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Several members of the Architect of the Capitol’s leadership team were fired Thursday, according to an internal email obtained by CQ Roll Call and two aides familiar with the matter, in a further shakeup at the agency after the February removal of its head, J. Brett Blanton.
The AOC’s general counsel, chief financial officer, chief administrative officer, CEO for visitor services and chief of staff were removed Thursday, one senior congressional aide said Friday.
— Roll Call
Each staffer had been overseen by the now-former disgraced Architect of the Capitol Brett Blanton, who was finally fired in early February after being accused of using his office inappropriately. The new Acting Architect of the Capitol Chere Rexroat was immediately appointed in his absence. She... View full entry
Beleaguered Architect of the Capitol J. Brett Blanton shocked members of Congress on Thursday by admitting he was not on Capitol grounds for the tumultuous January 6th attacks during a query into alleged ethics violations while in office. At a special hearing called by members of the House... View full entry
Embattled Architect of the Capitol J. Brett Blanton could be getting one step closer to being forced out of his job after the outgoing 117th Congress finally proposed last-minute legislation that would make it easier for the Trump appointee to be removed from office following an Inspector... View full entry
The federal Architect of the Capitol is under scrutiny for ethics violations after apparently using his office to give “patriotic” private tours in the weeks leading up to the contentious elections of November 2020. The Washington Post is reporting that Trump appointee J. Brett Blanton is now... View full entry
“Think about it. First it was food,” she says, referring to the decades-long push for local, sustainable and ethical eating, as well as reliable sourcing and labeling. “Then came clothing. I’m proposing that shelter will be next.”
“Our velocity for good has been established day by day.”
— 1stdibs
Writer Ted Loos visited the SANAA-designed Connecticut retreat virtually for a profile of founder Sharon Prince, a former fashion retail executive who founded the 80-acre venue in 2009 around the five core principles of nature, the arts, justice, community, and faith. Prince spoke about her... View full entry
LA's famed Taix Restaurant on Sunset Boulevard made headlines earlier this month after a strange ruling by the City Council to designate only certain elements of the century-old establishment a historic landmark in an unprecedented move that could have ramifications for preservation efforts in Los... View full entry
Danish architect Bjarke Ingels has released a statement explaining his reasoning behind the decision to meet with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro last week. In the statement, Ingels, founder and creative partner at the multi-national architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), explains... View full entry
Mr. Ito stepped down less than a day after an article in The New Yorker described the measures officials at the lab took to conceal the relationship with Mr. Epstein, who killed himself in jail last month while facing federal sex trafficking charges. Mr. Ito sent a copy of the resignation email to The New York Times after repeated requests for comment. — The New York Times
“After giving the matter a great deal of thought over the past several days and weeks, I think that it is best that I resign as director of the media lab and as a professor and employee of the Institute, effective immediately,” Ito wrote in an email to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology... View full entry
MIT Media Lab director Joichi Ito has faced pressure to resign after revealing that he took research funding from financier and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. But today Nicholas Negroponte, who cofounded the Media Lab in 1985 and was its director for 20 years, said he had recommended that Ito take Epstein’s money. “If you wind back the clock,” he added, “I would still say, ‘Take it.’” And he repeated, more emphatically, “‘Take it.’”
Both Joichi Ito, MIT Media Lab director, and Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the MIT Media Lab, have come under scrutiny in recent days as news that a portion of the lab's funding was donated by convicted sex trafficking billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, MIT Technology Review... View full entry
Hudson Yards’ nonprofit arts center, The Shed, has been shunned by the fashion elite since developer Stephen Ross’ Trump ties were exposed in early August.
Sources say that Michael Kors, Vera Wang and the Academy of Art University were all slated to show their collections at the sleek, $475 million venue but have pulled out. Rag & Bone publicly nixed the space, which opened in April, right after news broke of Ross’ Aug. 9 Trump fundraiser in the Hamptons.
