Archinect - News

The Architectural League of New York appoints Jacob R. Moore as its new Executive Director

2023-06-15T11:49:00-04:00

The Architectural League of New York has named Jacob R. Moore as its next Executive Director, following a thorough national search. Moore succeeds Rosalie Genevro, who announced her decision to step down last year after leading the organization for nearly 40 years.

“Jacob brings tremendous passion and a deep knowledge of the most important forces and issues impacting the built environment today,” said Mario Gooden, President of The League’s board of directors. “His vision for the future of The League and his commitment to equity, spatial justice, and the environment make him the ideal person to shape our next chapter.”

Moore will assume the position after most recently serving as the Associate Director of the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University’s GSAPP. While at the Buell Center, he led the design, development, and execution of a range of public programs with a focus on the built environment, climate change, and social justice. S...

Arizona to limit construction in the Phoenix area as groundwater supply shrinks

2023-06-03T09:17:00-04:00

Arizona has determined that there is not enough groundwater for all of the housing construction that has already been approved in the Phoenix area, and will stop developers from building some new subdivisions, a sign of looming trouble in the West and other places where overuse, drought and climate change are straining water supplies.

This decision, announced last Thursday, means that Arizona will no longer provide developers in some areas of the Phoenix region new permits to construct homes that rely on groundwater. Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, sources half of its water supply from groundwater. The announcement will not impact developments that have already been approved. However, the state will be looking towards new water conservation measures and alternative sources to provide the water needed for these projects. The decision will likely have a significant effect on Arizona’s real estate market, especially in Phoenix, which has become the fastest growing metropolitan region in the country, due to the impact on housing affordability.

Now, developers looking to build will have to prove that they can ensure water supply for 100 years using water from a source that is not local groundwater. This move is another example of how the impacts of climate change continue to grow in prominence. In addition t...

Unpacking 2022's highs and lows of social justice, equity, and representation in professional practice and architectural academia

2022-12-25T08:00:00-05:00

As the architecture industry reviews another year filled with a range of ups and downs, it's an important time to reflect on what progress has been made when it comes to important topics such as social justice, activism, equity, and diversity initiatives within architecture. While we've already highlighted this year's controversies, it's important to ask: Has the architecture industry made advances toward social justice, diversity, and inclusion in 2022?

Effective change takes time. Continuing with our 2022 year in review, let's look back at the challenges, obstacles, and successes that the industry faced surrounding inclusive design, diverse leadership, social justice, and representation.

Architecture organizations aiming to make change

Image courtesy of the AIA.

AIA issues a supplementary guide addressing issues in architectural education

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) worked together with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to establish a set ...

AIA releases new Guides for Equitable Practice supplement, outlining ways to advance equity and justice through architectural practice

2022-05-09T17:49:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA), in collaboration with the University of Washington and the University of Minnesota, has published a supplement to their Guides for Equitable Practice, a framework for understanding and building equity in the architecture profession. Titled “Justice in the Built Environment,” this latest edition serves as a guide for architecture and design professionals looking to do more to advance justice through their design work.

"This new resource is designed to empower architects to use their problem-solving skills to create welcoming spaces for all,” said AIA Executive Vice President/Chief Executive Officer Lakisha Ann Woods. “It also provides perspectives and insights on how architects, in all types of workplaces, can help advance equity in their place of employment, projects, and in society.”

The new supplement also offers guidance on actions that individual practitioners and firms can take to advance equity. The document notes that there are at ...

'Architectural worker' Muyiwa Oki chosen to challenge for RIBA presidency

2022-05-06T14:59:00-04:00

Oki, a qualified architect at global construction company Mace, has been chosen by an informal collective of early-career architects, students and architectural activists keen to shake-up the institute and move it beyond ‘empty slogans and self-serving initiatives’.

The campaigning collective behind Muyiwa Oki’s nomination includes grassroots organization Future Architects Front (FAF), past and current RIBA Council members, and RIBA’s Future Architects members.

