"There were many meetings when the Apple representative would pick up your [iPhone] and say: 'That's what we're building.' What that means is — if you look at the phone, there's the sheen on the phone, there's the bevel on the phone, there's how much shine they have ... every piece of that phone is engineered, and the building is the same way." [...]

The project is so extensive — and Apple is so demanding — that Apple Campus 2 has effectively "raised the bar for construction standards" — businessinsider.com

Architect Frank Gehry’s modified design for the National Eisenhower Memorial received final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission Thursday, the final step in the federal approval process that has dragged on since 2011.

The commission voted 9 to 1 to move forward with the design for a memorial park on a four-acre site along Independence Avenue in Southwest Washington. — washingtonpost.com

The City of London Corporation has promised a more "rigorous" assessment of developers' predictions of ground winds, following complaints about strong gusts outside the 20 Fenchurch Street Building, better known as the Walkie Talkie.

"I almost got blown over the other day walking up past the building," a sales assistant working nearby said earlier this year. "When I got around the corner it was fine. I was scared to go back." — bbc.com

It’s one of the first Mexican projects for award-winning architect Richard Meier, who is known for his white geometric design such as the Getty Center in Los Angeles — CNN

In the first, “Ideation” phase of the initiative, those working in the building efficiency area are invited to submit problem statements describing challenges that need to be overcome in order to promote better engagement with building occupants and to improve the ability to balance energy and occupant comfort objectives in a building. In addition to submitting problem statements, participants are invited to vote and comment on ideas that have already been submitted. — U.S. Department of Energy

Manhattan’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the focal point of Rockefeller Center and home to the NBC television network, has changed its name to the Comcast Building.

Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal will illuminate a sign with the new name and NBC logo atop the 850-foot (259-meter) building [...].

Comcast Building is the third official name for the landmark property, completed in 1933. — bloomberg.com

The stadium will be wrapped in a cage of slender concrete and brick columns that will rise to a zig-zagging profile, before folding over to form the roof – as if the architects’ tangle of struts in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium had been straightened out and neatened up. — theguardian.com

Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya district will get a 230-meter high observation deck before the Olympics that could become more famous than its statue of Hachiko the dog or the “scramble crossing” by the train station, plans unveiled by Tokyu Corp. showed Thursday. [...]

Visitors will be able to see the capital’s other landmarks, including Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Skytree, as well as Mount Fuji on a clear day. — japantimes.co.jp

“The library is a tool to attract people to the village,” said Mr. Li, a professor of architecture at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

When visitors come to see the library, he said, they also spend money at the village’s few restaurants, pay parking fees and donate money for the building’s upkeep.

“The place is special,” said Li Wenli, 45, an insurance saleswoman from Beijing [...]. — nytimes.com