New York's iconic Stonewall Inn, where the modern gay rights movement took root, will become the first national monument honoring the history of gays and lesbians in the U.S. under a proposal President Barack Obama is preparing to approve.

Designating the small swath of land will mark a major act of national recognition for gay rights advocates and their struggles over the last half-century. — AP

It has been whispered about for months, but now it’s official: Vornado Realty Trust is offering up a palatial four-floor apartment at 220 Central Park South that is priced at a record-smashing $250 million.
The massive condominium will encompass floors 50 through 53 of the Robert A.M. Stern-designed limestone tower, and it will span some 23,000 square feet [...]. The asking price works out to nearly $11,000 per square foot. — therealdeal.com

With the future of a Lucas Museum on Chicago's lakefront in doubt, the city of Waukegan is asking the organizers to look a little to the north.

Waukegan Mayor Wayne Motley reached out to Mellody Hobson, a Chicago financial executive and the wife of "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, about locating the proposed museum featuring digital, traditional and narrative art on Waukegan's lakefront, a city spokesman said on Wednesday. — Chicago Tribune

A brick is an obdurate object of ambiguity that hovers between idea and matter, between life and death. Its texture can be smoothed to glide our touch or left rough and abrade. It can be molded into even shapes for consistent construction or made uneven, presenting individual challenges each time one is laid in a course. But while it can come close to an ideal oblong shape, it never attains perfection, and it can as much be said that it approaches perfection as it resists it. — Numéro Cinq

Earlier this year, photographer Baker took us on an odyssey through two icons of Modernism in the UK by Wells Coates: London’s Isokon building and Brighton’s Embassy Court. Now he’s teamed up with director Alex Simpson to create a mini-documentary, The Legacy of Wells Coates.

The Isokon was once home to Soviet spies, Agatha Christie and Modernist émigrés including the founder of Bauhaus school, Walter Gropius. — thespaces.com

And so I seek out the airport chapel, interfaith space, prayer room, or meditation center, and see how each country’s particular tics and prejudices play out as spiritual architecture in technopolitical space. I rarely see other people in my visits to these places. — Witte De With Review

A study commissioned by the developer indicated that total economic output of the companies projected to occupy Hudson Yards will contribute $18.9 billion to the city's gross domestic product. [...]

Many projections in the report are also contingent on a host of economic indicators in the city, including demand for Class A office space. Out of the 10.4 million square feet Related will have to lease up, so far it has locked in commitments from tenants for 4 million square feet. — crainsnewyork.com

Wilmington officials say the cancellation of an architect business conference due to HB2 will cost the city nearly $1 million.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced Monday it will nix its three-day conference scheduled for later this fall at the Wilmington Convention Center. AIA officials cited the passage of HB2 as the reason for the cancellation. — WETC

A boxy steel and glass building standing just three stories tall, the Catholic Pastoral Center at 601 Grand Ave. doesn’t command a lot of attention. But among local architects and history buffs, it has a cult following.

“This is a building that appears in architecture textbooks,” said Jennifer James, an architectural historian...

Now, the building is poised for a $10 million renovation that Catholic Diocese of Des Moines officials say will extend its life another 50 years. — Des Moines Register

Lisa Anne Auerbach created a ‘megazine’ of structures reminiscent of shopping malls or warehouses, hidden away from city centers, where thousands of people worship every week [...]

The conception of the cathedral is not only where one goes to be spiritual or commune with God, but to feel awe through the grandeur of the architecture [...] the US megachurch buildings are stripped wholesale of that sense of wonder and connection to the past; they are also far from the focal point of a city. — theguardian.com

Nestled within an industrial patch of warehouses in the Danish city of Roskilde stands the golden-studded, newly inaugurated Ragnarock, a museum where rock, pop, and youth culture are housed under one roof. COBE and MVRDV joined forces to design the new museum, which is part of the larger ROCKmagneten masterplan that the architects won in 2011. — Bustler

[Friends of the Park] said in a news release that the stay "gives all parties the opportunity to have a more direct and productive dialogue to reach a potential solution about a museum site." [...]

The move marks the latest twist in a controversy that began in 2014 when Lucas shifted the museum's location to Chicago... It gives momentum, if only momentarily, to a compromise plan for the museum that Emanuel floated last month. — chicagotribune.com

In addition to housing for low- and moderate-income households, the mixed-use and mixed-income development will include a supermarket with healthy food options, a charter school, a medical facility, cultural and community spaces, a social services facility, and a rehabilitated playground that is currently closed. [...]

The 24-story building is expected to be the largest residential Passive House built in New York City and use 70% less energy than conventional buildings. — housingfinance.com