The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the December ABI score was 48.5, down from a mark of 49.8 in November. This score reflects a decrease in design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 59.2, up from the reading of 57.8 the previous month. — calculatedriskblog.com
According to a recent report from PeopleForBikes and Alliance for Biking & Walking, protected city bike lanes can actually encourage local business success. As trends show workers moving into U.S. cities (rather than out into suburbs), and businesses catering to a younger workforce that... View full entry
Late in 2011, [Zappos CEO] Hsieh became even more legendary by announcing almost larkishly that he’d be leading a $350 million effort to rejuvenate a blighted stretch of Las Vegas’ downtown […]
His plan was to spend much of his own personal fortune to transform this lifeless area about a mile north of the neon blitz of the Strip into an entrepreneurial tech nirvana. [...]
Doubters have no place in the ecosystem. Pragmatists stand little chance. A love of hyperbole prevails.
— Wired
[...] developer Ben Miller says, until now, it’s been impossible for local people to invest in development right across the street.
“Who owns your environment? You don’t know,” he says. “Who’s building your environment, who’s building your city? Not you.”
Miller is co-founder of the group Fundrise, which has started selling shares of private real estate projects to the public online. [...]
First they bought 1351 H Street with private capital, then crowdfunded about a third of it.
— marketplace.org
Related: Crowdfunding Startups Let You Be Your City's Urban Planner View full entry
For the fifth installment in Screen/Print (an experimentation in translation across media) Archinect features Portal 9's Fiction: Contemporary Arabic and Russian Pursuits. Portal 9 is a biannual publication out of Beirut, Lebanon, which puts out a mix of creative and critical urbanism writing... View full entry
Despite a city planning report advocating its preservation, Oklahoma City’s Downtown Design Review Committee voted 3-2 last week to green light the destruction of the Stage Center, a futuristic landmark of modern architecture designed by the late John M. Johansen. — artsblog.dallasnews.com
Despite a city planning report advocating its preservation, Oklahoma City’s Downtown Design Review Committee voted 3-2 last week to green light the destruction of the Stage Center, a futuristic landmark of modern architecture designed by the late John M. Johansen. Originally known as the... View full entry
Architects always have the future in mind when they design. That's particularly evident in today's cityscapes as they continuously try to one-up each other in who can raise the world's next tallest, more-modern-than-thou skyscraper for all to gaze in awe -- or not. For Jingjing Naihan Li, a... View full entry
The city has dense clusters of tall towers and a mass-transit system to rival London's. Cars seem to have been banished. [...]
The sidewalks and the rail stations are crowded with people. It's as if a benevolent Robert Moses, a planning dictator with a green agenda, had taken over the political realm in Los Angeles.
— latimes.com
Related: Elizabeth Diller on Spike Jonze's 'Her' View full entry
There’s a movement afoot to bring new money into urban areas all over the country, and surprisingly, Phoenix, is part of that movement.
The city has long been famous for its suburban sprawl. But now, plans are moving ahead to link high-rise downtown with a neighboring Latino barrio that wealthy developers have mostly ignored for the better part of 100 years. Not a shovel of dirt has moved, though neighbors already have expectations and fears.
— marketplace.org
André and Barbara weren't skeptical of the general notion of a catalyst for profound change. They just found Walmart a lot more convincing than design microenterprises...Maybe those of us interested in design as a spark for social change could use a reality check — Fast Company
In the February 2014 issue Rob Walker reflects on the lessons of two trips taken to Hale County, Alabama. The piece questions the real, long-term effects of the architectural / social design efforts of groups like Auburn University's Rural Studio or the "design blitz" program... View full entry
the show offers innumerable other examples of the housing industry’s braiding of mythic imagination and commercial calculation...It’s an epic, richly rewarding intellectual journey — NYT
Ken Johnson reviews the exhibition currently on view Grolier Club (running through February 7, 2014). The show explores how quintessential American traits are reflected within the pages of the builder’s guides, pattern books, catalogues, and other forms of architectural literature. View full entry
“All of us who knew them thought this was going to be pretty much a slam dunk — that they would save the Folk Art Museum,” said Peter Wheelwright, a former chairman of the architecture program at Parsons, the New School for Design. “I knew they were capable of doing it and that, because of their friendship, that they would make a sincere, genuine, wholehearted effort.” — NY Times
What we do know: the Hyperloop is a fantastic, gee-whiz! prospect that, in an idealized and seamless application, would get between A and B faster than we ever imagined. But whether the Hyperloop actually can (or should) be built is still very much unclear. Ever since Elon Musk (PayPal, Tesla... View full entry
Los Angeles County supervisors gave their blessing Tuesday to a reimagined design for a proposed mix of high-end apartments, businesses and public space across from Walt Disney Concert Hall.
The $750-million plan to redevelop that portion of downtown's Grand Avenue nearly screeched to a halt in September, when a panel of city and county representatives overseeing the project rejected the design presented by developer Related Cos.
— latimes.com
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has bought a rare Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian house, known as the Bachman Wilson House, located in the Borough of Millstone in Somerset County, New Jersey.
Museum officials said the plan is to disassemble the house and move it to Arkansas, where it will be reassembled on the museum’s 120-acre grounds, located 25 miles north of Fayetteville.
— fayettevilleflyer.com
A year ago a potential buyer wanted to move this house to Italy. View full entry
