February, 2015

↑​ 10 Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Nominated to UNESCO World Heritage List

The buildings are the first modernist architecture structures to be nominated, and not a bit too soon – many of the FLW structures are desperately in need of attention to fix significant structural decay.

↑ AIA announces upcoming national television advertising campaign

Featuring the AIA's "Look Up" campaign, the ads are meant to raise general awareness of the architect's significance and benefit to society – a kind of PSA to value architects (and ultimately get them more work). It's the AIA's answer to "Why do we need architects?"

↑ YAP 2015 winner Andrés Jaque/Office to install "Cosmo" at MoMA PS1 this summer

The pavilion is described as "a moveable party artifact that is also biochemically engineered to filter and purify 3,000 gallons of water in a period of four days," and provides the setting for PS1's "Warm Up" summer party series. Jaque was later selected to take part in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, showcasing his "Superpowers of 10" film. Check out Nicholas Korody's interview with Jaque for more about his work. We also spoke with Jaque about his YAP proposal on Archinect Sessions.

↑ Koolhaas to design new High Line project

The residential structure will be Koolhaas'/OMA's first "ground-up" project in NYC proper (a prior proposal, 23 East 22nd Street, was scrapped after the 2008 recession hit.)

↑​ Jon Jerde, founder and chairman of The Jerde Partnership, has died

The architect known for his "placemaking" strategies, developing the commercial retail spaces now commonplace in US urbanism, died after a longterm illness in his home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. 

↑​ Architecture for Humanity to file for bankruptcy

AFH had previously announced in January that it would cease official operations. As many local chapters are run by volunteers, not beholden to the official nonprofit, projects and initiatives may continue on the smaller scale.

↑​ Google Unveils BIG + Heatherwick Studios Collaboration for New Campus Master Plan

In what quickly became one of the biggest news topics of 2015, the (relatively young) partnership of Heatherwick and Ingels were forced to scale back their plans a bit when Google didn't get all the land it wanted. Their plans included a somewhat retrofuturistic take on glass Bucky bubbles in a modular set-up. We discuss the proposal on an episode of Archinect Sessions.

↑​ "She had got it." Razan Abu-Salha remembered by her architecture professor

19-year old Abu-Salha was an architecture student at North Carolina State University College of Design, living in Chapel Hill with her sister and her sister's husband, when all three were murdered by a neighbor (no official motive has been stated as of yet, however speculations refer to an ongoing parking dispute and Islamophobia).

February 2015

↑ Deans List: Monica Ponce de Leon of University of Michigan's Taubman College

The architect, educator and soon-to-be co-curator of the US Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale, Ponce de Leon was appointed the deanship at Princeton shortly after our Deans List conversation.

↑ Pop Cultitecture: The Genius of David Byrne

Byrne is known as something of an artistic polymath, and his interest in architecture is well-distributed throughout a nearly 40-year career. Julia Ingalls explores Byrne's unique architectural approach in installation art pieces, music and books.