Archinect - News

Multifamily housing starts plunge to 2013 levels, largest gap since 1974

2024-12-09T11:31:00-05:00

Starts of new multifamily apartment buildings in 2024 have fallen dramatically to 2013 levels, according to an analysis of data taken from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau from the Texas-based Madera Residential. Nationwide, there were a total of 804,000 units under construction by the end of October.

This represents a 19.2% year-over-year decline. The starts-to-completions gap is now the largest its been since 1974, says Madera's Jay Parsons. Overall housing starts were however shown to decrease only slightly to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.3 million in October. (h/t Construction Dive)

A snapshot of 2023's residential construction data from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau can also be found here.

RCR Arquitectes debuts 'ultra-thin' Muraba Veil residential tower in Dubai

2024-10-24T17:05:00-04:00

A unique new residential skyscraper in Dubai from RCR Arquitectes will be built to the width of just a single 22.5 meter (almost 74 feet) apartment unit in what could come as a shock to even the most ardent fans of contemporary luxury high-rise design.

The fifth collaboration between the 2017 Pritzker Prize winner and developer Muraba, the Muraba Veil, was announced this month for a site overlooking the canal in the city of 3.6 million.

Its design is shaped also by endemic cultural and climate conditions, reaching a total height of 1,247 feet and 73 stories. The apartments are being offered between two and five bedrooms. Some unique features include a cavern-like indoor spa and oasis located in the crawl space underneath its datum.

Image: courtesy RCR Arquitectes//Muraba

The building’s 'super-thin' appearance is meant to evoke traditional Arabian domestic architecture, revealing itself from behind a series of 'veils' comprising stainless steel mesh that helps to dematerialize its sil...

Studio Libeskind's refreshing social housing development debuts at the Sumner Houses in Brooklyn

2024-05-24T18:25:00-04:00

Studio Libeskind has inaugurated its new social housing development in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, called The Atrium at Sumner, after a three-year, $132 million construction. The 11-story, 132,418-square-foot development yields 190 total units, with an 8,309-square-foot community space located on the ground floor along Marcus Garvey Boulevard.

Image: Hufton+Crow

The building’s design features a dramatic interplay of opening and solids in a folding form finished in distinct optic white EIFS facade cladding that distinguishes it from the brick buildings on the 66-year-old NYCHA campus. A year-round interior garden gives name to the development, which features a host of amenities included to support aging-in-place alternatives for senior residents of the studio and one-bedroom apartments, 25 of which come fully adapted for those living with disabilities or who are visually or hearing-impaired.

Image: Hufton+Crow

The project came together through a consortium of stakeholders that includes the New...

Plans for world’s tallest residential tower unveiled in Dubai

2024-04-27T08:00:00-04:00

Hospitality brand Six Senses has unveiled plans for a new residential tower in Dubai Marina, set to be the world’s tallest. Sprouting up in Dubai Marina, the Six Senses Residences will be the second Dubai location to come from Six Senses, joining the nearly-opened Six Senses The Palm Jumeirah hotel. The tower is said to boast an impressive 122 floors, when it is eventually completed in 2028.

The height of the new Six Senses Residences Dubai Marina tower is equal to the under-construction Burj Azizi tower nearby, a $1.5 billion commercial project that was announced to have broken ground in January and will be completed the same year.

Image credit: Select Group

They will become two of the world’s six 120+ story structures. Reported amenities include a 109th-floor lap pool and cryotherapy chambers, crystal sound healing room, movie theater, and spa.

Image credit: Select Group

Despite the size, only 251 high-end residences are included. The current record-holder for tallest residential building, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture's Central Park Tower in New York City, has 179 units over 131 floors.

Image credit: Select Group

WSP Middle East and Woods Bagot are reportedly in charge of the architectural design.

LA City Council orders graffiti removal on infamous unfinished Oceanwide Plaza towers

2024-02-12T13:33:00-05:00

City Council Members in Los Angeles have issued a mandate to owners of the graffiti-tagged Oceanview Plaza development in Downtown to remove the artwork weeks after its unfinished exterior became a national news item and the latest flash point in a debate over the citywide housing crisis that has lingered for a number of years.

