The pandemic has underlined how broken the UK’s model for urban development is. [...]
It is hard to see now amid the depression and anger, but the pandemic did briefly show cities acting on the basis of general human need: rough sleepers being housed, mutual aid groups being set up, evictions being suspended. Yet the possibility of any long-term change is rapidly being lost.
— The Guardian
Tribune culture editor Owen Hatherly's new housing opinion piece for The Guardian. View full entry
The National Landing Business Improvement District (BID) in Northern Virginia has outlined plans for creating what it says will be the most “well-connected downtown in the country,” following its selection as home to Amazon HQ2. — Smart Cities Dive
According to Smart Cities Dive, National Landing BID has presented "several public-private partnership projects, with costs totaling $4 billion, that will improve transit in National Landing, outside of Washington, D.C., which encompasses parts of Virginia’s Crystal City, Pentagon City... View full entry
The mayor of Paris has said a €250m (£225m) makeover of the Champs-Élysées will go ahead, though the ambitious transformation will not happen before the French capital hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Anne Hidalgo said the planned work, unveiled in 2019 by local community leaders and businesses, would turn the 1.9 km (1.2 mile) stretch of central Paris into “an extraordinary garden”.
— The Guardian
The Champs-Élysées, History & Perspectives study, led by French architect Philippe Chiambaretta of PCA-STREAM, explains the potential of the major urban overhaul: "The overall vision for the district located between the Champs-Élysées roundabout and the Arc de Triomphe builds up the... View full entry
[...] a new Smithsonian administration has jettisoned the eye-popping elements of the $2 billion design by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, opting instead for a dramatically downsized version. Set to be presented publicly for the first time this week, the scaled-back plan focuses on the renovation and restoration of the James Renwick-designed Castle and the adjacent Arts and Industries Building (AIB), another National Historic Landmark designed by Adolf Cluss and Paul Schulze. — The Washington Post
First presented in 2014, hotly debated in the following years, revised in 2018, and expected to start construction this year, some elements inside the Bjarke Ingels Group-designed $2 billion Smithsonian South Mall Campus redevelopment have been scaled back by the institution's new administration... View full entry
Critics, including some influential environmental groups, would prefer to see naturalization of the river itself. But during a recent Zoom call from his Los Angeles studio, a grin crossed the Pritzker Prize winner’s face as he shared his plans to transform the forlorn industrial confluence of the Los Angeles River and the Rio Hondo in South Gate into an urban cultural park like no other. — Los Angeles Times
It's been relatively quiet around the ambitious Los Angeles River revitalization project since Frank Gehry's firm was selected to lead the master plan effort in 2015. Now the Los Angeles Times has revealed an update — although sparse in detail — which instead of the naturalization of... View full entry
By this time during the year, although hopeful at times, everyone had settled into a period of adjustment as attempts to contain the COVID-19 virus continued to persist. While the U.S. was coming to terms with this accepted sense of pandemic reality the architecture industry continued to press on... View full entry
On our year-end show Donna, Ken and I are joined by Frances Anderton. For our Los Angeles listeners, Frances's voice is probably very familiar to you. Frances is the host of DnA, the radio show the focuses on architecture and design on KCRW, the local favorite station among architects in the... View full entry
This post is sponsored by TerraViva Competitions TerraViva Competitions has officially released the complete list of winning projects of the design contest “Tactical Urbanism NOW.” The challenge of the competition was to encourage participants to imagine a city where public space goes beyond... View full entry
In alignment with Project Homekey, LA County's efforts to provide temporary housing pushes forward as the city uses over $68M in grant funding plus $37M in local matching funds to purchase hotels located in the Los Angeles area. In October, the city had acquired ten hotels located in the West... View full entry
In the mountains of Ecuador's Cymbayá valley stands Jean Nouvel's latest residential project, Aquarela. In collaboration with local architecture developer Uribe Schwarzkopf, a new complex will transform the area into nine residential spaces. Initial construction began in... View full entry
Snøhetta has designed a mixed-use building in Hong Kong, named Airside. Commissioned by Nan Fung group, the 176,000-square-meter structure is located in the center of the former Kai Tak airport. A 200-meter tall tower set atop a podium fit with roof gardens and urban space at ground level... View full entry
Earlier this month, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was closed due to weather. However, a video posted to Twitter of the bridge undergoing heavy winds went viral due to the sights and sounds recorded. Bridges are built to pass strict safety and construction standards and be capable of withstanding... View full entry
What will homes of the future look like? According to a recent UK housing competition, Home of 2030, selected winners have an idea. However, are these ideas all that new? The Guardian's Oliver Wainwright unpacks these winning design proposals and explains, "according to the winning architects... View full entry
Previously covered by Archinect in November 2018, Winy Mass and the design team at MVRDV worked with developer Youngwoo & Associates to "design an innovative project that accommodates a large volume of program while fitting the surrounding context." Project render (2018). Image courtesy of... View full entry
In its 9th iteration, the annual CTBUH International Student Tall Building Design Competition highlights the best student work that explores the future of sustainable vertical urbanism. The competition aims to invite students to submit their best project ideas as they explore a "new light on... View full entry
