WindowSwap, a new website created by husband and wife duo Sonali Ranjit and Vaishnav Balasubramaniam, two Singapore-based creatives, allows users to look through the windows of people across the globe. According to The Stable, Ranjit said of the project: Screenshot via window-swap.com. View... View full entry
Canada is offering homegrown softwood lumber and steel to help with the reconstruction of Paris’s famed Notre Dame Cathedral, which was partially destroyed by fire in mid-April.
In a letter sent to French President Emmanuel Macron this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was proud to support France in the reconstruction of the iconic monument.
— Global News
According to Global News, the Canadian Steel Producers Association and the Forest Products Association of Canada have already indicated their support for the Canadian government's initiative. View full entry
In a joint statement from the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Chapter (AIALA) and the Southern California Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (SoCal NOMA), a new tool to expand inclusion has been announced: the SoCal NOMA Diversity Equity and Inclusivity... View full entry
With the launch of the Reimagining Brooklyn Bridge competition earlier this year, the Van Alen Institute and New York City Council aimed to create an international open call for architects and designers to "rethink" how New York's iconic Brooklyn Bridge walkway could look in the future. The... View full entry
The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have agreed to rescind a policy that would bar international students taking online-only courses from residing in the United States, federal judge Allison D. Burroughs announced at a hearing on Tuesday.
ICE will revert back to the guidance it issued in March that allows students taking online courses to reside in the United States on F-1 visas.
— The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson reports that Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, and hundreds of other higher education institutions have successfully beaten back a draconian initiative proposed by the United States Department of Homeland Security that... View full entry
The University of Michigan Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning has announced the 11 winning grantees of the school's Spatializing Digital Pedagogies grant initiative. The awards represent an effort on the part of the school to "help develop a teaching framework for the fall... View full entry
President Emmanuel Macron of France on Thursday dropped the unpopular idea of building a modern spire atop a restored Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, a possibility he had floated after a devastating fire sent the previous spire crashing through the roof. [...]
But the idea of a modern spire never caught on with critics or with public opinion, and Mr. Macron never committed to it.
— The New York Times
French President Macron's decision to let go of his long-championed vision of a contemporary spire for the fire-damaged Gothic cathedral comes one year after the French senate passed a bill approving the government's restoration plan under the condition that Notre Dame be restored to its "last... View full entry
The Architectural Association (AA) in London has announced that it has terminated the employment of its Director Eva Franch i Gilabert due to Gilabert's "failure to develop and implement a strategy and maintain the confidence of the AA School Community which were specific failures of performance... View full entry
Conceptual artist JB Daniel wants to transform a Chicago landfill site near the Calumet River into a sculpture park to house all of the toppled monuments from recent protests, reports The Art Newspaper. The artist proposes the statues be installed in their topped states with their... View full entry
Officials in Downtown Los Angeles are moving to cancel building permits for a $700 million mixed-use development embroiled in a sprawling federal corruption investigation working its way through the city government's highest levels. In June, Los Angeles City Planning Director Vince Bertoni... View full entry
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree Friday ordering Hagia Sophia to be opened for Muslim prayers, an action likely to provoke international furor around a World Heritage Site cherished by Christians and Muslims alike for its religious significance, stunning structure and as a symbol of conquest. — The New York Times
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan followed through on his plan today to convert Istanbul's famed Hagia Sophia, a Unesco world heritage site, into a mosque. The presidential decree was issued within minutes after Turkey’s administrative court revoked the museum status that the... View full entry
Last week, President Donald Trump's unveiled the Executive Order on Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes, a measure that sets out to create a new "National Garden of American Heroes" to be filled with statues depicting "historically significant Americans. ... View full entry
New York City-based Terreform and Chicago community development nonprofit Blacks in Green are planning to moving ahead with the BIG Green Homestead project, a development that will bring community-owned sustainable housing and commercial spaces to the city's South Side. The project... View full entry
Virgil Abloh announced today that he has raised $1 million to support Black students through the Virgil Abloh™️ "Post-Modern" Scholarship Fund. This new offering will be managed in partnership with the Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF), a fashion-oriented education and workforce... View full entry
Southwark council declared that its New Architect Design Services Framework was a “first-of-a-kind” attempt to engage with a new generation of diverse designers. As councillor Leo Pollak put it: “It is the framework some architects have been waiting for all their years.”
It turns out that black architects will have to wait even longer.
— The Guardian
Writing in The Guardian, architecture critic Oliver Wainwright highlights the long-standing barriers Black and other minority architects in the UK face with regards to attaining public building contracts. Wainwright finds that while the 2010 Equality Act compels localities to improve how... View full entry