Julia Ingalls reviewed "Work on Work" the current exhibition at Los Angeles’ Architecture + Design Museum, co-organized by Gensler and UCLA’s cityLAB. Therein she writes "This feeling of being at an un-airconditioned business conference is not helped by the next section of the exhibit, in... View full entry
the government’s recent planning policy – which could have resulted in property developers dodging up to £1bn in affordable housing payments – has been definitively quashed following a High Court ruling. [...]
the “vacant building credit” let developers convert empty buildings into housing without making the usual Section 106 contributions for affordable homes.[...]
The ruling was described as a “victory for common sense [that] will help generate more affordable homes in London”
— theguardian.com
More on housing policy in the UK:The Guardian reveals how developers play the planning system to get around affordable housingLondon is eating itselfCornered: London Building Innovatively Addresses HomelessnessActivism targeting London's housing crisis bubbles to the surfaceLondon's traditionalist... View full entry
Gehry's involvement is a potential turning point in the decades-long movement to transform the concrete-lined waterway that winds through the heart of the Los Angeles Basin. [...]
it appears to be a broad reworking of the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan that L.A. city officials adopted in 2007 [...]
the new plan is getting a cold reception from the community of activists who have helped draw attention over the years to what was once a forlorn environmental cause.
— latimes.com
In an exclusive published earlier today by the Los Angeles Times, Peter Jamison takes a hard look at Frank Gehry's newly-announced collaboration with city officials to revitalize the LA River. Details are still very scant at this time, and Gehry's office has been tight-lipped about what their... View full entry
The Center for Emerging Professionals introduces a campaign dedicated to informing all generations of architects about the value Emerging Professionals bring to the field and the importance of getting paid for internship hours. — aia.org
Responding to ongoing debates regarding unpaid internships and the devaluing of the profession, the AIA has launched a new educational campaign called "Know Your Worth", to inform and publicize how architects should value themselves in today's profession.In a pair of videos introducing the... View full entry
[Tulane's] architecture program, established in 1894, is one of the country's oldest, but before Hurricane Katrina it was a little stuffy, known, if anything, for historic preservation, and not particularly prestigious.
After the storm, the school reinvented itself as a destination for students and faculty interested in building in low-income neighborhoods and fragile environments.
— npr.org
More post-Katrina context in New Orleans:New Orleans public housing 10 years after Hurricane KatrinaPost-Katrina: Will New Orleans still be New Orleans?Tulane architecture dean Kenneth Schwartz named head of Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design ThinkingThere's still hope: Blighted New... View full entry
Archinect Sessions tied the bow on Season 1 last week, with episode #40 featuring Thom Mayne and Eui-Sung Yi of the NOW Institute. Now we're working to correct our podcasting tans, but we'll be back with more episodes soon, along with a shiny new format. While we're cooking up Season 2, take this... View full entry
Over at the Los Angeles Times, Christopher Hawthorne eloquently pans the new addition to the 405 freeway, noting that "The expanded 405 might be the first L.A. freeway project to look haggard and disjointed the day it opened." His review comes at a time when infrastructure, especially in... View full entry
Construction of the Bjarke Ingels-designed 2 World Trade Center will come with a $4 billion price tag. The 2.8 million-square-foot downtown tower will top out at 1,340 feet, just 28 feet shy of One World Trade Center, which currently holds the title of the world’s most expensive office building with construction costs coming in at $3.8 billion. — 6sqft
Larry Silverstein, developer of 2 World Trade Center, is looking for $500 million in financing to fund the $4 billion tower’s completion. If all goes according to plan, a lease could be signed by the end of the year and construction could start next year with a 2020 completion date. View full entry
'When these [2007 Pan Am] venues were built the government told Brazilians that these would be Olympic-ready, and there would be a rather smooth and efficient transition to eventually hosting the Olympics,' explained Rio-based reporter Taylor Barnes...'But, these venues have instead had some pretty checkered after-lives.' — pri.org
Despite a murky past of broken promises in addition to recent water-safety concerns and rampant economic turmoil, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes claims construction of the venues are on schedule and will be delivered on time for the 2016 Olympics -- which will begin one year from now. Public... View full entry
What makes a city habitable for centuries, even millennia? This list of the twelve longest-inhabited cities compiled by the Mother Nature Network, which includes several in ISIS-plagued Syria, one in China, and one in India, unsurprisingly points toward temperate climate, relatively stable water... View full entry
Many school buildings that used to house children now just primarily house debris thanks to a precipitous drop in public school enrollment over several decades. One independent website puts the figure at over 1,000 abandoned schools in states stretching from West Virginia to Indiana. Some... View full entry
Laundromats have recently been closing down in San Francisco, which prompted a Google employee to tweet in response "cost of disruption: washio and others have removed need for laundromat on every block." Who needs laundromats when there's an app for that? Well, people who can't afford to spend... View full entry
The architect behind the new Jack the Ripper museum in east London has said he was duped over the purpose of the project, after what was billed as a museum of women’s history became an attraction about Britain’s most notorious murderer of women. [...]
"We really ran with it. We did it at a bargain-basement fee, at cost price because we thought it was a great thing to do."
"You do rely on the moral fibre of your client but you should also be able to rely on the planning system"
— theguardian.com
In the design process, you design buildings and then you leave them. You don't check on them. Every building we open, since space is our product, we can talk to our members. We can close the loop and continue to make our spaces better and put that feedback into new spaces. -David Fano — Architect Magazine
Traditionally, an architect's involvement stops once the building is constructed and the red ribbon has been cut. Clients and tenants often go on to populate pristine spaces with their own furniture and paint schemes, often to the chagrin of the original designer. But what if the architect's role... View full entry
In December of last year, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation announced that it would try to fundraise $2M by the end of 2015, in order to establish The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture as an independent organization. The Foundation set a $1M goal to be reached by the end of August... View full entry
