Archinect - News

Disneyland’s $1.9 billion campus expansion moves toward approval

2024-03-14T11:54:00-04:00

The LA Times and other local outlets are reporting on the progress made by Disney towards eventually realizing an expansion of the existing plot of Disneyland, a move billed as generating multiple community benefits for the city of Anaheim.

The $1.9 billion DisneylandForward project does not call specifically for any new construction and will be executed within the resort's existing 500-acre campus. According to an assessment of the plan from the Disney Tourist Blog, “DisneylandForward is the company’s pitch to the public and City of Anaheim for more flexibility in the master plans from the 1990s in order to give the company greater autonomy over what to build and where.”

In line with founder Walt Disney's vision for a constant expansion of the resort, the plan presents the potential for both an "immersive new theme park" and a "new kind" of entertainment district possibly containing a hotel and cluster of retail, dining, and entertainment plots to be created in the east and west co...

Closed school buildings offer a silver lining through adaptive reuse nationwide

2023-10-12T11:56:00-04:00

Amid the backdrop of a national trend of tumbling enrollments, brutal pandemic-era learning losses and an ongoing flight of young families from urban centers, the dilemma of how to repurpose empty schools is that many cities face. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 2,200 public schools closed from 2019 to 2022. Chicago’s experiences offer some insights into what can happen to these spaces, and the communities around them, after the students get sent home.

Lamar Johnson Collaborative Associate Principal Max Komnenich tells Bloomberg the other side to the growing problem of school closings can offer a “beacon for reinvestment” given the proper incentives.

His firm’s Aspire Center conversion took advantage of a $12.5 million TIF that’s included in the larger Community Development Grant program overseen by the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. Projects geared towards workforce development are another popular solution besides the obvious need for residential conversions. According to the website Yardi Matrix, 2.9% of all newly converted housing units were created from former school buildings nationwide in the last year alone.

Frida Escobedo and Handel's National Black Theatre project tops out in Harlem

2023-10-09T17:24:00-04:00

Frida Escobedo and Handel Architects have shared photos of their newly topped-out National Black Theatre and Ray Harlem mixed-use development in Manhattan.

The project entails a new 27,000-square-foot theater, retail spaces, and a 222-unit residential component strategically located along the historic 125th Street corridor in East Harlem. It is the first scheme in the city to utilize the Visual and Performing Arts bonus included in a comprehensive 2008 rezoning plan, expanding on the late National Black Theatre founder Barbara Ann Teer’s vision for “an artistic ecosystem that uplifts the community,” according to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. Proponents say its creation is also a catalyst for greater representation in the theater and cultural industries overall.

Image © Brett Tiagwad

Construction will now continue towards the NBT’s expected public opening in 2026. Once complete, the theater will include a 250-seat immersive technology performance space, a 99-seat flexible s...

LA's Destination Crenshaw pushes Sankofa Park opening to February 2024

2023-10-05T14:47:00-04:00

This fall’s anticipated debut of the Sankofa Park component of the new Destination Crenshaw public space redesign from Perkins&Will and Studio-MLA in Los Angeles has been pushed back to February of next year, according to an announcement made Wednesday by the group managing its construction in the city's Leimert Park neighborhood.

The park had previously received $3.4 million in federal funding, which added to another $2.4 million fundraising drive initiated by actress Issa Rae and star NBA guard DeMar DeRozan. Planners have now set Sankofa Park to open on February 24th. It is part of the larger $100 million project that will transform a 1.3-mile corridor into a new arts-oriented civic space. Perkins&Will says it is “destined to be a space for celebrations, protests, and demonstrations of grief and peaceful healing.”

Once it is completed, Sankofa Park will include art installations f...

UW-Milwaukee SARUP appoints Krisann Rehbein as director of Community Design Solutions

2023-08-08T18:02:00-04:00

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s newly-formed College of the Arts and Architecture has announced its appointment of Chicago-based artist and nonprofit leader Krisann Rehbein as the new director of Community Design Solutions (CDS).

The position, which is organized within the School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP), will engage with local community organizations to ensure the continued delivery of pro bono planning services such as the Turnkey Housing initiative and Green Schoolyards project that have, in addition to nearly 230 others, helped to garner praise for the institution over the past decade.

Mo Zell, the new ASCA President and Interim Dean of the College of the Arts and Architecture, said: "We are thrilled to welcome Krisann as the new director of CDS. Her vision for the future of the organization, which includes expanding the role that faculty will play in projects, and her expertise in design and community engagement will help advance the work of CDS and u...

Pro bono architecture initiative, Architects Assist, connects architects with people in need

2020-01-13T19:19:00-05:00

The massive brushfires in Australia have damaged a large portion of the country's landscape. As of today, according to BBC News, "more than 100 fires are still burning in the states of New South Wales and Victoria." Many have lost their homes and family members in addition to the amount of wildlife impacted by the fires. However, as with previous large-scale tragedies such as this, people have started to come together to provide aid to those impacted.

On January 4, 2020, architect Jiri Lev of, Atelier Jiri Lev, established Architects Assist, an initiative that aims to provide planning and design assistance to those who have lost their homes during the fire. According to the Architects Assist website, the initiative "acts as a simple referral service between clients and registered architects (it does not itself provide architectural services)." An initiative run under mantle of the Australian Institutes of Architects, Architects Assists has rallied to provide support for current and...

Peterson Rich Office to research NYCHA upgrades

2019-06-26T16:26:00-04:00

The Regional Plan Association of New York (RPA) has named Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich of architecture firm Peterson Rich Office (PRO) as the organization’s inaugural Richard Kaplan Chairs for Urban Design.

