Archinect - News

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...

How will Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang plan for a sustainable future?

2019-08-26T20:00:00-04:00

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has introduced a five-step plan to address climate change and to help mitigate its effects in the built environment.

To start, Yang lays out the problem of climate change in personal economic terms: "Why have we so far barely made a dent in what we need to do in order to combat this crisis? When 78% of our fellow Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, it's hard to mobilize people to care about the massive problem of climate change. Many think, 'I can't pay my bills. The penguins will have to wait.' It's impossible to think about the future if you can't feed your kids today. We need to get the economic boot off of the throats of our fellow Americans so everyone can get their heads up and start facing this threat head-on."

Yang's first step to his five-pronged plan is to establish a better net-zero standard for new buildings that would take effect by 2025. To do this, he addresses the need to pull away from fossil fuels while also pay...

A democratic presidential candidate is pitching to save "dead malls"

2019-07-09T13:31:00-04:00

Entrepreneur and presidential hopeful Andrew Yang has a new policy proposal that promises to set him apart in the crowded Democratic field. He hopes to address an issue affecting the economic vitality of communities all across the country. Yang wants to save the malls. According to his campaign, some 300 malls will fold over the next 4 years, a number in line with an estimate by Credit Suisse that one-quarter of all malls will close by 2022.

In the U.S., the presidential race has already begun with potential candidates showcasing their intended policies and platforms to the American people. Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has created a growing following due to his stance on universal base income and approaching politics with "human-centered capitalism." In learning this, it is no wonder Yang has turned his efforts towards saving dying malls as a means to revive the economy of local communities.

Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang. Image © Chris Zoeller/Globe-Gazette/AP

Yang's goal is to implement the American Mall Act. According to a recent CityLab piece by Kriston Capps, the plan is to "devote $6 billion to find new purposes for these dying retail complexes." Yang made this announcement on July 4th weekend in a video as a response to Palmetto State voters and their experience of the retail apocalypse. In his video, Yang expresses the reality of mall upkeep and points out, "it's a massive challenge to try t...

Compared to AIA letters issued during Obama's election, CEO Robert Ivy's statement on Trump is far from "business as usual"

2016-11-18T19:47:00-05:00

Welp, that was fast. On yesterday's episode of Archinect Sessions ("#89: AIAWOL"), while discussing the recent fallout over the AIA's statement pledging support of President-elect Trump, Paul sent out an open call to listeners: send us any other statements made by the AIA in response to a prior presidential election. Within hours of posting the episode, the AIA responded with two statements: one from President Obama's election in 2008 (dated 11/24/2008), and one from his reelection in 2012 (dated 11/7/2012).

While all three statements appear, on their face, as form-letters expressing that the AIA will work with the President-elect insofar as their usual role demands, the 2008/2012 statements differ in a few key ways from the one AIA CEO Robert Ivy made in the wake of this year's election, provoking outrage among members.

For one, neither the 2008 nor 2012 statements are signed by any one person—they quote from the concurrent AIA President or CEO, but are not issued as if directly from...

Architecture Billings Index in July remains in positive terrain but higher volatility expected due to U.S. presidential election

2016-08-17T13:16:00-04:00

The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) was positive in July for the sixth consecutive month, and tenth out of the last twelve months as demand across all project types continued to increase. [...] (AIA) reported the July ABI score was 51.5, down from the mark of 52.6 in the previous month. This score still reflects an increase in design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 57.5, down from a reading of 58.6 the previous month.

“The uncertainty surrounding the presidential election is causing some funding decisions regarding larger construction projects to be delayed or put on hold for the time being,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. “It’s likely that these concerns will persist up until the election, and therefore we would expect higher levels of volatility in the design and construction sector in the months ahead.”

Key ABI highlights for the month of July were reported by the AIA as:

Regional averages: South (56.9), Midwest (50.1), Northeast (49.3), West (49.2)
Sector index breakdown: multi-family residential (55.2), institutional (50.7), mixed practice (50.5), commercial / industrial (50.3)
Project inquiries index: 57.5
Design contracts index: 51.8

The ABI in previous months on Archinect:

Senator Tim Kaine weighs in on the future of U.S. affordable housing

2016-08-15T18:57:00-04:00

Democratic [VP] candidate Senator Tim Kaine drew a bright line on Friday between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on a subject important to pretty much every voter: housing. While Americans say that housing is as important an issue as other priorities, so far the subject hasn’t come up much during the campaign. That just changed....His editorial outlines the ways that a Clinton administration would work to make housing fairer and more affordable.

A closer look at Sen. Tim Kaine's opinion editorial, wherein he briefly outlines the Clinton administration's plans on fairer housing laws.

Hillary Clinton campaign ad highlights architect screwed by Trump

2016-07-07T19:22:00-04:00

Hillary Clinton's latest ad campaign features an architect who claims Donald Trump almost put his firm out of business.

"Donald Trump hired my small business to design a clubhouse for the Trump National Golf Club," states Andrew Tesoro of Andrew Tesoro Architects. The ad intersperses Tesoro's account of working for Trump with video clips of the Republican presidential candidate espousing his business acumen.

"I sent a bill. It wasn’t paid," states Tesoro, who accuses Trump Organization representatives of "bullying" him into accepting a significantly reduced fee – just over a third of what the firm had billed.

"I didn’t feel that I had a lot of choice but to accept their low-ball offer. I had already paid out that money. That was money gone. That was just absorbed by me personally," Tesoro says.

The firm then sent that invoice. "And it wasn't paid."

Tesoro recounts visiting Trump, who said, "I really don’t think I should pay any more because I spent too much on this building.”

After decidi...

US/Mexico border wall competition provokes controversy

2016-03-16T17:08:00-04:00

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump dominated another round of primaries last night...further securing his position as the party’s frontrunner. His polemical campaign continues to provoke criticism from both his own party and from Democrats, as concern over his inflammatory, xenophobic and sexist rhetoric transforms into panic. The debate breached into architecture after a competition was announced last week for design responses to Trump’s call for a wall along the US/Mexico border.

Bustler, Archinect's sister site, declined the opportunity to post a competition calling for design responses to Donald Trump's calls for a border wall, which has since generated a good deal of controversy. Read about why – then join the debate on Bustler.

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