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
Hello 2017! Perhaps your resolution this year was to see more of London and its unique design scene? This year, with the recent additions of The Design Museum, Newport Street Gallery, and the infamous Switch House extension, means that there has never been a better time for design in this city... View full entry
“The middle class has finally come downtown but only to bring suburbia with them. The hipsters think they’re living in the real thing, but this is purely faux urbanism, a residential mall. Downtown is not the heart of the city, it’s a luxury lifestyle pod for the same people who claim Silverlake is the ‘Eastside’ or that Venice is still bohemian.” — boomcalifornia
Jennifer Wolch and Dana Cuff track down elusive writer Mike Davis for Boom California.+A previous conversation with Mike Davis for Archinect, "Meeting Mike Davis" View full entry
Entering the ruins was a disappointment. If the Mosquitia jungle were superimposed on Times Square, the foliage would be so thick that you would have no inkling you were in the midst of a city. Even standing at the base of an earthen pyramid in the central plaza of T1, surrounded by earthworks, terracing, and mounds, I had not the slightest idea that this was the main public space of what had once been a thriving city of thousands. Only through technology did we know our location in the ruins. — the New Yorker
Douglas Preston discusses exploring an ancient city left untouched in the jungles of Honduras and rediscovered with LIDAR technology. The city was abandoned around 1500, devastated not by direct contact with Europeans but rather with the diseases they carried:This inferno of contagion destroyed... View full entry
City residents and urbanists had reasons to believe Obama would usher in a new urban era. [...]
Now, as he leaves the White House, Obama’s legacy is being evaluated on many fronts, including within the realm of urban policy. In a new book called Urban Policy in the Time of Obama, academics appraise his successes and failures. CityLab spoke with the book’s editor, James DeFillippis, an associate professor in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.
— citylab.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:What does President Obama's final year in office mean for architecture?Black Lives Matter and the politics of protesting in privatized spaceTod Williams Billie Tsien Architects selected to design the Obama Presidential Center View full entry
Bye-bye 2016, your time's up. A turbulent 366 days in so many regards, this year has certainly been packed with a plethora of exciting architecture and design events happening around the world. [...]
From the hundreds of entries that went up on Bustler this past year, we have compiled the top 10 most visited event posts.
— bustler.net
Here are just some of the most visited event posts of 2016 on our sister site Bustler that also dominated the Archinect news this year:World Architecture Festival 2016Berlin, Germany - Arena BerlinNovember 16-18, 2016Related news on Archinect:Robert Konieczny/KWK Promes and Hayball among big... View full entry
From their studios, ateliers, film sets and kitchens — and even the White House — these are the people whose inventive spirits shaped the conversation this year. — nytimes.com
It certainly was an eventful career year for Alejandro Aravena (Pritzker Prize, Venice Biennale, et al.), and the ambitious Chilean's cultural footprint can be traced throughout a handful of our Archinect 2016 Year In Review posts:The top prize-winning architects of 2016How starchitect culture... View full entry
Park Plaza is a mobile home park, or what industry calls a manufactured housing community. Five years ago, the residents banded together, formed a nonprofit co-op and bought their entire neighborhood from the company that owned it. Today, these residents exert democratic control over almost 9 acres of prime suburbs, with 80 manufactured houses sited on them. — npr.org
"There are no precise figures, but the U.S. Census Bureau estimates there are more than 8 million manufactured houses across the country. Housing specialists say they're an important source of affordable housing."Related stories in the Archinect news:5 housing experts offer opinions about Ben... View full entry
At a time when pundits and political scientists were celebrating the end of history, pointing to an emerging Democratic majority and extolling the virtues of a flat world of globalization, she ominously predicted a coming age of urban crisis, mass amnesia, and populist backlash in her final work, Dark Age Ahead. Eerily prescient as always, rereading the 2005 book today serves as a survivors’ guide to the Age of Trump. — citylab.com
"Jacobs outlines an increasing distrust of politicians and politics, a burgeoning new urban crisis in cities, worsening environmental degradation, entrenched segregation, and an “enlarging gulf between rich and poor along with attrition of the middle class” as signals and symptoms of a coming... View full entry
Following the festivities of the weekend, we are now in the quiet 'in-between week' leading up to New Year's Eve. Various tours and outside events this week will help work off those roast dinners, and let you get to know this fantastic city a little bit better. Wrap up warm, and get out... View full entry
These are the articles that made big waves in 2016 – not just in traffic, but in defining the discussions architects were having. From professional practice issues to academia to interviews and showcases, we present to you our favorite original editorial of the year:One student's solution to the... View full entry
It's that time of the year – for washing away the stench of the past and basking in the sweet, slightly terrifying promise of an uncertain future. This week on the podcast, we dish out our predictions for architecture in 2017, and try to digest the year that was 2016.This is our final episode... View full entry
