In a new partnership with Sean Lally's Night White Skies podcast, we're going to be sharing new podcast episodes with our readers here on Archinect. Night White Skies addresses "architecture’s future, as both earth’s environment and our human bodies are now open for design," with recent... View full entry
In 2019, ten architects, artists, designers, and academics came together to discuss their plans for an upcoming exhibition with MoMA's curatorial team. Emanuel Admassu, Germane Barnes, Sekou Cooke, J. Yolande Daniels, Felecia Davis, Mario Gooden, Walter J... View full entry
A new landmark on the European cultural scene is now on view in Hungary. Sou Fujimoto’s House of Music has now officially opened in the country’s capital city after almost six years of construction. The 97,000-square-foot performance venue is the centerpiece of the Liget Budapest Project, a... View full entry
Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium is about to make a big splash — over the next eight years. The venerable cultural institution on Monday announced its Centennial Commitment, a $500 million transformation of the aquarium culminating in 2030, the Shedd’s 100th anniversary. — Chicago Sun Times
The eight-year project will be split into four phases and commence later this year. The first phase will cover major interior renovations, including the modernization of the original six historic galleries, enhancement of all animal habitats, the restoration of the original walls of windows, and... View full entry
A Mexican multi-millionaire is building a replica of his northern Mexico mansion to serve as a museum for his art collection, an endeavor criticized because it is funded in large part with public money. — ABC News
The millionaire in question, Mauricio Fernández Garza made his fortune selling beer and petrochemicals, which facilitated the collection of art and ancient fossils now valued at around $120 million. Garza was the three-time mayor of the tony Monterrey suburb where the house is located when plans... View full entry
The renowned Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill has passed away at the age of 82, as announced by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura. Among Bofill’s most acclaimed works were the La Muralla Roja (1973), La Fábrica (1975), and the National Theater of Catalonia (1997). La Muralla Roja by Ricardo... View full entry
Future generations of concertgoers in the Orlando area will want a ticket to commemorate the moment the city’s dynamic new $612 million performance venue makes its theatrical debut at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts this Friday. Designed by former UCLA faculty member... View full entry
It's 2022, and the state of architecture viewership continues to rely on visual images that capture and inspire. As a result, architecture and its relationship with social media have been an ongoing topic of discussion on Archinect. With that in mind, the way news and projects are being consumed... View full entry
The Musée du Louvre welcomed only 2.8 million visitors last year, less than 30% of its pre-Covid record levels when it received around ten million. The Louvre has not seen such low figures since 1986, before the opening of the glass pyramid and the Grand Louvre project which steadily boosted attendance over the past four decades. — The Art Newspaper
This level of attendance is nearly the same as the previous year, however French museums were closed for one month less in 2021 than in 2020. According to an official source at the culture ministry, general attendance at French museums dropped by 60-70% for the second year compared to pre-covid... View full entry
The Datong Art Museum has opened to the public in northern China, having recently been completed by Foster + Partners. The firm describes the new museum as a “landscaped terrain with a series of interconnected pyramids emerging from below the earth.” Image by Yang Chaoying for Foster +... View full entry
Italy’s highest administrative court has definitively barred McDonald’s from building a 10,000 sq. m outlet in the shadow of the third-century Baths of Caracalla, one of Rome’s most celebrated ancient sites. Published on 28 December, the council of state’s ruling upheld the verdict of a lower court preventing the fast food chain from using a tract of land adjacent to the baths to open a drive-through restaurant and parking area. — The Art Newspaper
The court also stated that government authorities are entitled to halt future development projects in or around other important heritage sites. As reported by The Art Newspaper, the Lazio region and the Italian culture ministry can now suspend works in not only existing heritage sites but in... View full entry
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed two bills on Tuesday to re-establish the state’s first and only Historically Black College or University (HBCU). The former Lewis College of Business is slated to reopen as the Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design in 2022. It was originally founded in Indianapolis in 1928 before relocating to Detroit in 1939 where it operated until closing in 2013. — Detroit Metro Times
This will make it the first HBCU to close and then successfully reopen. Plans for the school’s reopening were announced several months ago, however, Governor Whitmer’s signing of House Bill 5447 and 5448 has made this effort a reality. The school will operate on the College for Creative... View full entry
Early into his second term, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $10 million initiative, led by his wife, that would break the bronze ceiling by introducing seven new statues of historical women to New York City’s commemorative landscape of mostly men. It was to be one of Mr. de Blasio’s signature marks on the landscape.
Days from the end of his administration, with only $1 million dedicated, none of those sculptures has yet materialized.
— The New York Times
The failure mirrors de Blasio’s much-hyped but ultimately fruitless promise to remove some $1 billion from the police budget, which critics say was an insincere attempt to assuage the Black Lives Matter movement at a time when activists were taking to the streets nationwide to protest the... View full entry
The fate of one of the most iconic artworks in the nation’s capital has been officially resolved months after The Cultural Landscape Foundation assured that its future would be set in stone. Artist Elyn Zimmerman’s massive granite Marabar installation has found a new home... View full entry
Pursuing an architecture education is no easy feat, and with the events that took place in 2020 and 2021, there were plenty of obstacles that could dampen the goals of students around the world. Nevertheless, architecture schools learned as much as they could in 2020 to help students and faculty... View full entry
