Friday, August 22:Zaha Hadid sues architecture critic Martin Filler over book review: Hadid is responding to allegedly defamatory comments made by Filler regarding her 2022 World Cup stadium in Qatar.The Demolition of 5 Pointz Has Begun: The "Graffiti Mecca" was slated for demolition last... View full entry
Help save one of America’s architectural gems; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Spring House in Tallahassee, Florida. We at the Spring House Institute are trying to raise money through a crowdfunding campaign to acquire the House from the original owners - the Lewis'. The house was recently listed on the... View full entry
Here's a fun visual exercise to drift off into the weekend with: Yannick Martin, a French architect and graphic designer now based in Colombia, has shared with us his latest project, ARSHIHARA — like much of Martin's œuvre, an investigative play with forms, language, architecture and... View full entry
A judge has called for retail giant Target Corp. to stop work on a partly built shopping center in Hollywood, handing a stinging setback to a project championed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Superior Court Judge Richard L. Fruin Jr. sided with two community groups who said in separate lawsuits that the City Council should not have allowed Target to build a 74-foot-tall structure in a location where such projects cannot exceed 35 feet. — LA Times
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
5 Pointz, New York City’s “graffiti mecca,” is being demolished right now. This morning, a backhoe began tearing into the building that has served as a legal spot for aerosol artists for over two decades. In 2011, the property owner announced that he will be developing the site and transforming it into a massive residential condo complex. — animalnewyork.com
Previously View full entry
The two were commissioned, along with other artists including Chris Burden and Cindy Sherman, to create site-specific works dealing with Charleston’s history...The pair ended up painting the outside of an old house in colors approved by the city’s Board of Architectural Review — but in a camouflage pattern, which was hardly what the preservationists had in mind. — NYT
Back in July, Frank Rose reviewed a "poignant" exhibition at Galerie Perrotin on Madison, of the work Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler. For those interested in learning more, there is exactly one more day to visit, as the exhibit runs through August 22 - 2014. View full entry
California’s Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the principal architects for a condominium project may be sued directly by a condominium homeowners association for design defects. [...]
The decision held that even though, on most projects, the developer has the final say on design choices, the architect can’t escape liability to the end user. This decision is likely to give homeowners associations another target in defect cases.
— bdcnetwork.com
The Turkish Council of State has ordered three luxury apartment blocks to be bulldozed amid widespread outrage. But will it have any impact on the country’s unstoppable, and often unlawful, construction boom? — theguardian.com
This week the first six oversize Lego bricks were laid for the foundation of the Lego House in Billund, Denmark, the Lego Group’s hometown. Designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, the architecture of the Lego House is based on—what else but?—the iconic shape of the Lego brick. — slate.com
Previously: Design for LEGO House, designed by BIG, unveiled today View full entry
One of the great things about medieval art and architecture is that people just went in and did things. They didn’t build models and scale them up, building great cathedrals and abbeys was a learning process as much as anything else. This means many of these apparently perfect aspirations to the Heavenly Jerusalem have some often quite comical mistakes, corrections and bodge-jobs that once you see, you can’t unnotice. — Stained Glass Attitudes
Nicholas Korody penned, Shitting Architecture: the dirty practice of waste removal. Therein drawing lessons; from Slavoj Zizek on the toilet and Timothy Morton (of Object-Oriented Ontology [OOO]) on sustainability as the preservation of the status quo, he argues that "Under the weight of the... View full entry
The Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) claims its annual Liveability Survey could be used to "assign a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages," among other things.
But that needn't apply to those in Melbourne, which for the fourth year running has been declared the best city in the world to live.
The Australian culture hub was buoyed by superlative healthcare, infrastructure and education as well as a murder rate of 3.1 per 100,000 people, half the global average of 6.2.
— cnn.com
While three Canadian cities made the ranking's top 10 (again), U.S. cities keep failing to score high.The world's top cities for liveability are:1. Melbourne, Australia2. Vienna, Austria3. Vancouver, Canada4. Toronto, Canada=5. Adelaide, Australia=5. Calgary, Canada7. Sydney, Australia... View full entry
Built in 28BC as a suitably glorious tomb for Augustus and his relatives, with pink granite obelisks, golden urns and a bronze statue of the emperor on top, it has suffered innumerable indignities ever since the sack of Rome.
Now, fenced off and often used as a dumping site for litter, and even as an unofficial public lavatory, it goes almost unnoticed by the diners who crowd into the restaurants of the square around it.
— theguardian.com
Previously: Saudi royal family could pay for restoration of Roman monuments View full entry
Moscow City Hall has formally prohibited the moving or reassembly of a Soviet architectural landmark that has been under threat of demolition blamed by conservationists on real estate developers. [...]
The radio tower's materials, architectural composition, structural elements and location all fall under the conservation order by City Hall's heritage department, published by Consultant.ru judicial database.
This puts an end to earlier proposals to move or dismantle and rebuild the tower.
— themoscowtimes.com
Previously:Muscovites are voting by smartphone on whether to demolish a beloved modernist landmarkArchitects Try to Save a Tower in Moscow View full entry