Archinect - News

British AEC groups urge government action on embodied carbon regulations

2024-01-31T19:21:00-05:00

A group of 11 AEC industry groups in the United Kingdom, including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Chartered Institute of Building, and UK Green Building Council, have joined together in urging the government toward taking action on restricting embodied carbon emissions in the built environment ahead of an important national election that’s expected for November.

Their call endorses an amalgam of existing policy pushes while espousing lawmakers to include at least a portion of its findings into their respective manifestos with benchmarks for specific mandates and enforcements set for the end of this year, 2026, and 2028, respectively.

RIBA President Muyiwa Oki said: “Our message is clear — embodied carbon regulation is critical to reaching net zero. As built environment professionals, we understand our duty to reduce emissions and have been leading the charge. We now need urgent action from the next government to deliver a greener future that we deserve.”

Related ...

British building firms urge a halt to 'regressive' Tory environmental policy delays

2023-10-10T17:24:00-04:00

Several leading design and construction firms in the UK have signed onto a new appeal urging Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to halt his program of delayed implementations of key environmental building regulations in the interest of protecting a net-zero carbon emissions future in the country.

The Guardian first shared news of the letter, which called these delays “simply reckless,” just days after issuing a damming analysis of the benefits reaped by some builders as the ambitions of the climate movement have been vastly forestalled.

“We are disappointed at your narrative that delaying climate action would reduce costs to households. The longer we delay and the more we see stop-start piecemeal policy making, the harder and more expensive the task becomes,” a portion of the text reads.

SOM, Perkins&Will, and WilkinsonEyre were amongst the 114 signatories, joining AECOM, Buro Happold, and Arup on a docket that was formally organized by the UK Green Building Council. Along with...

New RIBA manifesto urges lawmakers' action for better practices in the built environment

2023-10-04T16:54:00-04:00

A new "Manifesto for a Better Built Environment" has been published by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), calling on the country’s policymakers to make more urgent priority of the need for better safety, quality, and sustainability in the design and construction of buildings throughout the UK.

The publication was made in advance of the country’s political party conference season, saying that improved regulations, job training, and environmental standards are needed to help boost the national housing stock and achieve other benchmarks governing the whole-life carbon footprint of construction projects and retention of highly-qualified staff in local planning offices.

New RIBA President Muyiwa Oki said: "Well-designed buildings and places enrich our lives, positively impact the environment, and strengthen our communities. Our manifesto highlights the need for conscious and concerted policy action to deliver a built environment that meets peoples’ needs, both now and in t...

Adjaye may be asked to repay National Cathedral fees as Ghanaian political campaign turns ugly

2022-06-24T18:55:00-04:00

A homegrown dispute in Sir David Adjaye’s native Ghana is boiling over after news that the architect could be asked to repay some $21.3 million in fees associated with the firm’s National Cathedral design, which politicians from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party claim is part of a sole-sourced tender process that has favored the architect for a number of years.

The online news site GhanaWeb has reported several stories recently in relation to the efforts of MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a member of the NDC, who is insisting that the 10.5% design fee asked by Adjaye Associates at the project’s inception in 2018 was never formally approved by the governing body. The politician also claims the Cathedral will not be completed by its originally planned 2024 date – the same year the country is set to hold a presidential election upon which, he says, the project's status most likely relies on.

Historic preservation and its (many) American discontents

2022-05-09T16:57:00-04:00

It seems incredible that a mid-century marvel like Geller I should fall victim to redevelopment while a government agency nearby intervenes to prevent someone from replacing an old front door with a similar-looking new one. In the world of historic preservation, however, a loose relationship between a building’s historical value and its likelihood of being protected is all too common.

The recent loss of Marcel Breuer’s first post-war Geller I design on Long Island is used to highlight the tension between developer-friendly preservation laws in smaller communities like Lawrence, and the prevailing approaches to preservation controlled predominantly by city dwellers and their “superficial attempts to reframe historic preservation as a progressive endeavor.”

Harvard Doctoral candidate Jacob Anbinder takes a broad look at the (highly political) history of American preservation efforts, which, he says, have shifted in recent decades to become an exclusive domain of the Democratic Party and its “growing base of white-collar professionals attempting to reconcile their material interests with their egalitarian ideals.”

Communicating with landmarks: How architecture can amplify international support and solidarity with Ukrainians

2022-03-01T14:43:00-05:00

Coverage of Vladimir Putin's violent Ukraine invasion has flooded news and social media outlets since Thursday, February 24. Over the last few days, anti-war protestors around the globe have crowded city streets as they show support for Ukraine and its people.

