Architects Orange have developed a proposal for Oklahoma City featuring what could become the "the tallest building in the United States and currently fifth tallest in the world." thom.Bohlen@pima.gov agrees "with the previous negative design comments, and would add that the 1,750 ft tower element appears to be an afterthought, and not the driver of the design."

Most everyone is excited about plans for the redevelopment of the soon-to-close Santa Monica Airport by Sasaki Associates, who are now the lead consultants for both the design and public outreach process.

The American Institute of Architects (as well as a couple of ‘Nectors) welcomed a revision to fee limitations, from 6 to 10 percent of total estimated construction costs, on all federal design and construction contracts undertaken with the Department of Defense.

Oana Stănescu is the curator for the Beta 2024 Timișoara Architecture Biennial. Donna Sink and others rejoiced "So exciting to see old time Archinectors achieving great things."

Josh Niland explored whether modular housing startups can make it. Frankly Will Galloway doesn’t understand the "Failure of pre-fab" in North America. 

As "Japanese factory housing holds a good part of the market, from individual houses to low-rise apartments. Maybe only possible because regulations are federal rather than local, so variations are limited enough to make a business practical. Fragmentation of rules and regulations in North America seem to make this kind of company next to impossible."

In response gwharton pointed to "a hard limit on the size of modular components relative to what can legally and easily be transported on US roadways" plus "misalignment on construction tolerances. Modular components need much tighter dimensional tolerances than stick-built construction” as another key issue." Later Will reflected "Maybe the lesson from Sweden or Denmark is simply that scale matters and the kind of scaling we expect of mass-production is hard to achieve with housing when the market is so fractured...? Regionally challenging, nationally next to impossible?"

The AIA’s chief economist Kermit Baker offered reflections on the challenging economic context facing architecture firms in 2024. natematt wasn’t completely convinced

 "While the market slowing is very apparent, I don’t see the impact of operation costs in the real world, Is that actually an issue, is the cost of running a firm really spiraling out of control?"

Real de Los Reyes in Mexico City, Mexico, by Miguel de la Torre Arquitectos and Blodgett-Calvin Residential Compound in San Marino, CA, by Fung + Blatt Architects are just two of the latest top images from the Archinect Pinterest board Houses.

Blogs/Firms/Work Updates

Laura Serebin, AIA, LEED AP, was named president and CEO of Flad Architects as of the start of this year.

Montroy DeMarco Architecture LLP highlighted their role in the transformation of the US Postal Service (USPS) Morgan North Processing and Distribution Center into a sustainable, mixed-use building, with the largest green roof in NYC.

If you are looking for work and especially if you want to be closer to the POW and slopes, Eigelberger Architecture + Design has six openings, with four located in Eagle/Pitkin counties, Colorado. Meanwhile Pittsburgh based mossArchitects is seeking "a creative, inquisitive, and proactive architectural designer, with 2-5 years of experience, to join our growing team" and in San Francisco Obata Noblin Office has an opening for someone with a "Minimum of 2 years of professional experience".

Schools

The 2024 Get Lectured series kicked off with poster from Clemson University School of Architecture.

If you are looking for work in academia, the UVA School of Architecture is hiring an Assistant Professor in Architecture starting in fall of 2024. Review of applications begins in late February and will continue until the position is filled.

Discussion/Threads

Towards the end of last year, eduards asked for help with Zinc roof and façade "constructive details". Everyday Architect seconded that "If you are looking for info about architectural zinc, your first stop should probably be VM ZINC" and also suggested Rheinzink. Both of which natematt noted "are the only two zinc finish manufacturers I've used or seen used by our office."

Later luvu was curious about "zinc cladding in hot / tropical climate?" According to gwharton the "bigger issue" isn’t the "humid/salty air" it is that in "wet climates" there is a "galvanic reaction between the zinc and non-zinc flashings."

J G shared some thoughts about the BIG designs for ‘Mindfulness City’ a 1,000-square-kilometre development in Bhutan and ended with "court is open for dunking". sameolddoctor chimed in "On a political level, if this project harkens to the 'china-ization' of Bhutan, then the country is done for. The criticism is directed towards chinese cities, not chinese architects." monosierra had to admit "There is a skill in churning out something that has all the sheen…without actually doing anything new…They have mastered their audience and language. Think Don Draper rather than FLW - though FLW certainly had a lot of Draper in him too!"

Finally, bowling_ball was worried and has a favor to ask "Is it like music, where we stop liking new things after 20ish? I'd like to think that's not the case, but I can't and that's why I'm here. Fellow Archinectors, if you'll do me the indulgence of posting really great, recent work, and preferably by up-and-coming or lesser-known firms building up their portfolios."

JLC-1 was a fan of Bangkok Project Studio in particular their "elephant sanctuary". While ae_0 dropped a couple names including 31/44 Architects they also offered one explanation to allay bowling_ball's concerns. The fact that it is "quite rare for an office these days to go beyond concept proposals, pavilions, or furniture scale projects, to have built work in the first decade of their existence."

Got a firm you want to recommend, drop a comment here!

Additionally

ICYMI, the 2023 edition of The Solarpunk Conference Journal, featuring 13 papers, included an entry from long-time ‘Nector Phillip Crosby titled "Starting the Solarpunk Revolution by Redesigning City Streets".