As much as any single new building downtown, the tower dubbed the Avery embodies the grand, often clashing ambitions of today’s San Francisco. — The San Francisco Chronicle
John King, urban design critic for The San Francisco Chronicle, has weighed in on the recently-completed Avery tower complex, a 55-story high-rise block designed by Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) for the city's bustling Transbay neighborhood. King writes, "What sets the Avery... View full entry
"People know Mosul's Old City by its riverfront - it has some of the city's most important historic features," Fethi added, referring to the city's old wall, the citadel, palaces and other heritage sites along the Tigris' west bank.
"It [the council] should aim to preserve Mosul's heritage rather than turn [it] into another Dubai ... an absolute anathema to what should be done."
— Al Jazeera
Two years after Iraqi forces regained full control of Mosul from ISIL, local authorities are pushing a proposal to transform historic neighborhoods along the west bank of the Tigris river into a modernized “new city”, with high rises, large supermarkets and restaurant chains. Al Jazeera... View full entry
...an approach known as bioclimatic design: using the environment around a building to passively manage the temperature and light inside, rather than mechanically heat and cool a space. Structures designed that way are energy efficient, which leaves them with a smaller carbon footprint. — The Daily Beast
Cities across the U.S. are experiencing heat waves. However, designing cities and structures for hot climates is nothing new. Early architects have developed design solutions for regulating temperatures. Yet, with this progression, a reliance has grown towards cooling systems like air conditioners... 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
New York native Maurice Cox is stepping down from his role this fall as Detroit's planning director. He's expected to take on a role as the top planning executive for the City of Chicago, a city official confirmed. — detroitnews.com
After four years at the helm of Detroit's planning department, Maurice Cox is headed to Chicago to serve as the city's top planning executive under the Windy City's new mayor, Lori Lightfoot. A Brooklyn native, Cox is an architectural designer, educator, and former mayor of Charlottesville... View full entry
Norma Merrick Sklarek, a pioneering 20th century architect, has been posthumously awarded the 2019 AIA|LA Gold Medal by the American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles chapter. Born in 1926 in Harlem, New York City, Sklarek learned carpentry skills from her father during the Great... View full entry
This all makes what is happening now all the more remarkable. Last summer, Ford Motor Company announced it had bought the building, with plans to invest $740million to transform it into a world-leading research centre for ‘future mobility’. The very industry that signed the station’s death warrant in the first place is now set on resuscitating it as a beacon of sustainable transport. — The RIBA Journal
Oliver Wainwright pens a piece on the upcoming renovation of the Michigan Central Station, which was a celebrated icon of Detroit when it first opened in 1913. After the station closed in 1988 and was abandoned, it became the epitome of the city's ruin porn. After buying the building last summer... View full entry
As a result of reduced tax revenue from the 2017 corporate tax cuts enacted by President Donald Trump, the development of at least 15,000 affordable housing units has been either delayed or eliminated entirely, The Sacramento Bee reports. The reason? A significant portion of affordable... View full entry
Commissioned by Princeton University, this project is simple in form but sophisticated in function. It involves an “open source building” to host research on the future of construction and computation. Just as biologists use an electron microscope to study organisms, architects will use this structure to study buildings. — The Living
The idea of algorithms designing buildings may sound exciting to some and concerning to others. However, after decades of attempts at harnessing this process, companies like The Living may have cracked the system to automatically generating building designs. The New York-based research studio... View full entry
From managing job sites to working with contractors, construction managers and administrators play a key role in seeing a project into fruition. Are you an individual well versed in code compliance, managing construction documents, and contractor submittals? Can you lead building sites in and out... View full entry
Municipal laws in New York City are hampering the city's real estate developers and building owners as they look to embrace the use of drones to perform periodic building and facade inspections on their properties, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. In New York City... View full entry
Some of what went wrong that night has been reported in the French news media, including Le Monde and Le Canard Enchaîné. Now, The New York Times conducted scores of interviews and reviewed hundreds of documents to reconstruct the missteps—and the battle that saved Notre-Dame in the first four critical hours after the blaze began.
What became clear is just how close the cathedral came to collapsing.
— The New York Times
A stunning visual report from The New York Times lays out a chain of events chronicling the heart-wrenching battle to save Notre-Dame cathedral as it burned uncontrollably on April 15, 2019. The article points to several key lapses in the design of the cathedral's fire safety systems... View full entry
A new housing typology will be coming to the Chicago neighborhoods of West Humboldt Park and Bronzeville, where Perkins + Will architect Greg Tamborino will bring his independently-produced, competition-winning affordable housing designs to a pair of vacant lots. Tamborino was recently announced... View full entry
The plan is the fourth pillar in a five-year philanthropic effort dubbed AI for Good, which already includes previously announced target areas centered on the earth, humanitarian action and accessibility. The $10m cultural heritage initiative will focus on finding ways to celebrate people, language, places and historic artifacts, — The Art Newspaper
Microsoft, a leader in the tech industry, has initiated a new extension to their $125M AI for Good program. The company aims to use artificial intelligence as a way to preserve cultural heritage. According to an announcement made by Microsoft President Brad Smith, "We want technology to advance... View full entry
With a certain bulb-shaped observation tower in the news again, perhaps now is a good time to revisit another seminal observation tower project: The Welton Becket and Associates-designed Reunion Tower in Dallas, Texas. Crafted as a three-story, lightbulb-studded geodesic dome hoisted atop a... View full entry
