Archinect - News

Weiss/Manfredi, Hood Design Studio, and Moody Nolan to design new Amsterdam Avenue enhancements at Lincoln Center

2024-03-04T16:32:00-05:00

The new Amsterdam Avenue face of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts will be designed by a team that includes Weiss/Manfredi, Hood Design Studio, and Moody Nolan, the beloved New York City cultural institution announced Monday.

The revitalization plan entails first a radical overhaul of Damrosch Park, which will be transformed into a dynamic new outdoor area for artistic performance and public gatherings. All three firms will impart their extensive experience in public realm designs that has recently included work on the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina and master plan of the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum in Los Angeles, respectively.

East side of Amsterdam Avenue, north of 62nd Street. Photo by Lawrence Sumulong

The design will take shape in response to a participatory planning process that drew the opinions of over 3,400 New Yorkers and surviving former residents of San Juan Hill, the neighborhood that was demolished to make way for the 14-y...

Inside the expensive repair of Brutalist landmark Boston City Hall

2023-07-07T11:41:00-04:00

Local Boston news outlet WBUR has offered an insight into the multi-million dollar operation to repair and renew Boston City Hall. The Brutalist icon, now 55 years old, was recently allocated $80 million to address ongoing issues.

The most extensive renewal project to be undertaken in the building is the removal and replacement of the original hot water pipes dating from the 1960s. As WBUR reports, many of the pipes are inaccessible and completely encased in concrete.

"We've actually had to core into that concrete just to be able to repair and actually identify the leak," Boston’s commissioner of property management Eamon Shelton told the outlet. As a result, the city has budgeted $13.5 million for the pipes project alone.

Other repair and renewal projects include the replacement of all lights in the building with energy-efficient LEDs, plans to...

Historian Amber Wiley to lead UPenn's Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites

2022-09-19T09:00:00-04:00

Award-winning architectural and urban historian Amber Wiley has been announced by the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design as the inaugural Matt and Erika Nord Director of the Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites (CPCRS).

The current Rutgers University assistant professor will also hold the title of Presidential Associate Professor and lecture primarily in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation. Wiley holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from George Washington University in addition to degrees in Architecture and Architectural History from Yale and the University of Virginia.

From Wiley's 2021 CPCRS talk titled “The Revolution Continues.” Image courtesy UPenn.

She comes to the new positions highly recommended as the author of the forthcoming title Model Schools in the Model City: Race, Planning, and Education in the Nation’s Capital and curator of Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum, now on view at Rutgers’ New Bru...

Segregation by Design: Using visual data and spatial analysis to highlight the racist legacy of urban renewal

2022-08-29T15:12:00-04:00

What started as a self-funded project from New York-based architect Adam Paul Susaneck is gaining attention over its unique ability to paint a picture of the effects of racial segregation in the 180 American cities included in the controversial Federal Highway Act of 1956.

Inspired by Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law, Susaneck launched his Segregation by Design project in early 2021 to "reveal the extent to which the American city was methodically hollowed out based on race."

Susaneck is in league with others who have been calling on the Biden Administration to dismantle the legacy of race-based discrimination laden in America’s aging highway network and says the trifold goal of the project is to: 1. Create an "Atlas of Urban Renewal" in book form; 2. Create digital materials for local groups opposing ongoing freeway expansion; and 3. Continue to grow the followership of Segregation by Design’s social media channels (which to date number some 132,000).

Related on Archinect: St....

Meet urban revitalization experts Morris Adjmi Architects: Your Next Employer?

2022-08-01T11:40:00-04:00

Following last week’s visit to New York-based ODA Architecture, this week’s edition of our Meet Your Next Employer series remains partly in NYC where we meet Morris Adjmi Architects (MA).

Established in New York City in 1997 by Morris Adjmi following his 13-year-long collaboration with Aldo Rossi, MA has since expanded from its NYC base to open a second office in New Orleans.

The firm describes itself as a “leader in the revitalization of post-industrial neighborhoods and historic districts,” exemplified by a broad portfolio spanning a renovated brick warehouse in Tribeca to a contemporary glass tower built on an existing art deco building along the High Line.

The firm now seeks to expand by advertising for several roles in NYC and New Orleans on the Archinect Job board. For candidates interested in applying for a role, or anybody interested in learning more about life as an architect, we spoke with the team at MA for a behind-the-scenes look at their studio.

