The multi-year process that will eventually engender a string of entirely reimagined waterfront plots along the LA River has entered its next phase after county officials released their final master plan last week. The documents offer an update to the County proposal first introduced in 2016 by... View full entry
Barcelona has become the latest city to begin construction on a digital twin of itself. Currently in a test phase, the data-driven replica of the city is expected to be operational by 2027, at which point it will be used as an urban planning tool to shape the city’s future development. The... View full entry
London’s proposed Camden Highline has been submitted for planning. Led by the practice behind the New York High Line, James Corner Field Operations, and Camden-based firm vPPR Architects, the project will regenerate a disused railway viaduct to establish an elevated park that connects Camden... View full entry
Ahead of this week’s scheduled planning commission meeting in Santa Monica, Gehry Partners has revealed updated renderings for the proposed Ocean Avenue Project that would install a new mixed-use cultural campus in the heart of Los Angeles’ beachy Westside. The proposal calls for the creation... View full entry
Today, Ennead Architects unveiled its design for a new master-planned commercial district in Shanghai called the Lingang Special Area. The plan includes four new large buildings and more than 124,500-square-meters (about 1.33 million-square-feet) of retail and public space to be realized over... View full entry
Tower Hamlets Council has granted planning permission to PLP Architecture and Adjaye Associates’ amended plans to overhaul the Whitechapel Estate in east London.
PLP masterplanned the development and designed seven buildings, while Adjaye Associates designed five of the six buildings on the west of the site. The duo first submitted plans for the estate in 2015, which were rejected by Tower Hamlets Council but later approved on appeal.
— Architects' Journal UK
The revised plan was finally approved after an affordable housing plot was relocated “to a better setting” outside of the scheme, which also is now serviced by more energy-efficient heat pump technology. One-third of the scheme’s now 529 residences are still considered affordable under... View full entry
The country of El Salvador has picked an architect for his attention-grabbing bid to lure cryptocurrency investment to the small Central American nation. FR-EE founder Fernando Romero is now in charge of the country’s Bitcoin City development and plans to add a new Pacific airport, according to... View full entry
As we approach the third month of Russia’s ruthless attacks, citizens of Ukraine have continued to suffer unimaginable challenges. One of the many concerns that Ukrainians have had is financial, and how to maintain a livelihood during this tragic situation. Architects and designers, many of whom... View full entry
A central part of the Fuggerei social housing complex’s 500th anniversary festival of events that began over the weekend, MVRDV’s newly-opened NEXT500 Pavilion examines the future of the all-important typology through the inclusion of proposed designs which would install inspired versions... View full entry
It seems incredible that a mid-century marvel like Geller I should fall victim to redevelopment while a government agency nearby intervenes to prevent someone from replacing an old front door with a similar-looking new one. In the world of historic preservation, however, a loose relationship between a building’s historical value and its likelihood of being protected is all too common. — The Atlantic
The recent loss of Marcel Breuer’s first post-war Geller I design on Long Island is used to highlight the tension between developer-friendly preservation laws in smaller communities like Lawrence, and the prevailing approaches to preservation controlled predominantly by city dwellers and their... View full entry
Former New York City Council member Eric Ulrich has been appointed as Commissioner of the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) by Mayor Eric Adams. Ulrich will serve alongside Kazimir Vilenchik, the new First Deputy Commissioner, and replaces Gus Sirakis, who has been serving as the DOB’s Acting... View full entry
Golden Gate Park's John F. Kennedy Drive has been blocked off to vehicle traffic since the start of the pandemic, and on Tuesday night San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted to keep it that way. — SFGate
A meeting with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency last week resulted in the board voting 7-4 in favor of Mayor London Breed’s legislation to permanently close off a 1.5-mile-long stretch of the roadway to car traffic. In April 2020, the section of JFK Drive was closed to... View full entry
The cost to turn 42 acres of contaminated railroad property on the border of Cypress Park and Glassell Park into a "crown jewel" of riverfront revitalization could top $1 billion. That's according to an updated study by the Bureau of Engineering that will be reviewed today by a City Council committee. — The Eastsider
In March 2017, the City of Los Angeles purchased the land, known as the G2 Parcel, for $60 million with the aim to develop a combination of park space, walking trails, wetlands, wildlife habitat, river access, public recreation, and other amenities. The undertaking, known as the Taylor Yard... View full entry
Part of the W Awards program, the annual MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice recognizes UK-based architects excelling in practice. Last year's prize was awarded to Alice Brownfield of Peter Barber Architects. Now in its third iteration, this year's award recipient is Fiona... View full entry
The U.S. Census Bureau has changed its definition of an urban area, which will cause hundreds of existing urban areas to be reclassified as rural. The change is centered on a new methodology for how urban areas are calculated, with the number of housing units being used as the key metric, rather... View full entry