As previously reported by Archinect, the group announced in March its intentions to put forth a “drama-free RIBA president who enacts positive, ethical and progressive change” as well as someone who would better address issues such as employment rights and climate change. This, the collective believes, would come from an early-career architectural worker who is likely to be more active and connected to these concerns.

Previously on Archinect: A group of UK architects is pushing for youth movement at the top of RIBA’s leadership

Oki, who obtained his Bachelor and Master of Architecture from The University of Sheffield, with previous experience at Grimshaw, will challenge for the position left by current president Simon Allford when his term ends in 2023.

However, he still needs to acqui...

Architect Gita Balakrishnan embarks on 1,000-mile walk to spread awareness on importance of design

2022-02-15T16:39:00-05:00

Kolkata-based architect Gita Balakrishnan has embarked upon a 1,700-km walk from Kolkata to New Delhi on Sunday to spread awareness on how good design can play a substantial role in changing lives. Doing 30-35km per day, she plans to reach Delhi in two months on April 16.

The walk aims to shed light on the role the architecture and design industry plays in society and the issues it seeks to address. The initiative was conceptualized by the Ethos Foundation, which Balakrishnan founded in 2002 as a means to connect students and professionals in the AEC industry, in collaboration with the Council of Architecture (CoA) and the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA).

Balakrishnan will travel through West Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. She is a graduate of the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, and she completed her practical training at the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University.

As Jakarta sinks, Indonesia picks jungle site in Borneo for its new capital city

2019-08-26T18:30:00-04:00

President Joko Widodo announced Monday that officials had chosen an area in East Kalimantan province, on the island of Borneo, for the as-yet-unnamed capital. Construction on the 450,000-acre site would start next year, and people would move in beginning in 2024. [...] Critics of the plan have warned that the cost of moving the capital could be untenable. [...] What’s more, shifting civil servants and their families to a new city in Borneo will not stop Jakarta from sinking, they say.

With some areas of Jakarta sinking as much as 10 inches a year, caused by the digging of underground aquifers and worsened by climate change, the need to relocate the capital has become more pressing in recent years.

The effort will cost an estimated $33 billion, President Widodo said during his Monday announcement, The Washington Post reports.

Architects continue to speak out against border security construction projects

2019-08-15T18:00:00-04:00

The Architecture Lobby, a national group that organizes and advocates on issues related to the profession, published a call for design professionals to sign a public pledge condemning “all policies that use the built environment as an instrument of torture and oppression” and refusing to work on any project—be it an ICE office, a detention facility, or a wall—related to the Trump administration’s policies on immigration.

After the devastating and inhumane conditions detained individuals at the border have experienced in recent few years, groups of architects and organizers are increasingly speaking up against design projects relating to border control. As Fast Company's Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan points out, "someone designed each of these spaces, of course."

Since May, over 52,000 people have been detained at these border control sites, and close to 1,000 children have been separated from their families, according to the article. Ethical practices between architects and large firms vary, unfortunately. Border security has grown to be a highly lucrative market. However, several members of the design community are taking a stand to boycott any projects involved with the Trump administration's plans for detainment centers.

In July, The American Institute for Architects (AIA) issued a statement discussing the buildings at the border. Since their statement was published, many members of the architectur...

Bad braille signage on buildings is still an overlooked problem in the U.S., report finds

2019-07-01T14:50:00-04:00

At the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the braille was too oversized to read for the blind. When asked about this, the National Parks Service told CBS News that the braille on the memorial was "part of the artist's design of the memorial," and was "not necessarily intended as accessiblity [sic] elements" for the blind.

A CBS News investigation revealed two year's worth of complaints to the U.S. Justice Department's Disability Rights section about missing or incorrect braille found at numerous public facilities throughout the U.S. The report is but another reminder about how the needs of blind Americans still aren't being prioritized as much as they should be. An eyebrow-raising example from CBS' article is the National Park Service (quoted above) stating that the oversized braille on the FDR Memorial in Washington D.C. was more of a stylistic choice in the artist's design. Yikes.

