The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is an award-winning program that challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. — U.S. Department of Energy

A decision by a federal judge paves the way for the forfeiture of a 36-story Manhattan building that the U.S. alleges is secretly owned and controlled by the government of Iran.

The court agreed with the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York that the owners are a front for the Iranian government and therefore in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which restricts commerce with Iran. — npr.org

Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has outlined redevelopment plans worth £650 million to create Airport City Manchester, a future ‘aerotropolis’, close to Manchester Airport, the UK’s third busiest airport. — DesignBuild Source

The Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) has shortlisted eleven design firms for the Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Worldwide New Construction A/E Design Services solicitation. — state.gov

The world is on the threshold of what might be called “peak people.” The world’s supply of working-age people will soon be shrinking, causing a shift from surplus to scarcity. As with “peak oil” theories — which hold that declining petroleum supplies will trigger global economic instability — the claims of the doomsayers are too hyperbolic and hysterical. These are not existential threats but rather policy challenges. That said, they’re very big policy challenges. — dougsaunders.net

Curves are to be banned in a new generation of no-frills school buildings, according to a government crackdown on what it believes is wasteful extravagance in educational architecture.

Design templates unveiled for 261 replacement school buildings also prohibit folding internal partitions to subdivide classrooms, roof terraces that can be used as play areas, glazed walls and translucent plastic roofs. — guardian.co.uk

The National Mall has been loved to death. It is our country’s most visited national park, with more than 25 million annual visitors and 3,000 annual permitted events. This 700-acre park was not built to withstand this level of use and has not received adequate resources to be restored and maintained to a level befitting its role as an irreplaceable piece of our American fabric. — nationalmall.org

Deltek's "Federal Architecture & Engineering Market Outlook, 2011-2016" report shows that while overall agency budgets are under tremendous pressure, policy initiatives that drive cost savings will create opportunities specifically for architecture and engineering firms, and provide modest federal market growth over the next five years. — marketwatch.com

George M. White, the architect who oversaw myriad federal projects on Capitol Hill, including the construction of the Hart Senate Office Building and the restoration of the old Supreme Court and Senate chambers in the United States Capitol itself, died Friday at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 90. — NYTimes.com

"But I do believe that in these economic times, it doesn't make sends for us to spent extra tax dollars, public funds, taxpayer money on elaborate architectural construction when we have real infrastructure needs..." — Council member Angela Hunt