The design is relatively straightforward and free of OMA’s usual quirky structural tricks, once you get past the sliding entrance portals. Plywood-lined steps...lead you to an educational area, where visitors can explore the Garage digital archive, and back down the terraced levels of a bookshop. Up on the main gallery floor, there’s a big open space, currently filled with ping-pong antics...When the building is finally completed in [Sept.], a big red staircase will lead up to an open roof-deck. — The Guardian
The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art opened this week in Moscow. Described by Rem Koolhaas as "not restoring the building, but preserving its decay," the OMA-helmed intervention comprised sheathing a Soviet-era restaurant in a polycarbonate skin. Funded by Dasha Zhukova, the museum is... View full entry
The site is located in Kaesong, the old imperial capital of medieval Korea, now a small industrial city located in North Korea, just north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). [...]
“There were wars of nerves between South and North scholars due to differences in methodologies, but we were in a same boat on the achievement of this excavation.”
— qz.com
Neighbors haven't quite wrapped their heads around what's going on at 402 Ashland Ave., where aluminum foil covers every inch of a house on three sides and dangles like silver earrings from trees...They've asked resident [and artist] Piotr Janowski...He explains that it's an outdoor art project, inspired by Florida's beauty. Code enforcement is still trying to determine if the project is violating any ordinances... — Tampa Bay Times
Janowski tells the Tamba Bay Times: "This is art. In their thick, bureaucratic books, I'm sure they have nothing against this."Oh, Florida. Maybe this artist could give Janowski a few tips, but hey, to each their own.More:Protective wrap covers historical structures near French FireMiami's SkyRise... View full entry
Next September, the historic Neutra Institute and Museum in Silverlake will host a new play by Tom Lazarus entitled ‘The Princes of Kings Road.’ Based on a true events, the production imagines a reunion between the two iconic figures of LA modernism, Rudolf Schindler and Richard Neutra.The... View full entry
A diverse alliance of communities — including Los Angeles County's third-largest city — is fighting California's long-planned bullet train route into the heart of the San Fernando Valley, saying it would bring irreparable harm... The coalition of communities is demanding that only routes that are predominantly underground should be considered.
The growing resistance is coming in part from urban, working-class neighborhoods that are portraying the surface route as an environmental injustice.
— LA Times
In short, the bullet train faces opposition from basically every direction. One proposed route, which would include several above-ground stretches, worries residents of the town of San Fernando – because it would basically cleave the city in two, wiping out a significant chunk of the downtown... View full entry
On September 2, 1666, a fire began in a bakery on Pudding Lane in London. By the next day, the flames had fanned out north and west, engulfing much of the city’s medieval center. The fire, later knowns as the Great Fire of London, destroyed much of the old cathedral of St. Paul as well as the... View full entry
Dasha Zhukova’s Garage Museum for Contemporary Art is due to open the doors of its new $27m home in Gorky Park to invited guests on 10 June and the public two days later. The museum is housed in a Soviet-era pavilion that has been converted by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas [...].
In another riff on the building’s architecture, Garage will be hosting a conference in October on Soviet Modernism, a project of the Austrian curator Georg Schöllhammer [...].
— The Art Newspaper
To learn more about Garage's new Gorky Park building, click here.Previously on Archinect:Rem Koolhaas and Dasha Zhukova share what's in store for the new Garage MuseumGarage Museum Teaches an Old Building New Tricks View full entry
Different policy debates come into play throughout the game and the player is tasked with making choices that will affect the final rent – for instance build in high-cost neighborhoods, pay workers prevailing wages, expend public money to subsidize the building, or to give in and accept higher rents than desired. — chpcny.org
The rent is too damn high, but so are a lot of other development costs. In this simulation game by NYC's Citizens Housing Planning Council, players go through the steps of planning a NYC rental in the current economic climate – complete with housing shortage and gentrifying neighborhoods.After... View full entry
Today Williston—which sits atop the oil-rich Bakken shale formation—is enjoying a second life as a key player in the state's booming economy. Following several years of record population growth and real estate development, the town will soon boast one more draw: a $500 million retail mecca complete with shopping, a hotel and indoor water park. Not bad for a town of just 32,000 people. [...]
"The U.S. isn't overretailed, it's under-idea-ed"
— cnbc.com
We discuss the decline and (perhaps inevitable) death of the American shopping mall on episode #32 of Archinect Sessions, "For in that death of malls, what dreams may come?"More info and recent news on dead malls:Dead Malls and Shopping DinosaursDead-malls and the return of Main StreetDebating the... View full entry
“This isn’t your grandfather’s Wall Street.” — Bloomberg Business
According to a statement issued on Tuesday, the design of Two World Trade Center, which was formerly the province of Foster + Partners, is now being handled by Bjarke Ingels' firm BIG and will likely house employees of both 21st Century Fox and News Corp. The media organizations inked a... View full entry
As rural Japan battles the twin afflictions of a population that is getting smaller almost as quickly as it’s getting older, Kamiyama is one of a handful of towns that is bucking the trend. It’s practicing 'creative depopulation' — trying to make sure it gets younger and more innovative, even as it shrinks, by attracting youthful newcomers who are weary of big-city life to work in new rural industries. — The Washington Post
More:Find your ideal neighborhood with this new 'Livability Index' online toolRevisiting Sharon Zukin's "Loft Living" and NYC gentrificationRenzo Piano: the future of European architecture lies in the suburbsDesigning for Seniors and Soldiers, Toward a "Silver" Architecture View full entry
Verizon, the US’s largest wireless telecom company, is developing technology with Nasa to direct and monitor America’s growing fleet of civilian and commercial drones from its network of phone towers.
According to documents obtained by the Guardian, Verizon signed an agreement last year with Nasa “to jointly explore whether cell towers … could support communications and surveillance of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) at low altitudes”.
— The Guardian
Currently, the Federal Aviation Authority doesn't have recourse to adequate resources or personnel to monitor rapidly-increasing drone traffic. Nasa's new unmanned aircraft traffic management system hopes to be able to enable "safe low-altitude drone flights" soon. By partnering with Verizon, they... View full entry
...The Collectivity Project is about more than just play. Eliasson conceived of the project as a way to bring people together and allow them to create a utopian society, if only in miniature form. The idea, which is up until September 30, is at home at the 10th Avenue and West 30th Street section of the High Line, where the sounds of construction buzz in the background. — Art Net
The project, which has previously had iterations in Norway and Albania, comprises a station set up on the High Line with piles of white lego pieces. The public is invited to collaborate on creating a miniature city. To kick off the fun, the High Line invited ten of the city's best-known firms –... View full entry
As we move through our cities each day, we make dozens of small decisions, based on dozens of small reasons. [...]
The choices we make while navigating cities are influenced by subconscious factors that planners, architects and designers are beginning to mine and leverage. Some are wielding that insider knowledge to create places that will play mind tricks — to get us to make healthier decisions.
— NextCity
More homeless people in Los Angeles are leaving Skid Row for other more visible areas of the city, such as parks and near freeways. [...]
Some of the increased visibility is the result of lawsuits. Until the city can supply more affordable housing, the homeless can legally camp on sidewalks from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. [...]
Marketplace reports that advocates say they’ve seen a rise in middle-aged homeless people, some victims of recession-era job loss.
— nextcity.org
