Archinect - News

Mecanoo revives Scotland’s past into a new source of community pride

2024-04-08T17:26:00-04:00

Mecanoo has shared the news of its completed transformation of the Perth Museum in central Scotland.

The three-year construction yields 37,700 square feet worth of new public space inside of the Edwardian-style former City Hall that serviced the community from 1914 on. A specially carved Vennels-inspired intervention connects the two separate halls, framed by two new portals made from Black Isle timber and finished with a bronze casing.

Image credit: Greg Holmes Photography

Visitors will be welcomed into the brightly-lit new Main Hall archives space by a dramatic oak box container for the mythical returned Scottish Stone of Destiny. The adjacent Lesser Hall is thereafter recreated as a new communal space with larger windows and replete with a café and events venue.

Image credit: Greg Holmes Photography

This creates new panoramic views of the St. Johns Kirk church outside. Artifacts taken from the Jacobite period are on display within, including the silver broadsword used by Bonnie Pr...

Proposal to bring New York City its first dedicated professional soccer stadium is approaching approval

2024-03-23T08:00:00-04:00

New York City’s first dedicated soccer stadium is becoming closer to a reality. As reported by Gothamist, the City Council is expected to approve the final phase of an ambitious project to revitalize the long-neglected Willets Point neighborhood in Queens through a mixed-use redevelopment.

In addition to the stadium, the scheme promises to deliver 2,500 units of affordable housing, including 133 homes for homeless New Yorkers, a 250-room hotel, a public school, retail, space, and public space. Designed by HOK, the $780 million, 25,000-seat stadium will host the MLS’ New York City Football Club. It is also expected to be the first-ever fully electric soccer stadium in the MLS.

Rendering courtesy of New York City Football Club

Phase I of the project, which includes 1,100 residential units, has been approved, with construction commencing in December of last year. Approval of Phase II, which includes the stadium and more housing units, is expected to follow through the support of city ...

Peterson Rich Office transforms former church into an inviting new cultural center in Detroit's East Village

2024-03-12T18:18:00-04:00

The adaptive reuse design for the Shepherd Gallery and Art Center inside the new Little Village in Detroit has been revealed ahead of its public opening on May 18th.

The project from Peterson Rich Office (PRO) transformed a 110-year-old former church into a new cultural center for the local Library Street Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to presenting art in the city's revitalized heritage spaces. It was executed at 16,000 square feet and culminates in two new galleries with a small library, classrooms, and workshop included for local community endeavors.

View of the Charles McGee Legacy Park and the Shepherd. Photo by Jason Keen. Courtesy of Library Street Collective.

In terms of its interior redesign, the architects chose to place an exhibition area in the transept mezzanine while making the altar below into another gallery open for performance and public gatherings. The church's other transept now houses a curated Little Village Arts Library space from Asmaa Walton. A landscaped...

SOM begins $550 million Gray 30th Street Station redevelopment in Philadelphia

2024-01-29T13:57:00-05:00

The groundbreaking on SOM’s $550 million William H. Gray III 30th Street Station redevelopment was held in Philadelphia this month in advance of the next 50-year leg of the historic building’s journey in service to commuters who first began making use of it in 1933.

Gilbane will be directing the design-build for the project, which will last at the station through the end of 2027. By that time, its passenger capacity will have doubled to 25 million per year. The project covers approximately 500,000 square feet overall and is part of a larger $10 billion District Plan that will add retail amenities and other improvements to the Market Street Plaza outside.

Image courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)

According to Amtrak, the scope of the redevelopment includes:

modernizing and expanding station food & beverage and retail offerings
improving station operations and enhancing the customer experience
upgrading The Porch landscaping and commun...

MVRDV plans a new 'Green Heart' in the center of Düsseldorf

2024-01-10T20:30:00-05:00

MVRDV has released updated renderings and other details about its forthcoming Grüne Mitte (or “Green Heart”) plan that calls for a redesigned new green district in the culturally rich German city of Düsseldorf.

The firm’s plan, which entails the construction of a colorful residential component totaling 500 units (half of which are considered social housing) around a small landscaped public space from fellow Dutch designers LOLA, was the product of an intensive community input process that included members of the diverse Flingern-Süd community.

