But so far, Lucas hasn’t found a permanent home for his museum. The monumental project has brought him almost as much grief as Jar Jar Binks, the prequel creature from the planet Naboo with an oddly Jamaican accent that some found racially offensive. — Bloomberg
George Lucas' multi-year, oft-imperiled quest to find a site for his museum is chronicled in this Bloomberg article, which highlights the difficulties of using only the force of one's personality (and the promise of a "gift" of a museum to a city) to cut through local politics and bureaucracy... View full entry
While the architecture in real cities has sometimes become the jumping off point for imaginary structures in cinema (think: the Los Angeles of Blade Runner) the reverse seems to be happening in India, where a filmmaker is being asked to design real structures based on the imagined buildings that... View full entry
Whether you envisioned Hyperloop One as an overhyped pneumatic tube or an inventive way to transport cargo and/or passengers, 35 teams from 17 countries around the world have just been announced as semifinalists in the contest to create working transit corridors for the technology. The 35 proposed... View full entry
In 2015, 18 percent of all existing housing units on Long Island were multifamily. While that is less than half the percentage in New York metropolitan suburbs over all, change is apparent across the island...12,500 condominium and rental units within half a mile of train stations had been approved over the last 11 years, 7,000 of which have been built. Another 10,000 units could be approved in five to six years. — NYT
Marcelle Sussman Fischler reports in from the suburbs around New York City, where luxury, amenity-rich, mixed-used TOD is offering up an urbanized suburbia. Meanwhile in the Denver region, an innovative public-private financing tool Denver Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Fund, is attempting to... View full entry
This week, with everyone getting well and truly back to work, don't forget to fill your diary with talks, opening nights, and exhibitions to keep yourself occupied. At the very least, it will help to bring more interesting topics of conversation than the increasingly cold weather... Check... View full entry
Forget climbing stars, or even walking laterally--in the increasingly dense and rapid reality of urban life, elevators have become a major part of daily living. According to The Guardian, major elevator designers like Otis are considering re-designing the elevator to become a more comfortable and... View full entry
All across Los Angeles, buildings by the city's most important firms face preservation threats. Rejected and outmoded, can late modernism find love? — L.A. Weekly
What is the value of history in a city known for its ephemerality? (Hint: um, not much, unless everyone agrees it is pretty.) In this piece for the L.A. Weekly, Mimi Zeiger thoroughly investigates the state of late modernist structures in the City of Angels, and how likely it is that many of these... View full entry
The days of having to purchase astonishingly expensive replacement charging plugs accidentally left behind on trips, or for that matter of lugging around charging plugs in general, may be over. At this year's CES in Las Vegas, licensing company Ossia is unveiling a drop ceiling tile that purports... View full entry
The imaginary realm of architecture frequently ventures off into scales that are improbable, if not outright impossible, on the politically and gravitationally constrained Earth (think Étienne-Louis Boullée, or Lebbeus Woods). In a similar if less secular vein, Napp Studio has conceived of an... View full entry
Only one thing is certain now that Frank Gehry has undertaken the plan to revitalize the LA River: in the future, it will be different.Check out Archinect's extensive coverage of the LA River Redevelopment, including interviews with major players like Mia Lehrer via the Next Up series...This... View full entry
Situated in Carrière-Sous-Poissy in France along the River Seine, "Poissy Galore" by Armengaud Armengaud Cianchetta (AAC) and Herlach Hartmann Frommenwiler (HHF) is designed primarily as an ecological public space for both Parisian residents and far-flung visitors. Consisting of an observatory... View full entry
For as long as there have been landmarks, there have been people willing to deface them in the name of politics, art, fame or sheer stupidity. — The Guardian
From the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge to the Trevi fountain in Rome, this Guardian article explores a brief history of temporary vandalism on famous landmarks (and it's not just artfully placed tarps: try a dangling VW Beetle!). From the annals of the vandals:Detroit issues arrest for... View full entry
Partly in order to help pay for a transit fare freeze, Sadiq Khan has halted the order for the double-decker, triple-doored Thomas Heatherwick-designed "New Bus for London," which would have replaced the old fleet of Routemaster buses. Much like Heatherwick's troubled Garden Bridge proposal, the... View full entry
Did architects have sustainability figured out in the 1970s, and can the lessons they learned help contemporary architects design for the challenges of climate change? In an attempt to answer this question, Canada is taking a closer look at its previously built sustainable architecture during the... View full entry
Even before Donald Trump became president-elect, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for his name to be scrubbed from Istanbul’s Trump Towers. Erdogan pinned his plea to Trump’s Islamophobia, saying that the candidate “has no tolerance for Muslims in America.”
Now that Trump is weeks from assuming the presidency, cities that host his many branded properties have an additional concern to consider: the potential terrorism threat brought by his name.
— Washington Post
More on the President-elect:With Trump's Presidency dawning, the final Jane Jacobs work "Dark Age Ahead" wins new relevancyElaine Chao wants speedier approvals for DOT's infrastructure projectBefore Trump has even taken office, his infrastructure plan faces an uncertain futureCities should be very... View full entry