There have been countless unknowns surrounding LACMA’s vast rebuilding project: the nature of the landscaping, whether the underside of the massive concrete structure would feel like a pleasant, shady spot or an oppressive freeway underpass, where the museum’s playful Alexander Calder fountain sculpture might go.
The biggest question mark has hovered over the form and nature of the galleries...
— Los Angeles Times
With the fate of Los Angeles' beloved LACMA museum making headlines since Swiss architect Peter Zumthor received the bid, public response to its redesign has been primarily negative and controversial. With construction well underway despite the recent pandemic, images of museum... View full entry
What are architects and urban planners foreseeing as people cautiously gather? Streets “curated” for various uses and dynamic cityscapes that both advance wellness and knit communities together. [...]
Architects and other designers who have devoted efforts to creating public places that encourage gathering and sociability now say their task is to make congregating in these spaces possible again — and perhaps to achieve some community-enhancing goals in the process.
— The New York Times
SOM's design for Jiuzhou Bay—a new mixed-use neighborhood located along the Pearl River Delta in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province—will transform the waterfront of the Greater Bay Area’s burgeoning tech hub and create a blueprint for future development in China. The low-carbon community... View full entry
According to Infrastructure, Technology and Mayors' Priorities for confronting a Health, Economic and Societal Crisis, a new U.S. conference of Mayors (USCM) study conducted in partnership with Siemens USA by The Harris Poll, the majority of mayors believe that investing in infrastructure is... View full entry
The 2020 International Housing Design student competition has announced its winning entries. The HERE+NOW: A House for the 21st Century: 2020 Student Design Competition, led by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) in collaboration with Custom Residential Architects... View full entry
Progress on Los Angeles's very own aerial tramway has made some headway as the City of LA's Department of Recreation and Parks prepares a feasibility study on the project. Intending to provide increased access to Griffith Park and alleviate urban congestion, the Aerial Transit System for Griffith... View full entry
Supporters saw [SB 1122] as a way to ease California’s affordability problems that most economists blame on a lack of supply that has forced people to bid up home prices and rents to find a place to live. [...]
But like previous efforts to upend California zoning rules, SB 1120 faced pushback from community groups concerned it would ruin single-family neighborhoods, making them into denser places with too much noise and traffic.
— The Los Angeles Times
Another attempt to bring statewide housing reforms to California's zoning code has failed after a last-ditch effort to pass a bill that would allow homeowners to build two units per lot fell short. SB 1122 was created as response to the failure of the recent SB 50 densification plan, which... View full entry
MVRDV and The Why Factory at TU Delft have announced the release of Le Grand Puzzle, a book showcasing the result of intensive research of Marseille. The project was made from 2018 to the beginning of 2020 by an international team of architects and urbanists from MVRDV and The Why Factory in... View full entry
A group of contested supertall residential towers designed a collection of architecture firms, including SHoP Architects, Handel, and Perkins Eastman for sites in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Manhattan will be allowed to proceed as initially approved following a legal victory... View full entry
BIG, Hijjas, and Ramboll have been selected as the winners of the Penang State Government's international competition to design a masterplan for the Penang South Islands, which will provide locals with roughly 4.6 kilometers of public beaches, 600 acres of parks and 25 kilometers of waterfront... View full entry
After much anticipation, the winners of the Van Alen Institute Reimagining Brooklyn Bridge competition have been announced. Thanks to the competition's design jury and a public vote held during the competition's Virtual Design Show, the winning designs are "Brooklyn Bridge Forest"... View full entry
This post is brought to you by the L.A. Forum The summer exhibition “Every. Thing. Changes.” by the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design presents 20 new works documenting the collective view of life in Los Angeles in its new decade. The newly commissioned... View full entry
the government is tearing up the national rule book that has been in place since the second world war to ensure the best use of land, and replacing it with three simple classifications. From now on, all land in England will be designated for either “growth”, with automatic planning permission, “renewal”, with permission subject to some basic checks, or “protection”, preserving the sacrosanct status of the green belt. — BBC
Among the drastic streamlining of the planning approval process proposed is a system of automatic approvals that privileges pattern book-style developments that make use of readymade designs similar to those already used in Bath, Belgravia and Bournville, BBC reports. View full entry
The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts has announced its slate of 2020 Grants to Individuals, a set of 52 awards totaling $320,800 in funding for research endeavors that highlight a multiplicity of architectural, urban, and social perspectives. As in years... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has issued a statement condemning recently announced changes to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) provision of the 1968 Fair Housing Act by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Last week, HUD Secretary Ben... View full entry