Never has an attraction promised so much yet delivered so little. It was the roller coaster without a ride, the helter skelter without a slide, a £20m mountain of steel leering above London’s lean Olympic stadium as a mocking monument to the vanity of the city’s former mayor, Boris Johnson, and its funder, the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal [...]

As Guy de Maupassant said of the Eiffel Tower, being inside the Orbit is the best place to be – because it’s the only place you don’t have to look at it — the Guardian

The 2016 RIBA Awards competition continues! A few weeks after the London Award announcements, the Institute just revealed 46 buildings as National Award winners. The RIBA National Awards celebrate the UK's most outstanding buildings, while offering insight into construction, design, and investment trends in the country. An array of stunning projects by leading designers made the cut in this year's Nationals, with UK universities and colleges winning much of the jury's favor this time around. — Bustler

A hedge-fund manager on the 28th floor who pretended to be dead when investors asked for their money reported to prison in January. A few weeks later, an investment adviser on the 17th floor was accused of running a Ponzi-like scheme. Thirteen floors up, a lawyer pleaded guilty this month to stealing millions of dollars from clients.

It was all happening at 40 Wall St., across from the New York Stock Exchange, behind golden capital letters proclaiming that this is THE TRUMP BUILDING. — Bloomberg

Brutalism will never happen again. Our stock of Brutalism is limited, and sadly under constant attack. The demolition and ‘refurbishment’ of great buildings by Rudolph, I M Pei, Denys Lasdun and other giants of the movement should be taken as seriously as would the loss of buildings by Donato Bramante, Christopher Wren or Frank Lloyd Wright. Brutalism deserves far better than the wrecker’s ball: it was the pinnacle of world architecture through all of history. — Aeon

A fresh set of three dozen projects were recognized in the 2016 Los Angeles Architectural Awards. Organized by the LA Business Council, the awards recognize some of L.A. County's top-notch designers and projects...

“This year designers rose to the challenge to design more eco-conscious and efficient features, and generally improve the way people live through architecture” — Bustler

When we first visited Bankside Power Station for the original Tate Modern competition in 1994, it seemed like the castle in Sleeping Beauty – an enormous urban mountain that was completely overgrown, surrounded by barbed wire and prickly roses, as if protecting the hidden beauty inside. It seemed dangerous. It is totally unimaginable now, but this was a huge chunk of the city that was totally excluded from public life, set back behind high walls. — theguardian.com

Brookfield is to build a new 700,000 ft2, 37-storey tower in the City of London - and work could begin as early as 2018.

Designed by architect Make the plans for the proposed office tower at 1 Leadenhall feature a 9,600 ft2 public terrace with winter garden overlooking the historic Leadenhall Market.

The tower will provide 538,000 ft2 of office space plus 51,500 ft2 of retail space on the first three floors. — building.co.uk

Mr. Margolies, who died on May 26, at 76, was considered the country’s foremost photographer of vernacular architecture — the coffee shops shaped like coffeepots; the gas station shaped like a teapot (the Teapot Dome Service Station in Zillah, Wash.); and the motels shaped like all manner of things, from wigwams to zeppelins to railroad cars — that once stood as proud totems along America’s blue highways. — The New York Times

When is a garden bridge not a garden bridge? When it’s a bridge garden, according to Allies and Morrison, the Southwark-based architects who have come up with a cheap and cheerful alternative to the eye-wateringly expensive, contractually dubious proposal by Thomas Heatherwick and Joanna Lumley for a floating forest across the Thames. — theguardian.com

The show, curated by the V&A’s Maria Nicanor and Zofia Trafas White, is a fascinating exploration of the 20th century engineer’s life and work, and how it has influenced today’s practices in his field. Arup, fittingly argue the curators, was a true pioneer, championing real collaboration with architects, using a computer for the first time during the Sydney Opera House project in the 1960s – a hefty but fascinating machine called 'Pegasus', on display at the show. — wallpaper.com

China is speeding up efforts to design and build a manned deep-sea platform to help it hunt for minerals in the South China Sea, one that may also serve a military purpose in the disputed waters.

Such an oceanic “space station” would be located as much as 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) below the surface, according to a recent Science Ministry presentation viewed by Bloomberg. — Bloomberg