Amelia Taylor-Hochberg penned the review A Panel Discussion for A+D Museum's "Never Built: Los Angeles". Attempting to answer the question "What's Next?" for LA, she suggested "The immediate goal is then to push urban design and architecture into daily conversations -- through political dialogues, media representation, and most importantly, educational institutions (the younger the students, the better). Generational mortality is a simple inevitability, and won’t ensure anything, but at the very least, increased exposure will help identify and emphasize the potential of art in society​".
 

News
The LA Times reported that Randell Makinson, a forceful advocate for preservation of the rambling Greene & Greene bungalows that came to be seen as graceful emblems of early 20th century California, has died. He was 81.

Orhan Ayyüce released Under the Radar Los Angeles #1 in which he highlights Glendale Federal Savings, Glendale (now known as Hollywood Production Center) by W.A. Sarmiento (born 1922)  a Peruvian-born American modernist architect. citizen replied "Fantastic, Orhan.  I love these.  This one makes me think of the bank/ office building at Pico and Overland... where a recent remodel removed all those wonderful fins, which is criminal".

The winners of ‘The Timber in the City’ competition organized by ACSA, the Binational Softwood Lumber Council, and Parsons The New School for Design, were chosen. 'Grow Your Own City' the University of Oregon’s winning submission won First Place.

b3tadine[sutures] griped "No offense, and I like the projects, but is there a reason why students must continue to rip off established designers, and work, in order to win competitions? I mean lets get real, the image above, and the benches, walk, and overall feel of the space are almost a one to one rip-off of DS+R and the Highline. Unless I'm missing something, and this was part of the brief".

Over at the Daily Californian, Chase Schweitzer and Jose Hernandez visited Blake House, north of the Berkeley Hills site of a currently abandoned 13,200-square-foot Mediterranean-style mansion historically reserved for the UC president. observant commented "What a beautiful home, through its simplicity, massing, respect for its vernacular, and even its siting, with that long linear pool in front as a counterpoint to the home's width...They should open this home and its grounds for tours and tell UC presidents to get a nice apartment in funky Berkeley instead".

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
you can now purchase digital publications from dpr-barcelona  using bitcoins. And [as far as they know] they are the first architecture publishers doing so! 

Trans{beach}gration by Pablo Costa and Model making - Foundation Diploma: Art and Design by Hai Hung Law were just two of the projects featured recently on the Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Student Work" Pinterest Board.

Cristiano Aires Teixeira recently did Research on the Reconstruction of Lisbon after the Earthquake 1755 while Waleed Karajah recently worked on Airport design maps.

Schools/Blogs
Jeffrey Maeshiro studying at California College of the Arts (CCA) posted his and Shawn Komolos’work from Radical Representation "an advanced course, taught by Greg Hurcomb with software tutorials by Flori Kryethi, that explored innovative methods of architectural expression through a wide range of digital tools. Focusing on the design triumvirate of Fiction~Cinema~Architecture we were encouraged to develop our ideas through writing to delineate a cohesive path of inquiry".

Looking for something to do? MENTORS NEEDED at New York City College of Technology. Those who respond may earn up to 80 service hours applicable towards IDP.

Cooper Union has started searching for a new Dean for the The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture. Specifically, "an individual who can provide the leadership necessary to carry forward its distinguished standard of excellence...The Cooper Union currently faces significant challenges, which provide exceptional opportunities to reaffirm and advance the School's strengths and values".

The current resident of the University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design’s New Norris House, has been living in the home one year and reflected on The New Norris House landscape as "an example of how alive a suburban residential yard can feel".

Discussions
joeykey started a thread re: "hidde n/invisi ble architecture, places, moment that we architect might have missed...some very fundamental human activites that involve invisib le architecture". Quondam, responded "somewhat reminded of the contrast of (old) Fremont Street (Las Vegas) during the day and at night...Does the notion of the Decorated Shed somehow relate to 'Invisible Architecture'?" citizen added "How about ordinary, vernacular buildings that make up such a large proportion of the landscape?...in other words, unnoticed and all-but-invisible in the cultural sense".

Amy Leedham noted a recent post titled Worrisome trends in architecture education over at the blog I Eat Bugs For Breakfast. jmanganelli basically agreed but pointed out "my observation is that architecture students get inconsistent exposure to research design and computational analysis methods.  Architecture professors who do not have appropriate backgrounds are asked to teach an 'evidence-based' and 'computational' skillset, and some struggle to do this.   In addition, just because someone understands computational data representation and analysis doesn't mean (s)he understands research design, and vice versa...'Architectural design informed by research and quantitative analysis' is a lofty goal but often the logistics of achieving it are not realizable with available time and resources".

However Will Galloway argued "When it comes to education today in general for me the real concern is that most jobs are not tenured and often filled by adjuncts instead, who are notoriously underpaid and overworked.  It is hard to take an underpaid job seriously and it is really hard for a professor to make real headway with a research program when the job has no future.  That circumstance may be what allows students to muddle through as in the example you have posted here. The problem is perhaps not one of standards but of a general issue with the education system that is far more troubling".

Finally, dblt1234 is looking for feedback on "3 renders we put together; please let us know how we could improve!"

Additionally
ArchDaily published Urban Fragment: (an essay Evan Chakroff wrote on) Jose Oubrerie’s Miller House. Therein he concluded "Once again, the Miller House is up for sale, and so threatened by demolition...This is unfortunate, for students and architects who would study the house, but more importantly for society, where design is so often subservient to the market, and where the status quo seems at times so inadequate. The Miller House is a pedagogical tool, a build interpretation of architectural history, a commentary on the evolving state of the modern family unit, and a visionary proposal for communal living in an age of mass-urbanization".