Grassroots, place-based arts initiatives got a boost yesterday when the artist Rick Lowe was named a 2014 MacArthur Fellow. Earlier this week, I profiled Lowe’s dynamic approach to arts-driven revitalization in “Street Makeover: Artists Bring Visibility to a Low-Lit Alley.” Lowe is currently working as a multi-year resident of the Pearl Street Project, an alleyway transformation launched by Philadelphia’s Asian Arts Initiative. — nextcity.org

Historically, gay neighborhoods are spatial expressions of a specific form of oppression. If the form of oppression changes, so will the spatial expression. So we live in a moment of unprecedented societal acceptance of homosexuality, and as a result the meaning and the composition of these districts are in flux. — Vice

Discover the Villa Savoye as you've never seen it before, through the discipline of Parkour and the movements of traceurs !

"In the late 1920s, Le Corbusier created a plan for Paris," Ford says. "Its most celebrated portion was called 'Towers in the Park.' [...]

Think unremarkable, high-rise apartment buildings. Think low-income housing projects. [...]

"Many of hip-hop's most prominent artists were born, raised, and perfected their crafts in those very same housing projects. Hip-hop was a result of the economical, political, and sociological deprivations instituted by the housing projects across America." — metrotimes.com

For Scottish architects, a decision to go it alone could create longer-term opportunities for Scotland to enshrine its own architectural education and regulation system based on the protection of function. It could also boost the development of a strong, distinctively Scottish architectural culture […] Independence could well dissuade practices and architects from relocating south. — Architects' Journal

The Eisenhower Memorial Commission on Wednesday will review two approaches, including one that removes most of these elements. If that plan is selected, Gehry informed the commission, he will ask for his name to removed. — washingtonpost.com

The conceptual storefront Prada Marfa, 2005, by Elmgreen & Dragset, has a new lease on life. The Texas Department of Transportation reached an agreement last week with the foundation Ballroom Marfa to preserve the sculpture after nearly one year of negotiations. The government threatened to shut down the work because it could be considered an illegal roadside advertisement under state law. [...] the foundation plans to lease the land underneath Prada Marfa and register it as an art museum. — theartnewspaper.com

A top real estate executive from Brooklyn is proposing a high-speed sky gondola between the Brooklyn waterfront and Manhattan — a back-to-the-future form of mass transit that could ease congestion on ferries, subways and bridges.

The so-called East River Skyway would be comprised of high-speed aerial cable cars, moving New Yorkers to Manhattan in less than four minutes. The cars could accommodate more than 5,000 people per hour in both directions. — nydailynews.com

IKEA has a little known secret: the company is a non-profit. Ingvar Kamprad the founder of IKEA created the philanthropic Stichting Ingka Foundation whose mission is to “further the advancement of interior design.” IKEA’s bizarre business model looks like this: the nonprofit Stichting Ingka owns a private Dutch Company, Ingka Holdings that owns the majority of individual stores at the franchise level. — onlinemba.com

Talk show host and journalist Charlie Rose has been announced as the 2014 recipient of the esteemed Vincent Scully Prize. Established in 1999 by the National Building Museum and named after Professor Vincent Scully to honor his legacy and work, the prize recognizes exemplary practice, scholarship, or criticism in architecture, historic preservation, and urban design. — bustler.net

"And so, you know, having named my son after him, what was I going to do? Of course I said yes." — The Architect's Newspaper

it seemed perverse to us that architecture has become all about the aesthetics of a few iconic buildings whose main function is the glorification of those with the money to build them. As one prize after another celebrates the work of a selected band of world famous "starchitects", it seemed like humanity's most pressing problems are how to fold metal into the most obscure shapes, and how implausibly high a building can go. — Al Jazeera