The year-long research position, funded to “address a critical need for preservation and better design in the New York City region” will position PRO to continue their ongoing efforts to understand and articulate potential solutions for the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) current capital needs deficit.

View of PRO's Roof By Roof proposal that would add new housing units atop existing NYCHA housing towers. Image courtesy of Peterson Rich Office.

According to research already conducted by PRO, NYCHA is currently suffering from $45 billion in unmet capital needs, a byproduct, according to a 2018 RPA report, of “decades of neglect and underinvestment by all levels of government.” That total includes deferred general maintenance and lead abatement issues in individual un...

Activists turned planners: How citizens of Berlin helped tackle affordable housing and a massive redevelopment project

2019-06-13T15:33:00-04:00

The Berlin activists who staged a protest at a vacant government building didn’t imagine they’d end up leading a €140 million redevelopment project.

During the 1960s, the Haus der Statistik was built for the national statistics office for East Germany. The massive complex spreads over eight blocks at half a million square feet, comprising three connected mid-rises and some smaller buildings. As years passed, the Haus der Statistik's history and political involvement soon became a thing of the past after it closed down in 2008. Laying dormant and abandoned, local Berlin artists and activists decided to intervene once word of the building was said to be torn down and replaced with private apartments and offices.

Haus der Statistik. Image © BIM GmbH

Banner drop at the Haus der Statistik, 2015. The one-story building later converted to a planning workshop is seen at the right edge of the frame. Image © Allianz bedrohter Berliner Atelierhäuser

Upset with the lack of affordable housing, these artists worked together to save the building and use its massive size and structural potential to transform it into something the community needs...

From concept to development, wHY Architecture's youth arts center in East Palo Alto folds the community into the building process

2018-10-10T14:43:00-04:00

wHY Architecture's innovative partnership with EpaCenterArts has broken ground in East Palo Alto, coinciding with a community stakeholder event to celebrate the occasion on Saturday, October 13th.

The planned $50 million 21,000-square-foot EpaCenterArts, the construction for which began last month, will host an arts, design and music center for youth in the area. As one of the go-to designers for art spaces, Kulapat Yantrasast and his firm, which is currently working on the Asian Art Museum in nearby San Francisco, was a natural choice for the foundation.

Epacenter; Image by wHY + Luxingon.

Positioned at the center of Silicon Valley, East Palo Alto has struggled to maintain levels of equity among its residents as the region's booming tech economy continues to raise rents and home values. The youth center, funded by John & Marcia Goldman Foundation, is the result of a grassroots effort to address these external pressures by creating something for the community.

In response, Yantrasa...

Freeway underpasses are more than just dark empty spaces

2018-10-01T17:45:00-04:00

The space under elevated highways are often dark, industrial, and empty. With so much capacity to create a vibrant public space, organizations and cities are exploring ways for creative development in the otherwise unused area.

Underpasses are often overlooked for their building potential, but cities like Toronto and Zurich are redefining the creative opportunity of these spaces. Underpass design is a great way for cities to enrich these often vacant industrial spaces and create areas for community engagement and activity.

In Toronto for example, The Bentway is a public space that made its public debut earlier this year. Under one of the busiest highways in Toronto, The Bentway spans over 1.75km creating a new scene for events and activities. Locals can enjoy a stroll through the community garden, enjoy public art shows, and participate in various events through out the year.

Photo courtesy of www.thebentway.ca

Zurich has taken its own approach to underpass design by allowing architecture students to design a 240-square-meter pavilion. This space allows for students to run events during the year and promote public engagement.

Documentary showcases how architecture students of the University at Buffalo School are shaping the city

2018-07-19T16:11:00-04:00

"How do we bring a city not back to what it was, but what it needs to be in the future?" A new documentary at the Venice Architecture Biennale explores this question, showcasing how students of the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning are learning from and rebuilding the Rust Belt city around them.

Once a thriving American city, since the latter 20th century, Buffalo has seen a sharp population loss and growing inequality stemming from its industrial decline. As Buffalo rebounds, students and faculty of the University are becoming an integral part of this process. Whether it's working with local refugee entrepreneurs or revitalizing local fabrication and industry, students are using the city itself as a laboratory, deeply embedding themselves in the community and the challenges it faces.

Their work is currently being showcased at the Time Space Existence exhibition in Venice, through a new film and an accompanying catalog highlighting sites of faculty and stude...

"Epicenter", in rural Utah, wants to be the next art & architecture destination

2018-04-20T11:08:00-04:00

Architecture isn’t just looking at a building. It’s looking at how the city is shaped, and then thinking about, what can we do as citizens to make it a better place to live through architecture and design?

via PBS | News Hour

Jefffrey Brown reports from Green River, Utah. Small, with a population that "hovers at" 950, a nonprofit called Epicenter aims to use use art and architecture to bring new energy, life and economic development. There is even a "stationary" taco truck.

Lifting poor neighborhoods out of poverty with alternative investment models

2017-12-06T14:08:00-05:00

How do you raise the standard of living in the poorest neighborhoods in the country? That’s what community developers, typically nonprofits that build and finance affordable housing, have tried to do over the last few decades. And yet [...] many of these communities remain stuck in poverty. [...] This problem has stumped community developers for decades. But two local nonprofits think they’ve hit on something: They’ve created a private equity fund.

After Katrina, Tulane's architecture school pivots into a community builder

2015-08-07T12:53:00-04:00

[Tulane's] architecture program, established in 1894, is one of the country's oldest, but before Hurricane Katrina it was a little stuffy, known, if anything, for historic preservation, and not particularly prestigious. After the storm, the school reinvented itself as a destination for students and faculty interested in building in low-income neighborhoods and fragile environments.

More post-Katrina context in New Orleans: