Rogers never designed any buildings in California. (The closest he came was the competition for the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco, where his firm’s concept ultimately lost out to a proposal by César Pelli.) But California remained an influence and Los Angeles remained top of mind — though frequently as an example of what not to do. — The Los Angeles Times
The colorful architect, who passed away last week at the age of 88, looked to the city’s expansive stock of mid-century modern showcase pieces to inform his own designs, including the Wimbledon House and later in his attempts at urban planning, referencing the city’s notorious sprawl... View full entry
For reasons both tragic and optimistic, 2021 was a year where regulations and policy were never far from the media spotlight. While this is true for instance due to the overhanging impact of COVID-19 on everything from school operations to international travel, 2021 was also a year that saw both... View full entry
More movement at the top of the academic landscape this week as Georgia Tech has announced University of Virginia urban and environmental planning professor Ellen M. Bassett as the next John Portman Dean’s Chair of the university’s College of Design. A former Fulbright Scholar... View full entry
Members of the architecture and urban planning communities are mourning the loss of Yale professor and influential New York city planner Alexander Garvin following the announcement of his death in Manhattan at the age of 80. A notoriously pedantic native New Yorker, Garvin earned both his... View full entry
Zaha Hadid Architects’ Eleftheria Square in Nicosia, Cyprus has been inaugurated. The project intends to be the city's primary gathering space, establishing new connections to unite a divided capital. Image: Laurian Ghinitoiu / Zaha Hadid Architects Eleftheria Square is located near the... View full entry
Firms are preparing for the new year and many are looking for candidates to join their team in 2022. For this week's curated job post we highlight urban design and planning positions currently listed on the Archinect Job Board. If you're preparing for an upcoming job interview or refreshing your... View full entry
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Department of Housing (DOH) Commissioner Marisa Novara announced on December 6th more than $1 billion in affordable housing through the Chicago Recovery Plan, as part of Lightfoot’s 2022 budget. This is the largest investment in affordable housing in... View full entry
Sasaki has launched a free tool to help designers to assess a proposal’s carbon emissions from early in the design process. The Carbon Conscience App, which builds on a year-long internal research project within the firm, seeks to differentiate itself from rival applications which require... View full entry
As part of the architect’s “long-lived dream of revitalizing Downtown LA’s Grand Avenue corridor,” Frank Gehry and Related Companies have announced the next iteration of their co-design for a one-of-a-kind luxury residential complex beset amongst the city’s civic and cultural... View full entry
Pink umbrellas tumble on hidden winds. IP addresses cross like city streets. Bright islands of community float like balloons tethered to gray infrastructural networks. In her wall-sized drawing “Confronting Urbanization: The Interactive Tissue of Urban Life Pro[log]ue,” Petra Kempf, assistant... View full entry
In an effort to mitigate the impending effects of sea-level rise on coastal populations through architecture, UN-Habitat and OCEANIX are once again taking the lead with a new prototype for a floating settlement in the South Korean city of Busan. The buzzworthy pair had previously made waves... View full entry
Outgoing NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has released a new $90 billion dollar resiliency plan that will expand on an existing pilot program using the city’s own climate-based design guidelines as a precept. The plan calls for a total of 40 new projects overseen by 23 different capital agencies within... View full entry
Despite some ongoing litigation, New York City took a major step this week toward making outdoor dining a permanent part of the city's infrastructure. On Monday, the City Planning Commission voted unanimously for a zoning text amendment that will create a clean slate for the city to develop and regulate a permanent program, and will ultimately allow more restaurants to set up outdoor dining structures across the city. — Gothamist
The amendment removes geographic restrictions on where outdoor dining spaces can be located in New York, making the application process for sidewalk and roadway eateries much simpler. The City Council and mayor will now have to approve the text amendment. Confidence that it will go through... View full entry
After six years of design and research at MIT, a pair of autonomous boats have been launched into the canals of Amsterdam. Roboat, a research project undertaken by the MIT Senseable City Lab and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), seeks to encourage a... View full entry
Highly popular due to their location and vibrant amenities, urban neighborhoods around the country have seen a boom in new apartments in the last five years. In fact, the top 20 most active neighborhoods — led by Downtown Los Angeles — have delivered a staggering 80,000 brand new rental units. — RentCafe
Downtown Los Angeles’ 10,136 new dwellings were followed by a distant second Midtown Atlanta, which had 5,936, and the formerly working-class Hunters Point neighborhood in far western Queens, which trailed Atlanta by a few hundred at 5,423. Los Angeles is currently looking to add more than... View full entry
