Last week, a coalition of homelessness advocates, non-profits, and tenant groups in San Francisco secured an initiative for November’s ballot that, if passed, would almost double the city’s spending on homeless shelters using an increased gross receipts tax. [...] This news comes just weeks after Seattle—home to companies like Amazon and Starbucks, along with the third-largest homeless population in the country—capitulated on a similar plan. — CityLab
After the swift defeat of Seattle's “Amazon Tax”, big tech cities in California like San Francisco and Mountain View are working on similar initiatives that charge higher taxes on large companies to raise more money for affordable housing. Despite some skepticism, these initiatives might... View full entry
Cut peat blocks were already being used for building houses thousands of years ago. Now, scientists at the University of Tartu have developed a material which could make it possible to print energy-efficient houses out of milled peat and oil shale ash using a 3D printer. — Research in Estonia
"As peat and oil shale ash are not very expensive, house builders would be especially happy about the price of the material. According to Liiv, scientists calculated that the cost for the construction of a house shell printed from this material with a floor surface of 100–150 square meters could... View full entry
Facebook is doubling its presence in London by acquiring office space across two buildings in King's Cross.
The 600,000 square feet (56,000 square meters) of office space will be enough for more than 6,000 workstations. [...]
The expansion follows the 2017 opening of its site at Rathbone Place, which added 800 jobs and opened its first in-house incubator program for startup businesses. It also has a location on Brock Street.
— CNET
Considerably ramping up its workplace capacity by 611,000 sq ft in soon-to-be post-Brexit London, Facebook will be moving into new buildings at King's Cross: 11 and 21 Canal Reach, designed by Bennetts Associates, the ten and twelve-story-buildings already have detailed planning permission, as... View full entry
A 12-story building collapsed in Miami Beach on Monday morning, leaving at least one person injured, police there said. [...]
The building that collapsed at 5775 Collins Ave. was the 12-story Marlborough House, which was scheduled to be demolished to make way for a new condo building [...]
Police said there was a demolition permit on file for the site, but not an implosion permit.
— CNN
Miami's WSVN 7 News reports: "As the building was falling, and we’re seeing all this smoke come towards us, a boulder the size of the front-end of a car flew across the street, hit a man that was standing... View full entry
Engineer Ryan Martinson uses his cartooning skills to explore why and how to better incorporate social equity goals into transportation planning Equity & Mobility, a 12-page comic article published in the Summer issue of Transportation Talk," the Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineer's quarterly newsletter. — planetizen.com
The Canadian Institute for Transportation Engineers newsletter showcases a comic strip addressing social equity in transportation design. The article looks at how planning decisions can be affected by a biased user experience design process affecting who is included in our transportation... View full entry
Changing the mindset behind short-term wooden constructions is MIT. A group of researchers at the university are leading an initiative to investigate new mass timber designs- wood-based buildings designed to be more efficient and cheaper than, yet just as durable as, concrete and steel buildings. The team proposes building mass timber longhouses - large wooden engineered houses built from massive pieces of timber. — interestingengineering.com
Mass Timber Design, MIT's architecture workshop exploring sustainable building design at the intersection of architecture and technology, has developed a Longhouse prototype. Mass timber, a wood-based building design and construction technology, has continued to be explored for its... View full entry
There is no single showstopper and it will be a difficult year for the judges, weighing up the varying shades of reticence on the list. Together, the buildings make a bit of a dull group, celebrating the mute and austere over the bold and expressive – repeating the tenor of last year’s list, which scandalously failed to include Herzog & de Meuron's Tate Switch House. — The Guardian
The Guardian architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright, isn't particularly impressed with this year's selection of six projects for the coveted RIBA Stirling Prize, awarded annually for Britain's best new building. Calling it "a bit of a dull group" and questioning especially the inclusion of the... View full entry
Bernstein hopes the research will offer empirical evidence that will help managers consider the possible trade-offs of moving to an open office plan. In seeking a lower cost per square foot, they buy into the idea that it will also lead to more collaboration, even if it’s not clear that’s true.
