Park claimed the design, construction and marketing of the tower ripped off a design he planned and modeled for his thesis at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1999. He said his thesis adviser was an associate partner at SOM and a second senior partner from the architectural firm also reviewed his work...
The judge, however, wrote in a September order that these claims survive “only by the skin of their teeth, owing principally to the highly deferential standards on a motion to dismiss.”
— The Real Deal
Jeehon Park, a Georgia-based architect, sued Skidmore, Owings & Merril, Tishman Construction, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and The Durst Organization back in 2017. According to The Real Deal, an SOM spokesperson said, "While it is positive that so much of the case was... View full entry
We all have enemies 'If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.' - Sun Tzu... View full entry
Armed with €10m in EU funding, a consortium of 21 European companies and organisations has formed to try and make timber the material of choice for multi-storey buildings instead of steel and concrete.
Their aim over the next four years is to remove barriers to timber construction by developing standard, industrialised timber building systems, while documenting the environmental, economic and social benefits.
— Global Construction Review
The multinational, pan European innovation project, called Build-in-Wood, aims to "make wood the common choice of material for construction of multi-story buildings," reports Global Construction Review. "We’re not trying to create the world’s tallest wood building," project coordinator Niels... View full entry
This post is brought to you by BQE Core. All too often architects find themselves dealing with clients and prospects who treat them as employees, rather than fellow business owners (Related: Clients from Hell… and Other Love Stories). Even if your clients aren’t difficult on purpose... View full entry
Abraham Lincoln's Disappointment In the summer of 1863 after three days of brutal warfare, the Battle of Gettysburg culminated with the retreat of Robert E. Lee's army, something, that at the time, President Lincoln was not happy about. While the battle was seen as a triumph for the Union Army... View full entry
If there is one skill we learn as architects and designers, it's how to talk. We know how to dress up our ideas and present them eloquently and compellingly. As a result, we sometimes build a tricky habit of winging presentations. This happens in school and in professional practice. Most of the... View full entry
"Construction spending in the commercial category, which encompasses retail space among other segments, is down nearly 12% on a year-over-year basis. Spending related to lodging, including new hotel construction, was down 0.7% for the month and is up less than 4% year over year. Spending in the power segment also decreased in August and is down 3.5% compared to the same time last year." — Building Design + Construction
A recent report from the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) looking at construction activity year-over-year shows a slight increase in construction spending for the year ending in August 2019. Total construction spending rose 0.3-percent relative to the same point in 2018, resulting in... View full entry
JBG Smith, the biggest developer in the D.C. area and landlord of Amazon’s future Northern Virginia headquarters, Tuesday announced that it would redevelop about 2.6 million square feet of space at five multifamily buildings and an office building in Crystal City. The buildings are all within half a mile of the Amazon headquarters site and near Reagan National Airport, representing part of a broader development push in the area now called “National Landing.” — Curbed DC
In total, JBG Smith plans to redevelop around 6.9 million square feet at National Landing with a third of that area devoted to office space and the rest developed as residential spaces that could generate between 4,000 and 5,000 dwelling units, as well as ground floor retail, reports Curbed DC... View full entry
The all-nighter is a common occurrence in architecture today, especially in school. We briefly explored the reasons for this growing phenomenon in The Architecture Student's Guide to Studio, but let's dive a little deeper into the issue. Here are 2 things you should ask yourself before you... View full entry
In the workplace, probably unsurprisingly to many women who are routinely talked over, patronized or ignored by male colleagues, research shows that rather than women being underconfident, men tend to be overconfident in relation to their actual abilities. Women generally aren’t failing to speak up; the problem is that men are refusing to pipe down. — The New York Times
Author Ruth Whippman, writing in The New York Times, questions the focus on coaching women to adopt the aggressive social behaviors of men in the workplace. Might these efforts be more effective if men were simultaneously encouraged to cede space, attention, and power in a reciprocal... View full entry
MARKERAD collection, a collaboration between IKEA x Virgil Abloh...This range stylishly fuses functionality with street cred and high cultural references, it brings you statement pieces that challenge tradition. The collection of 15 pieces consists of a range of fashion-forward homewares that cater towards fluid and contemporary living, including a day bed, table, chair, mirror, lighting, bed textiles, cabinet and accessories. — IKEA
"It’s about elevating the anonymous, everyday icons that we use without noticing. When we put a doorstop on one of the legs of an ordinary chair we create something unexpected – an interruption," said Abloh about the collection. View full entry
That’s what I’m trying to do with Tools & Tiaras: Have girls start envisioning that it’s normal for a woman to be an ironworker, to be my sister, to be working with me. Our stories are not told; no woman really knows: “Wow, she looks like me. She’s only four feet eleven and seven eighths and she’s doing plumbing? I can do it.” Society needs to change the way we portray what is women’s work and what tradespeople look like. — Urban Omnibus
Judaline Cassidy, a New York-based plumber and the founder/director of the nonprofit Tools & Tiaras Inc, explains her struggles to break into the overwhelmingly male-dominated construction industry (only 3.4 percent of construction trades workers are women), the progress that has been made in... View full entry
After emerging triumphant in an international design competition, David Chipperfield Architects have received the commission for the Rolex USA headquarters in New York. It will be located on the corner of 5th Avenue and 53rd Street and will replace an existing building that has been occupied by... View full entry
Sitting there, program in hand, concept underway, and with constraints to abide by, we consider the possibilities. The design process isn't a scientific thing, there's an artistic aspect to it, one that sometimes leaves us searching for the perfect solution. We arrive at something, but know when... View full entry
Any busy person understands the overwhelming sight of countless emails sitting in an inbox on a Monday morning. They come in all shapes and sizes: there are those that don't require a response, easy enough, on to the next; the sales ones asking us to check out a new glass product, annoying; there... View full entry