“There's federal laws including the American Disabilities Act that was passed 30 years ago, there's the Architectural Barriers Act,” CBS News Reporter Steve Dorsey said in a radio interview on WCBS 880. “It's all about compliance and it's all about ensuring that the folks who manage buildings — even old buildings — respect the needs of our fellow Americans, hundreds of thousands of Americans, who do read braille.”

...

Oliver Wainwright on rethinking the Serpentine Pavilion

2019-06-18T15:49:00-04:00

Ishigami’s structure is a striking object, but it could have been so much better, and it is a frustrating outcome in what has been a troubled year for the Serpentine. [...] After almost 20 years of commissioning novelty structures to host summer parties for sponsors, it feels like the format could do with a rethink and look beyond the bounds of the gallery’s garden, and the collectors’ estates where the structures end up.

A few days before the opening of the 2019 Serpentine Pavilion, Oliver Wainwright of The Guardian wrote a piece calling for the Serpentine Galleries to consider rethinking the format of the yearly Serpentine Pavilion program (like appointing the architects earlier, for starters). It's been a rough year wrought with controversy for the Serpentine — from Junya Ishigami's practice being criticized for employing unpaid interns, to the troubles of working with a tight construction schedule for highly conceptual pavilion designs (and it shows in this year's pavilion), to the sudden resignation of the gallery's CEO Yana Peel.

As a Notre Dame Cathedral rebuild design competition is announced, we ask, "what does rebuilding the Notre Dame Cathedral really mean?"

2019-04-22T17:16:00-04:00

News of the Notre Dame fire has been an ongoing topic as of last week. Despite the loss of one spire and a destroyed roof, the cathedral still stands. The public has expressed strong views and opinions regarding the amount of attention and proactiveness many have made towards its rebuild. Social media is littered with responses of sadness, irritation, anger, optimism, and criticism towards the 850-year-old building. Much of the opinionated discussion not only revolves around the structure's historical and religious ties, but the amount of attention and funding it has received towards its rebuild. Using the cathedral's casualty as an example, is this how the general public will react to future casualties towards architecture?

After President Macron announced a campaign to raise funds for the cathedral early last week, an outpour of funds were donated. In one day alone, three of the wealthiest families in France pledged $700 million. Upon hearing of the funds raised many were quick to...

Is data the key to AI shining in architecture, or will it eventually replace us?

2018-12-28T16:55:00-05:00

The core issue centers around the idea that creatives will be replaced by super-intelligent robots to design buildings, create art, or design vehicles. Yet even as AI evolves across other design-related industries, AI could prove to do more good than bad, tackling the mundane so that you can augment your creative process.

Artificial Intelligence has already changed the nature of industries like manufacturing and cybersecurity. However, where does architecture fit into this mix? A harrowing concern is super intelligent robots may replace the creative practice and take over the design process that architects and designers spend years studying. However, with this new found accessibility in automation and AI, perhaps there is way for architects to view more pros than cons.

MX3D Bridge Image © MX3D

At the heart of AI is an understanding, processing, and translation of data. By processing massive amounts of data at a rapid rate, AI allows for fabrication and prototyping to happen in an instant. For an architect, the quick processing of data allows for more room to reinvest time in design. Countless hours of research goes into starting any new project and with the help of data, architects can acquire building codes and zoning data at the touch of a button.

As one of the largest byproducts of the 21st centur...

The importance of teaching children about architecture

2018-12-18T12:14:00-05:00

With design, no solution is 100-percent right or wrong. It’s not like solving a mathematical problem. In sport, you can teach team spirit, but at the end of the day, it’s a competition and it boils down to winning and losing. But in design, there is no absolute answer, and it’s very much like in real life.