“I don’t blame the architects,” he said. “But I do think we spend more of our time thinking about how to design workspaces based on the observer’s perspective” — the manager — “rather than the observed.”
— The Washington Post
If you're not a fan of open offices, you now have some empirical evidence in your favor. In two field studies recently published by Ethan S. Bernstein and Stephen Turban, they found that face-to-face interaction decreased by approximately 70 percent in both cases, while digital... View full entry
Skyscrapers as tall as 70 stories are part of a developer’s ambitious plan to bring 23,000 jobs and 5,000 homes to the Chicago River on the city’s North Side.
Those are among new details that Chicago developer Sterling Bay unveiled Wednesday night during the long-anticipated first public meeting for its planned Lincoln Yards project, a more-than-$5 billion development planned for at least 70 acres along the river between Lincoln Park and Bucktown [...].
— Chicago Tribune
The master plan was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and CBT Architects with James Corner Field Operations as the landscape design contributor. Image: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill View full entry
President Donald Trump boasted earlier this year that the US would spend only $200,000 to $300,000 on a new US Embassy in Jerusalem, but it seems the project will cost nearly $20 million more than that estimate. [...]
The US spent just under $400,000 on modifications to the consular facility that allowed it to open as the US Embassy in May, but the State Department told CNN at the time that it planned "for construction of a new extension [...] as well as for additional security enhancements"
— CNN
Back in March, the 'Builder in Chief' promised that the highly controversial new United States Embassy in Jerusalem would have to be built "very quickly and very inexpensively" at a bargain price tag of around $250,000. According to documents made public this month, the State Department however... View full entry
Following a devastating fire that broke out last month, the Glasgow School of Art has begun dismantling parts of the celebrated Mackintosh building that were comprised by the damage caused by the flames and at risk of sudden collapse. In a statement on the progress of the disassembly, the school... View full entry
Eric Baldwin kicked off a new series, Designing Practice. lt kicked off featuring chats with Evelyn Lee (of AIA’s YAF and Practice Innovation Lab) and Lola Sheppard (of Lateral Office) regarding Alternative or Expanded practice models in the 21st century. Plus, Duo Dickinson (architecture critic... View full entry
Kiev is a city of eclectic beauty, with modernist landmarks that dot the skyline. But as the capital grows and evolves, many of these Soviet-era gems are falling out of favour and into disrepair, with many already cleared away to make room for newer projects. — Calvert Journal
The short Soviet Modernism, Brutalism, Post-Modernism: Buildings and Projects in Ukraine from 1960 – 1990 was recently released in support of the upcoming book of the same title, examining some of Kiev's remarkable concrete architecture heritage. Still from Soviet Modernism, Brutalism... View full entry
The 378-page recommendation report filed by a group of preservationists, including preservationist Richard Schave and architect and 20th century architectural historian Alan Hess, calls on the city to protect the three most iconic structures of the Los Angeles Times complex [...] Purely from a design perspective, preserving The Times complex — once known as Times Mirror Square — is a difficult proposition. — latimes.com
The Los Angeles Times complex consists of three iconic structures which preservationists are pushing to make historic monuments. There is the 1935 building by Gordon B. Kaufmann featuring “The Times” neon sign and the grand Globe Lobby, Rowland Crawford’s late moderne style Mirror Building... View full entry
Row New York announced [...] that award-winning architecture firm Foster + Partners will design a new boathouse and flagship location for the nonprofit organization, which offers a competitive rowing and academic success program to students from underserved communities throughout New York City. The new 14,000-square- foot facility is being designed pro bono by Foster + Partners in association with Bade Stageberg Cox [...]. — Row New York
"Located on the Harlem River in northern Manhattan, the new boathouse will allow Row New York to dramatically expand its youth program for middle and high school students from New York’s most underserved schools and will feature a learning center with two state-of-the-art classrooms to... View full entry