By a vote of 14-0, Council Members approved Kevin de León’s motion calling for the city to foot the bill for cleaning up the stalled $1 billion towers if China-based developer Oceanwide fails to meet their February 17th deadline for removal. (CoStar first reported on the motion this weekend h/t Bizow.com.)

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chop ‘em Down Films (@chopemdownfilms)

The internet sensation was covered in tags last month by artists apparently inspired by an early December operation in downtown Miami and able to bypass the security detail on site, which has been embroiled in a payment dispute with developers since last ye...

Daniel Libeskind completes senior housing development on Long Island

2023-09-20T17:59:00-04:00

Studio Libeskind has shared photos of its recently completed senior housing project on Long Island.

Located in the village of Freeport in Nassau County, the new Allan and Geraldine Rosenberg Residence holds a total of 45 units reserved for residents aged 55 and older, along with a selection of on-site supportive services and other amenities meant to improve its users' quality of life and ability to age in place as part of the state’s larger $25 billion push to create 100,000 units of affordable housing.

Declaring “Senior housing isn’t just about accommodation; it’s about people. It’s about creating a residence where residents can feel happy, secure, and emotionally connected to their neighbors,” the studio’s founder was joined by New York Governor Kathy Hochul for this week’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. The project reserves a total of 30% of the apartments for disabled and formerly homeless seniors, and sustainability is ensured thanks to rainwater collection, efficient HVAC, and all-e...

BIG and Safdie complete jagged new tower additions to Quito's skyline

2022-12-07T05:00:00-05:00

A pair of landmark projects in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito is now complete, representing firsts for both BIG and Safdie Architects, respectively.

QORNER, the 24-story Safdie-designed tower, is the firm’s first residential project on the continent and serves as an extension of its founder’s indoor-outdoor vision with garden terrace-lined residential offerings from the micro-apartment to the penthouse level.

IQON (left) and QORNER (right). Image courtesy of Uribe Schwarzkopf.

QORNER. Image courtesy of Uribe Schwarzkopf.

Its northern facade features a living green wall that defines a vertical core, while the staggering of its eastern and western facades creates a “hillside” form resembling a “cliff face” with room for double-height corner terraces with views of neighboring La Carolina Park.

QORNER. Image courtesy of Uribe Schwarzkopf.

Finally, a tree-lined infinity pool is placed on the rooftop level in a nod to their iconic Marina Bay Sand...

Construction begins on Studio Gang's Parcel F tower, the final piece of San Francisco's Mission Rock development

2022-06-15T16:03:00-04:00

Construction of Studio Gang’s planned Parcel F contribution to the Mission Rock development is officially underway in San Francisco, filling in the final puzzle piece of a 28-acre mixed-use scheme led by Tishman Speyer and the local Major League Baseball affiliate San Francisco Giants.

The $2.5 billion plan’s latest building contributes 97 new below-market apartments to the project’s 1,200 unit total. At 23 stories, it is the same height as Mission Rock’s other MVRDV-designed residential tower, The Canyon. It will be the last of four completed structures at the site behind WORKac’s new 8-story biotech office, the 13-story Visa global Headquarters from Henning Larsen.

Image render © Studio Gang

It comes with a series of outdoor public terraces and other mesa-like open spaces cut into its base and stepped facade. The Studio included a “Sky Garden” feature on the roof of the 315,000-square-foot structure as the bookend to a network of local plant varieties meant to support biodiversity...

MVRDV reveals O-shaped mixed-use apartment complex in Mannheim

2021-11-18T14:55:00-05:00

MVRDV has designed a playful, mixed-use apartment building shaped like the letter O. Located in the German city of Mannheim’s Franklin Mitte neighborhood, the building is one of four letter-shaped apartment complexes that together spell out the word HOME.