In a recent interview architect and founder of Avoid Obvious Architects, Vicky Chan, sat with City Lab to discuss the importance of teaching children about design and urban planning. Having taught on the side since his freshmen year at the Pratt Institute in New York City, Chan has shared his love for architecture and design with children for the past 15 years. After graduating from Pratt, and moving back to his home town of Hong Kong, Chan has continued his passions for teaching schoolchildren through his voluntary organization, Architecture for Children.

Students with their concept models Image © Avoid Obvious Architecture

According to Chan, one of the most important skill sets educators can teach children is learning how to sift through information, comprehending the information, and figure out how to find solutions amidst adversity. By posing a variation of broad and complex topics to students, Chan voices that it is important to present children with these concepts early on in o...

What we can learn from the devastating earthquake in Indonesia

2018-10-03T20:24:00-04:00

Building codes and standards in many countries require engineers to consider the effects of soil liquefaction in the design of new buildings and infrastructure such as bridges, embankment dams and retaining structures

After the devastating earthquake that hit Indonesia, scientists are relating building collapses to soil liquefaction. When overly saturated soil is heavily loosened by intense seismic activity, particles in the soil lose its bond and contact with each other. Thus resulting in its loss of stiffness and structural support. When soil deposits lose its ability to provide stability for foundations, the land quickly turns into a liquid flowing nightmare.

Dr. Stavroula Kontoe of Imperial College London highlights on this phenomenon and provides a proactive perspective to preventing these disasters from happening in the future. Dr. Kontoe explains that soil liquefaction can be identified early on in a building's design process. If the correct mitigation techniques like soil strengthening and proper drainage systems are applied, areas that are more susceptible have a better chance in recovering from a natural disaster.

Currently at WUHO, “Now What?!” spotlights 50 years of overlooked history of activist architects

2018-09-05T19:20:00-04:00

In looking to the past at professionals in the design and architecture professions, they found that alliances, networks, groups and affiliations were the mechanisms through which architects could become the activists they yearned to be. “[...] we want to show that architects are important allies to activists,” Rafson says. “Those alliances where architects are working as a critical part of the team is what we emphasize.”

The Los Angeles Times takes a closer look at ArchiteXX's “Now What?! Advocacy, Activism and Alliances in American Architecture Since 1968” exhibition currently at the WUHO Gallery. It examines the little-known history of architects and designers who were — and still remain — at the forefront of the profession's participation in the larger civil rights, women's, and LGBTQ movements over the last 50 years.

Major flaws in Elon Musk's public transit plans for Los Angeles

2018-08-31T15:23:00-04:00

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is back at it again with more outlandish ideas to solve Los Angeles' traffic. Earlier this month, Musk's latest venture–The Boring Company–resuscitated its flawed proposal to dig new car tunnels for Los Angeles, this time to connect the Red Line subway with Dodger Stadium [...] The Chicago tunnel idea is bad enough, but the Dodger Stadium plan is exceptionally poor even if one takes Musk's promises at face value.

Alon Levy pokes holes in Elon Musk's public transit plans for Los Angeles. Musk's plan involves tunneling under Sunset Boulevard between the Dodger Stadium and one of three Red Line stops: Vermont/Sunset, Vermont/Santa Monica, or Vermont/Beverly. Levy cites major issues with construction, capacity, alignment with the city's existing transit, and overall regional impact.

The Architectural League rescinds Richard Meier's Life Trustee status

2018-04-11T14:18:00-04:00

This is a painful period of reckoning for our community. While we don’t presume to have all the answers, we believe achieving a more just and accountable professional culture moving forward begins with open dialogue and, above all, an unwavering commitment to respecting the human rights of all individuals.

In a statement published on Architect Magazine yesterday, The Architectural League of New York announced that they have revoked Richard Meier's status as a Life Trustee of the League, a month after the architect was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women. In the following weeks after news of the allegations broke, Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning refused Meier's gift to name the chair of the Department of Architecture; Sotheby's closed a solo exhibition of Meier's work at its S2 Gallery; and the AIANY rescinded Meier's 2018 Design Award.

