“Our approval will facilitate development of a significant new building with a distinctive pyramid-like shaped design and thoughtful site plan that integrates the full block site into the evolving residential, institutional, and commercial neighborhood surrounding it,” Ms. Burden said before voting in favor of the project. — observer.com

Mark Simon, a founding partner of Centerbrook Architects and Planners, agrees. “I think [bars and other fortifying techniques] send the wrong message to both kids and teachers,” he says. Based in Centerbrook, Connecticut, Simon has designed 20 school buildings, including five public elementary schools, though none in Newtown. “Buildings tell stories, and when a building is designed that way, it tells you that it doesn’t trust you. And kids intuit that they’re not trusted,” he says. — archrecord.construction.com

He has split his time between London and the French capital for the past decade but next year will open a new office in the central London architecture hotspot of Clerkenwell where his neighbours will include Zaha Hadid Architects and Wilkinson Eyre.

Before he goes, Matthews has agreed to complete all his work on the Shard including the viewing gallery, due to open in February, and the restaurants on floors 31, 32 and 33 which are expected to open in the spring. — bdonline.co.uk

The building, known as 1 Angel Square, has been designed to deliver a 50 per cent reduction in energy consumption compared to The Co-operative’s current Manchester complex and an 80 per cent reduction in carbon. This will lead to operating costs being lowered by up to 30 per cent. — DesignBuild Source

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy has facilitated the purchase of the David and Gladys Wright House in Phoenix, Arizona, through an LLC owned by an anonymous benefactor. The transaction closed on December 20 for an undisclosed price. The property will be transferred to an Arizona not-for-profit organization responsible for the restoration, maintenance and operation of the David Wright House. — savewright.org

[...] the University of Miami School of Architecture, in partnership with the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince and Faith and Form Magazine, has organized a competition to choose the design for the new Cathedral. In the past year, 250 architects around the world have collaborated to submit 134 plans for the reconstruction. — miamiherald.com

[...] the Gehry story is about how Ruvo lost his father to Alzheimer's and wanted to bring a world-class architect to Las Vegas … if he could attract Gehry, maybe then he gets the Cleveland Clinic. Let’s go after the best architect and then the best clinic. — lasvegassun.com

News just broke that BIG has been commissioned to design a sleek 420 ft tall mixed-use observation tower for Phoenix, Arizona. Quite possibly the city's new symbol? — bustler.net

Six international teams have been selected for the second stage of the architectural design competition for the Museum and Educational Center of the Polytechnic Museum and Lomonosov Moscow State University. — bustler.net

Hadid’s tower will be built at the site that is now occupied by the BP Station at 1000 Biscayne Boulevard, directly across from Museum Park. The selection of Hadid was confirmed Monday by the investment group behind 1000 Biscayne Tower, which is managed by local developers Gregg Covin and Louis Birdman. — miamiherald.com

A $300 million renovation of the New York Public Library’s ornate marble palace in midtown Manhattan will start by evicting 1.2 million books.

The plan, unveiled today and overseen by the London firm of Foster & Partners, keeps more books onsite than had been suggested in earlier proposals. Books will be stored in space under Bryant Park and in a Princeton, New Jersey, facility. — bloomberg.com

In a year that saw severe funding cuts to schools, libraries and arts buildings and the delivery of new housing rattling along at its lowest level since records began in the Twenties, there weren’t too many rays of light for British architecture. And yet one, at least, shone brightly. — telegraph.co.uk

“Pruitt-Igoe has lived on symbolically as an icon of failure. Liberals perceive it as exemplifying the government's appalling treatment of the poor. Architectural critics cite it as proof of the failure of high-rise public housing for families with children. One critic even asserted that its destruction signaled the end of the modern style of architecture.” — Alexander von Hoffman, Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard Univ.