New York City this week will officially break ground on a spot near the Staten Island Ferry terminal where the world’s tallest observation wheel will rise — unless Dubai builds a bigger one first.
The Dubai Eye started erecting its 690-foot wheel a week ago. [...]
The 630-foot New York Wheel seeks to dethrone the 550-foot High Roller in Las Vegas as the tallest in the world.
— mashable.com
Previously: Mayor Bloomberg Unveils Plans To Build World's Tallest Ferris Wheel View full entry
Started in 2003 by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and intended to be Turkey’s tallest tower, the partially-constructed Republic Tower in Ankara’s Keçiören district will now be demolished after the Ankara Municipal Assembly rejected its zoning plan. [...]
First started in 2003 and stalled since 2008, the 144-meter tall tower which has already cost TRY 27 million (USD 10 million) will now be demolished.
— national.bgnnews.com
Related: Istanbul's 'illegal' towers to be demolished after landmark court ruling View full entry
On April 15, 2015, University of Michigan's President Mark Schlissel and Taubman College Architecture and Urban Planning Dean Monica Ponce de Leon broke ground with donor, A. Alfred Taubman on the new wing of the Art & Architecture building. [...]
The ceremonial shoveling of the ground was performed by Taubman College's Kuka robot, normally used for architectural digital fabrication research, painted maize and blue for the occasion.
— Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Previously: University of Michigan revives plan for architecture school addition and doubles budget to $28MAlso, don't miss our recent Dean's List feature with Monica Ponce de Leon, the Dean at UM's Taubman College. View full entry
The Whitney Museum of American Art has yet to open its doors in a new location in the meatpacking district, but on Tuesday night it unwittingly played host to its first radical art exhibition. At 11 p.m., activists from groups including Occupy Museums and Occupy the Pipeline gathered on the street in front of the museum for a performance art-style demonstration about a natural gas pipeline that is adjacent to the $422 million building and its vast art collection. — NY Times
This is a tale of two new West Loop high-rises and what they say about Chicago's apartment building boom, which has restored construction cranes to the skyline but has yet to give us architecture with a capital "A."
The buildings — the underwhelming Arkadia Tower in Greektown and the better-than-average JeffJack Apartments west of Union Station — are the latest products of the construction surge [...].
— chicagotribune.com
Different city, similar lament: Jeff Sheppard calls downtown Denver's new housing developments "meaningless, uninspiring". Is bland the new dogma? View full entry
The Miami Center for Architecture and Design has two and a half years to find new digs. The landlord, Stambul, has declined to renew the lease on their current location, a grand two floor space in the Old U.S. Post Office which the Miami Chapter of the American Institute of Architects meticulously brought back to life. — miami.curbed.com
The outlines of what could be Chicago's third-tallest skyscraper came into sharp focus Monday when the project's developers unveiled their latest plan for the riverfront tower — a trio of interconnected high-rises that would bring stacks of undulating glass to the city's skyline. [...]
Details about the plan, designed by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang and her firm Studio Gang Architects, were revealed at a community meeting called by Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd [...].
— chicagotribune.com
Times Square has always been about reinvention — in order for the New York Times' headquarters to be built (and give the spot its name), the Pabst Brewing Company's Pabst Hotel had to be demolished. But in the late 1970s, after decades of grandeur followed by decades of decay, imagining the future of Times Square became a particularly pressing project. [...]
Here are some plans for the future of Times Square, some of which never caught on and some of which still have a chance.
— nymag.com
Related:Times Square and the routine of chaosJam to your heart's desire with Stereotank's "Heartbeat" installation in Times SquareIs that a luge in Times Square? View full entry
Now visitors will be able to descend from the Hayward gallery’s glass pyramid ceiling to its entrance level on one of two 15-metre slides commissioned for an exhibition opening later this year. Built into the gallery’s exterior wall, the slides will “constitute a graceful sculptural installation” while also being a device for “experiencing an emotional state that is a unique condition somewhere between delight and madness”, [Carsten Höller] said. — The Guardian
Previously, Höller had created a similar installation for the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in 2006. The slides were very popular with the public, although also responsible for several injuries.For his upcoming exhibit at the Hayward Gallery, Höller has also created "Flying Machines," which are... View full entry
Far from reducing his workload or resting on his considerable laurels, the 80-year-old Meier and his partners are also wrapping up construction on several other projects, including the HH Resort and Spa in Gangneung, South Korea; the Leblon office building in Rio de Janeiro; the 140-unit Rothschild Tower in Tel Aviv; the Cittadella Bridge in Alessandria, Italy; and Teachers Village, a mixed-use development in Newark, New Jersey. — The Real Deal
Norman Foster‘s 88-story tower, destined for the last unoccupied site of the World Trade Center complex, could finally get the legs it needs to move forward. Media giants News Corporation and 21st Century Fox, both headed by Rupert Murdoch, are in talks with the Port Authority and developer Larry Silverstein to make the long-stalled 1,349-foot skyscraper their next home. — 6sqft
The move would give 2 WTC what it needs to resume construction as required by the Port Authority—namely a solid anchor tenant. 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
The remains of a nearly 1,600-year-old basilica that was discovered at the beginning of last year under Lake İznik in the northwestern province of Bursa is now set to become an underwater museum.
The underwater museum project, approved by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, will be carried out by the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality, the sponsor of the project. [...]
The discovery of the basilica was named as one of top 10 discoveries of 2014 by the Ar-chaeological Institute of America.
— hurriyetdailynews.com
New plans for the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Arcadia has neighbors riled up.
Owners of the 1952 house want to turn it into more than just a home, but those living in the wealthy neighborhood aren't too happy about it.
[...] said the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house is "an example of what I consider to be an architecture embodiment of Arizona exceptionalism."
However, this landmark home now finds itself in the middle of controversy.
— azfamily.com
Justin McGuirk’s Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture should be required reading for anyone looking for ways out of the bleak social inequality we’re stuck in. There were 40 million more slum dwellers worldwide in 2012 than there were in 2010, according to the UN. Private markets clearly can’t provide universal housing in any way approaching efficiency, and governments are often hostile to the poor. — Metropolis Magazine
In his book, McGuirk analyzes numerous de facto housing solutions for overcrowded cities, including the infamous "Torre David" in Caracas, an abandoned high-rise which became an iconic squatter's structure partly because of government ineptitude and indifference. View full entry
