Danish architect Jørn Utzon, designer of the Sydney Opera House, has died at the age of 90 from a heart attack. AP View full entry

Should councils have power to judge on design quality? Yes, this is a long awaited breakthrough, says [some politician guy], but [some architect guy] is appalled. BD View full entry

Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid have been lined up to take on one of the most high-profile projects on earth – the redevelopment of Mecca. AJ View full entry

Wired claims the New Oslo Opera House Is Really a Stealth Skate Park and talks to architects at Zaha Hadid and Foreign Office Architects about how skaters feedback can be a part of their design process. View full entry

The storefront of the Calvin Klein Collection on NYC's Madison Avenue is now displaying a dollhouse designed by REX... Architect Joshua Prince-Ramus and his firm, REX Architecture PC, together with Magnusson Klemencic Assoc. and Situ Studio, created the “Madison Avenue (Doll) House,&rdquo... View full entry

A six-month examination of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission's operations by The New York Times reveals an overtaxed agency that has taken years to act on some proposed designations, even as soaring development pressures put historic buildings at risk. Its decision-making is... View full entry

AIA confirms that the economy is a mess. "The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) recorded its ninth straight monthly decline in October... [the drop was] the steepest decline in its history." Also, they really like black on black charts and graphs. View full entry

Eric Holm has an amusing post about his attempt to have a conversation about the Biennale with a visiting tourist.Metropolis POV View full entry

Public Spirit: Philip Johnson's Lost Town The town of Hirshhorn, designed by Philip Johnson in 1955, was never realized. Check out the feature for a digital recreation of Hirshhorn by Sticky Pictures.ShowCase: Superficial Superglow: OPENINGS An interactive storefront installation for LACE gallery... View full entry

The plan, which could cost $5 billion to $6 billion, focuses on rebuilding the Tom Bradley International Terminal. LA Times View full entry

To help conserve energy the Beijing Municipal Construction Committee, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning, and the Beijing Municipal Commission for Reform and Development have called for new guidelines in the heating and cooling of public buildings. Building must not be cooled... View full entry

I have no idea whether, in this dismal economic climate, the University of California will find the money to build its new art museum here. But if it fails, it will be a blow to those of us who champion provocative architecture in the United States. - Nicolai Ouroussoff, NYT View full entry

In the space of six months, five new arts venues are opening in and around Leicester, Derby and Nottingham - a £90m splurge, largely lottery-funded, that now seems at odds with these frugal times. Yet, while some of the venues follow the contemporary model of creating a "destination" others... View full entry

The proposed design takes the form of a sequence of origami-like, zigzag forms that somehow manage to conjure an image of some ultra-modern Bedouin tent hunkered down in the desert dunes of north Africa. These are early days, yet the form of the building does appear to be appropriate to its... View full entry

Radio profile on NPR's The World. Listen after the jump... Get the Flash Player to see this player. var archinect_mediaplayer = new SWFObject("/features/mp3player.swf", "line", "300", "20", "7"); archinect_mediaplayer.addVariable("file","http://archinect.com/temp/1124084.mp3")... View full entry