For the latest edition of Working out of the Box: Archinect talked with Adora Lo, Architect turned Pro LEGO Builder. 

They discussed the "challenge of keeping it LEGO legal" and the satisfaction of designing a "Star Wars building in LEGO". midlander was impressed "That Boston model...The Lego version of 111 Huntington is nicer than the real one!"

Plus, Amelia Taylor-Hochberg shared the debut issue of ‘LOBBY’, The Bartlett School of Architecture’s new architecture magazine, for Screen/Print #25.

News
The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) announced that it will be making significant changes to its Intern Development Program (IDP). Separate from other considerations to change the IDP's terminology, this decision chiefly includes two phases: (1) the removal of "elective" hourly requirements, and (2) condensing IDP's experience areas from the current 17 into six "practice-based categories".

The general consensus seemed to be underwhelmed - midlander quipped "So... they're streamlining this by cutting out the easy part. Now interns only have to do the hours that are tough to get. Reasonable move" and the orange menace "can't imagine many people would argue that elective hours are the issue here".

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the August ABI score was 53.0.

The folks at Inform: Architecture + Design in the Mid-Atlantic published a discussion between Keith and Marie Zawistowski (co-founders of the design/buildLAB at Virginia Tech and partners of OnSite Architecture) and Brian MacKay-Lyons.

Cartoonist and journalist Eleri Mai Harris tells the story of Canberra's creation by architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin for Medium in -  The Utopian City That Wasn't: How two American architects won a competition to design Australia’s capital in 1912

tammuz pointed out "Of course, they have to render all the areas they colonised as tabula rasa,  effacing and stifling  the local culture, as if they were the only purveyors of the only kind of culture, knowledge and history. No, this area had a long history prior to european colonies".

Justine Testado reported that Irish architects Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey have been named the 2015 recipients, of the prestigious RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. Donna Sink simply commented "Wow, their work - which I am not familiar with until just now - is beautiful".
 

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
Orhan Ayyüce republished LEARNING FROM MICHAEL ASHER. Therein he argues

"Most of this art happens during the oscillation of the objectification and de-objectification of the final work. In Michael Asher's art there is always the two, as in and as if figure to ground"

Daina Swagerty was on the project team for How Small is too small? - A Los Angeles Scenario. While along with with Gregory Mahoney, Jesse Honsa proposed The Ark "a brotherhood of 92 convicts, banished to a floating vessel in Drake Passage off the coast of Antarctica".

Corgan is hiring in a range of specializations; from Healthcare and Aviation to Data Centers and Corporate Office.

Lian Chikako Chang visited Alcatraz, site of Ai Weiwei's new show called @Large, open until April 26 2015. One of her GSD M.Arch.I classmates, who just graduated a few months ago, is deep into a difficult fight with cancer here in San Francisco. If you know Mike Burton or just want to help, Mike and his partner would really appreciate any wishes, kind thoughts, or financial help to cover hospice and living expenses, which have been adding up fast. They're running a fundraiser here.
 

School/Blogs
In preparation for build, Studio 19, a collaboration between UNITEC and Strachan Group Architects (SGA) took a Site Safety Course, participated in Learning the tools and "began making cutting lists of the wall framing, cabinetry and pre cast concrete slab boxing". After "Building consent was approved!" - The countdown to building begins and the team(s) worked on the details of the "kaumatua house".

jp88 at University of Miami posted some "new progress photos taken from last week".
 

Discussions/Threads
Riccardo Bianchini had a chance to travel to London and "wandered around the new addition to the Tate Modern by Herzog & de Meuron", so he started a thread to discuss Tate Modern 2.  Quondam was intrigued "thanks for the rendering/construction side-by-side presentation. There's a strong appeal to the building as it looks currently--kind of ‘Brutalism.2’....the potential for the ultimate building to be something uniquely 21st century" and CD.Arch believed "It should be appreciated through it's boldness yet still maintain it's subtlety". 

One thing sameolddoctor was confident about though "I know for a fact that the brick rain-screens are going to come in".

Dany is thinking of modeling the Carlson Reges house and wants to talk best practices and Revit workflow for custom assemblies. chigurh admitted "I know this is a big no-no, but I also use in-place families from time to time, just for ease of placing on a specific work plane...What the developers really need to come up with is an in-place family editor...My 2 cents". SneakyPete had to quibble "if it's custom and in-situ, then saving it out of the project is unnecessary. If it needs to be reused, then it should be modeled in its own family".

Finally, over the last month, Quondam has published a string of threads; 26 August, 20 September, 23 September and 24 September. Topics include; "Wandering through un-time and un-space", "The Racism of Beaux-Arts Architectural Training", "Wall House 2" and the day "father died".