A major frustration across architecture and urban design professions is the Tower of Babel problem – translating data from a host of different resources into a coherent platform for designing and planning. In particular, learning how to wield geographic data is an essential part of any urban... View full entry
Positioning itself as a neighborhood green space and cultural gateway, Walker Art Center will add a new glass-walled entrance pavilion, groves of trees and acres of new grass as part of a $75 million project to be announced Tuesday. — Star Tribune
Since opening the doors of its original William Pereira buildings in 1965, the Los Angele County Museum of Art has grown along with its home. The version of the city beloved by Reyner Banham and Pereira was alive then on the historic Miracle Mile, proselytizing megasized car-infrastructure and New... View full entry
Earlier today, the Serpentine Galleries in London released the first images of the 2015 Serpentine Pavilion, designed by the Spanish firm of SelgasCano headed by José Selgas and Lucía Cano. In keeping with the criteria of the annual program, this will be the first UK project by the... View full entry
Bonus: BoozeTown, the Crazy-Ass Town of Drunks — io9
It is still up for debate, but I will say real estate ownership might be abolished and become irrelevant. View full entry
Proponents of the Underline bicycle route and linear park that would replace the threadbare M-Path under the Metrorail tracks from Dadeland to the Miami River have picked the co-designer of the wildly popular elevated High Line in Manhattan to draw up a master plan for their idea.
James Corner Field Operations was selected by a local jury from among 19 architectural teams that submitted entries in a competition.
— Miami Herald
When construction’s done in 2016, Teachers Village will consist of eight, low-rise buildings housing three charter schools and a daycare facility, 65,000 square feet of retail, and 205 residential units designed by the world-renowned Richard Meier, Newark’s native son and architect of the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art in Spain. — Politico
One lucky soul will get to enjoy an unforgettable night in one of Oslo's most iconic destinations later this month: the topmost floor of the JDS-designed Holmenkollen ski jump will be turned into a cozy, fully furnished Airbnb penthouse for the winner of a recent online contest.From the contest... View full entry
An amazing cache of 142 "behind the scenes" photos from the model shop of the 1982 classic sci-fi flick "Blade Runner" are now available on imgur. A huge h/t to Boing Boing, where we first came across these photos.Perhaps they're coming to light now as promo for the (official) Blade Runner... View full entry
German-based graphic designer Matthias Jung creates imaginative houses, that we'd like to encounter in real life. He calls his creations 'architectural short poems', that aim to visualize another perspective on how we could see the world and live in it. The homes are put together from photo material that he collects and re-arranges in unexpected ways. — ignant.de
They used computer modeling to design a pair of buildings, one of which works like a gigantic, curved mirror. The glass surface of the northernmost building reflects light down into the shadow cast by its southern partner. And the carefully defined curve of that glass allows the reflected light to follow the shadow throughout the day. — wired.com
It's a special building because it lives, grows, breathes and changes over time. Its terraces are dotted with 150 tall trees which together with 50 plants in the court produce about 150,000 liters per hour of oxygen, at night absorbing about 200,000 liters of carbon dioxide per hour. Also slashing particulate matter caused by cars, protecting from noise, following the natural cycle of the seasons, growing day by day, creating an ideal microclimate. — Divisare
^ Translated from Italian. Check the source for more photos. View full entry
Developer Jason Illoulian of Faring Capital is the new owner of the land under the restaurant and its 43 parking spaces ... his plan: To build a “community of shops” where the parking lot now stands. [...]
“It’s such a beautiful building and that sign is just like fucking awesome,” he says.
Will there be room in this new village for an $11.99 steak dinner? “We’re hoping to keep it as a 24- hour diner,” says Illoulian of the restaurant space. “Whether it’s Norms or somebody else.”
— lamag.com
This upcoming Thursday, the Cultural Heritage Commission will decide whether the La Cienega Norms that faced imminent demolition back in January will be given monument status. Meanwhile, development plans for the site are chugging along. Developer Jason Illoulian, who purchased the site back in... View full entry
We are in the midst of another industrial revolution – softer, less obtrusive, faster, and more pervasive. All aspects of daily life are changing through the integration of things made of atoms and things made from bits. Surrounded by an increasing number of sophisticated devices, digital heartbeats, and sensors are now standard components in products. How should architecture education respond? — Center for Design Research at Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies
Advances in digital technology are creating an explosion of possibilities related to the basic building blocks of design: material and form, light, movement, and pattern. Virginia Tech student work featuring 3-D printing, robotics, and dynamic fenestration is currently on display in Clark... View full entry
Disney sent that article to his friends in New York City who were, at that time, helping build the New York World’s Fair, and they read the introduction and they came to Los Angeles a month later and they knocked on the door, and I opened the door and they said, “Mr. Bradbury, shall we tell you why we are here?”
I said, “Why?”
“We are here to give you a fifty-million-dollar building.” I said, “What!? Come in, come in!”
— the Paris Review
This essay appears in Ray Bradbury: The Last Interview and Other Conversations, out this month. Reprinted with permission of Melville House.Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) is the author of twenty-seven novels, including Fahrenheit 451and The Martian Chronicles, and more than six hundred short... View full entry