“As we confront allegations of abuses of power in architecture, the League is developing programs and resources to move our community forward to make the goal of equitable, fair, empowering environments a reality across the culture of architecture,” the Architectural League stated. “We also, in specific instances, must make decisions with respect to individuals whose behavior does not meet the standards we bel...

Blair Kamin discusses architecture's #metoo moment — “The moral and professional [responsibility] is simply to bear witness”

2018-03-26T14:02:00-04:00

In other words— you ask, will there be a revision of canon? Should we revise the canon? I would say, it’s not so much that we’re going to revise the canon, but that there will certainly be a revised narrative of architects who contributed to the canon.

In light of the sexual harassment allegations against Richard Meier, architectural writer Eva Hagberg Fisher interviews Blair Kamin about writing and reporting on architecture's about-time-it-happened #metoo moment.

“So the first responsibility, the moral and professional is simply to bear witness. If you don’t confront, you just let it slide,” Kamin says to Eva Hagberg Fisher. “By not taking up the issue, you signal that it’s not important. So, yeah, the point is to bear witness and to put this issue in the public conversation. I also think it’s worth stressing that you don’t have to be a woman to do that...”

Apple's design flaw in its acclaimed Chicago store creates hazards for shoppers

2017-12-29T15:38:00-05:00

The recently opened Apple store in Chicago has been praised by one of the city’s papers as an “elegantly understated… boon to the city’s riverfront,” but perhaps that perception will change after the discovery of a significant design flaw.The structure’s ultra-thin carbon fiber roof was fashioned in the shape of a MacBook Pro but does not have any gutters to catch water, so melting snow has begun to turn into icicles and sliding snow that can harm pedestrians below.

Outside Apple's recent Chicago store signs read: "CAUTION Watch For Falling Snow and Ice" as noted by blogger Matt Maldre. The new design by Foster and Partners was intended as a “town square” experience for the community, and to serve as a flagship design for all future Apple stores. Unfortunately, this design has a flaw in it's carbon roof warding off Chicago shoppers to steer clear of the building.

The roof's lack of gutters creates a potential hazard as melting snow may fall directly on pedestrians. Matt Maldre comments in his blog, “Maybe next time Apple will consider the actual community where their stores are built [...] Y’know, basic things like in Chicago, the weather gets cold. It snows. The snow falls off the roof. Don’t design a sloping roof where the snow can’t be caught or guttered off somewhere.”

Winter chill grips UK architecture job outlook as 2017 ends

2017-12-20T14:08:00-05:00

Confidence in the future prospects of UK architects falls as 2017 comes to a close. RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) released their Future Trends Workload and Staffing Indexes for the end of 2017 and the numbers are not looking good. The Workload numbers dropped dramatically just over one month from +17 in October to -1 in November, while the Staffing number entered the negatives for the first time this year.

Meanwhile in the US, the architecture and construction industry has further gained strength in November according to the latest ABI report announced this morning.

The RIBA press release stated, “However, we shouldn’t read too much into a single month’s data and these returns pre-date the decision that the Brexit talks can move to phase 2. My biggest concern is the drop in the private housing forecast. RIBA will need to keep a close eye on that in the New Year.”

A full analysis breakdown can be found here.

Poverty is "a state of mind," states HUD Secretary Ben Carson

2017-05-25T17:36:00-04:00

Poverty is largely “a state of mind”, housing secretary Ben Carson has claimed, dismaying observers who had modest hopes for his tenure. Carson, the neurosurgeon who heads the agency charged with helping low-income Americans gain access to affordable housing, told Sirius XM radio: “You take somebody who has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they’ll be right back up there.”

"And you take somebody with the wrong mindset, you can give them everything in the world, they’ll work their way back down to the bottom," Carson continued. The remarks were widely condemned by experts on poverty and homelessness.

As the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Carson is in charge of providing affordable and public housing to the disenfranchised. According to almost universal consensus by experts, poverty is not a choice, but rather a condition attributable to a range of a factors, from where you were born to the color of your skin to bad luck.

