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Foster + Partners has unveiled plans for a residential-led masterplan on the outskirts of Bangkok. Named “The Forestias,” the masterplan seeks to address the growing disconnect between contemporary city life and family traditions, while also placing an emphasis on health, wellbeing, smart... View full entry
Artist and urban planner Theaster Gates has been selected to design the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion. This will be the first time that the Serpentine Gallery has awarded this commission to a non-architect. Gates is currently a professor at the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago... View full entry
Columbia University professor Malo A. Hutson has been appointed as the dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, effective July 1st. Hutson, who is currently a tenured professor and director of the Urban Planning Ph.D. Program in the Graduate School of Architecture... View full entry
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced the “Open Boulevards” program, a new initiative to enhance and expand ten multi-block corridors to create more open space throughout the city. The plan builds off of last year’s “Open Streets: Restaurants” program, which transformed miles... View full entry
A redevelopment project led by Owen Development in St. Louis' Grand Center Arts District invites a group of groundbreaking architects to design homes for the St. Louis community. The "On Olive" redevelopment will be transformed by LA's Michael Maltzan Studio, New York City-based MOS... View full entry
A vote taken last week by the Metro Board of Directors approved a nearly $900 million budget for the long-awaited rail link to LAX, setting the stage for work to begin for the new light rail station in coming months. The Airport Metro Connector, planned for a 9.5-acre site at the intersection of Aviation Boulevard and 96th Streets, will connect Metro's Crenshaw/LAX and Green (C) Lines with the airport's new automated people mover system. — Urbanize Los Angeles
Grimshaw Architects is in charge of the station's design. It will include: a 16-bay bus plaza with capacity for charging infrastructure, a multi-level active transportation and bike hub, a vehicle drop-off zone, a customer service center, public toilet facilities beyond the fare paid zone... View full entry
UNC Charlotte's School of Architecture welcomes Sekou Cooke to its faculty as the Director of the Master of Urban Design (MUD) program. Cooke is an acclaimed architect, educator, curator, and researcher whose work exemplifies a career in shaping design practice with social justice... View full entry
Waterfront Toronto, established by the Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario, and the City of Toronto, launched a competition last week to select a development partner for the Quayside lands. The announcement comes close to a year after Sidewalk Labs announced it would drop its smart city plans for the area, citing "unprecedented economic uncertainty." — Smart Cities Dive
Sidewalk Labs presented an ambitious plan to transform Quayside into a "smart city." Yet, during our reporting of the project's cancelation last year in May, the reason for the project being called off was tied to the pandemic according to a report from the Toronto Star. However, Waterfront... View full entry
At a press conference Wednesday, Mayor Ada Colau announced that 21 streets in Barcelona’s Eixample district will become a kind of super-superblock — vehicle traffic will only be permitted around the perimeter, leaving streets within the district only accessible by motor vehicle to residents, essential services or deliveries. By all-but-barring cars, Barcelona will free up space for 21 new pedestrian plazas at intersections. — Bloomberg CityLab
According to Bloomberg CityLab, the squares and streets that will be come the future superblocks will be planted with trees that will shade 16 acres of new green space when mature. The area will also contain an additional 33.4 hectares of pedestrian space. Work will begin in 2022 with a the... View full entry
Henning Larsen has unveiled designs for Wolfburg's Nordkopf district, called Wolfsburg Connect. The 13.6 hectare masterplan creates a prototype for "small-scale urbanism." "We are designing an inclusive city on human terms – an approach that means putting emphasis on social life and... View full entry
2020 has brought an increase in activism as the public reached its final tipping point from the racial and social injustices happening across the nation. With the inexcusable deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, and others caused by police brutality, individuals... View full entry
What are architects and urban planners foreseeing as people cautiously gather? Streets “curated” for various uses and dynamic cityscapes that both advance wellness and knit communities together. [...]
Architects and other designers who have devoted efforts to creating public places that encourage gathering and sociability now say their task is to make congregating in these spaces possible again — and perhaps to achieve some community-enhancing goals in the process.
— The New York Times
Progress on Los Angeles's very own aerial tramway has made some headway as the City of LA's Department of Recreation and Parks prepares a feasibility study on the project. Intending to provide increased access to Griffith Park and alleviate urban congestion, the Aerial Transit System for Griffith... View full entry
the government is tearing up the national rule book that has been in place since the second world war to ensure the best use of land, and replacing it with three simple classifications. From now on, all land in England will be designated for either “growth”, with automatic planning permission, “renewal”, with permission subject to some basic checks, or “protection”, preserving the sacrosanct status of the green belt. — BBC
Among the drastic streamlining of the planning approval process proposed is a system of automatic approvals that privileges pattern book-style developments that make use of readymade designs similar to those already used in Bath, Belgravia and Bournville, BBC reports. View full entry
Rotterdam-based Orange Architects along with Echo urban design, Moederscheim Moonen, More Architecture, and Studio Nauta, has been commissioned by Rotterdam developers Leyten and Stebru to design the new Zomerhofkwartier (ZOHO) in Rotterdam. ZOHO is a kind of "city within a city" in... View full entry
