayfront behemoth from which generations of journalists fanned out across South Florida — and at times the world — to cover the news, passed into history on Thursday after succumbing to a real estate deal. … She was 60.

Art/Architecture critic Philip Kennicott wins Pulitzer Prize for criticism

2013-04-17T19:42:00-04:00

Kennicott’s entry included several pieces published in the Style section last year. One was a review in June of an exhibit of creations by the architect Kevin Roche at the National Building Museum.

Assessing Roche’s work, Kennicott wrote, “In the end, Roche’s reputation will rise or fall depending on what becomes of the corporate world he served. If the end of corporate America is a dystopian hell of environmental catastrophe, vast economic inequity and social instability, the corporate architects of our age will not be remembered fondly. But if our age yields to a better one, just as the tyrannies and kleptocracies of past centuries sometimes yielded (perhaps temporarily) to more enlightened, democratic societies, then Roche’s work might have the charm of baroque palaces, Egyptian pyramids and Parisian avenues.”

Goldberger on Architectural Criticism in the Age of Twitter

2012-11-29T14:56:00-05:00

Goldberger addressed the disappearance of journalistic hegemony and the advent of electronic media. While mainstream publications with an ongoing commitment to architecture criticism continue to possess a degree of authority, they are struggling to make themselves heard in this noise. It is clear to Goldberger that “the playing field may be level, but the players are not equal.”

A Conversation With Allison Arieff, Writer and Editor on Sustainability

2011-10-12T18:44:47-04:00

Arieff discusses how sustainability issues -- climate change, peak oil, declining resources -- suffer when they're thought of as trends; why Julius Shulman deserves to be in a sustainability hall of fame for his photographs showing how architecture is about buildings and people; and why, after years at the top of Dwell's masthead, she's done writing about gorgeous Italian closets and kitchens.

All that Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism

2011-07-15T20:50:53-04:00

Whereas journalism provides a view on the world, as it 'really' is, art often presents a view on the view, as an act of reflection. The first part of the exhibition title, All that Fits, points directly to the New York Times' moto "All the News That's Fit to Print." It asks us to think about what becomes of the information that doesn't fit into the format or the agenda of a media outlet.