The latest entry in the Showcase: series featured Barkow Leibinger's Stadthaus M1, located in the "sustainable model district" of Vauban in the already so-called "green city" of Freiburg.

Plus, Nicholas Korody looked at Factory Berlin, a "start-up campus" hosted by Google, built on a site where "a section of the Berlin Wall...once housed a German Democratic Republic (GDR) watchpost". Chris Teeter recommended "if you want to keep the political going in your architecture crit, you could probably look at what I have considered the 3 downtowns of Berlin; look at them historically maybe - Kuferstendamm (west), Alexander Platz (east), and Potsdamer Plat (unified)".

News
Mildred Friedman, a curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in the 1970s and ’80s who helped both the museum and the contemporary design and architecture it celebrated become objects of international acclaim, died on Sept. 3 in Manhattan. She was 85.

Until October 31, the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation is accepting nominations for the just launched Built By Women NYC, a project to highlight 100 outstanding buildings or built environments — historic or contemporary — located in New York City that were built/designed/constructed by women.

The Indianapolis Business Journal reported that Cummins Inc. has selected New York-based Deborah Berke Partners to design its global distribution headquarters in downtown Indianapolis. Darkman was pleased "Deborah Berke is the best. Prob one of top 5 architects alive...sharp modernism that doesn't feel like a throwback".

The Next Helsinki counter-competition launched, in response to Guggenheim Helsinki controversy. davvid was confused "Doesn't it seem odd to have an alternative open competition to an open competition. Its the same architecture community entering both competitions. I can understand the opposition if the Guggenheim just picked their favorite architecture darling like Zaha or Gehry but..I like Sorkin but I don't understand this".

Forbes published a piece on Autodesk’s purchase, earlier this year, of The Living., wondering What's A Software Company Doing Buying An Architecture Firm? 

Evan Chakroff countered "The acquisition isn't that surprising if you follow what Autodesk's been up to. From Autodesk Research ‘Six months ago, Autodesk (ADSK) opened a skunk works on Pier 9 in San Francisco...a team of designers, programmers, and scientists are working on what is perhaps Autodesk’s most ambitious project: building software and hardware that will simplify the task of designing and fabricating living things".
 

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates

Downing Street Townhouses in New York, NY by 1100 Architect and Plochmann Lane in Woodstock, NY by Megan Oldenburger are just two of the projects that can be found in the latest post Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Interiors" Pinterest Board.

For those looking for a job, New York City Department of Parks & Recreation is hiring for the position of Senior Architectural Designer or Monterey Bay Aquarium is looking for a Workplace Space Planning Manager.

t. joseph surjan recently worked on (a design for the) George Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts.

School/Blogs
NFucci started a blog, to document his time in the University of Hartford's Master of Architecture graduate program. His first post shares 7 lessons learned from his (just completed) first internship at BLT Architects, based in Philadelphia, PA. Joann Lui, LEED Green Assoc. thought it was a great list "A lot of us don't realize how important it is to have a life outside of architecture until we start working!"

Martina Dolejsova is now in her third week of classes as part of the Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices of Architecture Program at the GSAPP. This semester she is taking a class with Reinhold Martin and in one of the first sessions, a classmate questioned  (not verbatim) ‘What is the value of a sunset?'

jp88 launched a collaborative blog, which will provide "a sneak peak into the architecture world at the University of Miami by following a group of students in their first semester of architecture school".
 

Discussions/Threads
Samuel Tanis is looking for ways to counter folks who make the argument I hate brutalism because of... A really stupid reason. toasteroven pointed out many "people hate brutalist architecture because it's the architectural style of government buildings associated with horrible 60s urban renewal projects". jw468 argued that "Brutalism's just like any other mode of expression; there are good and bad examples" and then offered up a beautiful example. 

Similarly, citizen had a chance to visit the amazing "Barbican complex in London over the summer". However, other commentators weren’t so enthusiastic. For instance EKE wrote "The problem I have have with most so-called Brutalist architecture is that is feels so...grim, almost totalitarian.  It's joyless".

Toni Dobrevski needs "tripple glazed windows and solar panels for revit?" chigurh noted "You might be able to find windows on a specific mfgr website...Solar panels vary so much by mfgr and these companies come and go, so I doubt you will be able to find anything created by a specific mfgr. online", and thus suggests "just get a cut sheet for both and model your own families".

Mike Wakefield thought "RevitCity.com" might be helpful, though SneakyPete warned "Be careful what you snag at revit city. In many cases the families are ‘built’ by high schoolers during their revit classes, and many contain exploded dwg info, linked 3d models from other programs, and other goodies that will pollute and possibly corrupt your model".

Finally, jw468 started a thread to discuss How to read like an architect? 

Specifically, "What kind of library do you have, or should you have, as an architect"? curtkram chimed in "i think your firm libraries will often be material libraries arranged by csi number... but the broad selection the internet can offer that a firm library can't is a great step forward for our profession". After various posts focused on what books Archinector’s owned, citizen sought to redirect the conversation"The subject line is about reading, but the post emphasizes collecting books.  Related, but far from the same things...How people read  and retain is really interesting.  Print, or pdfs?  Highlighting, or leave pages pristine?  Note-taking, or memory-reliant?"

Taking citizen’s queue tint added "When I read, sometimes I attach meaning to the shapes of the words, like skeleton is a meaningful shape, and bubble".
 

Additionally
Marco D’Eramo penned an Op-ed for Domus, in which he decried "UNESCO. Its touch is lethal: wherever the UNESCO hallmark is applied to a city, the city dies out, becoming the stuff of taxidermy".