The 250-year-old retirement digs of an 18th-century Chinese emperor are getting a face-lift.
The World Monuments Fund announced Monday that the New York-based architect Annabelle Selldorf and her firm, Selldorf Architects, will design an interpretation center at the Qianlong Garden in the Forbidden City in Beijing.
— The New York Times
According to the World Monuments Fund, "the interpretation center will be located in an existing, restored structure within the second courtyard of the Qianlong Garden." Juanqinzhai theater room after conservation. Image courtesy World Monuments Fund."Selldorf and her NYC-based firm, Selldorf... View full entry
A new interactive documentary from the BBC explores the Venezuelan shopping center that became one of the country's most notorious torture centers for political prisoners. Through interviews from ex-detainees, relatives, lawyers and human rights activists, the BBC aims to bring its mysterious... View full entry
Lincoln Yards, one of the most ambitious real estate projects ever proposed for the city’s North Side, was approved Thursday by the Chicago Plan Commission, an important step toward reshaping the city’s skyline and a large swath of land along the Chicago River.
Sterling Bay’s $6 billion plan for about 55 acres of riverfront land was approved during the commission’s monthly meeting.
— Chicago Tribune
The $6 billion master plan for Chicago's North Side, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, CBT Architects, and James Corner Field Operations, was unveiled to the public last summer. Image: Lincoln Yards/Sterling BayView the entire master plan in detail here (PDF, 7 MB). View full entry
The city’s Brutalist buildings, in contrast, are widely considered eyesores by the general public.
These buildings often have a shared ownership of common facilities. And because many owners think that selling their units collectively is a better financial bet than investing in a conservation or retrofitting plan, the buildings have largely fallen into disrepair because no one wants to pay for short-term upkeep.
— The New York Times
Mikes Ives reports for the NYT on the not-so-bright future Singapore's aging stock of 1970s Brutalist buildings faces in a city whose global trademark famously is shiny and new.The aging Pearl Bank Apartments was the tallest and densest residential high-rise in Singapore at the time of its... View full entry
This $2 million house is perched on an ocean cliff. Today I'm showing you the quirks and features of this rather unusual house. It's not a car, but it's still interesting, and quirky, and exciting -- and this house is worth checking out. — YouTube
What happens when a world famous car reviewer turns his sights towards a house? While on vacation, Doug Demuro of YouTube fame couldn't help but review the 2 million dollar home he was staying in on the island of Nantucket. His insights were impressively thorough and refreshingly unlike those one... View full entry
The UK government thinks it has got to the heart of the housing crisis: the problem is, new homes just aren’t beautiful enough. “Build beautifully and get permission,” says the housing minister, Kit Malthouse. “Build beautifully and communities will actually welcome developers, rather than drive them out of town at the tip of a pitchfork.” — The Guardian
According to housing minister, Kit Malthouse, the key to solving the housing crisis in the UK is “putting beauty at the heart of our housing and communities policy.” On November 3, 2018, the initiative to champion beauty when building better homes was announced through the "Building Better... View full entry
On this week's episode of Archinect Sessions, Ken, Donna, and I share our conversation with Rusty Long, an architect based in Cary, North Carolina. Rusty’s private practice focuses on sustainability and community engagement with a style that bridges modernism and the history of the the American... View full entry
Plans for a new Vancouver Art Gallery—in the works for more than a decade, and feared by many to have stalled indefinitely—received a major boost this week with the announcement of a $40m lead gift from the local philanthropic Chan family. In recognition of what the institution’s director Kathleen Bartels called an act of “extraordinary generosity”, the Vancouver Art Gallery’s new building will be named the Chan Centre for the Visual Arts. — The Art Newspaper
On the occasion of the impressive Chan family gift announcement, the Vancouver Art Gallery also presented the anticipated final designs for its new 300,000-square-foot home, which is ever so slowly inching closer to realization. West Georgia Street entrance © Herzog & de MeuronHerzog &... View full entry
In the hopes of becoming the next Silicon Valley, Denmark is embarking on a massive land reclamation project that involves the creation of nine new islands to the south of Copenhagen. Designed by the Danish office Urban Power, the Holmene project will create 3.1 million square meters of land to... View full entry
Architecture firm billings growth softened in December but remained positive for the fifteenth consecutive month, according to a new report released today from The American Institute of Architects (AIA). AIA’s Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score for December was 50.4 compared to 54.7 in November. Despite the positive billings, a softening in growth was seen across several regions and sectors, as well as in project inquiries and design contracts. — AIA
“Given the concerns over the ongoing tariff situation, it is not surprising to see a bit of a slowdown in progress on current projects,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “Growing anxiety over unstable business conditions and the partial shutdown of the government may... View full entry
[...] a demolition application was filed for 270 Park Avenue, the current, but not for long headquarters of JPMorgan Chase. The filing is a pivotal step for the bank, which plans to replace the 1.5 million-square-foot Modernist tower with a 2.5 million square foot supertall skyscraper designed by Lord Norman Foster. — CityRealty
The clock is ticking for the midcentury modernist HQ of banking giant JPMorgan Chase: despite preservationist and environmental concerns, the fate of 270 Park Avenue appears sealed, and the 50-story structure is likely to become the world's tallest building ever to be intentionally demolished... View full entry
UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture Ernesto Ottone R, Thomas Vonier, President of the International Union of Architects (UIA), and Verena Vicentini Andreatta, Municipal Secretary of the City of Rio for Urbanism, on Friday 18 January announced that the city of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) will be the World Capital of Architecture for 2020. — UNESCO
The new World Capital of Architecture initiative is part of a recent partnership between UNESCO and the International Union of Architects (UIA) and allows the designated city to host the triennial UIA World Congress. Under the theme "All the worlds. Just one world," Rio de Janeiro is expected... View full entry
“We just don’t build houses like we used to.” Whether we’re criticizing an individual home or a wave of boxy buildings, it’s a common lament... It’s a statement that contains some truth, but it also misses crucial context about the material conditions, functionality, and style trends of the past. — Curbed
Kate Wagner, the writer and critic behind McMansion Hell, has turned their sights towards an often-uttered statement about the current state of architectural craftsmanship: "We just don't build houses like we used to." Listen to our conversation with Kate on Archinect Sessions: Wagner... View full entry
“Every child,” lamented Tom Wolfe in From Bauhaus to Our House of 1981, “goes to school in a building that looks like a duplicating-machine replacement-parts wholesale distribution warehouse”. Had there ever been another place on earth, he also said of Bauhaus-influenced America, “where so many people of wealth and power paid for and put up with so much architecture they detested?” — The Guardian
Observer architecture critic, Rowan Moore, on the vast and enduring impact of the "short-lived but longlasting" Bauhaus movement—both the sympathetic and the averse. The famed school celebrates the centenary of its original founding this year. View full entry
Developers of what’s posed to be the tallest building in Los Angeles and west of the Mississippi River are moving forward with their plans to transform the site of a Downtown hotel into a glittering 77-story hotel and condo tower. [...]
The neighborhood council’s approval, if given, would be taken into account by Los Angeles City Council committees as the project moves through the planning approval process.
— Curbed LA
First proposed last summer as a supertall Bunker Hill skyscraper that could take the crown of tallest building in Los Angeles and the western United States, the building was recently presented by a spokesperson of the Chinese development firm, Shenzhen New World Group, during a meeting of the... View full entry
