San Francisco lives with the certainty that the Big One will come. But the city is also putting up taller and taller buildings clustered closer and closer together because of the state’s severe housing shortage. Now those competing pressures have prompted an anxious rethinking of building regulations. Experts are sending this message: The building code does not protect cities from earthquakes nearly as much as you might think. — New York Times
Taking a hard look at San Francisco's building codes, this NY Times piece goes in depth on what it means for city high rises if the next big earthquake hit. From the 1906 earthquake and fire to current seismic safety, concerns revolve around the number of skyscrapers built on liquefaction zones... View full entry
The tinted world of tomorrow is coming, and airports—mini-cities of steel, concrete and lots and lots of glass—are interested. In a test last fall, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport outfitted one of its gates with a new type of “smart glass” that can adjust for sunlight exposure. The obvious point is to keep travelers from getting overheated—but the exercise also brought a more lucrative benefit. — Bloomberg
A Cornell-led study at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport found that implementing a new type of electrochromatic 'smart glass' at one of its gates not only led to cooler, more pleasant surface temperatures in the waiting area, but the tinted glass, and the resulting dimmer light in the neighboring bars and... View full entry
"Work rules our lives today more than ever," says the design team behind Homework, an installation at Milan Design Week's furniture focused event, the 2018 Salone del Mobile, that explores the historically shifting boundaries between private and public spaces. © USM© USMIn 2012, a study by a bed... View full entry
[...] iPhoto confused a human friend of mine – I’ll call him Mike – with a building called the Great Mosque of Cordoba. [...]
Rather than viewing this as a failure, I realized I had found a new insight: Just as people’s faces have features that can be recognized by algorithms, so do buildings. That began my effort to perform facial recognition on buildings – or, more formally, “architectural biometrics.” Buildings, like people, may just have biometric identities too.
— The Conversation
Peter Christensen, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Rochester, elaborates on his research with 'facial recognition' on buildings to unlock architectural secrets. View full entry
Architecture isn’t just looking at a building. It’s looking at how the city is shaped, and then thinking about, what can we do as citizens to make it a better place to live through architecture and design? — PBS | News Hour
via PBS | News HourJefffrey Brown reports from Green River, Utah. Small, with a population that "hovers at" 950, a nonprofit called Epicenter aims to use use art and architecture to bring new energy, life and economic development. There is even a "stationary" taco truck. View full entry
The American Institute of Architects [...] reported that architecture firm billings rose for the sixth consecutive month in March, although the pace of growth slowed modestly from February.
Overall, the AIA’s Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score for March was 51.0 (any score over 50 indicates billings growth), which still reflects a healthy business environment.
— AIA
“New project activity coming into architecture firms continues to grow at a solid pace. As a result, project backlogs—in excess of six months at present— are at their highest post-recession level,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. “Business remains strong in the... View full entry
The Smart Scale Ruler was created by Joanne Swisterski, an Interior Designer looking to solve scale and unit issues once and for all. This digital ruler can be customized for Architects, Designers, and Builders. Solving the common problems of out of scale drawings and differing units, this... View full entry
The A+D Museum has announced the unveiling of their inaugural fellowship program, developed in collaboration with the LA-based multi-disciplinary design firm, Rios Clementi Hale Studios. The aim of the The Alley Fellowship is to produce a two-month rotating exhibition and lecture series and is... View full entry
If you've been around the 'architecture-can-be-fun-too'-focused internet for a while, you may remember Sergej Hein's semi-viral gem of a video, Berlin Block Tetris, which was exactly that: an animated version of the video game classic using building blocks that resembled socialist-era residential... View full entry
This week we rounded up jobs with firms who have created imaginative public installations. Whether permanently established or temporarily set up, these spaces allow for experiences outside of people’s day-to-day interactions. Search through opportunities currently active on Archinect Jobs and... View full entry
A homeowner in a housing complex in London with Grenfell-type cladding has been told the value of her £475,000 home has collapsed and is now just £50,000.
Galliard Homes, the developer of the 11-block complex in New Capital Quay in south-east London, is facing a £30m-£40m bill to replace the cladding and is locked in a legal dispute over who should pay.
— The Guardian
The New Capital Quay development—home to about 2,000 residents—is believed to be the largest private development to have flammable cladding after the 2017 Grenfell fire tragedy that killed 71 people, The Guardian reports. The apartments are now considered unsellable. View full entry
In 2016, a Manhattan crane collapse in Tribeca killed one person, seriously injured two others and left another with minor injuries. Workers were trying to secure the crane against winds by lowering the boom when the crane collapsed to the ground. The accident was caused by a series of operator... View full entry
"Are architects at risk of losing their relevance to the client?" asks Beatriz Ramo in her contribution "Sympathy for the Devil" for MONU's issue #28 that we devote to the topic of "Client-shaped Urbanism".
(Bernd Upmeyer, Editor-in-Chief, April 2018)
— http://www.monu-magazine.com/news.htm
“Are architects at risk of losing their relevance to the client?” asks Beatriz Ramo in her contribution “Sympathy for the Devil” for MONU’s issue #28 that we devote to the topic of "Client-shaped Urbanism". We consider “clients” to be crucial participants in the shaping and creating... View full entry
This week Ken, Donna and I talk about some topics in recent architecture news, along with a little discussion about dealing with criticism. Listen to episode 120 of Archinect Sessions, “Radical Candor”. iTunes: Click here to listen, and click the "Subscribe" button below the logo to... View full entry
Developer MP Los Angeles has announced plans to construct Hollywood Center, a $1-billion mixed-use complex near the Capitol Records Building in Hollywood.
According to MP Los Angeles, the project - which was filed today with the City of Los Angeles - will feature the largest on-site affordable housing component of any market-rate development in the history of the city.
— urbanize.la
The landmark Capitol Records building sits right adjacent to the proposed Hollywood Center development. Image: MP Los Angeles.Handel Architects and James Corner Field Operations will be in charge of designing the two 35 and 46-story high-rise towers, two 11-story mid-rise buildings, and two civic... View full entry