Olafur Eliasson has been commissioned to make a permanent lighting installation for the Arc de Triomphe, which is due to be inaugurated in 2020. Costing €3m, the project is being financed by the Fonds pour Paris, a foundation set up in 2015 by Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo to restore Parisian heritage and support contemporary art. — The Art Newspaper
Eliasson's proposal is still under wraps, and details won't be available until later this summer or early fall, reports The Art Newspaper.It will be a busy year for the iconic landmark on the Champs-Élysées, as artist Christo also announced to wrap the Arc de Triomphe in 2020. View full entry
Technically, the sand wasn’t intended for public use. But Manhattan is not your usual island, and beaches are whatever Manhattanites say they are: sidewalks, tar-paper roofs, the hoods of cars or, in this case, acres and acres of landfill. — The New York TImes
Though Manhattan skyline has been the focus of countless photographs, movies and television shows, there are still images out there that can defy expectations. For a brief period, between the late 1960's and the 1980's, the lower West end of Manhattan (known as Battery Park City) was an "ersatz... View full entry
When the project was first announced in 2014, many waited in anticipation as renderings of L'Arbre Blanc tower surfaced. The 17-story tower is said to be modeled after the shape of a tree with balconies 'branching out' from the cylindrical shaped building. Located in Montpellier, France, Sou... View full entry
Copenhagen is the rare city that can have an amusement park at its center, complete with anatopic pagodas, paper mâché mountains and wooden rollercoasters, and still be known as a world class destination for tasteful architecture and design. Tivoli Gardens has seen the city modernize around it... View full entry
American attorneys famous for claims in construction disasters have launched a landmark wrongful death lawsuit in Philadelphia against three US companies on behalf of 69 of the 72 people killed in the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, and 177 who were injured in the tragedy. — Global Construction Review
"They are targeting Arconic, Inc., which they claim supplied the Reynobond Polyethylene Cladding (PE) panels on Grenfell; Celotex Corporation, which they claim supplied the insulation used in the cladding system; and Whirlpool Corporation, which manufactured the fridge-freezer thought to be linked... View full entry
After years of protests and legal battles, Hawaii officials announced Thursday that a massive telescope which will allow scientists to peer into the most distant reaches of our early universe will be built on a volcano that some consider sacred.
The state has issued a “notice to proceed” for the Thirty Meter Telescope project, Gov. David Ige said at a news conference. In October, a state Supreme Court’s 4-1 ruling upheld the project’s permits for the $1.4 billion instrument.
— HuffPost
Meanwhile protests continue by a group of native Hawaiians who see the telescope's site on top of Mount Mauna Kea as sacred ground and have been trying for years to block the project at this location. View full entry
A sea of canary yellow office pods is taking shape on a dusty lot off of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. There, Spanish architects Selgascano and global co-working platform Second Home are busy finishing out the group’s new 90,000-square-foot Hollywood outpost, a mesmerizing construction site... View full entry
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
It’s because I love my Los Angeles full of texture and a little untamed that I worry in these days of rapid displacement and rampant development.
One of the first things I noticed as the rents in my Hollywood neighborhood went up was that the fluttering silk flags and drawings on torn cardboard and other random street art projects that often would appear overnight suddenly became more and more rare.
— The Los Angeles Times
How does a city maintain its identity under the pressures of global brands and developers hungry for real estate? Though Los Angeles is a city known for destroying its recent past for the elusive present, there are only so many buildings and details this city can turn over before it's a different... View full entry
The mammoth, unfinished mansion on Strada Vecchia Road in Bel-Air has long been at the center of controversy, investigations and legal battles.
Its developer, Mohamed Hadid, pleaded no contest to criminal charges after prosecutors accused him of building a house far bigger than allowed. [...]
And investigators have looked into possible wrongdoing by a city building inspector scrutinizing the house.
— Los Angeles Times
Looks like the legal drama over the gargantuan on-again/off-again under-construction Bel Air megamansion by celebrity developer Mohamed Hadid is entering a new act: Russell Linch, the contested project's former construction manager, has come forward this week and accused a Los Angeles Department... View full entry
In the face of increasingly destructive climate collapse, the University of Pennsylvania's McHarg Center for Urban Ecology is launching Design with Nature Now, a sprawling survey of some of the most inventive ecologically-driven landscape infrastructure projects from around the... View full entry
Under a plan announced last week by Mayor Anne Hidalgo, thickets of trees will soon appear in what today are pockets of concrete next to landmark locations, including the Hôtel de Ville, Paris’s city hall; the Opera Garnier, Paris’s main opera house; the Gare de Lyon; and along the Seine quayside. — citylab.com
"Islands of freshness" are on the way to Paris, according to a recently-unveiled plan by mayor Anne Hidalgo. The environmentally-aggressive mayor is aiming to have 50 percent of the city's land area taken up by permeable surfaces and planted areas, Citylab reports, and so, she is turning spaces... View full entry
INT: Do you think sustainability in architecture is less of an issue in Japan?
KK: Historically, traditional Japanese architecture uses very sustainable designs that incorporate features such as natural ventilation instead of air conditioning, and things like that. But in the 20th century, as Western culture came to Japan, we forgot these kinds of designs. That’s what I’m trying to go back to.
— It's Nice That
"My dream is to start my own school and pass my lessons on to younger generations in the same way that Frank Lloyd Wright did with his School of Architecture at Taliesin [in Wisconsin]," Kengo Kuma told It's Nice That when asked about his future aspirations. "He has inspired me in many ways, but I... View full entry
A spectacular footbridge that will link the Cornish mainland with the island fortress of Tintagel is beginning to take shape thanks to technology usually employed for challenging construction projects in the Swiss Alps. [...]
The 70-metre-long bridge is to comprise of two cantilevers, one reaching out from the mainland to the island where according to legend King Arthur was conceived.
— The Guardian
Image: Ney & Partners, William Matthews Associates, Hayes Davidson, Emily Whitfield-WicksThe new Tintagel footbridge at this historically significant site in Cornwall, England was envisioned by Belgian bridge designers Ney & Partners Civil Engineers in partnership with UK architecture firm... View full entry
Though the majority of the over 37,000 McDonald's outlets around the world hardly rise to the definition of "architecture," the company is no stranger to spectacular design: some of its first locations, built throughout the Midwest as early as 1955, were remarkable demonstrations of... View full entry