The area has been considered a "hot spot" for squatting since the end of the 1980s and features equally popular shopping spaces and a parking structure that was built only 11 years ago before the land was acquired by the developers Cube Real Estate.

Image © MVDRV

As part of that process, residents selected the Green Heart proposal from a trio of outline primers. Their solution calls for a 36% reduction in paved areas, with a new...

Sasaki will oversee redevelopment of Santa Monica Airport into park space for LA County

2024-01-02T17:46:00-05:00

Plans for the redevelopment of the soon-to-close Santa Monica Airport have become clearer after the City Council approved an agreement with Sasaki Associates in December that would deliver a “Great Park” concept to the 227-acre site after 2028.

The new *Airport Conversion Planning Project agreement calls for a five-phase public consultation and research effort to be conducted by the firm before the end of 2025. A framework will come first in Phase One and precedes a draft of the project’s guiding principles in Phase Two, with the eventual naming of a study-informed ‘preferred scenario’ and alternative suggestions being produced by the end of Phase Three.

Phases Four and Five will round out the plan with a proposed implementation strategy for the alternative and eventual publication of a ‘Preferred Scenario Vision Book’ that coalesces the previous four phases into one written framework. Considerations for the immediate on-site activations after ‘Day One’ (e.g. January 1, 2029) are al...

Foster + Partners' Three Transamerica redesign wins approval in San Francisco

2023-12-21T15:18:00-05:00

New details about the planned redevelopment of the San Francisco Transamerica Center from Foster + Partners have been released following the unanimous approval of the Three Transamerica expansion plans by the city’s Parks Department and Planning Commission.

Renderings included in an Instagram announcement of the approvals from developer SHVO released yesterday show plans for a 220-foot horizontal expansion of the mixed-use former 545 Sansome St. property that results in a distinctive glass curtain wall at the base of the building’s north and west orientations. The building dates from 1930 and was originally designed by Willis Polk & Company.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by SHVO (@shvo)

Per SF YIMBY, city planners acknowledged the distinctiveness of the character of their intervention’s scope, saying it was “recognizable as a modern intervention consistent with other newer buildings in the area” but that the demolition would not result in the removal of...

Google unveils updated renderings for Thompson Center rejuvenation

2023-12-13T17:11:00-05:00

New renderings for Google’s $280 million redevelopment of the Helmut Jahn-designed James R. Thompson Center in Chicago have been released by the company ahead of the start of construction activities early next year.

The announcement was made via Google’s The Keyword blog and appears to show improvements to the ground-level plaza area, facades, and HVAC system, minus the significant alterations to the atrium that were first detailed by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lee Bey back in October.

The existing colonnade and plaza at street level will be redesigned to allow for more food, beverage, and retail opportunities, along with seasonal activations for the public. JAHN, its original architect, will lead the overhaul in line with Google’s pledge to deliver a LEED Platinum and all-electric building. The “postmodern legacy” of their late founder's design will reportedly also be “honored” by retaining its 17-story atrium space — an area that became a point of contention for preservationists ...

Foster + Partners finishes work on revamped Penn Station entrance

2023-11-20T16:49:00-05:00

A dramatic new makeover of Penn Station’s entrance at 7th Avenue and 32nd Street in Manhattan has been completed by Foster + Partners and AECOM for clients Amtrak and the Vornado Realty Trust.

The rebuilding project expands the entrance’s width by 50 percent while making it safer and fully ADA-accessible for 600,000 daily users of what is considered the nation’s busiest train station.

Image: Fernando Sandoval/MW

A new canopy and LED display were constructed at the entryway, which now features a wider staircase, new interior lighting feature, improved elevator access, and an added third escalator for enhanced circulation. Outside sidewalks and the surrounding plaza were also expanded. The project complements part of Vornado and MdeAS Architects’ redevelopment of the adjacent PENN 2 Tower while creating what Amtrak describes as a “sense of place and civic monumentality.”

Image: Fernando Sandoval/MW

In a press statement, Foster + Partners’ Head of Studio, Nigel Dancey, commented: “We h...

