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The city has construction plans for Mount Prospect Park, once the site of a lookout station for George Washington’s army. About 40,000 square feet of the 7.79-acre park are to be turned into one of the largest skateboarding spots on the East Coast.
Some nearby residents are fighting the plan. [...] They say the poured-concrete skateboarding facility would take up precious green space in a city that does not have enough of it.
— The New York Times
A total of four skatepark designs are scheduled to be built in the Bronx and Brooklyn, courtesy of The Skatepark Project (or TSP). Costs for a new park at the contested Brooklyn location are about $100,000. The Mount Prospect Park location calls for 40,000 square feet worth of concrete to be... View full entry
UN rights experts have denounced the pending execution of three members of a Saudi tribe, reportedly in connection with their opposition to a planned Red Sea megacity. [...]
The three men – Shadly Ahmad Mahmoud Abou Taqiqa al-Huwaiti, Ibrahim Salih Ahmad Abou Khalil al-Huwaiti and Atallah Moussa Mohammed al-Huwaiti – were reportedly sentenced to death on 5 August last year and their sentences were upheld on appeal on 23 January, the statement said.
— The Guardian
The men were originally charged under a 2017 anti-terrorism law. The Saudi government has also reportedly plagued their tribal group with drone surveillance, bribery, and even threats of violence since the announcement of the project the same year. Other opponents inside the development’s... View full entry
The year’s end brings the chance to survey architecture’s progression and social impact through salient entryways that include labor, activism, and the development of topical building trends. Another way of recapping things is by looking at the varied rows, discord, stories of ill-treatment... View full entry
Three men have been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia over their alleged opposition to the country’s NEOM project, according to a report published last week by the human rights monitoring group ALQST. Image courtesy ALQST The Saudi Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) handed down the sentences on... View full entry
The 25-foot tall (7.6 meter) sculpture of a shark crashing through the roof of Magnus Hanson-Heine’s house in rural Oxford, England, is now a protected landmark — and he’s not happy about it. — The Associated Press
City Council members in Oxford voted earlier in the month to add the protest artwork to its Heritage Asset Register along with 16 other sites. Officially named the Headington Shark, the sculpture was installed on the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki in 1986 as a powerful anti-war... View full entry
UPDATE, March 4th, 2022: New media crackdown in Russia forces censorship of open letter signed by country's architects and urban planners A new missive in the architectural community’s fight against the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been launched as this time, a group from inside the... View full entry
As the walls of the international community begin to cave in on Vladimir Putin and his acolytes in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, more prominent architecture and design firms have joined the effort to isolate Moscow from the rest of the world economically. The past 24 hours saw... View full entry
The debate surrounding Herzog & de Meuron's Tour Triangle is picking up this week amidst news that the €670 million ($757 million) project will begin construction within the next month in spite of a torrent of backlash that has beset the development since its announcement in 2008. As the plan... View full entry
An amended plan for new student housing at the University of California, Berkeley has been announced amidst protests surrounding the development that have touched on issues related to the state’s ongoing housing crisis. Local outlets are now reporting that the planned dormitory in People’s... View full entry
A statement in support of Palestinian rights put up by Forensic Architecture as part of an exhibition at the University of Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery is back in its rightful place tonight after backlash against the message caused the group to temporarily withdraw the exhibition over... View full entry
In a last-ditch effort to save an iconic piece of postmodern architecture from its looming demolition, preservationists in Wrocław, Poland have taken an unconventional, yet jovial approach to protesting. Dancing to hits from the 1990s, clad in that era’s attire, in which there was an... View full entry
Across New York City’s five boroughs, five new public art installations are on display, each made from salvaged plywood boards that were used for a much different purpose a year ago. Be Heard by Behin Ha Design Studio. Be Heard by Behin Ha Design Studio. The sculptural pieces were... View full entry
Hosted at HOFA Gallery in London and presented by PAVE Contemporary, CURE/RATED: Bigotry, A Societal Cancer, is a new group exhibition that "explores the tensions and emotions systematic prejudices engender in society." It will feature a group of multimedia and multidisciplinary contemporary... View full entry
Six trustees, among them the prominent designer David Rockwell, have resigned from the board of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum to protest the removal of the museum’s director, Caroline Baumann, following an investigation into issues including her 2018 wedding.
Ms. Baumann was forced to resign on Feb. 7 after an investigation by the Smithsonian’s inspector general into how Ms. Baumann procured her dress and the venue for the ceremony.
— The New York Times
In a resignation letter protesting the ouster of former Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum director Caroline Baumann for suspected improprieties involving her purchase of a bargain designer wedding dress, architect David Rockwell of Rockwell Group writes, "We all serve on the board because... View full entry
The reconfiguration of these mundane sites into spaces of political expression show how Hong Kong’s public space “is clearly made by the people, not something simply given by the state, and certainly not to be taken for granted,” said Jeff Hou, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Washington and the co-editor of City Unsilenced: Urban Resistance and Public Space in the Age of Shrinking Democracy. — Quartz