The 15-story building mixes 120 apartments with ground-level commercial units and a bar and terrace. Its distinct form also makes it a local landmark for the neighborhood. This project is part of a larger revitalization of the Benjamin Franklin U.S. military barracks in Franklin Mitte, which includes other works, such as the “Europa Axis” that cuts a straight path through the district and the walkable “Green Hill” that provides a viewpoint at the heart of the neighborhood.

The “O” sits next to the Green Hill and consists of a high-rise and a number of adjacent low-rise buildings. The “O” stands out through its blue brick façade and the bright, multi-colored balconies. At the center of the apartment building is a public terrace. I...

Tsuruta Architects hopes their new apartments will be catalyst for change in this London neighborhood

2021-09-24T18:45:00-04:00

A friendly fiberglass feline icon is being used as a catalyst for change in one London neighborhood, thanks to the incredible creativity and vision of one local firm.

Image courtesy Ståle Eriksen/Tsuruta Architects

Tsuruta Architects, recent winner of the RIBA London Small Project Award for the stunning Wooden Roof project, is behind the new cat-inspired design of five apartments in London’s Catford district, which has for many years suffered from a bad reputation as an area that’s prone to violence and frequent robberies.

Image courtesy Ståle Eriksen/Tsuruta Architects

Tsuruta is seeking to change the narrative with a fictional backstory that connects the apartments to the neighborhood’s local cinematic history as imagined by architect Taro Tsuruta and writer Chris Robert.

Image courtesy Ståle Eriksen/Tsuruta Architects

Taking as his charge as a highly visible sculpture of a cat that looms over the southeast London neighborhood, Tsuruta’s apartments feature over 27,000 laser-etched...

MVRDV's courtyard apartment building Ilot Queyries completes in Bordeaux

2021-09-16T18:00:00-04:00

Construction of MVRDV’s Ilot Queyries, a courtyard apartment building located in the French port city of Bordeaux, has been completed.

The project is situated across from the city’s UNESCO World Heritage historic center. It is the largest building in a development of four buildings master-planned by MVRDV and Joubert Architecture.

Co-designed by local architects Flint, Ilot Queyries features 282 homes, including 128 for social housing, along with parking, commercial space, a rooftop restaurant, and a large collective green space.

The building was envisaged to embody the principles of the neighboring MVRDV-designed Bastide-Niel masterplan, which combines the intimacy, surprise, and liveliness of Bordeaux’s UNESCO World Heritage historic city with the density, ecology, light, and comfort of the modern city.

Per the architects, “Ilot Queyries thus adopts the same approach as the Bastide-Niel masterplan: the building fills the site to its boundaries, lending an intimate feeling to th...

Foster + Partners unveils designs for Greece's tallest tower

2021-07-09T15:27:00-04:00

Foster + Partners has released designs for what will be the tallest building in Greece. Located near Athens, Marina Tower will also be the first green high-rise building in Greece and the tallest green beachfront high-rise building in the Mediterranean.

Images © DBOX for Foster + Partners

The building is the centerpiece of a massive master plan, led by Foster + Partners and funded by Lamda Development, called the Ellinikon Masterplan. The project will sit on the site of the vacant Ellinikon International Airport and will include the construction of mixed-use districts as well as five other new skyscrapers.

The Marina Tower will stand at 650 feet tall and will contain 200 apartments on 45 floors. The high-rise is slender with a façade defined by balconies and hanging gardens. The extensive greenery reportedly allows the building to blend in with the surrounding natural environment and “the special character of the Mediterranean landscape.”

Images © DBOX for Foster + Partners

Accordi...

10-story apartment building in Changsha, China erected in 28 hours

2021-06-22T20:26:00-04:00

Chinese manufacturing company Broad Group has constructed a 10-story apartment building in just over a day.

Called the Living Building, the structure is located in the company’s headquarters location of Changsha, China. A timelapse released by Broad Group shows the apartment block being erected in just 28 hours and 45 minutes with the help of three cranes and a large team of workers.