Most Americans will live below the poverty line at some point in their life, research by the US government has discovered. In 2015, 13.5% (43.1 million) Americans lived in poverty. This far exceeds most other wealthy countries. And, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, "the United States has the greatest share of renters (28.5%) who are severely cost burdened, spending more than half of t...

Global warming has caused meltwater to penetrate the Global Seed Vault in the Arctic

2017-05-22T12:39:00-04:00

It was designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the world’s most precious seeds from any global disaster and ensure humanity’s food supply forever. But the Global Seed Vault, buried in a mountain deep inside the Arctic circle, has been breached after global warming produced extraordinary temperatures over the winter, sending meltwater gushing into the entrance tunnel.

Containing almost one million packets of seeds, the Global Seed Vault is intended to serve as something of a biological back-up in the era of mass, man-made environmental destruction. It's buried under permafrost, which was thought to ensure that the structure would remain impregnable for thousands of years. But already global warming has threatened this archive of living matter.

“This is supposed to last for eternity,” stated Åsmund Asdal at the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre, which operates the seed vault. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case.

How much would Trump's wall actually cost? This calculator can help you find out

2017-05-18T12:21:00-04:00

For those not already opposed to President Trump’s proposed border wall for ethical reasons, a big hurdle is its (likely) staggering cost. The sheer length of the thing makes it pricey, and the irregular terrain and harsh climate of some of the regions bisected by the US/Mexico border would raise the price tag even higher.

To get a better feel for the realities of the wall, a team at the The Warsaw University of Technology led by Tadeusz Zwolinski and Mateusz Mucha spent six weeks putting together a calculator.

“Each user can set main parameters like length, height or placement of guards,” the explain. “People interested in greater details could click on ‘advanced mode’ and build ‘own wall’ by setting a size of panels, crane operator's wage or cost of reinforced concrete.”

Some might argue that since the calculator assists in the possibility of constructing the wall, it is itself problematic. But others might just find it interesting to play around with. Check it out here.

...

The AIA releases 8 new principles responding to climate change

2017-04-17T12:25:00-04:00

"Architecture and design can mitigate climate impact while simultaneously reducing operating costs for building owners," says AIA President Thomas Vonier, FAIA, in a recently-released press statement issued in conjunction with Earth Day. ”We need the federal government to keep and even expand incentives that are already producing major advances in energy efficient design and cutting the carbon footprint of buildings."

The statement continues with eight principles geared towards how architects can mitigate the worst effects of climate change. It urges government bodies to act to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions. It also notes the huge expansion of jobs (2.1 million from 2011-2014) and economic growth (more than $167 billion in GDP from 2011-2014) that’s already accompanied energy-conscious construction:

The principles are:

The United States must lead the fight against climate change. The federal government must maintain America’s global leadership in the design and constructi...

Biting independent review on Garden Bridge is a reality check for the project's authorities

2017-04-07T20:23:00-04:00

Today, the Greater London Authority released a biting investigative report on the Garden Bridge conducted by senior Member of Parliament Margaret Hodge. Last October, Mayor Sadiq Khan formally appointed Hodge to lead the independent review, as part of Khan's promise to investigate the decisions surrounding the mismanaged project when he first came into office. Based on Hodge's findings, prospects on the controversial project are still looking grim; it would be better to ditch the project than risk wasting more public money.

Rendering courtesy of Arup/Heatherwick Studio.

“This review does not seek to assess whether building a Garden Bridge over the River Thames is a good idea; that is a matter for the Mayor, and I made clear at the start of this review process that I had no view,” Hodge writes in the introduction. The report focuses on examining value for money for public funds. Hodge notes the likelihood of increasing project costs, which she states could rise to over £200 million w...

Severe flooding in Peru exposes vulnerable architecture and infrastructure

2017-03-22T12:23:00-04:00

The worst flooding in two decades has struck Peru, causing a death toll of 72 people since the beginning of the year. The floods are caused by a series of “highly unusual rains” produced by the warming of surface waters along the country’s northern coasts. The waters have inundated hospitals and left villages in isolation, and are expected to continue to ravage the country for another two weeks.

