Architecture firm billings slowed in June but remained positive for the ninth consecutive month, according to a new report today from The American Institute of Architects (AIA).
AIA’s Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score for June was 51.3 compared to 52.8 in May, which is positive since any score over 50 represents billings growth. As a result, June’s ABI shows that demand for architecture firm services continues to improve across all sectors.
— AIA
“Architects continue to see increases in demand for their services this summer, with new project work coming in at a healthy pace,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. “However, business conditions are beginning to vary across the country. While essentially remaining flat... View full entry
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to run a pilot program to support two tall wood demonstration projects in order to test the potential of the increasingly popular building material. The first was a 10-story residential tower in Chelsea designed by SHoP. The second, a 12-story... View full entry
Nobody is actually using their formal living and dining rooms. Families actually spend most of their time in the kitchen and the informal living room or den.
Yet we continue to build these wastes of space because many Americans still want that extra square footage, and for a long time, that want has been miscategorized as a need.
— Curbed
McMansion Hell creator, Kate Wagner, makes a passionate case against wasting precious square footage (and associated resources) on formal living and dining rooms in our homes. Her plea is backed by data from a recent UCLA study which suggests that entertaining rooms, instead of bringing families... View full entry
World-renowned architect Shigeru Ban sprang into action again in a disaster zone by setting up temporary “homes” to give flooding victims here some much-needed privacy.
Ban, members of his Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) and student volunteers used recycled paper tubes and pieces of fabric to create partitions for evacuees in the gymnasium of the Sono Elementary School in the Mabicho district on July 14.
— Asahi Shimbun
Torrential downpours and subsequent floods and mudslides have devastated parts of Western Japan in recent weeks. With over 250 people dead or missing and more than 8 million people under evacuation order, this has reportedly been one of the country's most severe natural disasters in years... View full entry
“If I were commissioning the interior of any kind of store and someone brought me blueprints including glass staircases, I’d tell him to take a hike,” she wrote then. “I wouldn’t give him a second shot. If he’s not intuitive enough to grasp that women in skirts will be uncomfortable walking upstairs, clouded glass or not, then what other errors has he made in his design?” — Los Angeles Times
Last month, LA Times culture writer Carolina Miranda tweeted that “all male architects should be required to navigate their own buildings in a skirt”, recalling the time she walked on the transparent floors of a Diego Portales University library and happened to be wearing a skirt. Others... View full entry
The Taj Mahal in Agra could be closed unless the Indian government steps in and saves the neglected landmark, says India’s Supreme Court. “Either we shut down the Taj or demolish it or you restore it,” the two-judge committee told state officials last week. [...]
The Supreme Court says that it will monitor the situation on a day-to-day basis from 31 July.
— The Art Newspaper
Frustrated with the slow response from officials in charge of restoring the deteriorating Taj Mahal, India's highest court demanded swift action to stop the ongoing discoloration of the iconic Unesco World Heritage site caused by pollution and millions of tiny insects, saying: "We want you to... View full entry
Groundbreaking research presents credible estimates of the total parking supply in several American cities, and it's not pretty. Parking spaces are everywhere, but for some reason the perception persists that there’s “not enough parking.” And so cities require parking in new buildings and lavishly subsidize parking garages, without ever measuring how much parking exists or how much it’s used. — usa.streetsblog.org
A new report from Eric Scharnhorst at the Research Institute for Housing America, an arm of the Mortgage Bankers Association, estimates the total parking supply in five US cities. Looking at satellite imagery and tax record data, Scharnhorst tallied on-street parking, surface parking, and... View full entry
France’s rail operator SNCF has unveiled plans to triple the size of Paris’ Gare du Nord station in time for the 2024 Olympic Games. [...]
The project, carried out in partnership with developer Ceetrus and architect Denis Valode of Valode et Pistre, will be the largest refurbishment of the station since it was built in 1864.
When complete it should increase the capacity of Europe’s largest station from 700,000 to 800,000 people a day.
— Global Construction Review
Image: Valode et Pistre.Besides accommodating an increase in travel volume during the 2024 Olympic Games, the dramatic expansion of Paris' Gare du Nord terminus station is also preparing necessary spaces for new arrival procedures of British nationals in the post-Brexit era: (soon) no longer EU... View full entry
Four months ago, ground was broken for the $1-billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Exposition Park. Construction has now gone vertical, with a tower crane soaring above Vermont Avenue.
The 300,000-square-foot facility, which is being built as a legacy project by Star Wars creator George Lucas, replaces two former parking lots with a four-story, 115,000-square-foot structure that will serve as the permanent home for the filmmaker's 10,000-piece collection.
— urbanize.LA
On this week's show, Archinect Sessions episode 124, Ken and Donna look back at this year's AIA National Convention in NYC. Listen to episode 125 of Archinect Sessions, “Fear of Commitment”. iTunes: Click here to listen, and click the "Subscribe" button below the logo to automatically... View full entry
Ground has finally broken for a police station in the South Bronx that will provide a new home for NYPD's 40th Precinct. Expected to open in 2021, the precinct will be leaving its current space, a three-story, 1920s Renaissance Revival building, for a shiny, 68-million-dollar new one, designed by... View full entry
It isn't often that architect Moshe Safdie is sent back to the drawing board. But that's exactly what happened earlier this year when his soaring vision for the National Medal of Honor Museum clashed with a local height ordinance.
[...] planning commission in the Charleston suburb of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, unanimously denied its Safdie-concieved proposal because it would exceed by 75 feet the elevation limit on land zoned for no more than 50 feet.
— CityLab
"Ultimately, it all came down to a lack of communication," writes Jolee Edmondson. "What has transpired in Mount Pleasant underscores the importance of builders engaging in community outreach before submitting a formal plan for public property. Safdie's design was unveiled in 2015, but it was... View full entry
The only profitable games in modern Olympic history, LA 1984 was a case study in public–private partnerships, corporate sponsorship, and municipal storytelling [...] It’s proof, say LA 2028 organizers, that the city can do it again: re-use the city’s wealth of existing and under-construction stadiums and athletic facilities, house athletes and the media at local universities, and host an Olympics that won’t require new publicly-funded infrastructure... — curbed.com
The Olympics have been promoted to cities as a vehicle for ushering in investment, attention, and urban growth. The reality, however, is often contradicting with failed developments and infrastructure left in the aftermath. As Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 games, large questions remain on... View full entry
“Designing from Instagram for Instagram seems like a snake eating its own tail. Everywhere looks like everywhere else and the eye grows tired of bananas or concrete tiles or mirror rooms.” — The Guardian
The built environment, this article from Bella Mackie suggests, is increasingly being designed as a 'backdrop;' a stage for those masses which might otherwise be disinterested in the fields of aesthetics and art production. This phenomenon can be felt when traveling the world just as apparently... View full entry
[Warner Bros.] would foot the bill for an aerial tramway to transport visitors to and from the Hollywood sign, starting from a parking structure next to its Burbank lot.
The effort, dubbed the Hollywood Skyway, would cost the studio an estimated $100 million, according to a person close to the company who was not authorized to comment. The tramway would take visitors on a 6-minute ride more than 1 mile up the back of Mt. Lee to a new visitors center near the sign [...]
— Los Angeles Times
Several cable transport solutions are being proposed for popular Los Angeles landmarks right now: besides the gondola system that could connect Dodger Stadium with Union Station, the idea of an aerial tramway carrying visitors up to the Hollywood Sign has been brought back to life by media giant... View full entry
