Julia Ingalls wrote about architectural solutions, four major U.S. cities have used, to address homelessness. no_form quipped "Giving homeless people housing solves homelessness. Wow, fucking brilliant. Took long enough to recognize the obvious." 

Plus, Nicholas Korody previewed Anupama Kundoo's "Building Knowledge" and examined "Sarajevo Now" as part of Archinect’s 2016 Venice Biennale coverage.

News
The Guardian provided a First look: inside the Switch House. The new "arresting brick ziggurat" for Tate Modern's. jla-x, commented "Those stairs are beautiful."

The news that Swiss architect Simon Kretz is the lucky protégé who will get to work with David Chipperfield in a year-long architecture mentorship (from the 2016-17 Rolex Arts Initiative), kickstarted a discussion about diversity, "white male shit...." and mentoring vs patronage. Marc Miller paused to put things in perspective, via an amazing podcast with Mabel Wilson from Columbia. "The were some crazy points brought up, like there are only 6 tenured (African American ) women (no source cited) in architecture schools and 83 percent of the architecture programs in the united states don't have African American faculty- all in this embedded in a much larger discourse about race and design. good listen".

Alexandra Lange analyzes two similar Thomas Heatherwick designed-projects, London's Garden Bridge and New York's Pier 55, in the hopes of discovering why one seems to be resonating with the public while the other not. Marc Miller noted “Sure, the designer is the same, and there's some water involved in both projects, but socially and economically they are very different.”

Andrea Dietz spent four days in Venice reporting on the Biennale's opening.

LiMX argued (with Aravena?) "With respect, many (if not most) architects do give a damn. What's needed (more than another elite party in Venice, though it does look especially good this year with more social-craft oriented work) is a mass media movement to reestablish architecture in the public mind."

While davvid appreciates "the focus on often overlooked aspects, factors and participants in Architecture culture" he can’t help "thinking about the use of political/thematic contrast in the way that this biennale has been curated and positioned against mainstream Architecture. Does this kind of high contrast pivot from starchitects to rammed earth buildings bring us close to understanding where we are at in 2016, or are we just swapping Koolhaas's socioeconomic blinders out for Aravena's?"

Others reporting from on the ground included Ed Frith and Laura Amaya
 

Firms/Work Updates
Recently Meriem Sakrouhi worked on "Great Lakes Education Center (Rendering using Sketchup, Vray and Photoshop)".

Eric Wynkoop (a third generation architect and recent master of architecture graduate) launched a blog The Architecture Critic.

AGi architects described their participation in the Kuwait pavilion for this year’s Venice Biennale.

If you are looking for work, think about applying for the position of Architect in the Engineering Department’s Design Division at The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.

Otherwise, SUNY at Old Westbury invites applications for the position of Project Manager (Site Representative), where you would report to the Director of Capital Planning/Office of Business and Finance.

Dyanon Bistro in Ecuador by Jannina Cabal and Bridge House in Kent, CT by Joeb Moore & Partners Architects, LLC are just two of the projects to be found on the latest Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Eating & Drinking Spaces" Pinterest Board.

School/Blogs
Ramon Hernandez (one of six Taubman College M.Arch students selected to assist curators of the U.S. Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale) provided a behind the scenes peek at Unpacking the U.S. Pavilion (49 Crates in 3 days!)

As well as sharing snapshots of the Venice Arsenale exhibitions through the deployment of the architectural model. 

Another Taubmanite, Kristen Gandy reflected on the Japanese Giardini pavilion.

Will Galloway affiliated with keio university's architecture program, reported on a bold and exciting plan developed by Hiroto Kobayashi (and led by prof and architect Shohei Matsukawa),  "Each year for the next five years the plan is that students will design and build a 450m2 addition to the campus."

Discussions/Threads
archibaldfrance is wondering about the architecture market in New York at the moment?

It was pointed out "this is one of the easiest times to find a job in New York in years...there are almost 600 active job ads in New York alone". That being said RTVSkaarchitecture countered "LA is the frontier".

wurdan freo had exciting news, "Giving notice on Tuesday to the 9-5", since they are turning a "part time business...full time after 5 years." Therefore, took the opportunity to thank "Carerra, Tintt, Mighty, gwharton, geezer, Donna and all you anonymous freaks who have helped answer my dumb questions over the years."

Finally, PerCorell guessed his username to necro an old post (by rfuller) and posted a link to a Pinterest album of "Stencils wallpaintings...canvases and Streetart", as well as some Original 3d.