Canadian wildfire smoke continues to blow over much of the U.S., raising air pollution to harmful levels for construction workers. Now, the impact of the fires is likely to raise U.S. lumber prices, too. — Construction Dive
As reported by Construction Dive, Canada’s devastating wildfire season, which has been felt across North America through declined air quality, has impacted the largest amount of land ever recorded in a single year. As a result, lumber prices are expected to rise as Canada supplies approximately... View full entry
Adjaye Associates’ involvement with Vermont’s Shelburne Museum has ended as the institution is now looking to distance itself from the firm two months after its embattled founder was announced to lead the design of an important $12.6 million extension project in May. The move comes amidst a... View full entry
Texas began rolling out what is set to become a new floating barrier on the Rio Grande on Friday in the latest escalation of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s multibillion-dollar effort to secure the U.S. border with Mexico, which already has included bussing migrants to liberal states and authorizing the National Guard to make arrests.
Setting up the barriers could take up to two weeks, according to Lt. Chris Olivarez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
— The Paper
The barriers are being deployed along a strategic 1,000-foot-long point in the Rio Grande. CNN recently reported on one local business owner’s attempt to halt their placement via a lawsuit. Abbott, for his part, promised "mile after mile" more. The issue goes beyond affecting what an ACLU... View full entry
Mayor Karen Bass on Thursday signed into law an ordinance updating the city's zoning code to exempt all affordable units from the time-consuming Site Plan Review process that often delays final approval of much-needed housing projects.
The city's existing building code required all housing developments of more than 49 units to undergo Site Plan Review, which can add months to the completion of a project and increase expenses.
— ABC 7
Bass had promised to alleviate the burden on developers as part of her mayoral campaign and has since cut down the city’s end of the approval process and added a new Deputy Mayor of Housing to the administration, though structural problems within the political apparatus still remain. The... View full entry
With much anticipation, voting results for Snøhetta's U.S. employees and their fight for a union have come to a decision. After following Snøhetta's journey towards unionizing back in May and June of 2023, their efforts have fallen short. Thanks to active report updates from New York Times labor... View full entry
The fallout from David Adjaye’s sexual misconduct scandal is beginning to be felt by his firm, as now the New York Times and other national outlets are beginning to report on clients who have cut ties with the architect in light of this week’s allegations. The city of Cleveland’s... View full entry
Last month’s disappointing Supreme Court decisions in the cases regarding student loan forgiveness and affirmative action have prompted a response from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in unison with other leading industry groups, including the AIAS, ACSA, and NOMA. The former... View full entry
Eleven men perch precariously on a metal beam, eating lunch, lighting cigarettes or drinking from glass bottles. Wearing only cloth caps as head protection, the men dwarf the hazy background of 1930s New York City and Central Park. Much has changed since workers building the 66-story, 850-foot-tall Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan posed for “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” in 1932, but it remains construction’s most iconic photograph. — Construction Dive
The photograph, which was originally displayed in the New York Herald Tribune on October 2, 1932, was and continues to be a positive and widely admired American symbol. However, when examining what’s being depicted, it is undeniable that there is an array of problematic safety violations... View full entry
Data centers will increasingly be built farther from some of the traditional locations and will move closer to the clients they serve, according to research by Gartner, an I.T. consultancy. But the search for land is not always easy. [...]
And as major players in the data industry strive to become greener in the next decade, the pressure is on.
— The New York Times
The crunch for new data infrastructure is straining local utility companies in areas such as Northern Virginia owing to a requirement for "inhaling massive amounts of energy," a reality that leads to concerns that local residents will be asked to foot the bill in the end. Water use is also... View full entry
Le Corbusier was to architecture what Picasso was to painting, a towering and egomaniacal creative force who transformed his discipline for ever. His buildings have inspired admiration, sometimes devotion. He is an icon, granted the nickname “Corb” or “Corbu” by architects. He has also been vigorously attacked, as a mechanistic fanatic whose ideas inspired inhumane tower blocks and concrete jungles. — The Guardian
In his latest Guardian piece, critic Rowan Moore remembers the 100-year anniversary of the seminal modernist manifesto Toward an Architecture by one of the profession's most revered and controversial figures, Le Corbusier. Acknowledging that the book's thoughts about the future were now... View full entry
Phil Bernstein speculated on the set of opportunities "that architects will see in the next decade as such systems (AI language transformers and image generators) become more capable and available" and proposes "five strategies to guide its future". As he sees it, this future will be one not... View full entry
A total of nine local municipalities have received funding in the amount of $25 million from the Mellon Foundation as part of its ongoing Monuments Project, which to date has provided $151.9 million worth of grants since its inception in 2020. The latest round of funding includes projects such as... View full entry
So, yes, architecture has a diversity problem, but the tide is beginning to change. Thanks to out-and-proud architects like [Julia] Oderda, emerging trans designers now have possibility models to look to when navigating situations like coming out or transitioning on the job. Some firms are also taking steps to make their workplace more welcoming to trans people, often in collaboration with trans people who already work there. — Hunker
Architect Julia Oderda, who came out as a transgender woman professionally in 2018, also provided some insights into her struggle in an interview with the NCARB recently, saying, “A lot of what I did to help pave the way for me — and hopefully for others behind me — but also... View full entry
The Architectural League of New York has named Jacob R. Moore as its next Executive Director, following a thorough national search. Moore succeeds Rosalie Genevro, who announced her decision to step down last year after leading the organization for nearly 40 years. “Jacob brings tremendous... View full entry
In a novel approach to sustainable construction, a team of researchers led by Siswanti Zuraida, Bart Dewancker from Kitakyushu University in Japan, and Romi Bramantyo Margono, have pioneered a method to utilize non-degradable waste, notably disposable diapers, as composite materials for building... View full entry
