The recently passed AB-32 bill in California prevents the state from "entering into or renewing a contract with a private, for-profit prison to incarcerate state prison inmates, but would not prohibit the department from renewing or extending a contract to house state prison inmates in order... View full entry
This post is brought to you by BQE Core You’ve done the work, delighted your client, and now you’re ready to get paid. You send out your invoice for all those billable hours your team poured their time and talent into...and nothing happens. A day goes by...then a week...then a... View full entry
The London School of Architecture (LSA) has unveiled its latest edition of Citizen Magazine, the school's new quarterly publication. The magazine, created "for everybody engaged in the challenge of creating the future city" aims to inspire and promote the work of people "designing innovative... View full entry
Deep beneath the streets of Clapham, London, in a former air raid shelter, Steve Dring and his colleagues are farming. Vertical farming, that is.
The company Dring co-founded, Growing Underground, is cultivating a wide range of vegetables and herbs in vertically-stacked trays in the confined space. It’s part of a growing trend in Europe and the U.S.
— Marketplace
Marketplace visits Growing Underground, a cutting-edge vertical farm inside a converted WWII-era air raid bunker 100 feet beneath London. "If we were growing peas out in the open, we’d have three crops a year," the company's cofounder Steve Dring tells the reporter. "Here, we get 62 crops a year... View full entry
US prefab specialist Katerra has added two contractors to its stable of companies: UEB Builders and Fortune-Johnson General Contractors.
The acquisitions allow the Silicon Valley company to expand its coverage of the US market. UEB Builders is a general contractor in Arizona that constructs commercial and residential projects. Georgia-based Fortune-Johnson specialises in multi-family residential projects. Both companies will adopt the Katerra brand.
— BIM+
According to Bim+, the acquisition will add 320 employees to Katerra's payroll, pushing the company's workforce to 8,500 individuals. In January 2019, the end-to-end building services provider also received an infusion of investment from Japan's SoftBank that raised Katerra's valuation to over $... View full entry
In a recent news article from MIT News, architectural historian Timothy Hyde explains why "every building is ultimately a compromise.” Hyde shares, “It’s a compromise between the intentions of architects, the capacities of builders, economics, politics, the people who use the building... View full entry
For the month of September, Archinect is placing a special Spotlight on Chicago, highlighting important regional projects—including the Chicago Architecture Biennial opening next week—profiling local firms and practitioners, and delving into some of the most pressing issues in... View full entry
The latest compensation survey conducted by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has found that in recent years, as demand for design services has increased and unemployment has fallen to historic lows, average pay for architecture staff has increased by over $10,000. The report credits a... View full entry
You've just walked out of a job interview and you're feeling pretty good about how things went. You prepared beforehand, researched the firm, had solid answers to their questions, and even posed some good questions of your own. As you drive off you take a deep sigh of relief, you've done all you... View full entry
Employee retention is a big issue in today's job market and many firms have had to deal with the undesirable reality of losing valued team members. While the reasons someone might leave a job are wide and complex, there are some factors that leaders can address themselves to counteract employee... View full entry
The surge of minority women getting jobs has helped push the U.S. workforce across a historic threshold. For the first time, most new hires of prime working age (25 to 54) are people of color, according to a Washington Post analysis of data the Labor Department began collecting in the 1970s. Minority hires overtook white hires last year. — The Washington Post
Despite the wider trend in the American workforce, the architecture industry continues to lag in terms of diversity and gender inclusivity. A 2018 National Council of Architectural Registration Boards report, for example, shows that although the ethnic and racial diversity within early... View full entry
Arthur Szlam and colleagues at Facebook Research have begun work on an AI assistant that can learn from its interactions with humans and then perform a wide range of tasks on request. The more it learns the more it can do. The team has chosen Minecraft, the best-selling 3D sandbox video game, as... View full entry
This post is brought to you by BQE Core. ePayments will allow BQE Core users to speed up cash flow by sending automated invoices that clients can pay instantly via credit or debit cards. BQE Software Inc. and Stripe have partnered to help professional service firms get paid faster via online... View full entry
Antonio Pacheco identified five lessons that can be learned from the later works of noted Mid-Century Modern interior designer, Arthur Elrod. He explained how "In these projects, Elrod deploys a monochromatic sense to create subtle masterpieces that use gradients of similar colors to organize... View full entry
A Robert A. M. Stern Architects-designed high-rise has recently reached completion. And with a timeline of almost three years, the project's realization has made it Chicago's tallest "strictly residential" skyscraper, with the program lacking hotel, office, and retail program types. The... View full entry