Cities worldwide have echoed sentiments of solidarity and peace by illuminating public buildings and landmarks in Ukraine's national colors of blue and yellow. Yet, while many groups and organizations continue to send relief and aid, have we overlooked how architecture can be used to send messages of social and political expression? After all, architecture is political.

Delegation of the European Union to the United States building located in Washington, DC. Image courtesy of @EUintheUS via Twitter.

Take the recent writing of Los Angeles Times columnist Carolina Miranda. Posted on Monday evening, Miranda's perceptive take on President Zelensky's use of "architectural backdrops" shows the importance of how historic buildings, l...

White House seeks to promote sustainable construction materials with new task force

2022-02-21T10:53:00-05:00

The White House has announced the establishment of a task force to enhance the sustainability credentials of federally-funded buildings. The Buy Clean Task Force will promote the use of construction materials with lower embodied carbon emissions and pollutants across their lifecycle, including at each stage of their manufacturing process.

The task force will develop recommendations on certain material types to prioritize in federally funded projects, as well as increase the transparency of embodied emissions through supplier reporting. This will include incentives and support to domestic material manufacturers seeking to report and reduce embodied emissions.

The task force is comprised of representatives from the Council on Environmental Quality, the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the General Services Administration, the White house...

Federal design mandates should end, says AIA

2021-09-22T11:08:00-04:00

The AIA has expressed support for legislation recently re-introduced to the U.S. Congress, which seeks to prevent future administrations and the federal government from mandating preferred design styles for federal buildings. The organization had previously been critical of a 2020 decision by the Trump Administration to make classical architecture “the preferred and default style” for America’s public buildings.

The bill currently sitting in Congress, named the “Democracy in Design Act,” would codify the U.S. General Service Administration’s 1962 Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture, and prohibit the federal government from mandating a preferred national design style. The bill also includes a requirement that any changes to the Design Excellence Program, which guides the procurement, design, and construction of public buildings, would need to include public comment before enactment.

An architect is garnering more and more support in his quest to become Seattle's new mayor

2021-07-13T09:00:00-04:00

In an announcement video released last week, Andrew Grant Houston introduced himself as a “queer Black and Latino architect.” He is a regular fixture on Twitter as Ace the Architect where he covered this summer’s protests and meticulously picked apart the city’s budget. He frequently switches hats […] And now he’s running for mayor.

Andrew Grant Houston's success can be drawn in part to his use of a "democracy voucher" program that has garnered more than $350,000 in donations for his upstart campaign thus far. His message has focused a lot on zoning laws and affordable housing and has drawn superlatives in a field packed with very left-leaning candidates.

A campaign graphic via Grant Houston's Twitter feed.

Grant Houston is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin's architecture and urban studies program. He had previously founded his own practice after moving to the city prior to the pandemic.

The Seattle Times has more on the 32-year-old architect here.

AIA's political action committee has paused all activities and contributions indefinitely

2021-01-14T11:13:00-05:00

The AIA announced yesterday that ArchiPAC (the AIA's political action committee) had "paused all PAC activities and contributions indefinitely, pending further review of the political situation and to enable the development of protocols to address this and future events aimed to undermine American Voters." The rest of the statement reads:

AIA is taking these steps as a direct result of the inflamed rhetoric and violence that preceded last week’s Congressional vote to certify the election of President-Elect Joe Biden.

ArchiPAC was founded 40 years ago to further amplify the voice of architects to Congressional policymakers. ArchiPAC is bipartisan and supports candidates from both political parties who value policies supporting the built environment and advocate for solutions to issues architects face in protecting the health, safety, and welfare of people.

AIA remains a bipartisan organization and ArchiPAC is supported solely by the voluntary contributions of AIA members. Its disburs...

Nikil Saval, writer and architecture critic, is now a Pennsylvania state senator

2020-11-05T11:50:00-05:00

Pennsylvania’s first state senate district, which includes most of South Philadelphia, now has an architecture critic as a representative. Nikil Saval...former editor of the literary magazine n+1, New York Times contributor, author of Cubed: Secret History of the Workplace, and community organizer — is replacing Larry Farnese Jr. a Democrat who has been state senator since 2009. He is also the first Asian American to be elected to Pennsylvania’s senate.

Curbed's Diana Budds writes: "We at Curbed are generally in favor of putting architecture and design writers in positions of power, and hope for greatness. Under Saval’s leadership, perhaps government architecture can truly become great again."

