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Despite recent geopolitical tensions, The Philippines is projected to have one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and one seeming indicator of that is the increasing number of tall corporate towers — some with, uh, distinctive designs — that are sprouting up throughout Metro... View full entry
In the three months since our last update, progress has been moving along at the site of the Bjarke Ingels-designed Vancouver House. The soon-to-be iconic 49-storey mixed-use tower by Westbank is beginning to rise above grade [...]. Designed in conjunction with Canadian firms Dialog Architects and James KM Cheng Architects, Vancouver House has been described as a "living sculpture," and the tower's signature twist will soon become a staple of the newly minted Beach District neighbourhood. — skyrisecities.com
Photo of the Vancouver House construction site by Skyrise Cities forum member mcminsen. Click here to see more photos.The tower and other Vancouver-related stories in the Archinect news:BIG’s 490-foot-tall Beach and Howe Tower for VancouverCan Vancouver break out of its 'boring-architecture'... View full entry
After four years of delayed construction, financial missteps, and lawsuits, Forest City Ratner and Greenland U.S.A. are finally welcoming tenants into 461 Dean Street, currently the tallest high-rise in the world constructed with modular units. The 32-story tower on the edge of Prospect Heights and Park Slope offers sweeping views of brownstone Brooklyn, but its lengthy construction saga highlights the issues developers face when they build with modular construction in New York City. — newyorkyimby.com
The groundbreaking (but not trouble-free) development previously in the Archinect news:Work finally resumes at Brooklyn's modular prefab towerContinued Delays For Housing at Atlantic YardsLego High-Rise: World's Tallest Modular Apartment Tower Getting Snapped Together In BrooklynModular... View full entry
Turkey’s president looks at northern Syria and sees what others don’t: a massive real estate project.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose army is attempting to clear 5,000 square kilometers in northern Syria of Islamic State, talks about building entire cities when his soldiers’ work is done. In regular addresses, he describes a future in which refugees return home to Turkish-built apartment blocks supplemented by Turkish-built schools and social facilities.
— Bloomberg
That may be the only way to get some of the nearly 3 million Syrians in Turkey to return home and begin reconstructing their country, he says.For more on the Syrian conflict, check out past coverage:A well, a windmill, a mirror: Sigil's real and symbolic interventions in SyriaWater Wars: the... View full entry
Housing is under attack today. It is caught within a number of simultaneous social conflicts. Most immediately, there is a conflict between housing as lived, social space and housing as an instrument for profit-making — a conflict between housing as home and as real estate. More broadly, housing is the subject of contestation between different ideologies, economic interests, & political projects. More broadly still, the housing crisis stems from the inequalities and antagonisms of class society. — Jacobin
For more on the housing crises gripping almost every major city in the world, follow these links:Inside the failure of Jerry Brown's plans to ease California's housing crisisTo solve a housing crisis, invest more in modular constructionTo live in London you can't be a LondonerThe root of London's... View full entry
The name of Herzog and de Meuron's proposed new development for downtown Los Angeles' arts district, 6 AM, seems like an hour/mindset that most of its current residents experience only because they stayed up much too late. But no one can stop the dawn of high-concept gentrification from breaking... View full entry
A year ago, former England captain Rio Ferdinand, West Ham United skipper Mark Noble and ex-Brighton striker Bobby Zamora [unveiled] their Legacy Foundation – a regeneration charity with a plan to build a series of social and privately rentable housing schemes, backed by private investors.
The stars (all three of whom have played for West Ham) are coming back to present their first project, worth £400m, to build 1,300 homes on a 22-hectare site in a run-down area in Houghton Regis near Luton.
— the Guardian
For more on housing-related issues in the UK, follow these links:As a new class of super rich investors displace the traditional elite, average Londoners are pushed further and further outside the city limitsAlmost half of Londoners support limits on building heightBrexit will put even more strain... View full entry
Protesters gathered in Sydney’s historic Rocks district on Saturday to rally against the New South Wales government’s plans to sell off the Sirius building – which contains 79 social housing tenants – to developers for more than $100m. The 1970s Brutalist building was nominated for heritage listing by the NSW National Trust in 2014 but the government has refused to grant it, saying the proceeds from the sale are needed to build more public housing elsewhere in Sydney — The Guardian
Quartz also reported that Australia’s largest construction union Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and the Unions NSW have called their members to refuse any participation in demolition work of the structure.“The Sirius building is not only an important piece of... View full entry
Once known as the city of single family homes, Los Angeles is now developing high-density housing complexes, not only in downtown, but according to this Urban Land article, on the traditionally reluctant-to-develop West Side.The developments mark a shift in how Los Angeles conceptualizes living... View full entry
Los Angeles-based developer CIM Group has agreed to buy Tribune Tower for up to $240 million, marking the end of media ownership for the historic North Michigan Avenue building and the beginning of a new chapter, likely as part of a mixed-use redevelopment. [...]
Tribune Media unveiled conceptual plans last year to redevelop the parcel, adding several buildings to maximize the space with residential, retail and hotel components.
— chicagotribune.com
The Tribune Tower sale previously in the Archinect news: Chicago Tribune Tower inches closer to hotel & residential redevelopment View full entry
This isn't your grandfather's urbanization: population figures in major U.S. cities, which on the whole are on the uptick after declining in the 1960s, are adding residents not to their already built urban cores but rather in the form greenfield sprawl, which makes use of farmland and lightly... View full entry
You’ve always wanted to call Brooklyn home. But it’s complicated. You’re not really the pioneering type. Brooklyn can be rough around the edges. Amenities are lacking. We understand. Industrial-chic finishes are important in life. So are 25-year tax abatements. And European-style, car-sized parking turntables. — failedarchitecture.com
Failed Architecture takes a closer look at Brooklyn's wildly sprouting 'developer architecture':Photographs by Cameron Blaylock. Find many more examples of subtle contextualism over on failedarchitecture.com. Related stories in the Archinect news:5 myths about gentrification, according to a... View full entry
Visitors to Manhattan will soon be greeted by a gleaming new 1,401-foot tower as they exit Grand Central Terminal, now that a lawsuit between two major real estate companies has been settled. Midtown TDR Ventures, the owners of historic Grand Central, withdrew their $1.1 billion lawsuit against SL... View full entry
Just in time for Friday's Rio Olympics, it's time to take a look back at former Olympic villages: specifically, what good are they post-games? In London, the 560 acres of the East End that was transformed into the grounds for the 2012 Olympics have undergone the Olly Wainwright examination in his... View full entry
“One day at around eight in the morning, I was returning from the market when six of the developer’s thugs tackled me outside my home and pushed me into a car,” remembers Xi.
Several others, she says, climbed a ladder to her balcony. Xi says she screamed for her husband, but it was too late. There was a scuffle inside, and then black smoke poured out of their balcony window before the house went up in flames. Xi’s husband burned to death, and the developer’s men escaped.
— marketplace.org
Related stories in the Archinect news:How Chinese families are handling the country's ongoing mass evictionsPhotographer captures the changing face of ShanghaiNow THAT's a skywalk! Jin Mao Tower to open world's highest fenceless, all transparent walkway in Shanghai View full entry