John LaPlante, a longtime city employee who served as the first commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, died Saturday at 80 after testing positive for the novel coronavirus less than two weeks earlier.
The son of a Cook County judge and the head librarian for the Chicago Public Schools, Mr. LaPlante was a “municipally minded” Roseland native who cared deeply about his city and its government, according to his daughter Leslie.
— Chicago Sun-Times
LaPlante worked for the City of Chicago for over 30 years, starting as an intern in the 1960s for what was then the city’s department of public works. He served as chief traffic engineer in the 1980s and as the city’s Transportation Commissioner in 1992. John LaPlante. Image courtesy of... View full entry
Across the country, as the spread of the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow, cities and states are quickly putting vacant or underutilized buildings to use as makeshift medical facilities. Last week, Archinect reported that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was working to converting... View full entry
OMA was commissioned by Australian retail developer Sandhurst Retail to design the mixed-use Wollert Neighborhood Center in the suburb of Wollert, which is about 25 kilometers (about 15.5 miles) north of Melbourne's Central Business District and is one of the fastest growing regions in the state... View full entry
During the global COVID-19 crisis, while most of us are housebound, filmmaker Gary Hustwit is releasing his collection of full-length documentaries online, for free. It appears that they will be released sequentially, starting with his first doc Helvetica, until March 24th, with the rest of his... View full entry
The recent recipients of the 2020 Pritzker Prize, Grafton Architects, have been chosen by the University of Arkansas to partner with Modus Studio to design the Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation. Founders Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara are... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has sent a letter to congress asking for aid to small businesses in response to the economic crash resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. A press release from the AIA highlights that AIA 2020 President Jane Frederick, FAIA, and AIA EVP/Chief... View full entry
With news of COVID-19 affecting individuals across the globe, hospitals and medical clinics are experiencing a shortage in supplies such as ventilators, respirators, and personal protective equipment (PPE). However, as news of the virus spreads, design professionals are banning together with... 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 profiles.)... View full entry
Global architecture firm Henning Larsen's concept has been selected as the winning design in the international competition for the redevelopment of Cockle Bay Park in central Sydney. Coming in at 73,000 square meters, the project includes 63,000 square meters of tower program that sits upon a... View full entry
Architect and educator Blaine Brownell has been named as the new director of the School of Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s College of Arts + Architecture. Brownell is currently a professor and interim head of the University of... View full entry
Light, air, and hygiene [...] were the best treatment for tuberculosis at the time.
The design and construction of specialized sanatoria coincided with the advent of Modernism. Architectural elements like flat roofs, terraces and balconies, and white- or light-painted rooms spread across Europe. Not unlike the sanatorium, the new architecture was intended to cure the perceived physical, nervous, and moral ailments brought on by crowded cities.
— CityLab
The collective desire to cure and prevent the seemingly unstoppable tuberculosis epidemic through deliberate design choices had given tremendous momentum to a revolutionary movement in our fairly recent architectural past: Modernism. Staircase inside Alvar Aalto's Paimio Sanatorium. Photo courtesy... View full entry
The American Academy in Rome (AAR) has announced that it will be shutting down its campus in Rome in response to the novel coronavirus-19 epidemic. In a letter published to the AAR website, Mark Robbins,AAR President and CEO, writes, “In consideration of the safety of those residing in... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has published its latest Architecture Billings Index (ABI) report, highlighting the healthy demand for design services on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic. Generally speaking, February's ABI numbers paint a rosy picture for the industry. This, of... View full entry
In 2019, Hangzhou-based One Take Architects completed the Mandala Pop-up Digital Art Museum, which was a temporary structure showcasing an immersive multi-media exhibition inspired by the Himalayan landscape and arts and culture. The architects envisioned the pop-up museum as a utopian, isolated... View full entry
In the latest turn of events in the ongoing saga over the future of the School of Architecture at Taliesin (SoAT), the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the group that owns and maintains the buildings used by SoAT, has announced that it will "allow its agreement with the School of Architecture to... View full entry