Video via Broad Group on YouTube.

Broad Group specializes in manufacturing a range of air conditioning, heating, and prefabricated structural units. As stated in the project’s publicity video, the company has been developing factory-made steel buildings since 2009. Additionally, Broad Group claims that this is the world’s shortest construction period.

The Living Building was constructed using modular units that were made off-site in a factory. It was designed to be easy to transport and install. The structure is made of pure stainless steel, with each module sized at forty feet long, eight feet wide,...

Keyboard facade apartment building is coming to Bushwick

2021-05-06T16:42:00-04:00

Renderings of a new five-story residential building in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood have surfaced, featuring a unique and playful façade that takes the shape of a giant keyboard.

The renderings were discovered on the website of iAffordNY, a marketing agency that works with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to place tenants in affordable apartments. INEX Design, who are credited on the renderings, also revealed them on their Instagram account.

The musical theme continues in the building’s interior, where another keyboard design decorates a hallway wall in the lobby, along with cassette tape wallpaper in the laundry room. Even the cabinets within the units are arranged to resemble musical bars.

According to Brownstoner, the building is currently under construction, and based on the building permit, there will be a total of eight apartments with three being designated as affordable.

Shawn E. Stiles of S&S Architectural Design is the appl...

Dallas-Forth Worth surpasses Seattle, New York in apartment-building spree

2019-09-10T19:59:00-04:00

This year, Dallas-Fort Worth metro leads with a total of 22,196 new units expected to be built, which will prove beneficial considering the 131,800 new residents that the metro added between 2017 and 2018 (based on U.S. Census estimates).

Although the total number of apartments planned for 2019, roughly 300,000 units, is down from last year, construction for these types of projects has reached a record pace over the last decade not seen since the 1970s and 1980s. RentCafe reports that over 2.34 million apartment units have been delivered nationwide since 2009.

New York City initiates basement apartment conversion pilot program

2019-08-20T08:00:00-04:00

The Basement Apartment Conversion Pilot Program provides eligible low- to middle-income homeowners living in East New York and Cypress Hills, Brooklyn with low or no-interest, or possible forgivable, loans to convert their basement or cellar into a safe, legal, and rentable apartment, based on altered building code legislation passed in February 2019.

NYC apartment sales soften as rent control spooks investors

2019-07-18T16:50:00-04:00

In the first half of 2019, New York City apartment building sales fell 48% from the same period a year earlier, B6 said in a report. It was the biggest decline for any six-month period in data going back to 2009. In northern Manhattan, which includes Harlem, the drop in multifamily purchases led to a 61% slide in all commercial-property transactions, the firm said.

Across New York City, as the effects of the New York State's recently-enacted rent control laws begin to take shape, apartment building owners are having a tough time finding investors to purchase their properties.

According to Bloomberg, apartment building sales are down nearly 50-percent for the first half of 2019 over the prior year.

“Right now, it’s a shot in the dark on the multifamily side,” Adrian Mercado, chief information officer at B6 Real Estate Advisors, told Bloomberg, adding, “People are speculating as to what buildings should be trading at.”

Oregon legalizes "missing middle" housing

2019-07-01T13:50:00-04:00

Oregon legislators took a historic leap toward greener, fairer, less expensive cities Sunday by passing the first law of its kind in the United States or Canada: A state-level legalization of so-called “missing middle” housing.

In a rare show of bipartisan cooperation, both of Oregon's legislative houses have voted to eliminate single-family zoning across the sate, legalizing so-called "missing middle" housing, including duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and row houses.

If signed into law next month by Oregon governor Kate Brown, the bill will allow up to two housing units on all residential lots located within cities that have at least 10,000 residents. For cities of 25,000 residents and up, the bill allows up to four units per lot, including row houses and cottage clusters.

Missing middle housing was largely common in American cities prior to the invention of zoning codes in the early 20th century. In the century since, a pervasive focus on single-family residential areas, coupled with the long-term effects of racial segregation and redlining, has limited housing options for Americans while also eroding a key economic stepping stone for immigrants, first-time homeowners, retirees, and other groups. As a...

