Microsoft, King County and the King County Housing Authority will invest $245 million to provide affordable rents for more than 3,000 low- and middle-income residents through the purchase of five apartment complexes.
King County housing authority will buy apartment complexes in Kirkland, Bellevue and Federal Way to ensure that the residents aren’t faced with skyrocketing rental costs seen across the region, the organizations announced Thursday morning.
— The Seattle Times
The 1,029 units purchased in the deal are, according to The Seattle Times, located in areas rich in "naturally occurring affordable housing" that are also particularly vulnerable to displacement. Microsoft loaned the King County Housing Authority. $60 million for the effort; The... View full entry
"Having built projects in the U.S. will eventually take away the novelty and reinforce that tall wood buildings are held to the same standards for safety and performance as buildings made from other materials," Parsons told Construction Dive. "This is happening in Europe, where tall wood buildings have been built for many years." — Construction Dive
The Milwaukee Plan Commission and the Neighborhoods and Development Committee recently approved changes to New Land Enterprises' Ascent project, a wood tower that is due to be the tallest of its kind in North America, Construction Dive reports The Korb + Associates-designed tower was... View full entry
About 450 houses have been sold so far at Riverstone and 73 at Tesoro Viejo, which already has a school (Hillside Elementary) plus a cafe and fire/sheriff’s substation in its fledgling “town center.” Together, these “master-planned communities” along with other proposed developments with names like Gunner Ranch West, North Shore at Millerton and TraVigne form what Madera County officials project will be a city of 120,000 people. — The Fresno Bee
California's urban housing crisis, fueled by lackluster housing production in the state's population centers, is fueling sprawl that is eating up wilderness and agricultural land around cities like Fresno. Madera County supervisor Brett Frazier told The Fresno Bee, “The assumption was this... View full entry
Sou Fujimoto Architects has unveiled a proposal for the firm's first project in the New York City. The Collective, as the 10-story residential mixed-use development is known, is set to rise in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. When completed, the project will bring 440 housing units and... View full entry
A giant rusty shipwreck, its bow reaching for the sky, cuts through the main building. Plants growing out of the hull seem to symbolise man’s creation slowly being reclaimed by nature.
According to Tomáš Císař, the lead architect of Black n´ Arch studio, which designed the structure, the building also serves as a pedestal for the ship.
— Czech Radio
While environmental activist Greta Thunberg reminded delegates at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York this week of our planet's dire future prospects, Czech developers Trigema have proposed a post-apocalyptic vision of an enormous rusty shipwreck sculpture leaning upright against... View full entry
Opening day finally arrived for the Steven Holl Architects-designed Hunters Point Library, which took some 10 tumultuous years of obstacles and ultimately cost over $40 million to realize. Built on a 32,000-square-foot site facing the East River in Long Island City, Hunters Point is a sculptural... View full entry
The hypothetical Retail Apocalypse should be supported by a decline in the total retail establishments, but that's not the case. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported 1,044,509 establishments for 2018, for a net gain of 2,413 establishments over 2017 (1,042,096). The 2018 figure also represents a net gain of more than 20,800 establishments since a retail trough in 2011, a low point resulting from the Great Recession. — Congress for the New Urbanism
Sharon Woods, CEO of real estate consultant group LandUseUSA, writes in Public Square, a journal produced by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) presents an opposing, data-driven view of the future of America's retail landscape. Woods writes, "The future for brick-and-mortar retail... View full entry
Many residential developments today try to balance the issues of density and materiality with neighborhood scale, and the Origami residences by Waechter Architecture are no exception. The 12-unit townhome development occupies an entire city block in northeast Portland's Piedmont neighborhood... View full entry
A historic home designed by the first dean of the Auburn University School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture (SAPLA) has been restored for use by students and professors. The home, a Dutch Colonial Revival-style residence listed on the National Register of Historic Places... View full entry
According to an initial study distributed by the City of West Hollywood, construction of the proposed development - which is being called 8850 Sunset Boulevard - is anticipated to begin in May 2021. Work would conclude after approximately 32 months, with project delivery expected in February 2024. — Urbanize Los Angeles
The exuberant 15-story mixed-use development on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood first emerged as a new proposal in December 2018. Urbanize LA has now shared more refined project details for 8850 Sunset Boulevard, including a proposed timeline with an anticipated kick-off in May 2021. View full entry
Global architecture firm Snøhetta has completed a sculptural library complex for Temple University in Philadelphia. The Charles Library facility opened its doors for the Fall 2019 semester a few weeks ago and is designed as a collaborative social learning space that reinterprets the... View full entry
“[Parking is] sort of becoming an expected amenity for a high-end condo,” said Andrew Bradfield, a principal of Orange Management, a developer that has installed automated garages in two Brooklyn condos: Waverly Brooklyn in Clinton Hill and the Symon in Downtown Brooklyn. “To not have parking hampers marketing.” — The New York Times
Despite having one of the best public transportation systems in the world, New York City's developers have taken to embracing bespoke and automated parking options as luxury building amenities in recent years. The spots can cost upwards of $200,000 per stall to rent, depending on the development... View full entry
Apple’s famous Fifth Avenue flagship reopens Friday after more than two years of renovations. The glass cube has returned as an entrance to the store, set above the newly updated and locust tree-lined public plaza. As 6sqft previously reported, it cost $2 million to remove the cube in 2017 during the Midtown Manhattan store’s expansion. — 6sqft
The cube, originally built in 2006, is designed by Foster + Partners. View full entry
Is it a bridge? Is it a sculpture? Is it a museum? BIG's slick, newly opened aluminum beam twists itself to be all of the above. Located in Jevnaker, just north of Oslo, the spectacular The Twist design for Kistefos Museum (the Danish firm's first completed project in Norway) creates a new... View full entry
On this episode, we're joined by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena. A long-familiar name to most of our listeners, Aravena’s work gained significant media attention upon winning the Pritzker Prize in 2016, elevating his reputation for working to address some of today’s most difficult issues... View full entry
