For nearly two years, [Janna Ireland has] searched out buildings to photograph — mansions and housing projects, churches and banks designed by the Angeleno architect who died in 1980. [...] “I’m interested in stories about black people, and I’m interested in stories about Los Angeles. There’s an intersection there,” says Ireland, who grew up in Philadelphia. — Los Angeles Times
Mimi Zeiger profiles artist/photographer Janna Ireland, who has spent the last two years photographing the buildings of Paul R. Williams as a way to preserve his architectural legacy. “It has all of this psychological depth ... [Ireland's photos] don’t simply document the architectural... View full entry
This week, the Navy Yard released new renderings and an expanded master plan that shows a 30-year plan for the complex. Developed with the multidisciplinary design firm WXY, the master plan includes three new buildings totaling 5.1 million square feet [...]. The plan also includes increased public access to the complex, including retail and open space, and improved wayfinding and circulation. The expected cost is $2.5 billion, coming on the heels of a nearly complete $1 billion expansion. — Curbed NY
Curbed New York has a lengthy piece up about the recently unveiled new master plan for the 300-acre Brooklyn Navy Yard megadevelopment. Rendering: bloomimages; Image via BNYDC/WXY architecture + urban designMembers of the public are invited to join a series of tours of new projects... View full entry
The space under elevated highways are often dark, industrial, and empty. With so much capacity to create a vibrant public space, organizations and cities are exploring ways for creative development in the otherwise unused area. — PopUpCity
Underpasses are often overlooked for their building potential, but cities like Toronto and Zurich are redefining the creative opportunity of these spaces. Underpass design is a great way for cities to enrich these often vacant industrial spaces and create areas for community engagement and... View full entry
Yet it is Ms. van Loon’s innate sense of openness that allows her to think freely, particularly as a woman in a male-dominated profession. She said she had seen an improvement in the number of women in the profession, along with the increasingly important roles they play, and their influence on the design of buildings.
[...] “Now at OMA, we’re 50/50 men and women, though let’s hope there are a few more female partners in the future."
— The New York Times
The New York Times introduces OMA's only female partner, Dutch architect Ellen van Loon, who recounts her first fascination for Rem Koolhaas and looks at some of her recent high-profile projects, such as the new Qatar National Library, Rijnstraat 8 in The Hague, and the recently completed 'Blox'... View full entry
After over 20 years of restoration, a legendary Frank Lloyd Wrightresidence in Buffalo, NY has finally opened its doors to public visitors. Sitting inside the Martin House complex, the Barton House's $2-million upgrade is the final architectural piece of the estate to be restored, completing the... View full entry
Zaha Hadid Architects won against 47 international teams in a competition to design the new Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Concert Hall in the growing cultural city of Yekaterinburg, Russia. The new Sverdlovsk Concert Hall will be the new home of the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, who has been performing... View full entry
The idea of the “both-and” suggested a new pluralism, and maybe a new tolerance, in architecture. But the phrase turned out to have its limits. To the extent that Venturi was making an argument in favor of a kind of big-tent populism in architecture, it was a space for new styles instead of new voices, new forms rather than new people. In fact, tucked inside Complexity and Contradiction is an argument for a renewed insularity in the profession [...]. — The Atlantic
Christoper Hawthorne, former LA Times architecture critic and now Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles, dissects Robert Venturi's 1966 book, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (which famously scoffs at the Miessian classical Modernism with the "less is a bore" tagline), and argues... View full entry
Following the construction of the first phase in 2015, the Mecanoo-designed Delft City Hall and Train Station is now fully completed, the Dutch firm recently announced. The 28,320 m2 project sits on top of a train tunnel, which replaced an old concrete viaduct that divided the city since... View full entry
As Americans cram into ever-tighter urban living arrangements, a question has emerged: Isn’t there some better way to furnish a tiny apartment? Yes. The answer, of course, is robots.
Inside a model studio apartment at the Eugene, an 844-unit building on Manhattan’s West Side, sits a blocky, Swiss Army-knife-like unit that looks a little like two-sided armoire with lots of compartments. It’s called Ori. Ori runs on a track and can be activated by voice command...
— The New York Times
Companies like Ori and Bumblebee Spaces are testing out robotic furniture in major cities where living space is limited. The Ori system, currently testing robotically-furnished apartments in Manhattan, operates through voice command or your smartphone app moving the modular unit along a floor... View full entry
InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland (also known as the Deep Pit Hotel), will finally open its doors in October. The eye-popping, luxury hotel is standing out as a must-see destination in itself. Built mostly below ground in a deep pit of an abandoned quarry in southwestern Shanghai, it’s being hailed as a modern architectural wonder. [...]
Of its 18 floors, 16 are technically below ground, including two floors underwater.
— Lonely Planet
Image courtesy of Atkins."The hotel houses 337 rooms and suites that boast curved balconies where guests can enjoy views of the waterfalls spilling from the surrounding cliffs and the transparent glass waterfall built into the centre of the hotel," writes Lonely Planet on its website. What's not... View full entry
Kristen Gates and Thomas Nye were recently announced as the 2018 RAMSA Prize winners for their proposal, “Harmony of the Whole: Cities Beautiful in 20th Century India”. Separate from the $10,000 RAMSA Travel Fellowship, the firm's partners grant the $5,000 RAMSA Prize to an employee or... View full entry
Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood is getting an exciting new art place, and it's been designed by none other than Tadao Ando. Wrightwood 659 is a major transformation of a historic building from the 1920s and will be dedicated to exhibitions on architecture and on socially engaged art. © Jeff... View full entry
The anticipated 2018 World Architecture Festival is still a couple weeks away, but the competition is already heating up. Organizers behind the three-day event have just arrolled out the early winners of their WAFX prize, which distinguishes forward-thinking... View full entry
On this latest episode of Archinect Sessions we talk with Sekou Cooke, Syracuse-based architect, educator and curator of the upcoming exhibition at the Center for Architecture, "Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture", scheduled to open this Monday, October 1st in New York City... View full entry
We get it. It can get a little overwhelming keeping up with the dozens of new architecture competitions launching worldwide on any given week — let alone having to stay on top of the multiple deadlines for each and every one. That's why Bustler is here to help! At the end... View full entry