Archinect - News

Elon Musk takes first steps in opening store to sell his lego-like Boring bricks

2018-11-20T13:48:00-05:00

Elon Musk has filed permits with the city of Los Angeles to launch his Boring Company offshoot, The Brick Store LLC, which would produce interlocking bricks made from dirt collected by his tunnel-digging company's operations.

As the Boring Company's LA test tunnel nears completion—an opening date has been set for this coming December 10th—the company has selected a building near the exit tunnel to locate the physical outlet for his brick making startup. Plans filed with the city of Hawthorne show the Brick Store's first brick-and-mortar will take over a humble, one story stucco building and give the former cabinet shop a fresh coat of paint.

Brick pyramid and Hyperloop tube at sunset via twitter.com/boringcompany

“The proposed colors are white, gray, and black" the planning documents read. "The proposed colors avoid monotony throughout the project site and blend well together. The color scheme does not create an incompatible look to the surrounding neighborhood."

The idea for the Br...

Boring: how serious is Elon Musk about his latest traffic-solving venture?

2016-12-23T14:20:00-05:00

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has a pretty good sense of humor, but sometimes we can't tell when he's just joking or mulling his next big idea. For example, on Saturday Musk took to Twitter to say out loud what every traffic-plagued Los Angeles resident is silently screaming inside: The city is a gridlocked hellscape. "Traffic is driving me nuts," wrote Musk. But he didn't stop there. He also raised the idea of boring through obstacles to alleviate traffic woes.

"It would be easy to toss this off as random talk from an eccentric auto and space mogul, but Musk's last "random idea," the Hyperloop, has spawned a number of startups and millions in funding. So when Musk not only says that boring through things would be a good idea to ease traffic, but that he plans to do it himself, it's time to start paying attention."

Does Houston's architecture lack poetry?

2016-02-04T18:23:00-05:00

Houston's architects obviously do not read poetry. None of the corporate buildings, apartments and hotels being built now seems like something we'll be proud of 20 years from now. Of course, that's assuming that those buildings even survive 20 years in a city that is characterized by destroying its architectural past. [...] But maybe we citizens can influence the builders. We can tell them how ugly their buildings are. We can refuse to rent space in them.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh goes up against boring architecture

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

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

Why DC's Architecture Is So Boring

2011-11-09T12:02:08-05:00

Architects innovate through design, but developers also innovate by selecting architects and making decisions to invest in new neighborhoods or provide housing forms that they think other developers are neglecting. Although what developers do is not as obvious as architecture, that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences to liming competition among them.