Why are we seeing the same trends in apartment design over and over again?

2019-01-05T15:02:00-05:00

Due to an Amazon-fueled apartment construction boom over the last decade, Seattle has been an epicenter of [a] new school of structural simulacra. But Seattle is not alone. Nearly every city, from Charlotte to Minneapolis, has seen a proliferation of homogenous apartments as construction has increased again in the wake of the financial recession.

Developer Modern, Plonkitecture, Contemporary Contempt, Blandmarks...

These are just a few of the names offered for the ubiquitous apartment building design that has swept the nation in the last few decades. They differ marginally across the United States, for they all equally strive for the aesthetically unoffensive and the financially advantageous.

“Part of what people are responding to isn’t the building themselves, it’s that there are so many of them going up so quickly, all in the same places in the city,” argued Richard Mohler, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Washington.

According to this Curbed article, the culprits are cost-cutting, code-following and labor-reducing. As unfortunate as it is from a design standpoint, standardization is indeed a solution that developers have little question about. Geoff Palmer's apartment buildings have famously occupied the corners and edges of Downtown Los Angeles with mass-produced mediterranean affectations in ...

Brussels-based BOB361 contributes to a Parisian neighborhood's revitalization with this eco-friendly housing project

2018-05-07T15:43:00-04:00

A new housing project in Paris was recently redeveloped by the Brussels-based firm BOB361. The apartment complex, Orteaux, is part of a larger revitalization project for a Parisian neighborhood located near the Père Lachaise cemetery.

Orteaux by BOB361, located in Paris. Image: BOB361.

As part of this revival, the building consists of 21 apartments and functions as a sustainability pilot project for the city. It is the first project in Paris to receive the Écoquartier label. The entire redevelopment consists of 109 dwellings (75 of which are newly built), a public garden, and a range of commercial premises.

Orteaux by BOB361, located in Paris. Image: BOB361.

The entire housing block is located in a heavily built-up, and neglected area within the 20th arrondissement of Paris. Initially scheduled for demolition, the block was saved as a result of local protests. The city of Paris then opted for partial renovation, sanctioning new b...

Chicago's apartment high rises are multiplying for better or worse

2017-09-12T14:36:00-04:00

A surge of tall buildings, the vast majority of them housing rental apartments, is creating a densely populated, urban core [...] the Super Loop is patently un-super in at least one respect: It lacks a new version of the technological and aesthetic innovations that made Chicago's reputation as the cradle of modern architecture. As Mayor Rahm Emanuel prepares to host the second edition of a global architecture biennial [...], most of the new high-rises are based on tired commercial formulas.

Chicago's Super Loop is gentrifying and becoming denser as apartment buildings are multiplying and younger generations are moving in. But, most of the new apartments in these high rises are quickly built concrete boxes with glass balconies. The ordinary character of new construction in Chicago's Super Loop proves that it takes more than a strengthening economy to create interesting architecture.

Steinberg Architects proposes wavy white 40-story residential tower for historic Downtown L.A.

2017-08-03T15:13:00-04:00

Longtime DTLA developer and landowner Joseph Hellen has released a revised design for a proposed 40-story, 420-foot tall apartment tower at 525 South Spring Street.

What would downtown Los Angeles' historic core look like with a 40-story apartment building with a wavy white exterior? Probably a great deal like the rendering above, which was created by TSK Architects working with Steinberg Architects (who are carrying through to produce the design in an executive capacity), to demonstrate their concept of the proposed tower. The tower has gone through a few iterations with different design firms already, but according to Urbanize.LA, this new version also includes a plan to renovate adjacent structures, including "the three adjacent Broadway theaters also owned by [developer] Hellen - the Roxie, Cameo and Arcade."

