Archinect - News

The looming Federal Government shutdown could impinge on infrastructure projects for years

2023-09-27T12:00:00-04:00

Concerns over the possible Federal Government shutdown next month are causing headaches for contractors of much-needed infrastructure projects across the country who fear a chain reaction in the construction industry could leave lasting setbacks that would take years to overcome.

A stop-work on October 1st would exacerbate the industry's sustained backlog of infrastructure builds and threatens to imperil important areas in the now two-year-old Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that are, in many cases, tethered to a multilayered compendium of different funding sources.

“Most projects these days have lots of different funding sources, they maybe have local and state and federal, maybe a private component, maybe an authority,” the President of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Maria Lehman, explained to Construction Dive this week. “So a shutdown has a much bigger impact than it might have been in the past as far as the number of projects potentially that could g...

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.

President Biden takes executive steps to undo discriminatory housing policies

2021-01-28T14:15:00-05:00

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Jan. 27 directing his administration to end policies that enable discrimination in housing and lending, and acknowledging the federal government’s role in erecting systemic barriers to fair housing.

According to Kriston Capps, writing for Bloomberg CityLab, "Biden’s executive order tasked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to review two key rules implemented under the Trump administration. One of those rules governs how cities assess and enforce efforts to reduce segregation, a Civil Rights-era mandate that Trump repeatedly mischaracterized as an attempt to 'abolish the suburbs.' The other rule polices discrimination in rental housing and mortgage lending, standards that were relaxed under former Housing Secretary Ben Carson."

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."

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.

Trump administration initiates resource extraction plan for former national monuments in Utah

2020-02-07T13:02:00-05:00

The U.S. government implemented final management plans Thursday for two national monuments in Utah that President Trump downsized. The plans ensure lands previously off-limits to energy development will be open to mining and drilling despite pending lawsuits by conservation, tribal and paleontology groups challenging the constitutionality of the president’s action

About two years ago, President Trump cut the size of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by almost 50 percent and the Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent. The President said the scaled back size was to reverse misuse of the Antiquities Act by previous Democratic presidents that he feels led to oversized monuments that hinder energy development, grazing ad other uses, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The plans come despite pending lawsuits from conservation, tribal, and paleontology groups arguing that the downsizing was unconstitutional.

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...

AIA publishes architecture industry guide highlighting 2020 US presidential candidate positions

2019-12-09T13:11:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has published a comprehensive voter guide for the 2020 United States Presidential election targeted toward members of the architecture community.

The guide, according to the AIA website, collects the policy positions and proposals for "all candidates who seek a major party nomination," and is "based on their campaign platforms and, where applicable, previous votes/work on the issue at hand." The organization makes clear, however, that "AIA makes no candidate recommendation with these profiles. We are not endorsing a candidate. The information provided below is for your consideration as you make your own determination on the candidates."

The guide hones in on six policy areas—climate change, housing, resilience, school safety, student loan debt, and taxes on business—and collects a mix of policy proposals, news reports, and legislative writings to explain each candidate's position.

See the following link for the guide: 2020 US presidential ...

Former President Jimmy Carter returns to Habitat for Humanity

2019-08-28T13:30:00-04:00

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, will be returning to their 35-year-long role as volunteer builders for Habitat for Humanity. President Carter had undergone a hip surgery last spring, reports CNN, and had to take a break from his volunteer activities.

This year, the Carters are "set to construct 21 new homes...in Nashville, Tennessee, in October," according to CNN.

Tear down that wall (proposal)

2017-03-14T18:09:00-04:00

Rael writes that one of the most devastating consequences of the wall is “the division of communities, cities, neighborhoods and families, resulting in the erosion of social infrastructure.” When we talked, he wondered how we might create something positive from something so horrible: “Can reform happen through borderland investment? If you build 150 libraries along the border, you’d get a very different outcome.”

The RFP for the border wall is out, but the conscience-bearing architectural community is staying in (and trying to imagine alternatives to this xenophobic concrete smear job). In particular, in this New York Times article they're suggesting building anything but walls, suggesting that perhaps investing in communities instead of splitting them apart is the way to go for the political and social benefit of everyone involved.

AIA officially states it is pro-immigration and travel-positive

2017-02-21T12:43:00-05:00

What would America be without immigrants? More to the point, what would architecture be without the ability for those working within it to freely travel and collaborate with (much more affordable) talent from around the world? In recognition of these facts, the AIA has released an official statement that raises concerns about broad anti-immigration policies, and confirms the institute's dedication to reciprocal "free moment and association" around the globe. Here's the full text of the press release:

As discussion on immigration continues, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) today joins with many American businesses, industries and universities in calling for fair and impartial immigration policies, and in expressing deep concern about policies that restrict immigration from specific countries or regions based on overly broad factors, including religion.