The toll on the built environment has been severe. 115,000 homes have already been damaged. More than 100 bridges have been destroyed. The flooding has caused the drainage systems in cities along the coast to fail, creating pools of water that host dengue-carrying mosquitoes. In response, the Peruvian government has started to fumigate. Meanwhile, Lima hasn’t had water service since the beginning of the week.

The disaster has also caused a spike in prices—up to 5 per cent. Meanwhile, 22 inmates at a juvenile detention center have escaped. In the city of Trujillo, a cemetery flooded, exhuming b...

The AIA responds to the Trump Administration budget for the Fiscal Year 2018

2017-03-22T12:20:00-04:00

Last week, the Trump administration submitted its budget to Congress for the 2018 Fiscal Year. The budget included slashing several programs, many of which will affect community projects.

In response, the AIA has issued a statement:

"This budget includes many cuts that will have severe long-term ramifications for our communities and economy. It does away with programs that foster a cleaner environment and strong neighborhoods and it eliminates programs with a proven track record of job creation in the design and construction industry.

"We are concerned about a proposed 31 percent cut in the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Within EPA alone, 50 programs and 3,200 positions would be eliminated. Future federal support for the National Endowment for the Arts, which provides grants to architecture programs and conferences sponsored by the AIA, is also being cut.

"The Federal government plays a vital role in promoting community development, performing research into sustain...

RIP the National Endowment of the Arts

2017-03-15T13:08:00-04:00

The Hill has penned an obituary for the National Endowment of the Arts, following its defunding at the hands of the Trump administration and the current Republican-controlled government. As the obit notes, the NEA has been threatened many times before, notably in the 80’s and 90’s following a string of controversial, NEA-funded exhibitions. At the onset of the Reagan Administration, the government tried to give the department, which uses up a tiny amount of the national budget, the ax. Later, controversy boiled when the NEA sponsored an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe photos depicting gay men in sexualized and aestheticized fashions.

At the end of the day, the NEA was already a drastically underfunded organization, particularly when compared to government-sponsored art funding in other countries. Still, the move leaves the United States as the only country in the world without a federal arts presence, according to the Hill. That’s pretty shocking.

As I outlined in a previous article...

The conspicuous ethics of the Dubai Frame, opening date delayed to later this year

2017-03-13T14:49:00-04:00

Raised as a monument to Dubai’s aspirations as a center of international commerce, the Frame is now a physical manifestation of the crude system that erected it.

Considering the already controversial nature of the Dubai Frame, The New York Times recently published a piece on the project in relation to the city's “entrenched system [that notoriously] leaves outsiders vulnerable to mistreatment — from professionals sketching blueprints to construction workers laying foundations [...] a system in which kinship can outweigh contract terms”.

Based on the 2008-09 ThyssenKrupp competition-winning design by architect Fernando Donis, the 150-meter-tall Dubai Frame structure in Za'abeel Park has drawn plenty of opposition over the years, most notably from Donis himself. Donis filed a lawsuit against the Dubai Municipality for stealing the copyright to his design and for breaching the international UNESCO-UIA regulations from the competition. “At the end they took it, built it and will profit from it, without having involved us nor paid us,” Donis previously told Archinect in 2015.

After multiple delays, the opening date of the Dubai Frame was pushed bac...

In new report, U.S. infrastructure scores a D+

2017-03-10T17:53:00-05:00

The American Society of Civil Engineers releases a report every four years that details the conditions and performance of American infrastructure. The group gives a letter grade—like with a school report card—and this year, America got a failing D+.

Some of the dismal findings include:

Only 51% of U.S. households report that they’re able to get to a grocery store using public transportation.
35,092 people were killed in motor vehicle accidents in 2015.
The need for wastewater infrastructure exceeds $271B.

Check out the full report here.