Image: TSK Architects

Inventively-clad gentrification in the form of Bordeaux's "Urban Dock"

2016-12-22T13:13:00-05:00

Take an abandoned industrial neighborhood in Bordeaux, France, affix a masterplan by urbanist Nicholas Michelin to it, and then add in an inventive cladding system over a 56-unit apartment building, and you have the fundamental makings of "Urban Dock," a recently completed project by Hamonic + Masson & Associés. The title is rooted in a metaphor, the kind of idealistic gentrification that parachutes into a depressed urban swath and attempts to liven things up. Whatever one's feelings about that, the undulating series of extruded porches and shifting color schemes is eye-catching:

As a press release explains, "The building is clad in metal, which is occasionally perforated in order to allow loggias to appear whilst also highlighting the articulation of projections and recesses, creating intriguing vertical patterns. The cladding also produces an iridescent ‘double skin’ with different transparencies and a shell-like effect, with a shimmering exterior that provides a contrast to the...

Luxury condos sink in San Francisco's Millennium Tower

2016-08-03T12:36:00-04:00

San Francisco's Millennium Tower has been sinking at a rate of two inches per year since it was completed in 2008, which is about ten inches more than the builders had anticipated the building settling for its entire lifetime. Not to be boring, the tower is also tilting slightly to the northwest, giving the multi-million dollar residences within the building a slightly different view of the city and, perhaps, their investment. As the SFGate reports, while some blame the nearby Transbay Transit Center site dig for the sink, others noted that the building had sunk at least ten inches by the time the excavation began. But not to worry, officials say:

At the same time, geotechnical reports show that since 2009, the settling has been uneven — resulting in the 2-inch tilt.

And while Stanford’s Deierlein doesn’t consider the sink or tilt a safety issue, he did say, “I would be concerned for my investment.” That’s because a shifting building can cause walls to crack, elevators to malfunction...

The optical illusion behind Copenhagen's Bryggeblomsten residential tower

2016-06-15T13:43:00-04:00

With a floor plan designed around the concept of petals furling outward from a flower's stem the anodized bronze-toned aluminum and glass tower known as Bryggeblomstem ("the Brygge Flower"), has been granted the "Best Residential Building" award by the Copenhagen Municipality. The 8,100 square foot, 15-floor, 58-unit apartment building designed by Mangor & Nagel architects makes use of natural light to create well-illuminated apartments with views of the city, the harbor, and the surrounding landscape.

In a press release, the architects stated that they purposefully rotated the floor plans thirty degrees relative to each other to increase the number of corners and corresponding vertical lines, thus using an optical illusion to make the building appear taller than it actually is.

Claus Jørgensen, creative director and architect at Mangor & Nagel's Copenhagen office, noted that "I'm really pleased with our floor plan design. The result is some extremely well-appointed apartments that ar...

Long Island City ‘Micro’ Units Will Have Three Bedrooms

2015-10-08T17:45:00-04:00

A micro apartment is typically less than 350 square feet, but the term “micro” is getting an expansion (figuratively and literally) in Long Island City. A new rental complex will offer 57 two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 490 to 735 square feet, according to the Wall Street Journal. The project at 37-10 Crescent Street is being developed by Ranger Properties.

500 Square Feet and Falling

2015-07-22T18:59:00-04:00

The trend toward living in less square footage isn't just about battling rent hikes: in Orange County, the able-bodied and financially resourceful are choosing to habitate (and sometimes co-habitate) in so-called micro or mini-apartments. Although the definition varies, anything below 500 square feet is generally considered to be on the petite side. The smaller appliances, constricted shelving, and overall compactness of these places requires spatial creativity and a Spartan materialism. According to the Orange County Register, nursing student and 475 square foot apartment dweller Cayla Alexander says of she and her husband, “We have three bowls and five plates. But when you really come down to it, do you need anything else?”

Perhaps the most extreme example of this trend is the My Micro NY, a complex of 55 apartments designed by nARCHITECTS in New York City that range in size from 260 to 370 square feet. According to CapsysCorps, the units make use of tall ceilings, large windows an...