“Beyond the essential considerations of fairness and equity, restrictions targeting specific areas of the world can have prof...

Christo abandons $15 million U.S.-based river project as protest against "landlord" Trump

2017-01-31T12:46:00-05:00

Christo's proposed silver-fabric-panel draped "Over the River" project has been in the making for about 25 years, after he started hunting for a natural host site in 1992 and then gradually garnered the neccessary official approvals and permits over the following decades for a 42-mile stretch along the Colorado River. However, the artist is abandoning the $15 million dollar project as a protest against President Trump, explaining that “The federal government is our landlord. They own the land. And I can’t do a project that benefits this landlord.” Although it's doubtful that the official landlord would appreciate the nuance and splendor of Christo's work, the people of Colorado would have undoubtedly benefitted economically from tourists.

Aamodt/Plumb Architects resigns from the AIA over Robert Ivy's conciliatory comments toward Trump

2017-01-10T19:54:00-05:00

Don't pay your national AIA dues if you don't agree with the direction of the association. At least, that's what Mette Aamodt is doing this year. According to a press release issued by the firm, Aamodt explains that she:

is calling on architects to join her in refusing to work for clients engaged in discrimination, human rights violations, tyranny and exploitation. AIA National dues are due this week and every member has to make a choice about where they stand.

Together with her partner Andrew Plumb, Aamodt and their firm Aamodt / Plumb Architects is raising money to start a non-profit organization dedicated to education and advocacy around quality construction techniques, healthy materials and fair labor practices. “We have just elected one of the world’s worst developers as President, who exploits people and natural resources to build junk buildings that benefit no one but himself,” says Mette Aamodt. “It’s time for architects to take a stand and fight back, rather than rolling ove...

Elaine Chao wants speedier approvals for DOT's infrastructure projects

2016-12-22T16:22:00-05:00

Nominee for Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao laid out her vision for DOT should the senate confirm her, and it's heavy on lifting regulations while breezing past funding issues. According to Politico:

Chao said she wants to reduce "regulatory burdens when appropriate." And she hopes to speed up project approvals regardless of whether infrastructure programs get a funding boost. “With or without a new infusion of funds, it is necessary to look at the existing processes for infrastructure development and find more efficient ways to address bottlenecks in planning and permitting,” Chao said. That response indicates Chao isn’t assuming Congress will pass a large infrastructure spending package.

For more on Trump's political cabinet of curiosities:

5 housing experts offer opinions about Ben Carson's direction as HUD head

2016-12-06T14:09:00-05:00

What are the likely policy goals of a neurosurgeon appointed secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development by a man who can't stop disappointedly tweeting at Alec Baldwin? "There’s not a dearth of qualified Republicans for that job, so if you choose somebody with no background in housing, it says something about your priorities,” says Julia Gordon, executive vice president of the National Community Stabilization Trust, according to an article in NextCity. Various other housing experts, including Barbara Sard and Benjamin Dulchin, voiced concern about the man with no actual federal housing experience, although former HUD official Maurice Jones was cautiously optimistic, saying that "whatever agenda or whatever priority they have, I look forward to learning what that is." The article goes on to note that:

"a Washington Times op-ed by Ben Carson published in July 2015 indicates that he either does not understand or does not support the AFFH rule [Affirmatively Furtherin...

President-elect Trump offers HUD post to Ben Carson

2016-11-23T13:19:00-05:00

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has offered the post of secretary of housing and urban development to former presidential candidate Ben Carson, who will consider it over the Thanksgiving holiday, a Carson spokesman said on Tuesday. "The president-elected asked him to consider it and he's considering it," Carson spokesman Armstrong Williams said. Carson, a retired surgeon, dropped out of the 2016 presidential race in March and backed Trump.

More on the US Department of Housing and Urban Development:

Why is Trump seeking private equity for public infrastructure?

2016-11-21T12:51:00-05:00

The indefatigable Paul Krugman takes a closer look at Trump's proposed infrastructure funding plans in his column for The New York Times, wondering why the President-elect would seek private equity for public projects. Is this a profiteering scheme that sneakily privatizes ownership of traditionally publicly accessible resources (like water, for example)?