Charles L. Davis II discusses an "antiracist framework for architectural history"

2020-11-03T18:14:00-05:00

2020 has stirred up architectural discourse as practitioners, academics, and students address racial and social inequality within the industry. With the turbulent Summer months sparking the nation to mobilize and bring social and racial justice to the forefront, academic institutions have used their Fall lecture series as a way to bring these discussions to light within their campus community.

Earlier this October, Harvard GSD invited Charles L. Davis II, assistant professor of architectural history and criticism at the University of Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning. As a designer, architectural historian, and cultural critic, his work focuses on racial identity and race thinking related to architectural history and contemporary culture. In his lecture, "Cannon Fodder: Debating the Racial Politics of Canonicity in Modern Architectural History," Davis presented a series of physical and textual case studies that re-examine architecture's understanding of "western canon to ...

Melissa Daniel, host of Architecture Is Political podcast, creates a new voice for architectural discourse

2020-09-22T08:55:00-04:00

As Black and minority voices continue to impact the industry's progress towards equity and inclusivity, one woman is sparking opportunities for Black and Brown voices and opinions to be heard.

Architectural designer Melissa Daniel is the creator and host of the growing podcast series Architecture is Political. Daniel specifically emphasizes the podcast is where "Black and Brown folks have a conversation about architecture," and the reasons for starting the podcast is to "rediscover why I went into architecture." It's this point that makes her mission towards amplifying the experiences of minority voices and their views on how the discipline impacts their lives a much-needed outlet for digestible discourse.

Having launched her first podcast episode earlier this year, topics include mapping segregation in D.C., Muslim Women in architecture, gentrification, and issues on "curated tolerance." After listening to a few of her podcasts, it's clear that her vocal presence, openness, and con...

Democrats propose $494 billion transportation infrastructure bill

2020-06-08T15:47:00-04:00

According to the United States House of Representatives House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, The Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America (INVEST in America) Act would dole out the funding over five years to "address some of the country’s most urgent infrastructure needs."

Committee Chair Peter DeFazio (D-OR) unveiled the legislation last week.

The bill calls for providing $319 billion for the federal aid highway program administered by the Federal Highway Administration; $105 billion for Federal Transit Administration programs; $83.1 billion for COVID-19 recovery projects; $60 billion for rail projects; $28 billion for "fix-it-first" bridge repairs; $8.4 billion for carbon reduction programs; and $5.3 billion for National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, among other programs.

Michael Sorkin and the politics of architecture

2020-04-13T14:03:00-04:00

[...] Michael advocated for collective, neighbourly, and walkable cities, while also practising architecture and urban design in ways that embraced these same principles. Even so, his shrewd wit always recognized the fallacy that architecture can change society by itself. “Architecture is never non-political,” he told Aleksandra Wagner in a 2006 interview “it always reinforces a set of social relations, whether within the family or between the ruler and the ruled”.

Architect and educator Fadi Shayya pens a heartfelt, personal tribute to the late Michael Sorkin, pointing out his involvement in Palestine and initiatives like the Open Gaza project.

"So many others were closer to Michael," Shayya writes in Failed Architecture. "So many others are more qualified to speak of how we lost an architect, urbanist, activist, author, and teacher with Michael’s passing. To me, we lost a forceful and inspirational presence for social justice, Palestine, and humanity."

Influential architect, educator, and critic, Michael Sorkin, passed away from COVID-19 on March 26, 2020.

Former HUD secretary Shaun Donovan is running for mayor of New York City

2020-02-10T13:15:00-05:00

Shaun Donovan, the former Secretary for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama, has filed papers to run for mayor of New York City in the upcoming 2021 election.

Donovan is vying to succeed current New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has served two terms as the city's mayor.

Donovan, The New York Times reports, is a native New Yorker who served as HUD Secretary between 2009 and 2014, a period that includes the aftermath and recovery from Superstorm Sandy. Donovan also served as a deputy assistant HUD secretary under President Bill Clinton and as the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Donovan's tenure at HUD followed that of Julian Castro, who himself recently ran for higher office as a Democratic presidential contender.

In a statement published by The New York Times, Donovan writes, “As a lifelong New Yorker, I've committed my life to public service and focused on ...

Trump may reallocate additional $7.2 billion of military funds for border wall

2020-01-21T12:49:00-05:00

President Trump is preparing to divert an additional $7.2 billion in Pentagon funding for border wall construction this year, five times what Congress authorized him to spend on the project in the 2020 budget.