Major demolition plans announced for Thompson Center facade and atrium

2023-10-18T12:04:00-04:00

Significant alterations to the exterior of Helmut Jahn’s aging James R. Thompson Center have been revealed inside of planning documents submitted for Google’s forthcoming $280 million renovation of the landmark former government office building in Chicago.

The building’s glass facade and atrium will now be demolished in its entirety at a cost of $6 million, according to permitting documents issued by the city’s Department of Buildings on October 13th. Lee Bey was first to report the news in the Chicago Sun-Times Tuesday when a spokesperson for the tech giant promised a formal announcement could come “within weeks” as the planning process moves along.

Landmarks Illinois’ President and CEO Bonnie McDonald told Bey the demolition would “add to the waste stream” of the building’s carbon lifecycle, though did admit the reuse plan was a “big win” over previous fears it would either be razed or topped by a new supertall construction.

Added McDonald: “While we realize losing the existing ...

Construction begins on Japan’s tallest building, Torch Tower

2023-10-09T15:00:00-04:00

Construction has begun on the Torch Tower, set to be the new tallest building in Japan. The 1,280-foot-tall skyscraper is expected to be completed in March 2028 according to new reporting by The Japan Times.

The Torch Tower is one of four buildings to be constructed as part of a major redevelopment of Tokyo’s historic Tokiwabashi district. Led by developers Mitsubishi Estate, the design team involved in the master plan’s delivery includes Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei, Koji Matsuda, Sou Fujimoto, Yuko Nagayama, and Takanori Fukouka.

Hotel entrance. Image credit: Dorchester Collection

When completed, the Torch Tower will hold a luxury hotel operated by the Dorchester Collection, as well as a 2,000-capacity entertainment hall, offices, and an observation deck. While the hotel, offices, and rooftop observatory will be housed in the tower form, the entertainment hall and retail spaces will be located within a base plinth rising from a single below-ground floor to a sixth above-ground floor.

Ho...

Frank Gehry will design a new Gladstones restaurant replacement for Wolfgang Puck in LA

2023-08-23T13:21:00-04:00

After more than 50 years in service, iconic oceanfront restaurant Gladstone’s is slated to close within the next year, making way for a long-anticipated restaurant from some of L.A.’s most recognizable names. In 2024, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck expects to break ground on a new, Frank Gehry-designed, two-pronged project that will rise in its place. The new operators plan to break ground in early to mid 2024 and expect at least 18 months of construction before a 2025 debut.

The Pacific Palisades site sits on a total 2.8-acre parcel abutting the Pacific Coast Highway and Will Rogers State Beach approximately three miles north of Gehry's now underway Ocean Avenue project in Santa Monica.

Puck promised to deliver an "approachable, high-quality cuisine in a distinct architectural setting" when the redevelopment was first announced in 2018.

Also in Los Angeles, Gehry’s 800,000-square-foot Warner Bros. Second Century studios expansion recently opened, while a buyer is still being sought for the planned mixed-use project at 8150 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.

3XN GXN and British Land share new transformation project of London's Euston Tower

2023-07-13T13:57:00-04:00

3XN GXN, alongside property development company British Land, has announced that they are leading the redevelopment of London’s Euston Tower. Built in 1970, the commercial high-rise was viewed as a cutting-edge office space. However, changing tenancy needs have seen a gradual reduction in its inhabitants, leading to the building’s vacancy in 2021.

The aim for the renewed Euston Tower is to transform it into a pioneering, welcoming, net-zero workspace in the heart of London’s Knowledge Quarter. The project falls in line with the sustainability goals and expertise of British Land, the Greater London Authority and Borough of Camden, and 3XN GXN. As noted in a release, the joint vision for the project sets out to lead the way in low-carbon retrofit and construction techniques, as well as using inclusive design to support the workspaces and local community.

Image courtesy of 3XN GXN.

As stated by 3XN Senior Partner Audun Opdal, “We are proud to work on this highly progressive project and...

Michael Kimmelman looks for signs of hope in Penn Station’s proposed renewal

2023-07-07T13:17:00-04:00

The only thing everyone seems to know for certain is that nothing meaningful ever really happens to improve North America’s busiest and most miserable train hub, despite decades of demands and promises. Hope has long gone to die on the 6:50 to Secaucus. But now may actually be different.

