Chicago-based curator and writer Yesomi Umolu has been appointed as the artistic director of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial, which will make its return on September 19, 2019 through January 5, 2020. After evaluating candidates from around the world and from various disciplines, the CAB... View full entry
The 2018 Pritzker Prize will be announced tomorrow, on Wednesday, March 7th at 10 AM EST. Speculation surrounding who will take architecture's top honor this year has been going on for some time, with discussions quite active in our forum and elsewhere. After last year's stunner, in which... View full entry
[...] historians were dumbstruck last week when Chase announced plans to demolish the 52-story glass-curtain-wall skyscraper, which opened in 1961, and replace it with an even bigger structure.
The news prompted two immediate responses. The first was an outcry by preservationists. That part was predictable; what is surprising this time around was their wistful sense of resignation.
News of the Union Carbide building's demolition a little over a week ago has incited commotion, yet there is a level of resignation to many of the outcries. Jeffrey Lieber takes a deeper look into why this relinquishment may exist around the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill skyscraper. The... View full entry
Taking his inspiration from a Chestnut Street shoe store designed by architectural pioneers Oskar Stonorov and Louis Kahn, Martin produced a diaphanous glass jewel box, two stories tall and 35 feet wide. Large shop windows separated by the thinnest possible aluminum strips offered passersby views of the library’s bookshelves and clusters of comfortable reading chairs. — philly.com
Sydney E. Martin's Mercantile Library was awarded the gold medal in 1954 by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Inspired by modern retail buildings, Martin designed the library with a transparent glass facade to display the books as merchandise. This innovative design is hailed as one of... View full entry
Princeton University School of Architecture announced today that Sylvia Lavin will be joining their faculty effective July 1, 2018. Lavin is currently a Professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA, where she was Chairperson from 1996 to 2006 and the Director of the... View full entry
With the 2018 Venice Biennale only two months away, curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara and Biennale president Paolo Baratta revealed the latest details about the exhibition during a press conference today. The 2018 theme “Freespace” presents “a generosity of spirit and a sense... View full entry
[...] according to a U.K. government press release published Thursday, the site will become a formal memorial to the fire’s victims.
The announcement of the plan—which could also see the nearby Latimer Road Tube station renamed to Grenfell—strikes the right note so far, making it clear that residents of the West London housing project will get the deciding say on any kind of memorial that happens on the tower’s site.
— citylab.com
While the memorial signals a commitment to remembrance and honoring the victims, the article points out the shortcomings in the official response, the display of incompetence, the ongoing hardship for Grenfell Tower's former residents, and the still looming fire hazard of countless other... View full entry
Dominique Coulon & Associés, based in the east of France, is famous for its masterful use of color. The firm recently completed a sports hall, a performing arts center, and a media library all in France. Check out these stunning public projects below: 'Human Rights' Sports Center, located... View full entry
In their latest effort to advance diversity and equity in the architecture profession, today the AIA and the National Girls Collaborative announced their new partnership to create new pathways for girls to achieve educational goals that will prepare them for future careers in the architecture and... View full entry
Some treats should really go into an art gallery instead of your mouth.
Like these Brutalist-inspired delights by Danish designer and goldsmith Kia Utzon-Frank, which look like they've been chipped from the side of a concrete skyscraper.
— Mashable
If cold concrete surfaces AND sweet treats happen to be your kinda thang, then this is for you: London-based Danish designer/goldsmith Kia Utzon-Frank has developed her native country's flødeboller desserts in a béton brut look and now also offers masterclasses on how to make them... View full entry
French firm LAN (Local Architecture Network) won the competition of restructuring the iconic Grand Palais back in 2014. Updates have been released on the firm's plans for this historic Paris venue, a space which was built in 1900 for the World's Fair. Grand Palais, Mediation space simulation... View full entry
NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre offered schools his organization’s “free” support and guidance to protect themselves, saying that communities “must come together to implement the very best strategy to harden their schools.” President Donald Trump echoed the sentiment Thursday saying, “We have to harden our sites” to protect schools from gun violence [...] it’s worth revisiting exactly what the NRA means when it calls for measures to “harden” a school. — motherjones.com
Here are a few architectural elements and design features the NRA recommends from its 2013 task force report for "hardening" schools. A big fenceNo treesNo parking lotsEntrapment areasNo windowsA door stopJoin the discussion asking: "Where are the designers, architects, and engineers in the... View full entry
Forensic Architecture [...] is an agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London. The organisation’s founder and director is Eyal Weizman, a British-Israeli architect. Its primary mission is research, to “develop evidentiary systems in relation to specific cases”; in so doing, it acts as “an architectural detective agency”, working with NGOs and human rights lawyers to uncover facts that confound the stories told by police, military, states and corporations. — The Guardian
Weizman conceives of his work as an alternative practice, aiming to create a sub-discipline of architecture using architectural evidence in cases of war crimes or other human rights violations. Calling their activity "counter-forensics", the organization does not take commissions from... View full entry
The Hammer Museum, housing Los Angeles' 3rd largest collection of artistic innovation, has announced a public launch of a $180 million capital campaign in their multiyear expansion plan. A masterplan to improve every facet of the museum has been underway since 2000 lead by Michael Maltzan... View full entry
For architects, the challenge is balancing the need for additional security with design principles that foster a more nurturing educational environment for students. As architect Jim French explained, designers could apply the design methods used to keep prisons secure to schools, but that would hamper the experience for children. — MarketWatch
Following the recent school shooting in Parkland, Fla. Jacob Passy reviews some of the ways that the design of schools is changing to address safety concerns. Interestingly, at last night's CNN Town Hall Gun Debate, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel argued there are three things we need to do in... View full entry