After being criticized for helping to displace renters by inadvertently motivating landlords to turn long-term rentals into short-term hotel-like quarters, Airbnb is getting political and donating $100,000 to Los Angeles' Proposition HHH, which would require city officials to raise tax dollars to... View full entry
Facing a legal and public-relations nightmare with its sinking and leaning Millennium Tower, the San Francisco highrise’s developer is redesigning the foundation of its newest luxury condo project up Mission Street — with the idea of going all the way down to bedrock. [...]
the 58-story Millennium Tower at 301 Mission St. [has] sunk 16 inches and is leaning 2 inches to the northwest. That condo high-rise sits on a concrete slab with piles driven 60 to 80 feet deep, well short of bedrock.
— SF Chronicle
In contrast, the 706 Mission St. tower was designed without any piles. Instead, it was to be held up by a four-story basement garage sitting on a bowl-shaped concrete slab, 12 feet thick at the center and 5 feet thick at the edges. The Millennium Tower is already sinking even though it was built... View full entry
Spend this week exploring exhibitions; whether the work is that of an artist at their prime, a concept drawing from a student, or appreciating the forgotten modern dwellings in historical Highgate, this week is a celebration of hard work and creative pursuits. And, as we move into the end of... View full entry
Trump Tower is no ordinary property: It is the jewel in Donald Trump's brass crown. He lives at the top in a three-story penthouse with his third wife and third son. But it's more than just Trump's home. With its flashy outward image barely concealing a rotting, garbage-filled core, it's a metaphor for the man. — Esquire
Trump once famously declared, "I will build a great wall—and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me—and I'll build them very inexpensively." The last part is definitely true, judging by this undeniably cheap construction.For more on the architecture of the... View full entry
Diriyah, Saudi Arabia is home to the Turaif district, the first capital of Saudis and an UNESCO world heritage site since 2010. Appropriately, ZHA's winning design for the Urban Heritage Administration Centre in Diriyah will help maintain the area's UNESCO distinction, including an exhibition... 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
"We explained what the agency does and what we stand for, and he gave me a handshake right there," offering to work pro bono. [...] Of his design — a series of two-story, garden-surrounded buildings that echo the modest scale of the neighborhood, their shiny roofs the only Gehry-esque note — he says: "This building is not fancy but has all of my heart and soul in it. I worked hard to make spaces for the kids and families that would use it so that they would feel special." — hollywoodreporter.com
Gehry's Watts involvement previously in the Archinect news:Frank Gehry-designed children's center planned for Watts neighborhood in L.A.Can a Frank Gehry design help change the dynamic of Watts? View full entry
“She’s somebody who has a clear vision of respect for historical buildings but at the same time has a clean, elegant, modernist aesthetic that is very much about welcoming visitors today,” said Ian Wardropper, the Frick’s director.
In coming up with a new design, Ms. Selldorf has been charged with improving circulation in the Frick’s galleries, library and public spaces, while maintaining the museum’s existing footprint and preserving its jewel-box character.
— nytimes.com
Prior plans for the museum's addition (designed by Davis Brody Bond) were dropped by the Frick in June of last year, partially due to a letter of protest written on behalf of 51 artists and architects. This past March, the Frick put forward an RFQ for a new revision plan, and now that Selldorf has... View full entry
The aim of bringing in Foster’s brand of highly engineered minimalism is to help attract the industry’s “top talent and provide an inspirational place to work”.
The development contains “light filled offices, advanced laboratories and dynamic social spaces to nurture a culture of openness and innovation”.
Located in the heart of Asia’s “Silicon Valley”, the centrepiece of the facility are the tire testing and research laboratories, which are on display to invited visitors and staff.
— globalconstructionreview.com
More Foster + Partners:Norman Foster reimagines global infrastructure strategies in new essayFoster + Partners begins construction of "floating" Copenhagen office buildingConstruction begins on major Foster + Partners project in SwedenApple's spaceship campus, by the numbers (including an... View full entry
The artist and designer Maya Lin, best-known for her Vietnam Veterans Memorial, will redesign the Neilson Library at Smith College. Her designs for the project, intended to reduce the existing building’s footprint, have been revealed.Lin will renovate the 1909 Neilson Library and remove later... View full entry
The review highlights the sector’s dysfunctional training model, its lack of innovation and collaboration, and its non-existent research and development culture.
Low productivity continues to hamper the sector, while recent high levels of cost inflation, driven by a shortage of workers, has stalled numerous housing schemes as they have become too expensive to build.
— globalconstructionreview.com
Read more UK industry news here: Mayor of London launches probe into the impact of foreign investment in city's real estateEngineering giant Arup announces imminent layoffs following Brexit voteThe former-football stars tackling England's affordable housing shortage View full entry
The verdict is out! SANAA's meandering Grace Farms “River” project has won the second Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, as announced by IIT College of Architecture Dean Wiel Arets and MCHAP Director Dirk Denison during a ceremony tonight at the S.R. Crown Hall in Chicago. First awarded in... View full entry
Designed by the tall tower pros at Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects, One Vanderbilt will rise to become the second tallest tower in NYC and the tallest tower in Midtown. However, unlike the city’s other skyscraper additions noted for their slim silhouettes, this tower will be a behemoth occupying a full block between Vanderbilt and Madison avenues and East 42nd and East 43rd streets; the site is also directly adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. — 6sqft
On Tuesday morning, developer SL Green held an official groundbreaking ceremony for the KPF-designed One Vanderbilt.The tower, which will rise 1,401 feet when completed in 2020, will be New York City's second tallest, and one of its largest with more than 1.6 million square feet of office space... View full entry
“They were conventional renderings, which I personally don't like so much," Peter Zumthor states in an interview with CLADnews, referring to the widely-criticized renderings of his proposed building for LACMA that were released in August. Relating that the renderings were created strictly for... View full entry
Forming a closer, more harmonious bond between humanity and nature is the underlying goal of Javier Senosiain's organic or so-called "bio-architecture." His buildings often take the shape of organic forms--in one case, mythic serpent Quetzalcoatl--while simultaneously harvesting rainwater and... View full entry