837 Washington in LP...

NY Governor Hochul announces investments to reconnect communities divided by disruptive urban renewal projects

2022-01-31T14:47:00-05:00

In her recent Executive Budget address, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the state will inject nearly $3 billion towards infrastructure projects that “promote equity, connectivity, and multi-modal transportation opportunities for communities all across New York State.” This move aims to right the wrongs of post-World War II urban renewal projects that saw highway expansions disproportionately divide and disrupt communities of color across the country.

As stated in the State’s press release, the investments aim to “reunite neighborhoods, promote economic growth, and revitalize many of New York’s most important urban centers.” The money will be spread over the next five years on projects to demolish, cover, or repurpose these longstanding expressways.

Hochul gave this announcement in Buffalo, New York at an event near the Kensington Expressway, the construction of which removed the historic Olmsted-designed Humboldt Parkway and severed the connection between surrounding...

Highways: Another enduring monument to American racism?

2020-06-24T17:58:00-04:00

The aftermath of George Floyd’s death while in police custody has created a moment for radical truth-telling. So here’s some ugly truth about the city of Los Angeles: Our freeway system is one of the most noxious monuments to racism and segregation in the country.

Mattew Fleischer, Senior Digital Editor of The Los Angeles Times pens an editorial for the newspaper highlighting the indefensible, racist legacy of highway construction in American cities.

Citing historical research regarding the ways in which highway construction and urban renewal practices helped to institute and literally cement racial and income segregation, Fleischer writes, "Local officials rerouted the elaborate designs of freeway engineers — often at considerable expense — to destroy thousands of homes in racially diverse communities."

These highways, Fleischer explains, continue to fuel environmental racism and other negative impacts for communities of color. Should they be torn down too?

$139 million placemaking plan for NY's Far Rockaway breaks ground in

2019-09-29T12:00:00-04:00

After a lack of major infrastructure improvements in decades, Downtown Far Rockaway in New York City has broken ground on a promising new project that is due to revitalize a 25-block area of the neigborhood, reports QNS.

According to QNS, councilman Donovan Richards said, "This long overdue investment will bring new streetscapes, plaza space, green infrastructure and improved stormwater drainage that will ensure a more pedestrian friendly Far Rockaway that can better manage future storms while also beautifying the commercial corridors and the transportation hub of the peninsula."

As part of the work, streets will be rebuilt and more landscape introduced. The Department of Design and Construction will be managing the project which is due to be complete within the next three years, reports QNS.

Landscape architects Spackman Mossop Michaels turn vacant Detroit parking lots into thriving parks

2019-08-23T09:00:00-04:00

Detroit natives can recall the neighborhood of Fitzgerald and its transition from a lively community to a vacant and foreclosed part of town. Today, the neighborhood is poised for change again, as landscape architects Spackman Mossop Michaels (SSM) work to help revitalize the community alongside the Fitzgerald Neighborhood Revitalization Plan with a series of design strategies that populate the neighborhood's vacant lots. In a recent Metropolis article, writes, "it’s a unique model for Detroit—or anywhere else—because it rebuilds equity not only by restoring what was taken but also by deepening residents’ relationships through the new landscapes."

With the aim of piecing together 26 lots connecting to and surrounding the Ella Fitzgerald Park, the plan is to create a linear greenway filled with native meadows and larger orchards within the neighborhood. Mortice writes, "the Fitzgerald Neighborhood Revitalization Plan weaves together refurbished single-family homes within a network o...

That traffic jam you're stuck in? Blame white supremacy

2019-08-15T19:59:00-04:00

This intertwined history of infrastructure and racial inequality extended into the 1950s and 1960s with the creation of the Interstate highway system. As in most American cities in the decades after the Second World War, the new highways in Atlanta—local expressways at first, then Interstates—were steered along routes that bulldozed “blighted” neighborhoods that housed its poorest residents, almost always racial minorities.

Writing in The New York Times, Kevin M. Kruse connects the dots between highway planning and America's historical campaign to keep African Americans "in their place," an impetus that can be traced back to slavery and its modern day manifestations: segregation, urban renewal, redlining, gentrification, and mass incarceration.

The story is part of The New York Times' 1619 Project, a collection of stories and reports that "reframe the country's history" by foregrounding America's conception in its historical relationship to slavery.

How New Orleans dodged Robert Moses's "Riverfront Expressway"

2019-08-13T19:45:00-04:00

Fifty years ago this summer, word reached New Orleans that John Volpe, secretary of the Department of Transportation under President Richard Nixon, had canceled the Riverfront Expressway—the high-speed, elevated interstate highway slated for the edge of the French Quarter.

