The redevelopment of the Richardson Olmsted Complex will...transform the former Buffalo State Hospital from a place of healing to one of hospitality.

The design builds upon Olmsted's original intent while conserving existing resources, preserving the fabric of the space, and creating connections and purpose. — Buffalo Rising

When you walk in, you encounter what is, at first glance, a small studio apartment. Within that cube are actually 8 functional spaces. The living room and office become the bedroom with a tug of a bookshelf. Open one of the closets and you'll find 10 stackable chairs that go around a telescopic dining table for large dinner parties. An entire guest room with bunk-beds and a closet is revealed behind a wall that slides out on tracks. And of course, a well-equipped kitchen and bathroom await. — gizmodo.com

... calling the Lowline a "park" isn't totally accurate. It would be a culture park that hosts art shows, performances, and events, and it would be tied to the neighborhood gallery scene. Preliminary designs call for a densely planted "ramble," but this would be accompanied by a gallery, plaza, and connecting grassy common. The whole site is currently dotted with support columns, and the design would remove ten of these to created a 5,000-square-foot column-free plaza. — ny.curbed.com

Brooklyn-based design firm Situ Studio is the winner of this year's annual Times Square Valentine Heart Design. Over the last five years, the Times Square Alliance has invited architecture and design firms to submit proposals for a romantic public art installation celebrating Valentine's Day in Times Square.

This year's winning design, Situ Studio's Heartwalk, will be unveiled on Tuesday, February 12, 2013, and remain on view until March 8, 2013. — bustler.net

People tend to like churches and synagogues with intricate detail, like the lacy Gothicism of Grace Church at Broadway and 10th Street. But I am drawn to the austere Church of the Heavenly Rest, at Fifth Avenue and 90th Street. Designed by Mayers, Murray and Phillip and completed in 1929 ...wait, that’s not right, it has never been completed. — nytimes.com

The Park Avenue tower rises from a monumental covered plaza to two setbacks, where the 42-foot-high garden levels expose those massive, dramatic building supports. The top two floors of the tower, tentatively planned to rise 49 stories, form a glass- roofed garden. Elevator shafts morph into glowing blades that slice the sky above the roof. — bloomberg.com

“Our approval will facilitate development of a significant new building with a distinctive pyramid-like shaped design and thoughtful site plan that integrates the full block site into the evolving residential, institutional, and commercial neighborhood surrounding it,” Ms. Burden said before voting in favor of the project. — observer.com

Hopes rose when the Norman Foster firm was hired to overhaul the 2,700-seat hall on the north side of New York’s Lincoln Center. That was in 2005, and nothing came of it.

Is there a future for the jinxed hall? Perhaps. The success of Lincoln Center’s $1.2 billion remodeling -- from the jauntily tilting lawn and the space-age fountain, to the electronic come- ons that zip across the outside stairs -- can only be inspirational. — bloomberg.com

Since the husband-and-wife team of Mr. Alesch and Ms. Standefer founded the architectural and interior design concern Roman & Williams in 2002, their aesthetic of a rugged Americana lifted from a make-believe past has gained dominion over swaths of New York, especially downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. — nytimes.com

Like Gehry, Ingels relies on the expertise of Packes, SLCE and Durst in his quest to rethink a played-out product. Design, Ingels said, is more than “coming up with stuff. We translate specific expert knowledge into a response that addresses given conditions in a new way.”

That ought to be an obvious approach. I hope other developers take notice. — bloomberg.com

Carved out of shipping containers, these LEGO-like, stackable apartments offer all the amenities of home. Or more, since they are bigger, and brighter, than the typical Manhattan studio. It’s the FEMA trailer of the future, built with the Dwell reader in mind. — New York Observer

After the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Sandy, those responsible for our built environment, especially in New York, are facing the dawn of a new environmental clime and industry reality. Designing and delivering to the highest safety standards in what were once thought of as safe areas of the world now holds far greater importance than ever before. — DesignBuild Source

The creation of a public monument is a fraught business these days. That the pristine work of an architect nearly 40 years dead should rise intact, in today’s contentious political, legal and aesthetic climate, is a wonder. And how timely it is that the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt should be honored in such eloquent fashion at a moment when powerful political forces in this country seek to dismantle it. — Places Journal

“What really struck me, if you look at the image on the left, you see the Goldman Sachs building and new World Trade Center,” said Baan. “These two buildings are brightly lit. And then the rest of New York looks literally kind of powerless. In a way, it shows also what’s wrong with the country in this moment.” — poynter.org

The easiest part of a harried three days came Friday around noon, when we met to settle on the cover. A photograph taken by Iwan Baan on Wednesday night, showing the Island of Manhattan, half aglow and half in dark, was the clear choice, for the way it fit with the bigger story we have tried to tell here about a powerful city rendered powerless. — nymag.com