It’s been a decade since Google Street View launched, giving folks all the tools they need to virtually travel to far-flung places without leaving the comfort of their couch. But the tool is also useful for those who are curious about the evolution of places over time—and few places have experienced as drastic a change to their landscape in the past decade as New York City. — Curbed NY
Consider how much NYC has transformed in the past ten years. It is hard to even imagine the city's appearance in 2007 — prior to 20 skyscrapers' rising above the southern side of Central Park, before projects like Hudson Yards, the High Line, Pacific Park even begun their construction, and... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.(Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect... View full entry
The most important question related to the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side doesn’t have that much to do with its architecture.
It is instead: What kind of landscape stewardship can a presidential museum and library offer? To be located in Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted’s Jackson Park, the project already has a heap of canonical landscape history to contend with. So can the Obama library make a great park greater?
— landscapearchitecturemagazine.org
"So this new landscape has the potential to improve upon the already very good. But for whom?," Zach Mortice asks in his piece for Landscape Architecture Magazine. "Will these grounds remain public and accessible for all South Siders and Chicagoans, free of charge?" View full entry
As with any Apple product, its shape would be determined by its function. This would be a workplace where people were open to each other and open to nature, and the key to that would be modular sections, known as pods, for work or collaboration. — Steven Levy for WIRED
Since 2009, Foster and Partners have been working on a new headquarters for the tech giant Apple, originally in close collaboration with Steve Jobs, its founder, who saw it as one of his last crucial contribution to his legacy. Even though dramatic photographs of the ring-shaped structure have... View full entry
Symbolizing mountain ranges in architecture has the potential for a dramatic, iconic payoff, especially when the materials used to do so play an integral role in the interior experience of the building (think: the fabric peaks of the Denver International Airport, which allude to the Rocky... View full entry
Engineers have to ensure the bridge will remain buoyant when a pair of 300-ton trains pass each other, and that the high-voltage current that powers the trains won’t stray into the bridge’s pontoons and corrode its steel rebar. They spent $53 million just to design the section across Lake Washington. — The Seattle Times
The Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge is a floating bridge that stretches across Lake Washington, connecting Seattle and Bellevue through Interstate 90 freeway.This April the final design promising to replace the center express lanes of I-90 with full speed light rail was signed off. Subject to... View full entry
As highlighted in this week's edition of Archinect's Event Picks, Bjork's virtual reality showcase at the Magic Box at The Reef in downtown LA will run from May 19th-June 4th, with an in-person performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic by the artist on May 30th. What's worth checking out in... View full entry
How does one maintain excitement while embodying elegance? The artful tension of the Ivanhoe House, as designed by Billy Kavellaris of the Australian firm KUD, is an excellent example. Located in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe, the single-story 370 square meter house initially engages visitors... View full entry
Arckit is expanding from house models into entire cities and master plans, or at least will if they meet their Kickstarter goals.The Kickstarter showcases a series of models with various components including contoured top pieces, textured walls and even transparent, glass-like modular... View full entry
Blending elements of brutalism and pronounced geometric framing, the Murray Music House designed by Carazo Arquitectura is technically a single family home, designed for two parents and three children. The fundamental concept underlying its design is "Living Through the Experimentation," which... View full entry
To snap a photo of the Hollywood sign, tourists have clogged hillside streets and hiking paths, spurring battles in Hollywood Hills neighborhoods and in court over how people should be able to access the iconic landmark.
Now Mayor Eric Garcetti has floated an alternative: Building a gondola to ferry visitors to the beloved sign.
— The Los Angeles Times
Instead of having to evade trespassing laws (or take the long way around), those who want to visit the Hollywood sign up close may be able to simply take an aerial gondola lift if Mayor Eric Garcetti's recent remarks become a reality. As this article notes:Garcetti spokesman George Kivork said in... View full entry
Imagine combining the movable gangway employed for airplane passengers with the slender above-ground urban footprint of a subway station, and you have the basic concepts behind Gensler and Dror's proposed underground cruise operation in their masterplan for the Galataport in Istanbul. Using a... View full entry
While the gapahuk (which in Norwegian means "a simple wooden structure with two or three walls and a roof") is not new, Snohetta's conceptualization of it as a multi-terrain, potentially solar-panelled off-the-grid insta-cabin is. The gapahuk has a purposefully tight layout to make it easy to... View full entry
Even in this relentlessly vertical city, famous for walkways that feel like aerial labyrinths, you can’t levitate forever. Where the mountain rises up faster than the towers, you bump into a hillside and come back to earth. In Hong Kong, the ground is everywhere. — Places Journal
The terrain that weaves between streets, through public spaces, and beneath buildings in Hong Kong reminds observers of the tenuous relation between the city and its geology. Karl Kullmann photographs these zones of contact between the multilevel metropolis and the mountain, reflecting on the... View full entry
“How do you live with all that cement,” my schoolmates would ask. “With delight” was the only answer. They understood once they visited. — The New York Times
Part childhood memoir, part ode to brutalism itself, this piece by Blake Gopnik touches on his experiences living in Habitat 67 while celebrating the return of a form that many openly reviled for decades, but have now gradually come to like, even treasure. (Of course, not all is well for brutalist... View full entry