According to The Washington Post, the funding would give the government enough money to complete about 885 miles of new fencing by spring 2022, far more than the 509 miles the administration has slated for the U.S. border with Mexico. So far the Trump administration has completed 101 miles of new barriers, which is less than the promised 450 miles due for the end of the year, reports The Washington Post.

Will Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg's new infrastructure plan strike gold with voters?

2020-01-15T13:45:00-05:00

In light of the recent Democratic debates, many candidates have shared their goals and intentions towards sustainability, housing, and infrastructure plans. Last year presidential candidate hopefuls like Andrew Yang shared his sustainability plan back in August 2019. Candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders shared their plans for affordable housing and their responses to the Green New Deal during the summer of 2019. With the list of candidates gradually withdrawing from the races, American voters are looking to those left in the race to provide plans and policies they can stand behind.

Recently, Democratic presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg, announced his national "Vision Zero" plan. According to his site, the infrastructure plan aims to achieve: "Opportunity, equity, and empowerment [...] My administration will invest over $1 trillion in working with states, cities, and other local governments to build the sustainable infrastructure of the 21st century."

Buttigieg p...

Bernie Sanders lays out an ambitious plan on affordable housing

2019-09-15T13:19:00-04:00

Sanders railed against Trump’s housing policies and explained his own, which calls for federal investment of $2.5 trillion over the next decade and a national rent control standard. He said he will pay for the policy by establishing a wealth tax on the top tenth of one percent — or, according to his estimate, the wealthiest 175,000 families.

Major points of the $2.5 trillion plan include:

Establishing a national rent control standard that would cap rent increases at no more than 1½ times the rate of inflation or 3 percent, whichever is higher.
Promoting legal protections for fair housing and taking steps to eliminate racial discrimination and gentrification.
Expanding the National Housing Trust Fund, which allocates money to states to build and maintain affordable housing for low-income Americans.
Fully fund Section 8 rental assistance program and eliminate lengthy wait times that plague those seeking those vouchers.
$70 billion of investment to build and rehabilitate 7.4 million of affordable housing units.
Build 2 million mixed-income units.
$50 billion in grants for states, cities and towns to establish community land trusts.
$32 billion over five years “to end homelessness in America and provide critical outreach services to those who are experiencing chronic homelessness.”

How much does politics affect architecture? An MIT architectural historian explains

2019-09-13T09:00:00-04:00

In a recent news article from MIT News, architectural historian Timothy Hyde explains why "every building is ultimately a compromise.”

Hyde shares, “It’s a compromise between the intentions of architects, the capacities of builders, economics, politics, the people who use the building, the people who paid for the building. It’s a compromise of many, many inputs.”

An associate professor, author, and former practicing architect, Hyde has explored the relationships between architecture, politics, and society throughout his career. Having written two books on the subject, Hyde has spent his time dissecting the topics of modernism and democracy in Cuba during the 20th century and has also found connections between architecture and power in Britain.

Architecture historian Timothy Hyde. Image © Bryce Vickmark

"I really think about myself first as a historian of modernity,” Hyde explains. “Architectural history is the particular vehicle that I use to explore the history of modernity.”

...

New York City signals intent to close more 'zoning loopholes’

2019-07-16T08:30:00-04:00

The city recently enacted stricter zoning regulations to curb excessive mechanical spaces in residential buildings, the first in a series of steps geared toward eliminating zoning ambiguities exploited by developers. [...] Now, elected officials and preservationists are pushing the city to enact stern oversight on additional types of voids and other perceived zoning loopholes.

"Many neighborhood advocates felt the void amendment did not go far enough, and called for the change to recognize unenclosed voids—such as Rafael Viñoly Architects’ disputed 'condo on stilts' on the Upper East Side—as mechanical," writes Caroline Spivack for Curbed NY.

"They charge that such open-air voids should count toward a building’s floor area ratio. Meanwhile, elected officials urged the city to study how some developers 'gerrymander' zoning lots by slicing off slivers to avoid triggering certain regulations."

In May, the New York City Council passed a zoning amendment that will limit real estate developers' ability to inflate the overall height of new skyscrapers through targeted over-sizing of "mechanical void spaces" in order to drive up the price of units higher up in the building.

The Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York has also signaled its support of new legislation addressing this issue.

