As the Smithsonian Institute's massive $2 billion redevelopment plans struggle to gain both public and governmental support, BIG, the firm heading the project, has released a revised proposal. Controversy surrounding the original master plan has been centered largely around the changes that would... View full entry
[...] Penn State landscape architecture professor Timothy Baird and architecture professor José Duarte taught a new studio that engaged students in the study of one Brazilian favela via virtual reality (VR) technology. The studio, which paired architecture students with landscape architecture students, posited VR as a proxy for expensive site visits. “Developing countries can’t always afford consultants because of the distance and difficulty to travel,” says Baird [...] — Landscape Architecture Magazine
"Duarte, who has studied informal settlements across the globe, believes in their power to model emergent patterns of more sustainable resource consumption in the developing world, and in the ability for contemporary technology to decode how they work," the Landscape Architecture Magazine writes... View full entry
Last week, deadly mudslides and flooding devastated the Santa Barbara area, destroying at least 100 single-family homes, and damaging another 300 residences, according to the LA Times. While three Montecito residents unfortunately remain missing, government crews have also begun the long and... View full entry
Los Angeles city officials and property owners are making progress on retrofitting the types of apartment buildings that proved especially vulnerable in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. [...]
As of this month, retrofits on 608 “soft-story” buildings are complete and another almost 4,000 retrofits are in progress, according to the mayor’s office. More than 13,000 of an estimated 13,500 soft-story buildings have been issued orders to comply, the first step on the road to retrofitting.
— Curbed LA
Commemorating the 24-year anniversary of the 1994 Northridge Earthquake which devastated the greater Los Angeles area on January 17, Curbed LA reports about the status of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti's effort to retrofit all of the city's 13,500 "soft-story" buildings — like the ubiquitous, and... View full entry
When Patrik Schumacher spoke at the 17th World Architecture Festival back in 2016, his speech, calling for an end to social housing and the privatization of public space, caused serious push-back, even from the firm he currently runs. Since, Schumacher has been trying to lay low—at least as far... View full entry
United States Artist (USA) has announced their family of 45 fellows for 2018. Their areas of disciplines range from art and architecture, to literature and writing, to name a few, and are awarded an unrestricted $50,000 to pursue any range of curiosities, proclivities and/or trajectories the... View full entry
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) and Aedas today unveiled their involvement in a boundary crossing which will provide a new entry point into Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities (HKBCF) is a joint project between the two architects, working with AECOM, which will provide new connections between Hong Kong, mainland China, and Macao, and which will bring wider benefits across the Pearl River Delta.
— Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
After years of delay and enormous cost overruns, work seems to be picking up again on the ambitious Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge project; connecting Hong Kong International Airport with Macau across the Lingdingyang channel and Zhuhai in mainland China via a series of bridges and one... View full entry
A major British construction company is going into liquidation after failing to secure a financial lifeline. Carillion (CIOIF), which employs 43,000 people around the world, said in a statement Monday that rescue talks with stakeholders including the British government had collapsed.
"We have been unable to secure the funding to support our business plan, and it is therefore with the deepest regret that we have arrived at this decision," Carillion Chairman Philip Green said in the statement.
— money.cnn.com
With thousands of workers in the UK and Canada, the construction company also builds high speed rail infrastructure, is involved in power distribution projects, and performs road maintenance, hospital management and other government services. Carillion has hundreds of contracts with the UK... View full entry
This is demanding and important work that we have done for 138 years, and continue to do with pride and gratitude, each and every day at the Art Institute of Chicago. We need museums, not just “now more than ever”—but always. — The Art Newspaper
The traditional and agreed upon purpose of modern museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display items of artistic, cultural, or scientific significance for the education of the public. What then, is the role of the museum in today's cultural and political climate? What are they to... View full entry
A major new public art work by Rachel Whiteread modelled on a suburban US house will be unveiled next week at the new US Embassy in Nine Elms, south London. The wall sculpture, titled US Embassy (Flat pack house; 2013-1015), will greet embassy visitors as they enter into the lobby through the consular court. The work was commissioned by Art in Embassies, a US governmental body. — The Art Newspaper
Artist Rachel Whiteread's name has become synonymous with the production of architectural interventions, invention and material playfulness through her large-scale artist sculptures, specifically her casts of the interiors of buildings. Her newest addition, installed in the US Embassy titled, US... View full entry
The prevalence of gated communities may also reveal what South Africans think constitutes middle class life. As it did under apartheid, it often means avoiding the poor unless they are servants, nannies or gardeners. Instead of creating racial segregation, gated communities often broaden the economic gap in South Africa and restricts development to privatized progress. — Quartz
"As state institutions flounder, estate living has gone on to offer attached private schools and clinics," Lynsey Chutel writes for Quartz Africa. "Privatized amenities in gated communities mean citizens don’t have to hold the city accountable, which is a shame because these are the citizens who... View full entry
Virtual reality, a technology that most associate with gaming, entertainment and dystopic warnings from sci-fi writers including Ray Bradbury and Neal Stephenson, has moved into the real estate world in a big way. — The Guardian
With increasing frustration of penthouse shoppers reaching an immeasurable high, a novel application of new technology has been making a splash in the real estate market. Virtual reality has become the go-to tool for allowing real estate investors the opportunity to see precisely what they are... View full entry
The $600-million project, called 1111 Sunset, would include high-rise condominium and apartment towers, town houses, shops, restaurants and two acres of public open space designed by James Corner Field Operations, the landscape architect behind New York’s High Line elevated park. [...]
The 98-room boutique hotel is to be designed by Kengo Kuma. It would be the major Los Angeles project for the high-profile Japanese architect known for melding his structures to their natural surroundings.
— Los Angeles Times
Image: SOM/Palisades.First announced last October, the redevelopment of the William Pereira-designed former Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District HQ, right on the edge of Downtown Los Angeles and Echo Park, is further taking shape. Besides new renderings of the 1111 Sunset Boulevard... View full entry
Preliminary Research Office, headed by Yaohua Wang, Dingliang Yang and Chloe Natanél Brunner, has shared their proposal for the YeouiNaru Ferry Terminal. The proposed Ferry Terminal is situated upon Seoul’s Han River and is surrounded by both natural and urban landscapes. The project uses... View full entry
I’d been assigned to write a story about Pennsylvania Station, but I wanted to get a caboose-eye view of the decaying tunnels leading up to it, because the only imaginable way the station could be any worse is if it were underwater. Penn, the Western Hemisphere’s busiest train station, serves 430,000 travelers every weekday—more than LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark airports combined. — Bloomberg Businessweek
"As the gateway to America’s largest city," Devin Leonard writes in his piece for Bloomberg Businessweek, "Penn Station should inspire awe, as train stations do in London, Paris, Tokyo, and other competently managed metropolises. Instead, it embodies a particular kind of American failure—the... View full entry
