BIG has drawn up the masterplan for the “Toyota Woven City”, which will transform a 175-acre former factory site in the city of Susono in Shizuoka into a new smart city that will be fully “dedicated to the advancement of all aspects of mobility”. Bjarke Ingels and Toyota CEO Akio... View full entry
The reconfiguration of these mundane sites into spaces of political expression show how Hong Kong’s public space “is clearly made by the people, not something simply given by the state, and certainly not to be taken for granted,” said Jeff Hou, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Washington and the co-editor of City Unsilenced: Urban Resistance and Public Space in the Age of Shrinking Democracy. — Quartz
A new plan by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership—a consortium of three business improvement districts—seeks to make room for all of those people by curtailing car access and installing protected bike lanes, colorful street furniture, and monumental gathering spaces. — CityLab
Despite rapid population growth, Downtown Brooklyn seems to be missing the appeal for the increasing number of pedestrians and cyclists. The newly unveiled Downtown Brooklyn Public Realm Vision, developed jointly by WXY architecture + urban design and Bjarke Ingels Group in collaboration with... View full entry
Though the French capital and its suburbs house less than one-third the population of California, the region produced more new homes last year than the entire Golden State. — The San Francisco Chronicle
MIT Urban Planning doctoral candidate Yonah Freemark, writing in The San Francisco Chronicle, highlights the successes that have taken shape in Paris in recent years with regards to increasing housing production and affordability. The recipe for success, according to Freemark’s... View full entry
The urban changes that Philadelphia experienced in the first years of the 21st century were gentler and more likely to enhance the city’s existing 20th-century form. The tech-induced trends from the last 10 years have challenged that physical form by radically reconfiguring the way we move through, and interact with, the city. — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Inga Saffron, architecture critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer provides a tech-focused decade-in-review highlighting the impact of smartphone technologies on the city’s urbanism. Highlighting the proliferation of “fast-casual” food, buildings, and development approaches, Saffron... View full entry
A copyright infringement lawsuit filed in 2017 against building industry startup company UpCodes by the International Code Council (ICC) is getting ready to head to court next year. UpCodes is a for-profit company that dubs itself as a "searchable platform for building codes" by providing a... View full entry
With this tumultuous year finally coming to an end, let's take a look back and dig through some of the most exciting and stand-out news and feature stories on Archinect during the month of February. ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN CULTURE Elm, by Tumbleweed, Tiny House Company ↑ Tiny homes are fitting... View full entry
Will New York’s new jails be places where visiting families feel welcome? Will the jails provide space for police officers and medical staff to train together? For detainees to confer with lawyers? For therapeutic assistance and recreation?
Outside as well as inside, will they be scaled to their surroundings, will the city be open to other sites and will the buildings architecturally represent, as borough landmarks, our civic ideals and values?
— The New York Times
Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The New York Times, provides an spirited overview of the ongoing developments in New York City regarding the planned decommissioning and relocation of the prison facilities located on Rikers Island. The large-scale infrastructure and architecture practice... View full entry
The Champs-Élysées, often called the “most beautiful avenue in the world”, is not what it was. The pavements are cracked, the trees that line the cobbled, traffic-clogged road struggle to survive in one of Paris’s most polluted areas, and Parisians stay away.
Now local community leaders have unveiled an ambitious €250m (£212m) project to restore the celebrated 1.2 mile (1.9km) long avenue to at least some of its former glory.
— The Guardian
"The ambitious plans include reducing the space for vehicles by half, creating tunnels of trees and encouraging more aesthetic use of commercial spaces such as terraces," The Guardian lays out some details envisioned by Paris-based architect Philippe Chiambaretta of PCA-STREAM. So far, the... View full entry
While construction on the long-talked-about high-speed train between Las Vegas and Southern California is slated to begin next year, work probably won’t start in Nevada until the following year.
Virgin Trains USA could break ground in the second half of 2020 on the 170-mile route between Southern Nevada and the Victor Valley area of Southern California...
— Las Vegas Review-Journal
The project is expected to be completed in 2023, but, according to state Department of Business Director Terry Reynolds, it cannot commence construction until the "record of decision" is received by the Federal Railroad Administration, reports Review-Journal. View full entry
The Providence River Pedestrian Bridge was designed by Detroit-based architecture firm inFORM Studio and structures designer BuroHappold for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT). Photo: Kroo Photography Flowing through the heart of the city, the new bridge connects two new... View full entry
A long-in-the-works plan to link Houston and Dallas with high-speed rail is making steady progress as backers for the project announce that they could be one year away from breaking ground. Earlier this year, Archinect reported that Texas CentralTexas Central, the group advocating for and... View full entry
In London, where it is often difficult, if not nearly impossible, to build new ground-up residences, many architectural firms specialize in helping families give their "traditional"-looking homes contemporary updates. Initiatives like New London Architecture (NLA)'s annual "Don't Move... View full entry
The McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania has published a digital atlas that attempts to communicate the wide-ranging implications of both climate change and a potential Green New Deal for the United States. A color-coded breakdown of land uses across the country that includes... View full entry
Following news earlier this week announcing the sale of urban design innovation vertical CityLab to Bloomberg Media by The Atlantic, news reports today indicate that the publication's entire staff has been laid off. Nieman Lab reports that the acquisition is the first for Bloomberg Media in... View full entry
