Frank Gehry is designing a new 22-story tower that developers want to build in downtown Santa Monica, near the intersection of Ocean Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, according to the official website for the project. The structure will feature space for a hotel and condominiums, as well as restaurant and retail space. — latimes.com

Rather than using cranes to take the building apart from the outside, they start from the inside, taking the structure apart floor by floor from the top down. A crane inside the building lowers materials harvested from each floor to ground level, generating electricity to power other equipment in the process. So with Tecorep, higher buildings are actually an advantage, since the crane can generate more electricity lowering materials over longer distances. — popsci.com

The couple bought a 20-by-40-foot piece of land at 351 Keap St. in 2008, trying to get ahead of the wave of gentrification they feared would soon price them out of Williamsburg. Initially, they planned to build a tiny home out of bricks and mortar, but when they put out a bid, it came back as potentially costing half a million dollars. — dnainfo.com

"We want to take recycling to the next level," says Mr Huang. "Not only will this factory do the usual e-waste recycling, extracting gold and copper from your discarded computers and smartphones, but it will be built completely out of recycled materials. — BBC News

Nick Lembo, the president of Monadnock, recruited nArchitects for the competition. “Some architects shy away from modular construction, and some are intimidated by micro-units,” he said. “But Mimi and Eric were excited by the creative challenges. They created an incredibly space-efficient unit with an open design that will make it feel larger than its square footage.” — nytimes.com

Bernard Tschumi Architects has unveiled the schematic design for the firm's first work in Italy: ANIMA, a new cultural center in the city of Grottammare. The project has been commissioned by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ascoli Piceno and the Municipality of Grottammare and is expected to be completed by 2016. — bustler.net

Facebook recently got a big blue thumbs up from the Menlo Park Planning Commission to build its sprawling Frank Gehry-designed headquarters. Along with the requisite rezoning for the design, the commission approved the project’s environmental impact report, an official statement concluding that the new development would have more positive than negative effects on the area, and a cartographical change that will create a private road in front of the property called “Facebook Way.” — blogs.artinfo.com

Ingels has been asked to envision a gateway, one that invites visitors to learn, rest and escape and then leads them north to the rest of the Mall. B.I.G. will be responsible for site and building investigations, programming, campus planning, architectural and engineering design concepts and cost analysis.

The area "suffers from some notable impediments, and the buildings within the landscape are not utilized in a fully functional and efficient way," the Smithsonian says. — bizjournals.com

In the international design competition for the European Spallation Source (ESS), in Lund, Sweden the architectual team consisting of Henning Larsen Architects, COBE, and SLA has emerged victoriously. The team also includes the engineering partners Buro Happold, NNE Pharmaplan, and Transsolar. [...] ESS will become the world's largest and most advanced facility for neutron-based research. — bustler.net

The City of Sydney has just announced the winning team in the international competition to design a new library and plaza for Green Square, one of the city's major new developments. The jury, including famed architects John Denton, George Hargreaves, and Pritzker Prize winner Glenn Murcutt, selected the entry by Stewart Hollenstein in association with Colin Stewart Architects from a field of 167 entrants from 29 countries. — bustler.net

Documentary of the making of the first Angolan National Pavilion at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Shot over the Summer of 2012, it goes to show how one simple (and brilliant) idea may very well change the future sustainability of developing countries. And maybe the rest of the world as well. — vimeo.com

Harry S Truman inherited a White House that was in horrendous shape. After the British nearly burnt it to the ground in 1814, the construction of 20th-century innovations—indoor plumbing, electricity, and heating ducts—had also taken its toll on the structure. The building was nearly 150 years old, and it showed its age. In November 1948, the building was in a near-condemnable state... So it had to be gutted. Completely. — nationaljournal.com

Viennese practice Söhne & Partner Architekten has shared with us their competition entry for the new United Bank building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The tower design with the dragon-scale facade was conceived in collaboration with Ethiopian firm BET Architects. — bustler.net

Wright aficionado and architect Paolo Bulletti has launched an effort to purchase the 1954 Bachman Wilson House, one of Wright’s Usonian Houses in New Jersey, and transport the structure to the town of Fiesole outside Florence. — blogs.artinfo.com