As Krugman notes about Trump's plan: "Crucially, it’s not a plan to borrow $1 trillion and spend it on much-needed projects — which would be the straightforward, obvious thing to do. It is, instead, supposed to involve having private investors do the work both of raising money and building the projects — with the aid of a huge tax credit that gives them back 82% of the equity they put in. To compensate for the small sliver of additional equity and the interest on their borrowing, the private investors then have to somehow make profits on the assets they end up owning."

For more on how architects are reacting to the Presidential elect...

It's the infrastructure, stupid: benefits of using adaptable strategies to revamp the U.S.

2016-10-25T13:39:00-04:00

LIke everything else in the 21st century, infrastructure is no longer about big moves but rather about nuance, refinement, and creative strategy. This is the argument advocated by The Hill, which makes the case that all infrastructure projects should be resilient and made to serve multiple functions. As the article notes:

"In the wake of Hurricane Sandy there were calls for a flood wall around lower Manhattan. But the path the city, state and federal government took was far better – instead of just building a wall, they are creating a system of parks which will provide the same protection, provide additional greenspace for the city, and improve community cohesion by giving people public space to meet and socialize. Instead of gray infrastructure, the city will have a brand new park."

For more on infrastructure:

Airbnb helps the homeless while getting involved with L.A.'s City Council

2016-10-25T13:27:00-04:00

After being criticized for helping to displace renters by inadvertently motivating landlords to turn long-term rentals into short-term hotel-like quarters, Airbnb is getting political and donating $100,000 to Los Angeles' Proposition HHH, which would require city officials to raise tax dollars to build 10,000 units of homeless housing. According to an article in the L.A. Times:

"The contribution comes as a proposed ordinance to regulate short-term rentals is working its way to the City Council. The measure, approved in June by the Los Angeles Planning Commission, would limit short-term rentals to 180 days per year, exclude rent-controlled units and impose a tax on rentals.

Airbnb welcomes being regulated but is not endorsing all the terms of the proposal as is, said spokesman Christopher Nully."

Airbnb in the news:

America's 'inner city' dichotomy

2016-10-17T14:00:00-04:00

In reality, the central neighborhoods of many major American cities are thriving. [...] “Inner city,” in short, is imprecise in describing today’s urban reality. It captures neither the true geography of poverty or black America, nor the quality of life in many communities in central cities. But politically, its 1970s-era meaning lingers. [...] But in any context, it is hard to shake the phrase’s association with an era when American cities looked very different from the way they do today.

Republican Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, in recent debates with Hillary Clinton, had referred to the "inner cities" as “a disaster education-wise, job-wise, safety-wise, in every way possible,” and as places that if "You walk down the street, you get shot."

In fact-checking response, the Times lays out the drastic improvements in safety and home values that have occurred in these areas since the 1960s and '70s, when the "inner cities" were tagged as centers of violence and drugs. "The inner city is the place that burned when King was assassinated. It was Watts. It was the place Ronald Reagan had to try to conduct the war on drugs,” as described by N. D. B. Connolly, historian at Johns Hopkins University.

Nowadays, the Times referred to a study by the Federal Housing Finance Agency that found an increase in home values in the middle of large cities over the last 25 years—an uptick happening at a faster pace than anywhere else in the U.S. The article also points to statistics ...

Inside the failure of Jerry Brown's plans to ease California's housing crisis

2016-09-13T12:49:00-04:00

Despite introducing what seemed like excellent legislation to help increase the number of affordable housing units in developer-backed housing projects, California governor Jerry Brown's proposal caused so much multi-faceted angst it became political poison, primarily because it gently circumvented the traditional development process. This L.A. Times piece takes a look at what went wrong, noting that:

If developers pledged to set aside some units in their projects for low-income residents, the governor’s proposed legislation would have eliminated some local hurdles to building, likely leading to a modest increase in construction.

Yet the proposal the governor unveiled in May represented a profound shakeup in how the development process would have worked in California. The measure challenged the primacy of local control over housing, inflamed powerful entrenched interests and was eyed warily by the very groups representing those the plan was supposed to help.

For more on California's...

Design a wall that separates Trump from the U.S. in this call for ideas

2016-08-09T17:51:00-04:00

Amid everything that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump continues to recklessly spew, one of the milestones in his circus of a campaign is his apparent plans to build the U.S./Mexico border wall... Competition creator Reality Cues turns the tables in their newest installment: Good Walls Make Good Neighbors, Mr. Trump. The objective is pretty straightforward: Design a wall that separates Mr. Trump from the rest of the U.S.

“We want to ask questions more than produce answers,” Reality Cues emphasizes in the brief. Curious? Learn more about their latest snarky competition on Bustler.