Kimmelman complimented the new PAU/HOK/ASTM North America P3 plan as “the disruption needed to get Albany moving", and one that “lets daylight, dignity and circulatory logic replace the rat’s maze beneath Madison Square Garden.”

“ASTM’s architecture at this early stage is a little stiff and self-serious but it clearly conveys the all-important point that a gateway worthy of New York, and of the millions of working people who rely on it, needs to offer more than high ceilings, clear signage and hot bagels. It needs to be a source of public pride," he added.

Juxtaposed to this is the more bland but Albany-backed MTA plan (with drawings from FXCollaborative) whose full details won’t be unveiled until next year. The West Side native says the scheme presents a vexing problem over the involvement of Madison Square Garden, which he predicts would lead to crippling lawsuits if the MTA's adversarial position remains unchanged.

HOK and PAU reveal rival 'P3' Penn Station renewal proposal

2023-07-03T12:19:00-04:00

A new proposal from HOK and Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) has been unveiled as the competition to design a more modern and accessible update to Penn Station continues just days after New York State Governor Kathy Hochul officially scaled back the project due to economic concerns and pushback from local residents.

The two firms’ split proposal would supposedly be delivered in six years and at a cost of $6 billion using a combination of grants, state, and federal money, in addition to a $1 billion capital investment from ASTM North America.

The plan calls for the addition of a new open-air plaza as well as open-air terraces and two new entrances along Eight Avenue.

Image courtesy of ASTM, PAU, and HOK

HOK’s President Carl Garlioto describes: “The New Penn Station will bring much-needed light into two new train halls, including a grand new Eighth Avenue hall with 55-foot ceilings above the passenger concourse and a glass-wrapped mid-block hall with a sunlit passage betwe...

Penn Station redevelopment: New York State cancels office component in reverse of direction

2023-06-27T13:10:00-04:00

New York officials are calling on design firms, engineers and architects to draw up a plan for a new Penn Station design that keeps both commuters and the community in mind. [...] In a dramatic about-face, the governor announced plans to redevelop Penn Station without touching the neighborhood surrounding it. With soaring glass ceilings and a broad marble concourse not unlike the Moynihan Train Hall directly adjacent to it.

The scrapped 10-tower office component of the $7 billion plan was ultimately done in by the consequences of post-pandemic economics that have profoundly affected the commercial real estate market in Midtown and other parts of Manhattan.

Gone also are the 1,800 housing units included in the original plan, though New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at Monday’s press conference the state would “entertain all concepts” for the scaled-back redevelopment that’s set to move forward under the auspices of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority despite sustained opposition from local residents.

MVRDV begins Expo 2000 Pavilion adaptive reuse transformation

2023-05-16T13:19:00-04:00

MVRDV has shared details on their efforts to revitalize the firm’s former Dutch Expo 2000 Pavilion design into a new, mixed-use development in Hannover, Germany.

According to the firm, the project will transform the aging structure into a new anchor of a three-building development called iLive EXPO Campus after a successful 90 million Euro ($97.8 million USD) fundraising campaign led by iLive and Die Wohnkompanie Nord.

The structure had sat abandoned since its completion 23 years ago, often attracting illegal visits from architects eager for a peek at its three-level interior that has since become overgrown with the local flora while retaining its original structural integrity.

Image © MVRDV and © iLive Expo Campus

“The theme of the Dutch entry for Expo 2000 was ‘Holland Creates Space,’ and we did exactly that in 2000 by stacking typical Dutch landscapes up to 40 meters high, so that a large wild garden could be created around the pavilion,” MVRD...

Italian firm proposes glass-wrapped alternative to Penn Station redevelopment

2023-04-05T13:10:00-04:00

The race to author an alternative solution to the recently-halted redevelopment of Penn Station may now have a top contender after the Italian firm ASTM Group released its plans for a proposal that would radically alter New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden.

Last week, the New York Times reported on the newly-proposed alternative, which calls for the storied sporting “Mecca” to be wrapped in an aluminum-and-steel curtain while replacing the existing station with a two-hall glass-enclosed structure at its podium. The plan is said to be less expensive than the state’s Vornado-backed original proposal, and, if approved, would be completed no later than the year 2030.