Tulane University urban geographer Richard Campanella pens a lengthy remembrance for the failed Riverfront Expressway, a Robert Moses-designed highway that would have cut New Orleans off from its historic waterfront and the Mississippi River.

The epic struggle to turn back the highway was dubbed “the Second Battle of New Orleans,” and brought together preservationists, community members, and business interests against the infamous Power Broker.

Richard Florida on the fragility of the Urban Revival

2017-09-06T15:26:00-04:00

For all the concern about the gentrification, rising housing prices and the growing gap between the rich and poor in our leading cities, an even bigger threat lies on the horizon: The urban revival that swept across America over the past decade or two may be in danger. As it turns out, the much-ballyhooed new age of the city might be giving way to a great urban stall-out.

Richard Florida paints a gloomy picture of the state of the great American urban revival in his NYT op-ed, "The Urban Revival Is Over," citing gentrification, income disparity, rising crime numbers, unaffordable housing prices, and the anti-urban agenda of the current White House tenants.

Joe Cortright, over at City Observatory, offers a good analysis of Florida's piece; breaking down numbers, highlighting statistics, weighing in on the crime numbers claim, and easing the general dystopian mood: "Rather than proclaiming the end of the urban revival, Florida’s evidence really makes the case for a renewed national commitment to building more great urban neighborhoods."

Thirty-three projects win $5 million prize in 2017 Knight Cities Challenge

2017-06-12T13:04:00-04:00

The Knight Foundation held another successful Knight Cities Challenge for the third consecutive year...Starting with a staggering 4,500 design ideas in the open call, the jury narrowed down the competition pool to 144 finalists. Now, the 33 winners have been revealed and will share the $5 million cash prize that will help implement their projects in 19 Knight-invested communities.

The winning ideas range from an urban beach along Detroit's Atwater Street to a new public space in Columbia, South Carolina that connects two isolated neighborhoods. See all the winning projects on Bustler.

Cities should be very wary of Trump's 'Plan for Urban Renewal'

2016-12-09T13:35:00-05:00

Among scholars and many city dwellers, urban renewal is remembered for its vast destruction of minority communities, when entire neighborhoods were razed for housing, highways and civic projects. [...] Is Mr. Trump knowingly or accidentally embracing historical conflict? The answer depends, in part, on how much we think Mr. Trump, a real estate developer and son of a real estate developer, knows about the history of the conflict over the shape of the American city.

Related on Archinect:

Surveying the failure of utopian ideals in Tokyo's Nakagin Capsule Tower

2016-11-01T12:32:00-04:00

Despite its potential for easy refurbishment and adaptability, the Nakagin Capsule Tower has not exactly fulfilled the hoped-for mission of its designers. A team of documentary filmmakers recently attempted to stay in the tower, only to find the majority of its units without plumbing or much in the way of livable amenities. As the narrator laments, "Maybe nowhere else is the gap between the utopian 1960s and 70s dream of the future and the reality of life in the 21st century as acutely felt as right here." Check out the full, thoughtful video here:

This is not architecture...

2016-07-07T01:59:00-04:00

What we’ve done is change the software of the city...We’ve changed how it behaves. We’ve changed how it responds to people who want to try things, do things, and run their own experiments...We don’t build anything, we don’t buy anything, we don’t own anything.” Renew’s annual budget barely cracks six figures

Late last year, Greg Lindsay profiled Marcus Westbury and the work of Renew Newcastle. Does this "soft", and non-capital intensive model, suggest a way to avoid concerns over gentrification, privatized downtowns of privately owned public space, and trendy "pop-ups"? Can the lessons apply beyond Newcastle or Australia?

Fore more you can also read a short PDF Creating Creative Enterprise Hubs: A Guide or the book Creating Cities.

Sydney's revamped Kensington Street wins Good Design award

2016-06-09T18:27:00-04:00

Juxtaposed by modern architecture on the western side of the street, the circa 1842 working class terrace facades on the eastern side have been retained and restored in line with strict heritage conditions. “Kensington Street’s integration with the Central Park precinct was of great consideration. We wanted to celebrate its difference in vernacular to the rest of the contemporary precinct but wanted to integrate it with quality landscaping and other infrastructure.

Until several architectural firms were charged with restoring and revamping it, Kensington Street in Sydney's Chippendale area was a former bustling industrial zone fallen to ruin. Now the street (or at least, the design firms responsible for its transformation, including Turf Design Studio, Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, and Paul Davies & Associates) has won the "Architectural Design" prize in the Good Design awards, which is marking its 58th year.

