Just in time for the Independence Day weekend, Legoland is showing off an extensive remodel of its New York miniland, dominated by a towering replica of Manhattan’s One World Trade Center. [...]
Nearly a year in the making, the redesigned New York area includes a number of new buildings, a dozen more moving automobiles and a subway system with new cars and tracks that are illuminated and feature sound effects that mimic the real thing.
— San Diego Union-Tribune
The Legoland announcement proudly boasts these details:"The One World Trade Center LEGO model is built with more than 250,000 LEGO bricks, and took eight Master Model Builders more than 1200 hours to build. This dynamic structure weighs more than 1,000 pounds and towers at a record breaking... View full entry
Heatherwick who founded Heatherwick Studio in 1994 has been recognised for his 'innovative' contribution to the architecture and design field. Writer and Goldsmiths lecturer Adam Mars-Jones, who will introduce Goldsmiths’ new Honorands to the stage over four graduation ceremonies this July... View full entry
Post-Brexit, the British government has turned into a real hot mess. The pound dropped to its lowest value against the dollar in 30 years ($1.31), and after Prime Minister David Cameron announced his resignation, Parliament is in turmoil and has yet to name a reliably likely successor. All this... View full entry
It may not seem as if downtown Los Angeles is in need of yet another arts space. But it is coming nonetheless — and it’s aiming to fill a more locally minded role than some of the institutions around it.
The Main Museum will be a non-collecting institution housed in a series of historic early 20th century structures in the Old Bank District. Helmed by Allison Agsten, who previously served as the curator of public engagement at the Hammer Museum, the curatorial focus will be resolutely local.
— Los Angeles Times
The Main Museum is being designed by Tom Wiscombe Architecture and will have some 40,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space. There will also be a rooftop sculpture garden and amphitheater.The opening is still a way off though: the ground floor spaces are expected to open in 2018 an the rooftop should be... View full entry
When its spheres and three surrounding towers are completed, [Amazon] will have 10 million square feet of office space in Seattle, more than 15 percent of the city's inventory, on a campus that occupies more than 10 square blocks. That will provide space for Amazon to more than double in size, to 50,000 Seattle workers in the next decade...The spheres, designed by architecture firm NBBJ, are Amazon's boldest statement yet in the first project it's building from the ground up. — Bloomberg
More on Archinect:NBBJ's biosphere design for Amazon Seattle HQ becomes even more organicNBBJ designs biospheres for Amazon's Seattle headquartersThis drone video takes you on a fascinating flight through the guts of Seattle's Bertha tunneling machine 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
An appellate court on Thursday halted construction on Pier55... Crews had just begun work on the $130 million green space...
The opponents, led by the City Club of New York, filed suit in state Supreme Court in June 2015, arguing that the Hudson River Park Trust, the entity that manages and operates the park, did not go through the proper channels to launch the project and didn't adequately study the potential environmental impacts of Pier55.
— Crain's New York
The 2.7 acre, Thomas Heatherwick-designed park, which is funded largely by the Diller-von Furstenberg family, has been controversial for both its design and for the alleged secrecy surrounding it."The project is significantly imperiled at this point, and we are very happy about that," Richard... View full entry
As luxury condominiums go, 152 Elizabeth Street displays an unusual rigor and finesse: this is not an exercise in overindulgence, but in refined balance. With its 32,000 square feet split between seven individual residences, Tadao Ando's floor-to-celling windowed, burnished... View full entry
The Obama Foundation has selected Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners (TWBTA) to lead the design team for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, and Interactive Design Architects (IDEA) to be their partner as they begin this exciting project. TWBTA stood out in their commitment to explore the best ways of creating an innovative center for action that inspires communities and individuals to take on our biggest challenges. — Barack Obama Foundation
The husband and wife team of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (TWBTA) first started their practice back in 1986, with Paul Schulhof becoming the firm's third partner in 2013. The thirty person team is headquartered in New York."We believe that architecture is the coming together of art and... View full entry
A Vancouver developer buying the storied Los Angeles Times building plans to demolish portions of the 750,000-square-foot complex to make way for a residential and retail development [...]
[The developer] intends to build apartments in place of a 1970s-era chunk of the building at Broadway and First Street, according to sources familiar with its plan. The stone-clad segments from 1935 and 1948, along Spring Street, would undergo renovations to house offices and retailers.
— LA Business Journal
According to the article, the developer – Onni Group – paid around $120 million for the building. It was previously owned by the Chicago-based company Tribune Media Co. The Los Angeles Times remains a tenant in the historic structure.For more Downtown Los Angeles news, check out these... View full entry
Perelman recently stepped down as Chairman of Carnegie Hall after butting heads with staff and other board members and pushing for the institution to present more pop music. He hopes to fulfill this at the World Trade Center, stating, “I would hope it is the first venue of choice for the Bruce Springsteens and the Bon Jovis and the Yo-Yo Mas and the Lang Langs, and at the same time it’s a place where we could have produced a “Hamilton” project or where we could produce a new ballet.” — 6sqft
After being stalled for 12 years, the Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center (PACWTC) is moving forward thanks to a $75 million gift from billionaire businessman and philanthropist Ronald O. Perelman. Brooklyn-based studio REX will design the complex, which will cost a total of $... View full entry
Anyone who's seen the iPhone-shot feature Tangerine or cruised by the doughnut shop at night knows that Donut Time wasn't just another of Los Angeles' dozens of purveyors of sweet, glazed pastries. Much more significant than that, it had long served as a haven for sex workers — many of them transgender women — who make a living on the streets nearby.
"I didn't think it would ever go away. It's really sad," [Tangerine director Sean] Baker says. "I think the film caught an end to an era."
— LA Weekly
According to LAist, Donut Time's closure may be related to a massive mixed-use development proposed for that stretch along Santa Monica Boulevard, where (of course) gentrification is on the rise. It's not yet known if anything will replace Donut Time.More on Archinect:Stonewall Inn formally... View full entry
Hoping to show the world his country is doing just fine despite sanctions and outside pressure over its nuclear weapons program, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has put his soldier-builders to work on yet another major [skyscraper] project
Pyongyang’s new Pyonghattan, officially called “Ryomyong Street,” is to have the country’s tallest apartment building, at 70 stories, along with a 50-story building and a handful of smaller ones in the 30-40 story range.
— The Japan Times
“[Kim's] soldier-builders are now putting up the frames for each new floor at the reportedly breakneck-pace of 14 hours to get it all done by the end of the year.”More on Archinect:‘Pyongyang Speed:’ North Korea miraculously cranks out massive residential development for scientists in only... View full entry
“AbleNook is a modular disaster relief dwelling that you can put together without tools in under two hours,” Verdecia said.
While Shigeru Ban has become the de facto expert in designing quick yet elegant solutions for disaster relief housing, he may have some competition in the form of two University of South Florida architecture students whose "AbleNook" can be assembled in under 120 minutes without any tools. Sean... View full entry
For more than 60 years, a home designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright stood tucked in the woods on the south side of Cloquet, little-seen and little-known as the city developed around it.
Now, after being on the market for years, the R.W. Lindholm House has been deconstructed and its pieces are on their way to Pennsylvania, where they’ll be reassembled and the home opened to the public by a group dedicated to conserving Wright-designed structures.
— Duluth News Tribune
The house is being carefully relocated to Polymath Park, a 130-acre "architectural park." While preservationists tend to prefer to keep Wright homes in their original context, the move is considered necessary for its long-term survival.The house has already been dismantled, bit by bit... View full entry