Great Lakes Hyperloop System wins House support for Cleveland-Chicago route

2019-07-01T14:03:00-04:00

Technology that would connect the cities of Cleveland and Chicago via a 30-minute commute inched closer to reality this month as a national transportation and housing appropriations bill passed one federal hurdle. Five million dollars in initial funding for the Great Lakes Hyperloop System, an experimental high-speed transportation project, was included in legislation voted on by the U.S. House of Representatives in late June.

Kim Palmer reports for Crain's Cleveland: "The passage of the 2020 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriation bill by the House provides the funds for the U.S. Department of Transportation to create a regulatory framework for development of a hyperloop system."

Prototype of the Hyperloop passenger capsule, unveiled in October 2018. Image: HyperloopTT

"The first route studied on the Great Lakes Hyperloop network will be Cleveland to Chicago in 28 minutes," states Great Lakes Hyperloop on its website. "With over 3 million journeys annually, Hyperloop could save travelers 13 million hours each year. Cleveland boasts the largest economy in Ohio with over $120B in annual GDP. Chicago is the 3rd largest metropolitan area in the US bringing in $600B GDP per year."

The U.S. Senate is now next in line to vote on the bill.

NYC's super-tall mechanical void loophole is no more

2019-06-03T13:52:00-04:00

The City Council voted to close a zoning loophole that has allowed developers to boost building heights with excessive mechanical spaces—but it’s only the first step in addressing the issue, say lawmakers.

The zoning amendment will limit the city's notoriously over-sized mechanical spaces to 25-feet in height before additional space begins to eat into a project's allowable buildable area. New York City lawmakers are pushing to close other loopholes, as well, including rules impacting the use unenclosed voids in tall buildings to gain additional height and the agglomeration of "gerrymandered" lots to take unfair advantage of favorable zoning rules for certain parcels.

Curbed quotes Council member Ben Kallos of the Midtown East and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan as saying, “We are taking a significant step towards stopping developers from getting around zoning to give billionaires views instead of building the affordable housing New Yorkers need. This is only a start and we need to go much further.”

Theresa May resigns: 'The country's left in limbo,' responds RIBA President Ben Derbyshire

2019-05-24T14:16:00-04:00

The news of British Prime Minister Theresa May announcing today that she would move out of 10 Downing Street on June 7, following a lengthy period of political disarray over the UK's post-Brexit future as well as criticism over her handling of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy, did not come as an overwhelming surprise anymore.

RIBA President Ben Derbyshire most likely had his response, on behalf of the country's architecture industry, ready to go in his desk drawer for the past weeks, and the time to publicly release it had come now.

"The news that Theresa May will step down as Prime Minister leaves the country in limbo while the clock ticks down to the latest deadline of 31 October," comments Derbyshire. "While much is uncertain, one thing remains clear – a no deal is no option for architecture or the wider construction sector. Whoever becomes the next Prime Minister must focus on taking the country forward with policies beyond Brexit that tackle the major challenges facing the co...

Can border walls negatively affect our mental health?

2019-04-02T19:36:00-04:00

All told, there are at least seventy border walls in the world today. Their construction has inspired an entire field of research dedicated to studying their effects. Psychologists, economists, geographers, and other specialists regularly publish reports in outlets such as the Journal of Borderland Studies, and much of their research suggests that border walls may be affecting the people who live near them in unforeseen ways.

As the discussions about producing and enforcing geopolitical borders become more commonplace in global news, the studies of the psychological effects of those of previous eras have become painfully relevant.

Berlin Wall, photographer unknown

Dietfried Müller, a German psychiatrist, had noticed increased cases of paranoia and delusion in those who lived near the Berlin Wall; so many cases, in fact, that he came up with a term for a syndrome in his 1973 book: Mauerkrankheit, or wall disease.

According to Jessica Wapner of the New Yorker, the construction of border walls "has inspired an entire field of research dedicated to studying their effects. Psychologists, economists, geographers, and other specialists regularly publish reports in outlets such as the Journal of Borderland Studies, and much of their research suggests that border walls may be affecting the people who live near them in unforeseen ways."

How much talks of a US/Mexico border wall, among the others discussed around t...

Ceiling heights in tall towers should be capped at 12 feet, argues New York state lawmaker

2019-02-21T16:25:00-05:00

A state lawmaker is gunning for more aggressive restrictions on the vast mechanical voids developers often abuse to boost their buildings’ heights as a “more robust” solution to the de Blasio administration’s recent zoning amendment. [...] Current zoning exempts mechanical voids from a building’s floor-area ratio (FAR)—a given property’s square footage—and puts no height limits on those spaces.

