... not just a summation of his work’s themes but his masterpiece, the grandest exploration of pure color and form in a seven-decade career spent testing the boundaries of both. It is also the kind of ambitious fantasy that artists rarely get to execute... — T Magazine
M.H. Miller writes about Ellsworth Kelly’s "Austin," the artist’s final work and only building, which opens this month at the University of Texas’s Blanton Museum of Art. View full entry
The Madison Square Garden Company (MSG) confirmed on Friday that it wants to build the Sphere, a glazed orb with up to 18,000 seats and room for 5,000 standing, beside the Olympic Park in east London.
Designs of a similar “sphere” planned for Las Vegas suggest that the vault of the roof will become a giant screen for vast projections, which could evoke the sensation of being underwater or in a forest.
— The Guardian
Rumors about a monumental sphere-shaped music venue proposal for London seem to be gaining substance: The Guardian reports that the New York-based Madison Square Garden Company confirmed its plans to build a glazed orb — designed by Populous — for over 20,000 concert goers near the... 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
Construction of the world's tallest skyscraper in Jeddah is going ahead, the head of the consortium behind the $1.5 billion project said, despite the detention of some businessmen backing the plan in Saudi Arabia's crackdown on corruption. [...]
Construction has reached the 63rd floor and the superstructure - the concrete shell and the cladding - is to be completed next year, Jomah said, adding that delays in some areas were inevitable because of technical challenges.
— Arabian Business
Progress on the soon-to-be tallest structure on earth has been troubled for a while, with the main contractor (and partial owner) Saudi Binladin Group going through a financial rough patch and, more recently, several project officials and royal family members being targeted by the country's... View full entry
Sprayed with Vantablack Vbx2, a pavilion at the Winter Olympics in South Korea absorbs 99% of light. [...]
Lurking between the competition venues like an angular black hole, it looks like a portal to a parallel universe, waiting to suck unsuspecting ski fans into its vortex.
— The Guardian
Photo: Luke Hayes/HyundaiSports fans around the world can't wait for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to officially open tomorrow, but there's more to the spectacle than just athletic competitions on snow and ice: London-based architect & designer Asif Khan has created the "darkest... View full entry
MONU magazine's current issue #27 on "Small Urbanism" shows how small things can have a great impact on city life and planning, exploring themes such as micro-occupations as political protest, urban furniture to recover public spaces and fight criminality, acupunctural interventions for refugee settlements or tiny models used for military strategies. — MONU
There are architectural spaces that capture you through their smallest details. Almost five years ago, I visited the Crematorium building by Asplund in the Woodland Cemetery, in Stockholm. After crossing the artificial landscape along a seemingly introverted building, I remember entering a... View full entry
CIM Group and Macklowe Properties announced on Wednesday that the world’s tallest residential building just broke another record: the single best-selling building in New York City. According to the developers, they have sold $2 billion in luxury condominiums at 432 Park Avenue, a 1,396-foot tower designed by renowned architect Rafael Viñoly. The building’s most significant closings include 48 residences selling for more than $20 million each. — 6sqft
Pioneering African-American architect Georgia Louise Harris Brown had a knack for seeking out the most fertile architecture scenes in the world during her long career. She practiced in Chicago during Mies van der Rohe’s prime and, from there, moved to Brazil, where a singular modernist language was being created for Brasilia, the most ambitious planned capital of the 20th century. — autodesk.com
Georgia Louise Harris Brown has been featured as part of Redshift's Respect series, focusing on architect visionaries. Brown was the first African-American women to graduate with an architecture degree, and the second professionally licensed African-American female architect in the... View full entry
Yesterday, a magnitude 6.4 quake struck the Taiwanese city of a Hualien, Taiwan. So far, in its wake, the damage has left seven dead and injured 262 others; sixty-three people still remain unaccounted for. according to CNN. Since, emergency workers have been working diligently to rescue those who... View full entry
After winning the Municipality of Rome's invite-only competition in 2007, architects Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori of Labics revitalized a former bus depot at the edge of town into a mixed-use complex called the Città del Sole, or “City of Sun”. Working with local public... View full entry
A new development in downtown Brooklyn boasts a residential infinity pool atop the 68 story building. The tower, Brooklyn Point, was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and features luxury residences with custom interiors by Katherine Newman Design. The heated, infinity edge pool is... View full entry
To suggest that its quarter-of-a-century presence in the rapidly expanding Pyongyang skyline merits the international mockery it has received—fatalistically nicknamed the “hotel of doom” by Western journalists, labeled an architectural sin, and deemed the biggest mystery in Pyongyang—would consign Ryugyong to the realm of compulsive political affect ranging from imaginative resentment to the very policies governing U.S.-North Korean relations since American involvement in the Korean War. — Failed Architecture
Jake Valente's piece for Failed Architecture takes a closer look at the small number of Pyongyang tourist hotels that visitors to North Korea's capital are constricted to. "When traveling to Pyongyang, one chooses between the Yanggakdo, Koryo, Sosan, Pothonggang, Haebangsan, Pyongyang... View full entry
L.E.FT, started in 2005 by Makram El Kadi and Ziad Jamaleddine, was profiled as part of the Small Studio Snapshot series. For some reason BulgarBlogger and Positive Pete got into it over issues of state licensure, international practice and other "types of technicalities". Plus, Anthony Morey... View full entry
MVRDV’s new project, Fabryczna Offices, will house both office and retail space in the center of Łódź, Poland's third largest city. The firm's design draws inspiration from the city’s industrial textile heritage reimagined for contemporary use. The 13-floor building uses the... View full entry
Lotus Equity Group announced on Monday plans to bring the largest mass timber office building in the United States to the Newark waterfront. Michael Green Architecture has been tapped to design the 500,000-square-foot office building made with a wooden structure for Riverfront Square, a massive... View full entry