Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced two major changes that will help it restructure and rebound following recent economic losses. The institute will shed staff and sell its surplus property as it looks to redevelop its 66 Portland Place headquarters according to reports... View full entry
The European Commission, acting on behalf of the European Union, has unveiled details of the “European Green Deal,” with the ambitious aim of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. To achieve this, all 27 EU Member States will pledge to reduce emissions by at least 55% by... View full entry
On the subject of architecture and construction’s contribution to climate change, our existing building stock is coming under increasing scrutiny. While the United Kingdom recently announced a review into embodied carbon in buildings, thanks in part to the Architect Journal’s RetroFirst... View full entry
Atlanta's State Farm Arena, home of the Atlanta Hawks professional basketball team, is being converted into a massive polling site to help the state of Georgia make voting more accessible to its residents. CNN reports that the 17,000-seat arena will open as a polling center for the... View full entry
MVRDV has completed Villa Stardust, a private home that began as a former commercial building. Inspired by the traditional Moroccan riad, the interior living spaces of the villa are oriented around a central patio space and courtyard. Designed as an outdoor "living room," the... View full entry
As part of an effort to help guide the transition to "new lifestyle norms" in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has published a collection of tools that spell out strategies for re-occupying and retrofitting existing spaces. The tools, an... View full entry
Los Angeles-based SPF:architects has completed a 5,000-square-foot renovation of a 1970s-era beachfront California modernist home designed by notable mid-century architect Jerrold E. Lomax. SPF:a's renovations for the home, which is located in Malibu, California among a tightly clustered... View full entry
This week, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that work on the plan to convert the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan into a 2,500-bed temporary hospital has been completed. The temporary hospital facility is one of four sites currently under construction... View full entry
Over the course of six years, OPEN Architecture transformed five decommissioned aviation fuel tanks into a vibrant contemporary art center and public park. Overlooking the banks of Shanghai's Huangpu River, the art center has attracted hoards of visitors and large cultural events since opening in... View full entry
The rise of online shopping has drastically reduced the need for shopping malls across America. However, in Providence, Rhode Island, the Westminster Arcade, America's first shopping mall, has found a way to turn this supposed "retail apocalypse" into an opportunity to build more housing. ... View full entry
Efforts to modernize suburban campuses can be as basic as organizing placemaking activities like after-work concerts or food truck Fridays. Usually, though, they require a much deeper investment in elements like upgraded lobbies, outdoor furniture, ball courts, fitness centers, grab-and-go cafes, greenways, bike storage facilities and open-plan offices that let in substantial natural light. — The New York Times
In her NYT piece about the renewed commercial interest in the suburban office park typology, Amanda Abrams takes a closer look at the latest investments and transformations at North Carolina's Research Triangle Park. "After all, with downtowns everywhere becoming increasingly expensive," writes... View full entry
An earthquake safety revolution is spreading along the streets and back alleys of Los Angeles, as steel frames and strong walls appear inside the first-story parking garages of thousands of apartment buildings.
The construction is designed to fix one of the most dangerous earthquake risks: Wood apartment buildings collapsing because the skinny poles propping up parking at the ground level are not strong enough to withstand the shaking.
— The Los Angeles Times
A building permit analysis conducted by The Los Angeles Times has found that over 27% of Los Angeles’s 11,400 "soft story" wood-frame apartments have been retrofitted since 2015 when the city passed an aggressive seismic upgrading ordinance. "Soft story" buildings are built with an... View full entry
Ever since its opening in 2009 the Millennium Tower has been slowly sinking, so far it's settled about 16 inches on its southwestern corner, causing the entire to tilt around 14 inches. Residents applied for a permit to perform a retrofit back in December 2018 and a plan is now in place to... View full entry
With earthquakes in the news following a pair of recent tremors in California, it’s important to remember that seismic design is an integral and increasingly complex aspect of building design architects work hard to address. An ever-improving standard, seismic codes not only save lives, but also... View full entry
Even today, parking garages are typically underused. In the not-too-distant future, car shares, self-driving cars, increased investment in transit, or simple behavioral change could all shift the amount of parking people think they need. And the U.S. also has far more parking than necessary–in Seattle, for example, there are five parking spaces for every resident. Architects and city planners are increasingly realizing that valuable city space could be put to better use than storing cars. — Fast Company
Parking garages run rampant, especially in Los Angeles. According to Gensler's co-CEO Andy Cohen there are 500 million parking spaces in the United States. “Think about all that real estate, all that attention to parking, that could be revitalized and reused for the future of our cities.”... View full entry