All the Sydney news that's fit to link to:

Agence Ter and Team wins Pershing Square Renew with “radically flat“ proposal

2016-05-12T18:00:00-04:00

The Pershing Square Renew initiative revealed Agence Ter and Team as the winners of the competition to redesign Downtown L.A.'s oldest public park, exactly two weeks after the four finalist teams delivered their final presentations. The winning consortium is led by French landscape practice Agence Ter, whose major landscape work is largely based in Europe. Agence Ter collaborated with L.A.-based firms like SALT Landscape Architects, Deborah Murphy Urban Design + Planning, Rachel Allen Architecture, as well as arts programming organization Community Arts Resources LA.

Titled “The Dynamic Heart of Los Angeles”, the proposal is a plaza-park hybrid that would clear out the walls, ramps, and other such barriers along Pershing Square's perimeter, and transform the Square into an open rectangular lawn. Other elements include a “smart canopy” that provides shade during the day and lights up at night, a reflection pool, and new gardens and grassy lawns.

“Because we believe that too much t...

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:

A river of solar power: a scheme for the Tijuana river

2016-03-23T18:30:00-04:00

In Tijuana, another architect is devising a plan to turn the Tijuana River channel into a solar farm that could provide power to as many as 30,000 homes. Rene Peralta, co-founder of the Tijuana firm Generica and director of an architecture master's program at San Diego's Woodbury University, thinks that his city can transform this unwieldy piece of infrastructure into a renewable energy plant and water-cleaning station.

February 2016 was the hottest month in several thousand years, so it seems like a good idea to start transforming erstwhile urban heat islands into power-generating rivers. Below, Generica's rendering of the proposed redesigned Tijuana river channel:

For more on projects that turn seemingly intractable swaths of infrastructure into gorgeous urban amenities:

Constructive destruction: How would you imagine the ideal demolition scheme?

2016-02-19T14:36:00-05:00

'Preservation is good, but it doesn’t allow any opposing force,' says Bench. 'If you save a few beautiful buildings, it’s not as if the stuff that really should go then gets demolished. Instead, we end up putting the pressure on the buildings that are quite good, but not quite good enough to be deemed historical.'

Architects David Bench and Jonathan Chesley share the thought process behind their "Taking Buildings Down" competition proposal, which was one of the winning entries in the Storefront for Art and Architecture's Competition of Competitions in 2014.

"[R]ather than ask for new architectural developments, the pair wondered what kind of submissions they might receive if they called for architects to dream-up a demolition scheme?"

More recent news about demolition:

A final hurrah for L.A.'s Sixth Street Viaduct

"Stop the unpermitted demolition": Roche Dinkeloo's shiny UN Plaza Hotel lobby might be remodeled

"Too old to be hip but too young to be venerated" – say good-bye to the brutalist Fogarty building in downtown Providence

How one urban planner is helping revamp a Miami suburb "without gentrification"

2015-11-10T20:20:00-05:00

Germane Barnes wants Opa-Locka to be known for something else...He knows [change] can happen because he lives there, and has seen the work of a group of artists and organizers slowly change the landscape...The city's history intrigued him, not merely because it seemed like a perfect case study for his thesis about revitalizing a community without gentrification, but because it also spoke to his own experiences.

Rotterdam's smog transformed into jewelry thanks to an outdoor air filter

2015-09-17T15:21:00-04:00

After [the 23-foot-tall air filter designed by Daan Roosegaarde] filters smog from the air, it compresses the collected waste particles into cubes that can be embedded into jewelry such as rings and cufflinks — and, hopefully, prompt further conversations about extreme air pollution.

For more on how designers are creatively tackling pollution:

• Delhi’s air pollution is worse than Beijing's. A new app measures the air quality in real time.

• Beijing mayor says air pollution makes his city "unlivable"

• Air Pollution Google Earth Mashup

Master architect M.N. Ashish Ganju on working to achieve "good architecture"

2015-09-03T13:07:00-04:00

Munishwar Nath Ashish Ganju is a thought leader in Indian architectural philosophy...Based in New Delhi, Ganju cares about the fact that over a quarter of Delhi’s population lives outside the law in unauthorised colonies. He lives and works on the urban fringe, to demonstrate by example the principle of urban renewal by citizens.

In a recent Forbes interview, esteemed architect M.N. Ashish Ganju looks back on his career over the last few decades -- from the history of Indian architecture, his most notable projects, to his current efforts to instill citizen-led urban renewal in the outskirts of the country.

You can also read some of Ganju's writing here.

