San Diego approved new growth blueprints Thursday that allow for mid-rise housing and dense urban villages in neighborhoods near new trolley stops in Linda Vista and the northeast corner of Pacific Beach.

City Council members said the new zoning will simultaneously help solve San Diego’s housing crisis, reduce carbon emissions that cause climate change and revamp blighted areas where bicyclists and pedestrians face major challenges. — The San Diego Union-Tribune

We are concerned that at present our education does not give sufficient weight to the inherently ecological and political basis of architecture, nor to our responsibility to meet our uncertain future with socially and environmentally informed practice.

We appreciate and applaud the efforts of contemporary practitioners, but we ask you to join us in using the freedom and particular responsibility of academic institutions to push our discipline further in this direction. — Architecture Education Declares

The product is the result of a six-year collaboration between LaFargeHolcim and Solidia and uses a special binder — produced at lower temperatures — and patented curing process that uses CO2 rather than water. By adding and absorbing CO2, Solidia Concrete reaches strength in less than 24 hours unlike precast concrete made with Portland cement, which takes 28 days to reach strength. — Construction Dive

As high-rises keep growing taller, more connected and more efficient, there is increasing pressure on Otis and rival elevator companies Schindler, Kone and Thyssenkrupp to reduce wait times for rides and to personalize experiences—for instance, by allowing riders to call elevators from smartphones. — The Wall Street Journal

Fifty years ago this summer, word reached New Orleans that John Volpe, secretary of the Department of Transportation under President Richard Nixon, had canceled the Riverfront Expressway—the high-speed, elevated interstate highway slated for the edge of the French Quarter. — Nola.com

In the 2014 deal, Forest City Ratner vowed to expedite affordable housing for the 17-building development, under threat of a lawsuit from neighborhood groups that alleged the firm had broken faith with a community benefits pact signed nearly a decade earlier. — The City

As the United States suffers through a summer of record-breaking heat, new research shows that temperatures on a scorching summer day can vary as much as 20 degrees across different parts of the same city, with poor or minority neighborhoods often bearing the brunt of that heat. — The New York Times

The Department of City Planning studied commercial corridors in 24 neighborhoods across the five boroughs and concluded that while shuttered storefronts plague some of the city's richest and poorest areas, the phenomenon is far from a pandemic.

"There is no single dominant trend in retail in New York City," the survey asserts. "Data did not indicate a pervasive vacancy problem across the city, but did identify a number of high-vacancy corridors." — Crain's New York

Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting has been moved to a new room in the Louvre while its usual home is renovated. That’s causing some commotion for visitors. — The New York Times

Co-Arc International Architects director Catharine Atkins and architect Malika Walele are the leading women behind the 55-story building on Maude Street, which was designed by Co-Arc’s emeritus partner, Francois Pienaar. — TimesLIVE

Researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland have introduced a multimedia app for architects and designers that identifies construction hazards related to building design elements using video and images. — Construction Dive

All were built after World War II to cheaply house the masses in a way that jived with communist ideology. Near-identical two- and three-bedroom apartments included amenities like central heat, private bathrooms, and elevators. Standardization and mass production were paramount, though idiosyncrasies—a pop of color here, a geometric motif there—inevitably crept in. — Wired

The palazzo itself is a combination of classical and Modernist elements — a fusion of Art Deco and Baroque flourishes, with sophisticated hand-hewn details, a historical pastiche that tracks both Borsani’s own aesthetic evolution as well as 20th-century Italian design. Made from a series of connected boxes — T Magazine