Archinectors recently had a chance to win “Mid-Century Modern Architecture Travel Guide: West Coast USA” by Sam Lubell. Published by Phaidon, this handy travel guide features over 250 Mid-Century Modern projects neatly organized into color-coded chapters that cover the Pacific Northwest... View full entry
Studio Gang's 2017 Summer Block Party installation called the “Hive," opened to the public in the beginning of July. Since then, many have flocked to the National Building Museum in Washington D.C to experience the structure made of 2,700 wounded paper tubes. For those not near the D.C... View full entry
Lea Oxenhandler and Benjamin Halpern were announced today as the winners of the very first Architectural Record Traveling Fellowship, which the magazine established in celebration of their 125th anniversary. The fellowship will fund the travel expenses of Oxenhandler and Halpern as they each... View full entry
To shift our focus from innovation to maintenance would also create an opportunity for greater political consensus. Maintenance is an area of public policy where conservatives and progressives should see eye to eye. — The NY Times
As Andrew Russell and Lee Vinseljuly of NY Times point out, officials in federal, state and local government do not allocate the resources necessary for preventive maintenance. The authors argue that American conception of technology is narrow and immature—obsessing over gadgets and... View full entry
Healthcare facilities matter just as much as the important services they provide to their communities. In this spirit, the AIA's annual Healthcare Design Awards spotlight exemplary healthcare-building design and healthcare design-oriented research projects by... View full entry
Entering 2017, construction forecasters were quite optimistic about the near-term outlook for the industry. [...]
However, as of the mid-year 2017 update, the grounds of this euphoria are evaporating. [...] key elements of the Trump administration’s legislative agenda have made almost no progress. [...]
As a result, the AIA Consensus Construction Forecast panel is predicting slower growth for the construction industry for the remainder of 2017 and through 2018.
— aia.org
"The slower estimated growth for 2017 is expected to continue through 2018. Overall spending growth is currently projected by the Consensus Forecast panel at 3.6 percent for next year, down modestly from the 4.9 percent forecast entering this year. Commercial construction is expected to perform... View full entry
[P]erhaps enticed by predictions of a $7 trillion autonomous driving industry, Lyft is saying it wants a build its own technology stack so it can operate its own self-driving cars.
To accomplish this, Lyft is opening a new 50,000-square-foot engineering facility in Palo Alto, California, that it’s calling the “Level 5” center in reference to the most advanced level of autonomous driving. Kapoor said the goal is to have “hundreds” of engineers working out of the facility by the end of 2018.
— The Verge
According to The Verge, Lyft is yet to release more concrete details of their plan, including which components of a self-driving car they will build themselves or how much money they plan to spend. Last month, Lyft announced their partnership with self-driving car startup NuTonomy to launch a test... View full entry
...So today's engineers battle not only the force of gravity but the the whirling pockets of wind, known as vortices, that can cause towers to shake or vibrate. Failure to do so would make the motion of the building — or "acceleration," as engineers call it — uncomfortably noticeable. — Chicago Tribune
Tunnel tests for Chicago's future third-tallest skyscraper showed that the plan for the building—three thin, interconnected high-rises designed by Studio Gang—would not be able to withstand high winds. According to the engineers, the design for the Vista tower "would result in building... View full entry
Talk about redeveloping the long-vacant Michigan Central Station in Detroit's Corktown area heated up again Thursday during an announcement about this year's Detroit Homecoming, which will hold the first significant private event in the 104-year-old train station since the mid-1980s. [...]
"(Redevelopment of) the depot is going to take a marathon, but we're not at the beginning of the race, we're a few miles into it," said Matthew Moroun, whose father, Matty, bought the building in 1995.
— crainsdetroit.com
"I said, 'there's one thing: Every time I read a damn national story about Detroit, there's a picture of the train station with the holes in the windows as the international image of the city's decline,'" Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is quoted saying, recalling his conversation with billionaire... View full entry
Wondering where design-inclined folks are gathering around Greater Los Angeles? Although it's the middle of summer, some schools are currently showcasing ongoing exhibitions that are surely worth checking out. Take a gander at Bustler's latest architecture and design event... View full entry
It's summertime in the city — a good time for cooling off while browsing an exhibition or enjoying warm summer evenings at a local block party. New York City is abuzz with folks expanding the possibilities of how architectural design and practice can be reinterpreted, bringing... View full entry
A farmer in Russia has built a football stadium out of straw to mock the ballooning cost and corruption surrounding the construction of St Petersburg’s Zenit Arena, recently opened for the 2018 World Cup.
Although the straw version in the Stavropol region lacks the extra-terrestrial elegance of the Kisho Kurokawa’s design, and while its seating capacity is rather less than 68,000, it was a great deal cheaper: $673 compared with the original’s $720m.
— Global Construction Review
Here's an image of the IRL Zenit Arena: And here's a video of the construction of the straw parody: View full entry
Most of Italy’s splendid old libraries got their starts as the private collections of a humanist noble or cardinal...Where the Angelica is small, plush and perfectly faceted, the Casanatense is spartan and muscular. The Angelica reflects the wealth of its Augustinian founders, whose church, the Basilica di Sant’Agostino, adjoins the library, while the Casanatense shows its Dominican roots in its deep collection of books and codices on Church doctrine and natural history. — NYT
David Laskin reflects on a trip he took, earlier his year, to Venice, Rome, Florence and Milan, where he visited a sampling of Italy's many historic libraries. View full entry
The drilling and soil testing are taking place in El Paso; Santa Teresa, N.M.; Calexico, Calif.; and the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. Mr. Lapan said the testing has been completed in El Paso and Calexico. The agency has identified the San Diego area and the Rio Grande Valley as priority regions for new border walls. The Corps will begin work in the San Diego area in August. — The NY Times
On Tuesday the House Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill that included $1.6 billion for a wall, funding 74 miles of fencing along the southwest border. The Department of Homeland Security has moved $20 million from other programs to pay for the construction of several border wall... View full entry
The company announced that a new live entertainment venue off the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street will be modeled after KC’s iconic, bygone Willis Wood Theatre.
The original theater opened in 1902 at 11th and Baltimore streets and stretched for a block and a half. It was a cultural hub for the city before it burned down in January 1917.
— The Kansas City Star
Featuring large Ionic columns and Baroque embellishments, the Willis Wood Theater, was designed by Louis Curtiss, Canadian-born American architect noted as one of KC's most prominent architects. It is speculated that Walt Disney frequented the theater when he was living in KC. “It is... View full entry