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This week, starting today, we are releasing a series of conversations, or "Mini-Sessions", with architects and designers in LA and Detroit, in partnership with the Los Angeles Design Festival. The festival will be taking place in Downtown LA from June 8 to 11th. First up is with Edwin Chan of the... View full entry
This week Donna, Ken, and Paul discuss Exhibit Columbus's Miller Prize announcement, gender equality in lecture school lineups, and the recent illumination of Detroit.This episode was sponsored by PPI - use code ARC17 for 15% off your purchase.Listen to episode 94 of Archinect Sessions, "It's... View full entry
Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times has published an article about the 65,000 new streetlights now illuminating the streets of Detroit. This seemingly prosaic infrastructural adjustment actually has a lot of import. For a long time, according to the article, Detroit’s decline was... View full entry
Ceren Bingol has been named as the interim Architect-in-Residence and Head of the Architecture Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, according to a statement released today by Christopher Scoates, the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum, and the... View full entry
[Rosa Parks' home] on South Deacon Street had become blighted and faced demolition in recent years, but its fortunes have since changed. The home’s facade has been removed and will be refashioned into a replica-style artwork that will be shown in museums across Europe...“She loved the city, but I don't think the city loved her very much back,” [Parks' niece Rhea] McCauley said. “This house should have been preserved here. But we live in a world where every other project takes precedence.” — Detroit Free Press
You would think that the Detroit home of Rosa Parks would have more easily garnered local support for its preservation in the present day. But as Parks' niece Rhea McCauley described, her aunt was still treated with hostility when she moved into the city in 1957, two years after she refused to... View full entry
Nearly 40 percent of Detroit residents live below the poverty line. In many cities, poor people rent — but the home ownership rate here is high. After the 2008 housing crash, it took the city of Detroit five years to start reappraising homes — and poor homeowners like Hicks, who lives on disability, struggled to pay their taxes. Over the past decade, there have been more than 100,000 tax foreclosures in Detroit. — Marketplace
For more news from the Motor City, check out these links:Previewing the 2016 Venice Biennale: the United States' "Architectural Imagination"Dispatch from the Venice Biennale: a healthy dose of dissent from Detroit Resists, The Architecture Lobby and more"Bleeding Rainbow"... View full entry
Twelve firms, including Greg Lynn Form, MOS Architects, Preston Scott Cohen Inc., and Zago Architecture have been selected by curators Cynthia Davidson and Mónica Ponce de León to create speculative architectural presentations for the 2016 U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The presentations... View full entry
The 2016 U.S. Venice Biennale Pavilion is one step closer to becoming a reality with today's reveal of the 'My Detroit' postcard photo competition winners...[Out of 463 entries, the winning photos] were considered as unique individual depictions of Detroit that could also collectively tell a larger story about the present-day city. The photographs will then be printed as postcards and distributed to visitors when the Biennale opens in May. — Bustler
See more of the photos over on Bustler. View full entry
...centralized urban water systems throughout the world are now under significant stress from increasing population density, water-resource competition, changing precipitation patterns, and new sources of pollutants, such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Even without these pressures, centralized water is, by design, a fracture-critical system—one that is susceptible “to complete and sudden collapse should any part of it fail,” writes Thomas Fisher, Assoc. AIA... — Architect Magazine
"Faced with an excessive price tag, municipalities may welcome decentralized water as the only feasible choice for future water delivery. Architects should therefore develop more expertise related to these net-zero water systems, as they will have direct implications for building design... View full entry
For Katherine Craig, the mural is more than a marker of North End’s rising status. The so-called “bleeding rainbow” mural is a cornerstone of her career. And now, since the building’s owner aims to sell or redevelop the property, the artist is taking legal action to protect her work. [...]
The federal suit seeks an injunction that would bar the developer from destroying or otherwise altering The Illuminated Mural [...].
— citylab.com
Related news on Archinect:Muralists and the fragile relationship with the buildings they paint onDetroit issues arrest for "vandal" Shepard FaireyDetroit's struggle to distinguish between graffiti (boo!) and murals (yay!) View full entry
Some of Detroit's most famous vacant sites finally may see new construction getting under way in 2016, turning some of the city's longest-running symbols of distress into emblems of renewal.
The Hudson's site on Woodward, the old Tiger Stadium site at Michigan and Trumbull, and the State Fairgrounds near Woodward Avenue and 8 Mile all seem likely to see redevelopment progress in 2016 after in some cases decades of disuse.
— freep.com
Related news on Archinect:The return of redlining: how the mortgage industry is threatening Detroit's rejuvenationDetroit joins Shenzhen, Berlin, Turin and others as an UNESCO "City of Design"How Detroit can learn to revive its derelict industrial sites from other cities View full entry
![Lafayette Towers, Lafayette Park, Detroit, Michigan. [Photo by Corine Vermeulen]](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/ul/ules8xn98vo114zm.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=514 "Lafayette Towers, Lafayette Park, Detroit, Michigan. [Photo by Corine Vermeulen]")
[Detroit] will join 47 other cities from 33 countries as a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, which is made up of cities with a strong legacy in one of seven creative fields, from gastronomy and literature to design.
Member cities commit to collaborate, promote creativity and cultural industries, share best practices, strengthen participation in cultural life and integrate culture in economic and social development strategies and plans.
— crainsdetroit.com
Formed in 2004, UNESCO's Creative Cities Network (UCCN) identifies places that leverage creative practices as a major strategy for urban development, giving member cities opportunities for collaboration and promotion across cultural industries. Cities in the UCCN (there are currently 69) belong to... View full entry
In Detroit, there were 3,500 sales of single-family homes in 2014. Only 462 of them received a mortgage. That means that nearly 87 percent of sales were in cash — and that doesn’t include homes sold in foreclosure auction. Comparatively, the overall metro area saw only 53 percent in cash sales the same year. Nationwide, it was 43 percent.
“The number one issue that we, in the end, identified in Detroit is that it’s incredibly hard for homebuyers to get a mortgage right now,” say Svenja Gudell..
— Next City
Related coverage:U.S. Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale, "The Architectural Imagination", now open for submissionsParticipating architects announced for the US Pavilion of the 2016 Venice BiennaleHow Detroit can learn to revive its derelict industrial sites from other citiesDetroit issues... View full entry
Lasermaze is an architectural installation formed from three miles of UV wool and over 3000 hand tied knots, suspended from an industrial structure of steel scaffolding and chains. Created for the 2015 Detroit Design Festival, Lasermaze is currently located along the Dequindre Cut, a former... View full entry
The list of architects chosen to participate in the US Pavilion for the 2016 Venice Biennale has just been announced. Curated by Cynthia Davidson and Monica de Ponce Leon, "The Architectural Imagination" seeks to be "an exhibition of new speculative architectural projects commissioned for specific... View full entry
