The department also took Millennium’s managers to task for not being more communicative about the crack and their efforts to find the cause. The department said it “continues to be frustrated with the communication” with the tower’s managers over a variety of issues.
“We often do not find out information about the building until we first receive calls about an issue from the media or read them in a news report,” the department said in its letter Wednesday.
— San Francisco Chronicle
In the ongoing saga of the sinking Millennium Tower, the City of San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection has given the tower's managers until tomorrow to comply with a handful of safety measures, in response to a crack that appeared on a window on the 36th floor earlier this month. If... View full entry
After 2½ years of negotiations, the condo project Westbank King Street has been approved and is about to start sales. [...] The new condo will be hard to miss. It could be the strangest residential building ever constructed in Canada. Certainly, it will set an interesting example for new housing. While new condos and apartments are often faulted for being soulless, this promises to be a carefully detailed building, a distinctive place, and a village that contributes to the larger city. — The Globe and Mail
First proposed in 2016, BIG's Westbank King Street condo building in Toronto has been approved for development. With its "mountainous" forms and Habitat 67-inspired stacked design, the glass building is being described as a radical and experimental addition for richly historic King... View full entry
One of the most recognizable buildings in Downtown Los Angeles—the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall—will be used as a canvas later this month.
To celebrate the start of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new season, colorful patterns will be projected onto the metallic surface of the wavy concert hall for a little more than a week, courtesy of artist Refik Anadol.
— Curbed LA
For the LA Philharmonic projection series, called WDCH Dreams, internationally renowned media artist Refik Anadol dug deep in the digital orchestra archives—nearly 45 terabytes of data—and applied Google Arts and Culture's machine intelligence to it, which parsed the files into millions of... View full entry
As with every single other thing about Seattle, there’ve been some developments in residential design since 2008 [...] Here are five opportunities, in the form of developments in residential architecture over the past 10 years as identified — and expressed — by some plugged-in visionaries. — The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times tracked 5 developments in residential design addressing housing issues in the city. For each trend they spoke with an architecture professional working in the field. Below are Seattle's identified trends and some of the visionaries addressing them: 1. Multifamily Housing Moves... View full entry
The V&A Dundee Museum opens its doors tomorrow with the 3D Festival, a free two-day event on September 14 and 15. The grand opening will include performances, dance, design, and lighting collaborations. V&A Dundee Museum by Kengo Kuma, located in Scotland. ©HuftonCrowV&A Dundee... View full entry
Another measure for a work of art might be the range and violence of criticisms it attracts, along with their contradictions. — The Bauhaus: S/M/L
Maybe I’m just being sentimental, but I keep finding myself returning to the Bauhaus, now approaching its centenary. Much has been written here about the narrowness of current architecture and its instruction. I’m an outsider, yet I can’t help wondering if the field has followed the path of... View full entry
The new Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay (ISMO) was recently completed by Dutch firm KAAN Architecten. The institute moved into their new building as part of the Université Paris-Saclay's future campus in Orsay, France. Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay (ISMO) by KAAN... View full entry
Gehry likens his creative process to jazz, a fluid, always-evolving symphony of ideas, as he describes it. A main intention with Disney Hall, he says, was the relationships, or rhythms, between the different entities of people inside the hall, also ever-shifting. [...]
Sherman said that there’s no concrete timeline in place for making such changes to Disney Hall. But that “any changes could potentially be in sync with the opening of the Grand.
— Los Angeles Times
Frank Gehry talks about his early visions for the Walt Disney Concert Hall as well as what future changes — both within and around the landmark — are being planned, especially once his nearly $1 billion mixed-use complex, The Grand, is built. View full entry
This is the era of the glass and steel airport. As if made from the same mold, shiny, glittering terminals have become a status symbol for any city with aspirations. But all of this is a world away from the remoteness of Russia's Arctic regions and the Siberian wilderness [...] built in the mid-20th century when the Soviet Union saw in air transport a way to expand the state's reach to every corner of its territory, even if that meant little more than a dirt runway and a radio shack. — cnn.com
A collection of Russia's historic wooden airports are the antithesis of our current experience of most urban airports. Rather than immense glass and steel constructions, these old structures are made of simplistic wooden designs. While many may look dilapidated, several are still in operation... View full entry
David Chipperfield Architects recently completed Selfridges Duke Street, a new entrance building and accessories hall for the Selfridges department store in London. The new Duke Street entrance by David Chipperfield Architects, located in London. © Simon MengesThe department store is housed in... View full entry
A new social housing project by Hardel Le Bihan Architectes was recently completed this year in Paris near the Clignancourt University campus. The 63 housing unit structure is part of a larger development comprised of two apartment buildings and a university cafeteria. Croisset Social Housing by... View full entry
Phoenix, Arizona–based developer Zach Rawling bought a Frank Lloyd Wright–designed house for $2.3 million in 2012, when its previous owner wanted to demolish the landmark. In 2017, Rawlings donated the David and Gladys Wright House to the Taliesin West School of Architecture, but in June of this year, Rawlings and Aaron Betsky, the architecture school dean, announced in a joint statement that the donation was being revoked due to fundraising concerns. — artforum.com
Image via davidwrighthouse.org.In their joint statement, Aaron Betsky and Zach Rawling wrote: The relationship between the School and the House is formally manifested in the David Wright House Collaborative Fund, a supporting organization of the Arizona Community Foundation. The principal focus of... View full entry
While normally used by online gamers to create a generated world for exploration and combat, the world-building computer game Minecraft has been noted for its architectural capabilities. BlockWorks, a design studio in the UK, uses the game as a design tool to create materials for marketing... View full entry
3D-printed construction seems a good fit for the military. The emerging technology is relatively portable and inexpensive, and could potentially even save lives if it means soldiers receive a safe barracks in a shorter time. With this in mind, the US Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) recently constructed a prototype concrete barracks in under two days with what it calls the world's largest 3D printer. — New Atlas
The US military 3D printed a basic barracks hut measuring 500 sq ft in just 40 hours at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Champaign, Illinois. The MCSC reported this technology reduced construction time from what would typically take 10 Marines 5 days to build a similar... View full entry
Sophia Bannert worried Is the Rigidity of the Architectural Profession Constraining Innovation? For his part, Jason Buchheit found a problem or three with the piece "I'm going to be more pointed. Fundamentally I think your core argument is correct. The current model of architectural education... View full entry