In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. (Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!)... View full entry
The “Renewable Rikers Act,” crafted by Queens Councilmember Costa Constantinides, aims to create a green vision for the 400-acre correctional facility that would keep the island out of the hands of luxury developers, while lessening the burden on communities loaded with city infrastructure. — Curbed NY
A trio of legislative efforts are underway in New York to transform the Rikers Island jail into a green energy powerhouse for the city. Queens Council member Costa Constantinides told Curbed, “Closing Rikers Island, if we do this right, can not only end overpolicing and the atrocities... View full entry
Over the past several years, home automation and smart home technology have become exceedingly popular and are now more commonplace than ever before. In the not so distant past, these concepts were hard to grasp, and felt out of reach for the average homeowner.
The House of the Future in Ahwatukee, Arizona, designed by former Taliesin Associated Architect Charles Schiffner, embraced these innovative concepts as early as 1978.
— The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
Frank Lloyd Wright was a visionary, but he likely couldn't have predicted the next big to have spun out of Taliesin West, the architect's winter home and school in the Arizona desert. When he passed in 1959, many of his apprentices formed an architecture firm named Taliesin Associated... View full entry
A new audit conducted by the city of Portland, Oregon presents an alarming view into the contentious renovations currently being undertaken for the Michael Graves-designed Portland Building. Among a flurry of critiques aimed at the project organizers, the report states that changes performed to... View full entry
Fifteen months ago the Miami City Commission shot down a recommendation to make the Babylon, the first multifamily building designed by renowned Miami firm Arquitectonica (and its second project ever), a historically protected building.
As a result, the 37-year-old Babylon [...] will be demolished sometime before July.
— Biscayne Times
Telling the history of the building and Miami's Brickell neighborhood, Biscayne Times senior writer Erik Bojnansky explains that "in 1978, Arquitectonica was still an up-and-coming Coral Gables firm. Babylon was its second building, the first being the 6900-square-foot single-family home known as... View full entry
The Berlin activists who staged a protest at a vacant government building didn’t imagine they’d end up leading a €140 million redevelopment project. — Places Journal
During the 1960s, the Haus der Statistik was built for the national statistics office for East Germany. The massive complex spreads over eight blocks at half a million square feet, comprising three connected mid-rises and some smaller buildings. As years passed, the Haus der Statistik's history... View full entry
The state Appellate Division’s First Judicial Department issued a ruling on Tuesday denying the West 58th Street Coalition’s motion to extend a temporary injunction to stop the opening of the homeless shelter. The city plans to open the shelter at the former Park Savoy Hotel at 158 W. 58th St. It is located on a block near an area dubbed Billionaires’ Row, which is home to a group of luxury residential skyscrapers. — The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal reports that the West 58th Street Coalition, the neighborhood group opposing the planned homeless shelter, would "appeal Tuesday’s ruling to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, which would hear the case in the fall." The shelter population in New York City... View full entry
In response to the ongoing toxicity crisis gripping the town of Flint, Michigan, 2020 Democratic presidential contender Julián Castro has unveiled a nationwide lead abatement plan. Last week, Castro, former Housing and Urban Development secretary under President Barack Obama, became the first... View full entry
In Los Angeles, where even houses get their proverbial close-ups as TV or movie locations, a property’s appeal can crest on its IMDb credits alone.
But only the Sowden House in the Los Feliz neighborhood can claim film cameos, a pedigreed architect and a history as the possible site of a grisly unsolved murder. Never mind the fact that the exterior entryway resembles a menacing maw, earning it the apt nickname “the Jaws house.”
— The New York Times
The Sowden House, in Los Feliz, California, has one of the most storied pasts in architecture and Hollywood history. Designed by Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright, the home was completed in 1926 for John and Ruth Sowden as a "bohemian playhouse for aspiring actors and Hollywood bons... View full entry
There are uglier airports and airports with fewer amenities; there are airports that are older and airports that are more rundown; there are airports with ruder staff and airports with cruder passengers. There are, without doubt, by almost all measures, worse airports in this world. Except by one measure—an exceedingly crucial measure. In fact, behind safety, it’s almost certainly the most important measure: getting in and getting out. — Fodors.com
Fodor's Travel Guide has ranked Los Angeles International Airport as the worst airport in the world, due in large part to the "improbably stupid design of its catastrophic horseshoe motor-loop." The airport's design is attributed to noted Los Angeles architect and urban planner William Pereira... View full entry
Following delays caused by a lawsuit aimed at protecting the adjacent, city-owned Theodore Roosevelt Park, construction officially kicked off for the American Museum of Natural History’s new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation. Designed by architect Jeanne Gang, the $383 million Center will add new galleries, classrooms, a theatre, and an expanded library while linking 10 museum buildings for better circulation throughout the campus. — 6sqft
A rendering of the Gilder Center's interior. Rendering by MIR and Studio Gang.Entrance to the Gilder Center from Theodore Roosevelt Park. Rendering by MIR and Studio Gang.Entrance to the Gilder Center from Theodore Roosevelt Park. Rendering by MIR and Studio Gang. View full entry
American homes are a lot bigger than they used to be. In 1973[...] the median size of a newly built house was just over 1,500 square feet; that figure reached nearly 2,500 square feet in 2015.
But according to a recent paper, Americans aren’t getting any happier with their ever bigger homes. “Despite a major upscaling of single-family houses since 1980,” writes Clément Bellet,[...], “house satisfaction has remained steady in American suburbs.”
— The Atlantic
For many homeowners in America, happiness is often incorrectly measured by how flatteringly the scale of one's home can be compared to those around them. Since the construction of Levittown and other post-war suburban developments, American homes have, on average, been built with incrementally... View full entry
Authorities in the Italian capital have now enforced a slew of rules, updated from legislation drafted in 1946, as they seek to clamp down on uncouth behavior that has long been a source of frustration. — The Guardian
With a slew of visitors and tourists filling the streets of historic cities across the globe, it is no wonder authorities in the Italian capital are enforcing measures to help preserve Rome's cityscape. From "messy eating" and foot bathing near the Trevi Fountain to preserving historic staircases... View full entry
Eight months after the discovery of cracked steel girders forced its closure, the Transbay transit center is safe to reopen, an independent panel of engineers and experts has concluded. The reopening is set for 6 a.m. July 1. — San Francisco Chronicle
A five-member peer-review committee appointed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission has approved a series of recently-completed structural repairs made to the Pelli Clarke Pelli-designed Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco. Workers repair damaged structural beams at the Transbay... View full entry
In a surprising move, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the city of Chicago was within its authority when it approved the Obama Foundation’s plan to build the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park.
After listening to nearly an hour of arguments on both sides, U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey said construction of the sprawling Obama center campus can begin and dismissed the lawsuit filed by environmentalists that aimed to halt it.
— Chicago Tribune
Designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, the planned Obama Presidential Center in Chicago's Jackson Park has faced strong opposition from the start and was barred from commencing construction due to the pending lawsuit brought forward by the group, Protect Our Parks. "Even though this... View full entry