A new computer program powered by artificial intelligence takes mere minutes to determine whether homes and buildings have been destroyed by wildfires once the smoke has cleared.
Developed by scientists at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and Stanford University, DamageMap evaluates the destruction by scrutinizing post-wildfire aerial and satellite images.
— Santa Cruz Sentinel
The team worked to fix a major flaw in existing modeling systems that required exact lighting and photographic angles in order to produce an accurate survey of structural damage in a specific area. 50,000 images from various fires across California were used as a baseline for the software, which... View full entry
UCSF has released images of their proposed Helen Diller Medical Center, designed by Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with HDR Architecture. The 15-story hospital will be constructed on UCSF’s Parnassus Heights campus, with 336 inpatient beds, diagnostic and treatment services, clinical... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has completed a 158-meter-tall, 33-story tower, located at the center of one of Shenzhen’s key business districts. The structure responds to the region’s tropical climate through a series of biophilic and sustainable design solutions. SOM was commissioned by... View full entry
Austin can’t get enough of Tesla, it seems. Developers of a master-planned community near the electric vehicle factory under construction submitted plans for 300 new apartments and 200 single-family homes to the city this month, according to the Austin Business Journal. — The Real Deal
Canadian company Brookfield Residential Properties wants to build the homes on vacant land in a 3,200-acre planned community in Southeast Austin called Easton Park. Brookfield is partnering with Houston-based Hines investment group on the project, and civil engineering firm Consort submitted the... View full entry
In December, developers closed on $30.3 million in financing for the first phase of Arverne East, a master-planned community and revitalization project within a 116-acre oceanfront site in the Arverne and Edgemere neighborhoods in Queens’ Rockaway Peninsula. Led by real estate firms L+M... View full entry
Ryuichi Sasaki/Sasaki Architecture has returned to the international spotlight with its winning entry for the mixed-use portion of this year’s Architecture MasterPrize that adds an iconic new touch to one of Tokyo’s oldest neighborhoods. Located in the city’s Minato ward, the... View full entry
What can be said of a world where one billionaire wants to build a giant tulip-shaped tower of little practical use and another wants to house thousands of students in windowless rooms in a block with all the charm of an Amazon distribution centre? — The Guardian
The Observer critic further continued his contrasting of Foster + Partner’s failed Tulip Tower with the Munger Hall development in California, claiming that each was the vanity project of a wayward billionaire. “Both projects seem driven by ego, but in the wide space between the brutal... View full entry
At our peril, we have ignored Nightingale’s prescriptions. The history of the hospital contains clear lessons about the importance of air movement through buildings, the public health risks of poor design, and the dangers of technological reliance. Architecture professionals should look back to see what else has been forgotten or ignored in the race to merge art and technology. Whose lives might be at stake if they don’t? — Fast Company
Murphy is a principal at Boston-based MASS Design Group and the author of The Architecture of Health: Hospital Design and the Construction of Dignity, which accompanies the firm’s recent exhibition Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics on view at the Cooper Hewitt until... View full entry
What once was an ambitious but abandoned expansion of Downtown Los Angeles’ Convention Center and Marriott Hotel has found a second life courtesy of a new proposal backed by a slate of big-name firms, according to a report from Urbanize LA. Project renderings are emerging of a plan that... View full entry
One Virginia family received the keys to their new 3D-printed home in time for Christmas. The home is Habitat for Humanity's first 3D-printed home in the nation, according to a Habitat news release. Janet V. Green, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg, told CNN it partnered with Alquist, a 3D printing company, earlier this year to begin the process. Alquist's crew printed the house. — CNN
The milestone was marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony on December 21st. The 1,200-square-foot house has three bedrooms, two full baths, and the concrete portion of the structure was printed in 12 hours. The home was built for April Stringfield, who purchased the home through Habitat for... View full entry
The world’s premier techno capital is back under the grip of the pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped its vanguard from seeking a special status for venues like the Berghain from an international cultural organization with a reputation for being as formidable as its famous bouncer. The Guardian... View full entry
2021 was the year many long-delayed high-profile projects finally managed to come to a close, overcome additional pandemic-induced delays carried over from 2020, take remaining certification hurdles, and swing their doors open to the anticipating (and sometimes locked down) public. From the... View full entry
The Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday that it would begin performing maintenance and emergency repairs on areas of the unfinished border wall with Mexico that runs along Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. — Construction Dive
Following President Biden’s executive order in January to halt the construction of the border wall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the process of terminating the construction contracts for the projects. As part of this process, unfinished projects were handed over to the Department of... View full entry
It is one of the most vivid examples of efforts by major arts organizations across the country to bring youth education programs out into communities, rather than concentrating them in city centers or urban arts districts.
For Inglewood, the new YOLA Center is a notable addition to what has been a transformative wave of stadium and arena construction, which has spurred a wave of commercial and housing development.
— The New York Times
The Beckmen YOLA Center opened in October on the site of a former Burger King restaurant as the latest iteration of a wave of high-profile projects tied to a larger plan being pursued by Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. which are reshaping the community of 109,000 in spite of advocates’... View full entry
2021 was a year where form continued to follow finance. Throughout the year, our coverage included many examples of the world’s largest architecture firms designing for some of the world’s largest companies. From sleek corporate headquarters to “work-and-play” tech campuses, such projects... View full entry
