Archinect - News

A look at Boris Johnson’s legacy to London

2015-04-20T18:49:00-04:00

Boris Johnson’s term as London mayor has produced a surprising mix of spectacular and workaday projects – along with some famous follies. But will he leave the city looking better than it did seven years ago?

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh goes up against boring architecture

2014-12-11T13:53:00-05:00

Boston needs bolder buildings, and it needs civic leaders who aren’t afraid to permit them. In what could mark a major turn for Boston’s architectural history, Mayor Marty Walsh signaled Wednesday that not everything needs to built in red brick. Unlike predecessor Tom Menino, he personally won’t be deciding what the tops of new buildings should look like. And, most striking of all, non-boring ideas are now welcome in the city.

Letters to mayors show what architects really think of cities

2014-05-22T13:26:00-04:00

City mayors across the world are about to take delivery of some searching, angry and occasionally very funny letters from leading international architects, academics and critics at the culmination of an exhibition curated by New York’s Storefront for Art and Architecture. “Letters to the Mayor” generated 50 fascinating and varied missives [...]. The project was conceived to remind politicians and the wider public – including architects themselves – of the political side of their profession.

Bridge Over Troubled Waters - Open Letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio

2014-01-07T12:11:00-05:00

Mayor de Blasio, your idea of a mandate for inclusionary zoning begins to address this crisis yet continues to depend on the tender mercies of private developers to actually produce the units. If you are going to tax them, why not collect the money, municipalize the program, and make gorgeous, genuinely affordable housing your greatest legacy, building it where it's most needed? We can do it! -Michael Sorkin

Dear Mayor Bill de Blasio:

Along with many other architects and urbanists, I'm looking forward to your taking office this month as mayor of New York City, and working to implement the theme of your campaign, the elimination of the increasingly radical disparities that underlie that “tale of two cities” you so frequently spoke about—a tale, increasingly, about two nations. While this program of social equity must operate in many spheres—from the creation of jobs to the provision of services, to the fight for environmental and social justice—planning the physical city in its growth and transformation is one of the most important powers of municipal government, one that the Bloomberg administration has deployed with stark effectiveness...

Bristol's architect mayor wants the city to be a 'laboratory for change'

2013-01-21T14:11:00-05:00

"I'm going to be intolerant of bad architecture," he says, describing how the former head of planning was a highways engineer who "let anything and everything through – including office blocks stacked on top of multistorey car parks. "My idea of good architecture is about creating place. It's not about providing glitzy iconic buildings, competing one against the other, but how we use the best of what we've got."

NM Mayor: I Was Quite Drunk When I Signed Those $1 Million Contracts

2011-08-05T13:26:01-04:00

According to court documents, Resendiz admitted in a June 2010 deposition that he was drunk when he signed nine contracts with the architectural design firm Synthesis+ for $1 million worth of work.

Found via this discussion in the Forum.