“The project does not provide the storm damage mitigation and storm-surge protection that is promised, or at least the U.S. Geological Survey comments on the plan question the science behind those proposed benefits.” [...]

“A project like this, where the science is being questioned by government scientists and the environmental impacts are clearly negative, it’s a poster child for where we shouldn’t do this. This stretch of Fire Island is a park, for goodness sake.” — nextcity.org

"And so, you know, having named my son after him, what was I going to do? Of course I said yes." — The Architect's Newspaper

it seemed perverse to us that architecture has become all about the aesthetics of a few iconic buildings whose main function is the glorification of those with the money to build them. As one prize after another celebrates the work of a selected band of world famous "starchitects", it seemed like humanity's most pressing problems are how to fold metal into the most obscure shapes, and how implausibly high a building can go. — Al Jazeera

On this 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a shiny new skyscraper towers over what was once a smoldering pile. It’s touted as “an ever-present symbol of renewal and hope,” but the process to build One WTC, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, has been arduous and much-delayed. The project, which has had its share of critics, is finally set to open in early 2015. — qz.com

The São Paulo Biennial, which opened on September 6, is traditionally a contemporary art festival, but this year’s event puts new emphasis on architecture. Chief curator Charles Esche commissioned nearly 70 percent of the exhibition’s artworks, collaborating with a five-person curatorial team that included an architect for the first time in the biennial’s 63-year history (fun fact: it’s the world’s second-oldest contemporary art biennial). — blouinartinfo.com

World-renowned architect Bjarke Ingels challenges himself and all of us to think beyond the status quo and dream big. Why shouldn’t you be able to ski down a power plant? He refers to his projects as “promiscuous hybrids”—they combine seemingly disparate elements and turn fiction into fact. — Future of Storytelling

Just north of where the University of Pennsylvania transformed its surroundings, and amid Drexel University’s big expansion plans, one Drexel school is looking for ways to coalesce that West Philly arts community.

Mantua, long challenged by poverty, population decline and crime, has had a higher profile in the past year due to its Promise Zone designation and the raved-about art project, Funeral for a Home. — nextcity.org

The system, which was first tried in 2013 on skid row, was designed to identify the most vulnerable homeless people and get them off the streets. Long-term or chronically homeless people, who are often jailed or hospitalized, are a quarter of the homeless population but consume 75% of the county's resources [...]

But the system, which has been described as match.com for homeless people, is also supposed to get families and others who fall into homelessness back in housing quickly — latimes.com

Software companies don’t usually go around buying architecture and design firms, but The Living isn’t your typical beards-and-Blue-Bottle band of architects. The 7-person shop in the Brooklyn Navy Yard was acquired earlier this year for a small, undisclosed price by design and engineering software maker Autodesk. The reason: The Living’s expertise in blending all that’s new in materials, 3-D printing and more arcane new fields such as biological manufacturing and algorithmic design. — forbes.com

On the same day that Stage One of the Guggenheim Helsinki competition will conclude, The Next Helsinki is launching their own international call for alternative solutions to attract the best ideas that they believe would better meet the needs and enhance the city of Helsinki, Finland.

Launched by a group of independent arts organizations and chaired by Michael Sorkin, The Next Helsinki bluntly addresses the controversy that the Guggenheim Helsinki competition has sparked [...]. — bustler.net

“It’s not rare for us to go and try to make sure that no one buys the house of someone who’s facing foreclosure,” says Rob Call, an organizer for Occupy Our Homes Atlanta (OOHA). In Georgia, houses are publicly auctioned every first Tuesday of the month on each county courthouse’s steps. "[...] these auctions were mostly vacant. No one was really trying to go after these homes, but then they were [suddenly] swamped with people bidding up houses with quick access to sizable cashier’s checks.” — nextcity.org