Work has ground to a halt at the New York Wheel, a massive attraction that developers say will help turn the St. George Ferry Terminal into a bustling tourist destination. The latest projections put the wheel’s price tag at $590 million, more than twice initial estimates. The developers concede there have been setbacks, but they say they are still on firm financial footing and expect the project to succeed. — Crain's New York Business
Building an audience from scratch for a new, expensive attraction on Staten Island's North Shore where visitors are also willing to spend $35 per ride to recover the half-billion-plus-dollar investment will be a steep challenge, Crain's reports: "To break even, the wheel likely needs to attract... View full entry
A revised proposal for the Moinian Group’s supertall in Hudson Yards, 3 Hudson Boulevard, calls for a slightly less-tall tower. A redesign from FXFOWLE now brings the total square footage to 2 million square feet from a previous 1.8 million and lowers its height to 940 feet tall from... View full entry
Yale has just completed two new residential colleges near the heart of campus: a superblock of neo-Gothic fantasy. This reversion to an archaic visual language exemplifies a troubling trend. With their new architecture, universities all too often abdicate leadership in promoting artistic innovation as they pander to plutocratic donors. — Places Journal
Columnist Belmont Freeman takes a critical look at Yale's RAMSA-designed Benjamin Franklin College and Pauli Murray College in his latest piece for Places. While Freeman marvels at their extraordinary evocation of tradition, he argues that their historicism represents a missed opportunity to... View full entry
Philip Johnson and John Burgee's 1984 AT&T Building, for many, signaled the arrival of Postmodernism onto the world scene. Now known as the Sony Tower, the 37-story skyscraper's deployment of historicity contradicted the glass and metal modernism of its neighbors, signaling a new architectural... View full entry
Times are tough for India’s monument to love. Air pollution is turning its marble surface yellow. Restoration work is obscuring its famous minarets. Tens of millions of tourists still flock to Agra each year, but numbers are reportedly waning.
Critics of the Taj Mahal are also growing increasingly bold. In past months, religious nationalists in the Hindu-majority country have stepped up a campaign to push the four-century-old Mughal monument to the margins of Indian history.
— The Guardian
"Resentment at the fact the country’s most recognisable monument was built by a Muslim emperor has always existed on the fringes of the Hindu right," The Guardian writes. "But those fringes have never been so powerful." View full entry
Students and faculty from the University of Virginia created a temporary addition to Thomas Jefferson’s vision for a living and learning community. The final product – a series of interlocking arches made of nontoxic, recyclable polypropylene plastic – is very different from the neoclassical style that Thomas Jefferson admired. However, Jefferson, who had a chemistry lab installed in the Rotunda, likely would have been fascinated by the technology used in its production. — UVA Today
This week we're releasing a special, in-between, episode of Archinect Sessions. In this show we’re sharing some conversations recorded by Ken and Donna from Exhibit Columbus, while visiting a selection of installations and local architectural masterpieces. Exhibit Columbus describes itself as an... 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 profiles!)... View full entry
The Minneapolis Institute of Art has tapped the British architect David Chipperfield to reconfigure its campus, which boasts a 1970s extension by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange and a new wing designed by Michael Graves from 2006. This is the first step for the museums's long-term strategy to... View full entry
With the environmental review process now underway, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is moving forward with a $600-million plan by Pritzker Prize winner Peter Zumthor to makeover its Miracle Mile campus. The acclaimed Swiss architect's design would replace the current Bing Center, Hammer... View full entry
"I cross a bit my fingers,” Renzo Piano told me. “It may work. We shall see.”
We were standing inside the concrete shell of the main auditorium of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, an ambitious but troubled project that after a series of delays is expected to open in 2019. [...]
Construction workers hammered away all around us, producing a ring of noise that occasionally made it tough to hear Piano, who at 80 speaks more softly than he once did.
— Los Angeles Times
LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne dissects Renzo Piano's third Southern California project, the troubled Academy Museum of Motion Pictures which — plagued by delays and controversy — is currently under construction right next to his other two completed buildings, the... View full entry
Easton Helsinki, a shopping centre by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki in Itäkeskus, Helsinki, opened its doors to the public today. The 66,000m2 development is the first phase in a larger urban plan and looks to celebrate the identity and culture of Helsinki’s eastern districts. The project... View full entry
Pier 55, the elaborate $250 million performing arts center on an undulating pier in the Hudson River, is back from the dead.
Forty-three days ago, Barry Diller, the entertainment mogul behind the plan, pulled the plug on the project [...]
Now, in an agreement brokered by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Mr. Diller agreed to revive the project, known as “Diller Island,” and opponents who had filed a series of lawsuits to stop the plan agreed to drop their legal battle.
— The New York Times
In never-ending-money-and-politics-tale news: "Diller Island," the controversial Pier 55 park structure floating in New York's Hudson River, isn't so dead after all after reports of a Governor Cuomo-brokered agreement between billionaire financier Barry Diller and opponents surfaced yesterday. "In... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Alucobond® The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum had done its duty. Opened in 1972 in Uniondale, N.Y., the Coliseum not only had honored the military sacrifice of local veterans in Long Island’s Nassau County but had served as home to the one-time American... View full entry
Located at the edge of the National Park Veluwezoom nature reserve in the Dutch town of Velp, the Patio House was formerly a rundown 1950s villa. Just this year, Bloot Architecture successfully refurbished and expanded the building into an inviting, spacious new residence. The architects... View full entry
