Archinect - News

Frank Gehry talks to the LA Times about his ever-expanding vision for downtown Los Angeles

2024-04-12T17:50:00-04:00

Frank Gehry has provided some interesting comments to the LA Times to coincide with last week’s groundbreaking of the new Colburn Center in downtown Los Angeles, a vital lynchpin for the city’s post-COVID economic rebound.

Speaking on the record for an article to the paper’s business section, the 95-year-old Walt Disney Concert Hall designer told reporters about his still-expanding vision for the Grand Avenue corridor and beyond. The neighborhood has been a bit of an obsession of his since the end of the 1990s. Now, he says, "we still have work to do," adding that Little Tokyo, the Arts District, and other neighborhoods near Bunker Hill can and should have their own culture-backed transformations performed to facilitate a revival pushed by LA Mayor Karen Bass and other civic leaders.

The Broad museum also recently announced its own $100 million expansion plans. Our February preview of the new $335 milli...

PAU releases updated renderings for Niagara Falls Heritage Gateways project

2023-12-12T17:17:00-05:00

Preliminary renderings for the $12 million Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU)-led Niagara Falls Heritage Gateways project have been released following a public meeting to discuss plans in the border city.

The multi-phase initiative will strengthen the connection between the city’s downtown and Niagara Falls State Park and Riverway Tree Walk. Four canopied gateway structures will be enacted as part of its design, offering tourists views of the nearby American Rapids and Goat Island and connected by a “network” of promenades and shaded open spaces.

Rendering of the Riverway Tree Walk at night. Image courtesy PAU

The initial phase calls for the redevelopment of Hydraulic Power Plaza and Niagara Gorge Gateway Park followed by the construction of the Tree Walk, which includes a viewing platform to be placed at a wooded clearing and serving as a beacon for visitors between downtown and the Riverway.

Hydraulic Power Plaza. Image courtesy Hargreaves Jones Landscape Architecture

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The Silicon Valley Bank crash may carry huge implications for affordable housing development in Boston

2023-03-24T17:27:00-04:00

The fallout from the recent failure of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is having wide-reaching effects across the country. Take Boston, for example, where advocates for multiple in-progress affordable housing developments are concerned about their future following the bank's collapse.

The Boston Globe is reporting on the underpinnings of their dilemma, which concerns the future of the bank's over $1.6 billion worth of investments in the city.

The now-dissolved SVB had purchased the previously-fledgling entity known as Boston Private Bank in 2021, leaving many of its nonprofit clients vulnerable in the wake of the failure. Boston just unveiled its plan to add some 803 units through a $67 million investment, but the 600 or more units derived from projects that were underwritten by SVB remain on precarious footing in spite of several reassurances and the recent FDIC intervention.

Opportunity Zones program is under fire

2020-07-28T14:15:00-04:00

Lawmakers created the program in an effort to help low-income communities, and the provisions in the 2017 tax law on opportunity zones were based on bipartisan legislation. But Democrats have become increasingly critical of the program in recent months, following news reports about how wealthy people are benefiting from the program.

Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib are hoping to repeal the controversial Opportunity Zones program that brings certain tax breaks to investments in new development projects that are located in designated economically-distressed areas, The Hill reports. Though passed with bipartisan support in 2017, the program has faced criticism in recent months as some of the projects funded by these investments, including luxury apartment towers, have come to light.

Woods Bagot to design Australia's AUD $1.85 billion World Trade Center

2017-01-19T18:35:00-05:00

World Trade Centers aren't just for the northern hemisphere anymore: Perth, Australia will become the recipient of a two-towered, $1.85 Australian dollar World Trade Center designed by Woods Bagot. The uneven towers (one tops out at 36 stories, the other 75) still need official approval by the State Government, which plans to thoroughly vet both the proposal and the backers themselves in the more severe sounding Stage Two section of the process. However, by virtue of clearing Stage One, things are looking good for the buildings (and, let's face it, for Woods Bagot).