U.S. engineering firm Aecom will manage the development of Neom Bay, part of a $500 billion mega city on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast [...]
The kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, is spearheading plans to develop Neom, a futuristic city being built from scratch, as part of the government’s plans to cut its reliance on oil and attract foreign investment.
— Bloomberg
Intentions for the planned Neom megacity were first announced by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, but Saudi Arabia's suspected involvement in the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi a year later caused international outrage and prominent international figures on the... View full entry
“These are expensive projects. There’s no question. But if we are to reap the benefits of mass transit, we have to provide mass transit that is attractive to individual travelers and their families,” said Rick Cotton, the executive director at the Port Authority, without explaining the rise in cost. “Experience shows that rail mass transit is the most attractive alternative, and we’re committed to provided that.” — AM New York
While the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey works to implement an $8 billion overhaul of LaGuardia Airport, costs for a planned AirTrain link connecting the airport to regional mass transit continue to grow. According to AM New York, when first proposed in 2014, the two-mile... View full entry
On top of climate change, cities grow hotter and hotter due to an increase in urban heat island effect. According to Philip Oldfield's Guardian piece, "What would a heat-proof city look like?," there are four solutions cities can implement to decrease rising temperatures. Oldfield explains green... View full entry
Mayor Byron Brown said there will be a significant change documented in the 2020 Census for Buffalo. "We believe that in the 2020 census will allow Buffalo to show its first population growth since the 1950 census,” he said. — Spectrum News
After nearly 70 years of population declines, The City of Good Neighbors is growing once again. According to Buffalo mayor Byron W. Brown, the city could register significant population growth after the 2020 Census, a product, in part, of the city's growing refugee and immigrant communities... View full entry
The United States Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has unveiled its annual list of "highway boondoggles," a list of "budget-eating highway projects" that will "harm communities and the environment, while likely failing to achieve meaningful transportation goals." The proposed North Houston... View full entry
Construction is ramping up on a major mixed-use development in Downtown designed by Frank Gehry.
Over the weekend, the one of two concrete pours was completed at The Grand, laying down the foundation for the project’s 39-story residential tower. When finished, the Bunker Hill tower will hold 400 housing units, 20 percent of them affordable units.
— Curbed LA
Photo: Weldon Brewster, image courtesy of Related-CORE. Curbed Los Angeles reports that the first of two mat foundation pours for the residential tower of the enormous Gehry-designed The Grand project took "15 hours, and required about 140 workers and 1,348 trucks," installing 13,478 cubic yards... View full entry
Shortly after the invention of photography, there was architecture photography. Generous natural lighting, a range of scalable details and a pride of place made architecture a primary subject in the understanding of photographic technology during the first half of the 19th century. Paris'... View full entry
Now in its 32nd year, the biennial Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence (RBA) celebrates transformative places in recognition of their physical design and contributions to the economic, environmental, and social vitality of U.S. cities. Following a rigorous evaluation process, the 2019 Gold... View full entry
Big Plans: Picturing Social Reform, an exhibition currently on view at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, examines how landscape architects and photographers concretized contemporary social critiques through their work in American cities during the late 1800s and early... View full entry
The Yiwu Grand Theater's larger than life presence along the Dongyang River is not all for show. MAD Architects aims to create a structure that will be a "monument for the city." Envisioned as an immersive public space for inhabitants and visitors alike, the overall design for the... View full entry
Four housing design and community projects, as diverse in program as they are in geographic location, have been announced as category winners of the 2019 AIA/HUD Secretary's Awards. The annual initiative is a partnership between the AIA's Housing Knowledge Community with the Office... View full entry
It's that time of year when the AIA|LA reveals the winners of their Restaurant Design Awards. For the last two decades, the annual awards competition honors some of the best restaurant interior design in L.A.'s diverse culinary scene and beyond. The winning projects must resolve demanding... View full entry
For minorities and female developers, “access to capital has been the biggest challenge,” said Peebles, who has been an outspoken advocate for diversity in the industry. “I looked at how to address that for a number of years. No one in the country is doing this on a national level.” — therealdeal.com
Real estate developer Peebles Corporation has unveiled a $500 million investment fund that will be used to fuel development projects led by women and racial minorities. According to The Real Deal, the fund will focus on urban infill projects with budgets between $10 and $70 million in... View full entry
At the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the braille was too oversized to read for the blind. When asked about this, the National Parks Service told CBS News that the braille on the memorial was "part of the artist's design of the memorial," and was "not necessarily intended as accessiblity [sic] elements" for the blind. — CBS News
A CBS News investigation revealed two year's worth of complaints to the U.S. Justice Department's Disability Rights section about missing or incorrect braille found at numerous public facilities throughout the U.S. The report is but another reminder about how the needs of blind Americans... View full entry
Pelli Clarke Pelli, Adamson Associates, OJB Landscape Architecture, and developers Oxford Properties Group have unveiled plans for Union Park, a 4.3 million-square-foot marquee development that could reshape the Toronto skyline. View of the proposed rail yard cap park. Image... View full entry
