Warner Bros. has sweeping plans to expand its Burbank headquarters by acquiring a nearby studio complex and moving into two Frank Gehry-designed office towers fashioned to look like icebergs floating alongside the 134 Freeway. — Los Angeles Times
Rendering: Sora, image courtesy of Gehry Partners, LLP. "Once upon a time, Hollywood Studios had an important architectural presence in the city—they were like monuments to the movie-making process," the LA Times quotes Frank Gehry saying. "With this project, I was trying to recapture that... View full entry
Artificial Intelligence, as a discipline, has already been permeating countless fields, bringing means and methods to previously unresolved challenges, across industries. The advent of AI in Architecture is still in its early days but offers promising results. More than a mere opportunity, such potential represents for us a major step ahead, about to reshape the architectural discipline. — Towards Data Science
Stanislas Chaillou, a Master's candidate in Architecture and Fulbright fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, believes that artificial intelligence can offer in-depth analysis and alternative strategies to the design of floor plans. Orientation Diagrams, by Stanislas ChaillouChaillou... View full entry
As any student of architecture or design will know, the attendance of a Stanley Kubrick exhibition is an experience not to miss. The recently opened exhibition at London's Design Museum, following those at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Barcelona's CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània... View full entry
If our recently published article featuring a computer mouse/Eames chair mashup didn't provoke you, this one might just do the trick. With his series of heavy utility trucks outfitted in Gothic ornament, artist Wim Delvoye conceived of a mashup of two elements nearly a full millennium apart... View full entry
Following consistently increasing demand for design services for over two years, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) dipped into negative territory in March, according to a new report [...] from The American Institute of Architects (AIA).
The ABI score for March was 47.8, down from 50.3 in February. Indicators of work in the pipeline, including inquiries into new projects and the value of new design contracts remained positive.
— AIA
"Though billings haven’t contracted in a while, it is important to note that it does follow on the heels of a particularly tough late winter period for much of the country," said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. "Many indicators of future work at firms still remain positive... View full entry
A lecture at MIT that was to be given by the Japanese architect Junya Ishigami has been cancelled following revelations that Ishigami's Tokyo-based studio was relying on unpaid interns—a controversy that has prompted wide discussion and raised questions over the value of labor in architecture. ... View full entry
Shade is often understood as a luxury amenity, lending calm to courtyards and tree-lined boulevards, cooling and obscuring jewel boxes and glass cubes. But as deadly, hundred-degree heatwaves become commonplace, we have to learn to see shade as a civic resource that is shared by all. In the shade, overheated bodies return to equilibrium. [...] Shade is thus an index of inequality, a requirement for public health, and a mandate for urban planners and designers. — Places Journal
In this longform piece, writer Sam Bloch delves into the history of how shade has served as an index of inequality in the urban design of Los Angeles, and how the city (and perhaps other locations) should learn to consider shade as an important public health requirement. “People living in poor... View full entry
Though buildings are often symbols of permanence, as it may lend itself to the status of an icon for a city or an heirloom for a family, they can be rendered obsolete at any moment. According to Ruin and Redemption in Architecture, Dan Barasch's newest book published by Phaidon Books, abandoned... View full entry
With so much of the built environment built not to delight but simply to function, the concept of post-production architectural imagery becomes a viable way of retroactively taking pleasure in the spaces we inhabit. Antistructure, by Alex LysakowskiAlex Lysakowski's Antistructures are digital... View full entry
With the Notre Dame design competition well underway participants and submission ideas are flowing in. Although many submission ideas poke fun at the possibilities of what the new design could be, some firms are looking at the competition as an opportunity. Norman Foster of Foster +... View full entry
News of the Notre Dame fire has been an ongoing topic as of last week. Despite the loss of one spire and a destroyed roof, the cathedral still stands. The public has expressed strong views and opinions regarding the amount of attention and proactiveness many have made towards its rebuild. Social... View full entry
"We're going to ban the classic glass and steel skyscrapers, which are incredibly inefficient," Bill de Blasio said on "Morning Joe." As the New York City mayor lays out plans for a municipal Green New Deal, he is looking to target one of the biggest sources of emissions in the city: buildings. De... View full entry
It is often said that whenever one needs to assess a task at hand, the proper step is to look as far back as one can see. Airport Runways. Photo by Alex MacleanThis is the philosophy among certain aerial photographers, whose task has been making sense of the build environment after the... View full entry
The ai-art gold rush began in earnest last October, when the New York auction house Christie’s sold Portrait of Edmond de Belamy, an algorithm-generated print in the style of 19th-century European portraiture, for $432,500.
Bystanders in and out of the art world were shocked. The print had never been shown in galleries or exhibitions before coming to market at auction, a channel usually reserved for established work.
— The Atlantic
With the attention that AI has garnered in the last few years, it was only a matter of time before the capital behind art would seep its way onto the field. With contemporary art forever changed after the 1973 Scull auction, we may now find ourselves at the next nexus of the art world and its mean... View full entry
When Donald Trump opened the towering Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City in March 1990, he declared it “the eighth wonder of the world” and joined in the celebrations at a launch ceremony filled with portly actors dressed as genies brandishing tacky golden lamps.
When photographer Brian Rose arrived in the city in 2016, the bankrupt Taj was practically empty. His images of the building’s exterior look eerily quiet, as if all its workers had left in a sudden hurry...
— The Guardian
New Jersey's Atlantic City has rarely risen to the ranks of glitz and glamor attributed to other gambling cities. "The difference between Las Vegas and Atlantic City," the comedian Drew Carey said, "is the difference between getting conned by a beautiful call girl and getting mugged by a crack... View full entry