Donald Trump is architecture's nightmare client

2016-08-03T13:50:00-04:00

Two weeks ago at the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump's daughter introduced him as a man who has overseen the construction of skyscrapers, thereby qualifying him to somehow take stead of the vastly more complex civic architecture of the United States. Never mind that Donald Trump doesn't necessarily pay the architects he hires, making him less of an overseer and more of a cheap tyrant (with a terrible, reductive aesthetic sense, to boot). This tendency to inaccurately appropriate architecture is a theme within the Trump family—Melania made up an entire degree—but what Duo Dickinson notes over at CommonEdge is that Trump's blowhardism is counter to what architecture is: notably, an exchange of ideas, and a conversation about how best to implement those ideas. As Duo writes:

Agreement with the Donald is being right, anything else puts you in the other side of him—wrong and disqualified; not a great place for an architect if he’s your client and radically divisive even in a ...

Looking into the White House's “much longer history” of slave labor

2016-07-28T15:17:00-04:00

I think it was a wonderful moment in American history. I thought what Michelle Obama was attempting to do was to draw that link to show that it isn't just what's going on in the White House now and isn't it great that there's a black family there, but there's a much longer history that needs to be appreciated... [It was] just grueling, grueling kind of work. And nobody was really willing ... to do it. So slave labor played a massive role in getting this city built.

During her speech at the DNC on Monday, First Lady Michelle Obama alluded to the White House's history of slave labor during the 1790s. NPR interviews Clarence Lusane, chairperson of Howard University's political science department and author of “The Black History of the White House”, who gives his two cents on the historically significant topic.

"Glitz and ego" – the architectural legacy of Donald Trump, the developer

2016-05-18T17:30:00-04:00

“Trump ... believes in using expensive materials that convey prestige and wealth, and people buy into that,” said Jerold Kayden, professor of urban planning and design at Harvard University. He said in some ways the legacy of Trump buildings is a matter of taste. “To some they are the height of ambition and the height of prestige and to others they are gaudy, but he has certainly pioneered with some others architecture as brand.”

"Other New Yorkers view Trump’s investment in luxury buildings in undervalued locations in the '90s as a contribution to New York’s renewal. To them, his construction represented investment at a time when New York was struggling with blight."

What does Donald Trump's architecture reveal about his politics?

2016-02-18T12:44:00-05:00

Adorned with gold and marble, [the Trump Tower] looks like Saddam Hussein went on a shopping spree with Liberace. To make way for its construction, Mr Trump demolished the handsome Art Deco Bonwit Teller department store. He promised to donate its bas-relief carvings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but it turned out they were too expensive to remove so they were smashed to pieces on site instead.

Loud, pushy, indifferent to anything but self-touted glamour: Donald Trump's politics and his buildings share a great deal in common. In this piece, The Financial Times' reigning design critic Edwin Heathcote briefly touches on the repugnant qualities that the Donald's politics and his buildings share, noting that "Mr. Trump’s buildings, unlike his father’s, have failed to make any architectural contribution to the cities around them or address social needs. Instead they pop up like middle fingers disdaining their surroundings. They are less architecture than marketing, with the Trump sign the most important component."

For more coverage on the intersection between architecture and politics:

Duplitecture and the Downfall of Rep. Aaron Schock

2015-03-20T15:05:00-04:00

Many and baroque have been the scandals that have toppled Illinois politicians. Rod Blagojevich, the most recent governor to be sent to prison, is behind bars for trying to sell the remaining years of Barack Obama’s Senate term. But Aaron Schock, who announced his resignation on March 17th as Republican congressman for the state’s 18th district, is the first to be felled by an over-talkative interior designer.

'Rep. Aaron Schock of Illinois's 18th Congressional district is probably better known for showing off his abs on the cover of Men's Health (see below) than for any actual legislating. At 33, Schock holds the title of the third-youngest US representative, at least until the end of this month when he will resign.

Already a controversial figure for his (perhaps too) media-friendly presence, the muscular young politician became embroiled in a veritable firestorm after an unfortunate, chance encounter between his interior decorator and a Washington Post reporter.

"Bright red walls. A gold-colored wall sconce with black candles. A Federal-style bull’s-eye mirror with an eagle perched on top. And this is just the Illinois Republican’s outer office," describes Ben Terris in a recent article for the Post. When Terris ran into the woman responsible for the ornate décor, she told him, “It’s actually based off of the red room in ‘Downton Abbey,’" the popular British show that depicts the waning y...