It is a surreal urban bubble, where normal life unfolds at an abnormal altitude. To access ground level, residents drive their cars down a ramp. A tall metal fence runs around the perimeter to make sure no one falls or drives off. Peer beyond the fence and you can spot the city’s landmarks below. — The Guardian
In Jakarta, Indonesia exists a suburb, unlike any other. Cosmo Park is unique because it can be found ten stories above ground on top of a shopping mall. At ground level, Jakarta is a city that succumbs to many issues. Many cities around the world suffer from their fair share of obstacles... View full entry
In 2011, the New York Public Library established an official unit for digital experimentation—NYPL Labs. Over the six years that followed, what began as a small research and development outfit for special digital projects grew into a visionary think-and-do tank for making the library’s two centuries of collections digital and usable for the years to come. A hybrid team of technologists, librarians, and designers would start to assemble the building blocks of an urban memory infrastructure. — Urban Omnibus
Shannon Mattern, associate professor of media studies at The New School, and Ben Vershbow, founder of NYPL Labs, discuss the recent digitalization efforts undertaken by the New York Public Library system as it works to turn the library's "vast collections into usable data, connecting maps... View full entry
Emily Helen Butterfield, born August 4, 1884, was the first licensed woman architect in Michigan. Butterfield grew up in Detroit with a love of watercolor painting, and eventually studied architecture at Syracuse University, where she was a founding member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority... View full entry
A year ago, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told Boise that it’s unconstitutional to stop the homeless from sleeping in public spaces if there’s not enough shelter available for them. Now Boise wants the U.S. Supreme Court to have a look at that decision. — The Los Angeles Times
A recent Los Angeles Times opinion piece takes a look at the ongoing legal battle regarding whether criminalizing homelessness constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment" under the United States Constitution. Two constitutional lawyers, Theane Evangelis and Theodore B. Olson, discuss the... View full entry
Central Park Tower, aka 217 West 57th Street, has surpassed the 1,450-foot-tall Willis Tower (née Sears Tower) to claim the title of highest roof in the Western Hemisphere. The Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill-designed supertall is being developed by Extell and will soon top-out at 1,550 feet tall over Billionaires’ Row. — New York YIMBY
Once the world's tallest building from 1974 to 1996, the 1,450-foot-tall Willis Tower in Chicago is, little by little, kicked out from top placements in various height-record categories by the new kids on blocks all over the world. After losing the overall height crown to the twin Petronas Towers... 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 with all your favorite Archinect... View full entry
On Friday, as construction crews added another layer of steel to the building, the skyscraper passed 772 feet, the height of Seattle’s former second tallest building, 1201 Third Avenue. Construction crews are expected to top out Rainier Square Tower at 850 feet later this month, according to a spokesperson for Wright Runstad, the building’s developer. Columbia Center, at 937 feet, is the only building taller in Seattle. — The Stranger
NBBJ-designed Rainier Square Tower will be a 1.7-million-square-foot "mix of ground-floor retail, underground parking, 722,000 square feet of office space, and 200 luxury apartments." Upon completion, it will become the seventh-tallest building on the west coast. View full entry
Fifty years since the first footsteps on the Moon, the exploration of the cosmos remains irresistible, and the ambition to establish commercial space travel and planetary settlements continues to capture the imagination. Far Out: Suits, Habs, and Labs for Outer Space celebrates the visionary ideas and ingenious solutions from architects, artists, and designers who dared to imagine life far out among the stars. — San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Entitled Far Out: Suits, Habs, and Labs for Outer Space, SFMOMA's exhibition celebrating the "booming space industry," will be open from July 20, 2019 to January 20, 2020. "Extraterrestrial conditions amplify the challenge to design for space travel, and new research and technologies are... View full entry
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is close to finalizing a major reform of its extensive senior housing portfolio, allowing nonprofit owners of 125,000 apartments to tap private sources of financing for the first time.
HUD built nearly 2,900 of these properties over the past three decades. Though owned by nonprofits, the federal government funded their construction and subsidized tenant rents.
— Wall Street Journal
The nation's recent crop of senior housing projects could see much-needed improvements come to reality as the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) loosens rules dictating where nonprofit building owners can draw funds from to make building repairs. Tom Davis... View full entry
Global architecture firm Gensler has unveiled designs for a charred timber prayer pavilion to be used while the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is underway. The unsolicited proposal deploys Shou Sugi Ban-style charred timber structural trusses to shape a nave "replicated to the... View full entry
A proposed mixed-use development slated for a site beside the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) in New York City has BBG officials worried that the shadows created by the project’s twin 39-story towers will deprive the garden’s specimens of vital sunlight. Gothamist reports that the... View full entry
After breaking ground last November, the steel frame of the $75-million Audrey Irmas Pavilion has quickly taken shape in Koreatown.
Located at the corner of Wilshire and Harvard Boulevard, the expansion to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple will house cultural, religious and community events. The three-story, 55,000-square-foot structure will consist of a chapel and terrace, a grand ballroom, a catering kitchen, meeting rooms, performance spaces and a rooftop sky garden.
— Urbanize Los Angeles
The OMA/Shohei Shigematsu-designed Wilshire Boulevard Temple expansion in Los Angeles recently celebrated the topping out of its steel structure. Conceptual model. Image courtesy of OMA New York On its website, OMA explains that the "structural frame, weighing about 700 tons, is composed of steel... View full entry
Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, co-founder of the radical Italian architecture group Superstudio, has passed away at age 78. Di Francia, born in 1941, started Superstudio in 1966 with Adolfo Natalini; Eventually, the group grew to include Piero Frassinelli, and Alessandro and Roberto... View full entry
Kanye West's passion for architecture is no secret. Almost a year ago he announced his YEEZY Home venture which emerged as a low-income housing endeavor composed of prefabricated concrete modules. We've also seen him pop up at the GSD and SCI-Arc to explore the academic depths architecture has to... View full entry
“If you’re building a greenhouse in a climate emergency, it’s a pretty odd thing to do to say the least,” said Simon Sturgis, an adviser to the government and the Greater London Authority, as well as chairman of the Royal Institute of British Architects sustainability group. “If you’re using standard glass facades you need a lot of energy to cool them down, and using a lot of energy equates to a lot of carbon emissions.” — The Guardian
As the global community continues to mobilize against the rising threat of climate collapse, cities and other entities are moving toward banning or limiting the future development of all-glass skyscrapers due to the buildings' high energy demands, according to a report in The... View full entry
