When Barack Obama's people announced last week that they are searching worldwide for an architect for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, they won no points for transparency. [...]
Having consulted sources, I can now name 11 of the firms and observe that they are A) Of high caliber; B) Represent a broad geographic and aesthetic spectrum; and C) Include the established firms one would expect to be invited.
— chicagotribune.com
Rumors have been running wild which architects were among the 50+ selected firms to receive RFQs from the White House for the design of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.While Martin Nesbitt, chairman of the Barack Obama Foundation, remains tight-lipped about names of the invited... View full entry
For almost twenty years, The Finnish Committee for the Restoration of Viipuri Library worked to restore Alvar Aalto's rarely seen Viipuri library. Located in Vyborg, Russia, which was under Finnish rule when the library was originally conceived (hence its occasional moniker of the Vyborg Library)... View full entry
A shortlisted finalist in the 2015 World Architecture Festival awards, CRG Architects' Bamboo Skyscraper is not only noteworthy for its unusual choice of material, but its vision of what constitutes a skyscraper. Instead of focusing on a single prominent tower, the design is a cluster of... View full entry
Mitsubishi Estate Co. says it will construct a 390-meter-high building, making it Japan’s tallest, as part of redevelopment project near Tokyo Station.
The structure will overtake the 300-meter-tall Abeno Harukas in the city of Osaka.
Mitsubishi Estate hopes the new building will serve both as a centerpiece of a major business district and tourist destination, officials said Monday.
— japantimes.co.jp
More recent Tokyo architecture news:It's lights out at the old Okura: reconstruction of the iconic Tokyo hotel starts next weekNot over yet: Zaha Hadid releases 23-minute film pushing for Tokyo Olympic StadiumTokyo begins farming produce beneath its subway lines View full entry
The elements of the Broad that have been most closely scrutinized or most often reworked, in fact, are the most uneven. It is only in the relative shadows — in the peripheral or easily overlooked spaces, or in the rooms added or enlarged late in the design process — that the architecture of the museum really comes to life. — latimes.com
More on The Broad on Archinect:What makes an artless museum?So what's new at the Broad?DS+R's Broad Museum set to open on Sept. 20, with a Feb. 15 previewIs The Broad Museum's newly unveiled facade living up to its renderings? View full entry
Islamic State has destroyed part of another ancient temple in the Syrian city of Palmyra, according to activists on social media and a group monitoring the conflict, this time targeting the Temple of Bel. [...]
It is the second temple that Islamic State has attacked in Palmyra this month. On 25 August, the group detonated explosives in the ancient Baal Shamin temple, an act that the cultural agency Unesco has called a war crime aimed at wiping out a symbol of Syria’s diverse cultural heritage.
— theguardian.com
Previously in the Archinect news:ISIS blows up 2,000-year-old Baalshamin temple in PalmyraISIS beheads leading archaeologist in PalmyraISIL destroys ancient mausoleums in historic Palmyra 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... View full entry
Tokyo’s venerable Hotel Okura is getting a remake, starting next week.
Over the course of the past 53 years since its opening on May 20, 1962, the Okura, located in Toranomon, has earned an unsurpassed reputation both at home and abroad as a luxury hotel to represent Japan.
The hotel said in a statement that it will maintain the Japanese traditional aesthetics and the basics of the architecture style of Hotel Okura.
— japantoday.com
Previously on Archinect: As the Okura says sayonara, Tokyo doesn't seem to care muchFarewell to the Old Okura And before the wrecking ball ends an era of Japanese 1960s Modernism to make way for the new, shiny, 41-story, $836M Okura Hotel, here a few more impressions of all its glory on the... View full entry
The government hopes to cap the cost of building the main stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at ¥155 billion, much lower than the ¥252 billion projected under a recently scrapped plan [...].
The government intends to make sure that the stadium will be built by April 2020. But given the International Olympic Committee’s request that the venue be built by January of that year, it plans to ask a yet-to-be-named contractor to propose shortening its construction schedule, the sources said.
— japantimes.co.jp
Read more about the troubled New National Stadium Tokyo in the Archinect news:Not over yet: Zaha Hadid releases 23-minute film pushing for Tokyo Olympic StadiumAre uncompetitive Japanese contractors to blame for Zaha's New National Stadium budget blowout?Zaha Hadid reportedly not giving up on... View full entry
Photographer Ryan Schude's narrative panoramas are as informed by the artist's humor as they are by the structures in which they often take place. Consider "The Saturn," a typical Southern California dingbat that is transformed into a tableau of subjects wondering where they went wrong. There's... View full entry
“I was a little disappointed in the fire service,” said Belles, standing on the charred hillside next to the dome in his semi-rural neighbourhood on the edge of town. — theguardian.com
Wildfires currently blazing in Okanogan County, Washington, have just broken the record for the biggest in the state’s history. With fire season just getting underway and September looking hot and dry, the so-called Okanogan Complex fires will likely persist for months.In Omak, a small town in... View full entry
The Related Companies, the city’s largest developer, plans to “tube up” the residential towers in Hudson Yards, its massive real estate development atop the MTA’s west side rail yard. The first large-scale pneumatic waste network to be constructed in the US since Roosevelt Island’s, it will serve 5,000 apartments in six buildings, the first of which is scheduled for completion in 2018. — Urban Omnibus
The scenic High Line may soon host more than tourists and weekenders: a proposed scheme to introduce pneumatic garbage tubes into a series of Manhattan apartment buildings includes using the underside of the former elevated rail line to mount the tubes (the rendering below pictures them in... View full entry
In 2003 in Utah, government officials decided to try a radical solution to homelessness: giving people who would otherwise be on the street permanent housing. Twelve years later, the surprisingly cost-effective program is a success: almost all of the people given homes remained in them, and the... View full entry
Initial renderings of the $300 million development depict a cluster of five architecturally distinct buildings distributed across the 2.6- acre site around a central plaza. In total, the project will comprise 333,600 square feet, and have 249 residential units. One of the architects’ primary goals was to make the site as approachable as possible to invite the surrounding community in to shop, dine, or simply relax in the plaza. — Architectural Record
Renderings and model photos were released today of Frank Gehry's proposed design for the 8150 Sunset Boulevard project. Positioned at the so-called Gateway to the Sunset Strip at the curving intersection of Crescent Heights Boulevard, Havenhurst Drive and Sunset Boulevard, Gehry's mixed-use... View full entry
In Stefano Cerio's series “Chinese Fun,” he explores the facades of amusement without an audience’s reaction. The photographer enters areas built for fun and leisure in the off months or closing hours, exploring the absurdity that creeps into the architecture of entertainment when there is no one to enjoy it but a single camera. — Colossal
Shijingshang Park-BeijingShanghai Happy Valley-ShanghaiWater Cube-Beijing. Photo by by Stefano Cerio.Cover of Stefano Cerio's recently released book, Chinese Fun. Click here to see more of the series.All photos by Stefano Cerio.In other recent amusement/bemusement-park news: Banksy about to open... View full entry