Copenhagen is the rare city that can have an amusement park at its center, complete with anatopic pagodas, paper mâché mountains and wooden rollercoasters, and still be known as a world class destination for tasteful architecture and design. Tivoli Gardens has seen the city modernize around it... View full entry
A sea of canary yellow office pods is taking shape on a dusty lot off of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. There, Spanish architects Selgascano and global co-working platform Second Home are busy finishing out the group’s new 90,000-square-foot Hollywood outpost, a mesmerizing construction site... View full entry
Join us in celebrating the launch of Single-Handedly: Contemporary Architects Draw by Hand, the latest book by Nalina Moses published by the Princeton Architectural Press. The event will be held at the A+D Museum, with copies of the book sold at Archinect Outpost, on Saturday, June 29th, from... View full entry
It’s because I love my Los Angeles full of texture and a little untamed that I worry in these days of rapid displacement and rampant development.
One of the first things I noticed as the rents in my Hollywood neighborhood went up was that the fluttering silk flags and drawings on torn cardboard and other random street art projects that often would appear overnight suddenly became more and more rare.
— The Los Angeles Times
How does a city maintain its identity under the pressures of global brands and developers hungry for real estate? Though Los Angeles is a city known for destroying its recent past for the elusive present, there are only so many buildings and details this city can turn over before it's a different... View full entry
The head of the Serpentine Galleries has resigned after the Guardian revealed she is the co-owner of an Israeli cyberweapons company whose software has allegedly been used by authoritarian regimes to spy on dissidents.
On Tuesday, Yana Peel announced she was stepping down as the chief executive of the prestigious London art gallery so the work of the Serpentine would not be undermined by what she called “misguided personal attacks on me and my family”.
— The Guardian
Announcing her unexpected departure from the Serpentine Galleries in a statement, Yana Peel said, “I have decided I am better able to continue my work in supporting the arts, the advancement of human rights, and freedom of expression by moving away from my current role.” Peel added, “The... View full entry
In the face of increasingly destructive climate collapse, the University of Pennsylvania's McHarg Center for Urban Ecology is launching Design with Nature Now, a sprawling survey of some of the most inventive ecologically-driven landscape infrastructure projects from around the... View full entry
Under a plan announced last week by Mayor Anne Hidalgo, thickets of trees will soon appear in what today are pockets of concrete next to landmark locations, including the Hôtel de Ville, Paris’s city hall; the Opera Garnier, Paris’s main opera house; the Gare de Lyon; and along the Seine quayside. — citylab.com
"Islands of freshness" are on the way to Paris, according to a recently-unveiled plan by mayor Anne Hidalgo. The environmentally-aggressive mayor is aiming to have 50 percent of the city's land area taken up by permeable surfaces and planted areas, Citylab reports, and so, she is turning spaces... View full entry
Though the majority of the over 37,000 McDonald's outlets around the world hardly rise to the definition of "architecture," the company is no stranger to spectacular design: some of its first locations, built throughout the Midwest as early as 1955, were remarkable demonstrations of... View full entry
The Architecture Lobby (TAL) has put forth a set of guiding principles for architects to follow as debate over a potential Green New Deal takes shape across the industry. According to a recently-published memo, TAL is pursuing a four-pronged approach for envisioning how architects can... View full entry
[W]hen will Los Angeles International Airport resurrect its own iconic, underused, transportation-adjacent architectural wonder?
Maybe soon.
As the airport advances on a major expansion and modernization, including a new people-mover train scheduled to open in 2023, Los Angeles World Airports officials are looking for ways to bring a hotel into the core area that includes the Theme Building.
— The Los Angeles Times
Since its completion in 1961, the Theme Building has greeted visitors to Los Angeles with its uniquely space-age, mid-century design from the center of the Los Angeles Airport. The Pereira & Luckman-designed building has taken on a lot of functions in its 58 year history (including a few... View full entry
Ishigami’s structure is a striking object, but it could have been so much better, and it is a frustrating outcome in what has been a troubled year for the Serpentine. [...] After almost 20 years of commissioning novelty structures to host summer parties for sponsors, it feels like the format could do with a rethink and look beyond the bounds of the gallery’s garden, and the collectors’ estates where the structures end up. — Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian
A few days before the opening of the 2019 Serpentine Pavilion, Oliver Wainwright of The Guardian wrote a piece calling for the Serpentine Galleries to consider rethinking the format of the yearly Serpentine Pavilion program (like appointing the architects earlier, for starters). It's been a rough... View full entry
Polymath designer Virgil Abloh's 12 Figures of Speech exhibition has opened at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition was designed by Samir Bantal, director of AMO, the research and design arm of Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). A screen-printed temple front. Image by... View full entry
Municipalities, in the interest of preserving open space, could once be counted on to take over troubled courses. But subsidizing golf has become a toxic political issue in most places. — chicagobusiness.com
Are the days of America's golf clubs numbered? Reading the news, it doesn't look too good. A recent Crain's report chronicling the ailing state of suburban Chicago golf clubs points out that while business was booming for the region's country clubs just a decade ago, the game has fallen flat in... View full entry
As part of a recently-opened exhibition envisioning the future of Paris's urban highway system, a team led by Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA) has unveiled a dramatic, two-pronged vision for what the city's Boulevard Périphérique might look like in 2050. Ratti, working with research... View full entry
Many baby boomers poured millions into these spacious homes, planning to live out their golden years in houses with all the bells and whistles.
Now, many boomers are discovering that these large, high-maintenance houses no longer fit their needs as they grow older, but younger people aren’t buying them.
— wsj.com
The Wall Street Journal reports that wealthy baby boomers in America's far-flung retirement suburbs are having trouble selling their McMansions. The problem? The homes are too big, too expensive, and too far away from everything else. Another issue: Too many multi-million dollar homes are... View full entry
