This is John Hill’s element, and these are his people. Hill has begun to emerge, in the past five years or so, as one of New York’s great architectural communicators, an exquisitely informed tour guide for the layman design enthusiast. His main platform has been his website, A Daily Dose of Architecture, which, if it does not quite stand astride the world of design blogs, nevertheless lords over a small sub-fiefdom of largely unstaffed, noncommercial sites. — capitalnewyork.com

Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the first model of "Urban Umbrella," a beautiful new design for the city's scaffolding structures, in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday.

The design was the winner of the urbanSHED competition which sought to revamp the city's current scaffolding designed more than 60 years ago. Project Engineer Sarrah Khan, Architect Andres Cortes, and Designer Young Hwan Choi who all helped bring the structure to life were also present for Wednesday's unveiling. — huffingtonpost.com

...the city should reverse its approach, zoning neighborhoods like Midtown, Lower Manhattan and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, by thinking first about the shape of public space instead of private development. — New York Times

Many architects, despite their progressive convictions, are allergic to politics, at least publicly. Dependent on developers and patrons of other persuasions, designers are often concerned that if they come off as firebrands, it could cost them work in the future. However, the [AIA NY] has been quietly raising its profile, politically, professionally and culturally, all in the interest of furthering its interests within the corridors of power. — New York Observer

Last week, the 19th annual CANstruction competition kicked off, with teams of architects and engineers spending a night building sculptures out of canned food, which will be donated to City Harvest. Mixing art and design, the pieces must be visually compelling but also structurally sound. — New York Observer

Coach has come to Hudson Yards and classed up the joint as only a luxury bag maker could. [...] But we know what you really care about, the tantalizing new renderings from KPF, who is planning the site and building the two eastern most office towers, the first of which will be home to Coach and open in 2015 — New York Observer

a floating dome, built with the spokes of dead umbrellas and carried over the waves by the invisible power of empty soda bottles.... was due to begin a monthlong exhibit on Friday in a finger of water in Inwood, at the northern end of Manhattan.

“We were floating it on pontoons to Inwood from the South Bronx.”

A pause.

“We shipwrecked,” she said. “On Rikers Island.”

If this is failure, it is of a type rooted in genius. — New York Times

We are looking at the work of very good if far from famous architects doing remarkable work right here at home—not starchitects toiling away on the other side of the planet, cooking up schemes that may well never get built. [...] It was not that long ago that Mr. Kimmelman was writing a column called "Abroad," dealing with artistic matters in Europe. Now, here he is, plying local waters, reminding the world [New York[ is still the place to be and build. — New York Observer

If all goes as planned, the New Museum’s five-year-old building on the Bowery will become something of an amusement park beginning Oct. 26, with visitors hurtling through a giant plastic tube from the fourth floor to the second — New York Times

An unprecedented architectural public education event is going to take place in New York. After Rome, Moscow, Terni, and St. Petersburg, VELONIGHT, the unique project by professor Sergey Nikitin, founding director of Moskultprog, is inviting to explore the postwar cultural and architectural history of New York City on bicycles in the night between October 1 and 2. — VELONIGHT

Google is committed to providing our users with the richest, most up-to-date maps possible. [...] In this case, the edit for the 9/11 memorial site was made by a map maker user on Sept 12, 2011. — New York Observer

It’s official — the Empire State Building has been awarded LEED Gold certification. Thanks to a massive green overhaul that took more than two years, the landmark is now the tallest building in the United States to receive LEED certification. — Inhabitat

It turns out the tower will be even taller, and we have Mother Nature to thank for that. — New York Observer

In February 2003, Daniel Libeskind was named the winning designer of the international contest to rebuild the World Trade Center. After eight years of collaboration, controversy, and the typical cast of characters in any real estate nightmare, the final product that will tower over Lower Manhattan is not, in fact, the design that won the hearts of New Yorkers. — Inhabitat