The GSA said that retrieving the archives and collections from inside the building was its “first priority”. [...]

Firefighters were able to save around 70 per cent of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed building’s contents during the blaze.

But the famed Mackintosh library, which contained hundreds of rare periodicals and collections, was destroyed, along with countless works of art and the roof of the west wing. — express.co.uk

The school will be in the woods, away from the parking lot. It will feature a long, curving corridor that the architect likens to arms embracing students as they enter. [...]

The architects the town chose, Svigals + Partners, a 30-person firm based in New Haven, had only a half-dozen elementary schools in its portfolio, far fewer than bigger competitors for the commission. It was known as well for designing laboratories for Yale and high-end houses for celebrities — nytimes.com

Wendy Holm, the Boston Latin teacher who has incorporated Urban Plan into her economics courses, said it combines basic concepts she has taught her students with something very close to a real-world context.

“One of the goals that the Urban Land Institute has is that kids come out of this experience and through it have this broader view, then, of this kind of experience and take it into their adult life,” said Holm. — bostonglobe.com

The New York Federal Reserve’s latest research report discusses a number of difficulties facing recent college graduates, including unemployment. [...]

After dividing the pool into 13 different undergraduate majors, and using data from 2009 to 2011, some academic pursuits proved likelier to land graduates a job. [...]

For instance, the unemployment rate for architecture and construction majors was 8%, likely related to the fate of housing-related sectors following the housing bust. — Quartz

While the projects had wildly different end products, they both had a similar starting point: focusing on how to ease people’s lives. And that is a central lesson at the school, which is pushing students to rethink the boundaries for many industries.

At the heart of the school’s courses is developing what David Kelley, one of the school’s founders, calls an empathy muscle. — New York Times

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has just been revealed as the winner of the RIBA and London School of Economics competition to design the LSE's New Global Centre for Social Sciences.

Rogers Stirk Harbour won the £90 million (US$145M) project against finalists OMA (The Netherlands); Grafton Architects (Ireland); Heneghan Peng (Ireland); and Hopkins Architects (UK). — bustler.net

AGi architects enjoyed yet another lucky year in the 2013 Middle East Architect Awards recently held in Dubai. In addition to being shortlisted in five categories, the Spanish-Kuwaiti firm won two awards for The Star House and the BBS Pre-School, both in Kuwait.

The Star House received Residential Project of the Year — making it the second year in a row that AGi won in the category — while the BBS Pre-School was named Institutional & Cultural Project of the Year. — bustler.net

The Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE) of The American Institute of Architects honored five educational and cultural projects for the CAE Educational Facility Design Excellence Award on Aug. 7.

The Educational Facility Design Awards jury selected the projects they perceived as exemplary learning spaces that further the client's educational programs and goals as well as exhibiting outstanding architectural design. — bustler.net

Behnisch Architekten, in collaboration with Ayers Saint Gross, completed the John and Frances Angelos Law Center for the University of Baltimore this past April. The structure began construction in 2009 after the firm, which was developed under the leadership of Günter Behnisch's son Stefan, won first place in the university's international design competition back in 2008. — bustler.net

Helsinki-based VERSTAS Architects has shared with us the beautiful Saunalahti Comprehensive School project in Espoo, Finland's second largest city. The school building, completed last fall, was the result of an open architecture competition in 2007 which VERSTAS Architects won. — bustler.net

[...] the Danish architects have been announced winners of the invited competition for a new building for German university Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart. A total of 25 companies were invited to compete, more than 130 had applied for prequalification. — bustler.net

London's Architectural Association School of Architecture and Foster + Partners have announced the winner of the 2013 Foster + Partners Prize, presented annually to the AA diploma student whose portfolio best addresses the themes of sustainability and infrastructure. The recipient is selected jointly by the AA and Foster + Partners at the end of each academic year.

This year’s prize has been awarded to John Naylor, of Diploma Unit 16, for his project ‘Bamboo Lakou’. — bustler.net

It seems to be big groundbreaking week for Danish firms right now: yesterday we reported about schmidt hammer lassen architects kicking off construction of their enormous International Criminal Court campus in The Hague, The Netherlands, and now we're also hearing of BIG breaking ground on the Marknagil Education Center—soon to become the biggest building on the Faroe Islands. — bustler.net