The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) continued to show signs of growth in the month of January, continuing a modest year-end rally into the first quarter of 2020. January ABI highlights Architecture Billings Index Score for January: 52.2Project inquiries index: 57.9 Design contracts... View full entry
Antonio Pacheco wrote about the Austin Central Library, completed in 2017 and designed via a joint partnership between Lake | Flato and Shepley Bulfinch. monosierra also provided some on-the-ground reporting "Was just here this week. I think it does its job as a public library well - generous... View full entry
In 1977, the movie house, Novorossiysk, was constructed. During the 80's cinema clubs, lectures, and film festivals used the site to meet and showcase film. Here Muscovites (Moscow residents) had the opportunity to watch the films of Takeshi Kitano, Michael Haneke, Lars von Trier, and other... View full entry
In an effort to expand cultural competency, Murphy Burnham & Buttrick (MBB) Architects has instituted its own private travel grant. Established in 2016, the Harold Buttrick Travel Grant offers one employee five days of paid leave and paid travel-related expenses to "[broaden] his or her... View full entry
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person, has purchased a Beverly Hills mansion known as the Warner Estate from media mogul David Geffen for $165 million, a source familiar with the deal said on Wednesday. — Reuters
The hefty price tag of the new abode for Bezos and his girlfriend Lauren Sánchez is believed to be the highest amount ever paid for a home in the Los Angeles area — even beating the recent record-setting transaction of Bel Air's Chartwell mansion which sold for a meager $150 million. The... View full entry
Treasuries now make up more than half of the world’s haven assets, double the share they accounted for during the global financial crisis, according to Eurizon SLJ Capital. That complicates matters when the spread between long- and short-term yields inverts: what used to be a reliable American recession indicator is instead an barometer of investors diving for cover worldwide. — Yahoo! Finance
One of the top three recession indicators economists look at to gauge the health of the American economy—the relationship between the various return rates on United States Treasury Bonds—is becoming less a useful metric for those analysts due to the influence of global economic trends... View full entry
With a new Executive Directive issued by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the City of Los Angeles has become the latest California municipality to make a plan to decarbonize its municipal building stock. Under the recently unveiled Executive Directive No. 25, L.A.'s Green New Deal: Leading... View full entry
A proposal such as “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” potentially reduces an entire architectural philosophy to a caricature. Arbitrarily pasting columns and arches on a building so it looks like a Parthenon-Colosseum hybrid is pretentious — and doesn’t make the building classical. Designing classical buildings for the modern age is a complex process, requiring knowledge of construction, world architectural history and urbanism, as well as aesthetic judgment. — Washington Post
Writing in The Washington Post, Michael Lykoudis, Dean of the classical architecture-focused School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, writes that the planned "Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again" executive order fills him with "great dismay." Evoking the... View full entry
In What is it Like to Work At An Architecture Firm? YouTuber "Mooch" of Pigeonhead Architecture outlines what it's like to work as an architect. Using animated illustrations, Mooch covers all of the typical phases of a project: Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documentation... View full entry
Chinese investors sold off billions more in U.S. commercial property last year than they bought, as other foreigners start to sour on the U.S. market as well.
Foreign investors were net sellers of U.S. commercial real estate last year for the first time since 2012, posing a fresh setback for a market that is already showing signs of strain.
— The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal reports that foreign investors sold $20 billion more in real estate than they bought last year as a number of international economic trends, including Brexit and an ongoing effort by the Chinese government to bring investment back home, converge to make the American real... View full entry
Following a great deal of uproar in the architectural community in response to President Trump's proposed "Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” executive order, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has written a letter to the president officially opposing the initiative. ... View full entry
International architecture and design firm NBBJ announced today that it has acquired experience design studio ESI Design. In joining one another, NBBJ and ESI Design will be able to capitalize on their multidisciplinary team to introduce digital experiences earlier in the design process, giving... View full entry
Often times, early in our careers, we ruminate over questions tied to a desire to prove our worth to an employer. “I need to show them that they made the right choice in hiring me,” or “I can’t ask too many questions or they’ll think I’m stupid.” Whatever it is, when we focus so much... View full entry
After spending January focusing on Los Angeles, Archinect is shifting its focus to Florida with a month-long Spotlight on Miami. As the largest city in Florida and one of the largest cities in the United States, Miami offers a view into a unique—and rapidly changing—segment of... View full entry
A city review of design for The Pinnacle at Central Wharf, a high performance mixed-use tower on the Boston waterfront, is underway. Led by developer The Chiofaro Compant and architects Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), the new tower will replace a 7-story parking garage that currently sits on the site in... View full entry