It is not a new development that scholarly priorities are, regrettably, shaped by policy priorities (and by the strategies of big business and worries of the mainstream media) and therefore it is no coincidence that an entire cottage industry on “resilient cities” has emerged at a time of global austerity — openDemocracy

Richard Meier is returning to his roots with two new developments in New Jersey, where he grew up. — The New York Times

Chicago would be turned into a Midwest version of Paris — La Ville Lumiere, the City of Light — under a mayoral plan showcased Wednesday to boost tourism by spotlighting the city’s architectural wonders. [...]

It will start with an “international design competition” that invites teams of artists, architects, engineers and designers to envision ways to light up Chicago’s “buildings, parks, roads and open spaces.” — suntimes.com

Shortly after the 2013 Unbuilt Visions competition concluded, d3 hosted the Unbuilt Visions exhibition showcasing some of the winning entries at the TSMD Turkish Architectural Center in Ankara from Jan. 7-21, 2014. — bustler.net

Vandals have smashed an ‘irreplaceable’ stained-glass window after breaking into Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp Chapel in eastern France.

The hand-painted, coloured glass window designed by the Swiss architect in the early 1950s was destroyed, it is understood, as the intruders forced entry into the famous Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut.

Once inside the vandals lifted a concrete collection box and threw it outside. — Architect's Journal

The particular danger of TEDification to the design disciplines, I think, is its core message that the chief obstacle to our discovering grand solutions to global problems — to achieving the grand design, to "making a comprehensive entity," as that reviewer of Big History applauded — is our lack of sufficient connection. What we need, we're told, is a seamless web of ideas, capital, products and data. — Places Journal

The city has dense clusters of tall towers and a mass-transit system to rival London's. Cars seem to have been banished. [...]

The sidewalks and the rail stations are crowded with people. It's as if a benevolent Robert Moses, a planning dictator with a green agenda, had taken over the political realm in Los Angeles. — latimes.com

Not long ago, these questions — of policy but also political and ethical questions — seemed to be out there on institutional tables, demanding discussion. Technically, they may be there still, but museums seem to be most interested in talking about real estate, assiduously courting oligarchs for collections, and anxiously scouting for the next “Rain Room.” Political questions, about which cultures get represented in museums and who gets to make the decisions, and how, are buried. — nytimes.com

The 21-story, three-building apartment project now rising in Portland's Lloyd District will create more long-term bike parking than any other project in the nation, with four huge new storage facilities in four buildings and an on-site bike valet parking service to serve the biggest one. [...]

Bike experts in Canada, Mexico and across the United States said they didn't know of any single project on the continent with more bike parking; Mexico's largest facility, at a train station, holds 800. — Bike Portland

Architects Bence Pap and Mario Gasser from Studio Lynn/University of Applied Arts IoA sent us their entry for the Austrian Pavilion competition for the 2015 Milan Expo.

Pap and Gasser's collaborative proposal won 4th prize in the international, two-stage open competition. — bustler.net

"Inverse Boulevard" by Kawahara Krause Architects is our first entry from Europan 12 Germany for the Mannheim competition site.

The Hamburg-based firm received a Special Mention for their proposal, which is based on creating a boulevard that will better connect Mannheim's north and south areas -- and retain their distinct personalities. — bustler.net