Plans for a skinny skyscraper with a clever diamond-paned exoskeleton has won rave reviews from city planning commissioners, who predict it might be beautiful enough to earn a spot as one of LA’s most iconic buildings. [...]
If it’s ever built, that is.
— Curbed LA
The proposal for Olympic Tower, a showy 57-story skyscraper near the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles, has been inching through the planning process for some time now, and as Curbed LA reports, has recently managed to wow the city's planning commission. Designed by Nardi Associates, the... View full entry
500 years after being banned by Spanish conquerers, the ancient pan-Mesoamerican ball game of ulama is making a comeback in Mexico City, where a new community center focused on reinvigorating indigenous cultural traditions is taking root. Los equipos Texcoxo y Cemayan Nepanolli dan una... View full entry
Google's recently released filing shows plans to build an 80-acre development that will encompass up to 7.3 million square feet of office space and 5,900 units of new housing in San Jose, California, reports CNBC. This exceeds the initial proposal of 6.3 million square feet of office space... View full entry
We are entering the home stretch of Archtober 2019, New York City’s annual Architecture and Design Month, and there's still so much to do! Archinect & Bustler have partnered with Archtober for the ninth year in a row and present you our weekly highlights from a packed calendar. Below are our... View full entry
To survive the summer heat, Qatar not only air-conditions its soccer stadiums, but also the outdoors — in markets, along sidewalks, even at outdoor malls so people can window shop with a cool breeze. “If you turn off air conditioners, it will be unbearable. You cannot function effectively,” says Yousef al-Horr, founder of the Gulf Organization for Research and Development. — The Washington Post
Want to see the future of climate change? Take a look at Qatar, where average temperatures have already risen by more than 2-degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial times. View of the Al Wakrah Sports Club, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Image courtesy of Hufton + Crow. The... View full entry
A result of Yemen’s complex civil war – now in its fifth year – many of the country’s wonders have been damaged or are under threat. While the destruction pales in comparison to the human cost of the conflict, the country’s rich cultural heritage has also been ravaged. — The Guardian
Writing in The Guardian, author Bethan McKernan describes the ways in which Yemen’s ancient cultural heritage has been put at risk by the country’s tragic civil war. Sites that are under threat include the city of Shibam, a 1,700-year-old settlement built from a series of tall... View full entry
Drawing from his own experiences of migration, esteemed artist Do Ho Suh is known for his monumental fabric installations that recreate his previous residences around the world, as his way of exploring the concept of home, personal identity, memory, and the architecture of domestic space... View full entry
A first-of-its-kind deal to sell the air rights at a Fort Greene NYCHA development is nearing completion after months of negotiation.
The deal would transfer nearly 100,000 square feet of building rights from the Ingersoll Houses to a yet-to-be-built private development next door. In exchange, developers would provide nearly $25 million for maintenance at Ingersoll as part of NYCHA’s new long-term strategy to leverage private funds for the repair of its beleaguered housing stock.
— The Brooklyn Eagle
The deal will help a 183-unit mixed use development located next door to Brooklyn's Ingersoll Houses grow to 400 units in size. In exchange, the number of affordable housing units designed into the project will increase from 79 to 100, New York YIMBY reports. The proposed 202 Tillary Street... View full entry
Park claimed the design, construction and marketing of the tower ripped off a design he planned and modeled for his thesis at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1999. He said his thesis adviser was an associate partner at SOM and a second senior partner from the architectural firm also reviewed his work...
The judge, however, wrote in a September order that these claims survive “only by the skin of their teeth, owing principally to the highly deferential standards on a motion to dismiss.”
— The Real Deal
Jeehon Park, a Georgia-based architect, sued Skidmore, Owings & Merril, Tishman Construction, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and The Durst Organization back in 2017. According to The Real Deal, an SOM spokesperson said, "While it is positive that so much of the case was... View full entry
A new neighborhood is coming to San Francisco's southern edge, where developers Tishman Speyer, the San Francisco Giants baseball team, and the Port of San Francisco are collaborating with a team of architects on a new 28-acre master plan for an existing surface parking lot and an underutilized... View full entry
After an incredible publicity blitz and well over a year on the market, Frank Lloyd Wright’s world-renowned Ennis House — tucked into the foothills of Los Feliz [...] — has sold for $18 million to an as-yet-unidentified buyer. That number, while significantly below the $23 million ask, ranks it as the priciest Wright-designed home ever sold, easily eclipsing the previous high-water mark set by the Storer House in nearby Hollywood Hills, which was purchased in 2013 for $6.8 million [...] — Variety
More than one Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home has changed owners this week: after learning about the successful auction of his mid-century modern Norman Lykes House in Phoenix on Wednesday, Variety now reports that the spectacular Mayan Revival-style Ennis House in LA's Los Feliz hills just sold... View full entry
On Thursday, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services will unveil an app created by UC Berkeley that will give all Californians who download it on iOS and Android phones the chance to get earthquake early warnings from any corner of the state.
Authorities will also begin issuing quake early warnings through the Wireless Emergency Alerts system, offering text message alerts even for people who have not downloaded the app.
— The Los Angeles Times
The new warning system will alert Californians who have the app when an earthquake registering at level 3 on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale strikes nearby. The state will send out text message alerts over its Wireless Emergency Alerts system to anyone within range of a level... View full entry
The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris has unveiled plans to expand to a suburban site by creating a new "art factory" that will both display and conserve the museum's expansive art collections. An architect for the proposal has not been named. The scheme is slated for an existing parking lot in the... View full entry
An Arizona house that was the last home designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright before his death sold on Wednesday for nearly $1.7m.
Out of nearly 20 bids at a public auction for the Norman Lykes House, the winning bid came from a man who lives out of state, Heritage Auctions told the Associated Press.
— The Guardian
Commissioned by Norman and Aimee Lykes, this Phoenix home known as the "Circular Sun House," was Frank Lloyd Wright's last residential design before his death in April 1959. The structure was completed nearly ten years later by Taliesin architect John Rattenbury. Image: Heritage Auctions In case... View full entry
Last week, Macy’s West Stores, Inc. filed suit against Stockdale, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm that took over the downtown property from Westfield in August 2018. The department store is asking a San Diego Superior Court judge to block the developer’s plan on grounds that it violates Macy’s lease agreement and an even more substantial contract, known as a reciprocal easement agreement. The latter document gives the retailer veto power over major property improvements. — The San Diego Union Tribune
A new lawsuit brought by Macy’s, a tenant at Horton Plaza, the spectacular postmodern shopping mall in San Diego designed by Jon Jerde in 1985, has cast doubt on plans for a significant re-do of the property. Horton Plaza in San Diego, Image By Sandy Huffaker, Jr. Photography - The Jerde... View full entry
