For many, the long-standing neighborhood template of a home, backyard and garage on a lot was too intrinsic to the California lifestyle to upend.
But over the past four years, a suite of smaller proposals has quietly chipped away at zoning only for single-family homes, attracting comparably little blowback.
— latimes.com
California Governor Gavin Newsom has officially signed a series of bills into law that effectively eliminate single-family zoning across the state. The legislation, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times, allows property owners to build up to two additional residential units on any ... 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... View full entry
Renderings have been unveiled for Avalon Tower, a proposed 70-story residential skyscraper slated for Jersey City. The 722-foot tower will contain 950 residences, including 505 studio apartments, 265 one-bedroom units, 160 two-bedroom units, and 20 three-bedroom units. The tower complex is... View full entry
[...] the Empire State Building, which has just spent $165 million and four years meticulously revamping the experience of getting to — and appreciating — the views from its two vertiginous observatories on the 86th and 102nd floors. Simultaneously, its designers have tried to banish the things visitors hate about the observation-deck trek: the lines, the crowds, the congestion. — The New York Times
The 102nd-floor observation deck of New York City's most iconic skyscraper will reopen this weekend with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, a 360-degree panorama glass elevator to the top, and an overall updated experience. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Empire State Building... View full entry
Microsoft's new corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, designed by LMN, NBBJ, WRNS Studio, and ZGF Architects, is being built with a bevy of digital technology tools. Construction Dive reports that the massive construction project will bring up to 1.3 million square feet of new development... View full entry
A new $450 million renovation of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) complex in New York City by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Gensler is getting ready to make its official debut. As part of the expansion, the museum has also re-opened its dedicated Architecture and Design galleries, which... View full entry
Despite having been closed for several years, the pavilion at 12th and Reed remains a much-loved landmark in Passyunk Square, where it is affectionately known as the “Roundhouse.” The contrast between its heavy stone walls and jaunty modernist roof make it unlike anything else in Philadelphia. Until it was eclipsed by a bigger community center in 2005, it was the place where neighborhood residents went to play bocce and take art classes. — The Philadelphia Inquirer
As Philadelphia gets ready to undertake a $2.4 million renovation of the city's Columbus Square park, a curious stone drum topped by a folded plane roof set to be demolished under the plan has caught the public's attention. Debate over the structure's provenance, particularly, whether the... View full entry
The construction for S.Pellegrino's Factory of the Future is underway. It began with a ceremony on September 27th as the "first stone was laid." At the ceremony, speeches and talks by the CEO of S.Pellegrino Sarzi Braga, Bjarke Ingels, and the Mayor of San Pellegrino Terme, Vittorio Millesi... View full entry
After selling his Malibu estate last year for $38 million, Silver has listed his Brentwood home for sale at $77.5 million...The bright-colored and striking Mexican modernist residence was designed by architect Ricardo Legorreta. Completed in the early 2000s, the roughly 26,000-square-foot house includes a circular atrium, a dining room topped with a pyramid-like ceiling and a 30-foot-high family room with hydraulic doors. — Los Angeles Times
"If the Silver estate sells for its asking price, it would nearly double the Brentwood price record of $40 million set in 2014 when NFL star Tom Brady sold his home to hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre.," reports the Los Angeles Times View full entry
[Amager Bakke] is a work that revels in its own contrivance, a condensation and celebration of the surrounding artifice, a creation of what might be called hypernature. It is at once an energy facility, converting refuse into electricity, and a ski slope. It is arresting and striking. It’s an emblem of a culture of why-not and because-you-can that currently pops up in a number of modern cities [...] — The Guardian
Writing in The Guardian, architecture critic Rowan Moore heaps praise on Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and the firm's founder in a write-up of the firm's recently completed Amager Bakke project in Copenhagen. Describing the architect's ability to impress clients, Moore writes, "He... View full entry
A large dirt pit has emerged at the back of The Burbank Studios lot, as work begins for a Frank Gehry-designed office complex which will be occupied by Warner Bros. [...]
Two mid-rise buildings -standing seven and nine stories in height- will overlook the 134 Freeway, providing 800,000 square feet of office space.
— Urbanize Los Angeles
Called Second Century Project, the large-scale office development in Burbank, California first appeared on Archinect in April this year. The complex of buildings, designed to appear as "icebergs floating along the freeway," is scheduled to be fully functional in 2023 to coincide with Warner... View full entry
A new FXCollaborative-designed, 34-story office tower slated taking shape in Brooklyn has topped out ahead of its late-2020 completion date. The 500,000-square-foot complex, located at 1 Willoughby Square (1WSQ), is billed as "Brooklyn's first ground-up office tower in a generation," and... View full entry
It's a big day in the United Kingdom! The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has just announced the winner of the 2019 Stirling Prize: Goldsmith Street housing by Mikhail Riches and Cathy Hawley! The project was created for the Norwich City Council and features over 100 two-story... View full entry
Data collected by engineering firm WSP indicates that it is structurally possible construct a freeway lid over Interstate 5 (I-5) in Downtown Seattle within all four of the sub-areas studied, which extend from Madison Street to Denny Way. The study also found that integrating midrise and highrise buildings with the lid structure would be compatible and in some cases preferable from an engineering standpoint to deal with grade changes. — The Urbanist
Seattle's The Urbanist reports that a plan to add a park and buildings over a depressed portion of Interstate-5 in downtown Seattle is, at the very least, technically feasible. The finding could add momentum to the proposal. Lawrence Halprin's Freeway Park, built in 1976, represents a... View full entry
The Related Companies has released new renderings and a new name for Thomas Heatherwick’s High Line project at 515 West 18th Street: Lantern House. The pair of residential structures is located along Tenth Avenue between West 18th Street and West 19th Street and flanks both sides of the High Line [...]. The development is Heatherwick’s first residential project in New York City and in the United States. SLCE Architects is the architect of record. — New York YIMBY
Thomas Heatherwick is expanding his foothold in New York City: after creating quite a stir with the Vessel at Hudson Yards and the under-construction floating Pier 55 park, the London-based studio is teaming up with developers Related Companies again for the practice's first residential project on... View full entry
