14 years after voters approved a nearly $10 billion bond to start building the rail system that would whisk riders from Los Angeles to San Francisco at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour, many California residents have long since lost track of what is being built where, and when or if it will ever be completed.
“We’re teetering on the edge,” said Ashley Swearengin, a former mayor of Fresno who now leads the Central Valley Community Foundation. “We could get it right.”
— The New York Times
The budget for the California high-speed rail project has now swelled to more than double its originally proposed cost of $40 billion from fourteen years ago. Construction on a 31-mile segment of the project has already begun near Fresno in the Central Valley. The fight now is over... View full entry
Diébédo Francis Kéré has been awarded the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize, widely considered one of the industry's highest honors. "Francis Kéré has found brilliant, inspiring and game-changing ways to answer these questions over the last decades," said the jury citation for the award... View full entry
As we're approaching Spring time, why not consider a career update? If you're looking for architectural opportunities at globally-active practices, specialized boutique firms, or renowned academic institutions, browse the latest listings on Archinect Jobs and check out this week's featured... View full entry
This megalopolis of engineering currently lies there, pristine, unspotted by gum or pigeon, with its 319-tonne trains gliding quietly through every few minutes, empty, so that those operating the system can familiarise themselves with the choreography of all that heavy metal. Electronic indicator boards announce their coming with white digits, a notch classier than the orange ones on the old tube. — The Guardian
Moore described the nearly empty £18.33 billion ($23.84 billion) project as an “alternative universe” before likening the transition between the new Elizabeth line and older Central Underground to a scene from (attempted architecture critic) Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The... View full entry
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine presses on into its fourth week, volunteers and cultural workers, a number of whom are also at arms, are rushing to erect makeshift barriers and other forms of protection against what could be a demoralizing strike against heritage sites across the embattled... View full entry
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced plans to set aside $200 million for the new Focused Attraction of Shovel-Ready Tracts New York (FAST NY) grant program, which aims to attract and expand key growth industries to New York State. The money has been made available through Hochul’s... View full entry
Florida’s state legislature has failed to pass a bill which would have strengthened requirements to inspect and repair the state’s aging condo stock. The new legislation was drafted in response to the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo building in June 2021, which killed 98 people... View full entry
Change at the top of the museum world as New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced Mexican architect Frida Escobedo as its new designer of the forthcoming Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing for modern and contemporary art. Escobedo now officially replaces David Chipperfield... View full entry
In a sign the Buffalo Bills are closing in on a stadium deal, the team hired Populous architectural firm to draw up designs for its proposed new facility, a person familiar with discussions confirmed to The Associated Press on Thursday. — AP News
The Buffalo Bills are seeking to replace their existing facility, which opened in 1973. Renovations were deemed too expensive. Negotiations are ongoing to see if state funds would be allocated toward the proposed $1.354 billion open-air, 60,000-plus seat stadium. According to AP News, New York... View full entry
The colorful new centerpiece of the 2022 Floriade horticultural exhibition is now set to debut after MVRDV announced the completion of its 43.5-meter (142-foot) Flores Tower in the Dutch city of Almere. The vibrant structure comes complete with a custom-made, AR-enabled panoramic facade artwork... View full entry
An expansion at Universal Studios Hollywood will bring the spinning coins and floating blocks of the “Super Mario Bros.” video game to the theme park next year, marking the completion of one in just a handful of theme park expansions in the U.S. since the onset of COVID-19. — The Los Angeles Times
Park officials have billed the new expansion as a “visual spectacle of vibrant colors and architectural ingenuity located within a newly expanded area of the theme park, featuring a groundbreaking ride and interactive areas, to be enjoyed by the whole family." Related on Archinect: Super... View full entry
The Office 2021 Design Challenge has released the winning and shortlisted entries Hosted by Bee Breeders in partnership with Archhive Books, this was the first edition of an annual competition series, in which participants are tasked with exploring workplace design. The brief responds to the... View full entry
LIN Architecture has returned to rural China's Jiangsu Province with an update to its previous “space experiment” into ergonomics, proxemics, and human behavior titled simply Wooden Pavilion #2. Personal space, a respite into which individuals have the bandwith to contemplate... View full entry
February 17 was a night of many firsts for the College of Architecture and Planning, Dean Nan Ellin said. For the first time in two years, students, faculty, and staff gathered in-person for the grand opening of CAP’s latest exhibition at its second floor gallery in the CU Denver Building. Marking its first in-person gathering since the start of the pandemic, CAP is thrilled to showcase the life and work of John R. Henderson, Colorado’s first licensed Black architect. — CU Denver News
The exhibit was curated by College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) Research Assistant Schawn Chi Ming Li and consisted of 300 drawings, audio recordings, and architectural models produced throughout Henderson’s life and career. Henderson, who passed away in 2018, was one of very few Black... View full entry
Coming off a two-year Covid-related hiatus, the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology has officially announced the jury and list of nominated projects for the 2022 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP). The award was launched in 2013 to highlight built works in the... View full entry