Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
President Biden formally signed H.R. 49 into law this weekend, officially recognizing the now-vacant site of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting as a national memorial in a historic move that clears the way for a new permanent monument in Orlando. The bill, named to honor the tragedy’s... View full entry
With school shootings becoming a point of concern for many across the country, K-12 design methodologies are beginning to address the issue as well. Fruitport High School in Fruitport, Michigan, for example, is undergoing a $48 million renovation project aimed at incorporating some of these... View full entry
there is a moat, of sorts, between the parking lot and the school. It’s planted with indigenous flowers and advertised as a learning opportunity for kids. The whole place has a playful, tree-house aspect, but indications of its impenetrability are everywhere: This sanctuary is a fortress, too. — NY Magazine
Lisa Miller attended a recent "media access day" for the new Sandy Hook Elementary School, designed by New Haven architects Svigals + Partners. View full entry
A mass shooting scenario changes the function of every object in the built environment. [...]
The buildings themselves, the fabric of the city, ends up not mattering so much. In fact, sometimes it becomes a kind of enemy. [...]
Americans aren’t going to rebuild their cities to accommodate the possibility of violence. The people who protect the people in those cities will just have to learn to see them differently.
— wired.com
Related on Archinect:Guns in the Studio: Texas' new campus carry law prompted Architecture Dean Fritz Steiner to resign. He joins us to discuss the law's effect on architecture education, on Archinect Sessions #55The Architecture of Loss: How to Redesign After a School ShootingHow Jeanne Gang... View full entry
Good architects strive to balance design and function while listening closely to a client’s emotional needs for the space. Public projects often have the added layers of bureaucratic paperwork, media scrutiny, and community outreach. But rebuilding a school after a shooting presents a unique kaleidoscope of intense feelings. Architects must create an environment that not only promotes learning, but also helps the students—and their towns—heal from tragedy. — theatlantic.com
Upon the recent conclusion of Norway's July 22 memorial site competition, Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg was unanimously selected by the competition jury to be the designer.
Dahlberg's designs will become the two public-art memorials, each commemorating the 77 victims who tragically lost their lives in the Oslo bombing and Utøya massacre on July 22, 2011.
— bustler.net
Mark Simon, a founding partner of Centerbrook Architects and Planners, agrees. “I think [bars and other fortifying techniques] send the wrong message to both kids and teachers,” he says. Based in Centerbrook, Connecticut, Simon has designed 20 school buildings, including five public elementary schools, though none in Newtown. “Buildings tell stories, and when a building is designed that way, it tells you that it doesn’t trust you. And kids intuit that they’re not trusted,” he says. — archrecord.construction.com
