Archinect - News

President Trump involved in revamping the FBI headquarters in DC

2018-08-02T17:37:00-04:00

Trump is obsessed with the FBI building. For months now, in meetings with White House officials and Senate appropriators intended to discuss big-picture spending priorities, the president rants about the graceless J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington, D.C.

President Trump has reportedly taken an interest in the FBI headquarters J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown DC, overseeing every detail of the project. While he recognizes the value of the property, the president is not a fan of brutalism. Trump complained, "Even the building is terrible... It's one of the brutalist-type buildings, you know, brutalist architecture. Honestly, I think it's one of the ugliest buildings in the city."

Weekly News Round-Up for July 28, 2014: Exploding pipelines and contentious museums

2014-08-04T14:58:00-04:00

Friday, August 1

Gas Pipelines Explode in Taiwan City Killing 24: The cause of the propene pipeline explosion is still unknown, but officials noticed irregularities in the pipe's flow hours beforehand, without investigating further.
Jacko's Neverland Ranch is up for sale at $50-75M: Michael Jackson's Disneyland-esque compound in Santa Barbara was handed back to Tom Barrack's Colony Capital in 2008, when Jackson was heavily in debt. With $5M in annual upkeep, Colony Capital is now selling the property.
Plans approved for Damien Hirst's village on the British coast: Hirst will collaborate with Architects Rundell Associates on the 75-home city. Renderings are surprisingly conventional when compared to Hirst's work.

Thursday, July 31

New Renderings of What Will Replace Grafitti Art Mecca 5Pointz Emerge: Unsurprisingly, it's two residential towers: with some mixed-use space on the ground floor, and 20% affordable housing. Designed by HTO Architect, the buildings will have some space set as...

Requiem for a Nightmare

2014-07-31T14:09:00-04:00

This week came the news that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is leaving its home in Washington, D.C. [...] Most importantly, from the perspective of thousands of D.C. residents, the District will finally be rid of the FBI's dark architecture. I will be sad to see the building go, as the city will almost certainly demand. Not only could it still potentially be put to good use, but whatever replaces the FBI Building will be regular, orderly, safe, and worse.

Government Offers to Swap for a New F.B.I. Headquarters

2013-01-31T18:05:00-05:00

For nearly 40 years, the F.B.I. has had its headquarters in a massive example of Brutalist architecture on Pennsylvania Avenue. But the federal government hopes to swap the building and its prime location for a sprawling new home in the suburbs, and there seem to be plenty of developers eager to help make that happen.

The General Services Administration, the federal government’s landlord, held an “industry day” this month to lay out its wish list for new F.B.I. headquarters, drawing more than 450 interested developers, architects, brokers and consultants.