Buy Condo, Then Add Parking Spot for $1 Million

2014-09-10T13:17:00-04:00

A new development, 42 Crosby Street, is pushing the limits of New York City real estate to new heights with 10 underground parking spots that will cost more per square foot than the apartments being sold upstairs. At $250,000 a tire, the parking spaces in the underground garage cost more than four times the national median sales price for a home, which is $217,800, according to Zillow.

The best thing about this article was the NYT pop up ad for luxury condos in Chelsea.

Streetcars and Urban Renewal

2014-08-18T18:34:00-04:00

Most American cities paved over their streetcar tracks decades ago, deeming the services slow, rickety and inconvenient. Commuters have long preferred cars and buses. But streetcars—sometimes known as trolleys or trams—are making a comeback. Services are rolling out in at least 16 American cities, with dozens more in the works [...] The relationship between streetcars and development is not clear, say researchers funded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).

“72 Hour Interactions” to revive Witten, Germany into an urban art playground in three days

2014-07-16T16:22:00-04:00

The world championship for the "72 Hour Interactions" realtime competition is taking place in Witten, Germany later this month! For 72 intense hours starting July 23 at 6 p.m., five international teams will venture out and transform Witten's neglected public sites through nothing other than creativity and architectural design — while having fun in the process.

Each team will represent one of the cities in the Ruhr valley: Hagen, Hattingen, Herdecke, Wetter and Witten. Sixty participants from abroad and from the region will transform neglected sites throughout the city through means of what the competition organizers describe as "gameful architectural interventions".

Learn more about the competition on Bustler.

Photos Show How Detroit Hollowed Out During the Highway Age

2014-06-25T13:20:00-04:00

While searching for images of highway interchanges in urban areas, I came across these historic aerial photos of Detroit on a message board, showing how the city fabric has slowly eroded. It’s a remarkable record of a process that has scarred many other American cities.

Montenegro’s Venice Biennale exhibition seeks renewal of the country’s architectural heritage

2014-05-30T17:38:00-04:00

Montenegro's "Treasures in Disguise" exhibition for the 2014 Venice Biennale looks to the country's former Yugoslavic past to provoke discussion of bringing renewal and examining the future possibilities of Montenegran architecture. The exhibition focuses on four historic buildings constructed between 1960 and 1986 that are perceived as cultural models of late modernism architecture. Built with optimistic intentions, the buildings were neglected and have been left to decay ever since.

Check out the projects in their current and original states.

(Pictured above) Dom Revolucije
Architect: Marko Mušić

Kayak Club “Galeb”
Architect: Vukota Tupa Vukotić

Hotel Fjord
Architect: Zlatko Ugljen

Spomen Dom
Architect: Marko Mušić

To learn more, head over to Bustler.

Results of the 2014 European Prize for Urban Public Space

2014-05-08T13:37:00-04:00

The 2014 European Prize for Urban Public Space adds a dose of reality to often romanticized European cities, showing that every city no matter where has its own set of pressing issues. The annual prize recognizes exemplary projects that have transformed and improved public spaces throughout the continent. Starting with a total of 274 projects from 30 European countries, the international jury selected 25 finalists, and finally two joint winners and four special mentions.

(Pictured above) JOINT WINNER: The Braided Valley, Elx, Spain - 2013
AUTHORS: Francisco Leiva Ivorra, Marta García Chico, Prócoro del Real Baeza

JOINT WINNER: Renovation of the Old Port, Marseille, France - 2013
AUTHORS: Michel Desvigne Paysagiste MDP, Foster + Partners, TANGRAM, INGEROP, AIK AIK

SPECIAL MENTION: Opening of Rainham Marshes, London, United Kingdom - 2014
AUTHORS: Peter Beard_LANDROOM | Peter Beard, Alexander Gore, Sabba Khan, Dingle Price, Gregory Ross, Mark Smith, Keita Tajima

SPECIAL MENTION: Islamic Cemetery, Altach, Austria - 2012
AUTHORS: Bernardo Bader Architects

SPECIAL MENTION: Baana: pedestrian and bicycle corridor, Helsinki, Finland 2012
AUTHORS: Helsinki City Planning Department, Helsinki Public Works Department, Loci Landscape Architects Ltd

SPECIAL MENTION: La Lira Theatre, Ripoll, Spain - 2012
AUTHORS: RCR Aranda Pigem Vilalta Arquitectes SLP, Joan Puigcorbé

More details on Bustler.

Check out videos of the jurors' comments on each project below.

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