This week we're devoting our episode to the anniversary of the 2016 election of Donald J. Trump, the statement by the AIA CEO Robert Ivy, and the subsequent dissent born out of the hashtag #NotMyAIA. We look to what has changed, and what hasn't; as it relates to the profession, activism and... View full entry
After a stand-alone month of contracting demand for design services, there was a modest uptick in the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) for October. [...] October ABI score was 51.7, up from a score of 49.1 in the previous month. This score reflects an increase in design services provided by U.S. architecture firms [...]. The new projects inquiry index was 60.2, up from a reading of 59.0 the previous month, while the new design contracts index eased slightly from 52.9 to 52.8. — AIA
“As we enter the fourth quarter, there is enough design activity occurring that construction conditions should remain healthy moving through 2018,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. “Extended strength in inquiries and new design contracts, along with balanced growth... View full entry
The leads in those races have never flipped since polls closed Tuesday night. Denver city officials, including Mayor Michael Hancock, already were treating the Green Roof Initiative as though it would pass, given its growing lead with every release of results. — Denver Post
Jon Murray and Kieran Nicholson report the final, unofficial, results released by the Denver Elections Division. BLUF Denver voters passed the Green Roof Initiative and Mayor Hancock and the city are committing to "how best to implement it within the laws and property rights that people have, and... View full entry
Only a dream can kill a dream. — Egg Shen
Developed with some of the minds behind One Night Stand LA, DOPIUM.LA aimed to preserve the original beauty of Chinatown, while showing its inspirational influence on an emerging community of creatives in Los Angeles. For one night, a group of artist, architects and atmospheric maestros turned... View full entry
Can Helmut Jahn's Thompson Center be saved? A newly released short documentary, Starship Chicago, delves into the struggle and controversy around preserving the state of Illinois building. Some see the building as a unique representation of transparent government and Chicago's architectural... View full entry
Archinect is pleased to announce the release of the inaugural issue of Ed, our new print publication. The first issue focuses on “The Architecture of Architecture”—how architecture is constitutively enmeshed within ecologies, economies, socio-politics, technological regimes, and patriarchal... View full entry
For homeless advocates who had been glowing after November, the unanimous vote in August blocking the project by a Los Angeles City Council land use committee, headed by Mr. Huizar, was a discouraging setback. It was also a reminder that some of the toughest battles lie ahead as Los Angeles moves from the task of persuading voters to raise money for the homeless to the logistics of getting the money spent. — NYT
Adam Nagourney reports in from L.A., where homeless advocates and neighborhood activists are fighting over implementation of HHH (a $1.2 billion effort to build housing for the homeless). NIMBYs or concerned citizens? Professor Tim Iglesias responded "it will require sustained political will to... View full entry
In order for that kind of writing instruction to occur, what is needed is a culture shift toward an environment where all teachers — not just English teachers — believe they have permission to devote meaningful amounts of class time to writing instruction. — Washington Post
The romanticized view of the Architect, sitting, drawing and creating is a beautiful one indeed, but all too often are the words, the text that pulls the sketches together, that make sense of the whimsical strokes stay forgotten. Without the written history of Architecture, we would not have isms... View full entry
A big obstacle to attracting new recruits is the stigma around working in the public sector. There remains a widely-held stereotype that planning departments are the realm of dusty, tweed-jacketed types, nested in their booths for the last half century. Williams says that when he started at Croydon, a colleague pitied him, assuming he had ended up there because he couldn’t get a job in an architecture practice. — The Guardian
With the explosion of STARCHITECTS collecting major commission after major commission in the same manner children collect toys, a young office in London, Public Practice, has found a niche all to their own — one who's historical stigma only expanded Public Practice's potential and... View full entry
For Archinect's After the Storm mini series, we had reached out to various architecture schools in Puerto Rico to get a better understanding how the recent Hurricanes Irma and Maria — and the devastation they left behind all over the region — had impacted school facilities, academic... View full entry
A week to the day in which Norwegian design firm Snøhetta released their ambitious designs to modernize Phillip Johnson's Postmodern icon — the AT&T building in New York — Norman Foster has come out and added his name and gravity in support of the building protests against the proposed... View full entry
A three-storey chunk of an east London council estate that is venerated and despised in almost equal measures has been acquired by the V&A.
The museum announced it had made one of the most unusual property deals in its history: rescuing an enormous chunk of the Robin Hood Gardens estate, complete with walkway and maisonette interiors.
— The Guardian
Completed in 1972 and considered an icon of brutalist architecture — representing the good and the bad traits of the movement, depending on the perspective — the Tower Hamlets "Robin Hood Gardens" council estate is being demolished. By salvaging an intact piece of the building designed by... View full entry
I never realised how nostalgic I am, until I started writing. An architect is not supposed to be nostalgic but forward-looking. But I’m nostalgic for a time when mankind was a lot more forward-looking than it is today; for a gradual optimism about the future. That’s the paradox. — Failed Architecture
"In his book Four Walls and a Roof – The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession, Reinier de Graaf paints an honest picture of what it is like to work as an architect today. De Graaf, who is a partner at OMA and director of AMO, the office’s think tank, provides engaging stories about the... View full entry
Photovoltaic (PV) concrete cladding is set to outperform rooftop solar, according to LafargeHolcim, which has developed a façade system with partner Heliatek.
The team said that the photovoltaic energy-generating concrete facade has the capability to double the energy generation traditionally achieved by roof-based solar systems.
— The Construction Index
"A prototype of this new photovoltaic facade system will be presented at Batimat, the French construction fair in November, and a pilot project is planned in 2018," LafargeHolcim writes in a recent announcement. View full entry
No other major metropolitan area in the U.S. has grown faster than Houston over the last decade, with a significant portion of new construction occurring in areas that the federal government considers prone to flooding.
But much of that new real estate in those zones did just fine, a Times analysis has found.
— Los Angeles Times
The City of Houston, notorious for its relative lack of zoning codes, did in fact take future flooding into account and mandated that new homes were to be built at least 12 inches above flood levels predicted by the federal government. "The 1985 regulation and others that followed," the LA Times... View full entry
