Around the country, as the COVID-19 shut down enters its second month, cities have demonstrated a variety of responses with regards to access to open space as shelter-in-place initiatives have taken hold. Some cities, like Los Angeles, have opted to shut down parks and hiking trails for fear of... View full entry
New guidance from the Treasury Department appears to allow any U.S. firms with 500 or fewer employees to qualify for the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program regardless of revenue, according to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). The initiative was created as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus rescue bill enacted late last month. — Construction Dive
According to Construction Dive, President Donald Trump's administration released the new guidance April 7th after the AGC raised concerns that many small construction firms appeared to be excluded from the initially drafted program. View full entry
William Menking, educator, architectural historian, curator, and co-founder of The Architect’s Newspaper, has passed away at age 73 from cancer. Menking was born in 1947 on Ramey Air Force Base in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and grew up in California’s Central Valley. Menking attended... View full entry
A new report published by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) indicates that architects who focus on residential projects are bracing for steep losses over the coming months as the COVID-19 economic shut down put in place to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus has dimmed what was... View full entry
With each of us now living in socially distanced self-isolation, with shops shuttered, offices abandoned and urban centres reduced to ghost towns, it’s hard not to wonder what kind of lasting impact Covid-19 will have on our cities. Will homes need to adapt to better accommodate work? Will pavements widen so we can keep our distance? Will we no longer want to live so densely packed together, working in open-plan offices and cramming into lifts? — The Guardian
Writing in The Guardian, Oliver Wainwright takes a long look at the ways, past and present, that architecture has been shaped by concerns over hygiene, sanitation, and disease. View full entry
Rifat Chadirji, a world renowned international architect from Iraq, has passed away in London following a positive diagnosis for COVID-19. Chadirji was born in on December 6, 1926 and passed away April 10, 2020. Throughout a long career, Chadirji helped to develop and propagate a new... View full entry
With construction deemed essential during the citywide "Safer at Home," order, work has continued at many building sites across Los Angeles - though with new regulations to account for the outbreak of coronavirus...
Faced with a deluge of complaints about noise and vibration from Angelenos sheltering in place, 5th District Councilmember Paul Koretz has proposed temporary limits on construction hours during the COVID-19 emergency.
— Urbanize Los Angeles
According to Urbanize LA, Councilmember Koretz proposed a motion to shift construction hours in residential and multi-family residential zones from 7 am to 9 pm on Monday through Friday to 9 am to 9 pm during the week, from 8 am to 6 pm on Saturdays, and on holidays to 9 am to 6 pm, giving... View full entry
The vast interior of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan stood empty on Monday, the thousands of chairs that normally sit beneath its soaring ceiling and stained-glass windows removed to make room for a more grim sight: a coronavirus field hospital. — The New York Times
Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III, dean of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City tells The New York Times, “Traditionally, in earlier centuries, cathedrals were always used this way, like during the plague. So this is not outside the experience of being a cathedral, it is just... View full entry
As design communities around the country come together to help fabricate new stockpiles of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), a team at Harvard University is undertaking its own PPE manufacturing operation. Representatives from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), John... View full entry
The latest unemployment figures reported by the federal government show staggering job losses across the country in the wake of the COVID-19-induced economic shutdown. The US Department of Labor reports that 6.6 million Americans filed initial unemployment claims for the week ending April... View full entry
In an effort to lessen the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and to take advantage of fewer vehicles on the road during a 30-day stay-at-home order, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered the state DOT to accelerate $2.1 billion of transportation projects. — Construction Dive
In an April 1 briefing, according to Construction Dive, the Florida Governor said the state is moving up construction on the $865M Howard Frankland Bridge project between Tampa and St. Petersburg by four weeks; a road widening project in Palm Beach County by three months; the $... View full entry
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art confirmed Tuesday that it officially began demolition work, part of the controversial $750-million project to build a Peter Zumthor-designed main building.
The work that began Monday focused on the museum’s 1965 Leo S. Bing Center, a 600-seat theater designed by architect William L. Pereira that has been used for film screenings, musical performances, talks and other events.
— The Los Angeles Times
A LACMA spokesperson tells The Los Angeles Times that demolition crews are adhering to social distancing guidelines during the demolition process in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19. View full entry
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has published a preliminary “Preparedness Assessment Tool” to help architects and healthcare directors appropriately select existing buildings for reuse as Alternative Care Sites (ACS). The document brings together best practices for ACS... View full entry
From Archinect's active community of architecture students and professionals, firms, and schools, we have selected three practices and one university for our latest weekly highlight. Looking for a starting point in your job search? Take a closer look at these Archinect profiles to learn more about... View full entry
Foster + Partners has designed a general-purpose prototype face visor that can be cleaned and reused to aid in the fight against COVID-19. The firm's hope is to encourage both designers and large scale manufacturers to investigate the potential of digital and laser cutting machines as an... View full entry
