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![Solar panels need batteries to properly optimize their energy generating capacities. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons / [[User::DDDDDDDDD|:DDDDDDDDDDD]].](https://archinect.imgix.net/uploads/5c/5cce378c228ccc4dcbc6bc7d312fed2c.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&w=514 "Solar panels need batteries to properly optimize their energy generating capacities. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons / [[User::DDDDDDDDD|:DDDDDDDDDDD]].")
manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries is scaling up rapidly to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles and large systems installed in power grids or at solar farms. As prices for lithium-ion batteries drop — they fell by half from 2016 to 2019, according to BloombergNEF — banks are taking another look. — The Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the growing viability for utility-scale battery operations. One stumbling block for municipalities and building operators alike has been finding affordable battery storage options to keep sustainably generated energy flowing when the sun isn't shining... View full entry
BlackRock, the world's largest asset management firm, has announced that it will use climate risk assessments and environmental sustainability as guiding metrics for how it makes investment decisions moving forward. The impact of this shift could have profound changes for the architecture and... View full entry
The U.S. central bank signaled on Friday it may be getting ready to join international peers in incorporating climate change risk into its assessments of financial stability, and may even take it into account when setting monetary policy. — Reuters
Despite the Trump administration's unabashed rejection of climate science, the United States Federal Reserve is moving in the opposite direction. The shift could impact how America's central bank assesses financial metrics like interest rates and how entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac... View full entry
How do you raise the standard of living in the poorest neighborhoods in the country?
That’s what community developers, typically nonprofits that build and finance affordable housing, have tried to do over the last few decades. And yet [...] many of these communities remain stuck in poverty. [...]
This problem has stumped community developers for decades. But two local nonprofits think they’ve hit on something: They’ve created a private equity fund.
— marketplace.org
We don’t draft designs in a void and cities don’t spring straight from our imaginations. Architecture is itself a designed object, circumscribed and delimited by the social, political, and economic conditions of the era. But, likewise, these conditions aren’t exactly natural—they’re... View full entry
Have you heard the latest wisecrack about Harvard? People are calling it a hedge fund with a university attached [...]
Though the exact figure is hard to determine, experts I consulted estimate that over $100 billion of educational endowment money nationwide is invested in hedge funds, costing them approximately $2.5 billion in fees in 2015 alone. The problems with hedge funds managing college endowments are manifold, going well beyond the exorbitant...fees they charge for their services.
— the Nation
"The time has come for students to connect the dots between ballooning student debt, the poor treatment of campus workers, and the obscene wealth of hedge fund oligarchs."A rallying cry for a divestment movement to oppose hedge funds and their involvement with academia, the article discusses the... View full entry
The Chicago Biennial is set to launch this weekend with a flurry of events and exhibitions, including Archinect's live podcasting event Next Up. Alongside the Biennial’s programming are a slew of periphery events located around the city and spanning the spectrum of architectural topics. Near the... View full entry
The Board of Supervisors has approved a road map for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as it plans a $600-million makeover that would tear down and rebuild most of its Miracle Mile campus [...].
If there are no serious bumps in the road ahead, the plan would yield a streamlined, curving 410,000-square-foot new museum building designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor that would open in 2023, spanning Wilshire Boulevard with an enclosed bridge that doubles as gallery space.
— latimes.com
Previously View full entry
According to data compiled by the firm PropertyShark, since 2008, roughly 30 percent of condo sales in large-scale Manhattan developments have been to purchasers who either listed an overseas address or bought through an entity like a limited-liability corporation, a tactic rarely employed by local homebuyers but favored by foreign investors [...] “The global elite,” says developer Michael Stern, “is basically looking for a safe-deposit box.” — New York Magazine
The latest edition of Showcase; featured a complete redesign of the Law Faculties and Central Administration Buildings at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), by CRAB Studio. NewsWith Architecture for Humanity's experience helping communities beyond the relief phase of disaster... View full entry