— New York Post
Fern Mallis, the mogul who created New York Fashion Week in the 1990s, told The New York Post that The Shed is “kind of over,” adding, “If you know people showing at The Shed, please tell me because I don’t know who is." The fallout comes after news broke in August that Stephen Ross... View full entry
Former planning director Michael LoGrande recently admitted to violating city ethics laws by lobbying planning department officials just months after leaving his job running the agency. — The Los Angeles Times
This week, the City of Los Angeles Ethics Commission voted to fine former Los Angeles City Planning director Michael LoGrande $281,250 for violating the city’s “revolving door” rules. The fine is the largest single penalty ever levied against a current or former city employee, according... View full entry
A vice chairman of the Whitney Museum of American Art stepped down on Thursday after months of protests over his company’s sale of tear gas, culminating in the withdrawal of eight artists last week from the prestigious Whitney Biennial exhibition. — The New York Times
The decision came days after London-based Forensic Architecture joined seven other artists in withdrawing from the 2019 Whitney Biennial exhibition. Kanders struck a petulant tone in his resignation letter, saying, “The targeted campaign of attacks against me and my company that... View full entry
A privacy expert tasked with protecting personal data within a Google-backed smart city project has resigned as her pro-privacy guidelines would largely be ignored by participants.
“I imagined us creating a Smart City of Privacy, as opposed to a Smart City of Surveillance,” Ann Cavoukian, the former privacy commissioner of Ontario, wrote in a resignation letter to Google sister company Sidewalk Labs.
— Planet Free Will
Smart phones, smart cars, smart cities, but smart for who? View full entry
This is demanding and important work that we have done for 138 years, and continue to do with pride and gratitude, each and every day at the Art Institute of Chicago. We need museums, not just “now more than ever”—but always. — The Art Newspaper
The traditional and agreed upon purpose of modern museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display items of artistic, cultural, or scientific significance for the education of the public. What then, is the role of the museum in today's cultural and political climate? What are they to... View full entry
![<a href="[https://www.flickr.com/photos/mariaeklind/33806652861/in/photolist-TvnW6c-TAd5eY-VeQgk7-VinmRg-XzqBfY-Sqkgpu-V6Ekrr-TvnThg-SqkhN1-Sqke35-TsXiqQ-UH8o3m-TQarqR-TGSHSz-TAgwRQ-UH7e9b-VhJBPc-YA96BL-SAn7fH-U5sbZE-T4FfWc-TvnVsP-V6CSJk-VeQaQu-YRrGUD-N33PuE-N2LySp-VuidpP-SChADK-Vuh7Bi-V3Tjdh-V3UEyq-U1PgcY-NFeAZw-VhKJtT-VhJL4t-JZD8ER-Tf3gEm-L3tWLL-NrhgWF-U1Tuq3-UU8GpL-TQapip-Kby5AP-KYF3Bw-UH8m1A-UH84HL-VeLcrj-MKUkAA-VhKGXX]">[Maria Eklind/Flickr]</a>](https://archinect.imgix.net/uploads/lm/lmne1q7uig5suy4u.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&w=514 "<a href=\"[https://www.flickr.com/photos/mariaeklind/33806652861/in/photolist-TvnW6c-TAd5eY-VeQgk7-VinmRg-XzqBfY-Sqkgpu-V6Ekrr-TvnThg-SqkhN1-Sqke35-TsXiqQ-UH8o3m-TQarqR-TGSHSz-TAgwRQ-UH7e9b-VhJBPc-YA96BL-SAn7fH-U5sbZE-T4FfWc-TvnVsP-V6CSJk-VeQaQu-YRrGUD-N33PuE-N2LySp-VuidpP-SChADK-Vuh7Bi-V3Tjdh-V3UEyq-U1PgcY-NFeAZw-VhKJtT-VhJL4t-JZD8ER-Tf3gEm-L3tWLL-NrhgWF-U1Tuq3-UU8GpL-TQapip-Kby5AP-KYF3Bw-UH8m1A-UH84HL-VeLcrj-MKUkAA-VhKGXX]\">[Maria Eklind/Flickr]</a>")
There has never been a more important time in society to celebrate what unites us rather than divides us, and that can be through culture and, more simply, through the creation of public spaces where people can come together. — CNN Style
Amanda Levete reflects on the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump. She argues for the responsibility of architects to create spaces of intersections and conversations across thresholds in the contemporary political climate. View full entry
