Archinect - News

David Chipperfield on Fundación RIA and regional planning efforts in northern Spain

2024-06-27T19:54:00-04:00

A strength of Galicia, Chipperfield believes, is the extent to which technocratic versions of modernity have passed it by. “When we were growing up, we sort of knew what progress was. It was silver and shiny. Now we’re not so sure."

In a new interview with Rowan Moore, last year’s Pritzker winner David Chipperfield details his work in Galicia, Spain. In this seaside locale, he says, he’s found a restored sense of "normality" after relocating his life and family there for the summertime beginning in 2020. From there, he established his Fundación RIA, a "little research group" that has been instrumental in helping guide a territorial plan with aims that can be applied to many core issues (a lack of transportation options, livelihood in city centers, and disused structures) plaguing other small cities in the EU and North America.

L.A.'s Union Station overhaul receives $400 million from California High Speed Rail

2019-09-13T19:00:00-04:00

The California High-Speed Rail Authority and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) have reached a funding agreement that will bring $400 million in public funds to the Link Union Station project.

Link US, as the project is widely known, aims to retrofit Los Angeles's Union Station to facilitate the creation of "through-service" regional commuter rail—and in the future, High Speed Rail—routes connecting the station with locations north, south, and east of Los Angeles.

View of the proposed run-through track improvements proposed for the station. Image courtesy of Metro.

Currently, the station's track configuration leaves Union Station as the dead-end of several regional rail systems; When the improvements are completed in coming years, the station will be able to facilitate regional rail travel up and down the California coast while also cutting down on the amount of time trains spend idling at the station. Los Angeles Union Station currently connects r...

City of Seattle tackles housing affordability, workforce automation, seismic upgrades with new "resilience roadmap"

2019-08-30T21:00:00-04:00

We must continue to prepare for acute shocks— events that could threaten our City’s ability to function, such as natural disasters. We must also address chronic stresses—challenges that weaken our natural, built, or human resources, such as income inequality and chronic homelessness. Stresses often exacerbate the effects of shocks when they occur, particularly for vulnerable populations.

The plan comes as Seattle, the fastest-growing city in the country, and the larger Puget Sound metropolitan region around it, prepare to nearly double in population by 2050.

PennDesign launches $50,000 student prize and professional award in city planning

2018-11-14T14:22:00-05:00

The University of Pennsylvania's School of Design launched the new Witte-Sakamoto Family Prize and Award in City and Regional Planning, thanks to a $1.25 million gift from PennDesign alumnus William Witte and his wife Keiko Sakamoto. In conjunction with the prize, a new professional award for innovation and positive impact in planning was also announced.

The yearly $50,000 fellowship will be awarded to an outstanding student entering their final year in the school's Master of City and Regional Planning program. The professional award will be presented to a firm, team, or individual professional for an exemplary planning project that advances plan-making in at least four of the following areas: social equity, environmental quality, design, public health, mobility, housing affordability, and economic development.

“It’s incumbent on those of us who work on cities to make sure that we not only practice responsible development, but that it’s holistic and we deal with all these different ...

Hyperloop One announces 35 semifinalists in 17 countries for its global challenge

2017-01-10T12:58:00-05:00

Whether you envisioned Hyperloop One as an overhyped pneumatic tube or an inventive way to transport cargo and/or passengers, 35 teams from 17 countries around the world have just been announced as semifinalists in the contest to create working transit corridors for the technology. The 35 proposed routes are sited in countries including Argentina, Poland, Australia, India, the U.K. and the U.S. (the full list is below). Finalists will be announced in May after three global showcase events where each team has the chance to demonstrate how their proposal will economically benefit their region. The showcases will be held in New Delhi on February 28th, Washington D.C. on April 6th, and London on April 27th. Twenty of the proposals currently have governmental or other funding sources already lined up.

Corridors in the semifinalist round include:
AR Buenos Aires-Cordoba
AU Sydney-Melbourne
CA Ontario (cargo)
CA Toronto-Montreal
CA Vancouver (cargo)
CH Shanghai-Hangzhou
DE Autobahn
EE Tallin-Helsi...

Congress approves a $340 billion transportation bill

2015-12-02T12:32:00-05:00

House and Senate negotiators on Tuesday announced a bipartisan agreement on a five-year reauthorization of federal transportation programs—the longest such measure that Congress has advanced since 2005. Both chambers are expected to pass the deal in the next two weeks before leaving for the year. At a cost of $305 billion, the final compromise is a bit smaller than a $340 billion bill passed by the House last month.

In related news, Hilary Clinton recently released a $275 billion infrastructure plan. More information on that can be found here.

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