According to the Times, several officials have already voiced their support for the alternative, making it into a “frontrunner” among those in power.

Last month, Vornado called off the already-maligned redevelopment scheme, citing economic conditions as a decisive factor in their postponing of the plan that would h...

The abandoned mall featured in hit show, The Last of Us, will undergo a redevelopment led by Toronto-based practice DIALOG

2023-03-16T18:53:00-04:00

HBO’s The Last of Us has taken the TV world by storm, with its season finale recently airing last Sunday. The show has brought to life the immensely popular and acclaimed video game series, placing viewers into a dire post-apocalyptic, zombie-ridden world.

Following the journey of characters Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, and Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, we see them undertake a cross-country trip where they encounter a range of landscapes and urban locations.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Last of Us HBO - Status (@hbosthelastofus)

One of the most memorable is seen in the show’s seventh episode, “Left Behind,” set primarily in an actual vacant shopping mall. This location is Calgary’s Northland Village Mall, which has been partially closed since 2021 as it undergoes a redevelopment plan led by Toronto-based practice DIALOG.

Rendered in courtesy of DIALOG.

The firm has recently shared renderings of the reimagined mall, depicting an open-air, mixe...

BIG's Wildflower Studios project tops out in Queens

2023-02-28T18:06:00-05:00

Last week marked the topping out ceremony for BIG’s new $600 million Wildflower Studios venture in Astoria, Queens.

Backed by actor Robert De Niro, the project transformed the famous site of the former five-acre Steinway Pianos warehouse into a seven-story and 760,000-square-foot comprehensive multimedia production facility clad in two-toned pre-cast concrete.

It is the first of two film studios now planned for BIG in the New York area, preceding a newly-announced $400 million “vertical village” design to be constructed in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Image credit: SYNOSIS

“The vertical media production village will be home to storytellers working across all mediums — a three-dimensional hub of collaboration, creativity, and innovation,” Ingels said at the project’s announcement last year. “While New York City is no stranger to being the star of many visual stories — the city effectively a character in itself — this first ground-up vertical production stage complex marks a new chapter in the ...

Penn Station's planned redevelopment could be going nowhere for a while

2023-02-27T14:07:00-05:00

Vornado Realty Trust, the developer hoping to remake the skyline around Pennsylvania Station with a bundle of new office towers, has put the brakes on the massive redevelopment plan for now as interest rates remain high and the real estate market struggles to recover from the pandemic. Plans for the Penn site, a roughly 18 million-square-foot project that could include 10 new skyscrapers of mostly office space around the transit hub, could be delayed for at least two to three years.

Despite her recent mum on the status of the $7 billion project, the Empire State Development agency said it remains confident in New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s commitment. Vornado, which owns half of the sites included in the scheme and in January was delisted from the S&P 500, reportedly considered high lending rates and the city’s lagging return-to-office crisis as a cause for the delay.

Right now, ten office towers are planned alongside only 1,800 units of housing in an area the state controversially declared blighted in December. “We should spend those once-in-a-lifetime dollars on a 2050-type vision as opposed to a 1970s vision,” State Senator Leroy Comrie said presciently at the last update. “We need to make sure that whatever happens aboveground is actually something that will help finance the project.”

Toronto’s proposed Ontario Place redevelopment is getting even more contentious

2023-01-10T14:43:00-05:00

New details are emerging in the controversial plan to redevelop Toronto’s mostly decommissioned Ontario Place after the exclusive Toronto International Film Festival unveiled further plans for a partnership with Therme Group, the Austrian entity behind the proposed $350 million project.

Local website blogTO has more details on the community’s negative response to the partnership, which will “promote the role of art and film in creating more human cities” through a series of talks spread over a ten-year period.

The online responses are only the latest thorn in the side of the provincial Ontario government and Premier Doug Ford following last summer’s harsh responses that eventually yielded a revised plan which reclassified a mere 12-acre segment of beachfront property for public use while retaining the original plan to have more than one-third of the site be developed privately.

Previously on Archinect: Toronto reveals still-contentious revised plan for proposed Ontario Place redev...

PAU to lead the design of a new gateway enhancement project at Niagara Falls

2023-01-06T09:00:00-05:00

Vishaan Chakrabarti’s Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) has been selected to lead the design of the new $12 million Niagara Falls Heritage Gateways project, the studio unveiled via a press announcement on Thursday.

The project’s brief calls for the creation of four gateway structures and will supposedly enhance connections between downtown Niagara Falls and the popular state park in an extension of a previous strategic plan begun by PAU and the state in early 2021.

Images courtesy of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU)

"We're thrilled to continue our work with New York State in Niagara Falls with an expanded team including landscape architects Hargreaves Jones," Chakrabarti said of the new collaboration."The Niagara Falls Heritage Gateways project is a chance to demonstrate how thoughtful design can restore rather than remake our cities."

Images courtesy of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU)

"It is by building on a foundation of shared history — instead ...

Penn Station's proposed redevelopment is raising the specter of 'blight'-backed urban planning tactics in Manhattan

2022-12-29T14:46:00-05:00

The congested, chaotic section of Manhattan near Pennsylvania Station is undeniably drab. Does that make it blighted? New York State has decreed that it is, and Gov. Kathy Hochul has recently likened the Penn Station area to “a Skid Row neighborhood.” She was defending the controversial plan to allow developers to build 10 towers around the decrepit train station — the busiest transit hub in the nation — in exchange for some of the $7 billion the state needs to renovate it.

The same tactic was used in the urban cores of major American cities such as Los Angeles to break apart mostly residential areas and redevelop them into high-rise-laden commercial districts, a practice which may now be boomeranging in the post-pandemic economy. New York is claiming “economic stagnation” (in addition to “blight”) in the redeveloped area. However, opponents say only 8 of the total 61 lots targeted by the project meet the definition outlined by the state’s apparently vague threshold.

“It’s so extreme in this case, I don’t think they can get away with it,” an attorney representing various opposition groups’ legal challenge to the plan told the Times.

Previously on Archinect: Empire State Development approves massive Penn Station redevelopment proposal

Eventually, the redevelopment — which was approved in July — will yield ten skyscrapers, 1,800 units of housing, and the $73 million expansion of Penn Station led by Arup. CRE titan Vornado owns half of the sites included...

SWA Group to develop the Port of LA's waterfront connectivity plan

2022-12-22T12:39:00-05:00

SWA Group has announced plans to transform parts of America’s biggest container port, the Port of Los Angeles (POLA), in a project aimed at increasing connectivity in the public access realm.

“The San Pedro Waterfront is on its way to becoming a truly world-class destination, and we believe that much of it depends on connectivity,” SWA’s Co-CEO Gerdo Aquino explained in a statement. “It will be transformative to enhance accessibility for locals and visitors alike, to create an easily navigable multi-modal waterfront.”

In the hopes of “aiding its evolution over the next 50 years,” Aquino’s team of engineers and other project consultants will work to activate the waterfront area while compiling a comprehensive mobility strategy that links different nodes along eight miles of potentially accessible waterfront edges and a 460-acre swath of land.

Image courtesy SWA Group

The scope of the project will incorporate cruise terminals, the historic San Pedro Ferry Building, Cabrillo Marine Aqu...

Toronto reveals still-contentious revised plan for proposed Ontario Place redevelopment

2022-12-14T12:10:00-05:00

Revised plans for the proposed Ontario Place redevelopment in Toronto are once again drawing critical attention after being submitted to the city’s planning officials at the end of November.

Storeys has the details on the updated scheme, which still calls for one-third of the 155-acre site to be privately developed — a contentious provision that has led many Torontonians to call for the plan to be rejected outright in place of something more in tune with its original use as a public attraction. The revision also reclassified a 12-acre swath of beachfront land for public use in what appears as the only slight concession.

Previously on Archinect: Torontonians aren't happy with the city's planned Ontario Place overhaul

The update also includes details for a five-level underground parking structure to be enacted between the Therme Group’s nine-story private spa and the renovated Live Nation amphitheater at the cost of over 800 trees, which is about 40% of the current iteration's total c...

MVRDV completes Gaîté Montparnasse block transformation in the heart of Paris

2022-11-08T16:42:00-05:00

MVRDV has shared details on its just-completed Gaîté Montparnasse block renovation in the French capital.

The project transformed Pierre Dufau’s once iconic 1974 Ilôt Vandamme design into a more welcoming mixed-use site just south of the Tour Montparnasse facing Avenue du Maine.

“This piece of the city was like an island of ‘70s nostalgia — a tower with no visible entrance, and a plinth where you could get lost between the pedestrian slabs and automobile boulevards,” MVRDV founder Winy Maas explained. “The first step in the design was a study to fragment the block and to make sustainable density — adding new programs such as homes and revealing hidden ones like the library. It created a kind of explosion of buildings that combines large and small scale, existing and new programs, where everything mixes and opens up to the city with lobbies and windows of varying scales like so many addresses.”

Image: Ossip van Duivenbode courtesy MVRDV

By splitting the massing using a tonal glazed cl...

Tosin Oshinowo-designed village reconstruction completes first phase in conflict-torn northern Nigeria

2022-11-03T15:43:00-04:00

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has released images of its just-completed first phase of the Tosin Oshinowo-designed Ngarannam village reconstruction project in Northeast Nigeria.

The project to resettle villagers displaced by Boko Haram was begun last year as part of the UNDP’s Regional Stabilisation Facility Initiative, which will rebuild a total of six communities in three of the country’s northeastern states profoundly affected by conflicts with the insurgent group in order to "quickly mend trust between the people and government."

Image courtesy UNDP/Tolulope Sanusi

The new Ngarannam village includes a total of 564 units of housing, a primary school, police station, community health center, shaded market, security forces barracks, government offices, and 16 small shops. Additional defensive trenches were enacted around the perimeter of the site to provide extra security in the case of emergency, and another 240 housing units wil...

Los Angeles to convert vacant courthouse into affordable housing

2022-10-27T13:16:00-04:00

A long-closed Los Angeles County courthouse in Sawtelle that was once a popular draw for skateboarders may soon be redeveloped for affordable housing. The County Board of Supervisors voted to buy the former West Los Angeles Courthouse at 1633 Purdue Avenue for a mixed-use, affordable housing development, City News Service reported via KFI AM 640.

As detailed by The Real Deal, a motion to buy the courthouse, which has been vacant since June 2013, was proposed, asking Los Angeles County to source funds to acquire the space from the Judicial Council. The County has reportedly, so far, paid more than $3.5 million to the Council to incentivize development.

Doubling as a popular skate venue since the 1990s, the courthouse site became a legal location for skating following its 2013 closure, in which it’s been dubbed the West LA Courthouse Skate Plaza. Los Angeles County has chosen Arlington, Virginia-based West LA Commons as the prospective developer. The current terms of the project call for the developer to pay the County $32.3 million. The County Board of Supervisors will meet to discuss the project again on November 15th, when the public will have the opportunity to comment on the project.

AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker breaks down the industry's burgeoning renovation revolution

2022-10-26T11:58:00-04:00

It’s the first time in the 20 years the AIA has collected this data that renovations have breached 50%. In 2005, toward the end of a pre-recession building boom, renovations made up approximately one-third of billings. That share has been increasing steadily since 2017, when it was 44.4%, up to 52% this year. Kermit Baker, the AIA’s chief economist, says that the last time the market for design services was so heavily weighted toward renovations was likely during the Great Depression.

According to Baker, about 25% of renovation projects constitute interior remodels, while adaptive reuse schemes make up another quarter of those registered with the AIA. Just 3.8% are done in the interest of improved building energy performance, with a scant 1.6% being resiliency projects. The article also mentions the organization's estimate that only 10% were undertaken "as a result of the pandemic" in spite of the prevailing industry narrative.

Data centers are unsurprisingly leading the renovation charge, followed by office upgrade projects aimed at luring back remote workers ("There’s almost a perfect correlation between what sectors are the strongest and where there was the most renovation activity," according to Baker.)

"Buildings are just getting older," he explained further, pointing to demographic causes. "Our economy is growing more slowly, our popula...