For the latest edition of Upstarts Julia Ingalls interviewed Catherine Johnson and Rebecca Rudolph of Design, Bitches, the Los Angeles-based firm. 

Plus, Amelia Taylor-Hochberg highlighted LA+, the new publication produced by the Landscape Architecture Department at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design in the latest edition of Screen/Print.

News
TANK Magazine published a chat with Liam Young, wherein he argued "an architect’s skills are completely wasted on making buildings...Finding ways to operate in other disciplines just gives us much more agency". davvid can get behind the idea "that 'architect' is a strategy", however Good_Knight is concerned "Great....So in an era when only refining one's professional specialty is profitable...non licensed 'architects' (in reality an oxymoron) or shall I say wanna-be-poser architects are pushing to broaden and generalize the title even more." 

Mr Banks argued "If architecture is a strategy rather than a profession, then surely anyone can do it because I don't think training to look at problems holistically is exclusive to architecture". Similarly Brandon Peterson couldn’t help wondering "Do other professions proclaim their skill sets to be as nigh on universal as architecture seems to do?"

Steven Holl Architects recently announced the groundbreaking of another New York-based project called the Ex of In House, slated for completion in May 2016 in the village of Rhinebeck. Orhan Ayyüce commented "Nice showing Mr. Ambuguity it is a great project scaled to fit and Bob has it Frank has it and time for you to get a Pritzker".

Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, AIA Chief Economist noted that the strong June ABI score was enough to lift all of the regions of the country back into positive territory.

Responding to the news that Zaha Hadid Architects are reportedly not giving up on Tokyo stadium plans, some drew attention to the reportedly $11.88 million fee. Yet, Steven Ward did the math "this fee doesn't seem grandiose...The fees will be large; it's a very complicated and expensive project...financially - it might be better to stop now. Most of the office's work is likely done and paid for, Construction Administration...is typically a money loser, and if it doesn't get built there's no liability in the future. Sometimes it can be more fiscally responsible not to have your project built!"
 

Firms/Work Updates
Jessica A.S. Letaw reviewed ‘Writing About Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities’ by Alexandra Lange. While she praises the book for its "liveliness and accessibility" and "intelligent analysis", Jessica also offered some criticism. Particularly regarding the needs for "a greater diversity of critics" finding it "regrettable that the book is hypercentered on New York."

contemporary architecture of Iran started an account/profile which currently features 56 projects from 1880 until now.
         

Evergreene Companies / Evergreene Homes located in Chantilly, VA, is currently interviewing candidates for a newly created Project Architect position. Or Bespoke needs to hire an architecturally trained Recruitment Consultant, to join their recently established team recruiting talent for New York’s leading design firms.

School/Blogs
EugeneM (a first year graduate student at University of Illinois at Chicago) started a blog and the first post, discusses the removal of "The second storey walkway to, well, nowhere that previously shaded the entrance to the school".

On July 15th, 2015, FIU College of Architecture + The Arts (CARTA) signed a historic partnership with the Bauhaus Dessau, which makes FIU the first—and only—university in the United States to have a formal partnership with the Bauhaus.

Since he hadn’t provided weekly updates like some of the other students, brettworth provided a quick summary of the 9 weeks spent interning at ASD. His conclusion "The amount of knowledge I have gained and the real world experience I got is un-measurable...My summer at ASD will be one that I will never forget."

Clemson University undergraduate August Lehnert, was recognized in the international 2015 Dencity competition with an honorable mention for his project "Sol."
 

Discussions/Threads

Riccardo Bianchini shared some photos taken at the press preview for Messner Mountain Museum Corones by Zaha Hadid Architects. Donna Sink thought they were "gorgeous" and as someone who has "spoken about how frequently ZHA's projects seem to have an unrefined relationship to the ground plane" was glad to see "how much this building looks nestled into the hard surroundings". chigurh  was less complementary "that thing is grotesque on so many levels...this whole car panel nike swoosh molded shoe look sucks.  The windows look like they are stuck in a lump of dough". midlander added "cool building though, more as a mountain viewing platform than a museum".

Larchinect and wife are wrestling with a dilemma regarding relocating despite running a "relatively successful landscape architecture business in Colorado".

 archanonymous "just moved from Denver to Chicago for the same reasons" but believes that Larchinect "should move to Denver/ Boulder/ Longmont...Unless you are going to move to New York or LA...Denver is booming market in desperate need of better design". mightyaa actually has "a building in Littleton already setup as an architect's office.  Right next to downtown, on the historic register, two blocks from light rail, etc...would allow you to keep your clientele and get you closer to Denver". 3tk offered up some information about the NE "There are a few scattered LA firms up in ME/NH/VT, but no one too big...Do remember that while things may appear close, traffic can really hamper mobility...Also, I notice that it's hard to find areas with good public schools in large populations, there seems to be a preference to send kids to private schools ($!)."

Finally, mike-garcia started a thread to get feedback regarding at what point in a career "will red marks hold you back", specifically from "supervisors...in house". Peter Normand answered "just make sure you are not seeing the same thing highlighted again and again...No complex project will be perfect on the first try". JBeaumont agreed "part of the normal QA process...understand that they're just calling out things that a second set of eyes caught that you didn't.  Nobody ever stops getting red marks, unless they stop letting others review them." To avoid red marks archanonymous advised, "if you don't know how something should be detailed, your best course of action is to think through it/ look for precedents and give three different options, then discuss which one is the best."