"Luxury developers often exploit this loophole in residential towers to hike up the price for apartments on higher floors," explains Curbed NY one reasoning behind the newly introduced bill by New York State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal.

Can the government really tell us what's beautiful? The UK government attempts to put beauty first in order to solve building issues

2019-01-28T09:15:00-05:00

The UK government thinks it has got to the heart of the housing crisis: the problem is, new homes just aren’t beautiful enough. “Build beautifully and get permission,” says the housing minister, Kit Malthouse. “Build beautifully and communities will actually welcome developers, rather than drive them out of town at the tip of a pitchfork.”

According to housing minister, Kit Malthouse, the key to solving the housing crisis in the UK is “putting beauty at the heart of our housing and communities policy.” On November 3, 2018, the initiative to champion beauty when building better homes was announced through the "Building Better, Building Beautiful" Commission. What was thought to initiate a progressive interrogation of how beauty within the built environment would solve problems turned into a "parody of Victorian mores" as parliament debated.

Examples of government dabbling in notions of "what is beautiful, progressive, and architecturally mesmerizing" can be found throughout history. Building quality has decreased over time while monopolies over land and project developments have increased. Rightfully addressed by many it's quite easy to use these government initiatives as distractions from the real issues at hand. Although the Guardian article references the housing crisis in the UK, issues of government influence in ...

A Conversation with Rusty Long, State Architect, Furloughed by the Government Shutdown

2019-01-25T15:59:00-05:00

On this week's episode of Archinect Sessions, Ken, Donna, and I share our conversation with Rusty Long, an architect based in Cary, North Carolina. Rusty’s private practice focuses on sustainability and community engagement with a style that bridges modernism and the history of the the American South.

Rusty’s day job, however, is a State Architect for the USDA Rural Development office. As a federal employee, Rusty is one of approximately 800,000 individuals currently furloughed by the Government Shutdown. On this 34th day of the historic shutdown, as he and many others remain unpaid after two pay cycles, Rusty sits down with us to share his story. We talk about how and why he entered public service, the work he typically undertakes as a state architect, and the problems that this shutdown are causing for him, his colleague and the US taxpayers in general.

Listen to episode 134 of Archinect Sessions, “A Conversation Rusty Long, State Architect, Furloughed by the Government Shutdown”...

Architecture will be recognized as STEM

2018-12-27T17:56:00-05:00

In a big win for architects, the US House of Representatives passed the Senate version of H.R.2353, the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act on Tuesday. Architects across the country led the charge to pass this bill, highlighting its promise in discussions with their representatives.

The academic grouping known as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has long been regarded as the antithesis to the creative fields of art, music, and architecture. But the bill recently passed by the US House of Representatives allows states to use federal money to modernize Career Technical Education (CTE) curricula, which will soon include architecture.

"After years of discussion by architects and educators, AIA is pleased that its lobbying efforts have succeeded and that the bill on Career Technical Education has passed,” says Robert Ivy, FAIA, EVP/Chief Executive Officer of the American Institute of Architects. "It will encourage a more diverse workforce, fulfill the promise of design as the synthesis of art and science, and affect fundamental change in educational curricula."

This recent news will likely have an effect on how architecture is discussed in America's middle and high schools, as well as the allocation of funds towards architectural education....

The Man in the Glass House: new Philip Johnson biography traces the architect's Fascist past

2018-12-17T18:37:00-05:00

In “The Man in the Glass House,” Mark Lamster’s brisk, clear-eyed new biography of Johnson, we are asked to contemplate why the impresario of twentieth-century architecture descended into such a morass of far-right politics—and how, given the depths to which he fell, he managed to clamber his way not just out of it, but to the top. [...] Johnson managed to abjure his past and, on the march toward an exceptionally successful career, leave it behind.

The New Yorker reviews the new Philip Johnson biography, The Man in the Glass House by architecture critic and professor Mark Lamster, and examines how Johnson eagerly embraced Fascism before WWII and still rose to great fame as America's iconic 20th-century architect.

"Indeed, it is difficult to think of an American as successful as Johnson who indulged a love for Fascism as ardently and as openly," writes Nikil Saval in his The New Yorker piece. "His design for Father Coughlin’s rally had been inspired by his tours of Italian Fascist architecture—though the white stage was drywall, it was meant to look like marble—and, critically, by the 'febrile excitement' that attended his visit to a National Socialist youth event in Potsdam, in 1932."